🚘 DVM on the Chain?
Gm tech enthusiasts. BigTech on big alerts. Amazon experienced its first loss since 2014, while Apple’s quarterly revenue declined for the first time in four years, and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, saw a decrease in advertising revenue. Meanwhile, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer app in history, with an estimated 100 million monthly active users in January, according to UBS. OpenAI’s chatbot reached this milestone in just two months from its launch, compared to TikTok's nine months and Instagram's 2.5 years.
Let’s dive in.
Headlines 📰
Rally says Goodbye. 👋
Social token platform Rally announced that they are shutting down their business effective immediately. The Ethereum-based platform was for creators to launch social tokens, which let social media personalities, bands, and esports teams engage with and monetize their communities. Rally CEO Rob Collier explained that 2022’s challenges topped with lack of ongoing support made the decision final.
Ethereum Testnet Launched. 🚀
Ethereum Developers have launched a public testnet today to support staked ETH withdrawals. The Zhenjiang Testnet will give users the chance to test full and partial withdrawals of their staked Ether, with a rehearsal of the network’s upcoming Shanghai and Capella upgrades scheduled to go live six days later.
Currently around 16.3M ETH worth $28.5B is staked. The recent progress towards enabling withdrawals has given a boost to liquid staking derivative (LSD) providers, which were the talk of the town last week.
California DMV on the chain. 🏎️
California DMV announced that it was piloting a new program to digitize car titles and bring them to the blockchain. They are partnering with the Tezos blockchain and crypto-software firm Oxhead Alpha to build a private blockchain intended to digitize car titles and facilitate title transfers between owners.
Noun Comics. 📕
Nouns, the popular NFT project, has already been featured in a SuperBowl commercial and at the Rose Bowl Parade. Now, Titan Comics, the publisher of the Simpsons and Blade Runner, plans to showcase Nouns in physical comic books. Starting in April, the six-issue run of “Nouns: Nountown” is written by Titan Comics senior editor David Leach and illustrated by Danny Schlitz. Penguin Random House will eventually turn it into a graphic novel. As usual, the decision was made by the NounsDAO votes, which consists of all Noun owners. A digital version of Nountown will also be released as an NFT.
Speed Round 🕺
Meta is shutting down Echo VR, one of its most popular VR gaming titles. Their stock also rose by 25%.
Blur introduced a Collector Mode.
Fortnite pro Mongraal is dominating Yuga Labs’s Dookey Dash competition.
OpenAI officially released ChatGPT Plus.
Microsoft released an artificial intelligence-powered version of its Teams collaboration software.
Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek is launching a new healthcare startup.
The DOJ assistant attorney general for antitrust and the litigator of the new antitrust suit against Google Jonathan Kanter has been preparing the lawsuit for 15 years.
Twitter announced that it will share ad revenue with creators.
Meta’s metaverse division loses $13.72 billion in 2022.
OpenSea’s Polygon NFT sales top Ethereum for second straight month.
Tweet Check. 🐦
Fun Event. 💃
What are your plans for the weekend? I know where I’ll be.
World of Women Los Angeles meetup is happening this Saturday in Venice!
RSVP here. +1s are welcome.
Fun Watch. 📺
-Aleyna
Disclaimer: Investing in NFTs comes with inherent risk including technical risk, human error, platform failure and more. This newsletter is strictly educational and nothing we offer is financial advice. We are not professionals or licensed advisors. Views my own and not any other company I’m affiliated with.
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