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5 basic finance concepts you should know

Discover 5 basic finance concepts to better manage your savings 

When you hear the word ‘finance’, does your brain immediately reply ‘I’ll never understand it’? As a matter of fact, it is one of the most intimidating topics for people, perhaps because it is rich in concepts or because it is associated with large amounts of money and risks, or even because it is considered an elitist world for a few experts. Finance is nothing more than the management of funds and it also has an impact on your daily life, so to manage your money with awareness, it is important to know the basics. Here are 5 basic finance concepts you need to know. 

1. Time value of money

The first of these basic finance concepts is that a sum of money is worth more in the present than in the future. In other words, the value of money decreases over time due to inflation, which reduces purchasing power.  

This means that if you keep €1,000 for five years ‘idle’ under your mattress, its value will drop dramatically over time. And at the same time you will lose the possible gains that your 1,000€ would have yielded once invested. 

The concept of time value of money in fact shows that if money gradually loses value, the only way to make it grow is by investing and that waiting to do so means missing an opportunity.  

This principle is to be taken into account before embarking on any financial strategy. Pension fund managers, for example, consider the time value of money to ensure adequate funds for their clients at retirement.

The time value of money can be calculated using a formula that takes several variables into account: the present value of an amount of money, the time interval, interest and inflation rates.

Compared to fiat currency, there are assets that are less subject to the time value of money principle. These include safe haven assets such as gold and commodities because their scarcity increases their value over time, and for some this category also includes Bitcoin (read the research). 

2. Diversification

To explain the second of the basic concepts of finance, that of diversification, the image of the basket is often used: the rule is ‘never put all your eggs in one basket, if it falls they will all break’. The idea is not to buy a single asset with your savings to avoid losing everything if something goes wrong. Diversification serves to minimise risk and consists of spreading one’s investments across several assets. 

Diversification is also used by crypto users to create a balanced cryptocurrency wallet.

3. Risk/reward

Another of the basic concepts of finance is that of the ‘risk/return’ ratio. This relationship is directly proportional, i.e. the higher the risk, the higher the return and vice versa. In the world of finance, you often hear that ‘There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch’; this expression was popularised by the economist Milton Friedman among others. One cannot have lunch without paying, i.e. in order to have high profits, one must be willing to take risks.  

4. Interests 

Interest is a fundamental component of finance and represents the cost of borrowed money or the gain from a deposit. In a loan, interest represents the amount of money the lender charges the borrower for lending him/her the money. They are usually expressed as a percentage and are paid together with the repayment of the principal (i.e. the amount of money lent) at set intervals, e.g. monthly or annually.

In an investment, on the other hand, interest is the profit earned over a period of time. For example, if you deposit money in a bank account that offers an interest rate of 2% per annum, you will earn 2% on the money deposited each year.

When considering whether to take out a mortgage, looking at the interest rates is crucial. These can be influenced by the monetary policies of the European Central Bank, which decides on interest rates, which then fall on the commercial banks. 

5. Put your money at work 

Of all the basic concepts of finance, this refers to the idea of embarking on a strategy in order to grow one’s savings and thus achieve a return. 

In this way, the money ‘works’ for you, producing results. Obviously every investment has its risk component, the idea behind ‘putting your money at work’ is to try to get a higher return than you could get by simply keeping your money in a bank account or under your mattress.

In summary, ‘put your money at work’ is an invitation to consider investing as a way to grow your money and achieve your long-term financial goals. 

These were the 5 basic finance concepts worth knowing. Not as incomprehensible as you thought, right?

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Investment strategies compared: how to make time work in your favour 

The best investment strategies? 5 types of investing compared

Comparing the best investment strategies: should we wait for the right moment to invest or buy regularly?

The first thing to consider when choosing your investment strategies is time: is there a right time to invest? If you too have thought at least once about making your savings pay off, without knowing when to start, there is good news: you can start now and get results even without being a financial guru and spending all day interpreting numbers and charts. 

According to research by Charles Schwab, a multinational financial services company, waiting for the right time to enter a market is very expensive. In other words, buying an asset by trying to calculate ideal market conditions is less convenient than relying on a recurring purchase. 

Is market timing the best investment strategy?

The purpose of Charles Schwab’s 2021 analysis, which we will present in this article, is to understand whether market timing works. That is, to seek an answer to the question: is there a right time to invest? The term ‘market timing’ refers to the attempt to find the best time to buy or sell an asset. You can consider market timing as one of the investment strategies adopted by investors who try to anticipate market movements and, for example, sell before a fall and buy before a rise. For the company’s analysts, market timing does not help to make one’s savings pay off. Let’s see how they came to this conclusion. 

The 5 investors’ thought experiment 

Charles Schwab scholars conducted a thought experiment on five different investment strategies. Each investor was given a $2,000 budget per year to invest in the S&P 500, the most important US stock index, for twenty years, from 2000 to 2020. 

  1. Peter Perfect

Peter is the perfect market timer, that friend who is always successful at what he does. By skill or luck, he has managed to place his annual $2,000 by always finding the right time to invest. For example, in 2001 he waited until 21 September, the lowest closing level of that year for the S&P 500.

  1. Ashley Action

Her investment strategy is simple and consistent: each year she invested $2,000 in the market on the first day of the year. 

  1. Matthew Monthly 

Matthew divided his budget into 12 equal shares that he invested at the beginning of each month, with a strategy called dollar cost averaging that can be implemented with recurring and automatic purchases.

  1. Rosie Rotten

The fourth investor had poor timing and a lot of bad luck: she placed $2,000 each year at peak market times. For example, Rosie invested her first $2,000 on 30 January 2001, the highest closing level of that year for the S&P 500.

  1. Larry Linger

He, waiting for the right time, never invested in stocks but kept his budget in cash or Treasury bonds. 

At the end of twenty years of investment, the profits are as ranked below: 

  1. Peter Perfect: $151,391
  2. Ashley Action: $135,471
  3. Matthew Monthly: $134,856
  4. Rosie Rotten: $121,171
  5. Larry Linger: $44,438

So what was the best investment strategy?

