Web3 Watch: Is Web5 Better Than Web3?

Jack Dorsey is building “Web5”

Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc., formerly Square, is looking to skip from Web3 straight to Web5, a supposed new vision for a decentralized internet. Developed by TBD, the Bitcoin arm at Block, Web5 is built solely on the Bitcoin blockchain.

According to a slide deck tweeted out by the company, the platform focuses on identity management and securing personal data. TBD said the main issue with the current web is that users “are given accounts by companies and their data is held captive in app silos.” 

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The Web5 concept has been mocked by industry members active in Web3, calling it a cynical attempt to piggyback on the success of existing smart contract platforms but with a Bitcoin maximalist slant.

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Last week Dorsey and Jay-Z announced the launch of Bitcoin Academy to teach crypto to residents of Marcy Houses, a public housing complex in Brooklyn, the New York City borough where the hip-hop artist grew up. A crypto kids camp is also slated to take place, through which participants will receive a token amount of bitcoin (BTC).  

The duo last year invested $24 million to start ₿trust, a fund to help bitcoin development in Africa and India.

Goblintown team doxxes itself

The team behind one of the most recently hyped NFT projects, Goblintown, revealed their identity on Tuesday via a video on Twitter. The group, Truth Labs, operates two other projects: IlluminatiNFT and The 187. When the news broke, the IlluminatiNFT collection pumped 200% to a peak floor price of 0.67 ether (ETH).

In the almost four-minute video, the founders said they’ve “come to a point where we feel it would be irresponsible” if they didn’t doxx themselves. Goblins has no roadmap, no Discord server, nor any utility and instead acts as a form of group therapy and comedic relief, they said.

The remaining 1,000 Goblins are set aside for the members of the IlluminatiNFT and The 187 projects, the team announced. And Goblins holders can expect merch to drop during the upcoming NFT.NYC. 

Avid NFT collector Andrew Wang reacted to the news:

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Seth Green buys back his Bored Ape

Actor Seth Green confirmed during a Twitter Spaces session with BuzzFeed News that his stolen Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT “is home.”

After four of Green’s BAYC NFTs (non-fungible tokens) were taken in a phishing scam and sold off, Green paid 165 ETH, nearly $300,000 at the time, to get BAYC #8398 back.

BAYC’s license states that the NFT holder owns full usage rights, which sparked a debate over who owns those commercial rights in the case of theft.

The Bored Ape in question was intended to star in “White Horse Tavern,” a new television series that Green is producing. The production was put on hiatus due to copyright concerns. Green named the avatar Fred Simian and runs its Twitter account. 

Gamestop Wallet x WAGMI Games 

GameStop chose WAGMI Games to be its first wallet integration since launching in May. The blockchain-based gaming publisher’s first release, titled “WAGMI Defense,” is a humans vs. aliens SciFi game for desktop and mobile devices.

Currently in beta for Genesis NFT holders only, the play-to-earn game is the first blockchain game that allows players to connect either their Metamask or GameStop Wallet via browser extension. 

Ian Bentley, the chief executive officer of WAGMI Games, stated in a Medium post that to have mass adoption from traditional gamers, “You can’t be a ‘crypto game.’ The blockchain element has to be behind the scenes, and with no financial volatility risk to the gamer.”

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Web3 funding rolls in despite bear market

1. SKNUPS raised $3.5 million for blockchain game collectibles and unveiled a partnership with Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana. The pre-seed round involved Redrice Ventures, Blue Wire Capital and Adelpha, among others. SKNUPS is a digital collectibles platform for metaverse streetwear and beauty brands. 
2. Venture capital firm True Global Ventures 4 Plus (TGV4 Plus) closed a $146 million funding round, part of its new Follow On Fund. Led by a group of 15 general partners who committed a total of $62 million, investments will go into Web3 companies within TGV’s portfolio and other late-stage Web3 projects.
3. Digital asset exchange Huobi Global’s launched a new investment arm, Ivy Blocks, to deploy over $1 billion in cryptoassets under management into decentralized finance (DeFi) and Web3 projects in their seed or growing stages. An incubator and research service will also be part of Ivy Blocks. 

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