Web 2.5

Robin Arzón: Founder at Swagger Society

Tue, 09 May 2023 18:50:26 +0000

🎙 New Episode 🎙

Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about the season two finale, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How can the limits of community building in Web2 be overcome with Web3 technology?

This week, our guest on Web 2.5 is Robin Arzón, a former lawyer turned ultra-marathon runner and global fitness leader who currently serves as the VP of Fitness Programming and Head Instructor at Peloton. In addition to her roles at Peloton, Robin is a 27x marathon and ultra-marathon runner, a 2x New York Times bestselling author, and the Founder of Swagger Society, an NFT-enabled lifestyle membership club aimed at helping members set and achieve their life goals.

Swagger Society is a soon-to-be-launched community of go-getters who will be able to set self-directed goals, receive support from Robin and fellow community members, and be rewarded in Swagger Points that will offer access to Robin as well as additional perks.

Swagger Society members will also have token-gated lockers where members can earn rewards for engagement and completing their self-set goals. Through the ecosystem, members will be able to connect with others who share the same goals and interests and become each other’s accountability partners along the way. Swagger Society was Robin’s way of leveraging Web3 technology to go deeper with her community that she’s been cultivating for over a decade in Web2.

In addition to her work at Peloton and Swagger Society, Robin hosts a Masterclass on mental strength. Plus, she is a two-time New York Times bestselling author of Strong Mama and Shut Up and Run. Robin released her newest book, Strong Baby, this year, and she is also taking pre-orders on a new journal called Welcome, Hustler: An Empowerment Journal.

In this episode, Robin gives an inside look at her career transition from law to fitness, what she is building with Swagger Society, and her passion for creating a lifestyle membership club in Web3.

Listen

Here’s a clip from this week's show:

Dana Hork on LinkedIn: Social media is hard. And it turns out that even those “winning” at the…

Social media is hard. And it turns out that even those “winning” at the social media attention economy can also feel caught up in the rat race. Robin Arzón…

www.linkedin.com/posts/danahork_social-media-is-hard-and-it-turns-out-that-activity-7061771306211364864-2ubw?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Season 2 Sponsor

🙏 Shoutout to our Season 2 sponsor Hang, a web3-powered, no-code customer engagement platform. If you let them know you heard about them on Web 2.5, they will also waive their $10K implementation fee 🙏

Learn about Hang

DISCLAIMER: This content is strictly educational. None of this is financial, tax, or investment advice — and not a solicitation to buy or sell assets or make financial decisions. Please always do your own research. For important disclosures, see www.web2point5.io/disclosures.

Sandy Carter: COO and Head of Business Development, Unstoppable

Tue, 02 May 2023 16:06:19 +0000

🎙 New Episode 🎙

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Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about our latest podcast episode, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This week, our guest on Web 2.5 is Sandy Carter, the COO and Head of Business Development at Unstoppable, a digital identity platform.

What do you get with an Unstoppable domain? A universal username that serves as your name, wallet address & login for web3.

In her role, Sandy is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of Unstoppable, as well as driving strategic partnerships and growth opportunities for the company.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

👉 What Unstoppable is

👉 Why someone might want a web3-powered domain name

👉 Some of the market trends and themes that Sandy sees from her deep and active involvement in the world of web3.

Listen

Here’s a clip from this week's show:

Season 2 Sponsor

🙏 Shoutout to our Season 2 sponsor Hang, a web3-powered, no-code customer engagement platform. If you let them know you heard about them on Web 2.5, they will also waive their $10K implementation fee 🙏

Learn about Hang

DISCLAIMER: This content is strictly educational. None of this is financial, tax, or investment advice — and not a solicitation to buy or sell assets or make financial decisions. Please always do your own research. For important disclosures, see www.web2point5.io/disclosures.

Kit Codik: Liquid Collections & Liquor.com

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 13:33:31 +0000

🎙 New Episode 🎙

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Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about our latest podcast episode, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How could the blockchain bring new capabilities to the beverage/alcohol industry?

This week, our guest on Web 2.5 is Kit Codik, the Founder and CEO of Liquid Collections, a web3-powered wine and spirits platform.

Kit is a serial entrepreneur with three decades of operating and investing experience across wine and spirits, media, structured finance, venture capital, consumer tech, and apparel industries. Notably, he served as the Founder and CEO of Liquor.com for over a decade before jumping into web3 to launch Liquid Collections.

Liquid Collections began as a platform that democratized access to starting a new alcohol brand. He worked with existing communities, from Lil Nouns to Meta Angels to Carly Reilly’s Overpriced JPEGs, to go to market with branded bottles.

He’s now leveraging the Liquid Collections platform to help traditional beverage brands build new programs that drive brand loyalty and gather 1st party data.

On today’s episode, Kit shares his experience in the beverage and alcohol world, his vision for Liquid Collections, and some of the learnings and pivots that he and his team are making along the way.

Listen

Season 2 Sponsor

🙏 Shoutout to our Season 2 sponsor Hang, a web3-powered, no-code customer engagement platform. If you let them know you heard about them on Web 2.5, they will also waive their $10K implementation fee 🙏

Learn about Hang

DISCLAIMER: This content is strictly educational. None of this is financial, tax, or investment advice — and not a solicitation to buy or sell assets or make financial decisions. Please always do your own research. For important disclosures, see www.web2point5.io/disclosures.

Sam West: Web3 Senior Global Marketing Manager, Mars

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 13:12:40 +0000

🎙 New Episode 🎙

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Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about our latest podcast episode, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What value does a large global CPG company see with web3 technology?

This week, our guest on Web 2.5 is Sam West, the Senior Global Marketing Manager of Web3 at Mars.

In her role, Sam explores the transformational opportunities that web3 can unlock for Mars’ Pet Nutrition brands. She leverages the Metaverse, NFTs, Blockchain, and AI to accelerate Mars’ purpose and make the world a better place for pets.

Through her role, Sam has helped launch an NFT-enabled membership community working to restore coral reefs through Sheba’s Hope Grows program and helped Pedigree drive pet adoptions with an interactive metaverse experience called the Fosterverse.

On today’s episode, Sam shares her background and journey into web3, some of Mars’ big tech-enabled programs, and the value a global CPG brand sees in investing in these spaces.

Listen

Here’s a clip from this week's show:

Season 2 Sponsor

🙏 Shoutout to our Season 2 sponsor Hang, a web3-powered, no-code customer engagement platform. If you let them know you heard about them on Web 2.5, they will also waive their $10K implementation fee 🙏

Learn about Hang

DISCLAIMER: This content is strictly educational. None of this is financial, tax, or investment advice — and not a solicitation to buy or sell assets or make financial decisions. Please always do your own research. For important disclosures, see www.web2point5.io/disclosures.

Tom McLeod: Founder & Executive Director, Arkive

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 15:43:59 +0000

🎙 New Episode 🎙

Listen

Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about our latest podcast episode, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What if the Smithsonian was owned and curated by the Internet?

This week, I had the privilege of chatting with Thomas McLeod, the Founder and Executive Director of Arkive, a museum "curated by the people."

The team at Arkive is reimagining the museum experience through a more decentralized, democratized, and participatory lens. Their approach includes

🗳 Community-driven decision-making to select curatorial themes
🖼 A collaborative process to determine which works are acquired
🌎 An approach to display those works in a situationally appropriate context, not only in one centralized museum space.

The team has already acquired numerous works, including:

💻 The ENIAC patent
💃 Fans used by Madonna in a "Vogue" performance at the MTV Video Music Awards
🎨 And so much more

🎙️ Tune in to this week’s Web 2.5 podcast to learn more about Arkive.

Listen

Here’s a clip from this week's show:

Season 2 Sponsor

🙏 Shoutout to our Season 2 sponsor Hang, a web3-powered, no-code customer engagement platform. If you let them know you heard about them on Web 2.5, they will also waive their $10K implementation fee 🙏

Learn about Hang

DISCLAIMER: This content is strictly educational. None of this is financial, tax, or investment advice — and not a solicitation to buy or sell assets or make financial decisions. Please always do your own research. For important disclosures, see www.web2point5.io/disclosures.

David Rodolitz: Founder & CEO, Flyfish Club

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 14:49:57 +0000

🎙 New Episode 🎙

Listen

Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about our latest podcast episode, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What would you get if you combined the exclusivity of NYC’s famed Rao’s restaurant, the members-only programming from Soho House, and the power of the blockchain via NFTs?

