Freelance Crypto and Web3 Content Writer | Posts and threads about the crypto space. (@tanyog) • Hey
Freelance Crypto and Web3 Content Writer | I run the first and only newsletter on web3 gaming
@CryptoXxplorer| Posts and threads about the crypto space.
Publications
- How did Pudgy Penguins go from a rug pull to selling $500k worth of toys?
Few NFT projects have had as many trials and tribulations as Pudgy Penguins, from sell-out mints to rug pulls to launching a best-selling toy on Amazon.
Here's the story 🧵
Pudgy Penguins launched in July 2021, in the middle of the NFT bull run, selling out in less than 20 mins.
So the NFT collection of 8,888 NFTs was off to a solid start.
The floor price quickly reached an all-time high of 2.49 ETH (worth around $7k at the time.)
However, a few months later, problems started to arise.
A Discord moderator claimed that he was underpaid and was bribed by the founding team to keep his mouth shut.
Then it was discovered that the project’s founders had emptied the Pudgy Penguins treasuring, resulting in the floor price dropping to 0.4 ETH.
Needless to say, the Penguins were in shambles.
Many thought that the project would never recover from this.
How Pudgy Penguins Have Turned the Tables
In the midst of all the scandals, Pudgy’s community stayed strong, searching for new leadership.
One of the NFT holders, Luca Netz, came to the rescue, buying the entire project and IP for 750 NFTs (over $2.5 million at the time.)
So who is this Luca Netz, and what did he do to turn the Penguins into a blue-chip NFT project?
Luca Schnetzler, known as Luca Netz in the NFT world, is a 24-year-old serial entrepreneur, and his background is beyond impressive.
He’s not of those “serial entrepreneur” gurus you see on the Internet.
While he comes from humble beginnings (growing up homeless, living in 30 guest bedrooms in 9 years), his “entrepreneurial resume” is stellar, including:
• Working at the start-up Ring Doorbell which sold for null billion to Amazon.
• Being the CEO of companies like La Gold Cartel (his jewelry store), Manners Holdings, and LPT Technologies.
• Launching a VC firm, Netz Capital investing in e-commerce companies.
Using his experience in e-commerce, Luca assembled a rock-solid advisory board featuring:
• Alex Svanevik - CEO of Nansen
• Sanjay Raghavan - Head of Web3 at Roofstock
• RJ Cilley - COO of SAKS Fifth Ave
• Jordan Sterlin - Partnerships at META
• Chet Kuchinad - CPO at Save The Children, Previously at Nike & Starbucks
• Bee Ngyuyen - General Partner Limited Ventures
• Jess Richardson - Head of Licensing at Hasbro
• Paolo Moreno - Adviser at SFX Ent & Fashion Nova
• Pentoshi - King of the Penguins
Pudgy Penguins also raised $9 million in seed funding from investors like:
• BigBrainVC
• Research Kronos
• CRIT Ventures
With that much experience and dry pounder, Luca started expanding the project’s IP.
The NFT project signed a deal with the Hollywood talent agency, WME, to help them expand the brand in TV shows, movies, and gaming.
The Penguins also doubled down on their social media strategy, reaching over 3 billion views on its official GIFs and 500k followers on Instagram.
Taking advantage of the social media views, and family-friendly IP, Pudgy launched their own toys - Pudgy Toys.
It’s the world’s first mass-market NFT product that’s licensed directly from its community.
The toys are not a cheap cash grab, though.
They’ve their own utility.
Buyers of the toy will get their own certificate that gives them a trait box featuring 4-6 traits.
Owners can trade or equip these traits to their own Forever Pudgy Penguin NFT.
Once the Forever Penguin is equipped with these traits, users can mint it on the blockchain as a dynamic NFT, which can be further customized.
The toy launch was a wild success, selling over 20,000 toys (worth over $500,000) on Amazon in the first two days.
So what are the lessons we can learn from Pudgy Penguins?
1) Play to your strengths
The NFT collection of cute Penguins has a natural kid and family-friendly appeal.
So the team used doubled down on it.
The project is sharing a ton of cute memes, wallpapers, stickers, and GIFs on social media, which helped them grow theirs following without spending any money on ads.
,
2) Go beyond web3
Instead of launching its 19th airdrop, the project decided to explore an entirely new market - toys.
