Deep Dive

The next generation of the internet, Web3, promises to revolutionise our online lives. It represents a new web iteration built on the principle of decentralisation. As a result, it will be designed by people, for people, with our best interests at heart. Though the shift to Web3 may be an exciting prospect, it must contend […]

The first thing newcomers to the crypto space notice is the importance of community. For most, the first step toward understanding crypto is to jump into one of the innumerable communities scattered across various platforms, from Twitter and Telegram to Discord and Reddit, and start asking questions. (Or just immerse yourself in a stream of […]

It’s a difficult time arguing for crypto’s revolutionary potential. The recent collapse of the Terra ecosystem has led to yet another round of premature obituaries for the crypto space, and DeFi has had a particularly torrid time. But we should be wary of hasty judgments. The short-term view of technological disruptions on this scale is […]

Web3 promises to combine the openness and freedom of Web1 with the scale and interactivity of Web2. This blockchain-driven paradigm shift hopes to offer the best of both worlds: a democratic and decentralised network that allows for communication, creativity, and cooperation on a global scale. But despite increasing interest in the Web3 phenomenon, relatively little […]

Excitement over the metaverse continues to grow, and it’s easy to understand why. After all, who wouldn’t be excited at the prospect of a deeply immersive, open-ended, and persistent virtual world? What was once a sci-fi dream is now an impending reality. But the promise of the metaverse is inseparable from the quest for a […]

Defying the doubters, interest in the metaverse continues to soar, and investment is keeping pace. In January, leading investment bank, JP Morgan published a report titled “Opportunities in the Metaverse”, noting that annual spending on digital goods had reached $54bn globally. The report argued that the market was reaching an “inflection point” – soon, there […]

It would be easy to dismiss Elon Musk’s recent purchase of Twitter as just the latest whim of a notoriously mercurial billionaire. In fact, its significance is far greater.  The prospect of a Musk-owned Twitter has reignited the long-simmering debate over free speech and censorship online. And Musk, whose irreverent, scatter-gun use of Twitter is […]

Making predictions about the crypto space is notoriously risky. There is consensus over what to expect in 2022 – the rise of decentralised autonomous organisations. As Messari’s Crypto Theses for 2022 put it: “If 2020 was all about DeFi, and 2021 was about NFTs, 2022 will be the year of the DAO.”  And just four […]

In early March, the fantasy author Brandon Sanderson launched a Kickstarter campaign to self-publish four novels he’d written during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aside from his enviable productivity, the campaign soon gave us something else to marvel at – Sanderson hit his $1million goal in thirty-five minutes. After three days, he’d raised $20.8m, making it the […]

In early March, the Biden administration published its long-awaited Executive Order (EO) on cryptocurrencies and digital assets. As we’ll see below, the order itself wasn’t exactly brimming with detail. Nevertheless, its implications were wide-ranging. It offered some important indications about the Biden administration’s approach to crypto, but just as telling was the simple fact that it was […]

In January 2010, a 25-year-old Mark Zuckerberg addressed an audience of Silicon Valley luminaries with a bold argument. Privacy, he claimed, was no longer a social norm. Five short years had been enough to make “sharing more information […] more openly and with more people” a widely accepted practice by his account. By presenting it in this […]

March is Women’s History Month, an annual celebration of women’s achievements and contributions throughout history. Seeking to counteract the typically male-centred ways of framing history, WHM is a vital opportunity to correct and counteract exclusionary narratives. But it’s also an impetus to think about the present. WHM represents a significant opportunity to reflect on the […]

When the revelations of former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen became an international story in October 2021, the outrage over specific details was tempered by a kind of fatalism. After all, didn’t we all know this already? Yes, there was something compelling about seeing Facebook’s internal research detailing the mental health impact of Instagram on […]

Barely a week after Take-Two Interactive acquired mobile game developer Zynga for a massive $12.7 billion, tech giant Microsoft pulled out a show-stopping move. It was announced in January that the company that brought you Call of Duty and World of Warcraft would join the Microsoft family. But what does this shift in gaming power […]

For most people, space remains synonymous with 1960s era government programs and continues to evoke the aura of mystery and wonder that surrounded humanity’s earliest forays beyond our planet. For a multibillion-dollar commercial industry, the sector is something of an enigma. Birthed amidst the rivalry and secrecy of the Cold War, it struggled to shake […]

In the final instalment of our series on NFTs, we look at perhaps the most significant limitation the NFT space faces at present: its environmental impact. If NFTs are to form the cultural and economic foundation for Web 3.0, the sustainability problem will need an innovative solution. In this post, we’ll look at where that […]

Over the past two weeks, our series on NFTs have tackled their impact on gaming and the art world. This week, we look at how these significant transformations are preparing the ground for a more fundamental shift, as NFTs help to build the metaverse economy of the future.   In late October 2021, Facebook announced […]

Last week, we took an in-depth look at the impact of NFTs on the gaming world. But gaming is not the only industry being transformed by NFTs. This week, we continue our focus on the revolutionary potential of NFTs by looking at how they are shaking up the art world by helping digital artists monetise […]

It is now almost two years since the COVID-19 pandemic first spread like wildfire worldwide, to devastating and unprecedented effect. While the human cost of the pandemic has been incalculable, the damage it has done to a wide range of industries can be quantified – and the numbers involved are truly eye-watering. With people spending […]