Matt Higgins, former Shark Tank host, prolific VC and business builder, did a 2-hour Spaces last night about why he is so bullish on ENS domains.
If you're not bullish on ENS yet, I dare you to listen to it or read this recap and still not see the potential.
Full Spaces recap👇
My take on the ENS DAO wanting to buy/gift names to brands and celebs:
While I'm certain that this is being done with the best intentions and with the ENS ecosystem's best interests at heart, it would be a massive mistake.
Let me explain.
👇
@kyleTwang
@JohnReedStark
Not tricky at all.
Crypto is good because they are open protocols that anyone can use and everyone can verify.
CBDCs are bad because they are not open, and gives government the power to censor transactions and empowers a social credit system.
Quite straightforward.
Coinbase's building Base as a layer 2 on top of Ethereum is massively bullish for ENS.
They could have built their own chain like Binance.
But Coinbase recognizes that Ethereum will be the base layer of the new internet.
And ENS will be it's identity layer.
"People respond to incentives.
And if you create a perverse incentive structure, then you end up with perverse outcomes."
@KonstantinKisin
This is one of the key concepts to understanding human behavior.
Affects all aspects of life: politics, business & relationships.
@SMB_Attorney
The Marketing Rule of 7:
"The Rule of 7 states that a prospect needs to “hear” the advertiser’s message at least 7 times before they’ll take action to buy that product or service (or let you transfer to their law school)."
ENS vs Unstoppable Domains
Opensea Total Volume:
ENS: 75,554eth
UD: 360eth
UD has 0.48% of the secondary market volume as ENS.
This does not even include the volume on ENS Vision, which is significant.
ENS will become the web3 domain name gold standard. Plan accordingly.
Are you holding too many ENS domains, and are willing to let some go for under $25 because you likely won't renew anyway?
Two of my investment DAOs are buying for this scenario.
Here's the plan:
👇👇
@unusual_whales
Key question:
How much profit did they make doing this?
I suspect it was more than $150 million, which means we just incentivized then to do this more.
Just like we did when Chase manipulated the gold market and the fine was miniscule compared to the profit they made doing it.
This week in ENS:
•ENS DAO is officially working with Ethiopia to get control of .eth via DNS
•Name Wrapper is officially ready and up for a vote, it will go live very soon
•Bluechip NFT
@CyberKongz
going all in on ENS subdomains
I'd say it's been a pretty great week!
Am I the only person in ENS who couldn't care less about rarity?
If/when ENS goes mainstream, the only thing most people will care about is getting the 1-of-1 they truly want:
•first name
•last name
•character
•location
•nickname
Went to a Web3 domain name meet-up last night in Austin.
Consensus was that ENS is far ahead and will likely be the premier TLD for the identity layer of the internet.
Handshake is doing great things for decentralized websites and worth watching.
UD is worse than I thought.
JPMorgan just announced they are building a web3 identity protocol.
They see what's happening with ENS and want to get a piece of that action.
They will fail.
Why would you sign up for a centralized spyware identity when you could have an ENS name? Answer: you wouldn't.
Regulation is the friend of the incumbent -
@bgurley
Absolute must-watch video of Bill Gurley explaining the devastation regulatory capture causes to our system.
He explains via (completely insane yet real) examples of the damaging effects of regulatory capture on our system,…
Mike and I are going to analyze some ENS domains on our show by giving our thoughts on how good/bad they are and why.
Anyone want to offer up any of their domain for us to discuss?
One of the potential massive bull cases for ENS names just happened for the first time this week.
A buyer offering 10x what a name should be worth because he wants it and the seller doesn't want to sell.
The story + how it will happen frequently in the future 👇👇
I spoke to a higher-up at Coinbase during EthDenver.
I brought up that I was building in the ENS space.
He got excited and stated that he's a big fan of ENS, and that he offered $50k for his first name and it was ignored.
Perfect example of how people will see status in .eth.
To be successful in the ENS space, you need to keep up with everything that's going on.
