Web3 Round Up 5.29.2023

A roundup of activity in NFT, Metaverse, Gaming and AI

Brand Activity

Nike .swoosh sale in MATIC

• The General Access sale is currently open for the Our Force 1 digital sneaker collection on their owned and operated marketplace, .swoosh

• As of Thursday, 66,000 NFTs had been sold at a price of $19.82

• It’s a large onboarding effort as purchases happen via credit card and the auto creation of a wallet for customers

• Customers of the sneakers are also receiving a very warm welcome on Twitter from the CloneX community

• Links:

  • https://www.swoosh.nike/collections/our-force-1-box

  • https://twitter.com/NTBro/status/1658304502200516608?s=20

New Head of Web3 at Adidas

• Adidas is growing their web3 team and just hired a new Head of Web3 Strategy who previously worked at Nike and Rarible

• Links

  • https://twitter.com/altsbyadidas/status/1660588824261451778?s=46&t=eFu4pA65axfyA63YLtUpBw

Red Bull x Doodles Collaboration

• Red Bull launched a collaboration with Doodles and a number of student artists (who will receive proceeds of the sale)

• There are 61 different unique pieces of art that were sourced from 120,000 entries into the Red Bull x Doodle art contest

• Links

  • https://twitter.com/redbull/status/1662067735235293190?s=46&t=eFu4pA65axfyA63YLtUpBw

  • https://www.niftygateway.com/collections/burnt-toast-redbull-doodleart

Consumer Brands and Co-Creation

• Less news, but a good read on brands and co-creation with their consumers and how web3 can help

• "The true power of Web3 technologies is the potential to reshape how value is created, shared, and distributed on the Internet, making distributing value as easy as sending and receiving an email. That’s a fundamental technology unlock that makes it possible for creators on the internet to earn more of the value they create."

• Links

  • https://multicoin.capital/2023/05/11/from-ugc-to-ugp-consumer-brands-and-co-creation/

Lowes Experiments with Tools on the Blockchain

• The proof-of-concept system is aimed at theft prevention and uses RFID chips that are unlocked at the point of sale to allow use of the tool

• “At the heart of Project Unlock is the ability to activate a powered product after it has been legitimately purchased — rendering a stolen tool inoperable and virtually worthless.”

• The purchase is also recorded on the blockchain allowing police to validate whether a tool was stolen

• Links:

  • https://www.lowesinnovationlabs.com/projects/projectunlock

NFTs

ERC-6551: Token Bound Accounts (NFTs with built in wallets)

• A new ERC allows an NFT to have it’s own wallet address that can send and receive NFTs

• This could allow for a number of different use cases for NFTs… ‘upgrading’ an NFT with new/additional traits, creating a collection within the NFT, building loyalty/earning points etc.

• Links

  • https://twitter.com/ZakaiMill/status/1658110118288916490?s=20

Pudgy Penguins Release Phygital Toy Line

• Pudgy Penguins have released a toy line that is available on Amazon and Target

• The toys smashed sales expectations, selling over 500k of merchandise on just Amazon in the first week

• Each toy comes with a scannable QR code that creates a wallet for purchaser and gives them a customizable penguin NFT and a ‘pack’ of random traits that can be bought and sold

• The customizable penguin will be used in a ‘Club Penguin’ style game that is being built

• Additional trait boxes can be acquired through secondary trading or another physical purchase

• The massive toy sales can be in part attributed to the Pudgy Penguin Instagram which has no mention of NFT’s and creates very popular memes with their IP that get viewed millions of times over

• Links

  • https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/18/pudgy-penguins-nft-toys-ip/

  • https://twitter.com/0xCygaar/status/1660732316636033024?s=20

Paris Hilton to drop avatar collection in Sandbox

• The famous influencer is set to drop an limited edition Avatar collection within popular metaverse Sandbox

• The collections will be 5555 unique playable avatars with 1/1’s showcasing iconic moments and fashion pieces from her life.

• The avatars will cost 100 $Sand each and go on sale May 31

• Each avatar also doubles as a VIP ticket to her upcoming concert at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles.

• Links

  • https://nftevening.com/paris-hilton-unleashes-iconic-avatar-collection-in-the-sandbox-on-may-31/

AI News

AI Environment Builder

• Cool demonstration of a tool that allows someone to draw the structure of the environment and have it filled in by generative AI

• This will further allow non-technical people to create

• Links

  • https://twitter.com/sudu_cb/status/1659483647911550976?s=46&t=eFu4pA65axfyA63YLtUpBw

Coca Cola Generative AI Commercial

Metaverse / Gaming

Lego x Epic Games

• Lego is building a ‘family friendly’ metaverse on the Unreal platform

• They are exploring NFT integration for collectibles as a part of the platform (more evidence that Epic Games will support crypto/web3 integrations at scale)

• https://twitter.com/mani_nftz/status/1659523807223382017?s=46&t=eFu4pA65axfyA63YLtUpBw

Apple Crypto Policy Softens

• Apple has allowed one of its store hosted apps “StepN” to allow users to buy, sell and trade NFT’s without ever leaving the app

• Stepn is a move to earn game where users buy digital sneakers and then earn rewards through exercise

• Stepn has been downloaded millions of times and has an active monthly user base of 500k

• Links:

  • https://twitter.com/rt_watson/status/1660617839949017092?s=46&t=eFu4pA65axfyA63YLtUpBw

Axis Infinity in Apple Store

• Similarly, “Axie Infinity” game has been approved by Apple for use in select countries

• While this is a big win for web3 gaming, users will need to have already purchased the NFT’s to play the game and the app offers no support to the Axie Infinity marketplace to allow buying or selling of assets through the app

• Links:

  • https://twitter.com/TheBlock__/status/1658759631957532672?s=20

Crypto

Ledger “Recover”

• Ledger has a turbulent week after announcing a new service called “Ledger Recovery” which would allow users to recover their seed phrase should it ever be lost

• The mechanics of this imply that there are backdoor capabilities that could be abused by Ledger or a government pressuring them

• This was not received well at all by the wider web3 world

• As a result of the PR backlash, Ledger has pledged to open source all future updates to show they are working in good faith and is delaying the launch of the feature

• Links:

  • https://decrypt.co/140364/is-there-a-backdoor-in-ledger-hardware-wallets