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Todayβs edition is brought to you by Bahamut β an innovative EVM-based, layer 1 public blockchain with smart contract capabilities, advanced security, and a unique POSA consensus. And ALSO, a foundation providing grants through its 10 million $FTN fund. |
Unlock Your Potential with Bahamut Grants! |
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GM. This is Milk Road, we turn crypto into an easy-to-follow recipe. |
Hereβs what weβre cookinβ today: |
Lessons from a $4.4M mistake π€ Quick hitters from Twitter π₯ The U.S. government is selling $130M+ in BTC πͺ |
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LESSONS FROM A $4.4M MISTAKE π€ |
Imagine thisβ¦.youβre sitting on a mountain of digital cash. |
$4.4M to be exact. |
The source? Irrelevant. |
Maybe you timed the market perfectly (for once). Maybe you won the lottery. |
Doesnβt matter. What matters is you have it. Youβre rolling in digital dough. |
Now itβs time to transfer this fortune to your trusty cold wallet, where your millions can sleep safe and sound. |
Itβs a process youβve done a thousand times before. |
At this point, you know your wallet address like the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song. Every digit, a familiar note. |
Butβ¦ youβre feeling lazy. |
So instead of manually entering that (stupid-long) crypto address, you search through your transaction history to copy/paste it from there. |
With the ease of a seasoned pro, you sift through the transactions and then⦠|
βAh, there you are.β |
Your eyes lock onto the last 4 digits of that oh-so-familiar crypto address. |
Like a confident LinkedIn recruiter you click copy, paste, and send. |
Job done. You sit back, relax, and wait for the $4.4M to hit your cold wallet. |
A minute goes by, nothingβ¦. |
2 minutes go by, still nothing⦠|
Youβre nervous. Your palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy. |
(Thereβs vomit on your sweater, momβs spaghetti). |
You check the transaction on Etherscan. Thatβs when the gut-wrenching realization hits youβ¦ |
The address you thought was yours? Not yours. |
Similar, but not identical. And just like that⦠*poof*... the $4.4M is gone. |
Crazy, right? |
Well, this is called βaddress poisoningβ and it happened to this crypto user earlier this month: |
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How does βaddress poisoningβ work? |
Scammers use something called a βvanity address generatorβ. Normally, addresses are created randomly but vanity address generators let you pick some of it. This lets scammers create a wallet address thatβs similar to yours. Think of it like a fraternal twin β an evil one. Then, the scammer sends small transactions from the evil twin wallet to your real wallet. This βcontaminatesβ your transaction history. |
In the example above, the address the victim was trying to send funds to was: |
0xbA83cE92A03d2FEf24f36DB9FC04f8BA3305c0E6. |
And this was the evil twin address they actually sent the money to: |
0xbA8BA758357D82A2862e1369D51C983A2A05C0e6. |
The first 5 digits/letters are the same. So are the last 6. |
So when the victim scanned their transaction history and saw the first and last digits matched, they probably assumed it was the right wallet. |
Big mistake. (*narrator voice: it was at this moment they knew, they f*cked up*) |
And that, ladies & gents, is how you lose $4.4M in a few clicks. |
So, what can we learn? |
Always double triple quadruple check where youβre sending money. Check the ENTIRE address to make sure it matches. Do a βtest sendβ (i.e. send $1) before transferring all your funds. Sending $4.4M without doing a test first is cryptoβs version of an extreme sport. Use an ENS (Ethereum Name Service). These are domain names for your wallet. So instead of having a long alphanumerical address, we use milkroad.eth. |
Stay safe out there, Roaders. |
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| | The Bahamut Foundation is here to make all your Web3 dreams come true. | How? | By launching the Bahamut Grants program β which includes a 10 million $FTN fund for individuals, businesses, organizations, and researchers. | Want your share of the funds? | Hereβs what you need to know: | Focus areas: Prioritizing projects in bridges, multi-signature wallets, DEXs, and RNG oracles. Solidity support: Bahamut supports the Solidity programming language, providing greater flexibility for creators. Stay Informed: Regularly visit the Bahamut Arena Grant website to keep track of preferred categories and boost your chance of securing a grant. | This is your opportunity to secure the funding you need to turn your Web3 dream into reality. | Apply now on the Bahamut Arena Grants website. | |
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QUICK HITTERS FROM TWITTER π₯ |
It was a slower news day, so letβs do some quick hitters: |
1/ Solana hasnβt had downtime in 337 days. |
Solanaβs been on fire over the last year: |
SOL is up +268%. At one point, it had more NFT and DeFi volume than any other blockchain. |
The best part? Solana hasnβt had any downtime in almost a year. |
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For referenceβ¦ Solana had 14 outages in 2022, leading to a total downtime of ~4.5 days. From 14 β 0. Nice. |
Some people call it impressive. Others say it should be expected. |
Weβll see if Solana can keep the streak alive. |
2/ The amount of ETH held on centralized exchanges is plummeting. |
Since July 2022, ETH held on centralized exchanges has dropped from 21% β 12%. |
Fun fact: itβs shrinking faster than the amount of BTC held on exchanges. |
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Why this matters: Less ETH on exchanges = less ETH that can easily be bought. |
And with all the narratives around Ethereum right now⦠|
A potential ETH ETF getting approved. The Dencun upgrade. Long-term holders (i.e. investors holding for over 1 year) recently hit 74%. |
β¦ it could eventually lead to a supply shock. |
3/ A look at the top 20 NFT projects, by market cap. |
Letβs do a quick check-in on the expensive JPEGs and scribbles. |
Here are the top 20 NFT projects as of now: |
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A few takeaways: |
The top 8 projects are all on Ethereum. There are only a handful of Solana projects. Mad Lads is the highest ranked at #9. Only 2 of the top projects are on Bitcoin. NodeMonkes and Bitcoin Frogs. |
Interesting. There have been days where both Solana and Bitcoin get more NFT volume than Ethereum, but one thingβs clearβ¦ |
The blue chips are still on Ethereum. |
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BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD πͺ |
The U.S. government filed a notice to sell $130M+ in Bitcoin. The funds are linked to the infamous Silk Road (no relation). |
Spot bitcoin ETFs saw the highest level of net outflows in a single day. Grayscale Investmentsβ Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC) continued to weigh the group down, with $429 million leaving the fund. |
The numbers are in⦠Base acquired ~2M users last year. Impressive for a 6-month-old chain. |
Ethereum developers confirmed the next Dencun upgrade test run dates. Next up: Sepolia on January 30th. Then: Goerli on February 7th. (Yup, ETH is going on tour). |
Swan Bitcoin launched a new mining business. It technically launched back in July, but has been in stealth mode. Swan has mined 750+ BTC since then. |
Tesla still holds 9.720 BTC (worth $385M). The electric car maker didnβt buy or sell any BTC last quarter - it stayed in βParkβ mode. |
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MILKY MEMES π€£ |
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ROADER REVIEW OF THE DAY |
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VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY |
| Milk Road Images @MilkRoadImages | |
| When you realize the "O" was a "0" and you accidentally sent all your money to the wrong address... | | | Jan 26, 2024 | | | | 0 Likes 0 Retweets 0 Replies |
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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. |