7 – Drop, Drop, Drop, Drop

el Prof

June 7, 2024

GM HEARTLAND

Ah, web3. You may break some laws. You may break our 🖤. But you will never take our $SOL.

 

—El Prof, Muhammed & Chad

MONEY MONEY MONEY

TOKEN

PRICE CHANGE

PRICE

Solana ($SOL)

-2.23%

$162.61

Helium ($HNT)

-6.86%

$3.75

Pyth ($PYTH)

+7.11%

$0.43

Solend ($SLND)

+21.47%

$0.66

(Price changes reflect past 7 days as of 6.7.24)

  • So… who took advantage of last week’s fire sale?

IYKYK

One thing I wish I knew on day one of my web3 journey is… If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

—David, Playhaus NFT Maestro

Airdrops: Blessing or Curse?

In the world of cryptocurrency, free tokens distributed through “airdrops” have become a popular way for new projects to generate buzz and build communities.

Airdrops have been surging on platforms like Telegram as an exciting way to discover promising ventures and potentially earn rewards. However, this recent frenzy has raised concerns about their legitimacy and long-term viability.

Notcoin, a self-proclaimed “joke coin,” stormed the Telegram community with its airdrop, distributing a significant amount of tokens to users. Their lighthearted approach and humorous marketing resonated with many. But it also sparked questions about the coin’s value and long-term purpose. Does Notcoin offer any real-world utility, or is it simply a speculative play on the current airdrop trend?

This question isn’t without consequences. While airdrops can be a valuable tool for community engagement, they often come with hidden risks:

  • Regulatory Uncertainty: Airdrops currently exist in a legal gray area. This lack of clear regulations makes it difficult for users to seek recourse if they encounter scams or disputes.

  • Security Threats: Airdrops may require users to share personal information or wallet addresses, potentially exposing them to phishing attacks or other security vulnerabilities. It’s vital to be cautious about any airdrop that seems suspicious or asks for excessive personal data.

  • Market Manipulation: Unscrupulous projects might use airdrops to inflate their token prices artificially. This can lead to sudden price crashes, leaving unsuspecting users with significant financial losses.

The recent surge of crypto airdrops on Telegram presents a double-edged sword. While some projects may be genuinely looking to build strong communities and share value, others might exploit user enthusiasm for personal gain.

As the cryptocurrency landscape continues to evolve, users must exercise caution and conduct thorough research before participating in any airdrop. Consulting reliable sources and reviews can help users distinguish legitimate projects from potential scams. Additionally, diversifying your crypto portfolio and avoiding overexposure to airdrops can help mitigate potential risks.

To reiterate the aforementioned words of our degen-iest degen David, if something seems too good to be true in crypto, it probably is.

—Muhammed

Sponsored By growbot

Do you wish marketing your business were as easy as asking your assistant for “that thing I want from that place we went that one time?” Now, it can be.

Meet growbot, playhaus’ personal growth assistant. With growbot, simply connect your tech stack, upload your creative assets, provide a clear simple goal in layman’s terms (verb + noun), and, in the case of buying ads, attach a monetary budget. growbot will handle the rest, crafting and deploying the optimal strategy to grow your subscribers, followers, sales, and more.

Want to make your dollars go 30% further? We currently offer free growbot demos and are taking on alpha clients through our advertising agency.

Crypto as Civil Disobedience

What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood.

In short, I’m pretty confident Henry David Thoreau would’ve gladly joined me on my daily “Fed Salute.”

(The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City is within walking distance of the playhaus HQ — and within striking distance of my middle finger. #FTF.)

The topic Thoreau is describing in that quote is civil disobedience; in essence, breaking the law to change the law. Given the lack of regulatory clarity, some could argue supporting and participating in cryptography and decentralized information protocols is automatically a form of civil disobedience. Certainly there are plenty of nonviolent acts of protest you could accomplish in the crypto space. And I personally would argue that, if we want to uphold the vision of liberty the founding fathers had for this country, civil disobedience may become a necessary pushback to the geriatric system of corporate captured governance that are writing the rules today.

If we want to have any hope of reviving the American Dream (or more like Dreams, with some much-needed inclusive updates, a wider range of colors and gods represented) we need to ensure that there truly is a free market. In my opinion, crypto is the only sector left that can offer this, primarily in the form of guarding against a CBDC. But we need as many different dollar, stable coin providers as possible, and create a decentralized, and also numerous, marketplace of digital identity verification, management, and recovery providers. In doing so, we may still be able to protect our freedoms of speech, privacy, and commerce in the online space.

So what would civil disobedience look like in pursuit of the goal? Like Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who created the first anonymous, encrypted online marketplace — and, effectively, the first Bitcoin a use case — but also fueled drug trafficking? Like Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, who released classified government documents exposing how the state still actively acts against its citizens interests, but were forced to flee their home countries as a result? Like Tornado Cash creators Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, who are going to jail on money laundering charges for writing an open-source program that protects the traceability of two parties that want to exchange crypto online?

It’s always a fine line. But over time, civil disobedience in the crypto space does appear to be progressing toward a better balance of making a change via nonviolent, victimless crimes. Today, it could be as simple as setting up a self-custody wallet and supporting projects and the builders you believe in.

—El Prof

STRAY LINKS

More Favorites

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

You Are OUR Heart & SOL

Heart&SOL is a daily newsletter at the intersection of AI, cryptography, and online culture.

Be first to the future.