Using Luca’s e-commerce experience, and Pudgy Penguins’ social media brand, the project’s dive into physical goods has been a wild success.
3) Think outside of the box
One quote by Luca Netz stands out:
“I look at the Pudgy Penguin like an influencer.”
If you look at the project’s social media channels, this rings true.
Pudgy Penguins has a strong presence on all social media platforms, especially on the visual ones (IG and Tik Tok), and frequently collaborates with other NFT projects like DeGods.
I also write a newsletter covering the intersection between crypto, gaming, NFTs, and the Metaverse, where I cover topics like this one.
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- Tomorrow's newsletter will be a deep dive into Big Time, including:
- A look into Big Time's team.
- Breaking down Big Time's business model.
- Exploring key metrics behind the game.
➡️ Subscribe here: https://www.cryptoplayerone.co/subscribe
- Hey #lenster
I'm building a paid newsletter ($997 a year) to help people like yourself get an unbiased and hype-free view of the web3 gaming market.
I'm running an exclusive promo that will give you a 14-day free trial, so you can test the product.
Would you like to try it out for free?
If you're, DM me.
- Your boy is back.
I'm reviving Crypto Player One, turning it into a free weekly newsletter.
It will give you the stories that matter in web3 gaming every Friday in less than 5 minutes.
Wanna stay ahead of the industry?
The next issue is coming this Friday, so subscribe here:
https://www.cryptoplayerone.co/subscribe
- Web3 gaming still remains undervalued as a sector.
I've put together an exclusive report covering why web3 gaming is still a massive opportunity.
Like+RT+Comment 🚀 and I'll send it over
(Must be following)
- So what are the results of Limit Break's Super Bowl ad?
Let's do the math, shall we?
What are the costs?
Limit Break spent $6.5 million for a 30-second ad.
What are the results?
- 10k NFTs given away for free.
- The trading volume of the NFT collection is 1302 ETH which is around $2 million.
The collection has 10% royalties, so just from the trading post-mint, @limitbreak has made around $200k.
The project and gaming NFTs got a lot of press from the ad.
But it wasn't all good.
A lot of people (myself included) found the ad a little underwhelming.
Especially if we compare them to last year's Crypto dot com and FTX ads.
So if I'm right, as of now, Limit Break has spent $6.5 million to make $200k from royalties.
Hard to measure how the publicity will affect the project long-term.
Won't fade, Gabriel Leydon, given his track record in running expensive commercials.
What do you think?
Do you think the ad was a success or not?
Why?
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- Normies watching DigiDaigaku's Super Bowl ad:
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- Okay, enough time has passed.
How does Lenster feel about Limit Break's Super Bowl ad?
Love it or hate it?
Why?
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- Games like Dookey Dash and Illuvium show how valuable it is to build your audience BEFORE launching your game.
Gives you a ton of time to experiment and try different things with your users.
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- We need to stop calling them "Web3/crypto/NFT games" and just call them games.
Gamers don't care about the tech, they care about the gameplay.
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- We need to stop calling them "Web3/crypto/NFT games" and just call them games.
Gamers don't care about the tech, they care about the gameplay.
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- Yuga Labs Dookey Dash has been making the rounds over the last few weeks on social media.
Here's everything you need to know about the game 👇
Dookey Dash is a skill-based runner game.
The longer you survive, the higher your score is.
It's similar to Temple Run or Subway Surfers (games we loved to play in high school.)
How to play the game?
You need a Sewer Pass NFT that acts as your entry ticket.
You get one for free if you own BAYC or MAYC.
But if you don't, you can buy one on the secondary market.
There are 4 different tiers.
The higher the tier, the more points you add to your final score.
Right now, the cheapest Sewer Pass costs around 2 ETH.
When you play the game, you can buy a Powershart Pack with APE tokens.
It's a trio of boosters that lasts 10 mins after purchase.
You could play the game unlimited times until February 8 with your Sewer Pass.
Your score is connected with your Sewer Pass and wallet combination.
So if you sell it, the buyer won't get your points scored.
However, users can store the Pass in a cold wallet and use a hot one to play the game.
Sewer Pass owners can assign a fresh hot wallet as a delegate, so another user can play the game.
This allows users who can't afford the Sewer Pass to play the game, opening it up for non-web3 users.
Some Sewer Pass owners paid professional gamers to play the game with their Pass to get a higher score.
