⚡ TFC Newsletter: 05/12/2023
a16z Releases Crypto Startup School Vids, Lens Protocol Landscape Explained, NFT Appraisals, Web3 Wallets, and more!
💡 Intro
🥳 Happy Friday!
Slow news day today with big product updates, so instead of tools news we’ll leave you with 2 useful pieces of content worth checking out over the weekend.
And for TFC Rewards Club Members: our 5th edition will come out Sunday, so be on the lookout for that!
Have a good weekend and see you all on Monday!
a16z Releases Crypto Startup School Talks: Today, a16z released another 5 videos from their Crypto Startup School accelerator.
Why It Matters:
High quality educational videos in Web3 are rare: Since Web3 is so different as a business sector, there isn't much content that aligns with it yet, which makes these videos particularly useful.
If you’re a builder: These videos are a must watch as they have some really good lessons in them (our favorite of the 5 was the protocol growth one)
If you’re not a builder: They’re still interesting to watch, as they give a glimpse into what a16z values in terms of Web3 projects.
The 5 new videos are:
🔍 Finding product-market fit in web3 w/ Jason Rosenthal
🤝 Consumer products 101 w/ Sriram Krishnan
🧑💻 Founder talk w/ Brian Armstrong (CEO of Coinbase)
🪟 Principles for web3 product design w/ Ben Scharfstein (Stelo Labs)
🌎 Principles for growing a protocol w/ Dan Romero (Farcaster)
🌎 The Web3 Social landscape exploded in 2022, with thousands of dapps, protocols, and platforms being built.
As the top protocol in Web3, Lens itself has over 150 supporting platforms, apps and infra tools alone!
We came across this great graphic from HC Capital that displays them all. If you want to get caught up on what’s being built in Web3 social, checkout link below.
Full infographic + company tags in the tweet thread below:
Cookbook / $2M— Cookbook, an open-source smart contract marketplace, raised $2 million in funding from investors including MaC Venture Capital, Tagus Capital, Superscrypt, and Alchemy. — CoinDesk
Cable / $11M — Cable, a platform for testing the effectiveness of financial crime prevention, raised $11 million in a Series A funding round led by Stage 2 Capital and Jump Capital, with continued participation from previous investor CRV. — Fintech Finance
Aqex / $7.5M — Zero-fee institutional trading platform Aqex Technologies India secured $7.5 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by Hindustan Media Ventures. — VCCircle
Artizen / $2.2M — Artizen, a crowdfunding platform focused on Web3 culture, raised $2.2 million from top Web3 funds such as ConsenSys Mesh, Animoca Brands, Protocol Labs, and others. — Decrypt
Polynomial Protocol / Undisclosed — DeFi platform Polynomial Protocol secured seed funding from Road Capital, Caballeros Capital, Archetype Ventures, Kain Warwick, Jordan, Scott Sunarto, Eden Au, Pranav Maheshwari, and others. — Tweet
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!
👉 Brought to You by Arch: accelerating financial progress for alternative asset holders. A word from our sponsor below:
Unlock the Power of Your Crypto - Arch, a crypto lending platform, enables crypto investors to secure a single loan collateralized by various holdings, all safely stored by top custodian BitGo.
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.
Upshot
"Financial Infrastructure for NFTs."
Type of Product: NFT Analytics
Purpose of Tool: Upshot that utilizes machine learning and new DeFi x NFT primitives to make NFT financial markets accessible. It is an NFT appraisal platform that provides accurate and real-time appraisals for more than 74 million NFTs from over 67,000 collections.
Very cool NFT appraisal platform that’s worth using.
Most portfolio trackers don’t have accurate NFT appraisal values based on rarity/features, but Upshot does.
Dealfinding: Upshot's appraisals are integrated into their NFT aggregator, making it easy for collectors to find the best deals in the NFT market.
Real-time portfolio tracking: Users can track the value of their NFT portfolio with near real-time appraisals.
Smarter trading strategies: Upshot's API helps users build smarter trading strategies by providing appraisals, liquidity analyses, and other advanced statistics.
Smart collector identification and tracking: Upshot's novel grading index, gmi, helps users track the smartest collectors in the space to inform their investing decisions.
Upshot also has some exciting upcoming features, including instant sell, NFT lending, OTC trading, and NFT indices. Almost anyone or any project that interacts with NFTs can benefit from Upshot.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: On March 22, 2022, Upshot raised $22 million in a Series A2 funding round. The funding was led by Polychain Capital, a leading investor in cryptocurrency protocols and companies.
Upshot boasts an extensive collection of over 87,000 collections and 104 million NFTs, with an industry-leading accuracy rate of 3-10% MAPE.
Cashmere Labs
“One-stop access to omnichain future"
Type of Product: Dex Aggregator
Purpose of Tool: Cashmere Labs is an innovative platform that offers a range of services, including an omnichain interoperability MEV resistant DEX aggregator, single-sided stableswap, and single-sided yield farming. The platform is built on Layerzero, which makes it highly secure and efficient.
Cashmere's architecture includes a feature that helps prevent front-running attacks by replicating the behavior of front-runners and adjusting slippage in real-time to achieve balance.