The best results of course are Peter’s who waited and planned his annual investments perfectly. But the most surprising and least expected results of the study concern Matthew and Ashley, the latter coming in with only $15,920 less than the first ranked and Matthew with only $16,535 less. Matthew’s recurring purchase approach performed well. The difference in profits is relatively small, considering that he simply invested regularly without calculating timing or market forecasts.

Another obvious consequence of the research is that even bad timing still wins out over inertia. Although Rosie lost $14,300 compared to Ashley (who did not try to predict the market), Rosie still made almost three times what she would have made if she had not invested at all.

To sum up, the experiment shows that it’s worthwhile to invest now, and not to wait for supposed better times. And that putting one’s savings in motion even in a difficult market moment is still better than not investing at all. 

Charles Schwab examined 76 other 20-year periods and almost always found similar results in the ranking of investors for their returns. Even in periods with unexpected rankings, those who invested early never came last. 

What all this means for you

If you have a budget to invest in some market and do not know the best time to do so, starting now and on a regular basis could be the winning choice. 

The benefits of market timing do not stand out; this investment strategy only pays off for those with the skills or luck to anticipate trends. Regularity is less risky and more efficient. 

The winning choice of recurring purchase 

If you do not have the possibility or do not feel like spending your entire annual budget at once, consider recurring purchases. This way you can place smaller amounts more frequently. Recurring purchase has the advantage of: 

  1. Preventing laziness: this research shows that the ‘I’ll do it later’ or ‘maybe it’s better to wait’ approach does not work at all; 
  2. Minimise the stress of those who seek the perfect moments at all costs and the regrets of large investments that have failed; 
  3. Untie your profits from the timing of the market and its volatility. 

The best investment strategies? There is no such thing! The research concludes that, given the difficulty of predicting the market, the most realistic strategy for most investors is to set up recurring purchases. 

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Want to buy Bitcoin? Recurring purchasing is the way

Buying Bitcoin with recurring purchases: why it pays off

Why you should consider buying Bitcoin regularly explained in 3 charts

Buying Bitcoin through recurring purchases is cheaper than spot buying by constantly looking for the perfect moment to enter the market (spoiler: it does not exist). We’re going to show you this with three charts: you’ll see that the drawdown is lower, as is the volatility and average price. Recurring purchasing is the most effective strategy to set aside Bitcoin regularly and automatically and you can set it up in your Moneybox. 

We ran a simulation based on historical market data on the price of BTC, and imagined a recurring purchase of €50 in Bitcoin per week from January 2020 to March 2023. Here are our results. 

A positive performance for 80% of the period 

Maybe you have some regrets about 2020 spent on the couch in your pyjamas… Today we add to the list not having set up a recurring purchase on the Moneybox. If you had decided to spend €50 per week to buy Bitcoin automatically now your situation would be as described by this chart. 

Chart Bitcoin Value with recurring purchase

Here you can see the value your wallet would have had in March 2023. The yellow line indicates the total amount spent to buy BTC, the green line is the value of your holdings (+22.5%). The moneybox represented by the graph was in the positive for 86.2% of the time considered. With the best performance at +71.43 and the worst at -30.77%. 

Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to buy Bitcoin at its lows instead of at any time? If you have this doubt, read the results of this research which shows that there is actually no such thing as the ‘perfect moment’. Predicting market movements is not for everyone, recurring buying removes this difficulty and still leads to good results. 

Even in a bear market the losses are smaller

In this second graph, the blue line shows the price of BTC from March 2022 to March 2023, the green line the percentage return (profit and loss) of the holder that chose to buy Bitcoin with recurring purchases. 

Chart Bitcoin performance with recurring purchase

According to the analysed data, the drawdown, i.e. the maximum loss that can occur in a time interval, is smaller compared to that of a single purchase. In the period considered, from the beginning of March last year with BTC at $45,000 to March 2023, there would have been a maximum drawdown of 20% compared to the -64% recorded by the price of Bitcoin. In short, the recurring buyer would be in profit by 16% after one year. 

The savings are obvious

In these times of inflation, saving money is becoming a mission for most people. If you are looking for a way to buy Bitcoin while optimising your spending, recurring purchasing is again an option you might consider. Let’s look at the third chart. 

Chart Bitcoin's average price with recurring purchase

The blue line shows the price of BTC from January 2020 to January 2023, while the red line shows the average price paid to buy Bitcoin with recurring purchases. Considering that the cryptocurrency has a bullish trend over large time intervals, the result is that with recurring purchases over the long term, you can get a very good average purchase price compared to the market value. In January 2022 buying spot would have been around $5,000, with recurring buying instead less than $2,000. This is not because there are different prices in the same period, but because the price of the recurring purchase averages out all levels by also including purchases made when the cryptocurrency was at its lowest. 

Again you may ask yourself if buying at lows is not the best thing to do, theoretically the answer is yes. But again ‘lows’ are not easy to predict, so buying on a regular basis is a good trade-off to avoid fretting over ‘impromptu’ market analysis and instead buy Bitcoin conveniently. 

*The information in this article is for educational purposes and is not an incentive to invest. It is based on historical and objective Bitcoin market data, charts do not represent future predictions. The performance of any cryptocurrency wallet is always subject to market conditions and volatility. 

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Polygon zkEVM: mainnet beta is live. The most eagerly awaited tech news of the year

Polygon zkEVM: the mainnet beta is live. What do you need to know?

Everything you need to know about Polygon zkEVM, Ethereum’s Layer 2 that exploits zero-knowledge technology

We’re live: the Polygon zkEVM mainnet beta went online on 27 March. MATIC‘s blockchain team announced on 20 July 2022 the development of an innovative scalability solution for Ethereum (Layer 2), capable of improving the performance of the entire industry. Thus, the Polygon zkEVM was born, combining zero-knowledge (ZK) technology and compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine. 

The project has become the most eagerly awaited tech news in recent months, so much so that 2023 has been dubbed the year of ‘zero-knowledge’.  

Now that the mainnet beta is live, here’s everything you need to know about Polygon zkEVM, Ethereum’s latest scalability innovation!

