Use cases

src/content/dao/index.md

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+---
+title: Decentralized autonomous organisations
+description: An overview of DAOs on Ethereum
+lang: en
+template: use-cases
+sidebar: true
+sidebarDepth: 2
+image: ../../assets/use-cases/dao-2.png
+summaryPoints:
+  [
+    "Member-owned communities without centralized leadership.",
+    "Transparent organisations where everyone has a say.",
+    "A safe way to collaborate with internet strangers.",
+    "A safe place to commit funds to a specific cause.",
+  ]
+---
+
+DAOs are an effective and safe way to work with like-minded folks around the globe.
+
+Think of them like an internet-native business thats collectively owned and managed by its members. They have built-in treasuries that no one has the authority to access without the approval of the group. Decisions are governed by proposals and voting to ensure everyone in the organisation has a voice.
+
+There's no CEO who can authorise spending based on their own whims and no chance of a dodgy CFO manipulating the books. Everything is out in the open and the rules around spending are baked into the DAO via its code.
+
+### Examples
+
+To help this make more sense, here's a few examples of how you could use a DAO:
+
+- A charity – you can accept membership and donations from anyone and the group can decide how they want their donations are spent.
+- Fund social activities
+- Grants, investments and ventures
+
+---
+
+?DO WE NEED TO GO INTO THIS LEVEL OF DETAIL?
+governance-token based DAOs
+
+- I have tokens that give me voting power and I can trade these on the open market
+  shares-based DAOs
+- I have a token that represents my share in the group funds. I can redeem my funds using the token.
+
+---
+
+## How do DAOs work?
+
+DAOs are smart contract-based. The business rules are written into the code and deployed to the Ethereum mainnet. Once there and live, the rules can't be broken by anyone. If anyone tries to do something that's not covered by the rules and logic in the code, it wil fail.
+
+[Add example business logic here]
+
+As a type of Ethereum account, smart contracts can hold funds and distribute them based on certain conditions. This forms your organisation's treasury. A DAO smart contract has functions in the code that prevent any funds leaving the account without the consensus of the oranisation's membership.

src/content/defi/index.md

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+---
+title: Decentralized finance (defi)
+description: An overview of defi on Ethereum
+lang: en
+template: use-cases
+sidebar: true
+image: ../../assets/use-cases/defi.png
+sidebarDepth: 2
+summaryPoints:
+  [
+    "A global, open alternative to the current financial system.",
+    "Probably the biggest use case for Ethereum right now.",
+    "Powered by smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain.",
+  ]
+---
+
+Defi is probably the biggest Ethereum success story so far.
+
+## What's defi?
+
+Defi is a collective term for products that are making financial products and services accessible to anyone who can use Ethereum – anyone with an internet connection. With defi, there are no centralized authorities who can block payments or deny you access to anything.
+
+There's a booming crypto economy out there, where you can lend, borrow, long/short, earn interest, and more. Crypto-savvy Argentinians have used defi to escape crippling inflation. Companies have started streaming their employees their wages in real time. Some folks have even taken out and paid off loans worth millions of dollars without the need for any personal identification.
+
+Right now there's ~ 40 billion dollars worth of crypto in defi applications. This is defi.
+
+| Defi                        | TradFi                                                   |
+| --------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- |
+| You control your funds      | Your funds are looked after by companies                 |
+| Transfers happen in minutes | Payments can take days due to manual processes           |
+| Pseudonymous                | Financial activity is tightly coupled with your identity |
+| Open to anyone              | You must apply to use financial services                 |
+
+## What can you do with defi?
+
+Defi currently replicates everything on offer with the traditional financial system and some things that are completely new.
+
+### Global peer-to-peer payments
+
+As a blockchain, Ethereum is designed for sending transactions in a secure and global way. Payments go directly from one account to another in a matter of minutes (usually). To send/receive payments you'll need a wallet.
+
+<DocLink to="/wallets/" title="More on wallets" />
+
+### Stablecoins
+
+Cryptocurrencies are known for their volatility, so stablecoins were built to solve this problem. Their value stays pegged to an another asset, usually a regular currency.
+
+Coins like Dai or USDC have a value that stays within a few cents of a dollar. This makes them perfect for earning or retail.
