Alpha Report #2
Introduction
November was unsettling for many of us in Web3. For months, prognosticators echoed the collapse of centralized exchanges, encouraging complete withdrawal and self-custody to mitigate risk. While self-custody is one of the core tenants of Web3, it was eschewed and underutilized by many retail investors and projects. Instead, trust and reputation replaced self-reliance and prudence. While ongoing chronicles of Sam Bankman-Fried’s fall from grace have transpired into a non-believer’s voyeuristic feast, the truth remains in crypto, caveat emptor. (Un)fortunately, events like FTX only reinforce the urgency and need for vVv in this Web3 cesspool.
-Crptogrl2, resident baby shark
Upcoming Events
Phase 3 mint: December 14-15th
Airdrop: December 19th
vVv Investment Update
The SBF/FTX/Alameda Research black swan event has been one of the most unexpected and damaging events in the blockchain-crypto space. FTX was one of the largest, and arguably most trusted, central exchanges where both users and projects held their long-term capital. SBF was the savior of crypto and our representative liaison to the US government and public in Web3’s global adoption, regulation, and assimilation into Web2.
Many projects’ capital reserves vanished overnight - a great impediment to the space - quelling potential groundbreaking technological advancements. Negative sentiment is pervasive, and perhaps those affected will takes this as a last omen that Web3, in its infancy, is exceedingly high risk with an unacceptably high rate of failure. While others vacillate over their course of action, vVv perceives this as a golden opportunity. The market downturn and the carnage in Web3 will allow us to source top talent for the blockchain fund and the possibility to invest in top-tier projects affected by the SBF/FTX/ Alameda event once the dust has settled.
We reached out to our previous investments to ascertain the extent of the FTX fallout.
The Good
Most of our investments - Auki, Gunzilla, Mavia, NFTfi, and Peaq - stored their capital judiciously and were unaffected.
The Bad
OBSCURO
Obscuro had raised a total of $4.3M and lost $3M to the FTX incident. Even with the remaining $1.3M, the capital loss has dramatically shortened their runway by 8 months to March 2023. Fortunately, vVv only invested a small sum of $125K in their private round in October. Obscuro’s team has put forth a new recovery plan detailed below.
3-part Recovery Plan
1) Reduced spending
2) Increase throughput
3) Recovery fundraise
Reduced Spending
Identification of an overall cost savings of $2.4M
Replacement of the security auditor (as-and-when and not on a retainer basis) - $600k
Hiring freeze (necessary hiring only) - $800k
Deferment of exchange token listing - $400k
Architectural changes in removing network subsidiaries - $300k
Substitution of high-end legal services - $60k
Reduction in Director's fees - $200k
Increase Throughput
January Hackathon with Acala Network
Technical architecture revision to simplify node operation
Recovery Fundraise
A $2.2M raise at a $30M valuation to close in February 2023. This new round will not dilute previous investor rounds and will provide the team with an additional 14 months of runway to May 2024 with increased token launch flexibility
Applied to the Binance recovery fund
Obscuro team and largest investor and incubator, R3, will donate 5-6% of the total token supply
The Obscuro team plans to schedule another AMA and explain to the vVv community their future plans. AMA date is TBA.
The….
How about my cookies? Still doughy, or are they extra crispy? Snickerdoodle (SD) has been slightly affected and will hold an investor update in mid-December, where they will share additional information. Throughout the ordeal, the SD team remained focused on its product development. For the past few weeks, the vVv team and select community members have been participating in a closed alpha test and providing SD with invaluable feedback. Once they have updated the dashboard, we will facilitate a more extensive community test group. Coming soon!
NFT News
Vv Shark Mint
November 12th was the phase 3 shark NFT mint. Those with the shark whitelist faced the final test based on speed and vVv knowledge, with any incorrect answer auto-redirecting one to the beginning. The final question which ultimately determined sharkhood was immensely apropos, how do you like your steak cooked? Freshly killed, partially exsanguinated, and bloody rare, please!
Shark Test, taken 462 times. 219 shark whitelisted members. 20 Shark NFTs available. There will be blood......
Congratulations to the 20 new sharks: Karel | Vlamingk, Jure | Halb, Kacper | Taloner, BlueReturns, Leandro | Dr.Rusito, Martin | CA91, Ekow | Alum0s, Scott | scodo, Matt | Teezel, MK | MasterKat, Jonas | JoJo_, Dee | Storm, Joseph | JX13, Christian | Squabba, Alex | BlackMage, Anika, Tobi | VVvrspower, Romy | APAP, Lee |Speedwagon, and Andy | DARK-META on their well deserved new sharks!
And 16 guaranteed shark NFTs for the highest community contributors, some of whom have become vVv community leads: Maciej | MazzaKK, Joseph | JX13, Bluereturns, SAL | Big dawg, Nathan DrakeN, Daniele, Romy | APAP, Karel | Vlamingk, Scott | scodo, Arthur | shybuzz, Michael | _goooat, Xab | !Xabbu, Tobi | VVvrstpower, Mike | Coifox, Chris | Scozzy, and JPSB.
Please remember to thank Helena for allowing the shark minters to pick their sharks!
Shark Statistics
Phase 1 - 65 minted
Phase 2 - 2 autostaked
Phase 3 - 36 autostaked
⅓ of the phase 3 shark minters also minted sharks during phase 1
6 of the 16 guaranteed shark minters also scored highest on the Shark Test 2.0.
95.1% of all shark NFTs are staked, compared to dolphin staking at 70.5%
Thanks to vVv community lead Karel | Vlamingk for crunching the on-chain data.
Mommy, how are sharks made?
