Reddit: the rise of trojan horse NFTs 🐴

GM, and welcome back to Decentra Daily.

I took a break from scrolling Reddit to write today's newsletter, and fancy that, it's about Reddit and NFTs!

Estimated reading time: 4 mins, 30 secs

Today's stories:

• trojan horse NFT projects 🐴

• new UK PM chooses Apes over Punks

The rise of Trojan horse NFTs

Not everybody likes NFTs.

I know! I’m sorry but it’s true.

With its bull run, crypto spikes, and NFT craziness, 2021 made a few people very rich (at least for a while...)

Others looked at web3 from afar – and decided they didn’t like what they saw.

People paying $$$ for jpegs you can right-click save? Hell Nah. NFTs must be some kind of scam or ponzi scheme.

One place you can always find a healthy amount of NFT hate is Reddit.

As social media's home for cynics, naysayers, and generally shitting on anything nice or hopeful, Reddit's NFT & crypto threads are famously hostile toward the words "non-fungible."

The thing is, despite their scepticism, Redditors are an ideal community for NFT adoption:

• they’re active and engaged

• they spend lots of time online

• many Redditors are interested in collectibles, videogames, and game-adjacent experiences

So, how do you get Redditors into NFTs when they don’t like em?

One potential strategy: spend many days and thousands of dollars on a content campaign, educating Redditors on the basics and benefits of NFTs.

That could work – but in my experience of Reddit, its users prefer to be the ones doing the explaining rather than the listening… (sorry!)

Here’s another strategy: launch your NFT collection and call them "collectible avatars" instead 😆.

Reddit launched its user-illustrated "Blockchain-Backed Collectible Avatars" back in July – with a distinct lack of NFT terminology or web3 marketing.

The limited-edition avatars have a lot in common with popular NFT collections: owners can use their avatars as their profile picture, get special benefits, plus a license to use their avatar off Reddit.

But don't you dare call them NFTs!

• NFT = collectible avatar

• Wallet = vault

You can buy your avatar with a credit card (no crypto) and store it on-platform in a vault (no external wallets with long addresses and passwords)

It all fits pretty neatly into Reddit's pre-existing ecosystem of karma, usernames, and profile pictures, making for a shallow learning curve.

The result? The secondary market for Reddit avatars is exploding.

As I write this email, four Reddit avatar collections have registered among the top 10 projects by 24hr volume on OpenSea, and three of those sit in the top five (alongside CryptoPunks and RTFKT's Clone X.)

Reddit NFTs aren’t the first “trojan horse” collection, but with three million new wallets created, it's a great model for future projects.

Other trojan horses

Starbucks Odyssey. Coming soon, Starbucks will also use Polygon scaling tech to expand its Starbucks® Rewards program.

With a Nifty-Gateway-powered marketplace, the coffee tycoons are turning their loyalty accounts into NFT wallets, handing out “immersive coffee experiences” to committed Starbucks drinkers.

NFT-based games like Axie and Blankos have onboarded millions without the need for a blockchain beginner's manual.

And of course, Coinbase has been working for years to become the bridge between mainstream culture and the world of crypto.

Call them on ramps, onboarding projects, or trojan horses – they're coming, and they're only just getting started:

Rishi Sunak likes BAYC, NFTs, and Crypto!

You may have heard that the United Kingdom has a new Prime Minister – and he likes crypto. 

Rishi Sunak is the third PM in the last 2 months... I've worn fewer outfits in that time (I'm a big sweatpants guy). Liz Truss lasted 44 days. Yikes.

• He's the youngest modern PM. At 42, he just classifies as a millennial

• He's also the wealthiest, with an estimated worth of around $800 million. That's more cash than the king

Sunak was a fan of crypto and non-fungible tokens during his role as the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He even proposed the Royal Mint NFT collection back in April.

Now, video footage has resurfaced of Sunak flaunting his web3 knowledge.

When asked whether he prefers Bored Apes or CryptoPunks, Sunak is decisive: "Bored Apes." 

The prime minister also revealed he holds a "basket" of cryptocurrencies:

It will be interesting to see if/how Sunak pushes crypto and NFTs forward – and whether the UK will start producing more web3 companies.

Also, is Sunak the first Head of State to say the words "Bored Apes" into a microphone?

Disclaimer: Nothing in this article/newsletter should be considered financial advice. The purpose is to inform readers of the current trends and news in the web3 space. We encourage every reader to do their own research and not act upon information put forth by Decentra Daily.