There is an important connection between Gaming and the Metaverse. Video games are often derided as a waste of time, but when you take a step back and look at the connection between gaming and NFTs, we have much to thank gamers for.
If not for the millions of people spending their money within digital gaming worlds, from Grand Theft Auto V to Fortnite and everything in between, we would have no frame of reference for purely digital assets holding real-world tradable value.
Similar to the gaming universe, different corners of the metaverse are being built using artistry, graphic design, and 3D rendering to create digital playgrounds that are often just as immersive as real life.
The gaming universe is evolving into the metaverse, with games like Gods Unchained and Upland as examples of true hybrids of the two – allowing players to create real-world wealth through their in-game economies.
“You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.” – Maya Angelou
One could view the metaverse as the lovechild of gaming and cryptocurrency, where people can now create and own a customized digital space on the secure foundation of the blockchain. The micro-economies that support new worlds like Decentraland or Cryptovoxelsare only beginning to take hold, but the cost of owning land or custom items is a hurdle for many newcomers. According to Michael Bouhanna, head of sales at Sotheby’s:
“We see spaces like Decentraland as the next frontier for digital art where artists, collectors and viewers alike can engage with one another from anywhere in the world and showcase art that is fundamentally scarce and unique, but accessible to anyone for viewing,”
NFTs are an important aspect of the expansive digital space known as the metaverse – they are the artwork on your digital walls, the shoes on your digital feet or even the keys to your digital vehicle or home.
With Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) taking both video games and digital art to an entirely new level of immersion, the connection to gaming becomes even more apparent.
People engage with the digital world for the escape and security provided by the programmed yet unpredictable spaces that pop up. With artistry and 3D rendering comes important literature necessary to tell a story that ties everything together. According to Anand Venkateswaran, aka Twobadour, who runs the Metapurse fund:
“The current Cambrian explosion of NFTs that you see is all about acquisition – people want to buy up NFTs, gobble as many of them as they can, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. The real explosion will happen when they’re able to … experience these NFTs as they were intended. If it’s a plot of virtual land, you ought to move around in it, have an immersive experience in it.”
To understand why NFTs in their digital art use-case are exploding, you don’t have to look any further than the gaming industry. And just like a good video game tells a compelling story, a good NFT should create an emotional connection and tell its own story that pulls in the collector.
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The Shitcoin conference was just held in Miami on June 3rd and 4th, just down the road from this year’s largest crypto event, the Bitcoin conference. According to the Shitcoin conference website, “Shitcoin 2021 is dedicated to all the companies that got turned away from participating in one of the largest crypto events.” the event slogan is “because F*ck Maximalism,” and I agree!
The event was masterminded by Kenn Bosak, a Bitcoiner since 2015. Bosak has traveled around the world attending over 200 Blockchain conferences, also happens to be one of the most well known NFT creators and influencers in the Wax blockchain ecosystem. Kenn is great at creating an engaged and loyal community. I have seen first hand his generosity and commitment to his community and in helping others get into the NFT space. He was actually one of the influencers who made me fall in love with what I saw going on in the Wax NFT community.
One of the key takeaways I received from Kenn was that there is a shift taking place right now. Especially within the creative spaces wherein NFT creators and companies need to transition from acquiring customers to creating communities. This is all made more possible via the use of non-fungible tokens. The wild, free and open vibe of the Shitcoin conference was evident as soon as you walked in the door. While I did not attend the Bitcoin conference for several reasons, the main one being that I am not a maximalist and personally believe that attitude to be completely anti-innovation, I did run into some incredible characters that I connected with who did attend the Bitcoin conference. One of them goes by the name @hyperspek who had this to say about the Bitcoin conference: “The Bitcoin maxis really seemed to have blinders to the future of blockchain innovation. Understandable for some who still have PTSD from getting rekt last cycle. As they try to adapt an “old” technology not really designed for these applications, they will get left for dead by what is happening on ETH and other platforms.”
Hyperspek is an investor and NFT collector who also happens to be a virtual gallery builder. He showed me his gallery in Crypto Voxels and it was amazing, he likes to make art with other art and is quite good at doing so! His attention to details and his creativity was impressive. You can check out his awesome collection and gallery here
Hyperspek.io
To me personally, being a Bitcoin maximalist is like saying “I like airplanes and what they allow, but not helicopters, planes without props or jet engines. This kind of thinking is nonsensical and will not pass muster in the grand scheme of technological innovation. There will be many protocols, many will fail, but innovation and experimentation will dictate what survives. The stark contrast of the Shitcoin conference and crowd was much more open to new ideas, fun, and was largely centered around NFTS. The atmosphere was younger, less refined, more tolerant, and brimming with excitement for the future of NFTs and blockchain technology. It seems quite evident that there will be another event next year because the demand from the community is definitely there. Next year’s event will almost certainly be a few blocks away from the next Bitcoin conference as a statement against the very term “Shitcoin.” Meant to encompass everything that is not Bitcoin, to include non-fungible tokens, and create something which the community can embrace and own.
Photo by Dynamic Eye Studios
The lineup of speakers at this year’s Shitcoin conference can be seen here, and I am sure next year’s event will improve on this. Some interesting concepts that were discussed while I attended were: the fractionalized ownership of assets by blockcities, regenerative farming, and how blockchain can play a role during the Blockchain for Impact panel. In this particular talk, Irina Litchfield, founder of Blockchain -Cubed, a blockchain technology consulting firm and adviser for Prochain Capital, discussed some innovative solutions.
