🧠 FTX, Lobster, and the Metaverse Battle

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Learn About Web3
November 22, 2022

🧠 FTX, Lobster, and the Metaverse Battle

Gm 👋 and welcome to Learn About Web3 where we keep up with Web3, so you don't have to. This is your 🏠 to learn about Web3 in 3 minutes or less.

P.S. Hello and welcome to all of our new subscribers!

Here's what we have today

  • FTX drama explained in 90 seconds

  • The freshest use case for NFTs

  • The Alliance vs Meta - a battle for the Metaverse

  • News rollup, VC funding, and the reading list

Let's dive in.

FTX Drama in 6 sentences

I'm sure you've heard a lot about FTX recently. Here's the summary you can use to explain to family and friends at Thanksgiving instead of discussing politics.

  • Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, a centralized exchange, was taking users' money out of the exchange, funneling it into his hedge fund Alameda, and replacing it with a token he invented called $FTT

  • Binance - a separate company and centralized exchange invested in FTX early and received some of the FTT tokens as a part of the early investment.

  • Binance sold all of its FTT tokens causing many to sell, and within 72 hours, there were $6 billion in withdrawals from the exchange.

  • Sam tried to get Binance to buy FTX but they said no.

  • FTX files for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy files reveal that they had no cash management or employee record system.

  • FTX announces that Sam is no longer with the company.

What's the takeaway?

Sam showed us that the common phrase "Not your keys, not your coins" is true. FTX reveals the problems of centralized finance and proves the need for DeFi. This unfortunate series of events highlights a strong case for decentralized exchanges because they offer users complete control over their accounts (keys, coins, and all).

NFTs = Fresh Lobster

The freshest use case for NFTs

Today, the average consumer might not know about NFTs, but the utility and potential for traditional brands remains largely untapped. Companies have slowly begun to incorporate NFTs into their marketing, rewards, and community-building strategies, with the latest being the food industry to take a stab at NFT rewards.

Do you like lobster? Well, now you can buy an NFT to get Maine Lobster Shipped to your door.

OneOf and Get Maine Lobster partnered to create an NFT membership pass called Lobster Perks+ that gets buyers shipments of Maine lobster and seafood. The membership has four levels starting with a pass that includes discounts and a top-end pass that includes 100 pounds of live lobster spread across 12 monthly deliveries.

This collaboration is an example of a food industry use case for NFTs. Another example includes the Flyfish Club, a restaurant startup that minted NFT access passes and is planned to launch it's first location in 2023.

What's the takeaway?

Lobster Perks+ and Flyfish Club are great examples of how the restaurant industry can use NFTs to enhance and extend their current offerings. I believe we will see more companies in the consumer space use NFTs to connect with their customers in the future.

Will Meta own the Metaverse? This alliance hopes not

Will we have one metaverse or many? does this include Web3 technology? can I bring my NFTs with me?

These looming questions inspired a group of crypto builders and companies to form the Open Metaverse Alliance (OMA3) to develop standards around the metaverse.

The alliance has many prominent members, including Dapper Labs, Animoca Brands, and the entities behind Decentraland, Alien Worlds, The Sandbox, and Upland.

They are working on a set of rules around

  • Allowing users to move NFTs (avatars, virtual land, items) between multiple metaverse platforms

  • Intellectual property rights across online worlds

What's the takeaway?

The Open Metaverse Alliance is an optimistic push for standards and decentralization in the Metaverse. As the Open Metaverse Alliance grows it will help support a thriving ecosystem of metaverses instead of one Monopoly-verse.

News Rollup 📰

VC Funding 💰

🚨 Yakoa, an NFT fraud detector, raises $4.8M

💳 Zulu, a digital wallet focused on Latin America, raises $5M

🛠 Revv, a company building the next generation of decentralized marketplaces, raises $5.5M

The Reading List 📚

⭐ How companies are using NFTs today - Read how Gucci, Hot Wheels, and Budweiser are using NFTs

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