#46: Lightning Strikes ??

Macy's s?& Maison Margiela ?launch Web3 activations. ??

萬事達卡 doubles down on Web3 with MoonPay . ??

J.P. 摩根 ?handles $1bn in daily blockchain transactions.??

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This week's obsessively curated field notes: ??

?? Top 4 Reads

• The Glory of Storytelling. By Ana Andjelic Link
• The Evolution of Non-Fungible Tokens. By World Economic Forum . Link
• Real World Assets. By Bitcoin Suisse AG . Link
• 埃森哲 Life Trends 2024. Link

?? Top Stories That Caught My Eye?

??Web3 + NFTs

Vogue or vague? ??

• Macy's launched its new digital fashion platform, mstylelab, using? Journee tech platform. This isn’t blockchain based.
• Maison Margiela , the French fashion house, launched its inaugural Web3 minting experience.

Meeting users where they are. Macy’s experience is stunningly designed, but the user journey is still too complex for the average consumer and the fun factor is limited. For Margiela's mint, the minute-long wait by a timer, hoping to get lucky, seems hardly worth the reward—yet.

The bet on virtual. Brands like?Dyson,?Alo Yoga, Armani,?Ralph Lauren, and others, have built their own immersive shopping stores. Meanwhile, top platforms among next-gen consumer are?Roblox,?Fortnite,?Minecraft?and Sims.

??Punchline: Virtual engagement shouldn’t reward unnatural behaviors, but instead meet people where they are. For next-gen consumer worlds, brands need to infuse their experiences with community, content, and utility.

?? Crypto & Macro

Lightning strikes: All eyes on Bitcoin??

• Rumors about an upcoming Bitcoin ETF are firming, with?BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF listed on Nasdaq’s trade clearing firm.
• This week, Lightning Labs ?released "Taproot Assets," enabling stablecoins for Bitcoin.

Strong fundamentals. Bitcoin dominance has risen to 51.47% – the highest since the second quarter of 2021. Bitcoin mining difficulty, indicating network security, is at an all-time high.

??Punchline: With the upcoming halving, solid fundamentals, tech progress, and an expected spot ETF, the stars are (again) aligning for Bitcoin.

Blockchains: Next-gen payment infrastructure? ??

• 德意志银行 and SC Ventures by Standard Chartered performed the first stablecoin swap on a permissioned blockchain.
• J.P. 摩根 now handles $1bn in daily global blockchain-based wholesale payments for institutional clients.

A protocol for money. Start-ups like NOAH , Lightspark and Strike are building cheap, global payment rails with real-time settlement on Bitcoin Lightning.

??Zooming out: Using blockchains as universal settlement layers for monetary & physical assets dovetails with the vision of a fully digitized, “computable” economy.

That’s all for now, folks. Thoughts?

Back to building! ??

–?Marc

As always, much more in full notes for subscribers!

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