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Today I want to talk about my current perception of the state of Crypto, NFT's and Polygon. Polygon is where I have built all of my foundations. For good reason, and no matter current circumstances, I still believe it is a good choice. If you believe in Ethereum, then you believe in Polygon whether you think it or not. It really is that simple. And a little Blogcast update.
Before I get into the Crypto stuff, I want to chat FCancer. It's getting closer and we are very excited about what is coming. There are so many people getting involved and I am very grateful for all of the support. As it gets closer, it gets more and more exciting. There is still time to get involved and multiple ways to do that. You can donate NFT's to our blind mint, sponsorship opportunities are still available and of course you will be able to bid on specially created 1/1's during the event.
I have written a poem and created an AI artwork on NightCafe. I am excited to share, but also not sure if I should, at least not yet. You can find a poor reading of this on our spaces from Monday 19th June (search #ThisIsNotAShill on Twitter), and you will be able to see it soon. That's for sure. It took a moment to get an image I was happy with. You can also purchase FCancer - Issue 48 for 0.5 $Matic to support the cause. All proceeds will be donated.
We will have the 1/1 auction, a blind mint and a surprise generative collection. The auction is simple enough, we will set a reserve, you bid! The blind mint will be mint a random NFT from an artist or project in the Polygon ecosystem. The surprise generative collection comes from some women you know and love. More details will be shared in the Spaces below! And I have shared some Tweets throughout this Blog. If you have a moment, click on a Tweet or two and hit the RT button please. It helps!
COMMUNITY SPACE 
Where is Crypto? In a really funny place. We are still in the middle of a bear market. A bear market that is being impacted by factors outside of Crypto. I am certain most of us will have heard about the SEC's latest case against Binance and the naming of several tokens (including Polygon) as Securities in those filings. You can read more about that from Coin Telegraph here.
Crypto appears to be seen as a threat by the US. Is that really a surprise considering their control and dominance over financial markets? Crypto definitively needs governance and regulation. And then earlier this week we saw some news from Black Rock and Jerome Powell said some things during his testimony. Hence a Crypto bounceback, at least from my perspective.
Jereome Powell said the following "crypto appears to have staying power as an asset class" and also spoke about stablecoins as a form of money. More info from CoinMarketCap here. And then there is Black Rock applying for a spot Bitcoin exchange traded fund. Business Insider explain it better than I ever could here.
These are both big for the industry. Like it or not, it's events like this that signify the next step forward. When pension funds can get involved in buying Bitcoin... even if pension funds only allocated 1% of their portfolio... anyways. Jereome saying things that we all know is good. Maybe the US have moved on in the stages, we've had denial. Not sure if this is bargaining or not, but it definitely isn't acceptance, not yet.
Many people will have heard me say, or seen me Tweet, that NFT's are a niche market. It certainly isn't huge and neither is it mainstream. The NFT industry has completely boxed itself in, especially regarding the language used. People call it culture, and whilst there are cultural aspects, it's very closed to use language that no one else really understands. Add that into a DYOR (do your own research) mindset and people new to NFT's can feel very isolated very quickly.
NFT's are far more than digital art, as amazing as some of that art is. They are your unique identifiers. If you hold them, they are (or should be) yours. One day they will be the digital representation of every contract and agreement. Terms of service will be agreed to and then immutably written into purchases. They will allow you control of your content, your data and your things!
The chance to do things in a different way is here and I am not sure we are ready for it. As an industry and possibly as humankind. This doesn't phase me because I still see NFT's as a way for the individual to take control. Control of their outcomes. My endgame is still to give people a starting place, to reduce barriers where possible and encourage anyone to build their dream.
Polygon is a tricky one. The chain is under fire from The SEC filing against Binance above, Polygon was one of a number of tokens called a Security in that filing. The launch of 2.0 appears to have been rushed and maybe not as ready as was hoped. Whilst I believe Polygon will be vital to the growth of the Crypto industry, especially Ethereum's success, their market cap is less than 1% of all the money in Crypto.
Polygon has other problems too. It is still very centralised. Whilst I think the core team still holds true to decentralised values, they have to be compromise whilst they build. Polygon is toeing a line in between two worlds, and I am not sure that they can exist there forever. I know the plan is to decentralise, and Polygon 2.0 has shown us a little of how they want to do this.
It's almost impossible to build relationships with traditional corporate entities and do business in a new way, a Web3 way at the same time. Polygon, like many of us, are still working out where and how they stand. I think they want to ride a community wave, but those community's (which are not Polygon's) need something back from Polygon to trust, believe and fully buy in, not just a tool to use. The sooner Polygon figures this out the better. For them and everyone using Polygon.
The final thing that's worth remembering in regards to Polygon is it has been built as the transactional solution for Ethereum. It makes transactions affordable and swift. Transactions could mean a purchase or a swap, or a vote in a DAO. Or any other Blockchain interaction.
What's happening with my Blogcast? Less than I would like. I did record the outstanding episodes but the quality wasn't great and that impacted the sound. They ended up glitchy. The upshot is, it isn't the sound I want and I need to re-record them. I have essentially been sofa surfing for 2 weeks and re-recording hasn't been an option.
This is something that I should be able to do next week. I don't expect to release all of them at once, but there wont be any regularity in the release of them. The aim is to be caught up before I get to Issue 53. In line with a rebrand for me. I am very grateful to Cynthia for the below banner and the fonts she has found. It all fits so well.
I have a couple of other things I haven't forgotten about. And remember you will be able to claim a free NFT (a limerick on one of my photo's) after I hit 400 subscribers and that is coming soon! I should be able to find an image I like, it is summer and all being well, I should be spending considerably more time in a beautiful area of the world.
Thank you for staying subscribed, for clicking on the email and for reading my blog. I do it for a lot of reasons and I find it enjoyable. Committing to weekly blogs has been a journey, one that I haven't completed yet, but one I have learned a huge amount from already.
And of course thank you for reading my summary of the ecosystem we work and play within. Remember why you are here. Remember this is a money market. And remember not everyone is driven by instant gratification. Have an incredible week, I will catch you next Friday.
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