What's happening at FTX?

When it came to trading the digital currency known as bitcoin, FTX was a major player on the global stage. Over the weekend, FTX's issues escalated and put the entire market at risk. To begin the year 2019 properly, Sam Bankman-Fried established FTX. He rapidly expanded the trading firm by courting Silicon Valley's most prominent backers. This past week, FTX filed for bankruptcy. Bankman-Fried has left his post. The corporation claimed that some funds had vanished. In addition, analysts estimate that hundreds of millions of dollars may have been misplaced.

FTX's downfall is shocking in a cryptocurrency market that has had its share of issues this year. Last week, investors ran away from FTX because they were worried the company didn't have enough money to survive. Also, FTX has settled on a deal to sell itself to Binance, another cryptocurrency exchange. However, when Binance was investigating FTX's finances, the agreement fell through. FTX and a number of its affiliated entities filed for bankruptcy last Friday. The range of valuation was between $10 billion and $50 billion for the company. In its bankruptcy petition, it listed more than 130 international business partners with whom it had partnered. Bankman-Fried, who had saved other bitcoin firms, also stepped down as FTX's CEO.

What will happen with FTX now that it has filed for bankruptcy is unclear. But if it does fail, it will wipe out billions of dollars in wealth and sow more seeds of doubt about cryptocurrencies.
Sequoia Capital is well-known for its investments in companies like Apple, Cisco, Google, Airbnb, and YouTube. According to the company, meeting Bankman-Fried was like "talking to the world's first trillionaire," and the meeting influenced its decision to invest in FTX.

Following FTX's bankruptcy filing, Sequoia wrote off all $213 million of its investment in the company. Similarly, an Ontario, Canada, pension fund wiped out its investment. There was some criticism levelled at Bankman Fried prior to the FTX collapse. The majority of FTX's operations were supervised by the United States, despite the company's headquarters being in the Bahamas. However, Bankman Fried has advocated for increased oversight of the cryptocurrency market. Many crypto enthusiasts are against centralised regulation. It's possible that the downfall of FTX will strengthen calls for stricter oversight.

Should you be worried when the market fluctuates?

 

It is only normal if you are worried about when the market will fluctuate, you are investing so much, we know how it feels like when the market is not going the way you want. 

 

The continual ups and downs in stock prices can be attributed to supply and demand shifts. If demand for a stock rises, so does its price on the market. The price of a stock usually goes down when there are more sellers than buyers. In terms of supply and demand, the latest news can have a huge impact on the dynamic.

 

When investors hear bad news, they typically sell their investments. Many, if not most, stock prices fall in response to selling pressure after unfavourable news such as a disappointing earnings report, a governance breakdown at a company, or general economic and political unpredictability.

 

People frequently rush to acquire stocks as soon as they hear positive news. News that businesses are performing well, releasing new goods, making acquisitions, or witnessing positive economic indicators causes stock values to increase.

 

However, negative news for some stocks might be positive for others. For instance, the announcement that a hurricane has made landfall can drive utility stock prices to drop in anticipation of exorbitant emergency response and repair costs. Depending on how bad the storm is, insurance stock prices will decline as a result of the news. In the meantime, home improvement retailers' stock prices will increase in expectation of increased sales in the upcoming months.

 

Events like a significant auto safety recall, an uprising in oil prices due to unrest in the Middle East, or an extended drought that destroys crops are examples of things that are simply impossible to predict. Although traders may believe they are factoring in risks, there is always a chance that anything could go wrong. Consequently, news that is unexpected rather than just any old news moves prices in one direction or the other.

 

So if you are wondering whether you should worry or not, you don't have to. The market fluctuates day to day, which is why it is called volatility. Just have to wait patiently while doing research. 

3 steps to Financial Freedom

One definition of financial freedom is being able to do what you want with your money without having to worry about your bank account. When you have financial freedom, you can take that amazing trip to Tahiti without worrying about missing work. It means being able to buy the house your family wants and still have money left over for other things.

Some people think that financial freedom means being able to retire whenever you want, which is important, but you don't have to wait until then to be financially free. Depending on your situation, having financial freedom could mean being able to do what you love and make money from it. It could mean not needing a 9-to-5 job so you can spend time with your kids or help your partner build a business they're passionate about. Connecting with your deepest values and having enough money in the bank to support those values without worrying about paying the bills is what it means to be financially free.

