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Another month another Binance community vote between two crypto projects that I haven't really heard much of before. In previous community votes, there have been much more promising projects, but in the last one I have found myself hoping to pick the LOSER... as I don't want the altcoins but would prefer to have BNB tokens instead.

Also, at the end of June, there is also a potential 50% discount on Bitcoin (BTC) bought through the Syndicate platform of Crypto.com. Of course, both things have a bit of a twist to them... so, I will try and write about both to give you an idea whether or not participating in either is good for you or not (I will be doing both!).

Binance Community Vote

Now, for those who don't know about the Binance Community Vote, it is a way for BNB holders to select a project from one of two coins that are up for the vote round. It is a nice way to try and "include" the community, but in the end it is a bit flawed as you are essentially asking many people who don't bother to research the projects and have little interest in cryptocurrency beyond airdrops, get rich schemes and free magical internet money.

So, often you will have people voting for the project that promises (via a differently platform like Twitter) to shower voters with extra airdrop tokens... or you have project A win... because it is the first choice!

First off, to have a vote in this community vote, you will need to have a minimum of 50BNB time averaged over the week before the vote on Thursday. Details of the exact time here You get extra votes (and a corresponding increase in the rewards for voting) the more BNB you hold on exchange, and it is handy to know that BNB held in the interest accruing savings products ALSO count... I only found this out recently... previously, I kept withdrawing from the interest savings products! Ooops...

This round, at least both projects filled out (pretty minimally... ) their project descriptions. That is a step up from some of the poor showings in previous rounds.

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The first of the two choices is ThunderCore (TT), and from the Binance description page... it appears to be a horrible bunch of crypto project buzzwords. Going to the actual website reveals a sort of Ethereum "killer" project... it really appears to want to do the same things as Ethereum (and a million other killers...) with a smart contract public blockchain with a faster and more scalable consensus protocol. I'm afraid that I'm not really turned on by this... Ethereum has such a huge first-mover advantage and a heavily invested DeFi and other projects use cases at the moment...plus the upgrade to 2.0 coming soon (sometime this decade...) plus Layer 2 solutions launching already. I don't really see the need for another attempt to try and "kill" it... and if there was a killer, it would more likely come from one of the already existing projects that are further down the development road. (This prediction could really potentially age badly in the coming years!).

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The second of the two choices is the Measurable Data Token (MDT) which aims to to allow users to take control of their data and to allow the decentralised marketplace of data points (information) between users and buyers. So, basically what already happens without our "implicit consent" already on Web2.0 in exchange for "free" services.

At least they aren't launching a completely new chain for this, this is piggybacking off the Ethereum blockchain. It isn't really a thing that I would be interested in using for myself... I'm not sure that I would want to be sharing measurable data points (aka information) even if it was "secured" and "rewarded". However, I guess there are more than enough people who would prefer to do this in return for tokens of some possible value.

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In the end, I'm not really excited by either project... I have to say that I'm leaning towards the MDT project if only because I just have no interest in the TT project. So, I think I will be voting for the MDT project... I would be happier with their tokens, or better still BNB if they lose!

Syndicate Bitcoin Sale

The Syndicate platform of Crypto.com (MCO) hosts steep discounts every couple of weeks on a different crypto. At the end of June, they are having an up to 50% sale on Bitcoin with the exact details found here: https://blog.crypto.com/the-4th-anniversary-special/

Now, the interesting part of this is that most of the time you will need to have CRO tokens staked to be eligible for the discounts. However, for this particular sale you have a $200 limit with NO CRO stake (of course, if you have staked CRO you will have much higher limits!). Crypto.com also has a nice credit card partnership that allows you to spend crypto easily with a bit of a rebate on purchases plus some nice tier bonuses including Spotify and Netflix rebates. Plus, if you use my referral you get a bonus $50 USD in MCO (NOTE: It does require you to stake about $250 USD in MCO for a few months... I found it worthwhile, but your mileage will vary... it is best for US and Europe based people as that is where the credit cards are rolling out, but in Europe it is still quite patchy!).

Anyway, the reason that I have started to mention this sale so many weeks before the actual sale... is that you will be making the purchase bid with CRO (found on the Crypto.com exchange as well as Bittrex and some other exchanges that I wouldn't trust quite so much...) and this introduces a third bridging currency element to the exchange. You will be wanting to slowly pick up CRO at a decent CRO/BTC price... at the moemnt, it is a touch on the high side as there is a discount on ADA via Syndicate... so, hopefully after that particular demand on CRO is done... we will have a drop again?

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