Quickbooks? Quickbooks.

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.

This week was a doozy with FTX, Donald Trump, and so much more. So, I went all in on news stories with some additional context on why each matters. I hope you enjoy it.

💥 Web 2.5 News 💥

🇺🇸 Trump Cards

Hot off the presses, just as I'm about to hit publish, we get news that's too big to pass up. Former President Donald Trump is launching NFTs, or "digital trading cards." He teased that a big announcement was coming — and this is apparently it. The NFTs correspond to moments from the former President's life and come with utility like Zoom sessions, dinners, and cocktail hours. They are available for purchase for $99 each, and according to Trump, "They will be gone, I believe, very quickly!"

💰 FTX

It was a big week for FTX in the news, so it's back here in the news roundup. First, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was arrested in the Bahamas. Then we saw a three-way announcement of charges. 1) The U.S. Department of Justice's Southern District of New York unsealed a criminal indictment on Tuesday where SBF faces an eight-count indictment including wire fraud, conspiring to defraud the U.S., and violating campaign finance laws. 2) The SEC filed civil charges and alleged that SBF misled both investors and customers. 3) The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also charged SBF, FTX Trading, and Alameda with fraud and material misrepresentations. Meanwhile, The House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing regarding FTX's collapse and news continues to break today with reports that FTX's Co-CEO tipped off authorities to the “possible mishandling of clients’ assets” days before the bankruptcy.

🙅 People You Don't Want to Be

The FTX roundup segues nicely into a special section this week called "People You Don't Want to Be." This week, it's the head of marketing for Quickbooks. FTX’s new CEO disclosed in his House Financial Services Committee hearing on Tuesday that the company did invoices and expenses over Slack and used Quickbooks, a tax software, for its accounting. Here's the video of the exchange. I'll call it right here: "Quickbooks? Quickbooks." is MADE for Saturday Night Live.

🪙 Get down with SBT

Cobo, a digital asset custodian and blockchain technology developer, MetaMask Institutional, and Gnosis Safe are teaming up to release a Soulbound NFT project called Evolution. The project is the trio's first time collaborating and will enable holders to receive exclusive gifts and access to online and in-person private events. The project features a time-based reward, available during its first three days, and provides 1,000 holders with quarterly research updates. The "so what" for this one is the new features available because the project is a Soulbound token. For some context, a friction point in the market today is that non-fungible tokens have no tie to a person’s identity. They can be held by anyone, traded with anyone, and do not correspond to any specific person. On the other hand, a Soulbound token, according to Cointelegraph, is a "publicly verifiable and non-transferable non-fungible token that represents an individual's credentials, affiliations, and commitments.” It means that the benefits that come with it will be bound to the user's wallet address forever and are not transferrable. So, this project is an early use case of users defining themselves as unique people in a digital context — and then receiving unique rewards.

💵 Financy Things

Big news in Web 2.5-land this week coming from PayPal, which will integrate its buy, sell, and hold crypto services with MetaMask, the highly-popular Ethereum wallet used to hold crypto assets and interact with other applications. This enables users to buy Ether directly from within the MetaMask app rather than buying on a centralized exchange platform like Coinbase or Kraken and then transferring the crypto into their MetaMask wallet. The move is intended to facilitate a much more seamless purchase and transfer process for getting crypto in your wallet, which drives greater adoption. All in all, this launch represents a great Web2 / Web3 example of how the worlds continue to collide and collaborate.

⛳️ Sports

Soul Machines and Nicklaus Companies have partnered to launch an 18-piece NFT collection. Each collectible represents one of Jack Nicklaus' 18 record-setting golf championship victories. The tokens will be sold on Aspen, an NFT marketplace, and allow owners to access perks such as signed memorabilia, exclusive Nicklaus merchandise, and VIP access to tournaments. One of the most exciting parts — each NFT also includes a video from Digital Jack, the autonomously animated digital version of a 38-year-old Jack Nicklaus.

🚗 Cars

Car company Renault launched its first NFT collection, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the iconic Renault 5. As part of the launch, the company is also releasing a Web3-enabled community of Renault enthusiasts called R3NLT.

🤝🏻 Meet Me in the Metaverse

Because chocolate in the metaverse always sounds like good news worth reporting, LandVault partnered with Hershey India and Philippines to construct a chocolate experience in Decentraland. The build, which went live on December 5th, enables Hershey to promote an immersive, branded experience around the holidays.

Cosmetics brand Laura Mercier has joined the metaverse by opening a virtual store called World of Beauty. In collaboration with the metaverse platform Obsess, the company utilizes web-based virtual and augmented reality to offer an HD-quality, 3D, and 360-degree digital experience. The World of Beauty features three interactive virtual rooms designed with the brand's Parisian aesthetic in mind.

