🧘‍♂️ALERT: Next Explosive Trend

Market Meditations | April 19, 2022

Dear Meditators

Decentralised social media, like most decentralised concepts, was born from the failures of its centralised predecessors. It has begun to gain attention after the self-proclaimed Overlord of the Doge army publicly denounced Twitter in a series of tweets (how ironic).

Today’s Meditations:

Musk and Decentralised Social Media
Fashion NFTs Strike Back
Overview of P2E Gaming

⏰ Top Headlines

? A Bird, A Doge and The World’s Richest Man Walk Into A Bar…

Musk stated that “failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy” before tweeting “is a new platform needed?”. This would start a series of events in which the world’s richest man takes on centralised media in a fight for free speech and democracy.

On April 4th 2022, Musk announced that he had purchased a 9.1% stake in Twitter for a reported $2.89 billion.
In response to the announcement, Twitter’s share price soared over 25% in pre-market trading (wait not all markets are open 24/7?).
Despite being the largest shareholder by at least 4 times, owning such a small amount was not enough to make a significant change. On April 14th 2022, Musk simply tweeted “I made an offer” and shared a link to an SEC filling.
The Twitter Board enacted a ‘poison pill’ plan to scramble Musk’s ambitions. This is a popular tactic that gives existing shareholders the right to purchase additional shares at a discount, effectively diluting the ownership interest of a new, hostile party (Musk in this case).

The offer was to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, valuing Twitter at over $40 billion, a 54% premium over the day before he began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before his investment was public knowledge.

The letter states how Musk views Twitter as “the platform for free speech around the globe” but how “Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company” to unlock its “extraordinary potential”.

? Centralised VS Decentralised Social Media:

Decentralised social media platforms are designed in the same way as traditional social media platforms where users can post, share, collaborate and comment on content. Here is a quick comparison:

⛵ Odysee: The Decentralised Video Sharing Platform

Odysee is a video sharing platform that runs on the open-source, decentralised LBRY blockchain. Being built on the LBRY network gives Odysee some advantages over centralised video sharing platforms like Youtube.

LBRY was created to share any file type in a decentralised manner. When content is posted computers (or nodes) around the world work to share the content to keep it online. Since it is decentralised, in theory, no one should be able to take down your content.

Content is more resilient to censorship (although there are still guidelines to remove not safe for work content), greater transparency on how its features work and the ability to reward both content creators and fans.

? From London to Decentraland Fashion Week

Luxury fashion brands are making an effort to incorporate blockchain technology and NFTs into their brands in an attempt to attract Gen Z consumers who have an estimated spending power of $143 billion.

Louis Vuitton is the latest fashion brand to make headlines with plans to introduce profile picture (PFP) inspired NFT rewards within its mobile game Louis: The Game.

The game was first introduced in August 2021, where players control a Louis Vuttion inspired avatar named Vivienne.
The player runs around the world collecting postcards, in the form of NFTs, that teach them about the brand’s 200-year history.
Players who collect a certain number of postcard NFTs within the game will have a chance to qualify for an NFT raffle.
The raffle will run until Aug. 8, and players have a chance to win one of the ten new Vivienne profile picture NFTs that will be portable across multiple platforms.

Incorporating NFTs into mainstream luxury fashion is certainly an interesting concept with potential but the current hype may be exceeding the current interest. A recent study revealed that only half of the 7,100 teens surveyed in the US are interested in the Metaverse. In addition, 26% own a VR headset needed to access the Metaverse making the true serviceable market a lot smaller than it seems.

? Making Moves

When Axie Infinity blew up last summer it was seen as a statement that Play-to-Earn gaming had arrived and was here for good. Since then, the sustainability of games like Axie has been challenged and the blockchain was hacked – time for another category to take a slice of the gaming market?

One of the key criteria of a sustainable Play-to-Earn game is that it doesn’t just rely on new users to perpetually fund it – that can quickly lead to accusations of being a Ponzi scheme.
Move-to-Earn (M2E) games are aiming to address this by making their products worthwhile playing on a standalone basis, where earning is secondary to the primary benefits of staying fit.
Genopets is a hyped M2E game currently in demo mode, which uses NFT spirit animals that evolve through your daily activity. Users will be able to earn the in-game currency $KI and stake the governance token $GENE.
STEPN, another Solana-based game, is currently attracting the most users per month. Players purchase NFT sneakers and have their movement tracked by their phone’s GPS to earn in-game $GST.
Dustland Runner is similar, but where players can earn $DOSE on the Tezos network by completing workout missions.

Given the early-stage of Genopets and the high floor price for STEPN, it’s too early to say whether these early Move-to-Earn products have cracked the sustainability nut, or whether this is just a repeat hype train that will lose its lustre. While we wait to find out, get out of the house for a run!

Twitter

BREAKING: Australia will launch #Bitcoin ETF Next Week – Market Meditations
Nasdaq Exec: Getting a #Bitcoin and crypto spot ETF approved in US is a high priority for us – Blockworks

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??‍♂️✍️ Stories in this newsletter were written by Isambard FA, Kai.A, Nick T., Max P., Kimia K., Ellen B. and Koroush AK. Graphics were produced by Ellen B.

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