I believe it is safe to say DeFi entered into its “Wild West” phase this summer. Since Compound launched the $COMP liquidity mining program for its users, it seems like every token project (Curve, Yearn, Sushi, MEME) has taken advantage of this new distribution and reward mechanism. While there is quite a bit of money to be made through all the new yield farming projects and DeFi coins available to trade on Uniswap, there is also a substantial amount of risk for those who are not completely immersed in the space. To give an example on each side of the spectrum, take the early liquidity providers and token holders for yearn’s YFI program. YFI has a capped supply of 30,000 coins and traded for as low as $3 a few months ago but is now trading around $40,000 after several large exchange listings and new products from the yearn team. On the other side of the “DeFi coin” there are new DeFi users who have googled for “uniswap” in an attempt to use the decentralized exchange for the first time and accidentally clicked on the Google Ad for Uniswap which will result in a complete loss of traded coins. The website looks exactly like the real Uniswap, but actually has an additional piece of code connected to the AMM smart contracts. When a user trades on the fake Uniswap (Top Google Ad), the user experiences exactly what he/she would expect to see on the real Uniswap. The trick is when the trade goes through the V2 router, the tokens purchased by the user goes to an address controlled by a malicious 3rd party who then steals the value and does what they want with it. This is a perfect example of the good and bad Ethereum provides. Anyone in the world can create a Uniswap frontend because all Uniswap consists of is backend smart contracts. Not only that but anyone in the world (with wifi and ETH) can trade on Uniswap, which is. also problematic if the user isn’t properly informed.

Here are a few pictures to show how easy it would be for a new user to go to the wrong Uniswap and subsequently lose funds.

Google Uniswap: The Ad is not guaranteed to be the correct Uniswap

Correct Uniswap Interface:

Here are a few tips to reduce the chance of messing up when using DeFi protocols/applications:

• Check the URL against verified sources of truth (Official Twitter Handle or Telegram Channel)

• Never input private keys to use a DeFi app

• Always do a test transaction with small amount of funds

• Check the transaction lifecycle on a blockchain explorer like Etherscan

• Bookmark the correct URL on your device

• Watch tutorials and read documentation

Market Update (Monday 8:30 AM EST)

Percent Change (Rounded) Based on Last Monday Open (8:30 AM EST)

Bitcoin- $10,615 (+6%)

Ether- $375.58 (+15%)

Gold- $1,958 (+1%)

DJI Average- 27,718 (-1%)

NYSE Composite Index- 12,868 (+1%)

NASDAQ Composite Index- 11,010 (+1%)

S&P500 Index- 3,363 (-1%)

New Developments

1. Minecraft NFTs Coming This Year as Coincheck Partners with Enjin, Decrypt

2. 5 Lightning Network Games, BTC Times

3. ETH2: Everything You Need To Know, MyCrypto

4. Tezos Litigation Judgement Day, Alex Lui

5. $GHST to power every activity in the Aavegotchi universe

   Aavegotchi @aavegotchi Introducing $GHST, the eco-governance token of @aavegotchi ✨👻🌲⚖️✨ $GHST powers every activity in the Aavegotchi universe, from participating in the DAICO, to buying Aavegotchis, and even farming rarity! Keep reading to learn just how b a s e d this token is. 🧵👇

   September 10th 2020

   65 Retweets173 Likes

Industry Insights

• Talking Blockchain Security Tokens With ‘Father’ Of JOBS Act David Weild IV

• Fire Before Growth: The Likely Fate of Ethereum Killers, Placeholder VC

• The Sushi Chronicles, Messari

• NFTs and Social Money, Mason Nystrom

  Mason Nystrom @masonnystrom The evolution of crypto primitives is happening at breakneck speed. Primitives like liquidity mining & social tokens – representing individuals and human capital – are now converging. One social token, WHALE now has a market cap of $16m backed by a $1m portfolio of NFTs.🧵

  September 9th 2020

  15 Retweets26 Likes

For Developers

1. Bitcoin Community Split Over PR, Github

2. Enter LexDAO Corpus Contracts, Ross Campbell

3. How to use TheGraph, Solidity Developer

4. Better Tooling for Solidity and Ethereum on VSCode, ConsenSys

   ConsenSys Diligence @ConsenSysAudits We recently released a new VSCode extension called ETHover for interacting with some pretty juicy features. 1. Right click on a ETH address to pull the verified source into a new pane:

   September 8th 2020

   26 Retweets73 Likes

Blockchain Activity

Create a simple storage contract:

*Tools: Metamask, Remix IDE, Ethereum

# set pragma

pragma solidity ^0.4.0;

# contract

contract SimpleStorage {
    uint storedData;

    function set(uint x) public {
        storedData = x;
    }

    function get() public view returns (uint) {
        return storedData;
    }
}

Earn Opportunity

CoinMarketCap.com has an Earn Opportunity for Kava right now. To participate, visit the CoinMarketCap website, click on the Kava tab in the bottom right of the page, watch the three videos on how Kava works, and wait for an email to take the quiz to earn some Kava!