?? META says NO to NFTs but YES to...
Gm, this is the doodhwala, the only crypto newsletter that won’t hate you if you use a Draw 4 on us during a game of Uno.
That’s okay. I’m fine ??
Here’s what we gots for you today:
When you have 1 card but you get a DRAW 4:
?? META changes the NFT focus
It’s January 1, 2023.
You set yourself a new year’s ambition.
How long will it take for you to give up on it?
Meta , the company behind the 3 largest social media platforms, took less than 3 months.
That’s right! Zuck is just like us, giving up before getting started.
META gave up and dropped 2 bombshell announcements:
Wait, hold the ?? Facebook and Instagram had NFTs?!?
Yup, it wasn’t as hyped up as some of META’s other launches like:
Zuck is so unoriginal, you can call him…the doodhwala ????????
Less than a year ago, META teased NFTs first as “digital collectibles” then they went FULL ON degen allowing creators to mint and sell their NFTs.
Then it all went downhill ??
And it happened because of 3 reasons:
1???Timing
While the exact – launch – wasn’t that great, what was worse was META’s unlucky and hilarious timing.
The timing is worse than when I decided to start traveling more in March 2020.???
???May 2022
???August 2022
???November 2022
??
It looks like the NFT gods were really?really?not on META’s side. They probably had their data leaked by Facebook in 2016. ??
2???Execution
META’s execution was…MEH to say the least.
Instagram started by onboarding a handful of creators like:
???photographers and videographers
???graphic digital artists
???musicians
Meta was all about one thing – supporting creators – using NFTs as a medium.
But the problem was the infrastructure for this.
They needed:
And Zuck ain’t about the dependency life. ??
That’s why it wasn’t even pushed internally within Instagram or Facebook.
Seriously, when’s the last time you saw any mention of NFTs either by Instagram or Facebook or a creator?
In the end, few creators used NFTs. ??
META also wanted to use NFTs as a way to earn ??
There were rumors that META would?charge?~48% fees on the sale of NFTs on its platform. This was…uhh…not well received by the NFT community.
Since then, they’ve shifted focus on generating revenue from other things to – Reels.?Yes those videos you send to your friends but they never open and respond???
Because of this ???No use + No money, META stopped talking about NFTs ??
In their Q4?earnings call?last month, META mentioned “NFTs”, “collectibles,” “blockchain,” or “Ethereum” exactly 0 times.
3???Focus
What was mentioned:
Yup! META did what every influencer did in 2023 – shifted from NFTs and Web3 to AI.
Q. Where are they gonna use AI?
A. AI discovery engine to recommend more content on Facebook and Instagram.
So that you go from spending 2 hours a day on Reels to 20.???
The way Zuck framed this last month:
“The two major technological waves driving our roadmap are AI today and over the longer term the metaverse”
Interpretation:
We’re gonna ride this AI wave because it’s hot, but the metaverse will be the main goal. I mean we changed our name to META. So, I guess we kinda have to.???
The way WE THINK Zuck and META are looking at the Metaverse right now is:
AR + VR → Build the technology for the?Metaverse?→ Which is where everyone will live and exchange → NFTs
Even in those cringe META teaser videos, NFTs are seen as a commodity, a way people can buy stuff like clothes and accessories. NFTs will be more like a cool toy for the Metaverse.
TLDR = AR ???Metaverse ???NFTs
Doodhwala’s take:
We’ll be honest – we like Zuck and his plans for META. ??
He’s always been a guy who builds products YEARS into the future.?And he’s a fellow copy-cat???!
That’s why he bought Instagram for $1 billion + WhatsApp for $19 billion. Now, these 2 are in the top-3 social media companies in the world.
The Metaverse is still META’s future. NFTs will be this Metaverse’s commodities.
Because of this goal?? and a case of BAD timing + BAD execution + BAD focus – NFTs on Instagram didn’t make it.
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???Biggest DeFi Hack of 2023
Man…we’re not liking this March Madness at all.
No, we’re not talking about the popular American basketball tournament. ??
This is Crypto March Madness. ??
First, it was USDC losing its peg and causing mass panic attacks.
Now, it’s a $200 MILLION DeFi hack. (Lord, have mercy!???)
So what’s going on? ??
Euler Finance, a DeFi platform for lending and borrowing that you probably never knew existed, suffered an attack on Monday.
Yup. During peak USDC chaos.
And in terms of what exactly was stolen, it was A LOT:
Looks like the hacker will be pumped during the ETH Shanghai upgrade when stETH can be finally unlocked to collect rewards. ??
The Total Value Locked (TVL) on Euler Finance went from:
$311 million → $10.3 million ??
How exactly did this happen?
While the on-chain detectives are still uncovering this, one narrative came out on top—
?? FLASH LOAN attack. ??
What’s a Flash Loan? ??
Is this how Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya got those big loans so quickly from our Indian banks? ??
Nope. That’s something else. (We can’t talk about that???)
A flash loan is a type of loan where a user borrows assets with no upfront collateral and returns the borrowed assets within the same blockchain transaction.
Basically, you can get big money, only if you pay it back immediately. Like IMMEDIATELY.
It's mainly used for arbitrages.
The attacker used a series of flash loans and multiple wallet addresses to exploit the platform.
Our friends at SolidityScan wrote a great thread tracing the attacker's steps ??
With around $200 million being stolen, this makes it the BIGGEST hack of 2023 so far…
Unfortunately, the problems didn’t stop there. ??
The ripple effects from this hack seem to have hit other DeFi protocols as well because of connected liquidity pools.
Most of these funds are either frozen or lost. ??
The attacker couldn't have chosen a better time to attack.
When every DeFi protocol was worrying about their exposure to USDC, the attacker struck. ??
But here's to hoping that this remains the biggest attack for the rest of the year.
Doodhwala’s heart can only suffer so much. ??
???Chaach and Charts: $15 for 1 transaction?!
Gas.
No, I’m not talking about what happens to you after bad paani poori. ??
I’m talking about Gas fees.
You know that thing you pay when processing a transaction on a blockchain.
I’m specifically talking about Ethereum’s gas fees which went ???this weekend as everyone was:
Yup, the USDC depegging event saw Gas fees rise up to – 350 GWEI. That’s ~$15 per transaction based on the price of ETH. ??
THAT’S ALMOST 7X OF THE WEEKLY AVERGE GAS FEES.
The last time Gas fees were this high?
???During the Terra Luna crash in May 2022 ??
Chegg it ??
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