In Feb, DEXs were responsible for 4.6% of all crypto trading volume — today, it has risen to 7% (marking a 52% increase) — all thanks to improvements in UI, price, and optionality.
Full Story
In the long and winding list of ‘bad takes’ throughout tech history, Steve Ballmer’s reaction to the launch of the iPhone has gotta be top 10.
(And we will die on this hill).
“$500 fully subsidized with a plan?? I said that is the most expensive phone in the world!
…and it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard.“
As we all now know — none of that mattered.
The iPhone’s touchscreen keyboard worked well enough for email, the user interface was second to none, and its app library was world class.
And now we’re starting to see a similar shift in users between centralized exchanges (CEXs) and decentralized exchanges (DEXs)
For the longest time, DEXs really only had two things going for them:
They were permissionless (no having to upload your ID, address, and phone number to some unknown server that will outlast humanity)
Self custody came as standard (you held custody of your crypto instead of the exchange)
Outside of that, they were ridiculously hard to navigate for first-time users, and their fees were not competitive.
But of late, that’s started to change across the board — and DEXs are not only competing on ease-of-use and price, but…
They’re also having their ‘App Store moment.’
CEXs can’t/won’t list the majority of new tokens and memecoins right out of the gate because of regulatory restrictions.
So all of the hottest new low-cap coins/tokens that you hear folks making life changing money on, across X (Twitter)? That’s all happening on DEXs.
(Just like all the app development was happening on iPhone circa 2009).
As a result, we’re seeing a massive uptick in DEX usage.
In Feb, DEXs were responsible for 4.6% of all crypto trading volume. Today, it’s 7% — marking a 52% increase.
And sure, a jump from 4.6% to 7% might not feel like a lot…
But neither did the iPhone’s move from 3.5% of smartphone market share, to 5.4% (back in ‘07 / ‘08).
The takeaway:
DEXs are quickly becoming seen as the better option across the board.
Tether alone now owns more US government debt than major countries like Germany, the UAE, and Australia — and they’re not only profiting from it, but driving blockchain adoption in the process.
Full Story
You know those boring businesses you hear about every now and then that absolutely print money?
E.g. Hunt Brothers Pizza — the gas station pizza business that makes $540M a year.
Yeah, well — stablecoins are kinda like that.
The leading stablecoin, Tether, just reported its earnings and have reeled in $5.2 billion of profit so far this year.
(How? By taking a small percentage of the money invested into their coin, and re-investing it to eek out a profit — big bank energy).
Here’s why this is important, and likely to grow:
The US government generates cash by selling IOU’s (typically to other countries) with set interest rates — and to these other countries, it’s a solid deal, cause the US is seen in the same light as the Lannisters (from Game of Thrones):
They always pay their debts.
Problem is…
There’s only so much US debt that other nation states can/are willing to buy — and the US is forever hungry for fresh cash.
Stablecoins are the perfect instrument for extending demand for US debt — they increase the reach of the US dollar by allowing users anywhere/everywhere to buy US dollars, instead of their (often less reliable) local currencies.
And this ain’t some hairbrained theory!
It’s already happening in real-time. Tether alone now owns more US government debt than major countries like Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia.
(Quickly driving blockchain adoption in the process).
Senator Cynthia Lummis (aka the ‘Bitcoin Senator’) formally introduced a bill to the U.S. Senate on Wednesday seeking to establish a national Bitcoin reserve, which will have both short and long-term benefits.
Full Story
Let’s cap things off this week with some news which may impact the crypto world in both the short term, and the long term.
Senator Cynthia Lummis (aka the ‘Bitcoin Senator’) formally introduced a bill to the U.S. Senate on Wednesday seeking to establish a national Bitcoin reserve.
She first announced the bill at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville last weekend but it wasn’t officially introduced until Wednesday.
Here’s why this is exciting in the short term:
Two words: market sentiment.
While there’s still a long way to go for the bill to actually be approved and implemented, the mere introduction of the bill should have some sort of positive impact on investor confidence around Bitcoin.
(And as we know, BTC goes up >> everything goes up 🚀)
And in the long term:
If passed (which would be monumental for BTC), it would surely lead to wider acceptance of crypto in general, and bring us closer to a world where crypto is just another part of the mainstream financial system.
