Technology

Mechanized Money

What enables us to have truly programmable money? After your Welcome to Web3, let’s keep curiosity fed with hot sips on crypto and how decentralized finance (“DeFi”) galvanizes web3!

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This caffeinated contribution is by Scott Herren, a blockchain developer building at the forefront of web3.

Blockchains

As we dive into web3, we must grok the traditional finance world. One of the primary challenges that bitcoin and blockchains seek to solve is the double spend problem. Double spending occurs when digital tender/fiat/currency is sent to multiple parties simultaneously or after a sender’s balance has elapsed. (There’s a ton more to learn about consensus and the Byzantine Generals’ problem, but we’ll leave that for another cup.) This, effectively, creates money from thin air and is what banks and the central banking system have helped prevent for the last few centuries. This power can be abused, so bitcoin looked to democratize the process of approving transactions by folks called miners.

The Bitcoin network went live in 2009. Initial traction was modest, but the “unspent transaction output” (UTXO) model for tracking transactions and balances proved to be groundbreaking. Bitcoins are “fractured” from their initial whole. These fractions are used as currency, which makes accounting inclusive, verifiable, and very transparent.

Blockchain technologies have evolved toward mainstream adoption, but cryptography has been studied since the 1980s. Bitcoin was first to crack the code, but different blockchains and more on-chain layers are being combined in powerful ways. Today, there are four main types of blockchain networks: public blockchains, private blockchains, consortium blockchains, and hybrid blockchains. It’s impossible to count private blockchains, consortium blockchains, and hybrid blockchains, but there are hundreds of public blockchain that are permissionless, meaning they are fully decentralized and anyone with an internet connection can equitably access the blockchain as an authorized node. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the two largest, with 10% of the global population owning some form of over 2,000 different cryptocurrencies.

Within each blockchain, layers provide infrastructure for web3 developers. Hardware, data, network, consensus, and application layers make blockchain technologies more usable, with each layer offering unique functionality.

The last ingredient in the blockchain recipe is hashing, which gives blockchains verifiability. With hashing algorithms, miners are assembling a historical ledger where any tampering of previous transactions will disrupt current calculations. With verifiable ledgers storing only valid transactions, the next cool thing we can do is automate value.

Smart Contracts

Smart contracts allow us to program, exchange, and intermediate value using the storage mechanisms first introduced by Bitcoin.In 2014, Ethereum introduced a new programming language called Solidity, which allows smart contracts to store value and other data. Gas is paid in Ether, the native token of Ethereum, for transactions that interact with smart contracts. Computationally intensity and network activity determine gas fees at any given time. These primitives have helped developers explore a vast array of mechanisms for coordinating value. Some have been successful while many others have taught us valuable lessons about this antifragile system.

One of the earliest successful smart contracts of Ethereum, The DAO, had a catastrophic contract bug (flaw in the programming) which we now refer to as a Reentrancy Attack. The DAO had coded a “shared bank account” where stakeholders could deposit Ether into the contract and receive a proportional share of tokens back. The goal was to collectively fund projects via token-weighted voting. While tokenomics and technical improvements have addressed many of the early missteps,  the major mechanisms are still widely used in token governance today.

Tokens & Standards

As the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (“EIP”) process matured in 2017, smart contracts began conforming to implementation standards. ERC-20 was the twentieth iteration, which included a request for comment offering a fungible token standard. To support an endless variety of projects, this token standard became the default for initial coin offerings (ICOs) that were sourcing funds to solve blockchain challenges. The power of this mechanism led to many overly ambitious projects that damaged trust with unfulfilled promises, but some of the powerhouses of today were launched during the ICO bubble.

Some other notable token standards are ERC-721, the non-fungible token,, and ERC-1155, the semi-fungible token. The adoption of these standards across the ecosystem allows for tight composability and interoperability across protocols. These “money legos” act like building blocks for DeFi, but before we get to decentralized finance, let’s first cash in on the most prolific tokens within our global economy: stablecoins.

Stablecoins

Stablecoins peg their value off another asset, generally something stable like the US Dollar or gold. Stablecoins can also derive value by being fiat-backed, collateral-backed, and algorithmic. 

Fiat-backed stablecoins are backed by fiat money in an auditable bank account. Fiat money is a government-issued currency not backed by a commodity such as gold. Popular examples are Circle’s USDC, Gemini’s GUSD, and Tether. While fiat stablecoins are quite easy to scale they also have trade-offs with their decentralization properties. The blocklists of these stablecoins are growing as more projects comply with jurisdictional requirements.

