#2 To Be or Not To Be (Fungible)

NFTs, HC2 Launch & 3LAU

Welcome to the 2nd edition of HAX Weekly, a private community newsletter delivered right to your inbox every Tuesday AM to help make you a more knowledgeable investor.

As a reminder, our “1-2-3” format will make investing easy & fun to learn (plus help you crush):

• 1 investing/crypto concept explained in a way a 5 year old can understand

• 2 themes that we can’t stop thinking about

• 3 things (articles/tweets/memes/podcasts) that really hit the spot

• PLUS community updates

1 Concept 💡

NFTs stand for Non-Fungible Tokens. Wait, what?

Let’s start by defining what fungible means - something that is fungible means it can be exchanged with an identical item. For example, cash is fungible: if the vending machine isn’t accepting your crumpled-up dollar bill, you can exchange it with your friend’s crisp one. Most cryptocurrencies work the same way: I can exchange 1 BTC with any other 1 bitcoin.

However, something non-fungible means it’s unique and can’t be replaced. Airline tickets offer a good example: each ticket represents a unique combination of flight and seat. Other examples include property, such as real estate or art.

NFTs = a file on a blockchain that represents a non-fungible asset. Today, NFTs largely represent digital art + collectibles, but in the future, they can (and likely will) represent anything non-fungible including real estate, college diplomas, or employment contracts.

Why are NFTs powerful? Because blockchains allow for public access and uncensorable private ownership. Instead of relying on a central authority to validate if you own a property, if you are employed, or graduated from a certain school, anyone can go to the blockchain and validate this fact instantaneously. Boom!

What other things do you think would be interesting to NFT? Reply to this email or comment in Geneva!

2 Themes On Our Mind 🤔 

1. HC2 (HAX Crypto Cohort #2) is launching TODAY (see tweet below)! I am so proud of all the amazing progress the HC1 crew made (I posted metrics in our Geneva HQ) - excited to run it back and grow our community. If any of your friends would be a great fit for HAX, I’d love to meet them - please send them my way! FYI, the course starts on 9/9 with sessions taking place twice a week (Tues + Thurs) from 6-730PM over 2 weeks.

   Karthik SΞnthil @karsenthil

   Drop time ✨ We're excited to open up applications for our 2nd cohort to @learnhaxdotxyz's crypto investing course. Our first cohort blew away our expectations (highlights/stats below) - so we can't wait to run it back! Check out 👇 for deets on the course and how to apply...

2. We’ve all thought “I wish I was alive / old enough to be an early part of the next era of computing, whether it was PCs, internet, or mobile”. Well, you’re in luck - it’s here now so take action (great thread by the one and only Chris Dixon):

   Chris Dixon @cdixon

   1/ Topic: Blockchains are the new app stores 🧵

3 Things To Check Out 🔍

1. 3LAU is ahead of the curve, but once music artists figure this out (plus community social tokens), R.I.P. record labels. It wasn’t MP3s that killed record labels, it’s gonna be crypto.

   ▽ @3LAU

   If you own one of my NFTs today, You’ll get to own rights in my music, Which also means you’re entitled to cashflows from that music… Soon.

   Chris Dixon @cdixon

   9/ Today there are over 8 million musicians on streaming services, yet less than 15,000 musicians (less that 0.2%) make more than $50K/year. That’s because the vast majority of the revenue is kept by the streaming services and music labels.

   Chris Dixon @cdixon

   10/ With NFTs, musicians keep over 90% of sales. By cutting out layers of intermediaries, musicians can credibly support themselves with just a thousand true fans:

   

   cdixon.orgNFTs and A Thousand True FansChris Dixon’s blog.

2. Great episode on all things NFTs with Gary V and the guys from My First Million:

3. The future is bright…

   Gabby Dizon @gabusch

   @gregisenberg My 12 y/o: - Started playing Axie for SLP (2020) - Swapped SLP to ETH - Got the UNI airdrop - used UNI to buy AXS at $0.12 - sold AXS at $48 to buy YGG at $1 He has way more money than I ever did until very recently, is in 7th grade, and plays Genshin Impact all day.

If you have questions or want to discuss further on any of this, book time in the HAX weekly AMA with me here.

Community Happenings

• Karthik was in Michigan this week so he and Adam met up IRL!!! And yes, pics or it didn’t happen:

  

• Ben and Clarissa have been posting fiiireee on HAX’s TikTok and IG. Follow us at @learnhax.xyz, tell your friends, and let us know what you think of the content!

• Reminder: we have our Coinbase Vault session tonight at 8PM EST (see HAX calendar for details)

Listen 🎧

No podcast episodes this week, we’ll be back next week.

Until next time,
Karthik