Meta-Links: What I'm Reading, Listening to, and Watching (1 Apr 22)
Feed your 🧠 with these smart takes on the metaverse
Hi,
Happy Friday! Watch out for April Fool’s pranks, right?
We dropped TWO great episodes of the pod this week. Seriously, they’re both really good. Why not listen as you ease into the weekend? Links at the end of this note.
Time for some meta-links to make your weekend sing. Here are some of the things I’ve been reading lately:
One-time teen idol Ben McKenzie — aka Ryan from The OC — is finding his way as an anti-fraud crypto critic. This NYT profile detailing his journey is just great, and he’s a good Twitter follow, to boot.
Speaking of fraud and crypto and, well, people doing bad things …
You just made off with half a billion dollars in stolen crypto! Now what?
Turns out cashing in on a crypto heist might not be so easy, after all? Blockworks has a short-but-info-dense report on the $625 million Ronin heist, and what comes next for whoever made off with all that coin:
In most cases, the best they could hope for would be to evade capture as the funds sit frozen in a blacklisted private wallet.
Maybe crime doesn’t pay? On the other hand, where there’s DeFi, there’s a way, right?
Where’s the beef? In the metaverse, starting tomorrow, April 2. Yup: Wendy’s is set to launch “Phase 1 of the Wendyverse” in Meta’s Horizon Worlds. You can find all the details in this NRN article, but here’s my favorite detail on what awaits lovers of VR fast food:
Wendyverse Partnership Plaza where players can visit The Buck BiscuitDome to shoot hoops with a virtual Baconator and cut the net following a winning shot.
I have no idea what that means, but there’s a lot of corporate synergy (and virtual meat!) to be had, clearly.
Another day, another million-plus dropped on an NFT:
The NFT in question is Azuki #9605 and is considered the second-rarest member of the Azuki NFT collection. According to OpenSea, the piece was bought by user “jdizzles” and the seller, “trevault,” is a member of RedBeanDAO and frequently purchases Azuki NFTs. The collection was first launched this January by a Los Angeles-based startup called Chiru Labs. It features 10,000 unique anime avatars that give owners access to The Garden, described as “a corner of the internet where art, community and culture fuse to create magic.” Azuki quickly became one of the most sought-after NFT collections on the metaverse and recently surpassed the $500 million USD sales volume on OpenSea, becoming one of the first anime-themed projects to go mainstream.
Ok, so about those two new pods:
Episode 4 is more or less everything you need to get started thinking about marketing, brand building and community in web3. Or, think of it as a deep dive into how young people use the Internet. Either way works! Bonus, Pip pronounces “Adidas” in the absolute most proper way:
Episode 5 gets heady quick, but in the most accessible way. That’s bc Alan Cowen is both super-smart and very relatable. Alexa and Siri are mere teasers for what the metaverse hopes to become. Listen to find out why:
Thanks for reading (and listening)! Tell a friend, subscribe if you haven’t, and have a fantastic weekend, whatever ‘verse you spend it in.