Joeyz Yu

Recently, I shared a photo of our family&#8217;s New Year celebration with my mom via WhatsApp. The following day, I asked her if she had seen it. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t receive any texts from you,&#8221; she responded. It took a moment to remind her that it was on WhatsApp, not her standard messaging app. After navigating her phone, she found the photo and, like any mom, was thrilled to get a glimpse into my life.



This interaction, which happens often with my older relatives, made me think more deeply about the siloed nature of Web2 applications. As my mind wandered between the pros and cons of WeChat and WhatsApp, I started to worry — are we replicating Web2&#8217;s mistake in how we&#8217;ve built blockchains?



In 2022, the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/24/dma-political-agreement/">proposed</a> that the world’s six big tech companies adopt interoperability, yet two years later, Web2 messaging platforms remain walled-gardens, preventing users from sending or receiving messages from other apps.&nbsp;



When we look at the Web3 ecosystem, we see the same mistake playing out.&nbsp;



Because blockchains are siloed off from one another, communication between chains is non-existent or only possible via complicated bridges.&nbsp;



What’s more, the rise of chain <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-is-tribal-lets-just-pit-blockchains-against-each-other-once-and-for-all">tribalism</a> has fragmented the space further, creating rifts and dividing the crypto community with some die hard fans refusing to go anywhere near other chains out of loyalty to their chosen one.&nbsp;



And while interoperability is an issue across both worlds, the financialization aspect of Web3 is more problematic from an economic perspective as many blockchains also have their own native tokens, hindering the seamless exchange of value across different chains.



To amend the interoperability problems we created in Web2, we need infrastructure that is chain and wallet agnostic.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The fragmented nature of Web3 communication</h2>



Web 3’s default to centralized messaging platforms has made platform migration a daily reality for many. For instance, NFT marketplaces like OpenSea, facilitating close to 20,000 NFT transactions daily, lack in-house messaging features. This forces users onto separate platforms for communications, often resulting in misdirected funds.



The constant jumping around doesn’t just make us vulnerable to data and privacy breaches, but also restricts communities from being able to integrate messaging with dapps, smart contracts and other blockchain functionalities.  



Lack of interoperability has left us all with fragmented user experiences and digital identities that are all over the place and confusing to keep track of. 



Read more from our opinion section: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/web3-companies-real-problems-infrastructure">We need more ‘boring’ Web3 companies solving real problems</a>



It begs the question, why is it that we can send something like an email to each other from multiple service providers, yet we’re still unable to send messages between Web3 applications?



And while specialized bridges that connect different blockchains exist, these bridges require constant maintenance, upkeep and can still fail, leaving users stranded in an ecosystem unable to connect their assets.



If we&#8217;re building for interoperability, we don&#8217;t need bridges. What we need is an ecosystem where data and value can flow freely between all platforms and chains.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Envisioning a unified future</h2>



Addressing interoperability requires more than just technical solutions; it necessitates a shift towards collaborative development over chain loyalty. I envision a network distributing data across global nodes, returning control to users and enabling effortless application interoperability — even for beginners.



Projects like Polkadot and Cosmos have made strides in addressing interoperability, yet the next step involves ensuring that practical applications, like ENS&#8217;s human-readable Ethereum addresses, are universally compatible.



DeFi is already ahead of the curve when it comes to cross-chain innovation, with projects like crypto router Squid allowing any token swaps between blockchains, and decentralized social network Farcaster enabling users to combine their wallets with their social profiles.&nbsp;



What both these projects have in common is that they are providing value to not just the users, but also to builders. It’s time we see that same type of innovation in the Web3 messaging space.&nbsp;



Ultimately, communication platforms should not only support messaging, but also seamlessly integrate with NFTs and digital assets, fostering a digital economy where communication and commerce coalesce.



Tackling Web3&#8217;s interoperability challenge demands a multifaceted approach, experimentation and community-wide collaboration. While there&#8217;s no swift solution, a collective effort can dismantle these digital barriers, paving the way for a more interconnected and collaborative Web3 ecosystem.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>


<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">Joeyz Yu is an entrepreneur with over 18 years of experience in product design and development. He co-founded Sending Labs to revolutionize communication protocols and social applications for Web3, leading the development of their flagship products SendingMe and SendingNetwork. Previously, Joeyz co-founded MoboTab, where he created the Dolphin Browser, used by over 200 million users and later acquired by ChangYou. Joeyz&#8217;s passion for empowering users and building exceptional teams drives his mission to shape the future of the internet. </div>


<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

Don’t let Web3 repeat Web2’s interoperability mistakes

Bessie Liu

Non-profit organization NEAR Foundation, the team behind the NEAR protocol, will partner with D3 Global, an interoperable domain name company, to apply for a .near top-level domain (TLD) in the upcoming ICANN application window.



A TLD is the highest level in the hierarchy of root-level domains. Some of the most generic TLDs include .com, .net and .org, for example.&nbsp;



ICANN applicants must meet specific requirements before they are eligible to apply, like having relevant operational, technical and financial capabilities to ensure that the company can successfully operate a TLD. There is a nonrefundable fee that totals up to over $270,000 and an additional accreditation fee of <a href="https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/registrar-fees-2018-08-10-en#:~:text=The%20annual%20accreditation%20fee%20for,installments%20of%20US%241%2C000.00%20each." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$1,000 per quarter</a> for successful applicants.



