Toute l'actualité des NFT
Les NFTs sont-ils en train de devenir la véritable technologie du basculement vers l’adoption des cryptomonnaies ? La question ne cesse d’être posée, alors que […]
L’article Tezos + NFT = Explosion record de l’activité sur son réseau en 2021 est apparu en premier sur CryptoActu.
KAMIKAZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ! – Toute personne ayant déjà joué à Worms aura ce son en tête. Comment ne pas sourire en repensant à la « sainte bombe » ? Ou serrer les dents en voyant son tir de missile revenir parce qu’on a mal calculé le vent ? Et si Worms revenait sous forme de NFT ?
Si vous avez déjà passé plus de 20 minutes à chercher des jeux de mots à faire avec le nom de vos Worms, vous allez forcément avoir la banane en voyant l’arrivée de Worms en NFT.
Worms est une franchise de jeux vendue à plus de 75 millions d’exemplaires, toutes plateformes confondues. Sorti en 1995, le principe proposé par Team17 et Ocean Software est très simple. Vous dirigez une équipe de Worms (vers de terre) qui doit littéralement exploser la ou les équipes adverses. Basique, efficace, pas de chichis !
Pour ce faire, vous n’avez que l’embarras du choix en termes d’armes. Du bazooka (simple, efficace) en passant par la mitraillette ou encore la batte de base-ball pour les plus subtils. Armes basiques pour toutes personnes nées dans les années 80 et ayant grandi avec Rambo ou un Schwarzenegger un peu énervé.
Mais le succès de Worms est surtout lié à son côté complètement décalé. En plus de l’arsenal classique, vous pouviez balancer sur vos ennemis des bombes bananes, des supers moutons explosifs, des saintes grenades ou même une grand-mère en fauteuil roulant. Certes, ce n’était pas politiquement correct, mais qu’est-ce que c’était drôle !
Rajoutez à cela des petites phrases faisant mouche, et vous avez la recette du succès. Vos Worms ponctuaient chacune de vos actions par des « Stupid » ou autre « Traitor » si, par malheur, vous touchiez vos coéquipiers par erreur.
Malheureusement, l’annonce de l’arrivée de NFT dérivés du jeu n’a pas fait l’unanimité parmi les fans.
En effet, l’éditeur des jeux Teams17 a révélé son intention de créer des NFT des célèbres vers de terre. En partenariat avec Reality Gaming Group, la franchise arrivera bientôt sur Ethereum (ETH).
Malgré l’existence d’un partenariat avec Coin4Planet pour un acte écologique, l’annonce a provoqué une levée de boucliers. L’association qui construit des lits de vers pour régénérer les déchets alimentaires en engrais naturel n’a pas suffi à persuader les détracteurs des NFT.
Les arguments anti-NFT restent les mêmes : un impact écologique « catastrophique », à l’image d’un bombardement au napalm sur une armée de Worms à l’accent allemand.
Le développeur indépendant Aggro Crab, qui a collaboré avec Team17 sur d’autres jeux a posté, sur Twitter, un message des plus radicaux :
« Nous pensons que les NFT ne peuvent pas être respectueux de l’environnement ou utiles, et qu’il ne s’agit en réalité que d’une putain d’arnaque.
S’il vous plaît, ne harcelez pas les employés de Team17 ou les développeurs sous leur égide, car cette décision semble avoir pris tout le monde au dépourvu et est probablement venue d’en haut.
Inutile de dire que nous ne travaillerons pas avec eux ou d’autres titres, et encourageons d’autres développeurs indépendants à faire de même à moins que cette décision ne soit annulée !
Je déteste ça, p**** ! »
Il ne manque qu’un « bye bye » laissant apparaître une tombe dansant de droite à gauche pour ponctuer cette annonce des plus vindicatives.
Suite à cette attaque sanglante, un représentant de Team17 a essayé de larguer une caisse de soin pour calmer le jeu.