Polygon zkEVM: blockchain focuses on zero-knowledge

For Ethereum, there is no more pressing challenge than scalability. The increasing amount of dapps and DeFi services using its network are testing its efficiency. The number of transactions to be processed increases day by day and according to Polygon, the most promising solution to meet this challenge are Layer 2s based on zero-knowledge technology. Which allows so many transactions to be processed at once and at a reduced cost. 

One type of Layer 2 derived from this technology are rollups. These aggregate a series of  off-chain transactions into a ‘rollup’ that is transferred to the reference Layer 1 blockchain with one and only one proof of validity for all transactions (zero-knowledge proof). In other words, transactions are not verified one by one, transferring a large amount of data to Ethereum. Everything is reduced to a single step.

This makes the finalisation of transactions and the amount of data that ends up on the blockchain lighter. Polygon zkEVM rollups allow instantaneous transactions unlike other types such as optimistic rollups, chosen as a scalability solution by protocols such as Arbitrium and Optimism. 

Zero-knowledge rollups: pros and cons

Although promising, zk rollups are an underused technology as a scalability solution for Ethereum. In general, these take a long time to develop and are expensive to integrate. Most importantly, in most cases, they are not compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine and are therefore not interoperable with Ethereum. 

Compatibility is crucial because it allows different projects to be standardised and interchangeable with each other, facilitating the exchange of information and value. 

Polygon decided to work precisely on this weakness of zk rollups: ‘We knew that Ethereum needed to scale. We knew that ZK Proofs were the best way to do so. We knew that EVM-equivalence was the secret sauce that would empower both devs and users. So we built Polygon zkEVM”. 

The Polygon zkEVM mainnet beta that went online on 27 March is thus a zero-knowledge Layer 2 solution for scaling Ethereum, that is fully compatible with the EVM. 

Polygon zkEVM: why it’s really news

Zk rollups yes, but compatible with Ethereum. This is Polygon‘s project that is finally a reality! Basically, not being EVM compatible is a big disadvantage, it means not being able to use the same programming language as Ethereum (Solidity), its code or development tools. The problem with zk rollups is therefore one of usability. 

Polygon zkEVM however is a Layer 2 that can be used exactly like Ethereum. Developers and users can find the same security and decentralisation of the ETH network but more speed and convenience. 

Polygon zkEVM: what changes now for blockchain

To summarise, the advantages of Polygon zkEVM are: 

  • More scalability and security for the network;
  • Lower transaction processing costs;
  • Faster transaction finalisation times;
  • Compatibility with Ethereum, the most widely used smart contract platform.

So what is going to change with the arrival of the Polygon zkEVM mainnet beta? The first immediate consequence according to the project team is that the cost of transaction fees on Layer 1 (i.e. on Polygon itself) will decrease by 90%. 

Moreover, thanks to full compatibility with EVM, Web3 developers who want to improve the performance of their dapps built on Ethereum can simply transfer the execution of existing smart contracts to Layer 2. 

Polygon zkEVM: first applications

The Polygon team explained that the main applications of Polygon zkEVM will be in the field of DeFi dapps, NFTs, blockchain gaming and payments. 

One of the first projects to have chosen the Polygon zkEVM to scale its activities is ImmutableX, the blockchain dedicated to crypto gaming that has always used zk rollups since its foundation.  

Earlier this month, Polygon unveiled a new product built on its zkEVM: Polygon ID. It is a service for verifying one’s digital identity, in which users can register credentials in a wallet via smart contract. The owner of a café, for instance, could verify the age of a customer even without documents. Or developers could build decentralised solutions for KYC. 

After the launch of the Polygon zkEVM mainnet beta on 27 March, we will see further applications of the new scalability solution. Which has all the makings of setting new tech standards for blockchain and its development. 

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Gautam Adani: the financial scandal that brought down the world’s third richest man

Gautam Adani and the collapse of the Adani Group: what happened?

In just a few days, billionaire Gautam Adani lost a large part of his fortune. What happened to the Adani Group? 

The collapse of the Adani Group was a major blow to the Indian economy. In just a few days, billionaire Gautam Adani’s empire lost significant shares, estimated at around $100 billion. 

Adani Group: the collapse and financial scandal

What triggered the collapse of the Adani Group were the serious allegations made by the US firm Hindenburg Research. On 24 January 2023, the Indian giant was accused of using tax havens, tax fraud, share value manipulation and unsustainable debt. Hindenburg placed the main emphasis on the high debt. 

Adani Group CFO Jugeshinder Singh called the Hindenburg report a ‘malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, unfounded and discredited allegations’. Singh stated that the company has always complied with all laws and suggested that the allegations had a devious purpose. 

Singh was referring to the upcoming IPO (Initial Public Offering) of Adani Enterprise, the flagship branch of the group, which was to be listed on 27 January with the aim of raising USD 2.5 billion. According to the CFO, Hindenburg would have exposed itself at a crucial moment, just in time to block the IPO. Which indeed happened, the Enterprise’s IPO was cancelled, marking the peak of Adani Group’s collapse. 

Hindenburg’s accusations had immediate effects. The group’s seven listed companies lost a total of $10.73 billion in market capitalisation in one day. Just as Gautam Adani’s net worth dropped from $126.4 billion to $120 billion. Moreover, a large number of investors abandoned Adani Group.

Finally, the Indian market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), started an investigation (still ongoing) to confirm or deny the validity of the allegations made. 

Adani Group vs Hindenburg Research

In the early stages of this affair, Adani Group hinted that it would take legal action against Hindenburg. The latter in turn commented on Twitter: 

Who is behind Hindenburg?

Hindenburg Research is a forensic financial research firm that analyses equities, credit and derivatives, founded in 2017 by Nathan Anderson. On its website, Hindenburg says they look for “man-made disasters” such as accounting irregularities, mismanagement and suspicious transactions. And on Twitter they specify ‘we burst bubbles where we see them’. 

The firm was named after the Hindenburg airship disaster that caught fire in 1937 while flying towards New Jersey. 

After identifying potential wrongdoing, Hindenburg publishes a report explaining the case and bets against the targeted company, hoping to make a profit. According to its website, Hindenburg has reported at least 16 companies since 2017. 

Gautam Adani, who is the Indian billionaire?