(Not sure that’s what every crypto degen wants, but it’s bound to happen).
Chances are, it would also spur a flurry of other countries also establishing BTC reserves, putting a whole lot more buy pressure on the market.
Whatever timeframe you look at this, it’s huge news.
Now we just need the bill to be reviewed, debated, voting on in both the House and the Senate, and signed in by the President.
The Volumetric Media Interoperability EG seeks to build understanding around volumetric media and draft a charter for a “Volumetric Media Interoperability” Domain Working Group. Opportunities for more immersive services are increasing as volume capturing and rendering devices become more readily available. As a result, more technologies are being developed to address the requirements for compressing, storing, and delivering volumetric media. Multiple SDOs (e.g. 5G-MAG, 3GPP, MPEG, VFA, SVTA, DVB, SBTVD, etc.) have established isolated focus or study groups to solve issues affecting volumetric media services. Because of the wide-spread interest and isolated initiatives, the volumetric media ecosystem is becoming fragmented.
Education and training in the Metaverse are becoming essential for all organizations, whether for internal skill development or external educational offerings. By compiling information from diverse sources, this register will serve to inform stakeholders about the current landscape of Metaverse education and potentially streamline their approaches by collating best practices, challenges, and emerging trends. It is important to note that “education and training in the Metaverse” would refer to both teaching within and about the Metaverse.
After a month-long hiatus, I find myself back in the familiar yet ever-evolving landscape of technology. My time away was a precious opportunity to disconnect, recharge, and spend time with family and close relatives. To my surprise, I spent less time on LinkedIn during my vacation. It’s in these quiet interludes that are needed and we get renewed. And talking about renewals, I am humbled and honored to share with you that I was renewed for a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) year. This is my 6th year in the program, and it has been a great ride. I have met and connected with so many people, that I would not have met without being an MVP. All those people spark and ignite inspiration and there is a massive amount of knowledge, insights and experiences shared! I changed a category a bit this time again, as it has been the era of AI (Artificial Intelligence), I received dual-category MVP award for Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Teams) and AI Platform (Azure AI Services). Check out my MVP profile!
As I reacquaint myself with the bustling world of exciting tech, I am particularly focused to the advancements in Microsoft’s Cloud. The pace of innovation never stops, and it’s clear that Microsoft Copilot, Teams, and Azure AI have not stood still during July. In this post, I’ll be highlighting some selected features in Copilot and Teams (& Mesh) that have caught my attention – I will write about Azure AI later. From intelligent aid to collaborative breakthroughs, these tools are reshaping the way we work and interact.
Don’t miss these events, where I am speaking during autumn!
Let’s start exploring what’s new!
Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 Catch up Outlook Word Excel Microsoft Teams Custom emojis Turn on and off channel post notifications Microsoft Designer in Teams New Notification options Microsoft Mesh
Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365
Catch up
I have been waiting for this one to appear. Catch up helps you get up to speed with the help of Copilot regarding documents and meetings. You can find this when you open Copilot and notice Catch up next to “Try these prompts”.
Catch up is a new tab you can just open and see what kind of updates there are. I don’t see this yet in all tenants where I have access to the Copilot so it is still rolling in.
My personal tenant does not have any other collaborators, so catch up will be less useful in that one. But I hope to see this in my work tenant soon. Looking at picture at Microsoft’s material we can see better what this will be when you see it in your Copilot:
The Catch up feature displays personalized cards offering significant updates and actionable recommendations, allowing you to swiftly grasp important points from materials and recorded sessions that you did not attend or might want to review. Additionally, Copilot assists in meeting preparation by recommending associated documents.
Outlook
The side-panel Copilot in Outlook, can initiate now a new draft reply to an email message – using the information in email messages. For example (note: typos don’t matter 😊 )
It creates a new draft message in Outlook, and lets you continue working on the reply from there.
Word
I think the biggest news here is that Copilot’s context has increased. Now Copilot in Word can summarize documents containing (approx) up to 80 000 words – that is about 160 pages. This depends on the language as well. My guess is that Copilot in Word is now internally using GPT-4o model with 128k token context. As tokens are parts of words, it would target 80k words in document ballpark.