Il a précisé que le projet NFT n’aura aucune incidence dans les jeux, la licence concernant juste des images qui seront achetables par les fans. Aucun des modèles de vers ou d’armes présents sur les NFT n’aura d’intégration dans les jeux.
Update : ce matin même nous avons appris que Team17 se retirait du projet. Sous la pression des anti-NFT ils préfèrent se retirer. Est-ce un bien ou un mal ? la pression des réseaux sociaux peut parfois couler un bon projet avant même sa naissance…
Malheureusement, l’équipe 17 a annoncé qu’elle n’allait n’irait pas plus loin avec le projet MetaWorms. Nous sommes très déçus de cette décision même si nous pouvons comprendre qu’ils aient reçu des commentaires négatifs de certains de leurs fans et partenaires du studio.
Nous pensons que les préoccupations générales concernant la durabilité NFT / blockchain sont valables, c’était une raison majeure derrière le développement de notre chaine économe en énergie, l’utilisation de fournisseurs de serveurs neutres en carbone et la sélection de Refeed en tant que partenaire Coin4Planet dans ce projet.
Personnellement, je suis dégoûté, j’aimais vraiment faire connaissance avec beaucoup d’entre vous dans cette communauté en pleine croissance et partager notre amour de la série de jeux Worms. Plus de 1500 personnes formidables se sont jointes à nous en seulement 2 jours et vous vous êtes avéré être un groupe passionné et accueillant.
Jake de Reality Gaming Group sur Discord
À n’en pas douter, l’année 2022 s’annonce mouvementée pour les projets NFT. Pour les Worms, tout s’est arrêté avant même d’avoir commencé, ses détracteurs sont arrivés à placer une fatality qui fera couler les vers dans les profondeurs de l’oubli.
L’idée de posséder un vers de terre armé d’une banane vous plait ? alors foncez acheter vos premiers ETH sur la plateforme de référence du secteur, inscrivez-vous sur la plateforme Binance (lien affilié).
L’article Worms arrive en NFT – Le ver est dans la banane est apparu en premier sur Journal du Coin.
C’est au tour du festival Coachella de proposer aux amateurs des tokens non fongibles (NFT). Les intéressés se verront délivrer un ticket à vie, ainsi que des expériences exclusives. Le tout repose sur un partenariat avec la plateforme FTX.US.
L’article Le festival Coachella propose des tickets à vie sous forme de NFT est apparu en premier sur Cryptoast.
Bored Aped – L’Organisation Autonome Décentralisée ApeDAO est sur le point de couler. En effet, un vote est en cours sur cette DAO de collectionneurs de tokens non fongibles. Le scrutin permettra de décider de la liquidation de l’organisation ou non. Cette liquidation aura lieu sous la forme d’une vente de 81 NFT de la collection Bored Ape Yachting Club (BAYC). Les singes désabusés pourraient attirer de gros poissons dans ce triste naufrage afin de rembourser les investisseurs du projet. La star de la pop Justin Bieber, par exemple, a récemment fait l’acquisition de l’un de ces primates pour la modique somme d’1.3 million de dollars.
Le mécontentement de certains membres de la DAO a conduit à un vote pour décider de la liquidation éventuelle de ses actifs. Ce mécontentement serait lié au fait que le token de gouvernance de la DAO n’a pas suivi l’évolution de la valeur de son capital.
« Compte tenu de l’écart actuel entre le prix du $APED et la valeur liquidative des avoirs du DAO, la liquidation de l’organisation générerait des rendements substantiels pour les détenteurs du $APED »
Extrait de la proposition de vote concernant la liquidation des actifs d’ApeDAO
Lors de la rédaction de cet article, la trésorerie d’ApeDAO vaudrait environ 32,6 millions de dollars, soit 13 000 ETH. Cette estimation raisonnable ne prend en compte que le prix plancher des différentes collections NFT dans le capital. En effet, en y intégrant la dimension spéculative que la hype autour des NFT implique, la valeur réelle des actifs d’ApeDAO serait beaucoup plus élevée.