Single-sided Stableswap: uses a single-side AMM for stableswap, allowing stablecoins to be swapped with minimal slippages. The Compensation Ratio system is used for this purpose, making it easy for users to transact without the need for a bridge across networks.
Single-sided yield farming: encourages users to participate in single-side yield farming, which helps eliminate liquidity shortages and ensures that users do not suffer any losses while providing liquidity.
Cross-chain Aggregator: allows for the exchange of non-pegged assets such as BTC, ETH, and AVAX between L2s and L1s without the need for a bridge. The platform uses the Omnichain Interoperability labs and its own stable pools to make this possible.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: Just today: On April 23, 2023, CashmereLabs announced the launch of its public testnet for the initial phase of its platform, which features MEV Protected cross-chain swaps on LayerZero Labs. The platform will be launched on 11 different chains to enable a diverse range of participants to enter the ecosystem.
Learn how to participate here: Link
Cookbook
“Smart Contract Marketplace"
Type of Product: Smart Contract Lookup
Purpose of Tool: Cookbook is an open source smart contract registry that allows users to search, contribute, and integrate any Solidity smart contract into their app. It is a one-stop shop for smart contracts that supports any workflow through its CLI. Cookbook is completely free, and everything listed on it by the developers is also free, including the deployment and management tools.
Super useful tool that lets you find smart contracts with their marketplace search.
If you’ve every wanted to find examples of code that does utility like NFT lending, creation, etc this is a good resource for you.
They also just raised funding today.
Deploy Contracts with Ease: Cookbook allows users to deploy their contracts easily through its user-friendly UI or by downloading and modifying the contracts directly.
View Audits, Documentation, and Usage: The platform provides users with the ability to view audits, documentation, and usage directly. Users can also manage and interact with their contracts through the UI provided on the platform.
Support for Any Blockchain Using Solidity: Cookbook currently supports any blockchain that uses Solidity. Also, its no-code tools will support any blockchain that supports ethers.js and Metamask, and new chains can be added on request.
Ownership of Smart Contracts: Any smart contract deployed on Cookbook is directly owned and controlled by the user's wallet. The platform doesn't use proxies or anything that obfuscates the user's ability to use their contract as they please.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: Yesterday on May 11, 2023, Cookbook, a platform that provides developers with access to smart contracts, has successfully raised $2 million in a funding round. The investment was made possible by the participation of several venture capital firms including MaC Venture Capital, Tagus Capital, Superscrypt, and Alchemy.
Since its establishment, Cookbook has served more than 1,500 developers who have accessed over 3,000 smart contracts through its platform.
Kresus
"Your Digital Assets Deserve a Better Home”
Type of Product: Wallet
Purpose of Tool: Kresus is a revolutionary SuperApp that acts as a superior crypto wallet and Web3 portal, providing users with the only app they need for all their digital assets. It offers cutting-edge security and total transparency, giving you complete control over your digital assets.
They’ve raised a large funding amount compared to other wallets ($25M in March) and have some really unique features around security.
Cutting-edge security: Kresus offers the most robust security in the industry, ensuring that your digital assets are always safe and secure. You can assign guardians to protect your valuables and set time-delayed withdrawals on outgoing transactions to ensure that only you and those you trust can access your assets.
Easy to set up: Kresus has eliminated the need for a long signup process and the risk of getting locked out of your account. They have made the app goof-proof, ensuring that user error is eliminated.
A dynamic place to learn, collect, and connect: Kresus is a platform that offers ongoing education about the evolving Web3 landscape. It curates interesting Web3 finds and teaches you how to mint your first NFT. It also connects you with exciting communities.
The Vault: Kresus offers the highest level of security with its Vault, allowing you to store your digital assets safely to its premium members. Its premium membership for just $15/month, giving users access to additional features and support.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: On March 8, 2023, Kresus raised $25 million in its Series A funding round. The investment was made possible by the participation of notable investors such as JetBlue Ventures, Craft Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Marc Benioff, and The Winklevoss twins, among others.
Kresus was founded by serial entrepreneur Trevor Traina, known for successful businesses such as IfOnly, StepUp Commerce, and CompareNet, and serving as the US Ambassador to Austria from 2018 to 2021.
SuperSpaces | Community | Link to product
DeepDAO | DAO | Link to product
Grindery Nexus | Jobs | Link to product
Rain | Privacy | Link to product
Bueno | NFT Tool | Link to product
Crypto.com | Social Media Content Creator | Link to position
Rarible | Senior Backend Engineer | Link to position
Pantera Capital | Investor Relations Associate | Link to position
Dapper Labs | Senior Product Designer | Link to position
Mysten Labs | Software Engineer | Link to position
Goldfinch | Head of Capital Markets | Link to position
dYdX | Chief of Staff | Link to position
Cointracker | Data Analyst | Link to position
Alchemy | Recruiter | Link to position
Uniswap | Software Engineer Intern | Link to position
How was the newsletter today? Your feedback helps me make this great.
Loved it | OK | Didn’t Like
Anything you want to see? Fill out this form and let us know!
Disclaimer: None of this is to be deemed legal or financial advice of any kind. Always DYOR!