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Web3 should draw newcomers, not be a ‘money grab from brands’ — Tech CEO

Using Web3 and NFTs to create another slate of millionaires isn’t a good use of the technology, says EndeavourXR CEO Amy Peck.

The crypto industry should focus on building blockchain-based solutions everybody can benefit from instead of launching cash grabs for brands, says Amy Peck, CEO of tech-focused consulting firm EndeavourXR.

Peck told Cointelegraph at the Lisbon Web Summit that Web3 firms should be build-first oriented and create attractive products to draw newcomers.

She added using Web3 and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as “just another money grab from brands” to create another slate of multi-millionaires “doesn’t seem like a good look” nor a good use of what is an “elegant technology.”

“This is an infinite landscape. The money’s going to be there, right? Let’s build a better bread box. We have the opportunity to do something really interesting and reinvent this economic construct, invite more people to the party, not just create another 1%.”

Obtaining an on-chain proof of identity, taking control and ownership of one’s data, connecting blockchain-based assets to the real world and interacting in the creator economy are among the top things Peck says builders should focus on to extract the most value from Web3.

Following FTX’s collapse and other industry shortfalls, Peck said much of her firm’s client base says they “don’t want to touch crypto” and that “Web3 is all shenanigans.”

Lisbon Web Summit on Nov. 16. Source: Joe Hall/Cointelegraph

Peck acknowledged it’s currently unrealistic for big brands to fully transition to Web3 but says there’s already a “Web2.5 center lane” that these firms can leverage.

Providing consumers with more control and ownership over their data is already possible with blockchain, Peck stressed.

Related: How AI is changing crypto: Hype vs. reality

She added a more “transparent exchange” is becoming more crucial than ever, particularly with the emergence of devices collecting data such as fingerprints and faces.

“What is coming with these immersive devices is biometric data that will allow the people who own that data to know more about us than we know, and the level of manipulation will be exponential.”

On cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds, Peck said it’s great that Wall Street firms are now taking the industry seriously but is wary that they will try to twist what has been built to suit their liking.

“They’re going to try and wrestle it to the ground and make it behave like these existing financial mechanisms.”

Magazine: Singer Vérité’s fan-first approach to Web3, music NFTs and community building

Additional reporting by Joe Hall.

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Crypto hits the main stage at Web Summit in front of record crowds

Web Summit attracted over 71,000 attendees to Lisbon for the renowned technology summit, with cryptocurrency and blockchain taking a more central role in 2022.

Portugal’s capital city of Lisbon has established itself as the spiritual home of one of the world’s largest technology events. Web Summit has called the Altice Arena home since 2016 and attracted a staggering 71,000 people in the latest edition of the conference.

The effect of the event on the city was palpable. An estimated 540,000 people call Portugal’s captivating, hilly capital home and the influx of attendees from around the globe made for a busy week on its smaller cobbled streets and busier roads.

The Ponte 25 de Abril bridge, connecting Lisbon to the municipality of Almada to the south.

It is not surprising that the event is a focal point for the city, which continues to establish itself as a tech hub in Europe. Web Summit continues to play a role to that end, with Lisbon rated as an Alpha-level global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.

Global industry leaders from a wide range of sectors were joined by prominent politicians, celebrities, actors and sportspeople that are at the intersection of tech and their respective spheres of influence. Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska delivered a keynote speech on opening night as the country continues to battle against Russia’s invasion.

Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska speaks during the opening night of Web Summit 2022. Credit: Jose Val Bal.

The cryptocurrency space was also top of mind on opening night as Binance founder and CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao brought the ecosystem to the fore in front of a packed house at the Altice Arena.

CZ unpacked Binance’s $500 billion investment into Twitter, his long-term view of the growing value of cryptocurrencies and the growth of blockchain-powered Web3 capabilities. It was the first time a figure from the crypto space spoke during the event’s opening ceremony - signaling cryptocurrency and blockchain’s growing influence in the global technology ecosystem.

Cointelegraph's Gareth Jenkinson alongside Binance CEO Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao at a community meet-up in Lisbon.

A dedicated Crypto section of the Web Summit app guided attendees to the various stages around the expansive Altice Arena grounds, with the stadium and five massive marquees housing exhibitors and presentations from the world's foremost technology companies and emerging start-ups.

Related: The Sandbox co-founder explains how the metaverse has evolved for brands: Web Summit 2022

Some of the most prominent projects from the cryptocurrency and Web3 space were in attendance. Yuga Labs CEO Nicole Muniz was on hand to give an inside look at the explosion in popularity of the Bored Ape Yacht Club on the mainstage inside the Altice Arena:

“What we've done with BAYC and then later with CryptoPunks and MeeBits, is giving commercial IP rights so that exclusive ownership is something unique to this space that empowers consumers to turn into owners, which is a paradigm shift.”