Collateral-backed stablecoins are backed by assets that are locked on-chain and transparently auditable at any time. The largest of these, Dai, is mostly backed by Ether. When done right, these types of stablecoins have great decentralization properties, but are much more difficult to scale and can have liquidity issues from a market squeeze.

The final type of stablecoin is algorithmically balanced with a system known as “seigniorage shares”. It’s important to mention “algo-stablcoins”, as implementations have not been successful to-date, so you may want to avoid these types of stablecoins until technology can unequivocally support the ideology. Alright, with tokens and places to store value, let’s look at innovating within traditional financial exchanges.

Lending & Exchanges

After the rush of late 2017, the buidl market set in. Organizations committed to building, have delivered on overcollateralized lending and borrowing on-chain. Lenders can lock their collateral to earn from borrowers, but borrowers need to be lenders of another token and ensure their loans remain sufficiently overcollateralized. Lending and borrowing rely on asset prices to determine liquidation thresholds, but if these can be manipulated, then the system is vulnerable. The Oracle Problem is one that doesn’t often get surfaced, but is becoming more crucial as the value of attacks increases.

Early experiments around what order books looked like on-chain were clunky. Each bid, update, acceptance, or cancellation required another transaction and gas. This changed in 2018, when Uniswap used the Ethereum blockchain to provide a simple interface to swap tokens. Uniswap flipped the concept of traditional order books on its head. Instead of creating offers to buy or sell, a market maker can provide two tokens in a pool and the protocol holds the ratio of the tokens in the pool equal. These pools are called automated market makers (AMMs) and the pools leverage the equation  k=x*y, generally referred to as the constant product market maker (CPMM). You’ll see AMMs often, with the CPMM formula occasionally cited. This supports a very simple token swap without accepting a costly series of orders. Being a non-custodial, decentralized exchange you also never give up control of your tokens until the swap actually occurs.

As crypto is managed, liquidity incentives were initially implemented by Yearn Finance, a protocol that automates the lending process to earn yields from on-chain assets that could be held or traded on the market. Many incentives came from token inflation that hadn’t found value loops and proved to be unsustainable. Since 2020, years of rapid experimentation has revealed innovations that are continuing to push DeFi forward.

DeFi’s Destiny

This magical dark forest can be treacherous, but system level engineering takes time and it’s liberating to build with so many intrepids learning together. As we complete this download, here are a few interesting use cases to keep us thinking about what’s possible beyond traditional finance.

  • Instead of getting paid every two weeks or each month, smart contracts can create payment streams. Instant access to financial capital furnishes more financial freedom, while still maintaining refill or cancellation options. Along with incoming compensation, outgoing subscription fees and self-repaying loans are also use cases where automation can further optimize financial control.
  • Also known as no-loss lotteries, prize-linked savings accounts, are not uncommon in the traditional finance world. Local municipalities and credit unions have generally handled them. Pooling capital and lending it to others is also used in smaller communities to help with small, low-cost loans. With an end-to-end process, smart contracts enable little to no overhead, which makes nearly all of the earnings available to participants.
  • The most magical of our new tools! Flash loans allow for borrowing a near-infinite amount of a token, given the loan is paid back within the same transaction. This visualization of a flash loan transaction will add clarity, but in short, if there are transactions that require more capital and can be facilitated within one block, they have been democratized to anyone with access to a scripting language and a relaying node.

DeFi provides composable tools for traditional and innovative finance primitives. Being able to mechanize your money and the value it delivers within a network is super powerful. When web3 concepts hook into the financial primitives of crypto, the global economy can leverage faster, more equitable, and safer peer-to-peer commerce.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Welcome to Web3

“Where should I start?”

I hear this a lot when web3 terms like decentralization, blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFT, minting, gas fees, DAO, smart contracts, dapps, metaverse, tokenomics, and wallet addresses emerge in conversation. This month we’ll explore this futuristic frontier together!

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Before we drip in, it’s good to recognize that there is already a ton of research, content, and resources around web3 online. I share this disclaimer to add an approachable sense of lightness here. My goal is to share some early observations while teaming up with a few web3 crusaders to help translate a few compelling concepts. Whether this voyage is the first time you’ve heard of web3 or this is just another island in your ongoing exploration, pour another cup of curiosity and let’s drip in.

