2025 - It’s Going to Be One for the Books!

Bits of Signum | 01.01.2025

Cathie Wood; Frank McCourt; Carley Beck

A good pun is just too tempting - I’m referring to literal book recommendations - Frank McCourt’s Our Biggest Fight and Carley Beck’s Women in the Web3 Space. Also, among so many readings by Cathie Wood and ARK Invest, we focus on the enormous topic of AI as we head into 2025. Before we do, one note - the ARK Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) managed ~$4.37 billion in AUM as of yesterday - kudos to the Cathie and the ARK team on this major win of 2024.

The other theme across our New Year’s Day reflections - Women Warriors of Innovation and the importance of Sig Segalas, Founder of Jennison Associates, in this history. See Signum Growth Dot Play’s three big topics as we head into 2025, along with a 2024 dinner for the books in Austin with a lot of our favorites at the table.

Topic 1: We need to fix the internet ASAP. Our Biggest Fight, by Frank McCourt. Dot Play will be talking more about this incredibly important fight. MeWe’s CEO Jeffrey Edell laid out the network map for us at a Belgian waffle house a few weeks ago in LA, and a thought nags at us - should Dot Play build a gaming app on Project Liberty’s blockchain Frequency? As most are aware, we are already all-in on another company, Mythical, and their blockchain built on and secured by Polkadot called Mythos. Speaking of Web3, our friend and author Carley Beck, along with seven speakers at the UNGA 78th Science Summit, authored the excellent book, Women in the Web3 Space Inclusive Futures. Thank you, Carley, for the work you do for women, gaming and Web3, and for the shout outs to Mythical and Signum Growth Dot Play. Carley, you win our 2024 award as a road maker and innovation warrior!

We are watching Frank McCourt’s bid for TikTok very closely. The press seems to be focused on the idea that President-Elect Trump does not want TikTok to be banned in the US. Our read is that Frank McCourt has a win/win solution. It is true that Trump filed a brief on Friday asking the Supreme Court to suspend a January 19 deadline until after he takes office. A lower court upheld a law passed by Congress in April to force the sale or ban of TikTok by its Chinese owner, ByteDance. Frank McCourt has a solution - keep it alive and kill the algorithm that is responsible for the national security threat! Frank has spent five years building Project Liberty, and its blockchain network Frequency, and he has also circled $20 billion to buy TikTok. This move would keep the users and the brand intact, while killing the algorithm. Interestingly, four years ago, President Trump believed that Tik Tok should be banned. When it was reported that Microsoft was interested in buying TikTok, President Elect Trump was reported to respond, “As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States.”

Topic 2: Polkadot. Normally I spend most of my time talking about the games, the entertainment, and the meat of the highway of behavior change onto which we are merging. Today, we are highlighting a few truths about Polkadot. If you don’t already follow the Kusamarian, Jay and team do a phenomenal job of keeping our community up to speed and of creating a weekly space for live brainstorming, discussion, debate, and yes, a few rants. Here is a must watch Kusamarian retrospective - see easy subscribe button :). Separately, Founder Gavin Wood surfaces from life as a builder about once a year with a must-read reflection on the year - Polkadot Roundup MMXXIV. People are often surprised to learn that we don’t really interact with Gavin - we are in different trenches, sharing a common vision of Less Trust, More Truth! We believe that AI is pouring gasoline onto the fire of inauthenticity on the internet. Since we care a lot about creators and users of games and entertainment, we are passionate about building tech to protect them. Ask our Head of IP Development Eliza Jappinen about her 14 billion views on TikTok and how little control or transparency she had.

Some 2024 Metrics on the Kus!

0:00 Spammening Recap! Smashed the world record for most transactions per second recorded on chain (“TPS” in payments and other online transactions) at 182,000 TPS

5:08 Gaming & Memecoins - Everloot launched!, Mythical’s Pudgy Penguins coming soon, FIFA Rivals, FIFAs first web3 mobile game, coming next summer. Important Note: Mythical has 6 million addresses on the Mythos chain ready for these new games!

6:16 DOT Data Dump! 23,000 active accounts, Polkadot Treasury ~$322m

Topic 3: AI. Yes, saved the biggest topic for last, and Cathie Wood is the Godmother Woman Warrior of Innovation! ARK’s investment in OpenAI is important to highlight - here is What We Think About OpenAI | In The Know With Cathie Wood. The ARK analyst team also boiled it down to a series, which was capped with a must-listen FYI podcast with OpenAI’s CFO Sarah Frier, hosted by Cathie and ARK Futurist Brett Winton. Sarah is another innovation warrior. At one point, the pod brought tears as Cathie called out Sig Segalas, Founder/CIO of Jennison Associates, a life mentor whom I was lucky to share. Sig is on my mind during the holidays as we approach the two-year anniversary of his passing tomorrow. I am so grateful for all that I learned from Sig and for his incredible support of me and other women in technology. A key message that I took from Sarah’s comments, which also reminded me of something Sig would say - it is very early. Sarah argued, in the early days of major disruptive change, the best approach is to go all in on the #1 player, who will be more likely to be able to extend their lead and create a real moat.

In this ITK episode, Brett explains ARK Invest’s 2030 Forecast of AI Revenue and Gross Profit -

In the Know with Cathie Wood - What We Think About OpenAI, Summarized by OpenAI’s ChatGPT -

In the episode “What We Think About OpenAI” from the series “In the Know” with Cathie Wood, ARK Invest’s CEO/CIO Cathie Wood and Chief Futurist Brett Winton discuss their perspectives on OpenAI and its impact on the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape.

Key Highlights:

• OpenAI’s Role in AI Advancement: Cathie Wood emphasizes OpenAI’s significant contributions to the rapid progression of AI technologies, particularly in generative AI models like ChatGPT.

• Investment Perspective: The discussion includes insights into ARK Invest’s approach to investing in AI-driven companies, highlighting the transformative potential of AI across various sectors.

• Ethical and Societal Considerations: Brett Winton addresses the ethical implications of AI development, including concerns about job displacement and the importance of responsible AI deployment.

• Future Outlook: The conversation explores the future trajectory of AI, with predictions about how AI could reshape industries and the global economy.

Short note on the ARK Venture Fund from ARK’s site - All US self-directed investors can download the SoFi app and, with as little as $500, invest in a portfolio of private and public companies through the ARK Venture Fund. SoFi provides members with the ability to invest in a standard brokerage account, or through a Traditional or Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The ARK Venture Fund is also available to unaccredited investors on Titan, a members-only wealth platform.

In 2024, we added Dot Play to Signum Growth - ask us about the pivotal hub for gaming in Polkadot and the sponsor of our podcast, Bits of Signum, Creator Stories!