w3 the North is a community of women, nonbinary, and underrepresented crypto-curious individuals. A proud Canadian community, we're centring the "we" in web3 to emphasize that the future is for all of us and that community is at our core.   

Good morning and happy hump day to our lovely “w3 the North” community! Although most groundhog forecasters predict a longer winter ahead, we're feeling optimistic these past few days and are going with Ontario's Wiarton Willie, who is calling for an early spring! After all, what better season is there to bloom and grow and learn about crypto than spring?

Quip of the Week

What is it and Why Does it Matter?

Crypto, bitcoins, altcoins, dogecoin??

The market cap for crypto is $3T dollars. Yup, that's not a typo it's a T as in WTF! (For context, if you spent a dollar every second, it would take you 95,100 years to spend all $3T). Obviously, there's a lot of money in crypto, but without a tangible thing to hold and touch, internet money can feel like magic. As a newer asset class, crypto is considered to be widely volatile ( Meaning, if Elon Musk decides to go on Twitter, it could cause the market to fluctuate +-10%). A major difference between crypto and fiat (read: "real money") is that there isn't necessarily anything intrinsically valuable (ie. diamonds or gold) backing up crypto's value. However, where it's similar to fiat is that crypto's value increases based on 1) supply and demand, and 2) the market's perception of said value at a moment in time.

• Supply is determined by how many new coins are minted and how many current owners want to sell their coins.

• Demand fluctuates based on how useful it is to own the coins (ie more places accept crypto, it becomes a desirable store of value investment etc.)

This is all important to keep in mind because while we're bullish on crypto and web3 in general, it's worth noting that this is a risky investment that will take time to normalize. The key thing is to understand the types of crypto out there (and therefore the range in risk) before investing. A quick TL;DR to kick you off:

• Bitcoin: the most valued and popular cryptocurrency (basically the OG of crypto)

• Altcoins:  alternative cryptocurrencies to bitcoins (most popular and largest in market cap: Ethereum, Cardano)

• Stablecoins: asset-backed cryptocurrencies like Tether, Binance with a fixed value (somewhat reducing risk by mimicking the fiat system)

• Memecoins - coins inspired by memes and internet jokes rather than a series product (therefore really susceptible to hype and fluctuations, like Dogecoin)

The Latest

The hottest ticket to Coachella this year is an NFT

Coachella launched their NFT collection which includes access to everything ranging from a physical photo print (minimum bid $50) to lifetime access to Coachella (current minimum bid is $75K).This is a great example of how NFT's can provide and unlock access. In the future, we might see Coachella NFT holders participating in the selection of artists, or as hologram backup dancers to their favourite performers (sign us up!)

The internet invested $40M+ to free the founder of WikiLeaks from jail

Julian Assange founded WikiLeaks, a site that helped people whistle blow by leaking documents about their organization/industry. A DAO has formed to free him from extradition in the US where he faces 175 years in prison for "publishing truthful information." The DAO (recall: a DAO is a decentralized community of people) raised nearly $42M to bring awareness to his cause and cover his legal fees. It's an interesting look at how people organize for things they believe in and is simultaneously exciting and scary to think of the possibilities this unlocks. It really depends on how you feel about the current state of the world (and Canada.)

KPMG Canada just added Bitcoin and Ether to their balance sheet 

They didn't disclose how much they had invested in cryptocurrencies but this is a big move for a large accounting firm and a strong signal that their clients are moving in the direction of increasing investments in cryptocurrencies. It's also worth noting that this puts a large Canadian company ahead of many players in the US, further reflecting interest from Canada's business sector in digital currencies. 

Okay, so what?: DAOs in the real world

DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) are one of the most exciting developments of web3. From the outside, a lot of web3 can feel like it's entirely centred around magic internet cash without thinking about its broader impact on the world. DAOs have even been simplistically described as a group chat with a bank account. But for those of us who are more impact-focused, Web3 has applications that enable new avenues for social change.  They are community-centred, and every member of the DAO has an equal voice in setting up the DAO's protocol (AKA rules, structure, decisions etc) -- this means they don't need central governance. DAO's can be established for many reasons, and the space of Social Impact DAO's is quickly growing. What's cool about social impact DAO's is that the structure of DAO's allows for a different type of relationship between social causes and donors. The social cause is at the root of what brought that DAO together in the first place and all members of the DAO can choose how they want to use their funds for the cause. We have seen many Climate focused DAO's like Climate DAO, or Klima DAO as well as DAO's that are focused on very specific causes like HerStory DAO helping incubate and bring attention to the work of marginalized crypto creators in NFT or VitaDao a DAO investing in healthcare research. 

So what?

DAO's give communities the opportunity to make actual investments in causes they care about. As the DAO grows, the value of the DAO will also grow, giving the investment more meaning and potential spending power. 

Do you want to dive in more?

Something to read

• The Crypto Backlash is Booming

• Tweet thread on Universal Basic Capital

• Just like supporting a bro - women NFT artists bringing equity to web3

Something to do

• Join our discord 

• Sign up for our first event

Something to try

• Set up your crypto wallet

Some Crypto Lingo

• wallet: something that allows you to store your digital currency. Can be "hot" (connected to the internet) or "cold" (not connected to the internet)

• DeFi: decentralized finance (without a "middleman" like a bank)

• DAO: Decentralized autonomous organization

• mint: to put something on the blockchain like a jpeg or GIF for the first time (you are the first one to buy it from the creator). After "minting" that thing can be held, sold or traded

• "HODL": hold on for dear life

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Till next time,

w3 the North