a16z Accelerator Project Analysis
As a bellwether in the crypto space, a16z Accelerator has been leading the industry innovation. This fall, a16z selected 21 of the most innovative projects from many startups around the world, covering multiple fields such as artificial intelligence and decentralized finance. This article will analyze representative projects to reveal the future development trend of the crypto market.
Project Overview
Anera Labs-Building a Liquidity Infrastructure that Unifies All On-Chain Liquidity
Anera Labs is a liquidity infrastructure built for user intent, introducing a new concept in decentralized systems. Instead of specifying specific operations, users express the results they want through signature conditions. This allows specialized solvers to determine the most efficient way to achieve intent, separating "what" from "how".
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Anera Labs uses two auction mechanisms to activate liquidity: first-come, first-served (FCFS) and request for quotation (RFQ). FCFS prioritizes speed and will accept the first qualified bid regardless of price. RFQ, on the other hand, allows competition between fillers, potentially resulting in better prices, but takes more time.
Fillers play a vital role in these protocols, acting as intermediaries between users and the network. Their competition drives better execution quality and lower user fees. However, the potential for censorship by protocols and fillers remains a concern in decentralized systems. Protocol censorship occurs when off-chain components are involved in the execution process, introducing centralization and potentially compromising the fairness of the system. Filler censorship occurs when fillers selectively refuse to service certain orders, limiting user choice and potentially getting into financial difficulties.
Blocksense - Supporting the creation of oracles that can leverage internet data and CPU/GPU computing
BlockSense is an oracle network designed to overcome the limitations of traditional data feeds on blockchains. By leveraging zero-knowledge proofs and a decentralized network of nodes, oracles are made more efficient, secure, and transparent.
BlockSense's Merkle tree-based extension enables cost-effective data publishing and access. Flexible fees and potential chain subsidies promote the development of the DeFi ecosystem. At the same time, anyone can create a data feed, become a data provider, and access the entire world of data. Cryptographic mechanisms also ensure data integrity and minimize trust requirements. Guaranteed data availability and censorship-proof.
Cork Protocol - Risk Pricing Protocol to Accelerate On-Chain Credit
Cork is a protocol designed to simplify the creation and trading of pegged asset collateral swaps. Similar to credit default swaps, Cork's depegged swaps allow users to hedge against volatility in various markets in DeFi.
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Cork users deposit redeemable assets (RA) into the Cork Pegged Stability Module (PSM). The PSM creates depegged swaps (DS) and collateral tokens (CT) for specific pegged assets (PA). DS holders can redeem their PA for RA during depegging events. DS and CT are traded on the AMM, setting prices and returns for buyers and underwriters. At the same time, the liquidity vault provides passive income for liquidity providers.
Cork's PSM ensures that users can redeem their original principal even in the case of decoupling. And provide cheaper pricing and rewards for liquidity providers. Users can buy, sell and hedge their positions freely. Cork provides a solution for managing risks and maximizing returns in the DeFi ecosystem.
Kuzco-LLM Inference Market
Kuzco is a decentralized GPU cluster based on the Solana blockchain, which aims to provide efficient and economical inference services for large language models such as Llama3, Mistral, Phi3 by utilizing idle GPU resources contributed by network participants. Users can easily access these models through an OpenAI-compatible API. Kuzco's distributed architecture enables it to fully utilize the computing power of the network to achieve inference of large-scale models. At the same time, users are incentivized to contribute idle resources through a reward mechanism.
OpenGradient-Building a blockchain designed to bring world computing to the chain
OpenGradient is building an EVM-compatible blockchain network that aims to become a scalable and secure execution layer for AI.
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Since OpenGradient Network provides direct access to inference AI models via pre-compilation in smart contracts, it is able to maximize the composability of smart contracts. Powerful use cases can be created by simply stringing inference calls to different models in smart contracts.
As for interoperability, since OpenGradient is an EVM-compatible network, smart contracts on OpenGradient are able to interact with contracts on other chains through cross-chain queries and cross-chain calls facilitated by major cross-chain solutions. The OpenGradient team is also planning an ERC to build a future architecture for how on-chain agents and models interact with each other on EVM-compatible networks.
PIN AI - Building an open platform for personal AI (data + agents)
The PIN AI platform aims to revolutionize the field of personal AI by combining cryptoeconomic security with privacy, ownership, and a variety of applications. Unlike existing AI solutions, which are often limited by data access and privacy issues, PIN AI leverages blockchain technology to create a secure and open network for AI services.
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The PIN protocol consists of three key components: data connectors and on-chain registries, private storage and computing layers, and agent links and intent markets. These components work together to ensure privacy, data ownership, and effective matching of user intent with AI agents. PIN AI's architecture is designed to balance privacy, performance, and personalization through its hybrid model and personal index. By combining on-device processing with cloud-based computing and leveraging structured knowledge graphs, PIN AI provides contextually relevant and personalized responses while maintaining user privacy.
