🎧 Navigating Crypto's Next Chapter: Crucial Narratives
Round Table Recap: March 29th, 2023
Russian DeFi
April 18, 2023
In this Twitter space, Calvin from Puzzle Ventures discusses various topics such as
the current state of crypto adoption in Hong Kong,
the potential of NFTs and their valuation mechanisms,
Puzzle's investment approach based on Ethereum 2.0, and
the challenges faced in data incentivization.
Calvin also talks about the similarities between gaming and real-world assets and the need for more seamless infrastructure to tokenize assets.
You can listen to the full audio here
Keep reading 🍿 👇️
Panel
• Guest: Calvin @clu_crypto
• Interviewer: Garlam @GarlamWON
Introduction
• Calvin is from Puzzle, which is a venture fund.
• They launched in 2020 and the founding partners of Puzzle Ventures are the same as the Dodo exchange.
• In the beginning they had a Defi infrastructure focus but as the bull run picked up and continued, they looked at expanding into every crypto vertical whether that was Web3, NFTs, gaming, social and more.
Thoughts on Hong Kong Easing Crypto Access?
• Calvin mentions how before COVID in 2017, Hong Kong related crypto adoption was pretty strong.
• He further talks about how the association with China’s policy shut down a lot of the traction during COVID which dimmed demand.
• Calvin talks on how the regulators saw the attention and success Hong Kong had prior to COVID in terms of crypto and looked to take action on policies to capture the demand.
• Furthermore, Calvin emphasises how in China, you can’t use a token to fund raise but the underlying technology themselves as long as controlled by the state are generally allowed. Hong Kong regulators wished to avoid this approach.
• Calvin states how the policies in Hong Kong are better but are still not ready to take on all the crypto demand from the West’s recent restrictions.
🎧️ Crypto adoption in Hong Kong 👇️
How Was Your DeFi Experience?
• Calvin talks about DeFi Summer and how DoDo finance had its significant adoption.
• He further states how the space has expanded immensely but that there still needs to be more innovation to an extent.
• Calvin suggests that different sectors have strung off DeFi, such as NFTs which he mentions.
• For how Calvin sees NFTs, he sees them as assets in various projects utilized as PFPs or metaverse.
• Next is the spot market, any marketplace, tool, or aggregator that helps you trade these NFT assets. Examples include LooksRare and OpenSea.
• After that, you have financial tools such as NFTFinance, which includes perpetual trading with NFTs and more. Calvin sees this as specifically more as a niche.
• However, he also believes NFTFinance is stuck in its spot and that valuation mechanisms must be altered and improved to pick up the liquidity in the marketplace.
Different Views on NFTs?
• Calvin makes a good point that, at its core, NFTs are leveraged bets on the underlying asset.
• He further emphasizes that when investing in an NFT project, the project itself is primarily the community.
• Calvin explains that as NFTs become more popular, NFTFinance will become more popular as people utilize the leverage in the market to trade.
• Regarding valuing the floor price, Calvin admits it is tough to approach.
🎧️ Ways to think about NFTs 👇️
How Do You See the Vision for Crypto and the Year Panning Out?
• Calvin emphasizes how Puzzle is not in any rush to see the next bull market.
• He goes on to say that patience is critical in the game right now and that the black swans we are experiencing are easier to brush off this way.
• Furthermore, Calvin explains how Puzzle adopts an Ethereum maxi mindset that coincides with the ETH2.0 mindset.
• He believes ETH2.0 will be cheaper, more secure, and more efficient, so he bases all future investments on this approach.
• Calvin says that zk-rollups, monolithic chains, and more are what Puzzle Ventures are focusing on.
Is There Anything People Should Be Aware of With Eth2.0?
• Calvin mentions how Ethereum is bootstrapped by validators meaning there is a ton of ETH validating Ethereum.
• They want to re-purpose this ETH towards oracles and bridges, which would further decentralize the network.
• With the un-staking of the ETH event, Calvin explains that the first consensus was that this would drive the Ethereum price down.
• However, he suggests that speculation will only affect the price and that the event will unlikely cause huge dumps as many anticipate.
🎧️ A deeper look into ETH 2.0 👇️
On zK
• In terms of zK, Calvin splits it into zK rollups and zK as the research topic regarding privacy, etc.
• Calvin says that the attention is refocused on the zK EVM and non-EVM rollups.
• He further states that from an alpha standpoint, it’s essential to shift towards zK sync, shift and scroll.
• Regarding modular chains, Calvin questions which will be the dominant layer.
🎧️ Exploring zk solutions for scalability in crypto 👇️
Data Incentivization
• Calvin explains how DID and social go hand in hand because when you think of NFTs, they are the best way to specify a digital identity so far. (How many people can you think of based on their crypto punk, for example).
• The problem faced in DID for adoption are similarly faced with socialFi because the incentives are awkward and it doesn’t improve the actual process over Web2.
• He does however explain, that if you expand too much into crypto, you don’t necessarily have a big enough market yet so the cross-over is tough.
🎧️ Exploring data projects and social incentivization 👇️
How Has Your Prior Market Deal Flows Changed?
• With gaming and RWA, Calvin believes they are very similar because the content for Web2 and 3 are easily implemented into the real world.
• On the other hand however, Calvin believes gaming has a long way to go and that many games are franchise based now.
• He believes the next big step in gaming will come from someone with an NFT or DeFi background that can help advance the space.
• Calvin explains that the tokenising of assets has become very conceptual, and it isn’t seamless enough, infrastructure wise.
🎧️ Exploring blockchain gaming & real world assets (RWA) 👇️