Before the collapse of Adani Group, Gautam was the third richest person in the world. According to Forbes, he is now at the 32nd position in this ranking. 

The entrepreneur, originally from Gujarat in western India, built his empire from scratch after starting his career as a commodities trader. He was born on 24 June 1962 into a large family, consisting of his textile dealer father, mother and seven siblings.

After compulsory schooling, Adani enrolled in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Gujarat, but dropped out after two years. He then moved to Mumbai with just over a hundred dollars in his pocket, where he started working as a diamond selector for Mahendra Brothers. After three years in the diamond business, he opened his own company, but the real turning point came when his older brother asked for his help in handling a large shipment of plastic that he had purchased. From there, he began his career in the commodities business that led him to found the Adani Group in 1988. 

This is not the first time that Gautam has ended up at the centre of a scandal. He is in the spotlight mainly because of his friendly relationship with Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister. The latter, as a supporter of Adani, found himself in trouble in the face of Hindenburg’s accusations. This is why the issue also took a political turn.  

The most recent controversy that has engulfed Adani concerns the protest of some fishermen against the construction of a $900 million port in Kerala, southern India. 

Also in Australia, environmental activists have been protesting for years against the Carmichael coal mine project by Adani in Queensland, over carbon emissions and damage to the Great Barrier Reef.

Adani Group: what does it do? 

Adani Group is a conglomerate, i.e. a company that operates in several sectors through separate subsidiaries. The company was founded in 1988 and is based in Ahmedabad, in the Indian state of Gujarat. The company operates in various sectors, including energy, transport, agriculture, logistics and utilities. Some branches of the group are the aforementioned, Adani Enterprise, Green Energy, Power, Ports & SEZ.

The group is one of the largest private power producers in India, with a renewable energy generation capacity of over 18,000 MW. 

Its growth has been large and remarkable over time thanks to a strategy of diversification and acquisitions. It has a global presence and also operates in Australia. United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Myanmar. 

By November 2022 it was the second largest conglomerate in India. 

But the company does not only have industrial interests, the company also owns several sports teams such as the Gujarat Giants of the Pro Kabaddi League and the Gulf Giants of the Cricket League.  

Simple allegations, which have not yet been confirmed, led to the sudden collapse of the Adani Group. However, this is not a definitive exit or bankruptcy. Until the investigations are concluded for Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, the game is still open. 

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What is the Bored Ape Yacht Club? Everything you need to know about the NFTs of the moment!

bored ape yacht club

How much do you know about the Bored Ape Yacht Club, the collection that made NFT mainstream? Here’s its full story!

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) marked the success of NFTs and made them mainstream. At almost two years old, it is the second largest non-fungible token project in terms of trading volume. But what is the Bored Ape Yacht Club? Who is behind it? Why are these ‘bored apes’ worth so much? In this article you will find everything you need to know!

Bored Ape Yacht Club: what is it?

The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of 10,000 non-fungible tokens released by Yuga Labs in 2021. Each NFT in the collection represents an ‘Ape’, i.e. a monkey, generated by the combination of 170 randomly chosen characteristics, including expressions, headgear, and clothing. The concepts of combination and rarity are reminiscent of CryptoPunks, with the Bored Ape also being distinguished by its reference number. Technically speaking, these non-fungible tokens are ERC-721 tokens on Ethereum and their metadata are hosted in the decentralised repository of the IPFS.

Two spin-off collections derive from the Bored Ape Yacht Club: the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, which represents the monkeys in a ‘mutant’ version, and the Bored Ape Kennel Club, which includes the primates’ four-legged friends (pooches).

Celebrities who own Bored Ape

Owning a Bored Ape means belonging to an exclusive club of community benefits but above all social prestige. Many people from show business have climbed aboard the club that grants real status. Let’s take a look at some celebrities and their Apes:

  • Shaquille O’Neal
    The NBA champion owns a Mutant Ape, bought for $14,000;
  • Jimmy Fallon
    The Bored Ape number #599 is currently owned by the famous American talk show host. He bought it for $224,000;
  • Eminem
    In December 2021, Eminem bought an Ape for more than $450,000. An Ape that looks incredibly like him;
  • Neymar JR
    The player in January 2022 for 1 million took home two Apes, number #6633 and #5269;
  • Gwyneth Paltrow
    Paltrow’s last non-fungible purchase appeared on Twitter last January;
  • Justin Bieber
    The pop star keeps Bored Ape #3001 in his wallet.
  • Snoop Dogg
    The rapper in question, under the pseudonym Cozomo de’ Medici, is a big NFT collector. He certainly couldn’t pass up a few Apes.
  • Stephen Curry
    The four-time NBA champion also owns a Bored Ape, number #7990, which he has displayed for a few months as his Twitter profile picture.
  • Madonna
    “The Queen of Pop” owns BAYC number #4988, paid around $466,000.

How the Bored Ape Yacht Club came into being

Like all great stories, this one started with four friends at the bar. Gargamel, Gordon, Tomato and Sass, four eccentric, out-of-the-box types decided to experiment with blockchain and create some not-so-smart-looking monkeys. The first step was taken by Gordon who immediately came up with a detailed and enviable business plan, namely a chat message: ‘let’s make an NFT’. Gargamel and Gordon had stumbled upon cryptocurrencies in 2017 and in the famous bar they tried to pull the other two in. You know that friend for whom any opportunity is good to talk crypto? Spoiler: if you can’t think of anyone, it’s you.

Tomato and Sass’s role in the project was technical, meanwhile another message had arrived: “do you know JavaScript?”. Apparently it seemed essential to them to create NFT (spoiler #2: it’s not so much). All four of them together founded Yuga Labs to make digital, authentic art on blockchain. In February 2022, the American tabloid BuzzFeed published a report revealing the identities of two founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, specifically Gordon and Gargamel whose real names would be: Wylie Aronow and Greg Solano, two 30-year-old Florida residents. The article triggered a fierce reaction from the community, which accused BuzzFeed of illegally violating the privacy of the two founders.

But why monkeys? In the crypto world, monkeys are common animals, almost as common as whales. According to a long tradition, cryptocurrency traders affectionately refer to each other as ‘monkeys’. Cryptopunks also have monkeys, and they are among the rarest.

