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GM. This is Milk Road, your crypto cheat sheet – because who wants to read the textbook?

Here’s what we got for you today:

• The hottest new crypto app 📲

• BlackRock and Fidelity hold ~$5.5B in Bitcoin 🍪

Prices as of 7:00 AM ET. Click here for our Fear & Greed Index

WTF IS FARCASTER? 🧐

Crypto investors are going through the 4 stages of FOMO right now…

Stage 1: You hear a funky, new word.

Stage 2: You shrug it off as “nerdy nonsense”.

Stage 3: You hear the funky, new word again. But this time, nerds are getting rich from it and buying Lambo’s (straight cash).

Stage 4: You scream and question all your life choices.

Crypto’s funky, new word is… Farcaster. 

It’s been mentioned more than any other crypto token or project over the last 24 hours.

Source: Kaito AI

So, what is it? A new weather app? A new weight loss drug? 

Here’s our “Farcaster-For-Dummies” guide:

• It’s a protocol for decentralized social apps. 

• It stores data like usernames, profile pictures, posts, reactions to posts, and friends/followers.

• Anyone can build an app that interacts with the data. For example, Warpcast is the top app (it’s a Twitter clone) but there are other apps like Farcord (a Discord clone) and Flink (a Reddit clone). They all use the same data but have different front ends and experiences. 

• Users own their data and can take it across different apps. Imagine if you’re Twitter posts and followers carried over to Facebook, and vice versa.

Right now, Farcaster is the hottest thing in crypto.

It’s seen a 200% week-over-week bump in users. Here are the 2 big reasons why…

1/ Farcaster “frames”.

A new feature called “frames” just went live.

It lets users turn posts with images, links, buttons, etc. → interactive apps.

For example, someone created a full e-commerce experience for ordering Girl Scout Cookies using a Farcaster frame. It lets you…

• Shop for their favorite Girl Scout cookies (Samoas, of course)

• Place the order

• Pay for the order

… directly in the frame, without ever having to leave to an external site or another app.

Here’s a quick demo:

Source: @dwr

2/ People are making money from tokens on Farcaster.

Farcaster doesn’t have a native token.

But some of the apps/projects built on it do, and they’ve been airdropping free tokens to early users.

Free money = motivation to try new stuff = more new users.  

So now for the million-dollar question… is Farcaster the next big thing in crypto? 

Here’s what smart people are saying:

Source: @binji_x

Source: @Zeneca

Source: @JasonYanowitz

Source: @tandavas

Milk Road Take: Crypto apps are hard. Social media apps are harder.

Combine the two, and you have the next Mission Impossible.

And we’ve seen what’s happened to other decentralized social media apps….

• Lens Protocol had a lot of hype last year, but then it died down.

• Friend.Tech had a lot of hype 6 months ago, but then it died down.

With all that being said – whenever a new hype train comes through crypto, it’s always a good idea to try it out.

It’s like hearing a party next door, and you’re just sitting in your house playing Uno. Put the cards down and go check out the party.

That’s why we spent the weekend setting up a Farcaster account and trying out our first app on it – Warpcast.

We’re gonna give it a 7-day trial report back on our takeaways/findings at the end of the week.

DRINK MORE WATER IS BAD ADVICE

We all know drinking water is important. But your body needs a lot more than water to stay hydrated.

Think — electrolytes. Think LMNT.

When you sweat, you lose essential electrolytes like sodium — causing muscle cramps and fatigue. The easy switch: starting your day with electrolyte-based hydration.

Now available in Chocolate Mint, Chocolate Chai, and Chocolate Raspberry, you can enjoy LMNT’s zero-sugar electrolyte drinks in the morning with your coffee or during your morning workout.

LMNT’s science-backed ratio delivers the optimal dose of electrolytes, without spiking your sugar levels.

Best yet?

Milk Road readers can get a free sample pack with any purchase!

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

Universal Page, a gasless NFT 2.0 platform has launched on LUKSO. Build your custom web page, trade NFTs on the gasless marketplace, or drop your collections with the launchpad.*

BlackRock and Fidelity hold $5.5B in BTC. Here’s a list of people and companies that hold more… 👀 —DL News

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) partnered up with GoDaddy. ENS’ native token surged ~10% on the news.

Hawaii launched a new crypto licensing pilot making crypto legal in the state. According to state administrators, “digital currency companies will no longer require a Hawaii-issued money transmitter license to conduct business within the state.”

Solana registered 12M new addresses in January. That’s a new monthly all-time high and an 18% increase from December.

Genesis has asked a bankruptcy court to approve a $1.4B sale of GBTC shares. Watch out! More GBTC sell pressure could be on its way.

‘Shrapnel’ is getting listed on the Epic Game Store. The blockchain-based, Call of Duty-style game will now be accessible to 200M+ gamers.

*This is sponsored content

MILKY MEMES 🤣

Source: @MinisterOfNFTs

Source: @AltcoinGordon

WE’RE HIRING A NEWSLETTER WRITER 🥛

We are hiring a part-time writer to help us amp up the calcium for all things Milk Road.

We’re looking for writers passionate about crypto and with plenty of experience in the space.

If this sounds like you, what are you waiting for? Fill out the form here.

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ROADER REVIEW OF THE DAY

VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY

— Milk Road Images (@MilkRoadImages)
Feb 5, 2024

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.