Welcome to the Block & Mortar newsletter! Every week, I bring you the top stories and my analysis on where business meets web3: blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and metaverse. Brought to you by Q McCallum.

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(Photo by Egor Myznik on Unsplash)

Subscribers in the US are gearing up for the Thanksgiving holiday later this week. If you’re stuck at the gate because of Yet Another Airport Delay™, or sitting in traffic on the way to your in-laws’, or camping out at some store in preparation for their Black Friday sale… this newsletter is for you. Because you have extra time to stare at your phone.

So in lieu of my usual treatment – several segments of me rambling about web3 – here’s a list of reading material:

"OneCoin’s Compliance Head Pleads Guilty in $4 Billion Crypto Fraud Case" (WSJ) - Remember OneCoin? From newsletter #67? So-called “Crypto Queen” Ruja Ignatova is nowhere to be found, but the wheels of justice are still turning.

"ENS lead developer calls out Unstoppable Domain patents on social media" (Blockworks) - Two web3 domain registrars are in a legal scuffle. There’s probably a “permissionless” joke in there somewhere …

"Minting of Ordinals-like tokens causes big surge in Polygon transaction fees" (The Block) - Remember the Ordinals project (newsletters #41, #44, #47, #48)? It provides (sort-of-)NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain. A similar project is stirring up trouble on Polygon.

"If you created a bitcoin wallet before 2016, your money may be at risk" (Washington Post) - Might be a good time to shuffle your Bitcoin to a new spot.

"Massive cryptomining rig discovered under Polish court’s floor, stealing power" (Ars Technica) - “Umm wow our electricity bill is higher than usual …”

"Crypto Crashed and Everyone’s In Jail. Investors Think It’s Coming Back Anyway." (Vice) - Soooooo last week when I mentioned that “crypto is back” … That was sarcasm. I don’t think these folks got the memo.

"Singapore Vies With Asian Peers for Slice of $127 Billion Stablecoin Sector" (Bloomberg) - Another country is getting in on that sweet sweet stablecoin market.

"This Baseball Card Could Be Worth $10 Million. Or Much More." (WSJ) - This story is not about NFTs. But it’s about expensive collectibles. So, kinda the same deal.

The wrap-up

This was an issue of Block & Mortar.

Who’s behind Block & Mortar? I'm Q McCallum. I've spent the past two decades in the emerging-tech space. And I'm very interested in web3 use cases.

Credit where it's due. Big thanks to Shane Glynn for reviewing early drafts. Any mistakes that remain are mine.

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