An educational book on Bitcoin (BTC) proposed by a group of 8 individuals has gained more funds than solicited from public investors on the Kickstarter platform.
The book dubbed, “Bitcoin and the American Dream” is slated to help congressmen in the Senate and the House reconsider their conception of what Bitcoin represents from the way mainstream media have painted the premier digital currency. The authors said the book was inspired after the bipartisan infrastructure Bill has been passed.
The fundraising prompt reads:
“We are a diverse group of 8 Bitcoin enthusiasts who are publishing a Bitcoin book for policymakers in Washington DC. We come from all walks of life and are of different races, generations, geographical locations, and political parties,”
“What we have in common is that we all believe that Bitcoin is good for America and that’s the case we want to make in this book. This is an educational book for people in government so they can understand much better what’s going on instead of relying on the media narrative,” authors added.
The team led by Jimmy Song has received as many as 166 backers at the time of writing and has raised exactly $23,276 from a minimum pledge of $25. This raised fund has already surpassed expectations as the team set out to raise just $5,000 in total. The excess funds, according to the team, will now be going into the book’s launch campaign.
The team listed the risks of not being able to get published by its preferred publisher amongst others. Cryptocurrency education has been the hallmark of the digital currency ecosystem in recent times. As reported by Blockchain.News, Binance exchange has a dedicated crypto education in China and these did not underscore the fact that the broader industry is in need of more professional educators to help change wrong narratives about the space.
A group of eight Bitcoin (BTC) enthusiasts launched a Kickstarter campaign to publish an educational book for America’s federal policymakers, to reduce their reliance on the traditional media narrative on cryptocurrencies. The campaign managed to attract $23,151 in funding, nearly five times the goal of $5,000.
The book was conceptualized soon after the United States House of Representatives passed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, which mandates stringent reporting requirements for the crypto community. According to the authors:
“We set out to write a book to help policymakers understand where Bitcoin users are from and what they care about. We want to dispel the notion that it’s a nerd money and show how it’s impacting so many people in America.”
Possible Book Cover. Source: Kickstarter
The Kickstarter was launched by Jimmy Song, a Texas-based crypto entrepreneur and a seasoned author. Other authors include Annaliese Wiederspahn, Gary Leland, Pete Rizzo, Amanda Cavaleri, CJ Wilson, Charlene Fadirepo and Lamar Wilson.
As per the schedule, the manuscript for the Bitcoin book has been drafted and will be finalized by the end of 2021. By January, the authors intend to have the audiobook and paperback available for sale, which will be supported by a “book launch event in Washington DC to promote this book.”
While the Bitcoin book authors have already accounted for the initial funding of $5,000 for the book’s production, the additional funding will be invested in the book’s launch party:
“As authors of this book, we recognized that the impressions in Washington were far from the reality and sought to correct this perception.”
Related:Fed chair Jerome Powell says he isn’t concerned about crypto disrupting financial stability in the US
Supporting the Bitcoin book’s effort to demystify the ecosystem for the regulators, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell hinted at a lack of concern about crypto disrupting the nation’s financial stability.
As Cointelegraph reported, Powell also said that stablecoins have the potential to scale, “particularly if they were to be associated with one of the very large tech networks that exist.”
Kickstarter has revealed plans to develop a decentralized protocol mobile-centric blockchain–Celo.
The blockchain integration announcement has been met with intense backlash from its community.
Kickstarter has yet to respond to the criticism.
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Popular crowdfunding platform Kickstarter is drawing criticism from its community for choosing to build on Celo, a mobile-centric public blockchain.
Kickstarter Criticized For Considering a Decentralized Service
On Thursday, Kickstarter revealed plans to develop a decentralized protocol on mobile-centric blockchain Celo. According to the Kickstarter team, a new open-source and decentralized model would make it “possible for people to launch and fund creative projects anywhere.”
By building on a blockchain like Celo, Kickstarter can remove the involvement of intermediaries and gatekeepers. This way, the firm says it hopes to reduce friction and make the process of fundraising easier for millions of unbanked people worldwide.
However, Kickstarter’s blockchain plans have been met with an intense backlash from its community. Social media commentators and Kickstarter’s own users, including notable artists and designers, called out the platform for mulling a blockchain model.
A blockchain pivot could potentially be a large growth catalyst for Kickstarter. However, based on the latest developments, it’s clear that many of its existing users are strongly opposed to the idea.Disgruntled users posted complaints on social platforms, including Twitter and Reddit, in response to the company’s blockchain plans. The backlash has come from users’ alleged claims that Kickstarter’s blockchain strategy would be damaging to the environment.
