The Salesforce NFT Cloud
The Salesforce NFT Cloud
Mainstream companies like Salesforce and PayPal are trying to integrate into Web3
Hey Guys,
Hold on a second guys, the Cloud will be a central thing of the Metaverse! Can you feel it? The wacky acts of desperation we are seeing is just mind-boggling.
While PayPal won an important New York Full License, this week I was more amused at the efforts of Salesforce.
BigTech seem very skeptical about NFTs in general, so much so that there was even an employee protest movement (TechRadar) over the plans of Salesforce.
Meanwhile for PayPal they need to keep up with Block and others who will grow faster also via Apple Pay tap to pay integration. PayPal Holdings Inc. will let users transfer certain cryptocurrencies to other customers, exchanges and external wallets, a new service that’s part of the company’s effort to boost usage of its app. It should be noticed Block and PayPal’s stocks are really reverting to basically 2018 type stock prices.
Web3 is a Bridge to the Metaverse
Major firms will integrate elements of Web3 faster than web3 platforms will grow their own consumer base. I’m not expert, but basically that’s my current thesis. Jack Dorsey meanwhile thinks he’s building Web5 (Gizmodo).
It’s kind of funny and you cannot even make this stuff up. Block’s Web5 promises to do away with anything that has stopped Web3 from being truly (say it with me) “decentralized”. That was the a16z Chris Dixon ideological scam word of a few years back. The sad part is Reddit and Twitter bots actually believe it, they have been ideological behavior modified into thinking Web3 is so much more than a ring of various ponzi schemes! On Reddit, they will literally have you banned if they don’t agree with your opinion. That sounds like a really open culture!
Salesforce has some wacky ideas, just like Coinbase’s Instagram of NFTs project did. Of course Silicon Valley companies aren’t exactly highly trusted by the Web3 community either.
What the Heck is Salesforce Cloud?
Salesforce has released a closed pilot that lets users mint and manage NFTs, despite recent plummeting sales of NFTs.
To address energy concerns, the company is looking at proof-of-stake blockchain technology over proof-of-work.
Salesforce plans to use smart contracts and branded purchasing technology to combat security issues.
Mind you, a few dozen other companies and big firms plan to do the same thing. I think China is miles ahead in terms of integrating the Cloud and NFTs with various other aspects of blockchain. View the new website of Salesforce here.
Image: Salesforce
Mint and sell NFTs on a trusted, sustainable platform.
Launch your brand into new digital worlds.
Link data, communities, and wallets.
Deploy from secure, sustainable technology.
That’s quite the care bear approach by Salesforce, bridge-deepen-trust! Haha it’s hilarious.
It’s hard to make sense on a business level what they are even talking about?
“Salesforce is seeing interest from CMOs and CDOs who are asking for help entering web3, and we are enthusiastic about bringing new innovations, products and offerings to our customers in a way that allows them to build and maintain meaningful relationships with their customers,” Adam Caplan, SVP of Emerging Technology at Salesforce, told TechCrunch.
It’s sort of what you had hoped LinkedIn would have implemented, I guess. Instead LinkedIn has tried to attract “Creators”, without even giving them a direct way to monetize outside of LinkedIn Learning. Personally if I was making a course I’d trust Thinkific or a pure-play startup more than some gigantic Microsoft monopoly.
The platform is currently a closed pilot and will allow brands and businesses to mint and manage NFTs. The company hopes to help businesses increase brand engagement, believing that brands are more likely to use NFTs for engagement and access rather than just to sell collectibles.
Still I respect Salesforce for also getting into live-streaming. The Microsoft vs. Salesforce saga truly is pretty interesting. In fact crypto vs. Web2 is as well. Even on the precipice of a crypto winter, to see the number of old-school companies like Walmart and Disney who see NFT money in their eyes is pretty funny.
The company’s goal with this product is to make NFT selling more accessible. “NFT Cloud is all about helping our customers mint, manage and sell NFTs, and of course it’s all no code. So it’s super easy on our platform, abstracting all the complicated technology in this [new] web3 world. Salesforce is basically trying to marry Cloud convenience with NFT enthusiasm.
Coinbase and Salesforce Revolts
Say it ain’t so! Salesforce employees had originally revolted when the business management software company first revealed its planned NFT platform. Silicon Valley a la Jack Dorsey is trying to hack Web3. PayPal can do it since their customers actually want that.
