Into crypto? Join deCashed’s first in-person event at The Refinery Rooftop on May 11th in New York City from 6 – 9pm. Brought to you by the same team behind deBanked, attendees will be able to connect with the crypto community for our three-hour open-bar debut.
deCashed requires a baseline of crypto knowledge to enter. The registration fee can only be paid in crypto (you choose which kind) for a dollar-equivalent price of $25. Memecoins and NFTs can be accepted. NO CASH or CREDIT CARDS.
We’re the same team behind deBanked, one of the oldest non-bank finance media companies in the US. deBanked inked an advertising contract in January 2015 that was priced strictly in bitcoin, making it one of the first firms to ever ink a crypto deal that had no peg to the US dollar.
deBanked also put its own smart contract on the ethereum blockchain in 2021, giving it the ability to mint ERC-721 NFTs. It debuted its own just-for-fun NFT collection in October, viewable on OpenSea.
The deBanked team has put on twelve events since 2017: in New York, Miami, San Diego, and Toronto.
deCashed founder Sean Murray first turned his laptop into a node on the bitcoin network in 2014. Having enjoyed the olden days of mining with a USB stick and in-person crypto trading at the original Bitcoin Center on Broad Street in NYC, Murray saw the potential use case for non-bank payments.
Murray was also in the top 5% of contributors to the ConstitutionDAO, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization that made headlines for raising $43 million to try and buy a copy of the United States Constitution at Sotheby’s. Murray’s participation was noted in The New Yorker magazine on account of his having gone to Sotheby’s dressed as George Washington on the day of the auction.
Murray is also among the many speakers chosen to present at NFT NYC in June.
One thing that has remained consistent in Murray’s crypto journey is his lack of interest in whether or not the value of the coins go up or down. “The price has never mattered to me,” he says. “The ability to operate and move money completely independent of the banking system is what makes crypto so powerful. It’s about being de-banked and de-cashed and still being able to carry on business.”
Ready to get deCashed? REGISTER NOW for our May 11th event.
Methods of payment already accepted:
Eth, Eth tokens, Eth NFTs, btc, SOL, Dogecoin, Dai, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, USD Coin.
Coinbase & MetaMask friendly
Have a suggestion? Help us become even more deCashed! Email events@decashed.com.
As Meta grows its services centered around the metaverse, the platform is planning to introduce a digital currency called ‘Zuck Bucks’ to be used in its family of apps.
Revenue rates for Meta have declined as users are being drawn to new competitors such as TikTok. Its main social networks Facebook and Instagram have seen a drop in popularity. Since February 2nd, Meta’s shares have dropped by 30% and remained down, in part because the company revealed that spending on the metaverse had caused a decline in its fourth-quarter profit. The possible new virtual currency of Meta, a digital token that can only be spent on its platforms, may be what the company thinks it needs in order to create a new attraction to its applications.
Instead of a cryptocurrency per-se, ‘Zuck Bucks’ will most likely be in-app tokens. The tokens will be centrally controlled by the company, similar in comparison to those used in gaming apps like the currency Robux from the favored kids gaming platform Roblox.
To provide incentives for its users, Meta is also aiming to produce “social tokens” or “reputation tokens.” These would be issued as rewards for worthwhile Facebook group contributions. For the Instagram influencers, the company is working on creating “creator coins.”
Meta is further arranging to integrate non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with Facebook. Users will be able to create their own NFTs and use them as a gateway to memberships within Facebook groups. Ways to monetize NFTs via “fees and/or ads” is being explored as well.
This is not the first time Meta has attempted to dive into the world of cryptocurrency. In 2019 Facebook announced Libra – a cryptocurrency to be backed by several government currencies – that immediately faced criticism from politicians and central bankers that it would undermine existing currencies. Libra was then renamed as Diem in late 2020 after several partners aborted the project. Diem pegged the virtual currency to the US dollar but it was scrapped this past January.
Despite losing one of their most noteworthy speakers in the departure of El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele, Bitcoin Magazine’s largest event of the year has compensated with a star-studded lineup of speakers and panels that have been able to set the tone on the makeup of the types of influential figures that have thoughts on digital assets.
David Bailey, CEO of BTC Inc welcomed old and new faces alike to kick off the event, making mention of what he perceived as some of the newest groups of attendees at the conference. In his opening remarks, Bailey gave personal welcomes to the IRS, DOJ, and Department of Homeland security.
“Welcome to the biggest financial freedom conference in the world,” Bailey told the crowd.
