Mediaboss Marketing

After 2021, we entered an era in cryptocurrency where people stopped talking only about financial decentralization and started to broadly discuss the tokenization of everything, thanks in part to nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

This shift represents a critical perspective that is set to guide three theses for the upcoming bull market. To fully grasp these theses, it is crucial to understand that everything is data. Money is data. Your engagement with a brand is data. Your credentials are data. The ticket for your favorite show is data.

Since 2021, the ecosystem has increasingly started to store a large part of this data in the form of fungible tokens, NFTs, and timestamps on the blockchain, which acts as a data repository in this context.

Related: Expect new IRS crypto surveillance to come with a surge in confiscation

While not all data needs to be on the blockchain, the ability to place data on the blockchain radically transforms how we store, share, and utilize data for automated and secure instructions and transactions.

And it seems that this prospect of tokenizing everything is coming to Bitcoin. This gives rise to the first thesis.

In January 2023, Casey Rodamor publicly released the Ordinals protocol, which, in short, allows for the permanent insertion of any file type into the Bitcoin blockchain.

In less than a year, the community has already conducted experiments in which music, artwork, journalistic articles, and even video games are being inscribed on the world's leading blockchain.

The Ordinals protocol was not the first to allow this, but it has gained the most traction. And everything indicates that this is a flame that will not go out.

More than just a technical protocol, a culture and a mindset have been created where more and more builders see Bitcoin as a canvas for the creation of other projects and applications, and nothing can stop well-established cultural movements.

But remember: not everything needs to be stored 100% on-chain, as this is expensive and, for some applications, inefficient.

Therefore, protocols such as Taproot Assets which enable the creation of other assets on the Bitcoin network but in a way that keeps most of the information off-chain, will be essential.

Speaking of storage costs on layer-1 blockchains, it looks likelayer-2 blockchainsare set to shine.

Those who were active during the 2021 bull market recall that $50 for a transaction fee on Ethereum was almost the norm, not to mention the spikes, like during the minting of the Otherside NFTs by Yuga Labs, where users paid up to six Ether (ETH) per transaction.

It's simple: if the blockchain isn't invisible, it won't reach the mainstream. And expensive and slow transactions make the blockchain highly noticeable.

That's why layer-2 blockchains designed to scale layer-1 blockchains will be so crucial for the next bull market.

Although they've been around for years, neither they nor the market was mature enough to build on them in the last cycle. On one hand, many companies and developers weren't convinced that layer-2s were stable enough to handle a significant influx from the mainstream. On the other hand, there was also the issue that, in the excitement of the moment, people acted without studying and understanding much.

The number of projects unnecessarily on Ethereum was significant, and the reasons varied: it was cultural, because some companies didn't even know what secondary layers were, or simply because everyone was building on Ethereum.

Now, with all the lessons learned and the calm that has settled in with the bear market, it's clear that the mentality for building is much more mature, and the 'jobs to be done' by blockchains have become much clearer to those who are building.

And the cherry on top will be the implementation of EIP-4844, which is expected to happen in a few months on the Ethereum network, and will further reduce the transaction costs of layer-2 networks, making them even more invisible and robust to attract and retain the mainstream audience.

But it's useless for the infrastructure to be invisible if people can't connect to it and companies can't build on it. However, the solution is already here!

The big issue is that with the tokenization of everything, in some cases decentralization is more of a hindrance than a help.

If the topic is Bitcoin (BTC) custody, the topic of decentralization is pertinent. However, when the subject shifts to tokenized tickets or a company's loyalty credentials, the value does not lie in the system's decentralization. Therefore, simplifying the user's experience by abstracting complex processes such as creating a semi-custodial wallet with social login or eliminating concerns about gas fees makes total sense and it's necessary.

Related: Bitcoin beyond 35K for Christmas? Thank Jerome Powell if it happens

Abstraction solutions were the missing bridge so that the crypto universe does not continue to be a technical environment exclusive to technically skilled people willing to face various challenges and complex journeys. But now, they are ready to shine!

And It's not about ending decentralization, it's about having an option. Those who want to remain 100% decentralized can do so, but those who don't now have an option. This way, it avoids the crypto ecosystem dying in the famous chasm of innovation. Because magnificent infrastructures are pointless if people cannot connect to and navigate them easily in everyday life.

