Cryptonauts, LaborDAO, Nym and Wetspace update The Agenda on the state of crypto

A little over a year and a half has passed since The Agenda podcast first launched and in each episode co-hosts Jonathan DeYoung and Ray Salmond ask guests to share how crypto and blockchain are helping to improve the lives of people around world. 

With the podcast pushing over the 40 episode mark, it seemed like prime time to dial back to previous guests to discuss their progress over the previous year and their plans for 2025.

Artificial intelligence opens a new meta for Web3 projects

WetSpace founder and CEO Allie Rae expressed her optimism on how AI could boost creator revenue and enhance the consumer experience on subscription-based platforms.

“I love what’s happening with it. I do think this is the problem, though. If creators don’t see it and adapt to it, you very well may run your business dry. But the point is, I look at it as a massive opportunity for creators utilizing AI to give your fans something more, something cooler where you can really program this to you and have your face, your likeness and speak with your fans. And not in a manipulative way, but in a fun way for them.”

When asked whether creator and consumer activity on the platform had risen throughout the 2024 bull market, Rae said that Wetspace is thriving and excited to roll out new incentives and features that are creator-centric.

“One of the things we're most excited about right now is we have a really amazing creator referral program that we launched. It's better than anything that's ever been out there, and it really gives top creators an opportunity to kind of bring other smaller creators under their wing, to help coach them into things.”

Generally, these types of incentives siphon income away from mentees and to the mentor and platform, but Rae said the profit-sharing “comes out of what WetSpace is cut, not the creators. So we're really trying to do that because we want to get creators on the platform.”

Some DAOs closed up shop, while others restructured to find a new purpose

Decentralized autonomous organizations were all the rage from the early days of DeFi up to the FTX exchange implosion and they continue to make media headlines in 2024. Take, for example, AssangeDAO, which is said to have been instrumental in securing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s freedom. The DAO raised and spent more than $37 million for Assange’s legal defense.

Not all DAO outcomes have been successful. Many disbanded, ran out of funds, encountered legal difficulties over the SEC’s mandate that most cryptocurrencies are unregistered securities issuances or simply fell victim to the bear market's heavy paw.

LaborDAO founder Larry Williams Jr said:

“We found out that DAOs themselves have a sort of a internal problem related to how we define being a member of a Dao. And what I mean is LaborDAO had initially thought that we would be helping workers who are trying to organize unions out there in the regular world.”

Williams explained that “within the DAO world, there seems to be a lot of misunderstandings about what it means to be a DAO worker or to be a member of a DAO, right? That those things are not cleanly defined.”

Blockchain-based VPNs continue to scale

While attending Consensus 2024 in Ausin, DeYoung crossed paths again with Harry Halpin, the founder and CEO of Nym. As part of their catch up conversation, Halpin said that NYM continues to scale as the need for decentralized VPNs grows.

Halpin said:

“Since we've talked last honestly, it's just been all of our energies have been focused on software development and usability, usability testing. We've done workshops in Ukraine, Turkey, all over the place.”

Community is still the cornerstone of Web3 and blockchain

A majority of guests on The Agenda have expressed their belief that community is the beating heart of every crypto, Web3 and blockchain project. In fact, most of the horror stories about crypto gone wrong first start with core leaders in a project either going against the wishes of the community or sidelining completely.

Cryptonauts co-founder Nathan Lurng said that their community of YouTube viewers and subscribers remain front of mind when his team brainstorms content topics.

“I feel like community itself is still considered value.”

In terms of new social metas for the current crypto market, Lurng said he feels “a lot of retail is tired of buying venture capital’s bag.” He gave the example of projects worth north of $300 million giving large pre-listing token allocations to venture investors and then the project and VC’s abruptly dumping the token on retail investors once it lists on exchanges. Social investing in memecoins has definitely been the new meta for 2024 and Luring said that:

“A lot of retail is now willing to just risk it all on a fair launch memecoin, rather then getting exit liquidity from a large VC.”

Regarding Cryptonauts' 2025 goals, Luring said:

“So we're still trying to keep things fresh, but mainly focus more on how can we put crypto and Web3 together with some real lifestyle things, or tell the stories of real people in a way that everybody can understand.”

To hear more from The Agenda’s catchup conversation with previous guests, listen to the full episode on Cointelegraph’s Podcasts page, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And don’t forget to check out Cointelegraph’s full lineup of other shows!