Metaverse is lonely ⏰
Meet India’s own digital rupee 👉
GM ✨
This looks like a good morning to run you through the hottest updates in Web3 last week, with some opportunities and resources sprinkled on the side.
Without further ado, let’s see what we have for you in this issue. 🔥
Meet India’s own digital rupee
Metaverse is lonely
Web3 funding, jobs & bonus reads
Estimated reading time: 3:57 mins
Weekly Wrap: Numbers & News 🗞
Quick web3 updates curated for you:
Kim Kardashian was fined $1.2 million by the SEC for promoting a cryptocurrency token called EthereumMax.
The Japanese government will be promoting Web3 services, including those dealing with NFTs and the Metaverse.
Polygon partners with a nonprofit organization to advance ocean literacy.
Near Protocol is partnering with Google Cloud to support Web3 developers.
Kazakhstan has granted Binance a permanent license to offer digital asset services.
OpenSea is working to implement a feature that allows users to list and purchase NFTs in bulk
Meet e₹: A Digital Rupee from RBI set for a pilot launch soon
In order to raise awareness around its CBDC project, The Reserve Bank of India has outlined its features in a 51-page note published on Oct. 7.
But first, what is a CBDC?
Central Bank Digital Currency is a digital form of currency notes issued by a central bank.
The RBI is exploring the possibility of launching its own digital currency or digital rupee (e₹) through various stages of pilots, followed by the final launch. It is simultaneously examining use cases for the issuance of e₹, with minimal disruption to the financial system.
Two models are being examined for the issuance and management of CBDCs:
Direct: The RBI will be responsible for managing all the aspects of the CBDC system like issuance, account-keeping, and transaction verification.
Indirect: The central bank will issue the CBDC to consumers indirectly through intermediaries, and any claim by consumers is managed by the intermediary.
Two forms of CDBCs are being discussed:
Token-based: A token-based CBDC will be like banknotes, meaning whoever holds the tokens at a given point can be presumed as the owner.
Account-based: A system based on accounts that require keeping track of balances and transactions of all holders of CBDCs, and who owns monetary balances.
A digital rupee is being talked about as having the same benefits as public cryptocurrencies while “ensuring consumer protection” by avoiding “damaging social and economic consequences.”
Read more about it in this easy-to-follow thread:
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Aave serves as the foundation of most of DeFi and is one of the most reliable protocols in the ecosystem. Many institutional and retail users can now use DeFi thanks to Aave.
Learn more about the Aave ecosystem 👉HERE👈
Dive deeper into Web3 basics with The Product House 🚀
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Metaverse is lonely
Facebook rebranded to Meta.
Celebrities bought land in Decentraland with skyrocketing prices.
And The Sandbox was everything people talked about for months.
So, what’s up with metaverse right now, you ask? *crickets*
With over $1 billion valuations, these names are not enough to bring users to the new reality. We know how Zukerberg’s metaverse turned out. But even Decentraland has 38 active users (largest: 675), and The Sandbox has 522 (largest: 4,503).
An active user of the metaverse is someone who purchases their ecosystem-specific tokens, not someone who attends an event, like the virtual fashion week.
Sam Hamilton, Creative Director at Decentraland mentions that while they report 8,000 users on average per day. He noted that while they saw peak attendees in March, the number of “tourists and spectators” has since cooled down.
Although the metaverse may be enough of a buzzword, its mass adoption will likely still take a while. Here are two observations:
Axie Infinity has a $1.16 billion market cap, and nearly 22,000 daily users, as reported on DappRadar. This suggests that open-ended metaverses that don't provide incentives to stay, such as gaming or trading, may not see regular returning users at this point.
Metaverse platforms will be much more valuable to users when they actually operate as intended.
In the words of Sasha Fleyshman, portfolio manager at digital asset investment firm Arca,
“In my opinion, we're leaning towards a lack of product-market fit on that side … irrespective of their valuation.”
What do you think, is there a metaverse you have hopes for?
Work in Web3
QA SDET 🛠 DaoLens
Social Media Manager 📲 RoverX
Full Stack Developer 👩💻 Tribe DAO
Looking for more opportunities in Web3? Hop in 👇
Funding Round-Up
Lasso Lab, a startup that makes it easy to discover and create utility for digital assets like NFTs, raises $4.2M in Initial funding.
Horizon raises $40M in Series A round led by Brevan Howard Digital and Morgan Creek Digita to make the decentralized web accessible and fun for everyone.
Thirdwave, a blockchain discovery engine aiming to provide business data and other insights so gaming teams can find, understand and retain customers, has raised $7 million in funding
Grab a good read and chuckle if you made it here ☕️
Reasons behind the rising success of NFT Marketplace Magic Eden
The decentralized mobility marketplace that might make everyone richer (based on collaboration)
we’ll get some popcorn…🍿
That’s a wrap for This Week in Web3, see you next week! 🚀
If you’re an early-stage web3 builder going from 0 to 1, holler at our creative-capital studio Spacekayak and let’s create something extraordinary through design! ✨