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Quick Take

• This is a section from The Block Research’s upcoming 2022 Digital Assets Outlook report
  
• Maker was the largest lending platform by value locked and outstanding debt
• Curve and Uniswap v3 were the largest decentralized exchanges by value locked and volume, respectively
• dYdX outpaced other derivatives protocols in volume after the introduction of its recent liquidity mining program
• Convex surpassed Yearn and became the largest yield optimizer by value locked

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Quick Take

• To outsiders, the recent arrest of a former Chinese official for “supporting” a local crypto mining business may appear to be a direct outcome of China’s ongoing crackdown on crypto mining.

• But the backstory actually stretches back more than three years, and what he is accused of doing is far more than just supporting a crypto mining business.

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Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has called for increased regulation of cryptocurrency markets in an interview with MSNBC. 

Clinton cited the combination of social media algorithms and the amassing of large sums of money through the control of cryptocurrencies, as a potential issue for the status of the U.S. dollar. She then called on the Biden administration to regulate the market. 

“We’re not only looking at states like Russia or China, but we’re also looking at non-state actors destabilizing states [and] destabilizing the dollar as the reserve currency,” she said. “There are so many big questions that the Biden administration must address.”

This interview echoes comments Clinton made last week. The former Democratic presidential candidate told the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore that she believes it has the power to destabilise nations of any size. 

Her statements come at a time when states around the world are seeking to create regulatory frameworks for digital assets. On Wednesday, the Council of the European Commission adopted two proposals for digital assets that would mitigate cyber threats and focus on consumer protection. The Indian government is also currently eyeing up a new crypto bill, with an upcoming winter parliament session to discuss crypto’s part in the Indian economy after floating a bill in 2019 that sought to ban crypto assets.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The Law Commission stated today that the existing law of England and Wales can be applied to smart contracts. 

According to the commission, wholesale changes to the existing legal framework are not required to enforce smart contracts — except in some situations where only a minor modification of common law might be necessary.

Today’s announcement concludes the Law Commission’s work on smart legal contracts as part of its Thirteenth Program of Law Reform. The statement also affirms the conclusions already reached by the United Kingdom’s Jurisdiction Taskforce on the subject of cryptocurrencies and smart legal contracts in November 2019.

According to the Law Commission, the common law is flexible enough to accommodate emerging technologies like smart contracts. As such, the commission stated that the jurisdiction of England and Wales was ideal for business and innovation.

The Law Commission also called for proactive steps by market participants in anticipation of the proliferation of smart legal contracts. These preparatory provisions include the creation of risk clauses to account for the performance of smart contracts as well as establishing protocols for understanding the links between natural and computer language in smart legal contracts.

The Law Commission also stated, however, as part of its conclusion that more study was required in the area of conflict resolution arising from smart contracts and emerging technology in general. In its recommendation to the government, the commission agreed that some types of smart contracts will come with their own unique legal issues.

Meanwhile, the Law Commission is also looking into crypto and digital assets regulations with a focus on property rights — whether tangible or intangible.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The Earth, once the Eden, the precious gift to mankind, has turned to a dark, exhausted orb in this vastly deep, cold, and seemingly empty space. We are no longer welcome here. But we still believe that this could not be the end. Not yet. 

The ones who yet survived the dawn of the Earth are gathering the remaining resources of our beloved home to build our only possible future – Spaceships. To collaborate, they proposed a new decentralized currency – Credits, easing the path of the pioneers and enabling the new economy. But no economy can exist without conflicts, when someone prospers – raiders will inevitably emerge. Alongside drills and excavators, the pioneers are mounting firearms. The preparation for the great journey has begun. The Universe of Farsite awaits.

Developed by SUPERNOVAE, the team which pioneered the NFT gaming back in early 2018 with their city-builder strategy MegaCryptoPolis, the new decentralized MMO game Farsite offers players a new playable world to leverage their cNFTs.

The main asset in the game, as obvious as it may seem for a space MMO, is a Spaceship. Ships are unique in their appearance, there are multiple models of Spaceships with various rarity and characteristics.

But the most interesting part is that these Ships are not regular NFTs. Each and every ship, as well as modules (used to tune and modify your ships), are cNFTs, which means Collateral Non-Fungible Tokens – ERC-721 tokens with ERC-20 standard tokens – Credits – locked inside as collateral. 

The main purpose of Credits is to stake them as collateral to create new ships and modules, which in the future could be used as collateral themselves, enabling lending against game assets. 

Farsite Starmap

After the initial distribution of Credits, players can only acquire them when they purchase Crates, which are containers with valuable game items and the only source for original Blueprint required to build spaceships. The limited Crates pre-order launches on the 2nd of December.

In mid-August, the Starmap was released, which gave the early adopters the ability to explore a number of explored galaxies and some insight into what the game will look like. Moreover, it enabled players to secure Sectors on planets to build their base with mining and production facilities in the upcoming Alpha release of the game.

Speaking of the Alpha, the early Alpha release is scheduled for December, 14. The universe has already attracted more than 500k registered players following and discussing the development process on the project’s Discord server. Staying on Earth is not an option – don’t miss the train heading to space, enlist now at the official website. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

A virtual land plot in the Axie Infinity NFT game sold for a record price of 550 ether (about $2.4 million) on Wednesday.

The plot is part of the “Genesis” land type, which Axie Infinity describes as “extremely rare.” Genesis land is located in the center of the Axie Infinity map and is capped at 220 plots.

The seller of the plot goes by “ArcaChemist,” and the buyer goes by ‘Lunacian #789512.”

