Weekly Review
“Enter the void. The digital realm makes the realm more rare and precious. It also offers escapism and perfection. Sometimes I want imperfection, real life. Sometimes I want perfection.” -Grimes (The NFT Revolution 2021, pg.10)
The digital space offers more perfect visions of both the past and the future that converge in the present, a fixed flux between worlds and views. Because it is coincident with the human imagination, it has a unique ability to extend mental capacities through the rigor of simulation analysis. Dreams of ancient grandeur once glimpsed in Rome or Persia or Egypt or China can be recast today, minus debilitating flaws and the natural missteps of human evolution. Our ability to envision better artificial worlds has now created the possibility to fully enter these planes on a mental level. Ideas of how cities and civilizations could become in the future can be manifested in such a way that we can walk or fly through a modeled space, rather than just discussing it. These represent a dynamic shift in consciousness potential as possibilities to collaborate, network, exchange, communicate, and build community multiply beyond borders. Even in a world of imperfect forms falling away and threatening global stability, it’s an exciting time to be alive in the digital dimension! Perhaps it can help us fix what is wrong in the “real world.”
This week at CommDAO, we continue to see growth on both the Twitter account and the Discord, as people find out more about all of our interesting projects and activities. We have received a solid response from our Ambassador Squad to calls to modify our weekly focus for memes/ads/shills.
In addition to our weekly prize poll allocating 500 RVN to the top 5 performers, we also offer 100 RVN/1000 C0MM for top performing meme and 50 RVN/500 C0MM for the top 10 selected designs based on the “Topic of the Week.” We are still running a “GM” inspired contest for the second week now based on the GM movement at: https://wagminft.net/
On that note, I was able to score a GM that made it onto WAGMINFT Gallery to be minted and distributed to NFTRVN here and the Ravenist here! Check out the music and animated neon additions by Sir Crone!!! This was a drawing that I did as a part of a series of 4 “Metaphysical Circuits” several years ago. As a result of collaborating with the rising NFT artist, Sir Crone, we were able to create a nice piece that qualifies a music and a movie NFT!
So, part of our intention in encouraging our marketing ambassadors to participate is to develop more RVN circulation, enabling designers to make better use of the protocols available. Projects like WAGMINFT are helping to onboard a new generation of creators, who can really benefit from blockchain tech and the NFT phenomenon.
It also creates more busy work for our curators and creators. And this is a good stage for any organization. By creating more activities, we must pay more attention to each other and develop a stronger momentum as a community. Check our Ambassador section for this week’s winners!
Next week look to see a focus on “activities in the metaverse.”
On the Alterverse front, where we continue to develop the structure of the Commtower, a page has been added to our website, that will help as a starting reference point for this project: https://commdao.org/commtower/
As we get closer to 500 members in the Discord, the plan to sell floors in the Commtower as NFTs continues to develop. As this is a novel approach, we are still communicating with NFT exchanges on the Ravencoin blockchain about how to perfect the pipeline and bundle the NFTs most effectively.
In addition to granting access/ownership to the building in Sky City, the NFTs also represent certain C0MM/CLUB token holdings. These tokens will be used for governance in CommDAO.
The C0MM/CLUB governance body is based proportionately on whoever owns whatever portion of an 8 billion token supply. The 8 billion number symbolizes the world population of planet Earth currently. We want everyone on the globe to have a stake in The Community.
The C0MM/CLUB token is a sub-asset token, worth $50 apiece, that will be unreproducible, struck off of the main asset token C0MM, which is the core token of the organization, minted on the Ravencoin blockchain on April 1, 2022. Channels for distribution are still being worked out.
COMM/CLUB is a type of numerical power body. It is balanced by the Triumvirate, which contains the 3 departments of Foundation, Marketing, and Research and makes up the core team of meritorious contributors and curators. By requiring the concurrence of these 2 governing bodies in order to pass or prevent proposals, we can avoid rug-pulls and other 51% majority takeover attempts, ensuring a fair distribution of power within The Community.
