#201 - News roundup: Gensler's crypto class, Yuga LoTM update, Ghostwriter AI song

GM and welcome to Decentra Daily.

We're the furry tractor of web3 news. Wanna ride?

Today,

1. Gary Gensler's 2018 crypto lectures

2. OpenSea employee on trial for insider trading

3. A new Ghostwriter AI song ft. Rihanna

Plus, all the web3 headlines, memes, and Tweets of the day.

D-Daily takeaway 🥡Another day of solid market recovery.

What's this? 🤔Our floor price index tracks the biggest, most influential pfp projects, art collections, and gaming assets.

Updates from the Decentra Daily news desk

We've seen lots of updates to ongoing stories recently – so let's get you updated.

Here's an assortment of web3 sweet treats.

First, more on those uncovered Gary Gensler videos from 2018

Over the past few days, Twitter user @ZK_shark has been sharing the first of "150+" clips taken from a 2018 MIT lecture series called Blockchain and Money.

Who's teaching the course? Why, it's everybody's favorite Monty Burns lookalike, Gary Gensler of the SEC.

Here are some highlights from the classes:

• Gensler says 3/4s of the crypto market can not be called securities."

• He calls early crypto project Zcash, "legal...it's a coin. It's real."

• He says that a native token is a great way to "jumpstart" a decentralized project.

Now, nobody is saying that Gary can't change his mind on crypto topics – about whether certain tokens are securities, or the role that regulators need to play in the market.

Crypto in 2023 is bigger, more popular, and way scammier than it was in 2018. And any responsible regulator should be evolving its recommendations with the market.

But, these videos show Gensler directly contradicting the current stance of his agency, the SEC. Plus, they throw many of his recent statements to Congress into question...

Next, Ghostwriter released a new AI collab song

After going extremely viral, racking up a million+ listens to their AI Drake & The Weeknd track, Ghostwriter has re-emerged with another AI artist collaboration.

This time, it's Bad Bunny & Rihanna with this summer's smash Spanish-language hit, Por Que. 

It looks like streaming apps and social media are more prepared 2nd time around, with the song removed from Spotify and Twitter a few hours after posting.

What's interesting here?

Ghostwriter's creations might not be super high quality – or that original.

But they show how AI can effectively replicate a distinctive style or artist, spinning infinite variations on a theme.

As the tech improves, how will it change (1) the creative process, and (2) the way we consume (and think about) content?

And 3rd, some Legends of The Mara updates

Yuga has created a blog post to track updates in the run-up to their new game, Legends of The Mara.

LoTM will be a "2D strategy game" set within the world and lore of the Otherside.

In the game, Kodas can farm resources and grow a new type of creature (and Yuga NFT collection) called "Mara."

To play, Otherdeed holders need to claim a vessel – one per Otherside plot.

So what are the latest updates?

Expanded Otherdeed - To create a "game board" and play LoTM, voyagers will need to burn their original Otherdeed NFT and claim an Otherdeed Expanded. These updated NFTs have a new smart contract that will support future standalone games.

Vessel Nesting - Each Voyager can claim a Vessel to nest on their Otherdeed plot. Only one Vessel can be nested at a time, so choose your first Vessel wisely!

Environment tiers - Otherdeed environment tiers play an important role in LoTM. A plot's tier number corresponds to the number of characters that can farm the plot at once.

Litepaper publication - A full litepaper laying out the rules and narrative of LOTM is expected soon.

Legends of The Mara begins next month. Read the extensive FAQ for more.

Notable Tweets ✅

On the web3 wire

Did Dapper Labs execs know its NFL All Day collection would fail? 🤔According to this article, the studio became aware during the project soft launch that it would fall "hundreds of millions of dollars" short of honoring its partner contracts

Normies don’t care about decentralization 🤷‍♂️Here's an interesting take from the former CEO of BitMex, who says that decentralization, one of the fundamental tenants of web3, can hinder the accessible user experience that mainstream users demand.

Apple is launching a "journaling" app 📱The next major iOS update will include an app for journaling/diary keeping. It will pull data from across your phone, including your location history, interactions, and usage, to build a picture of your day.

The first trial on NFT insider trading is about to kick off

Nathaniel Chastain, a former OpenSea product manager, will take to the stand next month in a New York federal court on charges of insider trading.

This is the first time a US insider trading case has involved blockchain art.

What did he buy, based on what insider info?

Part of Chastain's job involved choosing which collections are featured on OpenSea's homepage – a well-known bump for any NFT project.

Allegedly, Chastain bought 45 NFTs that were scheduled for homepage promotion and made tens-of-thousands of dollars by selling them after they were featured. Tut-tut.

Here's a couple of the NFTs he flipped:

Chastain's defense arguments?

• NFTs aren't securities or commodities

• He never realized gains by converting ETH profits to dollars

• Selecting an NFT "for prominent display" doesn't count as insider info

Convincing? 🤔🤷‍♂️

In Feb, we saw the first insider-trading crypto case. Coinbase employee Ishan Wahi pled guilty to trading coins based on knowledge about when the exchange was going to list new tokens.

Wahi is expected to get at least 3 years of prison time when sentenced next month. As for Chastain, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years.

Read the full story in The Art Newspaper.

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Meme of the day

Until the next edition of Decentra Daily! 👋

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