📔 Weekly Journal: Strong Links 🔗🦾🌐
[6 min read] Your guide to getting ahead on the digital frontier (& the weekend!). Today, the usual market news as well more on Chainlink's 10% price surge this week due to institutional interest
Welcome to this week’s Weekly Journal 📔, your guide to the latest news & innovation in emerging technology, digital assets, and our exciting path to the Metaverse. This is week 50 of the 520 weeks of newsletters I have committed to, a decade of documenting our physical and digital lives converge.
New subscribers are encouraged to check out the history & purpose of this newsletter as well as the archive.
Enjoy your weekend! 😎
Ryan
Here’s what you’re getting today:
📈 Market update: Ethereum's price surges to a six-month high, professional traders are bullish but retail demand appears dormant.
🗞️ Interesting news: A regulated product enabling U.S. investors to access Chainlink's LINK is trading at a 200% premium, China gives NFTs legal protections, Roblox hints at NFTs
👓 Read of the week: 3 Theses that Will Drive Ethereum and Bitcoin in the Next Bull Market” by Lugui Tillier.
🎥 Video of the week: Co-founder of Chainlink positions Chainlink as the interoperability layer linking TradFi & DeFi
🤖 AI: 3 studies that give insight into how ChatGPT has affected the freelancer job market
✅ Weekly poll: Help choose the emerging tech topic for Wednesday’s showcase.
🤑 DCA with me: Follow my regular $50 weekly investing in an emerging asset class.
Market Update
Ethereum's price surged to a six-month high, exceeding $2,000, driven by speculation about BlackRock registering an Ethereum Trust. This news triggered an 8% rally and $48 million in ETH short futures liquidations. Despite optimism, the absence of an official statement from BlackRock raises concerns about premature investor enthusiasm. Professional traders displayed bullish sentiment through Ether derivatives, with the highest futures premium in over a year. However, retail demand appears dormant, as Google searches for buying Ethereum and stablecoin premiums show stagnation.
🔥🗺️ 7-day heatmap below shows another green week, but showing signs of cooling off a bit.
🎭 Crypto Fear and Greed Index is based on volatility, social media sentiments, surveys, market momentum, and a few other bits and pieces. Even with the sustained 3-week rally cooling off, this is now firmly in the greed zone.
Interesting news from this week🗞️
Digital Assets News 🌐:
🔗 Chainlink is the most popular oracle in the space, connecting data from the outside world to smart contracts and vice versa. Its token LINK experienced a significant price surge, rising by 10% in a week, driven by growing market interest. The Grayscale Chainlink Trust (GLNK), a regulated product enabling U.S. investors to access Chainlink's LINK, is trading at a 200% premium to spot prices, indicating strong institutional demand.
However, network growth and velocity declined recently, suggesting a potential hindrance to further expansion. Despite the positive price trend, fewer new users entering the LINK ecosystem and decreased transfer activity may pose challenges for its long-term growth. Chainlink aims to attract new investors through the launch of LINK staking v0.2, offering a pool of 45 million LINK tokens, potentially worth $650 million.
Virtual Worlds News 🌐:
👩⚖️ China has surprised the market by providing legal protection for NFTs, addressing uncertainties around cryptocurrency in the country. The government's legal commentary, issued through Southwest University of Political Science and Law, asserts that NFTs, with their unique features and transaction details, qualify as virtual property under civil law. The theft of NFTs is deemed a criminal offense, carrying penalties. This move follows recent conflicting judicial opinions on the legal status of virtual assets in China, with some courts recognizing protection and others not. The government has been increasingly involved in regulating and supporting the growing NFT market.
🤖 Roblox CEO, David Baszucki, discussed this week the possibility of introducing NFTs to the platform, expressing a "dream" of cross-platform NFT use. He cited a theoretical scenario involving Elton John creating and selling limited-edition capes for charity, potentially as NFTs. While hinting at openness to NFTs, Roblox executives, including former Chief Business Officer Craig Donato in 2022, have previously mentioned the concept with no immediate plans. Despite its massive user base and financial success, Roblox's adoption of NFTs may take time as the platform continues to focus on its in-app currency, Robux.
👓Read of the Week
I really enjoyed reading “3 Theses that Will Drive Ethereum and Bitcoin in the Next Bull Market” by Lugui Tillier.
The article discusses three theses shaping the next bull market for Ethereum and Bitcoin.
The Ordinals protocol enables the tokenization of various data types on the Bitcoin blockchain, fostering a cultural shift.
Layer-2 blockchains address scalability issues, making crypto mainstream accessible.
Abstraction solutions simplify user experiences, crucial for widespread adoption, especially for traditional companies entering Web3.
The article emphasises the importance of scalability, invisibility, and user-friendly interfaces in driving the next phase of Ethereum and Bitcoin development. Worth a read for sure
🎥 Watch of the week
Chainlink, and oracles in general, form a key role in smart contracts solving real-world problems. Smart contracts are just receipes in code that diligently complete complex if-this-then-that functions. Getting accurate data into the equation is critical!
In this interview, Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, discusses his goal to position the platform as the interoperability layer linking traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralised finance (DeFi). Chainlink aspires to serve as a gateway between on-chain and off-chain data, which will be so important in many things including tokenisation of real-world-assets.
AI 🎨🤖🎵✍🏼
Generative AI, including ChatGPT, has sparked concerns over job security, particularly for high-earning freelancers. Research from OpenAI and the University of Pennsylvania reveals that jobs with higher salaries, particularly those earning six figures, are three times more susceptible to AI disruption. Freelancers on platforms like Upwork, especially copywriters and graphic designers, experienced a decline in job opportunities and earnings post-ChatGPT launch. Even highly skilled freelancers witnessed declines, challenging the notion that higher skill levels protect against AI impact. In contrast, a study on GPT-4's impact on Boston Consulting Group employees showed increased productivity, particularly for less skilled workers.
Here is a summary of 3 large studies:
Weekly Poll ✅
Help choose what you would like to learn about on Wednesday for my weekly emerging tech showcase:
That’s all for the free version this week! If you have any organisations in mind that could benefit from learning about emerging technology, be sure to reach out. Educational workshops are one of many consulting services I offer.
DCA With Me 🤑
Dollar Cost Averaging is an investment strategy in which an investor regularly invests a fixed amount of money into a particular asset/asset class at regular intervals, regardless of its current market price. By doing so, the investor can reduce the impact of market volatility and potentially earn a better return over time. Motto = time IN the market beats trying to time the market
To experiment with this, I invest $50 NZD into a Digital Asset every week. Each week I will choose an asset that seems underpriced in the short term and has positive long-term potential. My timeframe is 3-5 years. I don’t give financial advice but if you want to follow along with me you can use my easycrypto.co.nz referral link to support this newsletter. Let’s dive into this week’s pick:
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