Welcome to GM, BFF, a newsletter hitting your inbox every week with key insights from web3, crypto, our community and beyond. Have ideas of what you want to see next week? Let me know by replying to this email.
When Facebook officially changed its name to Meta in 2021, the message was clear: Mark Zuckerberg and team believe the metaverse is the next frontier of social media, connection and much more. Fast forward nearly a year and everyone is still closely watching to see when Meta’s new name will truly be reflected in its roadmap. Last week, the social media giant implemented its new metaverse ID system, making it easier for users to enter the metaverse. The update also addresses privacy concerns by giving users the ability to select who can see their activity. For the uninitiated, the metaverse is the technology companies are referring to when they speak about virtual reality and augmented reality that translates into a combination of physical and digital worlds. Recently, we caught up with Fatima Jafri, Meta’s Associate General Counsel and a Founding BFF on the company’s transformation and, as a result, her role within it. Here are some excerpts from our conversation:
On what piqued her Web3 interest
I create products at Meta to encourage the people on our platform to make sure we are building really equitably and we are building with diversity, equity and inclusion. Underserved communities, women and communities of color have really leaned into the ability to monetize and market their image through Instagram or TikTok. In 2019, I saw that evolution happen and the opportunity to create a universe or a tech platform where this is not just encouraged, but this is the status quo. That is the metaverse. You can go there and purchase an NFT, a piece of art or a piece of content and that can become someone's mainstream income.
On Web2 leaders building the metaverse
The two main benefits of having Web2 titans build Web3 is one, very tactically, the massive user base and resources. It’s also taking the learnings that we learned firsthand from building out these products and policies and really applying our learnings in the creation and adoption of Web3. I see that every day with my work at Meta. Taking our learnings around algorithmic bias, for example: How are we making our products more equitable? Taking our learnings from IP ownership or centralization: How are we making a space where creators and people can show up as their most authentic self, in a decentralized and privacy-first way? We’ve taken our learnings around the community in the early days of the Internet.
On the legal implications of Web3
I don't even think the law has caught up to Web2, let alone Web3. At Meta, in many ways around content regulations and around community standards, we're building the plane as we fly it. So if the law hasn't caught up to Web2, my hope and trust is flailing a bit when it comes to Web3. How do we mitigate that? I cannot make promises of the law moving quickly. I have seen a much more positive engagement where there is understanding and I'm hopeful that that will continue to happen in Web3. The reality is, that the tech is not going to stop. The onus is on the law and regulators being able to keep up. And the onus is on the tech community to educate and engage.
On Web3’s diversity potential
Crypto early on was a self-perpetuating cycle where if you don't have people who look like you sitting at the table, you're less likely to feel comfortable in that space. I'm still very hopeful for this Web3 world. We have thousands and thousands of groups and pages on Facebook where women, communities of color and non-binary individuals are interested in learning more. One of the largest Facebook groups is a community of color interested in crypto. There's definitely this really exciting vibe that I think a lot of us saw in the early days of the Internet of co-creating, co-designing and education. I speak on a lot of these panels and we’ll have a lot of the men being introduced as “experts in Web3. How can you be an expert in a space that's still being built? It's so iterative and is changing every day. Web3 can seem like this behemoth and this sort of unattainable space. But the more people and the more diversity of experiences and perspectives we have, the better it's going to be for everyone.
90 million+ stores. Mastercard is working with Binance to enable crypto purchases in millions of stores across the world. The partnership will start in Argentina.
Crypto moves in AUS. Australian regulators hope to unveil a first-of-its-kind regulator framework for cryptocurrency that focuses on “token mapping.” This will allow officials to better understand crypto trends in the country as a means to figure out how to regulate markets and related services.
A 400ETH penguin. Bear market, who? The rarest Pudgy Penguins NFT has sold for around $650,000, the highest sale for the collection.
Rough rug pull. A rug pull is a type of crypto scam when fraudulent developers create a new crypto token, pump up the price and then disappear with the funds, rendering the asset valueless. NFT exchange SudoRare went offline last week, only six hours after it launched, after a rug pull drained more than $800,000 from the platform’s wallet address.
Female gamers in Web3. 48% of gamers in the United States identify as female, according to some reports, yet the world of Web3 games is still largely marketed towards men. Mobile games studios focused on experiences that center on community, fashion and more are trying to change that.
A $80 million DAO. A group of alumni from early-stage startup accelerator Y Combinator just raised $80 million to invest in crypto startups via a DAO. Orange DAO’s goal is to finance more entrepreneurs with big ideas for Web3.
Last week, Coinbase dropped a new token — cbETH — giving users liquidity and letting them earn rewards while their ETH is staked and locked. Before that announcement, we caught up with two experts from Coinbase Wallet to walk through crypto security 101 and best practices for keeping your assets safe.
Calling all creators. BFF is looking for writers who are passionate about Web3 education to join the BFF Contributor Network! With knowledge, insights, interviews and breakdowns, BFF Contributors give the community the tools they need to reach whatever opportunities they are striving for within Web3. Interested in learning more? Fill out this form here.
As Ethereum's transition to a proof-of-stake model becomes all but certain for mid-September, Vayner3 President Avery Akkineni has you covered with this handy guide to the merge.
Variant Founder Li Jin spotted an interesting by-product of Web3: the blurring of creator and fan. “The end result is an expansion of what creativity on the internet can look like, with greater access, financial upside, collaboration, and fulfillment.” Read her full analysis here.
Mad Realities Founder Devin Lewtan spoke with TechCrunch about why reality television may be the next big crypto onboarding platform. “We think the thing that’s going to bring the next 100 million people into crypto is going to be content, because it’s intuitive. It’s a real consumer use case.”
Started from the bottom now we… Community member Nat shared this in our Discord recently: “Just wanted to say that I got my first role in Web3 and it’s all thanks to this community that inaugurated me into the space. Started with 0 knowledge about Web3 and crypto not so long ago and now I’m the new marketing lead for WoW Pixie DAO! Thanks so much to the awesome BFF team for helping me kick start my journey.” Join Nat and the rest of our community in Discord here.
Thanks for reading! We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to let us know what you think of this newsletter and what you’d like to see from it in the future by replying directly.
This newsletter and all the information in it does not constitute financial advice. If you don’t want to invest money or time in Web3, you don’t have to. As always: Do your own research.