Something that's not often discussed is how important these abstraction solutions are for traditional companies to effectively join Web3 too. How many companies currently have a team of developers who can program in blockchain languages, like Solidity? Making it easier for builders to get started is also crucial.

Breaking down the blockchain journey to mainstream into four phases, we could say that the account abstraction solutions, along with the advancements mentioned in thesis two, will propel Web3 into its penultimate phase with improved infrastructure, fewer technical builders and brands join the game, and the number of applications, projects, and use cases multiply, attracting mainstream attention.

As of today, it seems that major blockchains will be increasingly viewed as platforms for multi-asset consensus in the next market cycle and less as currencies. The crowning gem will be the quest for scalability, which will make the layers more invisible and less complex for users to navigate and for businesses to integrate. Welcome to t of Ethereum and phase 2 of Bitcoin.

Lugui Tillier is the chief commercial officer of Lumx Studios, a Web3 studio that counts BTG Pactual Bank, the largest investment bank in Latin America, among its investors. Lumx Studios has previous Web3 cases with Coca-Cola, AB InBev, Nestl and Meta. The author holds investments related to the Ordinals Protocol, though none named in this article.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

More:

3 theses that will drive Ethereum and Bitcoin in the next bull market - Cointelegraph

Generative art is proving Web3s creative anchor in the traditional art world. Last month, New Yorks Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) made headlines by acquiring Refik Anadols Unsupervised Machine Hallucinations (2022) alongside an edition from last years 3FACE project by Ian Cheng. These two mark the first-ever artificial intelligence (AI) and nonfungible token (NFT) additions to MoMAs collection, already home to relics such as Andy Warhols soup cans and Vincent Van Goghs Starry Night.

The landmark acquisitions also supplement MoMAs longtime legacy of pioneering exhibitions at the intersection of technology and art, from its 1968 show The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age through this years Signals: How Video Transformed the World.

MoMAs announcement arrived in tandem with an outline of the institutions digital art programming for the fall and winter seasons ahead, including the debut of video artist Leslie Thorntons latest work, HANDMADE (2023), and an online exhibition with Feral File opening early next year. Weeks before, MoMA had announced its on-chain Postcard project, too.

These new initiatives underscore MoMAs longstanding commitment to support artists whoexperiment with emerging technologies to expand their visual vocabularies and creative exploration, increase the impact of their work and help us understand and navigate transformative change in the world, the Museums release around their acquisitions states.

Im very proud to be included, Cheng told Cointelegraph. MoMA had previously acquired my Emissaries trilogy of simulations in 2017. Their openness and enthusiasm for acquiring dynamic digital art is rare for an institution.

Its the screensaver heard around the world. Whether youre enamored or suspicious of this one-time Google artist-in-residences prolific and mesmerizing machine-learning abstractions, the odds are youve seen them. Anadol designed this one in particular with help from Nvidia. It feeds 138,151 pieces of visual metadata from MoMAs collection to an algorithm that produces an AI imagination of art history through Anadols signature undulations.

Since its release in November 2022, Unsupervised has been reviewed by critics at Vulture, Artforum and more. The time it took to write those reviews says more than anything about the works import. Jerry Saltzs half-baked hot takes dont detract from the mental energy his writing requires. Haters alone havent made Anadol famous he has scores of devoted fans if not collectors. MoMA opted to extend the works 24-foot tall display several times. It just came down on Oct. 29, but visitors who minted their proof-of-attendance protocol, or POAP, from the posted QR code still have a piece of the spectacle.

Noted NFT collector and founder of the club 1 OF 1 Ryan Zurrer made the works acquisition possible, along with the RFC Collection, led by Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile and Desiree Casoni.

I tip my hat to the folks at MoMA for understanding the cultural zeitgeist of the moment, Zurrer told ARTnews. Unsupervised went up two weeks before ChatGPT went public. AI is the defining topic of the moment, and MoMA captured that. Im excited to donate this work to MoMA. But I need to acknowledge that this isnt just a donation from me and [collector] Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile, but from Refik. He is bringing the servers and screens and the other components. The NFT is one part of this conceptual artwork that belongs to MoMA now.

Magazine:I spent a week working in VR. It was mostly terrible, however

While the Museum couldnt clarify whether Anadol outright donated the hardware that enabled Unsupervised to go on view, we can assume thats the case. Their release said Thorntons HANDMADE will go on view in the same Gund Lobby where they displayed Unsupervised on a screen the very same size, designed by and realized with thanks to Refik Anadol Studio.

