Are we human, or are we dancer? I don’t know about you, but personally, I’m a Taylor, CEO of Hedgehog, your crypto homebase. Sync your wallets and exchange accounts to be able to see your whole crypto portfolio in one place, plus take advantage of the investment tools that Hedgehog is building. A simple, time-tested strategy like rebalancing can help you level up!

Reminder: Every week I ask a giveaway question at the end of the newsletter. Answer to be entered to win a Ledger Nano S hardware wallet. Speaking of which…

Last week I asked what crypto and finance concepts y’all want to see unpacked. Let’s start with this timely one:

How to properly vet crypto exchanges, crypto services, etc. so you don't lose all your funds... , *cough* Terra, *cough* Celsius/Voyager/etc, *cough-cough* Coinbase... #SAFU #SNAFU 🤕

An important issue indeed! There are two answers to this question. The first is to go with the most boring, regulation-friendly exchanges that don’t offer you the moon. Low Earth Orbit is chill, and generally the fewer perks, the better. Remember when Gemini ran a “Crypto Needs Rules” ad campaign? That somewhat stodgy energy is what you’re looking for.

The other answer is… exchanges cannot save you, so get a hardware wallet and study up on security. (For example, 2FA isn’t just the name of Elon Musk’s 12th child.) No exchange can plausibly guarantee that it will never be hacked, but relying on someone else to custody your crypto has tradeoffs; it simply is what it is.

Recall the iconic Nick Szabo post from 2001: “Trusted third parties are security holes.” Still, for many of us the convenience is worth the risk. That’s a decision you have to make for yourself.

At least if you don’t want to buy a hardware wallet, you can try your chances on the weekly giveaway in this newsletter!

Tldr: The best part about crypto, is that you get to be your own bank. The worst part is that you have to be your own bank. Risk management and doing your own research is a necessity, and also freakin’ hard.

Gamestop launched its NFT marketplace, and apparently it’s already doing better than Coinbase’s NFT marketplace:

The top 50 collections have generated over 3,500 ETH ($4M) in sales volumes, according to the website. The action is dominated by the MetaBoy collection, which accounts for just under a third of the total volume.

Meanwhile, Coinbase NFT has only seen 1,710 ETH ($2M) of trading volume since its inception, according to data from Dune Analytics. Marketplace leader OpenSea did $17M in volume on July 13 alone.

Even in the market slump, NFTs remain big business. We have a blog post about that, actually, if you’re trying to figure out whether you want to join the scene.

Tldr: Apes ape into BoredApes before BoardApes’ board of apes boards up all the apes? (Say this out loud. I spent a lot of time on it.)

Meanwhile, Minecraft decided nah, not into it, NFTs are outlawed. Here’s the reason why:

Digital ownership based on scarcity and exclusion [...] does not align with Minecraft values of creative inclusion and playing together. NFTs are not inclusive of all our community and create a scenario of the haves and the have-nots. The speculative pricing and investment mentality around NFTs takes the focus away from playing the game and encourages profiteering, which we think is inconsistent with the long-term joy and success of our players.

Honestly, can’t be mad at that. I still have faith that someone will figure out a way to integrate NFTs into a game in a fun way, but I’m sorta doubtful that anyone has figured it out yet. On the bright side, I’ve heard some positive chatter about Splinterlands — anyone tried it? Reply to this email and let me know what you think. (Not the giveaway question, but I will count responses as giveaway entries!)

I also want to share someone else’s analysis. Emily Wigoder is the CEO of Ad Astra, a consultancy that helps creators put together and promote an NFT collection. Ad Astra’s PR team has been emailing Hedgehog her comments on various NFT-related market news, and I thought this one was insightful:

For a world like Minecraft, which is built on the idea of relative fungibility — a world where everything can be used, shared, and is free to engage with — NFTs go against its core ethos. Accepting NFTs would simply trivialise the technology and represent a clear attempt from the gaming company to make profit, or ride a trend for the sake of relevancy. For a gaming platform where players are used to paying for certain boosts, skins etc, NFTs make much more sense. In order to fully appreciate the places where NFTs are most exciting and interesting, we have to be able to also accept their limitations.

That’s downright sensible.

Tldr:

Last week: Minecraft has NFTs!
This week: Just kidding!
Next week: Gas prices hit $23 per gallon,
Also next week: Sell all your NFTs for gas! Drive a BoredApe Powered Car! It’s the future!

Have you tried Brave Browser? It’s a privacy-focused browser with built-in crypto support. Hedgeblog writer Ryan gave it a whirl and explained why he likes the product and the company:

In Web 2.0, our data gets constantly exploited to benefit big corporations. Web3 is meant to take that power back and Brave Browser makes that a reality.

With Brave, we see power and choice given back to the user while maintaining their privacy and even offering rewards for it. Sure, right now, the money isn't great. However, you could expect this money to increase as the browser becomes more and more popular.

Learn about how Brave makes this work. Are you feeling… brave? Hyuk hyuk hyuk.

Tldr: I have thousands of BATs in my attic. Are they real BATs? Are they digital BATs that are stored on a hardware wallet? Should I keep my hardware wallet somewhere else? Yes.

That’s all for today, kiddos. Giveaway question of the week: What browser do you use? Reply with your answer for the chance to win a Ledger Nano S hardware wallet.

My answer? Well, when I worked at Microsoft, I was on the Internet Explorer team. I don’t use that. My wife works at Apple on the Safari team, so… that’s my public answer. I use Safari. 100%. Never use anything else. Love you honey!

Always human, occasionally dancer,
— Taylor

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