The Protocol: Elections, Schmections. Blockchain’s Got Work to Do

A
lot
of
people
are
saying,
people
inside
CoinDesk,
that
nobody’s
going
to
read
anything
on
Wednesday
that
isn’t
elections-related.
Well
maybe
they
don’t
know
about
all
the
INCREDIBLE
CONTENT
we
have
assembled
in
this
week’s
The
Protocol
newsletter?
There’s
even
an
ongoing
election
to
keep
you
entertained.

FEATURING:

U.S.
ELECTION
COVERAGE
HIGHLIGHTS:

Coinbase
CEO
Brian
Armstrong‘s
claim
in
a

post
on
X
that
listings
on
the
U.S.
crypto
exchange
are
“free”
drew
protests
from
project
leaders
including

Sonic
Labs’
Andre
Cronje
and

Tron’s
Justin
Sun.
Bitget,
a
rival
crypto
exchange,
took
advantage
of
the
topic’s
salience
to
open
a
new
listing
application
portal
on
its
platform,
stating
that
it’s
“transparent
about
its
listing
procedures
and
thrives
to
provide
token
projects
with
the
ease
of
exposure
at
best
possible
initial
investments
for
its
community,”
along
with
the
following
testament:
“Importantly,
Bitget
strongly
emphasizes
that
it
does
not
charge
any
fees
related
to
the
listing
application
process,
such
as
commission
fees,
brokerage
fees,
application
fees
or
assessment
fees.
Tokens
provided
by
project
teams
will
be
fully
allocated
to
Bitget
users
based
on
the
agreed-upon
marketing
and
promotional
plan.”

SPICY
SPOTS:
Crypto
commercials
have
come
a
long
way
since

Crypto.com‘s
notoriously
cringe-y
“Fortune
Favors
the
Brave”
ad
starring
Matt
Damon.
A
couple
videos
circulating
this
week
actually
approached
the
not-inconsiderable
triple-achievement
of
“surprisingly
clever”
and
“refreshingly
dark”
while
remaining
“uncannily
crypto-native.”

Optimism
Foundation
Chief
Growth
Officer
Ryan
Wyatt
(Optimism
Foundation)

One
of
the
biggest
trends
of
2023
among
the
leading
layer-2
projects
on
Ethereum
was
the
emergence
of
“blockchain
in
a
box,”
where
the
teams
encouraged
developers
to
clone
their
code
to
spin
up
new
layer
2s.

Now,
one
project
in
particular
appears
to
be
pulling
away
as
the
clear
leader.
And
as
is
often
the
case
in
blockchain
development,
a
crucial
factor
is
the
money
changing
hands
behind
the
scenes.

Optimism,
one
of
the
major
layer-2
networks,
has
managed
to
get
a
slew
of
clients
and
firms
to
deploy
their
own
blockchains
using
Optimism’s
technology,
with
the
OP
Stack,
under
open-source
software
licenses.

It’s
a
crucial
development
in
the
evolution
of
the
broader
blockchain
universe,
since
layer-2
networks
stand
at
the
heart
of
developers’
efforts
to
make
transactions
faster
and
cheaper
in
the
Ethereum
ecosystem.

Part
of
the
Optimism
Foundation’s
strategy
to
get
new
networks
to
use
their
technology
is
to
give

out
large
sums
of
OP
tokens
in
the
form
of
grants.

Ultimately,
the
goal
is
to
reach
critical
mass
—
perhaps
not
unlike
the

ascendance
in
the
1980s
of
VHS
over
Betamax
as
the
dominant
videotape
technology.

Click
here
for
the
full
article
by
Margaux
Nijkerk

Fundraisings

Hubert
Rachwalski
von
Rejchwald,
founder
and
CEO
of
vlayer
Labs
(vlayer
Labs)

Deals
and
grants

Bea
O’Carroll
(Kadena)

Data
and
Tokens

We
were
forwarded
a
copy
of
Binance
Research’s
just-out
report,
“Understanding
the
Rise
of
Memecoins”
and
found
it
curiously
intellectual
—
tracing
the
rise
of
the
asset
class
through
an
economic
prism,
noting
that
“financial
nihilism
might
be
growing
particularly
among
younger
generations.”

The
report
suggests
that
memecoins’
combined
share
of
the
altcoin
market
has
doubled
from
2023
levels
to
about
11%
currently.
(See
chart
above.)

There
was
also
this
high-minded
takeaway,
flicking
at
an
increasingly
common
refrain
heard,
a
backlash
against
the
idea
of
venture
capital-backed
projects
using
retail
investors
as
exit
liquidity:

“Projects
have
turned
towards
private
VC
funding
rounds
in
order
to
raise
capital.
This
practice
has
grown
significantly
in
recent
years,
leading
to
an
industry
wide
‘Low
Float,
High
FDV,’”
the
report
reads.
“A
symptom
of
this
problem
is
that
many
of
the
new
altcoins
with
the
most
exciting
narratives
and
visions
now
face
significant
supply
unlocks
in
the
coming
years,
effectively
turning
retail
traders
into
potential
exit
liquidity
for
VCs
that
got
into
early
stage
private
rounds.
This
tokenomics
problem
created
by
the
prominence
of
private
token
sale
rounds
is
likely
one
of
the
factors
at
the
forefront
of
the
market’s
shift
towards
the
fair
launch,
transparent
memecoins.”

Top
16
providers
of
native
staking,
as
ranked
on
assets-under-management
by
the
website
Staking
Rewards
(Staking
Rewards)

Earlier
this
week
I
had
a
fascinating
conversation
with

Pablo
Larguia,
co-founder
and
CEO
of
Buenos
Aires-based

SenseiNode,
a
provider
of
institutional
grade
staking-as-a-service
—
essentially
operating
blockchain
nodes
on
behalf
of
big
investors.

The
fast-growing
business
involves
taking
non-custodial
token
allocations
and
then
managing
the
mostly
data-center-oriented
business
of
running
nodes
and
staking
on
behalf
of
third
parties.

This
activity
appears
to
fall
somewhere
between
the
proof-of-stake
equivalent
of
bitcoin
mining
and
the
21st
century
version
of
a
bond
manager.

Top
picks
of
the
past
week
from


our
Protocol
Village

column,
highlighting
key
blockchain
tech
upgrades
and
news.

Screengrab
from
Pundi
AI
Data
demo
video.
This
is
an
example
of
“bounding
box
annotation”
where
the
user
takes
a
“scenic
image
containing
wild
animals”
and
draws
a
box
around
them
(Pundi
AI)