There is a general understanding that crowdfunding, tokenization, and some other concepts are tightly connected. But do you understand what blockchain is? It is important to understand how it works to help us all understand Online Capital Formation.

Follow our Spotify Channel and welcome aboard.

Friday, December 31, 2021

Dear friends,

Thank you for another year far surpassing my hopes both personally and professionally.

The CfPA continues to be highly-regarded here and abroad as a generous and vital organization expanding access to capital and opportunity for entrepreneurs, small businesses and investors. Our work in 2021 helped Crowdfunding reach new highs, extended our global voice, and expanded our capacity domestically. We saw over $500M raised using RegCF offerings where even non-accredited investors finally got a piece of the pie. We saw RegA+ offerings land over $2B. For these, and so many other reasons, it continues to be an honor to be a part of a leadership team on the cutting edge of Alternative Finance. CfPA’s reputation continues to be enhanced by the many professionals who freely contribute their time and expertise to advancing the association and the industry. There have been so many noteworthy moments and I look forward to seeing even more debut in ’22.

In 2021...more

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Dear friends,

A vast majority of you reading this letter are part of the Crowdfunding community—whether you know this yet or not, your knowledge, initiative, collaboration...and pocketbook have made our industry touch more lives than you might imagine. We at the Crowdfunding Professional Association thank you for all your imagination, hard work and follow-through, and celebrate with you the continued growth enjoyed by communities everywhere. I want to preface this letter by making certain my fellow volunteers at the CfPA are aware just how fortunate we are to have their gift of time, knowledge and leadership—thank you, again.

At its simplest, Crowdfunding lives at the intersection of crowdsourcing and alternative finance, and even until recently was seen more as a funding method for ventures too risky for conventional capital or for entrepreneurs lacking loan-worthy collateral or relevant experience. But in just six+ years since passage of the JOBS Act, Crowdfu...more

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Dear members, friends and colleagues,

Unlike students “getting back to school” each fall, the best work of our association’s many volunteers tends to commence at the start of each new calendar following a frenetic year-end rush both professionally and personally. So, welcome back—I hope your 2018 was prosperous, and your holiday break inspirational and renewing.

Before outlining our goals for 2019, I need to first thank and congratulate all for a pivotal year that commenced with the necessary and successful recruitment of what many have confessed to me is an enviable assembly of alternative finance pioneers and thought leaders—over 34 remarkably generous board members, advisors and committee members, tripling all previous leadership. I am humbled to have gained your mindshare and commitment toward pursuing the CfPA’s noble mission. However, I emphasize “toward” because, as an organization, our ultimate fulfillment remains just over the horizon—we have much to...more

On March 14, 2022 I wrote about putting a 4k Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT up for sale (all proceeds to charity) on OpenSea to point out structural deficiencies in "NFTs 1.0" and concluded that it was "exhibit #1 that these 'digital art' NFTs represent a bubble about to burst." (Note: It didn't sell) https://crowdfundingecosystem.com/kb/article/psychedelic-safari-bored-ape-nft-for-sale-proceeds-to-charity 

On that day, the floor trading price of a BAYC NFT was $233,301. The bubble continued to inflate for another six weeks until April 30 when it reached $420,430. But as of this writing, August 30, it's down to $114,335 which is a 50.99% DROP from my March 14th posting and a 72.80% drop from the peak. 

Now for Exhibit B: NFT trading on OpenSea is crashing. See: "Trading volume on top NFT marketplace OpenSea down 99% since May" https://fortune.com/2022/08/29/nfts-opensea-crypto-winter-bubble-blockchain-web3

It appears all those OpenSea wash traders are spending the summer months w...more

I’ve never been able to create great Art -- but I can appreciate it when I see it. 

And the work of Stijn van Schaik, a 21-year-old Dutch art student, who posted his “Soul” for sale using an #NFT on #OpenSea is pure genius.  

It’s a brilliant work of digital art in our digital age and he titled his work the “Soul of Stinus”. It’s the world’s very first human Soul ever sold via NFT -- so I went ahead and paid some ETH for it. 

You can read background about his project here: 

A Student Is Selling His "Soul" As An NFT
https://www.iflscience.com/technology/a-student-is-selling-his-soul-as-an-nft/ 

Here’s another reference: 
 
Student Selling His Soul as an NFT
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/423368

What makes his work particularly unique is not the digital image that he associated with the sale, but the fact that he wrote a detailed and legitimate (/humorous, in my opinion) contract that governs the sale.  

Here are the terms of sale for the Soul. &...more

I forget that we should state the obvious, appreciating that 98% of humans don't read beyond the headline. So to be clear, #NFTs are not investments.

Yes, they're marketed, sold, offered and often exploited as "investments" but they are not. People get confused caught up in HOW nfts are made and WHY they represent proof of purchase but not WHAT they are.

🤔 If you turn down the technical jargon and noise on HOW nfts are made (also we should note that most people confuse minting nfts with crowd sourcing funding💰, via the offering of non-fungible tokens in a crowdfunding campaign. #Crowdfunding existed before and will exist after nfts and crowdfunding (the seeking of capital from strangers online) isn't "nfting" anything.

Where were we....oh yes, if you turn down the techno babble of HOW and WHY and focus on WHAT nfts are....They are not investments. They're digital receipts that some fools buy to prove that fools and their money are so easily separated.

Do receipts have a real world pu...more