This week, our guest on Web 2.5 is David Rodolitz, the Founder and CEO of Flyfish Club, an NFT-enabled members-only private dining club. Token holders gain access to the NYC-based restaurant as well as various culinary, cultural, and social experiences. Flyfish Club is one of the signature projects coming out of VCR Group, a partnership between Rodolitz, entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuck, Chef Josh Capon, and Chief Culinary Officer Conor Hanlon.

David is a 20-year food and hospitality industry veteran. He is the Co-Owner of Ito, an Omakase experience, with Chef Masa Ito and Chef Kevin Kim. He is also the Co-Founder of the Empellón Restaurant Group and the Owner and Founder of Impulse Productions, an event-planning company.

On today’s episode, David gives a behind-the-scenes look at Flyfish Club, the various projects coming out of VCR Group, and his advice for any entrepreneurs building in Web 2.5.

Listen

Here’s a clip from this week's show:

Season 2 Sponsor

🙏 Shoutout to our Season 2 sponsor Hang, a web3-powered, no-code customer engagement platform. If you let them know you heard about them on Web 2.5, they will also waive their $10K implementation fee 🙏

Learn about Hang

DISCLAIMER: This content is strictly educational. None of this is financial, tax, or investment advice — and not a solicitation to buy or sell assets or make financial decisions. Please always do your own research. For important disclosures, see www.web2point5.io/disclosures.

Chika Uwazie: Co-Founder, Afropolitan

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 15:24:58 +0000

🎙 New Episode 🎙

Listen

Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about our latest podcast episode, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

There have been many communities building on-chain. But what would it mean for there to be an on-chain community that was actually a country?

This week, our guest on Web 2.5 is Chika Uwazie, the Co-Founder of Afropolitan, a digital nation with a mission of enabling all Africans to build and live abundant lives.

Afropolitan took inspiration from a thesis by Balaji Srinivasan, the ex-CTO of Coinbase and former Andreessen Horowitz partner. Balaji sees a future of network states, a series of cloud-first, land-later countries that are built around a shared ideology rather than a shared history or DNA.

In today’s episode, Chika shares Afropolitan’s founding story, what the community offers its holders, its vision for the future of decentralized nations, and much more.

Listen

Here’s a clip from this week's show:

Season 2 Sponsor

🙏 Shout out to our Season 2 sponsor Hang, a web3-powered, no-code customer engagement platform. If you let them know you heard about them on Web 2.5, they will also waive their $10K implementation fee 🙏

Learn about Hang

DISCLAIMER: This content is strictly educational. None of this is financial, tax, or investment advice — and not a solicitation to buy or sell assets or make financial decisions. Please always do your own research. For important disclosures, see www.web2point5.io/disclosures.

Jasmine Xu: Head of Product, Bitski

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 10:14:57 +0000

🎙 New Episode 🎙

Listen

Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about our latest podcast episode, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Why does a crypto wallet have to be so complicated and so confusing?

This week, our guest on Web 2.5 is Jasmine Xu, the Head of Product at Bitski, the self-described NFT wallet for everyone.

Crypto wallets are one-stop shops to buy, sell, transfer, and collect cryptocurrencies and NFTs. And Bitski believes that the key to greater crypto participation is creating a more user-friendly, mobile-friendly, and secure wallet experience.

In today’s episode, Jasmine gives us the inside scoop on crypto wallets, how they work, how Bitski’s product is improving the user experience, and some of her favorite use cases for wallets and web3.

Listen

Here’s a clip from this week's show:

Dana Hork on LinkedIn: If you ask anyone about their experience buying their first NFT, there’s…

If you ask anyone about their experience buying their first NFT, there’s generally one common thread — how complex it is to set up a wallet. There’s a…

www.linkedin.com/posts/danahork_if-you-ask-anyone-about-their-experience-activity-7043886389276413952-m-7W?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Season 2 Sponsor

🙏 Shout out to our Season 2 sponsor Hang, a web3-powered, no-code customer engagement platform. If you let them know you heard about them on Web 2.5, they will also waive their $10K implementation fee 🙏

Learn about Hang

DISCLAIMER: This content is strictly educational. None of this is financial, tax, or investment advice — and not a solicitation to buy or sell assets or make financial decisions. Please always do your own research. For important disclosures, see www.web2point5.io/disclosures.

Lin Dai: Co-Founder & CEO, OneOf

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 14:55:41 +0000

🎙 New Episode 🎙

Listen

Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about our latest podcast episode, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How can web3 technology better connect fans to their favorite brands, artists, and athletes?

This week, our guest on Web 2.5 is Lin Dai, the Co-Founder and CEO of OneOf, a mass-consumer web3 company connecting the next 100M non-crypto native fans to iconic brands, artists, and athletes.

OneOf’s technology enables global brands and enterprises to reimagine commerce, loyalty, and engagement, allowing consumers to seamlessly collect or trade digital assets with no prior crypto expertise.

OneOf’s roster of partners includes iconic artists like Doja Cat and the estate of Notorious B.I.G., athletes like Wayne Gretzky ad Muhammad Ali, and a roster of other large partners like American Express, Warner Music Group, the Grammys, iHeart Radio, Anheuser-Busch, and more.

On this episode, Lin will give us a behind-the-scenes look at OneOf and some of the big projects that he and his team have built.

Listen

Here’s a clip from this week's show:

Dana Hork on LinkedIn: How can web3 technology better connect fans to their favorite brands…

How can web3 technology better connect fans to their favorite brands, artists, and athletes? This week on the Web 2.5 podcast, I had the great privilege of…

www.linkedin.com/posts/danahork_how-can-web3-technology-better-connect-fans-activity-7041420962998743040-q9W9?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Season 2 Sponsor

🙏 Shout out to our Season 2 sponsor Hang, a web3-powered, no-code customer engagement platform. If you let them know you heard about them on Web 2.5, they will also waive their $10K implementation fee 🙏

Learn about Hang

Show Notes

00:00 Episode announcement

00:31 Show intro

01:22 Lin's intro and career before OneOf

04:16 OneOf's customers, products, and services

06:21 An NFT one-stop-shop

07:04 How brands approach OneOf

08:49 All about the Notorious B.I.G. collection

11:49 How OneOf collaborated with Warner Music

13:55 Web3 loyalty vs. traditional loyalty

15:30 Peer-to-peer connectivity and the Anheuser-Busch activation

18:22 Sponsored message from Hang

22:43 Lin shares sports use cases from OneOf

27:16 Lin's motivation for growing OneOf

29:00 The downsides of web3

31:38 Shill

33:02 Wrap-up

33:22 Closing

Show Resources

Matt Voska: Co-Founder & COO, Origami

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 19:48:57 +0000

🎙 New Episode 🎙

Listen

Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about our latest podcast episode, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How can brands and creators organize existing communities with Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)?

This week, our guest on Web 2.5 is Matt Voska, the Founder and COO of Origami, a platform that helps communities create and grow Decentralized Autonomous Organizations or DAOs.

Origami assists its clients with the end-to-end services needed to set up and run a DAO, from the NFTs that serve as token-gated membership passes, to the software, documents, and voting protocols that determine how a DAO makes decisions, to the token issuances that can be used to reward DAO members.

Origami got started by helping alumni from Y Combinator come together to explore, advance, and invest in web3 startups though Orange DAO. Origami now helps other investment groups, gaming guilds, sports clubs, and more drive their communities forward with web3 technology.

In this episode, we will discuss what a DAO even is and why a group might want one, what Origami offers to its clients to streamline the DAO process, some IRL case studies, and Matt’s predictions for the future of DAOs in the market.

Listen

Here’s a clip from this week's show:

Dana Hork on LinkedIn: How can companies start seeing communities as assets, rather than as cost…

How can companies start seeing communities as assets, rather than as cost centers? On this week’s Web 2.5 podcast, I had the chance to sit down with Matt…

www.linkedin.com/posts/danahork_how-can-companies-start-seeing-communities-activity-7038956640682840064-EDq_?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Season 2 Sponsor

🙏 Shout out to our Season 2 sponsor Hang, a web3-powered, no-code customer engagement platform. If you let them know you heard about them on Web 2.5, they will also waive their $10K implementation fee 🙏

Learn about Hang

Show Notes

00:00 Episode announcement

00:29 Show intro

02:08 Matt's intro and Origami's founding story with Y Combinator

04:22 Understanding why a DAO was needed

06:02 An overview of DAOs

06:54 Matt explains DAO governance models

07:41 Understanding the legal entity of a DAO

09:09 Matt details the difficulties of setting up a DAO

10:14 The lifecycle of DAO formation

12:12 Defining the members of a DAO

15:09 Matt shares the risks of DAO formation

16:42 Voting models in a DAO

21:10 Matt explains entity separation with Origami

22:41 Matt shares IRL use cases for DAOs

23:54 An overview of Pando DAO

25:01 The future of DAOs and exciting use cases

26:34 The fears companies have with DAOs

27:49 When and why companies shift from traditional participatory models to DAOs

29:29 Matt shares predictions and trends he sees with DAOs and web3

30:48 Understanding incentives within Origami

31:36 Shill

32:17 Wrap-up

32:34 Closing

Show Resources

Julien Genestoux: Founder & CEO, Unlock

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 14:23:04 +0000

🎙 New Episode 🎙

Listen

Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about our latest podcast episode, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How can brands and creators monetize their work without competing in the “Attention Economy?”

