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Luna Foundation Guard’s Reserves Down to 313 Bitcoins from 80K post-UST Crash | Vitalik and CZ Take to Twitter
CoinDesk | Sam Kessler, Shaurya Malwa | May 16, 2022
The announcement comes after criticism of the Luna Foundation Guard's "lack of transparency."
The Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), official stewards of Terra’s bitcoin (BTC) reserves, released a statement on Monday documenting how it disbursed millions of dollars' worth of crypto in its failed attempt to maintain the peg of stablecoin terraUSD (UST).
In the statement, LFG notes that it has almost entirely depleted its BTC reserves from around 80,000 bitcoins to 313. The remaining assets, which mostly comprise the crashed UST and LUNA tokens, will apparently be used to compensate investors.
In one of the most calamitous events in crypto memory, the $40 billion Terra ecosystem collapsed last week when the UST stablecoin, which is supposed to be worth $1, dropped to below 20 cents. The LUNA token, which is designed to serve as a sort of shock absorber for UST’s “algorithmic” dollar-pegging mechanism, crashed from $80 to below 2 cents.
See: Terra is transitioning from a dollar-pegged stablecoin to a bitcoin-backed stablecoin
In a tweet on Monday, LFG said it sold off most of the BTC in its reserves for UST as Terra’s ecosystem was beginning to collapse early last week.
- May 8: LFG said it transferred more than 50,000 bitcoins “to trade with a counterparty”, as the UST price was originally starting to slump. It said the funds were used for “directly executing on-chain swaps and transferring $BTC to a counterparty to enable them to enter trades with the Foundation in large size and on short notice.”
- On May 12, LFG said another 30,000 BTC from its reserves were sold off by Terraform Labs, the original company behind Terra, “in a last ditch effort to defend the peg.” That, however, failed to restore UST’s peg to the U.S. dollar as traders continued to sell the token for other stablecoins, leading to an exodus of capital away from UST and thus lower prices.
- LFG confirmed the remainder of its reserves, which once totaled over $3 billion, have sunk almost completely as a result of the unsuccessful effort to defend UST. Says these funds will be used “to compensate remaining users of UST, smallest holders first.”
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Decrypt | Sander Lutz | May 15, 2022
Vitalik and CZ took to Twitter this weekend to critique Terra—and the very premise of the UST token itself.
Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum:
“We need to emphasize that the two,” Buterin said, referring to algorithmic stablecoins and asset-backed stablecoins, “are very different. [The entire premise of UST] from inception [was] intentionally misleading and inherently flawed.
See: Yellen Renews Call for Stablecoin Regulation After Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin tumbles
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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How Innovative Edutainment Approach Transforms Traditional Education
Guest Post | May 16, 2022
Education is a rapidly evolving sector. A few decades ago, traditional education was the only acceptable model. We had blackboards, wooden desks, bulky textbooks, and detention for naughty students. Fast forward to the 21st century, and most of the symbols of traditional education have now been replaced by technology. Thanks to the infusion of technology into education, we now have Brighterly.com and other online learning platforms. But that’s not where it ends. Technology has equally birthed a new genre of education known as “edutainment.”
But what exactly is edutainment? And how is it transforming traditional education? Let’s take a quick look, shall we?
What Is Edutainment?
As the name implies, edutainment is a combination of education and entertainment. It was first used in 1954 by Walt Disney to describe the new True Life Adventure series. Basically, it means infusing education with entertainment to make learning an enjoyable experience for students.
With the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent disruption to education, students have been finding it harder to learn. However, as we all teach and learn post-pandemic, it’s time to infuse fun and joy into learning to boost students’ motivation and participation.
See: The digital transformation of learning: Social, informal, self-service, and enjoyable
It’s important to note that edutainment doesn’t necessarily have to take digital forms like educational PC games or virtual reality apps. Instead, it could also involve physical exhibitions and fun trips to zoos. As long as the students have fun while learning, the teaching process can undoubtedly be classified as edutainment.
How Edutainment is Transforming Traditional Education
As we mentioned earlier, edutainment has completely changed the narrative and is transforming the concept of traditional education. Here’s how:
Breaking the shackles of geographic limitation
One aspect we rarely explore when discussing traditional education is the geographical limitations of this model. Students have to travel from their homes (regardless of the distance) to learn in traditional classrooms. If you fall ill and can’t make it to class, you’ll have to miss learning for the day. Conventional education is like a ruthless dictator swinging a hammer, dishing out consequences with little to no empathy for students’ limitations.