Jeeyon Shim, a Korean American game designer, wrote in a tweet post they were “heartbroken” by the partnership and urged Kickstarter to reconsider the decision. Shim argued that “environmental stewardship” was a core value for them.Another detractor of the Kickstarter-Celo partnership, Elizabeth Hargrave wrote: “Oh hell no. blockchain is an environmental disaster and I will never support a board game that uses it [Kickstarter].”
While environmental concerns surrounding Proof-of-Work chains like Bitcoin are real, it is essential to distinguish Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work from a much more energy-efficient consensus mechanism known as Proof-of-Stake deployed by Celo. In Proof-of-Stake, instead of using energy-intensive computations to validate blocks, blockchain validators secure the network by putting up tokens as a stake to validate transactions.
Brian Li, a core contributor to Celo-based projects such as UbeSwap and NomSpace, believes that “putting the entirety of crypto under that umbrella is overgeneralizing.”
Speaking with Crypto Briefing, Li said:
“Unlike other chains,Celo doesn’t require a massive amount of computing power finding hashes to add new transactions to its network. Celo’s hardware requirements are quite small.”
He added thattraditional payment services are “completely centralized, non-censorship resistant,” making it hard to build decentralized, open-source applications.
Despite these facts, Kickstarter users were quick to jump to conclusions. Recently Discord and Ubisoft also faced similar backlashes from their respective communities for merely discussing the idea of integrating non-fungible tokens into their platforms.
Kickstarter has yet to address concerns posted by its users. Per their update, Kickstarter plans to publish now a whitepaper detailing their planned decentralized crowdfunding platform.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies.
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The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.
You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.
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Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter plans to unveil a standalone company by building a crowdfunding system based on blockchain technology.
In a blog post, CEO Aziz Hasan and co-founder Perry Chen also reported that Kickstarter will switch its own website to the new infrastructure following the completion of the new company sometime in 2022.
Currently, the new company does not yet have a name. Still, Kickstarter’s open-source protocol is confirmed that will be built on the blockchain platform Celo, which counts Andreessen Horowitz and Jack Dorsey among its backers.
Bloomberg reported that the development of the new company is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2022.
“We are entering a significant moment for alternative governance models, and we think there’s an important opportunity to advance these efforts using the blockchain,” said Chen and Hasan.
This move from Kickstarter comes at a time when crypto spaces are rapidly emerging and capital that might have once gone to Kickstarter campaigns is flowing through blockchains into what are known as distributed autonomous organizations, or DAOs.
In November, a group dubbed ConstitutionDAO mounted a crowdfunding campaign to bid a rare printed copy of the U.S. Constitution. The anonymous organisation raised $46.3 million but failed to win the auction eventually. Following its failure to win the auction, the DAO offered refunds and decided to disband.
Kickstarter was launched in 2009, and it almost became an instant hit with entrepreneurs, celebrities and big firms. The company reported that 21 million people have pledged more than $6 billion to back 213,034 projects using the crowdfunding platform.
Kickstarter has announced that it will transition to blockchain.
Kickstarter’s user experience will remain the same, but blockchain will add governance and reward features behind the scenes.
The new blockchain platform will make use of Celo, a proof-of-stake-based carbon negative blockchain.
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Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter has announced that it will soon integrate its main service with blockchain technology.
Kickstarter Will Transition to Blockchain
Kickstarter says that will create a “decentralized version of [its] core functionality” that will “live on a public blockchain.”
The company noted that blockchain will make it easy to reward participation in new ways, and that it will also allow for the mixing of different protocols and software components.
Kickstarter’s platform will be built on Celo, a mobile-focused DeFi blockchain platform. The firm also drew attention to Celo’s carbon-negative features, namely the fact that it relies on proof-of-stake and uses its token to offset greenhouse gas emissions.
Blockchain Will Add Governance Features
Kickstarter will also establish a governance lab that will help direct the development of the protocol. The firm noted the growth of alternative governance models and believes there is an “important opportunity to advance these efforts using the blockchain.”
While this will involve voting rights, Kickstarter did not indicate whether it would create a governance token for this purpose.
More details will be revealed in a whitepaper set to be published by the company in the coming weeks.
Changes Are Behind the Scenes
Development will be led through an independent organization called Kickstarter PBC. Kickstarter itself will later be transitioned to this platform, albeit in a way that works behind the scenes.
“You won’t see the [blockchain] protocol, but you will benefit from its improvements,” Kickstarter explained in its blog post, assuring users that the overall user experience will remain the same.
