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

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.

1. Selectively looking for mission-aligned sponsors (Could that be you? Let us know if you want to chat).

2. Taking a break from tweeting from the brand account and then re-liking it from my personal account and vice versa.

3. 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.

🏠 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.

🙏 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.

🚩 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.

🦧 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.

🫶 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:

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.