Define what it means to you

 

To each, their financial goal might be different, so you have to figure out where your goals are and work towards it. If your goal is to retire at the age 30, good, work towards that, if it’s mid 50’s, it is still good as long as that’s what you want. Just have to remember that everyone’s road is not linear, so you're only in a competition with yourself rather than everyone. 

 

Be financially literate

 

Financial literacy is the ability to understand and use different money skills, such as managing your own money, making a budget, and investing. Financial literacy is the foundation of your relationship with money, and it's something you'll keep learning about for the rest of your life. If you want to make money, education is the key. The earlier you start, the better off you will be.

 

Build passive income

 

2022 is coming to an end and at this point, if you're still relying on your active income, then I have some bad news for you. Build yourself some passive income, it can be as simple as selling an ebook on the internet to investing. Is investing considered a passive income? Yes, with proper research and guidance from platforms like MTX. Dont wait up, do your research about trading, staking and investing. 

 

People often use the words "financial freedom" and "financial independence" interchangeably, but they don't mean the same thing, and it's important to know the difference if you really want to be financially free. The key word in "financial independence" is "independence." It means being able to meet your own financial needs without having to depend on anyone else. When you're financially independent, you have a steady source of income, pay all of your own bills (including debts like student loans or a mortgage), and have some money saved. You might even start to save money. You're not financially free yet, though.

Financial independence is an important first step toward financial freedom, but it's not the end goal. Financial freedom is a long-term goal that will help you build the life you want. "Success is doing what you want, when you want, where you want, with who you want, as much as you want," says Tony Robbins. That, too, is financial independence.

DeFi liquidity pool

A DeFi liquidity pool is a smart contract that locks tokens to make sure that those tokens are always available on a decentralised exchange. Users who give tokens to the smart contract are called "liquidity providers." 

DeFi liquidity pools came about as a new and automated way for decentralised exchanges to deal with the liquidity problem. They replace the traditional order book model used by centralised crypto exchanges, which was taken straight from the established financial markets.

 

In this model, the exchange acts as a market where buyers and sellers can meet and agree on prices for assets based on how much demand and supply there is for them. But this model only works if there are enough buyers and sellers to make the market liquid. So, the job of market makers is to make sure that there is always someone to meet the demand, which keeps prices fair by adding liquidity. 

For a decentralised exchange, the basic model has been shown to not work. Ethereum's high gas fees and slow block time make it unattractive to market makers.  Because of this, liquidity pools have become the go-to solution in decentralised finance because they offer decentralised trading platforms continuous, automated liquidity.

2.

How do DeFi liquidity pools work?

In its simplest form, a DeFi liquidity pool is just a smart contract that holds two tokens. These two tokens make up a trading pair. 

Let's use Ether (ETH) and USD Coin (USDC) as examples. To keep things simple, the price of ETH can be equal to 1,000 USDC. Liquidity providers put in the same amount of ETH and USDC. This means that if someone put in 1 ETH, they would also have to put in 1,000 USDC. 

Because of the liquidity in the pool, if someone wants to trade ETH for USDC, they can do so based on the funds that have been deposited instead of waiting for a trade partner to come along. 

The people who provide liquidity are rewarded for what they do. When they make a deposit, they get a new token called a "pool token" that represents their stake. In this case, USDCETH would be the pool token. 

All liquidity providers get their fair share of the trading fees paid by users who use the pool to swap tokens. This is done automatically based on the size of each liquidity provider's stake. So, if the trading fees for the USDC-ETH pool are 0.3% and a liquidity provider contributed 10% of the pool, they are entitled to 10% of 0.3% of the total value of all trades. 

When a user wants to get their money out of the liquidity pool, they have to burn their pool tokens and then they can get their money.

3.

What are the risks of DeFi liquidity pools?

The algorithm that decides how much an asset is worth could fail, slippage could happen because of big orders, smart contracts could fail, and more. 

The price of assets in a liquidity pool is set by an algorithm that keeps changing based on how much trading is going on in the pool. If the price of an asset is different from the price on the global market, arbitrage traders who make money from price differences between platforms will move to take advantage of the difference. 

