Finally (!) I can share this with you

Let’s get to the point so you can enjoy your holidays:

• We are launching our next company and making staking and infrastructure easy and available to all of you!

• Vitalik dropped a new blog post on privacy, and I had to read it twice.

• We asked our community what they want to see during Berlin Blockchain Week.

• I have two jobs for you.

In the last 4.5 years, I've worn more hats at our w3.group companies than I can count on both hands.

• When we launched w3.fund, I was knee-deep in due diligence and investment processes. Back then, we were mainly investing in early stage Web3 startups (we still do that, but it’s not the only focus anymore).

• Then suddenly with the first w3.vision x DMEXCO collab (one of Europe's largest marketing and tech fairs with 40k+ attendees), I became an event manager, speaker coordinator, and somehow ended up on stage myself. My LinkedIn Top Voice journey kicked off around the same time, and before I knew it, we were hosting events across the globe like it was no big deal.

• The w3.hub was my biggest baby so far. 1500sqm² built from absolute scratch, community building, endless onboardings, and that special chaos that comes with creating something from nothing.

• Then w3.vision partnered with Blockstories for the Digital Assets Season. And all of a sudden we where knee-deep into the TradFi space. More content creation, speaking gigs, partner management, and crafting those event experiences you all seemed to enjoy.

• Meanwhile, we launched w3.wave (our liquid token fund), where I jumped in to support our fund manager Julius and Philipp with comms.

And now? Now there's w3.labs. My next project. My next adventure.

After teasing "big announcements coming soon" in the last few newsletters (I see you rolling your eyes), it's finally time to pull back the curtain.

Without further ado, I got you cc'd.

Staking in Germany isn't straightforward. Most crypto holders avoid it due to regulatory fears, missing out on staking rewards. This challenge is one that needed solving, and I wanted to share how we're addressing it.

Back in 2017, Tom König and Tim Keding jumped into the world of digital assets with both feet. What started as personal curiosity quickly turned into something bigger. They were staking their own crypto and immediately hit a wall - the tax implications were a nightmare, the regulatory picture was blurry, and despite their backgrounds (Tom as a software engineer and Tim with his entrepreneurial experience), they couldn't make sense of it all.

Why stake at all?

The answer is compelling: staking offers a passive income while supporting the networks you believe in. Over time, the difference is substantial - a staked portfolio can significantly outperform a non-staked one.

Here's the challenge - people want to stake their crypto but are scared off by:

• Accidentally triggering commercial status (by running their own validator)

• Losing beneficial ownership of their tokens

• Having no control over when rewards create taxable events

• The lack of proper documentation for tax season

They looked everywhere for a solution but found nothing that balanced technical capability with compliance. That's when they decided to build what they wished existed.

To realize their idea, it was clear that it should be implemented as an integration into the w3.group, where Tim is already a founding partner. With our flywheel of funds, media, community, and co-working already in place, the technical component complemented it like the final missing puzzle piece.

With w3.labs, we've created something unique - a staking platform that respects the complex regulatory landscape while being genuinely user-friendly. The solution keeps things simple:

• You maintain full ownership of your tokens (Think of it like parking your car in a secure garage - it's still your car, you just get paid for letting it sit there)

• Your staking stays non-commercial (No surprise letters from the tax office saying "Congratulations, you're now a business!" - because nobody needs that headache)

• You decide when to claim rewards and trigger tax events (Like having a piggy bank you can break open whenever it makes the most sense for your taxes)

• We provide comprehensive documentation for tax season (Imagine having all your receipts perfectly organized instead of stuffed in a shoebox)

• Everything is audited by Osborne Clarke for full compliance (It's like having a legal co-pilot making sure you never fly into restricted airspace. You’re welcome.)

This is what excites me most about w3.labs - we're taking something technically and regulatorily complex and making it available to anyone. It completes our w3.group ecosystem and moves us closer to our vision of widespread digital asset adoption.

If you're interested in learning more or have questions about compliant staking, I'd love to hear from you. Sometimes the most valuable solutions come from solving our own problems first.

Our first validators are live: You can already stake your Ethereum, Solana or Celestia assets with us and support the w3 community and all our efforts. More to come.

I love Vitalik's articles, but they require multiple reads as I work to translate complex ideas into simpler language. And trust me, Vitalik doesn't make it easy.

Let’s jump into his recent issue.

The TL;DR: Financial privacy throughout history has been accidental, not intentional.

We've gone from clay tablets (zero privacy) to coins (accidental privacy) to banking (privacy gone) to crypto (privacy at scale). What's new isn't privacy itself - it's privacy without physical limitations.

Before crypto, you faced a binary choice:

1. Cash: Private but physically limited

2. Digital banking: Scalable but surveilled

Crypto creates something unprecedented: private transactions at unlimited scale. This creates tensions we haven't resolved. Most people are fine with cash-level privacy for small purchases but uncomfortable with the same privacy for moving millions.

The North Korea example makes this concrete: stealing $1.4 billion in ETH versus smuggling 600 duffel bags of cash? No contest.

Vitalik's vision for "privacy pools" that exclude bad actors without backdoors is the holy grail, but I'm skeptical regulators will embrace zero-knowledge proofs for KYC anytime soon. Still, it's a conversation we need to have now.

I've already mentioned it: I wear multiple hats, and our marketing manager Quinn brings out the best street interview-style reporter in me.

I know you're tired of hearing it: but very soon we'll be dropping what exactly you can expect and who will be involved. What I can already spoil: over 20 events spread across all floors in the w3.hub + an extra location, and something for everyone - truly everyone from every industry. I'm looking forward to letting my role as event manager flourish.

No matter how full we are, we want to give you the opportunity to be part of it. Take 30 seconds and let us know how we can place you, your idea, or your company at BBW25.

• The first AI hackathon at w3.hub. Develop your own AI agent in a team or by yourself, everyone is invited to join and compete for the prize pool of 10,000 USDM. Sign Up.

• It’s called w3.hub.

• Solana Build Station is back! 2 weeks of co-working, building and vibes.

• Celestia Mammothon winners (check them out here). It get’s better: MammothOS is hiring.

• More jobs! The AlphaNeural AI team (w3.hub members) are also hiring. Hit me up if you know someone:

  

That’s it.

See you next week 💅🏽

And while we're at it:

I'm on LinkedIn.

I'm on X.

Always here at w3.hub.

Active in the w3.group. Follow on LinkedIn to keep up with our projects.