Crypto in Plain English - by cryptohunt.it

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Cryptohunt is dead.

There, we said it. We promised you some big news throughout the week and this is it.

But here’s the deal: Bad news, it is not. At all.

Cryptohunt has evolved and we are excited to share our new name with you:

Learn.xyz

We will reveal more in the coming weeks, but you can already point your browser to it and try it out.

But why the change? Well, most of you have told us that they like all the new content: AI, quantum computing, or how to use Discord. But as a small team, we have a hard time covering it all. Or we should say “had” - because we have a new team mate.

Her name is LUMI.

Lumi is not what you think. Lumi is an artificial intelligence, and dare we say, much smarter than us. Type anything into learn.xyz and Lumi will create the a fun learning course for you.

Want to know why Bitcoin is doomed? Why bananas are bent? What the future of space travel is? Any topic, any language, Lumi got you.

It’s quite magical, so play around with it. And as far as this podcast is concerned, we are taking a break for the rest of the week to figure out what is the best format going forward.

But if you think you’ll miss this, email podcast@learn.xyz with two simple words: Miss you.

This podcast was produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. Thank you all, thank you more than 55k listeners. I myself learned something new for every one of the 373 episodes until hear.

Copywriting of all but 2 episodes was done by the phenomenal Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and now learn.xyz and I was your host of this daily show. We ill be back.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

A new, and as is typical, unpronounceable technology is in crypto town. It is called ERC-4337. But despite the awkward name, this one is paradoxically meant to improve your life a ton.

The problem it tackles? That it is currently way too easy to lose your crypto forever.

As things are today, every crypto wallet on all the major blockchains is protected by a secret key only you have. This key is so complicated that you can’t possibly remember it - and not surprisingly this leads to many people losing it. Ever heard of those people who lost millions in Bitcoin? They didn’t lose the money, they lost their keys. The result? The same.

ERC-4337 puts an end to this by allowing other means of accessing wallets - for example by assigning people you trust as those who can trigger a recovery. Another option is to have multiple owners of a wallet, so there is always someone who has access.

And as bad as that name is, this could be a major step towards making crypto go mainstream because handling those keys is such a bad experience with such potentially dire consequences.

Might we just suggest a better name so the world will understand? How about “recoverable wallet”? As always, you’ll be the judge!

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

If you’ve been surfing the internet at all these days, you’ll come across a new trend: Companies using .xyz as their domain endings. But what’s up with that?

Traditionally, you would expect a website to use a .com – after all, that’s where the first wave of internet companies was born… hence the name dot-com-boom. And this one is no different.

But dot-XYZ has turned into the new wave of dot-coms, ever since it was launched in 2014. It all started with crypto companies eyeing the new ending because they could still find easily memorable website names there. But what was once just for rebels, misfits, and innovators, has since turned so cool that it attracts the mainstream: Jack Dorsey’s Block, which is the parent company of payments giant Square, uses it now, for example. Google parent Alphabet resides at ABC.xyz too.

But, popularity among all sizes of businesses aside – what do people associate with .xyz, in a world where .com stands for established internet businesses?

Many think of a new wave of innovating tech companies - the new kids on the block, ready to disrupt tomorrow, those building on new technologies like Web3 and artificial intelligence. And simply those companies who want to show they are not the establishment.

It sure is hip to be square again. We are in exciting times, and it feels like a new wave of transformative technologies is coming our way. And keep an eye out for big news from us as well: Like we promised last week, we’ll reveal a secret we’ve been working on for the last few months.

And it is not to late to tell a friend about this podcast, so that they hear about this secret, too. Tanks so much for spreading the word for us! My name is Christian Byza, and I am the host of this daily show.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

It’s that time again. Here’s yet another new, complicated word for crypto enthusiasts to throw at you: Ordinals. Bitcoin Ordinals to be precise.

And if you don’t know what’s going on, we think you should: Because they’ve been pushing Bitcoin’s price back up quite a bit.

To understand ordinals, we’ll have to make a quick trip down the memory lane of this podcast and look at NFTs, non-fungible tokens. In a nutshell, they are the blockchain version of a digital collectible, like a baseball card, but in the cloud. And because each NFT unique, they are non-fungible, or not interchangeable.

Ok. Back to ordinals. They are a way to achieve the same with Bitcoin. The reason it has taken years longer than on other blockchains to achieve this, is that Bitcoin can’t do anything other than move Bitcoin money around. In the words of the crypto crowd: it only supports fungible tokens - meaning that each is exchangeable for the other. Think of dollar bill and another one - completely exchangeable. Same with two Bitcoins.

The trick here is that the digital collectible is saved in the transaction memo of a Bitcoins transaction itself. Originally, the intent was to put the purpose of the transaction there - like “this Bitcoin is for the pizza you paid for”. The interesting thing here is that ordinals can even save the entire collectible itself, for example a photo, which makes them more powerful than the king of NFTs, Ethereum.

But the usual downsides are still there: You can only have a limited amount of Bitcoin transactions to carry those ordinals, and when you spend the money your ordinal is tied to by accident, they are gone. And don’t get us started on the environmental impact on Bitcoin – it’s not great.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Last week, crypto exchange giant Coinbase announced that they are launching BASE, which is their own blockchain. So what is BASE, and why did Coinbase think it was necessary to create yet another blockchain?

Let’s dig in.

BASE is what is commonly referred to as a Layer 2, or L2 blockchain. This simply means that it exists on top of an established blockchain, Ethereum in this case. These L2 chains are complicated solutions for an unfortunate problem: Ethereum is way too slow and expensive to be considered usable in most cases.

The way this works is a bit like elevators. Think of Ethereum as an elevator that stops at every level of a skyscraper. At the end, you are certain you didn't skip a floor because you saw that door open and close many times, but it takes a long time to get all the way to the top. Level 2 chains skip a bunch of floors instead, taking you up more quickly. The tradeoff is that you can't really verify how far you actually went until you look out of the window.

But what Coinbase is doing here is nothing new. People have been trying to mitigate Ethereum's problems for a long time now, for example, the popular Polygon blockchain. So why is Coinbase seemingly reinventing the wheel here?

We suspect this is about having a shot at directing where the industry will go. Coinbase has been under a lot of pressure lately. Most of its customers are using Coinbases' accounts to store their crypto - which means it could be gone in case of bankruptcy or hacks. Coinbase likes it this way, but sees the writing on the wall - as everyone is moving their money into wallets they control themselves, Coinbase needs another way to stay relevant. And what's more relevant than building the highway people drive on?

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. We are back here tomorrow.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Have you ever watched Jim Carrey imitate another star’s voice and were amazed by it? Then get ready to be wowed by a revolution in synthetic voices created by artificial intelligence.

It used to be that voices are somewhat of a person’s fingerprint: You will always recognize your parents speaking, even over the worst phone connection.

But things are changing big time: AI can now imitate anyone’s voice almost instantly. And the applications are endless - you could listen to your favorite podcast in the voice of Barbara Streisand, George Clooney’s voice could be used in every language his movies are released in, and maybe - but just maybe - Siri might finally be able to hold a decent conversation while sounding like you.

At the heart of it is a process called machine learning. It analyses voice samples from real people, figures out what makes them unique, and builds a profile that can be applied to any voice or read any text. This is something that only recent evolutions in computer processing power enabled.

You know, we may even try it out for this podcast, just to see if you can tell the difference. Because if it gets this voice and pronunciation right - then anything is possible!

And that concludes our week on all the amazing things AI can do and will change. Let us know how you like these mini series… And next time we’ll talk about a secret project we’ve been working on.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman and design is done by Carmen Rincon. And the voice in between was generated by AI. Happy weekend!

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Today, we’ll touch on another area that generative AI will change entirely: How we experience stories in books, video games, and even TV shows. But before we dive in: If you are new here, make sure to start a few episodes back in 363 where this mini-series begins.

You’ve done it hundreds of times: Start a book, read it all the way through, and finally close it after the last page. Or you’ve played a video game and eventually reached every possible corner of its world.

That’s because stories eventually end. They are written by humans, and those humans move on to the next thing. Even Game of Thrones eventually ended.

With AI, things are entirely different. By its very definition, “generative” AI can generate content instantly, taking into account the context you provide.

So how could this look like? Let’s say you love the Sherlock Holmes books - if AI were to write them, you could get a new one basically whenever you wanted. Or you play a game, and AI creates the world and storyline automatically - meaning you could play forever. Even for TV this is possible: Really like Breaking Bad and never want it to end? Well, AI is here to help.

And while some - us included - prefer change and don’t think things ending is a bad thing, we bet many folks out there will love this new world… So much so, that you’ll begrudgingly have to be part of it. What do you think about all this?

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

The future is almost here, and it could mean big changes for how we create music, too.

If you’ve heard anything about AI, it’s probably related to its ability to create text, for example as a chatbot. But did you know that there are AIs that can express themselves in other ways, such as creating music?

