Let's get some perspective here on the difference between the price of $SOL and the opportunities presented by the Solana ecosystem as a platform for innovation
A pragmatic yet optimistic🧵on why it is not doomsday for @solana

My belief in the Solana ecosystem as a great place for builders last week was 100%

My belief in the Solana ecosystem as a great place for builders today is still 100%

Why is there some much pessimism elsewhere tho?

The ubiquitous pessimism resulted from the latest massive fraud by a CEX who, as is possible in any centralized system, used retail &amp; investor funds to run a Madoffeque Ponzi (SBF/FTX/Alameda) while CZ took full advantage at the expense of everyone while posing as a white knight

Then we get this doomsday talk about 32M+ $SOL unstaking at the end of EPOCH 370 two hours ago

EPOCH 370 saw an unstake of ~6% of total $SOL supply or ~31.5M $SOL 

Epoch 140 saw 44M $SOL unstaked 

Epoch 72 saw 30M $SOL unstaked

Epoch 370 had 63M $SOL slated for unstaking but Solana Foundation postponed a 28.5M $SOL unstake

The effect of the EP)CH 140 44M $SOL unstake in the 10 days following the end of the Epoch on the 12th Jan 2021 was negligible

($ solana block-time $ ((140*432000)) Block: 60480000 Date: 2021-01-12T15:41:10Z) 

There were very different macro-economic conditions back then &amp; a far different speculator sentiment w.r.t $SOL 

None of this changes the fact that the SOL ecosystem is a builders' platform

We shall see over the course of the next 7 days what the markets do to the price

BUT there is a huge difference between rampant speculation &amp; the potential of $SOL as a currency of the future 

Builders build to transition $SOL to a method for the payment for goods/services/products

Price volatility &amp; emotive sentiment is tempered as the balance shifts toward utility use cases for $SOL &amp; not a platform whose currency is pulled hither &amp; yon by wild speculation

The fundamentals of $SOL as a BC are unchanged. It's a platform for innovation. It is here to stay

$SOL Speculation vs Solana Viability

A very high-level answer to what @theanswer_nft aNFT does: 

Question from member: "Use a current Web2 item - email. Would your aNFT retain all of your emails? Would your aNFT be your email address?"

https://th3answer.gitbook.io/litepaper/

It is a valid question. However, the functionality of an aNFT evolves over time. Right now we are focussed on a subset of functionality:

1. An aNFT's metadata changes based on any number of off-chain or on-chain events

2. In our first use case we are concerned with Loyalty and the interaction of consumers with loyalty schemes and the use of the aNFT as a method of single sign on in the context of self-sovereign IDs and verifiable credentials 

3. In this case an example of how the aNFT metadata could change would be:

3.1 Pointers to addresses containing the details of the specific loyalty schemes &amp; attendant SSO

3.2 Interactions with that loyalty scheme - acquired physical receipts, acquired digital receipts, other activities and interactions, and points accrual

3.3 Pointers to catalogs for access to "data" of the items mentioned in 3.2 above which allows addressability of the  data in whatever storage location it may be on - cloud, global permissionless BC, permissioned BC, &amp; xchain via TAAMy (The Answer Access Method)

3.4 Ofc, this is only a summary, the WP will contain the details as they relate to the non-novel and non-patentable elements of the aNFT

4. In this case as you can see there is not a use case for email as per the question, but I guess you could extrapolate

5. The main point is, as per Litepaper, it is a process of ingraining the process in use cases and expanding the number of use cases over time

6. As per the Litepaper, the objective of this first use case via the UBIQUITY Loyalty dApp is to acquire data from certain Web2 processes to prompt migration to Web3 

What is an aNFT?

How you could have solved @theanswer_nft #CBV1 without hints 

A #codebreakers 🧵...... 

@_portals_ @PortalsComm 

Room 1

Two computers gave clues about the riddle. The Turing machine provided the 1st hint by giving the number of letters of the password as _ _ _ _ _ _ 

Room 1 /cont

The second computer gave, once solved by translating from decimal to binary, numbers that gave the order of the books placed on the shelf 

Room 1 / cont

The first letters of those books in those positions made up the password TURING 

Room 2

In room 2 all the walls except one contained art from the Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Surrealist, and Cubist movements. A timeframe when the subject of the answer was alive 

Only one wall was needed to solve the riddle tho. The Rembrandt nobility painting was missing a jigsaw piece. This piece was placed in the center of an atom beside the painting. A nobiliary particle - VON. This was a control for tieing the other two clues together 

Room 2 /cont

The AI generated picture had three names on T-shirts. Paul, George, &amp; Ringo. Three of The Beatles.  

