Sup, nerds!

Here’s what you’re getting in today’s edition:

• 💅 This is cool: 4.2 Billion new Web3 users? Sure, why not.
• 🔎 This seems important: Bitcoin is beating Ethereum at its own game.
• 🤝 Partner: You can capitalize on current high interest rates — here’s how.
• 🔪 Let's dissect this: Send this to your dad.

Terms used in this edition (click for an explanation, or ask Web(GPT)3!):
​Web3, Wallet, NFT, Liquid.

💅 This is cool:

​4.2 Billion New Web3 Users? Sure, Why Not.​

In one sentence: Visa Card is launching a Web3-based loyalty program that lets brands get reeeeal creative with how they reward their customers.

In NYC, only 44.5% of households own a car.

While in LA, 87.9% of households own at least one.

The stark difference in car ownership stats is thanks to infrastructure.

NYC's public transport system has been well planned, developed and maintained over the years, giving folks less need for a car.

While development of LA's public transport system was secretly sabotaged by National City Lines (NCL), between 1938 and 1950.

NCL was owned by (get this): General Motors, Firestone Tires, and Standard Oil.

Who all opted to convert the city's streetcar system into bus operations. Operations that would rely heavily on each company's respective products.

But shoot, we're getting off track...

The point we're trying to make is: infrastructure drives adoption!

In fact, it's the ultimate growth hack. Instead of convincing individual users to adopt your technology - simply integrate your technology with existing infrastructure that folks rely upon daily, and BOOM!

New users, en masse.

And the potential for 'accelerated adoption via infrastructure integration' (AAVII, if you're nasty) is why we're all giddy with excitement right now...

​Visa Card​ just announced its new Web3-based loyalty program.

The basic idea behind it this:

Existing brands can reward their Visa card-holding customers with custom 'loyalty tokens' (specific to their brand), that don't require a purchase to earn.

Potential new earning mechanisms might look like this:

Link your email and socials to your Visa loyalty wallet and earn points when you open emails, engage on socials, tag a brand's product in a post, etc.

Here's how you might spend/leverage your points:

Hold X amount of a clothing brand's loyalty points → get invited to a private meet n' greet with the design team, unlock 'super fans only' merch, join invite-only communities, etc.

Here's an example of how brands can get creative with customer engagement, using this program:

Buy football tickets with a Visa card → unlock a scavenger hunt at the stadium → earn a digital collectible player card of your team's quarter back.

Wrap it all up into a neat little bundle, and you have a new take on loyalty!

The whole thing ain't live just yet, but once it is...

This Web3-based loyalty program will added to Visa's existing infrastructure, which supports a network of 4.2B Visa cards worldwide.

Not too shabby!

🥇 Want the news before anyone else?

🔎 This seems important:

​Bitcoin Is Beating Ethereum at Its Own Game​

In one sentence: There's been an NFT market on ETH far longer than BTC, yet in Dec, NFT sales on BTC totaled $881M, compared to ETH's $353M.

Things we didn't have on our 2023 bingo card:

• Bitcoin beating Ethereum in NFT sales.
• A decorated Air Force vet saying UFOs are real, while under oath.
• Céline Dion being excluded from Rolling Stone's 200 greatest singers list (shame on you, RS).

But back to that first point...

The first NFT was created on Ethereum, back in 2014, and a market was formed around the technology in 2017.

Giving ETH a healthy 7-10 year head start on developing the technology and taking a dominant lead in the space (depending on where you measure from).

But now Bitcoin (which has had an NFT market for less than a year) is outpacing Ethereum in NFT sales! Nuts right?

What's stranger is it's not like the numbers between each chain's sales are even close. In December, NFT sales on the Bitcoin network totaled $881M, compared to Ethereum’s $353M (!)

Here's the lesson we're taking from this:

Network effects are cool and all, but money still talks.​
​
I.e. there's a larger network of products/games/tools built around Ethereum NFTs - but the total value of the Bitcoin network is roughly 3x more than ETH's.

