Recap: DeFi Week of Oct. 26 🦄

Hello Defiers! Hope you’re having a great weekend.

Summing up: The week started off with Harvest Finance, a DeFi project whose assets had soared to surpass $1B, suffering an exploit leveraging flash loans which drained over $30M if its funds. In another flash loan attack, B.Protocol was able to game MakerDAO governance in its favor. In less controversial governance news, Aave released its admin keys to the community. The token for Andre Cronje’s latest endeavor Keep3r rallied even as it was still in beta. We dove into the latest on social tokens and how platforms are enlisting celebrities and artists in a push to increase adoption. PoolTogether updated its no-loss lottery, and IDEO CoLab Ventures announced a $21M crypto fund.

This week’s interview was with cross-chain expert James Prestwich, who talked about why he’s disillusioned with DeFi. Also, check out The Defiant video producer Robin Schmidt’s experiment on art and human nature.

That was just one week. Subscribe to get the latest DeFi news and analysis straight to your inbox and you don’t miss a thing. Free-signups get partial content, paid subscribers get everything. Click here to pay with DAI (for $100/yr) or sub with fiat by clicking on the button below ($10/mo, $100/yr).

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🙌 Together with Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance, Sorare, a fantasy football game with officially licensed cards on Ethereum, and Near, a high-performance proof-of-stake blockchain that interoperates with Ethereum.

Interview

"I'm Not Super Bullish on DeFi. We're Using This Tech to Enrich a Small Group of People:" James Prestwich

This week’s interview is with James Prestwich, who has focused on cross-chain interoperability as founder of Summa, and now with proof-of-stake blockchain Celo. We talked about cross-chain interoperability, building on Bitcoin, ETH2, his thoughts on DeFi. He has become disillusioned with the way DeFi works in practice. Stories of financial inclusion are much rarer than stories of somebody raising hundreds of millions in a token sale or people throwing money at the latest yield farming protocol. Still, he’s encouraged by the fact that it is much easier to launch a financial service than it ever has been before.

🎙Listen to the interview in this week’s podcast episode here:

Friday

Dives

He Let Strangers Raid His Private Wallet for Art: Non-fungible tokens, or digital assets representing unique and scarce items, have taken off in the past few weeks. So much so, that video producer Robin Schmidt and artist Simon Wan thought to do an experiment to find what is actually valuable, art attached to these tokens or their crypto component?
To see what this experiment’s grand finale will be, watch the video:

Bytes

Aave Releases Admin Keys to Community: Aave has transferred its admin keys for the lending protocol with nearly $1B in total value locked over to AAVE holders.
Maker Gets Flash Governed: In the wake of flash loans making headlines for exploits, this week's use is a first of its kind. B.Protocol used a flash loan to borrow MKR and pass a governance proposal to whitelist their use of Maker Price Oracles.

Wednesday

Dives

Social Token Projects Enlist Celebrities in Push for Adoption: Social tokens are becoming a breeding ground for adoption, with major names in music and sports all trying their hands at the web3-native fan engagement mechanism.

Bytes

Andre Cronje’s New Project Isn’t Live But Token is Pumping: As has become all too common in DeFi, Yearn founder Andre Cronje is tinkering with a new project and speculators are rushing to buy its token —aka aping in— before it’s even live.
Coinbase Launches Crypto Visa Debit Card in the US: Coinbase plans to offer a crypto Visa debit card that can be used for ATM withdrawals, and for online and in-store payments everywhere Visa is accepted.

Tuesday

Dives

Harvest Grapples to Make Users Whole After ~$34M Hack: Harvest Finance, one of the latest DeFi projects to ride on the waning yield farming wave, was exploited over the weekend, shortly after its total value locked crossed the $1B mark. The hacker was able to drain $33.8M worth of stablecoins.

Bytes

Audius Drops Crypto on 10k Artists: Audius, the music streaming platform with 800k active users, on Friday launched its AUDIO token, distributing 50M tokens to its top 10k power users.
PoolTogether Leverages DeFi in No-Loss Game Update: PoolTogether has upgraded its savvy DeFi’s savings game to enable the creation and management of no-loss prize games.
IDEO CoLab Announces $21M Crypto Fund: IDEO CoLab Ventures, the venture fund of renowned design firm IDEO, today announced a $21M early-stage crypto fund backed by IDEO, Avanta Ventures, GS Group, Hanwha Asset Management and Fineqia.