JOHN was missing 

Room 2 /cont 

The last part was the showcase with a 3D model of a NEUMANN microphone in it. 

All three parts gave the password JOHN VON NEUMANN 

This clue on its own was enough to solve IMO 

Room 3

The first hint was hidden on the big computer screen. Searching the "paper code" gave a colored ordering for the collages by clicking on the paper under the desk 

Room 3 /cont

The first image was a collage of pictures representing the year 1976, Soweto, Son of Sam, Bob Marley 1st shooting, VHS release, The Clash form etc.

The second collage led to the number 4 obviously

The last hint was a collage of Washington DC 

Room 3 / cont 

The four other hints were images:

Heatseeker
Sin City
(Highway to) Hell
High Voltage 

Room 3 /cont

Google them "Heatseeker Sin City (Highway to) Hell
High Voltage" and the result is AC/DC 

Now Google "1976 4DC AC/DC" or "1976 AC/DC" &amp; you will get results showing 2 album releases that year

The "4DC" clue helps you figure out what you are looking for. 4 D's &amp; a C

DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP 

The final Answer! You then find the Google form &amp; submit &amp; that's that! 

How to crack Codebreaker V1 w/out hints

Summary of @SolanaMoneyBoys AMA w/ @marccolcer 

Running time: 1hr 37mins  

Questions &amp; answers are paraphrased

Method: I made 2 full passes of the entire AMA then a dip in &amp; out fact check for 1 hour

Correct me in the comments if you find an error

1. @moneyboy0x asked for permission to toss questions to @MoneyBoyBriggs &amp; @cheeseslutt 

2. Marc said he has a lot questions to ask so yeah that was cool for the guys to hop in 

3. In late April podcast with Marc, MoneyLand &amp; MoneyPlex were discussed. What happened since?

4. 0x: Said they deployed V1.0 of MoneyPlex, WL feature, raffle system, enhanced staking experience, &amp; had worked to create use cases for $MBC. But lots of MoneyPlex lookalikes out there now but nothing in Solana like MoneyLand. Intro'd @Doctor_Peepee as new artist / animator

5. What was the biggest challenge since then?

6. 0x: Said they decided to double down on MoneyLand cos better analytics teams were shipping better dashboard alt's to MoneyPlex so they needed to pivot to deliver a unique offering via MoneyLand

7. Have you communicated properly with the community? 

8. 0x: No, awful, sorry, wrapped up in maintaining secrecy, said bear changed that, this was their biggest shortcoming. 0x said "that is where we fucked up" &amp; on &amp; on the comms issue was covered again &amp; again thru the AMA

9. What have you learned about yourself/shortcomings &amp; are are you going to change anything?

10. 0x: Thought he could do everything himself. Good at art/coding/generating content but "not great" at ops/marketing/comms. Bad at delegating. Like comms issue, covered repeatedly

11. 0x FTE of MBs? Who are team?

12. 0x is FT (40hrs p.w) Dr. PeePee artist to 0x's Art Director

0x said MBs is 7 person team: 0x; Cheese FT (40hrs p.w); Briggs PT (20hrs p.w);2 x PT Devs (80% MoneyLand/20% MoneyPlex WLs) &amp; Dr. Peepee. I make this 6? Check yourself 23' mark

13. Briggs &amp; Cheese role?

14. We all know what Cheese does🤝❤️
Briggs said he likes the background but had also pulled back recently for personal reasons. 0x said Briggs was being too modest. Has strategic input in all decisions from the outset, now, &amp; will into the future

15. 0x spoke about MBs not firing any1 from team, &amp; had "no idea" where ppl got that from, core contributors come &amp; go &amp; are valued in the MBs community, &amp; for their contributions, 0x used @AesVillain as a case study of how this worked well. Segment allowed to run too long

16. @TheGotHeem then came in &amp; hosed that statement with a detailed &amp; very believable claim about being indirectly fired by 0x via Briggs over MB Twitter account access for a @womeninnfts collab Spaces. 0x refused, GotHeem was removed, Women in NFTs passed on collab as a result

17. 0x then gave his account of what happened with GotHeem but this contradicted his statements in 15 above. GotHeem claimed 0x is "all about the hype" &amp; giving the "good news". Again we went back to "having better comms" will fix all of this. One hour in. Wen the "good stuff?"

