Future on Fridays, #15
Here to stay? Blockchain and digitisation in everyday life
What’s Coming Up?
What’s the status of blockchain for good?
Bitcoin, CBDCs, and cash, oh my!
Decentralisation—the future of work and finance?
Blockchain & the SDGs: How Decentralisation Can Make a Difference
With contributions of 20+ external experts, we analyse blockchain’s potential—from both a theoretical perspective and through existing projects—to help achieve the SDGs.
In collaboration with PositiveBlockchain, we look at four sections: Identity, Financial Inclusion, Supply Chain, and Environment & Climate Change.
Thriving Under Pressure: Why Crypto Is Booming in Nigeria Despite the Banking Ban
Nigeria’s crypto market consistently grew in 2020 and 2021, receiving $2.4 billion worth of crypto in May, compared to $684 million last December. Despite the caveats of geographic crypto data, this growth is significant, due in part to devaluation of the local currency. Growth continues, despite Central Bank of Nigeria (CNB) regulations, with led to an uptick in peer-to-peer trading.
Why CBDCs Are NOT The Same as Cryptocurrencies Like Bitcoin
Arti Agarwal lays out that while ‘CBDCs are in effect the complete opposite of cryptocurrencies, in that they are completely centralized’ they can still ‘solve some financial problems. She goes on to lay out the benefits and pitfalls, finishing by claiming that ‘they cannot replace cryptocurrencies’.
The Future of Work
Digital Organizations (DOs) — the nearer reality spurred by DAOs — are ‘collections of like-minded people with like-minded goals, that work together to make progress towards those goals’, according to David Hoffman. This paints a picture of the future of work that enables people to be driven by the work they do, and ideally, a shorter work week, built on incentives and designed to be digitally native.
Didi’s Downfall and the Case for Web 3.0
Two days after completing its US initial public offering, Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride hailing app, was ordered to remove its app from local app stores by Chinese regulators. The stock fell by as much as 25% on the New York Stock Exchange. Although ‘Chinese authoritarianism vastly increases the risk, the same thing could happen to many of the world’s biggest tech companies’, simply due to the centralised nature of the app market.
Top Headlines 💥
🤑 Tim Berners-Lee sells web source code NFT for $5.4m
🎡 Ethereum’s London Hard Fork Expected to Launch on Aug. 4
🤠 Texas Governor Signs Law Creating Legal Framework for Crypto Investments
🖼 Beeple launches iconic ‘moments’ NFT platform with Time, Universal, and Warner
🇨🇳 What Does China’s Crypto Crackdown Mean for the Industry?
Tweets of the Month 🐦
🗞 European Ecosystem News
Cash still king in times of COVID-19, ECB
Fabio Panetta, Executive Board Member of the ECB, gave a keynote speech outlining the importance of cash, even in the face of the mass digitisation response to Covid-19. He outlines a commitment to ‘both the physical and digital euro’ to ‘strengthen the role of public money’ and meet the needs of Europeans.
Central Bank Digital Currencies and Euro for the Future, EUBOF
This report evaluates eight alternative designs for the digital euro against the core principles and requirements set out by the ECB. It covers how a digital euro will differ from today’s system, different technological infrastructures, managing a digital euro through Europe’s commercial banks, and more.
🎧 The Crypto Renaissance, Bankless
Josh Rosenthal, former historian and partner at 6ixth Event Cataclysmic Capital, takes a look at the similarities between the European Renaissance and what is happening today with both the Internet and blockchain technology.
📖 Decentralized Finance: What It Is, Why It Matters, a16z
Marvin Ammori argues that ‘DeFi is the fourth wave’ of blockchain innovation. The article explains what exactly constitutes Decentralised Finance, the features and benefits, and the age-old issue of blockchain — challenges to mainstream adoption.
Top Research 📚
Decentralized Finance Policy-Maker Toolkit, WEF
The WEF compiled a toolkit for policymakers, giving an overview of DeFi and tools to better understand the implications of this industry and mapping potential legal and regulatory responses.
CBDCs: an opportunity for the monetary system, BIS
Chapter 3 of the BIS Annual Economic Report, 2021, looks at the opportunities posed by CBDCs, as well as the requirements to match public interest, particularly highlighting a CBDC built on digital identity.
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