Web3 Roundup 9-5-2023
A roundup of activity in NFT, Metaverse, Gaming and AI
Brand Web3 Activity
Snoop Dogg and Sketchers
Snoop Dogg has released a collaboration with Sketchers where he leverages ownership of IP provided by owning a BAYC
While the collaboration contains colorways and designs celebrating Snoop Dogg and his career, one shoe that bears the image and design of Snoop’s Ape whom he calls “Dr. Bombay”
This follows their recent collaboration between Rebook and Gary Vee’s NFT collection VeeFriends
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Lufthansa Airlines Launches Polygon Based Loyalty Program
Lufthansa Airlines has launched a loyalty program called “uptrip” for its frequent flyers on the Polygon Blockchain
Like Starbucks, the program is a more gamified experience than traditional loyalty programs
uptrip gives customers collectable digital trading cards minted on Polygon
Once a set of cards is collected it can be turned in for free airline miles, flights, and access to airport lounges
The soft launch saw 20,000 people claim 200k digital trading cards, however Lufthansa’s traditional loyalty program has 36M members so there is plenty of room to grow
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Doodles and Crocs Team Up
Doodles and Crocs have collaborated to release an exclusive limited supply of Doodle themed Crocs
The Crocs also come with a random assortment of Jibbitz charms designed by original Doodle artist Burnt Toast
The collection was accessible a day earlier and at a discounted price for Doodle holders
There is also a digital component to this collaboration; buyers of the physical Crocs will receive a digital loot box with a random assortment of digital wearables that can be equipped for to your Doodle
The collaboration sold out just before the cut off and after it had hit public access
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LimeWire is Back
LimeWire, the popular music hosting site from the early 2000’s, has announced they are making a comeback as a web3 based company
LimeWire is now launching as a subscription platform for content creators and run exclusively using the $LMWR token
This model looks to be a cross between a creator driven streaming service like Twitch and the creator support app Patreon, but all on blockchain
Fans will have the ability to own content as NFT’s from their favorite creators under this model and may have monetization opportunity from this content in the future
Unsurprisingly, LimeWire sees a big opportunity for musicians in this space and has already inked two deals with record labels such as Republic Records
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Ralph Lauren Unveils Digital Store
Following in Lacoste’s footsteps, Ralph Lauren has recently unveiled a virtual storefront
However while Lacoste’s digital storefront was very tied to reality, Ralph Lauren has taken a bit of a more surreal and design focused approach
The digital storefront is called The 888 House and has been launched in support of the new RL 888 handbag line
Users can not only explore the digital storefront but also shop and directly check out while on the platform.
The 888 house can be accessed here: https://ralphlaurenvirtualstores.com/888-house/#/en_US
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Native Web3
Yuga’s Legends of the Mara Open Beta to Launch this Month
Yuga Labs is set to roll out another game following their success with Dookie Dash and HV-MTL
Users will get their first taste of Legends of Mara, a 2D based strategy game this month
All holders of Otherside Land Deeds will receive an new egg NFT when the beta launches
This egg will then evolve based on decisions players make within the game
The exact date of launch has not been revealed as of yet
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Earl Sweatshirt and Alchemist Release Album Exclusively on Gala Music
Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist have been teasing out their rumored collab album for years
However over the last several months the speculation hit a fever pitch as QR codes started appearing at all of Earl’s recent shows
Scanning the QR code would reveal a poster that was hosted on the Gala website
When it was finally confirmed that Gala Music would be exclusively streaming the album on their web3 music platform fans were surprised to realize that anyone who scanned a QR code at the recent shows had also inadvertently created a Gala Music account and wallet
Users with Gala Music accounts can stream the album for free
Fans are also invited to purchase songs off the album as NFT’s which can then be plugged into a Gala node giving the owner tokens based on how many streams that song receives.
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AI News
Midjourney Adds New Feature: “Inpainting”
MidJourney has announced a new feature on their popular text to image AI tool titled “Inpainting”
Inpainting allows users to isolate a specific segment of an AI generated image and further tweak that specific segment
For example: Say you generated a picture of a house but did not like the style of window on the house, this feature would let you isolate the windows and change them to your preference.
While this is a new feature for Midjourney, competing products have had this feature for some time
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Warner Music signs AI Assisted Digital Avatar
Warner Music recently offered a record deal to a digital character called Noonouri
Noonouri’s singing voice was created through an AI trained on several singers, however the track and lyrics were all written by humans.
There is precedent for success; in 2007 a digital character and voice software dubbed Hatsune Miku was released in Japan
Hatsune Miku soon sky rocketed to popularity, opening for Lady Gaga, getting remixes from the likes of Pharrell
Hatsune Miku then went on to be one of the most licensed characters ever appearing on a variety of merchandise and generating well over a billion dollars.
