⚡ TFC Newsletter: 05/11/2023
PayPal Discloses $1B In Crypto Holdings, Multichain Gas Fees Explained, Web3 Publishing, Social Wallets, and more!
💡 Intro
PayPal Discloses $1B In Crypto Holdings: In their Q1 financial report, PayPal disclosed nearly $1B in crypto holdings.
Important to note: PayPal does not hold crypto outside of its customer assets on its balance sheet. That means this $1B comes directly from customer assets.
From the end of last year until now, they also reported an increase of $340M in customer crypto assets.
That’s a massive relative increase and great to see!
👉 It’s long been our thesis at TFC that tracking tooling & infrastructure changes means knowing what trends and growth will happen overall in crypto sectors.
PayPal increased their tooling support for crypto heavily last year, including for external crypto transfers mid 2022 and their Metamask partnership late 2023.
Their Venmo crypto update released in May, so expect that deposit amount to go up even more!
Ever wondered which blockchains have the highest gas fees? We've got the perfect tool for you!
Check out 0xKofi's Dune Analytics dashboard below, which displays daily gas fee expenditures in USD and ETH for top blockchains.
This dashboard lets you monitor the overall gas fees and spot trends in increasing costs among different chains.
For example after the recent BRC-20 memecoin craze, BTC fees surged, congesting the network.
Another interesting is the massive discrepancy in fees between Polygon and ETH (Polygon’s $140k vs ETH’s $14M from yesterday)
Lavita AI / $5M — Lavita AI, a Web3 healthcare platform, has completed a $5M seed funding round led by Camford Capital and supported by angel investors from the AI and blockchain industries. — FinSMEs
LimeWire / $17M — Now a social web3 platform, LimeWire has raised $17M in a combination of private and public funding rounds, with the $LMWR token scheduled to be listed on a cryptocurrency exchange on May 16th. — Tweet
TABI / $10M —NFT marketplace Tabi (formerly Treasureland) has raised $10m in an angel funding round. — Binance
Taboo / $10M — TABOO, a platform for adult entertainment and media, has raised $10 million in a funding round led by a non-public household workplace, resulting in a valuation of $250 million. — Crypto Daily
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Note: Do you have a product or tool you’re building? Have one you’d suggest? DM us on twitter! We’re always happy to feature products from the TFC community.
Easy
"The First Web3 Social Wallet"
Type of Product: Web3 Social Wallet
Purpose of Tool: Easy is a social wallet designed to make the web3 experience simpler, safer, and more enjoyable. With its user-friendly interface and community-driven approach, Easy is the perfect platform for web3 enthusiasts to explore the world of NFTs, art, and culture together.
Really cool web3 wallet that is unique due to its social features.
They raised $14M earlier this year meaning they have ample funding to heavily improve the web3 social wallet experience.
Safer Transactions: Easy is built to protect users from fraud and scams that are all too common in the web3 world. With Easy, users can transact with confidence, knowing that their transactions are secure and verified.
Community-Driven Ratings: Easy's Signal system is a unique community-sourced rating system that provides real-time feedback on web3 interactions. This feature allows users to make informed decisions about which communities, NFTs, and art to engage with.
Personalized Profiles: Easy allows users to create their own personalized profiles to showcase their NFTs and art collections. With Easy, users can express themselves and share their passions with like-minded individuals in the web3 community.
Real-Time Feed: Easy's real-time feed keeps users up-to-date with the latest trends and activities in the web3 community. Users can follow their friends, favorite communities, and interesting people in web3 to stay connected and informed.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: On January 10, 2023, The Easy Company successfully raised $14.2M in their seed round. The funding was led by Lobby Capital, Relay Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, Tapestry VC, Upside Partnership, and Scribble Ventures. Along with these prominent investors, angel investors from social and Web3 also joined the round, including former heads of Instagram and Novi product and engineering, as well as former executives from Airbnb, Twitter, Uber, OpenTable, Eventbrite, and other notable companies.
Readl
“Write, Read, and Collect Stories and Books on web3."
Type of Product: Web3 Publishing
Purpose of Tool: Readl is a cutting-edge platform that leverages blockchain technology to enable authors, publishers, and storytellers to easily create, manage, and distribute multimedia literary content. Here are some of the features that make Readl stand out:
Web3 social tooling has been primarily focused on networks/protocols (Lens) and Web3 music (Soundxyz and other platforms).
Web3 books & magazine publishing is still wide open for taking and Readl has a great UI/UX that could make it the lead.
Lifetime Royalties: With Readl, authors and collaborators earn lifetime royalties from every sale on the platform's bookstore and secondary market. The blockchain ensures that their rights are protected and they receive fair compensation for their work.
Low Commissions: Readl takes only a 2% commission on each transaction, leaving the rest of the revenue and royalties for the creators. This makes it a highly attractive option for anyone looking to monetize their literary content.