In talking with Alterverse Chief of Growth, Jeff Lippert, we learned that Alterverse continues to emerge as a winner as the Binance Incubation Program enters its last week. We also discussed a variety of activities that could be undertaken in the Commtower, including various forms of gaming, galleries, meetings, base for exploring the greater world, general office work, lounging, even meditating. While the possibilities are endless, we also discussed ways in which operating in a digital realm is quite different from irl.
Check out this fantastic piece of Concept art from the Alterverse team of a halo sphere in Sky City:
For instance, because we are essentially just a mind floating through the virtual world space, there is more impatience with many of the types of gravity burdened operations. If you needed to walk somewhere and it was a mile away, why do that when you can teleport? Being divested of a body brings up many considerations. Is there a need to eat in some way or power up or energize etc? There may be certain rules imposed by the AI of the avatars, requiring players and participants to hit certain checkpoints in order to maintain optimal abilities while in the world. Just like irl, at some point, we must pay attention to our bodies' needs by eating. How do we maintain focus in the virtual space when divested of a digestive tract?
These questions brought up many interesting speculations. Ultimately, we hope to create a hub for the organization to have a gathering place for further development of new protocols. As a sponsor of the Ravencoin blockchain, on top of Bitcoin, we hope to attract a variety of enthusiasts for decentralized protocols and the true path forward for the new economy - the globalized digital tokenization of all worldly assets.
Over and Out,
Dow Dao
Stats
Twitter Followers: 1,157
Discord Members: 440
Alina’s Alignment
Could Fractional Real Estate Be Right For You?
Fractional real estate is a growing trend, especially for vacation destinations. Many Americans dream of owning a vacation home but don't have the money to buy one. Fractional ownership can be a way to take advantage of vacation home ownership without the expense of buying an entire property.
What is fractional real estate?
Fractional real estate is an investment model that allows anyone to purchase an interest in a property rather than the entire property.
Fractional real estate offers the freedom to travel whenever you want without having to worry about maintenance, repairs, or other responsibilities associated with owning a second home.
There are two main types of fractional ownership — shared equity and time-share. Shared equity means you buy into an entire property and pay part of the mortgage on it. Time-share means you buy into a specific unit for a set number of weeks each year.
How does fractional real estate work?
Fractional ownership is done by dividing up ownership into "fractions" — shares that can be purchased by anyone who wants to own part of a vacation home or other piece of property.
When you purchase a fractional interest in a home, you buy into an LLC or a corporation that owns the property. You will receive an ownership share of this entity proportional to your investment amount. Each share entitles its owner to certain rights and benefits, including:
A specific portion of the total equity value of the property
The use of one or more units within the property
Unlimited access to their unit(s) during timeshare periods
An equal voice with other owners in decisions made by management staff (if applicable).
Benefits and drawbacks of fractional ownership
Fractional real estate isn't for everyone, but for some people, it's a good way to invest in real estate without the significant upfront costs. Here are some of the benefits and drawbacks to consider.
Benefits:
You don't have to worry about managing every aspect of your vacation home. The property management team takes care of cleaning, maintenance, and other aspects as needed. They also take care of finding renters when you aren't using your space.
You get access to a variety of properties in different locations around the world. If you're not sure where you want to live or whether you'll like a particular location, this allows you to try out different places before making big investments in real estate.
You can make money by renting out your unit when you're not using it or through fees imposed by the resort community in which your unit resides.
It allows you to build equity in several properties instead of buying one outright that might not appreciate in value as quickly as expected.
Drawbacks:
Owning only part of something means that any increase in value will be split among all owners equally. If one person sells their share for a profit, it won't benefit anyone else who owns a similar share.
How to find a fractional real estate property
Fundrise
Fundrise is a real estate investment firm that allows investors to buy into private commercial and residential properties by pooling their assets through an online platform.
The company offers eREITs, or real estate investment trusts, which generally invest in income-producing properties either by buying and managing buildings or by holding mortgages. Fundrise also offers eFunds, which allow investors to pool money to purchase land and develop housing before reselling it.
Crowdstreet
CrowdStreet pairs individual investors with project developers. CrowdStreet reviews developers to help investors narrow the field of commercial real estate opportunities.