+
+<DocLink to="/stablecoins/" title="More on stablecoins" />
+
+### Decentralized exchanges
+
+There are lots of tokens on Ethereum. Decentralized exchanges let you trade your tokens while always having control of your assets. When you use a centralized exchange you have to deposit your assets before the trade and trust them to look after them. While your assets are deposited, they're at risk as centralized exchanges are attractive targets.
+
+### Decentralized lending/borrowing
+
+Decentralized lending works without either party having to identify themselves. Instead the borrower must put up collateral that the lender will receive if their loan is not repaid. Loans can be peer-to-peer, so a borrower will borrow directly from a specific lender. Or loans can be pool-based where lenders provide liquidity to a pool that borrowers can borrow from.
+
+Some lenders even accept NFTs as collateral. [More on NFTs](/nfts/)
+
+A more experimental form of decentralized lending lets you borrow without collateral or providing any personal information...
+
+#### Flash loans
+
+Hold onto your hat for this one! Although this is not advised for new or non-technical users... it is possible to take out huge loans without putting up any collateral whatsoever.
+
+It works on the premise that the loan is taken out and paid back within the same transaction. If it can't be paid back, the transaction reverts as if nothing ever happened.
+
+This means a lot of logic must be included in a very bespoke transaction. A simple example might be someone using a flash loan to borrow as much of an asset at once price so they can sell it on a different exchange where the price is higher.
+
+So in a single transaction the following happens:
+
+- User borrows X amount of $asset at $1.00 from exchange A
+- User sells X $asset on exchange B for $1.10
+- User pays back loan to exchange A
+- User keeps profit minus the transaction fee
+
+If suddenly exchange B's supply dropped and the user wasn't able to buy enoughh to cover the original loan, the transaction would simply fail.
+
+### Decentralized derivatives
+
+todo
+
+### Decentralized asset management
+
+todo
+
+### No-loss lotteries
+
+No-loss lotteries are a fun and innovative new savings strategy. Buy tickets for a lottery that you can't lose. Only one winner is chosen every week, but your tickets roll over and you can withdraw at any time. The prize pot is generated by the interest gained on all the tickets.
+
+## How does defi work?
+
+Defi uses cryptocurrencies and smart contracts to provide services that don't need intermediaries. In today's financial world, financial institutions acts as guarantors of transactions. This gives these institutions immense power – even the power to stop you making transactions because your money flows through them. And discrimination is rife – billions of people around the world don't have access to a bank account.
+
+In defi, a smart contract replaces the financial institution in the transaction. A smart contract is a type of Ethereum account that can hold funds and can send/refund them based on certain conditions. No one can alter that smart contract when it's live. So it will always run exactly as programmed.
+
+A pocket money contract that's programmed to send money from Account A to Account B every Friday will only ever do that. So long as Account A has the required funds. No one can change the contract and add Account C as a recipient to steal funds.
+
+## Ethereum and defi
+
+Ethereum is the perfect foundation for defi for a number of reasons:
+
+- No one owns Ethereum or the smart contracts that live on it – this gives everyone an opportunity to use defi.
+- Defi products all speak the same language behind the scenes: Ethereum. This means many of the products can be used in tandem. You can lend tokens on one platform, and exchange the interest-bearing token in a different market on an entirely different application. This is like being able to cash your Starbucks loyalty points in at your bank.
+- Tokens and cryptocurrency are built into Ethereum, a shared ledger – keeping track of tranactions and ownership is kinda its thing.
+- Ethereum allows complete financial freedom – none of these products ever take custody of your funds. You are always in control.
+
+You can think of defi in layers:
+
+1. The blockchain – Ethereum contains the transaction history and state of accounts.
+2. The assets – ETH and the other tokens (currencies).
+3. The protocols – a smart contract that provideds the functionality, for example the service that allows for decentralized lending of the assets.
+4. The applications – the products we use to manage and access the protocols.
+
+<!-- ## Opportunities and risks
+
+At such an early stage in defi, there are both opportunities and risks. Make sure you're aware of both before diving in.
+
+### Opportunities
+
+- **Combination opportunities** – the system is open, new products are coming to market all the time that combine existing services to unlock new opportunities.
+- **Greater efficiency** – smart contracts remove the need for custodians and escrows reducing transaction time and cost without compromising security.
