😈 Made to destroy

Brought to you by:

GM, and welcome back to The Drop.

Crypto loves a piece of hardware to make the blockchain feel more real (and retail-friendly). We’ve seen some wearables plus a Solana phone and a Sui handheld thus far, though neither of those two have actually shipped yet…

What’s next?

Scroll down to find out.

— Kate Irwin

B3PC: gimmick or goldmine?

Crypto “L3” chain B3 has acquired PC builder Andromeda Insights and is releasing the B3PC, a blue-lit prebuilt for gamers that’s got some crypto integrations plus a dedicated “Destroy” button.

B3 says it acquired Andromeda because the PC startup is already financially successful, reportedly making “millions” in annual revenue and seeing 1,000% annual growth without a marketing budget. 

Released imagery of one example of the customizable PC shows seven preinstalled case fans, two T-Force RAM sticks, an RTX 5090 GPU and a unique case design.

Each B3PC will also come with an integrated Trezor Safe 5 crypto hardware wallet and an attached NFT that signifies the desktop PC onchain.

One part of this build that B3 really wants you to know about are its two privacy-forward options for wiping its built-in SSD. You can purge it digitally (and reuse it) with the Secure Erase feature regardless of whether the PC has power. It looks like that’s what the “Delete” button is for.

Or, if you’re looking for a more severe option, you can “Self-Destruct” your machine’s memory by pressing and holding the “Destroy” button for 10 seconds. This scary red button has a protective cover, though, to prevent your cats or kids from purging your PC by accident.

The Self-Destruct mode essentially sends a high voltage to burn the PC’s NAND flash memory, according to B3’s website.

Besides that, there are some other features that may appeal to the privacy-conscious, as well as fans of “rugged” tech. 

The B3PCs use AES encryption (alternatively, you can enable encryption on any existing Windows 11 PC by using Bitlocker).

When it comes to external temps, these PCs have been tested to handle environments anywhere from -55°C to 125°C (-67°F to 257°F). They also come with power surge protection to prevent short-circuits or electrostatic damage.

Preorder deposits are now open for $200 worth of fiat or any cryptocurrency, but the PCs aren’t expected to ship until early next year. If you pay in B3’s token, you’ll get a discount, though it’s unclear how much will be shaved off. 

The exact cost of a B3PC will vary based on what’s added, but Andromeda typically charges anywhere from $1,400 to just under $5,000 per prebuilt (for reference, it’s easy to spend upwards of $2,000 on a decked-out gaming rig when building one yourself — and prebuilts tend to cost a bit more by default).

B3 — which was developed by ex-Coinbase staff — is solely focused on gaming. But the browser-based, vertical-format hypercasual games it offers right now through Bsmnt don’t require a PC at all, and definitely not one that costs thousands of dollars. Apparently, the PCs will come with some B3 games preloaded, which I’m not sure everyone will want (gamers generally dislike bloatware, and a lot of PC gamers dislike mobile-style games).

Gaming-related activity doesn’t seem to be happening at all on Base itself right now. The category currently makes up less than 0.1% of all transactions on the Ethereum L2, according to Blockworks Research data.

B3, however, is seeing some transactions. Over 7.1 million wallet addresses have interacted with the chain, which builds on the Base stack. B3 has seen over 119 million total transactions since it launched last year.

The B3 team hinted that the B3PC is its first hardware product, with more to come in the future.

The gaming PC market is expected to keep growing, but not spike massively, in coming years. Grandview Research estimates it was around $61.8 billion last year, and may grow to $129.9 billion by 2030.

Mobile gaming, by contrast, is already double the size of the PC market for a variety of reasons, including easier accessibility and lower cost. It was believed to be a $139 billion market in 2024 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.2% in the next five years.

Brought to you by:

Katana is a DeFi chain built for higher sustainable yield and deep liquidity.

It concentrates liquidity into core applications and channels the chain’s revenue back to the users. Creating a better DeFi experience that benefits the active users on the chain.

Earn KAT tokens: Pre-deposit with turtle club 

Have you heard???

Permissionless IV is the definitive gathering for crypto's technical founders and builders.

Infra, incentives, interop, enterprise: It’s all on the table. Less than 2 weeks out.

📅 June 24–26 | Brooklyn