Sup, nerds!

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

• 💅 This is cool: What does the metaverse smell like?

• 🔎 This seems important: $31 Trillion market wants to buy BTC.

• 🤝 Partner: Find your next stock investment.​

• 🔪 Let's dissect this: Privacy coin, Monero, “cracked” (but not really).

Terms used in this edition (click for an explanation, or ​ask Web(GPT)3!​):
Metaverse, DAO, NFTs, Wallet.

💅 This is cool:

What Does the Metaverse Smell Like?

In one sentence: A DAO formulated and designed a ‘metaverse scented’ perfume and brought it to market, now all the DAO members can share in its profits.

What does the metaverse smell like? No idea, but for $201, you can find out…

We know, we know — “A metaverse scented perfume”? It sounds ridiculous. 

And it absolutely is.

But it’s also FREAKIN’ COOL — here’s why:

The perfume was created by a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), which was launched by Rook Perfumes.

Rook sold a bunch of NFTs → which granted holders access to the DAO community → the funds raised by the NFT sale went towards educating the community on how to develop a perfume…

From there, the DAO members constructed a custom scent, voting on the formula, the packaging, the design — everything needed to bring it to market.

And now, “They’re co-owners of the fragrance, of every part of it,” according to Rook Perfumes founder Nadeem Crowe.

(The perfume is even being stocked in a London department store).

Here’s our takeaway:

We see this as “the online course, in its final form.”

Buy an NFT → gain access to education → implement what you’ve learned by developing a product → bring it to market and reap any financial rewards (in perpetuity).

Helluva concept!

🥇 Want the news before anyone else?

🔎 This seems important:

A $31 Trillion Market Wants to Start Buying Bitcoin

In one sentence: The first spot BTC ETF application was made in Hong Kong (a $31T market), after regulators said they were ready to consider them.

You know how real estate agents will harp on about a property’s proximity to schools, public transport, grocery stores, restaurants etc.?

The more a locale can offer → the higher the likelihood of you investing your money there.

Well, same goes for stock markets.

The more financial products (aka companies and funds) that a stock market lets investors buy-in to → the higher the likelihood of investment → the more valuable that local stock market becomes.

And now that we’ve seen spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) launch in the US market, other major markets are following.

Namely, Hong Kong, which has just gotten its first BTC ETF application, after local regulators said they were ready to consider applications for spot crypto ETFs.

Here’s why this is important:

Hong Kong ain’t a small market! Its stock exchange has a cool $31 trillion sloshing around in it.

The more large stock markets allow for the purchase of Bitcoin → the more likely Bitcoin is to be bought up over time → shrinking the supply and increasing demand.

Here’s the math on that:

Supply decreases + demand increases = number go up.

(Or so we’ve been told).

🤝 Partner:

Find your next stock investment

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🔪 Let's dissect this:

Privacy Coin, Monero, “Cracked” (But Not Really)

In one sentence: The Finnish Bureau of Investigation found a way to trace privacy coin transactions, by watching when they were exchanged for BTC and then tracking the BTC addresses.

There was a claim earlier this week that the Finnish Bureau of Investigation (KRP) had been able to crack the privacy of one cryptocurrency in particular. 

At first, this sounds pretty interesting. 

But in digging a little further we found this statement to be kinda click-batey, and we’re gonna peel back some layers to understand what's really happening here. 

The claim from the KRP was pointed at Monero (a privacy coin).

Privacy coins are the crypto equivalent of paying in cash – just as good as a credit card, but untraceable. In the crypto space if you pay with a privacy coin like Monero — your wallet address and transaction will all be withheld from the public eye.

Which is cool, but these coins get a lot of shade because (much like cash), criminals love to use them to transact. 

The next layer: 

The KRP was looking into these transactions because said criminals (☝️) had a tendency to take bribery payments through Monero.

(So figuring out how to trace these payments would be a huge unlock in their investigation).

Last Layer: 

It’s a click-batey headline because the KRP didn’t actually crack the privacy of Monero.

Instead, they watched when/where Monero was being exchanged for Bitcoin (a very publicly traceable coin), and connected the dots between known Bitcoin wallet addresses.

Et Voila, privacy coin “cracked.”

What is Monero?