Web3 Weekly 11/19: Constitution v. Ken Griffin, Bitcoin Rockets, Square’s DEX

In case you somehow didn't hear, a group of crypto investors tried to buy a piece of American history this week. Despite amassing nearly $50 million dollars, the donations to 'Constitution DAO' (because, honestly, what else could it have been called?) weren't quite enough. A private investor ended up beating out their bid, and the piece ultimately sold for $43 million- over twice the pre-auction estimated price.

Now that the whole affair has passed, the next big debate is, well, what to do with $47 million dollars. Wallet holders that put money toward the project have the option of having their donation, net of fees, returned to them. Well, it's worth noting that the median donation toward the Constitution bid was ~$200. That means that, net of gas fees, investors are probably losing 50% of their initial donation to have their money returned. The alternative is to leave the money in the pot and wait to buy something else down the line. In that scenario, you have 0% of your initial donation returned- choices!

In perhaps the funniest outcome, the private buyer was revealed this afternoon to be Ken Griffin, who was already not the most popular man in the community after the Gamestop shenanigans early this year. With this move, he has now angered two of the most dangerous communities: reddit traders and crypto degens. While I'm sure Ken hasn't lost a second of sleep thinking about his decision to save a piece of priceless American art with his infinite wealth, the people he just offended do have $47mn DAO with money to blow...

Bitcoin has had a rough week. After touching all time highs, it's dropped nearly $10,000 from peaks. However, not all is bad news this week in the world of BTC: The Houston Rockets announced a partnership with NYDIG to "leverage the growth of Bitcoin to provide creative rewards and payment options to our fanbase and associates." The partnership includes plans to custody an account for the team, a platform for fans to buy tickets and get rewards in bitcoin, and more.

Maybe most important is the fact that NYDIG will "receive significant exposure across all of the team's platforms, [including becoming] the first naming rights partner of Toyota Center suite levels, the 'Bitcoin Suites by NYDIG,' and receiv[ing] baseline apron signage during Rockets games."

I'm not sure what changed, but advertising with the NBA has become the hottest new trend, with NYDIG following in the footsteps of the FTX Arena (Miami Heat) and the new Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. While they didn't spring for full naming rights, this is still another big name partnership. Between FTX and Crypto.com alone, the two firms have invested $1 billion in sports sponsorships in the past year. Top signal or Bullish?

This afternoon, Square delivered a whitepaper announcing plans for a division focused on the construction of tbDEX, a decentralized exchange for Bitcoin. Effectively, the goal would be to create a decentralized exchange, capable of exchanging liquidly between FIAT, Bitcoin, and Capital goods.

They name 'social trust' as the lacking feature in decentralized exchanges that make them currently incomparable to real world exchanges. Their solution to this is through what they call decentralized identity and verifiable credentials. Basically, these are mutually trusted third parties that are able to serve as liaisons to confirm the identities of the individuals involved (read: KYC).

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