+- **More transparency** – everything is public, this makes auditing and understanding risks a lot easier. If something does go wrong, investigations are far simpler.
+- **More accessible** – defi allows you to use these markets without giving away your identity. These protocols are open to everyone an can't discriminate based on personal details.
+
+### Risks
+
+- **Smart contracts**
+  - they are the backbone of defi so if there a smart contract bug it poses a big risk to the protocol's users.
+  - At this early stage, you are at a disadvantage if you can't read the code and verify its safety yourself. Instead you must trust the protocol and any third party security audits.
+  - one smart contract bug can have a devastating effect within the ecosystem if other products rely on that smart contract. This is one of the downsides of Ethereum's combination oppportunities.
+- **Admin keys**
+  - oten teams will set up their smart contracts with admin keys. These keys allow them to upgrade the contract and shut it down in an emergency. If a malicious actor got these keys they could potentially drain funds from the contract.
+- **External data**
+  - a lot of defi relies on external data sources, provided by oracles. If an oracle's data is compromised...
+- **Scalability**
+  - demand raises tx fees which price some people out of defi
+-
+
+- a single smart contract bug can have a devastating effect within the ecosystem because it's so composable
+- external data: oracles introduce centralization
+- fiat on/off-ramps: for the most part, getting funds out of defi into the traditional financial system requires KYC and regulation
+- scalability: rises in transaction fees favour wealthy participants and price some people out of the ecosystem
+  - layer 2 solutions put atomicity and composability at risk -->
+
+<!-- ## How to defi
+
+Before you try out any defi products, remember that we are in the early stages of this financial revolution. Only spend what you can afford and do your research.
+
+### Transaction fees
+
+Defi relies on Ethereum to keep transactions secure. Ethereum security comes at a cost. The people who do the work to make Ethereum safe, known as miners, must be incentivised. Transaction fees are part of the incentive for securing Ethereum – think of it like a tip to the person processing your transaction. However, this fee is variable and increases when the network is busy. After all, miners need to prioritise all the pending transactions and they're incentivised to choose transactions which include a larger tip. This is known in the community as "gas" as it "fuels" the transaction.
+
+<InfoBanner isWarning emoji=":fuel_pump:">
+    Using defi products right now is expensive. The network is in such high demand that gas is very expensive. The community is working on ways to improve the network's capacity, but don't be surprised if you see gas prices exceed your transaction value.
+    <a href="https://www.ethgasstation.info/">Check gas prices</a> [What's a normal amount?]
+</InfoBanner>
+
+### On/off-ramps
+
+Getting funds in or out of defi into the traditional financial system will require a ramp.
+
+### The defi essentials
+
+- a wallet – you'll need one to connect to applications and manage your funds.
+- some Eth – you'll need to pay transaction fees
+- some time – don't defi in a rush, take time to read everything, double check everything. With greater financial freedom comes some risk. In most cases sending funds to the wrong place is irreversible.
+
+### Do a token swap
+
+todo – is it worth it with current gas prices?
+
+### Earn some interest
+
+todo -->

src/content/nft/index.md

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+---
+title: Non-fungible tokens (NFT)
+description: An overview of NFTs on Ethereum
+lang: en
+template: use-cases
+sidebar: true
+sidebarDepth: 2
+image: ../../assets/eth2/core.png
+summaryPoints:
+  [
+    "A way to turn anything unique into an Ethereum-based asset.",
+    "NFTs are giving more power to content creators than ever before.",
+    "Powered by smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain.",
+  ]
+---
+
+NFTs are currently taking the digital art and collectibles world by storm. Digital artists are seeing their lives change thanks to huge sales to a new crypto-audience. And celebrities are joining in as they spot a new opportunity to connect with fans.
+
+Here's what you need to know about NFTs.
+
+## What's an NFT?
+
+NFTs are tokens that we can use to represent a record of ownership. They let us tokenise art, collectibles, even purely physical items like designer trainers/sneakers. They can only have one owner at a time and they're protected by the Ethereum blockchain – no one can modify the record of ownership or copy/paste a new NFT into existence.
+
+_If Andy Warhol had been born in the late 90s, he probably would have minted Campbell's Soup as an NFT. It's only a matter of time before Kanye puts a run of Yeezys on Ethereum. And one day owning your car and your rental agreement might be managed with NFTs._
+
+### Examples
+
+THe NFT world is relatively new. In theory, the scope for NFTs is anything that is unique that needs provable ownership. Here are some examples of NFTs that exist today, to help you get the idea:
+
+- A unique digital artwork.
