Hello everyone, and welcome to the CMO Stories Podcast, Season Two, Episode 45. My name is Joeri Billast, and today it's a short solo episode. As you may have heard, I'm giving a three-session masterclass around Web3.

The first session was about Web3 and digital identity, the second one was last week, actually, around NFTs, and the third and last one is tomorrow, Thursday, and it'll be about the metaverse. So if you missed the first two sessions, you can still get the recordings. But just for this podcast episode, I would like to give you some thoughts from those sessions.

In session one, we talked about Web3 and digital identity. The first thing I did was explain my journey into Web3, because it's quite an interesting story. I won't repeat it here – you can still go and watch the recordings. We talked about the difference between Web1, Web2, and Web3. I also made a TikTok about that.

So, Web1 was about reading, consuming information on the internet. Web2 is about reading stuff on the internet, consuming, but also writing stuff on the internet, like what social media does. However, the problem with social media is that you don't own your data. It's companies like Facebook who own your data, and they can delete your account whenever they want. So you don't own it, and yeah, that can be an issue, and then the promise of Web3 is that you really own your data.

But if you want to know more, just go back to the first session. So we talked about the definition of Web3, decentralized internet. It includes blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, the Metaverse. Blockchain makes everything secure and transparent. It empowers users and not the corporations. And yeah, the goal is a more open internet, I would say. Blockchain is like a chain of blocks, really a chain of blocks. It's a digital ledger for secure transactions; there is no need for a middleman. Transactions can't be changed on the blockchain. It's faster, cheaper, more transparent, and could actually replace traditional systems. We talked about digital wallets, what a public key, private key, and seed phrase are.

Next to that, we discussed the differences between a hot wallet, a warm wallet, and a cold wallet. Each type of these wallets has advantages.

And then, yeah, there's also a short video about digital wallets on my TikTok, my Facebook Reels, and my Instagram Reels. And there's also some interesting content on my YouTube channel. By the way, I have some YouTube shorts and also long video content.

We talked about MetaMask, because that's one of the most popular wallets that you can use to access not only your crypto but also NFTs, to access metaverses like Spatial, to access avatars through Ready Player Me, and to access other sites. Everything can work through your MetaMask, which is actually your digital wallet that's also your digital identity, made to make it easier. We talked about Web3 domain names, for instance, the domain name JoeriNFT.eth and CMOstories.eth. Those are unstoppable domains and ENS domains, which were actually the first domain players in this space. What is the advantage of these domain names, and what is the use? I compared it to Web2 domain names. A Web2 domain name, like my website Web3.net, is actually an IP address that is translated into this domain name, so I can just give my domain name to people, and they can find my website through a browser. The same thing happens with Web3 domain names. They translate a Web2 domain name to a complex wallet address. So I don't need to give my wallet address, which is really complex, hard to remember, and also easy to make mistakes with, anymore.

So it builds more trust, it builds more security, and it's safer. It's actually a digital identity that you can remember to give to other people. So your Web3 digital domain is really something that you should look at. We talked about my podcast, CMO Stories, and discussed different episodes that you can listen to.

Actually, it's like a menu in a restaurant. Go to the podcast website, which is cmostories.com, or just go to my blog web3.net, and have a look at all the episodes: digital identity, NFTs, the Metaverse. And then, based on what you want to learn, you can select a couple of episodes. So that was actually the first session. What did we discuss in the second session, which was around NFTs?

We discussed non-fungible tokens and gave a short definition of them. The most important thing is that they are non-fungible, meaning they cannot be exchanged on a one-to-one basis, and that's different than, for instance, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or even traditional currencies like the dollar or the Euro. One dollar equals one dollar; it doesn't matter if I give you one dollar, and you give me one dollar in return – it's still the same thing. But with NFTs, it's different. Every NFT is unique.

There's also the aspect of ownership and scarcity in NFTs. It's important that it's a verifiable digital ownership of a unique digital asset. It's on the blockchain, making it really clear who it belongs to and where it comes from. There's also the rarity aspect, as these assets are unique. You can think about limited editions or one-of-a-kind items, which can be interesting for collectors, for instance. There's also the aspect of indivisibility, meaning you cannot split them up, unlike dollars or Bitcoin.

Then there's the aspect of smart contracts and metadata, which also make NFTs useful instruments not only for art but also for utilities and for defining all the rules within the smart contract. You can also, for instance, define commissions: if you buy an NFT and sell it, the creator of the NFT can still receive a commission.

We talked about NFT NYC, as there were a lot of engagements and things happening on Twitter, showing that NFTs are still a big thing. We also discussed NFTs that I have created myself: the password-protected NFT, the community NFT, the survey NFT, and the masterclass NFT, which gives you access to the recordings of the masterclass series.

Now, for those attending the sessions, I will give them the NFT for free. This NFT will unlock access to the recordings, and they'll have a limited edition NFT that they can keep or even sell afterward if they would like.

We talked about all that, and I also explained how I created and minted the NFTs, following a step-by-step procedure. This is what I discuss in the Web Marketing Mastermind that I have launched. We already have three members at the moment, and I'm looking to add more. The more members, the better, but the first members have the advantage of being in a smaller group, learning a lot, and paying the lowest price that there will ever be.

We talked about some of the NFTs that I have that give me access to events, an NFT that is my ownership certificate of the penthouses that I have in the metaverse (I will also talk about this in the last session of the free masterclass that I'm giving), and I talked about POAPs (Proof of Attendance Protocol) and what those are. I also have a few POAPs myself, which is an interesting type of NFT that proves you have attended a certain event. So if you don't know about POAPs, it's also something to look at.

Then at the end, we talked about different other ideas, like using an NFT linked to a book, for instance. If I publish my next book, maybe it'll be an NFT, so that people can buy the NFT and then directly get access to the book and even be able to sell the NFT and the book if they would like to. An NFT could also grant access to a course, a mastermind, or a community so that the NFT is actually the key to unlocking the door to access the community. We talked about Token-Gated communities in that context, which is also a good use case for NFTs.

So now, if you're listening to this podcast and you think this is really interesting, but you want to learn more, you can watch the masterclass series. Send me a DM or a message on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or wherever you can find me, and then I will be happy to have a chat with you about the Web3 Mastermind, which is for marketers and entrepreneurs who want to do something with Web3. They want to use Web3 for their business and be ahead of the game, ahead of the curve, but they don't know where to start because they don't know anyone who can help them, and they don't have a community of people they can talk to. For those people, I have the W3X Web3 Mastermind, so send me a DM on social media, and I'll be happy to chat with you and see if you'd like to join.

Thank you so much for listening, and I hope to see you back next time. Take care.