Back in the 1990s, we dialed up and waited for CDs in the mail to avoid paying for every minute of access to the world wide web. This early version of the Internet was built by developers and primarily delivered content in one direction. Websites were static and really only available for people to read. This read-only experience is referred to as web1.

With the rise of personal computers and online connectivity growing fast, around 20 years ago, the Internet started paving a two-way street. Remember endless chats on AIM? How about the sense of belonging on bulletin boards, the first time you managed your own content on a website, or the time spent designing your MySpace page? The ability for everyone to read AND write into the Internet is our current state and can be considered web2.

As supercomputers landed in the palm of our hand, the bionic connection to machines accelerated the connectivity worldwide and ushered in our connected era. While such affinity allows us all to do more with less, the platforms that support this connectedness have become centralized. This gives immense power (and liability) to organizations that control ownership, data security, privacy, and scalability. As our shared dependency on technology fed web2 archetypes, humanity became numb to the endless exchange of our personal data for convenience. This convenience has activated absolute accessibility, but how can we now use the connected era to power what’s next?

web3 is a concept that describes the future of how we will connect, communicate, and collaborate online. Web3 technologies strive to optimize opportunity with distributed, permissionless, transparent, proportionate, and verifiable decentralization. If web1 was read-only and web2 is read+write, web3 is read+write+own.

If your jargon alarm just exploded, it’s because this space is still undefined. There are few industry standards, as we’re in the midst of labeling a wide variety of efflorescent activity. One interesting thing about web3 jargon, is that it often describes things we already know. Advancing technology supports key attributes that make web3 concepts different, but here’s what I mean. Currency for instance, is the oldest story humans have used to exchange value. Access to a securely shared database is old hat for web2 wizards. We’ve lived in Sim City long before the metaverse, everyone already has flight tickets landing in digital wallets, and communities always thrive when they are brewed from within. That warm take is not to discount the magic that may be web3, but instead, to make it feel less distant. As web3 concepts move through the technology adoption life cycle, innovators and early adopters will continue to agree on terms that help translate the way different technologies work together. Tomorrow is today and as innovative ideology is normalized by mainstream adoption, it will be fascinating to see what concepts prevail.

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No AI support was used in this writing.

Let’s temporarily terminate this approachable welcome to web3 by chewing on key terms. With this being a working draft (current version below) supported by linked resources, take one more minute to give yourself a serious boost of confidence as we continue to explore web3 together.

Decentralization – Sufficiently transitioning from single authorities to proportionately deliver verifiable ownership, access, control, transparency, communication, and governance to many stakeholders.

Dapp – A decentralized application built on a decentralized network that combines a smart contract and a frontend user interface. <more on dapps>

Wallet – This is your tool to access the world of web3. A wallet is used to interact with dapps, store public/private keys, and connect digital assets to a specific network location. Each wallet has a unique wallet address that can be used for cryptocurrency transactions and digital signatures. <more on wallets>

Wallet Address – Wallet addresses refer to a specific location on a network and look like this: 0xb794f5ea0ba39494ce839613fffba74279579268. These hexadecimal strings are generated from the wallet’s private key, which is required to securely send or receive data from one address to another. Like URLs for a website, ENS masks long wallet addresses with more approachable names like yourname.ETH. A wallet address can be treated similar to an email address and shared with care, while seed phrases and private keys should never be shared.

Blockchains – A decentralized immutable system that records every transaction with transparent logs on a dynamic ledger. There are private/permissioned and public/permissionless blockchains, with different levels to build on. <more on blockchains>

Smart Contract – Code-based agreement that establishes terms for how a transaction is executed for stakeholders involved, automated governance, arbitration procedures, and more. <more on smart contracts>

Cryptocurrency – Fungible assets used to support immutable financial transactions between stakeholders. There are four categories (payment cryptocurrencies, tokens, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies) and over 20K+ different cryptocurrencies that total a market capitalization of $850B+, with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) maintaining the largest market caps. <bitcoin white paper>

DeFi – Acronym for decentralized finance, which helps to weave cryptocurrency into the existing financial industry. <more on DeFi>

NFT – Short for “non-fungible token”, these are unique digital assets that use smart contracts to connect to blockchains, which autonomously applies, tracks, and transfers digital signatures and verifiable ownership. Non-fungible means that something is unique and can not be replaced. In contrast, physical money and cryptocurrencies are fungible, as they can be traded or exchanged for one another. <more on NFTs>

POAP – A proof of attendance protocol, which uses NFTs as tickets for an event or attendee confirmation at IRL (in real life) and online events. <more on POAPs>

Minting – The process of locking a cryptographic asset (such as an NFT) into a blockchain.