Key moments in the history of the Bored Ape Yacht Club

The Bored Ape was released in April 2021 and in just a few years wrote NFT history, achieving sensational milestones. Here is a brief summary of the highlights of BAYC:

  • 23 April 2021: launch of the collection with a one-week pre-sale. During this time, only 500 Ape were sold at 0.08 ETH (at that time about 220 USD);
  • 1 May 2021: crazy night when all 9,500 remaining Apes were sold! On that night, BAYC’s smart contract was the most used smart contract on Ethereum: “our Discord went from totally dead to the most hype place in the crypto world”. The collection thus sold out;
  • 8 August 2021: opening of the BAYC Riverboat Casino in Decentraland developed with Decentral Games;
  • 28 August 2021: arrival of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, each ape owner received a symbolic ‘serum’ to mutate their ape with matching but ‘genetically modified’ traits. In addition, 10,000 more Mutant Apes were born,
  • 9 September 2021: During an auction at Sotheby’s (the famous auction house), a lot of 101 Apes was sold for almost $25 million;
  • 17 December 2021: collaboration with Adidas to bring the sports brand into the Metaverse.
  • 18 March 2022: airdrop of Apecoin (APE), the BAYC governance token, developed by ApeCoin DAO and not directly by Yuga Labs;
  • 19 March 2022: launch of Otherdeed, the LANDs of the Bored Ape Metaverse, Otherside (not yet officially released);
  • 16 July 2022: online the demo version of Otherside in which 4,500 users participated, the first exclusive journey into the Bored Ape Metaverse;
  • 19 January 2023: release of Doo-Key Dash, a mini-game for NFT holders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club to win valuable prizes;

Who illustrated the Bored Ape?

The Bored Ape originated primarily as an art project, their ‘bored, scruffy, punk’ graphic design stemming from the joint work of several freelance artists. All Seeing Seneca worked for four days under the creative direction of the founders to outline the basic character, later Mig and Thomas Dagley and two other artists who wish to remain anonymous created the expressions, clothing, accessories and design of the club itself within a month. The Mutant Ape Yacht Club is the work of Dagley and Lovans Hartes.

The Bored Ape are the undisputed stars of the crypto space

BAYC is now an institution in the crypto space. Apes are used as avatars for experiences that have to do with the Metaverse or Web3, such as Jenkins The Valet, the creative writing project using NFTs, or the digital band set up by Universal Music, in which the members are four Apes. A Bored Ape even appeared in the Adidas commercial for the 2022 World Cup, on the packaging of a cereal box. These are just a few examples, to keep up to date with all BAYC initiatives, there is The Bored Ape Gazette.

Another project developed by Yuga Labs is ‘The Bathroom‘. A virtual bathroom where each club member, i.e. those who have at least one Ape in their wallet, could paint a pixel on the wall for 15 minutes. “As with any good dive bar bathroom, this is the place to draw, doodle or write expletives”. An artistic and collaborative experiment for the cryptosphere, as crazy and creative as the four founders of BAYC. The (improvised) writers of the Bored Ape Yacht Club did a rather original job, even two Crypto Punks appeared on the canvas!

The universe of the Bored Ape

Yuga Labs is regularly releasing applications and features that help expand its ecosystem. The most important project is certainly the Otherside metaverse, announced in March 2022 and already ‘tested’ by the community. It is not yet known when this virtual world will be available, but to console users who can no longer wait, the mini-game Doo-Key was released in January 2023, opening a new chapter in the lore (plot) of the Bored Ape Yacht Club.

NFT Yuga Labs owners have previously minted the Sewer Pass to gain access to the game. In the game Doo-Key, the objective is to retrieve a valuable key lost by the careless character Jimmy The Monkey while darting through the sewers. This key, if collected, will allow you to open the door to the next scenario, learn about new plot developments, and qualify for exclusive prizes from the Bored Ape Yacht Club.

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The 10 most expensive internet domains in history

Internet domains: the 10 most expensive in history

Who is ready to shell out millions for a name on the Internet? Here are the most expensive domains ever and their owners

How is it possible that Internet domains, virtual properties that can be bought for as little as a few dozen dollars, come to cost millions and millions? Some are more valuable than others, and despite the fact that more than twenty years have passed since they were first traded, this market is still very active today. The rarest, and therefore most desirable, domains are those defined by unique, meaningful words. Those words that can describe a precise field or sector such as “cars”, “internet” or “sex” (as in the case of Sex.com, the domain that took everyone to court). The ranking of the most expensive domains in history is all made up of the TDL .com, the one with the most international scope.

1.    Cars.com – 872 million

The most expensive internet domain in history? Cars.com, which had a valuation of $872,000,000 in 2017. It is currently owned by the Chicago-based car company of the same name. Its value was estimated on the basis of balance sheet documents of parent company Gannet Co., Inc. 

2.    LasVegas.com – 90 million

This domain was purchased by Vegas.com, a travel, tourism and entertainment site linked to the city in Nevada. The agreement, which came in 2005, provided for a payment of $12,000,000 at the time of signing and monthly payments scheduled until 2040, when the domain will be officially transferred to Vegas.com (assuming it does not want to terminate the contract).

3.    CarInsurance.com – 49.7 million

CarInsurance.com hosts a car insurance website and since 2010 it has been owned by QuinStreet, a marketing and advertising company that is very active in domain, website and media buying and selling.

4.    Insurance.com – 35.6 million

Prior to CarInsurance.com, QuinStreet had already purchased Insure.com (for $16 million) and Insurance.com in 2009 to strengthen its online presence and identity in the field of insurance. The former was owned by a broker, while Insurance.com was bought for $35.6 million by an insurance agency.

5.    VacationRentals.com – 35 million

In fifth place in the ranking of the most expensive internet domains ever is VacationRentals.com. In 2013 it was bought for $35 million by Brian Sharples, CEO of HomeAway (now Vrbo, Vacation Rentals by Owner), a company that offers holiday rental accommodation. The purchase had a ‘defensive’ purpose at the time, Sharples explained: ‘the only reason we bought it was because Expedia couldn’t have that url’. Fun fact: marking territory did not help, Expedia acquired Vrbo in 2015.