Fred Hsu, co-founder and CEO of D3 told Blockworks that the D3 team has decades of experience operating TLDs and navigating the application process.&nbsp;



&#8220;We have an incredibly distinguished staff with deep registry-level expertise, process know-how, and key industry relationships that have allowed us to successfully register and/or manage more than 300 TLDs that were approved in the prior application round. Many of these TLDs have grown to substantial scale today including .xyz, .inc, and more,” Hsu said.



If <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/near">NEAR</a> Foundation successfully obtains the TLD, it can use a single domain on its website, email and wallet addresses. The TLD can also serve as verification credentials across different platforms, enabling developers to develop <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/dapps">dapps</a> that tap into existing internet infrastructure.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-infrastructure-lacking-apps">The crypto infrastructure is here, but where are the apps?</a>



&#8220;We&#8217;re excited to work with D3 to secure the .near top-level domain and extend the power of NEAR accounts across the entire internet. Illia Polosukhin, the co-founder of NEAR Protocol, said in a press release reviewed by Blockworks.



Polosukhin added, “as the functionality of NEAR accounts expands with Chain Abstraction, combining Web3 <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/identity">identity</a> with existing internet infrastructure will help drive mainstream adoption.”



NEAR Foundation is not the first team to have made moves in the domain space in hopes of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/farcaster-blockchain-onboarding">connecting Web3 and Web2</a>.&nbsp;



Most recently, Ethereum Name Service (<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ens">ENS</a>), an <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a> domain naming service, teamed up with GoDaddy, a popular domain registrar, to link wallets to web pages.



Read More: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-name-service-godaddy-partnership">ENS partners with GoDaddy to enable users to link wallets to domains</a>



By integrating with one of the largest web hosting providers in the world, users will be able to easily connect their simplified ENS wallet addresses with their Domain Name Systems.



Updated Feb. 8, 2024 at 4:08 pm ET: Updated ICANN applicant fee information.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

NEAR Foundation applies for .near top-level domain

Following the launch of Frames, Farcaster, the protocol behind the much-talked-about social network Warpcast, has gained significant attention in the crypto sphere.



Frames is a feature that enables users to embed functionality on Farcaster applications without having to leave the app itself.



This may sound simple at first glance, but is something that was not achievable on previously popular Web2 social media platforms like Facebook.



In an interview with Blockworks, Antonio García Martínez, a former product manager at Facebook and founder of Spindl, noted that in Facebook’s earlier days, the social network wanted to create ways to incorporate ways you could interact with siloed media experiences on its platform.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/social-media-farcaster-interview">Q&amp;A: Dan Romero and Jesse Pollak think this may be Farcaster’s ‘inflection point’</a>



“<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/facebook">Facebook</a> used to be the one social network that everyone was on, and the idea was you would have, like, a Spotify player with a play button on your feed when your friends share what they are listening to or something like it, but it never quite came together,” Martínez said.



The latest Frames feature is the first step in making this dream a reality. With blockchain technology that incorporates aspects such as <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/identity">identity</a>, money and payment rails, developers are now able to use it to interact with apps outside of it and create in-context experiences.



“The cool thing about it from a marketer’s perspective, is the typical user funnel — clicking on one thing, going somewhere else, putting in my financial credentials — all of that gets compressed down to just this nexus of the social layer,” Martínez said.



The reason this is possible is that when a user is signing up for a <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/farcaster">Farcaster</a> application — like Warpcast — Farcaster creates an underlying <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/wallets">wallet</a> for that account that can be connected or associated with a real wallet.&nbsp;



Although at this point in time on-chain transactions are not yet a functionality on Frames, it is something that Martínez believes will happen in the near future.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Biggest consumer app in Web3?</h2>



Martínez notes that in <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/web3">Web3</a> today there has yet to be a popular consumer app, and mainstream users are unlikely to use a product for its cryptocurrency features.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-infrastructure-lacking-apps">The crypto infrastructure is here, but where are the apps?</a>



What is important, though, is being able to create products that enable users to interact with experiences that they would not otherwise be able to access on Web2, like group listening through a music provider, Martínez said.



“There’s a lot of excitement, but you know 20,000 new users on Farcaster is pretty small in the scheme of things, it’s not even a rounding error on the Facebook dashboard, but we’ll see, it’s growing pretty fast,” he said.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

Farcaster is marrying social media and Web3 to onboard the masses

Ben Strack

Venture capital firm Heartcore Capital is investing in the crypto segment’s application layer protocols as part of a bet on technologies that foster user interaction with the space.



The Denmark-based company has raised 15 million euros ($16.3 million) for its first Web3 fund set to allocate to founders building upon crypto infrastructure Heartcore says is primed for wider adoption.&nbsp;



“We believe that the shift towards on-chain protocols is the next stage of the software revolution of the past three decades,” Heartcore partner Yacone Ghalim told Blockworks. “We foresee that protocols will progressively disrupt parts of our economy, like previous internet startups.”



While bitcoin has rallied for chunks of the year — <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-price-bull-market-compare">jumping to $42,000 Monday morning</a> — much of 2023 resembled a bear market following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.



