📝 Web3 Field Notes #10
Web3 for brands; State of brand NFTs; Headless brands; BAYC & FTX; Web3 dev activity; Nike .Swoosh Studio; Porsche NFT mint; Goldman ranks Bitcoin; New start-ups & more.
“The burned hand teaches best. After that, advice about fire goes to the heart.” – J. R. R. Tolkien
📚 Readings:
State of the brand NFT 2022 report by Moonblock. MUST READ. That’s the data we need in our daily conversations to push the space forward. Link
Web3 for brands: Trust is broken. UX is broken. The solution? Utility x Community. Link
Why build in Web3 by HBR. Link
NFTs are forever. Bobby Hundreds, founder of popular fashion brand The Hundreds, on growing authentically and supporting and participating in the culture. Link
Reviving trust in crypto. Link
SBF, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and the spectacular hangover after the art world’s NFT gold rush. FTX, a Yuga Labs investor, apparently inflated BAYC prices. Link
Headless brands with community-driven brand dynamics. From 2019, but still relevant. Link
Decentralization for Web3 builders: principles, models, how. a16z. Link
When is decentralizing on a blockchain valuable? Link
🚨 What caught my eyes:
Bitcoin daily transactions are as high as in May 2021. Bitcoin hash rate reached an all-time high on Jan 20. The network is alive.
Web3 dev activity surged 453% in Q4 2022. 16’102 total dApps, up 16x since 2018 and +32% Q/Q. Fastest growing: Social dApps +105% Y/Y and +58% Q/Q. The builders keep building. Link
Nike’s .Swoosh Studio is live. #YourForce1 challenge is first co-creation opportunity on the .Swoosh platform: The community is invited to create a story around Air Force 1 by uploading a mood board to Instagram. Nike sets the benchmark for community building. Link
Porsche’s mint day was anything but successful. The mint was closed early, supply was cut, and a fraction of the 7500 NFTs were sold. First analysis: Missing community space, lack of community interaction, vague utility. Again: Utility x Community. A deeper analysis is needed though. Link Interesting Tweet
Rumors about Amazon entering Web3. Unconfirmed. This would be a significant step towards mass adoption. Link
Circle, the company behind USDC, the 2nd largest stablecoin by market cap, is launching a cross-chain transfer protocol (CCTP). This on-chain utility allow users to transfer USDC from one blockchain to another. Instead of a traditional “lock-and-mint” bridge, it’s a “burn-and-mint” bridge. This is big news. Bridges have long been the biggest security and UX hurdle for the industry, and native USDC is one of the most important assets on any chain. Link
Goldman Sachs ranks Bitcoin as the best performing asset YTD. That’s no news, as it’s only looking at YTD performance. For 2022, Bitcoin would have been last. Just in December, Goldman Sachs claimed that gold outperforms Bitcoin in the long-term. Always double-check the headline. Link
Robinhood rolls out a crypto wallet. Another big competitor in the retail space, after N26 announced its crypto offering last week. Link
🚀 Interesting Web3 start-ups:
Metalink: Get collection announcements, floor prices, portfolio value and more… all in one place. Now accessible in beta.
XMTP: The open protocol and network for secure web3 messaging.
ENS.Vision: Discover and trade ENS names across marketplaces.
Gateway: Credentials for Web3.
💡Word on the street:
While the markets bounced back last week, I see many people excited about a potential new bull run. My advice: Remain stoic. Now is not the time to shout "crypto is back". Focus on technology and building. We've got a lot of ground to cover.
That’s all for now, folks.
Thanks for reading. If you enjoy my newsletter, please share it with your friends! 🙏
Back to building and learning! 🚀
– Marc
Bonus 💎 : Struggle with the Web3 lingo? A list of Web3 jargon and its Web2 counterparts.
Artwork: “King’s Relief” by Hasan Göktepe