When prices go up and down, liquidity providers can lose some of the value of their deposits. This is called a "temporary loss." Once a provider takes their deposit back, however, the loss is permanent. Depending on the size of the change and how long the liquidity provider has had their deposit at risk, transaction fee rewards may be able to make up for some or all of this loss. 

Smaller pools can lose money because of slippage if someone suddenly wants to make a big trade. This is because of how the pricing algorithm works. 

If the code that runs DeFi hasn't been audited or isn't fully secure, users face other risks, like smart contracts that don't work. Before you put any money in, make sure you know all the risks.

4.

What are the benefits of DeFi liquidity pools?

The most obvious benefit of liquidity pools is that they make sure that traders who want to use decentralised exchanges always have access to liquidity. They also give you the chance to make money with your cryptocurrency by becoming a liquidity provider and getting paid for transactions. 

Also, many projects and protocols will give liquidity providers extra incentives to make sure that their token pools stay big. This will lower the risk of slippage and make trading better. So, there is a chance to make more money by becoming a liquidity provider in exchange for yield farming reward tokens.

5.

How can I join DeFi liquidity pools?

Depending on the platform, there are different ways to join DeFi liquidity pools. In general, one would need to create an account on the platform of choice and then connect an Ethereum wallet like MetaMask or other Web 3.0 wallets from the homepage. Once that is done, tokens can be put into the appropriate liquidity pool. 

On platforms like MTX, a person would have to look for a specific pair they want to provide liquidity for and then connect their wallet. A user can put tokens into the pool after checking the returns, such as the pool ratio and the exchange rate.

What is Web 3.0?

Web3 is an idea, a vision, and a movement for a decentralised web that is almost free of third-party intermediaries that are run from a central location. This feature helps protect the privacy of a user's data and makes it more focused on the user instead of the platform or business. Tim Berners-Lee, who made the World Wide Web, came up with the idea in 1999. He called it a "Semantic web" that would use AI.

Before we go any further, here's a simple example to help you learn more about the decentralised web. At some point in our lives, we have all heard that our information was leaked, sold, or hacked, and nothing could be done to stop it.

Why? Even if it belongs to us, we don't own it. Once our information is online or shared through centralised digital channels, people or companies can do whatever they want with it, which has a direct effect on our everyday lives. For example, the AI could use our data and preferences to show us ads that it thinks are relevant based on what it knows about us.

But what if we really owned all the information about us and could use it however we wanted? We will be able to do this with the help of a decentralised web. Not only will we be able to do this, but we will also be able to trade, transact, communicate, and work better without the help of a government, corporation, or other influencer.

To keep its vision alive, Web3 relies heavily on cryptocurrencies and blockchain. We hear a lot these days about the NFT hype or how some countries are making crypto a legal form of currency. Even though there is no set date for when these might be used, we can still see many companies and platforms building the infrastructure pieces that are important to Web3. For example, Konstellation is a platform that wants to make a decentralised capital market. It also lets different blockchains work together, so you can do transactions between them. It sounds interesting, doesn't it?

Everything we do today, all over the world, is based on money. At the moment, if you want to trade or transact, you need a third party. In the next few years, decentralised finance (DeFi) will be the way of the future, and platforms like Konstellation will help build hubs for DeFi.

How Will Web 3.0 Work in Real Life?

As regular people, we might not have to do much to use Web3. Organizations and platforms like Ethereum and Konstellation will take care of most of the services. If we think about it, it will be like the web version we use now, but it will be more efficient, open-source, trustless, and decentralised.

Take the case of sending money. If you need to send $1,000 to someone in another country or change it into a different currency, the process can take a long time and could cost you money. To finally finish the deal, you have to go through a long process and pay a large fee. Since Web3 will be based on blockchain and cryptocurrency, there will be a direct transfer of funds through borderless, global decentralised applications (dApps) and services. This will make the process quick and cheap.

Web 3.0: Internet of Our Online Future

The way we use language and the things we do shape who we are. We hope that the new age of the Internet will do the same for us. Even though many famous people have different ideas, Web3 is sure to change the way we use the Internet in the future once it is fully operational (currently under development).

Platforms like Konstellation are built on the same ideas and support Web3 to make it easier to use and more popular. There are many changes happening in space, and it will be interesting to see how things turn out for all of us in the days and years to come.