Excel
When users request Copilot to modify table data, it outlines the intended changes and presents a button to execute the alterations, giving users better insight to determine whether to go ahead with the alteration. Users can adjust the changes before applying them at their convenience. For example, I have this (very small) sample dataset:
When I ask Copilot to highlight months where sales are larger than opportunities it shows me what it is going to do. It is great how Copilot will be saving time when working with conditional formatting in Excel.
After hitting Apply, it does the highlighting for me.
Currently Copilot in Excel doesn’t have the capability to add a sum cell (like for example Sum of Sales), but it was announced during July that it will be coming soon. When I just tried it out, it is still summing it the old way: adding a pivot table to a new sheet. Fingers crossed it will appear soon!
Microsoft Teams
Now, let’s get to what’s new in Teams. First, I want to highlight something fun:
Custom emojis
Yes, you can add your own images and gifs to Teams message reactions. You can start adding your custom emojis by selecting the emoji+ icon right before the pen-icon to edit your message.
When the pop-out opens, click the rightmost icon on the bottom row.
This is where you can start adding your own gifs and images by clicking + and then selecting the image (or gif) you want to use as emoji. I already have added Copilot and clippy, but there is room for more. When you have added the image, you get a window to see example uses and you need to enter a unique name to your reaction. The name needs to be lowercase and without spaces.
And as the information box on top says: emojis you add will be visible for everyone in your organization. Your identity is also linked to your emoji. Let’s name this emoji mesh.
After clicking Add emoji you can see mesh emoji in custom emojis.
We can use it normally .
We can also add custom emojis to our selected emojis to react messages.
To edit your favorite emojis, select the smiley + pen icon next to search magnification glass on “Find something fun”.
You can also add custom emojis to your messages. Just open the emoji-button and search for it (or navigate to custom emojis and select the one you want to use).
Quite fun, isn’t it? Adding custom emojis is on by default for all users and admins can delete them.
Right clicks the emoji, to open information who added it and optionally delete it, if you have delete permissions.
Now, if you are an admin or business decision maker worried about people putting all kinds of emojis there are controls available.
Turn the feature on/off for the whole tenant via the Messaging Settings page (on by default).
Set which users can create new emojis via the Messaging Policy groups (on for all users by default).
Set which users can delete emojis via the Messaging Policy groups (off for all users except admins by default).
Read more from custom emojis Microsoft Learn article.
Turn on and off channel post notifications
If you want to follow-up conversation in a conversation thread in channels – or you want to mute it just click the … menu in the message to see the option.
Turning off notifications is especially useful, when you add something to the thread but don’t want to be bothered by it anymore.
Microsoft Designer in Teams
What is quite fun (and also useful!), is that Microsoft Designer is now integrated directly into Teams. You can use it in both chats and channels. With Designer you can generate images without leaving Teams at all.
Just at-mention Designer when writing a message and type in your image prompt.
Designer then creates the image directly to the conversation
Just click the image open, you want to use, and copy or download it.
New Notification options
And as the closing feature, check out new notification settings there are for notification sounds.
It is good to have more control when sounds are played with notifications.
Microsoft Mesh
Microsoft Mesh also got news during July. A few key picks of recent ones:
Event templates updatedPrebuilt event templates (Meadow and Oasis) have gotten updates. They automatically now include screenshare object, so these templates can be used in more scenarios without a need to make any kind of customizations. Customization is still available normally, when you want to add images, videos, etc.
Revisit event links Use past links you’ve received when you created your event, or share the link with others, to rejoin old events. Simply select the link to open the Mesh application and rejoin your past events.
More avatar reactionsNew avatar reactions are coming both on Teams and Mesh events.
Avatar personal boundaryThis one will be useful for a plenty of people. Avatars now have a personal boundary to prevent other people from walking through avatars or standing too close. This helps to increase comfort and safety while in immersive spaces. Avatar personal boundary is available in all Mesh experiences.
Updates to network setup requirements, improved audio qualityMicrosoft Mesh is transitioning to use Microsoft Teams’ backend for spatial audio, promising improved audio quality and simpler network setup requirements for users with Mesh app versions 5.2407+. The rollout, starting now, is expected to complete by late July 2024. No admin action is required before the rollout.
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Published by Vesa Nopanen
Vesa “Vesku” Nopanen, Principal Consultant and Microsoft MVP (M365 and AI Platform) working on Future Work at Sulava.
