📝 Web3 Field Notes #17 – I build, therefore I am

Hey, it’s Marc. I write about Bitcoin, Web3, and technology. ✌️

Welcome to another issue of my obsessively curated field notes.

⏱️ Reading time: 4 min

(💎 at the end)

📚 Key Reads

• I build, therefore I am. Joseph Lubin. Link

• "Crypto wants its shine back.” I know many people in crypto who disagree with that perspective (me included). All the more valuable. New York Times. Link

• “The future of influence marketing is offline and hyper-niche.” Highly relevant if you’re building culturally relevant brands (with the help of Web3 tech). Vogue Business. Link

• “Web2 media is broken. The future of media is tokenized.” Interesting approach by NFTNow to content co-creation, community building and monetization. Link

• Ownership rights and permissions for NFTs. Link

• Paris Blockchain Week report from the Bullish team. Link

• The age of AI has begun. Bill Gates. Link

• The big picture of what’s happening in AI. 🧵 Link

• How will AI transform photography? Link

🚨 What caught my eyes

✨ Web3 + NFTs

• gm zkEVM! A few days ago, Matter Labs launched “zkSync Era”, the world’s first zkEVM on Ethereum mainnet. Today, Polygon is launching its own zkEVM chain on mainnet. These are big milestones, as zkEVMs will reduce transaction costs and massively increase throughput, while maintaining the security of Ethereum L1. It’s going to be interesting to see whether or not these solutions steal market share from Arbitrum and Optimism. 

  • Ready to deep dive? Here’s Vitalik Butterin’s technical overview.

• Microsoft is building a crypto wallet into its Edge browser. Pretty soon, every browser will ship with a pre-installed wallet. The distinction between an "account" and a "wallet" will increasingly blur. Link

• DeGods, one of the most popular NFT communities, launched its Bitcoin ordinals collection. After Yuga Labs, another big name has now entered “Bitcoin NFTs”, giving the already popular ordinals another boost in credibility. Link

🌎 Crypto & Macro

• Coinbase received a notice from the SEC identifying potential violations of securities law. A federal regulator threatening to enforce the biggest, publicly listed crypto player in the US is unprecedented. This has prompted outcries among industry leaders (e.g. Brian Armstrong (Coinbase), Rian Selkis (Messari), and Ryan Wyatt (Polygon), and Jeremy Allaire (Circle) among others). I wrote a longer piece on it here. Important links:

  • Statement of Coinbase

  • Statement of Brian Armstrong

  • Statement of Chief Legal Officer

• President’s Biden annual economic report to Congress argues crypto has “no fundamental value.” Key passage: “although the underlying technologies are a clever solution for the problem of how to execute transactions without a trusted authority, crypto assets currently do not offer widespread economic benefits. They are largely speculative investment vehicles and are not an effective alternative to fiat currency. Also, they are too risky at present to function as payment instruments or to expand financial inclusion.” This is another in a series of attacks on crypto in the US. I wrote a longer piece on it here. Link to report

🧠 AI

• OpenAI announced ChatGPT plugins. This is the next big computing interface revolution. You can sign up for the waitlist here.

If you’re new here, we welcome you to join 3’784 bright + avid readers by subscribing here:

🔥 Other Trending

• Sony enters Web3 with patent application for transferring NFTs and digital assets between game platforms 👀

• Pudgy Penguins filed new trademarks for a variety of printed goods and merch

• Nasdaq to launch crypto custody services by end of Q2

• Arbitrum’s token airdrop broke all records

• Coinbase explores overseas venue as US ramps up crypto scrutiny

• LinkedIn is increasing its AI-powered offerings to include profile creation and crafting job descriptions

👀 In case you missed it

First impressions from Paris Blockchain Week:

The era of artificial intelligence:

🚀 Hot Web3 start-ups: 

• NMKR: Create and sell NFTs on your own website. 

• Interface: Social mobile app with human readable web3 feed.

• Luma: Host token-gated events. 

• Boardroom: DAO voting. 

💡Word on the street:  

Wow, what a time to be alive. While crypto is under heavy attack in the US and the industry is fighting its biggest battle yet, AI seems to be taking the world by storm.

OpenAI’s launch of plugins for ChatGPT this week marks the start of a significant paradigm shift in how we interact with computers.

This is one of those rare moments in technology where you see a glimmer of how everything will be different going forward.

With Web3 (decentralized computing) and AI we will likely witness the emergence of new protocol level technologies enabling an explosion of creation and ownership online. That’s all for now, folks. Back to building! 🚀

– Marc

PS: 💎 Congrats on making it! Here’s a collection of the top 40 Web3 analytics tools.

🐦 Top Tweet

📈 Top charts to share with friends:

🎨 Artwork: “{Compend-AI} #0, 2022” by Agoria

Share this post with anyone you think would be interested. Use the link below.