Web3 Roundup 9-18-23
Web3 Roundup 9-18-23
A roundup of activity in NFT, Metaverse, Gaming and AI
Brand Web3 Activity
Snapchat Collaborates with The London Design Museum During Fashion Week
The onsite collaboration allows attendees of the upcoming Museum’s London Fashion Week to use AR filters to display iconic runway looks on their faces
The AR features allow attendees to display not only makeup but also hair styles and full facial wraps
The filters were made using machine learnings that enable several features such as AR hair swaying with user movements
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Reddit and Re-Ups with the NFL, Selling Team NFT Avatars
Reddit and the NFL have released another set of NFT avatars, this time celebrating the start of the 2023 football season
Their previous collaboration was a free to claim avatar centered around the 2023 Super Bowl
Users could either pick an avatar representing the Eagles or the Chiefs
This year every football team is represented with 500 avatars for sale for $25
This sale has been live since September 6th and unfortunately most teams have yet to sell more than 50 avatars
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Casio Enters the Web3 Space with the G-Shock Creator Pass
Casio is taking a community centered approach when it comes to web3 and recently opened a Discord that is expected to serve as a hub for co-creative projects and other innovative experiences
To start, they will be releasing 15,000 free, Polygon based NFTs centered around their iconic G-Shock watch on Sept 24
And the community will have the opportunity to shape the ultimate aesthetic of the Pass
Casio will be holding community building activations in the Discord prior to mint with those who are most active and helpful receiving access to the mint
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Google to Allow Advertising of NFT Based Games
Building off of recent news of the Android App Store policy being rewritten to allow NFT’s, Google is now allowing NFT games to advertise on the search engine
However not every game will be able advertise:
Games centered around gambling or that involve staking an NFT will not be allowed to advertise on Google
Nevertheless this is still a big step from the blanket ban previously implemented by Google
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Adidas Launches Web3 Digital Artists Residency Program
Adidas has launched an artist residency program focused on emerging digital artists and the broader web3 ecosystem
The first artists featured are DearNostalgia and MONKEEMOTO
Adidas is sponsoring an immersive art gallery featuring both of these artists work in South Korea for the Korean Blockchain Week Conference
While some pieces will only be made available for attendees, others pieces on display will also be minted as limited and open edition NFTs available to all
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Justin Bieber Song Minted Into Royalty Sharing NFT
Justin Bieber’s 2015 song “Company” has been turned into a royalty sharing NFT
Fans are able to purchase a limited collection of 2000 NFTs and in turn receive a share of 1% of the songs streaming revenue going forward
It is important to note that Justin Bieber had nothing to do with this project
This project was created by the song’s producer with the royalties coming out of his percentage on the song
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Native Web3
Christie’s and MNTGE Team Up for Keith Haring Patches
Christie’s Auction House is auctioning off 5 digital paintings Keith Haring made in the 1980s
The paintings have been minted as NFTs and will hit the market this month with expected bids in the $250,000-$500,000 range
In addition, Christie’s has teamed up with web3 fashion company, MNTGE, to release a set of patches displaying the art work currently being auctioned
These patches all come equipped with an NFC chip that provides proof of ownership via the blockchain and are being sold at a more obtainable price of $39.99
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Macy’s Day Parade to Feature a Cool Cats Float
Cool Cats are set to join the iconic Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City
Cool Cats will be flying their flagship blue cat along side other iconic floats thanks to a competition they won many months ago
The collaboration will continue with Cool Cats putting out a limited edition merchandise line that will be available at 11 flagship Macy stores as well as on the Macy’s e-commerce site
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Pudgy Penguins Launches Clothing Line: Igloo
Pudgy Penguins have been on a roll lately, been dominating the physical space with their toy collection doing over $10M in sales per month
And with higher end figurines selling out within seconds on the NTWRK platform
Now the Penguins are wading into a new area of commerce: clothing
The clothing line “Igloo” has its own webpage separate from the Pudgy Penguin website
The website also offers no mention of NFT’s or the relationship between Igloo and Pudgy Penguins
The clothing line is available to everyone and owners of NFT’s do not receive discounts
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https://igloo.shop/
SEC Comes After NFT Collections
During the bull market an upcoming TV show called Stone Cats and a project called Founders Keys raised millions with NFT sales
Both collections promised future utility but more importantly promised buyers would profit after the initial purchase
The SEC is arguing that the sale violated the Unregistered Securities Act and is forcing the parent company to offer a full refund to purchasers in addition to significant fines
This enforcement has helped clear up confusion around NFT regulation:
Promising a return on an investment or promising utility without delivering seems to be the offenses the SEC has in its sights
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Binance to End Support for Polygon NFT’s
In a sudden move, the biggest crypto exchange in the world is winding down support of Polygon NFT’s due to “ongoing efforts to streamline product offerings”
While there may be a legitimate reason for ending support many consumers don’t think that’s the case
Binance has their own chain (BNB) on which they sell NFT’s,
The BNB chain has never picked up significant market share even though stars such as Messi exclusively put out digital offerings on the BNB chain
This has lead many to speculate that this move was done in retaliation and in an effort to support the BNB chain at the expense of Polygon
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Yuga Labs Unveils Cypher Centered Around Bitcoin Collection “Ordinals”
Yuga Labs’ “Ordinals” collection is having its first activation with 12 puzzles released over 12 weeks
To participate you need a specialized Bitcoin wallet that will allow users to send their guesses on the Bitcoin network via ‘inscription’
The first wallet to inscribe the right answer to the puzzle on the Bitcoin blockchain will receive a prize:
The first puzzle has already been solved with the winner receiving .12BTC (roughly $3000 USD as a prize)
You do not need to own an Ordinal in order to participate in this activation
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AI News
Epic Games to Allow AI assisted Games on their Platform
Recently, gaming giants Valve and Steam have made moves to ban all games that incorporate any AI technologies
Learning of this on Twitter the Epic Games CEO publicly tweeted that those developers should “Put it on the Epic Game Store. We don’t ban games for using new technologies”
While this split from the competition may seem drastic, it is not the first time
In 2021 Valve blocked all games that incorporated the blockchain, crypto, or NFT’s from releasing on their platform
In similar fashion Eric Reed tweeted out that those developers would have a home on the Epic Games platform.
