This Week in Web3: Friday, April 29, 2022
Eric Schmidt on the future of Web3, Bored Ape Yacht Club’s ApeCoin soars, an open invitation for women to join Web3, gradual dutch auctions, The Elondrop, and crafting community with GaryVee
Hi Friends,
We’ve talked a bunch about decentralization here and in Web3 terms, it is one of the building blocks that define the next iteration of the Internet. However, it is increasingly obvious, at least to me, that the term itself is highly nuanced and oftentimes misrepresented. Not everything is, or will be, or even has to be fully decentralized for it to work in Web3.
Let me explain. DAOs are by definition, decentralized. Most DAOs that exist today and those that will in the future, however, are not. Everything in fact exists on a spectrum of decentralization, some things being more decentralized than others.
Last week we spent some time digging into Moonbirds and the PROOF Collective, and this week we’re sharing a conversation between Kevin Rose and Gary Vaynerchuk, who talk about their respective projects and their product roadmaps.
As we learn more about how they think about the future and what they are building, it’s clear that there’s a new paradigm emerging for how to launch projects and start businesses in the Web3 space.
In the past, a new company starts with an idea, or at the very least a potential solution to a business and/or technical problem. MVPs are built and tested in the market and hopefully, we find product-market fit and then we raise capital.
In Web3, we’re seeing an inverse of this, where communities are formed, there’s an initial token offering or NFT drop, capital is raised and then we start to think about the idea, product vision, and what we are going to build.
Can this really work? It’s too early to stay, but what is obvious, at least to us, is that in the absence of an idea, product vision, and a roadmap, you had better have a clear sense of what your community’s purpose is and the values that bind the members together around shared ideals.
This is what we would call a Special Purpose Community or SPCs. Yep, that’s right, we’ve coined our first term!
The concept of an SPC actually came up on a call with our community recently, where one of our members described their community as a Special Purpose DAO. I think we prefer Special Purpose Community because as I said earlier, not every community-driven project has to be a DAO and therefore decentralized. PROOF Collective is not a DAO, but it is certainly a Special Purpose Community. Let’s see what they can build!
Enjoy this week's digest!
TL;DR
Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt says he’s invested ‘a little bit’ in crypto — but he’s more interested in the future of Web3
Cathie Wood and Mike Novogratz sat down at Crypto Bahamas today to discuss Web3, NFTs, and how Bitcoin could hit $1 million in the future
Bored Ape Yacht Club’s ApeCoin Soars as Community Mulls DAO Proposals
Whitepaper from Paradigm: Gradual Dutch Auctions by Frankie, Dan Robinson, Dave White, andy8052
The Elondrop: Build the political support necessary to free Twitter with the largest airdrop in history by Balaji Srinivasan
PROOF Podcast: Crafting Community with Gary Vaynerchuck's VeeFriends Series 2
Solana's Okay Bears Top All Ethereum NFT Projects With $18M in Sales in One Day
Nike and RTFKT Reveal CryptoKicks—Their First Ethereum NFT Metaverse Sneakers
News we’re following
Ex-Google CEO and chairman Eric Schmidt says he’s invested “a little bit” of money into cryptocurrencies — but for him, the most interesting part of blockchain isn’t virtual currency. It’s Web3.
Speaking at Crypto Bahamas, Cathie Wood and Mike Novogratz both said that they think Bitcoin could hit $1 million in the future. The pair reflected on Bitcoin's increasingly important role in the U.S. economy and political landscape. They also spoke of the potential for Web3, making particularly strong cases for the future of NFTs.
Bored Ape Yacht Club’s ApeCoin Soars as Community Mulls DAO Proposals
The token powering the ApeDAO, ApeCoin, has seen a price spike over the past 24 hours as the community votes on several proposals. ApeCoin is soaring today, up over 7% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.
APE spiked late last night, hitting a price of nearly $27. Since then, the token has shed some of those gains and is now trading hands at just under $22.
Things we’re reading
An open invitation for women to join the Web3 movement
Traditional investing is overwhelmingly dominated by men, but Web3 is a blank slate. With more women coming into the fold, we can break the narrative of exclusivity.