From Crypto hedge fund managers to NFT artists, defi protocol developers to musicians, comedians to filmmakers. The diversity represented within this year’s Shitcoin conference is more reflective in my opinion of what the future of NFTs and blockchain looks like. In all fairness, I do believe that an overwhelming majority of the crypto community are not in the cult of Bitcoin maximalist and do support innovation and advancement within this space.
Photo by Dynamic Eye Studios
Photo by Albert Polanco
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At 1 pm on June 8th, 2021, TechCrunch Founder Michael Arrington listed his Kyiv Apartment for sale through Propy, marking what will hopefully be the world’s first NFT Real Estate Sale. Arrington is using Propy’s protocol for the transfer of full ownership rights with each trade of the NFT. Despite taking place in Eastern Europe, This framework is based on US legislation and thus will hopefully lead to promoting real estate NFTs amongst US-based real estate firms at scale. While this headline is still a first, this is not Arrington’s first time processing a real estate transaction on the blockchain. In fact, Arrington purchased his Ukraine apartment back in 2017 with Ethereum, also through Propy. A few years later, Propy will be taking the helm on auctioning the same property, but this time as a real estate-backed NFT. Though it will probably spark a bidding war, the starting price is only 8 ETH or just under $20,000 USD as of today.
One of the many interesting aspects of this potential sale has to do with an analogy that has been made in the space frequently over the past few months. Comparing NFTs or Smart Contracts to the deed of a house. This project takes this a step further by actually finding a way to officially and legally mint this property as an NFT. According to Propy:
“In the current legal environment, title deeds cannot be directly represented by a token, but legal entities can. The apartment is owned by a Delaware Limited Liability Company (LLC). The LLC is ‘tokenized into’ a specific NFT and made available for purchase.”
So now that it’s live, how will this bidding process work? Now that the seller has signed the proprietary legal paperwork for the NFTs, the bidding has officially begun and bidders’ names are being aggregated by Propy. According to their site, once the final bid is accepted, the transaction should be able to be processed and accepted “within a minute.” This extremely quick timeframe alone should be attractive to many used to typical lengthy wait times within the real estate space. This will hopefully act as a new prime example and real-world use case for how NFTs can go so far beyond simply a buzzword, but that smart-contract technology, in the form of NFTs, really can be used to tokenize or certify anything. What other financial process can transact even $20,000 USD within one minute? Unless you are very friendly with a private banker, most traditional institutions would make processing a transaction of this size intentionally difficult in order to dissuade customers from withdrawing sizable portions of funds.
However, Michael Arrington seems to be of the mindset that no matter how large the purchase, doing so through a blockchain, and furthermore an NFT, is a clear evolution of the process. Not only is the transaction completed within a minute, but you have a virtual unfalsifiable certificate that you effectively can’t physically lose. To Arlington, from the outside, this seems extremely logical. And many leading voices within the space agree. According to Investor Tim Draper: “I am excited about how NFTs in the virtual world are going to be applied to real estate in the physical world. I suspect that people will soon be able to buy a building, buy the air rights and buy the virtual rights of any physical space. The future is awesome.” (I absolutely agree).
On top of the home itself, the sale will come along with An NFT Art Piece hanging on a wall as well as a printed cyberpunk picture as unlockable content. Furthermore, of course, the sale will also come along with access to ownership-specific transferred paperwork, the apartment picture, and a unique NFT by a popular Kyiv graffiti artist, Chizz. There is also a physical painting of the digital artwork which is painted on a wall of the apartment.
Interested in seeing this for yourself? Check out the project landing page here, and if you feel the urge to be a part of history, the bidding is still quite low considering!
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Arguably the biggest artist in the NFT space and digital art world as a whole, @beeple/ Michael Winkelmann lit Twitter and the Metaverse afire recently when he joined the Meebits army and launched a broadside attack on @danny_p3d/ Daniel Poschinger and the simians from the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Retaliation was swift and brutal with @youngandsick bringing home a Meebits skull as a trophy before cooler heads prevailed and the fighters hugged it out.
At this point you’re probably wondering wtf I’m talking about, wtf is a Meebit and wtf is The Bored Ape Yacht Club. In the wake of such hugely profitable collectable projects such as Cryptopunks and Crypto Kitties, it was only a matter of time before similar projects and innovations would begin popping up. From bitmap art, to 2D, to 3D art, creators have been searching for the next big thing and how to monetize it.
LarvaLabs, the creators of the Cryptopunks, recently released the Meebits. Unlike their Cryptopunks, which only included 10,000 NFT’s in the collection of algorithmically generated 2D art, the Meebits consist of 20,000 3D voxels characters that owners can use as their avatars in the metaverse. They also have the option to load their Meebits into almost any standard 3D modeling software, and animate their collectables as they see fit. There is also a trustless marketplace built into the smart contract allowing trades of up to 100 Meebits per transaction.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a project of 10,000 cartoon ape NFT’s programmatically generated and stored as ERC721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Released around the same time as the Meebits, BAYC exploded on the scene during the peak of the NFT boom last month, in early May 2021 with countless remixes and derivative pieces stemming from popular digital artists floating around the interwebs. Bored Ape #8023 recently sold for 49.99 ETH, or more than $132,000 at the time, and the Bored Ape Remix has built an Ape-arel line around the property selling T-shirts, hats and accessories. One stand out artist is Daniel Poschinger @danny_p3d who’s 3D renders have been pushing the already hot secondary market into new territory.
