NFT Review #10 Facebook Aims for the Metaverse
NFT Review #10 Facebook Aims for the Metaverse
OpenSea raise $100 million, Polygon launch new studio, EIP-2981 gets introduced, and more...
NFT Review is a weekly newsletter covering NFTs in the Web3 ecosystem on Polkadot’s side of the woods. The newsletter is put together by Bruno Škvorc and gbaci.
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Looking for a primer on NFTs? This should be the last introduction you’ll ever need.
Dear NFT enthusiast,
This summer, Mark Zuckerberg told employees that Facebook would be shifting into a “metaverse company”.
Given its acquisition of Oculus VR in 2014 and the release of a beta for Facebook Horizon, a "world creation system" for Oculus, it’s clear to see that Mark means business. Now the question that enters my mind is: will Facebook succeed?
This question turns on one important consideration: is web3 interchangeable with web2? Can the same companies who dominate the web2 world transition into web3 and still be successful?
Many in the crypto world will say “hell no”. But think about it, is it really impossible? Do people care that much about the ethos of the companies involved?
The hopeful side of me agrees with many in crypto (hell no), but I can’t shake off the thought that Facebook and companies like them have untold amounts of liquidity and talented developers. What would it mean for the world of crypto if the biggest metaverse (by users and interactions) belongs to a web2 giant?
In the end, we don’t really have to bother about this now as time will show us the truth of the future. For now, we focus on building, and boy do we have some interesting NFT news for you.
Thank you for reading and have a great week.
— NFT Review
👨🏼🎨 RMRK Artist Spotlight: Justine Cruz and his Alien Pets
On this episode of RAS, we had a quick chat with talented illustrator and art director Justine Skye, a crypto artist that resides in the Philippines.
The first thing one notices about Justine's work is the exciting characters at the center of it all. This isn't to suggest that the pencil work and paintwork are subpar. On the contrary, his sketching and paintwork are some of the best in the cryptoart space.
Click here to read the interview and see more of his fascinating artworks.
📬 NFT News from Kusama & Polkadot
The first Kusama common-good parachain Statemine is about to be permissionless. Soon anyone will be able to mint NFTs and custom tokens on the chain with a small KSM deposit.
The Web3 Foundation has minted 10,000 NFTs on Statemine as part of the parachain launch celebration, all of which are already pre-distributed. These will be visible in the recipient Singular accounts!
RMRK Founder Bruno Škvorc will hold a 1-hour non-technical introduction to RMRK, explaining why it's necessary and what it can do. Use the link to register.
You can now check transaction history under each NFT on Kodadot.
RMRK holds its first Proof of Attendance event using a novel hard copy metal NFT.
🗞 NFT News from Ethereum and Beyond
Leading NFT marketplace OpenSea announced the completion of a $100 million Series B fundraising round. The round was led by prolific VC firm a16z and gave OpenSea a whopping $1.5 billion valuation! Earlier in March, the startup closed a $23 million Series A.
Polygon launches Polygon Studio, a new subsidiary to advance its work in blockchain gaming and nonfungible tokens. It is currently raising a $100 million fund to support this initiative.
DraftKings, the fantasy sports and sports betting company, is launching its own NFT marketplace. The company announced that it will be the exclusive home for buying, selling, and trading NFTs from Autograph, football legend Tom Brady's NFT site announced back in April 2021.
Virtually Human Studio, a startup using non-fungible tokens to represent digital racing horses has raised a $20 million Series A round from investors Andreessen Horowitz and TCG Capital Management, both of which have made notable plays in the NFT space to date.
Crypto investment firm CoinFund launches $83M venture fund with a mandate that includes DeFi and NFTs.
Layer 2 NFT scaling solution Immutable X unveils its $IMX token.
CryptoPunks 2924 and 5314 have standing bids of 1,194 ETH (~$2,410,900.98) and 950 ETH respectively (~$2,220,007.50). Talk about crazy!
To celebrate the coming activation of EIP-1559, the EIP-1559 NFT Series was introduced via Mirror. The pieces, designed by artist @_kitteh, sold out in short order and most proceeds were earmarked for EIP-1559 contributors.
Contemporary American artist Tom Sachs unveiled Rocket Factory, a “trans-dimensional manufacturing plant [that] uses NFTs to build new NFTs.”
Tyler Hobbs’s Fidenza 938 just sold for 100 ETH, a new all-time high sale price for an Art Blocks work.
Cryptovoxels is moving toward a new overhauled chat system that will greatly improve the virtual world’s chat UX.
A new NFT royalty standard, EIP-2981, has been introduced. This royalty standard helps marketplaces voluntarily pay out secondary-sale royalties to original minters of NFTs.
NFT liquidity protocol NFTX rolled out of beta, thus activating rewards for the project’s liquidity providers.
Jambb, an NFT marketplace for entertainment media, is celebrating its official launch with Non-Fungible Jokin’, a two-night, first-of-its-kind comedy show where nearly every part of the event will be minted as an NFT and auctioned off for fans to own and resell.
Sushi released the trident-themed NFT Bad Trip as a fractionalized ERC20 via the project’s MISO token launchpad to commemorate the launch of its next-gen “Trident” AMM.
An NFT signed by British professional boxer Tyson Fury has sold for $987,000 on digital marketplace HoDooi, making it one of the most expensive sports NFT sales ever.
Superrare proposed an art license applicable to NFTs and in just 48 hours, the license evolved through a swarm of community contributions, demonstrating both the advantages of open-source legal work and the passion for the NFT space.
That’s all for this week, see you in the next edition! Got some links to share with us, artists to feature, NFTs to sell, jobs to promote, or events to popularize? Get in touch with Bruno or gbaci!