This is huge for 2 reasons:
1) Web3 mechanics are attracting traditional gamers.
2) Game creators have the incentive to promote the Sewer Pass.
So far, more than 9500 wallets have been used to play Dookey Dash.
Users who hold their Sewer Pass until February 15 can be part of the "Summoning."
What's the "Summoning?"
It's an event when players with a score higher than 0 can burn their Pass to get a yet-to-be-announced NFT.
This NFT will be part of future mini-game sets.
Here are the stats behind Dookey Dash:
- 4 million game sessions.
- Over 19k unique players.
- $800k worth of APE spent on the game.
- $0 spent on user acquisition or platform fees.
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- Goal for 2023 - Join WolvesDAO
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- Goal for 2023 - Join WolvesDAO
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- Can't wait to see a web3 forever game like League of Legends
- Who's building a forever game like League of Legends in web3?
- Can't stop thinking about Mitch Lasky's mental model around the gaming space.
For him, the gaming industry is a mix between the tech and creative industries.
Web3 gaming is an excellent example of tech innovation (blockchain) + creative innovation (different experiences.)
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- Mitch Lasky is a legendary gaming investor.
His investments include Discord and Riot Games.
I spent this weekend going over his answers on Quora around gaming and found a ton of gold nuggets relevant to web3 gaming.
Here are the five key lessons 👇
1/ The gaming industry is a hybrid between tech and creative industries.
Tech innovation and creative innovation drive gaming forward.
Web3 gaming is an excellent example of a tech innovation (blockchain/crypto) and creative innovation (different experiences.)
2/ Game makers and publishers need to learn to deal with failure.
Mitch was involved in the development and publishing of hundreds of games.
Some became smash hits like Spider-man PS4, but others were flops.
To be successful in gaming, you need to learn that failure is part of the job.
This is also true for web3 gaming.
If your first game flops, you can always make another one.
It takes time to make a hit.
3/ User-generated content will become even more important in the future.
The success of Roblox, Minecraft, and the different GTA modes shows that user-generated content is at the heart of a successful game.
4/ Things that capital markets value are lacking in games.
To be a good VC, you need to assess things like:
- Predictable recurring revenue.
- Customer acquisition efficiency at scale.
- Favorable competitive dynamics.
These are lacking in games.
So Mitch bases his decision on whether or not to invest in a game on things unrelated to the game.
He's interested in:
- The competitive advantage
- The business model
- The distribution
- The network effects
I believe the same is valid for investing in web3 games.
5/ VR is not the next big gaming platform.
Mitch believes that VR asks users to make a lot of changes to their behaviors to achieve 360 immersion.
You need a lot of physical space to play, and you're also isolated from your surroundings.
Also, the headsets are uncomfortable and need a lot of computing power to render a visual experience.
He doesn't see how playing a game in VR gives you even 2X improvement over playing it on a PC or console.
Mitch thinks that new experiences will come along that are VR-native.
Excited to see how this prediction plays out.
VR is getting better and better, but it still feels like 10 years away.
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- Web3 games that focus on appealing to speculators NGMI.
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- gm.
I just released Part 2 of the web3 creator economy directory.
It now includes an additional:
→ 77 Listings
→ 5 Categories
→ 19 Sub-Categories
Part 2 consists of the following categories:
→ Blockchains (14)
→ Wallets (11)
→ Media (24)
→ Marketing (10)
→ DeFi (18)
Check it out: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZQiPOpTLdHiCx_taZB5eMATs-UFJRP3DkZ5YRZWwsDE/edit?usp=sharing
If you find this valuable, you will certainly enjoy my weekly newsletter, Platformless.
I share simple guides on how to succeed in web3 as a creator/brand.
Subscribe (for free) here: https://goplatformless.xyz/subscribe
Thank you.
- This #Web3 startup mega-resource covers everything:
🖥️ Product
💵 Fundraising
📈 Marketing
🏘️ Community
If you want proven advice, curated resources, and best practices for your Web3 startup, there's no better place to start: https://blog.chain.link/launching-a-web3-startup-guide/
- Web3 Games of the past - built on speculation and Ponzi economics.
Web3 games of the future - built on awesome gameplay and verifiable ownership.
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- What's the most underrated aspect of @yuga_labs.lens ' Dookey Dash game?