Ghalim said such market cycles have historically offered ideal entry points, noting that Coinbase, Ethereum, Maker and Uniswap were built in bear markets.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Tourist investors and founders have left to seek greener pastures, the signal-noise ratio has dramatically improved, valuations are back to being reasonable, and expectations are in check,” he said of the market conditions.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-venture-capital-fundraise-q3">Crypto VC challenges persist, but Q3 brings hope with $1B raised</a>



Ghalim argued that it is increasingly possible to create Web3 user experiences on par with Web2 products. For example, he noted the ability for <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/layer-1">layer-1s</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/layer-2-2">layer-2s</a> to process thousands of transactions per second.



The infrastructure layer currently holds 98% of the industry’s $1.6 trillion market cap, according to Heartcore. <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/uniswap">Uniswap</a> has historically been the only application layer protocol in the top 20. The market cap of Uniswap (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/uni">UNI</a>) had fallen to 21st-highest on Monday — behind bitcoin cash (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/bch">BCH</a>) at $4.5 billion.



Tech infrastructure players — including telecommunications, semiconductor and networking companies — were among the highest valued in the early 1990s. But Web2 applications layer firms such as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta and Netflix would ultimately build powerful businesses as value moved “up the stack,” Ghalim said.&nbsp;



The firm believes application layer protocols, from DeFi to gaming, are positioned to be winners in their respective categories.&nbsp;



“While history doesn&#8217;t always repeat, it often rhymes and we think the same is about to happen in crypto as the ‘fat protocol’ <a href="https://medium.com/ledgercapital/the-fat-protocol-thesis-debated-65ad56285fd5">theory</a> is outdated,” he added. “Web3 applications have demonstrated they have real moats, often stronger monetization models and will increasingly own part of their infrastructure.”



Founded in 2007, Heartcore has <a href="https://www.heartcore.com/companies">invested</a> in more than 100 Web2 companies.



The firm has ventured into the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/web3">Web3</a> space in recent years, backing teams at companies such as Panoptic, Elusiv, Li.Fi, Superform, Rhinestone, and MakerDAO.



Heartcore has also shown foresight in the cryptocurrency domain with private investments in Ethereum as early as 2014, and in projects like Polkadot and Cosmos in 2017.



Despite its shift towards Web3, the firm maintains its commitment to <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/web2">Web2</a> technologies, and intends to continue investing in this area through its other vehicles.



“We don&#8217;t think that this is a case of overnight disruption and we believe that traditional companies and protocols will co-exist for decades to come,” Ghalim said.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

VC firm Heartcore expands focus to Web3 via app-focused fund

Darren Kleine

Ever felt like Facebook or Instagram were somehow listening to you and sending ads for products that you just talked about…or even just thought about?



It’s not as magical or mysterious as one might imagine, Antonio Garcia-Martinez says. In a mundane reality, a user browses a given topic somewhere and a few minutes later, a relevant ad appears, thanks to the browser’s stored data.



“You shopped on the website and you came back to Instagram and that&#8217;s why you saw the ad inside Instagram,” he says, “because two seconds before, you were on that website and indeed, they uploaded your email to <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/facebook">Facebook</a> and said, ‘show this ad to everyone who came, but didn’t buy,’ and that&#8217;s what you&#8217;re seeing.”



Another “super-valuable” way that ads target a specific audience is via “look-alike” mechanics, Garcia-Martinez explains, where a “similarity metric between users” can be used to hone in on new potential consumers.



User data that determines who is like each other, combined with a connection to “the outside world” enables targeted ads to be effective, he says. “That&#8217;s how all of this started working on Web2.”



On the Lightspeed podcast (<a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/3FXTD7rjTjdht4XHlsCxhn">Spotify</a>/<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-onchain-attribution-will-catalyze-cryptos-growth/id1697548240?i=1000631076961">Apple</a>), the Spindl CEO explains how he is now applying the same principles to <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/web3">Web3</a>, where he says most marketers are “flying blind.”



Garcia-Martinez spent “10 plus years” in ad tech with companies like <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/facebook">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/twitter">Twitter</a> before being “crypto-pilled.” Moving into Web3, he says he could not understand how companies with billion dollar valuations didn’t understand their “basic user value” or “where users were coming from.”



“They didn&#8217;t understand anything, basically,” he says, “and it was so odd to me because, again, so much of this data actually is on-chain now.”



The blockchain is “a miracle that is amazing in many ways,” says Garcia-Martinez, but as a marketing database, “it’s not particularly good.” Spindl exists for this reason, he says, using blockchains to present a “view of the world the marketer cares about.”



The average marketer doesn’t care about on-chain minutiae like blocks, transactions and smart contracts, Garcia-Martinez says. But information revealing that a user spent $6,000 on a microsite after discovering it via Twitter, for example, would be highly valuable. “That’s what they want.”



The <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/spindl-ad-attribution">“nerd name” for this process is “attribution,” Garcia-Martinez explains</a>. “Tying all that together is like, basics. Without that, you have no idea what&#8217;s going on as a business.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Nerding out with new tools</h2>



Garcia-Martinez acknowledges that many Web3 marketers have been resourceful, using the limited tools available to them. <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/nfts">NFT</a> drops, for example, behave like simple ads, he says. “It&#8217;s not a great ad, but it appears in your wallet and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lufthansa-polygon-nft-rewards">you sort of engage with it as soon as you see it</a>,” he says, adding that token drops can also act as referral reward programs.&nbsp;



“They&#8217;ve been using the tools they have,” he says, “but they&#8217;ve been very poorly measured.”



Garcia-Martinez says that Spindl aims to tell marketers the “whole user journey,” tying together all relevant user data. The other aspect of the product, he says, “is to really nerd out” with a payment model that doesn’t exist in Web2.



