A crypto-powered lottery has helped one lucky winner turn $74 into just shy of $40,000.
PoolTogether doesn’t cost money—in a sense—to play; instead, you enter it by depositing cryptocurrencycryptocurrency tokens. It uses those tokens to generate a yield, and it’s this yield that is put into the lottery and shared out among those who participate. So, it’s a matter of perspective: You’re not losing anything by participating, although you are missing out on some yield that you otherwise might have gained.
On March 14, 2020, this particular user put $74 worth of the DAI cryptocurrency—a decentralizeddecentralized stablecoin pegged to the US dollar—into one of the pools. It sat there, generating a very small amount of yield, which was being put into the lottery.
On April 9, the user struck lucky, winning the lion’s share of the $33,100 prize (made up of DAI) and the $32,700 loot box, which comprises four tokens including Compound and STAKE. There were 4,754 players in the lottery. In total, they won $39,600.
.@PoolTogether_ is front-page-news-material in the making and, consequently, has the potential to be major on-boarding platform into DeFi at large
Because the amounts involved were so small, the user had a 1 in 289,812 chance of winning the Grand Prize (the largest reward on offer). In contrast, one of the runners up had more than $10 million in DAI with a 1 in 2.48 chance of winning.
While the money is substantial, the user already has a fair chunk of cryptocurrency. According to Etherscan, they already have $14,600 of Ethereum (ETH) in their wallet, with their PoolTogether winnings bringing their holdings of Ethereum-based tokens up to $195,000.
Launched in June 2019, PoolTogether has grown considerably over the past year or so. It now has at least $170 million locked up in its various pools, the majority in its DAI and USDC pools. According to crypto research unit Messari, PoolTogether has paid out $750 million in prizes since it began. While most of that will go to the whales who’ve deposited large funds to the platform, every so often a smaller holder can strike it lucky.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
Brazil might pull the plug on popular chat app Discord after a failed terrorist attack at Lady Gaga's mega-concert revealed the platform was used to plan violence against LGBTQ+ attendees.
Brazilian Deputy Guilherme Boulos formally requested Discord's suspension last week, just days after police foiled a plot to attack Lady Gaga's May 3 show at Copacabana Beach—a massive event that drew over 2.1 million people. Authorities conducted their "Fake Monster" operation across four states, executing 15...
People are being tricked into downloading fake AI tools as a way to spread the information stealer malware Noodlophile.
This malware is able to harvest browser credentials, cryptocurrency wallet information and more sensitive data, according to a security researcher.
Morphisec researcher Shmuel Uzan said, in a report, "Instead of relying on traditional phishing or cracked software sites, they build convincing AI-themed platforms – often advertised via legitimate-looking Facebook groups and viral...
Since the early days of the internet, HTTP 402, a payment status code that showed "Payment Required," has existed as a placeholder in web protocols. It was a digital relic that once promised an internet with built-in payment capabilities but was never fully realized.
Three decades later, crypto exchange Coinbase, through its Developer Platform, has brought it back to life with x402, a new, open-source protocol that creates a native payment layer for the web.
"Imagine a future where crypto is the...