Author: defioasis
Note: This article is for information sharing only and does not endorse or have any interest in the mentioned project.
After crypto venture capital Paradigm announced its top ten areas of focus, Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong also tweeted to share his ten promising crypto startup tracks: Flatcoin (a stable currency designed to defeat inflation and linked to the cost of living); Onchain Reputation (on-chain reputation); Onchain Ads (on-chain advertising); Onchain Capital Formation (on-chain capitalization deployment); Job/Task Marketplace (decentralized labor market); Layer 2 privacy; Full-chain P2P exchange; Full-chain gaming; RWA (tokenization of real-world assets); launch and management tools for network nations.
The areas of focus of Coinbase, represented by Brian Armstrong, are not only very different from those of Paradigm, but are even more unpopular and early stage in terms of attention in some areas. Ari Paul, founder of crypto venture capital BlockTower Capital, expressed his views on the areas of concern of Brian Armstrong. Different views include the belief that on-chain reputation will be a dead end for at least 5 years, that the Job/Task Marketplace is not significantly related to cryptocurrency, that there is insufficient capital investment in full-chain P2P exchanges, and that the market cannot give fair returns, etc.
Of course, different perspectives determine differences in opinions. Coinbase is not only the leading exchange in the United States, but also has the leading venture capital Coinbase Ventures, and as a compliant listed company, unlike pure VC with returns as the core, Brian Armstrong's ideas may be more practical and his views will be more biased toward China. And the advantages and disadvantages of Web2 and Web3, on-chain reputation, on-chain advertising and decentralized labor markets all have the potential to move off-chain products onto the chain.
This article will take stock of the ten key areas of projects that Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong is concerned about from multiple dimensions such as project progress, financing, on-chain data, social attention, etc., and will give priority to Coinbase Ventures investments and projects. In particular, because some tracks are in the ultra-early stage with few projects and considerable uncertainty, investors need to continue to track and make careful judgments.
Flatcoin
Tracks CPI, a decentralized stablecoin designed to beat inflation and preserve purchasing power, tied to the cost of living.
Then Finance
Nuon Finance is a decentralized stablecoin DeFi protocol built on Arbitrum. The stablecoin NUON launched by Nuon Finance claims to be the first decentralized flatcoin. Its price anchor fluctuates with the rise and fall of the inflation rate, protecting holders from Loss of value due to inflation. The daily inflation level to which NUON is pegged is measured by Truflation, an independent inflation index predictor. Truflation calculates the NUON peg daily and shares it with the Nuon Finance protocol, which uses overcollateralization and arbitrage to maintain the peg while offsetting inflation for NUON flatcoin holders. The Nuon treasury charges fees when collateral is deposited/withdrawn, and when NUON is minted/destroyed. In addition to NUON, Nuon Finance will also exit nuMINT, used to participate in protocol governance and capture platform fees. Nuon Finance also plans to launch the Nuon Oil currency in the fourth quarter of this year, which will be linked to the price of oil and the value of a basket of commodities.
As of September 1, on-chain data shows that the current total number of NUON is 118,000, with 462 holders, and a total of 2,469 transactions completed, indicating relatively limited development.
Nuon Finance has not announced any financing news and completed an audit by Coinfabrik in September 2022; Truflation, an important price feed data provider for Nuon, completed an audit by Fundamental Labs, C² Ventures, Balaji on May 17, 2022 Seed round investment from Srinivasan and IBA, amount unknown.
Ampleforth — SPOT Protocol
SPOT is a decentralized flatcoin conceived and launched by the DeFi protocol Ampleforth Foundation in 2022, using senior AMPL tranches as collateral. Essentially, SPOT is an algorithmic stablecoin backed by AMPL zero-coupon bonds. AMPL serves as the basic collateral for SPOT, but due to the existence of rebase, using AMPL as collateral will cause greater volatility in the collateral. ButtonWood wraps the volatility of assets in the form of bonds, and mortgages AMPL to mint Senior and Junior AMPL tranches. . Senior AMPL tranches represent the bonds with the lowest risk, serve as collateral for SPOT, and have priority repayment rights; Junior AMPL tranches bear the high volatility of AMPL while also receiving AMPL value appreciation income. In addition, in order to enable Senior AMPL tranches to be traded freely, SPOT also introduced incentive mechanism Rotators.
As of September 1, according to on-chain data, the current total SPOT amount is 766,000, and the spot price is $1.13.
Ampleforth raised $9.8 million in VC and public financing between 2018 and 2019, with investors including Pantera Capital and Huobi Ventures.
Ampleforth has been open sourced and completed a Certik audit in 2020.
