Plus, You Can Now Buy U.S. Property Using Bitcoin
Welcome to the digest… my breakdown of the things we’re thinking about and talking about in the Global Intelligence world.
First up this week… the NFL continues to invest in crypto (just don’t tell anyone).
On Wednesday, one day before the NFL draft, the NFL and National Football League Players Association launched the league’s first-ever blockchain-based video game called NFL Rivals.
In this mobile game, which is available for iOS and Android, players serve as general managers of their own teams and control their favorite players in arcade-style games.
What sets the game apart, however, are the blockchain-based features.
Because this game is based on blockchain technology, the backbone of bitcoin and all other cryptos, players can buy, collect, and trade unique items as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. (These are one-off, one-of-a-kind crypto tokens that can represent ownership of anything from digital art to a real-world house to a power-up or specific player inside a video game.)
Interestingly, the NFL and Mythical, the studio that built NFL Rivals, have decided not to advertise the fact that the game is built on blockchain and NFT tech.
According to Mythical Studios CEO John Linden, “If you’ve used the words ‘crypto’ and ‘NFTs,’ you’re kind of a crypto- or NFT-type project, right? If you’re using the tech for consumers, you probably don’t even need to mention it, just provide the great functionality.”
This story is further evidence of two points I constantly make about crypto.
First, the world of Web3 is emerging quickly. Web1 was the dial-up internet. Web2 is the current age of the internet, dominated by big data firms like Google, Amazon, et al. But now we’re moving into Web3… a decentralized era built on blockchain.
Big organizations like the NFL know this, and they’re pushing ahead into Web3. Ed Kiang, VP of video gaming at the NFL, said “Collaborating with Mythical Games and the NFLPA to produce an innovative gaming experience such as NFL Rivals is a testament to the NFL’s success in the world of Web3 gaming.”
Second, this game shows that crypto will take control… quietly.
It’s not like we’re all going to wake up one day and suddenly everything will be “crypto this” and “crypto that.” It will happen behind the scenes. No one will announce it to you.
At its heart, crypto is a new, improved kind of infrastructure for the internet.
Slowly, all the games and apps and websites we use today will be migrated to this new infrastructure or reimagined on it, which means investors who own tokens on these blockchains now are in the perfect position to profit.
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Sticking with crypto for a minute…
In another sign of how crypto continues to advance, despite the naysayers, this week also saw the launch of a new crypto real estate platform in the U.S. called MyEListing.com.
The site allows prospective homebuyers to buy properties using bitcoin.
But the real power of the site is how much faster these transactions can be completed.
According to the company, property transactions on the site can be closed within one business day.
That’s about 50 times faster than the current national average in the U.S.
This is possible thanks to blockchain technology, the unhackable digital ledger system that cryptocurrencies are built on.
MyEListing.com doesn’t handle the payments processing itself. Rather, the site is integrated with Coinbase Commerce, a division of the crypto exchange that allows businesses to accept crypto as payment.
MyEListing.com launched this week with properties in Texas. It plans to add real estate from several other states in the coming months.
Of course, it’s far too early to tell whether this specific platform will be a success.
But there’s no question in my mind that platforms like this are the future of real estate.
Any technology that can speed up property sales by 50X will win in the end.
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Finally this week… a global shortage of one of the most important foods on the planet.
This is set to be a historically bad year for rice production.
Rice harvests are falling across the world, from the U.S. to China to the European Union.
According to a report from Fitch Solutions, global rice supply will come in at 8.7 million tonnes under demand this year. That’s the largest shortfall since the 2003/2004 harvest season.
A variety of factors are causing this trend, including the ongoing war in Ukraine, which was a major agricultural exporter, as well as droughts and flooding in China, India, Pakistan, and other major rice-producing economies.
With supplies tight, the price of rice has skyrocketed… averaging $17.30 per cwt so far this year. Back before COVID, prices were in the $10 to $12 per cwt range. (Cwt, or a hundredweight, is a standard unit of measurement in certain commodities markets. In the U.S., one cwt equals 100 pounds.)
This spike in rice prices has caused India to ban exports of certain categories of rice. And it will place real hardship on the billions of people who rely on rice as their staple food.
More broadly, it shows how entrenched inflation has become in the global economy… which means inflation is here to stay in the U.S., too.
That brings us to the end of this week’s digest. Many thanks for being a subscriber. And if you have any feedback or questions, reach out through the contact form on the Global Intelligence website.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
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