When crypto gone wrong, hacked, fraud, rug pulled

We love crypto. We are not quite FUD but that being said, there are some concerning incidents in crypto that you should be aware of. Big hacks, cheats, investors, NFT purchase losing money, rug pull, even seizing of equipment! Let's reveal some costly mistakes in crypto.

• Crypto being over leveraged, forced liquidation
• WSJ Behind Bitcoin's Recent Slide: Imploding Bets and Forced Liquidations. Dramatic crash underscores fragility of cryptocurrency's recent gains and vulnerability of individual investors
• Crypto.com https://decrypt.co/90590/crypto-com-suffers-hack-at-least-15m-ethereum
• Bitcoin mining machines seized
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/kosovo-police-seize-300-crypto-mining-machines-amid-electricity-shortages
• DeFi loss
• https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/19/over-10-billion-lost-to-defi-scams-and-thefts-in-2021.html
• Squid game coin rug pull
• Polygon genesis contract nearly falls victim to a major hack. Thank goodness the severe loss if prevented by a white hat hacker
• 'Critical' Polygon bug put $24 billion in tokens at risk until recent hard fork
• https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/128784/polygon-critical-bug-24-billion-matic-tokens-at-risk-hard-fork
• Hong Kong NFT project Monkey Kingdom loses $1.3M in phishing hack, launches compensation fund
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/hong-kong-nft-project-monkey-kingdom-loses-1-3m-in-phishing-hack-launches-compensation-fund
• Discord hacking can be the nightmare of every blockchain project and dapps
• Security of NFTs, discord and blockchain
• https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/7/22870912/nft-communities-boom-discord-hackers-cryptocurrency-webhooks
• A user has received a significant discount, resulting in 1697 OHM instead of 59 OHM after bonding an OHM/DAI bond that was supposed to be closed off. "OlympusDAO is an experimental project in the cryptosphere. The DAO manages a token treasury that's used to back the OHM currency. The purpose of the treasury is to make sure the token maintains a certain floor price. If the token drops below that price, the assets in the treasury can be sold to buy back OHM tokens — with the goal to bring its price back above that mark."
• "The DAO uses a process for helping the token to stay above that mark called Bonding. The DAO buys assets from investors (to go into the treasury) and issues OHM tokens to replace them. These bonds usually get a 5-10% discount and the tokens are handing out after a vesting period, which is currently set to five days."
• https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/125170/olympusdao-mistake-lets-user-spend-50000-to-buy-1-43-million-in-ohm
• Some already call the DAO a ponzi scheme like pool even before this incident
• OpenSea froze Bored Ape transactions https://cointelegraph.com/news/opensea-freezes-2-2m-of-stolen-bored-apes
• Sandbox
• https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/17284749/digital-land-sandbox-metaverse-stolen/
• "QiDAO acknowledged the exploit via Twitter; however, the team stressed that the vesting contract was exploited through a vulnerability in Superfluid, a smart contracts framework on Ethereum that enables users to transfer assets on-chain, rather than QiDAO itself." https://decrypt.co/92375/vesting-contract-polygon-defi-protocol-qidao-exploited-13-million
• Decrypt “Ronin, the sidechain for NFT "play-to-earn" game Axie Infinity, has been hit with an exploit that drained $552 million in crypto from its bridge to Ethereum's mainnet. By the time the exploit was disclosed, the value of the crypto lost had increased to $622 million.“ 
• Solana wormhole hack & why u should

Getting the most out of hackathons:

• Hackathons can be great recruiting events. Submit your resume. Get the contact info of the recruiter.
• Get exclusive previews to alpha beta releases, become a beta tester
• Get hands-on free training through workshops 
• Hackathon participation is highly encouraged!
• Watch out for exposing IP, code, and accidentally giving up licensure. See image below. Here's an example excerpt of license of the submitted project .

Machine learning training data

 Oxford flower 102 example

Data is already split into train and validation folder. For an additional 3rd dataset, we will need to make the decision to split from train or valid, depends on the prevalence of data, per class.