Companies making note in the opening days of the event were Cashapp, who announced they want to “redefine” consumer relationships with Bitcoin. Their Crypto Product Lead Miles Suter spoke to attendees about how access to digital assets can help individuals who are facing existential, political, or regional crisis achieve personal and financial freedom.
“I’ve always dreamed of Bitcoin taking off with those that need it the most,” said Suter. “Those that have traditionally been left out, who have to flee war, or authoritarian states, or suffer from raging inflation.”
I saw the power that Bitcoin was having on local communities,” he continued. “I also got to observe the challenges that come with introducing bitcoin to a country where 70% is unbanked.”
Michael Saylor, the tech phenomenon who has made a name for himself among Bitcoin connoisseurs was said to draw approximately 40,000 people to hear him speak. He told the crowd that people were “dancing on my grave” when Bitcoin fell from its highest point. He even told the crowd that there was a point in time he thought he would be removed from his company.
Other speakers at the event include professional athletes Serena Williams, Odell Beckham Jr, and Strike CEO Jack Mallers. Robinhood has an announcement planned for Thursday afternoon announcement prior to a keynote speech by Peter Thiel.
Follow @deCashed on Twitter for all of the latest updates on the event.
Products and services that provide access to liquidity in blockchain holdings, primarily NFTs, are in high demand as more and more cash pours into the buying and selling of digital assets. This, complemented by the logical implications brought upon by smart contracts in the funding process, has created a peer-to-peer lending space that companies like NFTfi have developed marketplaces in that are now facilitating multi-million dollar loans.
According to NFTfi, their latest $8.32M loan at 10% APR for 90 days “eclipses” the previous record of an NFT-backed loan that was funded earlier this year, that used 101 Cryptopunks as collateral to unlock $8M of liquidity within those NFTs. The borrowers were all anonymous.
When asked about how to balance crypto’s fundamentals of decentralization while also making an effort to actively incorporate blockchain technology into legacy financial institutions worldwide, NFTfi CEO Stephen Young told deCashed that it comes down to the digital-nativeness of the user.
According to him, despite the access marketplaces like his give to either those who are holding lots of value in NFTs and are cash poor, or those who are looking to put their digital assets to work as lenders, it’s not for everyone.
“There are certain people that more of a centralized offering is better for,” said Stephen Young, CEO of NFTfi. “If I was going to get my Mom to buy crypto, I would just tell her to buy it on Coinbase and keep it there.”
Young spoke about how many people don’t want to deal with things like digital wallets and private keys that make up crypto’s “ideologically pure” ‘decentralization’ mantra. “For my Mom, self custody is not appropriate.”
Young touched on how easy-to-use centralized platforms allow different types of financial products inspired by blockchain technology to become accessible to a larger pool of potential borrowers.
“I can see centralized institutions like Coinbase making peer to peer loans viable to users via their platform,” said Young. “With all of their normal KYC, customer support, and everything they do, but they use something like NFTfi as a settlement layer underneath that actually just executes the loans.”
With APR-based scrutiny from regulators pertaining to disclosure being a major factor in the ongoing struggle in the American small business lending space, crypto regulation’s looming presence on the horizon in the states brings lending marketplaces like NFTfi into serious question when it comes to their function in regulated space.
Despite showcasing that their record funding came with an APR of just 10%, some of the loans being processed in the NFT space have calculated APRs of well over 100%.
When asked about how to justify the fairness of a financial product that has APR percentages in the hundreds, Young spoke on the financial literacy of his customer basse, citing play-to-earn gamers who have created streams of digital incomes or NFT flippers looking to unlock liquidity as part of a broad moneymaking strategy.
“Almost all of [the borrowers] are making way more than that in return by putting that capital to work,” said Young. “Obviously it doesn’t always work out for people, but these are people using these things as financial tools as part of a broader strategy during in which that type of transaction makes sense.”
In such a new space, Young said right now his focus is on facilitating a place where those with large amounts of digital assets can best leverage them for their liquidity. ‘These people are NFT rich, and cash poor,” said Young.
When asked about long term practicality, Young hinted at the smart contract being the key facilitator and point of value in these types of financial products being widely incorporated. “[Smart contracts] allow a speed of a transaction that you can’t really do in the real world,” he said. “I think that it’s also going to allow us to involve financial products that you can use in the real world.”
Murray was also in the top 5% of contributors to the ConstitutionDAO, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization that made headlines for raising $43 million to try and buy a copy of the United States Constitution at Sotheby’s. Murray’s participation was noted in The New Yorker magazine on account of his having gone to Sotheby’s dressed as George Washington on the day of the auction.
