Sup, nerds!

Here’s what you’re getting in today’s edition:

• 💅 This is cool: Memecoins are digital Beanie Babies (compliment)

• 🔎 This seems important: SOL vs ETH = better experiences for all!

• 🤝 Partner: The first AI-powered startup unlocking the “billionaire economy” for your benefit​

• 🔪 Let's dissect this: Time to buy a cold storage wallet?

• 💡 Bellwethers in Web3: Tanya Khandheria, Fulcrum FX

Terms used in this edition (click for an explanation, or ask Web(GPT)3!):
Memecoin, market cap, decentralized exchanges, wallet, blockchain, NFTs, web2/3, cold wallet.

💅 This is cool:

Memecoins Are Digital Beanie Babies (Compliment)

In one sentence: Memecoins generate a ton of trading fees, which fund web3 development by proxy (similar to how Beanie Baby sales funded early eBay, which funded PayPal, which funded many of today’s largest tech companies).

This feels like a nothing burger at first, but it could hold a whole bunch of weight on a larger time frame.

Let’s start here:

If you don’t know what pump.fun is, lettuce catch you up…

Pump.fun is a Solana-based memecoin generator that allows anyone to create (you guessed it) their own memecoin, in a few clicks.

As of yesterday, they now have a competitor called ‘Moonshot.’

Which is the same as pump.fun in many ways:

• Users can create memecoins quickly and easily

• If/when the token reaches a market cap of 500 SOL (~$68k), it’s made available for trading on the Raydium exchange

• When this happens, a bunch of the supply is burned, making it scarcer and (in theory) more valuable

…so what’s the difference?

Moonshot’s supply burn is 15-20% (compared to Pump’s fixed 17%) and also pushes the idea that they’re more transparent, with ‘plans’ for frequent, verifiable audits of its system.

As we said at the top — feels like nothing burger.

BUT!

Memecoins on Solana make up for 92% of trading volume on Solana-based decentralized exchanges, and since its launch on Monday, Moonshot has already added another 7,000 memecoins to the mix.

Sure, memecoins are inherently stupid, and largely useless — but the fees these trades generate supports a whooole lot of growth on Solana/the broader web3 ecosystem.

And when we look to history, we can’t help but acknowledge that equally as stupid catalysts have spawned chain reactions of tech innovation in the past.

E.g. Beanie Babies.

The sale of Beanie Babies were responsible for a large chunk of eBay’s early revenue → eBay was a major source of revenue for PayPal → the sale of PayPal helped to fund Tesla, SpaceX, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Yelp, Square, Palantir, and a bunch of other companies…

So yeah, memecoins are like digital Beanie Babies.

But that ain’t necessarily a bad thing!

🥇 Want the news before anyone else?

🔎 This seems important:

Web3’s User Experience Sucks! Here’s How It’s Being Fixed

In one sentence: The competition between ETH and SOL is resulting in the launch of features that bridge the gap between web2 and web3 user experiences (making adoption WAY smoother).

Imagine if you had have owned a Playstation AND an Nintendo 64 growing up…

We know, we know — mom would have never allowed it (she was telling you to go outside and “touch grass” long before Crypto Twitter was a thing).

But that’s the situation dual users of Ethereum and Solana are finding themselves in, thanks to a classic case of “competition breeding innovation.”

Here’s the timeline:

• Dec 5 ‘23: Coinbase wallet launches shareable crypto payment links, allowing anyone to send/request crypto payments with a web link.
   

• Jan 26 ‘24: The Ethereum-based Twitter-like social platform Warpcaster launches “Frames,” which pretty much allows folks to code crypto checkouts into their social posts.
   

• Jun 5 ‘24: Coinbase launches the first Ethereum-based “smart wallet,” allowing users to sign up/in to their wallet with FaceID or a Google account (no 12-word seed phrase needed).
   

• Jun 12 ‘24: Fuse, the Solana-based smart wallet launches.
   