This week, our guest on Web 2.5 is Julien Genestoux, the Founder and CEO of Unlock, a web3 protocol for memberships and loyalty.

Julien was motivated to find a way to avoid the “Attention Economy,” the rat race in which brands and creators are forced to compete for attention by publishing a never-ending stream of divisive content. Instead, he sees an opportunity to empower these brands and creators with tools to monetize their work through memberships.

As a result, Julien and his team are building Unlock, an open-source protocol that enables anyone to create, manage, and distribute membership contracts by leveraging the blockchain in the background. With a simple interface to create an NFT-based membership using self-set parameters, Unlock gives developers, brands, creators, and platforms the ability to offer unique benefits and experiences to their fans and followers by “membershipifying” anything.

In this episode, we will discuss what a protocol even is, how Unlock works and makes membership creation super seamless, and some broader themes and trends that Julien sees for memberships and loyalty in web3.

Listen

Here’s a clip from this week's show:

Dana Hork on LinkedIn: Is the “attention economy” making us sick? On this week’s Web 2.5…

Is the “attention economy” making us sick? On this week’s Web 2.5 podcast, I sat down with Julien Genestoux, the Founder & CEO of Unlock Inc, a web3 protocol…

www.linkedin.com/posts/danahork_is-the-attention-economy-making-us-sick-activity-7036338070660509696-1l3L

Season 2 Sponsor

🙏 Shout out to our Season 2 sponsor Hang, a web3-powered, no-code customer engagement platform. If you let them know you heard about them on Web 2.5, they will also waive their $10K implementation fee 🙏

Learn about Hang

Show Notes

0:00 Episode announcement

0:33 Show intro

1:19 Julien’s intro and career prior to web3

5:55 Julien explains how the “Attention Economy” is unhealthy

7:15 Julien’s take on how the “Attention Economy” can be remedied with the “Membership Economy”

10:13 Julien explains what is Unlock and what is a protocol

16:51 Julien shares use cases for Unlock

18:17 How to customize a membership on Unlock

19:59 Sponsored message from Hang

23:11 Why Unlock was created

24:32 Julien explains what it means for a protocol to be community-owned and governed

26:08 How DAOs are used as incentives for Unlock

27:30 How Unlock generates revenue while being community-owned and governed

29:12 Julien shares his ideas on the future of social media and how Unlock can be leveraged in those spaces

31:54 Julien details why a decentralized platform is better

33:07 Julien’s opinion on the most misunderstood part of web3 and decentralization

34:53 Julien shares his vision of success

35:43 Shill

36:43 Wrap-up

36:53 Closing

Show Resources

Kate Brady: Global Head of Next Gen DTC Connections & Innovation, PepsiCo

Dana Hork — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 13:51:34 +0000

🎙 New Podcast Epsiode 🎙

Listen

Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about our Season 2 podcast premiere, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How can web3 and the metaverse drive deeper consumer connections for one of the world’s leading CPG brands?

Our guest on our Season 2 premiere is Kate Brady, the Head of Next Gen DTC Connections & Innovation at PepsiCo. Kate and her team enable and accelerate PepsiCo’s engagement directly with its customers, including by leveraging web3 technologies & metaverse experiences.

In this episode, Kate

Explains how PepsiCo leverages web3 to forge direct customer connections
Discusses some of the big case studies from PepsiCo’s portfolio using NFTs, POAPs, and metaverse experiences
And shares key learnings and insights from the company’s web3 journey.

Listen

Here’s a clip from this week's show:

Dana Hork on LinkedIn: 🎙 I'm excited to announce that Season 2 of the Web 2.5 Podcast is…

🎙 I'm excited to announce that Season 2 of the Web 2.5 Podcast is LIVE. ✅ This season, we continue to cover innovative use cases for web3…

www.linkedin.com/posts/danahork_im-excited-to-announce-that-season-2-activity-7033789127720361984-XUOM?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Season 2 Sponsor

🙏 Shout out to our Season 2 sponsor Hang, a web3-powered, no-code customer engagement platform. If you let them know you heard about them on Web 2.5, they will also waive their $10K implementation fee 🙏

Learn about Hang

Show Notes

0:00 Episode Announcement

0:35 Show intro

2:12 Kate’s intro and PepsiCo career prior to Web3

6:28 Kate explains the Next Gen DTC Connections and Innovation Team

9:48 An overview of PepsiCo’s Web3 Center of Enablement

11:37 A walk-through of PepsiCo case studies starting with Pepsi Mic Drop

13:05 An overview of the Gatorade Player of the Year activation

15:00 Kate explains POAPs and how PepsiCo is leveraging them with the BBMAs

17:01 LIFEWTR’s activation at Art Basel

17:35 Mtn Dew’s Call of Duty activation

20:03 Kate details Cheetos / Chesterville

22:54 Kate shares some of PepsiCo’s global case studies with Sabritas and De Todito

24:44 Sponsored message from Hang

27:14 How Frito Lay used packaging to connect with consumers

29:01 Kate explains the Pepsi Mic Drop 2.0 activation

30:49 How PepsiCo measures success across the portfolio of its activations

32:37 How Kate’s priorities have shifted since the first Mic Drop activation

34:56 Kate shares trends that may drive future activations

35:57 Kate shares roadblocks and barriers that she faces in the industry

37:23 An overview of internal workings and bringing Web3 into PepsiCo

39:23 Kate’s shoutouts and job opportunities

41:20 Wrap-up

41:36 Closing

Show Resources

Kate Brady on LinkedIn

Kate Brady on Twitter

PepsiCo’s Website

PepsiCo’s Job Board

WAGMI 😬

Dana Hork — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 15:15:10 +0000

Hi. It's Dana. Welcome to the Web 2.5 newsletter covering how Web 3.0 is shaping the real world.

This week, I'm thinking a lot about 'Future Cringe' 😬. If you missed the recent NYTimes article, here’s a summary of what it means:

The more I thought about it, the more I felt that a LOT about the crypto world might qualify. So I asked a few friends for ideas (both real ones like Phatstella, Riley, Randay, Andrea, Joanna, Kim, Courtney, and Rachel) and ChatGPT, too. Here are a few we came up with:

Crypto lingo. The crypto community uses slang terms to speak with one another. Examples include WAGMI (we’re all going to make it), FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt), and HODL (hold on for dear life). We had Zeneca break down several of these terms on our podcast. But I wonder if we’ll all look back on our WAGMI tweets and be embarrassed (this may or may not be a teaser for later in the newsletter 😉).

Hype-driven NFT purchases. We all did it. We FOMOed into projects (some even with crazy names — Pooping Ladies comes to mind). We’ll probably all look back and think, “What were we thinking!?”
Our first trips to the metaverse. Metaverse events, like concerts, conferences, and virtual reality experiences, should be immersive, mind-blowing experiences. But it’s not always that way. On my first trip, my laptop couldn’t handle it, I froze, and that was it. On my second trip, I got stuck in a water fountain 🤷‍♀️.

It’s a strange feeling to be doing things you might be embarrassed about in the future. But if we all made it through side ponytails, mismatched Converse, and braces, we can navigate this storm too. So, see you at the 10-year reunion, where we can all laugh about having cold, warm, luke warm, hot, and burner wallets.

And now, on to this week in Web 2.5. It’s a great one…

Web 2.5 News Roundup

🚘️ Beep Beep

The DMV of California, probably the last place you'd expect to see lead off the Web 2.5 news roundup, is leveraging blockchain technology to modernize car title issuance and transferability. The DMV teamed up with the Tezos blockchain and software firm Oxhead Alpha to build a replica of the agency's current title database on the blockchain. The group hopes that through the database (plus future projects like digital wallets to hold and transfer NFT car titles), they can offer greater transparency, ease, and security. Of course, all WE were hoping for was a shorter line at the DMV, but we'll take it!

