Surviving an economic downturn + All the Web3 news you missed this week
There’s been a lot written about operating in a prolonged economic downturn. I’ve gathered all the articles/videos I’ve read below. The TL;DR is:
We don’t know how long this will last, and it might be real bad
Look to have 24-30+ months of runway
Reduce costs, revise headcount planning
Look for opportunities
Here are the best articles I’ve found:
David Sacks, Craft Ventures - Operating in a downturn (slides)
Sequoia Capital - Adapting to Endure
Paul Veradittakit, Pantera Capital - Surviving Bear Market
Lightspeed Venture Partners - The upside of a downturn
Justin Kahl, David George, A16Z - A framework for navigating down markets
Here’s the Web3 news from the past week
General
My (Coinbase CPO) Permissionless presentation on how Coinbase is building for web3 (Coinbase)
In case you missed it: Surojit Chatterjee, the chief product officer of Coinbase, published his full presentation from the Permissionless conference, in which he lays out how the company is building for Web3.
The Rug Pull Really Tied the Room Together (Dead Cat)
On the Dead Cat podcast, hosts Eric Newcomer and Tom Dotan talked to journalist Jacob Silverman about crypto’s boom and bust cycle, the situation with Luna and TerraUSD, and crypto regulation. (Silverman is currently writing a book with vocal crypto skeptic and “The OC” actor Ben McKenzie.)
NFTs
Seth Green's Bored Ape NFT Was to Star in New Show. Then It Got Stolen (CNet)
Here’s the question: If actor Seth Green had a $200,000 Bored Ape stolen in a phishing scam, and he was developing that Bored Ape into a TV show, can the person now in possession of the stolen ape take legal action against Green if he moves forward with the show? According to Green and certain IP lawyers, no. But Green is still trying to make a deal with the NFT’s current holder to get it back.
How Do You Tax an NFT? (CoinDesk)
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has proposed new rules designed to prevent individuals from evading taxes by holding their crypto assets overseas. But while such rules may be warranted, tax experts aren’t convinced that they have been properly adapted for crypto.
Ryder Ripps, Bored Apes and 'Owning' an NFT (CoinDesk)
Artist and provocateur Ryder Ripps minted 550 tokens featuring Bored Ape characters, stirring up questions about fair use of images in the NFT world. “Ripps is taking Yuga Labs’ copyrightable material and putting it in a new context by appending a different non-fungible blockchain signature to it. The images may be the same, though the meaning is different, he said,” reports CoinDesk.
GameStop now has its own wallet for crypto and NFTs (The Verge)
GameStop has launched a beta version of an Ethereum wallet accessible through web browsers and, at some point in the future, an iPhone app. This comes ahead of the rollout of GameStop’s own NFT marketplace, which will be compatible with its wallet.
Metaverse
Ensuring an Open and Interoperable Metaverse (Meta)
Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta, writes that while “not every element of metaverse experiences needs to be, or will be, compatible with others,” the company intends to build its part of the metaverse with “a significant degree of interoperability.” Clegg also affirmed Meta’s commitment to building the metaverse in a “responsible” way, specifically when it comes to economic opportunity, privacy, safety and integrity, and equity and inclusion.
DeFi
It’s Not Just LUNA. Terra’s DeFi Apps Have Hemorrhaged $28B (CoinDesk)
Following TerraUSD’s fall from its dollar peg, DeFi apps affiliated with the stablecoin have taken a massive hit, dropping in value from $29 billion at the start of May to a mere $155 million last Friday.
DeFi believers never say die, even after they see Terra’s demise (Fortune)
While the meltdown of TerraUSD has some convinced that algorithmic stablecoins are ultimately inviable, believers are holding out hope for a more sustainable option. Justin Sun, who launched the USDD stablecoin, pointed out that the Terra debacle gives other projects the chance to improve their own operations.
Gaming
Play-to-earn gaming sounds too good to be true. It probably is. (Vox)
Though game developers are positioning play-to-earn as a move toward a more equitable relationship with players, the model has been met with strong resistance from said players. “There is a fear that the blockchain influence will deplete good design tenets, creating an environment where video game experiences are increasingly tiered by financial thresholds, creating a negative experience for consumers,” writes Luke Winkie. “So far, publishers haven’t been able to assuage those anxieties.”
Off topic stories I found interesting
On rebooting: the unreasonable effectiveness of turning computers off and on again (Keunwoo.com)
Despite being a “seemingly hacky and arbitrary fix,” rebooting a computer gone haywire is in fact a “deeply principled technique for repairing a stateful system,” writes Keunwoo Lee. Returning to a stable initial state allows you to proceed into other reliable states, rather than trying to improvise your way out of a broken state. (Of course, as Lee explains, it’s a little more complicated than that.)
In case you missed it - this was the most opened article from last week’s news roundup
Why Build in Web3 (Harvard Business Review)
Web3’s focus on interoperability and user-owned assets will create more value for everyone, write Jad Esber and Scott Duke Kominers. Interoperability enables platforms to tap into a wider world of content networks, expanding their scale, while user ownership can create a greater sense of investment in a platform, fostering stronger community ties.
About Me
Hi, I’m Andrew Chang - I created the Web3 Roundup to share what I’m learning in this space. I’ve spent my career at the forefront of the technology industry in areas such as crypto/blockchain (Former COO @ Paxos, co-founding partner of Liberty City Ventures), video and adtech. I learn by meeting with founders, investors and other thought leaders and approach Web3 with the same enthusiasm – and skepticism – I had about crypto/blockchain technologies 10 years ago.
You can connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter (@DigitalDrex)