#1 - FriendTech, Crypto Scams and More

Hello and Welcome to my Weekly Newsletter on Web3, AI, and More.

What This NewsLetter will be about

What I plan to write about each week will be my top takeaways from the world of #web and #ai and how the landscape is changing each week. In addition to that, I will keep you posted on my own journey building in the intersection of these two exciting fields. Think of it as getting a passenger’s seat into an exciting new journey that I embark upon.

Web3 News & Views

My interest in Web3 has more to do with Decentralized Social since I feel that is a way towards the next Creator Economy where every Creator can focus on Creating and Earning a living from that.

NFTs by themselves as PFPs are great and will have its time under the sun (some day). But, what excites me about NFTs is the use of NFTs to tie in contracts and also build communities. Owning a Creator’s NFT should give you access to his exclusive Cohorts and Content for example.

While some of you know that I have been active in creating (posting my thoughts and building a 5500+ following) on DeSo, the news of the week or the news of the last 2-3 weeks has been the rise and fall of FriendTech. It started off with a buzz of activity on Twitter with everyone and their mothers claiming their id on FriendTech and the first few days was about how we could make money on it by selling our shares (later renamed as keys). But, the UX was quite poor and it lacked any serious chance of success (at least as it stood) and soon the interest died down, especially as people started dumping their holdings to get out before others did.

While I still hold on to 3 of my own keys and 90+ keys of others, I put in around 100-150$ only and I don’t plan to continue playing around with the platform using the money and see how things go with it. If you do buy my key on Friend.Tech (ID is my Twitter ID: @RandhirHebbar), I will be sharing the same content as I do for my 1+ Coin Holders on DESO. I have created a common Telegram Group and I hope to continue to share some of my thoughts (early or exclusive) on the group.

I don’t see Friend.Tech surviving beyond the next few months, unless they innovate for starters on the UX and then also figure out ways to compete with real Decentralized Social Protocols like DeSo, ICP, and Lens Protocol. If you want to check out my own profile on DeSo, do visit my profile on Desocialworld.com DiamondApp.com, or Wallet.deso.com.

I do feel that DeSo has a much better chance of success as a platform. The team did great with the first launch of Bitclout. But, since then, they’ve struggled to execute on the marketing side. They are building up nicely towards the next launch in the coming months and I look forward to seeing how they do the Bitclout v2 and other upcoming feature releases.

My Other Top Tweets on X (Ex-Twitter)

After getting tagged in more than a few Phishing links this week, I decided to start writing about Scams on Crypto Twitter. Here’s the first tweet on the topic and I hope to do 1-2 posts each week on X.

This week, I started exploring monetization on Twitter. I found out that hitting the 5M impressions in 3 months is a pre-requisite to get paid for Ads. I read a little on the topic and realized that with my following of nearly 3K (most of whom are probably inactive since this 3K is steadily built over 10 years with around 500 coming from the last year or so), it is highly unlikely for me to get there from my own Tweets. I did three or four days of active replies on content and to my surprise, my weekly impressions shot up from around 1K to around 250-300K. Talk about jumps.

That’s it from me for this week. Do reply to the email and write to me on what you would like me to focus on in the next edition or just DM me on X with your thoughts. As I said earlier, I am all about connecting and collaborating with others. While I am an introvert by nature, I don’t shy away from a 1:1 call and am exploring ways to get into speaking more in Spaces and Conferences too.

About Me

About myself, I am a 3X founder who’s built multiple successful ventures including the last one (@Convergytics) where I still am going through a bit of a painful exit. But that’s to be shared on another day. I also have worked on a couple of Web3 startups (Creatiers and Squadz) on the DeSo Protocol, which were honestly more projects than ventures since it didn’t take off beyond the early PMF stage.

My Experience

I have over 20+ years of data analytics and retail consulting experience and have worked with brands like Gap, Dell, Nordstrom, BestBuy, WalMart (Sam’s Club), and Citigroup among others. I have worked in the US, Hong Kong, and India and have had clients in Australia, Canada, UAE, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and many others. I have studied in Hong Kong (HKUST) for two years, spent a month in China (during the Beijing Olympics), and a semester at London Business School (as an exchange student). Overall, well-traveled global citizen who’s keen to continue this journey and build relationships and collaborate with other like-minded individuals. #