One of them is called MusicML and was developed by Google. You can simply describe to it in words what you’d want it to compose, and it’ll spits out its version of that.

This is quite amazing on a conceptual level if you think about it - you don’t have to be able to play an instrument, you don’t even need to understand music theory. And yet, you can become a musician.

Do you find that thought upsetting? Do you think it should be harder to create something, or else all things we create lack value?

Maybe so - which is a general debate we should all have, because like it or not: AI is coming in hot. But we think there is something heartwarming about allowing anyone to create beauty - especially if it’s music.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Yesterday, we talked about AI and how it will most likely allow for completely personalized movie and TV content that is incredibly realistic, but generated just for you. And honestly, looking at the stuff we see in our Netflix account right now, that future can’t come fast enough if you ask us.

But for today, on to something that you can already experience yourself: The replacement of search engines like Google.

To understand the incredible shift we are about to witness there, let’s first look at why Google exists. There are billions of websites out there, and each has some sort of information to offer. You would never be able to find it, so Google reads all of them for you, and with just one search, shows just the few that are most relevant.

And this is where the trouble starts. Now it’s on you to click link after link in the search results, doing your own work to figure out the solution to your question.

With AI, on the other hand, technology can now do the reading and summarizing for you. Say you are looking for a new toaster. You type in “best toasters” and it’ll start having a quick conversation with you: How many slices do you want to toast? How much do you want to spend?

And then the magic happens: It’ll create a completely personalized recommendation. No further research needed.

And if you think this won’t work, or only work with specific types of questions like the toaster purchase - well, we challenge you to try the new Bing which will come out any day now. Microsoft has built exactly AI to replace search and it is incredible how well it responds to you.

As always - you’ll be the judge. But we think this is Google 2.0 - the question is just: Will Google miss the boat?

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

This week, we have a special mini series for you - how our future will likely look like, thanks to AI.

Today: What you watch on TV will change big time.

You may have stumbled across videos of a fake Tom Cruise or Paris Hilton on TikTok. Or you don’t remember, because you thought they were real. That’s how far we’ve come already: we can simply generate fake celebrities and you wouldn’t know it.

But what applies to celebrities also applies to the rest of film production: Why rent a studio, when it can all be done with AI in a computer?

This just makes sense, because it makes things easier. But also think of it from Tom Cruise’s perspective: Why only do a movie or two a year if he can sell his face for 100 movies, never show up, and rake in the cash anyhow?

But the real twist will be that AI can now generate entire stories, based on personal preferences. ChatGPT can already write movie scripts, and plugging those into another AI to make the actual movie is not a hard-to-imagine next step.

So, when you watch something ten years from now, it could be tailor made for you; a plot the way you like it, with your favorite stars; just for you.

Crazy right?

But what’s even crazier is that we are almost there.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. And if you like this or other episodes - please do us a favor and recommend us in your next lunch break with a friend! Thanks so much.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

It’s been pretty quiet around FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried, hasn’t it? But don’t let the silence fool you: The real work is just getting started behind the scenes. So let’s catch you up on where things are because it’s still quite a while until Bankman-Fried’s trial starts on October 2nd this year.

Right now, FTX lawyers are incredibly busy behind the scenes recovering as much money as they can. What separates a great bankruptcy team from a bad one is basically just one skill: How much money they are able to claw back to give to those that the bankrupt company owes.

With FTX, they have their work cut out for them. You may remember that SBF was once called crypto’s white knight because he bailed failing crypto companies out with billions in investments.

One of the more interesting cases is that of Modulo capital, a tiny hedge fund that somehow got a $400 million investment from SBF.

Now, you are probably asking yourself: If SBF invested that money long before he got into trouble, doesn’t it belong to the hedge fund then, fair and square?

Yes, in theory, but things are complicated. The fact that Modulo is negotiating the return of the money probably means that they suspect that Bankman-Fried got it illegally in the first place. And instead of ending up entangled in endless legal fights with all the people who got hurt by FTX, the Modulo team probably decided to give it back in return for a legal agreement that  FTX’s new bankruptcy management won’t come after them.

And if you think $400 million is a good chunk of money, hold your breath – word on the street is that the bankruptcy lawyers are trying to recover over $4bn, which is a crazy 10 times that. You can see, a lot is indeed going on behind the scenes. We’ll keep you updated.

I hear you back here next Monday. 5 times a week, like every week!

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Say you are the president of a country that has struggled to keep its own currency stable. Your people are suffering from hyperinflation, businesses are dying, and naturally, you are not winning any popularity contests right now.

But you also notice something: Many citizens have started using the US Dollar as an alternative currency on the street. They like it because its value is stable and they’ve started to accept it universally. The only problem: There are only so many dollar bills you can import – and certainly not enough of them to support your entire country.

But this gives you a clever idea: What if you just made a stablecoin, such as Tether or USDC, the official currency of your country, you’d have all the benefits and none of the drawbacks, right?

Well - let’s look into that!

Your first problem: You’d have to find a place that has that many stablecoins available for sale. There are only about $70bn Dollars worth of Tether, the largest stablecoin, in circulation for example. Sounds like a lot, but is not really if we are talking about an entire economy. The reason for that is quite simple: In order to buy them, you have to trade an equivalent amount of something else for them.

But in theory that could be solved. You’ll work closely with the Tether company, and over time convert your own volatile currency into Tether.

But now you have a second problem on your hands, and this is a big one. For a quick second, think about where the stability of the US Dollar comes from: It comes from the US economy. But the US economy has a fixed size, and the more outside economies cling onto the US Dollar, the more these countries introduce their own economic instabilities - like the ones in your imaginary country - into the actual US Dollar.

And that is a problem we can’t overcome and is also why stablecoins will never be able to replace an entire country’s currency. It’s a nice idea but fails pretty quickly in practice.

If you enjoy episodes like this one - why don’t you refer a friend to it. It would mean the world to us.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. My name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and your host of this daily show.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

New York officials just told a crypto company to stop listing one of the largest stablecoins, Binance’s BUSD. And to make things even more interesting, the Securities and Exchange Commission is planning to sue the same company for violating securities laws.

That’s a lot to unpack, so let’s start from the beginning.

This crypto company, called Paxos, is letting its users buy BUSD on their platform. BUSD is a stablecoin, which means that 1 BUSD tries to be almost exactly 1 US Dollar at any given time.

So far, this seems like a really solid idea – so why would governments object to this?

It helps to understand that their actions are well-intended: They are trying to protect average consumers from falling into investment traps or taking risks they don’t fully understand. The fact that they are starting with stablecoins is no coincidence: Those are not as stable as the name may suggest. \

We’ve covered all the problems in past episodes, but in summary, there are two main concerns: Either the issuer of the stablecoin does not have the money to back it all up – as may be the case with Tether, and even BUSD – or the technology may not be able to handle a run on the bank, which brought down TerraUSD for example.

And now the government is starting to wake up, and its attacking the weakest link in the chain: The companies that let people buy and sell those stablecoins. Because the stablecoins themselves live on blockchains, which are by their very nature basically impossible to shut down.

And if you’ve always wondered: If a stablecoin is following a currency like the US Dollar closely, could the entire world move to the US Dollar thanks to them? Stay tuned for tomorrow, where we’ll talk about that.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. And if you do not want to miss tomorrow’s episode - subscribe now - wherever you listen to your podcast. I hear you back here at 11am CET or 2am PST.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Today, back to some hot crypto and finance news: The US government may be banning the practice of staking.

If you don’t remember what it is, we recommend you skip back to episode 27 where we have a simple explanation. But for now, you just need to know the basics - staking is when a crypto holder invests their crypto to help validated transactions. In return, they get paid by those users who transact, effectively turning staking into a form of passive income.

And now - according to Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong – the SEC, a US agency overseeing certain financial markets, might be making staking entirely illegal.

Just to understand how hard of a hit that would be to crypto, let’s look at a similar example. When you put money into a savings account, the bank pays you interest on it. Or if you buy stocks that pay dividends, the company provides that kind of passive income. Staking is effectively the equivalent of those in the crypto world. Or in other words: Making it illegal is like telling you that you can’t generate interest payments from your savings anymore.

But before you get too upset, consider the SEC’s perspective. Ever since crypto emerged, it has been playing catch-up with little to no actual oversight. People have been ripped off or lost money because they didn’t understand the risks. While this move may be a very aggressive one, it underlines that the agency is starting to take its job of consumer protection seriously.

But is it overstepping? Let’s wait and see what actually happens - and until then you can now, as always, make up your own mind.

And before we end today - thanks so much for tuning in every day. It means the world to us.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

We all ask ourselves dozens of questions everyday: “How do I cook the best possible steak?”, “How do I score a free upgrade to a hotel suite?”, or maybe even “Why is this airplane actually flying?”

