Trevor McFedries — Building Web 3.0

There is substantial intentionality in crafting virtual stars e.g.

• Miquela was/is crafted to be a very approachable character (e.g. "not trying to look like a beer girl", has a gap in her front teeth, etc.)
• Miquela was crafted to be a widely relatable character (e.g could be seen to be Latina, Thai, Black, etc. without audience definitely knowing...and the creators/curators of Miquela do not have to decide on this, though they stated early on that she is half Brazilian and half Spanish.
• Miquela image fits into Instagram influence mold, but serves as a platform for the creative team to celebrate uniqueness — hence creative decision for Miquela to have strong points of view

Fungibility and scalability of Miquela gives her unique properties:

• e.g. can appear many places at once
• e.g. can monetize in many unique ways, especially through web 3.0 / NFT ecosystem
• e.g. Miquela can act as a "heat shield" for creative team (avoids Britney Spears shaving head in a parking lot -type stressors)

Trevor on Gen Z

• Dropping the veil between creation and outcome
• e.g. pre-gen-z may still have wanted to get rich, but wanted to do so via adding some sort of value through their creations
• e.g. gen-z tik tokers not focusing on creation for its own sake/good, but rather as a means to get rich and live an easy life

A lot of value that has been created by innovators has been captured by fast followers

For creation:

• What is the cultural white space?
• What are creators most embarrassed for others to find out? (clue to uniqueness)

What is the unit of contribution?

• e.g. Buffett's is the annual letter
• Instagram's is the post
• Aesthetics + memes would be focus area if creating new character

In "great reshuffling" of Web 3.0 hopes to shift balance of power a bit more in favor of creators

Key lessons from/for Trevor

• Midwestern work ethic
• Embrace differentiation
• Be consistent