Wed 12/27

Good Morning. Durga Pooja enters the metaverse, two of Solana's biggest projects have exited the platform, and Fidelity is planning an NFT marketplace. We have also tried to answer a longstanding question today which is, "What the heck is web3"?

• Durga Pooja In The Metaverse: For Indians unable to attend the UNESCO-listed Durga Puja festivities in person, it was made available in goggles-free virtual reality from a smartphone or computer through the 3D social network known as Spatial, courtesy of Indian start-ups XP&Dland and Metaform. Sukrit Singh, a co-founder of both companies, said that a user can create an avatar and then enter an online replica of a “pandal” – a temporary physical structure, some built to resemble temples or churches, at scores of locations in India to house the goddess. The pandals are places of worship and a user’s avatar can meet other people present there in their avatars, Singh said. They created online versions of the four pandals and airdropped 16,000 NFTs of the deity.

• India’s 1st Web3 App Store, Dapps, Raises Pre-seed Funding: Dapps, India’s first app store exclusively for web3 apps, announced that it has raised pre-seed funding from industry stalwarts like Shardeum founder Nischal Shetty, Anshul Dhir - Founder, EasyFi, Keyur Shah - ex-CFO, Polygon and many more. Dapps is an app store with tools for developers which would help them in scaling and commercializing their apps - from interoperability, communication, commerce, and identity and keeping all of it open source.

• Solana’s Top Nft Projects Degods And Y00ts To Migrate Chains: Two of the top Solana non-fungible token (NFT) projects, would be leaving the Solana network, the team behind the projects confirmed the migration on Twitter on Sunday. DeGods will be moving to the Ethereum blockchain, and Y00ts will be moving to Polygon early next year, the team said. “There’s an argument to be made that [DeGods] has capped out on Solana,” the project’s leader, Rohun Vora, known as Frank, said in a Monday Twitter Spaces. “It’s hard to accept, but it’s been tough to grow at the rate we want to grow. If Ethereum is where we have to go to keep growing, it’s what we have to do.”

• Russia's Largest Bank Issued Gold-backed Digital Financial Assets: Russia’s largest bank Sber — formerly known as Sberbank — reported the first issue of gold-backed digital financial assets (DFAs). The bank considers DFAs to be a “great alternative” to investments amid dedollarization. On Dec. 26, Sber published the news about its first issue of gold-backed DFAs. A diversified metals seller and manufacturer, Solfer, became the first investor to obtain the issued assets. Gold-backed DFAs represent certifying monetary rights, whose price and volume depend on gold prices.

• Fidelity Plans Nft Marketplace And Financial Services In The Metaverse: Investment giant Fidelity Investments has filed trademark applications in the United States for a host of Web3 products and services, including a nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace and financial investment and crypto trading services in the metaverse. This is according to three trademark filings submitted to the United States Patent Trademark Office (USPTO) on Dec. 21, which was highlighted by licensed trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis in a Dec. 27 tweet.

Developer Relations Engineer Web3 At Monad Labs

What The Heck Is Web3?: Instead of a Web monopolized by large technology companies, Web3 embraces decentralization and is being built, operated, and owned by its users. Web3 puts power in the hands of individuals rather than corporations. Before we talk about Web3, let's explore how we got here.