18. @aescapism then took the mic, said she met 0x "on the yacht". Excuse me but immediately thought Illuminati / the 1% / Elysium😅, turned out to be a NYC NFT event. Went on to pose a very articulate question about communications and suggested 0x pivoted 

cont/

and answered the question about how he would be communicating with the holders rather than the team. GoGo suggested to hire for a community manager if public speaking was not 0x's forte as long as 0x had an excellent relationship with the hire 

cont/

GoGo then asked 0x to return to the question of communications within the MB team

0x said there was one incident &amp; this does not represent the team dynamic. Again covered the comms issue. 0x will listen better in future is the key takeaway

19. @wizzyknows questioned strategic direction, the changes over time, confusion about the actual strategic direction NOW, asked "what is it?"

0x: 1 liner "Building a product trading NFT interface that simply does not exist in Solana space backed some of the best art on Solana"

20. @6atman requested update on merch, hoodies/t-shirts

0x: Wanted to make sure that we dropped this at the right time but they we are prolly just gonna drop it very soon with a smaller run. Hard work is done on manufacturer &amp; samples. Good vibes here

21. Financials:

Alleged $800K in FTX is fiction &amp; MB did not steal $1M, no idea where ppl got that from

Had $750K from mint. Have $500K left. 2 years runway (really?). Funds are not in 1 wallet, they like to move them around. It's on the blockchain, invited ppl to look for it

22. Marc asked would MBs provide a monthly financial statement summary? 

0x: No we are not a public company, people can check the blockchain. MBs will be transparent but will not be giving this info monthly cos again not a public company

23. @MilkyDoosty came on &amp; was pretty animated, I get that. Stated 0x can not come on &amp; be so casual. Needs to step up. "It's laughable that you are acting like it's a chore to do your job &amp; communicate with holders. There's got to be some responsibility" 

0x: Vague reply tbh

24. @4Cryp then made an excellent case for a Board of Directors as an assist to strategic decision making &amp; appropriate assistance from qualified members of the community

Was not addressed by 0x as Marc jumped in &amp; re-stated the importance of what SOL_Gen_Crypto was proposing

25. @_bennch then asked an excellent &amp; expansive set of questions. 

0x replied as follows: 

MonkeDao Validator: not a priority, not the right time, not near top of list, will be some time before its happens because of financial &amp; technical aspects

cont/

Primates Collab: Waiting on revert after they recently released the S/W underpinning collab 

Liquidity Pool: No plans for LP for $MBC if they do decide will let ppl know "wen"

@thejonnyjpegs then offered his help, 0x thanked him, &amp; they hugged out their previous differences🤝

26. @LibertyNFTs What is it you (0x) want at the end of the day as Founder?

0x: We want to be the most valuable project on Solana that has done something that no one else has done and has created a sustainable and valuable platform to their holders. 0x then wrapped up

Q's: 8/10 A's: 6/10 Why?

1. Financials: Still vague, budget low v objectives def not 2 years
2. Strategy: Passionate but vague. Lack team size &amp; depth
3. Transparency: Promises on community &amp; team comms but answers on financials ⬇️
4. BoD &amp; Advisors as per @4Cryp in 24 above

Solana Money Boys AMA w/ @marccolcer 

Security posture standards checklist for @discord server owners, and good cybersecurity hygiene for server members 

A 🧵...... 

