No hot takes this week :). I think the contents of the newsletter will do the talking.
I would like to share a few quick thoughts from my readings and the Twitter Spaces conversation last week.
A lot of Web3 gaming is hot air with poor economic design. There will be an implosion and it won’t be pretty. If you’re jumping in on trends and hype, beware. The only way to reduce the risk of losing your money is to get wiser about how Web3 games work. Our newsletter and blog content is an attempt at help you do just that.
On Thursday’s Twitter Spaces, we touched upon Digital Real Estate in the metaverse. It was one hell of a conversation with interesting insights and many takeaways.
The metaverse isn’t a final destination. It has been there since the beginning of the internet. The metaverse is a digital recreation of the offline experience. Everything from chat rooms, social networks, community platforms, video calls, social games etc are components of the metaverse. All that is happening is the gradual transition into more immersive worlds that soon allow for us to experience beyond just sight and hearing, perhaps allowing us to experience touch, taste, and smell. Would we then be able to tell the difference between the real and the virtual?
I leave you to ponder on the implications of a virtual world on humans, especially the next generation that will grow up with these worlds ubiquitous like smartphones and the internet were for GenZ.
Happening At Tegro HQ
Tegro Website Facelift
Our design team gave the Tegro website an overhaul. What do you think?
This week, we had a conversation with Joel John - Venture Investments Lead at LedgerPrime - who writes Decentralised on Substack. Also on the Twitter Spaces was Sandesh Suvarna, Cofounder of Bandit and a VP at WazirX.
The topic of conversation → Across the Metaverse: Digital Real Estate
Siddharth | WazirX / Tegro is hiring @BuddhaSourceJoin our Twitter Space later today to get your #metaverse curiosity satiated https://t.co/YtjRxR9Sds
Over the weekend I watched a video claiming BAYC had multiple elements of racist and Nazi dog whistles. A fair amount of research has gone into this, spearheaded by artist Ryder Ripps who created GordonGoner.com to document his findings. Philion, an investigative YouTuber, has built on it further and created this hour-long documentary.
In response, Yuga Labs the creators of BAYC, have brought a lawsuit against Ryder accusing him of ‘scamming consumers’ with fake bored apes.
Yuga Labs @yugalabs(1/2) The outpouring of support from our community today has been overwhelming. We will continue to be transparent with our community as we fight these slanderous claims. In order to put a stop to the continuous infringement, and other illegal attempts to bring harm to...
Journalist, Dan K, has down a teardown of the video refuting each of the claims.
Dan K @The_True_DanKAs a journalist who has covered this space since before Bored Ape Yacht Club existed, I have a few thoughts on #BURNBAYC. At best, it's ignorant, bad clickbait “journalism.” At worst, it's total bad faith grift for YouTube numbers. Here's why 🧵 (1/22)
Whether there is any merit to the research by Ryder Ripps and Philion is up for debate. All we can say is that there is no place for racists, fascists, Nazi sympathizers in this world.
Unrelated to the above controversy but related to the NFT space and BAYC in particular is a piece by Daniel Roberts, Editor-in-Chief Decrypt.
Dark Forest: A Truly Blockchain Game
Since time immemorial (aka 2017), critics of blockchain in general and gaming in specific have pointed out that blockchain/Web3 games are ponzi in nature and don’t truly use the blockchain in its entirety.
Dark Forest, a project by a bunch of MIT folks, has done something no other game has managed to do in the past.
The big idea is "zk snarks", which are a way to cryptographically demonstrate you made a valid move, without revealing it.
Tt's what enables you to make a non-total-information game run fully on chain. That's important, it was an unsolved problem before zk-snarks.
Lars "Totally Texas" Doucet @larsiusprimeOkay, the day has finally come. I am forced to grudgingly admit that I have found a blockchain game that legitimately does something with Blockchain that is genuinely new, innovative, and that you can't do with a centralized service. That game is Dark Forest.
Diving into Diablo Immortal’s Launch, Meta VR and Gaming Play
In this Metacast episode, Joost van Dreunen, and Aaron Bush, join your host Maria Gillies to discuss Diablo Immortal Game Launch Results and if the pay-to-win uproar affected the game’s launch results. The team also discussed the launch of Offroad Unchained and why Meta doubled down on VR and Gaming.
That’s it for this week. If you reached this far, you deserve an award. And perhaps we’ll start one from next week :). Brb, brainstorming this with the team.
If you like this newsletter and would love to kickstart a conversation, do drop a comment.