Flexible Monetization Options: Readl offers a range of gating options to fit any monetization strategy. Creators can choose to offer free content and rely on user support, or set up a paywall for premium content. They can also add unlockables like alternative covers and audio narrations to incentivize readers.
Customizable Reading Experience: Readl's mobile-friendly reader is highly customizable, allowing readers to adjust the font, size, line spacing, and background color to their liking. This makes the content more accessible and enjoyable for a wide range of users.
Daily Sales Reports: Readl provides daily reports of sales, allowing creators to track their progress and optimize their monetization strategy. This level of transparency is essential for anyone looking to build a sustainable career in the literary world.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: Just today: Readl is a company backed by respected names in the web3 space such as Outlier Ventures, Moonbeam, Transak, Cambridge Blockchain Society, Getronics, Automata, and Peninsula Corporate Innovation.
Learn more about the campaign here: Link
Webb
“Privacy that Brings Blockchains Together."
Type of Product: Privacy
Purpose of Tool: Webb is a new ecosystem of privacy protocols and products designed for a multi-chain world. It builds private cross-chain applications and infrastructure that enable web3 privacy ecosystems to scale. Its zero-knowledge messaging stack is composed of several key components, including the Tangle Network, Hubble Bridge, and cross-chain zero-knowledge apps.
Tangle Network - A decentralized threshold signing system that provides Signing-as-a-Service for cross-chain applications, specifically zk-xchain apps.
-Uses Distributed Key Generation (DKG) with a dynamic authority set to grow and secure zk-xchain apps.
-Enables a variety of new zero-knowledge cross-chain applications.
Hubble Bridge - The first cross-chain private bridge ever built, enabling private movement of assets and data between chains.
-Marks the first zk-xchain app built by Webb, with plans for future extensions such as multi-asset shielded pool support, privacy-preserving incentives, and private asset swaps.
Cross-chain zero-knowledge apps - A variety of new, never-before-seen applications can be realized using the Tangle Network and Hubble Bridge, including private asset swaps and NFT support.
Distributed Key Generation (DKG) protocol - Governs the Anchor System by acting as a security tool that ensures bridge updates are valid. It provides trust in the DKG to sign the data it is meant to sign, ensuring the safety and liveness of the Anchor System.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: Just two days ago on May 9, 2023, Webb Protocol has successfully secured $7 million in a seed funding round. The funding was co-led by Polychain and Lemniscap, with notable investors CMS Holdings and Zeeprime also participating in the raise. This is a significant milestone for the company, with offices in New York, Tel Aviv, Cairo and Miami,
Chainstack Marketplace
"Powering applications in DeFi, NFT, gaming, analytics, and everything in between.”
Type of Product: API Marketplace
Purpose of Tool: Chainstack Marketplace is a platform that caters to the needs of developers and provides them with access to Web3 infrastructure tools to create high-quality apps and services. It takes care of billing and integration with the infrastructure layer, allowing developers to focus on enhancing and adding new features to Web3 services.
Applications: Third-party apps that can be installed on nodes to add advanced capabilities to networks. These apps are designed to enhance the functionality of Web3 services.
Services: Complementary services that extend nodes and networks. These services can be used to improve the performance of Web3 services and add new features.
Developer tools: Tools designed to complement the blockchain development process. These tools can be used to create new apps and services, enhance existing ones, and streamline the development process.
Chainstack Marketplace also offers open-source smart contract language for building future-proof distributed applications. Moreover, they provide Venly multi-blockchain wallet solutions, NFT marketplace, and APIs.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: Chainstack is the go-to software and API provider to successfully build, run, and scale blockchain applications - with a comprehensive toolkit that includes everything from experimentation to production.
Chainstack was founded in 2018 by Laurent and Eugene, who shared a vision for a global and scalable blockchain ecosystem. The Chainstack team consists of experts in areas such as DevOps, cybersecurity, distributed computing, neuro-design, behavioural economics, and knowledge management.
Executive team:
Jan-Jaap Jager - CEO
Eugene Aseev - Founder & CTO
Laurent Dedenis - Founder
Hang | Community Tool | Link to product
HowRare.is | NFT Tool | Link to product
LiquidCollectibles | NFT Liquidity Maker | Link to product
Hyperspace | NFT Marketplace | Link to product
Pocket Universe | Privacy | Link to product
Sygma | Technical Product Lead | Link to position
O(1) Labs | Senior Technical Product Manager - Mina Protocol | Link to position
Talisman | UI/UX Product Designer | Link to position
WalletConnect | Full-Stack Data Engineer | Link to position
Nethermind | Internship Program | Link to position
Bluesky | Web Developer | Link to position
Glassnode | CRM Manager | Link to position
MetaMask | Product Designer - Portfolio, Assets, and NFTs | Link to position
Obol Labs | Technical Customer Success Manager | Link to position
Status | Activist Copywriter | Link to position
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Disclaimer: None of this is to be deemed legal or financial advice of any kind. Always DYOR!