💰 Coco Pop Wars & Granny’s Crypto Wallet...

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In this Open Letter:

• Crypto regulation: It’s here and it’s not all bad.
• Ever hacked yourself? It’s becoming a thing. We dive into Biohacking
• No-code websites: Launch your startup in days.
• Down the rabbit hole: What AI thinks about this newsletter.

TRENDING NOW

A Hand on Grandma’s Wallet

Inside a Crypto-Regulated SA

So we can’t say we’re too surprised at crypto getting regulated. A South African is, after all, accused of perpetrating the biggest global crypto scam of 2020!

Just imagine: In a country where it’s next to impossible to raise startup funding, Johann Steynberg and co, collected R8bn from investors in just 2 years.

But why did people fall for this?

Much like Mr CrossFit, the cyclist and the vegan, Bitcoin Guy has pretty good PR. So South Africans invested their hard-earned cash in Johann’s Bitcoin wallet without checking what he actually does with user funds.

Turns out he’s a pretty bad trader – only ever depositing 1900 BTC and losing 566. (Kinda like the QuadrigaCX story on Netflix). So the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) published a notice that it had updated the FAIS Act to include digital assets.

It defines a “crypto asset” as a “digital representation of value”, declaring it as a financial product – but that excludes miners, node operators and NFTs (for now).

Was it all Johann’s fault?

Not entirely. Other mounting risks also contributed:

• SA implemented exchange control in 1939 to protect the Rand and stabilise the economy, and crypto’s cross-border payment capability by nature kinda demolishes that.
• Global money laundering and terrorism watchdogs, Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s recent evaluation of SA threatens to restrict direct foreign investment. So everyone’s a little on edge right now.
• Intermediaries are safeguards – your bank can reverse a fraudulent transfer. Not so with crypto, you have full control (and risk). A freedom your regular geek might relish, but grandma transferring your birthday money to the wrong Ethereum wallet, less so.
• Another SA-based crypto hedge fund lost $100m of investor funds when it invested in UST. Regulation could have prevented them from going into such high-risk Defi projects.

So what does regulation mean for the industry?

For now, anybody offering services to buy and sell these crypto “financial instruments” (such as VALR, Luno, Binance or Ovex) needs to be registered as a financial service provider and comply with all the necessary regulations.

Once that’s in place, you’ll be pressed to “provide the FSCA with any information” they may request. Good for managing bad guys, but not great for decentralisation and privacy. Something Edward Snowden is working on countering with ZCash.

And the South African early birds have been digging for some worms in the expectation of inevitable regulation:

• Regulated crypto funds: Petrock Capital.
• ZAR-based stablecoins for the peer-to-peer exchange of value: ZARP.
• Wallet custody solutions – Allows financial institutions to keep your private keys, and thus your wallet and its content in their possession: KeyStore by BMA.
• Tax management for your crypto assets: Koinly (not South African, but compatible with SA exchanges and SARS).
• Tokenisation of real-world assets: Momint and Fanfire.
• Investment into regulated blockchain solutions by none other than South Africa’s very own “father of Defi”.

Currently, SA ranks 30th on the global crypto index, with about 10-30% of people owning crypto. Ultimately, however, the regulation of crypto is likely to get even more people and institutions excited and rallying behind the technology.

And with numbers rising, regulations in place and mainstream adoption, there are bound to be more opportunities.

IN SHORT

Why buy crypto when you can take 30% of NFT transactions like Apple?

Bulls hoping for a bull run with BTC bonuses.

We all knew it, yet we lived in denial. Coco Pops wins the sugar Olympics.

Elon Musk has no idea who the Twitter CEO is.

Sailing when the sun’s out is taking on a new meaning with SA-built solar-powered catamaran.

Need to swap those gains for food? You can now Pick n Pay with crypto.

WATCH THIS SPACE

Prevention, Cures & Biohacking Billions

Cyber-humans. The rise of the Icemen. And how to grab your share of R16 Billion by 2027. It’s no secret that, like many African countries, South Africa can’t provide proper healthcare for 84% of its population (50 million people without proper care).