Investors can pick individual properties or buy into CrowdStreet backed funds, which, like a mutual fund, are composed of a diverse lineup of real estate projects.
DiversyFund
DiversyFund owns and manages properties directly, rather than acting as a broker that pairs investors with specific projects.
The minimum investment in DiversyFund is only $500, and it is open to nonaccredited investors. Investors can buy shares in DiversyFund’s DF Growth REIT, which is a public nonlisted real estate investment trust.
One downside of DiversyFund is all dividends are reinvested. This means that investors won't be able to realize income from the investment until the properties are sold.
Conclusion
Fractional ownership can be a viable alternative for those who want to buy into real estate but can't afford to make the substantial commitment that is required. While this type of real estate doesn't suit everyone, it should be considered as an option by a greater number of people, especially those who travel and spend a lot of time at vacation destinations.
Danoskie’s Developments
Bitcoin mining: Effects on the World's economy
Long before the current awareness and adoption of Bitcoin by many firms and organizations, Bitcoin mining was considered a waste of time and resources but was continually mined by those who never depended on their daily mined Bitcoin.
What Is Bitcoin?
History has it that Bitcoin is the first decentralized digital currency that allows peer-to-peer transfers without any intermediaries such as banks, governments, agents, brokers. The underlying technology for Bitcoin is blockchain. Bitcoin can either be purchased online or mined and is saved in either an online wallet (exchange sites and cloud wallets) or in hardware wallets.
What is Bitcoin mining?
Bitcoin mining is the process of earning Bitcoins in exchange for running the verification process to validate Bitcoin transactions. The continual processing of these transactions provides security for the Bitcoin network and in return, compensates miners by giving them Bitcoins.
This process of mining rewards miners in fragments which could either be lower than the cost of maintaining the machines and paying for power consumption or higher when the price of Bitcoin goes up. In reality, it's a probability game and it is done by less than 0.0001% of Bitcoin users.
The low reward system and new technologies have shifted workers away from their intended business, doing them more harm than good. This has made many analysts ask questions like, "Is Bitcoin mining profitable at all?"
Requirements for Bitcoin mining
To set up a mining farm or factory, the miner should consider meeting the following requirements:
Hardware GPU: this includes a graphics processing unit, preferred SSD for crypto mining, and ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit)
A good mining software
An easily accessible wallet
Preferred mining pool
Whether Bitcoin mining is profitable or not, one must consider the following:
1. The availability and price of machines
2. Cost of maintenance
3. Cost of power supply and data subscription
4. Availability of a reasonable space
There are other difficulties that can be measured in terms of the number of hashes generated per second for Bitcoin validation.
Bitcoin mining is programmed to reward miners with a specific amount of Bitcoins every 10 minutes. This means that the miners will receive fewer quantities if there are more miners doing the job.
The inability of miners to have access to their preferred machines and the cost of delivering the machine to their location hinder most miners from expanding their farms while for the intending ones is a no-go area. It extends to the repair and maintenance of machines, as parts for broken ones are hard to find in the market.
The most significant challenge facing miners, as of today, is the cost of running the farm. It's not news that mining farms and factories consume a lot of electrical energy and it is a concern that shall be addressed in this article.
A BBC documentary (2021) written by a Technology reporter, Cristina Criddle, concluded that the total power supply used for the maintenance and powering of mining machines amounted to the exact amount which powers Argentina annually. The Cambridge researchers went further to assume that mining machines consume around 121.36 terawatt-hours (TWh) a year - and is unlikely to fall unless the value of the currency slumps.
This means that cryptocurrency mining alone requires a large amount of electricity, which is used to verify transactions on the network and must not fail, or else the miner will face losses.
Last year at this time, the price of power went up as consumption reached a record high. The price of Bitcoin was also influenced by Tesla's investment of $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency and its plan to accept Bitcoin as payment for the company's products.
As the price of the coin increased, miners were offered more incentives while the consumption of power supply demand increased. This was the best way to sustain the miners.
While Bitcoin has gained wide acceptance in a few countries, it still remains highly contested in some countries because of its decentralized nature and volatility and its exorbitantly high power consumption during mining.
