gm ⋆·˚ ༘ ⋆·˚ ༘
Lots of updates this week. I didn't make it to ETHDenver but my bestie Ben Roy did so I asked him for the tea, which he provided in the section below. And as always, I'm chronically, terminally, and sickeningly online, keeping up to date with consumer crypto so you don't have to.
subscribe collect enjoy.
xx c
"ETHDenver was this past week and it felt like college on steroids: huge energy, everyone in hotels close to each other, general sense of optimism across every meet up and party, and lots of social awkwardness. Denver is special because it’s the one conference each year that gathers all the different niches of crypto into one place, from ETH core dev and NFT communities to consumer folks, Bitcoin L2s, Eigenlayer enjoyooors and more.
In terms of consumer, IYK chips were everywhere on conference merch. People are starting to use to Icebreaker to tap and connect instead of the awkward Telegram QR code hustle networking thing that people often do. Three standout themes across the conference were Bitcoin, Farcaster, and the alt L1/L2 wars. Orange hoodies were all over the place. Ordinals ripping upward over the course of the week made it a hot topic. ETH people are starting to accept Bitcoin is cool again and will be an environment for dev activity and mindshare going forward.
On the Farcaster side there were multiple meetups and people were hyped. Frames are going to usher in a golden age in global economic growth basically. It’s always fun to see the OMG look in people’s eyes when they meet irl for the first time after following each other on the internet.
Another consistent convo was how much cool infra there is now vs. how few real apps and communities exist. Arbitrum orbit chains. Solana & Monad. Blast, Base, Berachain. All of these + more are going to be fighting to work with a short list of consumer teams.
All in all, the week was electric. Even DeFi is back. The post-FTX PTSD sense of relief that the industry might make it after all should be bottled up and sold during the next bear."
Internet Explorers is a weekly rundown live stream where extremely online individuals broadly explore (romanticize, even) new consumer internet experiences.
Live & online Fridays at 10am PT / 1pm ET.
Perl prediction markets
Last week on Internet Explorers, we were joined by Alex from Perl, a Farcaster prediction market focusing on daily social metrics. Perl represents a new wave of prediction market experimentation, aiming for consumer-friendly, vertical-specific, and social experiences rather than traditional prediction markets. Alex showcased how Perl leverages Farcaster for product distribution and recently launched a web app complementing their in-feed predictions, making it an efficient and engaging platform for daily participation. Worth a watch.
It's all unbundling into the $enjoy economy
If you’re here you probably already know, but we’re launching a memecoin. Her name is $enjoy, and she's the first memecoin native to Zora Network. It's a culmination of long-standing discussions now materialized following the passing of a Uniswap proposal. Inspired by memecoins' capacity to foster community, convey beliefs, and drive collective action, we see $enjoy as a multifaceted tool within Zora's already vibrant ecosystem, aimed at rewarding existing contributors and attracting new participants. $Bonk had a monumental impact on the resurgence of Solana, $Degen attracted a tidal wave of new users to Farcaster, and we hope this can have a similar impact to Zora Network. We announced it and launched the socials (warpcast, /enjoy, twitter) a few days ago, and it’s been a vibe to see the immediate energy around it and the onslaught of memes that have been flowing. Detailed plans for tokenomics, airdrops, and liquidity provision are set to be unveiled alongside the opening of the first airdrop claiming phase this week.
Decentralized social is addicted to shipping rn
This week brought exciting developments in decentralized social: Farcaster introduced transactions to Frames and Solana address verifications, while Lens transitioned to permissionless access, broadening its user base. The addition of transactions to Frames will revolutionize user interactions, enabling various activities directly within the feed, from trading memecoins to participating in DeFi protocols. While Lens aims to expand its user base, its true challenge lies in becoming the central social context for niche audiences, a goal crucial for its competitiveness against Farcaster. Dan's discussion on Moment of Zen shed light on the delicate balance between protocol and product development within Farcaster, emphasizing the importance of a growing feature set and distribution for its long-term success as the underlying social graph of the internet.
Blast: A masterclass in L2 GTM
Blast's early morning launch sparked a frenzy, showcasing a masterclass in bringing an L2 ecosystem to market. With a focus on liquidity and distribution, they garnered over $2B in liquidity and attracted thousands of builders through initiatives like the Big Bang competition, which distributed half of the airdrop to early projects. Their support for ecosystem projects, including gamified incentives for users, underscores their commitment to dominating attention within distinct audiences, setting a high bar for success in the competitive L2 landscape.
Attention is bandwidth. It's liquidity. It's money.
Deleuzian Economics: Tokens are units of attention and how they shift and flow across the internet is how we measure the validity of our beliefs. Our gain or loss on a token represents the progress of a belief towards becoming a reality.
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Chris F's recent tweet (below) highlights the stark differences in economic dynamics within the token ecosystem, emphasizing the need for a reevaluation of traditional market cap comparisons. While conventional market caps rely on expected future cash flows and real-world constraints, token market caps are driven by attention and belief, evolving rapidly with the flow of information. Tokens are units of attention. Attention is the root of value in a network. In Deluezian economics, attention is money.
We're hosting FarCon’s Welcome Party on a rooftop in Venice Beach on May 1st!!! A curated, multi-day experience, FarCon is designed to convene, connect, and celebrate the driving forces behind Farcaster's ecosystem. Get your pass.
Boys Club is getting ready for /brandnew, a summit on consumer crypto and digital culture. They’re gathering the brightest tech optimists to cast a vision of what’s possible for the new internet. We’ll be partnering with the boys for the event -- Join us on March 12!
a mint builds your public interest graph that you're proud to share with your friends.
$wif
TestFlight Club is the best place on the internet to get high quality feedback from over 100 highly curated early adopters. Avoid the Airdrop hunters and get your pre-launch product in front of real humans who give real, valuable feedback. Submit your product here.
The core focus is to support founders with high-quality early usage, feedback, and insights. We’ve shared early looks at … Drakula, Quests, Crypto The Game, Seam, Revel, CoLinks, Sperm Game, newcoin, t2, Sona Stream, Daylight, Focus Tree, Receipts.xyz, DrawTheChart, Lore, Yup, Gallery, Revise, and more!
Want to join the Club? We're slowly opening the doors to new members.