Enter @beeple, the level of attention that an artist of his stature brings to these projects can’t be overstated or accurately quantified but for people whose first exposure to either the Meebits or the Bored Ape Yacht Club was through the first of what may prove to be countless digital skirmishes between two distinct camps of crypto enthusiasts. This serves as a window into a world where creatives are pushing the boundaries of collectibles, monetization, and community building. Hype aside, the popularity and variety of artists associated with these two projects bodes well for their financial viability, and the health of the NFT marketplace overall. I for one can’t wait to see what happens next.
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It was a first for me, DiscoWarlock (Disco) is one of the first to mint a full-fledged video game as a collectible NFT. His latest creation Synthcity Streets — a 2D side-scrolling retro style game — is certainly creating some buzz across Hic et Nunc (H=N) where all 4 editions sold out quickly. The lowest price now sits at 75 tez (~$270) for a Standard edition, with Deluxe, Collectors and Legendary editions going for substantially more.
The initial prices for the Standard editions started at 5 tez, Deluxe at 15 tez, Collectors at 25 tez, and the Legendary gold edition for 100 tez. Each edition above Standard came with its own bonus. Deluxe buyers obtained an alternate skin for the main character Felix, Collectors got a bonus level as well as the alternate skin, and Legendary collectors got all of the above plus the opportunity to work with Disco directly to make themselves a boss in an upcoming episode. Disco also has plans to turn one of his biggest collectors into a playable character for users in a future episode.
According to Disco, he was inspired by the 1993 Sega classic Streets of Rage. As an ode to the classic 2D side-scrolling games of my youth, this experience teleported me back to 1990, playing Double Dragon on my Nintendo. And the way the NFTs are presented as different types of handheld gaming devices fits the retro vibe of the game while offering collectors a beautiful way to display their NFT.
“The NFT space has so many stories to tell, why not gamify it?” asks Disco. The story behind Synthcity Streets weaves in the legendary CryptoPunks by reimagining “crypto punks” as a crime syndicate that has taken over Synthcity and forced residents to bend to their will. While the narrative is still evolving, it captures some of the zeitgeist of the metaverse while delivering a heavy dose of nostalgia.
“Since I entered the [NFT] space back in October, I knew I wanted to make a game and really push the limits,” says Disco. “After shifting from ETH to Tezos, I found out that H=N had html uploads and this just blew the doors open for me. Being a game developer, the only limit was the 40mb file size. I knew I wanted to create a 2D game and with Streets of Rage being a big part of my early childhood, I used it as my main source of inspiration.”
Hic et Nunc and the Tezos “clean NFT” movement have created a kind of counterculture within the NFT scene that many artists are embracing. It turns out that their platform is also uniquely suited for html-based content which can offer collectors a new level of virtual experiences. Disco’s first foray into offering a virtual world as an NFT was his tribute to @jjjjjjjjjjohn’s artistic window NFTs, where he gives visitors a window that they can explore and interact with. “I spent about 14 hours putting it together and was blown away by the feedback, then the next day I began creating Synthcity Streets and 3 weeks later, here we are.” DiscoWarlock is a true gamer at heart, it’s clear that this creation was born out of his passion for game developing, and he has big ambitions for the future. He created this innovative NFT using the WebGL build option in Unity to publish his game as JavaScript.
“When I first started working on Synthcity Streets, I knew I wanted to make more. I sketch a lot of my storyboards and game flow before I go digital, so right now I have about 7 episodes cooked up but this could change, as I really want to be community oriented,” he says. “I plan to keep on innovating and keep developing NFT games, with the hope that one day I am creating the World of Warcraft of the NFT world.”
With just over 2 years of professional game development under his belt, Disco has a bright future ahead of him and his NFTs will be ones to watch out for as he continues the story of Synthcity Streets while delivering other new creations.
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On June 2nd, this past Tuesday, a virtual art show took place in parallel with a number of events happening in Miami this week. What set this show apart from most of the physical events happening across Bitcoin Conference Miami, Shitcoin 2021, and a number of NTFS.tips events – this show was presented entirely virtually. Curated by Trish Reda, as per the commission of JenJoy Roybal of Ntfs.tips curation team, this show featured over two dozen diverse photographers and image-makers from around the world. Displayed in a virtual world constructed by the talented Roger Kenny, called “Road Gallery,” the space evoked a midnight drive across a desert. Except, in which, either side of the road was featuring beautiful billboard-sized renderings of photographic NFTs. The experience is truly unique, as one enters the space, you feel the need to speed up and get through the show. However, the user’s character moves slowly with intentionality, lingering on each piece in order to give it the time and appreciation that it deserves. As the viewer moves through a star-lit desert vista, new pieces of art emerge in the distance, each one entirely unique and striking in and of itself.
