🎉 ACJR Turns One Year Old! 🎉

The best crypto and blockchain coverage in November 2021

Happy November from the Association of Cryptocurrency Journalists and Researchers! 👋

Can you believe that we’ve been writing (and you’ve been reading) this newsletter for one whole year already? In that time, we’ve officially launched the ACJR, grown our public Telegram group to almost 800 users, accepted almost 100 paying ACJR members, held two full seasons of our Off the Record educational series, created three scholarships and distributed hundreds of dollars to charity through our awards program, plus hosted three IRL happy hours across the U.S. Hundreds of journalists and researchers have participated in our career development programs so far. All that during a global pandemic!

If you’re not officially a member yet, apply here. 

And we’re not slowing down. Next up for the ACJR is our “Off the Record” season three, a continuation of our virtual series that aims to help journalists understand how to cover the complex cryptocurrency ecosystem.

This season of OTR is sponsored by Edge and Node, the company behind The Graph.

Our first event in this third series is focused on how to cover the burgeoning space of decentralized autonomous organizations (aka DAOs). It will take place on Nov. 24, 2pm EST. You can register here.

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November is also our ACJR election month — after a year of operations, it’s time to switch up our leadership roles. If you’re not an ACJR member and want to vote in the elections, please apply here — only ACJR members can vote (and membership is more than just joining our public Telegram group 😊).

The candidates for next year’s ACJR board include the following:

Paul Dylan-Ennis, Professor, University College Dublin

Charles Bovaird, Contributor, Forbes

Joanna Ossinger, Editor, Bloomberg (current officer)

Vinamrata Chaturvedi, Reporter, StockTwits

Marina Spindler, Consultant

David Canellis, Journalist, Protos

Pete Rizzo, Chief Content Officer, Bitcoin Magazine (current officer)

Mitchell Moos, CEO, Crypto Briefing

Sam Reynolds, Reporter, Blockworks

Caleb Chen, Freelance Writer

Check out their candidate statements here, and be sure to tune in on Monday, Nov. 15 as current co-president Pete Rizzo leads two Meet the Candidates sessions on Telegram, at both 8am EST and 8pm EST.

More information about the voting process will be shared in our Telegram group.

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This month we’d like to begin our roundup of the best crypto articles and reports by highlighting Substack writer Brett Scott’s essay on how crypto holders visualize the worth of their coins. This piece answers a lot of questions about how people are interpreting value. 

Next we’ve got a reporter turned research whiz at Compass Mining, multimedia director Will Foxley, who showed how journalistic skills can be applied to make great branded content.  

Compass Mining’s video short on bitcoin mining and the Navajo Nation shows an exemplary example of how to publish research in a captivating and accessible way. 

Lastly, although the SQUID token rug pull is no longer grabbing headlines, we also wanted to thank ACJR member Connor Sephton for helping pull together an impromptu Twitter Spaces on how media coverage of the exit scam went wrong. 

Now, without further ado, here are our top journalistic picks for November: 

“Tether Papers: This Is Exactly Who Acquired 70% of All USDT Ever Issued” by Protos

• In this massive piece of analysis (across the eight blockchain layers where USDT exists), Protos breaks down exactly where every single Tether has been sent in the stablecoin’s history. While we are all waiting for the mythical Tether audit, this type of deep research shows how the stablecoin market moves. It offers a shining example of how journalists can use blockchain data for research.

“DAOs Want to Reshape Fashion. Here’s What Brands Need to Know” by Anna Tong, Vogue Business

• The article (written by an ACJR member!) dives into the world of fashion and shows how blockchain tools could impact the fashion industry. We liked the way Tong ends the piece with critical questions about whether tokenized systems might encourage users to fixate on trying to increase their favorite token’s price.

“The Mayor of Reno Is Betting Big on the Blockchain” by Gregory Barber, Wired

• With all of the mayoral statements about Bitcoin recently, from New York City to Miami, this piece goes deeper into how Reno’s Mayor Hillary Schieve is thinking about ways to use blockchain technology in her smaller city as well — such as by selling NFTs to fundraise for the repair of a damaged whale statue near City Hall.

“Meet 'the Plebs,' a Community of Over 5,000 Ordinary People Powering the Network Behind Twitter and El Salvador's Bitcoin Payments” by Kari McMahon, Business Insider

• This piece does a great job in putting names and faces to the people keeping the El Salvador Bitcoin payments system up and running. After meeting on Clubhouse, the group aims to educate users about the lightning network and keep expanding their already 1,000 nodes. 

“Bitcoin’s Biggest Upgrade in Four Years Just Happened – Here’s What Changes” by MacKenzie Sigalos, CNBC

• It’s incredibly difficult to describe Bitcoin technical upgrades in an accessible way, yet this piece manages it beautifully. This article has everything you need to know about the Taproot update, explained in a way even newcomers can understand. Kudos! 

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That’s a wrap on November! Keep an eye out in our Telegram group for election voting news and follow us on Twitter. And if any of you get the hankering to set up a holiday eggnog crypto happy hour, don’t hesitate to reach out to any ACJR board member for information.

Happy (early) Thanksgiving!

Meme courtesy of Frank Chaparro

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