The PIN economy is driven by a two-sided market where users and their personal AI can access services from external AI. Data connectors and agent services play a vital role in facilitating this exchange and are incentivized through the PoE (proof-of-engagement protocol).
Term Labs - DeFi lending platform that matches borrowers and lenders at fixed rates
Term Finance Protocol is a transparent and scalable non-custodial fixed-rate liquidity protocol for digital assets.
Supports on-chain non-custodial fixed-rate mortgages (Term Repos), which are modeled similar to tri-party repo arrangements commonly seen in TradFi.
Borrowers and lenders are matched through a unique periodic auction process (Term Auctions), where borrowers submit sealed bids and lenders submit sealed offers, which are used to determine the interest rate that clears the market for participants in that auction. Participants who bid above the clearing rate will receive a loan, and participants willing to lend below the clearing rate will provide a loan, with the interest rate in each case being the market clearing rate. All other participants' bids and offers are referred to as "pending".
At the end of the auction, borrowers receive loan proceeds and lenders receive ERC-20 tokens (Term Repo tokens), which lenders will redeem for principal and interest at maturity. The protocol smart contract services these transactions by recording repayments and monitoring collateral health and liquidation.
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Term supports the deployment of term repo. Term repo is a specific on-chain implementation of fixed-rate collateralized loans modeled after tri-party repo in the TradFi environment. The main features of term repo include:
Fixed term, fixed rate: term repo involves fixed-term, fixed-rate loans, rather than open-ended floating-rate loans common in DeFi. Borrowers must repay the loan on the maturity date or repurchase date, and must repay within the repurchase window.
Irredeemable: term repo agreements are non-redeemable, i.e. lenders cannot redeem before maturity or repurchase date, and borrowers cannot repay.
Collateralized: term repo is designed to meet short-term liquidity management needs and is overcollateralized by liquid digital assets (e.g. wBTC, wETH, USDC, USDT).
Non-custodial: collateral for term repo is not held in custody, but is locked in a decentralized smart contract that can be verified in real time by both borrowers and lenders. At the same time, collateral re-pledge is not allowed, and only users can access it using their private keys and strictly complying with the terms of the smart contract arrangement. Each repo has a separate repo "locker" associated with it.
Auction mechanism: The interest rate of the repo is determined by the auction mechanism, the so-called "periodic auction". Each repo has its own "periodic auction".
Summary
Through the a16z accelerator project, we can clearly see two major trends, namely infrastructure innovation and the deep integration of AI and blockchain. The crypto industry is expanding from simple digital currency transactions to a wider range of applications. With the continuous advancement of technology and the improvement of supervision, cryptocurrencies will gradually integrate into our daily lives and bring more innovation and change to society.
"We've had two more months of good inflation data since the last Fed meeting, and that's what the Fed asked for," Claudia Sahm, a former Fed economist and chief economist at New Century Advisors, said in an interview on Friday.
The question now, however, is how big a move the Fed should make. Financial markets, a compass for where the central bank is headed, haven't been helpful on that front. Futures markets focused on a 25 basis point rate cut for much of last week, but on Friday traders shifted to almost equal odds of a 25 or 50 basis point cut, according to CME's FedWatch tool
Sahm is among those who think the Fed should go bigger. "The inflation data alone should be enough for us to cut 25 basis points next week and have a series of rate cuts after that," she said. She believes the federal funds rate is already above 5% and has been fighting inflation for more than a year. "The battle is already won, and they need to start cutting rates," she said.
That means a 50 basis point cut from the start to prevent a potential labor market recession.
"The labor market has softened since last July, so part of this is a recalibration," she said. "We are getting more information. Fed officials need to make this 50 basis point cut and be ready to go further."
Nigeria prosecutes four people and several companies, accusing them of illegal participation in crypto transactions and money laundering
On September 14, the Nigerian government filed criminal charges against four individuals and several companies, accusing them of illegally conducting crypto transactions without holding a banking license, including exchanging USDT for naira.
The four defendants are Ejiogu A. Chinedu, Nnamdi F. Okereke, Oty Ugochukwu Stanley and Chukwuebuka F. Ogumba. They are accused of violating the Banking and Other Financial Institutions Act and the Foreign Exchange Act. The case stems from the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)'s investigation into suspected manipulation of the naira exchange rate and money laundering through virtual cryptocurrency trading platforms.
Earlier, the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had obtained court approval to freeze more than $330,000 (S$548.6 million) of suspicious funds deposited in the bank accounts of cryptocurrency users.
Legal experts: Meme coin takeover teams may face legal risks
Most meme coins in 2024 are driven by community takeovers, such as Billy and Gigachad, where hundreds of millions of dollars of projects are taken over by early investors after developers withdraw and promote their development.
