Jonny Fry / James Tylee of Digital Bytes by Team Blockchain on Cyber.FM 16th February 2022 Featuring Thayne Forbes

How DeFi could challenge the ETF sector – The ETF sector is expanding as more mutual funds convert into ETFs. Recently, we have seen the launch the Hashdex DeFi Index ETF which it is the first regulated ETF to invest in DeFi investment tokens. ETFs were designed to group correlated assets together and DeFi can take this one step further and challenge the composability of these investment vehicles, putting users at the heart of financial instrument design. DeFi infrastructure and liquidity can make existing financial products and fund administration more efficient, in a similar fashion that ETFs have for mutual funds. Is crypto the antidote to the West’s ills and a shot in the arm for the economy? - in parts one and two of this essay we discussed how the increasing digitality of society has coincided with a relative decline in US and Western hegemony and how this has led to a diminished level of trust in the institutions of security, governance, media and finance, as well as in trust as a general concept. In part three, we explore how cryptocurrencies and blockchain offer a technological solution to this socio-cultural challenge, and perhaps a wider opportunity for the west. Are critics of this emerging technology missing the point when they criticise its flaws?  Could crypto be the latest way to unleash a new wave of economic, cultural, political and military innovation and growth? Bitcoin miners claim they are able to generate cryptos whilst improving their ESG credentials - the Bitcoin Mining Council has targeted 2030 as the date for its members to be net-carbon neutral. On this subject, we look at examples in Norway and the USA regarding how crypto miners are improving their ESG credentials. The thorny issues about valuing NFTs - a review of some of the key issues when looking at how, or if, NFTs can be valued. This includes defining NFT rights and obligations, forecasting cash flows, the involvement of crypto currencies and market comparables, and concludes that the use of existing intellectual property valuation techniques should help with better informed values of NFTs.