Welcome back to V3RSD and thank you for being here! This is Subnation’s weekly roundup of relevant, interesting, and hard-hitting stories from the web3, gaming, and tech spaces. The following five articles cover the topics from our 5Cs: Culture, Content, Community, Conversation, and Commerce. Enjoy, and let us know what you think by leaving a comment!
Mexican music is experiencing a shift. Partly due to COVID-19 requiring many to shelter in place and the subsequent surge in TikTok popularity. Many Gen Z artists of Mexican and Mexican American descent are revolutionizing regional Mexican music. They combine old sounds with new lyrics and themes.
Second Life, which many argue is the original metaverse, is celebrating its 20th birthday. The virtual world will host over 500 live performances to mark the occasion. In related news, Second Life has stated they will be launching a mobile app.
Last week, Union Square in New York City erupted into chaos after two streamers announced in-person giveaways. Kai Cenat, whose Twitch account currently has the most subscribers on the platform, planned to hand out multiple PS5s and $100 gift cards. After the gathered mob turned violent, NYPD arrested Cenat and a few others.
In August of 2016, around 120,000 Bitcoin was stolen from a cryptocurrency exchange. Last week a married couple admitted to being behind it. Only 95,000 Bitcoin were recovered from the couple after they were arrested in February of 2022. At that time the fiat equivalent was $3.6 billion.
The newest holy grail in Magic: The Gathering cards recently sold to Post Malone for an undisclosed amount of money. The highly sought-after The One Ring card from the Lord of the Rings universe had only been out in the public for about a month.
If you’re interested in learning more on any of these topics, you can read the full articles below.
CULTURE
Gen Z LatinXers are reinventing regional Mexican music. But your abuelo still might dig it
Los Angeles Times — DannyLux’s first guitar was a castaway that his father plucked from the trash while driving garbage trucks in Palm Springs. Growing up, the young musician vibed to an unruly mezcla of Maná, “a lot of Pink Floyd,” regional Mexican music and The Beatles, honing his earnestly introspective vocal persona.
“My mom even has a video of me singing ‘Let It Be’ as a little kid, and the guitar is all huge on my body,” Danny, 19, said in a recent interview, laughing at the memory of himself as a Paul McCartney proxy. “I couldn’t even reach to play the guitar, but I was still playing it!” [cont]
CONTENT
Second Life’s 20th Birthday Reminds World The Metaverse Can Work
Bloomberg — Second Life has turned 20 years old, demonstrating there’s something to be said about the viability of a so-called metaverse despite a bevvy of well-funded rivals that have failed to create a thriving modern successor.
The virtual world’s two-decade milestone bolsters Mark Zuckerberg’s stance that the metaverse is “the next frontier,” as he posited when changing his company’s name from Facebook to Meta Platforms Inc…[cont]
COMMUNITY
Twitch streamer Kai Cenat taken into custody after chaotic giveaway in NYC’s Union Square
The Verge — On Friday, a massive gathering of people showed up at New York City’s Union Square for a giveaway hosted by two social media influencers, mega-popular Twitch streamer Kai Cenat and another streamer, Fanum. Cenat and “a few other people” have been arrested, NBC 4 reports…[cont]
CONVERSATION
Tech Entrepreneur Admits to Being Hacker in $4.5 Billion Bitcoin Heist
The Wall Street Journal — The mystery hacker behind one of the largest crypto heists ever revealed himself Thursday as a New York tech entrepreneur married to a wannabe rapper named Razzlekhan.
Ilya Lichtenstein admitted to the hack at a hearing in federal court in Washington, D.C., saying that in 2016 he broke into crypto exchange Bitfinex’s network and stole bitcoin that is now worth billions of dollars. He was in court to plead guilty to conspiring to launder money from the heist. What wasn’t expected was the admission he played a critical role in the hack…[cont]
COMMERCE
MTG’s The One Ring Has Been Sold To Post Malone
The Gamer — Over a month after having been found, it seems as though Magic: The Gathering’s mega-rare and extremely valuable The One Ring card has finally been sold by its owner. It was thought that the owner was potentially listening to offers on the table, hence such a long wait for the card to be sold off, but a new video on TikTok has shown Magic: The Gathering fan Post Malone purchasing the card for an undisclosed fee…[cont]
APPENDIX
- Forbes — 4 Ways The Metaverse And Web3 Will Transform Music
- Digiday — Why Puma sees Web3 and the metaverse as its next great commerce opportunity
- Forbes — The Future Of Art: Generative AI, Web3 And The Immersive Internet
- Fortune — Cofounders of Futureverse launch $50 million fund to back metaverse startups
- Polygon — Nintendo’s next-gen console is slowly coming into focus
That’s all from us here at Subnation this week. Thank you for joining us for V3RSD! If you’d like this directly in your inbox every Monday, you can sign up HERE.
