Recap: DeFi Week of Feb. 10 🦄

Hello Defiers, hope you’re enjoying your weekend!

Summing last week up: Ether rallied with the rest of the cryptocurrency market, crossing $280 for the first time since July. Authereum launched a smart wallet to make logging in to dapps easier, HAL launched to connect decentralized finance with the centralized world, and Opyn released an options market to protect stablecoin deposits on Compound Finance. JPMorgan is said to be in talks to merge Quorum blockchain unit with ConsenSys, while SKALE plans to be the first to issue tokens on ConsenSys’s Activate platform. This week’s interview was with Paul Berg of Sablier, which enables payments streams on Ethereum, while Ampleforth founder Evan Kup wrote an opinion column on the need for a better base currency for DeFi. And of course, there’s more:)

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Friday Op-Ed

DeFi Loves ETH, But a Better Base Money is Needed: Ampleforth founder Evan Kuo

Evan Kuo, founder of Ampleforth poses the following problem: The base money for decentralized finance today is ether, which is volatile and extremely correlated with the rest of the cryptocurrency market. Ether is then used as the base for Dai, a stable derivative of ETH, which is subject to ETH’s volatility, requiring high collateralization and putting holders at the ever-present risk of liquidations. Kuo says DeFi needs a new primitive. A base money, which doesn’t need collateral to trade alongside a peg, and is uncorrelated with the rest of the cryptocurrency market.

Monday Interview

"It's The First Time We Can Really Connect Time and Money –Like an Hourglass on Steroids": Sablier's Paul R. Berg

Sablier is one example of a DeFi platform that’s using smart contracts and the decentralized Ethereum network to build something that just wasn’t possible before; real-time payments in exchange for labor. Co-founder Paul Razvan Berg discusses how plans to monetize this open source project include tokenizing cashflows so that one stream would be represented in a non-fungible token and enable a version of invoice financing, and the number of streams, volume transacted and main use cases so far. He also talks about what being a B2B company in crypto, when most people are still paid in fiat, is like, and how Brexit spurred the whole idea in the first place.

Thursday

Dives

• ETH is *Appreciating* Money: The ether chart is going vertical. Can it continue climbing? There’s no timing the market and it might correct tomorrow, but the fundamentals are there.

Sums

• Authereum Wallet Launches to Make Dapps Log in Easier: Authereum is the latest smart wallet to launch. It aims to make using Ethereum easier for anyone to use by enabling a single log in interface, with no crypto seed phrase required, for any dapp.
• Options to Hedge Against DeFi Risk Are Live: Opyn allows users to take out put options on Dai and USDC deposits on Compound Finance, giving them the ability to sell their positions at an agreed upon price in 12 months.

Bytes

• Announcing DAI Support for Coinbase Commerce: Coinbase
• Decentralized finance tracker DeFi Pulse launches new system to speed up listing process: The Block

Wednesday

Dives

• A Challenger to the DeFi King Emerges With MetaCoin: The new contender is MetaCoin, a stablecoin proposed by SpankChain and MolochDAO cofounder Ameen Soleimani.

Sums

• “Gluers” Launched to Connect Ethereum With the Centralized World: What if CeFi and DeFi could work together? HAL wants to build a bridge between Ethereum and traditional centralized application.
• SKALE Will be First to Issue Tokens on ConsenSys’s Activate Platform: Layer 2 scaling network SKALE plans to be the first blockchain network to issue tokens on Activate, a ConsenSys Codefi-backed platform designed to launch decentralized networks in a compliant way.
• Build (Ethereum) Bridges, Not Walls: Centrifuge, a decentralized operating system for supply chain finance, launched its second testnet on Partiy’s Substrate with a bridge to Ethereum.

Bytes

• JPMorgan in talks to merge blockchain unit Quorum with startup ConsenSys: Reuters
• Crypto Memes and Adoption: Linda Xie

💜Community Love💜

Thanking all the amazing Defiers for the support and love this week (and always)!

Pete Rizzo @pete_rizzo_@crypto_bobby Yeah I agree. I read @CamiRusso’s newsletter everyday. The pace of innovation is shocking7:28 PM ∙ Feb 13, 202027Likes1Retweet

Scott Stevenson @tenfinney@CamiRusso continues to deliver: @SablierHQ @PaulRBerg interview reveals the "Keep founders accountable" & If no performance, cancel the stream. The best part ... "invoice factoring ... we could create a market of cashflows." Sablier (Hour-Glass) allocation is genius. Winner.

