Gm DOers!

Welcome back to our Weekly Rollup, the place where we help you stay caught up with the abundance of market news circulating around Web3.

We are completely stunned by the amount of innovation happening in the Web3 space and we couldn’t be more bullish on the future. 

This week’s word of the week has to be identity, especially after our discussion with Evin on Wednesday who absolutely grabbed our attention on the topic of data and identity. 

As we say that, this week, yet another data focused project has been introduced along with an abundance of other announcements including:

• Positive EU regulation
• Digital Identity transferred back into the hands of users
• Facebook & Reddit getting seriously into NFTs
• Updates on crypto lenders Celsius and Voyager
• Web3 Phones
• And so much more… 

Let’s get into it!

Wait… Not into reading? Maybe you prefer to sit back, relax and watch on Youtube? 
Or go for a drive and listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts? 
Choice is yours my fren 

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Also, claim your proof-of-completion NFT upon completion

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Web3 News & Highlights

Navdeep Singh, the technical program manager at Meta announces the launch of NFTs on Facebook. This comes as no surprise considering Meta’s heavy involvement in Web3. However, it’s important to note that Facebook will not act as a Web3 company. 

On that same note, according to Jeff Kauffman’s analysis of the terms & conditions, Facebook will basically control all of the NFTs that are shown. While they don’t have access to altering the blockchain, they do control what’s shown on their platforms. Always keep in mind that these Web2 companies will always choose to be centralized. 

Speaking of Meta, they have just decided to shut down their cryptocurrency wallet called Novi. This decision comes roughly one year after they’ve shut down Libra, the attempt to create their own coin (blockchain). However, this doesn’t seem like they’re giving up… Rather, we suspect they’re going to buy an existing wallet. Maybe MetaMask? 

The Council presidency and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the markets in crypto-assets (MiCA). Overall, this is good news because we desperately need regulation! 
The key takeaways are: 

• Truly decentralized DeFi projects and NFTs are exempt from regulation, 
• Exchanges (or similar entities that handle user’s crypto assets) are going to be regulated
• PoW ban is off the table.
• Stablecoin providers must have presence in Europe and hold a full reserve of cash
• Algorithmic stablecoins will need to have a reserve rather than an algorithm 

Crypto lender Celsius cuts 150 jobs in the hope of reconstructing. However, withdrawals are still paused and the company has hired restructuring experts as it faces a financial crisis. In the meantime, they’ve paid off their loan and recovered their Bitcoin collateral.

Voyager, another crypto lender files for bankruptcy after 3AC fails to pay them back. 
Is the worst behind us in terms of liquidations? Let us know by replying to this email.

Hayden Adams makes a perfect recap of the past month or so in one single tweet. Web3 is working and the crash has been caused by irresponsible centralized, human-driven entities

NFT Innovation

Arbitrum hits pause on Odyssey campaign which acted like a successful marketing campaign so far, rewarding users who bridged to Arbitrum through Hop Protocol, with NFTs. However, at some point, Arbitrum gas fees ended up becoming higher than Ethereum which forced the stop of the campaign. 

BlockbusterDAO fails to buy Blockbusters, the famous American-based provider of home movie and video game rental services. They have now pivoted to make video content through a project called R3WIND

ENS triple digit domains are going crazy. 000.eth was recently sold for 300ETH aka $300.000.

Lastly, we recommend you go and read the amazing thread of cantino.eth, explaining the future value proposition of NFTs. It includes how we can monetize our hobbies, how brands can incentivize consumers, how we can prove our credentials and so much more.
Alternatively, watch / listen to the podcast to hear Jay & Kyle go through the whole thing.

Web3 Launches

Polygon partners with Nothing, creator of phone (1) to enable Web3 functionality in smartphones.

HTC, the Taiwanese mobile manufacturer launched the metaverse phone “Desire 22 Pro” on Tuesday, which comes with a digital assets wallet and virtual reality (VR) headset pairing feature, as part of the company’s Web3 expansion. Can they end up being a top competitor in the smartphone market?
Let us know by replying to this email or on Twitter! 

EthOs, an Ethereum mobile operating system, just launched. Being compatible with Google’s pixel phones, it’ll allow users to seamlessly interact with Web3 natively from the phone, eliminating the need for multiple applications.

Matrix, yet another identity focused project, is launching through introducing a new concept : Reputation Power, which is a portable and composable reputation earned through on-chain achievements and history. We see more and more data and identity focused projects popping up (like Disco xyz). Is this the new trend?

Reddit is launching their new NFT avatar marketplace where it will allow users to interact with Web3 with no need for owning crypto. You’ll be able to use your credit card. This is fully focusing on onboarding more people into Web3 and thinking about the amount of users that will automatically be able to jump aboard is surreal.

Dialect, a messaging application allowing for wallet-to-wallet communication is integrating with the Solana phone, Saga to enable smooth messaging. It is unclear how this will develop in detail but it seems like the ball is rolling on this new Solana phone. Saying that, they are still in huge need for more users and interested adopters. 

The 1s & 2s

Ethereum gets a step closer to the merge by completing the transition of the second of the three public testnets, Sepolia. Only the Goerli network is left to be merged and in August / September, we will officially have Ethereum as Proof of Stake, if no issues occur. 

Immutable launched an ETH offramp. This is huge! Immutable is one of the leading blockchains for game developers. This means that developers can enable their users to sell L2 $ETH and have the proceeds deposited directly to their bank accounts. Rather than a multistep process with fees at each step and terrible UX Immutable is making it easy for gamers to take ETH they acquired playing a game and transfer it into their bank in USD, EUR or GBP.

Web3 Academy Is Launching A DAO

The Web3 Academy Community is spinning out a DAO. Web3 Academy DAO is a tokenized community which is forming out of the Web3 Academy Discord Community.

The DAO aims to further the mission of Web3 Academy by creating resources, products and services to better support the wave of entrepreneurs, businesses and creators moving into Web3 over the coming decade. Click here to apply to join 700 Web3 DOers building the Web3 Academy DAO. Our first community project is focused on building a Web3 Tool Library for businesses and creators.

Here’s what’s happening in our community next week:

• Monday Community Call at 7p ET. This small group call of 10-15 members is your opportunity to network and connect with fellow web3 enthusiasts. We discuss the podcasts from the past week, share what members are building in web3 and brainstorm ideas of what we could build together as a community.
• Thursday Web3 Sandbox Sessions at 4p ET. If Web3 was a sandbox what would you build? One community member presents their idea and gets high quality feedback from a group of developers, founders and marketers. This is great for founders and startups to test your ideas and push your business forward 3 months in just 30 mins.
• Join daily conversations focused on specific topics in web3 like NFTs, DAOs, Tokenomics, Marketing, Developers and more.

Web3 Person Of The Month

Our choice for this month’s person of the month has to go to Evin McMullen, CEO of Disco.xyz, who was on our podcast on Wednesday. Check it out here!

Her amazing ability to tell stories and communicate has just left us really amazed by everything that’s going on over at Disco. They are literally disrupting the identity industry, something that is extremely vital to us as users of the internet. Our online identity is sometimes more important than the one we have IRL.

Keep up the good work, Evin and keep innovating!

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Action Steps

1. Reply to this email with your favourite story this week. (Could be one we didn’t include)

2. Follow us on Twitter

3. Join our Discord to be part of our fast growing community