WhiteboardCrypto Newsletter - Apr 19

Welcome back to this week's edition of our WhiteboardCrypto Newsletter!

Base + Zora = token yo-yo

The Base blockchain posted on their social media “Base is for everyone.” Zora, a decentralized social network built on Base, automatically minted the post as a tradable token. Base then reposted the token with the sentence: “Coined it!” A ton of people bought in, speculating that this was an official Base memecoin, sending the token to a $17m valuation, and within hours it tanked down to $1m.

It has since recovered but that did not stop the speculation of a rugpull. Base is clear that this was not a rugpull (and the price recovery proves that) and indeed plan to tokenize their posts going forward. But this is a good reminder that "buying the news” or “buying the sentiment” may not always be the best option.

Learn more here.

Safer crypto ads in the EU

Google and other websites will have to restrict crypto-related ads to make sure they comply with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework and any other local requirements. This will make sure that crypto ads will all be by regulated entities that are following the proper guidelines, saving users in the EU the trouble of having to decipher if an ad is safe or not. But Google isn’t going to immediately remove accounts that post ads that don’t comply, so users should still make sure to do their own research before getting involved with any crypto project.

Learn more here.

An AI agent for you, one for your friend, and for that guy too!

Eliza Labs, formerly ai16z (not to be confused with a16z crypto), will launch a new platform that lets anyone design and launch an AI agent without having to know how to code. These agents can perform autonomous actions like crypto trading, posting on social media, and more. The site isn’t live yet, but it’s a play on Pump.Fun - auto.fun - which has a placeholder ASCII image until the site goes live on an unspecified date.

Regardless, this could be a huge unlock for open-access to AI, but we’ll wait for more details about how exactly its token model and actual implementation will work before saying if it’s a good thing or not. An important part of any autonomous execution is knowing it will do what it says it will, and if you can’t code, you can’t guarantee that. So, please be careful out there folks!

Learn more here.

Thanks for reading and I hope you learned something!

- Theodore

P.S. Hey! This is Basil. I write a lot of the content you see at WhiteboardCrypto, on our website, Youtube videos, and this newsletter. I also help manage the Discord server. I'm looking for additional work, so if you have need of these skills feel free to reach out at [email protected]. Thanks and take care!