Welcome to the 76th Edition of the FF Newsletter

In this edition:

▹ Team updates
▹ Forefront Season Two Launch
▹ Mehesh Vellanki Web2 <> Web3 Custody
▹ Eliot Couval w/ Social Tokens <> Digital Reputation
▹ Basecamp's DHH Thoughts on crypto
▹ JPMorgan Metaverse Report
▹ Opensea NFT "Exploit"
▹ ... much more

Plus: What’s Poppin' / Market Pills & Index Snapshot 
 
Let’s get into it.

Leveraging Social Tokens for Digital Reputation. FF contributor Eliot Couvat is back with another essay on social tokens and digital reputation. Eliot argues that digital reputation is flawed, and social tokens have an opportunity to usher in a new form of identity. However, for this to happen, wallets will need to natively adopt social tokens as a means of crafting user identity and reputation. FRESH TAKE 🍃

The Missing Link Between Web2 and Web3: Custody. Self-custody is one of the core tenants of web3 products (“not your keys, not your crypto”), but it is also one of the biggest barriers to entry. Centralized, web2 applications are the norm on today’s internet, and users expect the straightforward experience that comes with that. Mahesh Vellanki argues that for web3 to break into the mainstream, applications will need to educate and graduate users to self-custody rather than promoting trial by fire. SPOT ON 💯

PadawanDAO loses half its budget to risky management. Padawan DAO, a DAO focused on funding students to attend their first crypto conferences, decided to use its treasury to mint DAI. After the price of ETH dropped significantly, PadawanDAO got liquidated, losing around half of its budget that was to be used to provide funding for future events. Definitely a lesson to learn here about DAO treasury management. INTERESTINNGGG 👀

Rethinking the DAO Contributor Funnel. This essay from 0xJustice.eth outlines a framework for thinking about DAO contributor funnels. He proposes a hierarchical scheme of membership levels and gates to address segmentation issues and detail a contributor funnel in the process. While not perfectly replicable across DAOs, the idea of gates and contributor zones is something every DAO will need to grapple with. LAYERED ACCESS 🤝

Opportunities in the Metaverse by JP Morgan. This report from JP Morgan highlights the economic opportunity of the metaverse. Today, $54 billion is spent on virtual goods annually, almost double the amount spent buying music. While they clearly state that they do not expect the metaverse to replace all facets of physical-digital life, traditional finance is clearly bullish on the growth opportunity here and sees web3 as a potential way forward. Near the end, they also outline questions that web2 companies will need to answer to develop a “metaverse strategy.” BULLISH 🎯

The Case for Music NFTs. GBV Capital argues that music will be the first cultural object to be financialized using crypto. In the past, patrons of artists did not make a financial return on the artists’ success. Today, web3 makes this possible by creating digital, cultural assets. The post also highlights the opportunity to bridge the gap between DeFi and Music NFTs, enabling splits, loans, and other financial services, further enabling economic growth in the music industry without intermediaries. GREAT READ 🔥

Backdrop goes live to help you participate in tokenized communities. Friend of Forefront Joey DeBruin and co-founder Rapha have officially launched Backdrop along with a $1.7M raise. Backdrop is web3-native, built to connect people within and across tokenized communities, helping them discover, get notified about their activity, and participate more easily. We’re very excited about the future of Backdrop – congrats on the launch! GMI 🚀

Social Tokens Index Fact Sheets

David from Mintgate

Coinvise introduces an integration with Gnosis SAFE -- this enables tokenized communities to connect and use Coinvise directly from Gnosis SAFE for token creation, airdrops, quests & vesting.

Jenil from Coinvise

Coinvise introduces an integration with Gnosis SAFE -- this enables tokenized communities to connect and use Coinvise directly from Gnosis SAFE for token creation, airdrops, quests & vesting.

Forefront DAO

After a productive and transformative Off Season, Forefront Season Two is kicking off this week. Tune in for Tea Time on Tuesday at 9AM PT to learn more about what’s in store and how you can get involved!

▹ Read - Incentives structures in Crypto
▹ Opinion - I was wrong, we need crypto
▹ NFT - OpenSea NFT Contract Exploit
▹ Metaverse - Ownership Is Everything
▹ Mainstream - NYSE NFTs Trademark Application
▹ Report - The 2022 Crypto Crime Report
▹ New - "The Professor" Launches $CROSS
▹ Watch - How to Contribute to DAOs
▹ Listen - Finding product-market fit
▹ Interesting - Andrew Yang New Lobby3 DAO
▹ Cool - BuyTheBroncosDAO
▹ Drop - Universal Music Collective NFTs Drop
▹ Event - Rally x FWB Hackathon
▹ Tooling - Parcel V2
▹ Data - State of the Market

Join our discord for daily dose of crypto social news

Thanks for reading. If you enjoy our weekly update, 
Invite your friends to Subscribe