The 5th article from our Crypto News series is here!
This article will cover the latest developments in the NFTs world, including the announcement of Wylie Aronow's health issues, the recent Twitter hack, the new bill in New York, and the latest news on investments, financing, and NFT projects.
Whether you're an NFT fan or new to this industry, this article has something for everyone.
Contents
📈 Macro - NFTs launched by brands in 2022;
🗞️ Last week's news - Gordo, Azuki & Kevin Rose hacks, New York crypto payments;
💰 Investments/Financing - Candy Digital, $38.5 M;
📣 Projects news/Updates - Doodles2, Elrond Mafia, CowCow, NFTim, ZenChests free weekly NFT, BHero, Beniamin Mincu feedback;
⚖️ Legal - NFT’s refund right;
⚒️ Tools - Lens Protocol;
🐈 Veefriends - Veefriends Help;
⚙️ NFTility - Crypto Package Goods;
❎ nftX- MultiversX Marketplaces;
📚 Dictionary - 51% attack, hash rate;
💸 Sale of the week - Monkey evolution. 0.08 > 1 > 35 > 305 ETH;
📈 Macro
MoonBlock released a 43-page report entitled 'The State of The Brand NFT 2022' in January. They correctly call 2022 the year of institutional adoption of NFTs by brands and the enterprise space.
The report is divided into 4 sections:
- The potential of Web3 for brands. What do Web3 and Metaverse have prepared for them?
- Which brands have launched NFT projects in 2022, and how have they done so?
- State of the NFT market for brands. The evolution of the NFT market for brands during the bear market and who are the revenue leaders?
- Who is the customer for brand NFTs? An on-chain analysis focused on what we can learn from wallet holders who have bought brands' NFT projects.
No less than 161 brands have had to deal with an NFT launch (247 in total), in 15 different industries. Using a cumulative of 21 blockchains!
The Web2 projects that were generally most successful in launching their own NFTs were those that had a partnership with a native Web3 startup.
We invite you to read the full report. In addition, you may find a recent (and short) article on "How NFTs could evolve for brands - now that marketers know what they really are."
🗞️ Last week's news
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Breaking news: Wylie Aronow, aka Gordo, one of the founders of Yuga Labs and Bored Ape Yacht Club, has announced that he has congestive heart failure. He says the symptoms started last year out of the blue and he delayed seeking help so he could keep working. He pushed his limits hard, working 12 hours a day, almost every day. He will be taking time off for a while, focusing on his health, and remaining just an advisor and board member. What impressed us was the huge support and kind words from the most influential leaders in Web3. If you want to see what we mean, please read the thread above. In the meantime, if there's one lesson to be learned, it would be to understand that sometimes, in order not to run out of gas in the middle of the field, we need to take a break to refuel!
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Azuki's Twitter account was hacked by hackers, who managed to "steal" $758K in 30 minutes. They basically posted tweets from Azuki's official page with a link that if accessed behaved like a drainer: it took everything in your wallet. DO NOT CLICK on links in general. At least don't be the first to do so! Even if they come from official accounts you've been following from the beginning. Although it's not good to be paranoid, in Web3 it can be valuable!
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On the same note, Kevin Rose, founder of Proof and co-founder of Moonbirds, lost 40 NFTs worth over $2M from his wallet. Rose was "tricked” into signing a malicious action on the blockchain that didn't look like a transaction, but an extra security measure.
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New York is introducing a new bill that would allow people to pay their fines, taxes, fees, or other government-related debts using crypto. Well, for now, the focus would be on Bitcoin and ETH. And there have been other initiatives since 2017. More to come probably. Then, if it will work, will come also to $APE coin, and we will ask: "When can I pay with the monkey? 🙂"
💰 Investments / Financing
Candy Digital had its Series A funding round earlier this year, but they hadn't announced the amount invested. It turns out they’ve raised $38.5 million from 14 investors, more than half of the $68 million the company is looking to raise through the total sale. Candy Digital was launched in 2021 by Galaxy Digital (Mike Novogratz) along with Gary Vaynerchuk and Fanatics (the last ones also exited earlier this month)
📣 Projects News / Updates
- Doodles reveal details of Doodles 2, to be launched on Flow. Although the multichain experience had been announced for some time, no one was thinking about taking Ethereum out of the equation. Doodles 2 actually means a customizable Doodle, with two different types of NFTs. Think of the first type as a mannequin, a basic character, and the second type as a wearable. More details will be announced on January 31st, but the purchase price will be more affordable for many.
