Emerging Tech Round Up 5-6-24
Emerging Tech Round Up 5-6-24
A roundup of activity in the emerging technology space
Brand Activity
Manchester City to Launch Unseen City NFTs
Manchester City is no stranger to NFTs and has been working with their jersey sponsor, OKX, for over two years
Their latest drop is the second installment of their free NFT program titled Blue Moon after the iconic 23/24 shirt
The free to claim NFTs will be soulbound tokens, meaning they cannot be sold or transferred once claimed
The NFTs will have various tiers of rarity and come with perks such as tickets, hospitality booths, merch, and more
Manchester City’s last free NFT titled ‘The Roses and the Bees’ saw 67k NFTs claimed in under 5 hours
For anyone lucky to receive a rare tier NFT they also got the added perk of tickets to a game as well as a private tour of the stadium
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Louis Vuitton Offers Exclusive Physical to NFT Holders
Last year Louis Vuitton sold out 200 soulbound NFT tokens for a whopping $39,000 each
These NFTs holders the opportunity to buy an exclusive item every couple months
Users must pay for this item but it will very exclusive as it is only available to that unchanging group of 200 holders
The third exclusive offering is a jacket dubbed “Varsity Blouson” by Pharrell and will cost $7.9K if owners choose to purchase it
If owners do purchase this item they will be given a digital representation as well as the physical jacket
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Nike / .SWOOSH Offers Gamified Way to Earn Unique Shoes
Nike is currently selling their latest Air Force titled ‘The 404’ exclusively to .SWOOSH members
As this sale went live, .SWOOSH tweeted out a fun browser based game and stated that the first four thousand players who completed the game via their .SWOOSH account would qualify for exclusive access to a limited edition remix of the product called “404 ERROR”
The game was completed by 4,000 players in just a couple minutes after going live
It’s interesting to watch Nike funnel their consumer base into using their .SWOOSH accounts more and more
In the past they offered a limited time item in the Fortnite marketplace for .SWOOSH players who completed the Nike experience in UEFN
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Artificial Intelligence
Drake vs. Kendrick Rap Beef Leverage AI Verses from Snoop and Tupac
Last year, Kendrick Lamar released The Heart Part 5 which made waves for its use of deep fake technology, changing Kendrick into other black celebrities as he rapped
Now, deep faking voice is taking center stage and this time being leveraged against Kendrick
In a highly visible rap beef, Drake recently deep faked Tupac and Snoop Dogg’s voices to criticize Kendrick Lamar
Sam Altman and Others Join Homeland Security AI Safety Board
As AI continues to accelerate, finding it’s way into nearly every aspect of our lives, the government is trying to both understand risk and proactively mitigate against security risk
The Department of Homeland Security has assembled what could be referred to as the Justice League of AI to form a safety board
The AI safety board consists of over twenty leading AI developers including but not limited to, Sam Altman, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia and more
The goal of this board is to help the government harness the power of AI to protect vital US infrastructure as well as mitigate outside AI threats
The board will meet this month and will give the secretary of Homeland Security a list of recommendations to help ensure America’s security
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Rabbit AI Fails to Impress
Rabbit is the latest piece of AI hardware to be dismantled by Marques Brownlee (who recently called Humane AI’s product the worst he has ever reviewed)
So how did Rabbit R1 do? Unfortunately, not much better… while Marques doesn’t call it the worst product that he has ever reviewed, he does call it “barely reviewable”.
