Happy November! I'm Taylor, CEO of Hedgehog, and while I'm a little sad that freakin' bats season is over. On the bright side: GOBBLE GOBBLE IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS.
You know what also approacheth, Hedgehog's big upgrade, including the launch of our mobile app and a streamlined crypto investing process. Here's a quick video of the mobile account-creation flow, isn't it pretty?
We've got onboarding, rebalancing, fiat depositing, education, portfolios, Hedgehog Stacks, and Face ID baby! #FaceID
Where was I going with this? Oh yeah: Sign up for the mobile app beta. We're starting to roll things out 🙂
Don't forget, there's a giveaway question at the end of every newsletter, if you want to swagger like a hedgehog 🎩🦔
Everyone's buzzing about Elon Musk purchasing Twitter. I'm sure you've seen a zillion headlines and hot takes about that, but the crypto-relevant part is that Binance put up $500 million to help Musk finance his takeover.
Binance CEO CZ (Changpeng Zhao, but everyone just calls him CZ) went on CNBC Squawk Box to explain why he was interested, and CoinTelegraph transcribed his comments:
I believe Twitter has not been monetized well, it has not grown well, there's many tactical problems like bots that spam my comments, there's scammer accounts on there, it's not been run well.
Oof. However, CZ added, "I think the platform has huge value in itself, and especially now with Elon at the helm, we're very confident." It sounds like he's aligned with Musk's general vision for the platform: "We're long-term investors, we believe in strong entrepreneurs, we believe in strong platforms, we believe in free speech."
As a Crypto Twitter legend at the helm of one of the biggest exchanges, CZ is even more of a crypto enthusiast than Musk himself. He's hoping to encourage and assist Twitter in adopting crypto, for example as a payment method.
Maybe something like the wildly popular Reddit NFTs is in the future of Twitter? It'll be interesting to watch how this plays out, especially since the crypto community's public discourse primarily happens on Twitter.
Tldr: Bird, bird, bird, bird is the word. And for all you English teachers out there: Birds, birds, birds, birds is the plural words.
"On-chain sleuth" ZachXBT dissected an elaborate phishing campaign that resulted in the theft of $5 million in crypto and valuable NFTs. Zach's meticulous research tied together multiple pseudonymous scam accounts, demonstrating that they were all connected and most likely run by one person. His conclusion:
It's disgusting to see a phishing scammer steal millions in the span of a few months and then use it to buy designer clothing, NFTs, and travel around the world living lavishly. Hopefully now that it is known Elliot is behind many recent phishing scams the victims will be able to take some sort of legal action to potentially recover funds in the future.
The crypto world is always providing reminders to BE CAREFUL and don't slack on due diligence. However, as I said in a previous newsletter, "Realistically you gotta trust some third parties in order to function as a human without spending 100% of your free time freaking out about private keys." It's a tricky balancing act. Once again I must recommend hardware wallets!
Tldr: Don't freak out… but do stay paranoid. Especially you TechChief. Especially you. 👀
The crypto regulation saga continues (probably forever). Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of exchange FTX, proposed "Possible Digital Asset Industry Standards." Here's one of the most controversial bits:
Allowing all transfers opens up the door to significant financial crimes, and banning all transfers unless allowlisted grinds commerce and innovation to a halt and freezes out the economically disadvantaged. Maintaining a blocklist is a good balance: prohibiting illegal transfers and freezing funds associated with financial crimes while otherwise allowing commerce.
A lot of people take issue with his ideas, notably ShapeShift founder Eric Voorhees, who wrote a lengthy critique. That said, their debate was refreshingly collegial! It's nice to see people disagree without condemning each other's character. On Twitter, no less… they're allowed up to 280 characters of condemnation per post!
So what's all the fuss about? It gets into the weeds quickly, but limiting who is allowed to transact is very contentious. SBF points out that OFAC compliance is a legal requirement, but many DeFi enthusiasts hope that protocols can be designed so that it's impossible to enforce any type of compliance that denies people access. QuickSwap founder Sameep Singhania wrote:
Should the FTX CEO persuade regulators to embrace his ideas, DeFi will be stripped of its intrinsic decentralization and censorship resistance and rendered a skeleton of pseudo-permissionless smart contracts and validators.
Important context for this whole brouhaha is the US government's decision to sanction crypto privacy tool Tornado Cash, which we discussed back in August. Update on that: "Coin Center is suing OFAC over its Tornado Cash sanction." So… yeah. We'll have to see how it all works out.
Tldr: Censorship bad. Crimes bad. Censorship crimes double bad. But the absolute value of any of those is great! #Math
Giveaway time! Before I ask my weekly question, here's what we're offering as a prize — the winner gets to pick three of the following options:
- cozy Hedgehog hoodie
- comfy Hedgehog baseball tee
- snazzy Hedgehog socks
- stainless steel water bottle, insulated to keep your beverage cold all day, gloriously emblazoned with the Hedgehog logo
- official Hedgehog team baseball cap
The question: How early is too early to put up the Christmas tree and why? My in-laws believe that no Christmas is allowed until the Macy's Santa float appears. My own mom, however, believes that Christmas does not need a tree. Personally, mine goes up this Friday.
[adjusts bow tie] Add me to your professional network on LinkedIn,
— Taylor
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