Ep. 184 Everything the Ocean Touches is our Kingdom
On this episode of the Unhashed Podcast, Do Kwon doubles down on the Luna scam, Raoul Pal tries to squirm out of accountability for promoting it, Gloria Zhao proposes a long-anticipated update to mempool policy, Adam Neumann of WeWork infamy aims to put carbon credits on the blockchain, and we assess the relative acting skills of different bored apes.
Gloria Zhao has proposed an update to bitcoin’s mempool policy, to allow for transactions to be broadcast in packages to improve fee bumping.
WeWork founder and former CEO Adam Neumann, who resigned amid controversy prior to the company's initial public offering, has launched a crypto startup. His new venture, Flowcarbon, aims to bring the voluntary carbon market to the blockchain. The company just closed a $32 million venture capital round led by a16z, and raised another $38 million via a private presale of the company’s Goddess Nature Token (GNT). The token is backed by a bundle of certified carbon offset credits issued by nature-based projects over the past five years, according to Flowcarbon The credits themselves trade on the voluntary carbon market, which is projected to reach $700 million by 2027. The credits trade until they’re redeemed by an end user, meaning that person or company gets to claim the offset’s environmental impact. Flowcarbon said GNT can be sold, used for borrowing and lending, or redeemed for an underlying real-world credit. When it launches, GNT will run on the Celo blockchain. But for now, the block explorer only shows a Test Goddess Nature Token and Test Goddess Nature Token Plus.
Luna 2 is coming. On May 18, mere days after the complete meltdown of the UST/terra coins, Do Kwon tweeted “Terra governance prop #1623 to rename the existing network Terra Classic, LUNA Classic ($LUNC), and rebirth a new Terra blockchain & LUNA ($LUNA) is now live.” CZ of Binance responded, “They asked me if I want to put some make up on before I go on stage… I said no.” What is perhaps most surprising is how many exchanges plan to support this token. Namely…binance. “The Terra community just passed a vote to ‘Rebirth Terra Network’. We are working closely with the Terra team on the recovery plan, aiming to provide impacted users on Binance with the best possible treatment. Stay tuned for further updates.” Among the others are Huobi. However, according to Korea’s heralcorp, Do Kwon reached out to the top 5 KRW exchanges in Korea, asking them to list Luna 2.0 when it launches. They all declined.
And speaking of Luna insanity, in response to a tweet by a man claiming to have lost half a million dollars of savings for going all in on Raoul Pal’s recommendation, Pal claims “Ive never owned it, recommended it or even understood it.” This dug up videos of him, just days before the crash, stating, “You can stake on the Terra Network, earn 20%, basically risk free.” In another with Altcoin daily in January, Pal explains that, while he doesn’t know which coins will pump, he and his team are very bullish on Terra. AND, in a response to a tweet from November of 2021, where a user asks Pal which of the non-ETH, non-BTC coins is his favorite, he lists Solana, Luna, Polkadot, and Avalanche. So, yes it would be hard to argue he did not recommend it.
Despite the crypto slump, banking giant JPMorgan says bitcoin is massively undervalued. Maintaining its estimate of bitcoin's fair value at $38,000, the bank today reiterated the assessment it gave the asset in February when the cryptocurrency was trading around $43,400. In a note to clients issued Wednesday, the bank has also stated that it is replacing real estate with digital, or crypto, assets as its preferred alternative asset class along with hedge funds, citing “potential lagged repricing” in private equity, private debt and real estate. Alternative assets typically refer to investments that aren't stocks, bonds or cash.
From Buzzfeed (of all places), Actor and producer Seth Green was robbed of several NFTs this month after succumbing to a phishing scam that inadvertently threw a monkey wrench into the plan for his new animated series. The forthcoming show was developed from characters in Green’s expansive NFT collection, but in light of the recent hack, the project’s blatant crypto optimism has become a tragically ironic reminder of the industry’s shadier side. On Saturday, Green teased a trailer for White Horse Tavern at the NFT conference VeeCon. A twee comedy, the show seems to be based on the question, “What if your friendly neighborhood bartender was Bored Ape Yacht Club #8398?” In an interview with entrepreneur and crypto hype man Gary Vaynerchuk, Green said he wanted to imagine a universe where “it doesn't matter what you look like, what only matters is your attitude.”
On the positive site, Seth seems to be acting reasonably about the situation, tweeting , “Looking forward to precedent setting debates on IP ownership & exploitation, having spent 18 years studying copyright & the industry laws. I’d rather meet @DarkWing84 to make a deal, vs in court. We can prove the promise of ape community