🤔 Facebook shutdowns & Web3 wins?

Soros changes his mind on crypto, Christie’s auctions its first African NFT... [View in Browser]( [Gif Ledger Bites]( 08/10/2021 Soros changes his mind on crypto, Christie’s auctions its first African NFT, Brazil is set to accept Bitcoin as a legal tender, and we, at Ledger, released [our brand new crypto show!]( As always, we’re here with your weekly Biiiiiites brought to you by Milan from Ledger. Were those Biiiiiites sent to you by a friend ? [Subscribe here]( [Infos I should already know about] [Ripple Labs]( [2nd figure]( Crypto assets can be managed on your Ledger Live! [Go check now →]( [Infos I should already know about] [Has George Soros changed his mind on crypto?]( His Fund Management’s CEO Dawn Fitzpatrick revealed in a [Bloomberg interview]( that the entity “owns some coins”, adding that “the coins themselves are less interesting than the use cases of DeFi and things like that (...) There’s 200 million users around the world, so I think this has gone mainstream.” [Dolce & Gabbana meets the world of NFTs.]( The brand auctioned 9 Fashion NFTs for 1.885 Ether in total. 5 of the pieces are physical creations, designed by D&G, while the four others are digital versions including three embroidered men’s jackets. Morav Ozair, a blockchain professor, commented: “We are moving toward a virtual reality world, and when we get to that state - sooner than we think, in a matter of years - luxury goods will be part of that world.” [Is Fed-backed Digital Dollar really possible?]( A former US Treasury advisor, Michael B. Greenwald, has been pessimistic about the possibility of a Fed-issued Digital Dollar. He pointed out “a divide of the Fed right now. You’ve got Randy Quarles and Lael Brainard, where one is pushing a stablecoin approach and one is pushing a CBDC.” He forecasts it may lead to “US policy paralysis without any real action.” To be continued… or not? [FTX exchange’s co-founder is the world’s richest under 30.]( Sam Bankman-Fried is not a lucky heir but a US native who built a $22.5 billion fortune through crypto. To give you an idea, the value of his exchange platform jumped… 20-fold in a year. Only one person has been as rich at his age: Mark Zuckerberg. The irony is that he does not have the reputation of being a firm crypto believer, [but rather]( “a mercenary dedicated to making as much money as possible.” Nice bet, Sam. [Brazil set to accept Bitcoin as a legal tender?]( During an interview with local media, Aureo Ribeiro, a Brazilian Federal Deputy, stated that Bitcoin might soon become a legal tender: “We debated a few years there to arrive at a text that recognizes this asset… which will be regulated by a government agency.” [Christie's auctions its first African NFT.]( Osinachi, a Nigerian digital artist, is set to become the first African creator to auction NFTs through Christie’s Europe. His works, estimated to be worth between £40K and £60K each, reimagine a 1972 swimming pool painting by David Hockney. And yes, you’re reading this: Osinachi creates detailed digital works using… Microsoft Office. You’ll discover his work in this week’s Down the Rabbit Hole episode, so stay tuned! Wanna share our Biiiiiites with a friend ? [Send →]( [Insight of the week] Facebook’s nightmare week. And the winner is... Web3? This week, Facebook went through its biggest shutdown. Interestingly, the social media’s stock tumble [coincided with]( an immediate surge in the Bitcoin price. When the Old Web falls, the Decentralized Web rises? The Big Shutdown. The social media giant already went through tough moments, but this week was particularly bad. After a 6-hour long shutdown, a Facebook [engineering update]( explained the issue was caused by “configuration changes on the backbone routers with cascading effect on the way data centers communicate.” Unfortunately for Zuck, Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, further fanned the flames during a Senate hearing. She [pointed out]( that the company’s leadership “won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people.” Another bomb was dropped. Needless to say, Facebook will recover from these episodes, as it always does. Yet, what happened shows something needs to be fixed. The paradox is that Facebook is a centralized, opaque system with market monopoly. In-house engineers’ decisions can impact all our communications, leading to an unbalanced set-up. From the Social Web to the Decentralized Web? Let’s imagine a Web model built on Bitcoin’s very principles. Rather than centralized & with intermediaries, it would be decentralized & peer-to-peer. Shermin Voshmgir, the writer of “Token Economy”, [pointed out that with Bitcoin]( “you would need to break into multiple houses around the globe simultaneously” to breach the system. And that’s Web3’s very principle: data is stored in multiple copies, the system is robust. Visualize a blockchain-driven Web that rewards you for sharing data. While Web2 is about “Data Monarchy”, Web3 is self-sovereign, built on “Data Democracy.” And this principle transcends social media. Decentralized exchanges, like Uniswap, will change how we trade. Decentralized file storage, like Storj, will shift how we store data, and self-sovereign identities will alter how we interact online... It’s the whole internet that is being rebuilt. Facebook’s nightmare week is a booster shot. It highlights that Web3 is nothing less than the next major iteration of the internet. [I wanna know more] Do you want to know what a Decentralized version of Facebook could look like? [Then watch our School of Block episode on “Can We Decentralize Social Media?”]( [And read our Ledger Academy article to know]( Decentralization Matters.”]( [Inside Ledger] Looking for a job at Ledger? [Click here to check our open positions.]( We now have a new show: “Down the Rabbit Hole.” It’s global, cool, and 100% crypto. [Just watch the teaser here… And stay tuned for what’s coming next.]( [Eager for Binance Coins (BNB) or BEP20 tokens?]( We just integrated one of the world’s leading blockchain into Ledger Live: [Binance Smart Chain](. [Images of the week] Bitcoin’s $60K resistance? [BTC resistance]( Credit: How did you like our newsletter this week? [😍I buy!]( [😐I hodl!]( [😭I sell!]( [unsubscribe]( [Ledger]( Follow us on: [Ledger YouTube]( [Ledger Twitter]( [Ledger Instagram]( [Ledger Facebook]( [Ledger TikTok]( & listen to our podcast [here](. 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