What I Learned This Week - 5.31.22
Web3 for real estate is like a 1970's brick cell phone. Barely cool and you have no idea of its true potential.
I’m sharing with whoever’s interested in what I learn as I try to remain clear-eyed about the opportunities for real estate and web3.
Did I miss important news or a great article this week? In the likely event I did, please shoot me an email (mark@hurstx.com) and let me know!
Thank you for taking the time to read REw3. If you like what you are reading consider subscribing to stay up to date on this quickly evolving space.
This Week’s Musings
Many of the companies operating at the intersection of web3 and real estate are doing a poor job of articulating the value propositions they are creating. It will take more than just issuing a handful of tokens to real estate practitioners to get them to change behavior and adopt new technology.
Investment Opportunity
The other week I spotlighted OwnProp in the newsletter. They are currently seeking investors for a commercial property in Austin. Click on the button below to learn more.
Informative Articles I Read
Hotels Using NFTs To Create StubHub For Lodging Reservations (WSJ) - Hotel owners are getting creative and appealing to crypto fans. Hotel booking NFTs provide certainty of income for property owners and flexibility for travelers. Are these here for the long term or is this a momentary marketing opportunity?
MiamiCoin Is Nearly Worthless (Axios) - It was great to see the city of Miami go all in and really push the envelope to establish itself as a leading crypto-friendly city. This bet however looks like it will not pan out.
Is Liquid Real Estate Possible? (LinkedIn) - Yes, but a bunch of challenges remain. Not the least of which is the small amount of interest in any one building.
Morgan Stanley Warns Investors Experimenting With Digital Land Assets (Propmodo) - Any market driven by speculation in the web3 space is certain to be impacted by the crypto correction.
Insurance Providers Rethink Their Approach To Crypto (WSJ) - For anyone who has ever worked with insurance companies, you know they NEVER move quickly. Having insurance companies create specialized teams to focus on crypto is a positive step in the evolution of the space.
Metaverse Land Transaction Database - Real-time tracker of virtual land transactions across metaverses.
Podcasts That I Listened To
Innovate Companies I Discovered
HouseBit- A cryptographically-secure digital ecosystem which supports all aspects of a real estate transaction.
Hypervine - Construction site operations leveraging AI and blockchain technology.
REITIUM - An NFT, Blockchain real estate investment platform allowing everyone the ability to invest in real estate starting with $100.
Living Cities - A virtual metaverse developer.
Pinktada - Falls more in the hospitality sector, but since this is geared towards hotel owners I thought it was worth mentioning. Hotel bookings for the tokenized world.
Stay Open - STAY OPEN + stayDAO are building the world’s largest network of digital nomad and travel communities in repurposed buildings—with a portion of DAO proceeds going to help unhoused people.
Witly - Cross metaverse platform for buying virtual real estate.
CityDAO - Decentralized land ownership (starting in Wyoming).
People to Know (Those I Met Or Connected With Who Are Much Smarter Than Me)
Michael Nadeau - Author of The DeFi Report newsletter
Mike Robuster - NFT Influencer
Ralph Kuepper - Founder & CEO of X Sherwood Analytics
Pico Velasquez - Founder & CEO of VIIRA
Web3 Announcements from Proptech Companies
Kift Launches DAO And First NFT Drop - Cool to see Kift roll out a DAO for their digital nomad community and introduce an NFT (Kiftables) for IRL perks and DAO voting rights.
Random But Important Things I Stumbled On
Vitalik Proposes Soulbound Token As Web3 Credentials Of The Future (The Defiant) - In last week’s newsletter, I linked to the paper Vitalik co-authored. This article addresses some of the early pros and cons of SBTs.
After A Crash, What Comes Next For NFTs? (Pitch Book) - Novel value needs to be created for NFTs to become long-term web3 functionality.
The UAE’s AI Minister Wants ‘Murder’ In The Metaverse To Be A Real Crime (The Next Web) - There will be crime in the metaverse which raises a bunch of questions regarding the future rule of law.
What Are The Different Type Of NFT (Medium) - Highlights the primary spaces in which NFTs are delivering utility to communities of users.
Interesting developments with Miamicoin.. I wrote about it in November, summarising Vitalik's thoughts -->
"Vitalik argues that the economic model of CityCoins is tilted towards the early adopters and so whilst it might make sense in the short term, it is a risky strategy."