I'm currently writing this from the Centurion Lounge at London Heathrow.

So if you see some typos or other issues, please give me a break.

The good news is there's some interesting things that have been happening over the weekend, and I hope you enjoy reading our take on them.

P.S. - If you could let me know on Twitter or LinkedIn your thoughts on this newsletter and what you would like to see to improve it, that would be great.

---

Quick hits

• ​ZachXBT rallies support - I've long been a fan of ZachXBT. If you don't know him, he's an "on-chain sleuth" who uses various tools to identify alleged shady actors in the space. MachiBigBrother believes he's been wrongly targeted and it's caused reputational damage, so he's suing. And Zach XBT has received around $1M US in donations from the crypto community to help him fight the case. Kinda cool.
• ​Hong Kong continues Web3 growth- I love Hong Kong. Lived there for a few years, and happy to see good news around the place recently. The HK Cyberport has attracted over 150 Web3 brands and have a budget of about $6.3M US to develop Web3 companies. I've got my fingers crossed for HK in all of this. With the US becoming so hostile towards decentralisation, HK might help persuade China to lift their ban which would be a huge market and boost for the industry.
• ​Ethscriptions following Ordinals - June 17th saw the launch of Ethscriptions on Ethereum (obvs). Over 30,000 Ethscriptions were created in the first 18 hours. But what are they? Basically a new way of recording and sharing unique data to Ethereum. So, potentially cheaper NFTs etc. Thing is, if these get popular, then the gas prices on Ethereum could see annoying upswings. But it's still always nice to see a more decentralized and cheaper evolution of popular trends.
• ​Wyre closes its doors - Wyre, the crypto payments solution provider, has decided to close doors after a decade in the space. We've known this might be coming for a while, but it looks like it's here. Sad to see what was a major player and useful service close-up. Not a great sign. but the good news is you have until July 14th to remove any assets you might have with Wyre.

---

Will AI be the snake that eats its own tail? And can Blockchain help?

AI is proving to be a capitalist's wet dream.

You can get a tonne of work done faster, for cheaper, and at the same quality as some of the lower-end service providers (at least when it comes to content).

Here's the thing that's worried me about AI for a while though.

In its current state, it's simply a mechanism for collation and reworking of existing content.

As more brands and creators use AI to create content, the amount of original content decreases.

Will we eventually get to a point where each and every piece of content is another reshuffled and watered-down version of what's already on the web?

You could argue that's what already happens with a lot of content, but AI'll just do it at scale.

I've been thinking on this and it reminded me of my chat with Josh from Blocksee.

Josh said something I think we should all be considering when it comes to the future of these two technologies.

AI needs a large, verified set of information/data to draw from. Blockchain is a large, verified collection of data.

These two technologies are made for each other. And, used together, they should both have massive impacts on countless industries.

I'm curious to hear your take on this (feel free to reach out on Twitter to let me know your thoughts - @Decreviews / @HeyPJB).

The question for me is how are these two technologies going to work together?

Personally, I think blockchain can provide that verifiable element and help bring trust and traceability to AI created content. Cause let's face it, when someone can spin up hundreds or thousands of online reviews, opinions, social shares, or fake news pieces in a few minutes, we're going to face some issues.

AI - obviously - can help with scaling creation. But I think it's more important for it to bring much-needed UX improvements to blockchain.

I've written on the issues with usability in the space before and how it's limiting mass adoption.

So I was incredibly pleased when reading that Alchemy is bringing that exact level of functionality in with a ChatGPT integration.

If you're not aware, Alchemy is a Web3 development platform.

And their integration here is hoping to make it easier for users to query on-chain data.

For example, you could ask "Show me the most recent block and the transactions in that block”. And the new plugin would give you the info you need.

This is massive for usability in the space and, it should, help more developers build awesome new tools and projects.

Personally, I think this is the future of AI.

AI for content alone offers diminishing returns and is a race to the bottom, much like the content mills of yesteryear.

Blockchain bringing in verifiable info, and AI improving UX though, that's the kind of partnership we need.

---

Featured projects

A couple of cool projects I think you should be aware of.

• ​Fire Wallet Extension - Worried about syncing to something that'll drain your wallet? Worry no more. I've been using Fire for a while. Nice, easy tool that pops up a warning (or a green light) telling you what the smart contract you're syncing to will actually do.
• ​Nansen - Nansen should need no intro. It's a great analytics tool that can offer a tonne of info for anyone in the space. It's a little pricer than some others, but you get what you pay for. Considering getting a new account for these newsletters to find some cool trends. Thoughts?
• ​Dialect - Dialect's a messaging platform for Web3. Not 100% certain how it's going to play out as they're currently building their waitlist for their launch. but if you join, you get a chance at minting a unique "new kind" of NFT. Whatever that is.

---

What's your take?

Researching this bad boy I have to read a lot of Web3 news. Gotta be honest, most of it is surface level and... honestly, shite.

Basic information about something that's happened but which helps no one but the brand being mentioned.

Dropped my thoughts in some social posts, and would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

​Drop your thoughts on LinkedIn.​

​Share your take on Twitter.​

---

Want to help us out?

If you've got a couple of bucks to spare and fancy helping us keep this train moving, we'd be super appreciate if you could leave a tip.

Leave a tip now

Can't afford a tip but still want to help out?

No worries.

A simple share would help us massively.

Share on your favourite platform