Happy Wednesday, old and new frens! Just like that, another week has passed and here we are, back together again. And though we lost an hour of sleep over the weekend, hopefully the brighter longer days are lifting your spirits they way they are lifting ours. Serendipitously, today is National Everything You Do is Right Day, a reminder that everything you do today is the right thing to do and that no matter what happened yesterday, today can be its own bright day.

Quip of the Week

Join w3 the North IRL for some crypto talk and drinks!

If you are in Toronto or close-by, come join us IRL - there is no program so come and meet some of the amazing members of the community and enjoy some light web3 discussions over dinner. The first one has been rescheduled and will be on April 1st @5:30pm at a restaurant in downtown Toronto. Interested? Grab a spot here.

The Latest

Vancouver parents' NFT collection to be turned into original children's series

"the littles," an NFT collection created by Vancouver-based Wil Lee and Cassandra Chan, will be turned into an original animated children's series by the Emmy Award-winning TV and film production of TIME (fun fact: they also produced Ye's Jeen-Yuhs.) "the littles" was the combined result of 1) Wil and Cassandra falling deep into the NFT rabbit hole and 2) being inspired by their daughter who "always appreciates and enjoys the little things in life." The project emphasizes strong values of fun, inclusivity, humour, and wonder.

Though this partnership with TIME Studios is impressive, "the littles" was already quite the inspiring project beforehand. All 10K unique NFTs were minted within two minutes of launch, and have since generated over $40M in secondary market sales. The duo also used "the littles" to support causes they care about, leveraging sales of the NFTs to help fund Canada's first registry for pediatric thalassemia, a hereditary condition that their daughter has a variant of, which causes decreased hemoglobin production.

If crypto is the future, Stripe and LimeWire are using the 2000s to launch into it

Payment giant Stripe says "crypto is going mainstream," launching a suite of products aimed towards supporting web3 businesses including exchanges, wallet providers and NFT marketplaces. Interestingly, they were one of the first companies to support Bitcoin payments, doing so all the way back in 2014, but stopped in 2018 citing lack of usefulness for a number of reasons. It seems like their crypto journey is in 4-year increments, as they've again recently announced that their "optimism for the future of crypto is not unfounded... and [they] are working to give crypto businesses access to today's global financial infrastructure."

Another blast from the past? Look no further than LimeWire, your favourite place to download mp3s while you rocked multi-coloured braces. Austria-based entrepreneurs Julian and Paul Zehetmayr bought the rights of LimeWire (originally founded in 2000 and shuttered in 2010) to create a brand new company (with no affiliation to the original LimeWire) with the intention to launch a "mainstream-ready, digital collectibles marketplace for art and entertainment, initially focusing on music" and an associated cryptocurrency to go alongside it.

Biden signs Executive Order on cryptocurrencies

President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order last week, which called on the government to examine the risks and benefits of crypto. The crypto community had been waiting with bated breath for this directive for quite some time, especially given the growing global regulatory examination into this industry as of late. Six key areas will be investigated: consumer and investor protection, financial stability, illicit activity, US competitiveness on the global scale, financial inclusion, and responsible innovation (which includes reducing negative climate impacts.) The Order also describes how the Biden administration wants to explore a digital version of the dollar. Though this Executive Order doesn't explicitly state any conclusions, it is a promising direction as it calls on every Federal agency (including Canada) to:

• Acknowledge and recognize crypto as a growing and legitimate industry

• Understand the risks of crypto and create policy positions that address them

• Support innovation in the space

Okay, so what? DAOs

What is a DAO?

A DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization which means it's a member-owned entity that is autonomous (smart contracts lay foundational rules so there is no need for a centralized governing structure) and transparent (all decisions are encoded on the blockchain). Governments are still figuring out how to handle the legal status of this type of organization, with Wyoming taking the lead on allowing individuals to legally incorporate a DAO. 

At its simplest, most reductive form, DAOs can be described as something like a group chat with a protected bank account - a way to coordinate like-minded internet strangers worldwide that have a joint mission with the capital they need to achieve it. 

Okay, so what?

You no longer have to imagine a world where people who don't know each other can pool money to purchase the US Confederation a la Nicolas Cage or finance a fast-food franchise because ConstitutionDAO and FriesDAO have literally been there and done that. And while those sound like ridiculous examples, it's a glimpse into what might be possible (a different to approach investing, giving etc). 

Another really interesting use case for DAOs is the Future of Work. Unlike corporations, there is no single person or hierarchy controlling the organization. You can likely see how this new organization structure could be an enticing one as we think across multiple industries. Some differences:

• A more flat structure suggests DAOs could start to truly bring democracy and governance into the workplace (members can vote on decisions together)

• The way current DAOs operate are more like project-based work rather than salaried jobs, allowing people to collaborate and receive compensation from multiple organizations, create autonomy and flexibility with respect to their careers

• In a DAO each "employee" would also be an "owner" - which is an incredible economic opportunity to receive upside (in the form of tokens, which is sort of like equity) but would require a significant mindset shift for the majority of the workforce (ownership also = responsibility and accountability)

It's important to note that DAOs are still VERY early with a lot of challenges - limitations in governance and "flat" organizations at scale, corruption of bad actors, and more. It's a long journey but an interesting one with a lot of promise nonetheless!

Want to dive in more?

Something to read

• ENS and the Limitations of DAO governance

• The Future of DAOs Beyond Tokens

• A beginner's guide to joining a DAO

• The future of work is not corporate - its DAOs and crypto networks

• Our previous newsletters all in one place

Something to do

• Join a DAO

• Join our Discord

Some Crypto Lingo

• airdrop: a campaign that distributes a token to an audience (often seen in a marketing campaign to gain early adopters)

• bear market: when the market is down (>20%) from recent highs and investor/market/audience confidence is low

• on-ramp: entering blockchain ecosystem from traditional monetary system

• off-ramp: "cashing-out" of crypto into fiat, goods or services

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Till next time,

w3 the North