Illustrating Web3’s payment advantages over the Web2 marketing model, Garcia-Martinez describes a typical ad-client scenario. “I fire an event to Facebook saying, yeah, we converted him. Facebook says, ‘great, pay me 30 bucks.’”



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/synthetix-web3-tools-kain-warwick-lightspeed-engagement">Here’s a crazy idea: What if we used Web3 tools to engage with Web3 products?</a>



“Hopefully, that user pays out and earns more than the $30 you pay Facebook. It&#8217;s less risky than just paying for ads and hoping to God the user comes in and buys, but it&#8217;s a little risky, right?”



“Wouldn&#8217;t it be cool if I could say, ‘Look, I only pay for the user if they come in, they spend money, and then by the way, I&#8217;m paying you a fraction of their revenue?’” he asks.&nbsp;



“Web3 is going to have a smarter, more interesting, more fair, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/reward-consumer-feedback-web3">more transparent marketing stack</a> than <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/web2">Web2</a> ever had,” he says. With native on-chain payments that transparently follow and reward any resultant revenue-generating activity, Garcia-Martinez explains that “everyone can take a little cut of it.”



<iframe loading="lazy" frameborder="0" height="200" scrolling="no" src="https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=BWG5511960617" width="100%"></iframe>







“But the advertiser loves it,” he says, “because if the user didn&#8217;t come in, guess what? I pay nothing.” 



“I only pay if I get paid,” he says. “It&#8217;s way better than how things used to work.”



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

Web3 marketers are ‘flying blind,’ says Spindl’s Garcia-Martinez

“It’s a wild time to be building in crypto,” says Josh Cornelius. “The macro environment is obviously horrible. Twitter sentiment is horrible. NFT volume is horrible.”



“But then you look at some of these new tech stacks that are emerging — and it&#8217;s just such an exciting time to actually be building in consumer crypto.”



Speaking on the On the Other Side podcast (<a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/2l4CfSyfXhfRNU9TuWXuQq">Spotify</a>/<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/90-the-next-wave-of-consumer-crypto-w-seed-club/id1570685120?i=1000628720852">Apple</a>), the Seed Club incubator partner explains that the program is focused on supporting the development of consumer-facing Web3 apps. “We ended up selecting 10 [projects], all pushing on interesting and weird edges of consumer crypto.”



These aren’t your typical DeFi or DAO-tooling projects, Cornelius insists, saying the new projects are focused on the consumer experience “through and through.”



As most crypto investors fled to the <a href="http://blockworks.co/news/quicknode-blockchain-development-platform">relative safety of building infrastructure </a>during recent <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-short-term-apathy">bearish conditions</a>, Seed Club founder Jess Sloss says “the world never looked better for building consumer experiences in crypto.”



“The infrastructure had never been better.”



“What we&#8217;re hearing from builders,” Sloss continues, “is that they had the tools to go do interesting things, but that maybe the interest from the money wasn&#8217;t quite there.” Sloss says he observed a “mismatch” between builders and money, giving Seed Club the opportunity to “step in.”&nbsp;



“We have deep belief in this stuff. And we believe we can find some incredible teams who are pushing it at new and novel edges.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Feels nothing like Web2</h2>



The Seed Club incubator program’s most recent cohort saw nearly 300 applications, from which they chose 10 to support, Sloss explains. “What&#8217;s interesting from that experience is, you get to see a wide selection of the visions people have out there in the space.”



“We have 10 teams of incredible builders with big visions and over the last two and a half months, we&#8217;ve seen them just run at it very, very hard,” Sloss says, adding that he’s excited to “open the doors and let other people see what we’ve been seeing for the last few months.”



Sloss explains that the new projects will tap into “new potential mechanisms for value creation that exist in the <a href="http://blockworks.co/tag/web3">Web3</a> space.”



“We&#8217;ll see which ones are enduring and create lasting value. But at the very least, we&#8217;re running at new, interesting opportunities rather than the sort of the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/investors-guide-blockchain-gaming">very thin games</a> that exist today.”



Cornelius says the current cohort of Seed Club’s developing projects consist of “novel consumer experiences that feel nothing…like Web2.”



“We have a project called Sofamon, which is hard to describe,” he says. The app is a browser extension that acts as a wallet interface, he explains. “It&#8217;s this cute little bunny that reacts to all of your on-chain interactions. If a friend sends you tokens, if something happens in your wallet, it reacts.”



“Your friend can jump onto your screen and, you know, slap you if you did something dumb on-chain. They&#8217;re building this completely new social layer to on-chain experiences.”



Cornelius mentions a few other projects that focus on building a “lifestyle culture layer” for IRL experiences and “ephemeral art installations” that enrich the experience and “make it fun to be there.”



Sloss then details another project dubbed SenSpace. “They&#8217;re being very methodical in building their core community of creators,” he says. “They’re not <a href="http://blockworks.co/news/magic-eden-nfts">running at the 10K PFP</a>, not running at the speculation side, but using these <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/nfts">NFTs</a> as a way of really bringing those creators into this world of SenSpace.”



“Each entity is a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/mastering-nfts">soulbound token</a>, but more importantly, each one is a character and a world that is designed specifically for that creator.”



Sloss explains that the tokens act as a means to encourage buy-in to the community, where the creators then collaborate with others in the network. “You start to see the compounding effects of that, even over the last two months that we&#8217;ve been working with the team.”



