⚡ TFC Newsletter: 01/03/2023

China Launches State-Run NFT Marketplace, BMW announces Web3 Loyalty Program, NFT Analytics, On-Chain Security, DeFi Protocol Reviews, Web3 Identity Tooling, and more!

Author

ToolsForCrypto Admin
January 03, 2023

💡 Intro

🥳 Happy New Year! We hope you had a great holiday season + NYE.

At ToolsForCrypto: we think there’s a lot of good and exciting things look forward to in Web3 in 2023

Starbucks, Nike, Instagram, Twitter and many others started Web3 initiatives in 2022 and those will grow in 2023.

With that said: there’s 2 major initiatives announced over the break that you need to know about!

BMW is joining other major brands like Starbucks and Nike and launching a Web3 Loyalty program.

On top of Rewards, they’re also planning on using blockchain for everyday operations in financial services.

It’s important to note that this pertains to Thailand specifically, as per this official press release from Coinweb and BMW.

While it’s scoped right now: its exciting to see another big brand launch Web3 initiates and make it more commonplace for others to adopt it as well.

On Jan 1st: China launched its first state-run NFT marketplace, the “China Digital Asset Trading Platform,” a secondary trading market for digital collectibles.

Property rights, digital copyrights, and NFTs are included in the platform while major cryptos like BTC and ETH are not.

Why This Matters:

  • CBDCs get most of the attention when countries talk of adding blockchain capabilities.

  • It’s important to keep note of other blockchain applications outside of CBDCs, and digital property rights + NFTs should be watched as well.

No funding announced today, so we’re adding 2 announcements we missed over the break:

Centbee, a London, UK-based blockchain payments company, raised $1M in Pre-Series A funding.

Welcome to TFC’s daily newsletter! Thanks for subscribing, we’re working hard to give you the best info on the most exciting crypto products.

If you’re a builder, investor, or crypto enthusiast, this will benefit you!

Note: Do you have a product or tool you’re building? Have one you’d suggest? DM us on twitter! We’re always happy to feature products from the TFC community.

DeFiSafety

"Your #1 source for technical data in DeFi"

Type of Product: DeFi Safety

Purpose of Tool: DeFiSafety evaluates DeFi products to measure their security through transparency and adherence to best practices to assign an overall safety rating. It is a good platform to check out out new DeFi Protocols.

Process Quality Reviews are security assessments that evaluate DeFi product components and generate a safety rating that reflects the quality of development processes and documentation. The score reflects how well projects adhere to best practices regarding their process quality.

We get a lot of questions about safety, many tied to DeFi & evaluating protocols.This is a good resource we found recently, their free plan is enough to get some good info on new protocols.

Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: DeFiSafety successfully closed a $1M seed round last April 2021 led by Andre Cronje, with investments from Leo Cheng of C.R.E.A.M. Finance, Griff Green, Corey Petty, Shahar Abrams, Jeff Issis, Pedar Muller, Jonathan Boateng, and Wot_is_going_on. Crypto funds investing include MetaCartel Ventures, Feleman, Owl Ventures, NetX Fund, Turn Capital and Immunefi.

  • Nic Vyncke @nvy_0x | Head of Analysis

  • Lucas Hygate @thehygate | Director of Operations

  • Rex Hygate @rhygate | Founder, President

Harpie

“The First On-Chain Firewall"

Type of Product: Transaction Security

Purpose of Tool: Harpie is an on-chain security system that protects users against hacks, scams, and thefts by monitoring and moving vulnerable funds away from vulnerable wallets. Harpie protects users from a variety of crypto theft and attack vectors, such as social engineering, website hacks, accidental transfers, and private key theft.

Harpie uses a "trusted network" of protocols and peers to stop malicious transactions from going through, protecting users from fraudulent activity. It employs rigorous security measures to protect your investments. Our smart contract code and audits are publicly accessible, allowing anyone to verify their effectiveness.

Another really cool safety tool that came out recently: Harpie is different than other security tools as it works on-chain vs just checking transactions before you execute them.

Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: Harpie, an on-chain firewall provider, has announced the successful close of its $4.5 million seed round on September 2022. The round was led by Dragonfly Capital, with Coinbase Ventures and OpenSea joining in the investment.

  • Noah Byungho @_darkgreeting | Co-Founder

  • Daniel Chong @chongmandan | Co-Founder

  • Britt @imblockchainmom | Head of BD

Degenz Finance

“A comprehensive NFT platform providing specialized resources to members"

Type of Product: Analytics

Purpose of Tool: Degenz Finance (formerly Flips Finance) is a comprehensive NFT platform providing specialized resources to members. With a Degenz Access Pass, you'll get exclusive access to a private Discord, in-depth NFT analysis, up-to-date market analysis, and unique NFT minting opportunities.

Flips.finance recently rebranded as Degenz Finance.Their UI has gotten better as well, and just the main page includes some really useful NFT analytics dashboards, including 1 with the top marketplaces & aggregators sorted by Volume.

  • War Room | provides real-time statistics and results for multiple collections, enabling users to monitor up to 4 collections and access the broad market overview at once.

  • Pro Collection Pages | The Pro Collection Pages provide a comprehensive understanding of a collection, displaying 4-in-1 charts, live Sales & Listings feed, trait sniping, and adjustable listing analysis, and more

  • Market Analysis | The Market Analysis page provides an interactive analysis of the NFT market's performance, including marketcap and volume, marketplace leaderboard, market metrics, and market pulse.

Team / Funding / Backers Info / Transaction Amount: Degenz and Flips Finance have been collaborating since the beginning of the year 2021, and have officially unified last December 16, 2021 to offer a comprehensive package of services, including deep-dive research, market commentary, educational content and a data analytics tool with an easily navigable UI + UX.

Disco

"Your identity should belong to you. Just you."

Type of Product: Web3 Identity Tooling

Purpose of Tool: Disco enables users to securely transfer their data from web2 to web3, ensuring ownership and control over their digital identity. Disco is a digital identity platform focused on providing individuals with increased autonomy, privacy, and interoperability when managing their digital identities.

By leveraging public blockchains, Disco enables users to create and store their personal information in a secure, decentralized manner, and to control who can access their information, and how it can be used.

  • Disco Data Backpack | The Data Backpack is a system that gives individuals control over the non-financial data about themselves. It allows users to store and manage information, such as membership cards, affiliation, licenses, and education certificates, in a secure, personalized data ‘backpack’.

  • Disco Profile | Disco can help users strengthen their profiles by enabling them to add more information, such as a display name, bio, profile picture and social links.

Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: On April 2022, Disco recently successfully completed a $9 million Early Stage VC (Series 1). Disco’s supporters include Liberty City Ventures, BITKRAFT, Polychain Capital, Winklevoss Capital, Bow Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and more.

  • Evin McMullen @provenauthority | Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

  • Jonny Howle @JonnyHowle | Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer

  • Nguyet Vuong @NguyetV | Co-Founder

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Disclaimer: None of this is to be deemed legal or financial advice of any kind. Always DYOR!