Meanwhile, Cheng evades branding. A lifelong exploration of psychology through cutting-edge technologies defines his practice more than any single aesthetic. In fact, there are 4,096 unique editions of 3FACE in existence, and not one of them was designed explicitly by Chengs hand. Works in the generative project depict adaptive, ongoing visual portraits of their owners, crafted using data gleaned from their wallets at any given moment. MoMA calls it his most ambitious experimental artwork to date to explore blockchain technologies and the decentralization of data, which expands upon the artists interest in the capacity of humans to relate to change.

In his efforts to represent and shape the ephemeral mind, Cheng told Right Click Save last year he believes art can play a role in upgrading the unconscious response we have to complexity. 3FACE honors the depths of every person and, because its dynamic, their ability to change.

The NFT platform Outland Art donated its 3FACE to MoMAs collection. Jason Li and Chris Lew advised a lot and helped flesh out the team to turn the idea into a reality, Cheng told Cointelegraph. I would not have made 3FACE without Outland.

The works public entry on MoMAs website doesnt list what number out of the whole series it is or what wallet it belongs to. MoMA didnt respond to Cointelegraphs request for comment, but based on the way 3FACE works and the fact that MoMA just started collecting on-chain artworks, this might be the 3FACE interpretation of a wide open wallet populated only by Anadols Unsupervised.

Carrying the torch from former contentious and pioneering art forms like photography, generative art has forced this generation of artists to reassess what exactly makes art valuable.

The endgame of generative AI tooling is a new immediacy between thought and visual articulation, Cheng mused about whats next for AI art. Were used to the immediacy between thought and written or verbal expression. A writer, with no intermediary help, can construct a novel. Imagine if you, with no intermediary help, could construct a movie. As with writing fiction, the filmmaker is capped only by their own imagination, their taste, the quality of their questions, their courage to pursue gray truths, and their understanding of human behavior.

Technology will continually evolve, but its the evolution of artists abilities in using it that divides whats merely eye-catching from whats impactful. Not that those two are mutually exclusive even though MoMAs Anadol acquisition is akin to the institution buying itself a Louis Vuitton bag, what society calls luxury is history on its own.

Recent:No CZ, no problem: Binance Blockchain Week showcases Turkish crypto industry

Anadol and Cheng both work predominantly with data while making AI art. The emergent properties of their processes have implications. Unsupervised begs the question: What is art history? a fraught topic traditional art historians argue over without even breaching painting alone. By virtue of its premise, 3FACE asks those who engage with it how theyd quantify a gnarled human psyche. Its one of the few projects that uses the ledger as anything more than a manner of transacting.

Museums such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Centre Pompidou started collecting NFTs back in the boom days. MoMAs decision to lend credence to such works now marks a new watershed moment.

We pinch our nose at AI art right now because the first experiments look like experiments, but zoom out 10 years from now, Cheng said. The ease of producing visually refined expression will unlock a lot of artistic agency from a greater plurality of people, and this is a good thing.

More here:

New York MoMA now has tokenized artworks in its permanent ... - Cointelegraph

By Ari Juels and Eswar Prasad

Blockchain technology and proof of reserves will help to create transparency and build trust

The vertiginous fall of Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX who was recently convicted of fraud and money laundering in New York, has cast a harsh light on a largely unregulated market. For all the supposed wonders of the blockchain technology underpinning cryptocurrencies, the headline-grabbing events of the past few years indicate an industry in turmoil.

In addition to the criminal activity that led to the spectacular collapse of FTX in 2022 and Bankman-Fried's guilty verdict in early November, U.S. regulators have sued Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, for allegedly operating a "web of deception." An industry-wide reckoning looms. Will crypto always be a magnet for fraud and malfeasance, or can it eventually transform and democratize finance?

An increasingly obvious paradox has emerged. Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin (BTCUSD), proposed the idea of a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, when confidence in governments and central banks was at its nadir. Soon after the launch of bitcoin in 2009, Nakamoto wrote that "the root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work." Today, the system that was supposed to eliminate the need for trust between people and in traditional financial institutions is experiencing a crisis of trust.

Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum (ETHUSD) rely on computer code and networks that are not controlled or managed by a central party. Remarkably, such decentralization works. Transactions can be completed in a secure manner, without relying on a bank, credit-card company, or other institution. In principle, this should make financial systems less vulnerable to fraud and manipulation.

Any innovation inevitably attracts speculative mania and chicanery, especially in the early stages.

Unfortunately, grifters and unscrupulous companies have exploited customers and investors enamored with the new technology and, in the process, obscured crypto's most compelling innovation: blockchain-enabled tools that can improve transparency and strengthen the trustworthiness of the financial sector.

Maintained on computers around the world and publicly accessible by anyone with an internet connection, blockchains are digital ledgers that carry an immutable record of all transactions in a system. Their reliance on algorithms, rather than human interaction, creates a robust money trail that traditional financial infrastructure lacks.

So, how did we end up with a crypto industry that often contradicts its founding ethos? One answer is that any innovation inevitably attracts speculative mania and chicanery, especially in the early stages of its development. In the 19th century, banks deceived examiners by padding gold reserves with nails. More recently, the dot-com era gave us the likes of Enron, while a biotech boom brought us Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos.

Another problem is that the industry's consumer-facing platforms have simply grafted old ways of doing business onto a technology designed specifically to do away with them. For example, while FTX was an "exchange" -- a gateway to blockchain-powered cryptocurrencies -- it did not make fundamental use of decentralized technologies. Ironically, most crypto holders today store their assets in exchanges that require high levels of trust and carry many of the risks of traditional financial institutions.

Behind the scenes, the crypto industry has started using technology to shift the balance back toward innovation. One example is the development of proof of reserves, a mathematically-based method that enables institutions to verify their crypto assets. Such tools could help prevent debacles like FTX, where the lack of transparency allowed Bankman-Fried to conceal financial fraud.

Importantly, proof of reserves and similar tools work best for cryptocurrencies, not for ordinary financial assets -- including the U.S. dollar (DX00). These technical advances have therefore prompted traditional financial institutions -- the very ones bitcoin sought to replace -- to embrace crypto. JPMorgan Chase (JPM), for example, has plans to move trillions of dollars of value on to the blockchain, while monetary authorities are exploring central bank digital currencies, which would involve using blockchain technology to issue digital versions of their fiat currencies.

To be sure, the crypto industry faces several daunting challenges: the large environmental footprint of bitcoin mining; its use for illicit transactions; privacy shortcomings, and more. But, as proof of reserves suggests, the crypto community is innovating powerful new ways to harness the inherent transparency and trustworthiness of blockchain technology to create a more secure and flexible financial ecosystem.

As these innovations proceed, governments around the world are exploring ways to safeguard consumers from the crypto industry's excesses. They would do well to look past the headlines and seek a balanced approach that enables this remarkable technology to thrive.

Ari Juels, a professor at Cornell Tech, is co-director of the Initiative for CryptoCurrencies and Contracts (IC3), chief scientist at Chainlink Labs, and the author of the forthcoming The Oracle (Talos Press, 2024).

Eswar Prasad, professor of economics at Cornell University, is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance (Harvard University Press, 2021).

This commentary was published with the permission of Project Syndicate -- Whither Crypto?

Also read: 'Fraudsters, hucksters and scam artists': Gensler defends SEC track record on crypto in wake of FTX scandal.

More: All memes aside, crypto buyers aren't any different from stock investors

-Ari Juels -Eswar Prasad

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-16-23 1401ET

View post:

Crypto will overcome the stain of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried - Morningstar

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the way we live and work. One of the most significant changes has been the rise of remote work, which has allowed many people to move to new locations in search of a better quality of life. This has led to a phenomenon known as pandemic migration.

While the term may suggest a trend of increased mobility, the latest U.S. Census data on mobility during the pandemic shows continuation of long-term decline in the share of households that have moved each year.

Prior to the 1980s, annual migration rates averaged 20% and has fallen to 8.7% recently. But what appears to have changed are the distances that people move, with the median distance more than tripling in 2022 from the decade prior. Also, one-quarter of homebuyers traveled over 470 miles to find their new home.

Increasing numbers of longer-distance moves across counties and states have supported clear population shifts over the course of the pandemic as people have flocked to smaller towns and rural areas in search of more affordable housing and a slower pace of life.