Whatever it is, your first instinct is probably just to grab your phone and Google it. And then you realize that there are literally millions of articles on each topic and learning the details that matter is a crazy annoyance, even today in 2023.

Well, thanks to AI, we are witnessing a fundamental change you will feel for decades: Artificial intelligence can now ingest the world’s entire information, make connection between all those pages, and distill things the way you want them.

Want a podcast about that steak? At your fingertips, instantly. A nice little fun Duolingo-style set of learning cards about why airplanes fly? You name it, AI can produce it once companies build great products around it.

This is as big a change for the world as the invention of the internet. Think about it - first there was Yahoo, a single page with a few links. Then Google made billions of websites searchable, but you still have to deal with those individual pages. Now, suddenly everything gets served up on whatever silver platter you like.

You can probably tell we are really hyped about this - and we better be, since we are all about learning. But there is more to it and we have something incredibly exciting cooking. But it’ll remain a secret for a few more weeks… Until then, stay tuned here, as we’ll drop hints left and right on this podcast.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Google just wiped $100 billion – yes that is billion as in nine zeros – off its market capitalization with a botched AI demo.

If you had any doubt that everyone thinks AI is the future, look no further than today’s demonstration of Google’s new AI chatbot. As you know from yesterday’s podcast episode, the company has been racing to catch up with archrival Microsoft, who owns almost half of the company that makes popular AI ChatGPT.

The problem? It seems like Google doesn’t have it figured out yet. The AI made a factual mistake in a promotional video, which is not only embarrassing because they could have just created a better video, but also shows just how much behind ChatGPT Google must actually be.

And the stock markets didn’t take kindly to it: They fear that Microsoft will eat Google for lunch. The stock price fell a crazy 8% after today’s demo. And those fears are not unfounded - Microsoft is already embedding AI chat into Bing, the search engine you may have almost forgotten about. If people were to stop Googling things, it’d game over the tech legend, because all their money comes from ads, and most of those ads are shown through Google Search.

We live in amazing times. Just a few months ago, people would have seriously wondered how anyone on earth could survive without searching on Google multiple times a day. And now we are already talking about that being a thing of the past. Quite exciting if you ask us, and about time that Google gets some real competition.

We can’t wait to see what will unfold. And Google - we know you feel the pressure, but maybe next time you’ll do things the Apple way and show products when they are done. An extra day or two of video-editing wouldn’t have hurt, especially if it could determine the future of your company.

And for me: I just installed bing on my Google pixel phone and used my skype longin from the early 2000 to get started. How things changed.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. And if you like stories like this - why don’t you tell a friend or two about us. It would mean the world to us.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Do you enjoy watching a good fight from the comfort of your living room? Then get ready, because old competitors Microsoft and Google have stepped into the Artificial Intelligence ring.

Those two have fought each other plenty of times. Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs: We'd say Google won that by technical knockout, but it took years. Microsoft Phone vs. Android: Well, that's a clear one, making that a 2 to 0 for Google if you are counting.

And the list goes on, and we can now add artificial intelligence to it.

You've certainly heard about ChatGPT, the AI chatbot by a company called OpenAI. What you probably didn't know is that Microsoft struck a deal to eventually own 49% of that company.

This was such a big threat that Google called an internal "code red". You can easily see why: ChatGPT can combine the knowledge of millions of websites into a single human-like answer to any question you may have. That experience beats Googling stuff by a mile.

And not googling would be Google's death. So they didn't wait too long and just announced "Bard", their awkwardly named conversational AI competitor. We haven't seen it in action yet, but apparently, they've been working on it for years. And if anyone has scraped and indexed all the web pages in the universe, it's Google - a big advantage.

And if you want to try the power of AI to learn new things, here's a little secret: We've been working on a prototype you can play around with. Go to cryptohunt.it/magic, type in what you want to learn about, and lean back. It's really a bit like magic.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. And if this was the first time that you listened to this podcast: Thanks for joining - hope you like it. Don’t forget to subscribe so you do not miss tomorrows episode. My name is Christian Byza and I am your host of this daily show.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Yesterday, we talked about how AI has schools and universities in full panic mode since artificial intelligence has been used to write essays and take exams…in place of the student who’s supposed to be tested on what they’ve learned.

While AI used to do someone’s homework is not a great use of AI…what about a positive use for the groundbreaking technology?

One of our picks: Content moderation.

Rather than having a team of individuals reading through pages of flagged posts, what if a platform installed a stellar AI to analyze the language used in posts?

In theory, this could be an insanely good use of the technology. Why?

AI models, like GPT3, are master analyzers of language. They have to be. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to produce those fantastic responses to the simplest of questions.

If someone is harassing another user with blatant discriminating language…an AI can be geared to remove the post and (if needed) the person who posted it.

Here’s the catch. AI isn’t great at moderating yet. It’s full of unfair biases and mistakes that could get the wrong person kicked off of a social media platform.

We’re not ones to shy away from a civilized, well-reasoned debate, and we’d hate to see someone who is respectfully voicing their opinion get unfairly locked out from a profile.

That said, with more training, you could see fewer of those toxic arguments fill your timeline thanks to the hard work of an AI.

I hear you back here tomorrow. As always at 11am CET, 2am PST. Thanks for listening!

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

This week, we’ll do a deeper dive into some of the surprising things AI can already be helpful with… or too helpful like is the case in today’s episode.

Doing homework has been a dreaded task since the beginning of education. And students have always been creative about finding ways around it. Who here hasn’t quickly copied a classmates math homework 5 minutes before the lesson? We are certainly guilty of that.

But now, the game has changed. And schools are freaking out.

We are, of course, talking about generative AI. It is capable of creating entirely unique text outputs from short requests. You can copy-paste your homework assignment, and it’ll do it for you. The same in online exams - just paste the question, and it’ll tell you which answer is the right one.

No wonder schools don’t like that. The entire idea of education is that YOU learn something. And in university, it is for you to produce something that is entirely new and adds to the body of knowledge of the human race.

So, what will schools do? Likely play cat-and-mouse games by trying to use AI to detect AI, until that no longer works. Ultimately, we predict they will embrace AI and teach you how to use it for what it is: A super sharp tool that needs to be handled with care and consideration.

Until then… everyone’s going to spend a lot less time doing homework and more time outside. Also not that bad!

And before we end - new week, new attempt to get you to refer one friend to this daily podcast. We would appreciate it a lot! Message us once you did and we send you a few fun Cryptohunt stickers as a reward!

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

If you are tuning in just now and missed yesterday’s episode, we suggest you listen to that first - because we explain what this new generation of AI is all about and why we should all be paying attention.

But the big question - and yes, we left you hanging there a little - is: Is this tech gunning for my job?

And the answer is: If you are a desk worker, then most likely. But hang in there, it’s not as bad as it sounds.

Let’s remember what this AI does: It’s like an assistant who can write, program, and generate art or photography. So if your job is to write the same thing over and over again, like sales emails, or even shooting catalog images for GAP, it’ll replace you in no time.

But that’s also where things get quite exciting: This is an opportunity for those using this for what it is: A very smart and capable tool. Meaning, if you are in sales and jump on this train early, you’ll crush it. If you are a writer, why NOT let it do the heavy lifting and then come in and refine with your one style?

One thing is sure: The nature of work is about to change big time. So stay tuned for Monday’s episode, where we introduce you to the job skill of the future: Prompt engineering, or how to talk to an AI.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

AI is all the rage right now, and this time around, things are a little different. We have played around a good amount with the latest technologies and “impressed” isn’t even a good word to use: our jaw has dropped to the ground many times.

So, let’s enjoy this multi-episode special and start today by explaining what it does.

Imagine a librarian with access to the internet: But she is also the smartest person on earth, with a photographic memory. She reads everything there is, with no exception, and can recite any facts you ask her. She was even banned from Jeopardy because she couldn’t lose.

That basically describes Google, a company that has mapped the world’s digital data and makes it accessible via search.

There is one problem though: It can’t think. And so one article contradicting another one online doesn’t raise an eyebrow - they just both show up.

AIs have gotten increasingly better at closing that gap. The most popular one, ChatGPT, can actually make logical connections and produce its own documents from that - this is called generative AI.

The kicker - with so much information, and the insane computer power and data storage we have today, it has kind of broken free: You can ask it to program computer code for you, write essays, come up with business plans that have never existed before.

And this is probably really bad news for us - no matter what your job is, if it involves a desk, it can at least help.

But should we fear it coming for our jobs entirely? Well - that’s today’s cliffhanger! We’ll see you again tomorrow to dive into that question in the next episode of Crypto in Plain English.

And just so that you do not forget to listen to that next one - subscribe so you get the push for the next episode at 11am CET or 2am PST right to where you listen to this show.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Let's face it: It's always easy to criticize, but doing better takes some real ideas. And if you've left yesterdays episode about Porsche's botched NFT rollout feeling that something was missing - you are right.