Arden Jones, a musician currently signed with Atlantic Records, wants to pay off your parking tickets. And how will he pay for it? Through issuing NFTs, of course. Jones will use proceeds from the upcoming sale of his two-year-old song “Parallel Parking” to fund a community wallet that will pay off as many parking tickets as possible.

👠 Shopping Spree

Louis Vuitton is collaborating with artist Yayoi Kusama to decorate famous landmarks using augmented reality in Snap. In various global cities, Snapchat users can open the app and "choose the landmark in front of them to see Kusama's red, yellow, blue, green and white dots appear on-screen — mimicking Louis Vuitton's physical stores and the leather goods collection, which are also covered in dots." According to Pierre Castillon, director of digital media at Louis Vuitton, "It's a way for the Louis Vuitton and Kusama teams to show the bridge between online and offline; they're digitally painting their dots on top of the real world." Very Web 2.5, if we do say so ourselves.

Snap via Vogue Business

eBay has partnered with Notable Live, a platform for virtual events, to use NFTs to connect fans with sports players, leagues, and teams. eBay's collectible marketplace will be combined with Notable Live's immersive experiences to provide fans with a platform for interaction with players.

Bloomingdale's and Non-Fungible Clothing are collaborating to release a limited-edition Web3 fashion collection of 150 blockchain-enabled t-shirts. The collection will be available at Bloomingdale's in The Dubai Mall and will feature a month-long pop-up event with a VR experience.

Alo Yoga, the yoga and wellness brand, is rolling out NFTs to accompany its premium ski collection line. Shoppers of the brand's Aspen line, released last fall, can now claim digital certificates to unlock rewards such as workouts and styling support.

⚽️ Sporty Spice

It’s Super Bowl crypto ad season! Limit Break, a blockchain-based gaming company, is airing a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl to give away 40,000 NFTs. Viewers can access the "Dragon" series tokens by scanning a QR code featured in the ad.

The Premier League, the English soccer league system, is partnering with French fantasy sports platform Sorare to sell NFTs. The deal gives Sorare a four-year license to sell digital sports cards of players from all 20 Premier League clubs.

🍿 Hollywood

Calladita, an NFT-funded film about class differences and injustice, won the top prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Rather than seek funding through a traditional producer-funded model, Calladita was financed using NFTs to raise cash PLUS engage with fans who can now own a piece of the movie's success.

🖥️ Techmology: What is that all about?

Amazon wants employees to know that using ChatGPT as a coding assistant is NSFW. According to leaked messages from an internal Slack channel, an Amazon lawyer told workers that the company had seen instances of text generated by ChatGPT that "closely" resembled internal company data. What this means: when employees enter Amazon code into the tool to ask for assistance (say, for advice on improving code), ChatGPT may use the information as training data for future versions of Chat GPT. The TLDR: Someone loading a prompt into the tool could get Amazon's confidential codebase back out. So, note to self: garbage confidential information in → garbage confidential information out.

Amazon is expected to launch a crypto gaming or NFT-focused web3 initiative this spring. Reports began surfacing this week that Amazon (the main division, not AWS) is meeting with various industry power players, from blockchains to gaming startups to digital asset exchanges and more, fueling speculation on what the final initiative(s) could look like. Any ideas?

Apple is developing software to make it easy for users of its upcoming mixed-reality headset to build their own augmented reality apps. For example, the company hopes that anyone who doesn’t know computer code could tell the headset (via the Siri voice assistant) to create an AR app on demand.

Meta is starting to test ‘members-only worlds’ in Horizon Worlds.

Twitter is designing a system to permit payments through the social media platform. Although billionaire owner Elon Musk wants it "first and foremost" to be for fiat currencies, he also wants the ability to add cryptocurrencies later.

🤖 AI, Aye?

Fiverr, the global online marketplace for freelance services, published an open letter in the NYTimes announcing that they’ll be adding AI categories to their catalog of available freelancers (e.g., Chat GPT application developers, Midjourney artists, and more). The ad was a pitch not only for services but also a call for peace between humans and robots. It’s worth a read 👇️.

Micha Kaufman on LinkedIn: #openai #midjourney #stablediffusion #ai | 209 comments

AI, we come in peace. Here’s our letter today in The New York Times 😉 #openai, #midjourney, #stablediffusion #ai | 209 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com/posts/michakaufman_openai-midjourney-stablediffusion-activity-7025487188389732352-GP1F

The University of Texas at Austin is partnering with edX, a leading online learning platform founded by Harvard and MIT a decade ago, to offer a low-cost, online Master of Science degree in Artificial Intelligence (MSAI).

BuzzFeed announced this week that it would use ChatGPT to “enhance” and “personalize” content. The announcement led to a surge in the stock price and trading volume.

And hot off the presses:

💰️ Cash Cab

Gemba raises $18M for executive training in the metaverse. PYMTS.

Web3 startup Spatial Labs raises $10M to connect clothing to the metaverse. Silicon Angle.

Pfizer Ventures backs decentralized science startup in $4.1 million round. The Block.

🤢 Ouchies and Ickies

Binance admits it commingled customer funds with token reserves. Protos.

Hackers take over NFT project Azuki’s Twitter profile and steal over $750K worth of assets. Bitcoinist.

Phantom Wallet claims it thwarted over 18K attacks. Decrypt.

Coinbase Wallet adds safety features following high-profile NFT scams. Decrypt.

🦅 Legal Eagles

Yuga Labs says it does not have copyright registration of Bored Ape images, in new court documents. ARTnews. They then followed with a clarification note. Twitter.

First NFT trademark trial pits Hermès against MetaBirkin artist. Bloomberg Law.

Even in the metaverse, every kiss begins with Kay.

📚️ Weekend Reading

A CEO’s guide to the metaverse. McKinsey.

After a tough year for crypto, here’s how to handle losses on your tax return. CNBC.

Digital twins are set for rapid adoption in 2023. CNBC.

Check out MetaMask’s new learning hub. MetaMask.

MusicLM: Generating music from text. MusicLM.

🌶️ Hot Takes

Marketers are captivated by ChatGPT. But here’s why web3 still matters. By Cathy Hackl via The Drum.

Bill Gates doesn’t think Web3 is a big deal. Decrypt.

💼 Job Market

Meet Rug Radio's new Co-CEO. Rug Radio.

Nifty Gateway co-founders resign amid Gemini woes. Cointelegraph.

At Google, Meta, and other tech companies, the layoffs are streaming live on TikTok. The Information.

Director, Product Development - Foundry at Mastercard. Apply.

Associate Creative Director, Experience Innovation, Web3 - Huge. Apply.

Jobs from Boys Club. Learn.

☠️ And Finally…McWAGMI

🫶 And that’s a wrap! Thanks for reading Web 2.5. See you out there in the interweb3s.

Sweet Martha's Cookies

Dana Hork — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 14:01:51 +0000

Hi. It's Dana. Welcome to the Web 2.5 newsletter covering how Web 3.0 is shaping the real world.

This week, I'm thinking a lot about 'scarcity.' I attended a panel about the metaverse where a commercial real estate developer raised her hand and asked a straightforward, exasperated question: How do you make money in the metaverse? The panel tried to answer her question but didn't. She re-asked it. Still, no one gave a clear answer.

I went up to her the event after and told her my point of view – that you make money in the metaverse the same way you do in the real world – scarcity. You have something scarce that people want to buy. Your time. Your land. Your goods. Your expertise. It’s simple supply and demand.

But what’s interesting is that scarcity is a very anti-Web3 idea. A lot of the promise of Web3 is about abundance. For example, real estate spaces can be infinite, in theory, in virtual worlds. NFT collections are about democratizing access to experiences that aren’t possible at scale IRL.

But that's only one half of the coin. The other half is that supply and demand mechanics still have to hold. How do I know? Well, the week's big story was from Porsche, who flopped on an NFT launch by offering too many NFTs at too high a price. The point of the collection was to make something highly inaccessible – a luxury sports car experience – available to all. But to sell the NFT, you still must get the supply and demand mechanics right.

This push-pull between abundant access made possible by Web3, and the age-old dynamics that people still want what they can't have, is very Web 2.5. It's a healthy tension to balance, not one or the other. You'll see both at play consistently as you read the Web 2.5 news weekly.

