We’re all due for some positive news in the current web3 environment.
Although the potential of the technology remains, falling prices and the eradication of royalties have made many leave the space for good.
Some have even dramatically announced their departure on the increasingly irrelevant social platform, Twitter (heard of it?). 😁
Today I bring you “WAGMI Wednesday,” where we learn five reasons we should still be bullish.
lfg.
THE “MADE BY APES” IP TOOL
The media has thrived on headlines about Bored Ape Yacht Club’s dramatic USD floor price drop from all-time highs. Meanwhile, the community remains strong as they celebrate the club’s two-year anniversary.
The “Made by Apes” video announcement says that the tool is coming later this month. It will be “on-chain verification for a club full of builders,” acting as an official directory for everything Apes and Mutants are making with their IP (they own full commercial rights). It is being built in partnership with SaaSyLabs.
Some of the brands highlighted in the video include Ape Water, Ladies of BAYC, Armed and Dangerous Beer, and many more. It also includes 3D video game characters made by Cryptopainter’s Art In Motion lab.
It’s a great idea to reward the community members who have leaned all the way into using their ape IP, and to encourage others to do the same. 💪
PROVING OWNERSHIP OF REAL-WORLD ASSETS
This next one is brought to you by Cirrus, a must-follow on Twitter (and maybe Threads, I don’t know I’ve avoided it so far ☹️ ).
On NFT lending platform Arcade.xyz, a lender gave a total stranger a $35,000 loan at 12% APR using a Patek Phillipe (fancy watch) as collateral. 😱
The borrower sent the physical watch to an escrow company (4KProtocol). The company sent back an NFT that represents ownership of the watch, which the borrower listed on Arcade. The only way to get back the watch is to burn the NFT, which is currently in an escrow wallet until the loan is repaid.
At first glance, you may think— who cares? But proving authenticity and ownership is such a strong use case for NFTs. The more people who understand examples of physical assets being backed by digital ones, the more valid NFT technology will seem to the masses.
Plus, it may expand loan liquidity and give more folks access to borrowing and lending at competitive rates.
WARNER MUSIC x POLYGON ACCELERATOR PROGRAM
Warner Music Group is no stranger to NFTs. They’ve previously announced partnerships with web3-focused companies Genies, OpenSea, LGND Music, and more.
But a few weeks ago, they announced that their Polygon Labs partnership would expand with a blockchain accelerator program. Selected projects will receive funding from both WMG and Polygon Labs.
The announcement says that applicants should focus on web3 solutions that address:
Artist-fan communities
Ticketing solutions
Digital collectibles & merch
Gaming applications
Decentralized music production and distribution
While this isn’t the first program we’ve seen like this, I think it’s still bullish that WMG & Polygon are teaming up to encourage innovation in the space, and are rewarding projects that have potential.
Liking this so far? Subscribe for content like this every Wednesday.
EXPANDING ON-CHAIN COMMUNITIES: NO TOKENS NEEDED
On-chain communities are powerful. But they’ve required holding tokens in order to have voting power. The more tokens you own, the more votes you get.
Jokerace is re-imagining online communities with a “post-token future.” By simply using an allowlist, brands can run hackathons, contests, polls, grants, and games on any EVM-compatible L2 chain. This allows more modular communities to operate on Polygon, Optimism, Scroll, Base, Arbitrum, etc.
Customer acquisition and retention are crucial in web3 applications. Companies like Jokerace are exploring how to gamify experiences, incentivize users, and gain valuable data in the process.
Your community is whoever you allowlist to make decisions—and that means you can allowlist people to submit and vote based on any behavior that you can map to an on-chain address.
SIGN & VERIFY A PDF ON THE BLOCKCHAIN
Smaller projects like these are fun to discover as well. I saw on the dying bird app that @Dylan_Steck and @ItsTayyab built an app to sign and verify a PDF with your Ethereum-compatible wallet.
It’s not like drawing a signature on a PDF with your mouse. This app attaches a unique cryptographic signature to the top of the PDF file after you sign it with your wallet. The signature can then be verified, along with the signer’s identity.
Seems simple, but this is another solid example of using the blockchain to authenticate ownership.
It turns out that there’s more to this web3 and NFT thing than just accurately timing selling the Fatzukis reveal.
These important and innovative uses of blockchain technology are still happening all around us every day and should be celebrated.
So let’s keep moving forward… even if most of our bags are currently frozen in time. 🔒
i still want a fatzuki tbh
CHECK OUT MY LATEST POSTS:
Interested in sponsoring BxB to reach a highly influential subscriber base? We’re a woman-owned publication here to help elevate web3. Reach out on Twitter.
If you enjoyed this, you’ll also enjoy: