Vitalik's Dad on Ukraine, Censorship and More

The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day

Mar. 22, 2022

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Welcome to The Node.

In today's newsletter: Four overseas central banks are working on a CBDC project. Draper University launches startup fellowship for Web 3 entrepreneurs. And a metaverse gaming studio raises $5 million in seed funding.

–Daniel Kuhn

Today's must-reads

Top Shelf

CBDC OF FOUR: Four central banks outside of the U.S. are working on a project that will develop and test transactions between financial firms in different currencies.

The cross-border payment project known as "Project Dunbar" will be used across central banks in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa.
The prototype, which kicked off in September but has since stalled, is still facing questions of regulation and governance, and is also dealing with the question of who should be given access to the platform.

SEED FUNDING: Metaverse gaming studio Block Tackle has raised $5 million in seed funding.

Funding for the gaming studio will be used to create games that will allow players to own NFTs.
Co-founder Ben Topkins told CoinDesk that investors were looking for experienced game developers who could successfully build out Web 3 games. SkateX, that studio's first release, will debut in April after a collection of 3D-animated skateboard NFTs are released. Venture capital firm Play Ventures and Cadenza Ventures led the round.

MERGER: Tokyo-based Coincheck has agreed to merge with Thunder Bridge Capital Partners (THCP) IV, a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), according to a Tuesday announcement.

Before expenses and assuming no redemptions by shareholders are requested, THCP will provide $237 million in cash towards the combined company. The proposed transaction is valued at an estimated $1.25 billion.
Coincheck is one of the largest multi-cryptocurrency marketplaces in Japan and has an estimated 1.5 million verified customers.

DRAPER TRAINING: Draper University has partnered with VeChain, a smart-contract platform, to launch new programs for individuals interested in founding Web 3 startups, specifically on VeChain's Thor blockchain. Applications for the four-week VeChain Fellowship certificate program, set to begin April 18, are now open.

A dozen or so members selected by Draper University from the fellowship program will receive $100,000 in funding in exchange for a 5% equity stake in their startup.
Draper University CEO Asra Nadeem told CoinDesk that after the conclusion of the program participants will still be supported, and will also have the opportunity to raise additional funding including access to roughly 18 global funds within the Draper network.

–Fran Velasquez

Overheard on CoinDesk TV...

Sound Bites

"This was an unprecedented event for crypto."

–LunarCrush CEO Joe Vezzani, on crypto's role during the Ukraine War, on CoinDesk TV's "First Mover."

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What others are writing...

Off-Chain Signals

Abu Dhabi rolls out draft recommendations for NFT trading (Cointelegraph)
Fintech startup Jeeves raised $180 million, quadruples valuation to $2.1B in half a year (TechCrunch)
Argentines Flock to Crypto Games as Economy Eats Up Salaries (Bloomberg)
Crypto Exchange Kraken brings in new CFO to lead "next growth phase" (The Block)
Robinhood's New Debit Card to Offer Crypto Rewards (Decrypt)
The Eight Congressmen Subverting the SEC's Crypto Investigation (The American Prospect)
The Bored Apes Get Richer – And More Cringey (Dan Roberts/Decrypt)

Introducing CoinDesk's Mining Week. Our reporters visited crypto mining farms around the world, interviewed key players and crunched network data to shed light on a little-understood industry. Follow along with our continuing coverage .

Bitmain Redux: Bitdeer and BitFuFu Are About to Test US Stock Market's Mining Appetite
China's two biggest cloud mining platforms plan to go public on the Nasdaq via SPAC deals this year, at a time when crypto and broader markets have pulled back from their peaks.

Why Some Bitcoin Devs Say Lasers Can Cut Mining's Energy Costs

"Optical proof-of-work" would improve geographic distribution of hashrate and quell fears of climate-related pushback, proponents argue.

Putting the news into perspective

The Takeaway

Vitalik's Dad on Ukraine, Censorship and Decentralization

Russian-Canadian computer programmer and entrepreneur Dmitry Buterin may have introduced his son Vitalik to Bitcoin – the first step in a chain of events that led to the development of the most-used blockchain today, Ethereum, that Vitalik co-founded – but he doesn't put much store in his place in crypto history.

Dmitry, who often goes by the Russian diminutive, Dima, is a modest and thoughtful man. Now semiretired after a successful career in software engineering, Dima spends his free time reading philosophy and going for walks. He takes pictures of the simple pleasures of nature – frost on a tree limb, the first flowers of spring. And he gets more fulfillment advising early-stage crypto projects, and running the educational company BlockGeeks, than playing Vitalik's Dad for the media.

Buterin, like many other true believers in crypto, relishes in complexity. The so-called "world computer," Ethereum, is at the center of a techno-economic revolution affecting everything from banking to the backbone of the web. But as big as this project is, it will work best if built of smaller, discrete parts.

"Right now, the most creative decentralized projects are designed by techies," Dima said in a recent interview with The Node. Ethereum's success, he thinks, is largely due to its design, which makes it easy for anyone to build or use its crypto-powered applications. Likewise, some of the world's most deranged problems stem from the centralization of power and influence.

Born in the Soviet Union, and later a citizen of Russia and Canada, Dima has been an outspoken critic of authoritarians the world over – including Russian President Vladimir Putin. Long before Putin invaded Ukraine, causing the death of thousands and the displacement of millions, Dima was willing to call the president an "autocrat." "Corruption has seized the highest levels of the state," he said recently.

Crypto has emerged, perhaps surprisingly, as a useful lifeline for those impacted directly by the war. Coming up on a month since Russia's invasion, the Ukrainian government has raised over $100 million in various cryptocurrencies for military and civilian needs. Millions more are being routed to charitable efforts, through vehicles like Ukraine DAO (short for decentralized autonomous organization) or direct, on-chain donations.

But crypto may take on an even larger role during and after this crisis. By privileging free-market organization and the decentralization of authority, these novel protocols support new systems that might ensure no one like Putin can gain power again, Dima said. "It feels to me that this whole situation will lead the next big push towards adoption of crypto," he said. This emphasis on decentralization is why Dima thinks crypto platforms should not join in blanket sanctions of all Russian people.

Decentralization – and the profit-motive – are double-edged swords, however. Last week, Time magazine published the latest in-depth profile of Vitalik, where the Ethereum creator urged the industry to think more critically about the things being built or how the system is used. The most profitable programs – like needless NFTs or dead end DAOs – aren't always the ones the world needs most, he said. It's a position Dima agrees with, who said technologists need to focus on "human" problems.

Read the full article here.

–Daniel Kuhn