Sur la base de cette évaluation du capital, le prix du token APED devrait être supérieur à 16 $. Pourtant, le jeton s’échange autour de la barre des 8 $. Et ce malgré une collecte de fonds communautaire organisée l’été dernier où les jetons étaient évalués à 10 $ chacun.
« La liquidation des actifs de la DAO générerait entre 6 et 8 ETH pour 1 000 APED »
Extrait de la proposition de vote concernant la liquidation des actifs d’ApeDAO
Selon la proposition de vote, la liquidation offrirait donc le double du rendement aux investisseurs de la dernière levée de fond. De ce fait, les utilisateurs de la DAO qui auraient cédé à la panique auraient un radeau de sauvetage pour sortir la tête de l’eau.
ApeDAO, qui a été fondé par le collectionneur KyloRen, est le troisième plus grand détenteur de Bored Ape Yachting Club. La DAO est à la tête d’un énorme trésor d’actifs NFT dont 81 Bored Apes et 81 Mutant Apes. La vente de ces NFT pourrait ainsi venir sauver la peau des investisseurs de l’organisation.
Les singes qui s’ennuient ont récemment connu un certain engouement de la part du grand public. La collection populaire a également suscité l’intérêt de célébrités, comme Eminem ou Justin Bieber. De ce fait, le « floor price » de la collection a grimpé grimpé à plus de 116 ETH.
Si le vote passe, ce qui à l’heure actuelle ne semble pas être la volonté de la majorité des utilisateurs de la DAO, le capital des investisseurs sera sain et sauf. Sauvé par les primates de BAYC ! Nous aurons la réponse le 3 février 2022.
S’il ne faut pas céder au FUD, il est important pour les investisseurs de la finance décentralisée de réussir à récupérer leurs actifs sans trop de pertes quand les choses tournent mal. Les organisations comme ApeDAO sont des sortes de fonds de capital-risque autonomes et décentralisés ne s’appuyant sur aucune autre juridiction que le smart contract qui les régit. De ce fait, mettre en vente des Bored Ape afin de sauver les utilisateurs serait une belle porte de sortie… Surtout avec les records que bat l’écosystème NFT ces derniers temps !
Si Bitcoin, Ethereum et les NFT sont l’objet de toutes les convoitises, c’est qu’ils sont… précieux ! Prenez le train de la crypto en marche et venez profiter d’une offre exceptionnelle : jusqu’à 100€ en cryptomonnaies offerts lors de votre inscription sur la plateforme Swissborg (lien affilié, pour un dépôt minimum de 50€).
L’article ApeDAO à la dérive – 81 NFT Bored Ape en vente pour sortir la tête de l’eau est apparu en premier sur Journal du Coin.
As most of us were enjoying some R&R over Christmas break, Coinbase Cloud protocol specialist Elias Simos was scouring the web for the most interesting crypto charts of 2021: 69 of them to be exact.
In the latest Around The Block podcast, we sit down with Elias and discuss some of the most interesting data points from the year, and what it all means for the future. (High level takeaways below)
https://medium.com/media/7b9a66be5a63161f98b8f7001a2394bc/hrefListen on Apple or Spotify
Price isn’t everything, but the two top performing assets in 2021 are indicative of broader trends throughout the year. 2021’s best performing assets were:
Metaverse gaming tokensSmart contract platform tokens
The governance tokens of gaming worlds Axie Infinity (AXS) and The Sandbox (SAND) each posted 16,000 and 13,000 percent gains respectively. Meanwhile, platform tokens from Polygon, Terra, Solana, and Fantom, all posted 8,000% gains or more.
Given that play-to-earn gaming had a breakout year, and layer 1s not named Ethereum saw strong adoption, these trends should be of no surprise. Now let’s dig a bit deeper.
Ethereum’s native token (ETH) did a modest 2X over the year, while it was somewhat of a rough year for Ethereum DeFi blue chips, with the DeFiPulse index down 80% over the year vs ETH.