So, with that: How could Porsche roll out the next NFT collection more smoothly?

But before we start, a little secret about us. Here at Cryptohunt, we are obsessed with Porsches. We even each have a model Porsche on our desks - so we know: There is no reason that digital collectibles shouldn't work with that strong of a fanbase.

They just have to be done right, so let's dive into four recommendations we have from having seen many NFT releases in the last two years.

Number one - and the most important one - a collectible needs to actually be collectible. Simply designing one car and only changing the license plate in Photoshop basically screams: We just want your money and don't care. It’s lazy and bad for the brand. We hope that Porsche puts a lot more work into the next one - with all that history and special models, there sure is a ton of potential for great artwork that differs from NFT to NFT.

Second, NFTs are special because they are digital, which can open the doors to great experiences. The Bored Ape Yacht Club did it right: That NFT collection was the ticket to an exclusive community which many enjoy, much beyond just looking at an ugly monkey picture. Porsche, with all of its events, magazines, and stores could cook up something so unique that buyers would be willing to pay a ton to be part of it. They already do - it's just not connected to an NFT.

Third, it's an NFT. Naturally, it attracts a different audience. This is Porsche's chance to get a new audience interested in its cars. And did you know that Porsche also has all kinds of other products sold under the Porsche Design label? Connect NFTs with exclusive access or discounts, and we think you have a winner.

Lastly, the age-old advice: Communicate well. Be vocal about where and what will come out, explain how NFTs work, and how to verify the original source. And maybe use your real company Twitter account next time if you truly believe in the project.

In the end: We can't wait for a really cool Porsche NFT. Maybe a reference to a Carrera RS or a 993 RSR? Exclusive meetups? A secret website section? A Twitter space with the CEO? Fans can only dream! All the best next time, Porsche, and we hope you didn't lose faith. Come knock on our door, we'd be happy to nerd out together.

And until then - we do this podcast every day, or at least 5 days a week. Maybe share it with your colleagues that also think about their next marketing hack in web3. They might learn something or get inspired when they spend the 2-3 min a day listening to us.

As always - this podcast produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. And thanks for the referral - every single new listener counts. And if this was the first time listening to us - welcome to the show!

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

You know that here at Cryptohunt what interests us most is where new technologies meet everyday life. And especially NFTs are fascinating to watch, because they seem to be the new way that brands build a devoted audience.

But just because you can, doesn't mean you should, especially if you don't know how. So today, let's look at the avoidable disaster that Porsche's NFT rollout created.

So - Porsche decided to step into Nike's footsteps... With the release of it's own NFT. You may remember, Nike had previously released multiple digital, and collectible sneakers of which each had a unique design.

But while Nike spent a ton of time designing things, Porsche had the guts to simply release a $1500 image of the same car and just alter the license plates.

No surprise then: Once launched, nobody wanted those NFTs. Only 20% got sold before Porsche ended the sale. They were so unpopular in fact, that you could immediately get one on the open market for under the issuing price.

And to add insult to injury: Scam sites popped up all over the place, looking like Porsche's NFT site but stealing wallet information. Well, no wonder. Even Porsche itself doesn't make it easy to know what's real and what is not - their own Twitter account for the NFTs is different from the actual company account and uses the strange handle "porsches_eth". Not even the account name looks real, using a strange character for the E in the company name.

And there you have it - our take on Porsche's attempt at tapping into a trend. You can probably tell, but we think they could have thought that one through a touch more - it turned from branding exercise to brand embarrassment.

Keep tuning in to hear more about the intersection of tech and your world.

Every day at 11am CET and 2am PST. We are back here tomorrow.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

The new year is well underway and many people who were dabbling in crypto last year are already dreading THAT moment: When they have to file the hated tax return. The reason: Crypto taxes are still super complicated.

In fact, the rules are seemingly different country by country, and - in some cases like the US - even state by state. And while we are not here to explain them all to you – you’ll have to hire a duly licensed professional for that – we can shine a little light on why things are such a mess.

And there are two reasons, actually.

The first is that many tax authorities have no real idea on how to treat anything from cryptocurrency purchases to NFT flipping. They don’t even know what these things are - property like real estate, securities like stocks, or commodities like gold. And so - with a lack of clarity and regulation, it’s often up to you to decide how to treat these things.

Secondly, and this is somewhat worse, even if you had clear rules, the way that crypto works can create massive headaches. The goal, of course, is to create alternative financial systems. But that also means that money moves much faster, and more often. Some people can find themselves accidentally creating hundreds or even thousands of separate taxable transactions because code traded on their behalf.

Writing all that down, and filing reports can be a nightmare. Luckily, there are tools out there that can automate the job for you. And while they usually cost a little money, it may be worth knowing that you can sleep tight instead of turning over paperwork for days.

And before you listen to the next podcast after this: Why don’t you recommend this podcast to one of your friends. It helps us a lot and maybe your friends thank you later as well!

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where you learn – in just a minute or two a day – what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Today, let’s talk about Dollar-Cost-Averaging, a popular passive investment strategy often used to build a crypto portfolio.

Have you ever heard the saying 'buy low and sell high'? Well, the problem is that timing lows and highs is very hard - if it wasn’t, we would have all bought Bitcoin in 2010. But Dollar-Cost-Averaging can help avoid buying at the worst time.

Before we dig in here, just a word of caution: This is not investment advice. We are simply here to explain interesting concepts - what you do with those is at your own discretion.

With that, let’s get to learning: We’ve all seen egg prices make crazy swings in the last few weeks. Imagine you're at the grocery store and want to buy eggs. You are thinking: “Should I buy a ton of them now and hope prices don’t go down? Or should I wait for a dip?”

But instead of doing any of that, you decide to simply spread the purchases out in even amounts over time. One pack of eggs every week. That way, you protect yourself from accidentally buying a ton of eggs when their price is at the peak. And while it would have been best to buy them at their lowest, the thing is this: you just never really know when or if that comes around.

Dollar Cost Averaging in investing is the same. Instead of trying to time the market and buying all of your investments at once, you spread out your purchases over time. By using Dollar Cost Averaging, you're taking a disciplined approach to investing and reducing the risk of buying in at a high point in the market. It can also help you avoid the emotionas of trying to time the market, which can be frustrating, because it’s so hard to do.

And that's why many crypto investors use Dollar-Cost-Averaging - they are trickling their money into the market over time, under the assumption that it will go up over a longer period of time, without having to bet on exact timing.

Todays episode is sponsored by the Cask Protokol, and they are experts in Dollar-Cost-Averaging - or in short: DCAing. Cask is application that helps you to automate crypto transactions and keep those in your own wallet. If you want to learn more about DCAing or Cask - we will release a fresh new course on the topic tomorrow on Cryptohunt.it - just look out for the new course email. Or just check out www.Cask.Fi.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend a minute a day explaining what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

In yesterday's podcast, we told you about the state-run North Korean hacking group that stole over $1.2 billion dollars from crypto bridges.

But why is it, exactly, that these crypto bridges keep getting hacked? Well, let's dig in.

The problem with having thousands of different cryptocurrencies is that you can't use them interchangeably. You can't pay with Bitcoin when someone wants Ethereum, just like you can't pay with Euros in the United States, where only the US Dollar is used.

This is why crypto bridges were invented. They operate like those currency exchange booths at an airport - give them your Euros, and they'll put those in a safe and hand you back Dollars. Crypto bridges do all this electronically, but the idea is the same.

Which also explains why hackers target them. Stealing money from each travelers' wallet one wallet at a time might work, but is not efficient. But remember all that cash sitting in the exchange booth? If you manage to get in, the payout is much larger.

More so, some currency exchange booths have weak points - a lock that can be picked, or a safe that's easy to crack, or a door that is wide open. In crypto, this happens too – and more often than you think. Poorly written code allows hackers in, and they've already stolen billions.

So now you know why crypto bridges get hacked so often - so be careful when you use them.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. And I hear you right back here tomorrow. Always at 11am CET, 2am PST, 5 days a week.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend a minute a day explaining what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

You may have heard a lot of things about North Korea, but did you know that the little country has a secretive state-run hacking operation, called Lazarus Group?

And news just broke confirming yet another hack they pulled off in 2021, stealing $100 million dollars worth of crypto from Harmony, a US based blockchain.

And if you think that’s a decent chunk of money - it’s not. This is following multiple other hacks, including one for $622 million dollar in April 2022, bringing their total loot to an estimated whopping $1.2 billion dollars.

It’s even more interesting if you put that into context: North Korea only has a population of 25 million people. That  means the country’s hackers stole enough money to give each citizen $50, which is the equivalent of almost half a months’ salary.

But you probably guessed it - the already impoverished people of North Korea will probably not see a single cent. More likely, the money is going to finance the development of intercontinental missiles and nuclear weapons. Not exactly what we all wanted crypto to be used for.

