This Week in Web3: Friday, April 22, 2022
Moonbirds NFTs generate $350M in 5 days, Coinbase launches NFT marketplace, lack of diversity in Web3, Accenture report on the Metaverse, web3 defined by the person who coined the term.
GM,
Erm, so WTF is going on with Moonbirds?
Basically Kevin Rose is killing the Web3 game. I’ve followed him closely since his days hosting Digg Nation, which if you remember, was one of the first video podcasts back in the day. He was also the co-founder of Digg.com, one of the first social recommendation sites, and has built and exited numerous successful companies since then.
As an investor and entrepreneur, Kevin has always had a keen eye for spotting future trends. In 2021 he launched the PROOF, a podcast about NFTs and the artists and creators behind them. Over the course of 12 months, he interviewed hundreds of creators, artists, DAO builders, and founders including his former rival in the social recommendations space, Alexis O’Hanian.
PROOF quickly became one of the most popular podcasts covering NFTs, with hundreds of thousands of people listening each week, and it is from this base that he has built one of the fastest-growing and most exciting new businesses in Web3.
Moonbirds is the official NFT project of the PROOF Collective, a private NFT community, which launched earlier this year. As of today, Moonbirds, which is a collection of 10,000 pixelated owl PFP NFTs has captured more than $350 Million of NFT transaction value in less than 5 days.
So, how do you go from a podcast with a few hundred thousand listeners to something that has the potential to generate more than half a billion dollars in NFT transaction value in the space of a few months?
Here’s my quick take, and it can be broken down in three ways:
Trust and Credibility
Essential to the success of an NFT project is having credible, and well-known people who have established trust within their communities. Those first 1k PROOF Collective token holders bought in at an average of 1ETH and did so with little understanding of what they were getting. But, they trusted Kevin because he is well known, respected, and has a deep understanding of and a successful track record in building successful digital products.
Being Community-First
Kevin and his team understood how to build from a core group, through to an audience of relevant and passionate listeners and then converted roughly 5% of them to PROOF Collective Token Holders. From this base, they launched Grails, their first NFT project, which generated over 10M in transaction revenue over the course of one weekend.
Following this early success, they then launched Moonbirds which sold 10k NFTs and which as we said has generated $350M in revenue. Taking a concentric approach to building community has worked very well, from the initial core team, through to the first 1000 PROOF Collective members, to the 10,000 pfp NFT holders, building outwards from a base is an effective strategy.
Furthermore, PROOF Collective members also received 2x Grail and 2x Moonbird NFTs as part of their membership. Today, the average member is sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars of value from an initial investment of roughly 1ETH.
Building for Long Term Growth and Sustainability
Holders of PROOF, Grails, and Moonbird tokens are being encouraged to hold for the long term. The team behind the project has also committed to re-invest the almost $100M they’ve made so far back into the project with a goal of growing the value of the assets over time and launching new products which will continue to help build long term value. The longer you hold, the more valuable your assets become. This is no pump and dump campaign, Kevin and his team are shooting for the moon(birds) and could quickly become one of the most valuable NFT companies out there, and they’re bringing their whole community with them.
Keep a close eye on this project, there’s much for us to learn.
Ok, onto this week’s digest. Enjoy!
TL;DR
Moonbirds NFT Sales Skyrocket Capturing $364 Million in 5 Days
'Alien' Director Ridley Scott to Produce Film About Ethereum's Rise
Let's Talk About the Lack of Diversity in Web3: We can be more inclusive in the space
‘Decentralized’ web3 startups find out the hard way there’s no safety net
What is ‘Web3’? Here’s the vision for the future of the internet from the man who coined the phrase
Overpriced JPEGs Podcast: Moment of Zen(eca): Mooning Birds & Hot NFT News
Solana's STEPN hits record high as GMT price skyrockets 34,000% in over a month
News we’re following
Moonbirds NFT Sales Skyrocket Capturing $364 Million in 5 Days
This week a new NFT collection called Moonbirds has surpassed the likes of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), and Cryptopunks sales. Traders only started swapping the 10,000 Moonbirds NFTs five days ago and since then it has captured $364.83 million in sales volume.
Moonbirds is currently the top NFT collection this week in terms of overall sales above dozens of unique collections. In fact, Moonbirds sales represent approximately 37.85% of the $963.8 million in total NFT sales recorded during the last week.
Coinbase’s Ethereum NFT Marketplace Launches in Beta
The long-awaited Coinbase NFT platform is finally live with an initial 0% marketplace fee and social media-like elements.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase today announced that its NFT marketplace is officially live in a limited-access beta launch, six months after it officially announced its long-teased plans.