There’s no denying the current narrative about Web3: it’s a boys club. And, if we keep affirming this narrative, it’s bound to come true. The truth of crypto as a boys club won’t just be detrimental to women — it’ll be detrimental to the entire promise and growth of Web3.
Whitepaper from Paradigm: Gradual Dutch Auctions by Frankie, Dan Robinson, Dave White, andy8052
This paper introduces the Gradual Dutch Auction, 1 or GDA, a mechanism that enables efficient sales of assets that do not have liquid markets.
GDAs solve a similar problem to TWAMM, but do not rely on the existence of liquidity providers willing to make markets on pairs of assets.
GDAs work by breaking up a sale into a sequence of Dutch auctions—a type of auction that starts with a high asking price that is gradually lowered until a buyer makes a bid. GDAs allow you to purchase multiple of these auctions at once in a gas-efficient manner.
Elon should go over the heads of the establishment to offer all Twitter users a deal: every account worldwide gains full control over their username in a crypto wallet, plus a share of Twitter's new coin, if they can help him get the requisite legal clearance in their jurisdictions and the acquisition goes through. This brings most of the 217 million Twitter users – including the 179 million who are non-American – into the fight.
BONUS: List of Firms Investing in the Web3/Blockchain Space
Things we’re listening to
PROOF Podcast: Crafting Community with Gary Vaynerchuck's VeeFriends Series 2
Gary Vaynerchuck returns to talk about VeeFriends Series 2 and his playbook for real-world utility NFTs, the latest expansion of the VeeFriends universe.
Seed Club DAO Podcast: Ep 12 - Builders Journey - Lg Doucet (TheFirstMint)
This week, we spoke with Lg Doucet of The First Mint. The First Mint is a web3 media brand and leading content source for new & established NFT projects, with a focus on Sports & Entertainment. LG and I met during Seed Club's second accelerator, right when his community and podcast were exploding in popularity.
Web3 Breakdowns: Dune: Crypto’s Data Dashboard
This is Eric Golden and today I am hosting Fredrik Haga - co-founder and CEO of Dune. For anyone involved in the crypto markets, you have likely come across a Dune analytics dashboard. In this podcast, we cover Fredrik's background and motivation to start Dune, why he pivoted early to offer a free service, and what he's excited to build in the future. Please enjoy my conversation with Fredrik.
Projects we’re following
Social Insights for NFT's, Powered by AI
The community makes or breaks an NFT project. Gauge the quality of the NFT community, with AI-powered, real-time social media analysis in an easy-to-digest form.
Solana's Okay Bears Top All Ethereum NFT Projects With $18M in Sales in One Day
Data suggests Solana had its best single day of NFT trading volume to date as Okay Bears beats out VeeFriends, Meebits, and more.
Ethereum remains the dominant platform for NFTs, but rising rival Solana is putting up a fight as new projects draw more attention and leading marketplaces embrace the network. And over the last day, a new Solana NFT project has generated more trading volume than any Ethereum one.
Nike and RTFKT Reveal CryptoKicks—Their First Ethereum NFT Metaverse Sneakers
Nike has revealed its first digital metaverse sneakers, the Ethereum NFT-based RTFKT x Nike Dunk Genesis CryptoKicks. The sneaker giant acquired NFT firm RTFKT Studios in December.
Nike Dunk Genesis CryptoKicks are digital wearable items that are apparently designed for use in metaverse worlds. RTFKT revealed them initially via a teaser video on Twitter, which shows how the look of the digital shoes can be altered via collectible “Skin Vials,” which can be swapped to enable varying styles.
Social media we’re following
Follow @OurNextDAO on Twitter!
OurNextDAO, the membership community that is the driving force behind this newsletter has officially launched and is also on Twitter! Give us a follow and learn more about OND here.
Follow OurNextDAO’s Web3 Universe Twitter List
In our effort to map the world of Web3 we’ve started a Twitter list including the people, projects, and businesses that are creating value and doing incredible things in Web3.
The Ownership Economy 2022