insights from a blockchain developer, researcher & investor
exploring emerging opportunities in decentralized finance
Hardhat provides a lot of features out of the box but with the addition of some 3rd party plugins and some additional code snippets we can add custom functionality to streamline our testing and migration processes. Top 3 Hardhat Plugins These plugins add a lot of functionality to make your life as a developer easier…
A year ago I outlined my 60/40 digital asset portfolio which was 60% crypto and 40% USD stablecoins. One of the biggest benefits to this portfolio is that during market downturns it leaves you with capital to deploy. Today has been one of the most chaotic days in crypto markets ever and I’m going to…
Foundry is a Solidity Framework for building, testing, fuzzing, debugging and deploying Solidity smart contracts. In this Foundry tutorial we will cover the following: Introduction To Foundry [Video] James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/VhaP9kYvlOA |Subscribe Smart contracts are most often written in Solidity but tested and deployed using Javascript frameworks such as Truffle or…
Coinbase has come under criticism for insider trading which has led them to open up about what tokens they are considering listing in the future. In this article we will look at the opportunity this brings alongside an analysis of all 50 projects. We will end by looking at how we can identify and track…
Proof of stake revenue provides a new opportunity for investors and funds to collect double digit APR’s on a PoS basis trade pegged to the USD. A basis trade (aka cash and carry) involves buying an asset and then short selling the same futures contract. Traditionally this has been to collect the funding premium on…
Growth metrics have been used by tech VC’s for years to predict and monitor companies growth patterns. Terms like CAC (Customer acquisition cost) and LTV (Lifetime value) are critical to how we value startups in the traditional space. In DeFi the landscape is different and the metrics that we use are too. However on-chain transparency…
Earlier today @Arthur_0x released details about how his digital wallet was compromised and assets were stolen. Arthur is a technically minded crypto native which goes to show this could happen to anyone. A good time to review and discuss how to prevent phishing attacks and avoid getting your crypto hacked. How Digital Wallets Get Hacked…
This article explains how to generate artwork for NFT’s like cryptopunks where there are 10,000 profile pictures. Most of the NFT generators you’ll find online are designed for simplicity and ease of use for non-developers. I wanted to create something which was customisable and expandable to allow for more innovative NFT collections. Jang.js “Just Another…
Yield farming stablecoin strategies provide high returns on low volatility digital assets. In this article I explore three ways to generate yield on USD stablecoin holdings. For an introduction on what stablecoins are and the different stablecoins compared see this article: https://jamesbachini.com/stablecoins/ Note that stablecoin farming strategies are changing all the time and this article…
In DeFi a projects success is greatly tied to the effectiveness of the tokenomics. Governance tokens can be distributed to the users to incentivise growth and fees can be used to buy these back on exchange. In this Solidity tutorial we are going to deploy a governance token, a Uniswap v3 liquidity pool, a buy…
EthGlobal hackathons are the largest and most prestigious in the blockchain developer space. The February 2022 “Road To Web3” event was focused on the migration from web2 social networks to web3 technologies. Over the weekend around 400 teams built projects using sponsors technology including Polygon, Uniswap, Moralis and Web3Auth. This video talks about the experience…
In May 2016 Bitmex launched the XBTUSD market, a perpetual futures contract which simplified traders ability to bet on the price of Bitcoin going up or down. Today perps are traded on the major exchanges at higher volumes than the underlying spot assets. DyDx took this concept and packaged it in to a decentralized trading…
This Solidity tutorial will provide an introduction to DEX arbitrage with real, working, profitable open-source code. Solidity developers have the ability batch multiple swaps together and if they are not profitable revert the entire transaction only paying the transaction fee. The creation of EVM blockchains which have low transaction fees has created a playground for…
This ultimate “How To Trade Crypto” guide is provided for educational purposes. I am not a financial advisor, not financial advice. The vast majority of active trading in crypto markets is done on centralized exchanges such as Binance and FTX. The high volumes on perpetual futures on both exchanges has proven the demand for leveraged…
Connect wallet, click button, confirm transaction. It gets old pretty quick, especially when you need to do it daily to compound returns. This tutorial takes you through the process of using a block explorer to find functions, calling those functions from a script and then executing to harvest and stake reward tokens. The aim is…