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Zeneca has started its own series of daily Twitter Spaces, starting at 10:30 pm ET. Over the next period, everyone who participates in the Spaces will have a chance to win a ZenChest NFT once a week. All you have to do is participate live. The Floor Price for 1 Zen Chest NFT is at the time of writing 0.65 ETH (about $1000)!
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BH Network has announced the launch of the NFT CowCow project on the BHero launchpad, as well as the beta version of topIQs, a decentralized solution dedicated to freelancers.
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Elrond Mafia has released Project Red, the first shooter built in MultiversX.
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Following a tweet from Elrond Mafia founder expressing his disappointment with the poor support shown by the MultiversX team to serious NFT projects, Beniamin Mincu, MultiversX founder, announces a special discord channel dedicated to NFT projects for more communication and dedicated Twitter Spaces.
⚖️ Legal
A product ordered online can be returned within 14 days (with certain exceptions, of course). But have you ever thought that this might also be possible for an NFT? Well, this tweet triggered a whole debate in the industry on the right of return of NFTs. It all started from the mint checkout page of the NFTs collection launched by Porsche, which asked you to tick a box that you agree to the immediate provision of the contractual service (i.e. receiving the NFT in your wallet) and that you have been informed that you forfeit your right to withdraw from the contract.
To lose a right, you have to have it. Does that mean that there would be a right of withdrawal, i.e. a right to return the NFT and get a refund of the price paid at the time of purchase? Interesting.
At the European level, there is a Directive from 2011 (it has a very long title) which states that the consumer has a period of 14 days to withdraw from a distance contract without having to justify the decision to withdraw and without incurring other costs (with certain exceptions).
According to the Directive, contracts for the delivery of digital content should be included in the scope of the Directive. Digital content means data that is produced and delivered in digital form, such as software, applications, games, music, videos, or texts, whether accessed by downloading or streaming, from a tangible medium, or by any other means. NFTs are data delivered in digital form, on the blockchain, which is a digital ledger, right?
The supply of goods or services whose price depends on fluctuations in the financial market which the trader cannot control and which may occur during the withdrawal period is also exempt from the right of withdrawal. In other words, you can hardly exercise your withdrawal right because the price of the NFT fluctuates according to the crypto market, which the seller cannot control.
I don't know about you, but to me, it seems unfair to have the option to return an NFT because its value has gone down or you no longer like it. Well, what are we doing here? Aren't we taking a risk when we invest in something? On the other hand, providing a timeframe within which you can return an NFT prevents rug pulls and creates greater community confidence. Furthermore, what's to stop you from buying 100 NFTs from the same collection, making a profit on the ones you manage to sell, and returning the ones that you didn’t sell?
(As a small addition, there is the ERC721R standard that allows buyers to request the return of NFTs they have purchased within a certain time period.)
⚒️ Tools: Lens Protocol
Personal or business, your social media account is probably used daily, whether it's Twitter, TikTok, or even YouTube. But have you ever thought about who really owns all the wonderful things you share on these platforms? Like your posts, videos, and other "digital assets"? Unfortunately, when it comes to these Web2 social media giants, you don't actually own your content. Yes, they can delete your posts, content, or even your entire account without warning.
But don't worry, Lens Protocol is here to build a decentralized social network for a web3-ready community! With Lens, you can take control of your virtual assets and trade them securely and transparently, without any middleman standing in your way.
The beauty is that Lens is not a platform but a Protocol that anyone can use to develop apps. It's kind of like the Lego of social media platforms, where you can build your own customized and decentralized version on the Polygon blockchain. And the best part? It's all done in a secure and decentralized way, so you can be sure the platform is safe and sound. Here's the list of apps already built on Lens.
How does Lens Protocol work?
Each profile in the Lens Protocol is as unique as a snowflake, so initially, you need to create and publish your own profile. After that, you can post, discuss and share content on any site built on the Lens platform, such as Lenster, Lenstube and others. Modules play a vital role in the Lens Protocol, allowing each profile owner to customize their profile functionality. Some of the main Lens modules are Post, Follow, Collect (create your own collection of posts from other users), Mirror (similar to re-post).
Access to the platform is currently limited but you can check if you qualify to create a profile here: https://claim.lens.xyz/.
Stay tuned; if you're a developer and want to experiment, the folks at Lens offer grants to build on their platform.
🐈 Veefriends
Starting from January 30, we have a new official Twitter account @VeeFriendsHelp to stay informed with all the latest news, deadlines, security and support.
