web3 wars

Get the popcorn. This week, OpenSea announced it raised a $300 million fundraising round, valuing the NFT marketplace at $13.3... [Product Hunt]( [Read in browser]( [This newsletter is brought to you by]( [What does 2022 have in store for web3?]( Get the popcorn. This week, [OpenSea]( announced it raised a $300 million fundraising round, valuing the NFT marketplace at $13.3 billion. Forbes [notes]( that the funding introduces founders Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah into the three-comma club, i.e. their estimated net worth is valued at over a billion dollars (in this case $2.2M each). OpenSea had quite the year last year as NFTs became a household term. The startup’s blog noted it increased its transaction volume over 600x last year. Not everyone is rushing to put OpenSea in their startup fantasy league. Some might be waiting to see how Coinbase’s own NFT marketplace shakes out after it announced it would be launching one soon. Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong even said the market for non-fungible tokens could surpass its crypto trading business. Others are debating what all this funding means for web3. It’s of note that OpenSea’s previous round of $100M was led by Andreessen Horowitz, the VC firm that Jack Dorsey has been trolling. Jack takes [issue]( with how venture capitalists have been funneling money into web3 (VCs deployed $30B+ [globally]( in 2021 into crypto startups, minting more than 40 unicorns last year). The entire point of web3 is a distributed internet — user-controlled enabled by blockchain tech — so some took offense to Jack’s remarks as a stinging ngmi (“not going to make it”) attack. Balaji Srinivasan, ex-Coinbase CTO and General Partner at a16z partner, pointed the finger [back]( at Jack's own company for being guilty of enabling centralized leadership. Jack maintained that criticism only helps those in this space grow. Regardless of what camp you’re in, if you haven’t explored NFTs yet, this is shaping up to be the year to do so, even more than 2021. We just met two newcomers in this space. [Quest NFT]( is a platform for easily creating NFTs from your social accounts (Instagram now, with Twitter and TikTok coming soon). Your NFT gets posted on Quest as well as the NFT marketplace, [Rarible](. You can think of [NFT-Inator]( as a way to create your own version of Bored Apes with a simple toolkit for generating designs with randomized combinations and layers that are export-ready. So put down the popcorn now and go make your NFT. [Make your NFT collection]( 🔖 BOOKMARK THIS [Design Gradients]( just launched its website where designers, developers, and content creators can grab gradients to use as backgrounds in any piece of digital art (yes – we’re talking Instagram stories too). “Since my beginnings as a designer, different platforms helped me to create my first designs. It was 2 years ago that I was convinced to create something to help new designers,” maker Guzmán Barquín shares. [Choose your gradient]( SPONSORED BY [Daily]( handles all the complexities of building WebRTC video and audio. Developers can add 1,000-person calls to any site or app in minutes with Daily Prebuilt, which includes a customizable call interface and prebuilt features like chat, recording, and more. Or create custom layouts with our easy-to-use APIs, which provide maximum control over the call experience. We offer transparent pricing, HIPAA compliance, world-class docs and support, and enterprise-ready global infrastructure. Startups get $1,000 in free credit and extra support to grow. Get started for free by visiting [Daily.co](. [Sign Up Free]( Friday, 7 January 2022 Yesterday's Top Products [Startup Recipes]( [The ultimate MVP cheat sheet with 60+ startup formulas]( [▲ 654+]( [Figma Academy]( [Learn advanced design tactics directly in Figma]( [▲ 458+]( [Creator Resource Kit]( [A curated free directory of 1000+ tools for Creators]( [▲ 331+]( [How much is your SaaS worth?]( [SaaS valuation calculator powered by 463 recent deals]( [▲ 678+](  [Promoted]( [Ignition GTM (Beta)]( [Automate your launch process and build better launch plans]( [▲ 344+]( [VerifyKit]( [Verify your users faster and cheaper than ever]( [▲ 430+]( [SHAKEspeare AI Email Writer]( [Auto-generate 3 cold email drafts in less than a minute]( [▲ 233+]( [Showtime Gasless NFT Marketplace]( [The gasless and instant royalties NFT marketplace]( [▲ 177+]( [ArticleStaff 2.0]( [A workflow system for managing your freelance writers]( [▲ 155+]( [Meritverse]( [The professional network for the Metaverse]( [▲ 132+]( [lohost.io]( [Distributed, decentralized, anonymized local website hosting]( [▲ 98+]( [Discover many more]( CAT NIPS - “New ear, new me!” – if that’s you, [Notion Resolution Board]( helps you keep track and measure your 2022 goals. - Get your little ones to enter the productivity zone too. The URSOR team launched customizable and printable [chore charts]( for kids aged 3-12. - [Treeps]( reinvented its app and is launching today, with a mission “to help people take small actions every day to make life happier gradually.” [Tell us how we're doing]( [We're working on improving Product Hunt every day and we want to hear from you. What do you love? How could we do better? All feedback is helpful.]( [Speak your mind]( We send this email daily. Feel free to update your [email preferences]( or [unsubscribe]( from these emails at any time. [Advertise](, [Twitter](, [Facebook](, [Stories](