And tomorrow, we’ll look into just how these hacks keep happening and - spoiler alert - it has to do with something called a crypto bridge.

And since I bet you have some Whatsapp or Telegram Group with friends that might be interested in daily stories like this - why don’t you share today’s episode with them. It helps us, your friends and also makes you a great early adopter of interesting content. Triple win. We thank you a lot.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3

Good morning, Cryptohunt community, to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend a minute a day explaining what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Today, we are waking up to news of yet another layoff in the crypto space. This time, it is struggling crypto lender Gemini that is sending another 10% of their workforce home.

And while that may unfortunately sound like business as usual these days, Gemini has a very unique story.

It was founded by the Winkelvoss twins, brothers Tyler and Cameron who, a long time ago, had the idea for the first social network for students at Harvard. They enlisted a young programmer to help them build it - Mark Zuckerberg.

And so, Facebook was born. At least according to the twins, who later sued Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing their idea. After four years, they settled out of court and got $65 million.

What followed then was probably mostly luck but certainly paid off: They put $12 million of that money into Bitcoin when it was trading at just about $100 dollars. It was then when they also took on more and more risky bets: From trying to bring an extinguished species of the wooly mammoth back, to starting crypto lender Gemini.

Gemini, which was founded in 2014, became a place where people could lend their crypto and, in return, get high interest payments back. But that meant that Gemini would have to use the borrowed crypto in even riskier investments to make those payments.

Of course, things went the predictable way once crypto prices collapsed. Like many others playing it a little too fast and loose, Gemini had heavy ties to Genesis, which went down thanks to the FTX domino effect.

And here we are - from Facebook twins to crypto magnates and back: The interesting story of the Vinkelvoss twins and Gemini. We keep our fingers crossed that Gemini customers will see at least some of their money back.

And since it is Tuesday - at least here in the here in San Francisco - why don’t you leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts. It would help us a lot! Thanks for those that make the extra hop right now.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. And thanks again for that review.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend a minute a day explaining what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

The markets have been good to Bitcoin recently. Despite multiple bad news, such as the bankruptcy filing of crypto lender Genesis, it has shot up past $23,000.

Markets bad, crypto up? Sounds illogical? A so-called "short squeeze" may be responsible.

But how does this work? Let's look at an example. Say you think the housing market is about to collapse. You decide to sell your house, rent for a few weeks, and then buy back in when prices are down.

Turns out though, you were wrong. Prices don't collapse, and instead – for a day or so – they look like they are going up. You panic, fearing to miss out, and buy back in, pushing the neighborhoods prices up with you.

That's what likely happened to Bitcoin according to market observers. Investors bet against the Bitcoin price in what is called a short sale, and when prices didn't drop, they panicked and tried to buy the Bitcoin they owed. This pushed prices up despite everyone betting against them.

And now you know what a short squeeze is. This actually happens all the time in crypto - because it is still so small in comparison, that even smaller bets against it can make the market move.

And if you like to learn bite sized content like this: Why don’t you share this podcast with a friend. I bet they appreciate a good recommendation from you. Thanks for getting the word out for us! I see you back here tomorrow.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend a minute a day explaining what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Remember how Sam Bankman-Fried has taken it upon himself to put his version of the FTX story out there... by blogging long posts, full of financial data he suddenly found somewhere?

Well, now he says that FTX isn't actually bankrupt. The US part of it to be precise - and according to his numbers, they even have enough money to pay everyone out and then some.

And then shortly after SBF hit the publish button, FTX’s new boss, John Ray, who oversees the exchange's bankruptcy says he’s indeed looking into resuming the US business.

If this all sounds confusing: It'll make more sense when you understand that FTX operated two, in theory at least, fully separate exchanges - one registered in the US, serving US customers, and one registered in the Bahamas, serving the rest of the world. This was set up to meet - or as some would argue exploit - regulations.

If you were in the US, you could only use the US exchange, which was like a smaller sibling to the international one. So this could be good news for US customers… and SBF.

Because if true, this plays right into his hands: His defense will argue that he didn’t harm any US customers.

We may never know, but doesn't the timing of that blog post look just a little bit too perfect?

As always, you'll be the judge. And we'll see you next time, right here on the podcast.

We at Cryptohunt produce this podcast 5 days a week - also consider signing up to the free Weekly Hunt, our Friday morning briefing newsletter where we cover the most important news of the week - an extension to our offerings to be the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend a minute a day explaining what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

If you are a big fan of Bitcoin, don't get mad at us – but we are here to tell you that supercomputers will eventually break it.

But how is this possible, when nobody has broken Bitcoin so far?

Well, it all comes down to an emerging type of supercomputer called the quantum computer. In theory, this computer can solve certain tasks several billion times faster than even the most expensive computer we have today.

Bitcoin, and this is the problem, relies on cryptography to work. Say your name is Samantha, but you introduce yourself to others by randomly scrambling the letters, for example to Mansatah or Natahasm. Without telling people the exact order of the letters, it'll take them a while to figure it out, and they have to rearrange letters many times over until it clicks.

That is, in an simplified way, how most cryptography works. That order of letters you kept a secret is also called the key. With that key, it's easy to decrypt something. Without that key, you can still figure it out by trying all possible combinations, but in practice this guessing-game takes way too long to make sense. And for Bitcoin, that cryptography is so strong that even all the computers in the world together would have to guess for a far longer time than our entire universe has existed.

Which is - you know - just a little bit too long for our taste.

But as crazy as that sounds, you've probably guessed it: A breakthrough in computing power would get us much closer to trying all the possible combinations in the Bitcoin cryptography in reasonable time. Even if it takes an entire year, it’s worth waiting for. And that's exactly what quantum computers could eventually do.

They are still experimental, not nearly powerful enough, and only work in a handful of expensive, secret labs, but the idea works in theory. A few more years, and things may look very different.

And that's why people are both worried and excited - far beyond just Bitcoin and cryptography.

If you want to learn more about this game-changing tech, sign up at cryptohunt.it and keep an eye on your email - because we are going to drop an entire course on the subject later this week – as always: easy to understand, just like this podcast - which is also produced by Cryptohunt.it. My name is Christian Byza, and I am the host of this daily show - see you tomorrow.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend a minute a day explaining what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Sam Bankman-Fried has published his second blog post since he was put under house arrest, awaiting his trial in October.

But why is he actually speaking at all instead of letting the lawyers handle it?

Well, it all boils down to one question: Can he get a fair trial?

Let's be honest: What do you think about SBF? Probably nothing too good. And while we are on the same page as you, that's actually a huge problem.

Like any civilized legal system, US law assumes that a defendant is innocent until proven guilty. Furthermore, the burden of proof is on the accuser, in this case the government, to show the person actually did something wrong.

But here in the United States, we also have jury trials. This means that a panel of 12 regular citizens decides the fate of the accused. And herein lies that problem: Like you, they've all been exposed to the overwhelmingly negative news about FTX. Rightfully so or not, the media has largely already declared Bankman-Fried guilty.

This is also known as "trial by media" and when October comes and the court opens its gates, SBF's reputation will be fully destroyed. No matter how hard those 12 jurors try, their judgement will be influenced.

Now, this is often the case - take popular murder cases as another example - and won't lead to a dismissal of the case for SBF. Which means, he really only has one choice - start advocating for himself since nobody else will.

He still gets a ton of attention, so this strategy might be worth trying - and that's most likely why he started blogging. In those posts, he can lay out a lot of detail to sway public opinion at least a little bit.

Whatever both sides report, we'll promise to take a deeper, and fair look at each. So stay tuned, because it looks like SBF is just getting started. Tomorrow, we'll look about his latest post that claims FTX customers in the US can get their money back.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. And I hear you right here tomorrow. Always at 2am PST, 11am CET, 5 days a week.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend a minute a day explaining what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

AVAX, the crypto token behind the Avalanche blockchain, is up almost 50% in the first weeks of this year. The reason? An announcement that Amazon will partner with them.

Let's understand what the two companies are up to.

Avalanche currently sits at position #17 of all blockchains if you order them by money invested. To put that in perspective, it is still a whopping 80x smaller than Bitcoin, but the project has big ambitions.

So what makes Avalanche special? In a nutshell, it tries to replicate all the things we can do with traditional money – like send it around, create financial contracts, and replace the traditional banking system. But it aims to do that at much higher potential speeds than the competition. If you think about it, that goal does make a lot of sense: In a potential future where all payments run over blockchains, those blockchains have to handle a lot.

However, in case you didn't know, the elephant in the crypto nerd room is that most blockchains, even Bitcoin and Ethereum, are painfully slow and could never handle such future demand. It's so bad actually, that executives at Visa are probably giggling every day when they see those numbers.

Enter Avalanche: It is already much faster than the competition, and wants to become the one blockchain ready for primetime.