<iframe loading="lazy" frameborder="0" height="200" scrolling="no" src="https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=BWG7692827018" width="100%"></iframe>







It’s an implementation of NFT technology where the “asset ties a group of people together,” Sloss says, “but speculation isn&#8217;t the core incentive.”



“It&#8217;s going to lead to new, interesting opportunities — and we&#8217;re seeing the early stages of that already.”



“At the core,” Sloss says, “is this novelty around <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/real-world-assets-empire-buzzwords-defi">what a token can be used for</a> and how it can bring people together, coordinate people and create value together.”



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

Seed Club’s latest cohort focuses on apps that ‘feel nothing like Web2’

The “freemium” model — where basic app features are free but users unlock more features with payments — has been enormously successful in the Web2 world for years.



Even so, most freemium apps only convert between <a href="https://www.toplyne.io/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-freemium-conversion-rates-benchmarks-tips-more">2-5%</a> of users into paying customers, with the rest of the crowd keeping their credit cards tucked neatly in their wallets. Essentially, Web2 apps find a “product market fit” and gather up a massive user base first, figuring out the money side of the equation after everybody has arrived on the scene.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/web3">Web3</a> apps often take the opposite approach, starting with monetization as the first step. This makes the barrier to entry considerably more significant, but once users get over the monetary hump, the average revenue per user can be far greater than the legacy model.



On the Lightspeed podcast (<a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/3LA6bXABFoLh1938zoQM0a?si=pYSXIWdNTQWhn0poCxyE2A">Spotify</a>/<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-building-products-users-love-jeff-morris-jr/id1697548240?i=1000626315371">Apple</a>), Jeff Morris Jr. explains that both strategies have their advantages, but the Web3 “financialized use case” approach tends to be misunderstood. He helped Tinder become the top grossing app in the App Store, ballooning the Web2 app’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) from $20 million to $1.2 billion during his tenure with the company.



The former VP of product and revenue at Tinder gained some key insights from his successes before joining the Web3 world as a managing partner at Chapter One. “In Web2,” he says, “the goal was always to build the biggest network possible and then figure out how to monetize them later.”



“The benefit of Web3 is — everything is very monetizable. It&#8217;s one of the reasons why I actually think the space is really interesting as an investor,” he says. “If you have a small subset of users that are active traders, there are very easy ways to build a business.”



Morris cites <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/uniswap">Uniswap</a> trading volume in Q2 of 2022 as an example of his thought process. “Monthly trading volume was over $170 billion with 400,000 monthly traders.”



“I compare that to <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/coinbase">Coinbase</a>, which had a little over $200 billion of volume with 9 million monthly traders,” he says. The centralized trading application hosted 9 million users while the decentralized version — Uniswap — only hosted 400,000, “with almost equal trading volume,” he says.



“You could argue that those both have product market fit,” he says, “but if you were to go on a public road show and try to take Uniswap public as a company and explain the fact that you had 400,000 users…they&#8217;d be like, ‘this isn&#8217;t an interesting business.’”



“But it&#8217;s clearly an interesting business,” he says.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Reaching a billion users is the wrong goal</h2>



Morris says the common crypto trope that centers on <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/base-next-internet-jesse-pollak">reaching “a billion users”</a> is probably the wrong goal. “If we had 30 million people who were really passionate about crypto and found value in the ecosystem, that would be enough to build a multi-trillion dollar asset class that was great for founders and investors and LPs.”



Morris says that some people have criticized his perspective as giving Web3 builders “an easy path” — claiming they have achieved product market fit despite low user numbers — but he prefers to focus on the positives he sees in Web3.&nbsp;



“I spend a lot of my time looking for signals of positivity or hope, because I think it&#8217;s really important in a bear market to say things aren&#8217;t as bad as everybody thinks.”



But crypto applications still need to be more accessible, Morris says. Citing <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/friend-tech-financialization-goldentre">Friend.tech</a> as an example of what might be considered by Web3 users to be an “accessible” mobile experience, Morris asks what a non-crypto user would think of the app’s onboarding process.



<iframe loading="lazy" frameborder="0" height="200" scrolling="no" src="https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=BWG7940615946" width="100%"></iframe>







“I would love to look at the completion rate because most people just aren&#8217;t going to go through this kind of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/friend-tech-momentum-stalls">janky web experience</a>,” he says.



“Crypto right now still feels like it&#8217;s in 2007 or 2008 relative to where the rest of consumer experiences are. And so yeah, we have a long way to go.”



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

Reaching a billion users is ‘the wrong goal’ for crypto, says former Tinder VP

Sebastian Sinclair

Despite raising millions from the crypto community, stewards of the virtual pet franchise Neopets said Tuesday they are shelving Web3 plans in favor of going back to basics.



As the game nestles into a “new, unified entity,” the call has been made to “transition away from the Neopets Metaverse game,” and direct resources better suited to the game’s “values,” according to a statement.



A <a href="https://www.polygon.com/22722915/neopets-nft-controversy-noneonfts-metaverse" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">frosty reception</a> of NFTs from <a href="https://www.jellyneo.net/nfts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Neopians</a> led to the pivot away from blockchain, with the game’s leadership now making it their “priority” to appease Neopets’ <a href="https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/01/neopets-is-rotting-away/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dwindling player base</a>. Launched in 1999, Neopets is a browser-based virtual pet website allowing players to feed, groom and care for a collection of fantasy critters.



