What The Block #00 - gm Crypto

The genesis issue

David Klingbeil

Apr 4, 2022

Welcome to What The Block, a newsletter packed with insights & intelligence about the Web3, Blockchain, NFTs and the Metaverse—written by me, David Klingbeil

Issue #00 - Hello World

gm everybody,

Welcome to this first issue of What The Block.

A few years ago, a lot of very intelligent people were speaking about cryptocurrencies, blockchains and all this other crypto stuff. I was interested and reading the odd article here and there. The more I read, the more questions I had.

During that time and after thinking about it for a long time, I began to understand how exciting this all is! I'm still reading on it every day as Web3 is a very complicated field that is quite new for many people. Yet, it is becoming more and more important to understand it as it's transforming our lives (in various ways).

It is easy to get lost in the sea of information just trying to understand the basics, but there you also lack a map or a compass when trying to deeply understand how things work together.

We do not listen to expert views, we may even skip the official guides and tutorials, but if we are imagining the future of Web3 platforms and our lives and businesses, our success depends on having a proper understanding of the different facets that compose it.

Through this newsletter, I hope to make the world of Web3 more accessible and entertaining by curating news and insights that will make you think... What the Block ?!

LFG*

David Klingbeil

PS: feel free to hit reply to leave a comment, I read and answer every message

*Let’s F*cking go, a popular way to cheer in Web3 ;)

This week’s must read

420,000 Norwegians (10% of the adult population) own cryptocurrencies
Bored Apes NFT startup Yuga Labs raises seed round at monster $4B valuation
EU lawmakers set to tighten up on crypto transfers
Visa Launches Program for NFT-focused Entrepreneurs
The 70 brands that participated in Decentraland’s Metaverse Fashion Week

Documenting Bitcoin 📄 @DocumentingBTC

The 19,000,000th #bitcoin has been just been mined.

$600M were stolen from Ronin Network and nobody noticed for six days.
MetaMask rolls out Apple Pay integration and other iOS updates
Paris Saint-Germain Soccer Club Files Trademark Application to Get Into the Metaverse and NFTs
Bored Ape Yacht Club’s newest merch drop can only be bought with ApeCoin
Twitter Launches Verified NFT Profile Pictures
Bvlgari engraves one of its luxury watches with a QR code linking to its own NFT

Food for thought

NFT Profile Pictures: Trend Shows we Want an Ownership Economy

NFT profile pictures (PFP) - a movement started with the CryptoPunks in 2017 - are becoming a social currency that interests many investors
Similar to how a wealthy person shows off their status via luxury goods, an NFT owner shows off their digital assets through profile pictures on social media.
Web2 introduced us to proliferation and participation on the internet. Web3, however, has the potential to redistribute the control, ownership and rewards to creators and communities.

Is Web3 a Worse Web2?

The Web3 will be “wallet-aware”. Based on the NFTs and other items in your wallet, Bilyeu says that he is able to know something about the individual.
Web3’s biggest flaw today is its “skeumorphism” ie its desire to make the internet look like the real world. It creates poor interfaces that the user might need years to get familiar with
But Web3 can bring something entirely new, and as we break out of our skeuomorphic attempts at gaming, then it becomes…these wallet-aware, highly-interactive, customized, game-like experiences