The difference between the 2017 #altszn and the next one is that this new one won't just have whitepapers. Projects in the next #altszn will have products and users.
They are still risky investments, but the industry is much healthier now.
There are confusions between terms: lending, staking, yield, earn, savings, etc. There are subtle, but important differences. I usually understand/define them as the following. 1/5
Staking refers to "locking" your coins on a blockchain to get rewards by helping with validating blocks. You maintain control of your funds (your keys). Staking rewards are usually governed at the protocol level, and are highly predictable. 2/
Lending is when you lend your funds to someone else to get interest. You no longer maintain control of the funds. If that person/entity goes down, you lose your principal. Risk profile here is very different from staking. 3/
I am reluctantly spending time on FUD again (4). Forbes wrote another FUD article with lots of accusatory questions, with negative spins, intentionally misconstruing facts. They referred to some old blockchain transactions that our clients have done. 1/9
They called out Tron, Amber group, Alameda Research, etc. They seem to not understand the basics of how an exchange works. Our users are free to withdraw their assets any time they want. Their withdrawals are turned into “received hundreds of millions of shifted collateral.” 2/
Our users also must deposit to Binance first to be able to withdraw, which are also easily traceable on the blockchain. The article conveniently ignores the deposit transactions. 3/9
2/ Taking an “on-shore” perspective, the issue discussed, FTX.US is an “on-shore” exchange. SBF and FTX’s key execs are Americans. They spent a considerable amount of their time and efforts lobbying in the US. This did not stop fraud from being committed.
3/ Drawing a distinction between “on-shore” and everyone else is self-centered and somewhat arrogant. Everyone is "on-shore" from their own perspective. “We are better than everyone else” is not a panacea towards building a better industry.
The paper highlights crypto’s unique benefits and use-cases in Africa & developing markets, such as:
- Facilitating cross-border trade
- Lowering remittance costs in line with the UN SDG of 3%
- Hedge against inflation
- Funding channel for critical causes: e.g. biodiversity
Stablecoins are already being used today for disbursing aid.
@mercycorps and Binance Charity piloted a stablecoin token pegged to the Ugandan shilling for faster and cheaper cash transfers to 2200 refugees & microentrepreneurs in South Sudan & Uganda.
I had the great honor of meeting Ray Dalio a few times in the past year. I read all of his books before I met him. I even tried to write down my own principles. But it was just so hard to extract principles and write them down. I was stuck on page 1. Thread 1/5.
After meeting Ray. He gave me a few tips. Write down the decisions you make and why you made them. So, a few months later, I published my principles blog. Ray unblocked my writer’s block. I am still working on version 2. 2/5 binance.com/en/blog/from-c…
Have I managed to get Ray into crypto? Not yet. I have been busy learning from him, and there is just so much to learn. Ray is an extremely humble guy. He understands money better than anyone. Yet he often humbly says he doesn’t understand enough about crypto. 3/5