Thank you, Lord, for this day. May it be used for your glory!
Good morning and welcome back to a new edition of Friday Inspiration! I hope y’all have had a great week! I have a few exciting articles for y’all this week. 2 crypto ones, an article about a school bus I’d 100% live in, and an interesting project Google is working on.
Let’s jump in!
Shopify Allows Merchants to Mint and Sell NFTs on its Platform
https://cryptopotato.com/shopify-allows-merchants-to-mint-and-sell-nfts-on-its-platform/
So if you don’t know what Shopify is, they are one of the largest ecommerce platforms for small businesses. I’m not sure how many businesses use Shopify, but it’s gotta be in like the hundred thousand range.
Basically, if you’re a small business, you can go and create a “shop” with Shopify and then add your products to the shop. Shopify takes care of the rest like handling transactions, getting you your money, managing sales stats, and more. I think they help manage supply chain stuff too, but I’m not sure on that one. That’s about as far as my knowledge goes, haha!
They are very popular though.
Well, apparently, they are also very forward thinking. They had already proven this by adding a bitcoin payment option for customers to buy things from people’s shops!
Their next innovative step is here! They are now allowing shop owners to offer NFTs in their stores! This is really exciting stuff. I think it gives some proof that NFTs are not just a gimmick, and it gives these small businesses and creators access to another source of income.
I’m excited to see who the first shop with NFTs ends up being!
Kickstarter says it’s switching to crowdfunding via the blockchain
Another really popular platform for small businesses, creators, entrepreneurs, or anyone that wants to build and create something new is Kickstarter.
If you haven’t heard of them, they are a crowdfunding platform. I go on and write up the idea of a product I want to build, and the amount of money I need to raise to build it.
People find the idea and can choose to support it by donating to the crowdfund. Usually, people add incentives like if you donate, you get a t-shirt, early access, or an exclusive first edition. Things like that.
My favorite Kickstarter was a guy who raised $55,000 so he could throw a potato salad party, haha! It’s real, look it up.
Anyways, Kickstarter is now doing some forward-thinking too. They are going to start doing their crowdfunding via blockchain technology.
I’m not sure how this will look, though. Will you be able to crowdfund with a cryptocurrency or token? I guess we’ll find out!
But for a company that at one point banned any crowdfunds involving crypto, this is a huge move!
One of a Kind School Bus Tiny House Conversion Built with Salvaged Materials
https://tinyhousetalk.com/school-bus-tiny-house-built-with-salvage/
This was a really fun article. That school bus conversion looks super cozy and I think Tay and I would love to live in something like that.
It really brings back the memories of staying in our little camper in Bend, Oregon. So simple and cozy. It seems small, but when you actually do it, it’s not bad. It does require a minimalist lifestyle for sure. Not much room for projects and books and things.
Maybe we’d need a big garage next door, haha!
Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
https://blog.google/technology/research/project-starline/
First Facebook announces this whole metaverse thing and now Google announces this project.
However, this isn’t related to the metaverse at all, and so it might actually be received a little better.
One of the things Facebook (or Meta) is saying their metaverse technology will solve is social communication for people that are remote.
If you work remotely, just pop on your virtual reality headset and then be transported to a virtual office where you can have a meeting with coworkers.
Or if you have family who lives across the world or country, you can meet up with them virtually in the metaverse for family game night.
These are actually some pretty neat ideas, but still a little strange that it’s all virtual. You wouldn’t see the actual person, but rather their virtual animated version.
Google’s idea is a little different. Instead of virtual reality, they are just creating an insane video conference experience.
The screen adds depth so if you are having a video conference with a friend sitting on the couch, it will actually look like they’re in the room with you. They have some advanced audio features to make it sound like they are in the room, sitting on an actual couch with you too! It seems really cool!
I’m not sure how they are going to roll this technology out to people, though. I doubt anyone will want to buy some expensive high-tech screen just to call people.
We’ll see. Still a cool idea, though.
Alright, that’s it for this week! I hope y’all have a wonderful weekend and I’ll talk to y’all next week!