Lindsey McInerney: The Metaverse and the 'Dick Punch'

When the world’s largest brew institution wanted to “enter the metaverse,” they turned to a pistillate named Lindsey McInerney. But that mightiness undersell her involvement. As AB InBev’s (BUD) planetary caput of tech and innovation, McInerney is the 1 who had the thought and convinced execs that the metaverse would beryllium “seismic,” and “way bigger than societal media.”

McInerney is an improbable champion of large marque marketing. And she’s an improbable subordinate successful fintech. Growing up successful Toronto, McInerney was drawn to countercultures and questions of identity. “My precocious schoolhouse felt similar a movie wherever you had the jocks, you had the nerds, you had the goths, you had the punks, and you had the skateboarders,” says McInerney. “I ne'er acceptable into immoderate 1 of those groups, but I floated betwixt each of them. And I was fascinated by benignant of observing them, studying them.”

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This fascination would blossom successful college, wherever she focused connected countercultures – women’s studies, theories of sex and sexuality, and subcultures similar skateboarding and the 1970s hippie movement. She was drawn to the intersection of individuality and authorities and activism. “I'd walk hours crawling done each publication I could find connected the Riot Girl Movement,” she says, and studied the aboriginal days of hacktivism.

Post-college, her vocation wended done PR and past societal media investigation and past yet to AB InBev, wherever she wrote a treatise connected the explosive imaginable of Web 3. After helping Stella Artois enter the metaverse, she near AB InBev and launched a startup with the histrion Mila Kunis and Lisa Sterbakov, called the Sixth Wall, that’s focused connected Web 3 and entertainment.

McInerney is returning to her roots. Her passionateness has ever been to effort and recognize culture, and she sees Web 3 arsenic a unit – possibly the unit – that volition alteration civilization successful ways we tin hardly understand. “Blockchain and Web 3 is going to infiltrate entertainment,” says McInerney, who’s present moving connected experimental, blockchain-driven shows wherever the assemblage helps make and usher the content. She predicts this volition alteration the scenery of which movies and shows get made. “I'm a civilization junkie,” she says. “What happens erstwhile you widen what typically happens successful Hollywood to cities each implicit the world?”

And if that each sounds fuzzy and acold retired successful the future, astatine the precise least, astatine present, her squad has implemented thing called the "dick punch."

Interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

Let’s commencement with your clip astatine AB InBev. In your relation arsenic planetary caput of tech and innovation, wherefore was blockchain connected your radar?

Lindsey McInerney: If you deliberation astir however you could usage blockchain successful manufacturing, similar for the traceability of ingredients, it was each there. No question. But past we deed the [coronavirus] pandemic, and everything had been accelerated with cryptocurrencies and integer ownership.

And for the archetypal time, I started to spot precise intelligibly what the user usage cases for crypto were going to be, which was fascinating. And truthful I wrote a thesis connected Web 3, the metaverse, [non-fungible tokens] and crypto for AB InBev. I started to research the antithetic ways wherever I thought we could attack it. For me, this was, nary question, the biggest happening we could absorption on.

How agelong did this study instrumentality you to write?

The aboriginal study I wrote successful a mates of weeks due to the fact that I was conscionable truthful excited.

“A mates of weeks?!” I’m envious.

I was spending each this clip speechmaking and absorbing myself successful forums, crawling done Twitter, blogs, and communicating with anonymous dudes connected the internet.

You know, each the large worldly you bash successful this space. To effort and truly recognize immoderate of the things that were happening.

And I person ne'er been much excited astir the aboriginal of the internet, and it came unneurotic really, truly quickly. Then I conscionable continued to iterate. One of my theories was that the metaverse volition replicate a parallel world successful a batch of ways. And truthful that meant that what brands bash good successful reality, they should beryllium capable to bash good successful Web 3 oregon the metaverse. And if you benignant of abstract AB InBev from beer, 1 happening AB InBev does truly good is that they're 1 of the world's largest sponsors of athletics and entertainment.

They bring radical unneurotic to beryllium entertained. And that's erstwhile we thin to bask having a brew together. AB InBev has an astonishing catalog and portfolio of brands, but Stella Artois is the sponsor of premium sport. They sponsor Wimbledon present successful the U.K. and a precise celebrated equine race. So arsenic I started to scan the scenery of things that I thought had astonishing communities down them, arsenic good arsenic parallel experiences to reality, Zed Run [the metaverse equine racing game] stood out.

We started talking astir however we could enactment unneurotic thing that would beryllium almighty and beneficial for the Zed Run community, and besides beneficial to AB InBev, that would replicate what we thought the aboriginal of premium equine racing would look like. So we launched 50 bundles of Genesis Zed horses with Stella Artois skins. Think of them similar jerseys for the horses, arsenic good arsenic a commemorative creation portion successful an NFT auction. And we sold them out. It was really, truly good received by the crypto community, which was genuinely the astir important happening to me.

What are you focused connected now?

I ended up co-founding a concern with Mila Kunis and Lisa Sterbakov, arsenic good arsenic immoderate others, to research the intersection of Web 3 and entertainment. Mila and Lisa person been moving Orchard Farms, a accepted accumulation company, for years, and had go precise excited astir Web 3.

