📝 Web3 Field Notes #3

📚 Readings:

• The mother of them all: a timely reminder of why we need Bitcoin. “If you want to compare Bitcoin to something else, compare it to fire, the number zero, the wheel, the printing press, or electricity.” Link (and some Bitcoin books)

• Lunch with the FT: Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, remains bullish, while the stock of his company is at an all time low. He has to. Link

• A comprehensive reading list on web3. The rabbit hole gets deeper. Link

• Good report by BCG on asset tokenization. Still a lot of work needed. Link 

• The naysayers are back. “The end of crypto?” – The Economist and The New York Times weigh in on crypto. Link NYT Link Economist

• Everything you care about online is an NFT. Good write up. Link

• New frontiers in AI and generative art. Link

🚨 What caught my eyes: 

• Bitcoin core version 24.0 released. Link | Notable changes

• Latest Ethereum all core dev call: The upcoming Shanghai hard fork upgrade (ETA: 2023) will unlock Beacon Chain staked ETH withdrawals, and might include EIP-4844 (proto-danksharding). Proto-danksharding won't reduce Ethereum gas fees, but it will reduce the transaction costs of Layer 2 protocols. Link 

• World Cup NFT bonanza: NFTs in sport are still about “collecting” and “rarity” for die-hard fans, rather than utility. Meanwhile, NFTs are gradually becoming mainstream. Link

• Harvard University publishes paper that recommends central banks to hold Bitcoin. Link

• Binance launches industry recovery fund. CZ is seizing the moment. Link Etherscan

🚀 Interesting Web3 start-ups: 

• NiftyKit: create NFTs with no code. Link

• Kazm: a web3 CRM system. Link

• Rarify: metadata on NFTs across multiple blockchains. Link

• Daylight: market directly to digital wallets. Link

• Artemis: developer activity dashboard across protocols. Link

💡Ideas & Take-Aways: 

• The aftermath of FTX: “bottomless exhaustion”. The third stage of a bear market. Narratives die off. Anger is replaced by silence. I think that’s the stage we’re slowly entering. Crypto isn’t less exciting though.

Back to building an learning. 

Onwards! 🚀

“So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all, to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.”

– Marcus Aurelius