Airdrop – Giveaways sent to a digital wallet. They provide a creative way for people to share assets with each other, with senders usually paying any gas fee. Be skeptical of anything you receive that is airdropped from an unknown source. Like clicking links or opening attachments in emailed spam, there are poisonous airdrops that can force access into your digital wallet when a malicious item is transferred. To be safe, if an unrecognized airdrop lands in your digital wallet, leave it alone.

Gas Fee – One-time transaction fee to cover the dynamic costs of computing, electricity, and network verification required to interact with blockchains.

DAO – Acronym for “decentralized autonomous organization”, which can be compared to organizational structures like co-ops, LLCs, or venture capital firms. The specific structure, treasury, rules, and governance depend on the DAO and the group’s collective goals. <more on DAOs>

Metaverse – Interoperable virtual environments where users can interact with each other from anywhere. The rise of virtual and augmented reality has led to more immersive experiences.

Tokenomics – The abstract study of how digital assets work within social economic frameworks. Theories can range from how value is strategically perceived within a small DAO, all the way up to the global economy.

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By Ben McDougal, ago

Replicants

A friendly futurist and DAO developer within our web3dsm community shared this Ray Kurzweil interview that triggered my continued curiosity toward our neon future.

One tangent they take is interacting with replicants. There’s no single definition for what a replicant might be, but I imagine my replicant to be an artificially intelligent, bioengineered entity that has consciousness rooted in the human (or machine) it originated from. This humanoid would index everything I ever created, map the complexity of my network, understand the difference between internalized vs. externalized thoughts, have empathy for how I matured over time, and gain contextual insight from storytelling to form a foundational identity. This identity would support an operating system with core characteristics, essential rules, and different permission levels to guide autonomous growth.

With seemingly limitless advances in technology, interactions with different versions of our past and future self seem inevitable. We’re already speaking to holocaust surviving holograms, watching monkeys play video games with their brain, growing synthetic realities, and experimenting with nanorobotics. As the bandwidth of technology reaches escape velocity, what’s stopping us from pressing the record button to store every angle from every moment? At that speed, how can the linear evolution of humanity’s intelligence fuse with the exponential trajectory of machine learning? Even when it’s possible, do humans want to extend our lifespan?

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Days feel long, but years fly by.

There are more questions to ask and variables to consider, but as we think about futuristic interactions, how might we reconsider the way we spend our time? Would you live your life differently knowing future generations may interact with your own replicant? I have to think our thoughts and actions would be less careless with such a forward-focused mindset. It would also seem that staying in the moment would be more natural when every byte counts.

With a future that gives humans an opportunity to merge with machines, let’s avoid the numbness of endless distractions as we collectively consider ways to transcend time with purpose.

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“…if tomorrow I wake up and I’m sixty years old,I hope when I look in the mirror and ask have you lived,I look right back and say, “shiiit, you tell me!” -Machine Gun Kelly

By Ben McDougal, ago

Minting

I’ve been hinting about minting.

TL:DR – I’ve minted a new NFT collection!

As a community builder and hybridized translator of technology, I’m proud to be surrounded by remarkable artists and nerds you need to know. As trailblazers continue to push boundaries, the decentralized, community-driven aspects of blockchain technologies has me in a curious state of pure wonder.

To test a blockchain technology, Nathan T. Wright and I teamed up to learn through action. We decided to explore non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”) by creating a new NFT collection called Roasted Reflections!

This caffeinated collaboration commemorates one year of YDNTB and is dedicated to connecting entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and community builders. Only 100 NFTs will be minted on OpenSea throughout the month of April. We’ve established two small, more exclusive categories of tokens that include bonus materials, VIP access, and tradable value. A third category has more NFTs minted as free airdrops for those who pickup the new YDNTB NFT Bundle to share.

This special NFT collection is now live, as the first NFT was minted on April 1st, 2022. This rare collectible comes with all sorts of perks and was appropriately titled, Hello World – #1, with a .412021 ETH price that pays homage to the 4/1/2021 publishing date for YDNTB. Two more tokens will be released into the RR collection each Wednesday until all 100 tokens have been minted!

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Did you catch the subtle hint for this emerging NFT project in Launch? This learning expedition was also the inspiration behind Perpetual.

