📝 Field Notes 61: Beyond Plastic Cards

Visa enables crypto withdrawals. Visa & FIFA. MasterCard & Champions League. Disney's 1.5B stake in Epic. New NFTs from Japan Airlines & Mercedes-Benz. UBS goes Ethereum. Robinhood, Metamask & more.

and

Feb 09, 2024

Hey, it’s Marc. ✌️

This week is all about Web3 sports fandom, spearheaded by Visa and Mastercard. Plus: High-profile NFT debuts and why crypto X AI is getting hotter. My week? Owned by Farcaster and Apple’s Vision Pro. 😎

Be inspired✨

“Owning digital objects will be the primary business model of any consumer facing application that is digitally native.” — Brett Shear

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📚 Top 6 Reads

Read Write Own Manifest. By a16z. Link
Branding in the Age of Social Media. By Douglas Holt. Link
The Future of Sports Fandom Report. By Myosin, Spartan Labs, Sporting Crypto. Link
Headless Marketplaces: Go Where the Wallets Are. By Jesse Walden. Link
How AI reinvents marketing. By Andrew Chen. Link
How AI is finding its way onchain. By Jacob. Link

✨ Web3 + NFTs

Beyond plastic cards💳

As if the launch of Visa’s Web3 loyalty solution wasn’t enough (deep dive), the two industry behemoths are doubling-down:

Visa enabled crypto withdrawals on debit cards, allowing wallet users to sell crypto directly to a Visa card without using centralized exchanges. Link
Visa’s is also extending their FIFA worldwide partnership for “connected fan experiences”. Did I hear NFTs? Link
Mastercard, meanwhile, partnered with Champions League on a gamified, NFT-powered soccer trivia game powered by MoonPay. Link

Connected fandom: With digital assets fan experiences can become more interactive, connected, and community-driven — and extend beyond the start and end of a live event.

Recently, the Vegas Golden Knights partnered up with Theta Labs for an NFT loyalty experience.

By the numbers:

64% of global sports fans say they would like to engage with their favorite teams in the metaverse.
An estimated 61% of Gen Z sports fans engage with sports through video games and virtual spaces.
Over 70% of Gen Z fans would be interested in digital assets if the right benefits were offered.
75% of sport leaders say they don’t have a Web3 strategy.

Punchline: The future of sports fandom lies at the intersection of video games, virtual spaces, and social media, all with a focus on helping fans get closer to the game — with Web3 under the hood.

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🌎 Crypto & Macro

Crypto X AI 🤖

Competing for cash, converging in tech:

In 2023, Web3 startup funding fell 73% in 2023 while Gen AI startups raised $50B, up 9% in the same time period.

Yes, but: The intersection of crypto x AI is heating up.

The token for Bittensor, the network geared toward incentivizing the development of open-source artificial intelligence, has risen by more than 90% in two weeks.
FetchAI, an AI lab building an open, permissionless, decentralized machine learning network, more than doubled in value since November.
Meanwhile, Vitalik Buterin, Jacobs, and Outlier Ventures weighed in.

*A high-level summary of crypto+AI intersections from a uETH blog post.*

Why it matters: AI will change creation and marketing for brands. Ownership, IP, authenticity, and fair monetization will be key challenges for which blockchain can be a solution.

🏗️ Start-ups & Tools to watch

LimeChain: A leading blockchain consulting & development agency with 120+ chain-agnostic devs. Link *
Privy: Consumer crypto API-builder hiring after 100x growth and a $18M series A. Link
Bello: The Web3 analytics start-up launched for the public. Link

*partner of Dematerialzd.

💰 Money Moves

Oobit: Crypto mobile payment app developer raises $25M Series A. Link

That’s all for now, folks. Thank you for being part of the journey.
Talk soon,

– Marc

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