An additional resource here: 

The unbelievable horrors of Discord account security 

https://yal.cc/discord-2021/

All Admins &amp; MODS should have 2FA enabled in "User Settings -&gt; MyAccount" with SMS Backup Authentication enabled 

All Admins &amp; MODS should have "SAFE DIRECT MESSAGES" set to "Keep me Safe -&gt; Scan direct messages from everyone" and  "PRIVACY &amp; SAFETY DEFAULTS -&gt; Allow direct messages from server members" set to "OFF" 

All Admins &amp; MODS should provide a screenshot of the AUTHORIZED APPS active on their account for review 

All Admins &amp; MODS must confirm that they have never shared their "Discord ID Token" with anyone and that NO ONE shares access to your account. Access to this token can bypass Password and 2FA settings

Everyone in server should keep an eye out for Impostors with the same name and report immediately

As well as names that mimic team members, also keep an eye out for anyone trying to pass themselves off as some sort of official support

Useful search terms for finding potential scammers are:  

"admin" "support" "tech" "help desk" "helpdesk" "captcha" "announce" "moderator" "advisor" "consultant" "founder" 

Run searches intermittently

If a scammer used tricky font go to a font site like LingoJam &amp; enter their name, see if you can find the font used

Copy &amp; paste that into your Discord search, &amp; ban 

* An acknowledgement is owed here for a thread on Twitter I can no longer find, will add to comments when &amp; if

Before banning request the scammer request that DEV MODE is turned on so that we can get their Discord ID string by right clicking and selecting copy ID

This way you can search with this ID in case they change their name since the offending post was posted / scam was attempted

All Admins &amp; MODS should update SERVER PROFILE handle with "handle | 'Project' MOD" &amp; add "Will NEVER DM you 1st" to the ABOUT ME &amp; NOTE sections 

Server owners should make a mini-announcement from time to time reminding members especially in run-in to mint event

All settings should be audited every 3 days and all Admins &amp; MODS should post screenshot proof of these settings in a dedicated bot run channel in server

Failure to do so should result in immediate Admin/MOD permissions removal

Altho the above sort of streamlines the process you would prefer Discord to allow server owners to be proxied an audit function by Admins/MODS to allow a BOT run a REPORT function with no EDIT ability 

An API key to make checking instant &amp; deviations actioned in real time

Changes were made to token security in April/May 2022 but still be aware of a novel attack vector which is well outlined in this thread by @LittlelemonsNFT 

https://twitter.com/LittlelemonsNFT/status/1477923368053706755

The TL;DR is: 

"Scammer gets on a discord call with target. Gets target to screen share. Tells target to open inspect element by pressing ctrl+shift+i. Inspect element has a discord token scammer can use to take full control of target's disc account. Bypasses 2FA + passwords"

Consider bots to:

Autoban any new members with the search terms outlined above (SS below)

Autoban new members with the same name as a Admin/MOD name with an alt font

Full CAPTCHA verification bot on entry

Use the Prune function inactive Ac's over 1 week &amp; who  have no role 

Thanks for your time. Please post any corrections / suggestions in the comments. 

Have a great day

Discord Security Posture Standards 

It's all a bit tense over at @SolanaMoneyBoys , a few nightmarish spaces, messy tweets &amp; replies from the founder, missed deadlines with hit &amp; miss comms, buggy s/w, &amp; it's all gone a bit turbo 

So how does a founder cope &amp; pivot? 

Is it going to 0? Without info, who knows, a🧵 

NFTs are highly risky &amp; a scam nirvana as we all know

Investors are responsible for their own actions. All they expect in exchange for their $'s is an honest effort with experience, that's as complex as it is

Lose money? Learn something. Move on.

Symptoms of a floundering Founder

Secrecy implies "building"
No comms implies "busy building"
Play both to keep hodlers holding
Ghost dates &amp; vapour in Discord
Perma-opaque to community
No investor relations savvy
Poor financial &amp; project mgmt
Artist trying to dev
Micro mgmt

Founders should be willing &amp; able to answer most of the questions below

In reality few of the currently listed NFTs projects would actually be willing or able

Until that changes, the ecosystem with all its possibilities, is gonna struggle to wriggle out from under the cloud

Founders CAN turn things around and with a community like SMB you have a head start. But before doing that the community need to know and the founder needs to find out if he doesn't already know, the following:

Who owns the IP in the art and the IP in the tech? Does management consider themselves to be the owner of the IP of both?  

Or does the IP vest pro-rata in the owners of NFTs? Is there or is there intended to be a charter / articles  to cover these matters formally?

What are the total funds at hand in the project coffers at this time? 

