Ivan Djordjevic, Author at unblock.net

Crash of the High Yield DAOs – Was It a Scam All Along?

The cryptocurrency market is a strange place. It’s the only ecosystem where assets that run on a meme can turn into a multi-billion dollar industry. Because of their high potential for profit, we see all kinds of people join in. And many of them are just trying to make a quick buck. It’s also an environment of sound projects, that have brought people incredible technological advances. Blockchain technology and the protocols that are running on it are setting a new paradigm through the decentralization of almost any industry known to man.

One major advancement that unraveled before our eyes are the decentralized finance (DeFi) market. This new financial ecosystem provided individuals all over the world with access to advanced financial instruments. Moreover, it helped the unbanked finally participate in the internet economy.

However, DeFi is not without its shortcomings. It remains largely unintuitive for the mainstream population and has encountered major drawbacks regarding liquidity. It’s this latter weakness that intrigues us in this article. Some major actors in the DeFi ecosystem tried to overcome the liquidity problem by releasing a mechanism that allows protocols to own their liquidity.

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7 Inspiring Gitcoin Grants from Round 13 (March 2022)

Ivan Djordjevic

The web3 revolution is upon us. This evolution could bring a new internet era, capitalizing on decentralization, openness, utility, and the public good. For this reason, the upcoming generational iteration of the web is going to heavily lean onto blockchain technology and its decentralized ledger for success.

That said, decentralization also means that Web 3.0 will require more collaboration within the community than ever before. Co-creating and co-funding potentially paradigm-shifting projects will be essential to see significant growth in this sphere.

Gitcoin embraces this new open approach for building communities and provides projects with the tools, manpower, and funding to succeed. Approximately every 3 months (fiscal quarter) this platform organizes a round of public funding for up-and-coming projects that delve into the public good. In this post, we singled out 7 such projects that are worth your attention and could use some help to get off the ground.

But first, let’s briefly explain how Gitcoin works and the mechanisms behind its innovative Quadratic Funding approach.

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Nouns DAO Review – A Virtuous Circle of NFTs

Ivan Djordjevic

Ethereum and smart contracts enabled the concept of the decentralized autonomous organization. These for-and-non profit organizations without apparent hierarchy have become a major disruptive instrument in the current economic narrative.

The upcoming Web3 revolution is heavily leaning towards decentralized finance and NFTs as a new paradigm to leverage the mass adoption of new tech. And in the last two years, the results have been nothing short of stunning. DeFi grew into a $70 billion industry while some of the biggest NFT marketplaces like OpenSea are raking in over $5 billion in monthly volumes.

Consequently, a wide range of ethical DAOs have emerged on the market, jumping on the bandwagon of popularity. What’s more, many of them genuinely try to make the world a better place. In this Nouns DAO review, we take a look at one of those organizations that use NFTs’ utility to empower artists and communities. To this end, we thoroughly analyze how the Nouns DAO functions and what benefit it brings to the crypto ecosystem as a whole.

Before we delve deeper into our Nouns DAO review, let’s have a quick overview of DAOs and their applications.

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Orica Ethical NFT Platform Review – Can NFTs Really Do Better?

Ivan Djordjevic

Digital art NFTs have taken a critical significance in the current blockchain landscape. Their high-profile adoption from the jet-set community and incredible profit opportunities put them under the spotlight for the mainstream investor. They also enabled artists to reach a larger public and provided them with easy-to-use platforms to do so.

However, there are some very damning concerns that have arisen in this particular niche. First of all, the environmental impact of NFTs is very real, and many consider them a wasteful application of blockchain. Moreover, the countless number of scams and rug pulls that left both artists and collectors empty-handed have considerably damaged their image in the mainstream media. And finally, many artists have been disillusioned by NFTs as a quick cash grab and a get-rich vehicle for the already wealthy.

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Ethical Implications of the Metaverse and the Role of Blockchain Tech Within

Ivan Djordjevic

In the past year, you had to be living under a rock to not have heard about the Metaverse. Ever since Facebook (now Meta) announced its consequential involvement in this virtual world, an evolution towards a living, breathing virtual universe seems inevitable. However, the transition to a full-fledged metaverse seems to be filled with ethical challenges.