6.    PrivateJet.com – 30.2 million

PrivateJet.com since 2012 has been owned by Nations, a platform that offers private aviation services such as buying and selling jets around the world. Nations purchased the domain from Don’t Look Media for $30.2 million.

7.    Voice.com – 30 million

You may not know that Micheal Saylor‘s MicroStrategy is also involved in trading valuable internet domains. On 30 May 2019, it sold the Voice.com domain to Block.one for $30 million to launch its blockchain-based social media platform called Voice. The word ‘voice’ in English is clear and recognisable, it immediately links to a project and the associated domain is worth so much.

8.    Internet.com – 18 million

Internet.com was bought in 2009 for $18 million by QuinStreet. However, it may have secretly climbed the ranking of the most expensive internet domains ever… In fact, an auction was organised in 2021 with a minimum auction base of 35 million. Unfortunately, there is no information on the outcome and the eventual new owner.

9.    360.com – 17 million

The owner of 360.com is Qihoo 360, a Chinese company specialising in security software. The domain, which previously belonged to Vodafone, was acquired to improve brand perception. Compared to ‘qihoo’, ‘360’ is a more immediate and easy-to-remember name due to the technical term ‘360 degree’.

10. NFTs.com – 15 million

This crypto-themed domain closes the top 10, NFTs.com was bought for $15 million on 3 August 2022. Although the buyer has remained anonymous, it is known to have links to Web3 projects such as the Digital Artist platform. It is one of the most expensive crypto word domains (Eth.com was sold for ‘only’ 2 million).

Crypto.com, Stake.com and Bitcoin.com also seem to fall into the category of the most expensive internet domains in history. In these cases, however, negotiations remained confidential.

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After crypto, will China now also ban NFTs?

NFT news from China: will they become illegal like cryptocurrencies?

Will NFTs become as illegal as cryptocurrencies in China? A Chinese court issues a ruling and the debate opens up

A few days ago, the Hangzhou court in China ruled that NFTs must comply with laws established for e-commerce sales and those related to virtual property, due to their characteristics of ‘value, scarcity, traceability, and marketability’. The ruling was particularly lenient towards the sector after the 2021 ban on crypto. What might be the next developments following this news? Will NFTs become illegal in China?

Cryptocurrencies are banned in China

In 2021, the Chinese government officially banned crypto mining and trading. On the one hand mining was banned for environmental reasons (taking 50% of all global mining activity out of the country). On the other hand, crypto was banned for possible ‘speculation’ risks. All crypto-to-crypto and fiat-to-crypto transactions are therefore illegal in China. This is the case for both local and foreign platforms. The Chinese government had however not taken a decision at the same time to regulate NFTs.

Are NFTs legal in China?

From a legal point of view, NFTs are not banned in China. However, since their technology is linked to cryptocurrencies, the situation is complicated. A first aspect to consider is that, given the ban on crypto, non-fungible tokens cannot currently be purchased via cryptocurrencies. Generally speaking, although the Chinese government is not hostile to the concept of NFTs per se, it remains intolerant of possible financial applications and even simple buying and selling.

In this regard, on the 13th April 2022, the National Internet Finance Association of China, the China Banking Association and the Securities Association of China shared guidelines to ‘prevent financial risks related to NFTs’. These are not laws because these associations have no legislative powers, but rather steps to be taken to prevent users from associating tokens with the same concepts of ‘speculation’ that led crypto to be banned. These guidelines are like a test for those who want to create and sell NFTs in China and could guide future choices by the authorities by building standards.

Some of these measures are:

  1. Using only the state blockchain to create NFT (more on this blockchain later);
  2. Referring to NFTs as “virtual collector’s items” and not as “tokens”;
  3. Avoiding any association with crypto;
  4. Suspending NFT secondary markets;
  5. Using platforms that verify the identity of users.

A black market is born

The crypto ban has led many Chinese citizens to use virtual private networks (VPNs) that can circumvent the Chinese government’s localisation and censorship of international crypto services. In this manner, Chinese citizens can access marketplaces like OpenSea and Magic Eden, where they can buy crypto tokens and resell them according to their own strategy. It is estimated that 31% of Internet users in China use a VPN. Among them, buying and selling NFTs is very popular.

From the Hangzhou court: an NFT is like a pair of trainers

To complete the picture on the status of NFTs in China, a ruling came from the Hangzhou Court, which specialises in internet law. On the 29th of November, the court was called upon to rule on a conflict between a buyer and a marketplace that cancelled a sale of non-fungible tokens without the consent of the parties involved. On this occasion, the court ruled that NFTs belong “to the virtual property of the network” as a unique product protected by an intellectual asset. Non-fungible tokens should therefore, from a legal point of view, be considered as any product sold on an e-commerce website. The law that monitors this is the e-commerce Law, that has come into force since the 1st January 2019. It is a popular law drafted to respond to the rapid growth of online commerce.

Will NFTs become illegal? The latest news does not suggest any particular closures on the part of the Chinese authorities.

Can NFTs exist without cryptocurrencies?

The Chinese government has also proposed its own version of NFTs, i.e. created on the state blockchain. This network, called the Blockchain Services Network (BSN), is a centralised and ‘permissioned‘ blockchain. In contrast to all ‘permissionless’ public blockchains, the BSN is managed by selected employees and not by network validators. On this blockchain, all users are tracked in accordance with Chinese law. Also available on the BSN are tools for artists and brands that want to create their token collections, which can only be purchased in fiat currency. This Chinese version of NFTs is called BSN-DDC or distributed digital certificates.

In China, those who sell or create NFTs do so on the BSN or other similar compliant networks, such as Alibaba, Tencent and JD. Most of these services are offered by established Web2 companies, hardly any decentralised protocols can be found. So can there be NFTs without crypto? Can those proposed by the Chinese government not be considered real, non-fungible tokens? The debate is open, for the champions of decentralisation, ‘distributed digital certificates’ do not meet the needs of Web3.

An instrument of protest

Leaving aside the legislative aspects, NFTs have become popular enough in China to be used as a form of protest against the government.

