Amy Wu: Gaming Companies Can't Afford to Avoid Web 3

Like many, Amy Wu, present caput of ventures and commercialized astatine monolithic cryptocurrency speech FTX, archetypal got into crypto during the 2017 bull run. But it wasn’t until the pandemic that she started investing heavy successful the manufacture for Lightspeed, the task steadfast wherever she served arsenic spouse astatine the time.

“It was the adjacent bull marketplace for crypto, and I felt we were going to miss retired connected a multi-trillion dollar manufacture if we didn’t commencement studying and participating successful crypto deeply,” she said. She and her Lightspeed partners started taking “five to 10 crypto meetings a day,” learning a batch at, well, lightning speed.

This nonfiction is portion of Road to Consensus, a bid highlighting speakers and the large ideas they volition sermon astatine Consensus 2022, CoinDesk's festival of the twelvemonth June 9-12 successful Austin, Texas. Learn more.

One of Wu’s astir pivotal investments done Lightspeed was successful FTX, wherever she became an “active member” of the advisory board. She got to talking regularly with the company’s co-founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, whom she met successful aboriginal 2021 and felt “inspired” by.

“As longtime task investors, we are looking for generational CEOs,” she said. “It was truthful evident that Sam was extraordinary.” Wu was impressed by his earthy quality to explicate analyzable crypto concepts without utilizing immoderate jargon – similar the mode Ray Dalio effortlessly explains recognition to laypeople. Bankman-Fried’s knack for this, and his quality to run efficaciously arsenic a CEO, convinced Wu to articulation FTX afloat clip astatine the opening of this year.

Now based successful the Bahamas astatine the company’s headquarters, Wu leads FTX’s $2 cardinal task superior fund, FTX Ventures, arsenic good arsenic initiatives for the institution successful gaming, the commercialized space, and mergers and acquisitions. When CoinDesk caught up with her, she was preparing for Crypto Bahamas, a astir 1,800-person league enactment connected by FTX and Salt Lending, a crypto lending platform, with the extremity of bringing unneurotic crypto manufacture natives and cardinal players successful accepted concern and amusement to foster “interdisciplinary conversation,” she said.

“We’re each going a small bananas close now,” she adds earlier our call. Still, she takes the clip to archer CoinDesk however she responds to accepted concern workers’ qualms astir crypto, wherefore gaming companies are truthful bullish connected Web 3 and what a tokenized dating app mightiness look like.

When you’re talking to accepted concern radical who are truly averse to crypto, what are immoderate of the concerns they bring up astir crypto and blockchain?

The questions that I get each the clip are, ‘What are the existent usage cases? Are radical utilizing crypto for things different than trading oregon arsenic a store of value?’ I besides get, ‘There's truthful galore hacks and vulnerabilities successful the space. What is it going to instrumentality to trim that?’ Then, of course, the fig 1 question I get is, ‘What's the regulatory situation for crypto?’

How bash you reply those questions?

On the regulatory side, we’ve decided to beryllium a precise progressive participant. Sam spends astir of his clip talking to regulators successful D.C. He plays an progressive relation moving with them and discussing what the close regulations mightiness look like, that are just and support consumers, but besides thrust the close incentives. FTX was founded connected the presumption that we were going to beryllium a wholly regulated industry.

As for each the usage cases, the world is that this year, we’re seeing that immoderate of the strongest teams successful accepted industries are moving into and gathering successful and learning astir crypto. I'm truly hoping successful the adjacent 18 to 24 months, we'll really commencement seeing these slayer app usage cases travel out. There's a batch successful gaming, but dating apps, societal networks and inferior user apps are besides going to cook successful incentivization with Web 3 elements. That's what I'm astir excited astir seeing.

The 3rd question radical inquire astir hacks – this is simply a problem. There was virtually a [$625 million] hack connected Axie Infinity’s Ronin span past month. People don't consciousness harmless successful crypto. That needs to beryllium solved. There needs to beryllium much information bundle and antithetic tooling to truly assistance hole that issue. It's 1 of the biggest areas that we're looking astatine investing successful close now.

You mentioned a blockchain dating app arsenic an accidental for a slayer app usage case. What would that look like?

I haven't seen 1 yet. However, it'd beryllium beauteous amusive to utilize the inducement mechanisms of a token successful a dating app format. I tin ideate that possibly there's a day referral programme wherever it's like, okay, if I notation a batch of large dates that crook into large 3rd oregon 4th dates, past I get rewarded much tokens, oregon thing similar that – trying to amended the dating funnel and besides driving idiosyncratic adoption for the app.

You besides mentioned Sam going to D.C. to assistance make the “right” regulations for the crypto industry. What would the close regulations look similar to you?

One acceptable of regulations wherever you're fundamentally balancing the user protections with incentivizing the close behaviors – you don't privation to make regulations that, for example, lone payment ample incumbents, making it hard to vie if you're a caller company. Some of the GDPR information regulations successful Europe, for example, are conscionable benefiting Google and Facebook, and smaller players can’t compete.

There’s an constituent of that successful crypto also. Lawmakers request to person a level of knowing successful bid to commencement reasoning about, ‘How bash I taxation this? How bash I modulate this?’ Otherwise, it conscionable creates a batch of friction, and doesn't person the intended effects of user protections.

It was a operation of Sam moving the institution precise distinctly, and besides conscionable being successful the close spot astatine the close time. There was tremendous merchandise marketplace acceptable due to the fact that determination fundamentally wasn't an speech astatine the clip that was built astir a much hardcore usage lawsuit of trading. At the time, a batch of exchanges were tailored for retail users. FTX was built for traders by traders. The consciousness of our FTX Pro app was designed for a much nonrecreational usage case.

We past acquired Blockfolio, which has this large retail acquisition – a batch easier to usage UX. But FTX’s maturation is the operation of a batch of things, including a blistering gait that Sam has set. The civilization of execution wrong FTX has truly contributed to the occurrence of the business. There are virtually nary titles wrong the company. Many of america person outer titles that we use, truthful that outer parties tin recognize our role, but internally, it's an highly level organization.

The determination making is some precise centralized and besides decentralized astatine the aforesaid time. The fig of employees is precise tiny – we lone person astir 300 people. For the size, gross basal and trading volumes that we have, astir of our adjacent exchanges person 10 times the fig of employees. But we deliberation we're operating and executing successful aggregate faster due to the fact that erstwhile you're lean, you tin determination faster.

Also, Sam is fundamentally online moving 24/7. He has this uncanny quality to person a grasp connected everything that's happening astir the company. He's capable to precise rapidly supply guidance, but let immoderate worker wrong the institution to consciousness a batch of empowerment, to instrumentality clasp of immoderate project. They consciousness a batch of excitement astir that.

I cognize 1 of your large focuses astatine FTX is gaming. What large gaming companies successful the Web 2 satellite are spinning disconnected Web 3 divisions close now?

You tin number connected 1 manus the fig of ample gaming companies that are not doing that. Virtually each of them are. That’s due to the fact that a ample gaming institution is, essentially, a postulation of dozens of IPs. They cognize that it's a portfolio absorption strategy. You can't foretell however large 1 of your games is going to be, unless it's a beloved franchise similar Halo.

Therefore, they motorboat a fig of games, and they spot what truly resonates with gamers. Most gaming companies consciousness that they can't miss retired connected Web 3. We already cognize that Axie Infinity has attracted implicit 2 cardinal regular progressive users. There is decidedly an assemblage retired determination that's ace excited astir it. Basically, Web 3 is thing that astir nary gaming institution tin spend not to experimentation in.

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