13th September 2023

Are DAOs overhyped and unworkable? Lessons from the front lines

Ask 10 different people to define a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), and you’ll likely get 10 different definitions. But there is at least one thing most agree on: DAO governance is a mess. At best, it’s an experiment in the works.

9th August 2023

Blockchain games aren’t really decentralized… but that’s about to change

Despite promises of “decentralization” and “trustless ownership,” the vast majority of crypto games today are, at best, partially decentralized. Web3 is the branding, but in reality, most are “Web2+.” Game assets live on-chain, yet the game logic, state and storage remain off-chain on centralized servers.

11th April 2023

What Regulators Still Don't Get About Crypto

This has been a tough regulatory season for crypto; American government agencies are racing to punish crypto companies and the businesses that work with them. Meanwhile, politicians are still carting out the same, tired justifications for their aggression. Today, we combat five classic critiques of the sector.

26th March 2023

The Fed Did This

The Banking crisis of the past several weeks has wreaked havoc on the confidence that depositors have in their banks. That's bad for the Fed. And while regulators have been thirsty to blame crypto for any emerging risks facing traditional banks, their desire to punish crypto-friendly institutions likely made everything worse.

27th February 2023

Open Season on OpenSea

OpenSea’s market dominance has been near-absolute for years, which makes the stunning ascent of Blur all the more impressive. The upstart NFT marketplace still has plenty of challenges ahead of it, but its hunt for OpenSea volumes and users has been going very well so far.

26th February 2023

The Ultimate Guide to Crypto Security

Bear markets are a time for self-reflection — so, be a savvy investor and take stock of where your crypto is! What your custody habits are! And how you balance risk and reward!

1st February 2023

The Promises of Blockchain Gaming

While many see blockchain gaming as a major key for mass crypto adoption, it’s clear the current state of the space is pretty rudimentary. There’s more to be done and more to be brought on-chain.

8th December 2022

The Status of Web3 Social

Regardless of your thoughts on Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, it’s clear that it’s still not much of a decentralized experience. Twitter’s users and creators have always been along for the ride, and it would take a fundamental change to the platform’s structure to change that.

23rd November 2022

Building Back Better with OP Stack

If we want out of this bear, the only way is to build back faster and more nimbly. That’s what Optimism is doing with the “OP Stack”. It’s a set of foundational lego bricks that lets devs build rollup modules on the fly.

14th November 2022

FTX Is Why We Need More DeFi, Not Less

That refrain has been relentlessly echoed by all manner of Web3 skeptics over the past week amid the shocking implosions of FTX & Alameda.

28th October 2022

A Beginner’s Guide to Ethereum Censorship

If we want an Ethereum that works, we had first better understand what DeFi’s weaknesses are.

28th September 2022

Ultimate Guide to NFT-Fi

NFTFi is the intersection of decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs. This new sector unlocks a range of actions for collectors: • Take a loan against your NFT. • Pay for an NFT in 3-month installments. • Rent an NFT for a period for social clout.

3rd September 2022

Maker DAO's Existential Crisis

There’s a nifty taxonomy for stablecoins that crypto analysts like to use: 1) Fiat-backed stablecoins (we don’t like these because regulators can censor them); 2) Crypto-backed stablecoins (we like these because they’re uncensorable); and 3) Algorithmic stablecoins (which have fallen out of favor with Terra’s crash).

31st August 2022

The Decentralized Identity Revolution

Decentralized identity has always been a consistent (yet under-discussed) topic in Web3. Today, we have the first footprints of our digital identities. The problem is that we have them through massive, centralized tech giants like Twitter, Facebook, and Google.

forkast.news • 12th July 2022

Why Singapore needs to rethink its approach to regulating crypto

Market innovation is intrinsically tied to a permissionless culture that celebrates entrepreneurship. Crypto companies want to set up in Singapore not only because of its attractive business laws but also because the city-state is primed to be an exciting cultural hub for the latest crypto-related festivals and conferences. Banning the culture sends signals to crypto hedge funds and businesses that work against that end. It signals that Singapore isn’t ready to be a crypto hub of Asia, let alon

6th June 2022

So What if Crypto Winter is Here?

“Has the market bottomed yet?” is the billion dollar question. If you spend any time in the Web3 echo chamber, you’ll see that hopium is still in high supply. The crypto collective conscious wants to believe that the recent drawdown over the past few months is ‘transitory,’ and that market prices will bounce

1st June 2022

Why CBDCs Are Not Your Friend

These are all outcomes that the Bankless movement fights for every day. We need these pillars to build a better, more democratized, and equitable future. Crypto looks to achieve this. But there’s a threat. It’s one of the buzzwords you'll hear from talking heads on mainstream media: CBDCs — Central Bank Digital Currencies.

20th April 2022

The Bull Case for CC0 NFTs

NFTs have taken off in strange and crazy ways no one could anticipate. Thanks to the immutability of a blockchain, artists and creators now have credible digital ownership over their works. This wasn’t previously possible in the right-click save digital world.

6th April 2022

Crypto can fix public goods

We rely on governments to solve market failures—they’re supposed to solve problems like information asymmetries, negative externalities, and underfunded public goods. Governments are supposed to fix things free-market capitalism can’t fix on its own.

16th March 2022

The History of the Firm and Where DAOs Are Taking Us

One of crypto’s lesser-known innovations (but much discussed on Bankless) is the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), a form of social organization built on blockchains and smart contracts. Celebrity investor Mark Cuban heralded DAOs as a “combination of capitalism and progressivism”. In crypto quarters, DAOs have been called alleged as the “most important innovation” and the “future of work”.