It’s not very sexy, but it might work…
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:
It's not very sexy, but it might work...
Doodles are everywhere. (Read the article and it'll make sense)
RESOURCE: Reinventing the internet, with Marc Andreessen & Chris Dixon (1hr 36m - it's a doozy!)
'Read my lips, no more fees on Bitcoin trades' - Binance US
Terms used (click for translation):
Web3, Metaverse, NFTs, Stablecoins
It's not very sexy, but it might work...
Things that aren't sexy, but are widely used:
Crocs
Fedoras
Granny panties
For Web3, wide spread adoption probably won't come from a new & sexy product entering the market and taking the world by storm.
Instead, it'll likely come from widely used Web2 products adopting the technology.
You know what's widely used, definitely not sexy, and looking to adopt Web3 technology?
Facebook.
On Tuesday, Zuck announced a bunch of new monetization features that aim to:
“Help creators build for the metaverse.”
And if you're thinking, 'that's weird, I didn't hear anything about it' - that's because it was announced in a Facebook post.
Here's a summary of the features:
Creators keep 100% of all revenue earned from paid online events, subscriptions, badges, and bulletin - until 2024.
Interoperable Subscriptions will be a thing. Meaning, Creators can grant paid subscribers from other platforms, access to their subscriber-only Facebook groups.
The Facebook Stars program (which allows creators to monetize their Reels, livestreams & videos) will be opened up to all eligible users.
Creators will be able to cross post their Reels from IG to Facebook, allowing them to reach larger potential audiences.
Creator Marketplace - which will essentially be a brand deal marketplace, hosted by Meta.
Digital Collectibles - NFT sales are currently being tested on Instagram and will soon come to Facebook.
And if you're yelling 'BOOOOO! META, BOOOOO!' at your screen right now, we hear you.
We've seen this movie before, right? The story goes:
FB / IG are easy to build an audience on.
Everyone flocks to the platform.
FB starts monetizing, making it a little harder for you to reach your audience for free.
FB realize they have market dominance...
All of a sudden, it's nearly impossible for you to reach your audience without paying up.
Things get draconian.
Here's our guess of what will happen if/when the Facebook Metaverse catches on:
The revenue share or 'Facebook tax' won't be favorable for creators.
Meta have already said they plan on taking ~50% of revenue earned from digital collectible sales, and we wouldn't be surprised if hefty cuts were added to just about every other source of revenue listed above.
Add to that, a healthy dose of lowered organic reach, across a BUNCH of different categories.
Meaning, any content that is good for your business, but not easily monetized by Meta, will be buried by the algorithm.
(Again, you'll have to pay up if you want your content to be seen).
And sure, it should be acknowledged - Meta are running a business here - monetization is the name of the game.
(That's capitalism baaaaby!).
The difference between revenue sharing and revenue bleeding, will come down to competition - Meta will have to play nice as long as creators have other options.
The silver lining:
So far, Zuck's version of the metaverse looks pretty un-compelling, so the opportunity to abuse market dominance is looking unlikely.
At the very least, the zuckerverse will help onboard a bunch of new users to the broader Web3 space.
We'll toast to that.
Doodles are everywhere. (Read the article and it'll make sense)
Right now we're at NFT.NYC, and the project that feels like it's just about everywhere we look?
Doodles.
This week at the conference, they announced two things:
They've just named Pharell Williams as the new Chief Brand Officer.
They've raised their first round of venture capital investment.
How does this impact Doodles as a project?
Pharrell is looking to provide vision and direction for the collection’s approach to music, animation, consumer products and events.
(Which is a nice blanket statement...but what it actually means? TBD).
He’s also the executive producer on an album of 'Doodles-inspired' (?) music to be released in partnership with Columbia Records.
(Ok, cool - nice little promo / partnership)
Doodles 2 is soon to be launched which will have millions of avatars instead of the original, limited supply of 10,000.
(Which suggests they're looking to onboard users, en-masse, through an affordable 'entry level' NFT).
What could it mean for NFTs as a whole?
Another big name entering the space - Pharrell Williams - may bring his fans with him.
Raising money from venture capital firms (instead of, or in addition to, NFT drops) may be becoming more common.
Doodles may pave the way with a new blueprint for expansion beyond the initial art project that kicked it all off.
That last point is (potentially) really exciting and here's why:
If Doodles manage to build a new/compelling/profitable product off the back of their collectible NFTs, it will act as a blueprint for other creators in the space.
More blueprints = more ways for creators to build projects = more compelling projects = more reasons for new users to explore Web3.
Nice!
Resource of the day
Reinventing the internet, with Marc Andreessen & Chris Dixon.
(1hr 36m - it's a doozy!)
'Read my lips, no more fees on Bitcoin trades' - Binance US
The headline says it all.
Binance US are cutting all fees on Bitcoin trades.
Anyone trading BTC with USD pegged stablecoins (like USDT, USDC, and BUSD), will be the tiniest bit richer for it.
It all sounds a little dry - even a little boring - but hear us out!
Here's why this is great for traders / consumers:
When you're trading in high volume, those fees add up!
Binance are the biggest crypto trading platform in the world and fees are their core revenue stream.
This will probably trigger a good old fashioned 'race to the bottom'.
Binance's competitors will need to either copy this strategy, or create a similar offer in order to stay competitive.
Lowered fees across platforms? We love to see it.
Here's why this sort of thing is great for Web3:
Again, lowered fees are a snooze fest for the most part, but they've helped transform multiple industries.
Uber, Robinhood, Netflix...
Each of these companies created products that were cheaper and easier to use than the 'industry status quo'.
Cheaper entry into Web3 gets us one step closer to broad adoption.
...now we just need to fix that pesky 'ease of use' problem.
UX designers, you up?
Your Daily Dose of Web3
Alright, that’s it for today!
Love to the family,