BP Introduces the Crypto Basics Series | Bankless Publishing Recap
Dear Bankless Readers 🏴
Bankless Publishing is excited to announce the creation of a new educational initiative, the Crypto Basics Series. Each Monday, we’ll ship some of our previous introductory web3 content on Mirror, enabling users to curate a web3 reference library by minting the articles as NFTs on Optimism. Judging by the first mint, there’s an appetite for this content!
Also of note, we’ve begun to share our content on LinkedIn. While it’s just about the direct opposite of Mirror in terms of platform, it’s important that we meet the crypto curious where they are, and for most people, that’s on traditional web2 platforms. Welcome to web3, frens.
In this issue, we’re covering the gamut, from an all-in-one DeFi protocol to the history of MEV in TradFi. There’s a primer on ImpactDAOs, a look at the next stop on the Ethereum Roadmap, a tour through the Cosmos, and a must-have guide on how to stay safe on this amazing frontier. Thanks for joining us on this adventure.
This recap is a convenient way to access all our recent articles, but if you prefer to read Bankless Publishing content while it’s sizzling hot off the press, follow us on Twitter or come and join us in Discord.
Contributors: HiroKennelly, Frank America, Kornekt, Trewkat, Puretayo
Bankless Publishing is driven by a mission to ennoble its writers and showcase their content to a broad audience of crypto-interested readers. We also work with crypto’s leading protocols to help them get their message out to our audience. Whether you’re a writer or protocol team, we’re interested in talking with you.
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🏫 Crypto Basics Series
On Monday, Bankless Publishing launched a Crypto Basics Series on the BanklessDAO Mirror page. Each week we’ll be shipping some of our previous introductory web3 content on Mirror, enabling users to curate a web3 reference library by minting the articles as NFTs on Optimism.
First up is the foundation of it all: Decentralized Ledger Technology 101. There were 10 editions for this mint, and it was fully collected in the first few hours. We’ll highlight this series through the Bankless Publishing Twitter account, so please follow us to stay up to date on the shipping schedule.
✍️ Article Summaries
Is Vertex the Future of DeFi?
Author: Jake and Stake | Editors: Hiro Kennelly & Frank America | Designer: Tonytad
Vertex is an all-in-one DeFi protocol, built on Arbitrum, that combines the best features of centralized exchanges — like low fees, deep liquidity, and fast speeds — with the self-custody and transparency of DeFi. With everything from spot trading to money markets and perpetual swaps, Vertex may be the future of DeFi.
Vertex uses an on-chain AMM for trades but with an off-chain orderbook. Their matching engine and off-chain orderbook (sequencer) use the AMM’s liquidity to achieve tighter spreads, lower slippage, and deeper liquidity than any single product alone.
Although Vertex is still on Testnet, look for its launch on Arbitrum Mainnet soon. And thank you Vertex for sponsoring this article.
ImpactDAOs Are Shaping Regenerative Organizations
Author: 0xSardius | Editor: Kornekt | Designer: Dippudo
ImpactDAOs are organized around a mission to create positive social and environmental change. This movement, which is influenced by the work of Gitcoin’s Kevin Owocki, seeks to create regenerative organizations that are more transparent, efficient, and equitable than traditional models, all while serving to enhance the public good.
ImpactDAOs extend the original DAO model by applying web3 technology to make net-positive, sustainable, and regenerative impacts on their attendant ecosystems. Projects are experimenting and rapidly innovating, creating new paradigms of regenerative ecosystems, redefining how public goods are created, and how resources are used and shared.
Proto-Danksharding Basics
Author: Hiro Kennelly | Editors: Tomahawk & Trewkat | Designer: Tonytad
Proto-danksharding is the next stop for Ethereum after ETH withdrawals are enabled this year. With this network upgrade, the Ethereum developers are introducing the infrastructure needed to further decentralize the network, while also immediately reducing L2 fees, perhaps by as much as 20 times.
Blockchain architecture is a complex topic, and the Ethereum Roadmap even more so. The key takeaways are that proto-danksharding will make transacting on rollup scaling solutions significantly cheaper in the short term, and provide the infrastructure needed to ensure that Ethereum can scale while remaining secure and decentralized.
Alternative L1s: Cosmos
Author: Austin Foss | Editor: Kornket | Designer: Chameleon
Cosmos is a Layer 1 blockchain that uses an innovative proof-of-stake mechanism called Tendermint, and it has an ever-growing number of related L1s, which it uses to scale. The Cosmos universe has expanded to 200+ dApps since its launch four years ago. Even more impressive is the fact that parts of the technology behind Cosmos are also used by entirely different ecosystems, including Polygon and BNB.
For a chain that has only been around for about four years, the technology and research behind Tendermint has had an outsized impact on the crypto ecosystem. It has provided an easy to use framework for centralized exchanges and independent projects to experiment quickly.
Safe Access to the Digital Universe
Author: Anaphant | Editors: Hiro Kennelly & Trewkat | Designer: ab_colours
This article weaves a personal crypto coming-of-age tale with excellent advice on how to stay safe while exploring NFTs and DeFi. With a focus on seed phrases, the author covers the differences between seed phrases, public and private keys, and wallet addresses. She offers suggestions on how to keep these pieces of crucial information safe, which helps to overcome anxiety about transacting in the cryptoverse.
Remember: your sovereignty over your assets depends greatly on taking good care of your seed phrase. It takes a great deal of responsibility, but it is not so hard once you know where you have to be careful. We don’t need other parties or centralized exchanges to take care of our assets. We have the power of self sovereignty! Use it bravely. And go Bankless.
MEV in Traditional Finance
Author: Jake and Stake | Editor: Kornekt | Designer: Chameleon
Did you know that the foundations of Maximum Extractable Value can be found in TradFi? This article reviews the history of high-frequency trading, an industry where milliseconds count and the profits are derived from asymmetrical information, often at the expense of retail investors.
Today, small arbitrage opportunities occur all the time in traditional finance. These opportunities arise in milliseconds and are imperceptible to humans, but are perceptible by computers. One company, known as Spread Networks, spent $300 million constructing a fiber optic cable, 827 miles long, from Chicago to the Nasdaq data center in New Jersey.
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