The citizens of Shanghai last May chose non-fungible tokens as a means of communicating outside China about the oppressive lockdown policies imposed back in March. After the publication of a video against the harsh lockdown, the government had banned all references to the topic on social networks. NFTs then served as a way to bear witness to the difficult living conditions, in a way that was immutable and sharable worldwide.

Even if NFTs become illegal in China, examples like this make us believe that enthusiasts will not give up so easily on a technology with this potential.

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The story of the CryptoKitties, the NFTs that wrote blockchain history

CryptoKitties: guide and history of NFTs on Flow blockchain

What are CryptoKitties? Who created them? Why did this collection mark the evolution of the blockchain? This and juch more in the NFT guide and history on Flow!

CryptoKitties are a game on blockchain based on the breeding and care of digital kittens in the form of NFTs. In addition to being one of the very first non-strictly financial applications of blockchain, CryptoKitties wrote blockchain history as pioneers of NFTs and gaming on Ethereum. Their success has helped advance the blockchain ecosystem in terms of technology and adoption. But how does the CryptoKitties game work? Who created it? And, how has it influenced the crypto world?

What are CryptoKitties? How can you play with digital kittens?

“Cats are impossible to understand. They are ambassadors of pharaohs, memes and your mother’s Facebook page. They don’t discriminate, they despise everyone equally.” To date, CryptoKitties’ NFT kittens have more than 130,000 wallets involved, 2 million NFTs and a trading volume 70,000 ETH. CryptoKitties are a collection of NFTs depicting cats with different characteristics that need to be bred and fed in order to give birth to kittens. Playing with CryptoKitties means first and foremost collecting, but also becoming expert breeders and scholars of feline genetics, as well as traders doing business by buying and selling the rarest specimens. In addition to this, thanks to the Kitty Verse platform, one can participate in experiences and play games with the CryptoKitties, e.g. by solving riddles and puzzles to unlock new attributes and gadgets, or make the kittens fight each other like in KotoWars. CryptoKitties are now compatible with other digital worlds such as the Decentraland metaverse.

To playCryptoKitties from your desktop, the project team recommends using Chrome or Firefox as a browser for better performance. In the meantime, a mobile app is being developed to keep the NFT Kittties with you at all times! To play, you also need a digital wallet and ETH, the Ethereum crypto that serves to cover the costs of feeding and raising the kittens. Where can you buy CryptoKitties NFTs? They are available on the project’s marketplace (accessible from the website) in the form of direct sales or offers, or in the most widely used NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea. The price of CryptoKitties starts from 0.003 ETH, up to thousands of dollars.

From Ethereum to Flow, the blockchain for NFTs

It can be said that they have come a long way since their launch in 2017, but CryptoKitties have been a success right from the start. The project was launched in 2017 by Axiom Zen, a company dedicated to promoting projects on new technologies such as blockchain. The Axiom Zen team, of which Layne Lafrance was also a member, presented the NFTs at the ETH Waterloo Ethereum hackathon, i.e. an event for programmers gathered to develop new projects or obtain funding. The first NFTs of the CryptoKitties with the Gen0 collection of 50,000 NFTs were soon released on Ethereum. The public reaction was immediately positive, so much so that transactions to buy and play with the kittens increased so much that they congested the Ethereum network, driving gas fees through the roof.

At its peak in 2017, CryptoKitties attracted more than 14,000 active users per day and popularised Ethereum’s technology worldwide. In other words, CryptoKitties helped make Ethereum the benchmark for digital collections and gaming. However, the collection also highlighted some of Ethereum’s weaknesses, and consequently the need for a highly scalable blockchain suitable for hosting games and entertainment. From Axiom’s team in 2018, Dapper Labs ‘The NFT Company’ was founded to build Flow, a blockchain with these characteristics. Starting in 2021, CryptoKitties began a gradual transition from Ethereum to Flow. This change, linked to the reasons for expanding the collection and the game, was designed to improve the project from an aesthetic and technical point of view (by implementing animations, for example) and to make the experience easier for users, even those less used to dealing with blockchain tools. Flow is mainly used in the field of games and social networks, and in general for all those experiences that involve many users simultaneously on the blockchain. Flow intends to manage communities that grow as fast as the Web3 and make blockchain usable for people, and “not just for industry experts and early adopters”. Other popular NFT projects are built on Flow, including NBA Top Shot.

The story of CryptoKitties is the story of the evolution of blockchain

In short, CryptoKitties opened up a need for blockchain scalability, which the industry has now been working on continuously for years. The CryptoKitties crash that sent Ethereum into a tailspin brought a number of innovative solutions to overcome Ethereum’s scalability challenges, as well as Layer 2s that are now essential pillars for network usability. Furthermore, the fact that Dapper Labs created one of the first games on blockchain brought countless new users to the technology, demonstrating the full potential of blockchain in the fields of digital art and gaming. Simply put, CryptoKitties is a pioneer of NFT games and its success pushed the blockchain ecosystem forward in terms of both technology and adoption.

The technology behind CryptoKitties

Each CryptoKitties is an ERC-721 token, the standard for non-fungible tokens. Each CryptoKitties is unique and indivisible and its ownership is tracked thanks to smart contracts. The Core CryptoKitties smart contract tracks all transfers of NFTs and all new ones created through breeding, as well as the attributes and genes that make NFTs different from each other. All actions in the game such as breeding, feeding, selling are transactions performed by smart contracts on the blockchain and therefore require a commission. Since they are NFTs, even if one day Dapper Labs goes bankrupt or the CryptoKitties’ platform gets eliminated, the digital kittens will continue to exist thanks to the blockchain, and so will their value.

Attributes and genetics of CryptoKitties

If there are over 2 million NFTs of CryptoKitties, how do you determine the rarest? By what is their value determined? CryptoKitties, unlike CryptoPunks, for example, are not a limited collection. There is a complex system of attributes, called ‘Cattributes’, and genetic combinations that also inspired the constitution of the little monsters in Axie Infinity, the DeFi video game. To begin with, CryptoKitties are divided into four types: Normal, Fancy, Special Editions and Exclusive. Already, these indicate an increasing scale of rarity because they are available in different quantities.

