Of Cypherpunks and Crypto Predictions | Bankless Publishing Recap

Top-shelf Educational Web3 Content Shipped Directly to Your Inbox

Dear Bankless Readers 🏴

We’re coming out of the ‘gap week’ seasonal break in the DAO, which means we’re back to shipping top-shelf educational web3 content. You’ll notice some changes coming in Season 7, including shipping articles on BanklessDAO’s Mirror page. NFT collectors rejoice! 

To fire off this season, we’re recapping articles on the intellectual and technical origins of web3, learning about the mechanisms designed to combat blockchain vulnerabilities, looking into crypto’s crystal ball to see what 2023 has in store, and upping our DeFi game with DEX aggregators. 

This recap is a convenient way to access all our recent articles, but if you prefer to read Bankless Publishing while it’s sizzling hot off the press, go to BanklessPublishing.com, follow us on Twitter, or come and join us in Discord.

Contributors: Frank America, Kornekt, Trewkat, Puretayo, HiroKennelly

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✍️ Article Summaries

The Core of Crypto Is Punks and Principles

Article by PG | Edited by nonsensetwice & Trewkat | Cover Art by Bilulu

In this fantastic piece, PG dives into the history of the Cypherpunks, a group of privacy-focused intellectuals who laid the philosophical and technical foundations for web3.

The large-scale dissemination of cryptography as a means of protecting individuals’ rights to privacy and free speech — and therefore the root of cryptocurrencies and web3 — was initiated by a group of people known as the cypherpunks. The bizarre name is a play on the words cypher, encryption, and cyberpunk (a dystopian sci-fi genre), and it denotes those who first developed anonymous transacting systems to protect individual rights against the threat of state and corporate surveillance.

From Bitcoin, to Ethereum and beyond, we have the Cypherpunks to thank for the work we are doing today.

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The Byzantine Generals Problem, 51% Attacks, and Proof-of-Work

Article by Jake and Stake | Edited by Kornekt | Cover Art by Trewkat

Prolific BanklessDAO author Jake and Stake is back with a nuanced breakdown of some of the core issues around blockchain vulnerabilities, and the strategies used to combat them. Taking us through the Byzantine Generals Problem, which deals with selfish actors and coordination failures, to 51% attacks, which can lead to compromised networks, this primer gets you ready to slay Moloch. Wham. 

The Byzantine Generals problem is a problem in distributed computing that arises at the point of making decisions. In such a decentralized setting, there’s the question: “how do we make collective decisions?” If it were a centralized system, the answer is obvious: someone at the top is the decision maker and that person is the source of truth. However, in a decentralized system, there are multiple independent actors and the answer becomes complex.

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12 Crypto Predictions For 2023

Article by KAF | Edited by nonsensetwice & Trewkat | Cover Art by KAF

Metaverse Master KAF previews 2023 by offering 12 crypto predictions with a slight NFT bent: 

The NFT industry saw remarkable success in 2022, with total sales of $55.5 billion. The future looks bright for the NFT market, with continued growth and expanding adoption on the horizon. Experts are forecasting a significant increase in user numbers, reaching 64.45 million by 2027.

Will the NFT market continue its upward trend and surpass the 2022 figures?

Not content to stay in the Metaverse, KAF sees great things coming, such as continued Ethereum dominance and price movement in BTC to make maxis rejoice! 

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DEX Aggregator Basics

Article by oxdog | Edited by Trewkat | Cover Art by ab_colours

In this quick read, oxdog shows us why DEX aggregators are the Expedia and Trivago of DeFi. There are so many protocols to choose from, how can one decide where it’s best to swap? DEX aggregators are here to help.

DEX aggregators monitor all liquidity sources across DeFi and use sophisticated algorithms to detect the most favorable rates with the least slippage. When you trade on an aggregator, you are still using the underlying DEX protocol, but the aggregator decides which one is the best for you.

Dive into DEX aggregators with oxdog to get the down low on this high-signal DeFi hack.

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🧵 Tweet Threads

Bankless Publishing @BanklessPub

1/ How Blockchains Combat Common Vulnerabilities in Distributed Computing The Byzantine Generals problem is a problem in distributed computing that arises at the point of making decisions.

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1/ Exploring the Effects of Blockchain Instability on the NFT Economy In the realm of physical, tangible art, collectors will go to great lengths to have their pieces certified as original. Paintings by classical or popular artists are highly sought after and valued accordingly

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/1 A Primer on Soulbound Tokens What are Soulbound Tokens? SBTs are non-transferrable, verifiable, digital tokens/awards that can show an individual’s accreditations, work history, experience, and past records.

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