Thanks for your comments and i agree that theres no point in introducing yet another local currency.

The idea of citycoins is to enable stakeholders to buy-in into a city that resonates with them and have conviction in their growth. Not so much as a local currency to be spending on everyday item.

While at the same time, citycoins enables the city to adopt blockchain technology which opens a wealth of possibilities that we once deemed impossible.

A city, as we know it has its beauty and challenges, for every 1)well-governed, 2)scenic city, lies various challenges, e.g.1)underfunded public infrastructure, 2)housing issues, etc, due to misaligned incentives across stakeholders. Can we leverage tokenomics to find a solution?

Tokenomics uses a novel approach to solve this misalignment, whereby the consensus mechanisms of blockchains create trust among independent participants in decentralized networks. This creates a strong network effect due to the economic flywheel enabled by tokens incentivising participants and coordinating all economic activities in crypto networks.

Take #MiamiCoin ($MIA) for example, it gives people a way to support the City and grow its crypto treasury while earning #BTC  and $STX yield themselves. As a city integrates Blockchain technology on a micro-level, it introduces new possibilities that were once deemed impossible, thereby allowing opportunities for new solutions to arise.

I'll explore a couple of ideas that I feel passionately below:

Digital ID on the blockchain that’s secure, private, decentralized and owned by users managed via hardware accessories like
@Ryder_ID and integrates with public & private services of the city. Enabling a more seamless living experience between online<>offline.

Increased accountability and sound governance, as city officials are incentivized to publish detailed master plan of the city and execute on them to build accountability which then translates to public trust  and support for its crypto treasury to fund projects.

Using DeFi to fund public goods.
DeFi solutions are coming up every other day and being battle-tested in the face of huge drawdowns and volatility. Using DeFi to fund large infrastructure expenditure in a sustainable and equitable manner, imo is very much a real possibility.

Safeguards can be built into treasuries, via smart contract as part of the condition before a city decides to tap into its crypto treasury. Tokenomics when applied appropriately are like healthy steroids, supercharging existing models that are working to be more impactful.

In my opinion, blockchain technology accelerates the transition to cloud cities as we can now transfer value digitally in a trustless manner, digital scarcity has been established and self-governing digital ecosystems are taking shape as we speak. It provides a real alternative to millions of people that are currently being marginalized in their home countries due to various reasons. Individuals can now opt into cloud cities that resonates with them ideologically, culturally, or economically.

The above are some possibilities that I find fascinating, hope it’ll inspire more to do the same, as we collectively tinker on ways to improve our living spaces, thereby leaving it a better place for the next generation.

I wrote a piece discussing on the above topic, read on for a deeper discussion! https://www.publish0x.com/randommusing/incorporating-tokenomics-into-cities-xgldyqq

Gelato Network is a decentralized network of bots that executes transactions on behalf of users.

Gelato’s mission is to support dapps that empower users who do not necessarily have technical skills to maintain an “army of bots” but still want to fully harness the power of decentralized applications. Gelato aims to be the bot infrastructure in the web3 middleware stack, allowing developers to access a full suite of automation services for their dapps.

Some use cases include:

1. Combining off-chain conditions with on-chain actions, e.g. every time Elon Musk tweets about DOGE, purchase 1000 renDOGE.
2. Becoming the transition layer between different blockchains, e.g. conduct multiple trades on a Layer 2 network where network fees are extremely cheap, then move funds back to the Ethereum mainnet and deposit in a Maker Vault to enjoy Ethereum Layer 1 security.
3. Automated liquidity management for LPs. Examples include automatically moving LP positions in Uniswap v3 and ejected liquidity when impermanent loss becomes too great.
4. Automatic trading strategies for investors, buy 10 ETH every day, buy ETH when the ETH/WBTC ratio is 0.8, etc. In addition, limit orders and dollar-cost averaging into AMM-based DEXs.

and many more.

Gelato live integrations and customers:

1. Instadapp: To date, over $188 million worth of debt is being protected and transformed Instadapp’s system from requiring tedious manual interactions to having automatic transactions built-in.
2. Sobert Finance: Automated trading strategies on Uniswap and QuickSwap. Sorbet Finance enables users to enjoy the same automated order execution experience they would normally do on a centralized exchange like Limit Orders, Stop Loss, Dollar Cost Averaging, with the difference of interacting directly with the decentralized AMM Uniswap, enjoying full custody over the funds at all times.
3. HAL: Integrating Gelato, HAL was able to not only send Emails or Telegram messages to users when gas prices were low but also offer automatic on-chain execution of transactions.
4. SpookSwap: It offers native limit orders, powered by Gelato.


