📔 Weekly Journal: China's big Metaverse bet
[8min read] Your guide to getting ahead on the digital frontier (& the weekend!). Today, the usual market news & treats exciting news from China as they embrace preparations for the Metaverse.
Welcome to this week’s Weekly Journal 📔, your guide to the latest news & innovation in digital assets, emerging technology, and our exciting path to the Metaverse. This is week 27 of the 520 weeks of newsletters I have committed to, a decade of documenting our physical and digital lives converge.
New subscribers are encouraged to check out the history & purpose of this newsletter as well as the archive.
Enjoy your weekend! 😎
Ryan
Here’s what you’re getting today:
📈 Market update: Record number of NZ homes for sale, Westpac using open banking for quick mortgages
🗞️ Interesting news: Lots of exciting news about China (and Dr Who) embracing the Metaverse
👓 Read of the week: Two interesting Twitter threads on the future of Web3 gaming and a new NFT format as a catalyst
🎥 Video of the week: Yat Siu discusses web3, digital property rights, and gaming.
🤖 This week’s AI showcase: A groundbreaking model that generates high-fidelity music from text descriptions.
✅ Weekly poll: Help chose the emerging tech topic for Wednesday’s showcase
🤑 DCA with me: Follow my regular $50 weekly investing in an emerging asset class.
Market update 📈
🥝 The NZ housing market is in a slump as winter approaches, with the highest number of residential properties for sale since 2015. Stock levels increased by 81% compared to last year, while new listings hit a record low. Vendors with unrealistic price expectations are a major concern, hindering sales.
🦘As banks chase a “10 Min Mortgage”, Westpac is Australia's first major bank to utilize open banking and leverages the data-sharing regime to expedite mortgage approvals. By accessing customer data from other banks, Westpac can swiftly assess loan eligibility and offer a secure digital mortgage experience. The move signals banks' shifting perception of open banking from compliance burden to competitive advantage. More on Open Banking if you are interested.
🦅 The US House of Representatives approved a bill to raise the debt ceiling, averting a default on the country's debt. The measure received bipartisan support, with a vote of 314-117. It now goes to the Senate for consideration before President Biden can sign it into law. The stock market reacted with a slight decline
7-day Crypto Heatmap below shows a strong week, especially for Ethereum (size of the blocks are market share, colour & % show the change over the last week)
🎭 Sentiment levels are still teetering on the edge of fear & greed as markets decide if the bear market is over.
Interesting news
💰 China's commitment to the metaverse is growing stronger as Zhengzhou City joins the movement with an impressive $8.5 billion fund. The fund aims to support metaverse companies operating within the city and offers incentives for those relocating their headquarters. This strategic plan demonstrates China's ambitious vision for the metaverse industry, with Zhengzhou City projecting annual revenues of up to $28.34 billion by 2025. Other Chinese cities, such as Nanjing and Shanghai, are also making similar metaverse plans, showcasing the nation's determination to seize opportunities in this immersive digital world.
🌐 Hong Kong has just reinstated retail crypto trading as of Thursday! The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission plans to allow investors to trade major cryptocurrencies. Unlicensed exchanges targeting Hong Kong investors will violate the law. Crypto is still banned in Mainland China, although there are clues this may change. China may even introduce its own crypto exchange, impacting its economy. The coexistence of decentralized blockchains with China's authoritarian government remains….uncertain.
🦾 Beijing released a white paper promoting web3 industry development, aiming to establish the city as a global innovation hub for the digital economy. The timing is noteworthy as Hong Kong's crypto rules come into effect on June 1. China's openness to the industry is evident, with recent coverage of cryptocurrencies on state television.
Ⓜ️ Something a bit fun: BBC Studios has partnered with Reality+ to bring immersive experiences of their popular brands into The Sandbox (a shared digital space where players and brands can create, own, and monetize their experiences using blockchain - I wrote about it here). Users will be able to engage with content from beloved shows like Doctor Who and Top Gear, as well as explore a dedicated BBC events space. The collaboration aligns with BBC Studios' plans to expand its brands into new categories and embrace innovative technologies.
👓Read of the Week
This week you get a double banger, both relating to Web3 gaming.
Part one is a tweet from a Reddit Co-Founder saying that in the next 5 years, the majority of gamers won't play games unless they are being properly valued for that time. The "play-to-earn" model will become standard for video games in the future. Read the unrolled tweet thread here.
Part 2 is a tweet about a major NFT innovation that will make this more possible. ERC-6551 introduces individual wallets for Ethereum NFTs, unlocking numerous possibilities. Tokens can now be tied directly to NFTs, enhancing value and functionality. Features include connecting NFTs to traders, decentralized messaging, transaction histories, and reducing loan risks. While still new and experimental, ERC-6551 offers exciting advancements for the NFT ecosystem. Read the unrolled Twitter thread here.
Video of the week 🎥
Yat Siu, Chairman and Co-founder of Animoca Brands, discusses web3, digital property rights, and gaming.
My 4 key take-aways:
Web3 aims to address the issue of digital colonization, where users unknowingly give away their data for free, resulting in a futile digital world.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and web3 enable true digital property rights by allowing ownership of digital assets on public chains, independent of centralized platforms.
Gaming serves as an entry point for digital ownership, as the industry already involves the purchase and ownership of virtual items with real value.
Web3 and digital property rights can lead to the construction of new economies, societies, and identities within the metaverse, fostering a more open, fair, and democratic internet.
Let me know what you think in the comments!
This week’s AI showcase🎨🤖🎵✍🏼
Each week I showcase something amazing generated by an AI-based tool. AI is disruptive, challenging industries and driving innovation. My vision of the emerging Metaverse predicts the use of many AI tools to enhance how we work, learn, play and socialise.
This week I will introduce MusicLM, a groundbreaking model that generates high-fidelity music from text descriptions. It outperforms previous systems in audio quality and adherence to the text, while allowing for conditioning on both text and melody. With the release of the MusicCaps dataset, containing 5.5k music-text pairs, this innovation paves the way for future research in music generation.
This continues the strand of AI-generated art, music, etc. Will it innovate beyond what the human mind has achieved? Yes. Will there still be a demand for 100% human-made? Of course.
Some screenshots below, have a listen here and let me know what you think!
Weekly Poll ✅
Help choose what you would like to learn about on Wednesday for my weekly emerging tech showcase:
That’s all for the free version this week! If you have any organisations in mind that could benefit from learning about emerging technology, be sure to reach out. Educational workshops are one of many consulting services I offer.
DCA With Me 🤑
Dollar Cost Averaging is an investment strategy in which an investor regularly invests a fixed amount of money into a particular asset/asset class at regular intervals, regardless of its current market price. By doing so, the investor can reduce the impact of market volatility and potentially earn a better return over time. An investor can buy more of the asset when prices are low and fewer when prices are high, which averages out the overall cost of investment (time IN the market beats trying to time the market).
To experiment with this, I invest $50 NZD into a Digital Asset every week. Each week I will choose an asset that seems underpriced in the short term and has positive long-term potential. My timeframe is 3-5 years. I don’t give financial advice but if you want to follow along with me you can use my easycrypto.co.nz referral link to support this newsletter. Let’s dive into this week’s pick:
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