Web3 Round Up 2-26-24
A roundup of activity in NFT, Metaverse, Gaming and AI
Brand Web3 Activity
Reddit Signals Web3/Crypto Moves with IPO Filing
Reddit is has filed to IPO revealing a number of web3 and crypto initiatives in progress and planned:
First, it was revealed that Reddit has been buying Bitcoin and Ethereum with its excess cash since 2022
Reddit also revealed that they have a Digital Assets Research Team and that its product and engineering teams hold crypto currency for “specific uses”
Reddit has been a leader in digital asset sales with it’s avatars on Polygon and at one point allowed subreddits to create their own cryptocurrencies tied to posting
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Forbes Launches Multiple Web3 Initiatives
Media conglomerate Forbes has recently started leaning into web3 starting with the announcement of their permanent presence in the NFT enabled metaverse Sandbox
While many spaces in Sandbox revolve around a game of sorts, this space will serve as a hub for their web3 community, hosting interactive events, workshops, and more
Additionally, Forbes has added wallet connectivity to their website and are running a promotion for those that create or connect a wallet to receive 6 months of free Forbes premium content
Lastly they announced the Forbes Inner Circle which consist web3 natives and thinkers from a wide spectrum across the industry
The Inner circle will help advise Forbes as they continue to grow their web3 presence.
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Native Web3
YUGA Labs CEO Switch Up
YUGA Labs CEO Daniel Alegre has announced he is stepping down from the position after less than a year and it is unclear if he will leave the company entirely or transition into another role
Daniel Alegre has a background in gaming and tech, serving as COO for Activision and before that as the president of Google’s global shopping revenue
YUGA Labs cofounder Greg Solano has returned to assume the title of CEO and stated that he intends to run the company with a more crypto native focus across everything YUGA does
He also announced he is spinning the Bored Ape team into its own LLC in order to “unshackle them”
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GMoney’s NFT Clothing Brand Makes Waves
GMoney is a widely known figure in the web3 space and spent the last couple years working on launching a clothing brand called 9dcc
GMoney calls this a connected brand, meaning each piece of clothing has an NFC chip that pairs the garment with an NFT
In the past he has released a limited number of items, however a full 60 piece collection will be previewed during NFT Paris this week
GMoney has long evangelized the benefit of NFC chips and their ability to give on chain benefits to customers
One novel way this is taking place is in the form of digital signatures
This collection will allow creators such as GMoney to digitally sign certain pieces
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Doodles Launch Stoodio
Doodles has launched their next major feature titled “Stoodio”, hailed as the first mobile multi-chain epicenter for immersive story telling, gaming, and collecting
Users can easily customize their own Doodle (requiring an email if they wish to save their creation)
Upon providing an email Stoodio will then seamlessly create a wallet for the user who will receive a digital trait pack of accessories to kickstart their collection
Outside of collection traits, Stoodio also offers a token gated platform where Doodles NFT owners can watch exclusive content, keep up to date with everything happening in the Doodles ecosystem, and RSVP for live events
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Pudgy Penguins Re-Ups with Walmart
Pudgy Penguins set the web3 world on fire last year when they announced that their toys would be available in 2000 Walmart stores across the nation
This was seen as a massive onboarding experience and as a trojan horse as each toy came with an NFT character that could be adorned with traits
Users could dress up their characters and unlock more traits with more physical toy purchases
This digital character can then be used in a penguin themed metaverse
After selling over $10M dollars worth of toys in 2023, Walmart has ordered a second batch of toys, a second toy line, and is integrating Pudgy Penguins in an additional 1100 stores
As always the new toy line will be based on the NFT collection and actually be licensed from the NFT holder
The NFT holder then enters into a profit split based on how the toy of their NFT sells
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Digital Art Sets New Record
Autoglyphs are a legendary art collection on Ethereum, long hailed as the first generative pieces of art minted on any blockchain ever
On February 19th a wallet sold 10 Autoglyphs in one of largest on chain digital art transactions ever
The collection was purchased for a whopping $14.5M equivalent of ETH
The purchaser, who wishes to remain anonymous, plans to present the art in museums and institutions going forward
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AI News
OpenAI’s Sora Wows the World
OpenAI recently teased their newest app, a text to video AI bot that can turn out stunning videos in a matter of seconds
Due to the sensitive nature of Sora’s capabilities the feature is not available to the public currently
However Open AI staff as well as Sam Altman have been releasing videos with prompts that users on X have asked for to jaw dropping results
The videos generated were so good that Hollywood mogul Tyler Perry has pushed pause indefinitely on his $800M studio expansion
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Reddit Signs Deal with Google on Data for Model Training
Reddit has signed a deal to allow Google to train its AI models on over two decades of user generated content
Google will pay Reddit $60M to access this information
Reddit will also harness the AI model and use it on its platform with the aim of making Reddit communities and content easier to find for users
The Reddit community’s reaction to the news was mixed, with some finding it problematic that their content was being sold without them getting compensated
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Google Pulls Walks Back Gemini’s Image Generation Capabilities
Google is the latest company to release to a less than complete AI model, this time in the form of its text to image AI tool tied to Gemini
Gemini was released to the public earlier this month and at first people were actually quite impressed with the images being produced
However users noticed that when prompting historical scenes the AI bot would insert people of a race and nationality that would not be possible during that time period
Online trolls soon took advantage of this and prompted Gemini to create ridiculous images highlighting this misstep in the product
Google pulled down Gemini shortly after that picture was circulated and has apologized for “missing the mark”
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Metaverse / Gaming
The Weeknd Debuts Music Video in Fortnite
The Weeknd has taken a novel approach for premiering his latest music video by giving Fortnite the exclusive rights to it for a period of time before broader distribution
This comes as Fortnite has been trying to grow the musical side of its platform, having recently launched a rhythm focused game titled “Fortnite Festival”
The new game sees players teaming up and jamming alongside their favorite songs and even making original songs
The Weeknd has been a partner for the first season of this new game with Lady Gaga recently announced to helm season 2
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Otherside Plans Next Trip
YUGA Lab’s Metaverse Otherside has announced their next playable demo titled “Apes Come Home” to launch at the end of February
In the past these demos have been largely a guided experience showing off something in particular or showcasing a certain gameplay element
This next offering will be slightly different in that the users will have more freedom to explore in an unguided setting
This next demo also marks the first time that all 10,000 Bored Ape NFT’s have been modeled into 3D assets, meaning that NFT owners will actually get to play as their ape
Holders of OtherDeeds, Kodas, Bored Apes, Mutant Apes, and Gtag can attend this activation which is slated to go live 2/29/2024.
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Crypto
Coinbase Advertises on Liquid Death
Canned water company, Liquid Death recently ran a novel campaign auctioning the rights to advertise on 500k cases of water
The eventual bid was won by Coinbase for $500,115 who is now determining how to leverage the ad space
Interestingly enough the bid was paid in USDC saving Liquid Death $12k in fees had they used traditional currency
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Ledger and Coinbase Team Up
Ledger and Coinbase have partnered to offer a serious ease of life upgrade to Ledger users
Ledger is a hardware wallet that allows people to store their precious crypto currencies off an exchange; it’s basically the digital equivalent of putting cash into a home safe
The problem has been that in the past if you wanted to add crypto currencies to your ledger, you first needed to purchase them on an exchange and transfer them
Now, Coinbase Pay has integrated into the Ledger Live app allowing users to purchase digital assets directly into their ledger without the need for a hot wallet
While this may seem like a small step in the scheme of things, it is a significant advancement in allowing people to hold custody of their assets with ease.
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