What Is $GEL?

An ERC-20 token
Serve all the network participants: developers, users, bot service providers
Participants can use GEL to access all the resources in the network
Vote on Proposals in the Gelato DAO

Gelato is backed by notable investors
- Gelato received $1.2M seed funding from Galaxy Digital, IOSG Ventures, and more.

Gelato website: https://www.gelato.network/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gelatonetwork
Telegram: https://t.me/therealgelatonetwork
Discord: https://discord.gg/ApbA39BKyJ

Great point you've brought up! Currently WBTC happens on non-native chains(e.g. Ethereum) which are perfectly fine. But with Stacks, which is connected to Bitcoin network via PoX, we can now have DeFi natively on Bitcoin!

Yup you're right that the APY fluctuates depending on market conditions, etc. Receiving BTC payouts every 2weeks is a pretty cool thing to do, and it helps you to DCA into BTC without having to purchase BTC from exchanges or using expensive mining equipment to mine btc. Theres a huge community around stacking STX to earn BTC, check it out here! 

Yield farming has been the rage this past year, with APYs averaging approx. 100x of what traditional banks are giving, thereby empowering everyday users to generate greater yields and moving a step closer to financial freedom.

Most folks entered the crypto space via Bitcoin, thus one would wonder if there can be yields generated on Bitcoin?

With Stacks, which pioneered the Proof-of-Transfer mechanism allows users to lock up their STX tokens for yields paid out in Bitcoin. Averaging ~12% APY

OKEx has teamed up with the Stacks foundation to bring double rewards to OKEx users for stacking STX.

The newly announced Stacks Accelerator program is accepting applications for the first cohort until May 14th, and the program is set to run between May and July of this year.

This is a 3-month mentorship-driven program looking for teams that are solving real-world problems and building projects unique to Stacks Blockchain.
More information can be found on the accelerator website and in the announcement presentation, but in general, the program provides:
1) workshops with experts
2) a network of 50+ mentors
3) dedicated EIR for each team
4) demo day with investors and media
5) alumni community lifetime membership
6) experienced accelerator staff(including Trevor Owens and Alex Novosad)
7) up to $50k, no valuation cap

Given the recent NFTs hype, was wondering if we should get NFTs onto Bitcoin. Given that Bitcoin is the KING in the industry and the most secure network, shouldn't we be able to secure NFTs using Bitcoin's security?

Just written an article arguing for the case that NFTs on Bitcoin should be relooked at, and certainly will bring the NFTs industry forward with Bitcoin onboard.

• Most secure network
  
• Most well-established network effects
• Capital Pool of ~USD 1trillion.

As Stacks 2.0 reached feature complete on 15th December 2020, the launch of Stacks 2.0 mainnet is imminent. Bringing apps and smart contracts to Bitcoin, thereby unlocking innovation on the network in a way we’ve never seen before.

The launch will be just the beginning of an exciting new era for the Stacks community and for crypto broadly as developers begin to leverage Stacks to build a user-owned internet on Bitcoin.

To celebrate this milestone, the Hiro (formerly Blockstack PBC) team is hosting a global launch event complete with a talented emcee, app launches, musical performances, surprise announcements, limited edition swag, guest speakers from partners such as OKCoin, Staked, Algorand, Blockchain.com, and much more.

Register for the launch event here !

With Bitcoin price hitting new highs today, one may wonder will Bitcoin be the standard in the blockchain sector. Union Square Ventures wrote an interesting piece on how they envisioned that Proof-of-Transfer will bring greater innovation to the Bitcoin Network by bringing programmability and scalability to Bitcoin.

A more in-depth discussion can be found on their article.

Just thought of sharing a mining challenge that Blockstack & Daemon Technologies is organizing in view of their protocol going mainnet on 14th Jan'21.

Mining challenge: https://daemontechnologies.co/minestx-challenge

The first challenge will begin from 15th Dec'20 to 4th Jan'21 with up to 200,000STX token to be won(approx. USD55,000)

The basic requirement to be eligible for the prize would be to have your miner attempt to mine atleast 30% of all blocks during the period.

