#193 - Web3 threads 🧶 of the week

GM daily-ers!

Author

joe hitchcock
April 15, 2023

GM and welcome to Decentra Daily.

We're the newsletter that rolls the best web3 threads of the week into a bumper Saturday morning breakfast burrito.

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Today,

First up, @BanklessHQ reports on the (lack of) Shapella fallout

This week, the Ethereum blockchain completed its transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which means that on-chain security is now performed through a network of highly-invested (staked) users.

Those stakers had at least 32 ETH locked into the system, until a couple of days ago and the "Shapella upgrade," which allowed them to withdraw their funds.

Cue: a whole lot of FUD about an Ethereum "death spiral" that would see the blockchain crumble and Vitalik finally deposed from his web3 throne.

...Obviously, that didn't happen. But what did? In this thread, Bankless covers the 48 hours after the Shanghai upgrade, during which Ethereum, if anything, seems to have gotten stronger – its price surging above $2k.

@web3bandit discuss what exactly happened to Bored Ape giant, Franklin

Franklin, one of Yuga Labs' most prominent holders, posted a disconcerting message this week.

It said that "unfortunate events" had forced him to sell assets and step away from the NFT space.

The post followed a fire sale of his Apes, big enough to rock the collection floor.

So what happened?

Here, @web3bandit lays the context for Franklin's often contentious movements, from high-roller gambling and crypto pranks gone wrong, to egregious market manipulation.

According to the thread, this latest controversy involves investments into a suspicious-looking online casino...

@rektfencer gets tips straight from the scammers – so you can avoid them

What's the best way to avoid getting scammed in web3? My advice would be: turn off your phone, rip out the sim card, throw it all into the nearest Popeye's Chicken fryer.

Optional: consume with pickles and mashed potatoes.

Another option? Talk to real scammers to find out exactly how they operate. That's what  @rektfencer did in this thread.

Give it a read to see who scammers' favorite victims are, how they hack MetaMask wallets, and how they launder crypto to steal up to $10,000 per month.

On the web3 wire

ALTS: a new Adidas NFT collection 🖼️Chapter 1 ALTS are intended as storyfied pfps. Holders of previous Adidas Into The Metaverse collections can burn their NFTs for a new ALTS asset.

FTX finds another $7.3 billion hiding behind the couch cushions 🛋️The amount supposedly recovered by the exchange has been climbing and is up $800 million since January, according to FTX's attorney.

CSV-GPT, a free online tool for easier crypto tax reporting 📝This AI-powered tax tool reformats and consolidates CSVs of crypto transactions to help you file 

@TallyLabsNFT's posts a long '23 update on each of their projects 🥱

We'll save you precious Saturday-morning minutes on this one. Tally Labs' 39-Tweet marathon covers recent developments and future plans for the Writer's Room, Azurbala, and a new product – Avenue.

Avenue is a software platform in beta for creators "to connect, engage, and collaborate with their community."

As for the Writer's Room, production on the first podcast episode is underway, while they'll be more "creative opportunities" for holders.

And Azurbala? It's getting a whole relaunch.

Check out the thread for more info – but, honestly, there aren't a whole lot of specifics.

@aaditsh on the newest AI trend: Autobots

Missing a week of AI news right now means missing the next supposedly world-changing, society-redefining development.

This time, it's Autobots – or Auto GPT. This is the programming of GPT-4 agents to run independently so that they can perform multi-step tasks without needing to be prompted.

It's like having your own little army of, admittedly dim, but ever-willing assistants.

Aadit Sheth shares this thread about how people are already using AutoGPT bots for various tasks – market research, creating apps, browsing recent events, booking flights, and more.

@elonmusk announces a new Twitter monetization feature: subs

Twitter is now allowing people to gate their content – from long-form text to video – and offer subscriptions to their followers.

And for the next year, Twitter won't keep any of the money those creators make, meaning you'll get 70% on iOS and Android, and ~90% on the web.

Oh, and creators can leave the platform whenever they want with their content. Pretty cool, I think?

@legen_eth on the latest open-source update to the Tweet recommendation algo

On the subject of Twitter upgrades, @legen_eth dives into the new Tweet algo in this thread.

According to them, the update is a godsend for reply guys, with the number of replies (and replies to replies) factoring far more heavily into tweet amplification.

Other significant boosts? Clicks on your profile, long read times, and having users look at replies to a tweet also count toward visibility.

Retweets and likes don't seem to figure as much as they used to – and incendiary content is now actively penalized.

@otterolie on a new contract standard for Ordinals: BRC-721

Otter's Twitter thread covers what might be a big moment for Ordinals – the Bticoin "NFTs" that now count in the +1 millions.

There's a new metadata standard called BRC-721 for these BTC collectibles, which should make future assets more NFT-like than ever.

Using this standard, marketplaces will be able to instantly identify collections and reveal metadata directly from the blockchain.

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@nonmayorpete on this week in AI

About this thread, which sums up the latest big-tech AI developments, Chat GPT says:

"A big week in AI! Amazon's Bedrock won't make you Fred Flintstone, but it will help enterprises keep their data under wraps.

And move over GitHub Copilot, here comes Amazon's CodeWhisperer.

Meanwhile, Stability AI's SDXL is sharpening text like a sushi chef, while Google's Med-PaLM 2 is healing the healthcare industry.

And if you want to give your doodles a heartbeat, check out Meta's Animated Drawings tool!"

Ok GPT. Cool it a little, would ya?

And finally, @SaveYourSons reminds us of our all-too-common cognitive biases

@SaveYourSons is known for posting viral parenting advice – often on how to teach kids critical thinking skills.

But, if it works for kids' brains, then that advice is probably pretty appropriate for degens, too. 😂

In this thread, check out 20 common cognitive biases that have a big effect on your decision-making. Including confirmation bias, anchoring bias, bandwagon effect, Dunning-Kruger effect, and the sunk cost fallacy.

Biases come baked into our brains, which means we can't escape them.

But, by continually acknowledging biases, you can learn to make more informed and rational decisions, the next time you're considering fomo-ing in and buying the top...

 I'll see you in the next Decentra Daily 👋

Meme of the day

What we're reading this week

business x blockchainweb3 topics & the companies evolving them
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