Hey ,

Welcome to another royalty-free addition to The Scoop. The Scoop is that West-coast-cool feeling you get when you realize Snoop Dogg is the best celebrity ever at using NFTs and the Metaverse to stay relevant. 😎🐶

The Big Scoop

Welcome to the Big Scoop, where we share an overarching idea that sets the tone for the whole newsletter. The goal is to make your Web3 brain bigger🧠.

This week’s biggest story is the big partnership between Google Cloud and Coinbase. As you may know, Google has been dominating the search engine game since the early 2000s, so this is obviously BIG NEWS.

The partnership means:

• Select Web3 customers using Google Cloud can pay for their services using crypto

• Web3 developers can get access to Web3 data using Google Cloud using BigQuery

• Google will use Coinbase Prime to access institutional crypto services.

• Google Cloud will be Coinbase’s strategic cloud provider.

Although Coinbase’s stock price has been hammered over the last year thanks to the recession, news of the partnership is seeing it spike close to 10% at the time of this writing.

Adoption continues even though crypto-related Google searches and company valuations are dropping lower.

In other news, the most popular NFT marketplace on Solana, Magic Eden, is now going to let buyers decide on the royalty fees they want to pay out to NFT creators. Earlier this year another NFT marketplace, Sudoswap, made waves by allowing buyers to purchase NFTs without paying royalties at all.

While many thought leaders and influencers who are bullish on NFTs point out that one of the benefits of NFTs is that creators can earn royalties on their intellectual property for life, the reality is the big decisions related to royalties come from platforms hosting NFTs, and the choice to pay out those royalties cannot be enforced on-chain (at least not yet).

⚠BTW…

Snoop Dogg released a cool new music video for his song “Crip Ya Enthusiasm”, which is very much NFT and Metaverse inspired. Even the beat for the song (a sample from the popular TV show Curb Your Enthusiasm) was once sold by show creator Larry David as a one of one NFT.

As it relates to both of the above stories, the Big Scoop is that creators need to get paid so that they can keep creating, and that the assets being created are going to become part of our popular culture more and more as time goes on (Snoop Dogg’s video proves it!)

🛑Lastly…a HUGE PS. ETH is deflationary now. 4,000 tokens were burned out of circulation last week. That means numbers go ⬆...at least in the long run.

The News

Coinbase Forms Strategic Web3 Partnership with Google Cloud

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase forms a strategic Web3 partnership with Google Cloud.

After seeing how the Google Cloud team recognized the importance of expanding crypto services and building in Web3, Coinbase decided to work with the platform.

The two formed a strategic partnership to accelerate Web3 adoption and innovation and have worked closely over the last few months.

The partnership consists of four parts:

• Crypto Payments - Through the partnership, select customers, starting with those in the Web3 ecosystem, will be able to pay for Google Cloud's cloud services via select cryptocurrencies through Coinbase Commerce.

• Data Access - Web3 developers will have access to Google Cloud's blockchain data through BigQuery. Coinbase Cloud's Node service will power this data access. This service will allow Web3 developers to instantly and reliably operate Web3-based systems without costly and complex infrastructures.

• Institutional Crypto Services - Google will use Coinbase Prime for institutional crypto services, like secure custody and reporting. Google Cloud joins the other over 14,500 institutional clients on Coinbase Prime.

• Advanced Exchange and Data Services - Coinbase will use Google Cloud as a strategic cloud provider to build an advanced exchange and data services. Through Google Cloud's powerful computing platform, Coinbase will process blockchain data at scale and evolve the global reach of its crypto services by leveraging Google's premium fibre-optic network.

Coinbase will also build its global data platform on Google Cloud's secure infrastructure, leveraging its leading data and analytics technologies to provide users of the Coinbase platform with machine learning-driven crypto insights.

This exciting Web3 partnership brings together two significant players to allow developers to build great products for the Web3 ecosystem.

Popular Solana-based NFT platform Magic Eden Letting Buyers Decide Royalty Fees

The largest NFT marketplace on the Solana blockchain Magic Eden now lets buyers choose how much royalties they want to pay creators.

