The debit card that'll get your mom into crypto
GM, we take the most important / interesting Web3 news and translate it into plain old English. Here’s what you can find in today’s edition:
Robinhood’s new debit card will get your mom into crypto
The metaverse is boring, can gaming fix it?
RESOURCE: A beginners guide to not getting hacked
The NFL isn't as charmed by crypto as the rest of us are...
Robinhood’s new debit card will get your mom into crypto
In fact, it aims to onboard anyone who's new to the space.
Here's the concept: buy something for $4.90 on your debit card, Robinhood will round the transaction up to $5 and invest that extra .10c into crypto for you. Apply this to everyday purchases over a year and it adds up.
Sure, round up investing isn't a new concept - Acorns started doing it with stocks back 2012. But the fact that it's coming to Web3 is a bigger deal than most think. Here's why:
Apple's design muse, Dieter Rams, put it best when he said "good design is invisible" - i.e. it works seamlessly.
...and at the moment onboarding someone into crypto is highly visible...like 'walking the streets naked, with an airhorn' visible.
For the un-initiated, something as simple as buying Ethereum will require a few how-to videos and a 'what in the world is a gas fee?' Google search.
The more seamless functionality is brought to crypto investing, by companies like Robinhood, the more 'invisible' it becomes.
And in order to jump the adoption 'Chasm', from Early Market to Mainstream, Web3 technology is going to need to be invisible:
(Yeah, we've used this graph twice in two weeks. What can we say? We're in love)
The metaverse is boring, can gaming fix it?
Today, news broke that FTX (the crypto exchange with a scrappy founding story) acquired Good Luck Games, furthering their efforts to build out infrastructure and offerings in the metaverse gaming space.
Add that to yesterday's news that Yuga Labs, the $4B NFT giant responsible for Bored Apes Yacht Club, are also turning their efforts to metaverse gaming and you start to see a trend.
...ok, ok - maybe not a trend, but a boat load of money and focused effort.
So how does this focus of time and money bring us a better metaverse?
If you're building new technology, trying to 'do it all' from the outset, isn't exactly a winning strategy. Those that succeed often stay laser focused, doing one thing reeeeally well before expanding.
Apple focused on personal computers, Microsoft focused on software and Google focused on search. From those solid footings, they each expanded across multiple product categories, which they now share (computers, tablets, phones, software, services etc.).
Logic follows, that the companies building the foundations for what we will one day know as 'the metaverse', will need to employ a similar focus.
Yuga, FTX - if you're reading this: god's speed. Please don't leave us to fend for ourselves in Zuck's metaverse.
Resource of the day
A beginners guide to not getting hacked.
(3.5 min watch time)
The NFL isn't as charmed by crypto as the rest of us are...
If crypto were your new love interest, the NFL would be your staunch friend that made it clear they weren't about to welcome them to the friendship group without some hazing.
The NFL have prohibited clubs from directly promoting cryptocurrency, but are slowing warming to the idea, after a memo revealed they will allow “promotional relationships without undertaking excessive regulator or brand risk”.
While you can't win em' all, it feels like the league plans to lower their guard over time, with their head of consumer products, Joe Ruggiero, saying:
“We’re extremely bullish on blockchain technology. We think that it has a lot of potential to really shape innovation, shape fan engagement over the course of the coming decade.”
Patience is a virtue....