Can the community see a:

Cash Flow Statement
Balance Sheet 
P&amp;L

It's been stated that the project has a 2 year burn rate available 

Can that be broken down into:

Staff Costs 
Fixed Costs (exc staff)
Other Overheads
Marketing / Advertising
Costs already committed to for collabs and/or JVs
Dev Costs 
Leases / Borrowings / Overdrafts / Liens

Have any MB assets been used as security / collateral for other borrowings? 

Has the project loaned any monies to any persons / entities &amp; if so to whom / what entity &amp; under what terms? 

Can current running costs at this time be provided?

What are the monthly projections for the next 24 months &amp; deliverables associated with these ongoing expenditures &amp; the expected contribution that they will make to the uplift in value for holders notionally, practically, and in value of assets held (NFT FP and $MBC value)

For funds spent to date can the project account for all expenditure over USD 1k on a single item / transfer out of project wallet(s)?

What are all the project related wallets? 

Are there funds allocated to yield farming?

Is it true that collabs with other projects were called off by those projects due to lack of communication and/or unwillingness to formalise the collab by MB senior team?

Why have long standing bugs not been fixed in MB s/w? Why have buggy versions of software been left in production without fixes / being taken down? Why have the merchant stores not been progressed?

Who are the team currently? 

What are their responsibilities? 

What % of their working week do they spend on MBs? 

What is their remuneration? Are there formal contracts in place or is it a casual arrangement?

How did the project hedge against SOL volatility &amp; what projects funds are held in:

FIAT on exchanges (how much &amp; what currencies &amp; what exchanges)
StableCoins (how much &amp; what coins)
Other cryptocurrencies (how much &amp; what CCs &amp; what exchanges)
SOL
Other assets

What assets aside from those above does the project hold: 

Loans Due 
Debtors 
Other NFTs 
Other Investments
Purchased Capital Items and Descriptions

Solana Money Boys, What's up?

The EU’s Economic &amp; Monetary Affairs Committee reached a deal on 30th June on how crypto "should" be regulated

After 2 years debate, 27 EU member states reached agreement on MiCA (Markets in Crypto Assets)

Key dates in graphic below

EU or not, a🧵on what you need to know

1/25 

TL;DR for NFTs (1/2)

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which represent ownership in digital properties like art, were excluded from the proposals 

The EU Commission has been tasked with determining whether NFTs require their own regime within 18 months

2/

TL;DR for NFTs (2/2) 

NFT regs to address:  

1. Phishing
2. Ponzi Schemes
3. Fake Celeb Giveaways
4. Unregulated Financial Advice (DYOR/NFA caveats will not suffice)
5. IP Theft
6. Money Laundering 
7. Pump &amp; Dump Schemes
8. Cyber-attack vulnerabilities
9. Sanctions evasion

3/

In March 2018 the Commission published the Fintech Action Plan 5

Since then they have been examining the opportunities &amp; challenges raised by crypto-assets

4/

During the bull spike &amp; the huge surge in market caps of crypto-assets in 2017 a letter was sent to the European Banking Authority (EBA) &amp; the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) 

The letter urged them to reiterate their warnings to investors about crypto risk 

5/

Quote: 

"In the 2018 FinTech Action plan, the Commission mandated the EBA and ESMA to assess the applicability and suitability of the existing EU financial services regulatory framework to crypto-assets"

6/

See the full text of the Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on Markets in Crypto-assets, and amending Directive (EU) 2019/1937 COM/2020/593 final here 

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52020PC0593

7/

In summary:

The Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation has four essential objectives:

1. Ensuring legal certainty by establishing a sound legal framework for crypto-assets in its scope that are not covered by existing financial services legislation;

8/

Supporting innovation and fair competition in order to promote the development of crypto-assets by instituting a safe and proportionate framework;

9/

Protecting consumers, investors and market integrity in consideration of the risks associated with crypto-assets; and

10/

Ensuring financial stability, with the inclusion of safeguards to address potential risks to financial stability.