However, edutainment helps students learn even when they can’t make it to class. For instance, with educational games and YouTube videos, students can still catch up on what they missed for the day.
Helping students understand that education isn’t boring.
A teacher walks in, and all the students groan. We’ve all seen this scenario play out frequently in traditional education. In some cases, we’ve misinterpreted it as a sign of laziness amongst students, and we couldn’t be further from the truth. Students aren’t necessarily lazy; they just find the educational system boring. Having to learn using the same format repeatedly can be super exhausting, which explains why a large percentage of students are apathetic towards learning.
However, edutainment completely changes this narrative by making learning a fun process for students. Since they can learn through various formats such as video games and movies, it becomes easier and more enjoyable to learn. Problem solved!
Improving teacher-student communication
Here’s the thing: in traditional education, it’s hard for students to see teachers as humans capable of mistakes or humor. What they see is an unfeeling robot that forces them to learn and then grades their papers. But we all know that this isn’t true. Teachers are human and could even possess a sense of humor (insert shocked gasp).
Edutainment helps to make teachers seem more human and improve the communication between them and the students. By delivering entertaining lectures, students will be able to ask questions and freely engage with the teacher instead of simply keeping mute. In the same vein, this can also be beneficial for teachers as they’d be able to get honest feedback on modules and their teaching styles.
Boosting information retention
Here’s one thing to note: students forget. Not just their lunch boxes or homework but what they learn at school in most cases. This isn’t any fault of theirs, however. It’s an innate human trait that we all experience. In fact, according to a study by InnerDrive, students tend to forget things quickly within the first 24 hours of learning them. Unfortunately, traditional education doesn’t help much with this problem.
On the other hand, when teachers use entertaining materials and fun-filled activities to educate, students tend to remember more. Since they participating actively and not just sitting passively in class, it would be easier to recall what they’ve learned.
Keeping students excited about learning
Students rarely get excited about learning, thanks to traditional education. It’s basically the same format every day with no variety to spice up the routine. However, edutainment gives students something to look forward to each time they step into class. For instance, let’s assume you teach your students about letter writing using fun videos and then make them write funny letters to each other at the end of the class. The next day, they’ll walk into class with a bounce in their step, excited to see what fun video or class activity you have up your sleeves this time.
See: Lethbridge College heading into metaverse with online campus
What Challenges Does Edutainment Have?
Although edutainment might be the messiah that traditional education wasn’t, it does come with its own set of challenges and risks. For starters, the use of digital devices and tools for education could distract students from learning. As such, teachers and parents have to help them strike a balance between learning and having fun.
In the same vein, developing and purchasing edutainment games or devices is quite expensive, and as such, most students still have to deal with traditional education. In essence, edutainment might be a beautiful rose, but it certainly has its fair share of thorns.
Final Thoughts
The rise of edutainment has massively transformed traditional education and has made learning more enjoyable for students. As parents and teachers, it’s time for us to come together to change the narrative around education and help students navigate their academic challenges through fun activities. The difference will certainly be clear!
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Yellen Renews Call for Stablecoin Regulation After Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin tumbles
TechCrunch | Jacquelyn Melinek | May 10, 2022
Stablecoins have been a hot topic both on and off Capitol Hill. Earlier today, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pushed for regulation during an annual testimony in front of the Senate Banking Committee, at a time where Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin UST struggles to retain its peg.
US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, said:
New products and technology may present opportunities to promote innovation and increase efficiencies. However, digital assets may present risks to the financial system and increased and coordinated regulatory attention is necessary.
A stablecoin known as TerraUSD experienced a run and declined in value, [which] illustrates that this is a rapidly growing product and there are rapidly growing risks. It would be highly appropriate for stablecoin regulation to occur by the end of 2022 because there are “many risks associated with cryptocurrencies.”
See: Terra Networks’ Stablecoin Loses Dollar Peg (again) Dives 45% (Update: to near zero) Adding More Pressure on Bitcoin
Stablecoins by definition are supposed to be stable and hold their value through a 1:1 ratio that is fixed to an external peg like the U.S. dollar or it can be tied to other assets like UST, which is backed by dollars, but also cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Avalanche.