Ethereum 2.0 is the biggest update that the crypto sector has ever seen. A series of rollouts will include a migration to proof of stake, sharding and the highly anticipated triple halving event. This article will discuss the roadmap for these rollouts, what changes each update will implement and the possible effects. Ethereum 2.0 Roadmap…
This article is derived from a chapter in the free eBook explaining DeFi technologies:DeFi Demystified | An Introduction To Decentralized Finance When a new project launches a token it is quite common that they create an initial distribution through a token launch. This article discusses some of the different types of token launches followed by…
This article is derived from a chapter in the free eBook explaining DeFi technologies:DeFi Demystified | An Introduction To Decentralized Finance Crypto oracles provide an essential bridge between off-chain and on-chain data. If a smart contract needs access to price feeds, random numbers or external data they will need to use an oracle because the…
This article is derived from a chapter in the free eBook explaining DeFi technologies:DeFi Demystified | An Introduction To Decentralized Finance DeFi borrowing and lending differs from traditional finance where institutions will lend funds based on credit ratings. In DeFi accounts are anonymous, there are no credit ratings to assess risk. Borrowing and lending is…
This article is derived from a chapter in the free eBook explaining DeFi technologies:DeFi Demystified | An Introduction To Decentralized Finance USD stablecoins have become big business with over $100 billion of collateral locked in USDT and USDC alone. This article dives in to how stablecoins work, the different types and looks at some of…
This article is derived from a chapter in the free eBook explaining DeFi technologies:DeFi Demystified | An Introduction To Decentralized Finance Synthetic assets are a form of derivative product in decentralised finance. Synths are created which follow the price of an underlying asset. For example sTSLA will follow the stock price of Tesla and can…
This article is derived from a chapter in the free eBook explaining DeFi technologies:DeFi Demystified | An Introduction To Decentralized Finance In late 2017 all the tokens were on Ethereum and it made sense that someone would eventually build a decentralised digital asset exchange. The first popular one was called IDEX and it followed the…
This article is derived from a chapter in the free eBook explaining DeFi technologies:DeFi Demystified | An Introduction To Decentralized Finance The token economy is the accelerating migration of assets into the digital world. One of the first breakthroughs for Ethereum was a smart contract that facilitated the creation and transfer of tokens. Anyone who…
This article is derived from a chapter in the free eBook explaining DeFi technologies:DeFi Demystified | An Introduction To Decentralized Finance If smart contracts form the back end brains of a DeFi platform then dApps or decentralized applications form the front-end that we interact with as users. In theory dApps can be compiled from source…
This article is derived from a chapter in the free eBook explaining DeFi technologies:DeFi Demystified | An Introduction To Decentralized Finance Decentralized finance is built on smart contracts. The code that enables users to lend, borrow and swap tokens is all run on Ethereum’s virtual machine. Smart contracts are written (mainly) in the language of…
This article is derived from a chapter in the free eBook explaining DeFi technologies:DeFi Demystified | An Introduction To Decentralized Finance The history of cryptocurrency starts long before Bitcoin. Blockchain’s have been around since the 1980’s and Bitcoin was built not as a totally novel concept but on top of other works like Nick Szabo’s…
Squared ETH or Squeeth is a perpetual options protocol that provides unlimited upside leverage with no liquidations on long positions. Squeeth isn’t just a tool for traders, it can be used as a hedge for liquidity providers on Uniswap and it can provide a funding rate yield in sideways markets. This article starts at the…
Money flows in and out of DeFi ecosystems like the changing of the tide. In 2021 fifteen different blockchains exceeded one billion us dollars in total value locked. The early adopters who stay ahead of the money flow tend to make the highest returns. Aurora looks set to become another billion dollar DeFi ecosystem. This…
Interest rates in traditional banks are 0.1%, have you ever wondered how DeFi yield farmers are getting 20-100% yields on their digital assets? Is it sustainable wealth creation or a giant ponzi that risks collapsing in on itself. That’s the question we are going to explore in this article looking at where yield comes from…
I’ve seen Anyswap popping up more and more in on-chain analytics reports as it’s grown to be a six billion dollar protocol by TVL. The platform just rebranded to Multichain and its fast becoming the market leader in cross chain bridges. If you want to transfer USDC from Ethereum to Polygon or Fantom or another…
Negotiations are finalised. Peter McCormack, host of “What Bitcoin Did” podcast, has agreed to purchase Bedford Football Club. At the end of the season the the club will rebrand to Real Bedford FC and the journey to take Bedford to the premier league will begin. With lucrative sponsorship deals already in place this could just…