And while there are a host of factors that influenced migration patterns, including politics, monetary and fiscal policies of different regions, the increase and ability of remote work was a significant motivator for many households. In fact, the share of work done from home increased from 8% in 2019 to 30% in 2023 a rate at which remote work appears to be stabilizing.

While it is too early to say what the long-term impact of pandemic migration will be, the migration of workers has important implications for economic outcomes of U.S. cities, wage inequality and housing markets in general.

Following the 1980s, we have seen a trend of clustering of higher-wage, college-educated workers in a select group of super-star cities, such as San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Los Angeles, which have been cradles of technology and innovation.

However, the economic dominance of a limited number of cities has been a critical driver of income inequality nationally and varying home prices across markets.

In trying to understand what drives migration, several well-known academic papers have argued that migration decisions are largely driven by the following: wages, cost of housing and amenities.

While workers in big cities have higher wages, when accounting for cost of housing (usually manifested in smaller housing and longer commutes), their real wages are lower. but they get to enjoy the big-city benefits.

Despite the excitement that big cities offer, their attractiveness has been compromised in recent years by increasingly more unaffordable housing, long commutes and worsening crime and homelessness. It was not surprising to see households starting to leave large cities during the pandemic when desirable city amenities, such as bars, restaurants and concert venues were not available.

The outmigration led by remote work resulted in an important economic shift currently underway decentralization of higher-wage, college educated talent from very expensive cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and others, to smaller metro areas which didnt previously serve as economic engines of production and consumption.

As these workers and firms cluster in smaller cities, they develop their own agglomeration economies and positive knowledge spillovers, i.e. co-location of talent and creative workers results in economic and knowledge benefits to local economies and its residents. This can result in increasing income for all residents in the new city, not just the newly relocated worker.

Teleworking also improves access to high-paying jobs for workers who previously didnt have the access if they didnt live in a big city. Over time, redistribution of higher-wage workers to smaller areas can reduce income inequalities between super-star cities and smaller cities.

That doesnt mean absolute wage equalization across metro areas as cities that were already productive continue to offer relatively higher wages (as they remain more unaffordable), but the wage gap between workers in the new location would be reduced.

In addition, outmigration from urban areas means that demand for housing and home prices in centers have been challenged while demand for housing in suburban and smaller cities has intensified.

As a result, in San Francisco metro, the epicenter of pandemic outmigration, home prices have only increased 6% from the onset of the pandemic, while in the cities in the South (such as Tampa, Austin, Nashville, Raleigh, Austin to name a few) that grew notably due to pandemic migration, home prices have risen 40%, and as much as 70% in some markets, during the same period.

While these stark differences in home-price changes reflect some equalization of housing markets, the differences in their median home prices are still wide. More expensive cities, such as San Francisco, still hold median home value at about $1.4 million, while median price in Tampa is about a third of that at $450,000.

In addition to inter-metro convergence of home prices, the demand resulting from remote work has led to narrowing of intra-metro home prices as prices in suburbs and exurbs of large cities saw relatively higher appreciation over the last few years compared to the urban center.

Again, while San Francisco metro (which encompasses San Francisco city/county and San Mateo County) saw an increase, home prices in San Francisco city alone were down 1% since the onset of the pandemic, while they were up 32% in suburban Contra Costa County.

And while home prices are unlikely to fully converge, slower growth of home prices (and decline) in urban centers of large cities offers improved affordability, particularly to lower income workers who can now move closer to the city and save on commuting cost and housing.

On the other hand, there has been a growing concern that affordability in fast-growing smaller cities leads to gentrification of households who are being priced out by high-income migrants. And there is some truth to that too as recent migration data shows relative outmigration from cities with outsized home price growth in recent years.

Where are those households moving then? They are moving further out to urban fringe and more affordable towns and with it extending the boundaries of cities but also urban sprawl.

Decentralization of income across cities could lead to a more balanced demand across regions and smaller dispersion of home price both across cities and within a city.

High-cost cities would see some declines, while more affordable markets see higher home price gains. Given the overarching trend of migration to more affordable regions where it is easier and less costly to build, overall impact on home prices may result in a slight decline of national home prices long-term, or a slower rate of appreciation.

What does this mean for super-star cities?

Although big cities are at an important historical juncture, a demise is not a threat particularly as many large cities see population return post-pandemic. But, while some perks that made cities attractive may follow remote workers out of urban centers, fewer commuters would reduce pollution and congestion which would help boost desirability of urban centers.

