Gary Vee's Web3 consulting firm
GM, we take the latest Web3 news and translate it into plain old English - so you can stay up to date, without your eyes glazing over.
In today’s edition:
The 'Dark Knight' of Meme Coins
Web3 Domain Names: Cooler Than You Think
RESOURCE: How NFTs are Building the Internet of the Future (a 9:41 TED talk)
Gary Vee is Creating a Web3 Consulting Firm
Terms used (click for translation):
Meme Coins, NFTs, Web3, Blockchain.
The 'Dark Knight' of Meme Coins
People who did their part for their community, then disappeared completely:
Christopher Nolan's Batman.
Creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Creator of Shiba Inu, Ryoshi.
Seeings as you're a human being that lives on Earth and reads this newsletter, we're going to assume you know those first two.
If you're wondering who 'Ryoshi' is, you're not alone.
Just like Satoshi Nakamoto and Batman before them, Ryoshi is a pseudonymous figure who (as of yesterday) disappeared.
...as in, wiped their social presence from the internet.
Ryoshi's 'Shiba Inu' token was one of the more popular meme coins of the past few years, gaining momentum after Elon Musk and Ethereum creator, Vitalik Buterin, tweeted about it.
At its peak, Shiba Inu was worth ~$41 billion dollars.
(Not bad).
But hold up...there's a glaring hole in the logic of this disappearing act.
If no one knows who you are, why delete your social accounts?
Typically, it's for one of two reasons:
You're running a scam and don't want to get caught.
You don't want your creation to have a central point of failure (yourself) that can be revealed and exploited.
The first option is, unfortunately, the most common.
The second is straight out of Satoshi Nakamoto's playbook:
Create the thing, help solve the early problems, then disappear once the community can manage the project themselves.
So which one is it in Ryoshi's case?
All signs are pointing to option #2. In fact, it looks like it was the plan all along...
A Shiba Inu staff member, known as 'Milkshake' on Twitter, pointed out that Ryoshi had alluded to this eventuality, saying:
“I am not important, and one day I will be gone without notice. Take the SHIBA and journey upwards frens.”
If you're thinking, 'Ok, that's cute. But Shiba Inu is not Bitcoin. Ryoshi may just have an over-inflated sense of self'.
You could well be right!
But putting the whole 'meme coin' thing aside, the Shiba Inu development team and community are actually pretty strong.
They've built out a bunch of broader functionality, including:
Staking (i.e. the ability to earn interest)
Governance Tokens (i.e. tokens that let you vote on what functionality gets developed)
A Decentralized Exchange (i.e. a place to trade tokens, that isn't owned or controlled by any one person or group)
So yeah, Ryoshi's disappearing act is a bold move - one that comes from humble begins.
But that's why we like it.
Web3 Domain Names: Cooler Than You Think
Having a username like @Jason on Twitter is a sign of either:
Being an early adopter on the platform.
Having enough money to buy the username from whoever was early on the platform and snapped it up.
A memorable username is great because you’re easy to find. It’s also sort of a sign of power.
Back in the day, the world was obsessed with .com domain names. And now, all eyes are on NFT domains.
Why? Because with Web3, they offer so much more than just a simple website address.
While the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) has been around for a few years, a new player just entered the ring - quik.com.
Similar to a traditional domain, with ENS, you still have to pay a yearly fee (and remember to renew it). However, Quik allows you to mint and own domains like .metaverse, .web3 and .btc - all for just a one time fee.
Here’re some other cool things about these domains:
They’re stored on the Ethereum blockchain and are free from centralized organizations like ICANN
Owners can use their domain to replace long/coded wallet addresses (which often result in typos)
Instead of being forced into the old American ‘.com’ “just because you have to have the .com”, people can now buy the domain that aligns with the crypto/technology that they believe in most
While it’s not the most groundbreaking of services to hit the market, we think complete ownership of your own domain is pretty awesome.
And fees paid, upfront, forever? Double awesome.
Let’s see how Quik-ly* they become the GoDaddy of Web3.
*(Yep, yeah. We'll see ourselves out).
Resource of the day
How NFTs are building the internet of the future.
(a 9:41 TED talk)
Gary Vee is Creating a Web3 Consulting Firm
If you've ever gone on a group trip, you'll know there're two different 'traveler archetypes':
The 'we'll figure it out as we go along' types.
The 'I want a 10 point execution plan' types.
In the business world, approach #1 is often embodied by scrappy startups, while approach #2 is taken by long standing corporate entities.
According to recent trademark filings, Gary Vaynerchuk is planning on launching his own NFT consulting arm 'Vayner3'.
Not much is known about the planned consulting firm, beyond the fact that it'll offer “advertising, marketing and promotion services” related to NFTs.
...but we have an inkling that it's going to cater to long standing corporate entities that want 'a 10 point execution plan' for their journey into the world of Web3 and NFTs.
We're making this assumption because Gary's 'Vayner Media' does exactly that, for the traditional marketing space.
Here's why this is important:
Gary likes making money and he seems to be pretty good at it. He's not going to take a swing at something if he doesn't believe there's a market for it.
This signals that there's a genuine desire from 'big money' to get into the Web3 space....but they're weary travelers.
They've been looking for a '10 point execution plan' in a space dominated by 'we'll figure it out as we go along' approaches.
If this demand can be met by Vayner3 and anyone else looking to get into the corporate Web3 consulting space, it could mean massive 'new user' adoption.
God's speed, Gary. God's speed.
Your Daily Dose of Web3
‘The Infinite Machine’: Ethereum origin book heads to the screen
Binance to launch Africa crypto awareness tour as adoption ramps up
Alright, that’s it for Hump Day!
Love to the family,