Within the folders, there are 102 folders, corresponding to the 102 classes of flowers. Some folders have more data, some classes/folders have fewer. The folder name is the numeric value of the flower class. 

This is an example what the flower image data look like. 

Most modern deep learning libraries have the capability to load and organize image data from folders, named with the correct conventions. 

Great NFT Examples in Every Industry

Every one is doing NFT. Here are the great NFT examples in every industry. Be sure to check our disclaimer. Do you own research. Blockchain and crypto has a lot of money volume, and are often targeted by hackers. While these projects have great 

ideas, chances are, they have not all been fully secured. Crypto, blockchain and NFT are extremely risky, and new. Be aware!

Be sure to read our disclaimer before reading this post. NFT and crypto are risky. We own both, and often our NFTs have trouble being re-sold. And the floor price keeps dropping. 

DISCLAIMER WARNING

We have updated our disclaimer and terms of use to include domain info and blockchain, crypto related info. Please review.  Link here. By reading, using our content, you agree with what's outlined in the disclaimer article.

Basketball 

• Kevan Durant https://decrypt.co/88380/kevin-durant-coinbase-ink-new-promotional-deal
• Dallas Mavericks:  https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cryptocurrency/22/01/24910574/dallas-mavericks-new-nfts-to-honor-dirk-nowitzki-retirement-night-how-you-can-get-free-nft

Celebrities and NFT tokens

• "Rapper Eminem has purchased a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) non-fungible token (NFT) for 123.45 ETH, or roughly $462,000." "Rapper Eminem has purchased a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) non-fungible token (NFT) for 123.45 ETH, or roughly $462,000." "Eminem instantly adopted the NFT as his Twitter profile photo, portraying an ape with a brown military-style cap, hip hop attire, and a dazed look."
• Jordan Solana https://decrypt.co/88393/michael-jordan-jumps-into-web3-solana-app-athletes-nfts-tokens
• Celebrity and brand NFTs and colab https://cointelegraph.com/news/nifty-news-fluf-world-and-snoop-dogg-fundraise-adidas-and-prada-nfts-wax-gifts-10m-nfts

Game NFT:

Square Enix game NFT 

https://decrypt.co/89604/square-enix-president-reiterates-focus-blockchain-games-play-to-contribute-trend

English football soccer https://decrypt.co/88579/crypto-coming-english-football-gary-vee-nfts-coming 

Music NFT : 

• Mike Shinoda, Tezos. ZIGGURAT https://genius.com/albums/Mike-shinoda/Ziggurats
• Song a Day https://opensea.io/collection/song-a-day

NFT giveaway example:

crypto.com

OpenSea competitors

Other markets are trying to take a bite of OpenSea's lion's share

https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2022/01/11/one-day-after-launch-opensea-competitor-looksrare-sells-over-100m-in-nfts

Their attempts such as airdrops is eroding the empire.

Selfie NFT: the most shocking and unexpected NFT comes from GG in Indonesia

"Ghozali Ghozalu of Indonesia has become an instant star in the non-fungible token (NFT) space after selling photographs of himself on OpenSea. He published his selfies shot every day from the age of 18 to 22 for 0.001 ETH ($3.25) each, and they sold out in a matter of days. Ghozali Everyday's collection is now worth about $1.4 million, a significant increase from the $3,000 the Indonesian made in the initial sale." 

Poap related but not the same concept. Event attendance badge.  https://www.coingecko.com/buzz/what-is-poap-and-how-to-claim-it

Use NFT, ENS .eth name for Fundraising. It's easy for donors (who understand crypto) to figure out the address. It's also transparent to track and re-distribute to additional charities. Cuts off the middle man fees and potential issues.

There are also NFTs that can change traits, they are changeable, they can grow, they can have names added later etc. Novatar for example (just an example, not endorsement, we don't know much about this NFT)

Non fundgable token great to tracking original limited edition art. Track provenance of a product

Cool NFTs on the opensea platform:

• Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) https://opensea.io/collection/boredapeyachtclub
• Cryptoadz (Comment: not exactly cool, but definitely popular by volume) https://opensea.io/collection/cryptoadz-by-gremplin
• Coolcats NFT https://opensea.io/collection/cool-cats-nft
• Exosphere NFT very cool https://opensea.io/collection/exospheres

Access to exclusive events, drop, and restricted discords and communities seems to be major lure for NFT holders. 