“This is not a decision we take lightly. We understand this move has serious implications for the ecosystem. We also hope it is not a permanent decision. Today, royalties are not enforceable on chain. We welcome and hope to see new standards that protect royalties.” wrote Magic Eden on Twitter.

NFT royalties have been discussed frequently over the last few months as royalties are charged by NFT platforms and cannot be enforced on the blockchain itself. Recently, the Sudoswap NFT marketplace launched, which charges zero royalties due to the lack of enforcement around royalty payments.

This has caused many users to switch to marketplaces that don’t force them to pay royalties, so Magic Eden is making this shift to maintain user retention.

The move is a temporary shift in hopes that there is innovation on token standards that allows royalties to be enforced by code, as opposed to just honour or the will of the buyer.

The shift has been divisive, with many diverse opinions on the decision.

Head of communications at Solana, Austin Federal, wrote: “Rugging royalties on projects in active development is a mistake.”

NFT Twitter influencer, Function, stated, “It feels like a desperate move to appease down bad retail investors who are complaining on Twitter dot com.”

Marketing automation software Loopify spoke on the other side of the argument, stating that projects relying on royalties as a significant revenue source are unsustainable and at risk.

Though opinions are mixed regarding royalties on NFT platforms, it is clear that this will be the status quo unless royalties are enforced by code.

Chart.

Did you know that more than $6 million worth of Ethereum tokens has been burned since Monday? That’s over 4,000 ETH tokens no longer in circulation.

Here is a visual to feast your eyes on:

Fundraising In Web3.

We know it sucks that crypto prices are moving sideways and NFTs are still in the tank but don’t tell that to people raising money for their projects because last week was HUGE. Nearly $300 million in funds was raised, led by everyone’s favourite decentralized exchange.

Here’s a breakdown of the top fundraising announcements from the past seven days💵💸💰:

• An investment app supporting eight cryptocurrencies, Stash, raised $52 million.

• Uniswap raised $165 million to keep building its DEX.

• Waterfall raised $4 million to build NFT prediction market.

• Tatum raised $41.5 million to build blockchain apps.

Education.

Web3 class is in session!🤓

Unlike other things you’ve studied in your life, the Study Space is going to make you not only smarter but also wealthier. Not because prices of tokens go up and down, but because certain tokens get you paid for the time you spend online.

This week’s Study Space content covers a project you know very well. We’re talking about Cirus of course!

More specifically, we break down the utility of the $CIRUS token, explaining why there is a token in the first place and breakdown how $Cirus can benefit YOU and other ecosystem participants!

• The Cirus Token: Reader’s Digest

If you want to learn more about other basic and advanced Web3 topics, feel free to browse through the entire Study Space.

Scoop Meme

Lets Meme it up!

The Final Scoop.

The Coinbase x Google Cloud partnership is a BIG DEAL, not because more payments are going to be made in crypto to the world’s largest search engine company, but because Google Cloud is committed to supporting those spending their time BUIDLing.

Chalk up another win for Web3!

…and now a bit on royalties…

Remember that saving a few $SOL or $ETH on NFT purchases is great for investors (especially flippers), but many great NFT projects need to earn royalties in order to build out their ideas. Accelerating a growing trend in letting buyers decide how much to pay in royalties might lead to the collapse of many great works of art, valuable brands that build up their intellectual property, and entrepreneurs who work their butt off to build out Web3 with or without venture capital funding.

The beauty of Web3 is that whether you decide to pay royalties or not, build out a project or not, or support the movement or not, the point is that digital owners looking to make an impact can continue on with or without you… and you can do the same.

It’s all up to YOU!

Share The Scoop

We bet you didn’t know that Canada’s Thanksgiving Day was this past Monday. It just so happens that some of the people creating The Scoop are Canadian.

We would be so thankful if you would share The Scoop with everyone you know:https://cirusfoundation.com/thescoop/optin/

Thanks for reading and see you next week!