📝 Web3 Field Notes #11
📝 Web3 Field Notes #11
Crypto and privacy; Bitcoin NFTs; Doodles V2; Bitcoin & unemployment; The White House on crypto; Infrastructure unbundling; Louis Vuitton's AR; new start-ups & more.
“The walls of self-preservation that you build for today are the walls of self-imprisonment for tomorrow.” – Sadhguru
📚 Readings:
Reflections on contagion and the rebirth of crypto infrastructure. One of the finest pieces I’ve read on the future of the space since FTX. Link
Vitalik Buterin on a new transaction system that would allow users to obfuscate their wallet addresses when receiving assets. Solving privacy for blockchains will be one of the next big things. Link Bloomberg
Next-gen NFTs. What’s there and what’s coming. Link
A history of crypto art and NFTs. Link
Paradigm: A guide to designing effective NFT launches. Link
a16z: Achieving crypto privacy and regulatory compliance. Web3 cannot achieve its full potential unless blockchains support private transactions. Link
ARK Invest: The Bitcoin Monthly. Great summary and charts. Link
Bitcoin NFTs: A primer. Link
🚨 What caught my eyes:
Bitcoin NFTs: Named “ordinals”, allow users to mint – for the first time – NFTs onto Bitcoin's blockchain, image and all, without a separate token, side chain, or change to Bitcoin’s underlying code. This sparked a big controversy among the Bitcoin maxis. They don’t want to “waste” blockspace intended for transactions for the next global reserve currency or settlement layer for memes or jokes. I sense that this might be the beginning of a bigger debate among Bitcoiners unfolding. And: What does this mean for digital art in need of permanence and immutability? Link
Doodles launches V2 on Flow blockchain and plans to expand its franchise into music, animation, consumer products, live events and more. Naturally, the best NFT collections will become brands and communities that transcend the Web3 bubble. Flow is developed by Dapper Labs, known for CryptoKitties. Link
Foundation launches “Drops”: a cool new way of launching NFT drops – NOT collections. The difference: 1) Drops have a fixed amount, fixed price. 2) With Drops it’s possible to create up to 10'000 unique ERC721 NFTs for the price of a single mint. Much simpler and cheaper than on OpenSea. Link
The White House urges Congress to speed up efforts to create a crypto regulatory framework. The US has struggled for years to regulate crypto effectively. Whatever the US does, the world will be watching. Link
Bitcoin & Macro: The tech industry has shed around 200’000 jobs over the last 12 months, with Google’s recent 12,000-person hit. BUT meanwhile the US added 517,000 jobs in January, much higher than anticipated by Wall Street economists. The country’s unemployment rate, at 3.4 per cent, is now the lowest in 53 years! Powell is worried about the hot jobs market driving up wages, fueling inflation. Low unemployment affects the FED’s decision to continue raising rates, which affects markets, which affects Bitcoin. Macro becomes more and more important.
“Infrastructure unbundling”: Binance custody officially launches its off-exchange settlement solution, allowing trading without having to post collateral directly on the exchange.
BTC ETFs saw a cumulative net inflow of 9’131 BTC in January, the highest inflow since May 2022, perhaps signaling an increased interest and appetite for risk in crypto. Link
Louis Vuitton is using augmented reality to virtually decorate world landmarks with artist Yayoi Kusama’s famous dots. We’re early. Link
Apple’s upcoming mixed-reality headset will switch between AR and VR, have iOS-like interface and show Mac display and immersive video. Link
🚀 Interesting Web3 start-ups:
Delegate Cash: Allows you to delegate your cold wallet to a hot wallet, without risking your assets when interacting with Web3 applications. Just launched: Liquid Delegate that allows you to turn NFT delegation rights into tradeable NFTs.
Unlock: Connecting humans through NFT-based memberships.
Stardust: Scalable NFT infrastructure for games.
Oncyber: Build your own metaverse world. Check out Punk6529’s one.
💡Word on the street:
January is behind us and spring is around the corner. In addition to the markets rebounding, the crypto community is also gaining optimism.
Why shouldn’t they? So much innovation is happening. But again: Now is not the time to shout "crypto is back". We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.
That’s all for now, folks.
Back to building and learning! 🚀
– Marc
Bonus 💎 : A recap of the top crypto news of 2023.
📈 Awesome charts to share with friends:
🎨 Artwork: “Inscription 5036” on Bitcoin