💜Community Love💜

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

DAOrecords @DAOrecords_@DefiantNews @DirSchmidt Is killin it. Love the new experiment 🚀 youtu.be/7Wcz7Z1Nm-s

youtu.beHe gave 50 strangers his private keys. You won’t believe what happened next.In the previous episode of The Defiant there was a QR code embedded in the video. Had you scanned that code it would have brought you into a week-long NFT-based...4:49 AM ∙ Oct 31, 2020

DeFi hoplite @defihoplite#FF Newsletter @rektcapital @RektHQ @todayindefi @BanklessHQ @DefiantNews @sassal0x With that, you're pretty much covered!2:32 PM ∙ Oct 30, 2020

Nico 🛹 @nicoglennon completely insane story by @DefiantNews 🐇youtube.com/watch?v=7Wcz7Z…

youtube.comHe gave 50 strangers his private keys. You won’t believe what happened next.In the previous episode of The Defiant there was a QR code embedded in the video. Had you scanned that code it would have brought you into a week-long NFT-ba...8:09 PM ∙ Oct 29, 20204Likes1Retweet

Alex Masmej ✈️🏠🌴 @AlexMasmej“Could social tokens become more successful than the financial applications we thought would bring about the next wave of users?” @Cooopahtroopa from @DefiantNews My bet is yes, but beyond creators tokens: tokenized social media & marketplaces. Read:

email.mg2.substack.comA New Andre Cronje Beta Project, a New Token That PumpsAlso, a dive on social token platforms’ push for adoption, and Coinbase’s crypto Visa debit card.8:18 AM ∙ Oct 29, 202021Likes4Retweets

Will Warren 🍵 @willwarren89A common perspective among crypto missionaries who enter the space for philosophical reasons: We have this disruptive new technology with potential to level the playing field on a global scale... why are we building a bunch of speculative toys for the affluent?

The Defiant @DefiantNews🎩 “I'm not super bullish on DeFi. We seem to be using this tech to enrich a very small group of people." 🤑 “We've just normalized putting ourselves at the money printer.” said cross-chain wizard and greatest hair in crypto @_prestwich 🔥 Interview: https://t.co/avplJ5OiA7 8:08 PM ∙ Oct 27, 202065Likes11Retweets

NiMA 🤖🧠⛓️ @insideNiMAProbably the most grounded and objective conversation about ETH 2.0, crosschain/shard paradigm and interoperability/bridge approaches like @NEARProtocol ... by @_prestwich @CamiRusso

open.spotify.com“I’m Not Super Bullish on DeFi. We’re Using This Tech to Enrich a Small Group of People:” James Prestwich - The DefiantThe founder of Summa speaks to The Defiant about why he has become disillusioned with decentralized finance. Stories of financial inclusion are much rarer than stories of somebody raising hundreds of millions in a token sale or people throwing money at the latest yield farming protocol. Still, he’s …1:56 PM ∙ Oct 31, 202016Likes3Retweets

SuperMassive.eth @DirSchmidt Going back and re-remembering the things that have influenced you is always good fun. This piece from @CamiRusso back in August really resonated and continues to resonate now. thedefiant.substack.com/p/rainbow-colo… Give first, expect nothing in return. Reap rewards in ways you cannot predict.

thedefiant.substack.comRainbow-Colored Money: The Story Behind My 64 ETH GiftHow gifting is the yin to crypto-capitalism’s yang 10:30 AM ∙ Oct 29, 2020

. @pi0neerpatEnjoying listening to @CamiRusso and @_prestwich this morning on @DefiantNews!3:03 PM ∙ Oct 27, 20206Likes1Retweet

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About the founder and editor: Camila Russo is the author of The Infinite Machine, the first book on the history of Ethereum, and was previously a Bloomberg News markets reporter based in New York, Madrid and Buenos Aires. She has extensively covered crypto and finance, and now is diving into DeFi, the intersection of the two.