Twitter tests to see if NFTs will go mainstream, Microsoft claim Activision is “all about the metaverse” and Lenny Rachitsky shares some of his biggest surprises from angel investing.
Hexagons vs Circles
From Platformer, by Casey Newton
Twitter has this week announced that subscribers to their $2.99-a-month Twitter Blue service can connect their crypto wallet and share any of their NFTs as a new hexagon-shaped profile picture.
As is the nature of crypto projects, this move has received significant backlash, in a very similar fashion to early NFT integration into the gaming industry.
If Twitter fails to take NFTs mainstream it certainly won’t be the last to try (Meta and Google are also busy planning), but we still have to wait and see if the mainstream really wants them.
The Web3 playbook
From The Sociology of Business, by Ana Andjelic
Web3 is a marketplace, a new revenue stream and a source of competitive advantage, this playbook 👆 explores its potential for brands.
Addition: uses Web3 to add value to a brand’s existing business, but with the chance of becoming a new revenue stream if it moves to a new square.
System: involves connecting products and services in a new way to create transformative value, in which service and experience are designed around it.
Design: all about customer-led innovation—giving customers a new, better and different way of doing things in an additive manner.
Disruption: disrupts the value chain in an existing industry and creates value that didn’t exist before.
DeFi crash course
From Noahpinion, by Noah Smith
A quick crypto crash course on everything that's happened in DeFi since 2017, back when there was only Bitcoin, Bitcoin pizza and Ethereum:
“DeFi” is Born: A race to create the default stable base currency after BTC plunged 65% in early 2018. Yet AMMs weres till only used to trade “altcoins”.
Solving Scalability: Layer 2s were created on top of ETH and by mid-2019, Solana launched as the first “faster than Visa” PoS alternative to ETH.
Solving Liquidity: accelerating institutional adoption: Markets need liquidity and what does it actually mean to give power to the people?
DeFi Summer: A Cambrian Explosion in Yields: it once again got too easy to make money and Lido invented “liquid staking”— ETH as collateral for more borrowing and more lending.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MEMES: an inexplicable urge to clog the internet with Pepes, Wojaks, Midwits, laser eyes, and GM.
What the Future Holds for DeFi: (1) TradFi Distribution Channels, (2) Prime Brokerage and Cross-Chain Margining for Retail, (3) Crypto Exchanges Acquiring TradFi Brokers.
Microsoft in the metaverse
From Axios Login
Microsoft is pitching its $68 billion Activision Blizzard deal as “all about the metaverse”, but this link between its gaming deal and the future of 3D internet looks questionable.
Giving it the look of a “metaverse deal” could in fact aid Microsoft in defending this acquisition from any antitrust challenges.
The real value: it adds to key areas of its gaming business. (1) console /PC gaming, (2) subscription and cloud gaming, (3) mobile gaming.
Getting started in angel investing
From Lenny’s Newsletter, by Lenny Rachitsky
Some of Lenny’s biggest surprises from angel investing in 140+ companies:
I’m usually wrong about which investments will do best. Only a third of the best investments were rated as ‘great’ in confidence value going in. If there’s something special about the startup, you don’t always need full conviction.
Great deals are currency among investors. Seek out and build relationships with 3-5 other investors and share great deals with them.
Angel investing is more about access than picking. With access, you can raise capital, and very often the most popular deals also end up doing well—don’t stress about picking early on.
It’s mostly about becoming someone founders want on their cap table. To get access and grow your investing career become a person founders want to have on their table.
Extra Reading
The OpenSea bug encouraging the sale of NFTs at discounts (the mesha tribe)
Building Sustainable Web3 Games (Almanack, Nat Eliason)
Reflexivity in Tech Returns (The Diff, Byrne Hobart)
Leverage post-mortems: build a better future (Perspectives, Deb Liu)
Creator funds fall short for creators (Platformer, Casey Newton)
Great Startups Deserve Great Brands: Avoid these mistakes (First Round Review)