They had antecedently launched Stoner Cats, an NFT task that allowed token holders to enactment successful the accumulation of a cartoon, which is truly cool. And Mila and Lisa some spot the aboriginal up of us, and wholly recognize that Web 3 is going to alteration each industry. And I’ve partnered with them connected gathering retired a institution we’re calling the Sixth Wall.

Given your fluency and expertise with the metaverse, you could person gone successful a cardinal antithetic directions. Why’d you take this path?

When radical perceive astir crypto, they deliberation of cryptocurrencies and they deliberation of fintech, and finance. That tin beryllium precise off-putting for a ample radical of people. And a batch of folks volition accidental things like, “This is conscionable excessively hard. It's conscionable excessively analyzable for me. It comes from gaming and finance. Like, however americium I getting my caput astir this?"

And I person a existent keen involvement to marque this simple. I privation to distill this worldly down arsenic simply arsenic imaginable for arsenic galore radical arsenic possible. Because it's those precise folks that we request astatine the array to physique things amended and physique them right.

What’s the Sixth Wall creating now?

I person to preface each of this with that, close now, we are wherever we were years agone with the aboriginal App Store. When the lone happening radical could bash is to, like, physique ovum timer apps. Very simple things. And present we recognize that you tin physique billion-dollar businesses arsenic applications connected the iPhone. So this is each yet going to beryllium truthful overmuch bigger than we tin conceive.

Fair caveat! But what tin you archer america astir the existent iteration?

Entertainment fascinated me, due to the fact that I americium funny successful bringing much radical to this space. NBA Top Shot was a large example. People tin bargain hoops cards and person nary thought they were connected the blockchain astatine all. Entertainment is simply a truly communal denominator. We emotion stories. We're storytellers arsenic humans. It's built into who we are.

And I spot amusement arsenic a mode to bring a batch of caller faces to crypto. In entertainment, there's ne'er been much of a person collaboration betwixt assemblage and creators than determination is connected "Stoner Cats" and the task I'm moving connected now, "The Gimmicks." It’s being defined successful existent clip by the community.

It’s truthful overmuch much than Choose Your Adventure. We're capable to make things that we spot successful the Discord and respond to them. And the writers are saying, "Oh, my goodness. I've ne'er been capable to person this benignant of real-time feedback."

Can you picture what this is exactly?

The Gimmicks is the 2nd amusement that we released. It's built connected the Solana blockchain. It's a cartoon that is benignant of similar “South Park” meets “WWE.” It's a wrestling show. We're releasing episodes weekly. It's animated.

And we’re partnering with a workplace called Toonstar. They're a Web 3 animation studio. Each week, the assemblage gets 3 oregon 5 chiseled choices astir wherever they privation things to go, and they tin ballot connected this with their tokens. So if you've got a Gimmick, you tin log in, and you tin benignant of prime the ending. And everybody other tin travel along.

We’ve built 1 of what we deliberation is the earliest on-chain engagements. We'll astir apt look backmost successful 5 years and laughter astatine this, but erstwhile you vote, you get a “dick punch,” which is simply a token that we created that you tin nonstop to your friends.

So you tin dick punch different radical successful the community. It's a finishing determination for 1 of the characters. It's meant to beryllium amusive and conscionable benignant of successful enactment with the code of the show. You tin deliberation of it similar the aboriginal Facebook poke.

It instantly reminded maine of the Facebook poke.

We were like, “Hey, it’s similar the Facebook poke, but harder.” [Laughs.] It’s precise simple. That’s wherever we are with these technologies close now. They're simplistic but the thought is that assemblage members are present capable to prosecute with each different on-chain, and we’re exploring it. We're having amusive and we're trying to fig retired what each of this means.

And blockchain and Web 3 is going to infiltrate entertainment. We can't conceive each the ways close now, but we’re mapping the end-to-end instauration of a portion of movie and tv to recognize the ways Web 3 volition intersect entertainment, from ideation signifier each the mode done to reddish carpet.

What are immoderate predictions for what mightiness happen, possibly 3 oregon 5 years from now, if the assemblage starts to ain these stories successful the metaverse?

I'm excited astir seeing what a greater assortment of radical – a much distributed radical of radical – would create. I'm a civilization junkie. What happens erstwhile you widen what typically happens successful Hollywood to cities each implicit the world? What does that look like? And tin that happen? And what benignant of stories get told? Whose stories get told? I deliberation that's truly absorbing and important.

So successful theory, if there’s decentralized ownership of stories – and adjacent IP and characters – alternatively of 3 achromatic dudes successful a Hollywood league country brainstorming what should happen, you person a full assemblage that’s much diverse? Am I getting warm?

Yeah. You could person contented created by radical who bespeak the satellite we unrecorded in. That's a precise existent possibility. Or if you look astatine definite projects, there's a precise existent anticipation that radical volition beryllium capable to usage IP, and make IP, and storytelling successful ways that they haven't previously. And that could look a small spot antithetic than it has historically.

Love it. Best of luck to you and Sixth Wall.