GM, this is the Milk Road. We break crypto records every day. Call us the LeBron James of the blockchain. “F*** man, thank you guys.”

Here’s what we got for ya today:

• Are AI tokens the real deal or a big scam?

• Throwback Thursday: 2 tries left for $200M

• Graph of the Day: ETH energy use is way ⬇️

• Milk & Cookies

ARE AI TOKENS THE REAL DEAL?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking over the world. It’s everywhere — biotech, law, music, and even meal prep. There are more AI crossovers than when Allen Iverson was tearing up the NBA.

And now, it’s taking over crypto. NFTs, DeFi projects, etc. are all pivoting to add the newest buzz word to their project. And check it out: AI tokens have been some of the hottest cryptocurrencies this year.

Since January 27th, $1.62B has poured into AI cryptos. As of yesterday, the market cap for AI-centered digital assets was ~$4.18B.

Let’s take a peek at some of the biggest winners:

• The Graph (GRT): The Graph is an indexing protocol for querying blockchains like Ethereum and IPFS. It’s up 79% in the past month.

• Singularity NET (AGIX): SingularityNET is on a mission to create a “decentralized, democratic, inclusive and beneficial Artificial General Intelligence that’s not dependent on any central entity.” AGIX is up almost 200% in the last month.

• Ocean Protocol (OCEAN): The Ocean Protocol wants “to give businesses and individuals the power of their data” with ERC-20 based data tokens. OCEAN is up 16% in the last month.

• Alethea Artificial Liquid Intelligence Token (ALI): Alethea AI is a research and development studio “on a mission to use AI and crypto to enable decentralized ownership and democratic governance of AI.” ALI is up over 100% in the last month.

So everyone wants to know… are AI tokens the next big thing or just another fad?

Here’s what the crypto community thinks:

Andre Cronje, the co-founder of the Fantom blockchain and Yearn Finance, said:

David Hoffman from Bankless said:

Haseeb has the opposite take of David and Andre:

The Milk Road Take:

There might be promise with some of these applications and use cases, but 99% of these new projects will end up in the crypto graveyard.

There are already hundreds of fake ChatGPT and other AI crypto tokens being created daily, so it's going to be hard to pick the winners from the duds.

Regardless, there is no doubt in our minds that AI and crypto are here to stay. But, that doesn’t mean they need to be combined.

It’s kinda like when your local restaurant tries to remix a classic menu. They'll start putting chicken tenders & fries inside a damn burrito.

The ingredients are amazing by themselves, but combined... it's a sin. We think crypto and AI are the same way.

REINVENT HOW YOU DISCOVER ARTISTS WITH LIMEWIRE

Guess who's back from the from the dead?

Limewire.

Limewire was a peer-to-peer file sharing client people used to download and share free pirated music in the early 2000s.

They were the Silk Road of music files — Spotify before Spotify — Netflix before Netflix.

But, in 2010 Big Music permanently shut down LimeWire.

No more free 50Cent songs, Harry Potter marathons, or JLO music videos.

Then, last summer, a decade after being shutdown, LimeWire said, "the show goes on."

The revamped company raised money from some of the top VCs in crypto to build an NFT music and entertainment marketplace to reinvent how fans discover artists.

Limewire makes it super easy for people to buy NFTs. All you need is a credit card - no gas fees or complicated wallet interfaces.

So far they are crushing it:

• Announced a global partnership with Universal Music Group

• Grew their Discord community to over 57,000 (join here)

• Released their first NFT subscription platform for creators

Next week, they are launching a token PRESALE ($LMWR) that lets you claim token rewards, reduce your trading fees, and cast votes for artists and features.

The pre-sale for ($LMWR) will take place on March 7th. Read the whitepaper and sign up now.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

It’s time for #TBT… and we’re not talking about your prom pics. We’re talking about the guy that has just two more tries to guess his password to a wallet containing ~$200M in Bitcoin (!)

Stefan Thomas is a big deal in the developer world. He pocketed 7,000 Bitcoin in 2011 (worth ~$210,000 at BTC’s peak that year) as payment for making a video about how crypto works.

He stored the BTC in a hard wallet, wrote the password on a piece of paper and then… lost it.

Thomas has 10 chances to guess the password before the wallet locks forever. He told The New York Times in Jan. 2021 that he had already used 8 tries. Gulp.

10 – 8 = crushed dreams. But we’re still rooting for you, buddy.

Question for the Roadies: You've got two tries left before you lose $200M — what are you guessing? Hit reply and we'll send $100 to the best response.

CHART OF THE DAY: ETH ENERGY USE DOWN 99.98%

It’s been six months since Ethereum migrated from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, which means we now have longer-term data on how the network’s energy usage has changed.

Spoiler alert: It has dropped a sh*t-ton. A whopping 99.98% decline.

The folks over at CCRI put together a report for ConsenSys (blockchain company founded by an Ethereum creator) that includes some fun nuggets on exactly how much greener the network has gotten.

Ethereum was eating up ~23 million megawatt hours per year back when miners were creating new blocks (almost as much as the entire country of Ireland). Now, it’s consuming just 2,600 megawatt hours per year with stakers validating each transaction instead.

And Ethereum’s CO2 emissions? Those dropped 99.99% from ~11M tons to just ~870. Not too shabby.

CCRI put the drop in energy use into perspective with another handy graph:

Looks like Ethereum is Mama Nature’s new fav.

MILK AND COOKIES

Binance is catching heat for the $1.8b B-USDC it transferred out of Binance wallets on August 17, 2022. According to reports from Forbes, the outflow didn’t accompany a corresponding reduction in the supply of B-USDC.

Crypto bank Silvergate's stock plunges 25%. According to Bloomberg, the battered bank is "studying whether it’s still viable and reviewing its financial controls". Yikes.

Goldman Sachs' head of digital assets says the bank is still “hugely supportive” of exploring blockchain-related applications. The digital assets team has grown from four people in 2020 to 70 today.

A German crypto owner tried to avoid taxes by claiming his $3.6M in crypto gains were a personal “data set.” If my enemies ever need a lawyer, I'm referring them to this guy.

Someone inscribed the poop emoji on Bitcoin and sold it for $28k. Of course they did.

MILKY MEME

🤣🤣

That's a wrap for today. Stay thirsty & see ya next time! If you want more, be sure to follow our Twitter (@MilkRoadDaily)

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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.