Camila Russo @CamiRusso⌛️"It's the first time we can really connect time and money –like an hourglass on steroids": @SablierHQ co founder @PaulRBerg He wants Sablier to be a black hole for payments and create a tokenized cashflow market place in the process. Interview here: https://t.co/7dVs3m46Ad8:31 PM ∙ Feb 10, 20208Likes2Retweets

Paul, Streamer of Money @PaulRBergSuper nice chatting with @CamiRusso! She's genuinely interested in making DeFi grow. Humbled to see Sablier featured in The Defiant. https://t.co/heFTdDfCSF

Camila Russo @CamiRusso⌛️"It's the first time we can really connect time and money –like an hourglass on steroids": @SablierHQ co founder @PaulRBerg He wants Sablier to be a black hole for payments and create a tokenized cashflow market place in the process. Interview here: https://t.co/7dVs3m46Ad7:43 PM ∙ Feb 10, 202027Likes1Retweet

Eric Juta @ericjutaThis interview touched points in so many ways Thank you @CamiRusso @PaulRBerg

Camila Russo @CamiRusso⌛️"It's the first time we can really connect time and money –like an hourglass on steroids": @SablierHQ co founder @PaulRBerg He wants Sablier to be a black hole for payments and create a tokenized cashflow market place in the process. Interview here: https://t.co/7dVs3m46Ad9:17 PM ∙ Feb 10, 2020

Maggie Love @ EthDenver 🦄 @melove_07I wish someone had a video of me reading a DeFi article like The Defiant profile of @SablierHQ @PaulRBerg @CamiRusso. It would be - plus or minus 50 times - my reactions going 🤯 😯 🤩 🤯😯🤩. We’re in some fascinating times #bullish2:01 PM ∙ Feb 13, 202015Likes2Retweets

Cryptoks @CryptokksBecame a paid subscriber, looking forward to your content.

Camila Russo @CamiRusso@Cryptokks @pete_rizzo_ @crypto_bobby 👉 https://t.co/RCvgzovSt43:16 AM ∙ Feb 14, 2020

Evan Kuo @evankuo“uncorrelated defi primitives ... are the next line of defense against DeFi becoming, just Fi.” Thanks for the coverage @CamiRusso @AmpleforthOrg

Camila Russo @CamiRusso*Trigger warning* 🦄Does DeFi need a different base money? 🧘‍♀️One that's not volatile, like ETH, isn't issued against collateral, like Dai, and is uncorrelated to the rest of crypto? @AmpleforthOrg founder @evankuo says yes. His column here: https://t.co/Q9xqWZsuq87:24 PM ∙ Feb 14, 20208Likes1Retweet

brandoniles @brandonilesRecommended read if you follow #defi. A guest post in The #Defiant from @evankuo.

Camila Russo @CamiRusso*Trigger warning* 🦄Does DeFi need a different base money? 🧘‍♀️One that's not volatile, like ETH, isn't issued against collateral, like Dai, and is uncorrelated to the rest of crypto? @AmpleforthOrg founder @evankuo says yes. His column here: https://t.co/Q9xqWZsuq89:35 PM ∙ Feb 14, 2020

Ross Galloway @galloway_the@BlockEnthusiast I read the white paper yesterday after seeing the interview in @CamiRusso ‘s Defiant newsletter. There are some really interesting ideas in there. Curious to see how it works in practice and at scale.2:41 PM ∙ Feb 15, 2020

HedgeTrade @hedgetradehqCheck out: "10 Leading Women in Blockchain Today" hedgetrade.com/10-leading-wom… @WomensPowerCen @eWealthatlantic @joyce @blockchainchick @metaraine @christineRPM @naomibrockwell @eiaine @La__Cuen @JeniaBark @CamiRusso

hedgetrade.com10 Leading Women in Blockchain Today - HedgeTrade BlogLet us introduce you to some of the most promising female entrepreneurs in the cryptosphere. These leading women in blockchain are impacting the industry.6:11 PM ∙ Feb 14, 202038Likes17Retweets

The Defiant is a daily newsletter focusing on decentralized finance, a new financial system that’s being built on top of open blockchains. The space is evolving at breakneck speed and revolutionizing tech and money. Sign up to learn more and keep up on the latest, most interesting developments. Subscribers get full access at $10/month or $100/year, while free signups get only part of the content.

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About the author: I’m Camila Russo, a financial journalist writing a book on Ethereum with Harper Collins. (Pre-order The Infinite Machine here). I was previously at Bloomberg News in New York, Madrid and Buenos Aires covering markets. I’ve extensively covered crypto and finance, and now I’m diving into DeFi, the intersection of the two.