NFT Review 22 - The Censorship Problem
Steam boots out blockchain games, Epic welcomes them, Coinbase to launch NFT platform, 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,
Given the rise of play-to-earn, it was somewhat of a shock when, last week, Steam (the video game digital distribution service by Valve) removed all blockchain-based games from its ecosystem. It further warned users not to publish any crypto-related content, NFTs included.
Our first reaction was “why?” Is this another case of protecting the users from scammy crypto? If yes, why can’t the users be trusted to act in their own best interest?
Their actions prove once more the necessity of the decentralization paradigm. One company should never have such a pull on a whole industry.
Are they trying to protect their own interests because they see that blockchain gaming (specifically play-to-earn and play-to-own) will eventually render their current games obsolete? Well, if that’s the case then they are going about it the wrong way. All they have done is make it clear that they have no interest in innovation and progress. That’s their loss because Epic Games has stepped up to collect the users who will no doubt leave Steam.
In the future, decentralized gaming will not require Epic or Steam to reach the masses. With Unique Network, Bit.Country, and other web3 teams building solutions for large-scale gaming, censorship will become a thing of the past.
Thank you for reading and have a great week.
— NFT Review
📬 NFT News from Kusama & Polkadot
RMRK released new updates to Singular. Most notable highlights include:
Collections can now have custom banners. This has ignited a profile banner economy on Singular.
We launched verifiable on-chain #NFT #banners on singular.rmrk.app! Now you can add a custom #NFTBanner to your #Singular profile using any of your favorite NFTs!Collections now have stats and sale filters
If you have an email address defined in your profile, you will now get an email notification when an item you've listed sells
Homepage revamp
Profile avatars and banners
Unique Network announced plans to participate in the next round of Kusama parachain auctions with Quartz.
The RMRK hackathon was extended to November 2021. You can join to win part of a prize pool of $50,000 plus valuable NFTs. It is open to both developers and non-developers.
Everything you ever wanted to know about gaming on Unique Network (and blockchain) in Aleksandra Mitrovich’s deep dive for Cutting Edge Game Conference.
NFT discovery platform Artpool integrates Unique Network's marketplace technology.
Kanaria (home of NFT 2.0) has netted over 2,025 KSM (~ $746k) in sales volume over the last 7 days, and 19,081 KSM (~ $7m) in one month.
🗞 NFT News from Ethereum and Beyond
ShapeShift hopes to create ‘rarest and most historical’ NFTs with 80% trading card supply burn.
Flow integrates Filecoin storage services to make NFTs more decentralized.
Coinbase follows FTX and Binance in launching NFT marketplace.
UK Gambling Commission opens inquiry into fantasy NFT soccer game Sorare.
Guy Oseary (manager of U2) has signed on to represent Yuga Labs in the entertainment sector, with the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project slated to expand into music, gaming, TV, and film.
Texas Democratic Party aims to use NFT sales for fundraising efforts.
Genopets, the first ‘move-to-earn’ NFT Game Just Raised $8.3M
In the latest update for Axie Infinity, Sky Mavis has made the decision to block lower level accounts from earnings Smooth Love Potions, or SLP tokens. Other changes can be found here.
Pixelcraft Studios will launch the very first land sale for Aavegotchi and the Gotchiverse on October 28th, and the sales event will end three days later. More details here.
Paradigm researchers Anish Agnihotri and Hasu published “A Guide to Designing Effective NFT Launches,” consider it a must-read!
Droid PFP project Robotos introduced Robopets, a spinoff collection for Robotos holders.
Artist Matt Kane unveiled SuperRare’s first Series, i.e. a custom smart contract system for unique groups of art, with The Door. -
![Twitter avatar for @SuperRare](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/SuperRare.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFBrHcKzVkAMN9Sr.jpg)
Visa is creating an NFT support program for artists.
DAO universities and metaversal classrooms are on the horizon.
Cryptovoxels is launching Facebook logins.
Open metaverse wiz Jin has a few ideas on how to decentralize the metaverse:
![Twitter avatar for @dankvr](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/dankvr.jpg)
Zora opened its protocol to support all types of NFTs. -
Decentralized autonomous artist project Botto airdropped BOTTO tokens to holders of Async Art, Art Blocks, BAYC, CryptoPunks, Meebits, SuperRare, and Foundation NFTs.
ENS now allows you to set an NFT as the display image for .eth domains.
Beware, a new type of Discord scam is targeting NFT users.
NFT marketplace aggregator Genie has passed $12M in trade volume.
NFTX collaborated with Rari Protocol on the launch of a NFTX Pool on Fuse. -
![Twitter avatar for @NFTX_](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/NFTX_.jpg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3ede8f6f-1b67-4ac5-9335-2205a5846b25_1876x1024.png)
Video game corporation Valve (Steam) removes blockchain games, tells users not to publish content on crypto or NFTs.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said that the Epic Games Store would enable games using blockchain technology as long as the developers abide by the relevant laws and disclose their terms.
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!