And the STILL photography show is up and going. There are two of them, linked here and below. I want to thank @RogerWallstreet for all of his hard work. I threw him a few curve balls for sure. Join us at 1pm PST in Clubhouse to meet the photographers. https://t.co/Ww5PakUG2F
The show featured a healthy mix of established voices and exciting new talent. Including staples in the NFT photography space such as Matthew Neubauer, Sean Bonner, and John Knopf (the current highest-selling photographer in the NFT space). At the same time, featuring a number of fresh/up-and-coming voices, handpicked by Reda herself, including Raven “50mm,” Dariush Raad, Amat Toussaint, and many others. This diverse and decentralized blend of talent from all over the world spans a vast array of practices and styles within the confines of photographic work. From analogue to digital, unprocessed to heavily manipulated, traditional images to animated ones. This virtual art show displayed the near full palette of options that have been made available to photographers active in the space today. In fact, the cavalcade of styles and processes exhibited in such a new-age format gave the show quite a futuristic feel. Though this could simply be my personal bias as I, the writer, was one of the artists featured and this was my personal first ever purely digital gallery exhibition.
Screen Capture by: @shakenbakespear ft image by @nft_ish
However, my own involvement aside, there are three key aspects I’d like to take away from this experience as a viewer. 1) The virtual space that this was held in was, and is, constructed beautifully. If you haven’t yet – please make sure to click the first embedded tweet and follow the link directly to the show. It’s a custom gallery created in Mozilla hubs, and while it may not be the most realistic virtual experience I have ever had, it was definitely one of the most visually appealing. 2) The diversity and range in artists from all different styles and backgrounds all within the confines of one specific medium were extremely encouraging. In a time where companies and individuals alike find excuses for lacking diversity on a daily basis – Trish Reda came into this space as a fresh curator and, intentionally or not, truly acted as a champion of diversity and representation. From representing artists all over the world to a healthy mix of race and gender expressions to purposefully highlighting several queer artists (such as my partner and myself) in celebration of Pride Month – Trish truly went above and beyond. 3) Finally, just because I’m so impressed, I need to mention the time frame. Trish reached out to me only 5 days before the exhibit. So, in a matter of about a week, Trish Reda was able to coordinate with over two dozen artists and promote an extremely well-received event and corresponding clubhouse room. While I’m not surprised, as both Trish and the NTFS.tips team are absolute powerhouses, I am nonetheless extremely impressed. Most established galleries would struggle to do the same and Trish, more or less independently, pulled off the impossible in just one week!
A wholehearted BRAVA to Trish and all of the artists involved!
Screen Capture by: @shakenbakespear ft image by @lindseybyrnes
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The gaming retailer that took over the news media during its recent Wall Street bets fiasco, that saw major hedge funds short its stock after being squeezed by retail investors on reddit, is now doing exactly what I had hoped they would.
They have quietly revealed that they are currently working on a new non-fungible token (NFT) platform.
Super excited & honoured to be part this chapter of @GameStop – building our blockchain division.
— Matt FinΞstonΞ | 3body.eth (@finestonematt) May 25, 2021
The ‘reveal page’ is cryptic, but there are a number of details that can already be seen. For instance, we know that they are currently assembling a team “We welcome exceptional engineers (solidity, react, python), designers, gamers, marketers, and community leaders. If you want to join our team, send your profile or something you’ve built to: nfteam@gamestop.com.”
There is also a smart contract address that you can look at on etherscan, that hints at additional details. Most notably, the contract suggests that GameStop NFTs will use Ethereum’s ERC-721 non-fungible token standard with further evidence of a GME token implementation.
Details around this project are in stealth mode, however we are seeing activity on Twitter where some additional insights can already be gleaned.
This project is exciting to me personally, as I remember during the Wallstreet Bets fiasco the level of energy and excitement in GameStop as a company, and what they could potentially do to reinvigorate their brand. With new energy and capital being raised on the backs of Hedge funds, the sky’s the limit. I had only wished I had the opportunity to present to someone at GameStop myself. I would share that they should get into NFTs ASAP, and incorporate non-fungible technology into their mainstream gaming ecosystem.
A GameStop NFT Platform is in the Works
I thought that being able to resell old games, one of GameStops’ main revenue streams, would benefit greatly from being on the blockchain. Allowing game developers to continue to receive royalties from secondary sales which could create increased longevity for development studios. I immediately saw so many potential applications and possibilities. GameStop with this kind of new capital, being pointed toward the Blockchain and Non-fungible token technology, could be revolutionary for the entire crypto ecosystem. Fast forward to May 2021, and it seems as if GameStop has figured it all out without me. Maybe I should have minted a non-fungible token with my idea at the time to prove I had these ideas about NFTs and GameStop first. The underdog energy that fuels the ‘Wall Street Bets’ movement paired with the incredibly passionate gaming community and the fanatics of crypto culture is a clear recipe for explosive growth in my opinion. I am very interested in seeing how this team begins to form up, and what additional details we can discover in regards to what GameStop has up its sleeves. In the meantime, I would expect a new injection of hype and interest all over the interwebs around a GameStop NFT entry. GameStonks NFTs here we come!
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Over the last couple of months I’ve been interviewing leading NFT innovators past and present on their personal stories, perspectives, hopes and fears for the future of the space. The plan is to weave these together into a single audio documentary to explore the history of NFTs, its key moments, meta narratives and the people that drive them to be included in The WTF Genesis Bundle as NFT audio files. However, many of these stories are so inspirational and thought provoking we thought we would release a handful each week in the build up to the drop as standalone 20min+ podcast episodes on the leading platforms below.