Onchain Reputation
On-chain reputation
Galex
Galex is a Web3 data credential and reputation network. Users can contribute to Galxe's credential data network. When credentials are used in Galex's application modules, credential oracle engines and credential APIs, managers will receive rewards when users pay to use data in the Galex ecosystem. This Will encourage more users to use Galxe management. According to officials, more than 2,100 partners have launched more than 10,000 campaigns on Galex. Through Galxe Credentials, a Web 3 DID system Galxe ID was built to provide users with multi-chain identities and to recognize users through past achievements and credentials.
Galxe completed $10 million in financing in January 2022, led by Multicoin Capital and Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Solana Ventures and others.
zkMe
The zkMe vision is to build a zk-credential layer for Web3 that provides on-chain anonymous user verification. With the SSI mobile app developed by zkMe, zkMe can encrypt and anonymize their data and certify claims on their own devices using ZKP, which will give users full control over their digital identity and selective disclosure to authorized parties. Disclose their reputational credentials without compromising their privacy.
zkMe completed a $2 million pre-seed round in May this year from investors including Circle Venture, Fenbushi Capital and NGC Ventures.
Onchain Ads
On-chain advertising
Spindl
Spindl is a Web3 measurement and attribution platform that can help identify the source of users and what the on-chain protocol has done to determine whether users create protocol revenue, the cost of acquiring users, etc. Through attribution, such as from Discord posts to wallet logins to the actions of certain on-chain (or off-chain) users, the user base gradually shrinks. If the project party knows how to monetize the "lower end of the funnel" of the application experience, and also knows how much it costs to attract users (through paid media, such as advertising, blog posts, etc.), then the project's cost can be calculated "ROAS" stands for Return On Advertising Cost. If the return rate is greater than 1, then the marketing spent is worthwhile, and vice versa.
Spindl closed a $7 million funding round in October 2022 led by Dragonfly’s Ani Pai and Chapter One’s Jeff Morris Jr., with participation from Multicoin Capital, Polygon Ventures, and Solana Ventures, among others.
HypeLab
HypeLab is a Web3 advertising network that provides one-stop advertising materials such as images and video creatives, and uploads them directly on the self-service advertiser portal; provides on-chain and off-chain services based on user data tags; and tracks advertising effects in real time, such as for projects Traffic generated, country/region and asset segmentation, etc.
HypeLab completed US$4 million in financing led by Shima Capital and Makers Fund in August this year, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and OP Crypto.
Onchain Capital Formation
On-chain capitalization deployment
Syndicate
Syndicate is a decentralized investment protocol and social network that includes two modules: investment clubs and collectives, allowing the community to raise and invest capital in a simpler form. However, on June 22 this year, Syndicate has suspended support for investment clubs. and Collectives front-end, which stated that in the new era of the Internet where the potential of on-chain communities, organizations and economies is fully realized, Syndicate's infrastructure and protocols can meet greater needs, and its cooperation with the Web3 project in the past two years has made it possible more new discoveries and possibilities. As one of the largest investment DAOs in the past, Syndicate has yet to show more about its future direction.
Syndicate has raised a cumulative $27.8 million in financing in 2021 and 2022, with investors including Coinbase Ventures, a16z, Circle Ventures, and Polygon Ventures.
Commonwealth
Commonwealth is an integrated platform that provides governance discussions, voting, and crowdfunding for on-chain communities. Crowdfunding covers functions such as project funding, community donations, and token launches.
Commonwealth has raised a total of $23.2 million in financing in 2021 and 2022, with investors including Coinbase Ventures, HashKey Capital, and Jump Crypto.
Job/Task Marketplace
Decentralized labor market
Braintrust
Braintrust claims to be the world’s first Web3 decentralized talent network, linking vetted knowledge workers with enterprises. Braintrust charges 15%, which is 80% less than traditional contractor recruitment agencies and 40% less than direct recruitment agencies. Braintrust also launched BTRST as a reward community to build a decentralized talent network, invite and review talents, and recommend customers.
Braintrust raised a cumulative $124 million in 2020 and 2021, with investors including Coinbase Ventures, Tiger Global, Multicoin Capital and HashKey Capital, among others.
TalentLayer
TalentLayer is a protocol and development toolkit that can be combined with Lens Protocol to build an interoperable recruitment and service platform. The core tools include: on-chain jobs and proposals, soul-bound identities and comments, configurable hosting, Things like milestone bonuses and hourly wages, dispute resolution managed by a decentralized platform, and a configurable fee system to charge for escrow transactions, job postings, proposal submissions, dispute resolution, and more.
TalentLayer is still in its early stages and has not yet received any funding.
Layer 2 Privacy
Aztec
As the first privacy rollup, Aztec closed Aztec Connect after March this year; in May, Aztec announced a new trustless, scalable and decentralized L2 zkRollup, combining programmable anonymity and data privacy. and confidentiality contracts to protect users’ data. With the new L2 zkRollup, Aztec expects to launch a local testnet for developers in the third quarter of this year and open a mature public testnet to users by early 2024.