“The stablecoin sector continued to grow rapidly and remains exposed to liquidity risks,” the U.S. Federal Reserve said in a report on May 9.
The U.S. Treasury plans to release a report on cryptocurrencies and stablecoins “shortly” and plans to create “highly appropriate” legislation for the pegged asset by the end of 2022, Yellen said.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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UK Revenue-based Lender, Outfund, raises £115m Series A
London Loves Business | Apr 27, 2022
Outfund are changing the way online businesses raise funds, today announces the close of a £115M Series A round of equity capital and debt amount. The funding round was led by Force Over Mass, PostFinance, 1818 Venture Capital and Tribe Capital, and will support Outfund’s rapid global growth as it provides a faster, fairer and more affordable way for SMEs to raise growth capital across the globe. With this new investment, Outfund is pledging to invest more than £500m of lending to over 5,000 businesses in the next 12 months, and will increase its lending limit to £10m per company.
See: Corl raises $20 Million USD to expand Revenue-Based Financing in North America
Outfund can deploy between £10,000 and £10million of funding, and is available to businesses that take online payments, have a minimum of £10,000 monthly turnover, and have been trading for at least six months. Only simple checks are required to access capital and there is no need for companies to provide business plans or go through prolonged risk assessments. Businesses simply connect their revenue accounts and, with access to this data, Outfund will build a funding offer and deploy the same day.
Unlike conventional business loans, Outfund ensures the time taken to repay is based on each businesses’s circumstances, with an agreed revenue share creating flexibility for founders. Outfund’s revenue-share percentages are set to ensure each business maintains a healthy cash flow in its day-to-day operations; the better the company does, the better Outfund does. For the first time, the funding balance between a company and a lender is equal.
See: Debt vs. Equity Financing: Pros And Cons For Entrepreneurs
Outfund’s technology takes the bias out of lending and improves financing terms, with analysis based solely on a business’ revenues and performance. 20% of Outfund’s portfolio are female founders, a testament to their commitment to advancing the democratisation of access to capital. Its advanced algorithm pulls information from multiple data sources to determine how a company performs, and is then able to de-risk the proposition. This allows more affordable funding, with longer payment terms and a flat fixed fee from 2%, making it the most competitive offering in the market.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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IMF: Capital Flow Management Measures in the Digital Age: Challenges of Crypto Assets
IMF | LinkedIn John Ho | May 11, 2022
The IMF has today published a report on how crypto assets might be used to circumvent capital flow management measures, undermining the stability of domestic economies and the global system
Highlights:
Capital flows can bring substantial benefits for countries but also carry risks. Capital flow management measures (CFMs) can be part of the broader policy toolkit to help countries reap the benefits of capital flows while managing the associated risks.
Implementation of CFMs typically requires that financial intermediaries verify the nature of transactions & the identities of transacting parties, but it is facing the rising challenge of crypto assets.
See: IMF asks Financial Stability Board to develop a global framework for standards for regulation of crypto assets
Crypto assets have become a significant instrument for payments and speculative investments in some countries, driven by a host of macroeconomic, institutional, & demographic factors.
Crypto assets can be traded pseudonymously and held without identification of the residency of the asset holder. Many crypto service providers operate across borders, making supervision & enforcement by national authorities more difficult.
The challenges posed by the attributes of crypto assets are compounded by gaps in the legal & regulatory frameworks, as the legal status of crypto assets is often not clear and CFM laws and regulations may not cover cryptoassets.
This IMF paper aims to discuss how crypto assets could impact the effectiveness of CFMs from a structural and longer-term perspective and does not analyze how crypto assets may have been used to evade country-specific sanctions or CFMs.
See:
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Updated Report: Regulation of Cryptocurrency Around the World (Nov 2021)
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BIS Update: 2021 Survey Results on Central Bank Digital Currencies, ‘Gaining Momentum’
To preserve CFMs’ effectiveness in an environment of growing crypto-asset use, policymakers need a multifaceted strategy. Essential elements of such a strategy include:
* Clarifying the legal status of crypto assets and ensuring that CFM laws and regulations cover them.
