16th November 2022 Digital Bytes
Welcome to this week’s Digital Bytes. This week we have analysis on the following topics:
Could the greenback from Uncle Sam be replaced by a ‘green-backed’ digital currency? - for over 100 years the US$ has been the world’s reserve currency. Whilst its demise has been heralded many times, as with all things at some time it will be replaced. But, by what? Will Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) create their own digital unit of exchange or, arguably, could we see the most pressing issue of our time - climate change - usher in a ‘green-backed’ digital currency?
What exactly is Web 3.0? - open protocols developed the internet and undoubtedly its evolution has been remarkable. Web 1.0 paved the way for many of the internet's essential assets and platforms, the second generation of the web, branded Web 2.0, witnessed the growth of centralised systems allowed by closed protocols and the decentralised web, or Web 3.0, is a hot topic. One of the most significant components of Web 3.0 is the importance of the best use cases.
CBDCs: the good, the bad and the ugly - central bank digital currencies have a tendency to polarise people, in that some are supportive of this new form of digital currency whilst others are outright hostile. There are grave concerns that a CBDC is a charter to undermine personal privacy, since those who run and control CBDCs could have the power to monitor who is spending what, where and with whom. The promise of a tool to help counter the shadow economy and reach out to the unbanked does indeed hold attractions - but at what cost?
DAOs and the centralisation of voting power - decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) provide a novel way of governing by using smart contracts that automate voting in a trustless and transparent way. However, in many DAOs the voting power is overly concentrated to just a few members. We examine the reasons and consequences of concentration, together with the governance trade-offs that DAOs face.
Non-fungible Tokens Course Offer:
Having been continually asked for our thoughts on NFTs, we have decided to create a series of short videos and roll them into a course so as to help people have a better understanding about these tokens
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