+- #23/#100 of a limited edition run of designer sneakers.
+- An in-game item.
+- An essay.
+- A digital collectible like a trading card.
+
+## How do NFTs work?
+
+NFTs have some special properties:
+
+- each token is unique.
+- they're not interchangeable with another NFT in the same run.
+- each token has an owner and this information is easily verifiable.
+- you can't own a % of an NFT token in the same way you can own 0.0001 ETH.
+- they live on Ethereum, so are compatible with every single NFT market on Ethereum.
+
+In other words, if you own an NFT:
+
+- only you own it.
+- you can easily prove you own it.
+- no one can manipulate it in any way.
+- you can sell it on, and in some cases this will earn the original creator a % of resale royalties.
+
+And if you create an NFT:
+
+- you can easily prove you're the creator.
+- you determine the scarcity.
+- you can earn royalties every time it's sold.
+- you can sell it on any NFT market or peer-to-peer. You're not locked in to any platform and you don't need anyone to intermediate.
+
+## Ethereum and NFTs
+
+Ethereum is the perfect foundation for NFTs for a number of reasons:
+
+- Transaction history and token metadata is publicly verifiable – it's simple to prove ownership history.
+- Once a transaction is confirmed, it's nearly impossible to manipulate that data to "steal" ownership.
+- Trading NFTs can happen peer-to-peer without needing platforms that can take large cuts as compensation.
+- All Ethereum products share the same "backend". Put another way, all Ethereum products can easily understand each other – this makes NFTs portable across products. You can buy an NFT on one product and sell it on another easily. As a creator you can list your NFTs on multiple products at the same time – every product will have the most up-to-date ownership information.
+- Ethereum never goes down, meaning your tokens will always be available to sell.
+
+## NFT use cases
+
+### Digital media
+
+The biggest use of NFTs today is in the digital content realm. That's because that industry today is broken. Content creators see their profits and earning potential swallowed by platforms.
+
+An artist publishing work on a social network makes money for the platform who sell ads to the artists followers. They get exposure in return, but exposure doesn't pay the bills.
+
+NFTs powers a new creator economy where creators don't hand ownership of their content over to the platforms they use to publicise it. Ownership is baked into the content itself.
+
+When they sell their content, funds go directly to them. If the new owner was to go on and re-sell the NFT, the original creator can even get a % because the creator address is part of the token's metadata – metadata which can't be modified.
+
+#### The copy/paste problem
+
+Naysayers often bring up the fact that NFTs "are dumb" usually alongside a picture of them screenshotting an NFT artwork. "Look, now I have that image for free!" they say smugly.
+
+Well, yes. But does googling an image of Picasso's Guernica make you the proud new owner of a multi-million dollar piece of art history?
+
+Ultimately owning the real thing is as valuable as the market makes it. The more a piece of content is screen-grabbed, shared, and generally used the more value it gains.
+
+Owning the verifiably real thing will always have more value than not.
+
+### Gaming
+
+### Physical items
+
+### Credentials
+
+## NFTs and Defi
+
+NFT-backed loans.
+Minting insurance cover as an NFT that's tradeable on secondary markets....
+
+[More on defi](/defi/)
+
+## How to NFT
+
+### Buy NFTs
+
+- Foundation
+- OpenSea
+- Rarible
+
+Want to show off your collection, we recommend Rainbow wallet. They even support rich media NFTs.
+
+<>
+
+<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">🎶 hear your NFTs 🌈🔜✨🤫𝙥𝙡𝙪𝙨 3⃞🅳 <a href="https://t.co/IasBswM2fT">pic.twitter.com/IasBswM2fT</a></p>&mdash; Rainbow (@rainbowdotme) <a href="https://twitter.com/rainbowdotme/status/1361161839099445251?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
+</>
+
+### Mint NFTs
+
+Want to turn your content into a NFT?
+
+- Foundation
+- Other platforms...
+
+### Build with NFTs
+
+NFTs are built using a consistent standard known as [ERC-721](/developers/docs/standards/tokens/erc-721/). Read more about it in our docs.