The cool side of the blazing crypto ecosystem.
A Web 3.0 newsletter covering the latest news that matters.

What’s in today’s cooler:

• New Decentralized Messaging on Coinbase

• Crypto Scams Reportedly Down 77%

• Best Thing I Saw All Week - NO FOMO

• More On Tap News

A few days ago, top crypto exchange Coinbase introduced an encrypted messaging feature within its wallet app. This featured is in collaboration with the Extensible Message Transport Protocol project, or XMTP for short.

XMTP is an open source protocol, network, and standards for secure, private web3 messaging. Developers build with XMTP SDK’s to provide messaging between blockchain accounts in their apps.

Within Coinbase Wallet messaging allows users to have a secure communication platform between Ethereum Layer 1 and Layer 2 accounts, while using crypto domain names from Ethereum Name Service, cb.id, and Lens profiles for identification.

Another cool thing is messages with a users Coinbase wallet can be ported to any other decentralized social media apps on Lens Protocol. This means any other apps and platforms that use XMTP will and can use your messages. This allows for so much flexibility and importantly the messages are encrypted with security keys only shared between the users in the conversation.

Lastly, Coinbase stated within this messaging feature users can send payments to others using USD Coin or USDC, without any gas fees. Similarly to Apply Pay or Venmo but for USDC crypto.

Users will receive access via an individual QR code to access the new feature. With this, Coinbase will be the first and only self-custodial wallet to use integrated messaging on XMTP, to provide users with ownership of their crypto, identity and messages.

Blockchain intelligence firm, Chainalysis, reported a reduction of 77% for all cryptocurrency related scams for the first half of 2023. Coming down from a whopping $3.3 billion to $1.1 Billion.

This marks the second consecutive year of declining scam revenue!

However, just because scamming has slowed down doesn’t mean the hackers or scammers haven’t left.

Ransomware revenue has jumped 62.4% to $449 million in just the first half of 2023. As stated these attackers are now making a shift towards the big fish with a bigger pool rather than the small fisher the individual investor.

While there may be a slow down in crypto scams, there is clearing a trend in ransom attacks. This shows there is always room for improvement on security and to always pay attention.

If you’ve got some time, check out this video from 2010 on how to but Bitcoin, when it was just $0.30!

On Tap News

US Government Moves $300 Million worth of Bitcoin from Silk Road - Wonder what the plan is with $300 Million Bitcoin. (scared emoji)

Polygon Wants to Upgrade Token and Change the Name from MATIC to POL - Will be a weird transition, but upgrades are always good… right?

New Tool to Store Your Private Bitcoin Keys as Colors?

Google Play Store Embraces NFTs & Digital Assets on their Platform - Super big news and excited to see what comes next!

Share the Crypto Cooler

We can hardly contain our excitement as we grow we want to gear up and unveil a brand-new referral program. We want to hook you up with some cool rewards, including stickers, nifty dad hats, and more.
Stay tuned to be rewarded!

Disclaimer: The information shared in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. It is crucial to conduct independent research and consult with a financial advisor before making any investment decisions.