Salutations, I wish you well this fine morning! I hope it's actually a fine morning wherever you are. This is Taylor, CEO of Hedgehog, the robo-adviser and portfolio dashboard where you can grow your crypto wealth without losing your mind. (Unless you want to lose your mind, in which case I won't stop you.)

Sorry for confusing y'all last week by accidentally asking two giveaway questions. That slipped through the editing process. Several respondents are enjoying pumpkin coffee season, which is cute. And — read on with caution — here is the most revolting food combo: "Banana slices with raw-fish bits." Why. Just. Why. Oh, the humanity! (Could it possibly be better than it sounds? No. Let me know if you've tried this abomination.)

This week's giveaway question is… at the end of the newsletter!

With the overall crypto markets down 50-60% over the past six months, it's easy to get demoralized about the space. Not to mention the … uhhhhhh … global economic uncertainty? That's always fun. Super quick pep talk: We're in this for the long haul! Consider an investing strategy like dollar-cost averaging that accounts for volatility over time.

But also, don't invest more than you can afford to lose. Groundbreaking, I know, but there's a reason you hear this one over and over again.

Tldr: What should you do if confronted with the choice of Salmon or Stonks, you ask? Invest in fish markets, obviously.

Anyway, bear markets are for building. One spot of sunshine is NFT projects — even as the heights of hype have slipped away, the artists behind collections big and small are still busy creating art and cultivating their communities. Even Disney wants in on the action! The media giant is looking to hire a lawyer focused on NFTs.

On the Hedgeblog, we published two new NFT showcases — coincidentally, both projects are Solana-based:

  • Pen Frens are romping through an animated televisual universe, designed for the benefit of holders: "The community receives a 25% Animation Service and 70% Secondary Sales revenue distribution."
  • Rap producer Gnasty Music's collection NFT Beats allows him to sell nonexclusive licenses which can then be resold for the benefit of both the buyer and Gnasty himself.

Meanwhile, Lipsa walks us through NFT standardization efforts. As in, when will NFTs be truly interoperable? "Will I ever be able to use the horse I just got on Zed Run in Polygon's Pegaxy or show off my new kicks that I won't stop flaunting in Decentraland in The Sandbox as well?" Only time can tell… but it's certainly possible! Maybe someday your Fortnite skins will work in Overwatch. And vice versa.

Tldr: Really though, you should only be concerned if you can wear your Fortnite skins in real life. *shivers* I'll just keep using my human skin, thank you very much.

The NFT world is not without conflict. Both of the projects I mentioned above rely heavily on secondary sales to make the business model work. Meaning that when someone resells an NFT they bought, a certain percentage of the sale price goes back to the original artist. That setup makes it much more feasible for artists to survive and thrive by selling their work online.

But some of the newer NFT marketplaces are looking to make those royalty payments from secondary sales optional. As you might expect, the artists are not happy. The Defiant reports:

Dylan Shub, the founder of the Fat Cats NFT collection, said artists had been fooled by marketplaces that had courted them without explaining how NFT royalty payments work. Mr0, a pseudonymous developer at crypto firm QuantumTECH, agreed.

"The marketplaces for the most part knew this," Mr0 told the panel. "But they had a supply issue of needing to onboard a ton of artists into the space, so you have to start selling dreams at that point. The royalties and all that were really just a marketing mechanism."

Participants agreed there was little that could be done technology-wise to enforce royalty payments. Mr0 said it would simply begin a "game of cat and mouse." Some said the likeliest path forward was to make it a cultural expectation, like tipping at restaurants.

I'm very interested to see how this gets resolved over the coming months. It does seem churlish to stiff an artist of the royalty payment they were expecting. Like, if you don't want to pay royalties, don't buy NFTs that include that mechanism.

According to the article, it's a matter of competition between marketplaces: "Royalty-free NFT marketplace Sudoswap launched July 9. Two months later, it is the fourth-most popular platform to buy and sell NFTs, according to NFT data platform NFTGO."

Others took notice. "With Sudoswap nipping at its heels, X2Y2 announced on Aug. 26 it would let buyers decide whether to pay artist royalties." X2Y2 later reversed the decision due to backlash from artists. So I guess the artists are winning so far?

Tldr: You get royalties! And you get royalties! And you… wait… no give me those royalties back.

Quick Hits

What is Curve? Curve Finance Explained
Tldr: We've discussed decentralized exchanges before — here's an overview of a popular one.

Kujira: The Terra Luna Survivor That Now Has Its Own Blockchain
Tldr: The plucky band brought their determination over to the Cosmos ecosystem.

BNB Chain announces zero-knowledge proof scaling technology
Tldr: Damn, BNB is really thriving. "BNB Chain is one of the most widely adopted Layer 1 blockchains, hosting more than $5.4 billion in total value locked (TVL) and, as of this writing, sits at the number 3 spot across all chains, according to DeFiLlama."

SWIFT is partnering with Chainlink to do things!
Tldr: Cool.

Giveaway time! We're switching up the prize. Answer my question of the week to win a custom Hedgehog swag box — hoodie, socks, water bottle, baseball hat, etc. You get to pick three items.

It's back-to-school season. Who was your favorite teacher, and what subject did they teach? Reply with your answer for a chance to win some Hedgehog $wag 🦔

For me, it was my soccer coach, who also taught history. Well, he never specifically taught me history, but Adam Brownold was (and hopefully still is!), just a wonderful person. This might be cheating a bit, but my second favorite was the school security guard. He taught me how to grill.

Grilled pineapple. You should try it.
— Taylor

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