The Format #027

The team here is in action mode. With our first builder competition just a week away, things are getting very exciting. We have an amazing line up of judges, some generous prizes from (ourselves), BuildShip and Ambitious Labs. We genuinely can’t wait to see what people end up building - more info next week. No-code web3? Yes please. :)

This weeks round up of articles is a little light due to Fortnite making its way into the collective team consciousness (research of course), speaking of which…

Fortnite shop updated as Epic gets fined over microtransactions once again, this time for $1.2 million amid claims "children’s vulnerabilities were exploited"

We’re a big fan of Fortnite and its tight game loop and game economics. The (huge) problem here though: their model triggers the impulsiveness of their primary target audience, children. Epic will be well aware of the levers to pull in their economic behavioural system to reduce churn, encourage spending, increase game plays, etc. If we had some transparency around these levers then perhaps we’d trust them more with our children or be part of the solution…

The Power of Missions with OPENFORMAT

While we’re on the topic of influencing behaviour (in this case ethically…), we wrote a piece looking at the different ways you can align user incentives with your goals. It’s purposefully very actionable and provides a basic framework for designing a rewards system ahead of our competition next week.

Where Value Flows Onchain: Friend.Tech Edition

The real fundamental shift with blockchain is how the value is distributed (and how transparently we can see that), this deepdive by MilkRoad looks at this through the lens of a popular blockchain-based app: Friend.Tech. The key takeaway, in the current system apps like Instagram take almost all of the value. Here, the value is split not only with creators, but also with all of the infrastructure the app is built on. As the app thrives, everyone benefits.

I Am Once Again Asking Our Tech Overlords to Watch the Whole Movie

There have been some BIG AI releases this week: OpenAI with GPT-4o, Google with their Gemini 1.5 Pro and Flash models. It’s starting to look a lot like the technology from a sci-fi movie, and in the case of GPT-4o, that movie is ‘Her’. Tech mimicking fiction is nothing new, but most of these fictional scenarios are far from utopian, full of negative unintended consequences. This article does a great job at capturing the nuances of fictional inspiration for tech.

OPENFORMAT News

As part of the competition going live next friday (24th May), our launchpad and API will also be going into public beta.

Our goal with this release: to make building onchain accessible to all.

Build & Reward Hack Night 🏆

Alongside the competition we’re also running an in-person hack night in Bristol. We’ve ran a few of these before and they’re always great fun. It’ll be in our new office on Tuesday 4th June and we’ve designed the night so that anyone can quickly build a cool MVP, including UI designers, product owners, start-up founders and non-devs. You can find out more about the event here.

NoCode UK Conference

Next week Dom and I are heading to the NoCode UK conference. It should be a great chance to chat to builders about what we’re working on and get a sense of the wider space and which companies or communities would be good to collaborate with for future integrations and competitions.

If anyone else will be there please let is know, it would be great to have a chat!

And that’s all for this week.

Have a great weekend, Dan and the OPENFORMAT team 👋🏽

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Prompt (generated using DALL-E 3): “A group of diverse and iconic Fortnite skins, including characters like the banana peel skin (Peely), in various colorful and futuristic outfits, being fined a large amount of money. They look very unhappy and distressed, with realistic facial expressions, and visible stacks of cash or digital currency symbols. Include an AI inspired by the AIs from the movie 'Her', represented as a friendly, yet authoritative, digital entity with a holographic appearance. The scene should blend the concept of the physical meeting the digital, with futuristic elements such as holograms and digital interfaces integrated into a modern cityscape. The overall mood should highlight the contrast between the playful Fortnite characters and the serious nature of the fines.”