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GM. It has been a minute. I hope you are all doing well and taking care of yourself during these interesting markets and time. As the weather gets nicer definitely take the time to take care of yourself and your loved ones. Let’s dive in with the new format.

It is wild how quickly a habit of something can die. Around late end of last year, I decided to take a break from weekly hustle of getting a newsletter out to you all on a weekly basis to focus on some more creative work or work I had more passion in at that moment. It was great to unplug to be honest but it has a been a struggle getting back on that horse. In the timeframe I focused on building a mini app (done), a TG bot (done), focus on the podcast (done), learn more about DeFi (done). Overall it was a great time of exploration and reset for me. But I missed writing and have been missing writing for quite sometime. So finally I decided it was time to get this back up again. My focus will remain the same but the cadence will shift. I thrive on tinkering, learning new things and talking to folks with new ideas or different ideas than mine. So I need breathing room for that.

Speaking of, this past 12 months or so I have been focusing on meeting more folks irl and this has been amazing. Early on in my involvement with crypto it was really lonesome. 2013-2017 was a pretty lonely time and the market downswings did not help. But I find myself being so engaged this time around compared to before. And a lot of it I attribute to finding my tribe, people still creating and building on web3, people experimenting and challenging the status quo. I went to Farcon earlier this month and the amount of HIGH quality people in a small area was invigorating. Usually at conferences I find myself drained (socially) from talking to folks but with Farcon it felt electric, I was out and about for over 14 hours and was tired physically but my social battery was charged up.

If you were not able to attend or are hesitant to meet folks irl, I suggest you go out there and meet people around you or if you’re like me organize something because sometimes that is what it takes. Also highly suggest you watch this discussion between Dan (creator of Farcaster) and Fred (VC). This conversation got me fired up to continue building my content throughout the ups and downs.

Some more from me before moving on. These next 6 months, I plan to write more consistently on this newsletter. Podcast will continue chugging along and I have some great guests lined up for you. I still spend a decent chunk of time on Farcaster, Telegram and chatting on spaces. I’ll be deep diving more into ENS DAO and Gnosis DAO (more on that soon). I am spinning up an ETH and Gnosis node/validator. Probably cook a mini app and continue hosting meet ups and learning. Diving deeper into the Golf rabbit hole. So if you’re ever in the Bay Area or want to hit up a course (I still suck a ton), let me know.

A year or so ago, Shopify had been exploring more ways to incorporate crypto into their platform. They have now gone full degen mode with Shopify allowing retailers to accept USDC on Base easily. I know there is a ton of anger on why Base but I don’t doubt they will accept USDC on Sol and other fast chains in the future. If Coinbase/Base brokered and pushed for this deal, I dont see why they shouldnt get first mover advantage. Either way, as someone who got their first Nouns prop passed and need to sell something physical I look forward to using Shopify and enabling this.

PudgyPenguins continues dominating in the category of PFP project that is relentless of expanding their IP in web2 world. From Nascar, to Lufthansa, TikTok and more. The most interesting one to me is Nascar. Nascar is something I have been exploring on my own and seems ripe for modernizing and getting more younger people to join the fold. With Pengu crowd skewing younger than your Nascar fan, the abstract streamlining platform, I think we can see a world where both IPs get what they want. Nascar a younger crowd, and Pengu more credibility with a strong web2 brand. Go team 23XI!

I’ve been spending more time on Telegram the past year or so. Ever since I closed my Discord, I have been focusing on TG. Not because it is secure (its not) mostly because the features, accessibility and overall just how much my brain works for it compared to Discord. It seems some larger communities in web3 are also exploring Telegram more. Chimpers and BAYC have been leveraging the platform more. No alpha here, just an observation that maybe you should pay attention to.