The price of DeFi assets doesn’t tell the entire story, however. TVL of Ethereum DeFi applications showed tremendous growth over the year, and the number of unique Ethereum addresses interacting with DeFi protocols 4x’ed.
DefiLlama and Decentral Park Capital
Regardless, ETH killers and sidechains won the year when measured by growth of overall market share.
DefiLlama and Decentral Park Capital
In May, there was $200M sitting in Ethereum bridges. That number climbed to $20B by the end of the year, underscoring the great migration of value from Ethereum to other ecosystems.
The flipside, however, is that despite this migration away from Ethereum, most value still sits in EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) compatible environments.
Remember that the EVM is essentially the brain of Ethereum that performs computations for the network. When other Layer 1s adopt the EVM, it makes deploying existing applications on new networks easier for developers, in addition to making it easier for users to migrate to these new chains.
The dominance of value on EVM compatible chains (Avalanche, Polygon, etc) suggest that a standard is forming around the EVM. This should ultimately keep Ethereum as the gravitational center of the smart contracting world, as ETH applications and assets will be natively interoperable with most other chains.
Rise of the app chains
While EVM chains still dominate the landscape, the end of 2021 saw a rise in value on Tendermint chains. Recall that Tendermint is a standard popularized by Cosmos, that lets developers build application specific blockchains that are capable of interoperating with one another.
Building app-specific chains in the past came with significant opportunity cost, because they were cut off from most liquidity and users. With the growth of Tendermint chains like Osmosis (AMM), Umee (lending), and Stargaze (NFTs), that’s becoming less of an issue.
Now that these app specific chains have a widening array of use cases and liquidity that they can interoperate with, look for more builders to take advantage of customizability that these chains offer in 2022.
In 2021, ENS reminded everyone of Web3’s native user acquisition strategy: the airdrop.
ENS (Ethereum Name Service) addresses are best thought of as email addresses that you can send money to (e.g. Jimbo.eth). After 5 years in development, the project shifted to a DAO model, and airdropped ENS governance tokens to every user with an ENS address.
After the drop in November, awareness of ENS and registration of .eth addresses skyrocketed.
Dune Analytics, matoken.eth
Since the ENS DAO treasury collects revenue from new .eth registrations, revenue for the newly minted ENS DAO treasury ramped up significantly: another testament to how much a well orchestrated airdrop can move the needle.
Dune Analytics, matoken.eth
Beyond ENS, DAOs had a strong year, evident by the growing usage in key pieces of DAO infrastructure. Gnosis Safe, which is the most popular multisig wallet DAOs use to manage their treasuries, saw 3x growth in both the number of Safes and transactions executed in 2021. Snapshot, a tool that helps DAOs execute off-chain votes with on-chain verification, exhibited strong growth as well.
Activity on the dominant platform for NFTs tells you all you need to know about the breakout year NFTs enjoyed.
Dune Analytics, Richard Chen
OG NFT CryptoPunks saw 60x YoY growth, reaching a total volume of 650K ETH, or $1.7B at current prices. This figure however, includes a flashloan powered $500M wash sale — a powerful reminder of how much subjectivity there is in on-chain data.
The second most notable NFT project of the year was Bored Ape Yacht Club, which went from a niche community to the celebrity NFT of choice, including the likes of Steph Curry, Shaq, Justin Bieber, Jimmy Fallon, Paris Hilton, among others. At one point the BAYC floor (price of the cheapest NFT in the collection) momentarily flipped the CryptoPunks floor.
In the heat of new issuances flooding the market, and older NFT collections achieving billion dollar market caps, the average price of NFTs changing hands did a 150x from 0.1 ETH to roughly 15 ETH by year end.
Dune Analytics, Richard Chen
One of the most interesting NFT launches of the year was Loot (covered here), which let anyone mint 1 of 8,000 NFTs that could form the basis of a Dungeons and Dragon style RPG game. Initial excitement was skyhigh, before fizzling out as time went on.
