Hi, I’m Azeem Azhar. I convene Exponential View to help us understand how our societies and political economy will change under the force of rapidly accelerating technologies. Every Wednesday I do this through data, in Charts of the Week.

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Dept of blockchain gaming

Fifty-two percent of blockchain activity, as measured by unique active wallets, comes from decentralised games (dApps). This activity has gone up 2000% since last year. To understand how blockchain and crypto are changing the gaming industry, I spoke with Amy Wu, a prominent gaming investor currently running the $2 billion crypto fund, FTX Ventures. My conversation with Amy will be available here in several hours, subscribe to receive a reminder.

Social is the engine
“Social is a trend that’s propelling gaming forward,”  Amy told me in our conversation. “People are building meaningful connections. [...] It’s multiplayer, it’s very social. And I think that Web3 can actually accelerate that growth because it’s bringing in a different pool of people who are really interested”. The GameFi monetisation models occupy a spectrum between utility value and social value, and interestingly NFT play-to-earn games such as Axie Infinity, valued at $3 billion, fall far below the entertainment threshold.

More on Web3 gaming, DAOs and governance, and investors’ approach to finding the best teams in crypto – in today’s podcast episode.