I believe the best projects and communities must execute on BOTH abundance and scarcity well to win hearts, minds, and wallets. And unfortunately, for big brands like Porsche, sometimes you just don't get it right on the first go.

And now, on to this week in Web 2.5.

📰 Web 2.5 Roundup 📰

🚘 Cars

Porsche's attempt to sell $11 million in NFTs had a bumpy ride this week with an NFT launch gone awry. The company went to market with 7,500 NFTs offered at .911 ETH ($1,475), a price aimed to celebrate the collection's iconic 911 sports car. But with the high price point and uninspiring artwork, sales stalled, and the company had to cut off supply and issue a public mea culpa. Here's a pretty good summary below (FP = floor price). Oh, and here's an interesting thread on the T&Cs, too.

🐕 Who Let the Dogs Out

Pedigree, the Mars-owned pet care brand, has launched a new Fosterverse program, enabling real-life rescue dogs to be fostered virtually in the metaverse. Landowners on Decentraland who list their dogs in the Adopt a Pet registry database can upload a 3D avatar of their dog into the virtual experience, allowing users to interact with the dogs and learn about their adoption status. The move is intended to drive greater pet adoptions, a social good initiative from the CPG brand.

Pedigree

Neopets, the OG virtual pet website, is raising $4 million to bring itself into the metaverse. Initially launched in 1999, Neopets hopes their 150+ million fans worldwide will want to raise their digital pets in today's new web3 world. And according to my math, those 23-year-old digital pets are now only three dog years old. So, they should still be good to hang!

🥦 🛑 Not Whole 30

Oreo is celebrating the release of a new limited-edition cookie, dubbed "The Most Oreo Oreo," with a metaverse activation and collaboration with celebrity chef Martha Stewart. The experience occurs in Meta's Horizon Worlds, where users can play mini-games to win prizes. Note: This newsletter headline has to do with a different Martha, but as a Minnesotan, it got stuck in my mind. Also, kudos to the Oreos marketing team who got the legal team to sign off on these claims in the PR release: "Most Playful Cookie Ever Twists Open The Most Playful World Ever."

Oreo via Marketing Dive

🚽 Potty Party

NieuxCo, the New Orleans-based Web3 venture studio, is launching a new AI-generated digital collectibles Mardi Gras-themed NFT collection (that's a mouthful even after I finished the Oreos). Perks of the NFTs, which grant access during the IRL festival, include food and drink, access to special events, private parties, exclusive performances, AND restroom access along the parade route (which turned out to be very controversial on social media).

🎸 Music & Culture

Woodstock is bringing its storied music festival to the metaverse, tapping the blockchain-based production company Sequin AR for the gig (Sequin was behind Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special on Apple TV, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for NBC, and Madonna & Maluma’s BMA performance).

💄 Fashion & Beauty

NYX, the L'Oréal-owned makeup brand, is launching a beauty creator DAO and NFT collection to foster "the development of the 3D artist community and its evolving approach to makeup in the metaverse." The beauty DAO is called GORJS (pronounced gorgeous), and access is granted through NFTs called FKWME Passes (which is pronounced precisely as you thought it shouldn't be but might be).

Nike opened up its .SWOOSH Studio this week, the home for its virtual co-creation efforts. According to an Instagram post, the first co-collaboration program will be the 'Your Force 1' challenge, allowing the community to submit concepts for a new Air Force 1 shoe.

📺 Media

ZEBEDEE, a mobile payment company, partnered with the “listen-to-earn” podcast platform Fountain to enable podcasters to reward their listeners with Bitcoin. Should we do this for Web 2.5?

David Bianchi, the actor and filmmaker, is launching a Web3-powered TV series called RZR. Bringing both Web3 technology and a Web3 ethos to the project, Bianchi held an open 'table read' this week, allowing the general public to participate in what's typically a closed-door script-reading session.

🤝 All the Deals, All the Feels

MoonPay, the crypto payments company, purchased a Web3-focused creative agency, Nightshift, to build a one-stop shop for brands looking to enter Web3.

Floor, the NFT app that enables collectors to view and track their holdings, has acquired WGMI.io, an analytics tool specializing in market activity and trading data.

Doodles has agreed to acquire the award-winning animation studio Golden Wolf, known for its work with Rick & Morty and Disney. GW's Founder, Ingi Erlingsson, will be joining Doodles as Chief Content Officer, continuing to oversee GW operations while also "building the Doodles design and animation studio, which will focus on taking the brand to the next level through long form content, gaming, IRL experiences and more."

💵 Finance Things

Robinhood is getting deeper into the wallet game, rolling out its new software wallet to 1 million users. A competitor to leading wallet products like MetaMask's wallet, the Robinhood Wallet allows users to swap and transfer crypto and view owned NFTs and crypto.

OS App Store / Robinhood via Decrypt

🔢 By The Numbers

Are NFTs Back? OpenSea sales rise in consecutive months for the first time in a year.

Congress, we have a problem. More than one in three of the 535 senators and representatives in the U.S. Congress received campaign support from a senior exec at FTX.

Kevin Rose, the Co-Founder & CEO of Proof (creators of Moonbirds), appears to have lost $1 million+ worth of NFTs via a wallet hack.

Crypto is now the second most widely held asset by female retail investors, after cash and ahead of stocks, according to a new survey from investing platform eToro.

🦧 Degen Corner

Doodles announced its long-awaited NFT project, Doodles 2, this week. The new project is a Flow blockchain-based dynamic NFT comprised of two parts. First, anyone can mint a base-level Doodle, described by Founder Jordan Castro as a mannequin, of sorts. On top of that, holders can purchase wearables meant to be changed into endless combinations. The collection is another move by Doodles to bring its brand to a more mainstream consumer.

🤓 Weekend Reading

How AI and Web3 Marketing Will Compete for Ad Dollars. AdAge.

The Unknown Hedge Fund That Got $400 Million From Sam Bankman-Fried. NYTimes.

How Jack Butcher’s Checks Challenges the Way People View NFTs. nft now.

🌶 Hot Takes

ChatGPT is 'Not Particularly Innovative,' and 'Nothing Revolutionary,' Says Meta's Chief AI Scientist. ZDNET.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon: Bitcoin is a 'hyped-up fraud.'

🔍 Trademarks Don't Lie

💼 Job Market

Stephanie Simon, the former Clubhouse exec, joins FARFETCH Group as Vice President. Community and Web3.

Gemini, the beleaguered crypto exchange, is laying off 10% of workforce in its latest round of cuts (there have been at least 3 this year).

Microsoft layoffs reportedly hit key VR and metaverse teams.

Editor, nft now. Apply.

☠️ And finally...

Spending my weekend using AI to try to get an Oscar.

🫶 And that’s a wrap! Thanks for reading Web 2.5. See you out there in the interweb3s.

🎙 Web 2.5 Season 1 Podcast Recap 🎙

And in the meantime, don't forget to check out any episodes you missed from Season 1 of our podcast:

Listen

How'd We Do?

DISCLAIMER: This content is strictly educational. None of this is financial, tax, or investment advice — and not a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please always do your own research. For important disclosures, see www.web2point5.io/disclosures.

Getty, a Yeti, and a Rabbi Walk Into a Bar

Dana Hork — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 12:40:22 +0000

Hi. It’s Dana. Welcome to the Web 2.5 newsletter covering how Web 3.0 is shaping the real world.

Yeti Hunt via Blockster

This week's quick word is about content creation. So, as I shared last week, we wrapped Season 1 of the Web 2.5 podcast, and there's a tiny microphone-shaped hole in my heart while we're off-the-air prepping for Season 2 (coming very soon)! During our respite from the podcast treadmill, here's how we're spending our time.

Selectively looking for mission-aligned sponsors (Could that be you? Let us know if you want to chat).
Taking a break from tweeting from the brand account and then re-liking it from my personal account and vice versa.
Testing out this new podcast format:

As someone who has run social media teams for a long time, it's never been harder to be a content creator. The space is crowded, there's a lot of content noise, and the algorithm gods seem to be conspiring against everyone. So, if you're looking to do some good out there, engage with your favorite creators on social media and share their newsletter referral links. They will surely appreciate it! And, in case you're in a sharing mood, we'd welcome you to share this newsletter with friends & colleagues...

And now, on to this week in Web 2.5.

📰 Web 2.5 Roundup 📰

📺 Media & Entertainment

Getty Images is suing the creators of AI art tool Stable Diffusion for scraping its content. Getty claims that the generative AI tool “unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright” in order to train its AI models.

