GM. This is the Milk Road, we mix crypto news & entertainment together like a 7-11 Slurpee. And yes, it’s the Big Gulp size.
So what do we got for ya today?
- Mailbag Monday
- What happens when lost Bitcoin gets found?
- WAGMI United: Web3's soccer team
- Meme of the day
MAILBAG MONDAY
It’s Mailbag Monday! Where we answer some questions from you.
Got a Q? Hit reply to the email below to submit yours. Here are 3 of our favorites from this round:
Q: What is the best thing to say when someone says "Bitcoin won't exist in 10 years"? Should I just smirk and walk away or slap them? - Bro Reads Books (great username, btw)
People have been trying to hack it for 10 years. Nobody has done it.
China banned mining. Bitcoin survived.
The biggest bitcoin exchange was hacked. Bitcoin survived.
The price has dropped 80%...multiple times. It still has a $400B market cap.
Bitcoin is both the biggest crypto brand…and it’s a cockroach. It can survive a brutal storm.
Some people think it’s still a fad…but here we are 10+ years later, and it’s a globally recognized currency, with millions of believers.
I think it’s here to stay. Just smirk and move along!
Q: Why does everything need to be an NFT? I see NFTs coming into games. Or artists dropping NFTs. It feels like such a…money grab! It makes me hate NFTs. - Jake P
I hear this all the time. Some people really hate NFTs.
If you ask why, it’s usually a combination of:
- Confusion - why does this need to be an NFT?
- Jealousy - wait, my idiot friend got rich off a picture of a monkey?
- Anger - they are useless! Stop telling me they are the future!
But let me give you another way of looking at things...
For as long as I can remember, people have been buying useless items for emotional reasons.
Gamers buy billions of dollars worth of skins in games like Fortnite or Counterstrike. They have no functional purpose, but they look cool. So I feel cool in the game.
Rich people spend billions on memberships to country clubs or Soho houses.
They buy art & Louis Vuitton bags because it makes them look cool, and feel cool in their social circle.
NFTs help people do those same things, with two key changes:
- You own the thing, so you can resell it (eg. you can sell your Fortnite skin if you’re bored of the game. Or sell your Soho house membership)
- The original artist can get a cut of every transaction (unlike fine art)
So if you hate NFTs, you gotta ask yourself - what are you really hating?
Do you hate that artists get paid more?
Do you hate that you can resell your stuff when you’re done with it?
Sure. Some NFTs look stupid, or overpriced. But I think Gucci clothes are ugly and overpriced too. But nobody is protesting Gucci...
So Jake, chill out bud. Don’t hate NFTs. Save that energy for hating Comcast.
Q: Here’s a hypothetical for you. If Vitalik gave you a pair of his old worn-out sneakers, would you wear them proudly? Or frame them and prominently display them in your zoom background - Lucas K
Oh, I’m wearing those puppies. And I’m hoping it gives us special powers, like that movie 'Like Mike'.
And that’s a wrap! We’ll be back again next Monday so hit reply on the email below to submit your questions.
It can be about anything (that's right, anything). We’ll pick the best ones and publish our answers.
THE RETURN OF LOST BITCOIN?
Check this out. This is a post from Satoshi Nakomoto (the creator of Bitcoin, before he disappeared) talking about what happens if people lose bitcoin.
“ Lost coins make everyone else’s coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone”. (in the rap game, they would say Satoshi had ‘bars’ for lines like this)
It’s estimated that close to 4 MILLION Bitcoin has been lost. Mainly from people losing the keys to their wallets. That’s…
- ~20% of the entire supply (!)
- ~$84b at today’s prices (!!)
- A big ouchie
And every time someone loses their coins - it takes supply off the market, driving price pressure up.
Lost bitcoin is a donation,
Price goin’ to the moon, call me Mr. Space Station
- MilkMan feat. Drake
But what if 140,000 bitcoin that were lost suddenly made a comeback?
That’s what’s happening with Mt. Gox.
Mt. Gox was a Japanese crypto exchange. Here are the 3 main things you need to know.
- At its peak, it was handling over 70% of all Bitcoin
- In 2014 - 850,000 BTC was stolen. The majority of it was customer funds. (Btw, that’s ~$18b at today’s prices…)
- They were forced to suspend activity & filed for bankruptcy a few days later. R.I.P
Mt. Gox eventually recovered ~140,000 BTC. And for 8 looooong years the customers have been fighting to get some of it back. Then last week they received the email they’d been waiting for…
The funds are getting ready to be repaid by the end of August. That’s over $3b in BTC making a comeback!
There are two potential outcomes from this... It’s a Red Pill - Blue Pill decision.
Red Pill:Sell for a big profit. When Mt. Gox happened, BTC was worth ~$600. Today, BTC is ~$20.5k (a 34x return).
Some people fear that this sell pressure could bring the BTC price lower.
Blue Pill:HODL. They’ve been waiting 8 crazy long years, so some people might just hold it out now.
After seeing BTC at highs of $60k+ might as well hold, right?
It’ll be interesting to see what people choose….
TODAY'S NEWSLETTER IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY COINTRACKER
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CoinTracker also generates year-end tax forms so you can easily file taxes.
WAGMI UNITED: WEB3'S SOCCER TEAM
This is cool.
A bunch of crypto people called WAGMI United (like Manchester United) have successfully purchased a Division 4 soccer team, and have sold $4m+ worth of NFTs to turn it into a “web3” team.
There’s only one catch: by buying the NFT - you don’t legally get a piece of the team, but you do get to vote on how the team is run.
For example, if you hold the NFT you can vote on:
- Which position to sign next in free agency. Coach wants defense, owners want offense. But what will NFT holders choose??
- What the 3rd jersey kit will look like. Btw, Adidas is the official sponsor for the jerseys.
Plus you get some cool Adidas merch, tickets to home games + invites to exclusive events with the team. Not as cool as owning a piece of the team, but still way cooler than most fans who have no say in how the team is run.
The Milk Road’s Take: This is the one of the cooler ideas behind DAOs and NFTs - pooling $ together to buy NFTs, but it’d be even better if you could actually buy a piece of the team vs. just vote on what the team’s gonna do.
MEME OF THE DAY
That's all for today folks. See ya mañana!
Shaan "Chocolate Milk" Puri, Ben "2% Milk" Levy & Diego "El Lechero" Salinas
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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.
