NFT Review 32 - Politics and NFTs...a marriage?
Korea cracks down on P2E, Samsung's NFT platform for TVs, BAYC goes hip hop, 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,
First of all, Happy New Year and welcome to 2022. If we didn’t make it last year, then hopefully WAGMI this year. All we need is attention in the ecosystem, intelligence to separate good bets from bad ones, patience to stick to our decisions, and the humility to see that it could all fade away in an instant. With regards to the last statement, it’s not only the market that can wipe us out but also death. Thus, let’s spend the year trying to make it while remembering that the only reason why we're trying is so that we can live in the moment.
That’s enough pep talk.
We were fascinated when we read that the South Korean Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung plans to use NFTs to raise funds for his campaign in a bid to appeal to millennials. What could the future of democracy look like if anyone with a large enough following can fund their political campaign through NFTs? Like everything in life, there are both good and bad consequences to this new paradigm. However, it’s too early in the year for us to speculate which way it will go. It’s far more interesting to watch it unfold.
That said, we’re curious what you think about a marriage between politics and NFTs. What possible benefits and pitfalls do you see? Leave your comment below.
Thank you for reading and have a great week.
— NFT Review
👨🏼🎨 RMRK Artist Spotlight: The Po-Ku People
On this episode of RAS we chatted with the creator of the Po-Ku People collection. We are huge fans of Singular and RMRK loyalists and so we were happy to engage in this conversation.
The Po-Ku People collection is very unique for one key reason—all KSM raised from sales of the NFTs are staked and every week staking rewards are distributed to all holders. Throw in a private discord and you have the early makings of a self-sustaining private community. Periodically, the community makes charity donations, whereby everyone has a say in which charity should be supported. This is quite impressive, showing in one stroke the freeing power of NFTs, their ability to facilitate the creation of a community, and their capacity for enabling the distribution of funds to worthy causes.
📬 NFT News from Kusama & Polkadot
RMRK co-founder Bruno Škvorc spoke about RMRK at the European Blockchain Convention.
A new changelog for Singular was released, featuring:
new verification flow, documented here
collection rankings
referral and address copy buttons
mint and burn on Statemine
and more
The second use of the Bragi gem (which allows birdholders to upload custom alternate art to their bird) happened on Kanaria. You can learn more about Kanaria gems here.
All Kanaria Yuletide giftboxes were sold out and all christmas items have been sent to accounts that participated in the sale. Check your Kanaria nest.
Bit Country was announced by Cere Network as one of the 5 projects that will use the recently-launched Cere Freeport.
RMRK is inching closer to its deployment on Moonriver.
Kodadot is hosting a contest for GIF makers to create GIFs using the new Kodadot logo.
RomeDAO announced that it would use RMRK for their campaign NFTs.
RMRK distributed Limited Edition Kanaria NFTs to Twitter users who posted meaningful tweets regarding its recently announced metaverse Skybreach.
🗞 NFT News from Ethereum and Beyond
Ferrari will be issuing exclusive digital content for its fans in collaboration with Swiss blockchain startup Velas.
Data shows that OpenSea has generated more than $700 million in sales this year, putting the NFT marketplace on track for another record month.
Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda reveals plans for blockchain, metaverse, NFTs.
Samsung announces NFT platform for smart TVs. It also announced 3 TVs for 2022 With NFT Trading Capability.
Art gallery owner Todd Kramer had his valuable NFT collection stolen from his hot wallet yesterday, so OpenSea froze the stolen assets worth about $2.2 million.
Genesis Global Capital has completed one of its first purely NFT-backed loans for $6 million to Meta4 Capital, a Miami-based Web3focused investment management firm.
Korean government tells Apple and Google stores to take down P2E games.
OpenSea raises $300M for encrypted digital marketplace
Quentin Tarantino to release Pulp Fiction NFTs, flouting Miramax lawsuit.
Eminem purchased a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT for $462K
Decentraland and luxury marketplace UNXD to host Metaverse Fashion Week.
Kraken to develop an NFT marketplace offering token-backed loans.
The Australian Open aped into NFTs and the metaverse in a big way.
Animoca Brands led a $9M round in the NFT data aggregator CryptoSlam.
NFT venture firm Metaversal raised $50m from Coinfund, Dapper, and others.
NFT trading volume surpassed $13 billion in 2021.
Larva Labs open-sourced the CryptoPunks Marketplace 2.0 system.
Bored Ape Yacht Club floor prices temporarily flipped CryptoPunks floor prices for the 1st time ever.
Snoop Dogg aped into the BAYC ecosystem in a big way.
Writer Oliver Scialdone explored the inaugural artists and artworks that defined SuperRare’s birth.
Artnome, one of the OG cryptoart experts, posited that more people are collecting art today than ever before courtesy of NFTs.
Cryptovoxels hosted a Steve Aoki performance.
PwC Hong Kong has acquired a LAND site in The Sandbox.
Manifold Studio, an NFT minting platform, is now open to all creators.
Quixotic, the 1st NFT marketplace on the Optimism L2, just launched.
NFTX, the NFT liquidity protocol, rolled out a makeover to its Stake dashboard.
Genie is now The Metaverse’s Aggregator
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!