Weekly Wrap-up Ed.01
A shortlist of my week.
First off, I realise I’ve been off for a few days/weeks and that’s due to nothing more than distraction and a bit of confoundment. I’ve recently finished my job and I’m now free of all direct responsibility to an employer, but this also means I need to make sure I get some revenue-generating project off the ground soon before I deplete all my savings (which aren’t much). It’s been bittersweet, exciting and stressful, freeing and also confusing to go through this experience. Now, I write to you from Miami after spending a full week enjoying and reseting. My week off ends with more clarity than before, but still with many things to clear up. That said, one thing I am sure of is that I must continue writing, so here I am back again with a fresh new idea.
So, let’s get to it!
I realised that it was about time a stir things up and to do so, I’ve decided to share a new Saturday-only edition called “Weekly Wrap-Ups”. Every Saturday I’ll be posting a short recap on my main takeaways from my week of learnings.
In this weekly series, you’ll get my take and the links to interesting articles, videos, newsletters, posts, podcasts, and other media that I’ve consumed throughout the week. It’ll be succinct and curated, sometimes to a theme and others more dispersed depending on what pulled my attention throughout the week. It’s a look at how my mind works and what I’m currently attracted to in tech, business, culture, and other miscellaneous matters.
Let’s take it away!
Welcome to my brain in a nutshell this week!
It’s Saturday, February 6th and here’s what I’ve been reading, listening, watching, and consuming throughout week 5 of 2021!
Article
Brand New Protocol, DIGITALAX, Brings NFT Adoption Into the Real World
DIGITALAX has been top of my list this week. With cryptocurrencies and blockchain permeating our everyday lives more and more, the creators and crypto aficionados of this world are rethinking everything. Nothing will be as it was before and DIGITALAX is an example of the new economy. In short, DIGITALAX is creating Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) around digital fashion garment components for people to invest in on the Ethereum protocol. The NFT itself is the digital fashion wearable and these house three types of tokens which power the platform — ERC-721, ERC-1155 and ERC-20 (ERC stands for Ethereum Request for Comment or tokens of Ethereum). These tokens can be used to participate in auctions, vote on governance matters, and receive revenue from the marketplace platform. Get it? No worries, I didn’t either the first time I read it, but the real takeaway is in realising that through NFTs and ERCs one can basically create digital assets that would behave in similar ways as physical assets like art, real estate, and so on.
Newsletter
Fundrise and the Magic of Diversification
Fundrise is here to democratise real estate investing. What was previously only for those with sufficient cash at hand is now made public. Packy McCormick breaks down Fundrise and a few other platforms that have been disrupting industries that were commonly accessible only to a small percentage of people with the cashflow, connections, or knowledge. What really tickled my brain was: why aren’t more people creating these companies or structures in other markets? Sure, regulations are the first reason that pops to mind, but are you 100% sure the regulations are actually impeding you or anyone on building something similar elsewhere? I won’t say more.
Podcast
Patreon: Jack Conte and Sam Yam
Guy Raz interviews Jack Conte and Sam Yam, the founders of Patreon. If you don’t know Patreon yet, it is a platform where creators of all kinds can register to offer monthly subscriptions to their existing clients and anyone signed up on Patreon as a way to get funding for maintaining their creative business running. The need arose from how YouTube, Spotify, and so many other platforms are paying out the creators of their content and how uninterested they really are for these creators. While Patreon has received many critiques in recent years, their platform has changed the game for many creators and to hear their story and experience with the creation of this platform was really fun.
Video
Founder & CEO David Baszucki Keynote | RDC 2020 (Video)
His keynote during Roblox Developers Conference (RDC) 2020 was a real treat to watch and listen to. Roblox and its infrastructure has intrigued me and caught my attention for the past few weeks and watching Baszucki’s keynote only made me more interested in the company and it’s product. It’s a platform for people to create their own games and play others or their own games on the platform. Their valuation exploded in 2020 to $29.9B after raising a series H of $520M. As David puts it, Roblox wants to create a digital world where people can dwell, interact, share experiences, and to an extent, build parallel lives. It’s a feat we’ve only seen presented in films, but it’s on its way to become a reality.
Cool Stuff
MSCHF’s latest drop: In The Year 2024
Gabriel Whaley does it again! His new victim: Politics. The MSCHF team has created a drop where you can “buy shares” on the presidential domains from a list of potential presidential candidates. The list goes from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to Kanye to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to The Zuck. It’s a wild guess, but a domain worth a few bucks can exponentially increase in value from the moment a rumour (even a fake one) would catch some traction. That’s where you could’ve made your money… if you would’ve invested in time. Gabriel, thanks for showing us how little creativity we have. :)
Invest in digital assets with crypto. Digital creators are getting a foothold in a new economy. The current economy and the assets valued for centuries are now facing what, unbeknownst to them, could become their demise or greatest detractor. I love this kind of thing.
Music
To start off, this is my most listened to playlist of the week on Spotify.
That’s that. A short and sweet recap of a few things that stuck with me this week. If you’re happy and you liked it, clap for me! (I know you sang it)
And with that, I bid you adieu.
Ciao, my friends.
FM