In late June, Neopets&#8217; studio JumpStart Games, headquartered in LA, was shut down by its owner NetDragon. The franchise was then handed over to Dominic Law, a Neopets diehard who had previously been employed by NetDragon. The game is now to be managed by a new firm, The Neopets Team (TNT).



JumpStart, like others before it, had failed to generate any substantial revenue for the <a href="https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/01/neopets-is-rotting-away/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">franchise</a>, TNT said in a <a href="https://medium.com/@neopetsofficial/a-new-era-for-neopets-fdb5c9ac187e" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>. TNT said Neopets had been running at a loss “<a href="https://medium.com/@neopetsofficial/a-new-era-for-neopets-fdb5c9ac187e" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">for over a decade</a>,” and was in dire need of a rescue plan, intended to draw back users that had left disgruntled over its Web3 vision.



“This decision was not made lightly, but it was made for the best reason: we want to design a game that’s more in line with what the community has been asking for,” a <a href="https://twitter.com/NeopetsMeta/status/1680942260798767104?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a> from the Neopets Metaverse Twitter account said.



Blockworks has reached out to TNT and Neopets Metaverse for comment.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Neopets went from metaverse to metaworse</h2>



The Neopets Metaverse debuted in November 2021 — the heat of the last bull market — with the launch of 10,000 unique “collection boxes.” The boxes delivered Neopet NFTs issued on Solana.



A foray into the metaverse offered to transform the game from its original 2D state into 3D, bustling with highly-rendered character models with verifiable ownership.



The initial tranche of 1,250 boxes was retailed at a set price of one <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/sol" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SOL</a> ($240 at the time, $26.40 today), though the overall average price ended up roughly <a href="https://kotaku.com/500-neopets-nfts-are-so-sad-most-of-them-are-crying-1848062018" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">double</a> that.



After the dust settled, the Neopets Metaverse had garnered more than $2 million in NFT sales. Fourteen months later the firm had raised another <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/neopets-raise-4m-from-web3-leaders-to-bring-90s-classic-to-the-metaverse-301725147.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$4 million</a> from crypto funds including Polygon Ventures, Hashkey Capital and Blizzard Avalanche Ecosystem Fund, alongside Chinese MMORPG operator NetDragon.



“The funding was more than enough money to build a fun game around,” Simon Kertonegoro, CEO of MyMetaverse told Blockworks. “For them to take this money … and break their promises to the community is, unfortunately, a far too common occurrence.”



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="2118" height="1285" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-19-170151.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-62271" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-19-170151.png?w=2118 2118w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-19-170151.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-19-170151.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-19-170151.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-19-170151.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-19-170151.png?w=2048 2048w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-19-170151.png?w=424 424w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-19-170151.png?w=430 430w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-19-170151.png?w=361 361w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-19-170151.png?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 2118px) 100vw, 2118px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Some Neopets NFTs are still available on Solana marketplaces (image <a href="https://gallery.neopetsmeta.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">source</a>)</figcaption></figure>



Neopets NFTs can still be found on Solanart, Magic Eden and Fractal. Ongoing support will be provided to owners, Neopets Metaverse said. Floor prices range widely from just 0.84 SOL ($22) to 8 SOL ($210).



TNT says it’s now focusing on the development of “World of Neopets,” an open-world 3D spinoff of the original browser game without Web3 entanglements.



Andrii Yasinetsky CEO and co-founder of NFT data analytics firm Mnemonic told Blockworks it did not make sense to add NFTs without a “clear vision” of how they’d provide value to the gaming community in a “meaningful way.”



“My general sense is that the types of games like Farmville and so on are more likely to find value add of NFTs in their ecosystems,” he said. “There is also a concept of skins, which could be NFTs, there seems to be a market for that.”



Other dot-com brands to have attempted a Web3 rebirth include <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/napster-begins-planned-acquisition-spree-amid-shift-to-web3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LimeWire</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/napster-begins-planned-acquisition-spree-amid-shift-to-web3">Napster</a>.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

Neopets won’t be a metaverse filled with Solana NFTs after all

David Canellis

They say crypto traders are mentally unstable degenerate gamblers. Nihilists profiteering from others’ misfortune in a sadistic zero-sum game, providing no value to society.



So, when you hear that Polymarket, the blockchain prediction market (read: Web3 bookie), facilitated bets on whether the lost Titanic-hunting sub would be found before its oxygen runs out — it sounds about right.



Decentralized prediction markets (DPMs) like Polychain were some of the earliest smart contract use cases. Augur was the first on Ethereum, having crowdfunded about one year after the blockchain launched in 2014.



These platforms are a little bit like bitcoin ATMs when it comes to capturing mainstream attention. Physical cash machines are a widely understood concept, and so is betting on world events like the SuperBowl or US presidential races.



The idea of a seedy crypto gambling den easily translates. DPMs are pretty much that, except the den is the Ethereum blockchain and nobody runs that, so the cops can’t shut it down (or the morality police).



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">had a quick chat with <a href="https://twitter.com/Polymarket?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Polymarket</a> <a href="https://t.co/5cFcy6PQyE">pic.twitter.com/5cFcy6PQyE</a>&mdash; Michæl Becker (@michae1becker) <a href="https://twitter.com/michae1becker/status/1671675111181815809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 22, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">When Twitter found out, some onlookers hated the idea.</figcaption></figure>



These platforms let users open prediction markets about any topic whatsoever, with no permission necessary. Smart contracts maintain the odds and settle bets, in cryptocurrency, with no dodgy middlemen and most importantly — no censorship.