Dune Analytics
While Loot’s flame may have dimmed, it was still a landmark year for NFT based gaming, with the breakaway success of Axie Infinity bringing play-to-earn and GameFi narratives to the forefront. As the data shows, Axie Infinity NFT volume dwarfs that of any prior NFT based game.
CryptoSlam and The Block
Lastly, while Ethereum was the center of the NFT show, marketplaces appear to be springing up across multiple chains. The data shows that lower fee environments are enabling different types of user activity. Solana’s Magic Eden, for example, has more transactions than OpenSea since users are unencumbered by exorbitant gas fees.
Beyond being chock-full of illuminating data points on the year in crypto and Web3, the full thread underscores the beauty of on-chain data and the increased maturity of the industry. The ability for one person to put together a dataset this rich is a testament to all of the great data providers the industry now has at our disposal.
If you haven’t already, check out the full thread which covers Bitcoin, Ethereum, MEV, L2 adoption, ETH2, staking, Web3, memecoins, DEXes, stablecoins, and a whole lot more.
~Written by Connor Dempsey & Justin Mart.
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Crypto’s 69 most interesting charts from 2021 was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Non-fungible tokens (NFT) have exploded in popularity in the past year. But what are they, really?
“NFT All-Stars,” CoinDesk’s new animated series, brings together a star-studded panel of investors, curators and innovators to debate, explain and laugh about all things NFTs. The hosts are the true OGs of NFTs: Blockade Games CEO Marguerite deCourcelle; EDM innovator, DJ and NFT artisan BT; ClubNFT CEO Artnome; and Highstreet co-founder Jenny Guo.
Joining this episode is Pete Holmes, stand-up comedian known for « The Pete Holmes Show » and « Crashing.” Holmes and the hosts imagine the possibilities for NFTs in the entertainment industry. Last year, Holmes embarked on a NFT-comedy fusion exploration with « Non-Fungible Jokin’, » the world’s first live NFT comedy special.
NFTs were all the rage in 2021, with digital collectibles like Bored Apes and CryptoPunks rapidly becoming status symbols for the new rich. Then the digital and traditional art worlds collided head-on when a Beeple collection sold for millions of dollars at Christie’s.
NFT visionaries have since pushed the boundaries of what is possible with the new technology, creating NFTs for almost every creative project imaginable. What’s next?
Good morning. Here’s what’s happening:
Market moves: Bitcoin opened February higher; China’s crypto community remains active after all.
Technician’s take: Sideways trading between $35K-$40K BTC could persist this week as long-term momentum fades.
Catch the latest episodes of CoinDesk TV for insightful interviews with crypto industry leaders and analysis.
Bitcoin (BTC): $38,818 +0.9%
Ether (ETH): $2,800 +4.3%
Top Gainers
Asset
Ticker
Returns
Sector
Solana
SOL
+13.5%
Smart Contract Platform
Filecoin
FIL
+11.5%
Computing
Polkadot
DOT
+10.4%
Smart Contract Platform
Top Losers
«
«
S&P 500: 4,546 +0.6%
DJIA: 35,405 +0.7%
Nasdaq: 13,346 +0.7%
Gold: $1,801 +0.2%
Bitcoin started February, a seasonally strong month for speculative assets, in green, as investors seemed ready to increase their exposure to risk assets.
At the time of publication, the oldest cryptocurrency was trading at a little below $39,000, up about 1% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. Ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up to $2,800, a more than 4% gain over the same time period.
According to Danny Chong, co-founder of Binance Smart Chain-based yield-enhancing asset tracker Tranchess, new investors, whether retail or institutional, may have entered the crypto market amid the lower prices in recent weeks.