Following the right twitter accounts is key.
Here are the best ENS twitter accounts I've found:
#ens
#ensdomains
Coinbase CEO
@brian_armstrong
expressed his excitement about ENS' potential.
Balaji
Punk6529
Vitalik
Brian Armstrong
Matt Higgins
You're not paying close enough attention to
#ENS
.
I'm working with an Ethereum/ENS OG to build a six figure (possibly seven figure!) ENS hedge fund.
Buying ENS names low now, selling high in the bull.
If you had $200k solely to be buying ENS names right now, what would your strategy be?
If you are currently minting or buying cheap
#ENS
domains, you should be thinking about your strategy the same way VC's do;
Be prepared for 90%+ of your investments to go to zero.
Yet still make a ton of money.
A thread 🧵
•YouTube coming out with @ handles
•Twitter selling usernames
The value of owning your username is becoming more and more clear.
In the future, you'll only need to own one.
#ENS
Just bought my sixth Check from
@jackbutcher
.
My focus is always on the long term. And Jack is someone who people will be talking about in the NFT and art world for years to come.
I couldn't care less what the latest trend this week is. And you probably shouldn't either.
Polygon is doing a presentation on the main EthDenver stage right now about their Polygon ID.
This is the kind of thing ENS should be doing.
Less of a cost issue in terms of marketing for the DAO, and more of having a dedicated person/team working with partners to get word out
What is the argument from
@ENS_DAO
against having a marketing/business development department?
We've seen how successful this can be from Polygon.
And the money is there.
If the goal is mass adoption, this seems like the perfect use of 10-15% of the annual revenue.
Collectible/character ENS names are clearly starting to pick up.
Still very early and not totally proven yet, but I think people are starting to recognize the long term potential.
Don't overspend on them, but worth taking a close look at the great or at least really good ones.
Remember that 8 billion potential ENS users sounds like there will be 8 billion active ENS names.
But when Web3/ENS is mainstream, most people will have 2 online identities:
real name for jobs, ID, etc.
Pseudonymous identity for everything else.
That's 16 billion active ENS
ENS is absolutely the best risk/reward bet in all of web3. And it's not close.
But DO NOT go all in on it.
Small+calculated bets as a portion of your portfolio.
ENS domains are the future of digital ownership.
Secure, immutable, blockchain-backed domain names that you control and own forever.
Now is the time to learn and invest, while most are sleeping on an obvious 10x or more opportunity.
@JamesClear
Making my default to go to the gym every day.
It literally feels like the hard decision to decide not to workout. Which is why that almost never happens.
Another ENS expiry list lesson:
I was ready to buy sayan.eth and rayane.eth last night. They were around $25 and $50 or so, each with over 100k on forebears.
Gas was a little high, but not insane.
So I stupidly waited until this morning, and of course, they were gone.
The
#ENS
space will explode once one smart NFT influencer realizes that the ENS ecosystem is perfectly designed to create the massive engagement loop that they crave.
Read on to learn how 👇👇
Reminder of ENS' value prop:
➡️Digital identity
➡️Simplified wallet address
➡️Bank account
➡️Decentralized website
➡️1-of-1 NFT
Eventually, everyone with a crypto wallet will want one.
Anyone want a short, honest opinion of up to three of your ENS domains?
Post up to three, you can give a short explanation if necessary.
I'll give it a score of 1-10.
Let's see what you got!
#ENS
#ensdomains
You never know when the next ENS bull run will start:
•summer
•Christmas
•2024
•TOMORROW
Once it starts, you'll wish you had prepared before it started.
Have that mindset today and prepare now.
Prediction:
By 2024, ENS domains will be removed from all "Top NFT daily volume" style lists.
The number of sales + eth volume will be so massive on a daily basis, easily 10x second place, that it'll be deemed not a traditional NFT project so it makes sense to remove it.
My hope for the ENS DAO, in all things, is to be credibly neutral.
