Hello Defiers! Here’s what we are covering today,

News

• Polkadot’s Parachain Winners Make Strides in Building Sharded Ecosystem

• Yearn Finance Changes Up its Tokenomics and YFI Soars 85%

• Opyn to Unveil Squared ETH Token as DeFi Derivatives Race Heats Up

• Strip Mall Icon RadioShack Resurrected as a DeFi Play With Token

Video

• Tuesday Tutorial: How to be safer and smarter using Metamask

• Quick Take: We fact-checked your favorite millionaire "Finfluencer" - what did we find?

Links

• What made Sam Bankman-Fried launch FTX — and what he now thinks about the world (Part 1): The Block

• The Bull Case For ETH III | Anthony Sassano, DC Investor, Cyrus Youness: Bankless

• The New Get-Rich-Faster Job in Silicon Valley: Crypto Start-Ups: The New York Times

• Sorbet Finance Vulnerability Post Mortem: Medium

• YFI — Reborn As A Black Hole: Yearn Finance

• Join us for a special AMA event with the @dexalotcom team as we explore the first CLOB DEX built on Avalanche: Avalanche

Trending in The Defiant

• Polygon’s Surprise Code Change Triggers Questions and Controversy

• Market Action: Terra Leapfrogs Binance Smart Chain with Surge in TVL

• DeFi Kingdoms Challenges Axie Infinity’s GameFi Supremacy with NFT Play

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Parachains

👷🏻‍♀️ Polkadot’s Parachain Winners Make Strides in Building Sharded Ecosystem

AUCTIONS Polkadot’s first round of five parachain auctions have concluded and the winners are now producing blocks, setting Polkadot’s sharded ecosystem into motion for the first time.

BUILDING OUT The launch of parachains ushers functionality for smart contracts and other specialized computation on the Polkadot network, allowing top developers to begin building out Polkadot’s DeFi and the broader ecosystem.

STAKING The first five parachains belong to fintech-focussed DeFi hub Acala Network, EVM-compatible smart contract network Moonbeam, WASM and EVM smart contract platform Astar Network, decentralized lending and staking platform Parallel Finance, and cross-chain compatibility platform Clover Finance.

TRANCHES OF TOKENS Each project went live as a parachain and began producing blocks on Dec. 18. The winners now predict their dapps and liquid staking derivatives will go live before February, with the initial tranches of tokens distributed through the auctions also slated to unlock during January.

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

Tokenomics

🚀 Yearn Finance Changes Up its Tokenomics and YFI Soars 85%

DOUBLE DIGITS It’s been a tough year for many DeFi protocols originating on the Ethereum blockchain. Despite being up in dollar terms, top tokens like UNI, MAKER, AAVE and Yearn Finance’s YFI have bled double digits against ETH in 2021.

SEVEN DAYS There may be respite for one of them. Yearn, the yield aggregator, has introduced new tokenomics and its YFI token jumped 87.1% in the seven days ending Dec. 20, according to CoinGecko. 

CATALYST The apparent catalyst for YFI’s momentum is the token’s revamped tokenomics, according to a post linked by Yearn on Dec. 19. The proposal hasn’t been approved, but it is expected to do so, according to the post, which says the mechanics will create a “black hole “for YFI, meaning supply will come off the market along with a corresponding price increase.

YFI First and foremost among the proposed changes is the ability to stake YFI in exchange for xYFI, holders of which will receive additional YFI which Yearn buys on the open market. The mechanic will directly reward stakers while the purchases push YFI’s price northward.

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

DeFi Markets

👀 Opyn to Unveil Squared ETH Token as DeFi Derivatives Race Heats Up

NEWS Here comes SQUEETH. Decentralized options protocol Opyn is readying to launch its Squared ETH or SQUEETH token, which is designed to hedge ETH-based liquidity provider (LP) positions on automated market maker (AMM) exchanges.

DEFI PRIMITIVE In a Dec. 17 blog post, Opyn developer Joe Clark described SQUEETH as a “new DeFi primitive” that allows stablecoin/ETH liquidity providers to earn swap fees without being exposed to the impact of price fluctuations in Ethereum.

YIELD The instrument will be a new addition to Ethereum’s growing ecosystem of decentralized derivatives, with DeFi traders able to hedge using yield tokenization, leveraged tokens, structured options products, and futures contracts offered by decentralized protocols. Opyn has not announced an expected launch date for the product.

