Critics often argue that DAO governance is inefficient, calling its idealists naïve while considering traditional corporate governance structures better for making decisions. According to Buterin, DAOs may need to use business forms to manage some unexpected changes in a set of assumptions.

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, recently defended decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), saying they may be more efficient and fair than traditional corporate structures.

In theory, the members of DAOs own and manage them collectively with no central leadership. They decide aspects like the use of treasury funds or the improvement of the protocol through the vote for community proposals.

Buterin stated that critics often argue that the governance of DAOs is inefficient, calling their idealists naïve. The Russian-Canadian programmer added that they consider traditional corporate governance structures with boards of directors and CEOs better for making decisions.

However, Buterin believes this position is often wrong as even naïve forms of compromise may outperform centralized trading structures. Although he knows it depends on the decision, he also believes it falls into the convex and concave categories.

The response to a pandemic, a military strategy, and technology choices in cryptocurrency protocols are examples of convex decisions. Meanwhile, concave ones include aspects like judicial matters, the financing of public goods, and tax rates.

Buterin wrote that they would prefer a compromise amid a concave decision but would flip a coin if a decision were convex.

The creator of Ethereum considers that decentralization of decision-making can cause confusion and low-quality compromises amid convex decisions. However, he believes that relying on the crowd can provide better answers if they are concave.

Buterin Believes that Decentralization Requires More People Making Decisions

He explained that DAO-like structures with different inputs into the decision-making process could make much sense in those cases.

DAOs often defend themselves against external attacks and censorship by adopting decentralization. The nature of the space and the online nature of some projects complicates doing background checks and informal smell tests in person.

Buterin argues that the above leads to a need for DAOs, arguing that decentralization requires distributing decision-making power among more people. That way, reporting and revealing conspiracy is more likely as each has less power.

However, he warned that DAOs might cause problems in cases requiring a more centralized structure. For example, they are useless when an organization operates with a central core leadership or separate groups work independently.

Although central leadership is decentralized, Buterin considers that individual groups may need to follow a clear hierarchy. Therefore, he thinks they should adopt a clear opinion-based perspective to guide decisions.

The programmer said a system that must work in a stable and unchanging way needs a courageous leader. He explained that the latter would coordinate a response to an extreme and unexpected change in a set of assumptions.

Concerning some specific cases, Buterin thinks that DAOs may need to use business forms to manage unexpected uncertainty.

Vitalik Buterin concluded that simpler, leader-led governance forms that emphasize agility make sense to some organizations, even in the crypto industry. Therefore, he stressed that the ecosystem would not remain stable without some decentralized and non-corporate ways.

By Alexander Salazar

MicroStrategy stopped keeping its reserves in US dollars by converting any inflowing money into BTC. The firm has never sold much of its holdings, hoping the value of Bitcoin to increase in the long term.

MicroStrategy recently filed a document with the SEC to report that it had invested an additional USD 6 million in Bitcoin. The document states the company bought nearly 301 BTC, at around USD 19,851 per unit, between August 2^nd and September 19^th.

Since mid-June, MicroStrategy has made new purchases with its excess money, particularly when the price has fluctuated below USD 20,000. The firm no longer holds US dollars or any other fiat currency but Bitcoin in its reserves.

It now holds around 130,000 BTC, acquired at about USD 3.98 billion or an average of USD 30,639 per unit. Considering the company started buying BTC in August 2020 at around USD 12,000, this is a high average purchase price.

Their Strategy May Generate Profits in the Long Term

When MicroStrategy stopped keeping its reserves in US dollars, it chose to convert any inflowing money into BTC. According to its strategy, the company sets some of its profits aside to convert them into Bitcoin.

Over the last two years, MicroStrategy has used around USD 3.98 billion to set around 130,000 BTC aside for its reserves. Since its holdings amount to approximately USD 2.46 million, its strategy has caused it to lose USD 1,510 million, equivalent to 38%.

MicroStrategy has never sold much of the purchased BTC as it seems not to need it due to its constant production of cash supply. They may hope the market value of Bitcoin increases, which would make this strategy profitable in the long term.

Given the volatility in the price of BTC in the short and long terms, the strategy may eventually make profits or losses. The common mistake when interpreting the purchases by MicroStrategy purchases is to view them as speculations.

When buying, speculators only sell in the shortest possible time, expecting to make the highest profit. However, MicroStrategy accumulates reserves by converting the US dollars it sets aside into Bitcoin.

MicroStrategy Stops Maintaining Its Reserves in US Dollars

MicroStrategy has abandoned its reserves in US dollars by keeping them only in BTC. However, a happy medium may allow it to invest a small part of its capital in Bitcoin while keeping most of it in fiat money.

In theory, better results are possible by avoiding buying when the price is high during significant bullish runs. The Bitcoin price has always followed a big bullish trend preceding a bearish year, a rebound year, and a sideways year.

Although MicroStrategy does not always buy similar amounts, it converts US dollars into BTC without worrying much about individual purchase prices. In the end, the approximately 130,000 BTC purchased dropped to an average of just above USD 30,000 per unit. That is higher than the current price but is probably in line with the bearish market average.