At the core of this is Avalanches technology, this bits and bites you don’t see - and this is where Amazon comes in. They have a division called AWS, which provides computers for rent. For that, they operate massive warehouses stuffed to the ceiling with technology. Want to hear a crazy fact? Every third app or website you use runs on those Amazon computers and you’d never know it.

Going forward, Amazon will make it very easy for people to operate an Avalanche computer in those warehouses. The more computers, the more transactions Avalanche can crunch. The easier it is to set them up, the faster the number can grow.

And that's exactly why investors are so excited: Because running a fast blockchain for everyone needs a lot of blockchain computers. And Amazon happens to have the most computers and is now throwing their weight behind Avalanche.

So, if anything, this is great PR for Avalanche. But before you get too excited, remember that people will have to want to use blockchains in the future, otherwise this is all just empty excitement without future customers. And only time will tell how fast that will happen.

Until then - enjoy it when the market goes up. The crypto community needed a good moment.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. Oh, and welcome to all the new listeners we got from those nice referrals from you - in the last few days! Thank you so much - and please: Keep them coming

It’s Monday, Jan 16th - Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend a minute a day explaining what is happening in crypto and other game-changing ideas. As always: In plain English.

Sam Bankman-Fried is back! This time with a blog post, detailing his version of what led to FTX's collapse.

Let's take a quick, and critical look.

This post, which SBF published on the blogging site Substack, is astonishing for multiple reasons.

For once, it is very unusual that a defendant in a major fraud case says anything at all before their trial. Talking rarely helps, and can be used against them. Lawyers usually do the talking, because they are trained in not getting their client into more trouble.

SBF? Doesn't care. He's blogging away, including spreadsheets and data to make his case.

And what is that case? Essentially that the market wiped out FTX, and he did nothing wrong.

Well, for the sake of it, let's follow along: SBF explains how Alameda Research, the trading firm he funded before FTX, had significant bets riding on crypto last year. According to his calculations, those bets were covered if the value of the crypto they were trading would decline by up to 94%.

And they did, in fact even more than that. When FTX declared bankruptcy, those assets were down 96% - which SBF blames on the crypto market and a targeted PR attack from rival Binance.

But how does that affect FTX? Well, to make those bets, Alameda borrowed money from their sister company - money that was then wiped out, leaving customers unable to withdraw their balances from FTX.

The way SBF lays this out is that this is just business, a bad market, and a coordinated rush of withdrawals. The perfect storm, but not his fault.

We have a feeling the prosecution is seeing this very differently - because why was Alameda allowed to dip into customer deposits on FTX in the first place? Why have Alameda's execs already pleaded guilty and are collaborating?

Stay tuned, it'll get more interesting we bet. SBF, he blogs, has a lot more to say. Well, at least it keeps us entertained, because the trial is not set to start until October 2nd.

And before we end - just like last Monday - a small question: Do you mind sharing this podcast with someone you like or that you think would like our content? Referrals mean the world to us.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

It’s Friday, Jan 13th - Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend a minute a day explaining the intersection of exciting new technologies and your world. As always: In plain English.

Whether you love McDonalds or would never go to one of their restaurants, the power of the brand is undeniable.

And like many, at the hype of the crypto boom, McDonalds jumped onto the NFT bandwagon and released their own collection of 10 digital collectibles. So, what were they thinking... and how has that worked out?

You know by now that we are obsessed with the way brands are using Web3 to engage with their audiences - some are very smart and innovative, like Nike and Netflix for example, and others are simply trying to capitalize on a trend.

But back to McDonalds. If you are a fan, (like me) you will immediately know what the McRib is - the famous sandwich that had rib meat on it instead of a traditional burger patty. The main complain about it: McDonalds didn't make it any longer. And so, when McDonalds announced the limited return of the McRib in late 2021, fans went completely wild.

And unfortunately, we think, so did McDonald's marketing team. Anything that grabbed attention was on their whiteboard. Ultimately, they decided to do what seemingly everyone back then was doing: create an NFT. In this case, 10 MacRib NFTs actually, digital collectibles with the image of a sandwich rotating on your screen. Not exactly creative if you ask us. And McDonalds plan? Probably the most overused trick in the marketing-for-social-media-beginners handbook: Ask people to tweet about it in order to enter the raffle to win one of these NFTs.

So how did the McDonalds campaign do? Hard to say if it got more people to try out the real McRib, but the Tweet was seen by over 2m people. But with 4.7m followers on McDonalds’ Twitter account, that may not actually be that great of a result.

And as far as those NFTs go? They seem to have a hard time changing hands as collectibles. No wonder, because owning them doesn't give you any benefits.

Well, McDonalds, maybe next time you do something interesting, like taking a page out of Nike's playbook. How about a lifetime of free real McRibs for each lucky NFT holder? Because just hijacking a trend for attention isn't as interesting as creating an experience that connects fans with your brand in a meaningful way.

And that was McDonalds - or how to not use NFTs to promote a product. And next week we’ll pick this right up and talk about other interesting Web3 experiments from major brands. Stay tuned and enjoy the weekend! I am hungry now and know what I will have for lunch today.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

It’s Thursday, Jan 12th - Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend a minute a day explaining the intersection of exciting new technologies and your world. As always: In plain English.

Today: A look at Netflix's NFT campaign to promote a movie – and why it worked.

We've been talking a lot about blockchains, and what YOU may - or may not - get out of them. But there is an entire different perspective: What companies get out of it.

And, let's be honest, for the most part it has simply been a way for them to blatently tap into a well-to-do audience. Remember, for example, how Tiffany's suddenly sold “NFTIFFs”, which were just diamond-studded jewelry copies of some expensive NFTs to open the wallets of their rich owners?

Well, let us tell you the story of Netflix then, who thought about something a little different: Using NFTs as a way to promote a new film.

In 2021, Netflix was finalizing the release of it's documentary called "This is a Robbery". It chronicles one of the largest art thefts in history, one where 13 famous paintings were stolen and only the frames left at the scene.

To promote the documentary, Netflix did something clever: They collaborated with 13 smaller influencer artists to create their version of these 13 stolen paintings. Then they launched these as 13 surprise NFTs in parallel with the movie.

Interestingly though, Netflix didn't want to make any money from those like most other brands who dabble in digital art. Instead, the streaming giant sent people directly to the artists' pages, where they could bid on the NFTs. This meant: The artists made 100% of the money, and Netflix none.

So why do this in the first place? Because it created a huge buzz for Netflix. The crypto community is very active on social media and immediately took a liking to the idea, especially BECAUSE it was helping those artists directly instead of enriching a middleman, which is one of the ideas behind Web3. And mainstream media thought the concept was clever too - suddenly all the big newspapers wrote about the project.

And this is how Netflix elevated a documentary that could have gone unnoticed to something that got global attention - all by tapping into the power of the crypto community and hijacking the NFT trend in a positive way.

We think this is very clever. And best of all? Everyone is happy, and nobody got cheated. And that's quite rare these days.

And if you like stories like this at least 5 days a week - please do us a favour and leave a review of this podcast - this will help us a lot. Thanks so much.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. Thanks again for that review!

It’s Wednesday, Jan 11th - Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend a minute a day explaining the intersection of exciting new technologies and your world. As always: In plain English.

Remember our episode about ChatGPT, that almighty chat robot that can answer practically any question you throw at it? The one that could trick most people into thinking they are talking with a human? The one that helped millions of people create Christmas cards, love poems, and computer code?

If you don’t - you should absolutely know about it. It’s some of the craziest tech we’ve seen. We have a class about it on www.cryptohunt.it.

But for now, buckle up. Whatever your feelings about the existing version may be: impressive, creepy, or downright Terminator-style dangerous: Apparently a new, even more powerful version is already being shown to people behind closed doors.

It's based on version 4 of its core engine, called GPT, which is the computer code that can process language like a human with the knowledge of a librarian.

What's different about the new version? It can do the same impressive tasks as before, but create much more comprehensive outputs. Sounds like nothing, but think about it this way: Where you previously could make it write a page-long essay based on your sentence-long request, it can now write a 600-page book with the same input. Or what previously created 10 lines of computer code do program something very specific, and now build an entire application. Error-free, in mere seconds, and just based on a simple verbal description of what it should do.

“ChatGPT, can you build me an Airbnb competitor?”

Imagine the possibilities: A single person could write hundreds of books in a day. You could simply request a library of personalized short stories. Or instead of slowly building something like Facebook over a decade, now you could simply throw that out there to test in mere minutes.

In other words: What seemed like hard work in the past, could get so easy that we'll start living in a world of complete abundance. Maybe the skill of the future is not to know how to create something, but how to ask AI to do it best.

Honestly, we don't quite know how to feel about that.

But what we do know: This is one of the most game-changing technologies in a long time. And we'll keep bringing you the latest thoughts and developments here in this podcast and on cryptohunt.it.