We should not want their help as speculators; they have no reason to. It's not their job.
But they also shouldn't work against us either.
Just be credibly neutral.
And continue building an amazing protocol.
What are ENS Maxis and why should I care?
Serious question.
I've been seeing tons about them for months, but never dug into it. Can someone give the short version of what's going on with them.
And what makes them any different than a typical pfp project.
The username "x" was taken by Twitter/X yesterday, and they received nothing in return.
Just another example of why owning your digital identity is so important.
Your online identity should not be able to be taken from you because it's expedient for a company to do so.
#ENS
The most forward thinking man in crypto,
@balajis
, started his own podcast, The Network State.
He's only done two episodes, and he's already discussing the power of ENS in the coming decentralized world.
Time to start paying attention ENS if you're not.
Looks like 75% of the ENS 10k Club floor/near floor renews on 4/26 and 4/27
Feels like a strong signal that prices are likely going lower, as I imagine those many of those holders will do what it takes to sell before that date.
If you're a buyer, might be smart to wait til then
The potential for
#ENS
subdomains is a hot topic here on Twitter, for good reason.
It has massive potential for the future of ENS and for holders to earn passive income.
But it's important to understand what names would make a good subdomain vs ones that won't.
Read on 👇👇
Meta bailing on NFTs is just more proof that the ENS community and ENS DAO need to prioritize onboarding the current Ethereum community.
Mainstream isn't ready to use these yet in a significant way.
Let's focus on bringing in the mainstream crypto/NFT people here on Twitter.
I've said it multiple times, but Gary getting into ENS and spreading the word could be an instant 5-10x for the space.
If he does his research like he says he will, not sure how/why he wouldn't jump in.
Tons of positives of the NFT/PFP culture, none of the negatives.
If there's one person in the tech space who has been the best predictor of where tech/crypto is headed, it's unquestionably
@balajis
.
He just explained to
@lexfridman
how
#ENS
domains are the future of decentralized identities.
Probably time to start paying attention to ENS.
Outside of Gary Vee, I think the biggest person I would like to see get involved in the ENS space is
@punk6529
.
It's insane how intelligent this person is about Web3 and NFTs, yet we don't know who they are.
But even as an anon account, they have built up amazing credibility.
Weekly ENS shill thread:
Going to start posting one thread per week for everyone to shill their names.
Difference between mine and the others:
I run 3 investment DAOs that are buying ENS names, so I could be a buyer.
I will pick one each week to feature in ENS HQ Newsletter.
I'll be on a web3 domain name panel today at NamesCon, repping ENS.
One thing I'll likely discuss are future use cases.
What would be some of the best ones to discuss?
Don't invest in corporate
#ENS
names unless you can get them for super cheap.
Investing more than $100 into a name that only has one potential buyer is not a smart bet in the current environment.
cokehead.eth
Snagged this one today. The expiry was all the way down to just $10 in premium.
Feels like this will be a great ironic pseudonymous name for someone out there, and worth them paying a premium for it.
Many people push back on my conviction on ENS by saying:
"It's too early to know if ENS will win out as the primary TLD for Web3."
While I have plenty of reasons why I think it's highly likely ENS wins, it got me thinking:
What could be the reason ENS doesn't win long term?
ENS is quickly becoming so ubiquitous in the crypto infrastructure, protocols will be forced to integrate it.
Otherwise users will assume it's an underbaked platform or a scam.
@zerohedge
CA insurance agent here.
The Dept of Insurance in CA gets to determine whether insurance companies can raise prices (I know this sounds like communism, which it basically is). Up until this year, they allowed essentially no rate increases since 2020, while inflation was through…
My daughter's first ever soccer game today.
She won the only award they give out, the Sportsmanship award.
A girl on the other team got hurt and she immediately stopped playing and went over to help her instinctively.
She is a deeply kind person and I couldn't be more proud!
ENS Subdomains are coming!!
Super exciting for the ENS ecosystem; and the potential it brings for more use cases.