Igloofest Montreal, the electronic music festival, launched an NFT treasure hunt activation. The Yeti Hunt contest invites attendees to collect Yeti-inspired NFTs, which will be minted on the Polygon blockchain. And, thanks to the festival organizers, this Web 2.5 newsletter edition got a rhyming subject line 🙌 .

Tribeca Festival’s new NFT collection offers the chance to party with Robert DeNiro. The NFT serves as a VIP ticket to unique festival experiences and is available exclusively via the OKX NFT marketplace. Related, apparently the festival no longer uses its former middle name, "Film." Go figure?!

Edward Snowden sells a new NFT collection to support press freedom.

FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried launched a Substack newsletter from house arrest.

🏎 Sports

Ferrari cut ties with crypto sponsor Velas Blockchain ahead of the 2023 Formula One season in a move to distance itself from the crypto industry.

The Australian Open launched a Roblox experience where visitors can explore the iconic Rod Laver Arena, meet digital avatars of iconic players, and mint sports NFT collectibles.

👩‍💼 The Business of Business

L’Oréal is among the new investors in metaverse developer Digital Village.

Amazon Web Services is growing its blockchain-based services for its enterprise, institutional, and government clients via a partnership with Ethereum blockchain competitor Avalanche.

🇺🇸 Governments & Countries

US Lawmakers have created Congress' first-ever digital assets subcommittee.

Coinbase halts operations in Japan citing 'market conditions.'

South Korea launched a metaverse replica of Seoul.

Metaverse Seoul via CoinDesk

🏠 Real Estate

KB Home is the first national homebuilder to join the metaverse. The company is launching a virtual new-home community in Decentraland where users can personalize their virtual homes. The story comes in tandem with news that their IRL home business is seeing a spike in year-over-year cancellations.

Metahood raised $3M to build the Zillow of the metaverse, aiming to create a more visual platform for buying and selling virtual real estate.

Metahood via Decrypt

🙏 Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret

Rabbi Josh Franklin, based in the Hamptons on the eastern end of Long Island, NY, delivered a sermon written by artificial intelligence this week. He told the congregation that the speech was 'plagiarized' and then invited the congregation to guess who wrote it. And, in a line I have been WAITING to use for WEEKS now, please welcome to my comedy routine: Rabbi Josh Franklin will also help his congregation's students use a new AI-powered tool that helps write Torah portion summaries, aptly titled by me...the Bot Mitzvah (takes a bow 👏 ).

🤖 AI, Aye?

Microsoft's VALL-E can imitate any voice, including emotions and tone, with just a three-second voice sample.

Google Cloud introduces a shelf inventory AI tool for retailers with an image library of over 1 billion products. The tool aims to arm retailers with timely and accurate information about shelf inventory.

Alphabet via WSJ

🚩 Ouchies & Ickies

The co-founders of the now-bankrupt Three Arrows Capital are raising $25 million in capital to start a new exchange that makes money off of, get this, bankrupt cryptocurrency firms. It's called GTX, because that's what comes after FTX 🤷‍♀️.

Genesis Global Capital and the crypto exchange Gemini Trust Co (founded by the Winklevoss twins) were charged by the SEC with selling unregistered securities.

The US charged crypto exchange Bitzlato with laundering $700M.

National Geographic, the 135-year-old nature-centric magazine, was met with harsh backlash online when marketing its first NFT collection this week.

Instagram via Metav3rse

🦧 Degen Corner

Logan Paul reveald a refund plan for dissatisfied CryptoZoo NFT investors.

Rug Radio opened up Listen-to-earn rewards.

Yuga Labs launched Dookey Dash, a skill-based ‘endless runner’ game similar to Subway Surfers or Temple Run, netting over $6 million in the first few hours after mint. Players have three weeks to compete by collecting items and completing quests in the game.

🤓 Weekend Reading

SBF, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and the Spectacular Hangover After the Art World’s NFT Gold Rush. Vanity Fair.

Mike Novogratz Wants to Punch Disgraced Crypto Titans in the Face. Bloomberg.

Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach. NYTimes.

🌶 Hot Takes

Top NFT Artists Are Launching Projects on Instagram and Selling Out in Seconds. CoinDesk.

CoinDesk Broke Big News About FTX. Now the News Is Closer to Home. NYTimes.

NFTs Are the Future of Identification and Record Keeping. Newsweek.

DAOs Might Be Cure for Biotech Startups and New Drug Development. Bloomberg Law.

💼 Job Market

Head of Marketing, Flow Blockchain. Apply.

Doodles Hires 3 New People to Accelerate the Brand. NFT Evening.

☠️ And finally...

Saint West asks the Tooth Fairy (a.k.a. mom Kim Kardashian) for Roblox cash instead of real money.

Kim Kardashian via People Magazine

🫶 And that’s a wrap! Thanks for reading Web 2.5. See you out there in the interweb3s.

🎙 Web 2.5 Season 1 Podcast Recap 🎙

And in the meantime, don't forget to check out any episodes you missed from Season 1 of our podcast:

Listen

How'd We Do?

Defrosting the Lasagna

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 14:16:34 +0000

Official Game of Thrones NFTs on Nifty's via Decrypt.

Hi. It’s Dana. Welcome to the Web 2.5 newsletter covering how Web 3.0 is shaping the real world.

Wowzers! I took a two-week holiday break from sending this newsletter, and A LOT has happened.

I've got a huge trove of news headlines to cover today.
I've got a snazzy new Web 2.5 website.
And I've got a new tagline I'm testing: "Where Web3 Meets the Real World." I want to keep a sharp focus on real-world impact, use cases, and "so what" of all of this. So, expect to see that coming through in the stories we include here AND in the Season 2 podcast guest slate.

Web 2.5

A quick note on newsletter format. In my year-end survey, your feedback was that you want a newsletter that's both easy to breeze through, but you also want context that's missing in a bullets-only digest. So, both it shall be. I'm back this week with context above the fold, and the headline round-up below, all for your browsing pleasure.

In terms of thoughts this week, it wouldn't be a January newsletter without some predictions and trends. Here are three (two of which were published in this predictions roundup from The Riveter):

The professionalization of NFT projects. Many NFT drops in 2021 and early 2022 became token-gated communities in search of a business model. Going into 2023, with cash burn on their minds and secondary NFT trading volume all but dried up, the strongest (and most well-funded) of these communities will need to evolve. Expect to see these communities uplevel their senior teams, acquire smaller projects, and build out traditional business models (think products, services, memberships, and marketplaces) to sustain their operations.
The AI-ification of everything. While AI is not new, there’s been a surge in consumer-facing AI-powered tools in recent weeks (or maybe just a surge in Twitter threads about consumer-facing AI-powered tools). With tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney now available at everyone's fingertips, expect more and more people to experiment with AI-powered everything.
Web 2.5 will continue to thrive. The technology behind Web3 powers a more open, decentralized, participatory, and experiential internet. But in reality, people want to understand the “so what” of it all. They want to know how it can actually be used to improve our real world. So, expect the media (much like we do on the Web 2.5 Podcast & Newsletter) to talk more about use cases and real-world impact – and less about the terminology of the technology.

And now, on to this week the last three weeks in Web 2.5.

📰 Web 2.5 Roundup 📰

👜 Shopping, Retail & Commerce

Ready to be a fashion designer? H&M launched a Roblox gaming experience called "Loooptopia," which according to their development partner Dubit, "lets players experiment with materials and patterns to create their own clothing ranges." There will also be a ready-to-wear collection inspired by, you guessed it, the metaverse.

The Mall of the Emirates in Dubai opened the first-ever physical NFT shop where you can buy your NFT at an IRL mall.

Lowe's, the home improvement brand, will now use the blockchain to conquer merchandise theft.

Shopify is making it even more seamless for brands to design, mint, and sell NFTs right from their storefront.

Heller, a designer furniture brand, has partnered with a new tech company, Digby, to link individual furniture items to an NFT, thereby verifying authenticity on the blockchain.

dezeen

💰 Financy Things

Mastercard is launching a web3-focused artist incubator with Polygon.

According to its trademark filings, Fidelity is exploring adding services in the metaverse including mutual fund and retirement planning and a potential NFT marketplace.

The Golden Egg Club, a new NFT project from Jeremy Falls, is backed by gold.

🖥 Tech Neck

Microsoft is rumored to be in talks with buzzy AI-company OpenAI to make a $10B investment at a $29B valuation.

