All Aboard the Web3 Train, Next Stop: Mainstream Station

GM web3 explorers! 

We’re back with another edition of the Weekly Rollup, the red pill that wakes you from the web2 matrix. 👀

Here’s what we’ve got for you this week: 

• Elon & Zuck are reserving their seats at the web3 table 🪑

• Devs are cooking up a storm in web3 social networking 🥵

• Creator royalties take another hit, but there’s a silver lining 😎

• Web3 Person of the Month. Hint: He’s been the driving force behind Google’s web3 activities 🤝

Let’s unplug 🔌

Why wait until Elon fixes Twitter's 🤖 problem? Get the jump on web3 social media with Lens!

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• The foundations of community 💪

• Why community building should be a priority 🏃‍♀️

• How to architect your Discord or Slack for scalable communication 🗣️

• The role of memes and social media in building community 🔥

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Each mastermind session will start with a presentation followed by a community discussion where we’ll build the playbook on community-building best practices together.

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🟣 NFTS X WEB2 SOCIAL

Twitter & Instagram Embrace NFTs

Looks like we’re not far from mainstream adoption, frens. 

After what seemed like a deal that’d never go through, Elon finally bought Twitter and he’s making some serious web3-friendly moves. 

Twitter recently announced that they’re testing NFT Tweet Tiles. These tiles allow users to showcase their NFTs while including details like the title of the NFT and the creator’s name. 

The interesting part is that each NFT Tweet Tile will have a link to the relevant marketplace for seamless buying and selling. Right now, Twitter plans to support Rarible, Magic Eden, Dapper Labs, and Jump trade.🤯

Some other exciting changes at Twitter include: 

• Twitter charging $8/month for their blue verification tick. While Twitter Blue previously cost $4.99, the blue verification tick wasn’t something users had to pay for. Instead, it was only reserved for “notable and active” influencers. This move won’t only generate significant revenue for the platform, but will also be a strong deterrent against spammers.

• Elon’s goal is to make Twitter the “Digital town square of the world”. We can’t be sure how this will play out. But judging by his goals, Twitter will be a censorship-free platform where everyone can speak their mind.

• A potential native crypto wallet. There’s been no official announcement, but according to crypto Twitter, something’s brewing.

But not to be outdone, Zuck and Meta made their own announcement—Instagram will soon enable the minting and selling of NFTs directly in the Instagram app using Polygon. They’ve also enabled connections to Solana and Phantom wallet. 

What’s interesting is that they’ve partnered with OpenSea to leverage their NFT metadata.

Could this be why OpenSea wasn’t mentioned in Twitter’s announcement? 🤔

Regardless, if we see successful implementation, this is another huge win for web3 and will help onboard billions of users—yes, Instagram has over 2 billion users. 

And in true web2 fashion, UI and UX take center stage. Users will be able to post a picture on Instagram and mint it as an NFT without even leaving the application. Plus the NFT goes straight onto Opensea for seamless trading. 

Creators will be able to set royalties in the app and choose where they receive their funds. At the moment, it seems like the only options are PayPal or a bank account, but there’s a strong chance we’ll see crypto wallet integrations in the future. 

Meta doesn’t have plans to charge sales fees until 2024, but mobile purchases will still be subject to app store fees. 

Will 2023 see mainstream NFT adoption and the revival of the bull market? Only time will tell. ⌛

🟣 BUILDERS GUNNA BUILD

Web3 Social Networking Activity Is Heating Up

Seems like social networking is the next big web3 sandbox ⛱️

While web2 corporations are embracing NFTs, crypto-natives are building their own versions of the ideal social networks. 

We’re seeing exponential activity growth across protocols and platforms, with devs working on hundreds of dApps daily. 

To be transparent, though. The space is still pretty small right now.

Two of the most hyped web3 social platforms, Lens and Farcaster, have just 90,000 and 3,000 users respectively. The thing is most web3 social platforms are still closed systems right now, meaning people can’t join without an invitation or white list spot. 

The interesting part is that they’re still generating tons of attention in web3. 👀

This is likely due to the fact that most of these protocols and dApps are open source, meaning anyone can build on top of existing functionality. 

And that’s exactly what hundreds of dApps are doing on Lens Protocol. Open-source protocols save developers significant time and effort since they don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, they can recycle existing codebases and focus on building additional functionality. 

👉 If you want to learn more about building social platforms on open-source protocols, check out our recent podcast with Nilesh from Orb and Joonatan from Phaver who are building on Lens Protocol. 

But it’s important to highlight that data composability and interoperability is the real objective of web3 social and is what’ll entice users from existing platforms. 

It means that you can move across different platforms while still maintaining your followers and profile information. If Instagram and Twitter were composable and interoperable, there wouldn’t be a disconnect between your followers and the content you post. 

It also means that you’d be able to unlock gated content on one platform based on a user’s interactions with another.

Just imagine if someone liking your post on Twitter gave them access to a video on Youtube—it’s a creator's dream! 

On another note, Jack Dorsey’s foray into web3 (or as he likes to call it, web5) is taking shape.

But the interesting part is that he’s focusing on DIDs (decentralized digital identities) and DWNs (decentralized web nodes) rather than using NFTs, like most web3 platforms. 