($863B vs. $273B).

Which gives Bitcoin NFTs an economic edge, in that they give BTC holders a new way to spend their money, without ever leaving the Bitcoin network.

It's similar to how Apple has been able to enter and dominate multiple new product categories over the past decade.

The company's message being:

The message of Bitcoin NFTs being:

Or something to that effect...

(idk - you get the point!)

🤝 Partner:

​You Can Capitalize on Current High Interest Rates — Here’s How​

Interest rates are at 22-year highs, but you can take advantage of them.

With rates hovering around 5%, high-yield savings accounts present an opportunity for substantial returns through compound interest.

Offering up to 10 times the return compared to regular savings accounts, these accounts are ideal for short- and long-term goals.

See Money's list of High-Yield Savings Accounts today to discover how much you could earn.

​

🔪 Let's dissect this:

​Send This to Your Crypto Curious Friends/Family That “Aren’t Quite Ready To Take the Plunge”​

In one sentence: For those not ready to take the plunge into crypto directly, there are Bitcoin ETFs, Trusts, and Proxies which all use traditional financial rails.

Growing up we had a neighbor who let us and our friends play in their swimming pool. One of our friends, Devin, would never just jump in the pool.

He’d walk over to the side, dip his toes in, and carefully consider whether he wanted to take the plunge or not.

Well, Devin hasn’t changed much. We all bought into Bitcoin a while back, but he's still on the sidelines, considering whether to 'take the plunge' into BTC.

Here's what he's missing:

He doesn't have to take the plunge. Not directly at least...

There are a handful of avenues in the traditional finance space where you can buy Bitcoin, indirectly.

We wrote Devin a breakdown of his options and thought we should share (just in case you have a Devin in your life that needs convincing).

Bitcoin ETFs

These allow investors to purchase Bitcoin, via the stock market.

You buy a share in the ETF → the folks managing the fund use your money to buy BTC.

What's cool: You can get exposure to Bitcoin's price as it moves.

What's not so cool: ETFs have fees (anywhere from 0.09%-0.6%) and most ETFs are only tradable during ‘banking hours’...

Bitcoin prices don’t sleep, so holders may miss out on short term plays.

Bitcoin Trusts

These are very similar to ETFs, but they are less liquid (i.e. have fewer buyers and sellers, so can be hard to sell out of quickly, in large amounts).

What's cool: Trusts have to be more transparent on how much they are holding, so you’d get periodic disclosures of their assets.

What's not so cool: Because trusts are less liquid, they're more difficult to sell on the secondary market and they have more of a set price, so you may end up selling/buying at a premium or a discount.

Bitcoin Proxies

Basically, you invest in companies that work with Bitcoin or own Bitcoin.

In the US the most common Proxy investment would be with public traded bitcoin mining companies, or MicroStrategy.

What's cool: Proxies function exactly like traditional companies, because they are. They have Balance sheets, revenue and profit (hopefully).

What's not so cool: Because this is traditional finance, you're opening yourself up to all the general problems public companies face (scandals, mismanagement, lawsuits, etc.)

We don't have the right answer on which option is best, but we sure are glad they exist!

Spot Bitcoin ETF explained

​

👇 Other stuff you may have missed

• 🎢 Bitcoin Rebounds Above $44K as Spot BTC ETF Approval Looks Increasingly Likely​
• 🇮🇳 India's Digital Rupee Crossed a Million Transactions in 1 Day With Some Help From Banks​
• 📈 Marathon’s Monthly BTC Production Hits New Peak, Far Ahead of Competitors​
• 🪂 Solana’s LFG Token Lures Ethereum Users, Plans Second Airdrop and Grants Program​
• 💰 Celsius Network to Unstake All Ethereum Holdings to Pay Back Creditors​

​

Alright, that’s it for today!
Love to the family,

​Chevy, Seb & The Web3 Daily Team.

P.S. Want to learn how to research and value cryptocurrencies? We created a framework that does just that.

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