No major hardware requirements(I'm mining with a regular Windows laptop thats more than 4years old) and basic broadband internet connection will do.

Hi everyone,

I came across Daemon Technologies where they have an upcoming STX mining challenge (15th Dec'20) with up to 200,000 STX token to be won.

Just wondering if anyone is interested to get on it together, I'm pretty new to crypto-mining but have been doing so for afew months now.

Bitcoin, chances are you’ll have come across the word one way or another through various medium. Either through news outlet where commentary reports about Bitcoin were mentioned, or within your social network where friends and family mentioned and/or discussed about it. While everyone has a take on what Bitcoin is, but its still somewhat challenging to explain Bitcoin in layman’s term for the average Joe. I experienced the same too, whenever I’m asked by family and friends, what is Bitcoin, what does it do? How does Bitcoin has any value? Those are all legitimate questions, and through this article I look to answering all those questions.


What is BTCitcoin?

Bitcoin, is a cryptocurrency(token) powered by blockchain technology, through permissionless peer-to-peer network, thereby forming the Bitcoin Network. Bitcoin is often used by the community as a store of value due that has similar properties as gold.

Verifiable:  Bitcoin operates on the blockchain network which essentially is an open ledger that allows for anyone to verify its entry.

Fungible: Fungibility is the ability of a good or asset to be interchanged with other individual goods or assets of the same type. Thus 1 unit of Bitcoin is the same as another unit of Bitcoin. This is the same for Gold and Fiat currencies(paper money), as there is no difference between 1 unit of gold/money to another unit, thus making exchange/trade simple.

Portability: Bitcoin is a digital asset that can be transferred across borders seamlessly, but requires a lot more effort and security to move large amount of gold or money across distances.

Durable: An item that must be able to withstand repeated usage. This is true for Gold and Money where it can be used repeatedly which almost zero repercussion. While Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer, decentralized form of digital asset, thus it is as durable as the internet. Which was created as a fail-safe, global network with no ‘single point of failure’. If one part goes down, data takes another route and nothing is lost.

This topic has been moved to Politics & Society.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5285632.0

Whats the right approach towards politics?

Left leaning vs Right leaning? Both have differing ideologies on how to govern a country, but would the best way forward be a centrist instead? As this allows politicians to draw the best ideas from both sides and unite the left & right parties.

https://ethan-tan.com/politics-or-no-politics/

Bitcoin Network was created to be a secure and decentralize way for people to store value, thus possessing limited scripting language capabilities. This limits the type of applications that developers can build on top of Bitcoin network. Proof-of-Transfer enables developers to innovate on Bitcoin with Clarity smart contracts which eliminate a whole class of smart contract bugs and provides for greater predictability.

Benefits would be that, developers can now leverage on Bitcoin network, which is the most secure network. While shifting all the heavy lifting workload, outside of bitcoin network.

The idea came about when I read the Proof of Transfer whitepaper.
Proof of Transfer whitepaper: https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5e7b1a27d160ce49af1c24e1/5f1596b12bcc0800f3dcadcd_pox.pdf

As we enter a low interest rate environment, what are some measures that we can take to protect our assets from inflation, or to generate our desired returns?

The following are some methods that I've researched and used. Would be interested to know if there are other alternatives out there.

• High yield savings account. (although rates are pathetically low, I've kept some $ in it for liquidity's sake)
  
• REITs.
  
• Bonds
  
• Equities
  
• Bitcoin
  

https://ethan-tan.com/low-interest-environment/

DeFi has been in the spotlight in recent months, with several DeFi projects gaining traction in the past couple of months and their tokens soaring in prices have attracted a lot more attention.

I'm just wondering, with over USD10billion locked in DeFi protocols, can we have DeFi built on Bitcoin Network? Since Bitcoin Network is the most secure blockchain network in the industry, and DeFi handles billions of dollars and possibly trillions as it scales. Should DeFi built on the Bitcoin Network makes more sense?

I explored a little in this area, realising that there are solutions out there that brings smart contract capabilities to the Bitcoin Network(e.g. Stacks Protocol) thus I'm wondering if this idea even a feasible idea?

Would like to hear everyone's thoughts!

Wrote about it below:
https://ethan-tan.com/defi-on-the-bitcoin-network