To get you started we’ve uploaded a handful of some of the best ones to give you a taster of the diverse spectrum of topic and guest we’ve captured from OGs to newcomers, founders to artists and collectors.
Matt Hall is the Co-Founder of Larva Labs, a creative technologist working with web, mobile and the blockchain, co-creator of CryptoPunks and AutoGlyphs, Matt has been at the forefront of the NFT boom, while continuing to work to make the space progress further on-chain.
He joins the Genesis NFT podcast to talk to Jamie Burke of NFTs.WTF, on what brought him into the crypto space, creating one of the headline acts of NFTs, and his hopes for where we’ll see the technology go, into the future.
Marguerite deCourcelle, better known as Coin_Artist, is an NFT Wizard, inventor of Cryptopuzzles, a Game Designer, and Artist. She’s also the CEO of Blockade Games & Neon District RPG, a cyberpunk role-playing adventure game leveraging decentralized technology.
She joins the Genesis NFT podcast to talk to Jamie Burke of NFTs.WTF, on being in CryptoArt from 2014, and Bitcoin from 2012 – an early adopter in the space, and a renowned entrepreneur, we look at her belief in the future of NFT technology.
Axies, NFTs & Play-to-Earn 2.0 with Gabby Dizon Gabby Dizon, builds and invests in NFTs, play-to-earn and the Metaverse. He’s the Co-founder of Yield Guild and Altitude Games, Co-owner of the Narra Gallery and invests through the Nifty Fund.
He joins the Genesis NFT podcast to talk to Jamie Burke of NFTs.WTF, on being one of the early adopters, and entrepreneurs, driving NFTs forward.
Angie Taylor is a Cryptoartist focusing on VR & Naïve-art, she is the Women of Crypto Art Co-founder, and an LGBTQ+ activist.
Angie joins the Genesis NFT podcast to talk to Jamie Burke of NFTs.WTF, on being one of the pioneers of CryptoArt and NFTs – using her work, and acclaim, to drive the Open Metaverse forward, both culturally and socially.
ROBNESS is a CryptoArt OG, beginning his journey in 2016. He’s the creator of the #TRASHART movement, and the controversial ’64 Gallon Toter’.
He joins the Genesis NFT podcast to talk to Jamie Burke of NFTs.WTF, on being the $TRSH Lord, and helping start the NFT craze, alongside meme creators, and internet dwellers.
Channel Bio
A Metaverse of digital scarcity comes with a cacophony of noise, copycats, spam, and countless celebrity drops. Genesis NFT is a NFTs.WTF series hosted by 100xARt Founder Jamie Burke, platforming the often unheard entrepreneurs, collectors and artists that have brought NFTs to the main stage.
Artwork by Bryan Brinkman
Produced by Roland Spencer
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Sotheby’s, is one of the world’s oldest and most trusted auction houses for art. Established in 1744, the Sotheby brand has a long standing reputation within the physical art world, and are now turning their attention to the rapidly growing digital art scene. For many in the crypto art world of non-fungible tokens, there is a mixed sense that these large legacy art establishments are at odds with the new NFT renaissance. The technology that underpins non-fungible tokens, removes the need for trusted third parties, like auction houses to facilitate the sale of digital art. With Christie’s recent Cryptopunk NFT auction going for over $16.9 million dollars and Beeple’s $69 million auction Sotheby’s is throwing their hat into the digital NFT ring, despite the criticisms that crypto twitter has lobbied at Christies and how they handled the latest NFT auction. Sotheby’s is attempting to bridge the gap between the old world and the new one, in a way that is inclusive of the NFT community.
How NFT artists can participate
From now until May 20th 2021 at 12:00 pm ET they are accepting nominations from the community for inclusion into the Natively Digital Online Auction. This curated NFT sale will take place from June 3-10 2021 as an online auction.
The official twitter post and rules can be seen here below.
From now until May 20 at 12:00pm ET, nominate your favorite artist (or yourself!)
1. Reply to this tweet and tag the artist 2. Link or attach one of your favorite artworks from them 3. Follow Sotheby’s 4. Use the hashtag #NativelyDigital
When the submission period ends, we will look at who the community has submitted the most and reach out to the artist to discuss and confirm their participation.
The collection of artists already being showcased includes some of the earliest NFTs that predate even the Ethereum blockchain, alongside newer works that demonstrate the more advanced technical innovations enabled by NFTs. Robert Alice, a London based artist and trailblazer in the crypto art and NFT space is co-curating this collection along with other partners spanning the art and technology ecosystem.
To the Young Artists of Cyberspace by Robert Alice x Alethea AI
Some notable partners in this collection include the non profit Sevens Foundation, which is dedicated to elevating artists.
The Mint Foundation, which helps international creators mint their first digital art NFTs and has already had over 33 Ether donated to provide gas fees for artists.
The Regen Network that is working to align economics with ecology, to reverse climate change.
If you are reading this before May 20th 2021, then you too, could possibly be included.
Be sure to check out the official rules posted on Twitter that are embedded at the top of this article.
