NFT Review 57 - Privacy wars and senseless sanctions
NFT Review 57 - Privacy wars and senseless sanctions
New Skybreach map update, OpenSea policy update, Async Art opens up, 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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Dear NFT enthusiast,
This last week saw a huge shakeup in the cryptosphere. The US government decided that using the privacy-preserving transaction mixer Tornado Cash is so dangerous and destructive to society that it warrants 30 years in prison. The argument, like always, follows this inane logic–good and honest people do not need privacy. But this is nonsense perpetuated by ignorance, stupidity, and or intentional maliciousness.
On the one hand, we are inclined to say that “thankfully, this issue rests primarily with US residents.” But unfortunately, the US is very influential in shaping public perception and actions, not to talk of the power of fear which dissuades otherwise free people from standing for freedom. Already there are talks of making changes to projects on the protocol level just so the US government is kept happy/at bay. But at some point, something has to give, right? Someone (or people) has to say “no, we’d like our freedom, thank you very much”. Of course, it is easier said than done, especially when 30 years in prison hangs over your head like a guillotine.
What shall we do in such situations? The only thing we can do—build the decentralized future with privacy embedded (or at least the option for an individual to remain private), one where censorship is near impossible to establish. How can you help? Just speak up with your actions. If you’re an artist, then make art that shines a light on the value of privacy. In the end, every battle is fought on multiple fronts, with the cultural front being among the most potent for fostering long-lasting impact.
Thank you for reading and have a great week.
— NFT Review
📬 NFT News from Kusama & Polkadot
There’s a new update to the Skybreach map–there's now improved adjustable zoom settings for the custom land tile feature that was released last week.
RMRK founder Bruno Škvorc was on Lets Talk NODEsense to talk about RMRK.
Bit.country published episode 10 of its Discovery video podcast.
Unique Network, official home to one of the Cryptopunks, released a late July update and an updated roadmap.
Register here to get a piece of Unique’s Punk.
A chat with Enjin’s Ecosystem Manager Tassio Rafael about building with Enjin tools & what web3 gaming will look like.
🗞 NFT News from Ethereum and Beyond
Phantom wallet launched a new Burn Token feature, allowing users to remove spam NFTs sent by scammers.
Samsung inks deals to use NFTs for offline shopping rewards.
Tiffany sells out all 250 ‘NFTiffs’ for about $50,000 each.
Arbitrum Nova, an L2 for gaming and social applications, is now open to the public.
OpenSea announced updates to its copymint and verification systems and its stolen items policy.
Yuga Labs welcomed Danny Greene, formerly MeebitsDAO’s general manager, as the company’s Meebits brand lead.
Async Art opened to all creators.
Gallery migrated to its own NFT indexer.
Fractional built a binder tool for Parallel Parasets.
Jonathan Mann of SongADAO just unveiled SongADEX, a discovery and leaderboard dashboard for his song traits.
Bank of England said growing use of cryptocurrencies in metaversal contexts could pose systemic risks to international financial stability.
ImmutableX kicked off a new trading rewards program.
Sudoswap is now averaging +300 ETH worth of daily volume.
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!