What’s next? Watch your inbox for more details on this interactive NFT project, including a special invitation to a new Discord channel built for all of us to continue building together. My hope is that along with a fun way to collectively enjoy this digital treasure hunt, the Roasted Reflections NFT collection will be remembered as how my family and friends secured their very first NFT! In the meantime, here are a few of the lessons learned along the way.

– Humans enjoy collecting things together.
– Value is often based on supply, demand, and a sense of belonging.
– NFT minting creates a unique item connected to a smart contract.
– A smart contract for each NFT is then data stored on a blockchain.
– The first NFT was minted in 2014.
– Think less about how NFTs look or sound.
– NFTs represent ownership verified by data.
– These digital assets can also be used for various types of access.
– Categories in a collection provides scalability and diversifies value propositions.
– You need a digital wallet to receive, buy, or sell NFTs. (I use Coinbase)
– OpenSea is the largest marketplace to learn, create, buy, and sell NFTs, but Coinbase NFT is coming soon.
– Floor price is the lowest priced NFT in a collection.
– Weekend minting is often less expensive.
– Computing power for the verification process creates a harmful environment impact that needs improvement.
– Successful NFT collections are community-driven.
– The most expensive NFT sold for $91.8M.
– Airdrop is a fancy term for giveaway.

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I can’t help but to think, perhaps the NES generation who grew up wasting all our allowance on sports cards as kids, was destined to bring this technology to life.

I thought NFTs were silly at first. Talking with others and thinking about smart contracts can transparently certify proof of ownership has made me think again.

In the future, perhaps NFTs (or similar blockchain technologies) will be applied to verify event tickets, legal documents, and personal property? What if a birth certificate came with it’s own NFT that had a smart contract secured to the same person’s death certificate? Weird stuff, eh! Tokenomics is still the wild west and NFTs are considered a speculative asset, but it’s fun exploring uncharted territory and it’ll be interesting to see if a community-driven NFT collection like Roasted Reflections allows more explorers to own a small piece of this new frontier.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Online Event Management

Live event management is a handful. Virtual events should also be well thought out. How can we create a memorable experience when everyone is participating online? Let’s teleport into this topic together.

First, consider what must be accomplished. What cannot be achieved without this time together? Determine how long the virtual experience should last. It’s usually less than you think. Next, line up the right technologies to ensure it fits the needs of your virtual experience. As tech is selected, use security tactics to avoid unwanted distractions. With objectives and logistics in place, it’s time to flesh out the experience.

While our connected era has unlocked the next level of efficiency with these virtual interactions, a drawback to online gatherings is the lack of time before and after a meeting. This means there’s less serendipitous interplay. Stay efficient, but it may be wise to weave in random value through manufactured moments that still feel natural for participants.

As attendees arrive, use your opening remarks to set the tone. Generate cohesion with jolts of genuine energy as any rules of engagement are quickly confirmed. If there’s a meeting agenda, run through that and connect it with meeting goals so attendees know what to expect.

After a welcoming attendees with a concise, energizing, and clarifying introduction, have fun unpacking the primary discussion. Stay on task and try to avoid distractions, but leave time for interactive dialogue. With less open dialogue due to the limitations of a virtual experience, this is one way to create space for those manufactured moments of serendipity. These conversational buffers help to avoid having the loudest voice be the only one that’s heard and invites an inclusive environment with deliberate space for everyone to participate.

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The term “hybrid” is hard to define. There’s value in weaving tech into in-person events so that others are able to virtually feel the experience. There’s also value in keeping things simple so the focus remains on your attendee’s engagement. Experiment with what works for you, but one interesting combination is to go all-in with live events, and then add strategic online events into the mix. This avoids fragmented coordination, eliminates the hollowness of virtual content within an in-person experience, and creates ease for organizers who benefit from both types of environments.

As you bring your online events together, you want interactivity so it’s not talking heads with attendees pretending to listen. Do this by including icebreakers, musical moments, pop-up polls, breakout discussions, scavenger hunts, doodling exercises, physical activities, and scheduled breaks. Encourage note taking and grab screenshots as artifacts to share later. Leave time for questions before wrapping things up.

As you bring things to a close, it’s important everyone feels a sense of accomplishment. If ramblings drag on before the meeting abruptly cuts off, people will leave feeling empty. Keep the virtual energy juicy, review key takeaways, and encourage action to tie a bow on the efficiency of all your online events.

By Ben McDougal, ago