Sales of NFTs have plummeted in recent weeks as buyer appetites have dried up, but many businesses apparently still see the platform as a viable opportunity. It makes you wonder if Salesforce can adopt Web3 and crypto faster than Microsoft that is a of a slow mover (as LinkedIn products and features can attest to).
I’m struggling to see how Salesforce customers can benefit from NFTs, though I think Alibaba could pull it off. NFTs are blockchain tokens used to identify ownership of a physical or digital item. The "non-fungible" part makes them unique and irreplaceable. NFTs are often digital art, video game items, sports collectibles, or profile pictures.
Cloud Leaders can Marry ESG and Web3 Ideology
Upon releasing NFT Cloud, Salesforce addressed two common concerns among the crypto community: energy use and security. The company promised listening sessions to hear concerns and answer questions for about 400 employees who reportedly signed an open letter opposing the plan.
To combat electronic waste, the company has expressed that it will not support proof-of-work technology and will instead hope to use the proof-of-stake method, almost eliminating energy consumption.
Users will also be able to track their carbon footprints because of Salesforce’s agreement to automatically calculate carbon emissions for blockchain options.
Security is forever an area of caution within the crypto world. The company plans to ensure honest transactions with the use of smart contract technology and with branded purchasing technology to fight against fraud.
Salesforce has also promised to include what it calls "best-in-class brand and consumer protections, identifying -- and preventing -- the use of the product for fraud, force, or fear."
Microsoft definately has better security and ESG deeper pockets, but Microsoft with Teams really showed what a horrible competitor it can be vs. Slack, which Salesforce acquired.
The Salesforce stock is down 30% YTD, and is nowhere near its pandemic low. I personally think the correction is now hitting Software, Chips and the Cloud, so there’s more pain for this stock. However revenue growth at Salesforce since 2019 is very good. It has an off-chance of entering the top echelon of BigTech stocks in the decade ahead. It’s market cap is down to $177.6 Billion. That’s certainly closer to fair value on a P/E basis.
The ESG angle is very important for Salesforce adoption of this NFT aspect of its Cloud.
Yet we are likely at the start of another Crypto Winter, so no wonder this project is in early pilot stage mode. Let’s call it a Beta.
There are so many companies going after the NFT hype is embarrassing. Even as inflation is meaning our wages are lower than they were before, it’s sad to see what’s occurring in American capitalism. Sens. Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand introduced legislation Tuesday to create a regulatory framework for the crypto markets. It’s frankly too little too late to protect actual consumers, traders and investors at scale.
The land of the free? Basically just means wealth inequality will increase with crypto as a key culprit into how this wealth re-distribution is taking place. The Fed and Crypto will from a historical perspective be the two main drivers of increased generational wealth inequality that will hurt the middle class. Quite a lot of misinformation out there about this.
The Lummis-Gillibrand bill would classify the vast majority of digital assets as commodities.
The Responsible Financial Innovation Act would empower the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to regulate most of the industry.
Crypto pretty much the most hostile industry to women, ironic to see two female leaders trying to regulate it.
Carebear Countdown for Crypto
The irony guys is not lost on me. The Salesforce care-bear approach will remain to be seen. Between a16z pumping NFT hype, to old-school companies trying to on-board NFTs, it’s really a dystopia moment for Capitalism.
Back in January, 2022 we read that Walmart appears to be venturing into the metaverse with plans to create its own cryptocurrency and collection of NFTs. Those patent filings are ridiculous. In a separate filing, Walmart said it would offer users a virtual currency, as well as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Amazon also plans to support NFTs down the road.
The Cloud really will eat the world, because that’s the hub where software, A.I. and other things will take place. To imagine that crypto startups can compete with Cloud players is absurd. The consolidation of the gaming sector with Microsoft buying it out is a testament to this fact. There’s practically zero antitrust regulation in America these days. Microsoft and Amazon are huge backs of America’s Government and Military Defense complex, in return they are unlikely to face stiff antitrust security. The Cloud has been bought out and will be protected, as a supposed means to defend against China’s rising economy.
Microsoft’s vigilance in cybersecurity is too valuable for the U.S. as a whole, thus they can do what they like. Salesforce just doesn’t have the same leverage or lobbying power as Meta, Google or Microsoft. This means it’s not even a fair competition. Companies like Salesforce, Snap, ByteDance or Alibaba then have to be so much more innovative just to compete with the top brass of BigTech.
I’m going to be writing about the NFT fails and wins more in this Newsletter, so stay tuned and support the channel if you think I make a valuable contribution and you want to stay current.
Thanks for reading!
What do you think of Salesforce NFT Cloud?