This podcast is also produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

It’s Tuesday, Jan 10th - Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend a minute a day explaining the intersection of exciting new technologies and your world. As always: In plain English.

If you've recently thought: I haven't heard much about one of those crypto dogs in a while, then we have some news: A new puppy is in town, and it is called BONK.

But first: What’s up with all those dog cryptocurrencies?

These are called meme coins, meaning they are crypto coins that don't aspire to have any special utility. Mostly, they are just built to entertain the community.

It all started with Dogecoin, which was created as a joke by copy-pasting most of Bitcoin's source code. Fast forward a few years, and Elon Musk is regularly talking about it, and a close cousin called Shiba made some people astronomically rich.

But it's been a while since then. Now, a small community run team on Solana, a blockchain that has lost massive amounts of value recently as it got caught up in the FTX collapse, decided to create some joy in tumultuous times and released BONK, yet another Shiba Inu themed token. They gave away 50% of the coin to the community on Christmas day and the total value has reached $77m at its peak.

And since it’s a meme coin, that’s really all there is to it. But all in all, we think that’s a fun holiday surprise and proof that the crypto community can still have a good time.

And before we end today I want to let you know about a two new fun courses we just released last weekend - as every Saturday: One on our teams predictions and what we are bullish on for 2023 and then a second one that takes on the critical side: The case against crypto. Just head over to www.cryptohunt.it - you will find both of these in the most recent courses section on the homepage.

And I am back with another story tomorrow - it’s never getting boring!

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

It’s Monday, Jan 9th - Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend a minute a day explaining the intersection of exciting new technologies and your world. As always: In plain English.

After a relatively quiet holiday, Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced CEO of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, appeared in court and did something that may shock you: He pleaded “not guilty”.

Let’s unpack that, and dive into the little oddities of the US justice system.

Remember, the US government is accusing Sam Bankman-Fried of eight different crimes. In essence, they are saying he lied to investors and stole customer funds - and those charges could add up to a maximum of 115 years in prison for the now-30 year old.

How much time he will serve, if found guilty, depends on many factors and one of them is what sentence the prosecution recommends to the judge. It is very common that guilty people strike a deal right away: I’ll admit what I did to save us all the time, and in return you recommend a lesser sentence.

So why didn’t SBF do that? We can only speculate, but likely because of two reasons.

First, the prosecution might have such strong evidence, that they feel confident enough to not make a deal. The public pressure is high, and they will try to make an example of him instead of looking lenient.

Secondly though, this seems to be part of SBFs larger defense strategy: From the beginning he has projected the image of the nice guy from next door who accidentally managed his business really badly. He has nothing to loose, so he is taking his chances with a jury - best case they believe him, worst case he’ll be in jail for the time he would have spent there anyhow.

So - now you know part of the chess game being played. This will remain really interesting. Stay tuned for more, as we will keep you in the loop.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3.

Ever wondered why banks never really talk about crypto publicly? Because they are afraid of it.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend a minute a day explaining the intersection of exciting new technologies and your world. As always: In plain English.

You know that we are big fans of the ideas behind blockchains and cryptocurrencies, and see huge technological potential. But we've also been vocal about using common sense to see through all the talk - because for the most part, crypto is still a solution in search of a problem.

Except for one area, where it's becoming a clear thread to the existing system: And that is banking.

Gatekeepers and intermediaries have existed as long as humans have traded: Want to cross this river? Pay the guy who owns the property in front of the shallow part. Buy fruit? Pay the merchant who has an exclusive deal with the farmer.

Banks are no different. They funnel money from one place to another, and take a cut. A huge cut, in fact, if you look at Wall Street salaries.

What makes banks special though, is that moving money is one of the easiest things on the planet. It just involves simple calculations and contracts. And nothing is better at executing those than computers.

Which is to say: Theoretically, we don't actually need most of the bankers, and since computers don't want to drive Ferraris or drink champagne, they are also much cheaper to keep happy.

Up until now, banks also controlled the money itself, which is why they are so powerful still. But that changed with crypto. It literally lets us program the bankers’ jobs into computer code, and execute it without having to pay them their salaries. This is called a smart contract, and is already happening at scale. Of course, there are painful downsides - like a lack of regulation and oversight - but those could be solved if we all worked together.

And that's why banks fear crypto more than anything. Because it's the more efficient way to get an already simple job done. And while they are doing everything to hold on to their power, eventually crypto will eliminate large amounts of their business.

It will take a while: But you have a front row seat to see it all happen in real time.

And before we let you go into the weekend - we ask for one little favor. If you like this podcast please tell your friends about it and leave a review. This will help us a lot.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Welcome to a new year and to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we continue to spend a minute a day explaining the intersection of exciting new technologies and your world. As always: In plain English.

In the last two episodes, we've explored why some people have lost trust in our organizations and institutions and how some think decentralization is the key to solving that issue. And we took a deeper look at a rallying cry that's getting louder in Silicon Valley these days: To decentralize Twitter.

But does that really make sense? Today, a critical look in the third and last part of our series.

Imagine Twitter was run by its users in a true decentralized democracy. Its future determined by one majority vote at the time.

But are we really solving a problem here? Instead of the opinion of a random billionaire owner, now its the group of most active users who make decisions, or don't if they are not interested. And when they do, they may not have the full picture, nor may they have a long term vision for the company. Hard and fast decisions need to be made sometimes - and maybe our sometimes-not-so-favorite space rocket billionaire is still better at that than a crowdsourced opinion.

And now to the boring stuff: Renting offices, buying software licenses, and getting the plumber if the toiled is clogged: Will we all decide each thing together?

Of course not, so a person will get appointed, maybe a manager for that person - and suddenly we are walking a line between centralized and decentralized again.

You get our point: Just because something is the latest buzzword in tech, that idea may not actually make sense when applied. As long as there is no real functional benefit, such as owning your data and being able to move between social networks, its a solution in search of a problem.

Ultimately, the markets will speak. If Musk screws up Twitter more, a competitor like Mastodon will rise and people will move. Even Google isn't untouchable. Decentralized or not.

This was part 3 of our critical look at the idea of decentralization. As always - sometimes it makes sense, often not - you decide.

And tomorrow, we'll continue this thought with an area that could truly see disruption by blockchains - the banking system. Stay tuned!

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Disclaimer: This podcast references our opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Do your own research and seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

Welcome to a new year and to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we continue to spend a minute a day explaining the intersection of exciting new technologies and your world. As always: In plain English.

Let's kick this year off asking the tough questions - and today is about the promise behind decentralization. If you are just jumping in, start with the previous episode - because this is a three part special.

By now, we've established that some people have started to lose trust in our system – rightfully or not – and are proposing that the products and institutions they deem critical should become decentralized.

So let's spend this episode in defense of that argument - and take a simple example that is top of mind: Twitter.

The social media company has had its fair share of trouble after Elon Musk took over. Like what he did or not, the fact is that he has alienated users and advertisers alike. And he has crossed some lines, like temporarily banning journalists and not allowing people to link to other social media.

“Out with the crazy billionaire”, some say, “and power to the users. Decentralize it all”!

The idea sounds tempting and powerful: Users would collectively make decisions about the future of the company. They could vote on who to ban and what to build. True democracy in a sense, with no single person being able to upset everyone. This could go as far as Twitter making open how their feed works, and why you get recommended certain content.

Proponents of decentralization argue: We can't trust Musk to keep Twitter great, so let's all take over and build it as a community. A social network as a social experiment.

We think that is a wonderful idea. But if you think it through, it may not actually make a ton of practical sense. So - next episode is exactly about that: Why decentralization may not be a good idea after all.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Disclaimer: This podcast references our opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Do your own research and seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

Welcome to a new year and to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we continue to spend a minute a day explaining the intersection of exciting new technologies and your world. As always: In plain English.

Whether you are familiar with crypto, or have been following the latest Twitter debacle: You'll surely have heard the calls for complete decentralization.

But what do people actually mean by that? In the next three episodes of this podcast, we'll dive in deeper, a minute or two a day.

Today, let's take a look at the history of decentralization, and how we ended up not trusting each other anymore.

Think back a couple of decades - people worked normal jobs at the same company for their entire careers, saved money, and moved their families to the suburbs. Having a car was the coolest thing, and you could still smoke on airplanes.

If you wanted to put money into your account, you'd go to your local bank. They knew you, and you knew them. Problems could be figured out between people.

Now step forward to today, and many people see the world a little differently. Anonymous, outsourced call-centers that don't know you, mega corporations that will do anything for shareholder profit, and politicians that can only agree with each other when lobbyists buy them nice lunches.

Sounds a little too grim maybe, and while you may not see it the same way, some people certainly do: In a world where they will not trust organizations and governments to do what seems right, those people look for alternative ways.

Their solution? Often a call for “decentralization” - taking the power away from a single person, company, or government and giving it to the people. Think about Twitter for example, but controlled by the users and not just a flip-flopping Elon. Or money, printed by the people, not the government - rings a bell?