“Compared to the traditional financial market, the crypto market is significantly smaller in market [capitalizations], enabling modest changes to create a more noticeable impact,” Chong said via a representative. “With rapid support at current levels as well as added liquidity from new and current users, a market rebound can happen relatively quickly as market sentiments turn positive. »
Data compiled by CoinDesk shows that bitcoin’s trading volume across major centralized exchanges on Tuesday was slightly lower than a day ago. As mentioned in previous First Mover Asia columns, major Asian markets are expecting a slowdown this week because many traders and investors are taking time off for the Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year celebrations.
While crypto trading and mining are banned in China, a well-known actor in China mentioned a random token during China’s Spring Festival Gala – reportedly the world’s most watched television program – and the token’s price rose by as much as 10 times within hours. Its price since then has dropped significantly.
The occurrence shows that despite many crypto observers believing China’s market is dead, especially after exchanges such as Huobi removed mainland China users, many people in China are still active in the crypto community.
Bitcoin Rangebound Near Support; Resistance at $40K-$43K
Bitcoin (BTC) is holding support above $37,000, albeit within a narrow trading range.
The cryptocurrency is up slightly over the past 24 hours, up 3% over the past week.
Buyers will need to make a decisive move above the $40,000 resistance level in order to pause the intermediate-term downtrend from November.
For now, the relative strength index (RSI) on the four-hour chart is approaching overbought territory, which typically precedes a brief pullback in price. Additionally, the downward sloping 100-period moving average on the four-hour chart could limit price gains over the short term.
On the daily chart, however, the RSI continues to rise from oversold levels, which means buyers could remain active above the $35,000-$37,000 support zone. The wide range of support suggests sideways trading could persist this week, especially given weak momentum on longer-term charts.
9 a.m. HKT/SGT (1 a.m. UTC): OPEC meeting
10 a.m. HKT/SGT (2 a.m. UTC): Eurostate consumer price index (Jan. YoY preliminary)
10 p.m. HKT/SGT (2 p.m. UTC): Australia industry group performance of construction index (Dec.)
10 p.m. HKT/SGT (2 p.m. UTC): Commonwealth Bank of Australia bank services PMI (Jan.)
11:50 p.m. HKT/SGT (3 p.m. UTC) Japan foreign investment in Japan stocks (Jan. 28)
In case you missed it, here is the most recent episode of « First Mover » on CoinDesk TV:
CoinDesk regulatory reporter in India Amitoj Singh joined « First Mover » hosts to discuss Indian government’s plan to place a 30% tax on crypto transactions and the announcement of the timeline for digital rupee. Ian Lee, co-founder of Syndicate, shared his views on the state of DAOs. Will Peck, head of digital assets at WisdomTree shared details behind the launch of the latest digital wallet WisdomTree Prime.
Jack Dorsey Touts Bitcoin’s Virtues at MicroStrategy Conference: The Block CEO and Twitter co-founder cites the crypto’s transparent fees.
Tom Brady Retires to Focus on Family, NFT Startup: The legendary quarterback retires after a 22-year career in the NFL, with seven Super Bowl rings and a startup, Autograph, that just raised $170 million.
Hackers Move $3.55B Worth of Bitcoin From 2016 Bitfinex Hack: Bad actors will have a tough time cashing out the stolen bitcoin because most of the coins are blacklisted.
India Edges Toward Crypto Legalization With 30% Tax, Announces Digital Rupee: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman noted the moves during the country’s annual budget speech to Parliament.
Address Linked to Wonderland’s Sifu Cashes Out $5.5M Worth of Ether: Sifu is an alleged serial scammer who has previously been convicted.
Diem Confirms Shutdown as Silvergate Acquires the Project’s Assets: Facebook (now Meta) is officially winding down the stablecoin project it announced in June 2019.
NFTs, Celebrities and Perverse Deal-Making: As crypto company MoonPay continues its marketing push, it’s unclear whether celebrity enthusiasm for NFTs is real.
