Web3 Roundup 7-10-2023

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

Brand Web3 Activity

Dior Releases NFT Tied to Physical Shoes

• Dior is releasing the B33 sneaker that comes with an NFC chip tied to an NFT of the sneaker

• The sneaker will unlock “dedicated services” though Dior has received pushback to the very vague mentions and promises of future utility

• This article compares Dior’s offering to PUMA’s moves in web3, calling Dior’s offering “unconvincing” while calling PUMA “a leader in the web3” and “Leading the next gen sneakerhead charge”

• Article links:

  • https://jingdaily.com/puma-dupe-dior-nft-sneaker/

  • https://www.ledgerinsights.com/dior-nft-digital-twin-sneakers/

Credit Suisse launches NFT collection

• The Swiss banking conglomerate is releasing an NFT collection celebrating the women of the Swiss Football Association

• The goal of the drop is to “propel the energy of Women’s Football”

• The NFTs range in price from $167-$11,000 and offer different utilities such as player interaction, physical work, and autographed jerseys

• Article links:

  • https://nftlately.com/credit-suisse-women-football-nfts/

Slim Jim Launches the Meataverse

• Slim Jim launched its surprisingly savvy crypto experience “The Meataverse”

• The experience is very easy to interact with for the non-web3 natives with Slim Jim offering to create wallets, handle gas fees, and provide custody of the free NFT being offered

  • It is possible to do this entire experience and never have to interact with a wallet or crypto

• The experience revolves around creating and minting a custom NFT

• The NFT can then be further customized using assets that are received by scanning QR codes of purchased Slim Jims

• Article links:

  • https://nftlately.com/slim-jims-meataverse-free-gigajims-nfts-seamless-fan-experience/

  • https://meataverse.slimjim.com/

MLB to launch virtual Ballpark

• The MLB launched digital venue for fans to gather and watch live baseball games as well as other activations

• The digital space debuted on July 8th with an All-Star Game watch party during a featuring celebrities and former star players

• The virtual space can be accessed from any device

• Article links:

  • https://www.mlb.com/fans/virtual-ballpark

  • https://nftlately.com/mlb-virtual-ballpark/

Coca-Cola collaborates with SolSea

• Coca-Cola has partnered up with SolSea to create an art piece titled “Magic Mirror” at Exit Music Festival.

• Participants stand in-front of the magic mirror and see themselves virtually dressed up in a random assortment of merchandise offered by the festival

• There will also be an NFT component that corresponds to a limited run of Coca-Cola hoodies

• Article links:

  • https://nftevening.com/get-ready-for-nft-goodies-coca-cola-collaborates-with-solsea-at-exit-festival/

  • https://cryptoslate.com/coca-cola-serbia-partners-with-solana-based-nft-marketplace-solsea/

Honda Partners with Animoca Brands

• The specifics of the partnership are still under wraps but the collaboration will center around enhancing live fan experiences for motorsports events through blockchain activations

• The collaboration will also offer custodial wallets for non-web3 native fans

• Article links:

  • https://www.ledgerinsights.com/honda-web3-animoca-brands-fan-engagement/

Native Web3 News

Legends of Mara teased

• YUGA Labs have teased their newest game “Legends of Mara” on their Twitter account

• Not much is yet known, but we do know that the game will collaborate with NFT collections outside of the YUGA umbrella such as Renga, Crypto Toadz, and more

• Because of the inclusions of other collections there are many rumors that this game will be integrated and lead by 10KTF

• Most recently YUGA has launched its NFT enabled game HV-MTL which sees players building bases and voting on who has the best base

• Article links:

  • https://twitter.com/OthersideMeta/status/1677074995216801795?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Forgotten Runes 3D Wizards Made Available in Nifty Island

• Metaverse platform Nifty Island is making the 3D models of Forgotten Runes Wizard Cult playable in it’s game

• This is an example of IP building for the project and interoperability

• Article links:

  • https://twitter.com/bearsnake_21/status/1676647862934081536?s=20

Candy and Palm merge

• Sports themed NFT exchange “Candy” is merging with IP based NFT exchange “Palm”

• Candy is best known for holding the rights to MLB, NASCAR, and WWE with Palm being more centered around IP, most popularly DC comics

• “Over the past two years, Candy Digital and Palm NFT Studio have pioneered breakthrough digital experiences and crafted innovative creative tools, connecting fans to some of the world’s most captivating content,” said Lawin. “Together, we’ll accelerate our mission of defining a new category of brand experience that focuses on co-creation, rewarding loyalty and connecting communities.”

• Palm is also the more technical of the two companies offering its own dashboard of backend products and its own Ethereum side-chain

• The Candy brand will be maintained through this merge with the Candy CEO staying on to run the combined company

• Article links:

  • https://www.ledgerinsights.com/candy-digital-palm-merge-nft-platforms-for-mlb-nascar-dc-comics/

MFers Collaborates with Lowes

• The MFer NFT collection has been spotted in the popular home goods store Lowes, of all places

• The collaboration offerings consists of garden flags repping the characters from the collection

• MFer’s are a deepcut NFT collection heavily steeped in crypto culture

• The founder paid homage to the creator of Bitcoin by transferring the smart contract to the community and disappearing

• Article links:

  • https://nftlately.com/lowes-mfers-nft-flags/

Tom Brady’s NFT Startup Autograph to Shift Focus

• Autograph was launched during the bull market and raised $170M through a series B funding round

