Cryptocurrency

Decentralised Autonomous Organisations are broken and need fixing if cryptocurrencies are to thrive.

So says Stefan Rust, CEO of Laguna Labs, after the co-founder of Maker DAO issued proposals to unpeg its stablecoin DAI entirely from the US dollar.

Following the US Treasury Department’s move to sanction Tornado Cash earlier this month, Rune Christensen has proposed an ‘Endgame Plan’ to protect DAI from centralised ‘authoritarian threats’.

The plan recommends issuing loans of DAI against real-world assets to bolster revenue then using the profits to acquire more ETH to use as collateral to back DAI.

If DAI is successful in accumulating ETH over the next three years, the protocol would then consider letting DAI drift from its dollar peg to become a free-floating asset. 

The proposal has received both support and criticism from members of the MakerDAO community.

“This is a great idea and one I’m excited to watch Maker DAO explore. The US dollar is not, however, Maker’s only problem: the governance model of all decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) needs serious attention if the cryptocurrency industry is to thrive,” said Rust, CEO of blockchain innovation hub Laguna Labs, which is aiming to create a DeFi ecosystem.

“The boom and bust of the past two years have shown that we, as an industry, need to pivot back toward our founding mission: to build a decentralised, censorship-resistant financial ecosystem. 

“Maker DAO is perhaps on the strongest track among crypto’s biggest participants, and it’s very encouraging to see it reassessing its use of USDC after Circle froze the assets of its US users with little to no due process. 

“Bitcoin was founded as a globally decentralised network that could resist the exclusivity, elitism, and vulnerability to corruption inherent to the traditional finance system. It was and still is a grand idea. We are yet, however, to find a way to translate it for mainstream audiences.

“While we did see an influx of retail users into cryptocurrency during the DeFi boom of 2020-21, they were mainly attracted to centralised entities that were piggybacking on decentralised finance, and even posing as DeFi, to deliver yields that we now know were elaborate Ponzi schemes.

“Had these users been using decentralised finance infrastructure directly to generate that yield, which in fact anybody can, they would not be facing the same losses today. This did not happen though, as not only is DeFi an intimidating space for most, but the DAOs that govern many protocols are simply not working.”

The recent scandal surrounding the FEI network and its stablecoin – where a number of do-over governance votes robbed the community of payouts following a hack – shows DAOs are far from the utopian democracy many would like to paint them to be, added serial entrepreneur Rust, a former CEO at Blockchain.com.

“As we saw recently with Maker DAO and its ‘community’ vote to allow US banks to borrow DAI while adding US Treasuries to the portfolio, like all democracies, DAOs are open to outsized influence from those with the largest share of tokens, or the ability to sway opinion,” says .

“We must do better in cryptocurrency and blockchain. We must come up with a decentralised model that reflects the new borderless network of nations that we are now living in. 

“While jurisdictions like the US continue to cling to power and control as they restrict access to globalised networks, people are increasingly living their lives in these decentralised spaces. 

“Facebook is now the world’s largest nation with over 3 billion people: a network nation with no physical location. We need a financial ecosystem that can serve this new demographic.”

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Cryptocurrency shorts

Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has created a set of six licences for non-fungible tokens based on the model pioneered by Creative Commons. Some NFT creators already use Creative Commons licences and others customise their terms, but many projects have no licences or they are poorly drafted –  leading to copyright and other legal issues. 

Live Nation’s subsidiary Ticketmaster has unveiled NFT tickets for event organisers. Minted on the Flow blockchain, these are mainly for commemorative value and to provide proof of attendance at notable concerts; users must still provide the standard ticket with a barcode to gain entry.

An NFT ticket to beer with actor Bill Murray sold for 119.2 ETH – around $185,000 – in a charity auction-style bidding war.

Crypto startup Don’t Know Your Customer has avoided a ‘cybersquatting’ complaint brought by accounting giant Deloitte. Penultimate Media Systems had registered domain name DontKYC.com for its crypto client, which claims to be a non-profit community offering prepaid cards that offer anonymity – but Deloitte, which uses the acronym DKYC on its website when promoting its ‘Know Your Customer’ services, had complained.

Luxury brand Hermès has filed a trademark application covering NFTs, cryptocurrencies and the Metaverse: it seems to be planning retail store services featuring virtual goods; fashion and trade shows in online virtual, augmented or mixed reality environments; and to provide an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of virtual goods.

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Crypto prices

The overall market cap of the more than 20,800 coins is at $978 billion at the time of writing (7am UK), a 1.7% decrease in the last 24 hours.

Market leader Bitcoin – the original cryptocurrency created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto – is down 1% at $20,050. BTC is 7% down on a week ago.

Ethereum, the second most valuable crypto coin – created as a decentralised network for smart contracts on the blockchain – lost 3% to $1,550. ETH is 7% down over the course of a week.

Binance Coin is a cryptocurrency created by popular crypto exchange Binance to assist its aim in becoming the infrastructure services provider for the entire blockchain ecosystem. Its BNB token dropped 4% to $278, leaving it 6% down over seven days.

The XRP token of Ripple, a payment settlement asset exchange and remittance system, acts as a bridge for transfers between other currencies. XRP fell 2% to 32.7c, with its price 6% down on seven days ago.

Cardano is an open source network facilitating dApps which considers itself to be an updated version of Ethereum. Its ADA token, designed to allow owners to participate in the operation of the network, shed 3% to below 45c and is 3% down in a week.

Solana is a blockchain built to make decentralised finance accessible on a larger scale – and capable of processing 50,000 transactions per second. Its SOL token dropped 4% to $31.34 and is 12% lower than its price a week ago.

Meme coin DOGE was created as a satire on the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies but is now a major player in the space. DOGE fell 3% to 6.1c and is 11% down over seven days.

Polkadot was founded by the Swiss-based Web3 Foundation as an open-source project to develop a decentralised web. Its DOT token, which aims to securely connect blockchains, fell 3% to $7.01 and is 8% down on its price a week ago.

Polygon aims to securely connect blockchains as a sort of decentralised internet. Its MATIC token gained 1% to top 84c, while it is 3% up in a week.

Avalanche is a lightning-quick verifiable platform for institutions, enterprises and governments. Its AVAX token dropped 3% to $19.14 and is 18% down in a week.

To see how the valuations of the main coins have changed in recent times – and for round-ups of recent cryptocurrency news developments – click here.

For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.