⚡ First Tokenized Rolex Loan, .SWOOSH x Fortnite Announcement, Lending Platforms, and More!
Discover the latest and greatest Crypto & Web3 products
💡 Intro
🥳 Happy Friday!
Another big week in the Web3 products world, with the largest updates coming from Uniswap (v4) and Polygon (Polygon 2.0).
TFC Rewards Members: Next edition goes out Sunday. We have exciting updates to cover, so be on the lookout for that!
As always: have a good weekend and see you all on Monday!
Looking for a cool story to read over the weekend that shows the power of Web3?
Look no further than this: a Rolex owner took a loan on their watches for $14k at 12% APR through a combination of 4K Protocol (who covered the escrow holding) and Arcade (a popular lending platform).
Why It Matters:
Better APR Than Local Options: If the Rolex owner hadn’t gone on-chain and instead used typical lender options (which are 20% to 200%, much higher than what he had to pay!)
Easy Access To Liquidity: Through Arcade, the borrower was able to get crypto on-chain, making it easy to use for a variety of options (paying off another loan on another chain, using it for an NFT, etc)
Just 3 hours ago: Nike put out this awesome trailer for “Airphoria”: a Fortnite collaboration that will involve .SWOOSH.
Fortnite is a popular online game that has a staggering 240 million monthly active users.
Custom skins & avatar additions are popular across all online games now, and having .SWOOSH assets inside Fortnite would be hugely valuable (if this partnership follows the same details that the EA one had).
Also interesting to note: this came directly from Nike’s Twitter (not their .SWOOSH handle).
Time will tell! Either way: great news for .SWOOSH members.
Intuition / $4M — Intuition, a decentralized infrastructure provider, secured $4M in seed funding. Superscrypt led the round, with participation from Shima Capital, Avon Ventures, WW Ventures, Matrixport Ventures, Polygon Ventures, ConsenSys, and various other VC, DAO, and angel investors. — FinSMEs
ResearchHub / $5M — ResearchHub, the cryptocurrency-powered scientific research accelerator co-founded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, has raised $5 million in a Series A funding round led by Open Source Software Capital. — CoinDesk
Brink / $5M — Jack Dorsey will provide $5 million in funding to Brink, an essential backer of open source developers in the Bitcoin space, distributed over a period of five years at $1 million per year. — Decrypt
👉 Today our sponsor is BlockBridge Labs: a software development agency that specializes in both Web2 and Web3 development. Here’s an intro directly from the team:
We’ve helped a wide range of clients, from Fortune 500 companies to small startups.
Need development help? Setup a call through the form below, and get started today! We reply in 24 hours or less:
Hang
"Turn your customers into the community"
Type of Product: Web3 Loyalty
Purpose of Tool: Hang is a web-based loyalty platform designed to help brands create meaningful relationships with their customers. It offers an easy-to-use platform that allows companies to quickly establish membership programs, reward customers points for completing certain actions, and offer exclusive benefits and experiences.
With Hang, you can choose your program type:
Subscription Program: Create subscription-based or one-time fee membership programs where customers can unlock exclusive benefits and rewards from the brand and its partners.
Free-to-Join Program: Design loyalty programs which reward customers for spending, attending events, referring friends, engaging on social media, etc., allowing them to level up in tiers for even more rewards.
Other Features of Hang:
Exciting Benefits: Utilize game design features such as multiplayer experiences alongside traditional discounts, free products, special access, etc.
Tier Programs: Encourage customers to reach higher levels by unlocking new rewards & benefits along the way.
Dynamic Rewards: Make frequent updates to your program in real time in order to optimize customer experience.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: On June 14, 2023, Hang announced its collaboration with Polygon Labs to power Flipkart's innovative loyalty program, FireDrops 2.0. By utilizing web3 and NFTs in brand loyalty programs, this partnership is set to transform brand marketing and customer engagement. The Head of Product Strategy and Deployment at Flipkart highlighted the importance of this integration in revolutionizing how brands interact with customers through web3 and NFTs.
Link to product | Link to TFC listing
Connext
“Fast, trust-minimized communication between chains & L2s"
Type of Product: Interoperability protocol
Purpose of Tool: Connext is the first modular interoperability protocol for fast, trust-minimized communication between different blockchains and Layer 2 solutions. It enables developers to create Web3 applications that enable secure interaction with users, tokens, and other applications on any blockchain, just like they would on the web.