Legal experts warn that community takeover teams may face legal risks such as misleading marketing, fraudulent trade practices and even criminal misrepresentation. Charlyn Ho, founder of Rikka Law, said that the team needs to clarify the project goals and avoid false propaganda, otherwise they may bear legal liability.
Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas said at a Citigroup event on Wednesday that Harris "is accepting crypto donations," a statement that appears to be incorrect.
A Coinbase spokesperson said Alesia Haas was referring to Future Forward USA PAC, which is dedicated to supporting Kamala Harris, and not Harris' campaign team. "Coinbase can confirm that Future Forward PAC has partnered with Coinbase Commerce to accept cryptocurrency donations," the spokesperson said. Harris' campaign website currently does not offer a way to donate in cryptocurrency, and the advocacy group Crypto4Harris told Fortune that they were not aware of the development.
While Harris' campaign team did not directly accept cryptocurrency donations, Future Forward USA is a major source of support for Harris, and this development may at least be a signal that Democrats are interested in cryptocurrency.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that Geoffrey K. Auyeung, a resident of New Castle, Washington, was indicted for his alleged cryptocurrency money laundering scheme and faces "conspiracy to launder money and nine counts of money laundering by concealing or disbursing funds." The DOJ said that Auyeung, who was arrested on August 12, deceived investors by posing as an escrow agent for oil and gas investments, and then transferred customer funds to accounts under his control. "Once the funds entered the accounts controlled by Auyeung, the money was quickly transferred to other accounts, transferred overseas, or used to purchase cryptocurrencies including BTC, USDT, USDC and ETH through cryptocurrency exchanges such as Gemini, Bitstamp and Coinbase." Investigators from the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) have tracked $64 million flowing into 74 different bank accounts associated with Auyeung. The indictment calls for the confiscation of approximately $2.3 million seized from Auyeung's bank accounts. “Millions in wire fraud proceeds converted to cryptocurrency are frozen and awaiting seizure. HSI has identified 22 victims with combined losses of $7.7 million. However, law enforcement believes additional victims may be emerging,” the Justice Department noted.
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to show my appreciation for everyone collecting #7365 i will re-offer this with different / discounted terms (:
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7/365 an ORBIT installation 02/07
on @orb
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Peter Lik sold a photo of inside Antelope Canyon for a record $6.5 MILLION dollars. Mind you this is a public place requiring tour guide at all times and it is LITTERED with humans. Finding solace in a place like this is near impossible. When I was on tour with Buddy we had a 3 day gap between Austin and Phoenix. There’s a lot of empty space between these two cities and honestly, being from Phoenix, not a lot to do there for 3 days. I pitched the idea of heading northwest through Albuquerque and into Arizona from near the four corners so that we could do some nature sightseeing - Antelope Canyon in Page and then stay overnight at the Grand Canyon, which had snow in the forecast. I made a deck with imagery for the artists (Buddy and Boogie) to approve since it’s their money being spent to travel and they concurred. Now we have 2 rappers and their DJs, a driver, a tour manager, and myself loaded up on some mad max truck into the desert to wander through these canyon walls. The famous sand waterfall ledge is being played with constantly for everyone to get a shot of it by itself, but we had the idea to tagteam the operation and make this happen. Luckily we had the area clear by being stubborn assholes to the other tourists and nailed it. While he’s wearing this visor with guy fieri hair for a character he liked to call Derrick lol.
@orb @bonsai @lens #7365
@creators @photographers #GRAMSDIDIT
_OVERDRIV3 on @orb
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11111 $BONSAI
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last fall i had a few days left in tokyo before i had to leave for a bit and i had this particular date circled on my calendar - post malone at ariake arena. i wanted to go just to see the show, but over the years having spent many hours in the studio he calls home i figured i should work my connection to see about a photo pass. within one text and an hour wait i had confirmation my name would be at will call and that was that. i’m going. it was the most empty pit i have ever shot from (also the deepest) so i had a lot of room to move around but not a lot of time - non-staff usually gets 3 songs to shoot. i squeezed 4 because the japanese security guards didn’t notice one song transitioned into another smoothly (: SUCH a good show, a really solid dude, i recommend everyone see him live at some point if you can, you won’t regret it.
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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell recently attended a closed-door meeting with CEOs of large banks, encouraging them to work with the Fed to avoid a years-long legal battle over the Biden administration's signature capital plan. Powell told bank heads, including Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase and Jane Fraser of Citigroup, that the public would have a chance to comment on key revisions to the plan, according to people familiar with the matter. While it is not uncommon for Powell or other Fed governors to meet with a group of top bank CEOs, the discussion is the latest sign that Powell is trying to use his influence to get the industry and Fed governors to reach a consensus and finalize the plan. The plan, which was born out of the 2008 global financial crisis, has been in the works for more than a decade. The industry has raised strong objections and is preparing for potential legal action.