11/

A majority of crypto–assets which are not already governed by other regulations, such as security tokens and central bank digital currencies, shall fall into the scope of MiCA:

1. E-money tokens
2. Asset-referenced tokens
3. Utility tokens

12/

Obligations for issuers of crypto-assets under MiCA
Issuers of crypto-assets falling into the scope of MiCA, namely those offering crypto-assets to third parties, may be subject to several obligations including, without limitation, the following:

13/

The publication of a whitepaper having some similarities with prospectuses published under the prospectus regulation

14/

The necessity to be authorised to issue crypto-assets
Compliance with certain prudential rules when marketing crypto-assets

15/

The obligation to act honestly, fairly and professionally vis-à-vis crypto-asset holders, in particular in relation to conflict management and prevention or maintenance of security access protocols

16/

The applicable regime depends on several elements considering notably the type of crypto-asset offered and the amount of the offer

17/

STABLECOINS

Stablecoins like Tether &amp; Circle’s USDC will be required to maintain ample reserves to meet redemption requests in the event of mass withdrawals

Stablecoins that become too large also face being limited to 200m euros in transactions per day 😮

18/

ENERGY CONSUMPTION &amp; MINING

Firms will be forced to disclose their energy consumption &amp; the impact of digital assets on the environment

A previous proposal would have scrapped crypto mining, but it was voted down by lawmakers in March

19/

CRYPTO PLATFORMS / DEXs / CEXs

ESMA, will be given powers to step in to ban or restrict crypto platforms if they are seen to not properly protect investors, or threaten market integrity or financial stability

20/

ANONYMITY &amp; UN-HOSTED WALLETS

Anonymity will be reduced when it comes to certain crypto transactions

They are deeply concerned about exploitation of crypto-assets for money laundering &amp; sanctions evasion particularly after Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine

21/

PRIVACY &amp; REPORTING 

Transfers between exchanges &amp; “un-hosted wallets” owned by individuals will need to be reported if the amount tops the 1,000-euro threshold, a contentious issue for crypto enthusiasts who often trade digital currencies for privacy reasons

22/

References &amp; Acknowledgements:

MiCA – Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation memo https://securities.cib.bnpparibas/markets-in-crypto-assets-regulation/

Digital finance: agreement reached on European crypto-assets regulation (MiCA) https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2022/06/30/digital-finance-agreement-reached-on-european-crypto-assets-regulation-mica/

24/

EU agrees on landmark regulation to clean up crypto ‘Wild West’ https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/30/eu-agrees-to-deal-on-landmark-mica-cryptocurrency-regulation.html

MiCA: A Guide to the EU’s Proposed Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation https://www.sygna.io/blog/what-is-mica-markets-in-crypto-assets-eu-regulation-guide/

24/

NFTs excluded from MICA: A freeport for crypto pirates? https://www.law.kuleuven.be/citip/blog/nfts-excluded-from-mica-a-freeport-for-crypto-pirates/ 

25/ ENDS

The EU "Markets in Crypto Assets"

.@TheAnswer_NFT, a precis of our projects' intentions, in advance of the publication of the project Roadmap &amp; WhitePaper 

A🧵you don't want to miss ......❔

1/

The Answer (?) is a project building innovative Web3, Blockchain, &amp; AI solutions for real-world Businesses, Corporates, &amp; Institutions 

We aim to connect the NFT ecosystem with the real world for the return of value to our holders 

2/

The current NFT market mainly revolves around rotation of capital (ie. Solana) thru different projects depending on what's hot/trending

In a bull/bear market Solana NFT's have faced the challenge of attracting large amounts of new capital to the ecosystem on an ongoing basis

3/

Only in very rare cases do we see new capital flow into the ecosystem in large volumes 

We understand that there are market cycles within NFT's and IRL  

4/

Our aim is to not only reward our holders from profits generated inside the ecosystem which may be impacted by these market cycles, but also reward them with profits generated from outside the ecosystem from our "IRL" customers who are not impacted by the same market cycles

5/

Thus creating a theoretical risk balance.

This way, if markets become dry and volume throughout the NFT market slows down, our aim is that the impact on rewards to our holder's is lessened by IRL revenues

6/

We would like to stress that while we place significant importance on generating revenue from outside of the ecosystem, we will also be looking to maximise value for our holders from within the ecosystem too 

7/

The Answer Project Intentions

NFT's with sustainable long term value for holders are rare as hens teeth. A thesis I've held since entering NFT's

Recent Crypto events; over-hyped failed NFT mints; systemic &amp; demonstrably short term project thinking means time's right to share for your views

A short🧵 ...

