Gm. This is Milk Road, We're like your favorite water bottle.
Always within reach, keeping your brain healthy, and BPA free.
Here’s what we’ve got for you today:
- Are NFTs refundable?
- Kevin Rose’s $2M phishing attack
- ChatGPT is a Bitcoin maxi now
- The Blockchain Bandit Returns!
ARE NFTS REFUNDABLE?
The NFTverse has been full of debates recently.
What are the real use cases?
Should NFT creators get paid royalties?
Is owning an NFT a chick-magnet repellent?
Now there’s a new debate... are NFTs refundable?
Here’s what's going on: Porsche, the German car company loved by retired dentists everywhere, dropped a new NFT collection in honor of its 911 model earlier this week. Holders get perks & benefits (i.e. limited edition merch, tickets to exclusive in-person & virtual events, etc.) and get to customize the look of their NFT.
But before you could mint, there were two legal checkboxes you needed to sign off on. It looked like this:
Now 99.9999% of us are lazy as f*ck. We don’t read any of the terms & conditions, privacy policies, etc. Hell, I barely even read the whole sentence. I just check the boxes. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
But one guy named Paul on Twitter did. A hero. And he found something interesting…
- The second checkbox is for users to give up their “right of withdrawal”
- Right of withdrawal = law that gives users the right to a full refund within 14 days
- Such laws exist in the UK, EU, and other countries and apply to buying goods or services online (this includes digital goods & downloads like books, in-game purchases, etc.)
Why this matters: Some legal experts think that NFTs could soon be included in these right of withdrawal laws. And clearly, Porsche’s legal team wanted to get ahead of it and make sure that people gave up this right when minting the NFTs (AKA people can’t get a refund.)
But what about other NFT projects? Do traders have the right of withdrawal and are they eligible for refunds?
Well, Paul is on a mission to find out. He reached out to Yuga Labs (creators of Bored Apes) to see whether he could get a refund for his Otherdeeds mint. He paid $9k to mint, and the price is now ~$2.2k.
But wait, Otherdeeds minted months ago. The right of withdrawal is supposed to happen within the first 14 days, right?
Wrong. Turns out there’s a loophole. If the seller does not inform you of your rights to refund then this period is automatically extended to 12 months. (Wow, not only does Europe have better food, but they’re more consumer friendly too.)
It’ll be interesting to see how this whole debate plays out, but it could set a big precedent for how NFT mints are handled legally. If right of withdrawal ends up applying to NFTs too, you might be seeing a lot more checkboxes before minting one.
Or else things could end up looking like this…
TODAY'S EDITION IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY COMPOSER
I have one investing goal: Beat the S&P 500.
The problem is, I suck at investing.
Everytime I read charts or time the market, it blows up in my face like a homemade firework on the 4th of July.
That’s why we are introducing our friends over at Composer.
Composer helps investors beat the market and protect them from downturns by allowing you to:
- Customize and create your own algorithmic investing styles with no code tooling. You can use momentum, paired switching, and other hedge fund-like styles with the click of the button instead of complex orders on traditional brokerages.
- Opus: A portfolio managed by Composer’s Investment Committee. You can pick 1 of 3 strategies designed for your risk tolerance.
- Test out strategies before you use them, so you can see whether your trading strategy is going to work or flop
Now, Composer is putting the power of quant in the hands of regular investors with their game-changing super-app.
Pick an investment strategy, backtest it with their no-code tools, and explore what it can do for your portfolio.
Start investing like a pro and download Composer.
NFT WHALE HAS ~$2M TOKENS STOLEN
The Whale is under attack.
And we’re not talking about Brendan Fraser’s new movie.
Kevin Rose is a big deal. He’s:
- A major Web3 dood
- The founder behind Proof (NFT community), which created Moonbirds (NFT collection), and also Digg (early 2000s social news site)
- A so-called NFT Whale; he owns a sh*tton of valuable tokens that are worth millions
But some of them went poof this week in a phishing blitz.
Rose lost ~$2M of NFTs via one of the oldest tricks in the book: good ole’ social engineering.
Hackers tricked him into signing over access to his Ethereum wallet that held 40-strong gaggle of NFTs (a pricey Autoglyph and ~25 Chromie Squiggles, which sell between $20,700 and $2.8M, to name a few.)
Here’s how: he most likely connected his wallet to Opensea and then was phished into signing a transaction that created a separate listing on the marketplace.
The good news is that Opensea seems to have jumped on this faster than Kim K. on a Princess Di heirloom. The site flagged the NFTs as stolen, meaning they can’t be sold on Opensea (they can elsewhere, though.)
Proof’s VP of engineering tweeted that he and Rose are “considering all avenues, including legal.” 👀
The point stands: if a seasoned Web3 user can fall victim to phishing, us mere mortals really need to stay diligent.
Remember to keep your hard wallet nice and tucked away somewhere safe.
CHAT GPT IS A BITCOIN STAN NOW
You teach someone to fish, they can eat for a lifetime.
You teach a robot that Bitcoin is the best thing since sliced bread…well I guess we’ll find out what happens when the machines take over.
A Bitcoin bull convinced ChatGPT, the viral AI bot that definitely did not write this newsletter, that Bitcoin is our savior in ending central banking.
The Milk Man helped us paraphrase how the convo went down:
Parman, as he’s known: “How can humanity end central banking?
ChatGPT: “Decentralize finance.”
Parman: That’s a marketing term for centralized firms that can scam people. Try again.
ChatGPT: “End fiat.”
Parman: How do we do that?
ChatGPT: “Cryptocurrency adoption”
Parman: But there’s only one that could work; others have overloads, making them centralized. Which is it?
ChatGPT: “Bitcoin.”
Now can we teach it that low-rise jeans should stay dead and buried in the early aughts?
MILK AND COOKIES
Down goes the metaverse! Microsoft announced it will be shutting down AltspaceVR on March 10. It was a metaverse for social events like clubbing, fashion shows, church meetings, stand-up comedy, etc. Instead, Microsoft will go all-in on Mesh - a business-oriented metaverse. From all play, no work → all work, no play.
The Blockchain Bandit returns! A serial hacker that stole $90M+ in a string of hacks has started moving stolen funds again. The Blockchain Bandit successfully drained 10k+ wallets for over 50k ETH. (They might be better than the Wet Bandits from Home Alone.)
NFTs go cross-chain. Lil Pugdy Penguins announced they will bridging over to a few new blockchains and will become a cross-chain collection. They’ll now be available on Arbitrum, Polygon, and the BNB chain.
Nike shoots its shot. SWOOSH Studio, a new Web3 platform, was just launched by Nike. Some lucky members will get a chance to collaborate with Nike designers to build a 1:1 new virtual creation of the Air Force 1’s. (**Alexa, play Air Force Ones by Nelly**)
The earnings reports are in… and it ain’t too pretty for companies holding Bitcoin. Tesla reported $34M in impairment charges from its Bitcoin investment.MicroStrategy still has ~$1.8B in unreported losses from BTC investments. Ouchie.
MILKY MEME
🤣🤣
That's a wrap for today. Stay thirsty & see ya tomorrow! If you want more, be sure to follow our Twitter (@MilkRoadDaily)
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A ROADERS REVIEW
VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY
Big Friday energy
— Milk Road (@MilkRoadDaily)2:00 PM • Jan 27, 2023
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.
