Hope & BUIDLing amidst cold bear market

GM folks! ✨

Welcome to This Week in Web3's 20th Issue. Our screen time shot through the roof for you to have a great read while enjoying your Sunday morning.

Let's see this week's Web3 updates that matter.

  • India's crypto lobby group shuts down & News

  • Utility vs Speculation: Vitalik & builders

  • Funding & Work in Web3

  • Bonus reads

Estimated reading time: 3:00 minutes

This week in crypto

(Price 7d)

Liked this tweet for good luck and 8 hours of peaceful sleep :’)

Weekly Web3 Wrap

Major updates from the web3 world 🌐

  • Polkadot has partnered with Revolut to launch Crypto Learn— a “learn-and-earn” platform. 🎓

  • Polygon has joined Disney's Accelerator program to develop AR, NFT and AI experiences. 👾

  • Celsius Network files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, says it has $167 million in cash on hand and will continue to freeze customer withdrawals. 💸

  • Flipkart announced its partnership with Nothing for the first Nothing Community Dots NFT airdrop on FireDrops—Flipkart’s Web3 platform. 📱

  • LensTube, an open-source video-sharing platform built on top of Lens Protocol went live on Polygon mainnet this week, with zero gas fees. 📹

How is India's crypto lobby group shutting down a good thing?

India's crypto industry has taken considerable blows recently, from the dreadful crypto tax to crashing trading volumes and...to add to the list of adversities—IAMI is dissolving India's Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council to focus on non-crypto sectors.

But wait.. this could actually be good! 👀

  • An unknown crypto exchange executive has said it's "a good thing" for the industry as the exchanges have already led major initiatives, raised funds and reached out to policymakers.

  • Exchanges can now themselves come together and make an association. Sathvik Vishwanath, co-founder and CEO of Indian crypto exchange Unocoin and a BACC member, has said the industry is indeed planning to create its own body.

Utility vs Speculation

There are two types of people in this world: Those who get scared when winter arrives and those who trust their beliefs. Specifically, there is the world, and then there is Vitalik Buterin. 🤌

When the economy had everyone asking what does it mean for us? Vitalik shared his essay, “My 40-liter backpack travel guide”, at the beginning of the bear market. It wasn’t a message to everyone who’s scared; it was a guide to travelling light and on a budget.

Absurd? Yes. Useful? Also yes.

But why go out of his builder image and post something that seemed so out of touch?

“There's this tiny world that existed in like 2014 to 2015 of people where it was a bear market, no one cared, and there was no money. We all just hung out. … We have this weird joy that we get from the bear markets where it's like, oh, OK, we can just, like, go back to being ourselves.” 

Zaki Maniana explains Vitalik's mentality.

Whether people are busy making money and enjoying the perks of NFTs or vice versa, Vitalik shows his trust in Ethereum's core technology. ⛓️

Similarly, builders' drive can be seen through the major spike in investment around ENS in the last month. Investors have found solace by investing in elements of it (and enjoying low gas fees) that they expect to hold utility beyond theory. There's a focus on utility-minded plays rather than speculative money games.

We'd share these instances of hope and faith in protocols for future bull markets. What do you think will utility trump speculation at the end of this market?

This week's newsletter is brought to you by Celo 🗞

If the spirit of Web3 could be explained in one word, it would be along the lines of prosperity for all ✨

And that's what Celo is doing; the word literally translates to purpose in Esperanto! Celo is a mobile-first DeFi platform building for change. Their aim? DEFI for a cause, DeFi for all.

Celo is BUIDLing for climate change and building communities all around the world. You can also get through transactions without wasting your favourite crypto on fees by the time you're done yawning; it's that fast and allows you to pay transaction fees with tokens & stablecoins. Suddenly, DeFi doesn't sound boring, plus it's for the environment? Sold!

Learn more here on how you can earn, learn & build to be a part of Celo's purpose. 🤝

Work in Web3

Open doors for bigger and better opportunities by kickstarting your journey led by seasoned Web3 builders. Your Web3 self is just one click away.

This Week in funding

  • Gnosis has rebranded itself as Safe and raised $100 million to create a blockchain ecosystem for digital assets.

  • Zbyte, a web3 Indian startup, has raised $10 million in funding to help developers build decentralized apps.

  • Morpho Labs, a decentralized lending services protocol, raised $18 million in a funding round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Variant, with the participation of 80 other investors.

Before you scroll further, here's a quick lesson in Web3 Fundamentals for you— ✨Roles in Web3 & how can you get involved.✨

Glad you made it here! Sip the last of that Sunday coffee with some bonus reads:

How To Govern Your Self, Others, And The World (in web3)

https://medium.com/@gavriel/how-to-govern-your-self-others-and-the-world-in-web3-a3bb82a07ea2

Soulbound

https://thecryptospace.substack.com/p/soulbound

What do you wanna see more of in our next issue?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

That’s a wrap for This Week in Web3, see you next week! 🚀

Wait a second... if you’re an early-stage Web3 builder going from 0 to 1, holler at our creative-capital studio Spacekayak and let’s create something extraordinary through design! ✨