The Meaning of Life 3.0
EDITION N°17 | 16 December 2021
Why so philosophical? This week it became more apparent than ever that we are [and have been for 20+ years] in the midst of the paradigm shift towards a bi-dimensional existence, an existence split between the online and the offline, where the only common factor between the two is… you.
Online, you may keep social accounts featuring a PFP [“Picture for Proof” or “Profile Picture”] that do not resemble your appearance on Official Documents. Offline, the people you come into contact with at your local coffee shop may be totally unlike the globally-distributed characters you interact with within the Metaverse [unless you live in Miami/LA/Portugal etc]. So, in 2021 you can hang out on Discord/Slack/Telegram, live your digital [work?] life for X hours and then unplug, hop on a bus and meet up with people for IRL hangs, if Covid hasn’t botched your plans.
Why is this important? Well, whilst the offline dimension has been built over thousands of years, the online dimension is still very much ‘under construction’, advancing every week with innovations in the AI/ML/Web3 ecosystem. The decentralized realms of finance, the arts [art, music, literature etc], lifestyle & fashion and self-sovereign identity have expanded rapidly and from a very low base. Every week we are seeing money being poured into new ventures with this week marking the first major traditional company purchase of a Metaverse-born project. The tussle between the threatened establishment [threatened because they can’t replicate the tech, the culture or the coordination] and the digital-natives is real. The result isn’t final, but every day the gap between these two dimensions narrows. The meaning of Life 3.0 is yet to be established but one thing is for sure, it’s going to be a lot more dynamic than Life 2.0/1.0!
Welcome back to DeFi Insights… 🌌😵💫
1. Everyday I’m raising
This *could* be one of the anthems for the crypto ecosystem that has witnessed huge investment over the year. If it was a meal it might look like… this:
Capital continues to make its way into the crypto space and this week was no exception with NYDIG closing a $1 billion funding round at a $7 billion valuation, Anchorage raising $350 million at a $3 billion valuation and blockchain analytics platform, Nansen raising $75 million. According to Pitchbook’s November 22nd article, “Cryptocurrency and blockchain companies have amassed $26.7 billion in global VC funding across 1,475 deals this year, more than quadruple last year's haul.”
Whilst these numbers are eclipsed by the $329 billion in private market mega-funds raised in 2021, they are still massive. However, it isn’t all about size. One of the biggest blockers for broader ecosystem adoption is the inaccessibility for the mainstream [via tech complexity and UI/UX issues]. This is why the launch to watch may be Chapter One’s $50 million funds, led by former executives from Tinder, Stripe, and Instagram. Its goal? “To help startups bridge the gap between so-called Web2 [FAANG] … and the emerging world of Web3, whose applications are often still clunky and hard to use, or require tech-savvy.” Probably n… 👀
2. Getting tooled up
How well do your lawyers understand copyright breaches within the Metaverse? This is a thing about to become 300x more real over the next 5-10 years, as the Hermes MetaBirkin trademark infringement will prove to show (almost $800k in lost revenues so far according to the FT article). TL;DR: be careful what NFTs you purchase and their provenance - flipping fakes could carry a penalty. Watch this video for more information about the implications of buying imitation goods in the Metaverse. We’re not in Kansas Ventimiglia anymore.
Whilst we are on the topic of tools, it might be time for a tool/service that helps humans check blockchain transactions before execution; that could definitely have saved this user some grief with their accidental Bored Ape sale at 100th of the value. Especially as the digital asset space [partly via NFTs] is becoming so mainstream that even South Park figured out a way to poke a little fun.
3. In Other News
Two really big things happened this week that in their own right, demonstrate how the two worlds of digital assets and traditional corporations may well co-exist in synergistic symbiosis...
Firstly, NIKE acquired virtual collectables company RTFKT (pronounced as ‘Artefact’, ikr).
Secondly, BCB Group bought 100-year-old German Bank, Sutor.
The first of these caused conflicting emotions for some of the Metaverse OGs out there. Although overjoyed for the creators of Metaverse-native RTFKT, the acquisition signalled a somewhat premature sell-out. Correct us if we’re wrong but this was the first Metaverse-born platform acquired by a traditional firm, which speaks volumes for Crypto Going Mainstream, one of our favourite themes. Either way, this acquisition is a milestone for the crypto space and could be viewed as an accelerated playbook approach for brands seeking to “launch their digital transformation … at the intersection of sport, creativity, gaming and culture”.
The second of the ‘two really big things this week’ demonstrates the power of crypto, stepping up to acquire a traditional bank to drive business in the EU; Sutor Bank is a fully licensed bank and this is a sure-fire way of getting a stronger foothold in the growing digital asset ecosystem, especially as Germany’s savings banks are working together to potentially start offering crypto trading to customers directly from their accounts in 2022. This is in sharp contrast to the UK’s Bank of England which continues to warn about crypto and apparently contradict itself.
So not only are natively-digital companies being acquihired by traditional companies to get a foothold in the Metaverse and help them migrate towards Life 3.0, crypto-focused firms are buying traditional entities to enable them to broaden their activities into the legacy system. Conclusion: M&A is going to be a big theme over the next few years and hopefully 2022 will surpass 2021 in terms of excitement and fireworks! 🎆
And now for some 2022 predictions and ones-to-watch…
… from Ryan Selkis at Messari, the Bloomberg equivalent for the Digital Asset Space. This is presented by Blockworks, which are a powerhouse outlet in the ecosystem. Ding dong merrily on high, tune in for some AAA content!
… brought to you by Alkemi Network
Alkemi Network is building an on-chain liquidity network with a suite of tools and products that serve as onramps for everyone to participate in decentralized finance.
ICYMI, check out our latest Ecosystem Update from Head of Ecosystem, Engin Erdogan.