Coinbase NFT is now available to select users added from the waitlist, which has amassed millions of prospective members since October. According to the exchange, it will add users in the order of signup, with plans to add everyone in the “coming weeks.”
'Alien' Director Ridley Scott to Produce Film About Ethereum's Rise
Scott Free Productions, the production company behind "House of Gucci" and "Blade Runner 2049," has attached its name to an adaptation of The Defiant founder Camila Russo's book "The Infinite Machine" about the founding of the Ethereum network.
According to Deadline, Shyam Madiraju is attached to write and direct, and director Ridley Scott will produce alongside Scott Free colleagues Tom Moran and Vera Meyer.
Things we’re reading
Let's Talk About the Lack of Diversity in Web3: We can be more inclusive in the space
When we focus on amplifying different voices and making Web3 technology more accessible to creators, we're talking about diversity in terms of race, gender identity, socioeconomic status and more.
To start amplifying a spectrum of voices, a good first step is to learn the basics of Web3. Don't feel rushed to become a Web3 expert overnight. However, it is important to grasp foundational concepts, follow headlines and understand why this technology evolution is so exciting.
Accenture 2022 Trends Report: Meet Me in the Metaverse
The next wave of digital change is here, providing forward-looking companies with an opportunity to act today to be ready for the future.
Welcome to the Metaverse Continuum—a spectrum of digitally enhanced worlds, realities and business models poised to revolutionize life and enterprise in the next decade.
It applies to all aspects of business, from consumer to worker and across the enterprise; from reality to virtual and back; from 2D to 3D; and from cloud and artificial intelligence to extended reality, blockchain, digital twins, edge technologies and beyond. As the next evolution of the internet, the metaverse will be a continuum of rapidly emerging capabilities, use cases, technologies and experiences.
‘Decentralized’ web3 startups find out the hard way there’s no safety net
When the Vietnam-based outfit behind the crypto game Axie Infinity was hacked last month — hackers stole upward of $625 million in Ethereum from its blockchain, with the FBI now pointing fingers at a North Korean state-sponsored group as the culprit — questions quickly arose around who, exactly, would make the company’s customers whole.
The outfit later said it would use its own balance sheet funds, along with an injection of $150 million in capital led by Binance, to make up the difference, but the episode, along with a newer lawsuit lodged earlier this month against three venture investors in the crypto token exchange Uniswap, has raised questions about who is protected against what in a more decentralized world where web3 startup companies are building atop blockchains like Ethereum and Solana.
Things we’re listening to/watching
Moonbirds and the Future of Utility NFTs | Kevin Rose
Kevin Rose is pioneering the intersection between the NFT ecosystem and content creation. Kevin founded digg, the news aggregator site that innovated community-curated content in the early days of Web2. With a macro perspective on all things digital, Kevin has thrived as a builder and investor on the cutting edge of the internet.
The recent launch of Moonbirds is shaping up to be the best NFT drop of 2022, with a flood of volume and lofty valuations. In this episode, we dive into why it worked so well, as well as the lessons learned and actionable takeaways. We also score some advice for Bankless as fellow crypto-native content creators!
Gavin Wood, founder of blockchain infrastructure company Parity Technologies, coined the term “Web 3.0” in 2014, laying out his vision of the future of the internet. For Wood, Web3 is truly decentralized and a more democratic version of the current internet — one that is not dominated by a handful of huge players like Amazon and Microsoft as it is today. Wood said that while cryptocurrencies have become popular, Web3 may not rely heavily on cryptocurrencies.
Overpriced JPEGs Podcast: Moment of Zen(eca): Mooning Birds & Hot NFT News
Our favorite recurring guest, Zeneca_33 is back for another Moment of Zen(eca) recap episode with Carly! The two analyze the massively successful Moonbirds project led by Kevin Rose. What does it mean for the space? And so much more!
They also discuss Carly’s exciting Amazonian NFT travel plans with the Nemus project team. Other hot topics and projects include: DeadFellaz, Akutars, World of Women, Yuga Labs Land Drop, Akutars, Alien Frens, VeeFriends Series 2, Cool Cats, MetaMask’s PSA, and more!
Projects we’re following
Solana's STEPN hits record high as GMT price skyrockets 34,000% in over a month
STEPN is a Web3 running app with fun game and social elements.
Users equip themselves with NFTs in the form of sneakers. By walking, jogging or running outdoors, users will collect GSTs and NFTs.
Strong hype around move-to-earn tokens could offset the bearish technicals emerging for GMT.