This episode of The HASH is sponsored by BitStamp and the Galaxy Brains podcast.

You're listening to The Hash Holiday Special on the CoinDest Podcast Network.

Hi, this is David Z Morris, CoinDesk's chief insights columnist.

I think it's pretty clear that the biggest crypto story of the year is, unfortunately, the discovery that FTX and Alameda research

were fraudulent operations. The huge scale and intricate strangeness of the con, which involved

manipulating the media and politics on top of the theft,

mean it will remain a topic of fascination for years to come.

But there was a much more positive story, too.

Not just FTX, but a large number of centralized lending and financial operations collapsed this year.

But defy systems, like MakerDAO and Unisiswap stayed solvent and continued operating through all of it. A huge win for well-designed, decentralized finance. It's hard to write an

exciting headline about something going right, but this was an incredibly important moment,

probably more important for crypto than the crimes of

Sam Bankman-Fried. Going into 2023, I will be focusing on two big themes. The first is very simple.

The real uses of crypto, particularly Bitcoin, by people in need of real alternative financial tools, often in

developing countries. The recent Africa-Bitcoin conference in Ghana seemed like a watershed

moment in visibility for those users, and the resiliency of Bitcoin's price, despite all the

crypto frauds this year, seems to point to ongoing real use. My second big theme

could hardly be more different, but it points to the real diversity in what crypto and blockchain

can accomplish. I think NFTs are here to stay and will be a major lifeline for the industry as we

try to climb out of the wreckage. Successful NFT collections

and applications have continued to emerge even in this downturn, and Ethereum's transition

to proof of stake will hopefully help mute some artists' concerns about environmental impact.

...