An NFT for your soul

Good morning! Welcome to The Daily Moon. It’s a Friday. You have plans. They probably end with ordering tacos or a burritos. You know you’ll regret it but what the hell, YOLO, right? Fast food chain Chipotle is trying to make late night cravings worth your while. It has claimed it will accept payment in crypto. There’s also a 10% discount if you pay via altcoin. Your late night binge will cost less.

NFT Rigger’s Caught

The past has come to haunt Nathaniel Chastain. Remember the OpenSea employee Nathaniel aka Nate? ICYMI, he was forced to quit OpenSea in September 2021 after allegations of insider trading were made against him. And now the US justice department has charged him with the crime. This is the first-ever such case against a crypto executive.

So, what did he do?As an OpenSea staffer, Chastain used confidential information to make money. Here’s how he did it:

1. Being an insider, he knew what NFTs would trade on the platform.

2. His role involved selecting NFTs for buy/sell on OpenSea.

3. He used this information to buy 45 NFTs in advance.

4. After listing, he sold these NFTs at 2-5X the initial price.

5. Masking his identity, Chastain created multiple accounts to buy/sell.

OpenSea found out about this in September 2021 after Twitter users flagged it. The platform accepted that this happened, but didn’t name Chastain.

Chastain has been charged with wire fraud and money laundering. Each of these crimes carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

While we’re on the subjectRepublican firebrand Madison Cawthorn is being investigated for undisclosed crypto trades. Similarly, Terraform Labs was caught moving $4.8 million through a shell company. Nothing new for Do Kwon though. South Korea had earlier claimed that Kwon owes them ~$80 million in taxes. He says that’s already paid.

But here comes the most bizarre case. A father-son duo has been sent to prison for five years. Turns out they used Bitcoin to conceal illegal funds from marijuana sales.

Soul-ful Rewards

Job offer taking too long? University degree lost? Or tough to verify candidates’ resume? Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has a solution. Enter soulbound tokens, or SBTs. It is part of Buterin’s grand vision of a decentralised society by 2024.

What's this, exactly? SBTs are akin to NFTs. Except that SBTs stored in the ‘Soul’ account are real life records and achievements. And since everyone’s different, SBTs will also be singularly unique, and non-transferable.

These are some use-cases:

• Artists can issue SBTs from their ‘Soul’.

• Companies can issue experience certificates as an SBT.

• Governments can issue KYC documents as SBT.

• Soul can serve as collateral for loans.

Since SBTs are verifiable on the blockchain by other ‘souls’, identity-duplicating scams are minimised. Initially, SBTs will only carry information that people are comfortable sharing publicly.

What about lost ‘souls’?

Source: Decentralized Society: Finding Web3’s Soul Your soul on blockchain can be revoked, if you want. But in case you lose the soul key, social recovery is possible. A quality majority of the Soul community need to consent for recovering the key.

‘Block’ Bonds Are In

The Philippines is doing it. And so is Singapore. Bonds on the blockchain network, that is. It’s quicker, cheaper, and secure. And for once, everyone is on board.

Ledger BondsPhilippines’ Union Bank raised $209 million through their maiden blockchain peso bond offering. The original plan was to raise ~$51 million, meaning the offer got more takers than expected. The bank will use these funds to acquire Citi’s consumer banking business in the country.

Making a switchThe Singapore Exchange has also hopped on to the blockchain bandwagon. SGX has started a blockchain bond platform from June 1. With this, the settlement time will reduce to just two days compared to the five that it is.

India isn’t a stranger to this development. In May, NDSL launched a blockchain platform as well. This DLT platform will manage security and governance issues in the Indian corporate bond markets.

Goodbye FB

Meta’s Menlo Park headquarters is buzzing with activity. There’s a name change happening, COO Sheryl Sandberg is leaving, and the stock isn’t doing great. Since January, the stock is down ~44%.

Change of guardSandberg is leaving the social media giant after 14 years. Mark Zuckerberg called it ‘the end of an era’. Company insider Javier Olivan is set to be the new COO. The market wasn’t too happy, with the stock falling ~3% immediately after the announcement.

Meta seriousTen years after listing, Facebook’s stock ticker will change to Meta on June 9. Its heavy investments into the metaverse keep dragging down company profits.

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Who are we? There is a lot happening in our world. Everything has layers, and each layer has to be carefully peeled so you, the reader, know how the world of money is changing every day. That’s our promise. Help you unpeel the onions, which are the public markets in the US, India, and crypto, so that you know just a little more.