Bitcoin #BitterSweet14
Hello,
In today’s dispatch we have:
Bitcoin’s birthday
Nike's RTFKT COO, latest hack victim
What’s happening with Trump card?
Bitcoin is turning 14, and yes, teenage is a tough year, but being popular can still make things better.
The genesis block of Bitcoin (BTC) was mined on January 3 2009.
We planned to surprise BTC with a video birthday wish from Satoshi Nakamoto (The man, the legend, the myth). But we still have no clue who the guy is.
All we know is that fourteen years ago, when all the cryptographers and devs were trying and failing to create an electronic version of cash, a person (or people?) who called himself Satoshi Nakamoto released a paper describing a new software system called bitcoin.
And the Bitcoin network went live for the first time on January 3, 2009.
Nakamoto used two email addresses and one website, and all he ever talked about was Bitcoin and codes. No word on who he is, where he is from, how he is doing, his name or his dog's name. Nothing!
Then he suddenly disappeared and passed the project's leadership to Gavin Andresen. And the man is still a ghost. So we couldn't find out anything.
We can get the pizza guy, tho. We have his name: Laszlo Hanyecz -
The guy from Florida who was the first one to use Bitcoin, who spent 10,000 Bitcoins two buy two pizzas! a totally reasonable deal.
Let's dig out some data for the special occasion:
Bitcoin maintained 100% uptime and continued to function flawlessly, despite the bear market.
Crossed over $100 trillion in cumulative transfer volume, with roughly $105 trillion having been settled on the network in total.
El Salvador and the Central African Republic (CAR) passed legislation to enable BTC to be used as legal tender.
The symbolic bar of 19 million mined BTC was crossed on April 1, 2022.
Lightning Network, saw massive growth in 2022. Cash App payment application, and MicroStrategy integrated the network.
The first version of Taro, a protocol that allows digital assets to be issued on the Bitcoin blockchain was released.
Companies that accept Bitcoin payment: Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Norwegian Air, Vueling, Yum! Brands, Rakuten, PayPal Holdings, Gucci, Breitling, Tennessee Titans and more!
Huh, guess the year wasn't so bad after all!
Nike's RTFKT COO is the latest victim of an NFT hack
It's day 4 of the new year, yet we hear about another hack. This time it's Nike's RTFKT COO Nikhil Gopalani. In an alleged phishing assault Monday, he lost his vast treasure mine of NFTs to a scammer.
What happened? According to OpenSea data, the attacker used two wallets to steal more than $173,000 in NFTs from Gopalani's wallet, including 19 CloneX NFTs worth more than $138,000, 18 RTKFT Space Pods (about $6,300 total), 17 Loot Pods ($6,200), 19 RTFKT Animus Eggs ($20,200), and more.
How? While it's unclear how the phishing attack took place, a response from RTFKT CTO Samuel Cardillo reveals that Gopalani may have inadvertently handed personal information to a hacker posing as an Apple representative.
The wallet associated with Gopalani had lost all of its NFTs except one: a Death Row Records NFT of the "Clone X Theme Song" worth around $59. Etherscan reveals that only $0.11 of ETH is left in the wallet.
What’s happening with Trump card
When former U.S. President Donald Trump's official NFT trading cards were released a few weeks ago, they were the buzz of the crypto industry, not to mention much of Twitter and late-night TV, but the hype has since faded dramatically. The Trump NFT collection has experienced a massive collapse in value, falling 80% in just 14 days.
But why?
Aside from market conditions, various additional variables could be to blame for the collection's declining worth.
- There is a dispute regarding the paintings in the collection. According to the community, the developers used graphic templates rather than original art for the NFTs. This resulted in a lack of authenticity and trust in the community's collection.
-Trump's team is said to have kept a disproportionate amount of the collection's rare NFTs.
-Some early purchasers also reported technological difficulties.
However, Trump's debut NFT sale netted more than $4 million and sold out in less than 24 hours. The initiative has generated approximately $9.8 million in secondary trade volume, with Trump's team receiving a 10% cut of transactions made through marketplaces that recognise creator royalties.