According to Karl Marx, “religion is the opiate of the masses.”

And maybe that was true in the 1860s, but Karl Marx never got the chance to sit through a nine-hour Netflix binge or watch a smartphone user blindly stagger through a busy crosswalk.

No, it’s pretty safe to say that entertainment has unseated religion as society’s opioid of choice.

And like any opiate, you just need that first, blissful hit. And it looks like crypto may have plans to try a little entertainment, just to see if it likes it, as Hollywood welcomes “Film3.”

Espresso Shots

☕️ VanEck Bullish on SOL

VanEck, the asset management company, has published a new report that indicates that Solana’s SOL token may rise to as much as $3,211.28.

The scenario laid out by VanEck also contained a timeline in which Solana was the first blockchain to onboard over 100 million users.

Additionally, VanEck predicts that SOL holders could garner around $8 billion in revenue by 2030.

Unofficially, these predictions may be coming from an Aztec tablet that VanEck researchers unearthed. The ancient writing was backed by a feathered serpent or “proof-of-snake.”

☕️ ChatGPT Goes Phishing

The release of ChatGPT may have caused a 1,265% increase in phishing scams according to a press release from the cybersecurity firm SlashNext.

“When ChatGPT released in February, we saw a dramatic increase in the number of phishing attacks, obviously partly driven by, just in general, overall attacks because of the success,” SlashNext CEO Patrick Harr said in an interview with Decrypt.

Phishing attacks consist of messages that convince users to provide sensitive information or follow links to malicious sites.

“While there has been some debate about the true influence of generative AI on cybercriminal activity, we know from our research that threat actors are leveraging tools like ChatGPT to help write sophisticated, targeted business email compromises and other phishing messages,” Harr continued.

The trick is to ask ChatGPT compelling prompts such as “convince Grandma I’ve been kidnapped.”

☕️ Thai Bank’s Big Crypto Buy

Thailand’s Kasikorn Bank, often referred to as “K Bank,” just bought a $103-million majority stake in the Satang crypto exchange.

After the purchase, K Bank will have acquired 97% of Satang’s parent company, which has operated in Thailand since 2017.

K Bank intends to rename Satang “Orbix,” and will split the exchange into three divisions: Orbix Technology, Orbix Custodian, and Orbix Invest.

This development has us pretty enthusiastic about K Bank, but we still prefer Special K Bank: Fruit and Yogurt.

Polled Brew

Spilling the Beans

Crypto’s Gateway Drug 💊 😮

Crypto and entertainment should be a match made in heaven.

Specific cryptocurrencies and DAOs quickly gain cult followings as rabid and enthusiastic as 90’s TV shows.

We’re actually pretty certain there’s a fair bit of overlap. If you polled a selection of the most prolific MakerDAO posters or the most enthusiastic members of the XRP Army, you’d probably find a lot of die-hard fans of “Twin Peaks” or “The X-Files.”

But what’s stopped Crypto from going full Hollywood?

Well, on one level, celebrity involvement in the space sometimes does more harm than good.

But that’s not an indictment of celebrity, that’s on the responsibility of an endorser to do enough due diligence to understand the product they’re hawking.

But misguided Super Bowl commercial aside, crypto and entertainment, much like crypto and gaming, is a partnership waiting for its “aha!” moment.

But that beautiful moment may be steadily building momentum, because the signs have already emerged.

This weekend marked the second annual Film3 Summit in Los Angeles.

Film3, as you may have guessed, represents the intersection of the film industry and blockchain technology.

During the Film3 summit, which is a three-day festival held in Santa Monica, industry leaders will come together and discuss the implications of the growing relationship between crypto and mainstream media. 

“The Film3 Summit acts as a conduit, not only educating, but bridging Web3 to Hollywood,” Filmmaker Jordan Bayne told Decrypt. “We are introducing new avenues for the financing, creation, marketing, and distribution of entertainment, utilizing the core concepts of Film3: creator-led communities that act as studios by owning their own IP, and amplifying and delivering to audiences.”

Jordan Bayne is one of the founding members of “The Squad” a collective of filmmakers, producers, and entertainment industry professionals who are bullish on Web3’s potential for film, particularly its ability to make filmmaking more accessible.

The Squad is also the production team behind the Film3 summits.

The festival offered three days of programming, including talks and appearances from Rachel Winter, the Academy Award-nominated producer of the “Dallas Buyers Club,” Leo Matchett, the CEO of Decentralized Pictures, and Miguel Faus, writer and director of “The Quiet Maid,” a blockchain-backed film.

It’s an important piece of publicity for the steadily developing relationship between film and Web3.

And this isn’t just a movement that’s slowly building momentum. Nick Sadler’s “The Irish Goodbye” was a short breakthrough film about two estranged brothers that won an Oscar in 2022.

And a significant portion of “The Irish Goodbye” was financed by Web3 communities.

That’s what makes Film3 such an exciting possibility. Access to these sorts of funds and community-led backing allows new creators to thrive outside the traditional studio system or streaming giant domains.

And as more and more blockchain-backed projects enter, or, like “The Irish Goodbye”, succeed in mainstream media, crypto’s American foothold only grows ever more secure.

If you want to normalize something in any country, TV and film are among the most effective methods.

So for now, we’re going to kick back in our lazy boys, relax, and watch the latest episode of Real Housewives of Incremental Crypto Adoption.

Crypto 101

SMS Phishing: This practice is also sometimes referred to as “smishing.”

Smishing contains all of the traits of traditional phishing scams but takes place solely over text message.

The Last Sip

The Last Sip: We hope you have a spooktacular Halloween, but always remember to check your kids’ candy. We hear this year they’re putting phishing scams in Milky Way bars.

Stay Caffeinated,

Coffee & Crypto Team

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