A Classic Hacking
Stats Over the Last 24 Hours
@Moonbirds Floor Price: 21 (-0.8)
Nested Birds: 9627 (-5 )
Unique Owners: 6525 (-1)
@Oddities_xyz Floor Price: 2.9 (no change)
Another Day, Another Heist
Yesterday, a lot of us logged in to see the news that the Bored Ape Yacht Club Discord was compromised again, resulting in community members losing their NFTs:
As always when this happens, you have people on all different sides of the argument. Some feel that Discord shares some blame, and others feel that it’s solely on the people who got things stolen from them - there are even some people out there who actually blame the bad guy.
When this news first hit, you had the normal reaction of people talking about how this always happens to the BAYC community. However, this is starting to happen more and more frequently in other projects as well - @moonbirds and @proof_xyz included. The simple fact of the matter is that as your NFT becomes more valuable, you become a bigger target. One of the reasons the BAYC community is stolen from so much is because they are one of if not the most well-known, highest-value, NFT brands out there - so they are target #1.
Personally, if there is one thing I have learned since getting into crypto in 2012, it’s that this stuff can happen to anyone. One small momentary lapse in judgement can result in you being completely wiped - I think we all have had those moments of panic where we think we may have compromised our wallet, sending us into a fury of approval revocations and address changes (I was there again yesterday - good way to get the heart rate going). Regardless of whose fault you think it is, most of us can agree that NFT theft is becoming a huge problem - and it’s going to get even worse.
I’ve discussed it before, but there is a massive addressable market here, and the first team to really put something out that can improve upon this issue is going to not only make themselves very rich, but also move the space forward in a huge way. A lot of the time when people say “we need a Discord alternative” in response to these events, they aren’t laying the blame at the feet of Discord so much as they are saying that the way we currently use it simply doesn’t live up to the levels of security needed in the crypto space (maybe we shouldn’t rely on clicking links in announcement channels, for example).
As we all know, one of the rumors surrounding Proof’s Project Highrise is that it is a Discord competitor. Whether or not that’s true, we can probably bank on the fact that security is going to be one of the priorities of the team when rolling out the finished product.
That’s Classic
Another thing that happened yesterday was that @proof_xyz member Zar launched his collection “Classicality.” Zar (short for Zarebinski), is an artist born in Tarnowskie Gory, Poland, whose work is self-described as focusing on “scale, monumentalism, and obsession with lines.” You can check out his complete biography here.
While Zar’s website has far more information on the specifics of his new project, the quick summary is that it is a collection of “1,000 unique, hand-drawn NFT collectibles featuring minimalistic perceptions of lines, shapes and colors.” He also offers free signed lithographs to the first 500 buyers, shipped anywhere in the world. Even in a down market, Classicality sold out in two hours.
After spending the whole morning yesterday watching everyone in @moonbirds chat share their purchases and the project doing 160 eth volume on @opensea after just a few hours, it’s evident that the launch of Zar’s collection was a huge success. Congrats!
One thing I wanted to touch on before I close is that as a writer of a newsletter about the @proof_xyz ecosystem, I’m (obviously) going to be discussing artist’s projects from time to time. I’ll always let you know if I own any of the projects mentioned here just to prevent conflict of interest and to try to be as transparent as possible. In the case of Classicality and the previous project I discussed, @tigerbobNFT, I have not owned any yet.
That’s all for today - I hope you have a great Sunday!