Web3. NFTs. Innovation instead of Speculation.
Hello and welcome to MadeMeThink! Once a week I send out this newsletter with curated content, events and examples that have sparked my interest. It's a review of my last 7-days in Web3, NFTs and the Metaverse. Want to follow my thoughts on a daily basis? Then connect with me via Linkedin and Twitter. This article is also available in German.
The last few weeks have been turbulent. The crypto market had its "Lehman Brothers" event. With Terra Luna / UST, one of the major crypto players failed monumentally, taking with it a market value of $60 billion in its demise. The ripples of this financial catastrophe, which took place in May 2022, were and are still felt everywhere (Read more). For example, rumors have been persisting for a few days that one of the big investors in the crypto market, Three Arrows Capital (3AC), might go bankrupt. The current bear market and a $200 million investment in Terra Luna, which vanished into thin air, are hurting the fund (Read more). If 3AC goes down, the fund will take several other crypto companies with it (Read more), likely driving the market further down. The total market capitalization of the crypto market has halved in the past two months from nearly 2 trillion (= 2,000 billion) to 942 billion. Conditions are rough in the current crypto market.
Personally, I am watching these developments with high interest. (Crypto) history is being written here, before our eyes. Unfortunately, small investors keep losing their money in this market. Often driven by shady "get rich quick" courses or influencers. Many do not understand the technology or the projects they are investing in. John Oliver described crypto on his Last Week Tonight Show:
Cryptocurrencies: "It's everything you don't understand about money, combined with everything you don't understand about computers" (Source).
So here's the advice again: Don't invest in projects you don't understand! And if you feel you want to invest in the crypto or NFT market, only invest money that you would put on the number 13 in a casino, that is, only invest money that you are willing to lose. Most people lose money in crypto and NFTs. Of course, all of us know the success stories of highly profitable investments, but that's not the majority of people. Someone also wins the lottery every week, but because of that no one would invest all their money in lottery tickets.
Personally, I am not very interested in speculation in crypto and NFTs. I am interested in the innovation that comes out of this area. I see massive potential for innovation here. I spent the last week at MET-AMS, a conference on Web3, NFTs and the Metaverse. Here I talked to many people who are starting companies, projects and initiatives in this space. Almost none of the conversations were about price performance in the crypto or NFT markets. It's like a parallel world. The world of speculators vs. the world of innovators. While the bear market is in full swing, innovators are building the next Facebooks or Googles of the Web3 world. I have already experienced the crypto winter of 2018/2019 from the front row, working on a crypto business idea in 2017, which unfortunately never came to be realized. Then in 2018/2019 it became quiet about crypto. Looking back, my biggest mistake was that I lost some interest myself at that time and didn't take advantage of the bear market to push further more business ideas. I will not make that mistake again in the current bear market! Many of the big web3 players of today, like OpenSea, Solana or Uniswap, laid their foundation in the last crypto winter. So if you want to invest in the crypto/NFT market, instead of investing money, I would rather invest time and develop your own business ideas in this area. I myself am currently working on a business idea in the NFTs area together with a technical co-founder. I will be able to report more about it here in the coming months.
My last weeks were strongly shaped by my own keynotes, workshops and conferences on the topic of Web3, NFTs or the Metaverse. I have spoken at various corporate events, at the Swiss Brand Congress or at the Business Summit of the FHV. Since some interested students, entrepreneurs or innovators from corporates have written to me asking if there is an online version of the talk, I will now give a short introduction next week on the topic "NFTs. Innovation instead of speculation." The talk is online and free of charge, but it needs a registration. The talk will be in German, but I will also record an English version for my English readers and share it via the newsletter.
Since I published my last newsletter, I've been on the road a lot, e.g. at Latitude59 in Tallinn (Estonia). There I networked with interesting personalities from the Estonian Web3 community. For example, the avatar provider ReadyPlayerMe is from Tallinn. Also had the opportunity to talk with the Estonian "Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology" about Web3 / crypto and its regulation (nice sweater by the way #thinkinginbillions). The minister understood the need for a non-bureaucratic and innovation-friendly framework. And Estonia seems to be doing some things right in this sense. After all, Estonia has the highest density of Unicorns per capita in Europe (Read more).
"Estonia is also well known as a unicorn factory, so we really would like to see a lot of innovation happening in the tech side, but also in the deep tech," said Andres Sutt, Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology, adding that his goal is to have 25 unicorns by 2025, which means an additional 15 by then. - Euronews (2022)
Will also become an Estonian e-resident myself in the next few weeks, a program that allows anyone to become at least a virtual resident and also remotely start Estonian / European businesses... and my next business is guaranteed to be built remote first. Let's see if I can beat the following record in starting a business ;)
„A new record was set on Monday at London Tech Week by an Austrian entrepreneur, who set up his company in 15 mins 33 seconds on Estonia’s e-residency platform, beating the previous record of 18 mins 3 secs.“ - Euronews (2022)
Disclaimer: The thoughts published in this publication are my personal opinions and should not be viewed as investment advice. I am not a financial expert. My specialty is entrepreneurship, innovation & marketing. Readers should always do their own research. I own various cryptocurrencies and NFTs, however in many cases it is for the sake of researching the field and gaining a deeper understanding of Web3, NFTs and the Metaverse and not for investment purposes.