The Rabbit R1 is a piece of hardware with an inbuilt AI system that can be remotely upgraded
Unlike the Humane pin the Rabbit R1 is not wearable and offers a screen to navigate the device in lieu of a projector
The device is supposed to act as your digital assistant however it is plagued by many of the issues you would expect including significant latency in the device when asking questions, AI model hallucinations, and a camera that often mis-ID’s
What Marques finds the most frustrating is the promise of future utility, which is becoming a trend throughout the tech world… releasing unfinished products and are instead upgraded in the coming months and years
The founders of Rabbit have responded to this video claiming the device will be almost unrecognizable in a couple months due to the upgrades
Metaverse / Gaming
NFT Game Rumble Kong Scores Gatorade Deal
Rumble Kong League is an upcoming basketball focused mobile game built on the Avalanche blockchain
They recently announced they have inked a long term partnership with Gatorade who will be the Official Sports Drink partner of the mobile game
Their first activation is already live on the Rumble Kong website
Users can complete social quests for G coins which can be inserted in a Gatorade Machine via the website
The G Machine will give players access to exclusive skins and wearable items ahead of the mobile games release
Rumble Kong also has garnered the support of several basketball players such as Steph Curry who invested via his capital venture fund as well as Paul George
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Supercell to Invest in NFT Gaming
When it comes to mobile gaming there a couple standouts that have helped define the genre for over a decade such as Clash of Clans
Clash developer Super Cell is starting to look at the possibility of NFT enabled gaming and has invested into a crypto gaming startup “Games for a Living” taking part in their $3.2M seed round
“Games for a Living” is led by industry titan Trip Hawkin who founded and led Electronic Arts
The studio currently has no playable games out in the marketplace
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Web3 Natives
Pudgy Penguins Enters the Trading Card Space
Pudgy Penguins are one of the most dynamic and active NFT collections out there
They have digital and physical extensions as well as plushy toys in major retailers across the world like Walmart
Most recently, Pudgy Penguins partnered with Orange Cap Games to develop a physical card game based on their IP
The game will also be released digitally and onchain
As usual Pudgy Penguin holders were able to submit their NFTs to be potentially licensed by Orange Cap and put on the actual cards
Orange Cap was offering 200 licensing spots to potential penguins for the images on the cards
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Yuga Announces More Layoffs / Hosts Town Hall in Otherside
Yuga has announced yet another round of layoffs coming on the heels of founder Greg Solano stepping back into the role of CEO
In explaining his reasoning for the layoffs, Solano went on to state that Yuga had lost its way and that to get back on the right track they needed a smaller swifter team of crypto natives
Following that announcement, Yuga held a Town Hall in the metaverse game they are developing to lay out a revised roadmap for the brand
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Crypto
PayPal Integrates MoonPay to Increase + Simplify Crypto Offerings
Online payments company PayPal has offered crypto services on its platform for years with users able to buy BTC, ETH, and a handle of other cryptocurrencies directly on the platform
Recently PayPal announced it will be integrating MoonPay’s services onto their platform, giving customers access to over 100 digital assets
Furthermore users will be able to purchase these assets directly with their PayPal balance rather than setting up with MoonPay
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Stripe Expands Crypto Payments in Major Way
Stripe is one of the biggest online payment processing companies in the world doing roughly $1T in volume in 2023
Six years ago, it discontinued its crypto offerings on the platform due to user experiences, however at their latest keynote conference the Stripe president announced that crypto is back
Stripe will focus first on its stablecoin offerings which are set to go live globally this summer
One unique feature is that one user can send a stablecoin like USDC and if the receiver wishes they will automatically receive fiat currency
Stripe is building out an extensive network in order to handle crypto payments as well as self custody
The willingness to settle USDC for fiat on their part also flags a belief in the underlying asset of a stablecoin
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Consensys Sues the SEC
Consensys has had enough of the SEC’s unwillingness to provide clear regulations of their views on the crypto market and has filled a preemptive lawsuit to block the SEC from labelling Ethereum as a security
Consensys has a personal stake in this as they have received a Wells Notice and three subpoenas from the SEC
If Ethereum were to be labeled a security they would be charged as an unregistered securities broker due to customers being able to send and receive Ethereum via their MetaMask product
However the implications are much bigger than the Consensys lawsuit
If Ethereum were to be registered as a security the blockchain would effectively be illegal within the United States.
Article links:
https://forkast.news/consensys-files-lawsuit-against-sec-over-ethereum-status/