Cointelegraph also took the stage alongside another prominent metaverse platform as COO and co-founder Sebastien Borget delved into the history and future of The Sandbox in a wide-ranging conversation on the Content Makers stage.

The Sandbox COO and co-founder Sebastien Borget on stage with Cointelegraph's Gareth Jenkinson at Web Summit 2022.

Devin Finzer, CEO and co-founder of OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace, also weighed in on the popularity of NFTs and the importance of their influence on creator economies. Finzer stressed that NFTs are a generic tool attracting a different market segment away from people interested in traditional cryptocurrencies:

“These are people who are excited about art, collectibles and engaging with creators. NFTs, particularly in the creator economy, allow for creators to create digital items that can immediately be monetized and connected with a fan.”

Web3 and NFTs have already become well-ingrained in the world of sports. Cointelegraph sat down for a one-on-one interview with Jorge Urrutia del Pozo, Dapper Labs’ vice president of Football, to unpack their involvement with Spain’s LaLiga and the recently launched Golazos video collectible platform.

Having built the hugely popular NBA Top Shots platform, which produces NFTs of video highlights from America’s top basketball league, Dapper Labs is looking to drive further adoption of blockchain-powered Web3 collectibles through the world’s most loved sport:

“It is a really interesting opportunity for us to onboard tens of millions of people onto blockchain. That’s the way we see sports in general and football in particular. There is massive reach and the intensity of the fandom — it’s a big opportunity.”

Another major player bridging blockchain technology and sport featured prominently at Web Summit. Socios.com CEO Alexandre Dreyfus took to the main stage inside the Altice Arena alongside former Italian footballer Alessandro Del Piero to unpack blockchain’s influence on fandom in modern sports.

Socios.com and Chilliz CEO Alexandre Dreyfus and Cointelegraph's Gareth Jenkinson inside the speakers lounge at Web Summit 2022.

Cointelegraph caught up with Dreyfus after the panel discussion, who highlighted the main reason behind Socios’ creation of fan-powered tokens ecosystems to bring together teams and their supporters:

“The question was, what can you create that is both valuable for a fan and scalable for a team? We think two things matter for a fan. One, being recognised, and two, having a voice. That recognition, that social status, we thought we could power with tokens.”

Web3 gaming was another topic of interest on the Content Makers stage. Cointelegraph moderated another panel featuring Bozena Rezab of Gamee and William Quigley of WAX, who explored the promise and the difficulty of building Web3 games built on play-to-earn mechanics.

Gamee co-founder & CEO Bozena Rezab, WAX co-founder William Quigley and Cointelegraph's Gareth Jenkinson during their panel - 'Building a games company with a Web3 mindset'.

Rezab stressed that developers or studios building Web3 games should be more focused on creating good experiences and driving value and avoid adopting blockchain technology for novelty’s sake. The Gamee co-founder highlighted the importance of thinking about the distribution of value and how to best use the technology:

"It should not be tech-first thinking like ‘this is a cool technology and we’re going to use it’. It’s more about how I will use this to make value and create something people are excited about."

Web Summit also provided the platform for projects to announce new offerings. Interlay used the conference to announce the launch of a suite of decentralized apps to power Bitcoin Decentralized Finance offerings allowing users to lend, trade, borrow against and earn yield on BTC holdings.

Cointelegraph's editor-in-chief Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr hosted a number of panel discussions focused on the emergence of Web3 tech hubs around the world as well as a round table discussion on how to pitch startups and projects for coverage to top-tier journalists.

Cointelegraph's editor-in-chief Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr on-stage at Web Summit in Lisbon.

Cointelegraph CEO Wes Kaplan also hit the stage to moderate a discussion around monetizing media and how news companies grapple with this complex topic. 

Web Summit well and truly brings the world of tech together for one of the biggest events on the global calendar. 2022’s conference proved that the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem has established itself as a growing player in a space dominated by the likes of Google and Apple and will continue to do so as Web3 adoption gathers speed.

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Spanish Crypto Exchange Bitbase Expands to Latam

Spanish Crypto Exchange Bitbase Expands to LatamBitbase, a Spanish cryptocurrency exchange and crypto ATM operator, has announced its expansion to Latam with the establishment of a store in Paraguay. The company, which had previously opened a store in Portugal, is now bringing its operations to several locations in Paraguay, having its sights on Venezuela as the next destination for its expansion […]

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Cosmoverse Conference 2021 kicks off in Lisbon

The event connects ATOM stakeholders, developers and enthusiasts from all over the world with the latest developments on the Cosmos blockchain.