Looking to the Future
Needless to say there are some very well known names and prolific creators taking part in this Digital Native NFT Sotheby’s collection. It will be exciting to see who else from the community gets nominated to join, as there is already a flurry of interesting names being mentioned all over Twitter. Taking into account the current volatility of the crypto markets, time will tell how well Sotheby’s will execute this online auction in terms of total sales. The real aspect to watch is, how well the old art establishment can build this new digital bridge into the NFT and crypto art world. Soethebys will be sure to draw mainstream media attention and lend additional credibility to digital art and NFTs in general, for the physical art collector community. Sotheby’s CEO, Charles Stewart was asked about the future of the art market and non-fungible token technology stating “This potentially has implications for physical art as well as digital art.” Many in the NFT and blockchain community have been saying this for years now, and it must feel like validation for the pioneers who have been blazing the non-fungible trail.
Sotheby’s NFT auction, will inevitably lead to further mainstream adoption and growth for this rapidly evolving and promising technology.
Shift by Fvckrender
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For many of us, NFTs are a side hustle. But there’s a growing number of people who now work full-time in NFTs. Many of the artists and musicians who have hit the headlines are household names, but this series digs deep to find some of the lesser-known faces building out the ecosystem behind the scenes.
Today we’re talking to NFT collector Holly Atkinson, Head of Metaverse Technology at Boson Protocol, an organization that recently raised $36 million to createan open tokenized economy for commerce by automating digital-to-physical redemptions using NFTs encoded with game theory.
What do you do every day, Holly?
I’m Head of Metaverse Technology at Boson, where I lead a team of developers focused on NFT art & gaming integrations, as well as pilot programs and partnerships. Right now we’re focused on delivering Boson’s flagship project – MetaMall – demonstrating our core protocol and its underlying mechanism backed by game theory, enabling trust-minimized digital-to-physical redemptions.
How did you get into programming cool stuff like this?
I have a background in science and commercial roles but decided to pivot into tech in 2018, so I joined a coding boot camp and did a lot of self-teaching about blockchain. I was in London at the time so I was able to immerse myself in the Ethereum space, where I met a lot of amazing, wonderful and kind people through workshops, meetups and blockchain groups. I landed my first official full-time developer job in 2019, at a blockchain company, and from there became a Blockchain Developer at The Sandbox. I started consulting for Boson Protocol in late 2020 and subsequently joined the team on a permanent basis in April this year.
You joined The Sandbox in early 2020. By today’s standards, you’re almost an NFT OG. What excites you about the space?
NFTs are currently underutilized in terms of their functionality, so there is huge energy and innovation in the space. Boson is a great example of doing something new in terms of linking NFTs to transfers of physical assets using game theory and behavioral economics, so this opens up a whole new world of possibilities in the context of digital-to-physical transactions. I love that I have the opportunity now to work with pioneers in crypto, including people whom I’ve admired for a long time!
Linking physical items with DeFi is an area that I think we in the NFT space have yet to explore fully, and this composability is an area that I would love to delve further into. The whole decentralized stack, especially in relation to eCommerce, is so exciting because there are so many things that we don’t know about how the space will evolve.
I really enjoy experimenting: my colleagues Ludo, Nassar and I recently teamed up to enter ETHGlobal’s NFTHack hackathon, and our idea for gifting NFTs linked to physical items (which we called BosonPool) was one of the final Top 10.
So give us an example in the real world of where this could be useful?
Imagine you are in a virtual world like Decentraland or The Sandbox and you are wandering around shops and art galleries, window-shopping. By using Boson’s “commitment tokens”, you would be able to buy physical items in the game itself, having a high level of confidence that you would receive the item’s physical counterpart in excellent condition, with no need for a central intermediary.
Overall, one of the things I’m most excited about is the way that these virtual worlds and new companies are creating new functionality and new business models that are truly empowering creators and users by inventing new revenue streams.
Click to View NFT on OpenSea
Are you a collector yourself?
Absolutely! I love the art side. I spend a lot of time on KnownOrigin, where I follow a really cool group of women crypto-artists (Women of crypto art), among others. I’ve purchased a number of NFTs through KnownOrigin, as well as on Rarible, OpenSea and The Sandbox, of course.
One of the artists I really like is Cryptonatrix, who created the awesome artwork shown above. She recently wrote an opinion piece in The Defiant called “Destigmatizing the Blockchain: Sex Workers in NFT CryptoArt” which raised some very interesting and nuanced points about freedom and boundaries in crypto art and tokenization.
I bought one of her NFTs, called Eat The Rich, which you can see here. Encouraging women to enter the ecosystem and investing in projects led by women are things that I’m really passionate about: I’m a member of a DAO called Meta Gamma Delta, a community which funds and champions women-led initiatives.
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We often hear the refrain, on Twitter and elsewhere, “We need more women in cryptoart!” or “Why aren’t there more women in NFTs?” and while well meaning statements and questions, the answer underlies an issue with farther reaching consequences.
The response, of course, is: “We are here.”
That same answer is also true for other ‘under-represented’ groups that people deserve to hear more about. More diversity would be good, and anything that we can do to encourage more diversity in the people joining the NFT community the stronger that community will be – and the more resilient it will become as a result.
One possible view is that these groups are just not being seen and we can begin to ask ourselves why that is. So let’s pick apart both the question and the answer. Let’s go deeper and look at both what the question assumes, (there aren’t any, or not enough, already) and what the answer presents as a challenge.