For me, it's the amount of user-generated content players create.
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- Sorare has partnered with the Premier League.
Here's why this is huge news for both Sorare and the web3 gaming space: 👇
First, for those of you who don't know, Sorare is a fantasy sports gaming platform.
You choose a sport, a league and create a team of eight players from that league.
You can collect and trade unique player cards (which are NFTs) and compete in leagues against other users.
Sorare is already getting a lot of interest and usage from fantasy sports players.
In 2021, trading NFT cards on Sorare produced $270 million.
And in 2022, that number almost doubled to $500 million.
Also, Sorare is well-funded.
It raised $680 million in Series B in 2021 from renowned VC companies like Benchmark and angels like Gary Vee and Alexis Ohanian (founder of Reddit.)
As of now, Sorare features three different sports:
- European football (soccer for you Americans.)
- Basketball (featuring leagues like the NBA.)
- Baseball (featuring leagues like the MLB.)
They have partnered with the most prominent organizations in these sports like:
- Premier League
- LaLiga
- Bundesliga
- SerieA
- NBA
- MLB
So why is Sorare's partnership with the Premier League such a big deal?
Cuz Sorare can now use officially licensed NFTs from the league.
This is huge since the Premier League is the by far the biggest and most popular football league in the world.
Its annual TV audience is 4.7 billion.
And they already have their own fantasy premier league competition with over 10 million registered users for the 22/23 season.
That's almost 3x more than Sorare's current user base.
Here lies a great opportunity for the company to attract some of these users and onboard them into web3.
So what made Sorare so successful in attracting partners and users?
Three things:
1/ The game is free-to-play
Users don't have to spend any money to get started, so people can start playing pretty much immediately.
2/ Sorare targets an already-established market
More than 45 million people play fantasy sports worldwide, so rather than creating a new industry, Sorare is going out after a mature market.
3/ Simple business model and no mention of the web3 mumbo jumbo
Sorare makes money by selling new NFT cards every month.
So it doesn't have any complex token economies or NFT roadmaps.
The company uses part of the proceeds to fund the rewards in the weekly tournaments.
As of now, Sorare doesn't have royalties, so they don't make money on secondary sales, but I can see that happening in the future.
Also, Sorare gives part of its revenue to its partner clubs and leagues.
Sorare is an excellent case study of how a web3 company can attract users:
- Clear value proposition (ownership and trading of NFT cards.)
- No web3 mumbo jumbo.
- Targeting an already established market.
Other blockchain games have to take note of this approach and use it.
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Sorare, if you need help with your content, let's talk:
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- Say what you want about Yuga Labs, but their meme game is on point.
- Say what you want about Yuga Labs, but their meme game is on point.
- This week Naavik and Delphi Digital released their "The Great Reset: Your 2023 Guide To Web3 Games" report.
It's packed full of alpha.
I read through its 71 pages, so you don't have to.
🧵: Here are the top 5 takeaways. 👇
1/ VCs keep pouring money into web3 gaming
In 2022, the sector raised $3.7 billion in VC funding, with the biggest raises being:
- Limit Break's $200M raise at null.8B valuation.
- Sky Mavis's $150M raise after the Ronin Hack.
- Animoca Brands' $183M raise at $6B valuation.
2/ 2022 had its fair share of web3 gaming hits and misses.
These games defined the year:
1. Axie Infinity
Axie generated more fees than Bitcoin and Ethereum combined at one point.
But, the combination of an unsustainable token economy + negative sentiment slowed user growth.
Since its peak, the number of daily active wallets interacting with the game has fallen by 92%.
2. Sorare
The free-to-play web3 fantasy sports game raised $680M in 2021.
The company has partnered with over 250 clubs and has over 10k NFT cards.
Sorare has also partnered with sports superstars like Messi, Serena Williams, and Zinedine Zidane.
Despite the market downturn, the game has remained in the top 10 traded NFT collections during all of 2022.
Also, user engagement is higher, and the number of unique NFT buyers has increased by over 51% year-over-year.
3. StepN
The game took full advantage of the Move2Earn craze after the Axie Infinity craze.
In March of 2022, it reached over 2.2 million active users.
However, because of its Ponzi economics set-up, the game's token has crashed over 90% since its peak.