Phase 1: Merit-based OGs
Phase 3: Shark WL (merit-based, Shark Test 2.0, and the Final Shark Test)
Shark Trade: shark test scores and various leaderboards
With all the shark talk FOMO, what about the whales? With 100 total whales in the collection, they are the rarest of the 3 NFT types at 100 total in the collection. Previously, proof of $200k liquidity was the sole qualifier to become a whale. However, with only 20 whale NFTs remaining in the vVv vault, they will be hand-picked and offered through the vVv real life events.
Shark Trade
Now onto the next highly anticipated event, the Shark Trade. We had a slight delay as a result of the vVv Marbella event. Full details were announced on December 11th. The only knowledge provided was the involvement of unstaked dolphin NFTs and that this would be the last opportunity to procure a shark that would qualify for the airdrop. Airdrops themselves will be based on various leaderboards. Of course, after the conclusion of the shark NFT mint, those who missed out went to sweep dolphin NFTs off OpenSea, skyrocketing the floor price to 2.4ETH!!
vVv Christmas Games
And don’t forget vVv Christmas games created by vVv developer Andrew. Congrats to Kirby | KirbyGivesTips for solving the first puzzle and winning a staked dolphin NFT!! The ultimate prize of a vVv whale NFT is still up for grabs. Be on the lookout for more posts from Andrew in the server and on Twitter.
Phase 3 mint
Phase 3 mint will transfer significant ownership of the entire vVv NFT collection to the most deserving members. The final mint date for phase 3 is December 15th, or the 14th for select members.
But let’s first review the collection statistics from phases 1 and 2:
1,114 dolphins
82 sharks
75 whales
552 total holders
This leaves 3,566 remaining NFTs. During the phase 3 mint, the strongest vVv supporters and whales will be allowed to mint up to 50 dolphins. This will place NFTs into the hands of those who share the long-term vision of vVv.
Funds from the mint will provide a greater runway for the team to bring the community more high-quality investment opportunities and ensure a successful launch of the blockchain fund in 2023.
Potential airdrop of dolphins to the biggest vVv supporters.
All unminted NFTs will be burned post-phase 3 mint, except for a handful of sharks and whale NFTs reserved for vVv event attendees. A will reduced collection will bring more value to holders. Keep in mind that large NFT holders will be able to capitalize on the upcoming scholarship program. More details to come post-mint.
Community Events
1st vVv Real-Life Event
We held the application process for the first real-life exclusive vVv event in Marbella, Spain, and received dozens of qualified candidates. Attendance was by application only, with a strong preference given to high scorers on the Shark Test 2.0. There was a $5,000 attendance fee for the 3-day all-inclusive event to be held on December 2-5th, which included a free auto-staked vVv shark or whale NFT and luxurious villas, steaks, cigars, and high-value guest speakers. All attendees were required to sign NDAs to preserve the confidentially of guest speakers and materials covered. One of the guest speakers is a mentor of vVv CEO, Sean Marcel :). Topics include psychology, business, health and fitness, personal relationships, personal growth, and taking action.
Attendees
Team: CEO Sean Marcel, CSO Andrea Pensold, Research Analyst Jesse and James, Academy Mentors Christian and Leon
Community Leads: Mario | CryptoBross
Sharks: Martyn | CA91, Chris | Scozzy, Josh | Mr Gunnar, Kacper | Taloner, Nathan | DrakeN
Whales: Chris | CryptoVisard, Arty | Arty Generation, Orlando | Limitless, Andrej | strupsirup, Romy | APAP
Dolphins: Tobias | battlecat, Misha | MF
vVv Community Resources
Thanks, Jesse and Strider! To help members keep track vVv investments, vVv research analyst Jesse and resident shark Strider have created a comprehensive form, vVv Investment Details. In the future, investment details will be included on the dashboard.
vVv Video Team Chats
During the first vVv research team meeting video, we reviewed:
An overview of the research team methodology and structure
Each researcher’s background and expertise
BOD tidbits
The FTX fallout, implications for project success, and possible vVv investments
The vVv closed alpha testing of SD’s dashboard
vVv AMAs
We held our highly anticipated AMA with Nillion network and received an onslaught of community questions sufficient for 5 AMAs. The technical acumen of our members always impresses our AMA speakers (Go, vVv!). And like many of Web3’s founders, our second AMA with Hyperlane was a project born from the founder’s frustrations with Web2 and passion for changing the status quo through blockchain technology.
Missed a vVv AMA? Visit our AMA articles page or listen to our Spotify recordings at vVv Deep Dive. For more intellectual talks of each project, updates, and community testing, please look at the respective vVv Discord channels.
Nillion
Nillion is a fully decentralized trustless network with a protocol based on a novel cryptographic primitive called Nil Message Compute (NMC) that will revolutionize blockchain, consumer, business, and institutional practices of data, security, privacy, and interoperability in Web2 and Web3. NMC is based on quantum-resistant Information Theoretic Security (ITS) technology and is the combination of Shamir’s Secret Sharing (SSS) and One-Time Masking (OTM). This mathematical innovation solves the performance constraints and scalability issues of traditional Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC) cryptographic protocols, rendering them obsolete and positioning Nillion as the mass-adopted, commercially viable default layer for secure processing.
Hyperlane
Hyperlane is a modular interchain messaging protocol. Its chain agnostic interoperability layer between blockchains allows developers to send messages from one blockchain to another. Messages can contain arbitrary bytes and are not limited to text. Hyperlane offers interoperable APIs enabling cross-chain messaging functionality in dApps, the creation of natively interchain tokens, and a SDK and tooling for building unique interchain dApps. Hyperlane is not a traditional asset transfer bridge but an information highway with broad applicability.