I work, blog and speak about Future Work : AI, Microsoft 365, Copilot, Microsoft Mesh, Metaverse, and other services & platforms in the cloud connecting digital and physical and people together.
I have about 30 years of experience in IT business on multiple industries, domains, and roles.
View all posts by Vesa Nopanen
The DMV’s new partnership with Avalanche is going to streamline the title & registration transfer process, lowering required physical appointments and bringing 42M Californian drivers onchain in the process.
Full Story
Did you know all the dreary, soulless office scenes from Fight Club were based on the director’s experience at the DMV?
How did we learn that?
We didn’t. We just made it up. But you believed it because everyone knows the DMV is a hellscape (with paperwork).
Good news for those of you in California: those visits to the DMV are about to be heavily reduced, thanks to the department’s new partnership with Avalanche.
Here’s an A/B comparison of the old/new experience:
A) The Old Way
You buy a second hand car (nice!)
To transfer the title and registration, you need to visit the DMV or Post Office and provide some or all of the following documents…
Completed Application for Title or Registration (Form REG 343), vehicle’s out-of-state title, vehicle’s out-of-state registration, proof of insurance, valid smog certificate, VES statement…
* Deep inhale of breath *
California Certificate of Title or an Application for Replacement or Transfer of Title (REG 227), signatures of seller(s) lien holder (if any) and buyer(s), and payment for the transfer fee.
B) The New Way
Most of that is logged, verified, and updated on the blockchain, so when you want to transfer a title and registration…
You just fill out a digital transfer form and click a button to sign in the DMV app.
It’s a massive step towards change for Californian drivers; and it will bring 42M new users onchain in one fell swoop.
For the first time ever, the US national debt surpassed $35 trillion — which equates to over $105k for every living person in the country.
That’s the bad news 👆
This is the good news 👇
The US’ accelerating debt could increase the adoption of Bitcoin and well n’ truly solidify it as a safe haven asset.
The less valuable the dollar becomes → the more dollars it takes to buy BTC → BTC’s growing price is (as it always has been) its own advertisement.
Preferably, we never have to get to the point where Bitcoin’s merits are proven to the world thanks to the collapse of the dollar.
What we will say is this:
We’re glad to have a ‘life raft’ available if such an event were to take place — one that cannot be manipulated and subject to the same fate as fiat currencies.
The Fed just announced that they weren’t touching interest rates in the US for now, leaving them unchanged at 5.25%-5.50%, which resulted in a small drop in value for BTC, but the impact was small.
Full Story
There ya have it: the Fed just announced that they weren’t touching interest rates in the US for now, leaving them unchanged at 5.25%-5.50%.
(Which means people won’t have more money in their pockets to spend on risky-ish assets like crypto).
The decision to hold interest rates was widely expected by analysts!
What wasn’t widely expected, though, was that the Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, gave little-to-no indication that a September rate cut is happening.
(Something he probably would have done if this decision was teetering on the edge of a ‘yes, we’ll make he cut now’).
As a result, the crypto markets dipped slightly (with BTC ~2% down at the time of writing, compared to before the Fed rate decision announcement).
But here’s the good news:
In the past, when interest rates rose or stayed the same (i.e. anything besides an interest rate cut), the crypto markets dropped significantly.
Less volatility related to the news cycle shows a maturing asset class.
(We love to see it).
And in other good news, earlier this week, Jerome Powell did say, and we quote – “inflation has eased substantially” – which sparked a small uptick in the value of BTC.
Whether they hold rates steady in September, or make their first cut since March 2020, is anyone’s guess at this point.
As an industry analyst at a well known company (i.e. this is not about feeding edge as it is just a place to blog and hold the rights for my novels now) covering all things Metaverse, industrial, enterprise and consumer, I know there are few newer companies in the space that may not know what being an analyst means to them, so here is an updated and repurposed blog post I wrote a few years ago else where about what an industry analyst does and why you might want to talk to us. (about any of our coverage areas not just metaverse). Here is the who, what, where and when raison d’être for industry analysts as I see it.
Midjourney Cyberpunk Me
Who?
