Would you 'mint your soul' as an NFT?
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.
Quick note: Monday is Memorial Day over here in the US and we're taking the day off. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled program on Tuesday!
In today’s edition:
How to hunt down your hacked crypto
Would you 'mint your soul' as an NFT?
RESOURCE: What is a liquidity pool in crypto? (Learn in 9:30)
Is Ethereum losing ground to Solana, like Microsoft lost ground to Apple in the 2000's?
Terms used (click for translation):
Blockchain, Crypto Wallets, NFTs, Web3, Smart Contracts, Decentralization.
How to hunt down your hacked crypto
Pop music has taught us a lot over the years, we've learned that:
Cheryl Crow just wants to have some fun
Savage Garden would fly to the moon and back for us
Biggie Smalls' problems correlate directly with his income
From the outside looking in, that last one can be hard to fathom.
(More money? Sign us up.)
There's a similar blessing/curse with blockchain technology.
The blessing: transactions are secure and irreversible.
The curse: transactions are secure and irreversible (so if you get hacked, you're probably not getting your coins back).
This feature/bug isn't lost on crypto wallet providers like MetaMask, who're partnering with the fraud investigation firm, Asset Reality.
Their goal? To 'make the process of seeking help less miserable'.
MetaMask said in a statement, that Asset Reality will be there to:
"Take the heavy lifting off the users to build an investigation into each scam operation."
Which is great!
Only issue is, it might not be enough to actually recover the stolen crypto.
Because transactions are irreversible, the logical extent of an investigation would end (at best) by identifying which wallets are holding the stolen assets and telling exchanges not to let them trade.
Which is the real world equivalent of finding the house where stolen goods are being kept and telling everyone not to buy from anyone that lives there.
On the surface, this has the air of a publicity stunt - creating the illusion of fraud protection, without an actual solution.
But there's an important precedent being set here.
If wallets holding stolen assets can be quickly blacklisted from trade, at scale - it'll essentially make any stolen tokens worthless.
Making future hacks, well, pointless.
...that's the idea at least.
It's not a complete fix, but it's a start.
Would you 'mint your soul' as an NFT?
Ok, we're definitely living in a simulation.
Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum, has just proposed a new kind of token that will act as a glimpse into its owners' soul.
These 'soul-bound tokens' or 'SBTs' will be non-transferable NFTs, directly linked to real world individuals and will help others gain insights into that person's real-world activities, accomplishments, likes and dislikes.
Buterin elaborated on the concept in a paper he co-authored, explaining how SBTs could function as university degrees, education credentials, and as Web3 credit scores.
Ok. But why?
This all stems from the importance that the crypto community puts on revealing your real world identity, or 'doxing' yourself (i.e. showing your documents).
Such an importance is put on doxing, because of the high level of fraud within the space.
(It's why we link to our personal Twitter accounts at the bottom of every newsletter).
That being said...'soul-bound' tokens?
You don't want to soften the language? Maybe give us a spoon full of sugar along with the medicine?
...it's an interesting concept, but we're starting to see why the creator of Black Mirror said he’s not making a sixth season.
(He thinks we're already living it).
Resource of the day
What is a liquidity pool in crypto?
(Learn in 9:30)
Is Ethereum losing ground to Solana, like Microsoft lost ground to Apple in the 2000's?
Remember the cultish rivalry between Apple and Microsoft?
It's simmered down over the last decade, but in the 2000's it was a war of identities, played out in the consumer market.
Apple came in as the underdog, launching a series of ads that tried to convince users that:
'We do what Microsoft does, but better...oh, and look - it's Jason Long! He's cool...right?'.
The crypto world isn't much different, in fact, cultish rivalries are very much the status quo.
Bitcoin maximalists hate everything that isn't Bitcoin, Ethereum die hards look down their nose at Bitcoin because it isn't programmable...
It's a whole thing.
At the moment, there's a battle brewing between Ethereum (ETH) and its younger cousin, Solana (SOL).
Both solve similar problems, with each network supporting smart contracts and NFTs...so where do they differ?
Well, Ethereum started the whole 'programmable money' thing. It's the more decentralized and robust of the two networks.
Solana is smaller and less decentralized, but its transactions are cheaper, faster and more energy efficient.
Ok, cool. So why is this a news story?
Well, over the past 24 hours, Solana NFTs have outperformed Ethereum NFTs (and all other NFT projects) in trading volume.
(i.e. it made the most money)
Given that Ethereum is 5x larger than Solana; this is a big deal.
Which highlights that size can sometimes slow you down...
Remember the 'Ethereum Merge' that we wrote about a few days ago?
The upgrade that is meant to:
Reduce Ethereum’s energy consumption (by up to 98%)
Increase transaction speeds
Give users the ability to earn interest on their ETH
...we've been waiting for it for some time now.
But the shear size of the Ethereum network has forced the development team to push the launch so many times we've lost count.
Meanwhile, Solana is smaller, more agile and already has all of this functionality.
That's why everyones freaking out about this (seemingly) small news story about 24hr trading volume.
Alright, that's it - that's all.
Enjoy your long weekend everyone!
Oh, and just another reminder if you skimmed past it at the top, we're taking our first break since starting this thing on Monday for Memorial Day.
Your Daily Dose of Web3
Blockchain tech offers multiple paths to financial inclusion for unbanked
OpenSea redesigns parts of its NFT store as sales continue to slump
How an indie author is using Ethereum NFTs to engage and inspire readers
Bitcoin transaction fees remain historically low despite recent spike
Alright, that’s it for today!
Love to the family,