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GM. This is Milk Road. Today, we’re talking about the new project taking crypto by storm…

ERC-404. It’s everywhere. 

*Scrolls through Twitter*… see posts about ERC-404.

*Browses through LinkedIn*… see ERC-404 is a “skill” now.

The Starbucks barista even sketched ‘ERC-404’ into my coffee foam this morning. 

So we did some research. 

We visited the distant parts of the internet (where only the bravest souls go) to find out everything we could… the Lost Land of Page 8 Google Search Results. 

Here’s what we found:

• ERC-404: The Origin Story 📖

• So, wtf are ERC-404 and Pandora? 🤔

• The bull and bear case ⚖️

• BONUS: BTC hit $45K! 🍪

ERC-404: THE ORIGIN STORY 📖

All great heroes (and villains) have an origin story. 

Batman. Superman. Darth Vader. Walter White. You name it. 

ERC-404 is no different. Here’s its origin story in 3 parts:

PART 1: THE DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH

The story begins with a crypto project called Emerald. 

It launched last week and got a lot of hype:

• It introduced a new way to combine ERC-20 tokens (i.e. fungible tokens) and ERC-721 tokens (i.e. non-fungible tokens, or NFTs).

• Many investors thought it was a cool, novel concept that could enable new NFT market mechanics. 

• Translation: no one really knew what it meant, but it was provocative. It got the people going. 

But then… it got “hacked”. Btw, hacked is in quotations because some people think the developer rug pulled the project and disguised it as a hack. 

Who knows. Either way, sh*t hit the fan and investors lost thousands of dollars. 

But rather than let the concept go to waste, a couple of crypto nerds decided to reach out to the Emerald developer to help fix and relaunch the project. 

This is where things get interesting…

PART 2: THE TRUTH IS REVEALED

They all jump on a call together. The Emerald dev gets a crash course on how to fix everything in like 10 minutes. Problem solved, right? 

Wrong. This is when the truth bomb gets dropped… 

The Emerald “dev” isn’t a real dev and used ChatGPT. I repeat, ChatGPT! 

PART 3: A NEW BEGINNING

Long story short… the group of crypto nerds decides it’s best to ditch the fake dev/scammer/ChatGPT-lover. 

They create a new project based on the same concept. And this, ladies & gents, is the birth of…

• ERC-404: a new *unofficial* token standard that combines fungible tokens and non-fungible ones (i.e. NFTs).

• Pandora: the first project that uses the ERC-404 standard. 

Now that we got the origin story out of the way, let’s take a look under the hood to see how ERC-404 and Pandora work. 

But first…

*static noise*

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you a quick word from our sponsor:

SO, WTF ARE ERC-404 AND PANDORA? 🤔

*static noise*

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming…

Ok, so back to ERC-404 and Pandora. Here’s a quick recap:

• ERC-404: a new unofficial token standard that combines features from fungible tokens and non-fungible ones (i.e. NFTs).

• Pandora: the first project to use ERC-404.

In a nutshell, Pandora brings the best of both worlds together (fungible tokens and NFTs) to provide native liquidity and fractionalization. 

Here’s how it works:

• Pandora has 10,000 tokens. Right now, these tokens are available on decentralized exchanges - like Uniswap (normal stuff).

• When you buy 1 Pandora token, you get the token PLUS a “replicant” NFT associated with that token (not so normal).

• The NFT automatically gets minted to your wallet with randomized traits. 

• If you end up liking your NFT, you can keep it. Or if you end up getting rare traits, you can sell via an NFT marketplace. 

• If you don’t like/want the NFT, you can sell your Pandora token. When you sell the token, the NFT associated with it will get burned.

In simple terms, Pandora can be a token OR an NFT. 

Why this matters: NFT collections have always faced one big problem… liquidity issues. 

If you want to sell your NFT, you need to list it on a marketplace and wait for someone else to buy it. If there’s someone out there who even wants it…

Until then, you’re just staring at an illiquid JPEG. 

ERC-404’s change that. They allow investors to sell their NFTs by selling the Pandora token associated with it. 

As long as Pandora has a liquidity pool, the NFTs can be instantly sold (or in this case, burned).

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT IT ⚖️

Milk Road Take: Crypto investors are a lot like cats…they get attracted to shiny objects.

Right now, ERC404 projects are the shiniest ones. And you’re gonna see a TON of them over the next few weeks. 

But remember: 

• Although everyone’s calling it the best thing since sliced bread, it isn’t an official token standard.

• It’s fully experimental and hasn’t been audited.

• There will be plenty of scammers who take advantage of this new shiny object to steal your money (the first rug pull already happened).

• Be careful and don’t invest anything you can’t afford to lose. 

Alright, this is getting long and my editor’s about to pull the plug. 

Til tomorrow, 

The Milk Man

HELP THE MILK MAN DELIVER 🥛

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BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

2024 is jam-packed with crypto conferences and events. We cover the biggest events in each category for 2024 so you can learn, network, and collect some swag.

BTC hit $44K for the first time since the Bitcoin ETFs launched. No dollar menu for us today!

Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade was successfully launched on the Holesky test network. It’s the final test before the upgrade goes live on Ethereum’s mainnet later this month. 

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The NBA is getting sued for the league’s promotional arrangement with Voyager. The crypto trading platform collapsed back in 2022 and owes $4.2B to its customers. 

Mastercard launched a new NFT-powered soccer trivia game. The person with the most trivia points after April 30 will win tickets to the Champions League Final at Wembley Stadium in London.

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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.