• Jun 25 ‘24: Solana launches ‘Blinks’ (aka: blockchain links) which is kind of like a combination of Coinbase payment links and Warpcaster’s Frames, where users can embed crypto interactions into a single link (think: voting, donating, minting NFTs, swapping tokens, and paying people) and share them anywhere online.

Here are our two big takeaways:

1. Competition between these two ecosystems breeds painful/tired tribalism, yes…
   
   But for those who are able to quit the silly game of ‘one or the other, not both’ — this competition is bringing awesome new features at a break-neck pace.
    

2. Both ecosystems are doing something that the crypto space has desperately needed in order to scale:
   
   Bridge the gap between web2 and web3.
   
   These seamless sign up/in and purchase interactions are something web users are used to, and they’re not going to abandon that for a worse user experience.
   
   By meeting consumers where they are, it makes for an easier transition.

We give these developments two emphatic thumbs up, four chefs kisses, and eight molto bene’s.

🤝 Partner:

The First Ai-Powered Startup Unlocking the “Billionaire Economy” for Your Benefit

It’s one of the oldest markets in the world, but until recently, the average person would never dream of investing in it. Until a Harvard data scientist and his team cracked the code with a system to identify “excess alpha.”

The best part? Everyday people are already benefiting.

The company that makes it all possible is called Masterworks, whose unique investment platform enables savvy investors to invest in blue-chip art for a fraction of the cost. Their proprietary database of art market returns provides an unrivaled quantitative edge in analyzing investment opportunities.

So far, it's been right on the money. Every one of their 16 exits has been profitable, with recent exits delivering +17.8%, +21.5%, and +35.0% net annualized returns*.

Intrigued? Web3 Daily readers can skip the waitlist with this exclusive referral link.

_{*Past performance is not indicative of future returns, investing involves risk. See disclosures masterworks.com/cd.}

🔪 Let's dissect this:

Time To Buy a Cold Storage Wallet?

In one sentence: Cold wallets are physical devices (kind of like USB sticks), specifically designed to store digital assets (crypto, NFTs etc.) - with pros and cons (but mostly pros).

Time to talk about something near and dear to our hearts…cold storage wallets.

Cold wallets are physical devices (kind of like USB sticks), specifically designed to store digital assets (crypto, NFTs etc.).

Why take your digital assets offline? Mainly because, by being disconnected from the internet, it’s really difficult - almost impossible - to hack.

Think of cold wallets like digital safes — the crypto stored on them is only accessible when the device is connected to a computer.

The other big advantage of cold storage is that you have full ownership of your private keys.

In other words, no third-party can access your funds - and therefore no third-party can lose your funds (cough cough FTX).

But, by storing your digital assets on a device like a Ledger Nano X (Seb’s favorite cold wallet), it does mean you need to be extra careful when it comes to physical storage.

Aunty Mary threw your cold wallet in the trash by accident when ‘helping’ with your Spring cleaning? The digital assets stored on there will be gone forever.

Also, transferring funds requires physically connecting the device to your computer, so if you’re on holiday and you hold $250k worth of LUNA but can’t access your cold wallet, you’re also out of luck.

So, cold storage wallets are like a high-tech safe for your digital gold. They offer top-notch security and control, just with a few trade-offs in convenience.

Should you jump in and buy a cold storage wallet?

If you hold any significant amount of crypto, especially if you plan to hold for the long term, then cold wallets are definitely the best choice.

Unfortunately, sometimes hacks happen - stay safe out there!

💡 Bellwethers in Web3

"Bellwether's in Web3," is a daily profile series recorded live with Nolcha Shows and Movement Labs in collaboration with Bellwether Culture. Check out the latest video below.

Interview: Tanya Khandheria, Fulcrum FX

Bio: Tanya is a developer and the founder CEO of Fulcrum FX, a forex broker bridging the blockchain and fiat world.

Telegram: busydevv