Web3's security flaws = $1M opportunity
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:
Web3's security flaws: a million dollar opportunity
Snoop Dogg just created the perfect munchies restaurant (with his NFTs)
RESOURCE: How to get whitelisted for every NFT project's Discord & Twitter
Web3 'Pig Slaughtering' is immoral and wrong...let us explain
Terms used (click for translation):
Web3, Hard Wallet, NFTs, Crypto Wallet
Web3's security flaws: a million dollar opportunity
Imagine walking into a bank, depositing $10K in cash, only to realize the teller had put it into their personal account.
Not only that, but the teller wasn't even a real bank employee.
It was just some guy in a blazer.
You'd be pretty upset with the bank for letting their security measures laps so badly.
Something similar just happened over in the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) Discord server.
Over the weekend, the BAYC community manager, Boris Vagner, had his account hacked. The attacker then posted a 'giveaway' phishing link to the Discord channel, under Boris' name, which gave them access to the wallets of anyone that clicked it.
In total, 200 ETH (~$360,000) worth of digital assets were stolen.
Here's the larger issue:
If this reliance on hyper conscious, self security isn't working while the space is young, it definitely won't work at scale.
For Web3 to become ubiquitous in the lives of most consumers, better security infrastructure needs to exist. Otherwise, folks are just going to stick with what they know - regardless of any other benefits offered by this new technology.
And sure, we can all argue on Twitter about who's at fault...
VS.
But regardless of opinion, at the end of the day, answering security flaws with:
"Tough luck, you shouldn't have been dumb and clicked that link from a trusted figure",
Isn't going to be a good enough solution for the majority of folks sitting on the sidelines of Web3, wondering if they should start exploring the space with their life savings.
Here's the silver lining:
Like with all problems, there's an opportunity to make some cold hard cash, by creating a better product.
Anyone want to build a chat host that requires verified moderators to sign with their hard wallet before they post a link?
...some space in the market might have just opened up.
Snoop Dogg just created the perfect munchies restaurant (with his NFTs)
Some things go great together:
Peanut butter and jelly
McDonalds and first dates
Netflix and chilling
Restaurants and NFTs
(Yeah, you read that last one right).
...and if you're mad about the second one - get our gravestones ready, because WE WILL DIE ON THIS HILL.
You may remember a few weeks ago when we reported on a new fast food joint – Bored & Hungry – which was created by the Food Fighters Universe (FFU) and featured a couple of Bored Apes.
Well, they're back at it again. And this time, they’ve brought Snoop Dogg into the mix.
Together, they've teamed up to create a different type of eatery – Dr. Bombay’s Sweet Exploration.
Touted as being an “immersive retail dessert experience” and similar to Bored & Hungry, it’s also based in LA (no surprise there).
Can anyone take an NFT and turn it into a restaurant?
Well, sort of.
Yuga Labs (creators of BAYC) grants the right to commercialize their NFTs.
So, Snoop’s dessert place isn’t an ‘official’ Bored Ape restaurant but he’s well within his rights to use his Ape NFT for its branding.
While Snoop Dogg isn’t new to the NFT space (he owns multiple NFTs and contributes to projects like The Sandbox and Clay Nation) - it is his first foray, however, into the restaurant industry.
And we couldn’t imagine a better partner to do it with.
...there's a weed brownie joke in here somewhere, but we can't find it.
So we'll just end the article here.
Resource of the day
How to get whitelisted for every NFT project's Discord & Twitter
(Learn in 8:30)
Web3 'Pig Slaughtering' is immoral and wrong...let us explain
So you've met someone.
(Congrats!)
They're funny, charming and intelligent.
(Nice work!)
They live in another city, so you haven't met each other yet - but you talk just about every day.
One Monday afternoon, you ask how their weekend went.
They talk about Saturday drinks with friends, a Sunday spent doing life admin and a new crypto project they bought in to...
Crypto project? 'Yeah, I'll send you the link if you want?'.
A few clicks and thousands of dollars later, you're invested.
Except the website you were linked to was a copycat of a legitimate project - and the crypto wallet you just sent your funds to, was that of the funny, charming and intelligent person you'd been chatting to for months.
All of a sudden, you're getting 'user not found' results on all of your chat links.
This is what's known as a 'pig slaughtering scam', which sounds harsh...because it is.
'The process could last for weeks or even months as they try to win the trust of the individual.
Once their prey is wrapped around their finger, it’s been fattened up.'
According to the cybersecurity firm 'Sift', these kinds of malicious profiles could make up a total of 5% of San Francisco's digital dating pool.
With the FBI maintaining that the scam is 'trendy' in the locality.
(Weird choice of words, but ok).
Today's edition of the newsletter seems to feature a lot of doom and gloom around security. But then again, so did the early internet.
Remember the 'Nigerian Prince' scam?
That was just a digital version of a real world con that dates back to 18th century Spain.
Point is: security flaws will always exist, we just need new solutions and practices to reduce them.
We have faith that the Web3 community will find a way to do so, just like so many other industries have in the past.
Your Daily Dose of Web3
Alright, that’s it for today!
Love to the family,