Cadenza Chronicle

The closing price of Bitcoin (BTC) at the end July 2014 was precisely $586.24. It was down 8.6%

Back then, hardly anyone noticed or cared that an anonymous, decentralized digital currency completely independent of banks or intermediaries existed.

Fast forward ten years and BTC has become much more than just a digital currency, its a burgeoning ecosystem that has created over a trillion dollars of value, several hundred thousand millionaires, and even a few billionaires. The current price of a single Bitcoin stands at just over $68,000. Up more than 12,000% over the past decade.

A lot of people care now.

Can anything stop Bitcoin’s growing ecosystem?

A Guidstone in History

Unlike fiat currencies, Bitcoin’s value does not come from the “full faith and trust” of the public.

But rather from its inherent scarcity, 21 million is the magic number of BTC that can ever be created, and its safety, stemming from an immutable public blockchain.

A demarcation point or guidestone for the beginning of the realization of this value can be traced back to March 31st, 2013.

This is when the price of one BTC hit $100 for the very first time.

In typical BTC fashion, it quickly plunged back to $68 over fears it had “risen too fast, too soon.”

The price action hasn’t changed much since then, but everything else has.

Bitcoin has evolved past its initial designs thanks to a community of early adopters and entrepreneurs.

Much like how the price of one BTC reaching $100 for the first time signaled that it was here to stay, so too can we trace back the beginning of its evolution beyond a digital currency to 2018.

Bitcoin Layers

For all of its stated benefits, like being peer-to-peer, anonymous, and having a secure transaction settlement process, Bitcoin was sorely lacking in other areas.

Foremost among these was Bitcoin’s ability, or lack thereof, to quickly and efficiently process transactions.

As an example, worldwide payment processor Visa, could process up to 24,000 transactions per second in 2020.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, could process only seven, and that’s on a good day.

This simply wasn’t anywhere near good enough for daily use.

Bitcoin’s other drawback is related to its consensus mechanism, Proof-of-Work, which requires copius amounts of energy to be used by Bitcoin miners to secure the network.

Recognizing this, third-party efforts began in earnest to improve the efficiency and scalability of the BTC blockchain by adding layers on top of its already secure settlement layer (L1).

The end result has been a boon of layer 2 (L2) solutions and applications across nearly every industry, broadening BTC’s appeal, and benefiting more end users.

A Bitcoin Denominated Market for Traditional Financial Assets

If you have ever wanted to buy more than just goods and services using Bitcoin, soon you will have the ability.

Imagine logging into your investment brokerage account, looking up the stocks you own or want to buy, and having the option to use Bitcoin to do it.

As the first Bitcoin-denominated stock and commodities exchange, Roxom is making this happen.

Taking inspiration from early ecosystem projects such as MPEX, Satoshi Dice, and the firm belief that “Bitcoin’s unique attribute of neutrality
will elevate it to the status of the most reliable global settlement layer“, Roxom aims to be an all-encompassing market.

This means anyone with a BTC wallet will have the ability to trade any asset, like blue chip equities, commodities, and futures and more.

It’s a lofty aim, but one that with the benefit of hindsight, is being built
to last in several ways.

First, Roxom aims to be fully regulated under a friendly jurisdiction and compliant from day one, unlike previous and many current exchanges facilitating the trading of digital assets.

Second, it envisions a global market that is open 24/7, 365 days per year, instead of one constrained by business hours and local timezones.

Finally, Roxom is facilitating this by creating an open, multi-custody experience where users can freely choose their type of custody and the custodians they want to work with.

Although Roxom is still currently in stealth mode, the roadmap to a global, permissionless, Bitcoin-denominated public market with the ability to handle large volume with low latency is now underway.

The exchange recently raised a $4.3 million pre-seed funding round to help fulfill this mission, which was led by Tim Draper’s Draper Associates and included Cadenza.

The company’s two founders, Borja Martel Seward and Nicholas Damico both hail from Argentina, so they have experienced firsthand what a financial system without the foundation of stable currency looks like and are up for the task of making Roxom a reality.

The Future of Gaming

Bitcoin’s ecosystem is more than just an evolving network of decentralized finance solutions.

It extends to smart contracts, social apps, and even gaming.

A good example of the latter is Zebedee, a mobile and desktop platform that lets you earn real Bitcoin simply by playing games.

Part of the Layer 2 Lightning Network, which is equipped to handle blockchain transactions more efficiently and cheaply, Zebedee was created to connect gamers with rewards.

The premise is simple.

People play games, if they are rewarded with real money, they will play them even more and the proof of the model is in the numbers.

After implementing its rewards software development kit (SDK), over 200 third-party game developers have seen their user counts grow by as much as 1,200% and revenue by more than 100%.

These are stellar figures by any measure, but Zebedee also discovered something interesting.

It found that there was demand for its SDK and fully customizable API outside of the gaming space.

As the only service that can accommodate every Lightning Network implementation and power micro-transactions with no minimums, there are virtually no limits to Zebedee’s potential – social apps, retailer rewards systems, and fintech, all are prime potential clients.

This makes Zebedee’s platform a growth driver across multiple industries, with the potential to power billions of transactions.

A Fresh Catalyst

A few years ago Zebedee laid the groundwork for much of the growth it is now experiencing by creating a simple, open protocol called Nostr, which stands for “Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays.”

Nostr basically enables any digital creator to own their network and port it from one platform to another.

This incentivizes the creation of content platforms on Nostr which integrates with Zebedee’s micro-transaction capabilities to get and keep creators paid, all without relying on a third-party network.

Thanks to the financial backing of Twitter Co-Founder, Jack Dorsey and a superior overall value proposition, the Nostr ecosystem now boasts over 4 million registered users and growing.

Once a mere afterthought, Bitcoin is now entrenching itself in the global economy as the ultimate store of value, while at the same time creating an entirely new and independent economy of its own.

From decentralized finance (DeFi) to gaming, and beyond. The Bitcoin Ecosystem now contains over 70 coins with a total market cap of $1.1 Trillion.

If it were a country, it would be the 18th largest in the world by GDP.

How much longer until it is officially recognized as the most robust currency in the world?

If you enjoyed this article, you may also like Charting New Territory: How DePIN is Changing The Physical World With Digital Technology or Regulatory Bans, Decentralized Apps, And Telegram: Exploring the TON Ecosystem.

If you would like more information on our thesis surrounding the Bitcoin Ecosystem or other transformative technologies, please email info@cadenza.vc