He’s also been working on Zion v2, which is not only the first web5 app, but one of the first prominent dApps to use the Bitcoin Lightning Network for payments. 

Let the web3 social battles begin. ⚔️

🟣 POLL OF THE WEEK

What motivates you to actively participate in a community? 🤔

• Financial opportunities

• To be part of something bigger

• To learn from others

• Something else? Let us know!

👉 Let us know by replying below!

🟣 ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

Are NFT Royalties Going To Zero?

Yet another NFT marketplace moves to optional royalties, this time it’s LooksRare. 

As of now, the platform will no longer support creator royalties by default, meaning royalties will be set to zero unless users specify otherwise. Instead, they plan to share 25% of the protocol fee with NFT creators and collection owners.

LooksRare’s protocol fees will still sit at 2%. However, 1.5% will go to LOOKS stakers while 0.5% goes to creators if they’ve set up a receiving address. If they haven’t, the protocol fee remains at 1.5%.

So kudos to the team for coming up with a unique solution to royalty enforcement.

Blur, a newly launched NFT marketplace aggregator, also had an interesting take on royalty enforcement. Firstly, they’re incentivizing people to use the platform through an upcoming token airdrop. 

Now, royalties are optional on Blur. But the kicker is that the more royalties users pay, the larger the airdrop they receive. 💰

While we’re on the royalties subject, Magic Eden recently tweeted about their findings since moving to optional royalties. 

Again, we’ve got a ton of respect for Magic Eden. They made a bold move in moving to optional royalties. But it’s their commitment to finding solutions to royalty enforcement and sharing their findings publicly that’s cementing them as the leading NFT marketplace. 🥇

Their recent Twitter thread broke down the difficulties around royalty-enforcement solutions, highlighting that they will have tradeoffs. 

Current solutions will force us to rethink what NFT ownership truly means. Because to enforce royalties, creators must retain some form of ownership and rights to alter an NFT if users don’t pay royalties.

And this means we introduce centralization into what’s supposed to be a decentralized space. 

The question is how much centralization is acceptable in web3? 🤔

🤝 Together with Unlock Protocol: Create Memberships and Subscription NFTs in Minutes! ⚡

🟣 WEB3 PERSON OF THE MONTH

Sam Padilla: Our Web3 Fren in High Places

This week’s vote was another exciting one with a last-minute community drive pushing Sam to overtake Stani.

We had some fantastic builders in this month's poll, including: 

• Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave and Lens

• Nader Dabit, founder of Developer DAO

• Sam Padilla from Google Cloud

• And, Miles Deutscher, a host on Crypto Banter

And this month’s winner is… 

Sam Padilla with 58% of the votes.

Here’s a bit more about Sam 👇

He’s been a driving force behind Google’s crypto adoption with him and his team building Google’s Blockchain Node Engine—the tech giant’s done-for-you node service. 

Sam and his team were also behind the Ethereum Merge countdown in Google search and have been validating the Ronin network (Axie Infinity’s sidechain).

Sam’s also working hard to get DAOs recognized as legal entities via ATX DAO—a local DAO working to:

• Unite Austin's crypto communities

• Enable artists and local businesses to participate in the crypto ecosystem

• And educate the government about the benefits of web3

If we had a Web3 Person of the Year, we'd definitely nominate Sam!

Congratulations on the much-deserved win and see you on the podcast soon 👀

🟣 NUMBERS TO KNOW

6,300 

That's the number of trademarks filed in the US this year, up 3x since 2021. Source

200 USDC

That's how much the new GT-2000 Asics running shoes cost. Buyers will receive an NFT badge which promises to unlock access to future exclusive drops. Source

$15,000,000

That's the amount Art Gobblers—a collection by the co-creator of Rick and Morty—did in volume since its mint. Source

🟣 AROUND WEB3

Web3 Adoption

• JP Morgan executes their first-ever trade on a public blockchain, using Aave on Polygon. Source

• Coinbase starts backing Ripple in its battle against the SEC. Source

• Fyre Festival island (situated in the Bahamas,) to be transformed into a luxe, crypto-only resort. Source

• The Norwegian tax authority partners with Ernst & Young to establish an office in Decentraland. Source

• Warner Bros’ DC launches collectible Superman comic NFTs. Source

• El Salvador and Lugano will start a collaboration to spread Bitcoin adoption. Source

• ForUsAll follows Fidelity in providing crypto 401(k) plans. Source

• VeeFriends partners with Rolling Loud to integrate web3 into the festival experience. Source

Web3 Innovation

• GameStop adds Web3 gaming NFTs to its marketplace. Source

• FTX now allows users to send crypto and dollars through email and phone numbers. Source

• A house in the UK is up for sale on OpenSea in NFT form, powered by a new company called Mattereum. Source

Other Web3 News

• A report claims that 97% of Uniswap tokens are rug pulls. Source

• $657M have been stolen through hacks in the month of October. Source

• The UK proposes rules that would slow down crypto advertising. Source

• MakerDAO co-founder Nikolai Mushegian was found dead at 29 in Puerto Rico. Source

🟣 FOR THE DOERS

READ

As web2 embraces NFTs it's the perfect time to learn about Creator Monetization and NFT Use Cases.

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