Explore your curiosity about Web3
3 incredible creators in NFTs, DeFi and DAOs teach us about the new age of the internet and why you should care.
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It’d be hard to deny that people have been talking about Web3 - a lot - over the past two years. Suddenly it gets mentioned at work and on social media, Web3 startups come out with crazy valuations, and some of your friends become a part of this space too. As someone that’s watched this evolve from the sidelines, Web3 feels like a complex, mysterious web of acronyms that would take years to understand. It’s hard to decide whether to jump into it when you’re faced with a whole range of opinions, from those that call it a fad or scam to those that say it will change how we live and work.
So do I trust this or not? The best place to start is to learn and explore our curiosity. There’s no need to be an expert overnight; we can give it a go by knowing what it means and why some people are so passionate about it.
👉 In Curiosity Center’s 3 part series on The High Flyers Podcast (sponsored by Minke), we unpack NFTs, DeFi and DAOs featuring incredible creators in each space.
I didn’t know much (if anything) about these three topics, so here are my key takeaways as an absolute newbie in Web3. Please enjoy!
1️⃣ NFTs
First of all… what is an NFT?
NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are blockchain tokens representing a unique digital item. NFT can represent almost anything like art, graphics, music, videos, images, etc. Anyone can buy or sell NFTs.
String Nguyen saw Chubbiverse, a collection of NFTs she co-founded, as an intersection of her interests: creativity, communication, innovation and entrepreneurship. Their collection of 250 Chubbicorns sold out within two to three days. In episode #1, String reflects on what contributed to Chubbiverse’s success and her tips for beginners in this space.
NFTs are a game of supply and demand. “What is the current market into - is it cute NFTs? Is it music, artwork or anime waifus?” Pick where you sit in the market space and understand it well. String and co-founder Space were set that their Chubbiverse would focus on cute and ‘derpy’ characters, confident that it would resonate with market trends.
There’s a lack of good talent in this space. Do you have experience in managing a Discord community? Many NFT collections build their communities on Discord, so a powerful way to stand out is to understand how to set up an online community, keep people engaged and grow your membership base.
String’s additional tip: Understand the concept of ownership. “If you stuff up in the crypto space, you lose it. You could potentially lose it because you wrote the wrong number or address as well.” You have to take all the responsibility that goes with owning cryptocurrency compared to insured banks that can cover you in the case of bankruptcy, theft, hacking or fraud.
2️⃣ DeFi
First of all… what is DeFi?
DeFi (Decentralised Finance) is the concept of taking traditional financial transactions, e.g. lending, borrowing or exchanging assets, and replacing the middleman (traditionally, a bank) with a smart contract. This smart contract is a program that lives on the blockchain. It’s much more efficient and leads to better consumer outcomes in terms of savings and transparency!
In episode #2, we dived into DeFi with Josh Reyes from Minke, touching on how it works, Minke’s story and the risks and benefits.
DeFi can be an effective way to be more financially active. For example, Minke helps people pick up DeFi saving/investing as easy as using a bank app - you can transfer directly from your bank account into Minke. A platform like Minke would replace the need for a meta mask wallet and buy USDC (more below).
You don’t have to start with Bitcoin. The default in Minke is USDC, a “stablecoin”, i.e. a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to another currency, commodity or financial instrument. USDC is pegged to the Dollar (USD), so it’s less volatile than Bitcoin and offers markets the opportunity to save in the USD rather than their local currency.
You can earn higher interest rates with DeFi wallets. Last year the average was 8%, and in recent times, it’s been around 4-5%. It was surprising to hear how much higher that still is compared to the 0.15% from my bank. But, it’s important to know that there’s inherently more risk with crypto assets, such as the fact that it’s not secured by governments.
Research where you’re really putting your money. Terra and the Anchor protocol promised 20% returns but has since wiped out people’s savings. You can read more about the Anchor Protocol and its risk here. Josh shares that some fintech apps are just taking people’s money and putting it into Anchor but advertise it as a safe way to save. Ensure that your provider gives you transparency on how your yield is generated.
3️⃣ DAOs
First of all… what is a DAO?
Abhi from DAO Under says “it stands for Decentralised Autonomous Organisation. What that means is there’s no single person that’s in control of everything. It’s distributed ownership, distributed control.” You can read more about DAOs here.
In the third episode, we hear from Abhi and Ange, who co-founded DAO Under (alongside four co-founders, in a truly distributed manner). DAO Under is a community for Web3 enthusiasts based in APAC, recognising the problem that so much Web3 activity is centred in the US or Europe.
DAOs are commonly founded around a shared vision or specific goal. “If I was to take Index Coop as an example, their goal is to deliver an index-based product for crypto markets.” Often people join a DAO offering a set of skills that they can contribute to this goal or want to learn about, whether that is design, dev, marketing or something else.
DAOs are incredibly community-driven. For DAO Under, the community is grouped in pods - devs, design, community, marketing, research and art! It’s so important to have a sense of collaboration, and each pod fosters its own project where the ideas are free reign. As long as it’s achievable in three months with your team, they have the green light to do it. Even the outcomes are community-focused. Ange shares that they were building a job board for everyone in the APAC region for one of the quarters.
Incentives are still required to keep progressing toward the mission. Abhi shares that that’s where a DAO’s treasury comes into play. DAO treasuries are fundraised through the community, such as through an NFT or a token launch. “How we think about allocating our treasury is pretty different from many DAOs out there that end up making investments outside the community.” For DAO Under, their pool of funds becomes grants to support community-driven initiatives.
Anyone can join a DAO. Ange recommends the website DAOlicious featuring 160 of them, where every DAO listed has a goal or distinct community for you to find one that resonates. Whether it’s to buy a basketball team, to discuss a specialised interest or to build a product, there are many different types of DAOs for you to explore.
🧩 One last learning is to think long-term in this space. String, Josh, Abhi and Ange all reiterated that it’s easy to get tempted by short-term gains that make news headlines, but many will hurt you in the long term. “Don’t feel like you’re FOMO’ing on a lot of things, and you’re missing opportunities just cause you’re not grabbing every single one.” Ange shares that once you’ve been in Web3 for a while, you’ll reap the rewards of sticking to your principles and doing it right.
🎧 You can listen to these 3 episodes via the links in the captions above.
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