• Autograph’s original purpose was to help celebrities sell NFT’s to their fans

• However Autograph struggled to make a compelling product and failed to sell a significant amount of NFT’s, even during the bull market

• Autograph will now focus on providing celebrities with the opportunity to “foster loyalty with their fans” and all crypto related language has been taken down from the website

• Article links:

  • https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/07/06/tom-bradys-nft-start-up-autograph-shifts-strategy-amid-struggles-nyt/

Memeland Collection Will Offer Dynamic Customization

• Popular NFT collection “Captainz” has been teasing its reveal over the last couple of months

• However, upon reveal the NFT’s were uniform across a couple categories instead of unique images as most people have come to expect

• This was done on purpose as the collection will allow for PFP customization through limited release trait packs

• Traits will be swappable and tradable with Memeland hoping to attract brands, creators, and other NFT collections onto their new trait marketplace which will also be powered by their native coin

• Article links:

  • https://twitter.com/memeland/status/1675369059683307522?s=46&t=_7pDgE5H9aTXqeaCBEEtYw

Gutter Cat Gang Hacked

• On July 7th popular NFT collection “Gutter Cat Gang’s” Twitter was hacked with the hackers sending out a malicious phishing scam

• The hack happened just after the close of the Gutter Melo x PUMA shoe sale

• The hackers posted an image claiming to be giving away 200 pairs of the shoes for the first people to click the link

• Unfortunately the GCG founder’s Twitter was also hacked which gave credibility to this phishing scam as it was reposted on their accounts

• Its estimated that over 1.5M in assets were stolen from the web3 community with 700K coming from just one wallet

• GCG has yet to confirm if they will be reimbursing those affected

AI News

Chat GPT Experiences First Decline

• Popular AI language model “ChatGPT” has experienced its first drop in traffic since its release last October

• The drop in traffic is around 10% though it is to be expected with its meteoric rise to popularity

• Another theory posits that the decline is a result of the end of the school year and students are on break

• ChatGPT still holds the record for fastest growing application, attracting 100 million users in the first two months of launch

• Article links:

  • https://decrypt.co/147595/traffic-dip-hits-openais-chatgpt-first-times-hardest

The United States Department of Defense is experimenting with AI

• The DOD has been experimenting with using AI to make decisions across war scenarios and crisis scenarios with the results being “highly successful”.

• They are also experimenting with AI handling top secret data in an effort to prevent leaks

• Article links:

  • https://decrypt.co/147588/us-military-training-ai-give-orders-handle-state-secrets

AI is Helping Scientists Understand Lost Languages

• AI is being used to translate ancient language’s such as Cuneiform, Akkadian, and Egyptian hieroglyphics

• There are only a handful of people trained in these languages and the sheer amount of texts and tablets to translate has been overwhelming for the archeological community

• With the help of AI they are able to translate ancient clay tablets at a rapid pace clip

• Article links:

  • https://decrypt.co/147176/ai-ancient-language-translation-cuneiform-akkadian

Metaverse / Gaming

Ubisoft to Enter Web3 Gaming

• Popular game publisher has announced that the company Pay will be stepping into Web3 gaming with their upcoming game “Champions Tactics”

• The tactical PVP strategy game will be built on the popular gaming blockchain “Oasys”

• While this marks the company’s first standalone Web 3 offering they have been experimenting within the wider Web 3 ecosystem, most recently releasing skins of their popular game Raddids within the Sandbox metaverse.

• Article links:

  • https://decrypt.co/147028/champions-tactics-blockchain-game-ubisoft

Iconic Video Game ‘The Sims’ Enters a F2P New Era

• Popular video game Sims has announced that Sims 5 will be free to play in the biggest change to the series since inception

• Beyond this, few details are confirmed

• Though the announcement leads one to believe that this new offering will leverage digital goods and cosmetics as a way to make revenue

• Article links:

  • https://www.gamesradar.com/the-sims-5-release-date/

Sega to Step Away From Web3

• The COO of the gaming company told Bloomberg, “They are now apprehensive about the technology and will be cancelling plans to develop their own blockchain.”

• Though it still intends to allow third-party developers to produce blockchain games

• This comes as a surprise as Sega was a very early adopter of the web3 wave, purchasing land in Decentraland and Sandbox and collaborating with many NFT collections

• The COO went on to call the actions performed in play-to-earn games “boring”.

• Article links:

  • https://www.coindesk.com/web3/2023/07/07/sega-rethinks-gamefi-plans-coo-calls-blockchain-gaming-boring-bloomberg/

Crypto

Mastercard Launches Beta of Blockchain App Store

• Mastercard is building a permissioned blockchain meant for financial applications for external developers to build on which “act as a testbed for developing live pilot applications and use cases with financial institutions, fintechs and central banks.”

• The blockchain is built on top of Ethereum

• Article links:

  • https://blockworks.co/news/mastercard-blockchain-app-store-beta

SEC vs. Coinbase Updates

• The first ‘battle’ in the war between the SEC and Coinbase will take place on July 13th

• The date for the hearing is now much earlier than expected, prompted by a "creative" defense tactic employed by Coinbase, where in the exchange filed its first response 40 days before the deadline of August 7

• Article links

  • https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/06/30/sec-vs-coinbase-case-set-for-july-13-after-exchanges-creative-opening-response/