A battle rages for control of DeFi’s biggest protocol as stablecoins fight for liquidity. Million dollar bribes being paid for votes, enemies becoming alliances and an ultimate prize at stake. This article explores why CRV is so valuable and why it likely isn’t the best way to gain exposure to the Curve wars. The CRV…
This article outlines my thoughts and predictions for crypto markets heading in to 2022. At the end of the article I share my allocations and plans for this year. Crypto Market Thesis Video James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/ogBcbwuasWw Bitcoin Market Outlook Crypto markets have cooled off significantly since summer 2021 but expectations are…
This blockchain developer roadmap lays out a framework for learning blockchain development. It should provide a wealth of resources and information for aspiring blockchain developers. Blockchain Developer Roadmap James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/h-IcAZX7250 Understanding The Moving Parts There are a number of roles within the blockchain sector and an understanding of what each…
In this study we are looking at crypto market volatility and how different altcoins markets move relative to Bitcoin. For example if Bitcoin moves up or down 1% Solana will roughly move double that amount for various reasons discussed below. Crypto Market Volatility List FTX Market Beta Volume BTC-PERP 1.01 $4609m ETH-PERP 1.29 $4471m SOL-PERP…
In this Pinescript tutorial we will build out a simple TradingView indicator using the latest version of Pinescript v5. TradingView Indicator Tutorial This video goes through the Tradingview indicator tutorial with more details and code snippets available in the article below. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/gWw6Hv3CuBU Getting Started With Indicators TradingView indicators are…
The high yields available in decentralised finance come with a downside. DeFi risk is real and if you are participating in the markets then you should know how to assess and manage that risk. By building a risk assessment framework for yield farms and DeFi opportunities we can better assess fair value and allocate capital…
In this tutorial I’ll show you how to clone Safemoon and create your own token on Binance Smart Chain. I’m going to do this without any development tools using only a web browser with the metamask plugin. Safemoon is a cryptocurrency token with a function that taxes 10% of all transactions and redistributes 5% to…
There can only ever be 21 million Bitcoin ever created. However many are lost, a small fortune lies dormant in the wallets of the mysterious founder Satoshi, and some has been stolen and blacklisted. To calculate the circulating supply of Bitcoin now and in the future we need to take all these factors into consideration…
This article looks at the future of crypto index funds running on DeFi and in particular the Set Protocol and Index Coop. Crypto index funds known as sets provide a single token which represents a managed or fixed fund of digital assets. Index Funds in TradFi and DeFi In traditional finance index funds are the…
Short selling the best asset class of the the last 10 years is a risky venture at the best of times. However there are situations where it can be profitable to get the shorts in while markets or individual token valuations are crashing. In this article I’ll be explaining how to short sell crypto such…
In this intermediate solidity tutorial I’ll be building, testing and deploying a smart contract to rebalance a digital asset portfolio. The idea is to look at how we can work with external smart contracts to start building our own products on the lego bricks of DeFi. The Challenge To create a solidity smart contract to…
As Ethereum moves to a proof of work network it opens up the possibility to stake our assets to gain a yield. We can do this by running our own validator node on the network… or we can use a liquid staking platform. In this lido staking tutorial I’m going to look at the LIDO…
The blockchain community has its own language and abbreviations which can seem quite daunting at first glance. Here is a glossary of defi definitions and terms that you’ll want to know and understand to interact in the space. AML (Anti-Money Laundering) Regulations applicable in most international markets aimed at preventing criminal activity. Anti-Money Laundering regulations…
When market conditions are right there are abundant opportunities in seeking out high quality and early stage crypto projects. In this post I’ll walk-through my crypto research process from screening and researching crypto projects to due diligence and tokenomics. An Introduction To Crypto Research James On YouTube Where To Find New Crypto Projects Being early…
Impermanent Loss Calculator Enter the quantities for the two assets in a full-range liquidity pool and a future price ratio to find out what the impermanent loss would be: Base Asset Qty: Token Asset Qty: Future Price Ratio: Calculate How Impermanent Loss Is Calculated In this article we will look at what impermanent loss is,…
On Tuesday 3rd August the head of the SEC gave the clearest signal yet that they are readying for the approval of the growing list of Bitcoin ETF products awaiting regulatory approval. “I look forward to the staff’s review of such filings, particularly if those are limited to these CME-traded Bitcoin futures” Gary Gensler @…