The Week in Web3

Author

Yahya from Layer3
April 18, 2022

GM. Here's your roundup of Web3 news, tweets and vibes from the last 7 days. Avoid FOMI (fear of missing info) with Layer3 🤝

Your Web3 Briefing 📝

A roundup of the biggest Web3 headlines over the last week

FBI says North Korea-backed hackers behind largest ever crypto heist

Earlier this month we saw the largest crypto hack in history - with $625M stolen from the "Ronin" network that powers Axie Infinity (a "play-to-earn" crypto game). 

US officials now say they've linked the hack to "Lazarus", believed to be a North Korean state-sponsored cybercrime group.

Lazarus are said to be behind a string of high-profile cyberattacks, including the Sony Pictures hack in 2014.

So what happens now? 

Naturally, the hackers have been trying to launder the stolen crypto. Elliptic say they've managed to launder 18% of the stolen funds as of April 14th - detailing how in this this report. 

But ~$433M remains in the hackers' original wallet - which has now been blacklisted by the US authorities to prevent further laundering. 

This news coincides with ex-Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith being sentenced to 5 years in prison for "educating people [in North Korea] on how to evade sanctions."

Terra's Stablecoin UST becomes the third largest by market-cap

The Terra ecosystem is going from strength to strength.

Their stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST), recently hit a key milestone -  leapfrogging Binance USD (BUSD) to become the third largest stablecoin by market cap. 

To put things in perspective - UST now has market-cap over $17 billion. The second biggest stablecoin by market cap is USD Coin (USDC) at $49 billion, and leading the pack is Tether (USDT) at a giant $82 billion.

This news comes as the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) continues to acquire collateral, most notably in the form of giant Bitcoin buys, to underpin UST. 

And earlier this week - Terraform Labs 'gifted' $880M in $LUNA to the Luna Foundation Guard to double down on this strategy.  

Metamask warn users about new iCloud phishing scam 

MetaMask is at the core of web3, with over 30 million monthly active users and firmly one of the industry's most popular wallets. 

In a recent tweet, MetaMask said that if iCloud backup is enabled and your Apple credentials are phished, your crypto is at risk. 

The announcement came after a Twitter user shared details of his funds and prized NFTs being stolen seconds after hackers phished his iCloud details.

There was also this explainer thread on the whole situation, where the author wrote that "MetaMask actually saves your seed phrase file on your iCloud". 

The main takeaway as far as we're concerned - use a hardware wallet.

And it ain't just crypto. Take note of this reminder about how bad it actually is it if an attacker gets access to your Apple ID. 

What else you should know

  • Nexo and Mastercard are going to launch the 'world's first' crypto-backed payment card

  • The Central Bank of Portugal grants country’s first crypto license to a bank - to operate a virtual asset exchange

  • The Ethereum devs say the Merge will come 'in the few months after' June

  • It turns out a bunch of celebs (including Bieber, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashton Kutcher) have invested in crypto payments company MoonPay

  • Celsius will no longer let new 'non-accredited' investors earn rewards on their platform as they continue to grapple with regulation

  • Another billion dollar crypto fund. Pantera Capital set to close a $1.3B Blockchain Fund in the next few weeks

  • Crypto payments frozen across India as centralised crypto exchanges come under pressure from new tax regime

  • Ethereum-based stablecoin protocol Beanstalk loses ~$182M to exploit

  • Amazon CEO says they won't support crypto anytime soon, but is optimistic about the future

Tweets of the Week 🐦

We spend time on CT, so you don’t have to. Some of our favourite recent tweets: 

Thread on the Beanstalk exploit

Punk 6529 launches an Open Metaverse 

Robinhood CEO wonders whether DOGE could become future internet money 

Outrageous

gm to the weekend builders

Rugs can come in all shapes and sizes

Web3 101: POAP 💡

Each week we’ll cover an essential web3 concept in simple terms - this week we’re looking at POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol) ✨

What is it?

"Bookmarks of your life, digital mementos, minted to celebrate life's remarkable moments" -- Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP for short) enables a reliable record of life experiences through the issuing of unique NFT badges. 

How do they work?

Event organisers can create their own event on the POAP platform and customise the design of the badges they'll offer attendees. Event attendees can then claim their POAP via a QR code at the event, or a link shared to attendees. 

What can you do with them?

Ultimately POAPs allow event organisers to better engage with their audiences - in ways such as: 

And that's before the bragging rights and collectability factor.

Lean more about POAP here!

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That's all for today! Thoughts on today's email?

Yahya at Layer3