While Epic may support AI and Blockchain game developers the company itself has not released any titles that incorporate either AI or blockchain technology
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Metaverse / Gaming
Diesel Teams Up with DressX and Meta
Diesel has teamed up with digital fashion company DressX to create a limited line of 10 Diesel digital looks that will be available for purchase and use on Meta Avatars:
Meta Avatars can be utilized across Facebook, Instagram and the Meta Quest VR platforms
Diesel has been open about their ongoing commitment to the emerging digital space, championing AR, NFTs and digital avatars
Just last Tuesday Diesel minted an NFT collection that doubled as tickets to their upcoming Milan fashion show
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Roblox Expanding to Meta Quest and Playstation
At the 2023 Roblox Developer conference the company confirmed that the platform will be expanding to MetaQuest, Playstation 4, and Playstation 5
With 65 million daily players, Roblox is already one of the most played games in the world
Roblox hopes the move will continue to grow the player base (and potentially add new demographics to it)
As of now the only major platform Roblox is not on is Nintendo Switch.
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Creator League Postponed Due to NFT Backlash
Esports tech firm “Efuse” planned to launch an activation they were calling “Creator League”
The concept is simple enough: 8 content creators face off against each other for big cash prizes across a variety of games and challenges
Fans will be able to buy a “Creator Pass” which will allow them to join the team of their favorite creator and play along side them
In addition to cash prizes being split among the creator and those who buy their pass they will also be able to vote on key factors in the tournament
However there has been severe backlash with many of the content creators pulling out due to the blockchain element in “The Creator Pass”
While the Creator Passes are not traditional NFT’s in that they can’t be sold or traded, the assocation with blockchain still riles up the gaming community
The Creator League has been indefinitely postponed and Efuse has had to lay off roughly 30% of their company following this fiasco
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Crypto
Telegram Set to Integrate a Self Custodial Crypto Wallet “TON”
Telegram, the popular private messaging app with over 800 million active monthly users has announced that it will be integrating a crypto custodial wallet from a third party app in November
The move makes sense as Telegram has become the go-to chatting application for crypto traders and investors
However the wallet will not be available in countries with unclear crypto regulations such as the US
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Mark Cuban looses 800k in wallet hack
Mark Cuban decided to reactivate his wallets after months of inactivity
Unfortunately he downloaded a fraudulent application pretending to be MetaMask and logged in using his real passwords
Once the hackers had his passwords they accessed his wallet and transferred roughly 870K worth of various assets
Web sleuths were quick to notice the unusual wallet activity and were able to get in contact with Mr. Cuban extremely fast leading to him being able to transfer out Polygon tokens as well as his NFTs
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Etherum Founder “Vitalik Buterin” has Twitter Hacked
On September 9th, Vitalik Buterin’s Twitter account tweeted out a link to a free NFT celebrating the latest upgrades to the Ethereum network to his nearly 5 million followers
Unfortunately this link lead to a wallet drainer and nearly $1M dollars of various assets were stolen
This hack was achieved through “Sim Swapping”, a social engineering tactic that grants the hacker access individual’s accounts by taking control of an individual’s phone number (via tricking the phone company) and resetting/accessing two factor authentication protocols to various accounts.
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Ark Invest files for Ethereum ETF
Cathy Woods, the financial wiz behind the Ark Invest platforms, has filled for her newest ETF
Ark previously was the first company to file for a Bitcoin ETF and now they are breaking similar ground becoming the first company to file for an Ethereum ETF
While the news is exciting, don’t expect the SEC to make a speedy decision as they have just delayed their decisions in the Bitcoin ETF application yet again
In the coming weeks it is quite likely that more companies will file for an Etherum ETF
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North Korea Suspected in Stake hack
Recently a popular crypto gambling site “Stake” was hacked for a whopping $41M and the FBI have named a suspect
According to the FBI the most likely culprit is the North Korean State hacking syndicate the “Lazarus Group”
The Lazarus Group has been a scourge on the crypto community, constantly targeting crypto companies and web3 games
A rough estimate has them responsible for 2 billion in stolen funds with 700M coming just from the Axie Infinity hack
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Crypto Exchange CEO Receives 11,000 Year Prison Sentence
In 2021 the biggest crypto exchange in Turkey “Thodex” collapsed, leaving 400,000 customers unable to access their Crypto holdings
After the collapse of the exchange the CEO went into hiding in Albania until he was found in late 2022 and put on trial
On September 8, 2023 the trial came to an end and the CEO Faruk Faith Ozer was charged with money laundering, running a criminal organization and fraud
Faruk was given an 11,000 year sentence as well as a 5 million dollar fine.
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MetaMask Announces New “Sell” Feature
MetaMask, the most popular browser extension crypto wallet in the world, has rolled out what may be their most useful feature yet: the ability to sell crypto holdings for Fiat currency
The Fiat currency can then be sent to a bank account or Paypal
Before this feature MetaMask users could swap cryptocurrencies for other cryptocurrencies but needed to send those currencies to platforms like Coinbase or Binance before being able to exchange them for fiat currencies
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