Hello Metaverse Annie Zhang

If you’ve been plugging into the world of DAOs lately, you’ve certainly heard of FWB (Friends with Benefits DAO). In many ways, FWB is the cool kid on the block, the connector that taps into all the right scenes. It’s brought creatives, artists, technologists, builders, and anyone who’s in the intersection of culture and web3 together. What differentiates FWB from any other social clubs or scenes, is that like any other DAO, its members have a shared bank account, powered by the blockchain. I...

The number of successful consumer applications in the web 3 space is still few and far between. Against all odds, Audius, an open source and decentralized music discovery and community platform was somehow able to strike a chord and gain mainstream adoption. They have racked up 7M monthly listeners and 50,000 artists, including heavy hitters like deadmau5, Nas, Chainsmokers, Steve Aoki and many more. So what exactly is Audius and how were they able to gain so much traction? Initiall...

In the last year, play-to-earn (P2E) games have become a promising new frontier for both blockchain enthusiasts who are seeking a deeper purpose in what NFTs and digital ownership can enable, and game developers who are intrigued by this new model of publishing games where it can bypass the walled gardens of the mobile app stores. However, given the nascency of this industry, there’s still a ton of skepticism. Common criticisms include P2E games being “not fun to play”, not actually help...

While architects have had so much influence on how our cities, buildings and social spaces are constructed, their influence has not quite reached the virtual world. This is perhaps why we haven’t seen examples in the Metaverse of landmarks, versatile multi purpose spaces, or places that have outlived the specific game, use case or event that it was created for. Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg of Space Popular are pioneers within the architectural field, having developed curiosity for wh...

The term ‘web 3’ has become more and more solidified in the last couple of months, being broadly an umbrella term for the development of all blockchain based technologies. But how does everyone and their moms actively participate in web 3 is a whole other question, and an important one as web 3 needs to gain mainstream adoption to continue to be relevant. Peter Yang is working on tackling this problem through an education DAO called Odyssey. Through his journey of writing web 3 beginner-...

People often conflate the idea of the Metaverse with VR experiences, and while VR can be one medium in which people experience the Metaverse, it is merely a subset. The work that Phillip Wang and team is doing on their virtual social platform called Gather helps demyth this common misunderstanding. For Phillip, the CEO and Co-Founder of Gather, the Metaverse is about creating a strong sense of connection, presence, and place no matter where you are. The vision then, is for the Metaverse ...