Speaking of security, VeeFriends has prepared some recommendations here to help us stay safe in the web3 space. Only through education and care can we avoid danger.
In the coming months exciting activities are coming in the VeeFriends ecosystem, holders of any NFTs from the family: VF1, VF2, Book games, Iconics, Mini Drops.
Gary's younger brother AJ Vaynerchuck, co-founder of VaynerMedia announces a collaboration with Ryan Carson for the project to be released later this year 💊.
VeeCon is getting closer and closer, and those thinking of attending would do well to enquire about accommodation already. And for those who would like to be there, but for various reasons won't be able to make it this year, but still want to be connected with the event, something is cooking!
⚙️ NFTility
While looking for materials for the project we’re writing about today, we realized that we would have a hard time presenting it to someone who is just learning about blockchain and therefore NFTs. That's because we're so early, that some ideas do not seem feasible, others seem unnecessary and for some (if not most) the traditional version already exists, which "works" and apparently doesn't need blockchain technology.
Crypto Package Goods launched in 2021 with the aim of creating an educational and investment environment made up of 333 individuals whose expertise would be made available to those who wanted to create solutions and products using blockchain technology. Access to this exclusive community was initially by holding a token from the CPG Genesis collection. Eight months later, the community expanded with the launch of the CPG Pop collection of 2,777 tokens.
Holders of tokens in the secondary collection have the opportunity to develop crypto products with funds from the project's treasury through the CPG Accelerator. If you're a creator, mentor, or investor and you’re curious about the program structure, take a look here (including the FAQ section is very informative), and if you were attracted by what you read, find more details here.
Fun fact: the project also has a small merch collection, where some categories are customizable, via "patches", and the tax receipt for each order also comes in the form of an NFT.
CPG is the kind of project that people embrace because it gives them exposure to an environment where they are surrounded by creators and investors with whom they can turn their ideas into reality.
If you attended the fifth edition of It's NFTime Shot you already know that there are plenty of Romanian artists who have to look elsewhere for resources. CPG, through its accelerator, creates a platform that democratizes access to creation for everyone, without preconceptions.
❎ nftX
Today we are writing about the main Marketplaces on MultiversX. It's important to know what they are and the differences between them because they are, after Twitter, the main interaction with an ecosystem when you study and discover it. Here are some of them:
- XOXNO - most used (with a Volume in 2022 of 220k EGLD), 1% selling fees, possibility of buying with card EGLD & ESDT, SWAP (seller puts one NFT up for sale and says what other NFTs they want in exchange), STAKING (you can stake NFTs in exchange for various ESDTs), LIQUIDITY SELL (you can bid on a collection);
- framing - 1% selling fees, 20k EGLD V/2022, option to create NFTs and Smart Contracts, LOTTERY (sell an NFT through a lottery, setting the price and tickets number), can earn from selling fees with Founder's Coin;
- ElrondNFTSwap - 1% selling fees, built by Krogan (interstellar P2E game in development), holders of a minimum of 3 NFTs from Krogan (some useful spaceships in the future game) share 30% of the fees charged by the Marketplace, SWAP NFTs, will also be the Marketplace for in-game items;
- nftr.market - 1% selling fees (shared entirely to Regalia collection NFT holders), Dynamic Royalties (even 0). Counter discussion here 😀
- deadrare - first Marketplace, 176k EGLD V/2022, 2% selling fees.
Other Marketplaces are: isengard, rarity, eneftor, xspotlight (ex Inspire)
📚 Dictionary
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51% attack - A 51% attack is an attack on a blockchain by a group of miners who control more than 50% of the mining hash rate. We're basically talking about the point at which someone can control what gets written and what doesn't on the blockchain. In short, the start of corruption!
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Hash rate - is a measure of the computing power of a blockchain network. The hash rate is determined by the number of estimates/guesses made per second. It is also a key indicator of security. The more hashing (computing) power there is in the network, the higher the security and overall resistance to attacks.
💸 Sale of the week
We don't know how you like it, but we think today's monkey is a work of art. From the pipe and the Hawaiian shirt to the blue rays in her eyes and the 305 ETH she was bought for. Looking at the blockchain history we noticed something else: it was minted for 0.08 ETH on May 1, 2021. On the same day it was sold for 1 ETH. On August 1, 2021 it was sold again for 35 ETH. Everyone probably thought they were getting the deal of a lifetime when they sold it....
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