I been an industry analyst for nearly 8 years, but I have been in the emerging technology industry for well over 30 years as a software engineer and architect and as a writer and presenter. It is not uncommon for an industry analyst to have a lot of field experience, I used to brief analysts during my corporate life as IBM too. Equally many analysts are from a journalistic or statistics background, trained in finding and sharing facts and figures. Of course, there are many personality types within the profession overall, though in general the analyst profession is a people based one developing contacts and relationships across industry areas. Analysts have to take on board a lot of information but cut through the marketing hype to find patterns and facts based on their experience. Not all analysts are going to be long in the tooth like me, but it often helps. In the case of this metaverse wave having been what might now be called an influencer of the 2006 enterprise virtual worlds wave as a metaverse evangelist, putting Wimbledon into second life and developing solutions in the pre IoT connectivity days of things with the then new MQTT, not to mention early days of many current technology trends of web, e-commerce, social media, blogging and personally in gaming. My research agenda primarily covers emerging technology, where everything old is new again. An important thing to add, and certainly one that is true of my group is that analysts maintain integrity and impartiality by being separated from the commercial side of the company, though we do do commercial work, we are not do pay for play where I work. The content of what we cover and say is not based on how much clients pay, nor is it is based on how much the analyst relations department spends on a dinner. Everyone has their own motivation and connection to a subject but, impartiality, trust in treating off the record discussion and, building a reputation is core for our analysts.
What?
Large enterprises and the smallest of start-ups, and everyone in between, share a need to understand the market they are currently in, or look to move to. What is the competition up to? What is resonating in a market? What is going to totally disrupt the current plan? Start-ups need attention and connections to raise funding, enterprises need ongoing growth for shareholders and investors. Analyst companies are there to help provide answers and perspective on these sorts of questions. A large corporate entity may well have a competitive analysis department, but they will be focussed on the other big companies, less the quirky start-up set to make a dent in the industry. Smaller companies are busy just trying to do what they do, and may not have the time to look up and see what is going on around them. Analysts are always across a spectrum of companies, sizes and industry types. Whether it is writing regular short form reports on companies and their latest services, longer form reports across an entire industry sector, running ongoing surveys across thousands of industry types for directional data, custom consulting work, webinars, presentations, offering Merger and Acquisition (M&A) due diligence or just a quick call to answer a client question, analysts offer their considered opinions, backed by experience and data.
One of the other things that is important to consider, especially as a start-up, is to be in the minds of relevant analysts. We talk to people all the time, and suddenly a subject might come up, it may be a complete tangent, which is where we pattern match to say “I saw this really interesting approach from…”. Those conversations might be with VC’s, with companies looking for partners or with potential customers of the company.
Where?
The actual answer to this is anywhere. We take briefings from companies, typically for around 30mins – 1 hour on the phone, over web video conference, in person at trade shows. We try to ensure we do talk to companies, not just look at the web or a press release, as I mentioned above this is a people business. Trade shows such as the huge MWC bread and butter to analysts and for me Hannover Messe and Augmented World Expo are also important. By Example my experience of MWC in 2019, was 30-minute meetings scheduled with 30 mins walking time between them for 3 days, I logged 10 miles a day walking just in the conference centre. That is a lot of conversations and presentations from a varied set of companies.
Social media has always been a useful place for me personally and professionally since the early days, and analysts are often to be found there now. I am always willing to hear about interesting things on twitter/X as @epredator, on linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/epredator/ (and now mastodon and many other places).
When?
Anytime you need to know something across your industry, or you need the industry to know about something you are doing or about to do that’s when you can benefit from an analyst company, or multiple analysts’ perspective. A start-up may be in stealth, not ready to announce yet, and that is where analyst’s integrity is key, tell us what you are doing off the record and that may well lead to some suggestions that help or when you come out of stealth a better description from us as we share what you are doing.
Whilst we are separated from the commercial side of things, we are aware that what we produce is the core product for the company. Companies pay to access the basic reports, long form reports and detailed survey data is also charged for at a different rate, as is our time on the phone answering questions or doing custom consulting. However, companies telling us things is not something that anyone pays to do, and, in those conversations, we do often share our thoughts, so you can get something from a briefing, no need to just broadcast what you do. A final tip, if you are publicly known, have as much information as possible easily accessible, in a slide deck, or on a website. We all take notes during conversations but being able to look things up after the event is important. Who is the company, where were they founded, not just how cool the product is has great importance, this is a people business.
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