So, the first question to ask is: is it genuine? I believe in most cases it is. Most of the people I see asking this question genuinely believe that there aren’t many women in cryptoart already. So kudos to them for speaking up and wanting to try to address the issue as they see it.
There are lots of things that can be done to raise visibility of a diverse range of artists and artworks. But there are other things we can also do that allows this diversity to be seen. We can make the community feel less overwhelming and less intimidating to newcomers. That in itself is a monumental feat that goes well beyond just the NFT community to the crypto community as a whole. Signposting relevant and useful information is another easy to do step which can assist people in finding each other.
Being welcoming and helping people to navigate the volume of information is also key. Helping people find their community within the community is a key part of helping people navigate. NFTs.WTF can help in this regard by being that signpost to information that will help people find what they need and find the community they are looking for.
That, then, brings us to the larger question of “Why do people believe the NFT space is *not* diverse?”
One answer is that social media is structured in such a way that it creates bubbles, and you just don’t easily see anything outside of your bubble, unless you actively seek it out. An interesting tool I found that analyses your Twitter for gender diversity, for example, is Proporti.onl
Img by Angie Taylor: https://angietaylor.co.uk/portfolio/
Another way to look at it is through the lens of what gets promoted – not just by the artists themselves – but by the platforms, podcasts, projects, and other campaigns in and around NFTs. Who are they searching for, finding, and promoting to their audiences? This would be a great data analysis project if anyone was interested in digging deeper into this. I think it would reveal some interesting discoveries. I’d love to see the actual data.
Another issue that affects visibility is language. The entire social media ecosystem is delivered in English. This means that anyone who doesn’t use English as a native language is immediately at a disadvantage in terms of communicating their ideas and being understood. Not only this, some attitudes towards non-English speakers can be patronizing, impatient and, at times, cruel. This makes people feel insecure and frightened to speak up for fear of being bullied or ridiculed.
Online translation services and AI advancements can help in the translation of articles from one language to another. Real-time translation tools are being developed as we speak. We, as digital pioneers should be at the forefront of these advancements in communication. Lets utilize what’s available to really open up discussions and make this a truly global movement.
NFTs.WTF itself has made a decision – and has already begun to take steps towards this, as it is a core belief of the project – to ensure that all voices are presented and given equal ‘visibility’ within the publication. I am certain that reflecting the actual diversity of NFTs – not just from a gender, sexual orientation, color, or religion aspect – but most importantly in the actual diversity of viewpoints within the community of NFT creators, collectors, and platforms will be one of the key strengths that ensures this project stands out. The structure put in place for NFTs.WTF ensures that it is not just one person’s viewpoint, it is not just one voice, but many.
Going deeper, I think we can find evidence of structural issues that have carried over from the ‘old world’ of brick and mortar (so called “meat space”) dynamics that are built into this new system, regardless of the initial intentions of those who built the ecosystem we are now all a part of.
Img by Angie Taylor: https://angietaylor.co.uk/portfolio/
For me, that leads to the question of “Who has the power?”
In our society – and being on blockchain doesn’t change this – the individuals with the power are typically the individuals who have most of the money. So, who are the collectors of NFTs? How diverse a group are they? Who are the curators? The business owners? The individuals making the decisions on various platforms? Who decides who is whitelisted on the curated platforms? Who decides which artists get promoted by each of the platforms? And how diverse are the teams making decisions like these? Who are the investors in these platforms and which demographics do they represent? All important questions for anyone starting to put together project teams as well as people embarking on using services provided by these organizations.
Several of the most successful female artists have gender-ambiguous pseudonyms. There are several that are not “out” as being female. For some, this is because they don’t feel like gender is important to them, perhaps they see themselves as non-binary and dream of a world where gender really doesn’t matter. But for many this is a conscious decision, made to perhaps avoid trolling, to make it easier to sell work or to be able to say things that women would often be criticised for talking about.
We often hear people say “stop drawing attention to gender differences, we are all the same, nobody should get special treatment?” – this would be great in an ideal world where everyone really was equal – and that’s what WOCA (Women of Crypto Art) are working towards: equal representation. But until there is equal representation between all minorities, the only way is to draw attention to the issues, open discussion about the differences we do see, and to try to affect change in any way we can. If we simply ignore it, old paradigms and prejudices will sadly remain. It shouldn’t matter what gender an artist is but in a world where we feel we can be more successful if we pretend to be male, we are not there yet. And till we are, WOCA will continue helping to promote, support, advise and educate all artists who are brave enough, and proud to, identify as women.
NFTs.WTF has the opportunity to assist in this mission and WOCA are happy to partner with them to achieve some of the ideals this community, built around NFTs, was founded on.
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The online auction behemoth eBay is getting into the NFT game. The company confirmed via Reuters that they will be allowing the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) beginning Tuesday, May 11th sellers who meet eBays standards will be allowed an “NFT inventory.” eBay has also expressed that they will be allowing NFT sales with traditional payment methods like credit cards and Paypal.
This big news will surely have some ripple effects throughout the NFT space, but what those effects might be is yet to be seen for existing creators, collectors and blockchain entrepreneurs.
