Presented by CryptoLink.Tech

Volume 1 | Edition 8 | August 9, 2023

Opening Thoughts

I’m starting this week with another anecdote that leads me to believe that we are heading in the right direction.

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting with my old man about the BlackRock ETF and the other bullish things happening in the Bitcoin world. He seemed more interested than ever but the conversation ended there.

Two days later he asked me how he could get involved, I told him the first step was to order a hardware wallet. I sent the link to the Trezor home page (Ledger freaks me out now) and didn’t expect much from it.

Yesterday my parents called me and told me that the Trezor had come in the mail and they needed help making their first BTC purchase.

It’s really funny when you teach your folks about something instead of them teaching you about something. I guess that is the nature of technology advancing and old dogs finding it harder to learn new tricks.

Anyway, I see this as a massive win within my own sphere of influence and generally a great indicator for the space. It may be a bit much to say that one nearly retired couple getting involved in crypto is enough to say that we are back, but I’ll tell you why this struck me as bullish.

My father always had the ‘conservative’ view on cryptocurrency. I distinctly remember hearing about Bitcoin around 2012-2013 when I was just getting into highschool. I asked him about it and his response was pretty typical of someone who, at the time, was a direct product of the Cold War era and post-Nixon America. And for a time after the initial conversation, I fell into that same train of thought on crypto.

It was something along the lines of, “If there is nothing backing it, if banks won’t take it, and if it can just be printed by the internet then it cannot be worth anything”.

Oh, the irony of that generation… lol

His stance was held pretty firmly until recently when I started working on CryptoLink with this team. Looking back on it, it is fairly difficult to see the vision for a system that is so different from the one we traditionally exist within.

Since last year he has kept his ears and mind open to Bitcoin news and information on how it really works.

This has culminated to a point where he plans on buying a few hundred dollars of BTC per month minimally. I could spend the entire newsletter breaking down the process of getting a 52 year old guy to come around on BTC, but I’ll leave it at this…

I know my parents better than anyone, obviously. If they are eager to take the initiative and learn about Bitcoin and blockchain technology, then more will come as well.

It is only a matter of time, anon.

Let’s chat about some news this week. 👀

Cryptolink Connect

Not a whole lot going on that people don’t already know about this week. Let’s cover a few short announcements.

50 Shades Of Blue: INK Warp to Base Live

As many of you know, we are heading to Base!

Our wonderful developer and CFO Druuu pulled the lever and activated the INK warp to Base chain.

Remember that the INK warp is a 2 for 1 and the warp is ONE-WAY. This means you cannot warp that INK back once it is on Base.

Validator reservations should be up very soon so stay tuned and grab your $10k spot on Ethereum, Arbitrum, or Base when the time comes. 😜

Feedback Update: AnyToAny Getting Cosmetic Addition

We heard the community’s concerns about AnyToAny’s UI/UX and we are acting on them!

A few well-respected community members and outside opinions recommended that we no longer have AnyToAny.io instantly prompt the user to connect their wallet.

Another piece of feedback we received was that the user should be presented with more information about what AnytoAny.io offers before asking for a wallet connection.

We are addressing both of those concerns in an update that will be pushed out very soon.

When arriving at AnyToAny.io in the future, the user will be presented a small landing page within the iframe that looks similar to this:

We hope this can ease some concerns from users and create a more welcoming front door for our amazing technology.

The “Learn More” button will redirect the user to a new page on our landing page that will provide in-depth information about AnyToAny and how it works.

Thank you to all of our users and especially those who provided feedback!

Old Friends, New Pods: Wally Joins Obsidian As Guest Co-Host

Here is a fun bit of news for the Obsidian Council fans out there!

I will be joining Matthew Walker (@hawaiinmint) and Cesar (@poppabigmac) on the ‘100x Gems Show’ on Obsidian’s ‘100x Podcast’!

Obsidian and CryptoLink go back to mid-2022 and our two teams have kept in good contact over the last year. I am pumped to have the opportunity to collab with some sharp brains over on the Obsidian side. Everyone is going to have to keep their eyes peeled on the Obsidian Council YT and Twitter pages to catch the episode when it drops!

Maybe this could be the start of something great between our two communities and teams.

Also, give Matthew, Cesar, and Obsidian Council a follow on Twitter if you don’t already!

World Of Web3

This section covers major recent developments and trends in the crypto, ai, and general web3 world.

The Great Merge: Aptos and Microsoft Join forces

The Aptos Network is making waves in the tech world this last week with its latest initiative partnering with Microsoft.

Aptos will be utilizing Microsoft’s suite of artificial intelligence utilities to seek out greater adoption from banks and large financial institutions.

More specifically, Cointelegraph reports that Aptos will be using Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI services to “explore innovations in asset tokenization, on-chain payments and central bank digital currencies”.

Once example of how Aptos will be using the AI tech is with their Aptos Assistant. The Aptos Assistant will be an AI chatbot powered by Azure that will assist new users with the onboarding process.

Another piece that Aptos reported is Microsoft letting Aptos Labs run a validator on top of the Azure AI.

I’m not really sure what this means, but they say it boosts security. 🤷‍♂️

Regardless, this is pretty cool stuff and will be an interesting follow.

Oh, one more thing for the degens…

APT did this after the news lol

Bureaucratic Copium: SEC Files Expected Appeal

Let’s be honest, we knew this wasnt over.

However, I do think XRP holds the edge at this point and I personally don’t see Judge Torres’ decision getting overturned (NFA DYOR NFL NBA ETC).

Regardless, Gary and his cronies are back to file an appeal stating the following,

“Interlocutory review is warranted here. These two issues involve controlling questions of law on which there is substantial ground for differences of opinion as reflected by an intra-district split that has already developed," (Cointelegraph, 2023)

That is a whole lot of hooplah to say “we are pissed”.