If the difficulty in the crypto markets continues, MicroStrategy cannot buy Bitcoin at a lower price in the coming months. In addition, if the bearish market gives way to a rebound year, that strategy that seems like a losing one might become a winning one.

By Alexander Salazar

Every person in the crypto industry on this year’s Bloomberg list is female.

Bloomberg Línea magazine published its famous list of the 500 most influential people in Latin America, which includes four women with outstanding achievements in the crypto world.

The 500 of Latin America, refers to the list of the most influential people in the region. For the impact assessment, the magazine considered recent economic conditions that have changed with the impact of inflation, the war between Russia and Ukraine, and the post-pandemic period.

However, the magazine has also begun to take into account a new element in the realms of power and influence; cryptocurrencies, and within them, several women are in leadership, including Mónica Taher, a businesswoman from San Salvador, who is currently in charge of the Directorate of International Technological and Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Commerce and Investments of the Government of El Salvador.

“The 500 of Latin America trace the path of recovery. This year’s edition includes businessmen, investors, entrepreneurs, artists and athletes. Almost 200 people make their debut on the list and, in addition to the fact that more than a third of them are women, the melting pot of diversity in Latin America is also reflected in it,” Bloomberg Línea.

Crypto Women on Bloomberg List

Also on the list are figures like Colombian NFT artist Soy Fira, the country director of cryptocurrency exchange Buenbit in Mexico, Bárbara Garza Suess, and Bárbara González, General Director of Bitso, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange platforms in Latin America.

The 2022 list includes a growing percentage of women who have led initiatives to advance their countries’ economies on key indicators.

“This year we have included some markets that are new to the list, but whose economic activity is part of the economic environment of the region. Thus, we present people from Cuba, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and a selection of Hispanic executives in the United States who run companies with a presence in the American continent.”

Women and Crypto Universe: A Path to a Better Future

The results present a positive advance in the participation of women and the crypto sector in positions of influence for Latin America, with a growing challenge to come, since despite the results, women make up just a little more than a third of the list.

On the other hand, of the four personalities that represent the crypto world on the list, all are women, which brings with it an encouraging and more than interesting outlook.

However, there seems to be a lot of work to be done, as Monica Taher herself explained in an interview for BeInCrypto:

“We need to empower and educate more women so that they learn not only to save but also to invest. Likewise, we need them to be prepared for any eventuality, like a divorce, for example, where we know that due to the salary gap, almost always and economically speaking, they are the losers. Finally, we need to educate more girls and young women in STEM fields, the careers of the future, so that they are competitive at a regional and global level. The work cannot and must not stop.”

By Audy Castaneda

The company already has its technology hub in Uruguay, where 35 people currently work.

Agrotoken is an innovative company born in Argentina in the midst of the pandemic, which seeks to make natural resources accessible to all people, with the ultimate goal of contributing to the development of a fairer and more equitable economic system.

To achieve this, Agrotoken created tokens that they define as “the most real and reliable in the world” because they are precisely grains.

Within six months Agrotoken will open its doors in Uruguay with the aim of expanding its business in other Latin American countries.

In December 2021, Agrotoken shared its plans for 2022 and within them was its interest in expanding in Latin America. The company has kept its word and that is why it announced that it will arrive in Uruguay in the coming months.

Currently, Agrotoken operates in Argentina and Brazil, and its main objective is to offer tokenization infrastructure for agricultural products such as grains and food. With the above, the company seeks the financial inclusion of local grain producers, so that they can enter a commodity market of more than 2 billion dollars annually.

According to Martín Mateo Cerón, Head of Product Design at Agrotoken, although the company already has its technological hub in Uruguay, they plan to start operations in the local market in the next six months.

“The next step is to expand to the United States and gain market share in Uruguay and Paraguay,” added Cerón.

“I am Uruguayan, I know the market, I have worked in technology companies all my life and I know that Uruguay is a great goal for that.”

As reported by El Observador, initially, the Uruguay hub only had five people in October 2021. However, the firm’s strong development has recruited 35 people, and this number is expected to grow twice by the end of 2022.

It is important to highlight that the Agrotoken business model proposes that each token be backed by a ton of grains, and delivered to a collector that certifies it.

Agrotoken: a World Reference

The co-founder and CTO of Agrotoken, Ariel Scaliter, assured in 2021 that he was confident that the company would position itself as a world benchmark during this year when they began to tokenize more exportable raw materials such as: sorghum, oats, barley, sunflower, wine, oil, coffee, lithium, and sugar cane.

“We started with the idea of ​​linking the crypto world with Argentine producers. We wanted to give them liquidity and financing backed by the grain that they had immobilized in their silo bag or in a stockpile.”

Loans with Tokenized Grains for the Agro World

Among the most important projects of Agrotoken, its alliance with Santander stands out, with which loans are offered with tokenized grains, such as soybeans (SOYA), corn (CORA), and wheat (WHEA). In this way, farmers and the agro-ecosystem will be able to have easy and fluid access to a new financing system, thus expanding their credit capacity.

“A producer can request a loan based on their tokens and use them as collateral,” Scaliter added.

With this alliance, the company intends to allow the world of agriculture in Argentina to have easy and fluid access to a new financing system.

By Audy Castaneda