Like all interesting software, Augur’s limits were quickly tested after its launch in 2018 — by very <a href="https://futurism.com/augur-assassination-marketplace-decentralized-blockchain">dramatic</a> assassination markets.&nbsp;



One minute, you’re cheekily betting that the queen would live until 2025. The next, you’ve essentially put out a hit on a royal family member — someone could take the opposite side, kill them, and win the bet. 



In that case, your bet would be the bounty (alongside anyone else’s that believed the queen would live). 



Resourceful assassins could even, hypothetically, trawl prediction markets for celebrities with loads of cash and bet on their life expectancy with a mind to cut those lives short — and then take all the ETH. Donald Trump, Warren Buffett and Jeff Bezos have all had their own life/death prediction <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/donald-trump-assassination-market-blockchain-augur-a8464516.html">markets</a> on Augur.



Augur has never inspired any real-life assassinations, but Polymarket’s Titanic sub market is a 2023 iteration of the same scenario, just on Polygon. Crypto edgelords betting on whether people would die.



Because these bets take place on apps such as Polymarket and Augur that serve as conduits for blockchain activity, censorship of betting terms is a very tricky subject.&nbsp;



These platforms are commonly known as “decentralized apps,” as their associated smart contracts exist on chain, but they still rely on centralized front-end apps often maintained by a company or software studio. Without these apps, users would need to <a href="https://docs.etherscan.io/tutorials/signing-raw-transactions">code</a> their own so-called “raw” transactions to be added to the blockchain.&nbsp;



But while the apps themselves are censorable — Polymarket developers really could figure out ways to censor its app for any input involving “death,” or “die” or “live,” just like Augur could’ve done — those efforts would surely go to waste due to the stubborn ingenuity of the internet.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Not to mention the fact that any market that concerns human activity is also an assassination market. &quot;Will Nic go to the grocery store tomorrow&quot; expresses the joint probability of me 1) going to the store and 2) my state of being alive&mdash; nic 🌠 carter (@nic__carter) <a href="https://twitter.com/nic__carter/status/929890186498052102?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2017</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">As Nic Carter pointed out in 2017, any human activity can be an assassination market — technically</figcaption></figure>



And you can also always code prediction markets <a href="https://medium.com/coinmonks/building-a-prediction-market-on-ethereum-with-solidity-a-use-case-study-bcf3ea6df47f">yourself</a>, bypassing the app altogether. Once the associated smart contracts deploy to Ethereum, they can’t be censored (unless the chain was rolled back, however unlikely it may be).



Rather than opine on the morality of such betting activities — especially as <a href="https://twitter.com/nic__carter/status/929885120248422400/photo/1">one alternative</a> is to codify moral absolutism on the blockchain, a whole other can of worms — it’s better to stress that absurd prediction markets like these are features, not bugs, of a decentralized Web3.&nbsp;



At risk of “free speech” cliches, it’s a waste of time to fixate on all the deplorable ways decentralized tech can be used, especially for those even remotely interested in supporting the concept of permissionless systems. If you can censor prediction markets, you can censor the money, rendering this whole crazy endeavor entirely moot.



The Polymarket backlash shows a demand for censorship at the app level which almost completely nullifies the promise and benefits of these protocols.&nbsp;



Censoring apps of any kind — be they gambling, social media or Ponzi game — for activity we don’t like is a very Web2 solution to a Web3 &#8220;problem&#8221; that can&#8217;t be solved.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>


<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">David is an Editor based in the Netherlands focused on data-driven journalism. Previously, he wrote for TheNextWeb&#8217;s crypto vertical before launching Protos in 2021. He&#8217;s a reformed hardline Bitcoiner passionate about permissionless and decentralized networks. Contact David at david@blockworks.co</div>


<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

Gambling on the Titanic sub sucks, but leave moral outrage in Web2

Ornella Hernandez

<div id="highlights-block_62e459ad39403" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Meural’s WiFi-connected digital canvases connect to MetaMask and Coinbase wallets</li>
 <li>Teams will submit a proposal to the SuperRare DAO to vote on licensing and royalty model</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Netgear, widely known for its WiFi routers, first expanded into smart home products. Now, the Web2 standby is making a play to gain Web3 market share. 



The company first diversified into smart home products with a 2018 acquisition of Meural canvases and smart frames. The latest plan: to use the Meural digital displays to exhibit NFTs in partnership with digital art marketplace SuperRare collections and artists.&nbsp;



The collaboration entailed joining the SuperRare DAO and buying its governance token, RARE, in order to have a say in the direction of digital art on the platform. The company declined to disclose how many tokens it purchased and at what cost.&nbsp;



The goal is to co-develop a licensing and royalty model for displaying non-fungible tokens of curated SuperRare collections on the Meural smart frames.&nbsp;



The first step is for the Netgear and Meural team to submit a governance proposal to the RARE community.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">ICYMI, SuperRare and <a href="https://twitter.com/MeetMeural?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MeetMeural</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/NETGEAR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NETGEAR</a> have partnered up 💎🖼️. What does this mean to CryptoArt? Check out this 🧵 to learn all about it&mdash; SuperRare 💎 (@SuperRare) <a href="https://twitter.com/SuperRare/status/1553071098543087617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



John Crain, chief executive officer at SuperRare, told Blockworks the transition of the traditional art world in response to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) makes for an ideal entry point for the firm.