I recently asked David Sneider, founder of Lit Protocol, and a forward thinking NFT marketplace called HelloApricot.com, what his thoughts were on eBay entering this space and his response echoed some of my own sentiments around this development. According to Sneider: “With deeper utility for NFTs coming soon, eBay is setting themselves up to become the crypto entry point for millions of new users and extend their offering into the metaverse.”
With the ability to use eBay as a secondary marketplace for certain NFTs, I believe this could be a massive opportunity for the entire NFT community and ecosystem.
Removing the crypto complexity for new users is one major weakness of nearly all NFT marketplaces out there. While I have been a true believer in blockchain and crypto since 2014, I do feel that the “meta maskery” needs to be simplified industry-wide for non-technical users. eBay will be one of those entry points that anyone can interact with seamlessly and that will most certainly drive other marketplaces to also innovate within the user experience arena.
Another major challenge facing a majority of NFT marketplaces is the discoverability of artists. eBay entering this space with over 180 million active buyers can potentially drive other NFT platforms to innovate and improve on the gaps in the current state of NFT marketplaces, to retain and attract more users.
Big companies like eBay were always bound to get involved in this space. As the masses are starting to become more aware of NFTs, a large driver of this hype stems from the celebrities and influencers looking to cash in on this crypto craze, while missing the real point and possibilities of non-fungible token technology.
Big names entering the NFT game
In a refreshing twist, influencer Gary Vee and his NFT project Veefriends has, in my opinion, really entered this space thoughtfully and is setting a new standard for what an influencer / celebrity NFT project could look like, by creating additional utility and experiences for his collectors. Ranging from 3 year of access to his annual conference to being able to have dinner or even play a game of basketball with the famous CEO. These types of influencers with millions of followers bring new non-crypto-native users into this space and that, fundamentally, is a good thing.
Founded in 1995, eBay has a long-standing reputation as one of the first online marketplaces for all types of goods and products. The eBay brand lends an enormous amount of additional credibility to this emerging paradigm-shifting technology that is NFTs. While many in the mainstream are maybe still having trouble wrapping their heads around what a non-fungible token is and why they can be so valuable, it’s seeing big brands like eBay jumping into this space, that will give millions of users the curiosity and confidence that may nudge them into the market for buying NFTs.
The massive amount of traffic and eyeballs on eBay is astounding and this most certainly could be a great source of traffic for creators and collectors alike who are willing and able to become savvier in learning how to market and promote their creations.
What could go wrong?
However, there are some potential pitfalls here to take into account with eBay joining the NFT space. The most pressing one is the lack of a recognized NFT royalty standard, that is acknowledged and adopted across all NFT marketplaces.
As it stands now, when a creator’s NFT is removed from most NFT marketplaces to be listed on another, any royalties set for secondary sales are lost, and this negates one of the primary benefits for creators (the ability to be compensated for secondary sales). This will almost certainly be true for NFTs listed on eBay. Specific details around how eBay will implement NFTs on their platform are still scarce.
What effect will eBay getting into the NFT game have for creators?
There has been an Ethereum improvement proposal (EIP) for creating such a royalty standard, proposed by Zach Burks, James Morgan , Blaine Malone, and James Seibel that has yet to be adopted on a massive scale but should be made known to all creators and collectors called the EIP 2981: ERC-721 Royalty Standard. The community should be making it known to all marketplaces that they want a standard adopted for the benefit of the entire NFT economy.
This loss of secondary royalties could create a negative impact on the NFT community and ecosystem. However, this gap is also an opportunity for other marketplaces to step up and adopt a royalty standard in order to retain the best artists, creators and collectors.
Overall, I believe that eBay being in this space will have a net positive effect, and be a major driver of mass adoption that will bring an additional flood of interest and users. Though eventually, these users will want more than what eBay will allow to happen on their platform. These new users will trickle into other parts of this incredible NFT ecosystem. eBay’s move may also spur some additional big brands to pay attention and enter this space, hopefully in a way that also benefits the overall industry and community.
As with anything that involves a big brand like eBay, there will be positive and negative aspects involved. It truly depends on where you find yourself and from what perspective you are viewing this news; as an artist, content creator, collector, curator or just now learning about NFTs.
NFT & Crypto Community Concerns
There are many crucial concepts that I know are important to the blockchain community, such as decentralization and moving away from centralized platforms, middlemen and gatekeepers, and to some, the name “eBay” may sound like the antithesis of the blockchain ethos.
I would like to invite you to consider a different perspective, for those who truly believe in the possibilities and benefits of blockchain and non-fungible tokens. We cannot be maximalists at the expense of mass adoption. In order to alchemize the incredible changes this technology enables, we must align ourselves with how nature operates, which is via the path of least resistance, especially for new users. In all honesty, most people will not care about the technology, but only that it works seamlessly.
There will always be some form of centralized systems because there is a general benefit to having them set up that way. As this technology matures, centralized systems that do not serve us as a society, a human culture, and as a planet will eventually be replaced with more decentralized systems. This will take mass adoption events like the eBays of the world getting involved, paired with a bit of time, development, and patience.
eBay will undoubtedly bring new energy, attention and opportunities to this space and it will be up to each artist, content creator, collector and blockchain entrepreneur to decide how they react to more mass adoption as big brands take note and enter this space with considerable resources, users and capital.
