Back for another round of my critically acclaimed weekly web3 reviews. Coming off of NFT.NYC, it was great to take in all that reckless optimism and meet people in real life. Fun and drinks were had, sleep was not. I typed as much as I could before the fingers gave out…
Vibes
I’ve had more than a few friends who sit outside the space ask me about the current “vibe” since, you know, crypto is dead and all. At a high level, here’s my take:
There are two kinds of participants in this space, and at large. You have passive participants and active participants. Just like in general markets. Passive participants are the ones who are buying jpegs and asking “wen moon” while taking in the events and making friends for the sake of good times during the week. They have set jobs outside of crypto and while they may believe in the cause, they aren’t actively trying to carve their place. Active participants are the workers building the infrastructure and helping craft projects. That business type of networking beyond where the next party is, and elated that prices are depressed right now.
When the bull market is going, successful projects seem to launch every week. That speeds up any timeline because you want to capitalize on the money being spent by consumers right now… before it all slows down. However, looking at today, since a lot of retail money has stopped sloshing around there’s less pressure to get things out next week. Building explicitly for years to come is just easier in a bear market.
Now with that as a preface, the vibes at NFT.NYC were immaculate. From both sides. Sure, it could be the case that Raoul Duke-colored glasses have been placed over each and every one of our tulip-bulb-chasing-eyes. But in actuality, people in the space care less about price in the short term than those speculating from the bleachers would like to believe.
Vibes: Checked.
Shopify
I’ve been a fan of Shopify for a long time. I’m a big believer in small business and in people taking control of their employment. More and more people discovered their side hobbies and felt empowered to chase their passions after COVID, and Shopify is going to be the rails for those people.
Not only that, but they’ve been one of the earliest of the “web2” companies to really embrace crypto, a fact they doubled down on during NFT.NYC.
As a primer, Shopify partnered with Doodles at SXSW which was the first in person token-gated retail experience that I’ve seen.
Then, during NFT.NYC, they hit the news with two big announcements:
Twitter integration
Twitter and Shopify announced a new integration that will help merchants highlight their products and make mobile commerce as easy as shitposting.
Those active on the bird app are quite familiar with NFT Twitter’s favorite hobbies being shitposting and impulse buying jpegs. Which brings me to announcement #2.
gm shop
The Shopify blockchain team had a huge announcement during NFT.NYC, with the launch of the “gm shop”.
The first I saw of this “token-gated commerce” was with The Hundreds earlier in the year, but now as a standalone product I’m interested to see how many businesses can take advantage of this, beyond the standard hoodie drops. Looking at both traditional and crypto-native.
What I think a lot of people miss when looking at the industry is that they look at projects purely as collections and low-grade art. They don’t let the imagination roam and ponder what kinds of brands these projects can turn into, and what different industries they can inhabit. Hyperbole aside, there are Disney level opportunities in terms of IP and monetization. Shopify is going to help them crossover into the mainstream and realize that potential. Hopefully legitimizing these brands in the eyes of skeptics while helping them expand into real product extensions and experiences. All speculation on my part but man is this space so. Much. Fun.
Project Highlights
I’m sadly going to miss some really good events with this recap, but I’m doing my best here, ok guys? Plus, I can only type so much. Here’s a quick list of some noteworthy happenings that popped up during the week.
Adam Bomb Squad…
…knows how to f*cking party. Not only did they have the standard high-level pop-up experience that a streetwear brand with 20 years of experience is expected to deliver, but they orchestrated an amazing NFT protest that really lit up Twitter.
Oh, and they had the architect of the Rap Album of the Year on Monday night to kick off the week. King. Push.
Doodles…
…announced investment from 776 and Alexis Ohanian. Then they announced Pharrell as part of the team. GODA x Doodles pipeline, anyone? They (again) crushed the onsite activation.
The brand is so welcoming and accessible that it’s hard not to think they can build out their own rainbow colored multimedia world. Speaking of accessibility, rumor has it they’re building Doodles2 on Flow (a much cheaper blockchain) to help with mass adoption and “build at both sides of the funnel.”
Beyond the consumer facing goodness, they are also pushing innovation and were the featured partner for Shopify’s gm shop (which I’m sure they had a hand in crafting.)
Cooltopia…
…was an adult, and kids, playground. Open to all who wanted to play. There were games, puzzles, and fun creative builds that sparked creativity, excitement, and wonder, no matter the decade you were born.
More of this “open for all”, please. An industry that promotes inclusivity and openness simultaneously token-gating and excluding people is a contradiction that doesn’t need to be a reality. Carve out your benefits for holders, yes, but there’s no need to elbow people out of the paint for the sake of utility.
Ledger…
…is on a tear. Their product is just an absolute prerequisite for people in the space. On top of that, they’ve been carving out this cultural position that allows their brand to be stretched and reimagined in all the cool ways that you would hope a brand could. They even had vintage Cam’ron (no pink puffy, sadly) to cap off their afterparty too!
Also on the innovation side, they reaffirmed the vertical integration movement with this announcement below:
I’m lucky enough to know some people on that team and they are, as you’d suspect, killers.
So many others did innovative and thoughtful things over the week. I know I missed a ton. As an honorable mention:
8bit -> NFT.NYC food crawl
Azuki (and Goblintown) -> on-site tattoo shops
Uniswap -> Not a project activation, but they bought Genie and announced their own NFT trading capabilities which could disrupt centralized providers like OpenSea.
Ok, I’m out of breath and my fingers are tired. If you made it this far, thank you. If I missed anything important that you think I should cover, let me know. If there’s anything I should keep an eye on for next week, let me know! I’m doing this to keep myself up to date and find new things that interest me. I hope it’s helpful to you. See you next Tuesday!