Why are all these projects focused on the wrong thing?
Fearsam Weekly Newsletter 14th December 2022
Welcome to Web3 Wednesday all! We’ve hit the hat-trick: my third edition! It’s a shame Harry Kane couldn’t do the same to take England to World Cup glory, but hey, there’s always next time.
For this week’s piece, I want to talk a little about why I think it’s really strange that the NFT world, and projects specifically, seem to have an obsession with developing MMORPGs. I have what I think is a much better solution, but more about that later.
We will also go over some of the best and most interesting bits of news this week, have a little look at personal development, and of course get into some memes.
Let’s get into it.
CONTENTS
THIS WEEK’S PIECE
With Valhalla skyrocketing, it seems like games are the hot topic of conversation again. They always appear to be a focus point, with so many projects having the development of a game as one of the key points on their roadmap.
Why, though? Why commit yourself to something that traditionally takes years of development, a literal war chest of $ to create, a blockbuster-level marketing campaign and requires a ginormous player base to be profitable? I’ve never understood it. In the thread below I ask why and go into what could be a much better solution for projects.
I’d love to know your thoughts.
NEWS
A quick note before we start. This isn’t the place to look for alpha from 5 minutes ago, or a deep dive into a crazy project no-one has heard of. Here we focus on real world linked stories, things that may have gotten lost amongst the mayhem or just pure fun bits of news.
This week:
1 911 on SBF
OK, so unless you literally live under a rock, you’ve heard this already. But I couldn’t go through a news section without mentioning it, could I? SBF has finally been arrested in the Bahamas. He faces extradition to the US, with charges of wire fraud, money laundering and securities fraud.
It’s been spoken about extensively, so if you want to get into more of the details, I recommend checking out the thread below:
2 Waiting on the memes
If you’ve spent more than three seconds on twitter this week, it’s likely you’ve come across a memeland waitlist giveaway.
It seems that memeland has been around forever. Starting with building excitement, winning over fans with their MVP mint and following that up with an unarguably successful free mint of Potatoz, it appears as though the project and the team behind it have everything set up for success when the Captainz mint happens in January (on the 4th to be specific).
They’ve added another string to their marketing bow with the waitlist campaign. So, what is the waitlist? Well, waitlist members have the opportunity to mint Captainz after memelist (WL) and Potatoz holders. Since there will not be a public mint, if you don’t fall into one of those categories, you’ll need a waitlist code. You can get one by searching the hashtag on twitter, and entering one, or all, of the 100s of giveaways for the codes.
Why is this important? It shows again a social first marketing approach lead by the team; they manage to effortlessly market themselves on twitter and other social platforms. What this signifies to me, is proof again that the team understand the space, get marketing, and have all the tools for future success.
3 The new odyssey
Starbucks is officially in the space. This week, it launched the long-awaited ‘Odyssey’ programme: a hybrid that acts as both a membership and an NFT. Currently, the programme sits in its beta version with certain people being allowed into the beta, but it won’t be long before the programme is fully live.
I personally love this for two reasons. Firstly, this will onboard more people into the space than anything else, apart from perhaps Reddit (more on that later.) Secondly, it paves the way for something that I think will happen without a doubt in the future. That is, all membership or loyalty programmes being on the blockchain.
For more on how it all works, check out the thread below:
4 Bring back the bull
Is it? Could it be? The bull run… is it on its way back? Maybe I’m smoking pure hopium. Anyway, there’s got to be a reason for that headline, right? Let’s look at the positives.
This week saw some of the highest peaks for NFT volume in recent times. Saturday 10th in particular saw more than 30K ETH traded. That’s the highest peak since May.
Projects are pumping. After a natural post-reveal drop, Valhalla has been on a tear, with the floor at 1.5eth at the time of writing. Those adorable Pudgys are also flying. They had a sweep of over 100eth this week and currently have a floor of 4.3eth at the time of writing. Others are showing similar signs: Azuki saw sweeps and JUUNI has shown a healthy FP increase.
I mentioned Starbucks before, and I also mentioned Reddit. Reddit has onboarded over 3.7 million people into the space. Million! No other project or brand can boost those numbers, or anything close. Every day we see huge Web2 names register trademarks and signify their intent on being involved in the space. Undoubtedly bullish.
All this despite the current macro conditions? Count me excited.
PROJECT(S) I’VE GOT MY EYE ON
Some launched, some coming soon. Just a little look into anything deemed as interesting from projects I like the look of this week. DYOR!
Wagmi United
I’m a fan of football, so, naturally, the project resonated with me from its inception. They’ve certainly had their ups and downs and in my personal opinion could be doing a lot more community and marketing wise considering the potential the project has. This week they finally launched their claim for merch, with an unarguably cool jersey, cap and scarf set. Now that that’s out of the way - and given that the appetite for football is higher than ever - I’ve got my fingers crossed that it can reach its potential.
https://twitter.com/WAGMIUnited
Bags? I own one token.
Utopia Avatars
Popping up on my radar this week, Utopia Avatars seems like one to definitely keep an eye on. The project is designed to create avatars that can bridge the gap between digital and physical, working across different platforms and in different metaverses.
The advisors they have on board include Maha Abouelenein, Deepak Chopra and Faze Banks. That might be enough in itself to be worth your time.
They have an application for WL open as well as a system that tracks social and discord interactions in order to measure engagement for a WL.
Find out more here:
Bags? 0.
Karafuru
This one warrants a write-up of its own soon, because there’s so much to say.
Before then, some quick points.
Streetwear, sneakers and Web3 have always been intertwined. Karafuru just sponsored and hosted the biggest sneaker event in the region, USS Jakarta. Karafuru has already secured multiple revenue streams outside of Web3, with partnerships and products like EatLah Jakarta, FuruJuice and their own branded coffee drink.
It’s genuinely unbelievable that this project has already achieved what 100s of projects set out to do, and they’re only just getting started.
https://www.instagram.com/karafurunft/?hl=en
Bags? I have one token from each collection.
KAWS
This week, legendary artist KAWS entered the space. Information is quite hard to come by, but we can see that he will be releasing art with ‘tap to own’ technology, tying physical artwork to a digital token. More info on www.ddtstore.com
Bags? 0.
THREAD OF THE WEEK
The 20 steps to making $3M in revenue, by @thejustinwelsh
MEME REVIEW
THE UPGRADE
When the world is standing still, don’t stand still.
When the world you’re operating in is quiet, it gives you a stronger chance of having your voice heard. We hear all the time about hustling in silence or working behind the scenes. I believe when it relates to our space, that time is now. Never has there been a better opportunity for a voice to be heard. Make sure that voice is filled with information, present education and entertainment, and you won’t believe the opportunities that you can create for yourself.
SO…
Thank you for spending time on this this week. If you enjoyed it or learned anything, or the opposite - if you think something major needs to change, I would love to know.
Until next time!