Gm DOers!
Welcome back to our Weekly Rollup, the only newsletter you need to stay on top of everything that’s going on right now in Web3.
This week’s word of the week is diversification and not in the investment sense. Rather, we want to highlight the importance of diversifying what you’re doing in Web3. Don’t stay focused on solely one area. Learn and experiment with different tactics because you never know which part of Web3 will be the biggest.
Without further ado, today’s agenda:
- Big brands' web3 playbooks to drive serious revenue 🚀
- Reactions to Tornado Cash sanctions and developer arrest 🤔
- What are fractional ownership NFTs and how do they work? 🔥
- Our DAO of the Month is trying to buy an NBA team 🤩
Let's dig in!
Wait 🚥 Not into reading? 📖
Sit back and watch on Youtube 👀 or listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts 🎧
How Big Brands Are Leveraging NFTs To Make Serious Revenue
Nike, Dolce & Gabbana, Tiffany, Gucci and Adidas (among other big brands) have all made serious revenue from using NFTs in their business.
Nike - $185M 🤯
Adidas - $10M 🤷
It's important to note that Nike bought RTFKT for an undisclosed amount. Prior to the deal RTFKT had been valued at $33M. But it's been reported that Nike purchased RTFKT for much more. As part of this acquisition Nike acquired CloneX which is one of the largest PFP collections and the main driver of their secondary sales volume. Nike and RTFKT have also released numerous other collections which have minted out.
The theme of collaboration or acquisition is common throughout all of the brands listed above. Tiffany partnered with CryptoPunks for their recent NFT drop which minted out 250 items at 30eth each! In March Gucci partnered with 10KTF for their Gucci Grail collection. TIME magazine has partnered with countless artists, NFT collections, charities and even released their entire magazine as an NFT in March. You picking up what we’re putting down here? One of the best playbooks for existing busineses to enter web3 is through partnerships!
This shows just how much potential big brands can unlock from using NFTs in their business model. It’s not that they need this money. It’s all about experimenting with these tools and building community.
And just in case Web3 becomes the norm (for us it’s a certainty), these brands will be at the forefront of innovation!
Is Web3 certain? Reply with Yes or No to this email and let us hear your thoughts!
Web3 News & Highlights
Uniswap has blocked 253 crypto addresses related to stolen funds or sanctions. But wait… How can a decentralized & permissionless protocol ban anyone? Well, there are 3 components that make up Uniswap:
- The decentralized code that runs on the blockchain
- The front end website that allows users to interact with the code
- A US based company that runs the front end
In this case, the 253 addresses were banned from using the front end interface, not the protocol. Theoretically, anyone can create their own interface and use the code on the blockchain.
But why did Uniswap do this?
Well, as mentioned, the team behind Uniswap is a US based company that needs to comply with regulations, otherwise they will face legal action.
Tom Emmer (a US congressman) also responded with a letter to Treasury Secretary Yellen asking many important questions including:
- If you’re targeting Tornado Cash and sanctioning users, what happens to those that used the protocol without laundering money?
- How do you deal with people that are not based in the US?
- Money laundering happens in FIAT and on the internet. Do we shut these systems down too?
These are all Qs that we need to ask and that our leaders need to answer for clarity. Right now, it appears that they do not know what they’re doing…
More pressure coming from regulators… The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) sent cease-and-desist letters on Friday to five crypto companies, including FTX US, over alleged misrepresentations regarding deposit insurance.
Basically, the FDIC says that these companies offered crypto-related products saying they were FDIC-insured when in fact, they weren’t.
Mercado Libre (the biggest Southern American e-commerce company) launched their own cryptocurrency (MercadoCoin) as a part of their loyalty program.
This will first be implemented in Brazil and will offer cashbacks when used as a form of payment. They will then be able to use the digital currency, which follows Ethereum's ERC-20 token standard, for fresh purchases or trade it on the company's financial services unit MercadoPago.
Using Web3 tools for loyalty programs is a huge unlock which major players like Starbucks are actively exploring. Listen to Jay breaking the use cases down on Youtube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Start around minute 25.
ENS Domains is growing exponentially, even in a bear market, hitting 2 million registered domains. It took them 5 years to hit their first million and only 4 months to reach 2 million. Probably nothing.
A very experienced user (top 10 by Degen Score) lost almost 500k USDC in an exploit, signing a phishing transaction on MetaMask! Be careful when signing any transactions!! And read this thread to learn how to stay safe!
S/O BlueBars from the Web3 Academy Discord for sharing this one 🔥
NFT Innovation & Utility
Tessera (previously Fractional) raises $20M to expand fractional NFT ownership. Fractionalized NFTs are super important for Web3. Essentially, they allow any user to have exposure to their favourite NFT project, without buying an entire NFT (most cannot afford a Punk or Bored Ape).
The way fractionalized NFTs work is that the assets are put into a vault which gives out fungible tokens. Whomever buys those tokens (whatever amount) has exposure to that particular NFT asset. This way, you could own a small piece of a Bored Ape without actually buying it for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Masa Finance creates on-chain Soulbound NFTs representing your credit score. While the project still is in the test-net phase, this aims to create more exposure for people to get access to credit.
🧬 Community Updates 🧬
- Welcome to the 73 new members who joined our community last week. Please join the New Members Meet & Greet next Wednesday Aug 31 at 6p ET.
- Hiring: Lead Gen Specialist (full time remote) to join our web3 marketing agency. Check out the role and apply here.
- Sandbox Session: Next Thursday Sep 1 at 4p ET we will be joined by Miguel, co-founder of Rabid DAO. In this Sandbox Session we’ll be exploring how to connect the Blockchain to the World of Extreme Sports. The steps to create a decentralized ecosystem, where the members of a community can earn passive income and vote on proposals to decide treasury allocation and the strategic direction of the DAO
Web3 Launches
Coinbase wallet integrates with Solana, allowing users to connect with their Coinbase wallet into Solana dApps. Now, users can interact with the Solana ecosystem without having Phantom (the Solana wallet).
This creates better UX, eliminating the need of having multiple wallets for each chain. Coinbase seems to be at the forefront of UX development in Web3!
Binance and Mastercard partner to enable crypto payments at 90M stores worldwide. First step is to launch in Argentina and go from there.
What’s even cooler, is the CEO of Mastercard posting about blockchain. We’re going mainstream. 🚀
Nvidia goes all in on the Metaverse announcing a wide variety of Metaverse projects they’re working on. Nvidia is probably the biggest company you’ve never heard of. They have over 22k employees and $26 billion in annual revenue.
What do they do?
They are the largest Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) manufacturer in the world. They are the backbone of all gaming consoles like Playstation. They believe the Metaverse is the future of the internet and they are building the infrastructure to support fully 3D real time rendered virtual worlds where we will all hang out in 10 years.
DAO Of The Month
Krause House DAO has been nominated for the DAO of the Month! 🥳
Krause House is a community of hoop (basketball) fanatics aspiring to buy an NBA team! They have already acquired a professional basketball team in the small Big3 league called BallHogs, which unfortunately came in last place last season. But that’s not the point. We picked Krause House because they are demonstrating the enormous potential of community ownership! They’re also building a basketball court in the metaverse among other community-led projects.
Imagine owning part of a professional sports team? DAO voting mechanics would enable members to vote on pretty much anything from player decisions to coaches to what snacks they serve at the game. Now you may not want every DAO member to vote on which player you trade for. But the point is it’s possible for anyone to be an owner and get involved in decisions of an organization they are infinitely passionate about.
🚀 Action Steps For Web3 DOers 🚀
👉 Do you think that the transition of Web2 --> Web3 is certain? Reply with Yes or No to this email and let us hear your thoughts!
👉 Attend our New Members Meet & Greet next Wednesday Aug 31 at 6p ET and make some new web3 frens.
👉 Take our FREE Web3 Rabbit Hole Course to get up-to-speed on the foundational components of Web3 so you can confidently build, work, or use the fastest growing technology in history