NFT projects need to work with NFT based strategic partnerships AND partnerships outside of the NFT space but with complimentary offerings

The objective being to provide external non-closed loop revenue generation through the creation of IP that is relevant to IRL problems and uses BC/DLT tech as a key component

In this way the project can make returns to holders from NFT ecosystem initiatives as well as IRL revenues from IRL customers - SMB, Corporates, and Institutions

The profits from these use cases &amp; the returns to holders s/b be in the form of dividend % per NFT held. The frequency of these dividends should be regular and NOT quarterly or annually. But how. See below....

By managing a tight monitoring of run rate requirements, revenues. granular EBITDA projections, &amp; strategic management of the project war chest &amp; reserves to cover the run rate while frequently rewarding holders of the project NFT

The development of an MVP for a number of key use cases should be well progressed, using the Founders own resources, BEFORE launching the Project

The proper META for NFTs is real returns based on a mature and sustainable business model backed by sick artwork and a real ability to make returns to holders also based on more traditional mechanisms that are tried and trusted within in the NFT ecosystem

At @TheAnswer_NFT this is what we have been and are doing

We are the Answer (?)

Sustainable NFT Business Models

Why is the #Solana network congested right now? 

A TL;DR nerdy🧵on what's what &amp; what's not 

Acknowledgements:

1⃣r/solana u/laine_sa https://tinyurl.com/yckj248r
2⃣Smith+Crown https://tinyurl.com/54457yzn
3⃣Solana Compass https://tinyurl.com/2bnsffda
4⃣HAL Open Science 

The "speed" of a cryptocurrency is generally determined by 2 factors:

1⃣The average transactions per second or "TPS"; &amp; 

2⃣Transaction Finality  or "TF"

Theoretically, SOL is currently capable of 65k TPS with negligible fees. 

However, the current reality is far less

To achieve high speeds a cryptocurrency consensus protocol seeks to: 

1⃣Drive down TF times to achieve "low transaction finality"; and 

2⃣Drive up throughput to achieve "high TPS"

TF is the moment when all parties to a transaction are happy that the transaction is completed

Transaction Finality, the moment when it becomes impossible to revert or alter a transaction, can be deterministic or probabilistic, "immediate or eventual": 

For more see "On Finality in Blockchains" 

https://hal-cea.archives-ouvertes.fr/cea-03080029v3/document

1⃣Probabilistic: a xaction’s finality ⬆️ as more blocks are added to the BC AFTER the transaction

2⃣Deterministic: a xaction is considered finalised when ADDED to the BC, a "leader” proposes a block be added, &amp; then a pre-determined no. of validators "approve" the transaction

SOL uses the less common of the two: Deterministic Finality 

DF uses Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT). PBFT is not a consensus mechanism. It's a property of distributed systems that some consensus mechanisms seek to use 

More here on BFT:

https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/byzantine-fault-tolerance-explained

SOL specifics &amp; "the general idea that validators must continue voting following their last fork, unless the validator can construct a proof that their current fork may not reach finality" here: 

https://docs.solana.com/proposals/optimistic-confirmation-and-slashing

So, what about the congestion? It's not a trivial explanation, in essence:

SOL congestion troubles should remind people that new consensus mechanisms are inherently untested, &amp; are very much still as experimental as they are exciting

More: 

https://ambcrypto.com/solanas-congestion-issues-spilling-over-to-other-chains-heres-how/

What are they trying to fix?

TL;DR: 

SOL validators use UDP to communicate (no🤝). Receiver sends no acknowledgement to the sender meaning sender can "spoof" IP address, making IP-based filtering of spammers impossible, any1 could pretend to be any1 else to get them blocked

How are they fixing it?

TL;DR: 

Since Jan @solanalabs has been integrating QUIC networking protocol into validator software 

QUIC combines UDP with a 🤝 meaning certainty over source IP so validators can dynamically de-prioritize spammers. 

QUIC dev is WIP &amp; has a ways 2 go

But another bug has recently been discovered involving block production and tracking the compute units of blocks which you can read all about here 👇

https://twitter.com/laine_sa_/status/1512734702255411205