Kickstarter was created in 2009 and has handled more than $6 billion of pledges for 200,000 projects. Along with Patreon and GoFundMe, it is one of the largest creator funding platforms.
The company’s closest blockchain competitors at the moment are monetization platforms like Coil and Gitcoin, as well as specific crowdfunding DAOs such as ConstitutionDAO.
Disclaimer: At the time of writing this author held less than $100 of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins.
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The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.
You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.
See full terms and conditions.
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Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter will be launching a new company that will eventually see its website move to a blockchain-based system on Celo.
In a Wednesday blog post, CEO Aziz Hasan and co-founder Perry Chen said Kickstarter would be developing an open source protocol that will live on the Celo blockchain. The two execs cited the blockchain’s efforts in minimizing its environmental impact — being carbon negative — in addition to the fact it was open source.
“We are entering a significant moment for alternative governance models, and we think there’s an important opportunity to advance these efforts using the blockchain,” said Chen and Hasan.
Bloomberg reported that Kickstarter planned to transition its website to the blockchain platform in 2022, with the project announcing it would release a white paper “in the coming weeks.” Kickstarter reportedly said the migration will not affect any of the millions of users currently using the platform to crowdfund for projects including medical and fitness products, artwork, books, and movies.
In addition, Kickstarter said it planned to establish a governance lab “overseeing the development of the protocol governance.” Purpose Foundation executive director and co-founder Camille Canon will be leading the effort.
Related:A Community-Governed DeFi Platform Makes Crowdfunding Decentralized
With the emerging crypto space, certain projects that might have received money through Kickstarter have shifted to distributed autonomous organizations. In November, a group called ConstitutionDAO attempted to purchase a first edition print copy of the U.S. Constitution, in which 17,437 backers were issued governance tokens called PEOPLE. Though the DAO failed to make the winning bid, its token price surged after the team behind the project allowed users to continue holding the tokens.
First launched in 2009, Kickstarter reported 21 million people have pledged more than $6 billion to back 213,034 projects using the crowdfunding platform, including the Peloton bike and the 2014 movie Veronica Mars.
On December 6th, just two days after the start of a NFT-backed “card pack” sale for their blockchain-based video game Alien Worlds, the 15-man team behind development studio Dacoco sold out of packs after having successfully raised $250,000.
While a quarter million might seem like a pittance in a world where a single NFT critter can fetch six figures and more established games like The Sandbox and Decentraland routinely raise millions, but for a smaller studio it’s the kind of raise that can ensure success for a project — and, according to Play To Earn editor-in-Chief Robert Hoogendoorn, the unique set of incentives for buyers means it might well become part of a larger trend.
“Finding smaller games, investing early and hoping they blossom is very similar to cryptocurrency investing,” Hoogendoorn said. “You hope to find that game that grows into the next Minecraft and makes that investment go 100x.”
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Where traditional crowdfunding efforts for videogames allow early believers to pledge their money in exchange for rewards like in-game characters named after them or invitations to launch parties, NFT-backed games potentially turn the same concept into a real investment.
“For centuries, land ownership has been a privilege of the upper classes,” says Alien Worlds co-founder Michael Yeates. “Now in crypto, everyone has the chance to earn passive income by owning land which is truly theirs.”
In-game items and resources backed as NFTs can accrue significant resale value if a game becomes more popular, and according to the Alien Worlds team, complex game economies can even turn them into yield-bearing assets.
“The [Alien Worlds] NFTs are unlike pure collectible NFT cards because they have actual characteristics that are recognised by the gaming smart contracts,” explains Alien Worlds co-founder Saro Mckenna. “One NFT might yield you more Trilium (Alien Worlds’ in-game currency) when you use it, another might be capable of being used more frequently […] This is pretty sophisticated by blockchain standards, where oftentimes functionality is still somewhat basic even if immutability and decentralisation are in place.”
Alien Worlds, which pitches itself as ‘DAOs and DeFi in space,’ is among a handful of titles at the forefront of monetizing in-game NFTs for players, but Hoogendoorn thinks there will be more to come.
“For developers it might sound weird to give players ownership over assets. But what if developers receive 5% over every in-game / on-chain transaction? They will create a new revenue stream. On top of that they create a community that has a stake in their game world. Engagement will be much higher because of the economical incentive.”
However, developers looking to cash in on the new trend might want to do so research first, cautioned Hoogendoorn.
“Understand scarcity, and build the game’s economy around that, and [make sure] you’ve got a game economy that’s interesting for players to put lots of time and effort in.”