There are different types of land in Axie Infinity, including Mystic and Arctic, and they are all collectively called Lunacia. Lunacia is the homeland for Axies — in-game fantasy creatures that are required to play the game.

Axie Infinity is a popular play-to-earn NFT game that enables users to earn tokens called small love potions (SLP) that can be exchanged for cash or other cryptocurrencies.

An Axie Infinity spokesperson told The Block that Axie land “has entertainment value, social value, and economic value in the form of future resource flows, and this is why we are seeing such sales.”

In February, nine plots of land on Axie Infinity were sold for over 888 ETH (around $1.5 million at the time and nearly $4 million at current prices).

The latest record purchase comes amidst the rising popularity of virtual land in the blockchain gaming ecosystem. Earlier this week, Canadian investment firm Tokens.com purchased virtual land in Decentraland for a record price of $2.5 million in MANA, the native token of Decentraland.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Adidas Originals, a brand of the German sportswear clothing firm Adidas, has announced a partnership with the crypto exchange Coinbase.

“We partnered with @Coinbase. Probably nothing,” Adidas Originals wrote in a Wednesday tweet.  Coinbase affirmed the partnership with “gm @adidasoriginals. Welcome to the party, partner!”

Adidas Originals did not respond to a request for more information about the partnership. However, the brand showed interest in the metaverse in a tweet two days prior to the partnership announcement, suggesting, “adiVerse, anyone?”

“It is a very positive development to see more companies enter the cryptoeconomy. We look forward to seeing all of the opportunities for brands in this growing space,” a Coinbase spokesperson told The Block. The firm did not provide more information about the partnership. 

One potential area of focus may be non-fungible tokens or NFTs, for which Coinbase is developing a dedicated service. Adidas announced the organization of an NFT drop with Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence earlier this year.

Image credit: kit lau / Shutterstock.com

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Crypto payments firm MoonPay has quietly launched a new ‘concierge service’ to help celebrities and the super-rich purchase non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrency.  

The company has been working with television host Jimmy Fallon and Post Malone, the rapper, as clients for a beta version of the service. 

Both men have recently touted items they’ve acquired from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, which currently cost a minimum of 43.9 ether (or $186,000) a piece. 

Fallon tweeted a picture of Bored Ape #599 on November 12 with the caption, “Permission to come a bored?” The day before, Fallon explained that he had used MoonPay’s services to acquire the piece during an interview with digital artist Beeple. 

A MoonPay spokesperson told The Block that there is no commercial relationship between the company and Fallon. 

But a cursory glance at transaction data relating to Bored Ape #599 shows it was purchased by MoonPay for 46.6 ether (around $196,000) and later transferred to another address (presumably Fallon’s). So what happened?

The transactions stem from the fact that Fallon is an early client of MoonPay concierge service, the firm’s spokesperson clarified. 

They described the initiative as a “white glove service for high net worth individuals who want to purchase NFTs in the simplest way without all the hassle of setting up a wallet, buying crypto, using that crypto to purchase an NFT and then taking custody of it.”

MoonPay later invoices its clients for the NFTs and any other services rendered, they added.

Gift-rapped

A closer look at the company’s transaction history on OpenSea would suggest that the rapper Lil Baby is also using the concierge service. Bored Ape #129, which he has used as a profile picture on Twitter, was transferred to him by MoonPay last month. 

Furthermore, data recorded on Etherscan shows that MoonPay has sent four payments totalling 325.1 ether ($1.37 million) to a wallet controlled by Post Malone over the past month. MoonPay’s spokesperson confirmed that the rapper has been using the concierge service to acquire crypto as well as NFTs.

Earlier this week, MoonPay confirmed that it had raised $555 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management and Coatue, valuing the company at $3.4 billion. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The Council of the European Union adopted two proposals for digital assets on Wednesday, aiming to create regulatory frameworks for crypto assets focused on consumer protection and mitigating cyber threats. 

Both the Regulation on Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) and the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) are part of the Council’s digital finance package. That package also contains the Council’s overall strategy related to crypto asset regulation and a proposal on distributed ledger technology. The intention is to create unified rules of the road for crypto in the EU to foster innovation with investor protection throughout member states, rather than allowing a fragmented approach to form in which standards differ from nation to nation. 

“A dedicated and harmonised framework is therefore necessary at Union level to provide specific rules for crypto-assets and related activities and services and to clarify the applicable legal framework,” read a proposal in the package. “Such harmonised framework should also cover services related to cryptoassets where these services are not yet covered by Union legislation on financial services.”

The MiCA creates a framework for the issuance and services related to transferrable crypto assets, mainly calling on firms to be transparent in their operations through white papers submitted with any prospectuses and mandating that marketing be “fair” and “clearly identifiable” as ads. Any central bank digital currencies or tokens issued by other public authorities are exempt from the framework, as are tokens that function like loyalty points, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or tokens representing physical assets or services. The proposal is also clear that the regulations will apply to natural or legal persons, not the tech itself. 

The DORA creates information and communication technology risk management mandates. In addition to mandating testing of these systems to stave off cyber risks, it creates a uniform reporting framework for any incidents. It also empowers European regulators to take a closer look at a firm’s use of third-party service providers used for information or communication technology. 

The Council will enter into negotiations with the Parliament on the proposals, and once they reach a provisional agreement, both institutions will formally adopt the regulations. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Quick take

• The Ethereum network currently secures over $1T of value.
• Transitioning from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake is critical for the long term scalability and sustainability of the network.
• Hot swapping of the protocol’s consensus mechanism will take place through a process referred to as “the Merge”, which will be discussed here.

This research piece is available to
members of The Block Genesis.
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