A Week of Frauds And Scams — #4
Welcome back to our fourth unit of the ART HAUS Weekly Blurb! As implied from the title of this episode, this week has been ridden with frauds, scams, and literal mess in the web3 space.
Well, what scams?
For starters, my Discord got hacked. Yea, clicking a fake link ruined my entire Discord account; a bad move in hindsight. But even that wasn’t the worst of scams that happened this week.
Haven’t a clue what gibberish I’m saying? Stay tuned to find out!
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Gnars!
This week Gnars made an insane buy. Say hello to our new mascot, the Skater Noun!
The Head of @Skateordao also did a pretty comprehensive write-up on how Gnars came about, so feel free to check it out!
Wen Gnars?
We’re in the final stages of Gnars auditing, launching soon! Do follow our Twitter to stay up-to-date on developments of Gnars. Until then, stay Gnarly!
News Of The Week: The Wonderland DeFi Protocol Saga
On 27 January, @0xSifu was exposed as the infamous ex-convict Michael Patryn, causing a panic in the Wonderland universe.
Following a thread posted by on-chain sleuth and scam-debunker @zachxbt.eth, we see more and more parties introduced into this saga. So wtf is going on?
Michael Patryn and Wonderland
Michael Patryn is the co-founder of DeFi protocol Wonderland, which is a fork of Olympus on Avalanche. The purpose of Wonderland is to create a decentralized “treasury”; supported by their community known as “Frog Nation”.
As such, Wonderland can create a stablecoin, totally unpegged to currencies like USD.
However, with the recent ties of Patryn back to QuadrigaCX, confidence in the Wonderland leadership is at an ATL, causing a crash of their native token TIME.
Patryn’s History
Michael Patryn, also legally known as Omar Dhanani and Omar Patryn in his earlier years, was an ex-convict with crimes committed in identity theft.
After being sentenced multiple times for such frauds and scams, Patryn went on to co-found QuadrigaCX in 2013. QuadrigaCX was the leading cryptocurrency exchange in Canada at one point, but collapsed after its founder Gerald Cotten suddenly died in India.
The worst part was that around $190 million in crypto was “lost” with the death of the founder, as he was the only one who held the private keys to the central exchange wallet. Patryn however, was one of the co-founders of this exchange and slipped away without a scratch.
What’s Next For Wonderland
Since the release of this news, Wonderland’s native token $TIME has been slammed, crashing over 50% in a few days. Mind you, we’re in a crypto correction, so this is an even bigger blow to Wonderland.
Tokens associated with the “Frog Nation” like Magic Internet Money (MIM) and governance token SPELL were also hit hard by this revelation.
This saga has led to the dismissal of 0xSifu as one of the founding members of Wonderland, and it has also tarnished their reputation. The fact that @danielesesta (another co-founder) backed Patryn although he knew of his history throws more red flags in the air.
Well, we’ll have to see how this saga plays out, and if there’s any future for Wonderland. Only $TIME will tell.
News Daily
24.1.2022
Organizers of the Australian Open, Tennis Australia, and Decentraland, have partnered up to launch a virtual AO event in the metaverse! This is the first-ever multi-day event on Decentraland, and the fact that it lasts as long as the AO adds that bit of Augmented Reality!
Read on to find out more about the virtual and IRL events of AO, along with their accompanying NFT drop!
AO Decentraland: Enjoy the Australian Open in The Metaverse!
25.1.2022
Yet another exploit at OpenSea! This time, hackers are exploiting a loophole of the system, buying digital prized possessions from collectors at a fraction of its market price. This article explains the attack in greater detail.
OpenSea Grifters Exploit Trading Loophole to Acquire Discount NFTs
26.1.2022
Known as the exclusive club of the NFT community, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is getting even more popular. With rumors circulating of a fundraising campaign to value the community at $5 billion, the floor price of BAYC is shooting up. As usual, prominent BAYC holders are hyping it up on Twitter.
Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs rise in value after funding round rumors
27.1.2022
If this comes to pass, it will be huge. As one of the largest ecosystems in the world of blockchains, Solana’s partnership with OpenSea will bring about infinite possibilities. Blockchain gaming and NFTs are slowly coming together, and this joint-venture will surely accelerate this union.
Leaked Screenshots Indicate OpenSea & Solana Integration
28.1.2022
Eva Longoria, an American Actress and now NFT enthusiast, added two Crypto Chicks NFTs to her collection. Following media attention on the World of Women NFT launch, other projects promoting female inclusivity and diversity are emerging. Browse through this for more information on Crypto Chicks!
Eva Longoria shows off her newest purchase: 2 stunning Crypto Chick NFTs
29.1.2022
MoonPay, a fintech company allowing customers to get crypto with FIAT, is partnering with ImmutableX, an L2 on Ethereum focusing on NFTs. This partnership allows people to pay for NFTs with cash, with no gas fees incurred! Hopefully, more integrations like this will boost NFT adoption in time to come.
You can buy NFTs with your bank card now with Moonpay and Immutable X
30.1.2022
An interesting notion I’ve never thought of before, cash and crypto actually have different concepts on how money is distributed and handled. This article explains the Cantillon effect, the Nakomoto effect, and how Bitcoin solves the former problem.
From cash to crypto: The Cantillon effect vs. the Nakamoto effect
ART HAUS Blog Releases
This week, Scott released another insightful post about NFTs, merging both virtual and physical worlds. How? NFTs tagged to IRL objects.
Launching NFTs IRL
In this article, he talks about interesting concepts like the Tom Sachs Rocket Factory experiment. In particular, how big brands can come together and sponsor major events, with the help of NFTs.
So… IRL crowdfunding with NFTs?
Well, that’s certainly going to become a more common sight in the near future.
We also wrote another more in-depth article concerning ENS domains. For those of you unaware, ENS (Ethereum Name Service) provides web3 domain names for your wallet.
For example, ART HAUS uses ENS and our wallet name is arthaus.eth. You can send crypto, NFTs, and other digital assets to this wallet.
ENS Domains: DNS of Web3.0?
In this piece, we also talk about ENS vs DNS, the utility of ENS, and how ENS stays competitive in the jam-packed domain naming industry.
If you’re keen on getting one for yourself, do check out this article to find out more! (How to buy ENS Domain also covered in this article)
Podcasts: Worth A Listen
Artist Spotlight: Seeing Through Decentral Eyes with Coldie
Coldie, a well-acclaimed 3D artist and creator of Decentral Eyes, joins the podcast to talk about his endeavors with Snoop Dogg. His primary focus is on blockchain art, and after creating the iconic Snoop Dogg x Decentral Eyes NFT collection, he’s looking for the next big thing.
Hop on to find out what artworks Coldie is curating, and his visions for the space in the future.
Zach Lieberman - Adidas and Prada collaboration
A week ago, Adidas and Prada announced their partnership to create their user-generated NFT collection. This podcast episode invites Zach, an artist, and NFT-goer, to share his thoughts on this collab and the fascinating technical side behind the project.
Zach also shares his hopes and visions for the future of the NFT space, as well as some lacking areas we’re facing at the moment. Quite an insightful podcast episode… it’s definitely worth a listen!
Fan Controlled Football: Reinventing Sports Spectatorship for the Digital Age
Another great podcast episode by The Delphi Podcast, we are joined by Sohrob Farudi, CEO and Co-founder of Fan Controlled Football. In the world of sports, fans play a crucial role in boosting the morale of players, financing the team, and especially keeping the sport alive. In football, fans are known as the twelfth man.
FCF aims to increase fan engagement, enhancing the fan experience through gamification, and allowing them to have a say in the governance of a club. FCF hopes to grow beyond football, and NFTs are the solution for them.
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Wrap Up
So that’s it for this episode of our weekly Blurb. Thanks for reading, and do let us know what you think of the new Substack interface.
As always, Keep Calm and Stay Gnarly!
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