Salesforce has built a Web3 Advisory Board because "tapping into [Web3 potential] requires a new way of thinking and approaching business problems ..." Yep.

OVR Technology showcased a new sensory experience at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023 show by adding smell to virtual reality experiences.

LG announced that NFT & TV lovers can now trade digital collectibles right from the couch using an LG smart TV.

📺 Media, Entertainment, and anything Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Reynolds made a TV commercial using OpenAI.

Noah Kalina, the photographer who started taking a photo a day back in 2006, is now selling them as NFTs.

Game of Thrones' NFTs sold out quickly...but they are getting roasted on Twitter for the artwork.

🚘 Beep Beep

BMW announced a two-phase rollout plan to enter the world of Web3 by leveraging blockchain technology to improve internal operations, followed by the launch of a consumer-facing loyalty program.

Mercedes-Benz taped SUPERPLASTIC to launch a limited edition digital collectible. It has something to do with a 'Wackeldackel' but I don't know what that is, and I'm definitely not googling it.

Hypemoon

⚽️ Sports

Sony is partnering with football (soccer) club Manchester City to create a sports metaverse where players can interact as avatars in a virtual stadium.

Chess, as in the sport of chess, is coming to Web3. The International Chess Federation is partnering with Avalanche to improve the player experience with on-chain player ratings and tournament data management, a historical game explorer, prize pools, and digital trophies.

FTX Arena is officially no longer FTX arena.

Fanatics, Michael Rubin’s sports platform company, is selling its 60% stake in sports digital collectibles NFT marketplace Candy Digital.

🤖 AI, Aye?

OpenAI began piloting ChatGPT Professional, a premium version of its viral chatbot.

Biologists are building artificial intelligences that can fight cancer, flu and Covid.

NYC outright banned students and teachers from using ChatGPT in the classroom.

The San Francisco Ballet is in hot water for promoting its ‘Nutcracker’ performances with A.I.-Generated art." Why? Because they used AI for free when they could have hired and supported an actual artist.

🤝 Deals

The Polygon blockchain paid $3 million to sway the popular NFT project y00ts over from competitor blockchain Solana. Turns out wheeling and dealing exists in Web3, too.

🚩 Bad Stuff

Not even the Chief Operating Officer of RTFKT is immune from a social phishing scam. He lost $173K worth of NFTs in a hack.

Is anyone surprised that FTX spent $7 million on food and $15 million on hotels in 9 months? Not really.

🦧 Degen Corner

PROOF, the Web3-native collective behind popular projects like Moonbirds, has signed on with United Talent Agency to focus on "partnerships that extend Moonbirds far beyond our existing Web3 audience, transforming Moonbirds into a global brand."

Nouns have morphed into their real-life selves at the Rose Bowl Parade.

🤓 Weekend Reading

All the ways crypto broke in 2022. Bloomberg.

The state of AI in 2022—and a half decade in review. McKinsey.

TCG Crypto Year in Review. TCG.

Decentralizing social media: a guide to the web3 social stack. Coinbase.

🌶 Hot Takes

Mark Cuban warns of potential new crypto scandal and fraud. TheStreet.

The year the NFT died and came back to life. Wired.

💼 Job Market

SuperRare cuts 30% of staff. TechCrunch

Coinbase cuts 950 employees. Decrypt.

Head of Marketing, Doodles. Apply

Communications Lead, OpenSea. Apply.

Social Media Manager, LinksDAO. Apply.

☠️ And finally...

TODAY

🫶 And that’s a wrap! Thanks for reading Web 2.5. See you out there in the interweb3s.

🎙 Web 2.5 Season 1 Podcast Recap 🎙

Don't forget to check out our final two episodes of Web 2.5's Season 1 Podcast with Justin Breton (going behind the scenes of Walmart's Roblox activation) and Avery Akkineni (covering big brands in Web3 from her role at Vayner3). And while you're at it, take a peek at anything you missed from Season 1 👀.

Listen

How'd We Do?

🎙 Avery Akkineni on Unlocking Value for the World’s Most Iconic Brands

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 15:38:50 +0000

🎙️New Podcast Episode🎙️

Avery Akkineni: President, Vayner3

Listen

Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about our Season 1 finale podcast episode, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Why do big brands and IP owners enter the world of Web3? What have they hoped to get out of it? And what new trends and themes can we expect from them in 2023?

This week, on our Season 1 finale of Web 2.5, our guest is Avery Akkineni. Avery is the President of Vayner3, a Web3 consultancy that guides some of the world’s leading Web2 enterprises through their journey into Web3. Their services cover cryptocurrencies, NFT program development, and immersive digital experiences (aka the metaverse) – and they work with some of the world's most iconic brands.

In this episode, Avery will answer some of the world’s biggest Web 2.5 questions like why are all of these big Web2 brands investing in the Web3 game, what value they see in Web3, and what new trends we can expect in 2023.

Here’s a clip from this week's show:

Dana Hork on LinkedIn: The # 1 question I am asked is, "Why are big brands continuing to enter…

The # 1 question I am asked is, "Why are big brands continuing to enter Web3 & NFTs? What are the real, tangible use cases for all of this?" Lucky for us, I…

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danahork_the-1-question-i-am-asked-is-why-are-activity-7018594579390099456-Lst1?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

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Show Notes:

0:00 Season Finale Overview

1:02 Show Intro

2:22 Avery and Dana discuss being named one of Coindesk’s Most Influential for 2022

3:06 Avery introduces herself and Vayner3

4:36 Avery shares the types of client(s) that partner with Vayner3 and why

8:10 An overview of Vayner3’s use cases for brands in 2022

12:57 Avery explains what improves a brand’s chances of success

15:03 Avery shares her go-to-market strategies

16:59 Avery’s take on the crypto winter and the negative news cycles

19:30 The cultural and behavioral transformations of Web3

21:46 An overview of niche vs. mainstream adoption and how Web3 is inevitable

24:33 Vayner3’s predictions for Web3 in 2023

27:28 Avery’s shoutouts

29:02 Shill

29:54 Wrap-up

30:03 Closing

Show Resources:

Vayner3’s Website: https://vayner3.com/

Vayner3 on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vayner3/

Vayner3 on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Vayner3

Vayner3 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vayner3/

Avery Akkineni on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/averyakkineni/

Avery Akkineni on Twitter: https://twitter.com/avery_akkineni

Avery Akkineni on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/avery.akkineni/

Listen

DISCLAIMER: This content is strictly educational. None of this is financial, tax, or investment advice — and not a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please always do your own research. For important disclosures, see disclosures.web2point5.io.

🎙 Justin Breton on Walmart's Roblox Launch

Dana Hork — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 17:30:51 +0000

🎙️New Podcast Episode🎙️

Justin Breton, Director of Brand Experiences & Strategic Partnerships, Walmart

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Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about our newest podcast episode, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Why does the world’s biggest company launch into the metaverse? What’s their approach? How does it go? And what are they learning?

This week, our guest on Web 2.5 is Justin Breton, the Director of Brand Experiences & Strategic Partnerships at Walmart. Justin and his team are responsible for driving meaningful engagement with Walmart customers via a portfolio of brand engagement programs, including shoppable livestream events, augmented reality activations, and now, Walmart’s presence in the metaverse.

Justin was behind the launch of Walmart’s first foray into the metaverse with two immersive experiences on Roblox — Walmart Land and Walmart Universe of Play. Across both spaces, Walmart converted its store “aisles” into virtual “isles” with the ability to explore fashion, style, beauty, entertainment, toys, and more – all in a virtual world shaped like the Walmart logo.

In this episode, Justin gives us a behind-the-scenes view into Walmart’s very first at-scale metaverse launch, sharing everything from what Walmart’s doing, why they are doing it, and what they’ve learned along the way. It’s jam-packed with insights helpful for brands big and small exploring online virtual experiences. And PS: I used to run social media for Walmart, so this show was especially fun.

