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It’s Like The Mall, But It’s The Metaverse

Pick me up in an hour.

July 28, 2022

Web2 to Web3

Welcome to The Web 2.5 Newsletter featuring news, content, musings, and memes at the intersection of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.

Grand Openings (Grand Closings)

  • CBS sitcom ‘Ghosts’ is opening up (sounds like the mall?!) an immersive game in Decentraland, bringing the TV series to life digitally in the metaverse. Fans can journey through the show's haunted Woodstone Mansion and solve puzzles, undertake quests, and earn limited edition collectible NFTs. Deployed on Polygon, the game will be accessible through September at Ghosts Metaverse.

Big Brand Energy

  • Snapchat plans to let users showcase NFTs as snap filters in their stories. The test rollout is reported to be slated for August, with only a limited number of users permitted to participate.

  • Rémy Martin is teaming up with Grammy Award-winning musician Usher on a campaign featuring — get this — a limited-edition bottle with artwork that was generated from Usher speaking. 50 bottles will be made, with Usher & his team keeping 25 and the other 25 being made available for purchase on BlockBar, the online NFT marketplace for high-end spirits and wines. Each bottle comes with an NFT, which can be ‘burned’ in exchange for the physical bottle if the buyer chooses.

  • A customer spotted Prada promoting the authentication of its merchandise on the Aura Blockchain Consortium. Prada joined forces with LVMH and Cartier back in 2021 to “promote the use of a single global blockchain solution open to all luxury brands worldwide to provide consumers with additional transparency and traceability.”

  • Winning the best pun of the week is Chiptole, which launched a “Buy the Dip” campaign to give away $200K in crypto, a play on words given the crypto bear market. The restaurant chain will give away Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, Avalanche and Dogecoin through an online game.

Follow of the Week

  • Speaking of puns, I have no idea how I am just learning about this Twitter pun account @ThePunnyWorld but it exists, had several viral tweets this week, and is well worth the follow. This has nothing to do with Web 2.5 but everything to do with finding a good laugh in your feed.

Just Gonna Stand There and Watch Me Burn?

  • Damien Hirst announced that he will burn thousands of his paintings in conjunction with his historic NFT drop last year. Some history, per The Guardian: Collectors had a year to decide if they wanted the physical art or the digital NFT, and according to Hirst on Twitter, the results are in. 5,149 physicals were selected — and 4,851 NFTs were selected. So this means that the artist will literally burn 4,851 physical pieces of art.

  • The estate of the Notorious B.I.G. launched a historic Sky’s The Limit Collection this week that sold out in 10 minutes to honor the life and legacy of the artist. According to the minting page on music marketplace OneOf:

Money Talks

Deep Dives

  • Art Blocks is all the rage — and super confusing (to me). What makes it unique is that “each piece is generated at purchase by the collector, with their transaction determining the final artwork.” This Twitter thread is the best wrap up I’ve seen explaining how the art generation process works.

  • Architects are building for the metaverse. This article profiled how they are applying the technology — from building an office that defies gravity and floats like a cloud, to creating an incubation space to collaborate on crypto projects, to attending a music festival in the metaverse.

  • And what about books! Esquire Magazine profiled how the crypto revolution is reimagining books, spotlighting several startups that believe that web3 technologies will upend how authors make a living and who owns a story.

  • A must read for anyone interested in food and bev, beverage brand Local Weather was profiled in One37PM, covering both their vision for a healthier alternative to traditional sports drinks AND how they’re building a modern fan club powered by NFTs. Founded by Russell Wilson, AJ Vaynerchuk, and H+S Labs, the article shares how the brand "spent a long time making sure what we're building is what people want - building it with the community as opposed to for the community."

  • And don’t forget sports. Coindesk published a deep dive across several articles on how sports athletes, teams, and leagues are getting into web3.

  • Cointelegraph published reflections from the leap-takers, investors and founders who’ve jumped from web2 to web3.

  • Deloitte released a thought piece The Metaverse and Web3: The next internet platform focused on how leaders can better apply the technology to businesses, organizations, and society.

Web 2.5 Jobs

  • Head of Marketing at Bitski, the NFT wallet for everyone. Apply.

  • Global Head of Web3 Strategy and Planning at Adidas, because we know you’ve always wanted to “set Metaverse P&L targets and KPIs”. Apply.

  • VP, Web3 at Forbes. Apply.

  • Head of Crypto and Web3 at Bumble. Swipe to apply —> Apply.

  • Director, Innovation for NFT & Blockchain at National Hockey League (NHL). Apply.

That’s a wrap, folks. My money don’t giggle giggle, it folds (and burns). See you next week.

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