“There&#8217;s roughly 10,000 serious <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/3-5-million-creators-are-cashing-in-on-digital-art/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">traditional art collectors</a> in the world,” Crain said, referring to art collector database Larry’s List. “ It&#8217;s like a $60 billion market.” 



SuperRare has a 10% artist royalty stipulation baked into the smart contracts to ensure their compensation from secondary sales, but, as Crain said, “We don&#8217;t really have a standard for how to do this with NFTs in the context of streaming.”



Meural has an integration with crypto wallets Coinbase and MetaMask, and a selection of dynamic, programmable NFTs in the Meural library which encompasses over 30,000 licensed artworks.&nbsp;



In the case of its subscription offering, Crain questioned how they can accurately measure what members are currently displaying on their home or office walls and then have the smart contract “do the math and distribute funds where appropriate.”



He likes to envision a set of Legos, where the most basic Lego is the collectible or a piece of fine art, and that media asset has a base license that makes the NFT collectable.&nbsp;



Poppy Simpson, senior product and content manager for Netgear’s Meural product line, told Blockworks there’s a parallel to be drawn with Spotify’s real-time streaming royalty system, saying most involved artists have been licensed through third parties like publishers and record labels.



“This is a model, which not only does it try and align the artists and the collectors incentives, but it cuts out a lot of the middlemen, which is essentially skimming off the profit of the creator,” Simpson said.



She added that “artists are always on the forefront of technology,” and that NFTs increase the possibilities in terms of the number of people that can get involved, mainly collectors



The current overall market capitalization for the entire NFT market is up to $24.57 billion — a 3.4% <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/art-blue-chip-nfts-drive-q2-nft-market-growth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">increase</a> from the start of the year — according to data from NFTGo at the time of publication, and it&#8217;s a very new market compared to that of traditional fine art. 



“These two worlds are coming together, so we&#8217;re gonna see the user numbers dramatically increase,” said Crain.



In order to capitalize on the cultural collision, SuperRare has opened up a pop-up gallery in downtown New York through August 28, featuring a rotating program of five NFT exhibitions using Meural frames.&nbsp;



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

Netgear Joins SuperRare DAO to Develop NFT Art Licensing Model

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_61e9bf04be8fe" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>That would make Meta the first major non-crypto company to integrate an NFT marketplace</li>
 <li>+Other social media platforms are keying in on NFTs, such as Twitter, which launched a profile-picture service on Thursday</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has made plans to dive into the world of non-fungible tokens, the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2745d50b-36e4-4c0a-abe0-e93f035b0628">Financial Times</a> reported Thursday.&nbsp;



Two sources familiar with the matter told the FT that Meta has discussed launching an NFT marketplace, where users can buy and sell the blockchain-based collectibles. Instagram and Facebook, additionally, are said to be developing a feature to allow users to showcase NFTs on their profiles. 



Twitter on Thursday <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/20/twitter-blue-subscription-users-are-first-gain-access-to-a-new-nft-profile-picture-feature/">rolled out </a>an NFT profile-picture feature for subscribers to its premium offering.&nbsp;



Per the FT, the plans are “fast-developing” — describing efforts as “early stage” and “could yet change.” Meta did not immediately respond to Blockworks request for comment.&nbsp;



“In the coming years, I expect people will transition from seeing us primarily as a social media company to seeing us as a metaverse company,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during an <a href="https://kfindtech.com/zuckerberg-says-facebooks-future-lies-in-virtual%E2%80%8A-metaverse/">earnings call</a> in the second quarter&nbsp; of 2021.&nbsp;



Meta’s spending last year alone of augmented and virtual reality research was projected to top $10 billion, and <a href="https://videoweek.com/2021/11/17/the-knock-on-effects-of-facebooks-huge-metaverse-spending/">analysts</a> predict that Meta will spend $60 billion to carry out its metaverse vision.&nbsp;



Although other trillion-dollar Web2 companies like Microsoft and billion-dollar companies such as Fortnight developer Epic Games have jumped on the metaverse bandwagon, experts say their Web3 integrations are still a ways off.&nbsp;



According to Web3 startup Unstoppable Domains founder Matthew Gould, a true metaverse can’t exist without combining crypto and big tech company inventions like VR and AR.&nbsp;



“It’s actually the intersection of these two worlds where you can create the metaverse,” Gould told Blockworks. “I think fundamentally you&#8217;re not going to have the adoption of the metaverse without the concurrent adoption of crypto.”



Colin Fitzpatrick, founder and CEO of Animal Concerts, an NFT startup focused on virtual concerts in the metaverse, told Blockworks that the prospects of the company getting into NFTs “are highly likely,” but holders of the digital assets should be careful when using Meta.&nbsp;



“The responsibility will fall on the NFT community’s shoulders to make sure Meta behaves fairly and doesn’t try to monopolize profits and what is supposed to be a democratic industry,”&nbsp; Fitzpatrick said.



Meta Platforms Inc. (FB) traded 1.2% higher to $323.46 per share following the news.



Correction (Jan. 20, 20:58 UTC): Article previously stated Apple is involved with metaverse development. The company has said it would not utilize its MR headset for the metaverse.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.