'So you’ve stolen $600M. Now what?'
GM, we take the latest Web3 news and translate it into plain old English - so you can stay up to date, without your eyes glazing over.
In today’s edition:
'So you’ve stolen $600M. Now what?'
Would you buy your NFTs on your Smart TV?
RESOURCE: What is a wrapped token?
(The NFT boom isn't over) Ex-Google and Meta employees' NFT sells for $1.42M
'So you’ve stolen $600M. Now what?'
What happened:
On Tuesday, the crypto community witnessed one of the largest hacks in Web3 history.
The Ronin blockchain, home to one of the worlds most popular play-to-earn games 'Axie Infinity', suffered a $625 million exploit.
What happens next?
...that's a good question.
Even if you use privacy-preserving tools and plot a careful plan, large amounts of stolen crypto are very hard to launder.
Adrian Hetman, a DeFi expert at Immunefi, commented:
“Laundering $600 million, I don’t think it’s possible”
This is because every cent is trackable on the open blockchain, so no matter how many times you split the stolen funds and bounce them between different wallets, there's still a trail to be followed.
And if/when you try to convert your stolen crypto into dollars, it'll put a named bank account at the end of that trail.
What's strange about this:
By far the strangest part of this story is that the hacker isn't even trying to stay anonymous on the blockchain.
They've already transferred a good chunk of their stolen funds onto exchanges that have 'know your customer' (KYC) requirements, so there's a name and identity attached to the wallets receiving the stolen funds.
Add to that to the fact that the exchanges being used, including FTX and Crypto.com, have strong reputations for regulatory compliance - and you have one hell of a head scratcher on your hands.
(CEX = Centralized Exchange).
Either the hacker knows something we don't, or they didn't think this one through.
Would you buy your NFTs on your Smart TV?
Art by 'NFT TV SETS'
What happened:
Nifty Gateway, the NFT marketplace, has announced a new partnership with Samsung to create the “first-ever smart TV NFT platform”.
(side note: if they don't call it 'NFTV', we will riot).
On the surface, buying NFTs on your TV feels like a gimmick. But on a broader time horizon, this adds another point of entry into crypto for the un-initiated.
Our take:
It could be a hit, or it could go the way of the internet connected toaster - an unneeded addition to an existing product.
For it to work, NFT developers will need to build projects with real world use cases and offer clear benefits to the end user.
Eg. Buy a Rick n' Morty NFT --> get early access to new episodes.
(10/10 would buy).
Resource of the day
What is a wrapped token?
(explained in under 8 mins)
(The NFT boom isn't over) Ex-Google and Meta employees' NFT sells for $1.42M
Two nights ago, a single Azuki NFT sold for $1.42 million - that's 420.69 ETH ( ^ see gif)
The Azuki project is one of 2022's biggest NFT projects, created by Chiru Labs, a pseudonymous four-person team of builders that (apparently) includes former employees of Meta and Google.
Azuki is a 'Profile Picture' (PFP) project...so who in the world is paying $1.42M for profile picture?
Funnily enough, it's not one person, but a DAO (see translation) by the name of RedBean, that is focused on buying Azuki NFTs.
The irony here is, the individuals funding the DAO won't actually be able to use the NFT as a profile picture...unless they sort out some sort of time share.
Maybe there's dApp for that?
Your Daily Dose of Web3
Alright, that’s it for today!
Love to the family,