The Format #031
Massive Seed's, Epic Distribution and Ads, Lots of Ads...
Accessibility, distribution and billion-dollar usecases.
These are three huge challenges/opportunities in the web3 space. Problems that many talented people are working on, and problems which have had some very interesting developments over the past weeks (and months).
With those problems in mind, here are some of the articles we found most interesting over the past fortnight…
Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund Leads $85M Seed Investment Into Open-Source AI Platform Sentient
“We aim to ensure that the benefits of AI are distributed equitably”.
With the rise of AI disproportionately benefitting a handful of companies, this is a problem that many companies are trying to solve. Two of the latest to join the party are Sentient and Masa, both using blockchain as part of their solution.
The exact way to solve for equitable AI isn’t clear, whether it’s decentralising compute power, crowd-sourcing training data or building monetisable models aligned to a specific community. But one thing seems to be consistent, creating AI that is open and benefits the masses requires blockchain (no surprise there…).
Youtube is Testing Another Way to Combat Ad Blockers
The battle between ads and ad blockers is by no means new. The attempts by companies who rely on ads to protect their (out-dated?) business model are becoming increasingly aggressive. One recent example: YouTube is rolling out an update where ads are injected into the video directly, making it significantly harder for ad blockers to stop them.
Continue harming user experience? Or is there a better way? 🤔
Apple approves Epic Games’ marketplace app after initial rejections
After a lot of back and forth between Epic and Apple, their third-party app marketplace has finally been approved to launch in the EU. This is important for a few reasons.
Firstly there is a huge duopoly on app marketplaces, with Apple (iOS) and Google (Android) being the gatekeepers, this approval might open the doors for more third-party marketplaces to pop up, and could signal the start of a cultural shift.
Secondly, Epic allows developers to release web3 games via their marketplace, having already launched over 20 games. It’s a potential game changer in distribution for web3 games, with Epic giving access to 270M players…
Valora launches ‘Mobile Stack’ Web3 launchpad for iOS and Android
Making blockchain ‘accessible’ is a huge challenge that many people are working on (us included). Valora have decided that improving the mobile experience is a good place to start, providing the web3 foundations for builders who are creating mobile native dApps.
It’s another small step towards making the benefits of blockchain accessible to all.
The Devil’s in the Details
“It’s embedding love into the things that we do that turns makers into crafts people.”
This beautiful story about Mark’s recent travels to Marrakech captures so many themes that feel very important in todays chaotic world: the need for optimism, the permission to be still and the ability to have complete unwavering focus on the details.
OPENFORMAT News
Last week our no-code competition came to an end. We had an awesome time, learnt a LOT and saw some really cool projects being built using OPENFORMAT.
We’ll be publicly announcing the winners early next week, watch this space…
There Were Some Amazing Submissions
The no-code builders, many of whom had never built anything before, created projects across a whole range of different fields.
Everything from a gamified Pickleball app, to an app that allows local communities to transform overlooked garage items into valuable shared resources, it even included an on-chain reputation based system.
You can check out all the different projects here.
BIMA Web3 Talks - Mustafa from Deloitte
Our CEO Sarah and Mustafa, the Digital Assets & Blockchain Advisory Lead at Deloitte UK, chatted about everything blockchain… from some potential global usecases, to the risk management frameworks many companies are using when introducing blockchain.
That’s all for this week.
Have a great weekend, Dan and the OPENFORMAT team 👋🏽
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Prompt (Generated by DALLE-2): “A massive, incredibly detailed psychedelic seed on a tree. The seed is intricately patterned with swirling, vibrant colors like neon pink, electric blue, and bright green. The patterns are fractal and geometric, with a hint of organic shapes, creating a mesmerizing effect. The seed is hanging from a tree branch, surrounded by leaves, in a cosmic scene with stars and galaxies in the background. The tree itself has a surreal, otherworldly appearance, complementing the psychedelic nature of the seed. The details are sharp and vivid, capturing the essence of a psychedelic vision.