May 11, 2023

🥛BTC developer vs Ordinals – who will win? ⚔️

GM. This is Milk Road. We’re like your fav elementary school teacher – we’ll teach you something cool then send you to recess early.

Here’s what we got for you today:

  • This OG dev wants BTC NFTs dead 🗡️

  • Lowest inflation level in 2 years 💸

  • Trademark Thursday! 📂

  • Everyone wants a piece of Uniswap 🍪

Prices as of 8:45am EDT

Today's edition is brought to you by MetaMask Learn – boost your crypto skillset and get smarter about crypto now for free! 🤓


AN OG BTC DEV WANTS TO KILL ORDINALS 🗡️

Everyone has had Ordinals fever lately. Everyone except one man….

Luke Dashjr. He’s been a Bitcoin Core developer since 2011. And he hates Ordinals more than an Eagles fan at a Cowboys home game. And that’s saying something.

And now, he wants to ban them. 

How? Label Ordinals as spam so they can’t be created. Lemme explain…

Spam = small transactions that take up unnecessary block space & clog a network. They’re the Bed, Bath, & Beyond coupon emails of crypto.

Some people send them maliciously as “dust” to try to steal someone’s identity. Others send them accidentally (i.e. sending a bunch of payments individually instead of bundled together.)

Bitcoin finds them and stops them from processing. Now Dashjr wants to roll out a software update that would extend spam filtration to Taproot transactions. Including Ordinals.

If that happened, people wouldn’t be able to create Ordinals. Sayonara Bitcoin NFTs.

So what? This is as much about ideology as it is about the tech.

Bitcoin was designed to transfer money. Not to build DeFi, like Ethereum was.

But recently, the Bitcoin network has seen:

  • An NFT boom thanks to Ordinals & BRC-20

  • Crazy network congestion thanks to memecoins like Pepe (there are ~390K pending transactions right now)

  • Wildly high transaction fees

On one side are folks okay with the Bitcoin blockchain being used like this:

And on the other are ones that aren’t:

So will Dashjr get his way? Probably not.

First of all, BTC miners wouldn’t be onboard with this. They’re making too much BANK right now from the NFT craze.

And second, OG or not, this is just one dev proposing a pretty bold move. For this to happen, BTC miners would need to green-light it unanimously. Then it would roll out via a software update.

It does make you wonder though: WWSD (What would Satoshi do?)

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THE BIG BAD CPI REPORT 💸

There are 3 letters that will put any crypto trader on the edge of their seat… CPI.

It stands for Consumer Price Index and measures the change in the cost of things the average person buys. Things like food, clothes, and other goods and services.

But lately, it might as well stand for “Crazy Price Increases”.

So how’d the latest report go?

1/ Normal CPI was up 4.9% year over year

This measures the cost of living for the typical person. And while it was close to the expected 5%, this is the first time it’s been below the 5% level in two years.

2/ Core CPI came right in at the expected 5.5% year over year increase

This is similar to normal CPI, but it does not account for energy or food prices.

Here’s how the markets reacted immediately after the report:

  • BTC: +2.67%

  • ETH: +1.76%

  • NASDAQ: +0.80%

  • S&P500: +0.19%

Inflation coming down means the Fed may pump the breaks on rate hikes. Or maybe even start cutting.

This makes borrowing cheaper and boosts spending and investments – 3 things that blend together for crypto prices better than a DQ blizzard.

TRADEMARK THURSDAY 📂

Web3 is that party that no one wants to miss.

And you know FOMO is hitting hard when a bunch of companies are jumping face first into Web3.

If you’re out of the loop, Trademark Thursday is here to clue you in:

  • Legend IP filed a trademark for the upcoming movie GODZILLA X KING KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE. The application covers NFT-backed media and virtual currencies.

  • BBC filed a trademark for the Doctor Who logo and for NFTs and VR software and hardware. Alright, everyone inside the virtual TARDIS…

  • PROOF (NFT community) filed a trademark for a “MOONBIRDS APPROVED” logo. It’ll be used for projects related to NFTs & metaverses.

  • L’OREAL for LANCOME filed a trademark for downloadable virtual goods, like makeup & avatars. Because [Web3 is] worth it.

  • Haribo filed a trademark to use its name for VR glasses and NFT-verified media. Very down for virtual gummy bears

  • The Premier League filed a trademark to use its SUMMER SERIES name & logo for NFTs, cryptocurrency, & virtual clothing.

MILK & COOKIES 🍪

Unique users on Uniswap are at the highest level since May 2021. One of the many metrics exploding on the back of meme coin mania.

Arthur Hayes receives a restraining order from 3AC founder, Su Zhu. Arthur has been Tweeting at the 3AC pair demanding answers from the fund’s collapse. Never a dull day on crypto Twitter.

Paypal is almost holding $1B of crypto for its customers. The payment giant made its first push into crypto in October 2020. And they’ve been continuing to dip their feet in the crypto waters since.

Michael Saylor is bullish on Bitcoin Ordinals. Imagine Saylor not being bullish on anything with the word “Bitcoin” in it. To Mike, there is no second best.

MILKY MEMES 🤣

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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.