The team behind interoperable blockchain network Cosmos (ATOM) recently hosted the Cosmoverse Conference live from Lisbon, Portugal.

Kicking off the two-day event, Zaki Manian, co-founder of decentralized finance, or DeFi, project Sommel and former lead developer at Cosmos and Tendermint (Cosmos network's core contributor), discussed a number of technologies under development by the Cosmos ecosystem.

According to Manian, a development called ABCI ++ will enable the addition of consensus events on other blockchains to the block production process, improving the efficiencies of cross-chain bridges and oracles on the network. Next, developers can use dynamic IBC (dIBC) functionality to introduce governance proposals across different blockchains instead of only IBC token transfers. Thirdl, liquid staking would allow users to stake their ATOM while receiving a derivative of the asset that can be used in DeFi applications. Finally, interchain accounts are meant to help build multichain applications, where decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, on one chain can directly control accounts or wallets on another.

Sunny Aggarwal, co-founder of Osmosis, a decentralized exchange, or DEX, on the Cosmos ecosystem, elaborated on the concept of liquidity staking further during the panel. Aggarwal explained that coin holders could soon earn better yields by simultaneously accessing multiple DeFi pools with the same underlying tokens. He raised the example of users pledging their Osmosis (OSMO) tokens to provide trading liquidity for the exchange, receiving OSMO liquidity provider tokens, and then depositing the same OSMO LP tokens back into a staking pool. So coin holders can harvest the yield in the LP pool and the staking pool all at once.

In another segment, Enrico Talin, co-founder of Commercio.network, claimed to have created the first legally-binding blockchain in the world. Its infrastructure stores encrypted versions of users' personal data, such as vaccine records, driver's licenses, passports, etc. Theoretically, users would be able to send their electronic signature and proof of identity over the blockchain when requested, such as when signing up for a new bank account. The verifier can then confirm, via decentralized consensus, that the signature is genuine and the documents are from a legit issuer.

However, no personal data is exchanged on the blockchain, only their proofs. Talin then discussed the possibility of creating legally binding nonfungible token, or NFT, contracts that confirm the ownership of real-world assets. Later this year, privacy-broadcast features, IBC, and legal document NFTs will all be available on Commercio.network.

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Sorare CEO shares bold vision on NFTs during Web Summit 2021 opening night

The co-founder of the French tech unicorn discussed major innovations that could come as a result of developments in the NFTs industry.

Web Summit 2021, the biggest tech conference in the world, kicked off on Monday in Lisbon, Portugal, and will last until Nov. 4, 2021. In an opening statement, Carlos Moedas, the Mayor of Lisbon, said that "My dream is that Lisbon will be the capital of innovation in the world." Meanwhile, João Leão, the Minister of Finance of Portugal, stated:

"Portugal is the country people come to invest, to do business and to look live, and to do so in a manner that is open to different cultures."

Notable guest speakers included Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, Black Lives Matter co-founder Ayo Tometi, and Nicholas Julia, co-founder and CEO of French non-fungible token, or NFT, fantasy gaming company Sorare.

NFTs are digital certificates of ownership representing artwork, images, videos, music, and more. They are stored in one's digital wallets, while the actual assets can be stored on-chain or off-chain, depending on size. Sorare enables players to manage their own football (soccer in the U.S.) teams with digital player cards minted as NFTs. These cards can be bought, sold, and transferred.

When asked about the future of the NFT industry within five to ten years, Julia said the following:

"NFTs will be the underlying technology for everything of value on the web. It could be monetary value, or it could be personal value. I mentioned personal identity earlier on, so that's something an NFT could carry for you on the web. It's going to be invisible."

Founded in Paris three years ago, Sorare's valuation has grown from $270 million to $4.3 billion. Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank led its latest round of funding in September. According to Julia, half a million users joined the platform organically, without any marketing. More than 200 football clubs worldwide are currently partnering with Sorare. Based on the company's profile on NFT marketplace OpenSea.io, Sorares cards' cumulative trading volume has surpassed 50,200 Ether (ETH).

But Sorare also seeks to expand outside the realm of NFTs for gaming. Julia issued the following statement in that regard:

"We want people to feel the benefits of it, that you truly own your digital good, that you can move it, and so it. We don't want the friction of the crypto, and that, most of the crypto products of today as complicated I see it as a technology that's going to underpin everything of value on the web."

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