Comparative curvatures of Uniswap v3 LP position for USDC/ETH, SQUEETH, and ETH short positions. Source: Joe Clark

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

DeFi Revivals

🧟‍♂️ Strip Mall Icon RadioShack Resurrected as a DeFi Play With Token

BUZZ WORDS Crypto is an industry known for entrepreneurs slapping buzz words on projects they hope hit the jackpot. A less trod path is buying a venerable brand that went bankrupt in 2015, and resuscitating it as a DeFi project. 

OBJECTIVE That’s what’s happening with RadioShack, a 100 year-old consumer electronics retailer revived by internet entrepreneurs Tai Lopez and Alex Mehr as a DeFi protocol. The new RadioShack’s primary objective is to distribute blockchain technology, according to the project’s docs, which target  “blue chip, large corporations” as adopters. 

JUMP THE SHARK The project has raised some eyebrows as a possible jump-the-shark moment. “We have a month, 6 weeks tops left in this bull market,” tweeted Brantly Millegan, director of operations at Ethereum Name Service. “If RadioShack DeFi and Melania NFTs aren’t a signal then I don’t know what is.” 

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

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The Tube

📺 Tuesday Tutorial: How to be safer and smarter using Metamask

📺 Quick Take: We fact-checked your favourite millionaire "Finfluencer" - what did we find?

Links

🔗 What made Sam Bankman-Fried launch FTX — and what he now thinks about the world (Part 1): The Block

Episode 85 of Season 3 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX.

🔗 The Bull Case For ETH III | Anthony Sassano, DC Investor, Cyrus Youness: Bankless

Anthony Sassano, DC Investor, and Cyrus Younessi return to Bankless to complete the Bull Case for Ethereum Trilogy.

🔗 The New Get-Rich-Faster Job in Silicon Valley: Crypto Start-Ups: The New York Times

When Sandy Carter left her job as a vice president of Amazon’s cloud computing unit this month, she announced in a LinkedIn post that she was joining a crypto technology company.

🔗 Sorbet Finance Vulnerability Post Mortem: Medium

On December 11th around 10:15 CET, we were alerted of a critical vulnerability in a smart contract used on Sorbet Finance.

yearn.finance @iearnfinance

YFI — Reborn As A Black Hole

medium.comYFI — Reborn As A Black HoleDisclosure: The author of this report and associated parties hold YFI tokens and may hold associated derivatives. These statements are not a recommendation to purchase any token or invest any funds…

3:53 AM ∙ Dec 20, 2021

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Avalaunch 🔺 @AvalaunchApp

💡Avalaunch Spotlight AMA: Dexalot Join us for a special AMA event with the @dexalotcom team as we explore the first CLOB DEX built on Avalanche. 🗓️ 12/22 ⏰ 12:00 p.m. (PST) / 8:00 p.m. (UTC) 💸 50 XAVA 🐦 Retweet 👇 Questions Down Below Rules: links.avalaunch.app/dexalot-ama

9:51 PM ∙ Dec 19, 2021

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Trending in The Defiant

• Polygon’s Surprise Code Change Triggers Questions and Controversy In web3, there aren’t many words more fought over than “decentralization.” So if someone calls a blockchain’s decentralization into question, it’s going to draw a crowd.

• Market Action: Terra Leapfrogs Binance Smart Chain with Surge in TVL Terra is still on a roll. Defying a relentless selloff across crypto markets, the Layer 1 smart contract platform’s LUNA continues to capture DeFi marketshare.

• DeFi Kingdoms Challenges Axie Infinity’s GameFi Supremacy with NFT Play Questioning the utility of NFTs as simple collectables may be missing the point. DeFi Kingdom, an entrant to the blossoming GameFi sector, is expanding the definition of NFTs by offering its version of the tokens, called Heroes.

🧑‍💻 ✍️ Stories in The Defiant are written by Brady Dale, Owen Fernau, Samuel Haig, DeFiDad, and yyctrader, and edited by Edward Robinson, yyctrader, and Camila Russo. Videos are produced by Robin Schmidt, Alp Gasimov and Daniel Flynn. Podcast is led by Camila, edited by Alp.

The Defiant is a daily newsletter focusing on decentralized finance, a new financial system that’s being built on top of open blockchains. The space is evolving at breakneck speed and revolutionizing tech and money. Sign up to learn more and keep up on the latest, most interesting developments. Subscribers get full access, while free signups get only part of the content. Click here to pay with DAI (for $100/yr) or sub with fiat by clicking on the button above ($15/mo, $150/yr).