Demand for commercial space may decline (further) and drag down its prices, but commercial real estate will likely be creative in finding new uses for the space, which may drive more creativity, mixed-use developments and incubate 24-hour-cities that will spur demand for urban living again and overall utilization of commercial space.

There are other implications to consider. For example, decentralization of workers also means fewer transit riders and erosion of tax base. Large cities are already struggling with decline of ridership and the impacts of transit budgets.

As for loss of tax base, while urban centers will lose the revenue, smaller towns where remote workers are moving to will see improvement in their tax base and capital to improve public services, education and institutions that have been in decline for decades.

Dr. Selma Hepp, PhD, is Chief Economist at CoreLogic.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWires editorial department and its owners.

To contact the author of this story: Selma Hepp at [emailprotected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Deborah Kearns at [emailprotected]

Originally posted here:

Opinion: CoreLogic's Selma Hepp on the effects of 'pandemic ... - HousingWire

Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, has reignited the longstanding debate on decentralization within the crypto industry.

According to Nazarov, the term decentralization is often misused to attract investment rather than to describe a networks actual structure. During an interview with Decrypt, he argued that only three projectsBitcoin, Ethereum, and Chainlinkcan be considered meaningfully decentralized.

Nazarovs comments come in the wake of recent security breaches in various crypto projects, including Celsius, Voyager, FTX, and Mixin Network. He refers to these incidents as examples of decentralization theater, where the term is used more as a marketing gimmick than a factual descriptor. Nazarov sees decentralization not just as a buzzword but as a critical security feature. He cites Chainlinks four-year track record without hacks and the secure transfer of $8.5 trillion in value as evidence of the benefits of a decentralized system.

However, Ethereum, one of the projects Nazarov considers decentralized, is currently grappling with its own centralization issues. The Lido Finance cartel is perceived as a significant threat to Ethereums network. Despite this, Nazarov maintains that decentralization serves as a security mechanism, safeguarding the network from various vulnerabilities.

According to Decrypt, Chainlink itself has not been immune to scrutiny. Critics point out that the projects price oracle has a 4-of-9 multi-signature access, which could have unintended consequences in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. DeFi security expert Chris Blec expressed concerns about the lack of transparency regarding who controls these signatures. He emphasized that the potential for these signers to manipulate Ethereums price could pose a risk to DeFi protocols relying on Chainlinks price feeds.

Nazarov also told Decrypt that he agrees with the idea that decentralization is a spectrum but accuses many blockchain projects of falsely presenting themselves as decentralized. He called for an end to the misuse of the term and urged both developers and consumers to focus on building and supporting systems that offer genuine security and reliability.

Yesterday, during an interview on CNBCs Crypto World, Nazarov explained what can help prevent another crypto firm failure ahead of the trial of the bankrupt crypto exchanges Co-Founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)

Nazarov emphasized that the collapse of FTX should not be viewed as a failure of blockchain technology. According to him, FTX was more of a traditional financial institution that happened to deal in crypto assets. The failure was due to mismanagement of assets by the institution, rather than any inherent flaw in blockchain systems.

Nazarov highlighted the importance of proof of reserves in the wake of the FTX collapse. Chainlabs is the largest provider of this service, which validates the balance sheet of financial entities dealing in crypto assets. Proof of reserves offers real-time, cryptographically verified information about an institutions solvency, which is a significant step up from traditional annual audits.

While proof of reserves is crucial, Nazarov acknowledged that it only provides a snapshot of an entitys financial health. He mentioned that the industry is moving towards other types of proofs like proof of liabilities and proof of solvency to offer a more comprehensive view of an institutions financial standing.

Nazarov noted that although crypto crime has decreased, it is mainly because the industrys growth has slowed down. He stressed the need for genuine decentralization to prevent hacks and scams. According to him, many platforms claim to be decentralized but are not, which makes them vulnerable to attacks.

When asked about the factors hindering mass adoption of crypto, Nazarov cited a combination of eroding trust due to institutional failures, security issues, and lack of regulatory clarity. He emphasized that the crypto industry is cyclical and that its crucial for the infrastructure to be robust enough to handle the next wave of interest and investment.

Follow this link:

Sergey Nazarov: Only Bitcoin, Ethereum, Chainlink Truly ... - CryptoGlobe