#208 - Web3 threads 🧶 of the week

GM daily-ers!

Author

joe hitchcock
May 06, 2023

GM and welcome to Decentra Daily.

We're the newsletter that takes the week's best web3 threads and knits them into a single email.

Today,

Up first, @0xCygaar on the most mysterious $PEPE wallet

@0xCygaar kicks off this week's thread round-up with some research on the blacklisted $PEPE wallet that contains millions of dollars worth of internet frog money.

According to them, PEPE's contract contains a function that allowed the deployer to stop addresses from sending or receiving tokens.

Before renouncing control of the contract, it looks like the PEPE team used that function to blacklist a single wallet – which contains around 7% of the entire supply.

What's the deal here? Does the locked wallet belong to a bot, a dev who tried some insider trading, or simply an early whale that the PEPE team decided to lock out? 🤔

Second, @Gfunkera86 with some exciting Pixel Vault news!

Pixel Vault CEO GFunk has been keeping us updated on the studio's 2023 relaunch.

This week, he dropped a thread with some intriguing info about Pixel Vault's two upcoming projects.

First: their blockchain gaming platform, Reboot, is now in the contract completion and auditing stage.

Second: the 2D fighter game, BattlePlan!, is almost ready for internal playtesting, with a July release date expected.

PV is primed for a resurgence! Thanks for the update, GFunk. GG 🫡

Third, @nftnow on the "world's richest man's" NFT collection

For all Elon Musks' supposed support of web3 and crypto, he doesn't (publicly) own any NFTs.

Not so for the quote, "world's richest man", Bernard Arnault, who owns 75 luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, and Tag Heuer ...and a bunch of internet JPEGs, apparently.

Arnault's sons are full-time degens – one of them has a Cryptopunk Tiffany pendant and the other spent time developing the Tag Heuer NFT watch.

@CirrusNFT on the newest Blur product: Blend

This week saw the launch of Blend, the peer-to-peer lending protocol from the NFT trading platform Blur.

Here, Cirrus takes to Twitter to explain how Blend works – and why they're not so sure it's a good idea...

With Blend, borrowers list NFTs they want to use as collateral and lenders place offers specifying how much they are willing to lend.

(And it's already become the biggest NFT lending platform in town).

Blend's unique selling point is that lenders can exit their positions at any time, by triggering a refinancing auction. If a new lender steps in, they pay off the initial lender and take over the loan.

But, If no new lender steps in, the original lender can claim the collateral.

Also, Blur is dishing out its $BLUR rewards points to generous lenders – which has Cirrus and many others concerned.

Cirrus says the whole thing is primed for first-time lenders to make dangerously generous loan offers, then force liquidity when prices take a turn.

@moritz_web3 on the upcoming Amazon NFT marketplace launch

We're getting close to one of the biggest web3 events of the year – the launch of Amazon's NFT marketplace – and @moritz_web3 has the deets you need.

With its new platform, Amazon hopes to make buying NFTs easy for mainstream consumers. You'll be able to pay with your credit card, and you don't need any technical know-how about the blockchain or self-custody wallets – just an Amazon account.

Plus, they're integrating physical experiences so you can buy NFTs and get stuff delivered to your doorstep.

Amazon is also betting on the future of blockchain-based gaming, with partnerships with web3 gaming projects in the works.

And here's the kicker: Amazon has 197 million monthly active users, compared to Coinbase's 9 million. 😁

On the web3 wire

Ethereum's withdrawals queue shrinks to 9 days 👍CoinDesk has been tracking the journey of the first Ethereum validators by controlling their own node, called "Zelda".

Coinbase posts bigger Q1 revenue than expected 📈While still reporting a $79 million loss, the exchange recorded $736 million in revenue last quarter.

ERC-4337 is about to make your wallet more interesting 🪪The new Ethereum standard should make it easier for developers to build their own custom wallets with new user features.

@MetaLawMan on the ongoing saga that is Coinbase vs the SEC

Metalaw Man thinks that, if the SEC makes good on its Wells notice and takes legal action against Coinbase, they're going to have a bad time.

That's because SEC chairman, Gary Gensler, has been saying all kinds of conflicting things to Congress about the SEC's powers and purview.

– Including, in a 2021 hearing, that his agency doesn't have the authority to regulate crypto exchanges.

So, if the SEC does sue Coinbase, the company's legal team will surely point this out, and use it to expose as many internal SEC communications as possible.

If things go that way, it's going to get embarrassing – Metalaw Man thinks Gensler could even end up being Coinbase's star witness.

@MINHxDYNASTY on why the future looks bright for Ordinals

MinH initially thought BTC Ordinals were a fad, but as this thread shows, they've changed their tune dramatically.

In fact, they believe Ordinals will be a multi-billion dollar industry in a few years. Why?

Because some of web3's most interesting artists, influencers, and communities are currently involved with Ordinals. Check out the thread for examples – and follow MinH for their upcoming thread on Inscribed Pepes.

@RBhavinVaid makes an argument for the latest Doodles update

Bhavin thinks that Doodles 2 is a game-changer. Why?

Because the Flow-backed NFTs can now be customized with wearables and traits. That's a pretty major unlock for brand and celebrity partnerships.

It also means a whole sub-economy of blockchain-backed hats, hoodies, sneakers, and other items.

And finally, @justLV's functioning ScarJo AI

Justin has been using GPT to create a super-powered Siri, which can do pretty much anything with emails in a conversational way.

It can search for specific mail, retrieve details, and write replies based on casual voice prompts.

Oh, and it also has the voice of Scarlett Johansson...

Does any of that sound familiar? If it does, it's because you've seen the movie Her.

Yep. Justin has made a GPT-powered demo of the Scarlett Johansson-voiced operating system from Spike Jonze's unsettling movie, in which Joquin Phoneix falls in love with his computer.

So I guess that

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What we're reading this week

business x blockchainweb3 topics & the companies evolving them
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