What’s Possible: 15th October, 2021

We hope you enjoy this week's hand-picked selection of important and interesting stories from the frontiers of tech.

How to collect NFTs on Layer 2

Over time, more and more blockchain activity is going to “move up” to L2s, i.e. external execution layers. NFT users will increasingly flock to these solutions for the same reason everyone else does: very fast and very inexpensive transactions.

Accordingly, the time is ripe to experiment with L2 NFTs because the L2 era has finally arrived and novel, early opportunities are starting to abound!

Can chemical computing in a test tube replace your PC?

Traditional computers run on chips that are fiendishly complex, squishing billions of circuits onto a piece of silicon the size of a coin. DNA molecules encode genetic data at an even more compressed scale; a single strand of human chromosome includes up to 300 million base pairs.

How Axie Infinity is turning gaming on its head

I realize that, for lots of you, talk of blockchain projects immediately triggers eye-rolling and tab closing. But as with Loot, today’s edition is about one of those unconventional startups that feels too interesting to ignore. Especially because, on the surface, it can look like little more than a cheap Pokémon clone.

Bessemer field notes: distribution and conversion models for consumer startups

The distribution channels that underpinned the rise of today’s Internet giants have dried up.

We are amidst a renaissance of new distribution tactics that are enabling efficient growth engines.

But, distribution alone is not enough. Distribution without conversion is like being eight feet-tall on the basketball court but missing every layup.

In the hope of sparking discussion around these tactics, and to showcase the creativity of some successful consumer entrepreneurs in these tactics, we are sharing some of these most effective distribution and conversion models we’re seeing.

Coinbase NFT is coming soon: join the waitlist for early access

Today, we’re announcing Coinbase NFT, a peer-to-peer marketplace that will make minting, purchasing, showcasing, and discovering NFTs easier than ever. Just as Coinbase helped millions of people access Bitcoin for the first time in an easy and trusted way — we want to do the same for the NFTs.

Payments giant Stripe says its reentering the crypto market

Payments company Stripe announced it’s building out a new crypto team to help build out the “future of Web3 payments,” according to public statements posted to Twitter on Tuesday. Stripe, which had once been among the first to support Bitcoin payments before leaving the market a few years ago, has been watching for the right time to get back in.

Rex Woodbury: The Creator Manifesto

We’re now entering a second Renaissance—a digital Renaissance. Innovations are once again reshaping society and culture. Software is making it easy for anyone to create; internet platforms are opening the floodgates of distribution; and cultural and generational shifts are reworking the economic relationship between creator and patron.

McKinsey Report: How electric mobility is evolving

Despite a steep drop in global car sales during the pandemic, sales of electric vehicles (EVs) continue to climb. This trend will likely accelerate as emission regulations become more stringent and consumer interest in sustainability grows. What’s ahead for this space, and what does it mean for how auto dealers do business?

Hannah Tucker (Balance Point Ventures): the systems view on sustainability

Sustainability now tops global agendas after having been dismissed for decades. What has changed? Is doomsday upon us? Has moral consciousness grown? Or have we entered a period of disruption? This paper presents a case for why the 2020s mark a disruptive period of economic transformation in which we will either: (A) send the industrial economy into a state of collapse, or (B) give rise to a modern economy optimised for the 2020s and beyond.

AI investors Nathan Benaich and Ian Hogarth release their State of AI Report 2021

While AI’s growing impact on society and the economy is now evident, our report highlights that research into AI safety and the impact of AI still lags behind its rapid commercial, civil, and military deployment.

The report also sheds light on a watershed moment in the field of biology, where AI-first approaches continue to show their potential to entirely transform drug discovery and healthcare. I’m personally excited to see what’s next after the major breakthroughs with protein folding and the structure of RNA molecules.

Interesting adjacencies

• The first TikTok NFT drops on Immutable (link)
• Chris Sacca’s entire worldview on climate in just two minutes (link)
• Stratechery: The Death and Birth of Technological Revolutions (link)
• World’s largest companies to pay more under global tax overhaul (link)
• The global supply chain is slowing down (link)

If you'd like to see more of what we’re exploring at Possible Ventures, you can follow us on Twitter.

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