WAGMI 😬

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:

1. 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 😉).

2. 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!?”

3. 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.

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 👇️.

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.

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.