Sup, nerds!

Here’s what you’re getting in today’s edition:

• 💅 This is cool: The metaverse starts w/ Apple Vision Pro (probably).

• 🔎 This seems important: A post mortem on the BTC ETF launches

• 🤝 Partner: Level up your Web3 gaming insight!

• 🔪 Let's dissect this: ‘Oracles, the vacuum seal bags of crypto’

Terms used in this edition (click for an explanation, or ​ask Web(GPT)3!​):
Web3, Metaverse, Layer 2, Blockchain.

💅 This is cool:

Love It or Hate It, the Metaverse Starts With the Apple Vision Pro (Probably)

In one sentence: The metaverse starts in VR - but before VR becomes affordable, it must become desirable - and the Vision Pro is the best candidate (to date), to solve such a problem.

So, the Apple Vision Pro is about to go on sale for a cool $3,500…

Which means we’re about to see a whooole bunch of people go through the 5 stages of a new Apple product purchase.

You know the one.

1. Shock: “This is stupid and WAY too expensive.”

2. Intrigue: “…although, I would still like to try one out.”

3. Experience: “Wow, ok - this is a joy to use (still too expensive though).”

4. Bargaining: “I wonder how I could justify such a purchase to my self/spouse/boss?”

5. Acceptance: “God damnit. I’m going to do it, aren’t I? I’m going to be one of those chumps that sinks $X into a tech-toy…”

Ok, you get - but what does this have to do with Web3?

Well, we like to boil the concept of ‘the metaverse’ down to being ‘the 3D version of the internet.’

Only problem with the metaverse is its whole ‘chicken or egg’ dilemma…

No one will build the ‘3D internet’ if consumers don’t have the hardware to support it…but no one will buy the hardware, if the 3D internet doesn’t exist…

We see the Vision Pro as the best candidate (to date), to solve such a problem.

Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus and creator of the Quest (now known as the ‘Meta Quest’) said something in an interview that really stuck with us:

“Before VR can become something that everyone can afford, it must become something that everyone wants - and I think that's the approach Apple is taking.

The price right now? It's kind of irrelevant. The people who are going to buy it at $3,500? We would have bought it at $5,000!"

Our opinion?

Honestly, the Vision Pro is stupid and WAY too expensive.

…although, we would still like to try one out.

🥇 Want the news before anyone else?

🔎 This seems important:

Trope N’ Cope: A Post Mortem on the Bitcoin ETF Launches

In one sentence: Despite the BTC ETFs attracting billions of early investment, it was met with $1B+ of selling pressure, which has depressed BTC’s price.

Today we’re doing a post mortem on the Bitcoin ETF launches, in a new format that we’re calling:

Trope n’ Cope.

Copium, aka ‘cope,’ is what you tell yourself to cope with bad news.

E.g. Trope: “Ethereum’s fees are too high.” Cope: “Well Ethereum layer 2’s are an affordable alternative...”

(It’ll make more sense as we go along).

Trope: These Bitcoin ETFs were meant to attract billions of dollars of investment and push the price up…but the price cratered.

Cope: The crazy part is, they did attract billions of investment! Record breaking amounts in fact.

It’s just that when Grayscale converted its Bitcoin ‘trust’ (which already had tens of billions of investment) into an ETF, the firm didn’t lower its fees to compete with other offerings.

As a result, a bunch of folks that invested in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, sold ~$1.1B worth of shares, once trust turned into an ETF (so they could park their money in a lower fee ETF).

And even then, the amount of money flowing into the ETFs within the first three days of launch was still net positive (+$588M).

Trope: The weak price performance of Bitcoin, post ETF launches, proves that traditional investors aren’t interested in crypto.

Cope: Maybe…but the traditional financial system moves at a much slower pace than crypto.

All these big investment advisors need to go and float the idea of Bitcoin ETFs to their clients, explain what BTC even is, and wait for a green light.

It’s gonna take a minute for everyone to get onboard and allocate.

(That, or it could all go to hell in a hand basket…but that’s the game we play).

🤝 Partner:

Level Up Your Web3 Gaming Insight!

High Score Junkie​ is a web3 gaming newsletter loved by the top gaming projects, creators, and players in the space.

They cover gaming news and trends, as well as games themselves and game-related protocols (e.g Beam network), and we love them because they say it like it is - they cut to the chase while making sure everything is drenched in game visuals to keep you entertained.

High Score Junkie helps people discover new games that are under the radar or that you may have missed. They also spotlight creators and players from the community.

It's 100% free to subscribe and they even do giveaways from time to time!

🔪 Let's dissect this:

‘Oracles, the Vacuum Seal Bags of the Crypto World’

In one sentence: ‘Oracles’ allow you to get super fast real world news and event updates, that you can automatically act upon, before anyone else.

So, the team behind Sui just joined forces with Stork (the oracle) to provide builders with faster pricing data.

What the heck does that all mean? Let’s start here…

Did your parents ever use those vacuum seal storage bags, for blankets and clothes? 

You’d fill up the bag, suck all the air out and compress it, before moving it to a new spot (the attic, usually). 

This is kind of how an ‘oracle’ works, in the crypto world. 

An Oracle is like a vacuum sealed bag, full of compressed real world data, that is then accessible via the blockchain.

Okay cool, but how is that valuable?

You know how dads are obsessed with home automation? They’ll set up triggers to turn the lights on at certain times, and the heat to automatically turn on if the temperature dips below a certain point…

Oracles are like that, but for automating your investments based off real world events.

Let’s say you wanted to sell a bunch of crypto the moment the Bitcoin ETFs were announced, because you expected a ‘buy the rumor, sell the news’ event.

You could sit around refreshing the SEC’s announcement page all day…

OR - could program an oracle to track the news, and automatically sell your select bag of cryptocurrency the moment the ETF was announced.

Ultimately, you’re getting super fast real world news and event updates, that you can automatically act upon, before anyone else.

It’s a helluva concept!

What Is a Blockchain Oracle?