Great - but does that actually make sense? Hear the arguments for and against decentralization in our next two episodes. Stay tuned for tomorrow.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Disclaimer: This podcast references our opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Do your own research and seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

Welcome to a new year and to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we continue to spend a minute a day explaining the intersection of exciting new technologies and your world. As always: In plain English.

Former US-president Donald Trump just released his own NFT collection. It's a set of 45000 NFTs, digital images showing the man in all kinds of heroic costumes. Why 45000? Most likely a play on him being the 45th president.

The collection works like most others: Trump makes money from people buying an original NFT from him. Some of those are considered more rare than others. This is because of so-called traits: Certain NFTs may feature the same clothing and background as others, while others may be more unique. The more rare an NFT, the more expensive, in theory at least.

So - why did he do this? Almost certainly for the money. Financially, he's had a pretty rough time it turns out. According to recently released tax returns, the former president was most successful at inheriting money - not making it himself. But things turned a corner with his rising popularity after the election, with him being able to cash in on his personal brand. Now, he seems to capitalize on it a bunch more with those NFTs.

Further proof? A single wallet address immediately minted 10,000 NFTs out of the collection. Probably no coincidence, but that address also snagged most of the rare collectibles. So who does it belong to? Well, hard to say definitively, but we'll let you take a super wild guess here.

But you know what? The Obamas likely made triple-digit millions from selling books. Bill and Hillary Clinton made over $150m from public speaking gigs, and that's even before Hillary ran for President. So who are we to judge? The job is hard, let them have some fun too.

Fact is, though, that the Trump NFTs have created a significant amount of volume on Polygon, the blockchain they are using. And arguably, many of these users might be new to blockchains. In our mind that is a win - regardless of politics.

Wait, a win, regardless of politics? That's still a thing? Cheers to more of that in 2023. Happy New Year!

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Disclaimer: This podcast references our opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Do your own research and seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day explaining the intersection of exciting new technologies and your world. As always: In plain English.

Have you been thinking lately: "All dreams of crypto ever becoming something other than just a playground for nerds are crushed"?

Well, the team at Polygon, a blockchain you may have never heard about, seems to prove you wrong. Over and over again. In short, they are crushing it.

Let's dig in!

So, Polygon: It’s a blockchain. There is a little more going on here behind the technical scenes of course, but it doesn't really matter for you and us. And it shouldn’t - and that’s exactly the point they are making recently.

Why? Because their team has been crushing it to get real brands signed up to build crypto experiences for the masses. While you barely hear anything about Bitcoin or Ethereum anymore, it's been raining announcements from Polygon.

Starbucks uses Polygon for their new rewards program. Nike is building an NFT marketplace with them. Warner Music is creating a Polygon-powered music store. Mastercard is building a crypto debit card using their tech. Even Trump's new NFT collection uses it.

Apparently Polygon made it a priority to attract a specific kind of project, because the theme is always the same: Major brand builds a new mainstream product, but happens to use blockchain technologies powered by Polygon. Users don’t need to know it’s on the blockchain, and can just use it.

We think this strategy is clever, and working well. We won't get to mass crypto adoption by building finance apps only 0.1% of the world want to use. But collectible sneakers and exclusive concert access? Yeah, bring it on.

So that's an update on Polygon. And because we are as intrigued as you are, we'll take a very brief look at that Trump NFT collection we just touched upon… In the next episode. Hear you in the new year!

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Disclaimer: This podcast references our opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Do your own research and seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day explaining the intersection of exciting new technologies and your world. As always: In plain English.

Grab a cup of coffee and relax... because today's episode will be right in your wheelhouse. And if you've just pulled out the Starbucks app to see if you have points to redeem while listening to this episode: What a coincidence! Because today is about Starbucks... going crypto.

Hard to believe but true: The coffee shop giant is adopting blockchains to build the next version of their rewards program. If that comes as a shock to those who thought crypto wasn't mainstream yet - trust us, we feel the same.

Why would they shake it up when things have been working just fine without the extra topper of cutting-edge tech? Let's dig in, because it might not be as crazy as it sounds.

The whole thing is called Starbucks Odyssey and will launch sometime in 2023. On paper, it sounds like a rewards program on steroids: Sure, you can collect points. But you'll also get digital collectibles for your loyalty, and can access a members-only experience where you can play games and tackle challenges - whatever that actually means. And don't worry, Starbucks aficionado! The existing program isn't going away either.

Ok - you probably have a couple of doubts: Why create this whole experience in the first place? They are a just a coffee shop, right? And why would any of this have to be on the blockchain if they already have a working rewards program?

Well - Starbucks thinks of itself as your "Third Place", between home and work. Their words, not ours. In essence, they want you to think of Starbucks as a place you WANT to spend time at. And guess what? Buy coffee.

And what do brand managers do to imprint their logo in your brain? They trick you into interacting with it more. An interactive, loyal-members-only experience is Starbucks' way to control your mind. But, by the way, they do tons of non-digital things to make you like them, like paying college tuition for their "partners" - which is their fancy word for employees.

Ok, you say, got it. Brand marketers trying to make me love their brand. But why on the blockchain?

Well - we can only speculate. But Starbucks has always been about attracting the young generations as they come and go. It started with syrups and sprinkles years ago. Now their bet is most likely that NFTs and crypto are the perfect cool new thing the new kids will like.

So that's Starbucks' new blockchain loyalty program. And there is something interesting happening here behind the scenes that we'll cover next: It's powered by Polygon, a name you may have heard a ton lately. Stay tuned to hear why in the next episode.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Disclaimer: This podcast references our opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Do your own research and seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day explaining crypto… and now also some other cutting edge news. As always: In plain English.

Avid listeners of this podacast will notice: We really like to keep you up-to-date on things and often follow up on a previous feature. Today is no different, because we are looking into the whereabouts of Do Kwon.

If the name means nothing to you: You are not alone. What you will remember though is the collapse of TerraUSD, the not-so-stable stablecoin that wiped out at least $62bn dollars. Do Kwon is the founder of Terra. If you haven't listened to those episodes, they are quite popular - go back all the way to 167, we promise it's worth it.

But back to Do Kwon: He was born in South Korea, and later got his computer science degree from the prestigious Stanford University. After short stints at Microsoft and Apple, he went on to found Terra Labs in 2018. They launched TerraUSD in 2020.

Fast forward to now: Terra Labs has been under investigation by numerous government agencies, from anything like false advertising to investment fraud. And many individuals felt the same and started suing Do Kwon - who disappeared quickly.

To this day, he remains unfindable, despite claiming that he is not on the run. Dubai, Serbia, new locations pop up all the time. By now, he is wanted in his home of South Korea, and even Interpol has a red notice out on him.

We'll see how it plays out - but eventually he'll be found and will have to answer to the authorities. But it might be a while, because he's sitting on tens of millions of dollars in crypto.

As always, we'll keep you in the loop.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Disclaimer: This podcast references our opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Do your own research and seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day explaining crypto… and now also some other cutting edge news. As always: In plain English.

Last episode, we looked at ChatGPT, a mindblowing new, AI-powered chatbot that answers any text input with incredible responses: The bot seems to know basically anything, can respond just like a human, and isn't shy to have an opinion if you ask for it.

Scary right? Well, let's take a look at the potential dangers of such a powerful AI, one we've never seen before.

The first, of course, is a new form of plagiarism. Students, for example, will surely discover how easy it is to create really decent essays without doing the work. And while that is true, it'll be short-lived: New tools are already popping up everywhere, using AI to detect if something was created by AI... strange new world, isn’t it?

What's more worrysome though: ChatGPT can only use the knowledge is has previously pulled out of the web. And if we all were to use it for everything we write, we'd never create a single new idea and just rehash the old ones. That would be a very sad thing.

Another danger is one we already know well-enough: People write all kinds of stuff on the internet, and not all of it is true. Even today, most people trust what they read on Google blindly. Now we have an AI, that states things with absolute conviction, not knowing they are wrong, because it too, takes things for granted.

And lastly, the big question. Will it take over, conquer the world, determined to kill all humans? How would we even know? Well, we decided to go bad cop and just interrogate the thing: "Will you destroy us?"

"No, I am just a computer program designed to assist with answering questions", it claims. But it took the know-it-all AI an unusually long time to to send an answer to this one… Ooough! But we’ll let you be the judge as always.

And one more plug for our free course about ChatGPT on Cryptohunt. We ask it to write poems, have a conversation beetween Jimmy Henrix and Mozard and a lot of other really interesting things as well. Check it out yourself before I reveal too much here. But one thing is for certain, ChatGPT writes amazing poetry.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it, the easiest place to learn all about Web3. Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, design is done by Carmen Rincon, and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Disclaimer: This podcast references our opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Do your own research and seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.