4. Virtual worlds like The Sandbox and Decentraland.
Sandbox has reported over 360k active users, while Decentraland reportedly has between 300-600k users, depending on whom you're asking.
However, the valuations are still quite high based on the number of users they've.
Here's a good visual comparing web2 and web3 "Metaverse projects:"
3/ The multichain gaming thesis seems to be on point
Layer 1s and 2s like Avalanche, Solana, Polygon, and Immutable continue to attract game builders while wallets are getting better.
ConsenSys reported in March of 2022 that Metamask has over 30 million active users.
4/ Industry players adopt web3's ethos
Roblox mentioned that might create enforce contract scarcity for their digital items.
PlayStation's rewards program will have digital collectibles that will store past achievements and give players ownership.
So we can see top industry players draw inspiration from web3 gaming without using blockchain technology.
5/ 2023 will feature a plethora of web3 games.
Illuvium, Ember Sword, DigiDaigaku, and Guilds of Guardians will all do soft launches in 2023.
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- Am I the only one who notices that we get a new "Amazon is getting into crypto" story every few years?
Back in 2017, there were rumors that Amazon would start accepting #bitcoin as payment.
Didn't happen.
Won't believe the talks of an NFT initiative until I see an official announcement.
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- Gm. Need more visibility on lens. Need to connect to more people as well. 🫶🏻❤️
- Delphi Digital and Naavik just dropped a joint +70-page guide on web3 gaming.
Given their expertise, I already know it's going to be full of nuggets.
I'll read it on the weekend and will share my lessons here on Saturday.
Follow me at @tanyog.lens if you want to be the first to read them.
- Hello, I am a young developer who is always excited if a conversation is related to software and who finds web3 very fascinating.
Happy to be here and excited to explore lens protocol!!
- Meme of the Day 😂😂
- The following is growing slowly but surely 👻
100k on route
- LOL
- If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.
- These charts are my favourite. Over 35k users on Lens are supporting other users by collecting their content 💚 and out of all users 16.88% are paid collectors 🙌
- Who's playing @yuga_labs.lens Dookey Dash?
What's your experience?
- 😄Don't miss today's Video guys
🌿It's about @LensProtocol
❌If u just buy a lens profile you may not get #Airdrop
🔢As per stats there are only 9775 30 days active users on Lens protocol
🎮Be an Active User to get #Airdrop
✅So don't miss to watch
❤️Like
🔁RT
- GM.
Tanyo here - the founder of CryptoPlayerOne.
After 6 months of grinding and working non-stop on this newsletter, I decided to shut it down.
I'm no longer interested in pursuing this project - not because I'm not bullish on crypto and web3 gaming, but quite the contrary.
I'm bullish on the long-term prospects of crypto gaming.
However, working on this newsletter takes a lot of time and effort, and given all that's happening, I won't be able to give it the attention it needs.
So I want to thank each and every one of you for subscribing, reading, and supporting the newsletter.
It means the world to me.
I'll keep writing content for the crypto and web3 space on a freelance/contractor basis.
I'll create:
- Easy-to-read articles.
- Engaging social media content.
- Addicting newsletters.
I helped established companies like Magic Eden, CoinGecko, and Phantom deliver easy-to-read content to their readers.
If you're building in the crypto space and need help with your content, DM me.
Thank you once again for your support,
Tanyo
- Crypto games!
If you focus on how much your users can make playing your game, you NGMI.
If you focus on making your game so enjoyable that users have no choice but to play it, you GMI.
If you like this content, you'll love my free weekly newsletter on crypto gaming, gaming NFTs, and the Metaverse.
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- What we need more of - web3 gaming streamers like SpikeReacts_ and Brycent_ playing cool crypto games like Treeverse, Oath Of Peak, and @cryptounicorns.lens
What we need less of - ponzies disguised as "play-to-earn" crypto games.
If you like this content, you'll love my free weekly newsletter on crypto gaming, gaming NFTs, and the Metaverse.
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#lens #web3gaming #cryptogaming #gaming #blockchaingaming
- Disney's CEO Bob Iger on NFTs:
"I think you’re going to see an explosion of things being created, traded, collected in NFTs."
@0xpolygon.lens was the only blockchain featured in last year's Disney Accelerator.
Is another high-profile partnership in the works?
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- gm
Just joined @lensprotocol @lenster.lens.
What are we up to frens?