White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund - newsletter #81
Optimism Collective will be governed co-equally by two houses
Optimism Collective will be governed co-equally by two houses
White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund - newsletter #81
What is Optimism?
Optimism is a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum that can support all of Ethereum’s Dapps. Instead of running all computation and data on the Ethereum network, Optimism puts all transaction data on-chain and runs computation off-chain, increasing Ethereum’s transactions per second and decreasing transaction fees.
Optimism is currently the third largest layer-2 by total value locked, at $670 million, behind Arbitrum and dYdX, according to L2beat.
The total supply of OP will be 4,294,967,296 tokens, which are distributed to the following categories:
- 20% will be used for retroactive public goods funding
- 25% will be reserved as ecosystem funds, including governance, partner, seed, and unallocated funds
- 19% will be airdropped to eligible members
- 17% and 19% will be given to investors and core contributors
The creation of Optimism Collective DAO
Optimism announced last week that it has created its own DAO—known as the Optimism Collective—and will be airdropping OP tokens to 267,000 Ethereum wallet addresses.
DAOs, short for decentralized autonomous organizations, are blockchain-based groups that collectively make decisions—and typically use a group’s native token to do so. In this case, the Optimism Collective will be tasked with taking the revenue created from Optimism's transaction fees and transforming it into grants for public goods.
Utility to have two houses
The Collective is split into two "houses".
The Token House will govern concerns such as software upgrades, Treasury allocation, and incentive structure. This house is also responsible for protocol upgrades, network parameters, and project incentives.
The Citizens' House will facilitate a process aimed at distributing retroactive public goods funding generated from network revenue.
Both will use quadratic voting, a concept championed by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin alongside academics Glen Weyl and Zoë Hitzig. It's designed to reduce the impact of large token holders.
Whereas many DAO models allow one vote per token held, quadratic voting makes each additional vote more costly than the last. Therefore, to vote for something two times, for example, would not cost not two tokens but, say, five.
Focus on new native Token & Airdrop
The new native token of Optimism has been launched to help crypto scale. As part of the launch, Optimism is airdropping 5% of its initial token supply into wallets that have used the protocol, positively contribute to Web3 communities, or could stand to benefit from using scaling technology—perhaps because Ethereum is pricing them out.
The airdrop includes Gitcoin donors, bridge users, multisig signers and snapshot voters.
🔦 White Star & Portfolio Spotlight
Rally hosts first Creator Day
Place for creators to connect, contemplate, and share their insights on building successful communities
Cometh announces partnership with Metaguild
Strategic guild partnership with Metaguild
Ledn introduces world’s first Bitcoin Morgage
New product is targeting a release following a wave of interest
🏦 Enterprises & Institutions
BlackRock Launches Its First Crypto-Exposed ETF
The world’s largest asset manager is giving its clients exposure to crypto and blockchain companies.
FinTech company, Revolut, plans develop a crypto wallet
The wallet will also incorporate staking functionality
Apollo hires JPM Morgan crypto executive, Christine Moy
Apollo seeks to invest in the web3 industry
Goldman Sachs offers first bitcoin-backed loan
The cash loan was offered with bitcoin as collateral
Fireblocks adds support for Terra
Citing overwhelming customer demand for Terra
Dubai real estate firm now accepts BTC and ETH
DAMAC Properties has started accepting Bitcoin and Ether payments for its luxury homes
⚖️ Government & Regulation
French Bank, Delubac & Cie, first to offer regulated digital asset services
The bank inked a deal with Taurus Group for custody and blockchain connectivity
Telegram users can send and receive crypto
Function is added back after a 2-year hiatus following SEC bout
Panama Legislature passes bill regulating crypto
Bill will help Panama become a hub of innovation and technology in Latin America
💰 Funding & Exits
Argent Raises $40M in a Series B
The company's non-custodial wallet lets users take control without needing to remember a complicated seed phrase
OxLabs raises $70M Series B for decentralized exchange provider
Pantera, OpenSea, and Jump Crypto also participated in the round
OneFootball raises $300M in Series D
Football media company says it is using blockchain technology to “release digital assets and fan-centric experiences”
Neobank Cogni dives into web3 as it raises $23M
Round led by Hanwha Asset Management and CaplinFO. Solana Ventures, FTX Ventures and Ship Capital
Venly raises $23M in Series A
Venly is a Belgium-based crypto wallet startup
Ondo Finance raises $20M in Series A led by Peter Thiel
Ondo provides structured products built on top of decentralized exchanges
OpenSea acquires NFT aggregator Gem
Gem allowed users to buy NFTs in bulk
🚀 Project Launches & Updates
Dragonfly launches new $650M crypto fund
Fund will target a new wave of crypto entrepreneurs
Joe McCann targets $1B fund for a crypto investment firm
Asymmetric will have both a venture investment fund and a liquid fund
Gate Ventures targets $200M crypto venture fund
VC arm of Gate.io will invest in layer 1 and layer 2 protocol
🔥 Other Bits We're Excited About
Square Enix sells Off Tomb Raider to fund blockchain games
Sales will net $300M to bankroll new efforts in blockchain games
Bored Ape aims to create its own metaverse after $285M virtual land sale
The land will become part of a larger metaverse vision by Yuga