The cryptocurrency ecosystem underwent a turbulent year in 2022. Criticism inside and outside of the crypto industry was fueled following the collapse of FTX, Celsius, Three Arrows Capital and the Terra ecosystem.
A number of losses have been recorded from these events. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis released a report in December of last year, which noted that the depegging of Terra’s stablecoin, Terra USD Classic (USTC), saw weekly-realized losses peak at $20.5 billion. Findings further show that the subsequent collapse of Three Arrows Capital and Celsius in June 2022 saw weekly-realized losses reach $33 billion.
While these events may have resulted in a loss of trust within the crypto ecosystem, it’s important to point out that blockchain technology and cryptocurrency have not failed. To put this in perspective, Dan Morehead, chief operating officer at Pantera Capital — an American hedge fund specializing in cryptocurrency — stated in a Dec. 19, 2022 letter to investors:
“The narrative that blockchain skeptics and some regulators and politicians are pumping out misses the point. The collapse of FTX had nothing to do with blockchain technology. It’s not crypto that failed. Bitcoin and all the other protocols worked perfectly.”
To Morehead’s point, companies within the crypto and blockchain sector continue to build and release products, despite recent events. In fact, a number of projects are focused more than ever before on instilling trust within products.
Companies aim to ensure trust
Paul Brody, global blockchain leader at EY and an Enterprise Ethereum Alliance board member, told Cointelegraph that he senses a renewed respect for the value of rules, regulations and the idea that the rule of law has a role to play within the crypto sector. “The narrative that ‘code is law’ doesn’t seem to come up so much anymore in discussions,” he said.
Given this, Brody believes that auditors, regulators and mathematical proofs will play a critical role in building trust with…
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