Givenchy transformed its Roblox world into a 'Winter Wonderland' for the holidays. The merry land allows users to customize their avatars with five new festive looks, including using the brand’s new Le 9.08 Givenchy multi-finish eyeshadow palette.

Here's a metaverse activation in the grocery sphere. US grocery store Albertsons is the first supermarket to sell products in the metaverse. Launching on the virtual platform Decentraland, users can buy items by scanning QR codes on 25 virtual billboards, including "Signature Select" pretzels, peanut butter cups, and a six-pack of mini Cokes — with delivery available in as little as 45 minutes. The pilot, called Meta Mega Deal, was aimed at bridging the physical and digital customer experience.

And lastly, The Boston Museum of Science is entering the metaverse with its new Mission: Mars Roblox experience. Players can participate in immersive online games, in which they can solve engineering challenges as they explore the red planet.

🤖 AI

After a flurry of activity since ChatGPT's launch, including some that call into question the risks for plagiarism and deception, OpenAI is developing a watermark for its AI-generated content, such as ChatGPT, to help distinguish its content from human-generated content. The technology will add an "unnoticeable secret signal" to AI-generated text to indicate where it came from. The goal is to prevent the mass generation of propaganda, plagiarism, or other nefarious purposes. OpenAI is hoping to incorporate the technology into future AI systems it develops.

Also, this is pretty sweet from Zapier:

🎮 Toys, Games & Gaming (and Armor??)

The Knights Who Say Nah, a multimedia company, has created a digital museum for NFT-based historical arms and armor. The collection consists of digitized objects drawn from over 6,000 items from 50 cultures and aims to provide a new model for heritage and history. The NFTs are augmented with elaborate narratives and character arcs written by Nick Richey, the project's “Keeper of Arms.” The project is being funded by a DAO that will manage the collection's funds.

⚖️ Legal & Regulatory

U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Roger Marshall have introduced the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, which requires know-your-customer (KYC) checks on blockchain infrastructure providers and participants operating in the U.S. The bill also requires anti-money laundering programs for those involved in such networks. The bill, which has been criticized as "opportunistic" and "unconstitutional," seeks to finalize a ban on un-hosted or self-custody crypto wallets, which was proposed in December 2020 but has yet to be implemented.

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, alleging that celebrities including Justin Bieber, Madonna, and Paris Hilton violated state and federal laws by promoting the digital art project without disclosing their financial relationships to its creators, Yuga Labs. The suit also names MoonPay, the crypto payments firm that allegedly facilitated the endorsements, and Guy Oseary, talent manager and early investor in MoonPay. Yuga Labs has rejected the allegations.

The US Federal Trade Commission has sought to block Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard to promote fair competition in the high-performance gaming console and subscription services markets. Microsoft had previously said that the acquisition would be crucial to developing metaverse platforms. In a recent complaint, the FTC argued that Microsoft and Sony already effectively control the high-performance gaming industry via Xbox and PlayStation consoles and that the acquisition would increase Microsoft's power in the sector.

🔢 By the Numbers

Reddit Users Have Minted More Than 5 Million NFT Avatars on Polygon. Decrypt.

📚 Weekend Reading

Stumbling with their words, some people let AI do the talking. Washington Post.

OpenAI ChatGPT Brutally Destroyed at Pun Competiton. Futurism.

Inside the Bored Ape Yacht Club's $4 Billion Metaverse Bet. CNET.

🌶️ Hot Takes

Blockchain Is Much More Than Crypto. David Solomon via WSJ.

Why I said 97-99% of NFTs Would Go To Zero (and What it Means in 2023 and Beyond). Gary Vaynerchuk.

Artificial Intelligence Has Big Implications For Ownership In The Music Industry. Forbes.

Many DAOs and Web3 Projects Are ‘Decentralization Theater’: Tezos Co-Founder. Decrypt.

🎙 Podcast Plug

How could the blockchain make fashion more social and interactive and drive new economic opportunities for women? Don't forget to check out this week's podcast episode with Michelle Reeves, the Co-founder, and CEO of Mavion, a leading Web3 company, focused on empowering women through fashion. We cover Mavion's first NFT collections, their collaboration with iconic fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff, and Mavion's big vision for how NFTs and gamified shopping experiences can enable women to participate in the financial upside of their digital fashion purchases.

Have a listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 🎧

☠️ And Finally

Your moment of Zen...

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

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 disclosures.web2point5.io.