Not a ton else to say here other than we will keep an eye on it.

Interchain Intel

Updates and insights from across different blockchain networks.

Musical NFTs: Y00ts Moves Again

This is a fairly large deal in the NFT world.

The popular pfp project, y00ts, is now moving from Polygon to Ethereum.

This might immediately strike you as a sensible move due to volume on ETH, but the kicker is that Polygon provided roughly $3 million to support the y00ts’ previous move from Solana to Polygon and y00ts has to pay that back.

The y00ts project will be joining it’s sister project, DeGods, on the Ethereum blockchain for whatever it is that Frank has in store for the ecosystem next.

Y00ts and DeGods are both projects by DeLabs, founded by master NFT marketer and social media personality Frank DeGods.

Frank ensured that there is no bad blood between DeLabs and Polygon, they simply needed to unite their ecosystems.

This is a hit to the Polygon NFT scene, no doubt. I’ll be interested to see how Polygon responds and also what Frank has planned for the deLabs ecosystem.

OnChain Summer: Base’s Latest Initiative

Base is now officially live.

I know we covered this before, but apparently they were in a “builders only” phase until yesterday.

Base’s latest marketing campaign includes some nostalgia to the early 2000s and the wave of new users on the internet.

Base poses an exciting new launch. We will be there sooner than later and I am genuinely curious… how much bridging volume will there be into Base vs out of Base?

They claim to have over 100 DApps on Base already with even deeper integrations with Coinbase-built products.

Are you buying into the Base hype, anon?

Blockchain: The Final Frontier

Atlas and the rest of you Trekkies will love this one.

CBS Studios filed for a trademark on “Star Trek Continuum” to be used for nonfungible tokens and digital collectibles.

Cointelegraph reports that Star Trek Continuum will be an onchain collection of ships from various Star Trek adventures, which can be customized to the holder’s liking.

I did not grow up a huge Star Trek fan, I am more of a Star Wars guy myself, but this is still pretty frickin cool.

No word on which chain yet, but we can all assume it’s going to be Ethereum.

Though…

It should be on Gauss. This is what Gauss was built for.

Tech Trends

Here, we explore the latest technological advancements and innovations in the blockchain space.

A Bankless Future: BitPay’s New Product ‘Bill Pay’ Leads the Way

On August 8th BitPay announced its latest product ‘Bill Pay’.

BitPay is one of the leaders in the onchain payment space and their latest offering is going to change the game forever.

‘Bill Pay’ enables users to directly connect their crypto wallets to their bills and pay those bills using an assortment of permitted cryptos.

BitPay has partnered with Method Financial, an embedded banking service, to pull bills in real time to ensure their users have the most up-to-date and accurate information. (PRNewsWire, 2023)

This is a game changer for multiple reasons.

First, users have multiple options in terms of the crypto they pay their bills in.

Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Litecoin (LTC), ApeCoin (APE), Polygon (MATIC), Dai (DAI), USD Coin (USDC), Binance USD (BUSD), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Pax Dollar (USDP), Gemini Dollar (GUSD) and Euro Coin (EUROC) are all available options for users.

This level of convenience is something that can truly drive new users interested in the bankless portion of crypto into the space.

Speaking of convenience, think about what they are really doing here.

It’s not easy to pay your bills without a bank account.

Now you can.

Imagine you make $15k-$20k on something like Doge and boom… there’s damn near your entire mortgage set up to pay on-time directly out of your Doge balance.

Pretty cool stuff.

Again, should have been built on Gauss.

Just sayin 🤷‍♂️

Decoded

In this section, we decode complex blockchain and cryptocurrency concepts into understandable language.

Over the next few weeks I will be mixing in the “Token Standard Series” to discuss the different types of token standards and simplify their usecases for everyone.

If you miss a week or are catching up in a few weeks, be sure to check for more additions covering ERC-20,777,721, and 1155

Token Standard Series Part I: Fungible vs Non-Fungible

This one is super easy but will set a base for anyone’s understanding of token standards and the different types of smart contracts they can interact with.

A fungible token is a non-unique and divisible asset. Similar to how the US Dollar can be divided from $1 into two $0.50 halves, a fungible asset onchain can be divided into smaller units.

The key here is “non-unique”.

This means your fungible tokens don’t represent ownership of a unique item but instead a divisible asset.

You guessed it…

A non-fungible token does represent ownership of one unique digital or tangible asset.

This means your car is a non-fungible asset. You can’t divide a car just like you can’t divide a non-fungible token, commonly referred to as an NFT.

Keep an eye on this series as I am going to be adding to it over the weeks. Let’s all get a bit smarter together!

Final Byte: Wally’s Wisdom

I honestly thought this was going to be one of the shorter Chain Reactions this week, but it turned out to be 2300+ words again. 😅

8 weeks in and I am still enjoying every bit of this.

One day it might get old, but for now it surely isn’t.

We had quite a few stories today, and I even left one out about web3 gaming because I think it may deserve it’s own special section one of these upcoming weeks.

Stay tuned into the news!

There are new things happening everyday. Remember to not get too entrenched in the Twitter narratives and keep chugging along.

I’m starting to hash out the beginning ideas of what we are going to grow this Chain Reaction brand into and I see nothing but possibilities.

We will be expanding into some podcasts and maybe even another publication here soon.

Let me know on Twitter or in the Discord what you want to see Chain Reaction grow into.

I do this for the people! Let’s build the first media brand that actually builds it with it’s audience.

I Love you people.

Best,

Wally
CMO, CryptoLink.Tech

ZEALY CODE: BEANS