* Developing for persons and entities engaged in crypto activities and services a comprehensive, consistent, and coordinated regulatory framework and applying it effectively to CFMs
* Establishing international collaborative arrangements for supervision of crypto assets.
* Addressing data gaps and leveraging technology (regtech and suptech) to create anomaly detection models and red-flag indicators that will allow for timely risk monitoring and CFM implementation.
See:
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Crypto Payments Report 2022: How digital currencies are revolutionizing commerce, corporates and culture
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Ottawa to review Crypto, Stablecoins and CBDCs; Budget promises more financial cops
IMF believes that a new public infrastructure of digital payment platforms could enable countries to implement these and other measures more efficiently. From the outset, these platforms can be calibrated to country-specific needs and policy objectives—and they must include appropriate risk mitigation measures.
A comprehensive legal and regulatory framework as well as its consistent implementation will likely be conducive to the emergence of law-abiding and regulatory-compliant innovations —while providing the basis and mechanisms to deal with a minority of bad-faith actors and criminals.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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67% of top 1000 US Websites Violate EU’s General Data Protection Law (GDPR)
PYMNTS | Mar 31, 2022
The European Union has passed several laws aimed at providing digital identity protection, among them the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which went into effect in 2018.
Among the biggest violators of these protocols? American websites. According to one study, 67% of the top 1,000 websites in the United States were in violation of the GDPR.
The violations at work here vary, with 43% of websites not offering users the ability to opt out of selling data, 55% failing to notify users of cookies when they visit the site for the first time, and 32% of sites containing ad trackers.
See: How Verifiable Digital Identity Will Protect Your Post-Pandemic Privacy
The study pointed out that while GDPR exclusively concerns Europe, websites originating in the U.S. still sell goods and services to EU customers. Fines for violations of the GDPR range from $80,000 to $120,000.
To help smaller app developers make sure they’re complying with the GDPR — and thus avoiding penalties they may not be able to afford — Google has launched a new platform called Checks that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to scan code bases and evaluate them for privacy and other areas in which they may fall short of GDPR’s standards. In addition, the platform performs scans for compliance in the U.S. and Brazil, ensuring a significant portion of the world’s app developers are avoiding regulatory penalties.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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7 Essential Ingredients of an (Open) Metaverse Framework
a16z | Liz Harkavy, Eddy Lazzarin, Arianna Simpson | May 10, 2022
There has been a lot of buzz about “the metaverse” since its coinage in the ‘90s, but especially during the pandemic (given the surge in online activity), and even more so after Facebook changed its name to Meta.
In many ways, the metaverse is just another name for evolving the internet: to be more social, immersive, and far more economically sophisticated than what exists today. There are, broadly speaking, two competing visions for how to bring this about:
- One is decentralized, generous with property rights and new frontiers, interoperable, open, and owned by the communities that build and maintain it.
- The other vision is centralized, closed, subject to the whims of corporations; and often extracts painful economic rents from its creators, contributors, and inhabitants.
An open metaverse is decentralized, allows users to control identity, enforces property rights, aligns incentives, and ensures value accrues to users (not platforms).
See: CB Insights: Metaverse stack and companies making it a reality
An open metaverse is also transparent, permissionless, interoperable, and composable (others can freely build within and across metaverses), among other criteria.
Achieving a “true” metaverse — one that’s open versus closed — requires seven essential ingredients intrinsic to this sought-after state. We argue that these are necessary to meet the minimum requirement to be called a metaverse. Our goal is to clear the fog of misinformation about what is and isn’t a true metaverse for builders and would-be participants, and to provide a framework for evaluating early metaverse attempts.
- Decentralization
- Property Rights
- Self-sovereign identity
- Composability
- Openness/open source
- Community ownership
- Social immersion
We believe — as is evident in this framework — that a metaverse cannot exist without the fundamental foundations of web3 tech.
See: Blockchain-based replacement for traditional crowdfunding: DAOs
Openness and decentralization are the pillars upon which the whole edifice rests. Property rights rely on decentralization — they must endure despite the influence of powerful adversaries. Community ownership prevents unilateral control of the system. The approach also bolsters open standards, which are helpful for decentralizing and composability, a closely related property downstream of interoperability.
The development of an ideal multi-dimensional virtual world will come about gradually. Many problems remain to be solved.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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