Event Organizers are Creating Mini Crypto Economies

Hello defiers! Here’s what’s going on in decentralized finance:

• Splunk got 10,000 people to use digital tokens at a conference
• Ether technicals signal pullback is due
• Dolomite to launch decentralized margin trading with limit orders
• DeFiZap is a new tool to automate investments

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Events Are the Best Kindle for Crypto Fire

Conferences and events are proving to be perfect to get people to use cryptocurrencies for the first time. Data analytics firm Splunk’s .conf19 conference is the latest example, as they got over 10,000 attendees to use digital tokens in two days –that’s more users than what MakerDAO gets in one week.

These events are great for onboarding because organizers are able to create a mini-economy, where all merchants accept crypto and the entire population owns a digital wallet loaded with digital tokens. All the frictions of the real world are removed, and cryptocurrencies can just work like they’re supposed to, that is, making transactions quick, seamless and cheap.

Splunk created digital tokens called Buttercup Bucks (BCB) on a fast, Ethereum-compatible blockchain called xDai. Every attendee started with 5 BCB in their pony purse, a web wallet inspired by Austin Griffith’s burner wallet.

[Read my interview with Austin Griffith here.]

Attendees were able to acquire more BCB by scanning QR codes on physical wooden poker chips, which were earned, for example, by giving product feedback or arriving early to the keynotes. BCB was then spent to buy limited edition swag or donated to non-profit partners.

All this resulted in over 19,436 blockchain transactions totaling 234,401 BCB, “making it the largest pop-up cryptocurrency to date by many measures,” according to Splunk. The total cost was $1.54 in gas fees (the fees required to process Ethereum blockchain transactions), compared with over $4,000 with a traditional payments provider.

These mini-economies may be a window into how the world will work in the near future.

Ether Technicals Signal Pullback is Due

Ether is rallying 2 percent in the past 24 hours, outpacing bitcoin and climbing to as high as $186. A few key technical indicators signal it might need to take a breather.

Ether’s 14-day Relative Strength Index just broke above 70, or what’s known as overbought, and was at 81 at the time of writing. The last time it crossed this level was Oct. 25, and it was followed by a pullback.

Image source: TradingView

The recent move also caused ETH to simultaneously break above its 10, 20, 50 and 200-day moving averages, another sign it might pare gains.

These are technical indicators, often used by short-term traders, not long-term investors looking at fundamental value.

Dolomite to Launch Margin Trading With Limit Orders

The decentralized margin trading space is getting a new player. Dolomite is launching this Friday, joining other leveraged trading platforms dYdX, Fulcrum and DDEX.

Dolomite is built on the dYdX protocol, which means it will have access to its $30 million of lending liquidity for its first pair, ETH/DAI. It will allow up to 5x of margin, just like DDEX and dYdX, while Fulcrum allows up to 4x.

The platform plans to differentiate itself by giving users the ability to place limit orders, which means they’ll be able to trade at an exact, predetermined price, rather than needing to place it at the market price and be subject to slippage.

Another Tool to Automate DeFi Investment

Decentralized finance continue to take robo-advisors to another level. These platforms are leveraging tokens and smart contracts to allow everyday users to handle their finances in ways they could never do on Robinhood or Acorns.

Last week, I highlighted DexWallet, which lets users automatically reinvest their interest into a dozen different options. DeFiZap is a similar concept, spreading incoming deposits across pre-sets allocations into different DeFi platforms. Doing so through so-called “Zaps” costs less than individually transacting on each one.

DexWallet and DeFiZap are Kyber Network hackathon projects. Public voting ends tomorrow.

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