54 years ago today, the first Boeing 747 made its inaugural flight. And on December 6 of 2022, the very last 747 rolled out of the factory in Everett, Washington.

It’s been a long run for the 747. They’ve been the airplane of choice since the time you could smoke unfiltered cigarettes and order five gin martinis in the exit row.

So, in honor of the 747, climb aboard this newsletter, we’re headed for friendly skies.

Espresso Shots

☕️ AI Beating Bitcoin 🪙 🤖

AI-based Cryptocurrencies have been seriously outperforming Bitcoin.

Despite the recent hype around Bitcoin surging up to $23,000, it’s nothing compared to the gains of AI-based crypto such as Alethea and SingularityNET tokens, both of which have had whopping 220% gains.

AI-crypto are still built on the blockchain but utilize AI for aspects of their creation and validation.

Speculators believe this jump may have been invigorated by the release of the unprecedentedly sophisticated AI, ChatGPT. Some are saying AI-based crypto may not only be the biggest growth sector in crypto, but will usher in the next bull market.

And though they can teach AI to talk like us and authenticate crypto, the market still wonders if it will ever learn to love.

☕️ Cheating in Web3 🕹️ 🤬

Though Web3 gaming promises to bring video games to the next level, it would seem that it’s not without its cheaters and hackers.

Gamers are paying “boosters,” players-for-hire who will log into their account and boost their scores in Yuga Lab’s Dookey Dash, often using exploits or straight-up cheats.

Other than prestige, there’s usually not much incentive for gamers to hire someone to play for them, but three weeks ago, Yuga Labs announced that the player with the highest score in Dookey Dash would receive a mysterious reward.

We’re guessing it’s a Golden Ticket to a tour of Yuga Labs that ends with a near-fatal spill in the Dookey “chocolate” river.

☕️ New Sounds from the Catalina Whale Mixer 🐳 🎸

Record Label, Def Jam has partnered with the Catalina Whale Mixer, a Solana NFT project, to create a new NFT band.

“The Whales,” is an NFT-based musical collective that will feature music and voices from a yet-to-be-released “all star cast” of bands and performers.

Whale NFT-holders don’t just get to vote on the direction of the band’s music, but can audition to be a part of it.

“Instead of it just being like four guys in their garage that are deciding what it is, it’s like this community of all these people determining the direction that it goes,” said Carlo Fox, CEO of WAGMI Beach, the studio behind the Catalina Whale Mixer.

Though we’re prepping for the inevitable tragedy when the Whales are harpooned by Captain Ahab as a part of the East Coast vs West Coast rap beef.

Spilling the Beans

Google’s Web3 Play 🔎

We all use Google. It’s where debates are settled. It’s where you find out if that restaurant is still open. It’s where you search questions you’re too embarrassed to ask real people.

Google is a semi-constant presence in all of our lives, unless your computer has contracted some sort of virus that has forcibly installed the Bing search bar.

It happens. Not to us. But to a friend of ours. We don’t go on those kinds of sites.

But now, as Google nears its 25th birthday and continues its dominance, it’s time to explore how the tech giant plans to stay on top.

The thing is, you don’t get that large or that ubiquitous by remaining idle. To stay at the top, you have to keep moving and shaking: which is why Google is going all in on crypto.

In fact, Google’s web3 lead has said very clearly: he wants Google to be the Cloud layer that all of web3 is running on.

And Google is putting their money where their mouth is. In October, Google launched a blockchain node engine for Google Cloud.

Essentially, that means that crypto chains can build on top of Google Cloud, and use their services to store, maintain, and grow their blockhains.

Google’s official statement outlined their goals, saying:

“While self-managed nodes are often difficult to deploy and require constant management,” 

“Web3 companies who require dedicated nodes can relay transactions, deploy smart contracts and read or write blockchain data with the reliability, performance and security they expect from Google Cloud.”

Google is primarily supporting Ethereum with this project, but several other chains have already partnered with Google Cloud such as Aptos, BNB, Hedera and Solana.

Google has also partnered with Coinbase to bring crypto payments to its cloud services.

These are all incredibly encouraging developments, not only because it shows Google believes in crypto technology, but because it shows Google is actively investing in and partnering with leaders in the space.

At the moment, Google itself is worth nearly as much as the entire crypto market, and yet, Google is actively building and growing a web3 division.

As crypto slowly fights its way through this bear market, it’s hard not to see the bull case for crypto, and Google seems to agree.

And if you’re not sure about any of this, feel free Google it. 😉

Meme of the Day

Oh no, they're too musical!

Crypto 101

Solana: A public blockchain platform, Solana was once billed as the “Ethereum Killer.” Solana prides itself on being faster and greener than Ethereum but it’s never come close to overtaking the giant.

Ethereum still remains the second largest blockchain behind Bitcoin, valued at nearly $200 billion.

While Ethereum is still the most popular NFT network, Solana now has a burgeoning NFT ecosystem which primarily trades on the platform Magic Eden. 

Solana’s native token is SOL and the blockchain is currently the 12th most valuable in the world, valued at over $8 billion.

Solana is now trying to shake off its association with Sam Bankman-Fried who was once one of the chain’s staunchest advocates. Solana’s token SOL began 2023 valued at just under $10 but is now up more than 100% to $23.

The Last Sip

In honor of Def Jam Records new project, “The Whales” we’re assembling some of our own whale-themed cover bands:

• The Beached Boys

• Mötley Krill

• Bob Marley and the Whalers

• Whalé (pronounced Wah-lay. Like the rapper)

• Nickel-Humpback

• Creedence Saltwater Revival

Stay Caffeinated,

Coffee & Crypto Team

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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.