Web3 funding has been robbed! Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) walking in and stealing the opportunities, Web3 funding has gone south. In fact, since Q1 2022, the number of funded Web3 startup deals has fallen from 797 to 322 in Q2 2023. To be honest, this doesn't sadden me one bit. Web3 is supposed to be about ownership. Outsourcing capital injections to venture capitalists makes it less about ownership and more about chattel. It makes it just like Web2 but with NFTs and wallets. That's not something any of us should be interested in. Let AI have the money.

XRP is the most traded altcoin of 2023. We shouldn't be surprised. The landmark ruling that XRP is not a security gave it a boost, but XRP is not out of hot water yet. The ruling could be appealed.

Google Play has reversed course and changed its policy on NFTs within games in its store. Google is still committed to the "no gambling" policy, but game makers that facilitate NFTs within their games in a legitimate way that makes Google happy can now have their apps listed on the Google Play store. That could mean wider distribution for those games.

Web3 Compass has launched a search engine for Web3.

Paragraph has rolled out wallet delivery for newsletters. And it works like a charm.

What do you get when you buy an NFT? Buyer beware. You might get a VTD ... a virtually transmitted disease.

3 ways Web3 will transform the creator economy. A MUST-READ. All three of these predictions are feasible. Web3 technology allows brands to decentralized their intellectual property, which empowers creators to take that IP, generate user-generated content from it for social media, and monetize that content based on brand guidelines and ethos. In Web2, affiliate marketing presented great opportunities for many creators to monetize their content. Decentralized and tokenized IP is like affiliate marketing but with fewer restrictions for content creators. I also like the concept of hybrid DAOs, but I'm not too keen on wear2earn. That doesn't mean it won't be a stellar opportunity for fashion content creators.

Scott Cunningham is back and he's talking about central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and the Bank of International Settlements. Texas Senator Lois Kolkhorst added an amendment to Senate Bill 895 to prevent the Texas Department of Banking from creating a CBDC. In her Facebook post about it, she cited IMF Deputy Managing Director Bo Li's comments last year about programmable money. Many Americans rightly fear government-controlled digital currencies because they could be used as spy tools and systems of abuse. The problem is they won't be decentralized. If that doesn't scare you, maybe this will.

Who's Talking On Hive

@wolfgangsport discusses the top 10 Dallas Cowboys players in history. I like this list a lot, especially his No. 1 best player. Most young Cowboys fans forget about Roger Staubach.

@henrietta27 discusses why people still don't know about Web3 opportunities.

@saydie tells about the dangerous stuff he's done.

Allen Taylor is the author of Web3 Social: How Creators Are Changing the World Wide Web (And You Can Too!).