Zuckerburg hits up the Joe Rogan experience and talks metaverse

Hello future metaverse dwellers, welcome back to Decentra Daily, after you read this go outside and get some vitamin D, or at least take your supplement pill.

Estimated read time: 5 minutes 45 seconds

Today's stories:

• Zuckerburg hits up the Joe Rogan Experience

• New fund for metaverse investors

• Top NFT sales of the day

• Is this the Google of web3?

• Worth a read: Don’t force NFT utility

• Today's Winners and Losers (NFT projects)

Zuck on the JRE

What Midjourney thinks is happening (come on AI, Rogan always sits on the left!)

Zuckerberg appeared on Joe Rogan today – for nearly 3 hours! And spent a decent amount of time talking about Metaverse tech.

Important to stay hydrated when you’re podcasting for so long.

What did he say?

• Meta could be releasing a new headset in October, the Meta Quest Pro. This is part of Meta’s Project Cambria, an effort to produce premium headsets with facial mimicking.

• They’re working on other haptics and VR equipment, including gloves. But Zuck wants a design where you don’t have to carry 10 different things around with you …so, AR/VR clothing?

• The long term goal is to make glasses, not a headset, using waveguide: “You want them to be a normal-looking pair of glasses.”

• Zuckerberg says that, in 5 years, they’ll be doing the same interview with holograms and AI glasses.

We haven’t made it through the whole episode yet, so you’ll have to tell us whether there’s also talk of aliens, weed, and MMA.

If you want more of the biggest talking points, here’s a live blog from The Independent tracking the episode as the reporter listens.

New fund for metaverse investors

Crypto and NFTs are all good. But what if you only want to invest your money in the metaverse?

Now there’s a mutual fund compiled exclusively of companies who make metaverse tech, platforms, and services.

The fund is being offered by Invesco, an Atlanta-based firm that’s become known for its web3-focused investment products.

They launched a blockchain ETF in 2019 on London’s exchange, and last October filed crypto ETFs for US investors.

Fund details:

• Size: $30 million

• Management fee: 0.75%

• Risk profile: 6 out of 7 (high risk)

• Entry charge: 5%

• Share Class launch date: August 8th

The metaverse fund will be managed by Tony Roberts, a member of Invesco’s Asian & Emerging Markets team. He’s probably not a metaverse maxi, but that hasn’t stopped him from putting together a portfolio of companies that “facilitate, create, or benefit from, immersive virtual worlds.”

And he might be onto a winner. A new report on the NFT market by Juniper Research predicts that metaverse-related purchases will be the main factor driving 40 million annual NFT transactions by 2027 – almost double the current figure.

Who’s in the metaverse fund?

Currently, Invesco won’t say which companies are part of the fund.

However, we do know that it will encompass large and small-cap companies, and focus on 7 themes:

• Blockchain tech

• Wearable devices

• Nextgen OS

• Interoperability systems (information sharing)

• Digitization tools

• AI platforms

• Hyperconnectivity networks

The catch: the fund is only available to investors in Europe right now.

Top NFT sales of the day

1. @BoredApeYC #2909 - 76,000 $APE ($403,793.38)

2. @BoredApeYC #6160 - 119 ETH ($197,100.59)

3. @BoredApeYC #9384 - 116 ETH ($192,131.67)

4. @BoredApeYC #6331 - 102.69 ETH ($170,085.33)

It appears news of Eminem and Snoop Dogg performing at the VMA's with their Bored Apes in a metaverse environment (Otherside) has caused a little buying frenzy for Apes today.

Is this the Google of web3?

Mystic is a data tool that claims to “synthesize Web3's tangled mass of data into a single, comprehensive, easy-to-navigate product.”

Its founders – who include former iCloud and Binance engineers – are calling it the Google of web3. That’s because they’ve developed their own indexing algorithms that sort prices, collections, and other kinds of metadata across platforms.

Like Google, they want Mystic to be the place people start their journey when researching web3 markets and assets.

In its early stages, the company is just focusing on NFT data, but they’ve got plans to expand into other web3 ecosystems such as gaming.

Even at this stage, it does look like there’s some utility here:

• Currently tracks over 20 million digital assets

• Search, analytics, and real-time market updates across blockchains

• Direct blockchain data – no third parties

But… does anyone want another Google in web3?

The search engine giant is a web2 icon – massive, market share-eating, and centralized – controlling most of the content and information that many people see whenever they use the internet.

Companies and creators have few ways to get in front of users besides Google, Youtube, or other algorithm-based platforms. That can cause content homogenization – a race to align your content with what the search algorithm wants.

Basically, when search companies get big, they start having big effects on content.

Right now, Mystic is focusing on creating indexes that sort data rather than qualitative searches, which makes search engine bias less of a problem. But if they have Google-size plans, they’ll need to come up with ways to prevent centralization and deal with Google-size problems.

Worth a read: Don’t force NFT utility

Today’s thought for the day: NFT utility – is it necessary, should we demand it, and are artists the right people to produce it?

This article by Eric James Beyer in NFTNow looks into those questions surrounding exclusive rights, benefits, and perks.

Key points:

• “Utility can vary as broadly as the human imagination.”Buy an NFT to attend the release of endangered birds into the rainforest. Become a space tourist. Or just increase the value of your asset and get a cool shirt.

• Utility builds community.Lots of people don’t really want digital art; they want entry to a club. Utility can unite collectors behind a goal and give people a reason to get together, make friends, and have a darn good time.

• For some, the art is the utilityMost people wouldn’t walk into an art gallery, point at the paintings, and start asking, “what’s the point of this?” For many, art is what happens when you stop asking for a point. So why not give digital artists the same license to develop their careers?

• “Labeling NFT collectors ‘investors’ is loaded and misleading rhetoric”The high floor price of many collections means that buyers often expect a roadmap to profit. But there’s nothing in the tech that says NFTs should have utility. Clear communication about what artists are selling and what collectors are buying into is critical.

Read the full article here.

Today's Winners and Losers

The projects that have stood out to us the most in the past 24 hours, the good, and bad.

Winner: We All Survived Death - Floor price up 55% in the last 24 hours (0.065 ETH → 0.101 ETH)

These have had a real nice run-up the last few days. Cute little 3-D animated characters counterbalance the dark themes of the post-apocalyptic wasteland they inhabit. Haven’t been revealed yet but their IG has some example artwork. Created by established game devs with claims that these will be avatars for use in future games to be developed.

Loser: Finiliar - Floor Price down 28% in the last 24 hours (0.251 ETH → 0.18 ETH)

Interesting idea, Finiliars are little avatars that are tied to various crypto tokens, and they fluctuate throughout the day based on the price of the corresponding cryptocurrency. Think happy and dancing in 2020, and suicidal looking and maybe vomiting for the last ~year. Kinda like me. Would hate to get a $DOGE-themed one, but I’m still not a believer in that trash. These are still well above their 0.08 ETH mint price but have been coming down pretty hard today.

Headlines of the day

• These Bored Apes Will Melt in Your Mouth: M&M’s Releases NFT-Inspired Candy

• Snoop Dogg and Eminem to Bring Bored Ape NFTs to VMAs In ‘Otherside’ Metaverse Performance

• Coin Center Condemns Tornado Cash Sanctions

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.