#82 | Federal Court "Serves" Court Papers As NFTs???

Estimated Read Time: 6 minutes

Hey friends,

Big thanks for joining us today! In today’s specially curated edition, we have some great stories exemplifying the ways Web3 is revolutionizing all parts of our world — from banking and sustainable fuel to court proceedings and art auctions. Let's jump into it!

The last few brews didn't have crypto in the best light, with Bitcoin and Ethereum reaching two-month lows after dancing with $20k and $1.4k prices respectfully. Well this week, we have seen a mighty comeback with Bitcoin hitting $28k and Ethereum over $1.8k — showing crypto's ability to weather the storm through recent bank failures, inflation concerns, and selling pressure that impacted other industries.

Highlighted by the week's turmoil of the Silvergate, SVB and Signature banks, it has almost given room for crypto to shine as a reminder of the benefits it advertises in decentralized, finite and transparent infrastructure compared to the current systems in place. We can only wait and see if this newfound confidence carries on through next week.

On the topic of cryptocurrency benefits over fiat systems, we can't seem to go a week without a new country launching a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), and this time we have Brazil officially starting its digital real pilot. With a final rollout expected by the end of 2024, this CBDC in question uses the blockchain's distributed ledger technology to settle wholesale interbank transactions, with the potential of tokenized government bonds.

Brazil currently has a newish “Pix” payment infrastructure for instant payment methods between individuals and organizations, but Fabio Araujo coordinator of the initiative says the CBDC will act as a “Pix for financial services”. The pilot is motivated by the instant transfer of financial assets at a big-picture scale, reducing costs and increasing returns on investment by removing the need for intermediaries, yet another example of the straight-up advantage Web3 technology has over existing systems.

It can seem like the blockchain has mostly had its ledger benefits utilized for currencies, but a recent story keeps us on our toes because a deal between flight company JetBlue and gas conglomerate Shell will see aviation fuel usage tracked via a blockchain solution. The recent deal specifically had Shell providing JetBlue ten million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) over the next two years, which will utilize Shell's Avelia blockchain solution.

Avelia enables corporate airline travelers to claim carbon-saving benefits by co-funding SAF fuel use for their flight, facilitated through the blockchain it ensures that even if SAF isn’t available on your flight, the SAF that’s paid for is used by another aircraft. Blockchain distributed ledger technology continues to show its benefits in aiding transactions of any type, and facilitating the uptake of more sustainable aviation fuels is yet another example of how Web3 is only continuing to be innovated in.

You may have seen those movie scenes where a person in question is quickly startled by someone tricking an envelope upon them. This process of “serving” has been the historical way for the official delivery of legal documents needed to begin court proceedings, until now. In a first for the US federal court, court papers have been “served” as an NFT to anonymous hackers after a victim had $971k drained from their wallet.

Judge Beth Bloom from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida oversaw the court case when anonymous hackers hacked the victim's Coinbase wallet through a fake liquidity mining pool. The Judge quickly came across a massive hurdle since the perpetrators were hiding behind an anonymous wallet address, and so opened up an opportunity to utilize the transparency and traceability of the blockchain.

The court issued an NFT containing the formal notice of legal action to the same on-chain addresses used to drain the victim's funds, declaring the owners responsible and liable to pay back the equivalent amount plus interest over time.

The victim in question, Rangan Bandyopadhyay, said: “These fraudsters are usually outfits outside of the United States, and everything that they tell the victim is a lie about their own identity. But what they can’t hide is the transfer of the funds via the blockchain. The ledger is there, and they can’t hide”. Whether or not these anonymous hackers are brought to justice, this intriguing use case of NFTs being used to airdrop official court documents straight to a person's wallet is pretty far field and exemplifies the constant disruption that Web3 is having on the processes of our current world.

Finishing off with a quick-fire story, leading art auction powerhouse Sothebys is a prestigious name in luxury art sales that sold an enormous $8 billion in art last year. Although Sotheby's has maintained its legacy over the last 277 years by selling art in the real world, in partnership with the metaverse platform RLTY Sotheby's will host its first-ever metaverse auction during the upcoming Paris Blockchain Week.

The live auction termed “Oddly Satisfying Sale” will display 66 NFT artworks from both renowned and rising digital artists such as Beeple, Julien Rivoire, and Brinkman. If you aren't prepared for placing bids through the metaverse, no worries because the NFT auction will be live-streamed to the official Sotheby’s auction house in Paris as well.

With the likes of Beeple's $69 million sale of his NFT art and plenty of seven-figure sales of monkey jpegs, NFTs have undoubtedly cemented themselves as an avenue for expensive “luxury” art. As NFTs try to break free of their negative “screenshot” connotations, it's been great to see a pioneer of the traditional art scene like Sotheby validate this new avenue through its multiple NFT auctions, and a full-blown metaverse experience is another example of their active participation in adopting this emerging technology.

Another week, another terminally ill project founder.

How unfortunate.

Assuming this founder actually does have terminal cancer (our sincere condolences), there are still 4 other co-founders who could’ve kept this project going without rugging all their investors. The comments underneath the tweet are hilarious — and to be frank, it’s pretty amazing how the NFT/web3 space keeps letting grifters take their money and run away with ridiculous excuses. And on the topic of ridiculous…

CryptoPunks did 10,000 ETH in volume… in 15 minutes yesterday.

That was partially due to Machi Big Brother (Jeff Huang) getting dumped on again. It’s amazing how much ETH Machi has lost over the past months via trading on BLUR.

Whatever happens, we know that there’s never a dull day in NFTs.

We hope you enjoyed that edition! Have a great couple of days and we will be back soon with some more Morning NFTea. Take care!

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DISCLAIMER:

None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.