Privy, the embedded wallet provider used by Friendtech, Farcaster and probably every app you have used in the past two years, has been acquired by Stripe. Stripe is positioning itself to be at the center of all cryptorails in the future. With the acquisition of Bridge, for $1.1B, which is in the stablecoin game, and privy providing wallets for most apps out there. Stripe has the potential to become alot larger than some banks. Not only will they control tx pipeline, they now will be integrated in onboarding/offboarding of funds with stables and where you store your funds (embedded wallet funds). Congrats to the Privy team, I’ve met many of them here in SF for Farcaster Fridays and I look forward to seeing what the future has in store for all of you.

It seems like its been a while but maybe its I am just used to this happening on a monthly basis but we had a major hack recently on Sui. And you personally may not use Sui but attacks like these make the rounds in web2 space and give us a bad rep. An interesting wrinkle in this event is the validators got together quickly and made it so the wallet that had all the funds could not complete a tx because they were all coordinated and reject it. It was interesting to me to see some of the reactions from this but it did remind me that some folks have not been around in web3 long enough to have experienced a fork before. Bitcoin Classic and Bitcoin Cash come to mind for me as some notable ones, even Eth Classic. More recently if you joined in 2021 there is still the old ETH POW version running ETHW. It has always been the case that validators can coordinate and do something like this. It might be easier with SUI if they don’t have many validators.

Solana ETS have been discussed on this newsletter before but it appears we are getting closer and closer each day to this becoming a thing with Fidelity recently updating their filing (as well as a bunch of others). This should hopefully give Solana a nice little bump of activity. Whether you like them or not, crypto ETFs appear to be popular.

Coinbase announced a new Coinbase One Card that is GORGEOUS but also looks eeerily similar to the card Coldcard came out with in the past. Either way, with 4% back in BTC this card will be a strong contender for me to add. Been itching to get rid of my Gemini card and this may fit the bill. The only issue I have with it, is the % back is tied to funds locked in with Coinbase and I am not down for that type of behavior. I get it from Coinbase perspective but I dont hold funds in CEX. Either way, as an investor of Coinbase, user of CB and a fan of metal black amex cards (remember that delta one) this one goes hard. AMEX has been doing a great job of targeting younger folks to their brand and this card will help it continue moving in that trend.

Things on my mind that don’t fit nicely. Parasite Pool. One of the coolest things I have seen in a minute coming from the BTC side of things. Early on, one of my favorite parts about Bitcoin was that anyone could spin up a node and mine Bitcoin with relatively accessible hardware. As the years went by, it got harder and harder and the average joe could no longer really participate. I still have a node of the BTC blockchain but haven’t done much mining (on BTC) in at least 4 years, till now. Parasite pool combines the hashpower from a bunch of degens in the hopes we will mine a block and split the revenue amongst ourselves. Think Lido or Rocketpool but on BTC. Definitely check it out and let me know if you go down the rabbit hole.

I am always a sucker for tech that bridges irl to url. Big fan of POAP, IYK and others. I would ITM to this category now. Here is SuperRare artist Richard Nadler promoting a gallery showing. Its a tool I think any artist, musician or creative person should look at deploying at their next event. Successful web2 artist SZA, has used this platform in the past to seamlessly integrate, texting, event scheduling, blockchain proof of attendance/fandom all in one platform.

Similar to Parasite above, I really like this idea from Megapot which is an onchain version of the Lotto. Ticket pooling is what it sounds like, you and your buddies buy tickets for a pool and if any ticket wins in that pool everyone in that pool wins. Degening with friends is always way more fun than doing things alone. The great thing about web3 is that you dont have to trust a centralized person to be honest, this whole thing is written on a smart contract and you just trust the blockchain/smart contract. More apps should explore these types of concepts as trying to coordinate something like this IRL could get painful real quickly especially since Megapot right now is over $1M USDC which is enough to corrupt most folks.

Continuing the theme of degens doing it together. Livecaster over on Farcaster is becoming one of my favorite mini apps out there. Check out this image of the most recent F1 race. You have a live conversation, you can see live activity (like me getting tipped $), the top 3 drivers leading the race. Experiences like this is why I love Farcaster, the concept of cozy corners thrives with this app.

Have a great start to your week!

CIAHOAD-Rick James

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