Some good news for web3 foodies🍰+ A deep sea of trouble for an ex-Opensea exec🌊

Gm 1Walletoors 

A shortage of stories in Web3? Don’t know her. But we do know how to make the most current stories related to crypto, NFTs, and other degen activities digestible. Here are this week’s spotlights:

• 🌯Chipotle is bullish: Did you know 1 bitcoin can buy 3866 burrito bowls? 

• 🌊Trouble at sea: Former Opensea executive being charged with “Insider trading”

• 🍨 Sweet Scoop: It’s a stake-girl summer: All you need to know about staking 

• 📲 1W Updates: Discover curated spotlights and collection

Restaurants making crypto mainstream 

🌯 Buying all future burritos with $ONE now 

Chipotle has wrapped itself in the web3 tortilla with the recent statement that the chain will now accept crypto payments at their US locations. And they aren’t the only ones to bring the blockchain to the world of foodies – Snoop Dogg recently announced that he will be opening a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) themed dessert shop known as Dr. Bombay (the name he’s given his Ape) in collaboration with the Food Fighters, the team behind the first BAYC inspired restaurant, Bored & Hungry. 

Crypto winter or not, we are seeing more and more major restaurant players (McDonald's, Starbucks) experimenting in the web3 space. Whether it be NFT-gated restaurants or crypto-themed ice cream stands, the blockchain represents a new way for businesses to engage customers and incentivize loyalty. In turn, this exposes normies and food fanatics alike to the vast use cases crypto and NFTs have to offer. 

But back to crypto Chipotle ‘cause….we have a few meal ideas: Bitcoin bowl, web3 wrap, braised bear market carnitas…. and the list goes on. Soooo wen Chipotle X 1Wallet partnership? 

The first insider NFT trading arrest has been made

🤯Insider trading… with NFTS???

The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged a former Opensea executive Nate Chastain in the first NFT insider trading case for allegedly front-running purchases of NFT collections that were about to be featured on the marketplace’s main page for personal financial gain. As a product executive for the biggest NFT platform in the world, part of his job was curating NFTs to be featured on the homepage. What wasn’t part of the job was the sneaky buys he made before the collections were displayed on the homepage. By leveraging insider information not yet available to the public, he casually made 2x-5x returns on his purchases. Thanks to the transparent nature of blockchain, sophisticated crypto “do-gooders” were able to analyze suspected wallet activities to reveal the scheme via tweets – a powerful example of self-monitoring and policing within the crypto community. 

Much of the media coverage has been around insider trading, but it's important to note that the defendant was charged with a count of wire fraud and a count of money laundering and NOT insider trading. This is an important distinction because the charges at play are not contingent on the NFTs being securities. It does, however, put a spotlight on a looming question about whether NFTs should be subjected to the securities law, a critical question in the event that insider trading charges are lodged, as in order for insider trading to take place, there must be a security at play. 

The crypto and NFT space are relatively new, but common sense and ethical standards still apply. It’s also very clear that the honeymoon phase for NFT from a regulation perspective is coming to a close with the regulators increasingly monitoring the space for suspicious activity. As always, keep your eyes wide open, Walleteers, and don’t do anything you wouldn’t want on the front page of the 1Wallet newsletter.

🍨 Sweet Scoop: What’s at stake when you stake 

Most people know staking as a way to make passive income, a way of making their assets “work for them” rather than collecting dust in their wallet. The asset is able to earn rewards while staked because the blockchain puts it to good use: securing and validating transactions on a Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain like Harmony, a process called “consensus mechanism”. The transactions are confirmed by the validators (those that staked), a similar and analogous function to mining in a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus used by Bitcoin. This means that blockchains like Bitcoin that use PoW do not offer staking rewards. 

How does staking work? PoS does away with miners in favor of the validators who put their tokens on the line for a chance to add a new block onto the blockchain in exchange for a reward. The network favors and rewards the validators based on the size of their stake and the duration of their holding; as such, most participate via a “staking pool” (think interest-bearing savings account). If the transactions in a new block are deemed invalid (false promise), the stakes are burned (punished) by the network. This incentive/disincentive dynamics ensures the security and efficiency of the blockchain.

Staking is a vital function that all network users should participate in (think jury duty). The pros of staking is that it’s a low effort and low cost to participate in the most important function of the network. The drawbacks include not having immediate access to your tokens, which is not a viable option if liquidity is important to you. Learn more on how to stake on Harmony and keep an eye out for staking features on 1Wallet where you’ll be able to stake tokens with ease!

📲1Wallet Updates

The team is actively revamping the Discover page with our editors shining light on curated collections to help users do more of what they love with their 1Wallet. 

Stay up to date with the latest with us on Twitter and – as always – drop feedback in Discord. 

See you soon

1Walletees