Hey bb! We pulled a Kanye, should you change your pic to join the Metaverse and happy Sunday scaries ❤️

In other news…Uber and Lyft prices are through the roof in Cali 🌴back to baesics with commodities 🥫and Twitter keeps moving with decentralized social network, Bluesky.

Something 'bout the Metaverse: “What is it & why it matters”

If you've been on Twitter recently, you've probably seen people joke about going to the Metaverse and what it takes to get there. The New York Times put it quite simply: "Crypto people say they’re building it 🏗️. Gamers might already be living in it. 🎮The art world is cashing in on it 🎨. Web veterans are trying to save it. 🌐But what is it?"

Whether or not you know the insides and outs of the Metaverse, bear 🐻with us as we distill its financial impact. Just like you may recall Phil of the Future or the movie, Ready Player One, the Metaverse is the next phase of the internet 🔮: It's a merging of the physical world with augmented reality and virtual reality already starting to change the way we live, work and communicate. 💬Associate professor of media and information at Michigan State refers to it in a way we can all easily grasp: "Today, I can jump in a web browser, cruise from one website to another. In the future, you will jump in the Metaverse browser from one virtual world to another, to another". 📆

If you're wondering if this is in some sort of a far away future, don't be so quick to dismiss the reality just yet. Early versions do exist. Roblox (RBLX), Second Life, and Fortnite, are the closest approximations. 🤖The latter has been quickly evolving into a virtual world with A$AP Rocky and Ariana Grande concerts, to offering commerce.🎙️

As you think about investing in big tech and growth stocks, consider their ability to enter the Metaverse. Who is actually positioned to do so advantageously? 🚀 'Zuckerbook' loves a good Meta and given Facebook's non-existing operating system, they often cannot create new products nor business models (i.e. tipping model) without being blocked by the likes of Apple (i.e. they'll take their 30% cut pls) ✂️. It's no wonder Mark is all about the possibilities this new world brings. FAAMG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google) companies aren't being left behind either! MS CEO, Satya Nadella, got SaaSy during their earnings call in late July -announcing they're building the ‘enterprise Metaverse’ - only days after Mark Zuckerberg made the call-out. 💃

As always, all we can do is seek to invest wisely, and in what we know or can understand. The more we learn about the Metaverse, the more we gather big tech is making big bets on this space and actual builds where the reality can't be ignored any longer. ⏱️

Quick News Bites

Kanye West, July 2021 (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Universal Music Group)

We're pulling a Kanye West: Finally releases Donda album

It's not really a stock market thing but hey, we're social too right? We see your IG stories and loving that you love Donda. YE! Finally, Kanye West has releasedhis new studio album Donda. It includes contributions from JAY-Z, Travis Scott, the Weeknd, Jay Electronica, Ty Dolla $ign, and many other artists and producers. We like to think we're like Ye…He was scheduled to put out Donda following the first listening eventon July 22, but postponed the release, announcing a new release date of August 6 but it didn't come out on August 6th…He streamed some of the progress ahead of the release too (building in public 😉). We want to think that we're doing the same because we missed our mid-week newsletter issue last week 👼and now you're out here reading it on your Sunday scaries but my creators are trying to create art for you too! 🙏🏽We tried but we'll just let Ye stand on his own.

Red lights on Uber & Lyft: Why California ride sharing prices are on the up 🚨

Beep beep. Someone pick up this guy from the Metaverse: he wants to go home! 🏠 If you're wondering why it'll take him some time to accept a ride, keep your eye on the prize price. Double, triple the cost? 💸 Yeah, we'll wait by the glitter too.

A state judge ruled against a ballot proposition ✋ which would have allowed Uber and Lyft to continue classifying drivers as independent contractors. Okay, let's reverse for one second… ⏪ So in 2019, a state bill was passed that would have required the companies to treat their workers as employees with benefits 👩‍⚕️ such as workers comp, unemployment, paid sick and family leave, and health insurance.

Uber and Lyft decided to take a U-turn, and instead dumped millions into lobbying for Proposition 22 - spending over $200 million 😯 Those dollah bills went up in flames though🔥 as despite the overwhelming majority of Californians voted yes on the prop, a judge found it was “unenforceable and unconstitutional.”

Shoutout to our Californians! 🌅 Expect higher prices on your rides and deliveries in the meantime as the race at court will likely continue in the following months, 🚘 vroom vrooming downhill with the stock prices 📉

Commodities to the moon… and BACK 🌝

What happens when you mix robust demand, COVID lockdowns, people staying at home because of enhanced unemployment benefits, and supply chain breakdowns? 🖇️ You get… higher value in commodities! 💥

We've seen crypto traders checking out 🛒 as they YOLO'd all their money on lumber 🌴 but many commodities are starting to fall as business opens up 👐 . Now companies involved in manufacturing, production, and construction of goods are taking a trip to the moon, or at least where Richard Branson made it to 😁

Twitter moves forward with decentralized social network ☁️

Bluesky, the Twitter-funded effort to create a decentralized social network standard, has a project lead - the creator of Happening, Jay Graber 🐦 Graber has led the work on Happening's event organizing features and worked on Zcash 📲 . Zcash is a cryptocurrency created by the Electric Coin Company that uses zero-knowledge cryptography to secure transactions.

Will Bluesky build on existing decentralized projects like ActivityPub? 👊 Or will they create something new? I guess we'll find out via Discord 🔭

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