Twitter NFT Profile Picture (PFP)

Requires twitter blue subscription. Works with ETH wallet NFT. 

Youtube considers adding NFT (Forbes reports)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2022/01/25/youtube-considers-adding-nfts-as-a-revenue-source-for-creators

Random animals

• Gutter pigeons https://opensea.io/collection/gutterpigeons

Adidas:

• Into the Metaverse (ITM) NFT https://www.adidas.com/into_the_metaverse
• Adidas originals twitter https://twitter.com/adidasoriginals
• In the news https://www.voguebusiness.com/technology/adidas-reveals-new-nft-project-with-bored-ape-yacht-club
• https://decrypt.co/88705/adidas-ethereum-nft-drop-nets-23-million-and-shoots-to-top-of-charts

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) makes even more money with Mutant Bored Ape serum

https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cryptocurrency/21/12/24815960/mutant-ape-yacht-club-lands-two-3-5m-serum-sales-and-one-epic-reveal-party

Gucci

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/01/24/gucci-taps-toy-brand-superplastic-to-drop-10-supergucci-nfts-in-february

https://mobile.twitter.com/gucci/status/1484590616080224259

Crypto, tokens for cities

Crypto, token examples: 

"Harnessing Blockchain For Sustainability" : "Miami is set to become one of the first major US cities to use a decentralized Internet of Things (IoT) network built on Algorand (ALGO) to monitor its air quality. PlanetWatch, a French environmental technology company, has been commissioned to build a network of air quality sensors throughout the city to monitor air pollution concentration. Each sensor monitors air pollution concentration in a specific location, which is then combined into a network to determine where higher amounts of pollution exist."

SOS airdrop example Reward user for transactions on OpenSea, effectively "stealing"/ attracting OpenSea's highest value users (super users).

Pytorch community statistics

 Pytorch community statistics November 2021. Is Pytorch still worth learning? The statistics seem to say so. 70% of NeurIPS 19 framework papers cites Pytorch usage. Learn more about the pytorch eco system, contributors, core developers, users, forums, and github downstream projects, citation in academic papers and conferences.

Git repo pull request, github pull request

 

Did you know you can create a pull request (PR) in github in the browser? Navigate to any repositories that you'd like to contribute to, and click the pull request option. 

Economic Indicators for Stock Market

 Here are some economic indicators that I have heard of, might give signals for various stock investment. Note this blog does not contain any investment advice. I am not a professional advisor. I just like to read about economics and stock market. Please don't take any advice you read here. Do your own research.

Airline : S&P 500 Airline Index

Bitcoin ETF: ProShares Bitcoin Strategy fund (BITO)

Federal (USA) : one-year loan prime rate (LPR)

Gas price (crypto), gas price (petro)

Historic data: Yahoo has historic data for stock tickers, as well as some popular cryptos : bitcoin, ETH

Housing affordability index

Inflation: Consumer Price Index (CPI, monthly) by Bureau of Labor Statistics 

U.S. Inflation Hit a 39-Year High in November

Consumer prices rose 0.8% in the month and 6.8% from a year ago

https://www.wsj.com/articles/us-inflation-consumer-price-index-november-2021-11639088867

iShares Russell 2000 ETF  (IWM)

median salary

Nasdaq 100 ETF QQQ

To learn more about indicators, check out NPR Planet Money podcast December 2021 Family Feud who is indicator of the year. The Indicator from Planet Money Dec 2021

S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY)

Individual stocks, qualitative analysis metrics: P/E ratio

Short interest: what is short interest, how to short? Where to see shorting data.

Jobs report.

real estate long term growth rate for housing price in e.g. San Francisco

Pending house sale

Inflation Rate YoY USA

GDP Growth Rate YoY

Michigan Consumer Sentiment USA

"A bear market occurs when a market experiences prolonged price declines. Traditionally, it can be described as when the price of securities falls 20% or more from their recent highs." Crypto.com