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🎧 The Block’s Hypergrowth: 0 to 4 Million Readers in 18 Months w/ CEO Mike Dudas (Ep. 0070)
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🗞 The Biggest Events From 2019 (For Mainstream Crypto Adoption) – Popular Crypto #15
Welcome to Issue 15 of Popular Crypto, a newsletter about the mainstream products and services taking crypto to the masses.
In this issue, we look back at the year that was. 2019 was rough for many cryptocurrencies, but not all. Bitcoin (BTC) finished the year up 85% and more secure than ever with its hash rate surpassing all-time highs. The Litecoin price climbed about 30%. Of course, our focus here is not the market but the products and services bringing crypto to the masses. The market’s ups and downs are merely the backdrop as we review the year’s biggest events for mainstream crypto adoption.
Along the way, we’ll preview our new format.
Going forward, each issue of Popular Crypto will be a Top Ten list of the most important developments for crypto mainstreaming. We’re switching formats to bring more focus to our coverage.
All that and more in this week’s issue. But first, here’s a . . .
🥂 Message From Nomics
2019 was a great year for Nomics.com. We accomplished a lot as a company, beat our revenue goal by 100%, and our traffic goal by much more.
But we’re just as proud of our contributions to transparent data initiatives. As a provider of crypto market data, we see ticker stuffing, exchange spam, and other forms of fake volume on a daily basis. And we started the year on a mission to clean things up.
In April, we introduced our new crypto exchange rating system, which grades exchanges according to their willingness to provide auditable histories. See Nomics’ Exchange Transparency Ratings (And The Correlation Between Transparency & Fake Volume, and Toxic Activity).
In August, we followed up with the release of our transparent volume indicator. Indeed, for each cryptoasset on Nomics.com, we now provide the amount of trading volume occurring on transparent exchanges.
Finally, in September we also released the Nomics Manifesto (entitled Transparency Must Be Trustless) to affirm our commitment to transparency. By shining a light on shady exchange practices and proposing innovative solutions, we hope to push the space towards the day when average consumers can save and spend crypto as comfortably as they use fiat.
And now, 2019’s biggest events for mainstream crypto adoption.
Clay Collins
Nomics Co-Founder
🗞 Popular Crypto Issue 12 – Bitfinex Adds Lightning Support & Partners w/ Bitrefill
Welcome to Issue 12 of Popular Crypto, a newsletter about the mainstream products and services taking crypto to the masses.
In this issue:
- Bitfinex adds Lightning support and partners with Bitrefill
- Binance acquires DappReview, a Beijing-based research and advertising firm
- Cardano (ADA) and COTI launch AdaPay
- 0x (ZRX) releases v3 to unlock shared liquidity pools across exchanges and value stored in DeFi contracts
We also cover Bitcoin Core 0.19.0, a major upgrade made possible by more than 100 developers, most of whom were unpaid volunteers.
All that and more in this week’s issue. But first, here’s some…
🚀 Updates From Nomics
- Nomics Update #1: Crypto exchange SparkDEX has completed a Deep Data Integration with Nomics and is now an A+ verified exchange (i.e. they have an A+ Transparency rating on our cryptocurrency exchange index page and our market data API).
- Nomics Update #2: Our embeddable cryptocurrency pricing widget is up and running in the wild. It’s fast, completely mobile responsive, and insanely flexible. You can quote a cryptocurrency in any fiat or cryptocurrency you like. For example, you could quote a cryptocurrency in a major fiat currency like USD or Euros, or you could use your local fiat currency, which may be less commonly traded. Let’s quote Cardano (ADA) in Mexican pesos.
Mouse along to see how many pesos it took to buy ADA 4 hours ago, 12 hours ago, 24 hours ago, etc. For more on the widget and how to use it, see here.
- Nomics Update #3: This week we held a webinar with Rob Paone, a.k.a. “Crypto Bobby”, founder of Proof of Talent, a boutique recruiting firm that serves the blockchain and crypto industries. We discussed the evolving nature of the job market from the points of view of job seekers and employers. Catch the replay here.
- Nomics Update #4: We held another webinar the week of Thanksgiving. We met up with Brantly Millegan, Director of Operations for Ethereum Name Service (ENS), a system that enables users to register human-readable addresses for sending money or interacting with Ethereum (ETH) smart contracts. For example, “0x4cbe58c50480…” could be changed to “alice.eth.” In our discussion, Brantly explained how ENS is helping to create a new, decentralized web. Replay here.
- Nomics Update #5: Flippening episodes #62 and #63, The State of Decentralized Exchange in 2019, are live on our blog. In the two-part conversation, we talk with Will Warren and Amir Bandeali, co-founders of 0x (which issues the ZRX token), an open-source protocol that facilitates the decentralized exchange of tokens and the creation of decentralized exchanges or DEXs. We cover everything from the prehistory of decentralized exchange, to DEXs in 2019 and the future of the space.Â
- Nomics Update #6: Nomics is giving away 3 (THREE!) multicurrency, non-electronic hardware wallets from Ballet. The wallet, which is the size of a credit card, is easy to use and supports Bitcoin (BTC) plus a growing list of alts like Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC). The giveaway ends on December 16th at midnight EST. Enter here. (Side note: if you’re a product company in the crypto space and would like to work with us on a giveaway, please get in touch.)
And now, let’s see what the cryptocurrency world has brought us this week.
Clay Collins
Nomics Co-Founder