🍨AI Meets Web3: Aptos & Microsoft's Partnership Revealed!

Welcome back to The Geral, your best source of web3-related knowledge and cure for Saturday hangovers. Because let’s be honest, 99% of the content you see on here every two weeks can’t be found anywhere else. $BTC crashed sub-26k, SBF is now in jail and $ETH ETFs are getting approved. We’ve all read about these redundant stories on Crypto Twitter so we will continue to deliver something more valuable than miserable copy, ChatGPT, and paste pieces of content.

So, is The Geral a way to get out of the crypto eco-chamber without really doing so? Or a digital dispatch heavenly sent to illuminate you about the power of web3 communities? Anyway, we’re digressing… Let’s dive into what we have planned for you.

Coverage:

• Aptos and Microsoft partner to boost web3 adoption

• South Korean Telecom operator dives into NFTs

• Saudi-based firm implements blockchain solutions for event management

• Exploring Gitcoin Grants Program

Aptos and Microsoft partner to boost web3 adoption

We’ve all heard about dozens and dozens of new layer-1 coming out and it seems that they all come with the same value proposition. A faster, more secure blockchain, with lower gas fees. All trying to become the Ethereum killer- but unsuccessfully so far. A big difference with Aptos is that the foundation behind the project has been doing the most in terms of partnering with big players. Google Cloud, BNBChain and now Microsoft have all joined forces with the blockchain to expand its growth.

The Microsoft deal is a big one because, well it is Microsoft… But also because the project between the company and Aptos comes at the intersection of AI and web3. With all the hype surrounding AI, even in the web3 space, the partnership came timely, to the extent that $APT surged by 15% on the announcement day. (Please don’t go and FOMO into buying it now, buying when an event is priced in = bad degen habit).

Let’s get back to the topic, the plan between Microsoft and Aptos is to build an AI chatbot, “Aptos Assistant”, that will help new users navigate the space in a user-friendly way. The assistant will also be able to guide developers into building smart-contracts and dApps. Given that web3 people love to overcomplicate not-so-complicated concepts, this sounds like a great tool to onboard the mainstream population. The intersection between AI and Web3 is finally here, and it surprisingly does not look like a bad one.

South Korean Telecom operators dive into NFTs

Yet another important partnership to highlight. It's almost like big corporations are suddenly playing musical chairs, and everyone's scrambling for a seat with a blockchain project. This time, we’ll talk about South Korea’s SK Telecom which just formed a promising partnership with Polygon Labs.

The company recently made the interesting move of building an NFT marketplace that allows users to buy digital assets in the South Korean won currency (kudos to their growth team for making such a bold move, really). This marketplace, called TopPort, will get the additional help of the Polygon Labs team to improve its infrastructure and create a fruitful ecosystem.

Asia is still running hot with many giant corporations expanding their product-line with web3 services. Hopefully, the rest of the world will follow.🥲

Saudi-based firm implements blockchain solutions for event management

Web3 has tons of use-cases, which makes one want to %@#’’ this type of trolls

Anyway, there are thankfully a handful of people with fully functioning brain cells, and the executives at Saudi-based company IR4LAB are some of them. They will be organizing a blockchain summit in Riyadh on October 19th, and probably thought “What’s better than powering a blockchain summit with blockchain technology”?

This event will be issuing tickets and digital certificates of attendance 100% on-chain. Why? To avoid forgery, scalps and data security breaches. Pretty smart and obvious move. We’ll be following closely this summit which will feature guest speakers on various topics ranging from building cities with web3 technology, blockchain financial services and more. Don’t worry, we’ll keep our esteemed audience in the loop 😇 (better go and subscribe now😡).

Best practices for your web3 community

Grant programs are awesome. They provide financial support to individuals and organizations, fostering innovation, research, and projects that might otherwise lack funding. In web3, a great example of that is Gitcoin. Learn more about how they empower the space 👇

Cool stuff seen on CharmVerse 👀

• Still on grants, after supporting the Optimism Grant foundation, we are glad to announce our latest partnership with Safe Grants. A quick thread to summarize what is going on here.

• We do our best to provide you with the best web3 knowledge available out there (with success, some might say 😎), but would love to hear from you on various topics. That’s why we will now have a poll on every edition of The Geral. We’ll publish the results in the next episode. Just remember, voting more than once doesn't get you extra brownie points... or actual brownies!

Memes of the month

After an edition supercharged with knowledge, as usual, let’s relax with some memes.

First one is naturally about SBF.

Heard he filed a motion to be released 5 days per week (wtf?)

While a lot of us are still in this situation

But we know degens are good at handling bear markets, right?

And that’s a wrap for The Geral #7! See you in two weeks for another deep dive into the world of web3 communities.