This Week in Web3: Friday, May 6, 2022
Navigating the Metaverse (Book), ApeCoin Drops, Layer 2 fees, NFTs are more than just PFPs, DAO governance, what makes a DAO, plus interviews with Mike Dudas of LinksDAO and Ryan Selkis of Messari
Hi friends,
Apologies, I’m late publishing this week’s newsletter, I’ve been traveling.
I’ve just spent a few days working with a startup in the education space and it was incredibly inspiring. They’re building something in the metaverse that creates new ways for kids to learn the life skills they need to stand on their own feet while lifting up others.
Based on what I took away from our time together, I truly believe that their approach represents not just the future of how kids will learn, but also addresses two of the most important issues that exist in education, which are that our methods of teaching are outdated and we are teaching kids the wrong things. I’ll share more about this company over the coming months, but for now, check out the Ever Scouts website.
Speaking of the Metaverse, my friend Cathy Hackl just published her new book “Navigating the Metaverse: A Guide to Limitless Possibilities in a Web 3.0 World”.
I’ve gotten to know Cathy over the past year and she is a really impressive person. She’s one of the most influential people in Web3, an educator, a world-renowned keynote speaker, the host of Adweek's Metaverse Marketing podcast (Season 2 coming soon), and our collective spirit guide as we navigate the Metaverse.
I just received my copy and very much look forward to digging in, you can get yours here.
Enjoy this week’s digest!
TL;DR
Bloomberg: ApeCoin Drops After Ethereum-Crashing Record Virtual Land Sale
New York Times: What Is Happening to the People Falling for Crypto and NFTs
Decrypt: Ethereum Layer-2 Fees Should Be Under $0.05 to Be ‘Truly Acceptable’: Vitalik Buterin
There’s more to NFTs than just PFPs — 5 ways nonfungible tokens will transform society
Are DAOs organizations with a shared onchain bank account? Maybe not
Ethereum's Hollywood Moment with author of The Infinite Game, Camila Russo
News we’re following
Bloomberg: ApeCoin Drops After Ethereum-Crashing Record Virtual Land Sale
Investors paid fees on Ethereum to mint and trade virtual land. Record sale clogged network sent fees to a prohibitive level
New York Times: What Is Happening to the People Falling for Crypto and NFTs
To understand the latest incarnation of the colossal crypto grifts that continue to engulf the internet, I suppose we should start with all those bored apes, because how could we not?
Decrypt: Ethereum Layer-2 Fees Should Be Under $0.05 to Be ‘Truly Acceptable’: Vitalik Buterin
Ethereum, the world’s leading smart contracts platform, has been historically plagued by high transaction costs.
Developers have been trying to address this issue through the so-called layer-2 solutions that help scale applications by processing transactions off of the Ethereum mainnet while maintaining the same level of security and decentralization.
While transaction fees on many layer-2 networks are indeed lower when compared to the Ethereum mainnet, Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of the network, reckons they need to be under five cents to be “truly acceptable.” he said via a response to this Tweet:
Things we’re reading
There’s more to NFTs than just PFPs — 5 ways nonfungible tokens will transform society
NFT art continues to grow in popularity, but what other industries could the technology disrupt in the next few years?
The nonfungible token (NFT) sector has undergone a surge in popularity over the past year and a half as projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks captured the attention of the general public.
Axios: How DAO governance works
We are watching an important DAO decision go down this week on Uniswap. The industry-leading automated market maker (a robot on the internet that's always game to make a trade) has a proposal live right now that would move it for the first time onto a non-Ethereum blockchain.
Are DAOs organizations with a shared onchain bank account? Maybe not.
Myth: DAOs are organizations with a shared onchain bank account.
It’s hard to miss the writing on the wall if you’ve been a part of crypto since 2021. Everywhere you turn people speak about DAOs as the holy grail that will solve chronic governance problems DeFi and NFT applications face. A pop-up book definition that’s thrown around to get your average DAO-curious Jane up to speed is that DAOs are organizations with a shared bank account. Is this a useful definition?
Things we’re listening to (or watching)
Seed Club DAO Podcast: Ep 1 (S2) - LinksDAO - Mike Dudas
Welcome to season two, episode one of the Seed Club podcast. In this episode, Jess Sloss sits down with Mike Dudas, Instigator, and creator at LinksDAO, a DAO aiming to buy and operate a golf course. We learn about the Links DAO origin story and, how they operate given the regulatory grey market of NFTs that have utility, why we need more DAOs rather than DAO tooling. And what DAOs need to break through to the next level.
Ethereum's Hollywood Moment with author of The Infinite Game, Camila Russo
Camila Russo, founder of The Defiant, is bringing Ethereum to Hollywood with the feature film adaptation of her fantastic book "The Infinite Machine."
This is the first project of its kind and is gaining speed, recently attaching Scott Free Productions (Ridley Scott's company) to produce. With these headwinds, The Infinite Machine movie is set to disrupt Hollywood in more ways than one.
Reflecting on how she got to this point and the long road ahead, our biggest questions are... wen movie? Who's going to play Vitalik? And how can YOU get involved?
Colossus: Web3 Breakdowns with Ryan Selkis of Messari
If you have spent any time in the crypto markets - you are likely familiar with Ryan and the Messari research platform. We cover his history in the market, including how he broke the Mt Gox story, his latest thoughts on NFTs, and finally it wouldn't be a conversation with Ryan if we didn't cover the regulatory landscape. Please enjoy this conversation with Ryan Selkis