This Week in Web3: Friday, May 13th, 2022
Instagram supports NFTs, did Mr Bean bring down the Crypto markets, Chainsmokers give away NFTs and royalties, NFTs and subscriptions and how to survive the bear market.
Morning Friends,
I’m sure you’re glued to the news and have been watching closely as the global markets, crypto, and everything else take a giant bite out of a sh*t sandwich.
Fear not, we’re not here to add any more color or commentary to these events (at least not much), instead, we’re keeping the ship steady and our eye on the long-term.
As part of OurNextDAO, the member-based community we recently launched, we are developing our own Web3 POV and are in general agreement that is really hard to build successful businesses. This has and will always be true. This is why, spending too much time focused on near-term, speculative gains and not on long-term value creation will lead to a destination we like to call nowhere.
A few things to look out for in this week’s digest, check out the conversation between the hosts of The Bankless Podcast and Hal Press of North Rock Digital who believes that the Ethereum Proof-of-Stake merge will be the single most important moment in crypto history. Do you agree? Are you buying/staking on the dip in preparation?
I also thought it was interesting to see the news that The Chainsmokers will release NFTs to give fans a piece of the streaming royalties from the new album “So Far So Good”, and that the holders will get a collective 1% of the royalties from the album.
What does this actually mean? What are the financial and legal implications for fans and given how sh*tty music royalties are for musicians, is this more of a publicity play?
OK, onwards, enjoy and stay strong! :-)
TL;DR
Coindesk: Meta’s Instagram to Support NFTs From Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Flow
PC Mag: Mr Bean NFTs launched at the same time as the crypto crash: coincidence?
pymnts.com: Pop Duo Chainsmokers to Give Away NFTs That Include Streaming Music Royalties
Wired.com: The Web3 Decentralization Debate Is Focused on the Wrong Question
Bankless Podcast: Betting the Fund on the Merge with Hal Press, North Rock Digital
Seed Club Podcast: S2 Ep 2 - The OG Web3 Crypto Sage - Kristen Stone
Overpriced JPEGs: Moment of Zen(eca): Surviving the Bear Market & Good Vibes
News we’re following
Coindesk: Meta’s Instagram to Support NFTs From Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Flow
The social media powerhouse owned by Meta is planning NFT integrations for Ethereum, Polygon, Solana and Flow, CoinDesk has learned. Those networks host the vast majority of trading in digital collectibles, with Ethereum and its Bored Apes leading the way by market cap.
The pilot will feature a small group of NFT aficionados based in the U.S. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Instagram would support NFTs from all four chains at launch.
PC Mag: Mr Bean NFTs launched at the same time as the crypto crash: coincidence?
On May 9, Yahoo Finance reported that Mr Bean, the mute buffoon from British television co-created and played by Rowan Atkinson, would make his NFT debut in a joint venture between FOMO Lab and Banijay.
"I think that this is a great idea," Atkinson said about the project. "Any initiative which not only draws attention to but actually enables access to the fabulous artwork associated with the Mr Bean Animation series, I welcome with open arms."
Pop Duo Chainsmokers to Give Away NFTs That Include Streaming Music Royalties
Pop act The Chainsmokers will release NFTs to give fans a piece of the streaming royalties from the new album “So Far So Good,” Bloomberg wrote Thursday (May 12).
There will be 5,000 NFTs and they’ll be given out on May 17 for free. The report notes that the holders will get a collective 1% of the royalties from the album. There will reportedly be a VIP list made up of frequent concert ticket buyers and superfans who will get early access. Another benefit will include the priority access for concert tickets and free merchandise.
One band member, Drew Taggert, said the point is to help the band reconnect with fans.
“We’ve been very fortunate to have global success, but at some point felt really disconnected from our fan base,” Taggart said, according to the report.
Things we’re reading
What if your subscription was an NFT in the blockchain?
Rent out your subscription (Netflix, Spotify, etc) through web3. Optimize subscription revenue while maximizing user flexibility. Web3 is the way.
Let’s delete the concept of NFTs = million-dollar jpegs for a second. NFTs are unique things in the blockchain. It’s like a digital fingerprint. For example, unique NFT 0x2abc containing the following data points: image, date, time.
On the other hand, a subscription is a unique customer account for software. For example, account number XYZ123 containing email, name, and credit card data.
The Web3 Decentralization Debate Is Focused on the Wrong Question
Fixating on the degree—rather than the type—of decentralization is leading us astray.
WEB3 ADVOCATES PROMISE decentralization on an unprecedented scale. Excessive centralization can stymie coordination and erode freedom, democracy, and economic dynamism—decentralization is supposed to be the remedy. But the term on its own is too vague to be a coherent end goal. Getting the job done takes the right kind of decentralization, and we worry that Web3 is thus far heading down the wrong track.
The greatest myth of Web 3 is that design and governance by committee is the way to get innovation. Over the past year we’ve seen the leading lights of Web 3, Yuga Labs, conclusively demonstrate that the Web 3 vision is bunk.
Where better to assess the reality of Web 3 than looking at Yuga Labs the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club and its offshoots. I’m going to be looking at a few key things
Use of Blockchain — is it really using Blockchain?
Artist compensation — do the artists get the money?
Community in Control — is governance through the community, or could Yuga Labs be a bad actor with impunity?
Corporate Ownership — is it moving away from “big tech”?
Things we’re listening to (or watching)
Bankless Podcast: Betting the Fund on the Merge | Hal Press, North Rock Digital
What happens when a guy becomes so convicted on ETH that he bets HIS ENTIRE FUND on the Ethereum Proof-of-Stake merge? How much alpha is there in the All Core Devs calls? How should YOU play the merge? Hal Press of North Rock Digital joins us as we discuss how to value tokens, and how to trade the biggest moment in crypto history.
Seed Club Podcast: S2 Ep 2 - The OG Web3 Crypto Sage - Kristen Stone
Kristen Stone is our guest on episode two of the Seed Club podcast. Kristen was an early employee at Coinbase, has recently spent her time at Balancer Labs, and works at Seed Club on operations. In this conversation, we get into some of Kristen's hard-fought lessons being the 50th employee at Coinbase, about her early time in crypto since 2014, how Jess redefines his role at Seed Club and the importance of labels when defining a position within an organization. We get into how human consciousness has evolved relating to DAOs.
Overpriced JPEGs: Moment of Zen(eca): Surviving the Bear Market & Good Vibes | Recap #23
Underpriced JPEGs is back with our guy, our rock, our favorite and only recurring guest, Zeneca_33. Zeneca is back for another Moment of Zen(eca) recap episode with Carly! The two share their strategies and overall advice for dealing with the current market.
They also dive deeper in to the Zagabond/Azuki debacle, UST/Terra’s meltdown and what it means for NFTs, inspiring projects that are still shipping despite the circumstances, and so much more!