Here’s a clip from this week's show:

Listen

Show Notes:

0:00 Show intro

0:53 Dana shares her experience working for Walmart

1:15 Justin explains his role and his team’s remit for driving brand engagement

1:56 About shoppable livestreams

2:13 About virtual experiences like Roblox

2:42 How the metaverse came into consideration for Walmart

3:27 Why Walmart decided to partner with Roblox

4:49 Former Walmart CMO, Barb Messing, is now the CMO at Roblox

5:34 Justin shares his Web3 journey (he’s a newbie)

6:37 Walmart’s exploration of NFTs, DAOs, and other dimensions of Web3

8:15 An overview of Walmart’s Roblox activations

9:48 Walmart and Roblox’s goals for the launch

10:53 An overview of Walmart Land

12:00 An overview of Walmart Universe of Play

12:31 How Justin’s team tackled merchandising

14:27 Connecting (or not) the virtual world and physical goods via transactions

14:57 How customer acquisition works in the metaverse

16:29 An overview of the quantitative and qualitative performance of Walmart’s Roblox experiences

19:31 Justin explains what drives favorability and unfavorability

20:44 Walmart’s partners for the Roblox activations

21:35 How platforms are attracting brands (or the other way around)

23:41 Walmart’s Decentraland + Sabrina Carpenter partnership

25:12 The insights that drove a partnership with Roblox

26:02 Justin compares his expectations with the outcomes of the activations

27:20 Justin shares advice for other metaverse builders

28:30 The flexibility of the metaverse for brands

29:25 How to access Walmart’s Roblox experiences

29:50 Wrap-up

30:20 Closing

Show Resources:

Walmart Land: https://www.roblox.com/games/10895555747/Walmart-Land

Walmart Universe of Play: https://www.roblox.com/games/10980366634/Walmart-Universe-of-Play

Walmart on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Walmart

Walmart on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/walmart

Justin Breton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justinbreton

Justin Breton on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinbreton

Barbara Messing on Twitter: https://twitter.com/barbmessing

Roblox: https://www.roblox.com/

Listen

✅ Happy Holidays with Our Shortest, Most Bullet Pointed Newsletter Yet

Dana Hork — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 16:36:38 +0000

Prada's Timecapsule NFT Collection for the Holidays

Hi. It’s Dana 👋 . Welcome to the Web 2.5 newsletter featuring news, content, musings, and memes at the intersection of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.

After promising myself I'd take this week AND next week off, I'm back with a broken promise and a new newsletter format for your feedback. Can you vote and tell me...

🚀 And now, we're off to the easy, breezy, beautiful, bullet point Web 2.5 round-up covering how the real world used Web3 this week.

📰 HEADLINES | Web2 x Web3 In the News

Warner Music Group (WMG) announced a partnership with, and investment in, a leading digital fashion company, DressX. The partnership will provide a platform for select WMG artists to design their own virtual fashion lines. PR Newswire.
Epic Games, the Fortnite video game maker, will pay more than half a billion dollars over FTC allegations of privacy violations and unwanted charges. FTC.
World Cup fan tokens & NFTs have seen heavy volume after Argentina's World Cup victory, proof that digital collectibles are making their way into big cultural moments. Blockworks.

👀 PEEP | Big Names & Who's Doing What

McDonald's launched a fully automated restaurant. via Greg Isenberg.
Mercedes-Benz hints at its metaverse and NFT plans in a trademark filing. Blockworks.
Wrangler (as in jeans) shared its plans for Web3. There's a sweet looking "0xc0wb0y" cowboy avatar involved. Sean Gormley.
Warner Brothers made Crypto Cards, customizable digital greeting cards. Hallmark, your move. Twitter.
Lacoste has a virtual holiday store. The Drum.
Australian Open adds a NounsDAO collaboration ahead of its second Web3 activation. Coindesk.
Deepak Chopra is partnering with TIMEPieces for an NFT collection. TIME.
Bing Crosby is coming to the metaverse to "meet kids where they are" for the holidays. GlobeNewswire.
CES will have a big presence on the metaverse and Web3 this year. AdAge.

💡DISCOVER | Use Cases & Applications

OpenAI released Point-E, an AI that generates 3D models. Well, it's not 3D per se. It's a cluster of data points in space that represent a 3D shape. But close enough. TechCrunch.
MNTGE is bringing authentic vintage fashion into the metaverse by scanning retro fashion and turning it into digital wearables. Decrypt.
Folks are making films using AI and writing Twitter threads about it. Here are two movies from the week: Guy Parsons. Aaron Kemmer. Plus here's an AI-generated Home Alone x White Lotus film. umpherj.
Someone built an AI typewriter. Arvind Sanjeev.

⌨️ PLAY | Tools to Play With

Tome, AI-powered storytelling & powerpoint decks. Start a new powerpoint deck with a single prompt. Tome.
DoNotPay is building an AI-powered lawyer. DoNotPay.

👓 WATCH | What to Watch

Amazon's new series 'NFTMe' explores NFT culture and disruption worldwide. Cointelegraph.
Trump NFTs got spoofed on Saturday Night Live. NBC.

🎙 LISTEN | Where to Tune In

How's this for a casual mid-roll plug for our Web 2.5 podcast this week with Shondra Washington, the Co-Founder & CEO of Black@, a token-gated private community for Black creatives, entrepreneurs, and investors. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

📚 READ | What to Read

The handbag that could shape the metaverse. Hint - its got the word Birkin in it. Politico.
What’s next for the metaverse -- written by smart consulting folks at PwC. PwC.
Atlantic Records on Web3 strategy and the future of music. nft now.
Two different first-hand account walkthroughs of Starbucks' NFT program. Geekwire. JUMP.

💼 JOBS | Open Roles + Movers & Shakers

Yuga Labs names former Activision Blizzard exec Daniel Alegre as its new CEO. Yahoo.
Next Gen DTC Web3 Assoc Manager, Pepsico. Apply.
Manager, NFTs & web3, NBCUniversal. Apply.
Chief of Staff to the Founder, Dapper Labs. Apply.

🔢 BY THE NUMBERS | Facts & Figures

The biggest NFT collections of 2022. Decrypt.
One-third of singles are ready to date in the metaverse. Cointelegraph.
The Sandbox has sold more than $1.66 million worth of virtual land across the map of its metaverse in the past few weeks. VentureBeat.

☠️ AND FINALLY...

I guess everyone is cheating in their term papers now. Marc Andreessen.
FML, there's a Web5. Coindesk.

🫶 And that’s a wrap! Thanks for reading Web 2.5. See you out there in the interweb3s.

NOTE: We're taking next week off for both the podcast and the newsletter 😴 . We'll see you in 2023 🎉 .

How'd We Do?

🎙 Shondra Washington on Powering Black Ownership Through Web3

Dana Hork — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 18:58:29 +0000

🎙️New Podcast Episode🎙️

Shondra Washington, Co-Founder & CEO, Black@

Listen

Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about our newest podcast episode, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How could the blockchain power new ownership opportunities for Black creatives, investors, and entrepreneurs?

Our guest on Web 2.5 this week is Shondra Washington, the Co-Founder & CEO of Black@, a token-gated private community for Black creatives, entrepreneurs, and investors.

Black@ first took shape at Art Basel 2021 – and since then, has grown into a full-blown digital community with token-gated chat rooms, member-only events, coordinated NFT group buys, and a burgeoning roster of technology apps that the community builds and monetizes. Black@ also recently announced a partnership with Andreessen Horowitz at Art Basel 2022 to support Black artists.

On the show, host Dana Hork talks with Shondra Washington, Black@'s CEO, about how Black@ came to be, some of the unique ways they are activating their community, their very Web 2.5 products like token-gated emails, and some universal lessons and insights for anyone looking to build and foster a thriving digital community.

Here’s a clip from this week's show:

Listen

Show Notes:

0:00 Show Intro

1:47 The origins of Black@

3:44 How the Co-Founders came up with Black@ at Art Basel

4:34 Why Black@ made the community token-gated

6:01 How Black@ priced their initial NFTs

7:05 Benefits of an open minting window

7:45 Black@ current activations & activities

9:21 Unpaid vs paid membership at Black@

9:55 Membership benefits around access and education

10:31 Membership benefits around group buys of NFTs

12:10 Why product development matters to Black@

13:57 Token-gated emails with Gated

17:08 About Payroll3

19:44 About the Black Digital Art Collective & partnering with a16z

22:04 Lessons on building a thriving digital community

23:34 Black@’s business model

25:41 The hardest & easiest part of Black@

27:36 Shout-outs

29:19 What’s next for Black@

31:33 Shondra’s hope for Web3 at-large

32:20 Shill

33:35 Wrap-up

33:51 Closing

Resources:

Black@’s Website: https://www.blackat.io/

Black@ on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Blackatxyz

Shondra Washington on Twitter: https://twitter.com/shondradanielle

Gated: https://tokengated.co/

Payroll3: https://www.payroll3.xyz/

Listen