NFT Review #13: Reinventing NFTs, Altering Destinies
Alipay fights NFT speculation, Kusama to come alive in the real world, Cool Cats collaborate with TIME Magazine, 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.
For a more general overview of the Web3 ecosystem, consider subscribing to Dot Leap.
Looking for a primer on NFTs? This should be the last introduction you’ll ever need.
Dear NFT enthusiast,
It’s easy to be swept away by the euphoria of Cryptopunks and other similar projects selling for millions of dollars, believing that this is what NFTs were made for. But you would be incredibly wrong. To see just how wrong, you need to know some of what we know.
The first step to doing that is watching the Reinventing NFTs with Polkadot discussion hosted by Outlier Ventures, featuring the founders of Unique Network, Bit.Country, and RMRK. Watching this discussion will open your mind to the glaring future of NFTs, showing us a glimpse of Dotsama’s (Polkadot + Kusama) potential in relation to chain interoperability.
We refuse to believe that the destiny of NFTs is to be digital collectibles whose only collection includes digital dust. I mean, if that was destiny, then why do we have NFTs that teleport between chains, NFTs that own other NFTs, NFTs that change based on conditions, in short, NFTs that can almost do it all. Then add to this the fact that Unique Network is building an NFT-focused chain with the goal of making freemium gaming and play-to-earn its default reality. This is all without considering what Bit.Country brings to the table.
In summary, the NFT journey on Dotsama is going to be unlike anything the crypto world has had so far. The worst thing you can do to yourself as an early pioneer of this revolutionary technology is to close your mind to the infinite possibilities available just because they aren’t making headlines with gobsmacking prices.
Thank you for reading and have a great week.
— NFT Review
👨🏼🎨 RMRK Artist Spotlight: Code and His Ku Collection
In this week's episode of Artist Spotlight, we caught up with Code, the creator of the Ku Collection, a fun collection of NFT birds whose designs are heavily inspired by some of pop culture's most memorable characters, animals, moods, etc.
In our interview, we talked about Code's journey into art and crypto, his thoughts on the NFT space, his inspirations, and much more. In particular, crypto artists looking to release their own collections could learn a thing or two from Code's perspective on what it takes to create a successful project.
📬 NFT News from Kusama & Polkadot
RMRK releases the genesis collection of Kanaria items, ushering the first wave of RMRK 2.0 functionality.
Submissions are now open for the #digitalart4climate art contest hosted by Unique Network in partnership with the United Nations.
The Bit.Country team has been selected for the Creative Destruction Lab bootcamp by the University of Toronto.
The team also released screenshots of their Alpha 0.1 interface.
The history of Kusama will come alive on the Vancouver bridge thanks to a partnership between RMRK, Vancouver Biennale, and the Kusama Treasury.
Enjin partners with White Snake, a fantasy animation distributed by Warner Brothers, to mint NFTs for the film.
Here is an interesting read of what the world is like in 2050, written by Enjin CEO.
🗞 NFT News from Ethereum and Beyond
NFT marketplace OpenSea topped the leaderboard in gas consumption on the Ethereum blockchain over the past 24 hours in a rare finish ahead of the DeFi exchange Uniswap.
Trading volumes on OpenSea have surged by over 12,000% in 2021. DappRadar data shows that the total incoming value to OpenSea’s smart contracts increased to $56.07 million on Wednesday compared to $73,556 on Jan. 1.
Cool Cats entered into a collaboration with TIME Magazine.
Teller Finance, a non-collateral lending protocol that allows users to borrow funds using the Teller NFT as collateral, has officially deployed its mainnet on Polygon, migrating over 2,200 NFTs.
Async Art, the programmable art platform, unveiled a new 24-hour canvas template, which will allow Async artists to easily upload works that evolve once per hour every day.
Cryptoart platform SuperRare is expanding its Collector Royalties program to cover all SuperRare NFTs.
Axie Infinity just kicked off gameplay for Season 18.
Digital horse racing game Zed Run facilitated over $1 million worth of sales atop Polygon this week according to cryptoslam.io.
Boson Protocol announced Portal, a “virtual lifestyle, commerce, and cultural playground” built in Decentraland.
Rarible unveiled Rarible Protocol, a new open-source and cross-chain NFT suite that will cater to creators and devs in a decentralized fashion.
Fantasy sports and betting company DraftKings introduced DraftKings Marketplace, an NFT collectibles platform.
Fortune auctioned a set of limited-edition NFTs of the cover of its crypto-themed August/September 2021 issue. The auction raised 429 ETH (+1.92%), the equivalent of over $1.3 million at the time of writing.
Italian haute couture fashion label Dolce & Gabbana will debut its NFT collection on the luxury marketplace UNXD later this month in a bid to “bridge the physical with the metaphysical.”
Polygon’s new gaming studio launches with a cricket NFT platform named Rario, which will allow fans to collect and trade iconic moments from cricket history, announced its launch on Thursday.
Chinese payments app Alipay is now requiring users to hold onto NFTs for at least 180 days before they can transfer them.
The trailer for the NFT animated series Take My Muffin is out. Watch it here.
Absolute Unit, a new NFT project has launched with a unique distribution mechanism that, at first glance, could be likened to a Ponzi scheme. But one of the current holders makes an argument in this post.
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!