In the near term, I think we'll see more NFT brands like Kongz utilizing them; and maybe some Web3 brands as well.
But I don't think we'll see lots being sold.
Regarding ENS subdomains:
Haven't seen this aspect discussed much.
Subdomains can be free, not only right away, but no recurring fee either.
This is a massive selling point for people who want the advantages of ENS with spending a dime, or worrying about renewals.
Thoughts?
Emojis, underscores, negative sign, etc.
If you're investing in these types of ENS domains, understand you are taking a much bigger risk than clean names.
If ENS goes mainstream, it is 99.9% certain clean short words/names will succeed.
Not so for the above derivatives.
My investment club ZilkerDAO is looking to buy some first or last name ENS domains.
Must have 10k or more on Forebears.
0.1 to 1eth max.
Show me some quality names at a good price!
Picked up five ENS names off expiry this morning for ZilkerDAO:
justino - 300k people - $55
gunjan - 90k people - $43
qaseem - 37k people - $5
hussam - 110k people - $70
herve - 250k people - $206
How'd we do?
That's it for my first ENS thread. Thanks for reading all the way through.
Follow me for more ENS discussion as well as simplified crypto concepts.
My goal is to make web3 simple.
Message me if I can help in anyway.
Love making new internet friends!
The power of ENS is its decentralization and lack of interference.
Between this and the ENS Fairy situation, I'm quite concerned about the direction of the DAO.
Problem with two-word ENS domains:
Your potential buyer has hundreds/thousands of more options to choose from to get a similar enough name.
They can be great long-term, once ENS is mature. I own a bunch.
But their value is severely limited this early.
Question for you
@mhiggins
What would you do if you were in charge of the ENS DAO marketing wise?
Do you have a marketing company that could be brought in?
If not, do you think
@VaynerMedia
would be smart to hire?
The ENS community agrees with you on the need for marketing.…
ENS is the most unique & exciting NFT project that exists.
• all are a 1 of 1
• infinite # available
• has an annual holding cost
• has tons of utility
• largest NFT community
• controlled by community via DAO
• clubs built around name types
• identity but not PFP
Let's all remember here that the DAO/Nick are clearly not saying they want to take domains out of our wallets.
Suggesting we take nick.eth from him is disingenuous because he's not suggesting that at all.
We should focus on respectful disagreement, as we all want the same thing
The ENS 10k club mass renewal date is coming up in less than two weeks.
Current floor is 0.6eth.
How low do you think it goes before the 26th? At what level would you buy in?
Just another reason why ENS is the leader in Web3 identity; and will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.
The one selling point that UD had that was legit attractive to people, they just got rid of.
I paid thousands of dollars to secure what I thought was a great investment in web3 domains I thought were untouchable/yours/forever. It’s not “exciting at all to have them introduce UD Parking!
@IAmClintMurphy
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Easy/short read, covers tons of ground about personal development, stoicism and living a life to be proud of. Even better, is a great first read for teenagers new to personal development.
Bought kollector.eth today with zero premium.
Watched it go to zero last week.
Normally I don't like misspellings at all, but I feel like this is probably one of the betters ones that someone might pay a premium for.
Agree, or did I make a bad purchase?
#ENS
Went to an NFT meetup in Austin this week.
Super smart people in the space, including traders, builders, artists, etc.
None of them had thought about ENS as a valuable/tradeable asset, only as their own identity.
We are so early.
The primary use case for ENS is individual identity for the Web3 internet.
This is what is going to catapult ENS into the mainstream, not brand adoption.
The community should be rallying around promoting individuals to get their ENS name.
Exactly as
@punk6529
has been doing.
1. Shitcoin gets hot, everyone jumps in
2. 1,000x opportunity is over
3. Degens start looking for new 1,000x opportunities
4. Price of first coin drops a ton as liquidity moves to 10-20 new coins
5. Liquidity spread too thin between all those coins
6. All shitcoins drop