📝 Web3 Field Notes #25 - Beijing Loves Web3

Bitcoin best performing asset YTD; Nike meets EA SPORTS; Beijing bullish on Web3; Magic raises $52m; SAP enters Web3; Gen Z loves crypto, not NFTs; AI risks; top charts & more.

Jun 02, 2023

Hey, it’s Marc. I write about Bitcoin, Web3, and brands. ✌️ Welcome to another issue of my obsessively curated field notes to help you filter out the noise.

⏱️ Reading time: 4 min

“Reactivity is enslavement. Responsibility is freedom.” – Sadhguru

📚 Key Reads

The network effects of the metaverse and the economies of Web3 communities. By Claudio Tessone & Andrés Luther. Link
Galaxy research report on crypto Q1. High quality stuff. Link
The sociology of business. Terrific overview of what’s happening with brands & culture. By
Ana Andjelic
Link
Kulturindustrie. The best brands are cultural. By
Ana Andjelic
. Link
A theory of justice for Web3. By
Li Jin
. Link
Regulating crypto. By World Economic Forum. Link

🚨 What caught my eyes

✨ Web3 + NFTs

Nike and video game developer EA SPORTS announced a partnership bringing .SWOOSH (Nike’s Web3 hub) virtual creations to the EA SPORTS gaming ecosystem. This showcases the benefits of open and transparent blockchains and is also a huge win for Polygon, serving as the underlying blockchain. In case you missed it: I just published a case study on Nike, currently at the forefront among consumer brands. Link
Magic raises $52 million to grow crypto ‘wallet-as-a-service’ used by corporate clients like Mattel and Macy’s. This is a big win for the ecosystem to improve the Web3 onboarding and wallet experience. Link
Beijing has released a white paper promoting Web3 development. The local government plans to invest a minimum of 100 million yuan ($14 million) annually until 2025 to promote the local “Internet 3.0” ecosystem and become a national leader. This is significant but I would see this as a local initiative apart from China’s stance on crypto as a whole. Link
SAP is working on an NFT Launchpad (currently in alpha). It aims to make creating, administering, and managing NFTs more user-friendly and web2 compatible. Earlier this year, Salesforce and and Shopify also launched NFT tools. Creating and managing NFTs is slowly turning into a commodity and will likely become a standard tool in marketing software. Link

🌎 Crypto & Macro

Year to date, Bitcoin has been the best performing asset when compared to a range of securities (both equities and fixed income), indices, and commodities (see graphic at the bottom).
Crypto is the most popular investment among Gen Z and millennials. 56% of US Gen Z report owning one or more investments, more than twice as much as NFTs. Data from the Federal Reserve says that about 10% of Americans use cryptocurrencies, and 15% among 18-44 year olds. The top reasons for transacting in crypto are that the receiver prefers crypto, because it’s quicker and more private. Link
The amount of ETH staked surged to over 18% of ETH in circulation, rising from 18.3 million to 21 million since enabling withdrawals on April 12. Nevertheless, the much higher staking ratios of other proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies — between 40% and 60% — suggest it still has plenty of rising left to do. This means: Confidence in Ethereum is increasing and its circulating supply could decline in the coming months. Link

🧠 AI

OpenAI and DeepMind executives, Geoffrey Hinton, and 350+ others sign a statement saying “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority”. Link
A remarkable demonstration of how AI I’ll change gaming by Nvidia. Link
Elon Musk’s Neuralink gets FDA’s approval for brain implant technology. Link

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💡Word on the street:

For the first time, community and culture can be built on a digital, decentralized layer of trust and owned by the users.

Web3 tech will be a tool to supercharge any brand in co-creating brand culture in the digital realm.

The value chain of business models and marketing will shift from linear, top-down, to circular, bottom-up models – from purely social towards socioeconomic.

That’s all for now, folks.
Back to building! 🚀

– Marc