Security: Connext inherits its security from the bridges between blockchains, allowing data and transactions to be securely transferred across them.
Developer Experience: Developers appreciate how easy it is to integrate with Connext due to its straightforward API's as well as strong developer support.
Crosschain Applications: With Connext, developers can build any kind of crosschain application such as liquidity pools, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or governance tools.
Chain Abstraction: Powered by Connext's chain abstraction feature dApp users are able to interact with an application from any supported chain using any token without ever leaving the UI - thereby eliminating the need for users to switch networks or pay gas fees on another chain.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: On June 14, 2023, Connext Labs successfully completed a strategic fundraising round, raising $7.5 million and achieving a valuation of $250 million. This brings the total capital raised by the company to $23.2 million.
Connext has processed over 1.2 million crosschain transactions through its network so far and has experienced significant growth since launching its V2 in late February 2023. In the last month alone, over 20,000 new users have joined the network and there are currently 35 companies actively building on top of the protocol, including Metamask, Planet IX, and DODO.
Link to product | Link to TFC listing
Arcade.xyz
“P2P Loan Protocol for NFTs"
Type of Product: Lending
Purpose of Tool: Arcade.xyz is a decentralized, peer-to-peer lending and borrowing platform on the Ethereum blockchain that enables users to access liquidity and earn yield. Built on the Arcade Protocol, this platform allows NFT owners, lenders, and borrowers to maximize the utility of their assets while earning interest for providing liquidity.
Borrowing Against Assets: NFT owners can list single NFTs or Vaults on the platform and set loan terms in order to receive loan offers from lenders. Additionally, they can mint and deposit their NFT(s) into a Vault to access instant liquidity through an open collection offer.
Lending Against Assets: Lenders can start loans instantly by signing owner set terms on Vaults or single NFTs. They also have the option to make specific offers on Vaults and single NFTs with previously set terms or entire collections including single NFTs from these collections.
Supported Collateral/Loans: Users are able to use ERC-20 tokens as funding for loans as well as ERC-721 and ERC-1155 collections as collateral for loans with currently supported tokens being WETH, USDC, USDT, DAI and APE.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: On June 14, 2023, according to Arcade.xyz’s tweet, they had started using ROLEX watches stored at 4K Protocol as collateral for DeFi loans. This move is expected to open up a significant market for DeFi by utilizing Real-World Assets (RWAs) such as luxury goods on-chain. Check it out here:
Link to product | Link to TFC listing
Bitkey
Type of Product: Bitcoin Wallet
Purpose of Tool: Bitkey is a secure and easy-to-use way to own and manage bitcoin. It's composed of three components: a mobile app, hardware device, and set of recovery tools. The mobile app makes it simple for customers to safely buy, sell, convert between fiat currency and bitcoin.
The hardware device will add an extra layer of security for larger transactions and the recovery tools will help customers recover from losing part or all of their wallets with clear guidelines for reasonable support.
Upcoming Features of Bitkey will include:
Mobile App – Easy to use interface for buying/selling/converting between fiat currency & Bitcoin with added layers of security when moving money.
Hardware Device – Acts as self-serve recovery kit if you lose the mobile wallet & adds additional layers of security when making larger transactions.
Recovery Tools - Clear guidelines provide customers with reasonable support in case they lose part or all of their wallets and helps them recover it quickly & easily without any hassle.
Multi-Signature Technology – Encrypts your data using multiple keys that can only be accessed by authorized users which ensures maximum safety & security when transferring funds within the system
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: Block, the FinTech company founded by Jack Dorsey which built Bitkey, is set to integrate Bitkey, with both Cashapp and Coinbase. The wallet has undergone public beta testing before being launched globally later this year. Learn how to sign up for the Bitkey beta testing program here: Link
Link to product | Link to TFC listing
Solana Foundation | Software Engineer | Link to position
OKX | Data Analyst - Trading Team | Link to position
Illuvium | QA Web Tester | Link to position
Evmos | Software Engineer, Full Stack | Link to position
Chainflip Labs | Senior Full Stack Engineer for Web3 | Link to position
Paxos | Product Manager – Tokenization | Link to position
LayerZero | Developer Relations Engineer | Link to position
Chiliz | Twitter Specialist | Link to position
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Disclaimer: None of this is to be deemed legal or financial advice of any kind. Always DYOR!
yo haven't heard from you for a while. Are you doing alright? I used to look forward to this sub the most.