The Top Ten Countries For Crypto Activity

 

Based on their methodology, Chainalysis’s ‘Geography of Cryptocurrency Report for 2020’ ranked countries as follows:

1. Vietnam

2. India

3. Pakistan

4. Ukraine

5. Kenya

6. Nigeria

7. Venezuela

8. United States

9. Togo

10. Argentina

Source: https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2021-global-crypto-adoption-index/

On the surface, the list is surprising, but keep in mind that this is an index of adoption, not actual numbers of users, which would represent GDP per capita and population.

According to the Chainalysis Index, the top country for crypto adoption is Vietnam, a young and tech-savvy country with a speculative culture that favours gambling and investment and where remittances are a substantial component of GDP (just over 6% in 2020 according to World Bank estimates). This creates a favourable environment for bitcoin adoption.

It's not surprising that India and Pakistan are ranked second and third in the worldwide crypto adoption ranking. Remittances are essential in both nations, which have young populations, increasing mobile coverage, and growing middle classes that are well-educated and financially savvy but lack options to invest in currencies other than national currencies.

Four of the top ten countries – Nigeria, Venezuela, Argentina, and Kenya – demonstrate crypto potential as a hedge against hyperinflation to varied degrees. Except for the United States, all of the countries on the list rely heavily on remittances, for which crypto is increasingly vying with comparatively expensive conventional solutions such as Western Union or Moneygram.

DAO - Decentralized Autonomous Organization

Using blockchain technology, a decentralised autonomous organisation, or DAO, is a unique way to connect people. Users with similar goals and a desire to work together are quickly drawn to its structure. DAOs are new and different because they give each member the same amount of power.

Every day, new DAOs start up. A DAO could be the way to go if you want to use NFTs to grow your investments or give money to a good cause. This guide takes the mystery out of DAOs by explaining how they work, how they use blockchain technology, and how they are better than other types of organisations.

What Is a DAO?

A DAO is an organisation that is run by its community members and is controlled by blockchain. It doesn't have a CEO or a board of directors who run it. The foundational rules of the collective are set by smart contracts, and each member has an equal vote on changes or additions.
Members can come up with ideas to improve the DAO's protocol at any time, and then everyone in the community gets to vote on them. Based on the rules in the smart contract, proposals that get a certain number of votes will be accepted and put into action.
Members of the community have reasons to approve proposals that help the protocol. As long as a protocol is healthy and can be kept up for a long time, people with similar ideas will want to join the community. This, in turn, makes more people want to buy DAO tokens, which raises the value of the tokens that members own. Because of this, it is in the best interest of each member to make sure the protocol works so that they can also be successful.

Types of DAOs

A DAO is meant to bring together people who want the same things into a group that doesn't need a leader. Operations are run by the community and follow rules based on the blockchain. Decisions are made in the DAO by making proposals and voting on them. This makes all activities clear for all members to see.
Each DAO has its own tokens and decentralised way of running things. Users can now make DAOs with a wide range of goals because blockchain technology is getting better. Here are some examples of DAOs and what they can be used for.

Philanthropy DAO

Philanthropy DAOs focus on promoting social responsibility projects and other charitable causes. Using cryptocurrency, they use several different ways to collect and distribute money.
Their goal is to make a difference by using fundraising methods that are sustainable and can be used all over the world. One example is UkraineDAO, which collects money for the soldiers of Ukraine. Another is Popcorn, which gives money to a number of charities chosen by POP holders.

What Is the Purpose of a DAO?

There are many reasons why users might want to make a new DAO. Usually, each DAO token holder has the same amount of voting power as the number of tokens they hold. This means that a person with 50 tokens has 50 times as much voting power as a person with only one token. People think that someone with a bigger financial stake in a DAO would be more motivated to make sure it does well. So, this practise is a safety measure to make sure that users who don't have as much money in the DAO can't act in bad faith and bring it down.
DAOs are important because they let people pool their money and support projects without relying on third parties. Instead, after a vote on a proposal, people trust that codes will automatically carry out a smart contract. This means that every transaction can be checked by any member on the blockchain, while a traditional organisation might not be as open.

Advantages of a DAO

Even though each DAO is built in a different way, they all have the same main benefits. The decentralised and independent structure makes it easy to run things smoothly and work together. Here are some more reasons why DAOs are better than traditional organisations.