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Snapchat Rolls Out New AI Powered Feature
Snapchat has unveiled a new AI driven feature titled “Dreams” for their social media platform
Dreams will allows users to take a selfie and then augment that selfie with a “dream pack”
Dream packs are centered around themes such as back-to-school or doppelgängers
When selected, a “dream pack” will overlay over your original selfie creating a new image
The first dream packs are complimentary and then will cost $1 a pack going forward
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Metaverse / Gaming
Nikki Minaj Digital Human Arrives in COD
After seeing success with celebrity bundles (Neymar), Call of Duty is leaning into the absurd
But this provides one more example of the lucrative potential for ambassador digital humans
Blankos to Switch Focus to Mobile
Blankos was one of the first playable web3 games that incorporated NFT’s into gameplay
As such they garnered a lot of attention in the initial NFT craze as well as experiencing a similar loss of revenue and secondary trading of many projects in the industry
To combat the rough market conditions, Mythical Games CEO has announced that the game will now pivot and solely focus on development of an Android app for the future of the game
This move comes after Mythic Games, the publisher of Blankos, released an Android and desktop game titled NFL Rivals that quickly surpassed $1M spent on their NFT marketplace despite market conditions
Mythic Games seems to see mobile X web3 gaming as the current trajectory of the industry
Mythic Games raised $297M in early 2020 to create blockchain based games (only SoRare has raised more to develop web3 games)
Gala Games Launches Two Mobile Web3 games
Gala Games is following Mythical Games’ lead and doubling down on the intersection of mobile gaming and web3
They recently launched a turn based strategy game as well as more of a traditional multiplayer Poker game
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NFL Rivals Incorporates NFT’s for Their Android Based Mobile Game
NFL Rivals (also by Mythic Games) is allowing users to buy gameplay changing NFT’s directly off the Android app
Previously this feature was only available online on the Mythical Marketplace but Android has changed their stance on in-app NFT purchases
Interestingly users convert USD into an in game currency that then can be used to purchase the NFT, completely removing the crypto currency element
This is only available in the Android version as the Apple app store still has an unfriendly policy towards web3 mobile gaming
But expect to see more and more Android developers incorporating NFT’s into their games
NFL Rivals has amassed 2M downloads since its soft launch in April with its world wide launch planned just before the NFL season
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BlackPink Enters Roblox
Popular K-Pop girl group BlackPink have released their own experience on the Roblox platform
The experience is less a traditional game and more of a hub for fans of BlackPink
The experience will allow fans to experience exclusive content from the band, see digital spaces designed by the band, take pictures with the Band’s avatars, as well as be able to host their own BlackPink themed virtual parties
The experience currently has had 1.2M visits and a favorable rating from players
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Crypto
Tornado Cash Charged with Laundering $1B
Tornado Cash is a service that aims to give more privacy on the blockchain by allowing users to conceal transactions across a wide range of crypto currencies
While there are plenty of valid reasons to want privacy in crypto, Tornado Cash soon became the go to platform for scammers and hackers to hide and eventually cash out their illicit gotten gains
Most famously the platform was utilized by the notorious North Korean hacking syndicate The Lazurus Group to help launder their $700M hack of Axie Infinity.
The SEC has now charged the platform developers with laundering and one act to commit conspiracy to violate the International Economic Emergency Powers Act
Both charges carry a 20 year sentence.
These charges have created an uproar from the crypto community as the developers themselves never laundered any money, it was their platform that was used in illicit way
Many argue that the developers had no control as to how third parties used their platform after launch
The SEC does not agree with this view with one developer currently being in custody and the other currently at large
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Twitter (X) to Potentially Integrate Crypto
Internet sleuths have uncovered that on August 28 X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, acquired a Rhode Island currency transmitter license which allows the company to store, transfer, and exchange digital assets on the platform
While no concrete announcements have been made, the platform has become more and more crypto and creator friendly since Musk acquired the company
X already allows content creators to be tipped in bitcoin, and recently they have rolled out their content monetization feature
Elon Musk has stated that he wants X to become an ‘everything app’ akin to WeChat (in China)
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SEC Takes Another L
In another victory for crypto adoption in the US, Grayscale won their appeal against the SEC
Major financial institutions like BlackRock and Fidelity are applying to launch Bitcoin based ETFs in midst of a lawsuit over the same thing (SEC vs. Grayscale)
“The judge told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that its denial of crypto asset manager Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETF application would have to be reviewed.”
And the Federal appeals court said the SEC failed to provide a coherent explanation for its denial
Article links:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/grayscale-victory-sec-delays-decision-on-bitcoin-etfs-law-decoded