That’s because just 16%–21% of our population consume about 50% of the country’s total healthcare expenditure (circa R157 billion, from Stats SA gov expenditure reports). No surprise then SA loves healthcare alternatives…

Digital Healthcare Boom

Even before Covid, digital healthcare was booming in SA. (During the pandemic, telehealth providers like Momentum’s Hello Doctor would see up to 115% usage increases in a single month.) A trend that 56% of doctors are really happy about, but 94% are worried about lack of rural internet access, language barriers and lawsuits – insurers aren’t quite sure how to cover them for malpractice via the phone yet.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Statistica pegs the SA digital health market at R1bn this year (2022), to grow to R16 Billion by 2027.

With “e-health” services just delivering one 3rd of the potential revenue, the big bucks are in “Digital Fitness & Well-Being”. Which inevitably brings us to…

Hacking the most complex biological machine

Biohacking is taking a “systems approach to biology”, and it ranges from the pretty obvious lifestyle improvements like better sleep, optimal diet and nutrition. To tailored exercise for your body type, right the way through to implanting microchips into your hand to easily make payments or serve as your train ticket. Or even Neuralink’s implantable brain-machine interfaces.

It would seem like everyone is biohacking. From Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey, to Elon Musk (Neuralink co-founder), to the Ice-Man Wim Hof. Even the lady sucking down a menthol cigarette, shivering in a towel, post-Full Moon Dip proclaiming the health benefits of cold water immersion, is biohacking.

And we picked up on a rise in interest when Google noted a 900% rise in interest in “curative health” in South Africa. Part of a larger Europe/Africa trend in “healing”. And you can see it clearly in the rise of interest in “intermittent fasting” (another form of biohacking) in SA over the last few years…

Biohacking Levels

Since it’s quite new, it’s still broad. These are the current main categories of Biohacking:

NutrigenomicsThe study of food and how it affects the way we act, feel and think. (Probably the easiest and most viable entry-point – the SA health food market is valued at R61 Billion).

DIY biologyThis is where educated/qualified (and sometimes Facebook-educated) Biohackers run experiments on their bodies outside of a controlled lab environment.

GrinderThe most extreme version of biohacking, Grinders will go to any length to optimise their bodies – from chemical injections, implants and chips. Think former NASA biochemist Josiah Zayner: watch his “grotesque” gut-bacteria hacking experiment (if you have the stomach for it).

Biohacking startups in South Africa

ThriveLabs says it’s SA’s first biohacking facility, with all kinds of treatments like Infrared Sauna, Cold Hydrotherapy/Ice Bath, Red Light Therapy, HBOT (Oxygen therapy), Lymphatic Presso Therapy and Ozone Rectal Insufflation (which is exactly what it sounds like and totally worth looking up).

Made to Thrive connects people with consultants, including SA’s first self-proclaimed professional biohacker, Steve Stavs, for biohack coaching.

NuHuman takes hair tissue samples to analyse your mineral and microbiome balance before recommending custom diet & fitness plans.

Lifeq is building the tech that gives us feedback on vitals that can help us be more effective in our biohacking efforts.

It’s exciting to see some established players in the biohacking space. And we believe there’ll soon be more opportunities for different sectors and more industries to bring their specific domain knowledge to the biohacking party.

Know any? Thinking of starting something? Come on, share with us: rk@theopenletter.io.

A TOOL THAT’S COOL

The Low-code/No-code movement’s growing – helping not-so-technical founders launch startups within days. And Webflow is at the top of our list of must-learn low-code/no-code solutions.

Buy a template from their store and get going within minutes. It’s got the power of HTML and CSS (and even some JS) without having to actually write a single line of code. (We’re not affiliated, we just use it, so we know it works.)

ACCORDING TO AI

We fed this letter’s subject line into the Stable Diffusion AI image generator, and apparently, this is how robots summarise everything you’ve just read…

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