Centralized Finance and Decentralized Finance
According to the Bybit team, the emergence of an entire industry around blockchain technology and digital currencies was prompted by Bitcoin. It has been argued by crypto participants that decentralized solutions would gradually replace traditional financial services. It may be too early to make such claims, but it is certainly true that an exciting competition and interaction is taking place between centralized finance (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) within the cryptocurrency industry.
CeFi
Before DeFi was introduced, centralized finance was the standard for trading cryptos. It commands a strong lead in the cryptocurrency industry. In centralized finance, all crypto trade orders are handled through a central exchange. Funds are managed by specific heads running the central exchange i.e., you do not own a private key that provides you access to your wallet.
The primary principle behind centralized exchanges in crypto is that all crypto trading orders are routed through a central exchange under centralized finance. Examples of CeFi companies include Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken. Users create an account on these exchanges and utilize the platform primarily to send and receive tokens.
DeFi
In decentralized finance, no exchange is involved. The entire process operates via automated applications that are developed on top of blockchain platforms. Also, decentralized finance creates a fair and transparent financial system where anyone can participate. It allows unbanked people to access financial and banking services via blockchain technology.
DeFi aims to build an open-source, permissionless, and transparent financial service ecosystem. The decentralized financial system offers services, including borrowing, yield farming, crypto lending, asset storage, and more. (Roland Berger)
SIMILARITIES
Although these are different finance systems, they share a few similarities.
According to Gwyneth, both CeFi and DeFi involve the same financial services, including spot trading, derivatives trading, margin trading, borrowing and lending, payments, and the creation of stablecoins.
When it comes to trading, both CeFi and DeFi platforms can create intuitive interfaces so that newbies could be onboarded effortlessly.
DIFFERENCES
The Controllability
CeFi projects are controlled by a single entity or group of entities that run every business aspect, whereas many DeFi projects are developed by groups of people and organizations. The resulting platforms are governed by communities via different mechanisms.
Some DeFi projects offer governance tokens that enable holders to take part in decision-making processes. An example is The Community DAO.
Features
CeFi and DeFi services provide various features that are unique to each group. For example, most CeFi projects offer custody solutions and have dedicated customer service teams, unlike DeFi. Trading on DeFi platforms happens on blockchain as there is no single authority involved.
This is possible thanks to several key features, including automated market-making (AMM), liquidity pools and yield farming, and non-custodial swaps. Usually, there are no KYC requirements in DeFi, while the funds are stored in personal wallets until the transaction’s execution. The crypto exchanges built on blockchain infrastructures are called decentralized exchanges (DEX).
Some companies provide both centralized and decentralized exchanges. One such example is Binance. Its DEX platform doesn’t require registration or KYC verification.
Another great feature of DeFi is the tokenization of traditional assets. Thus, blockchain can be used to create digital units of any asset or investment, including commodities, company shares, forex pairs, and stock indexes, among others.
Regulation
Initially, when the first crypto exchanges facilitated fiat conversions, there was no regulation whatsoever, as governments didn’t fully understand Bitcoin and blockchain. Nevertheless, today most jurisdictions try to regulate crypto operations directly or indirectly. This is one of the reasons why most CeFi platforms require KYC verification. In the US, Coinbase is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), while other global platforms moved their headquarters to crypto-friendly jurisdictions like Malta or Estonia. Meanwhile, the European Commission is about to create the most comprehensive legal framework aimed at cryptocurrencies. All in all, there are more jurisdictions in which CeFi services are available.
As for DeFi, this is a new trend, and it is not regulated anywhere given the nature of decentralized networks. However, even if it’s more difficult to impose regulation on DeFi markets, a research paper by BCG Platinion and Crypto.com concluded that the rapid boom in DeFi created conditions for money laundering that will attract regulators sooner than later.
Fees
Usually, centralized exchanges charge higher fees to maintain the platform, pay salaries to the staff, improve their products, and more. Elsewhere, DEX platforms are more affordable to trade on, as they don’t provide custody services and don’t have any team involved in the governance process. Generally, the fee revenue is shared among liquidity providers and token holders that choose to stake their tokens. An example is Uniswap, a crypto swap platform that distributes the funds from fees among liquidity providers.
