This Week in DAOs - May 25, 2023
A roundup of the most exciting developments in DAOs and web3.
Highlights
👟 Shake fo’ Booty - STEPN, the world's leading web3 move-and-earn platform, has integrated Apple Pay, making the app more widely accessible and holding great significance for the entire web3 ecosystem.
🌳 Carbon Pools - Solid World, a digital infrastructure company for scaling climate finance, launched liquidity pools for carbon markets on the Polygon network, joining a growing hub of regenerative finance (ReFi) activity across Polygon protocols.
💲 Blockchain Finance - Over $100B annually could be saved if distributed ledger technology (DLT) was used in traditional markets, claims a new report from the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA).
🔒 Better Security - Chainlink, a provider of real-world data to blockchains, announced that infrastructure provider Coinbase Cloud would become a node operator on its system, adding capacity and security to the oracle network.
🇨🇳 Metaversity - Nanjing City, the capital of China’s Jiangsu province, launched the Metaverse Technology and Application Innovation Platform of China, a state-backed organization committed to promoting and expanding metaverse studies.
Show Me the Money
💵 Anti-Maxi - Borderless Capital is leading a $50 million fund that will support projects focusing on cross-chain innovation - and specifically, that use the Wormhole cross-chain messaging protocol - in a robust endorsement of the idea that more than one blockchain is needed to address all user needs.
🪙 Web3 for All - Dispersion Capital has launched a $40M fund backed by Circle Ventures, Ripple, Alchemy Ventures, and others, to invest in web3 and decentralized infrastructure, with the broader goal of making web3 appealing and usable to the masses. The fund will focus on “fintech and gaming infrastructure, security, data, and platforms challenging legacy industries.”
💰 Bridging the Gap - Comma3 Ventures has raised its first $20M to invest in early-stage blockchain infrastructure projects, including those focusing on layer-1 and layer-2 blockchains, zero-knowledge rollups, cross-chain solutions, and dApps. Amongst its goals, Comma3 aims to connect web2 investors with opportunities in the web3 space.
🤖 AI Inside - Developer platform Airstack raised $7M in pre-seed funding led by Superscrypt. Airstack allows developers to access and utilize cross-chain data using natural language requests backed by artificial intelligence (AI).
🎶 ourTunes - AnotherBlock, which lets fans invest in music by buying NFTs, has raised $4.3M, led by Stride.VC, to make its offerings available to a broader range of artists, producers, record companies, and future investors.
💸 Zero-Knowledge - Lagrange Labs raised $4M in pre-seed funding, led by 1kx, to develop zero-knowledge cross-chain interoperability solutions.
🥼 Open-Source Science - LabDAO, a DAO-managed research organization focused on open-source drug discovery, raised $3.6M in funding, led by Inflection.xyz and Village Global, to create a more accessible scientific research and discovery landscape through blockchain technology.
🌐 Smarter Contracts - Sort, a platform that simplifies web3 app and smart contract development, raised $3.5M in seed funding, co-led by Lemniscap and The General Partnership.
Listen + Learn
🍎 The Tao of DAO - Web3 infrastructure company Upstream will soon release My First DAO, an online class for aspiring DAOists on the essentials of participating in or founding decentralized autonomous organizations. See also: this essential piece on keeping DAO treasuries safe.
🎥 Film3 - In How web3 will revolutionize the film industry and empower creators, Drew Simon of Crypto Altruism speaks with Josephine Landertinger of Global Eyes Production about how web3 will disrupt the massive and traditionally centralized film industry while empowering independent filmmakers.
Deadlines and Events
💻 April 17-May 31: WEB3ATHON
🏴 June 1-2: Web3 Live, London
🇩🇪 June 7-8: Blockchance 2023
🇵🇹 June 7-9: Non Fungible Conference, Lisbon
🌐 June 9: Epic Web3 Conference, Lisbon
🇵🇪 June 8-10: Blockchaincon Latam
🇭🇷 August 16-18: Metafest, Croatia
🇹🇷 August 21-25: Istanbul Blockchain Week
🇮🇩 August 24-25: Coinfest Asia
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