In this article, we explore the metaverse, its use cases, and how blockchain technology perfectly fits in this narrative. Moreover, we will have an in-depth look into the ethical implications and pitfalls of the metaverse, and how decentralization might be the key to avoiding them.

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Ethical Implications of NFT Gaming – Future of Games or the Final Divide?

Ivan Djordjevic

The NFT market has literally exploded in 2021. Even though the crypto markets are experiencing a significant slump, NFTs remained unphased. And the gaming industry is one particular niche where non-fungible tokens have been extremely successful. Game devs are increasingly taking advantage of blockchain technology to enhance gaming experiences and provide players with the means to monetize their favorite hobby.

However, NFT gaming has encountered some significant resistance from the gaming community. Not everyone is happy that NFTs are making their grand entrance in AAA games. The ethical implications of NFT in games are creating a huge divide between crypto and gaming enthusiasts.

In this article, we try to get to the bottom of this controversy and explain its repercussions on NFT gaming in the long term. To this end, we analyze NFTs in games, their practical applications, and their pros and cons. Then we will delve deeper into some recent developments in the gaming industry and analyze the possible outcomes from an ethical standpoint. So, are NFTs in games a blessing or a curse? To answer this question, let’s first try to define blockchain gaming.

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Environmental Impact of NFTs – Should You Be Worried?

Ivan Djordjevic

Every bullish cycle in the crypto markets, a new trend emerges that contributes to the seemingly unstoppable upwards momentum. In 2017, it was the advent of ICOs that made prices skyrocket. This time around, the market has been mainly driven by the rise of DeFi and the adoption of NFT by artists, gamers, and mainstream investors.

However, the latter has stirred up some controversies. While many artists have embraced NFTs as a better, decentralized way to distribute their art, a large part of the community hasn’t been very enthusiastic about them.

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Olympus DAO – New DeFi Archetype or Elaborate Ponzi Scheme?

Ivan Djordjevic

In 2021, Decentralized finance (DeFi) grew into a multi-billion industry and opened advanced financial instruments to nearly everyone in the world. It’s obvious that this financial niche is getting more traction, and it’s unlikely that this trend will recede.

That said, DeFi comes with its own set of weaknesses, such as its dependence on fiat-pegged stablecoins. These cryptocurrencies are notorious for being centralized and quite opaque regarding their backing reserves. And while there have been attempts at creating algorithmic (decentralized) stablecoins in the past to alleviate this issue, these projects have been destined to fail. Or so it seems, until now.

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Earth Fund DAO Review – The Transparent Crowdfunding Platform on the Blockchain

Ivan Djordjevic

Blockchain tech is becoming the new paradigm, no doubt about it. It’s the very foundation of Web3 and is changing the way we use the internet altogether. And while most projects focus on DeFi and disrupting finances, there are some exceptions to the rule.

Genuine projects that use decentralization to empower their users to advocate social good may be far and in between. That said, some interesting initiatives have been making their appearance lately.

In this Earth Fund DAO review, we analyze this project that brings crowdfunding for the greater good directly on the blockchain. To provide you with a good overview of this DAO, we take a look at the goals and token economics of its cryptocurrency.

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Diatom DAO Review – Ocean Depollution powered by DAOs

Ivan Djordjevic

In this Diatom DAO review, we take a closer look at a blockchain project that aims to incentivize the removal of plastic from the ocean. With 14 million tons of plastic ending up in our oceans every year, it’s one of the most glaring issues humanity is facing nowadays. This junk disrupts ecosystems, kills entire species, and destroys biodiversity. Moreover, it is directly responsible for climate change as it removes the oceans’ ability to sequestrate greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere.

Although humans are working towards reducing our plastic output, getting rid of altogether is nothing but a pipe dream. We have simply become completely dependant on this material in every facet of our lives. However, focusing on ocean de-pollution is a much more palpable objective. But this is a colossal venture, which requires all the help that it can get. This is why projects like Diatom DAO are so essential.

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