Liquidity
In CeFi projects, the platforms match buyers’ and sellers’ orders similarly to forex or stockbrokers. In DeFi, all trading is not carried out automatically on blockchain. Instead, DEX platforms rely on AMMs, an innovative concept in which both sides of a trade are pre-funded by liquidity providers incentivized to locate their funds.
Eventually, the trading fees are shared between liquidity providers, as mentioned in the previous paragraph. Usually, liquidity pools comprise two constituents representing a trading pair, e.g., BTC/ETH. Liquidity providers have to contribute equal values by locking both BTC and ETH based on the current rate.
Security
Even though CeFi platforms do their best to maintain a high degree of security, we still see or hear of several systems being hacked. At the beginning of the year, Chainalysis said that 2019 saw the most hacking attacks ever, though the number of stolen funds had declined drastically compared to 2018.
There is no such risk for decentralized exchanges, as the platform doesn’t store user funds. The only thing users should pay attention to is the code and the consensus algorithm used by the DeFi project. Sometimes the underlying technology may come with bugs and other issues.
Speed
The execution speed is relatively high in both CeFi and DeFi, though it depends on each platform individually. Most exchanges can provide almost instant performance for market orders.
Prospect
CeFi platforms are the simulations of traditional banks, and they have already demonstrated their potential and still do. On the other hand, DeFi is only at its nascent stage. Many industry onlookers predict a vast revolution in which DeFi services would gradually replace traditional ones and threaten the banking system.
You might be wondering which of these finance systems is the most preferred and trusted. I will continue with the disadvantages and advantages of these systems and exchanges.
To be continued…
Ambassador Report
In our daily lives, growth is constant. This has brought us to the conclusion echoing "CommDao to the moon." From the stables of The Community DAO, we present our engagement tables from week 17 to week 20 showing a summary of reward points earned by each active ambassador.
Leaderboard/Ranking
Rank Twitter username
Dani_BeeHive
Banacubana
Alochinonye
Yhuddee111
WinneXia
Design Contest of the Week -GM focus- 50 RVN/500 C0MM allocated for each pick:
Foundation Picks for the “GM” contest this week:
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5.
Marketing Picks for the “GM” contest this week:
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5.
From here going forward, look for new topics of design focus each week!
Kirton Call
[From Unreal Engine Newsletter - July 6, 2022]
Wondering how Unreal Engine 5 can supercharge architectural visualization?
The representation of data is critical in architecture. Previously, technological limitations have made it impossible to seamlessly represent the vast array of data that goes into a building design. Unreal Engine 5 enables creators to include far more information and data in their architectural visualizations, in scenes that are of an incredible visual fidelity.
This webinar will explore the new settings you can configure in the Architecture Project Template before starting an archviz project in UE5, the potential to expand projects efficiently, and fresh updates for building out environments. We’ll also look at the improvements to Direct Link workflows and new techniques for lighting and rendering…
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[From Security Token Market Launches First Tokenized Crowdfund on Avalanche Blockchain]
The first Web3–enabled crowdfund on the Avalanche Blockchain opens on July 6th; launch event to follow at Miami’s loanDepot Park.
MIAMI, FL Jul 07 2022 (Disclosure)
Security Token Market (“STM”, “Company”, STM.CO), a media studio and data analytics company focused on building financial infrastructure to support the growth and development of the security token industry is excited to announce the first Web3-enabled tokenized crowdfunding campaign.
STM is making history by launching the first Web3-enabled regulation crowdfunding campaign, enabling a global audience to invest in their journey and participate alongside industry insiders and venture capitalists in this investment. Investors can utilize the Avalanche platform to sign smart contracts on the blockchain using their wallet addresses instead of traditional physical signatures, making this transparent and scalable. Investors will additionally have the option to hold tokens in their MetaMask wallet.
A launch event will be held at loanDepot Park Friday, July 15th to celebrate. Security Token Market is inviting members of the #MiamiTech community and crypto world to join in on this exciting opportunity and event!