Aztec has raised a total of $119 million in financing from 2018 to 2022, with investors including Coinbase Ventures, Paradigm, a16z, IOSG, HashKey Capital and Fenbushi Capital.
Zecrey
Zecrey is a zkRollup-based L2 protocol with privacy and scalability. Zecrey provides wallets that support L1 and Zecrey native L2, and has sneaked into two different and similar L2 systems, namely Zecrey Zero, which focuses on privacy functions, and Zecrey Legend, which focuses on NFT issuance and NFT market. Zecrey Zero is lightweight , a privacy-driven portable payment solution that enables users to easily conduct private transfers and exchange transactions.
Zecrey has completed a total of US$11.5 million in financing between 2021 and 2022, with investors including Binance Labs, Fenbushi Capital and Shima Capital.
Full-chain P2P exchange
Connect the transaction needs of off-chain and on-chain. The actual difficulty is relatively high, such as off-ramp withdrawals, the custody involved and whether they are physical assets, etc. are all difficult challenges.
Onboard Wallet
Onboard Wallet is a Web3 wallet launched by Nigerian cryptocurrency company Nestcoin, founded by Bademosi, the former head of Africa at Binance Labs. Bademosi also launched African crypto exchange Bundle Africa. Unlike regular crypto wallets, Onboard Wallet is accessed via email, has no mnemonic phrase, secure key management and multi-factor authentication. Cryptocurrency payments can be made online or in-store in over 160 countries using the Onboard virtual card. In addition, Onboard also opens up merchants to enter the P2P market, conduct instant transactions using cryptocurrency, and convert it into legal currency. Onboard is currently connecting with the African exchange Bundle Africa.
Nestcoin closed $6.45 million in pre-seed funding in January 2022 from investments including HaskKey Capital and CMT Digital.
Full chain game
Azra Games：Project Legends
Azra Games is a blockchain gaming company focused on on-chain RPG games. It was founded and led by industry veteran Mark Otero, whose mobile game Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes broke Electronic Art's highest revenue record. Azra Games is building Mark's ninth RPG: Project Legends. Currently Azra has launched the Play Pass NFT, which unlocks a private Discord, early looks, exclusive invites, and airdrops.
Azra has raised a total of $25 million in financing between 2022 and 2023, with investors including Coinbase Ventures, a16z, and Franklin Templeton.
Horizon Blockchain Games：Skyweaver
Horizon Blockchain Games is a blockchain infrastructure company focusing on games. It has launched Sequence, an integrated developer platform and smart wallet solution for Web3 games and applications, and Skyweaver, a free Web3 trading card game. Skyweaver has 15 hero cards, 5 prisms (similar to talents), and 27 major tribal factions.
Horizon Blockchain Games has raised a total of $53.25 million in financing from 2020 to 2022, with investors including Coinbase Ventures, Polygon Ventures, and CMT Digital.
RWA
Tokenization of Real World Assets
Goldfinch
Goldfinch is a decentralized credit protocol. Revenues come from real-world loans, and investments are collateralized off-chain. For example, the $77 million Goldfinch Senior Pool provides an 8% yield for USDC, with borrowers in more than 25 countries. Covering asset financing, small and medium-sized enterprise loans and consumer loans; all transactions are protected by 20-25% first loss capital, and the total loss rate is 2.19%. Goldfinch currently has over $100 million in active loan value and average daily revenue on 30-day agreements of $100,000.
Goldfinch has raised a cumulative $37 million in financing between 2021 and 2022, with investors including Coinbase Ventures, a16z, Dragonfly and BlockTower Capital. In addition, Goldfinch completed external audits for Certik and Trail of Bits, as well as an internal audit for Warbler Labs.
MoHash
MoHash is a crypto asset management company that provides investors with global liquidity of real-world products on the chain to obtain higher returns by developing high-growth private debt markets with high alpha, with maturities ranging from 6 months to 3 years. wait. With a base return of 6-10% plus incentives for early adopters, MoHash is expected to provide investors with returns of up to 20%.
MoHash completed a $6 million seed round in June 2022, led by Sequoia Capital India and Quona Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Jump Crypto, and Hashed Ventures, among others.
Network Nation launch and management tools
The concept of network state proposed by alaji Srinivasan, network state is a highly consistent network community with collective action capabilities. It raises funds to expand territory around the world, and is eventually recognized by political entities.
Come on
Vitalik calls Zuzalu an IRL town that combines cryptocurrency, life sciences, and philosophy. Zuzalu applies blockchain to urban governance and operations, such as using stablecoins to track internal government financial systems, urbanization tokens, government-issued on-chain certificates/passports, etc.
reference:
https://panewslab.com/zh_hk/articledetails/ujyzckwo.html
https://www.techflowpost.com/article/detail_12113.html