Each CryptoKitties in turn has a name and 12 attributes such as eye shape and colour, fur type, mouth type, all of which reflect its genetic code. Each attribute consists of a block of 4 genes, a primary one that is the one that manifests itself in the kitten and 3 latent ones. For example, if the fur colour has emerald green as primary gene (P), as hidden genes it can have salmon pink (H1), an orange soda colour (H2) and again orange soda as the third hidden gene (H3). While the primary gene is visible in the NFT, the secondary genes are transmitted to the offspring of CryptoKitties according to different percentages, e.g. the primary genes of the father cat are transmitted in 37.5% of the cases, H1 in 9.4%, H2 in 2.3% and H3 in 0.8%. All kittens can play the role of both father and mother – very modern from CryptoKitties! There is a tool that shows hypothetical kittens and their rarity based on the pairing of the parents. However, CryptoKitties are not always born based on percentages, it can happen that genes mutate creating truly unique and unexpected kittens! Since 2018, Mewtation Gems and Family Jewels, badges to trace and certify the lineage and pedigree of NFTs, have been included.

What is the rarest NFT of CryptoKitties?

A first way of assessing the rarity of CryptoKitties is therefore the type and its genetics; indeed, cattributes have varying degrees of rarity. However, there are other characteristics that do not depend on these aspects, but equally affect the value of NFTs:

  1. Gen0 of CryptoKitties: the first NFTs in 50,000 copies are the rarest and most valuable ever. At the moment, they are not all in circulation, about 12,000 are still owned by the team waiting to be released on special occasions;
  2. “Cooldown” or the resting time between one puppy and another. Each Kitties has a cooldown that depends on its generation, e.g. those from Gen0 have to wait 1 minute to make a new puppy, those from Gen26 onwards, over 1 week;
  3. ID number: NFT cats are numbered according to birth order, so the lower numbers are the oldest CryptoKitties that are sold at higher prices by collectors;
  4. Errors: sometimes newborn CryptoKitties have graphic errors, since mutations are difficult to create they are rarer and particularly hard to find;
  5. Pure-bred kittens: very few specimens have the same gene repeated 4 times in the attribute block.
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Fan tokens explained: what are they and what are they for?

Fan tokens: what are they and how do they work?

Fan tokens are cryptocurrencies created to bring sports teams or artists closer to their supporters and to offer exclusive benefits

In recent years, fan tokens have catapulted a lot of new users into the crypto world, specifically fans of sports teams or music groups. At the moment, these are mainly used in the fields of sports and music, but they can potentially be exploited by anything that involves interaction between a brand and a fan base. Non-sports tokens are also often referred to as ‘social tokens’. In this article, to explain what they are, how they work and what they are used for, we will use the example of the most popular fan tokens : the football tokens on Socios.

What are fan tokens and how do they work?

Fan tokens are a type of cryptocurrency, so in essence they are cryptographic digital coins built on a blockchain. They grant the holder access to a range of benefits or experiences related to the sports team that issues them. The working mechanism of fan tokens is simple: a fan buys them and the team grants rewards such as merchandise, match tickets, experiences with players, and the ability to vote on certain team decisions. Fan tokens were created precisely with the intention of improving and enlivening the relationship between fans and their favourite teams.

So, are they cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin? Technically speaking, fan tokens are created on existing blockchains and use standards developed by third parties. For example if they are based on Ethereum, the standard of reference is ERC-20. In contrast, Bitcoin runs on its own native blockchain. This is precisely why they are ‘tokens’ and not ‘coins’ as in the case of Bitcoin. However, fan tokens share the characteristic of fungibility with Bitcoin. In other words, they are not unique to each other but are interchangeable (so to speak ‘one is as good as the other’). In turn, fungibility differentiates them from NFTs, which are actually an abbreviation of ‘non-fungible tokens’. Fan tokens are therefore not used for collecting.

Are fan tokens utility tokens?

Tokens in the crypto sector are generally classified into utility and security tokens. Utility tokens have a specific utility within the ecosystem that issued them. For example, UNI is the utility token of the Uniswap decentralised exchange, which is used to participate in project governance. On the other hand, security tokens promise a future profit to their holder. In what category do fan tokens fit?

According to the Chiliz team, which actually launched the first tokens of this kind on the Socios platform, they are neither utility tokens nor security tokens. Fan tokens constitute a ‘third’ and new token with specific characteristics, which emerged from the need to unite fans and teams with Web3 tools.

Where can you buy them?

Fan tokens can be bought from platforms that issue them, such as Socios on the Chiliz blockchain. To buy fan tokens on Socios you need to sign up and buy $CHZ. In exchange for this crypto, you then can get your team’s fan tokens. Fan tokens are bought like any other cryptocurrency. Once the purchase is complete, you will find the fan tokens directly in your wallet. In some cases, fan tokens are listed in crypto exchanges.

What can you do with fan tokens?

Fan tokens were created to increase the participation of fans in the events of their team. With them, football clubs can offer direct involvement, making the relationship with fans reciprocal.

Why is this needed to bring fans closer together? As Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Chiliz and Socios says, 99.9 percent of fans don’t even go to the stadium. Teams therefore need channels to interact with the entire fan base, not just those who can physically go to the games.

What are fan tokens actually used for? Let’s look at a few examples. Holders can choose how to decorate the team’s dressing room with motivational phrases, or the motto on the captain’s armband (as in the case of F.C. Barcelona). Or, decide the song with which to celebrate anniversaries or the design of the kits (in the case of Inter). Napoli fans these days are voting on the new name for the team’s training ground.

As the owners of the Udinese fan token prepare to redeem their Christmas dinner.

Fan tokens are mainly bought by fans. On the other hand, like all other cryptocurrencies, they can be used by traders for buying and selling transactions. The market for fan tokens has proven to be very much linked to the performance of matches as was evident in the case of the 2022 World Cup and national team fan tokens.

Now that you know what fan tokens are, how they work and what they are used for, you may be wondering what their true value is within the crypto landscape, but also within the sports landscape. Their relevance depends on the importance given to fan tokens. If a team sees its fans only as people who go to games, fan tokens do not seem so interesting. When, on the other hand, fans are the lifeblood of the entire football club, fan tokens are a tool for building relationships and sharing sporting enthusiasm.