Today’s crypto explainer: Minting Your First NFT: A Beginner’s Guide to Creating an NFT
Other voices: Three key cryptocurrency trends family offices should be aware of (EY)
“As I talk to participants in the economy, what I hear is they actually want us to do something now about inflation. They’d like us to get back to at least a normal interest-rate posture and not be simulating more demand on top of normal levels,” he said. “So, I don’t hear much resistance to that.” (Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin on CNBC) … « The cathartic feeling of knowing something before it becomes cool or mainstream, regardless of how annoying it can be, is in fact valuable to some degree. Whether we like it or not. » (Wachsman Marketing Associate Aziz Alangari for CoinDesk) … « A lot of you wrote in last week to say that you have been a bit embarrassed about not understanding what cryptocurrency, NFTs and blockchain are exactly. That shame is not for regular people to carry. Speculative financial technologies like these derive a lot of their cultural power from being hard to define. Clear definition is usually a sign that an instrument is well regulated. » ( New York Times columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom) … « We’re the closest we’ve ever been to having a native currency for the internet with bitcoin. » (Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey at MicroStrategy Bitcoin for Corporations conference)
Autograph, a non-fungible token (NFT) platform co-founded by National Football League star Tom Brady, has closed a $170 million Series B funding round that was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Kleiner Perkins.
Other participants in the round included Nicole Quinn, a general partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, and the new venture firm from a16z alum Katie Haun.As part of the investment, Haun, a16z general partners Arianna Simpson and Chris Dixon and Kleiner Perkins partner Ilya Fushman will join the Autograph board of directors.Founded in July, Autograph has launched NFT collections featuring Brady, Tiger Woods, Naomi Osaka, The Weeknd, Simone Biles, Tony Hawk and Darek Jeter. Brady and The Weeknd are also members of the Autograph board. »We’re in the midst of an exciting moment in the evolution of the next generation of the internet, » Haun said in a press release. « Autograph has assembled a world class team that understands how to build trusted, delightful product experiences that will accelerate the mainstreaming of crypto. »Last month, Haun announced that she was leaving a16z to start her own crypto-focused venture capital firm. Haun is reportedly looking to raise $900 million for a pair of funds.
web3 isn’t just a tech movement. It’s a cultural one.
That’s why I’m excited to announce we’re co-leading a Series B investment in @TomBrady’s @Autograph. My partner @AriannaSimpson will be joining the board, and I’m joining the board of advisors.
— cdixon.eth (@cdixon) January 19, 2022
Read more: Tom Brady’s NFT Platform Autograph Partners With Lionsgate and DraftKings
Today, CoinDesk launches “NFT All Stars,” a new animated series and podcast spotlighting some of the most influential artists and thinkers in the world of crypto art. Hosted by the developer and entrepreneur Marguerite deCourcelle (also known as Coin Artist), along with Jason Bailey, who’s spent years chronicling the development of the digital art space on his blog, “Artnome,” “NFT All Stars” takes a holistic approach to an industry that seems to grow and change every other day.
NFT All-Stars, CoinDesk’s new animated series, premieres Tuesday, Feb. 1 at 4 p.m. ET. Watch it weekly on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitch, Theta.TV and CoinDesk.com.
None of it is precisely scripted. The conversations, with the likes of Roc-A-Fella Records’ Dame Dash, the artist FEWOCiOUS and the DJ Deadmau5, are lively and free-flowing, meant to educate as much as entertain. It’s informed by deCourcelle and Bailey’s backgrounds in blockchain – they’ve dealt with this stuff long enough to know the difference between a fad and a genuine movement.
Both are also investors, too: deCourcelle’s company, Blockade Games, builds puzzles and games built around NFTs. Bailey’s is ClubNFT, an all-purpose NFT company dedicated to “building the next generation of solutions to discover, protect, and share” these tokens.
Other “NFT All Stars” panelists include BT, a composer and arranger who’s worked with the likes of Death Cab for Cutie, Madonna, and Britney Spears; Jenny Guo, co-founder of the tech company Highstreet; and Anand Venkateswaran, also known as Twobadour, the official “steward” of the firm that paid $69 million for a Beeple NFT at Christie’s last year.
Our conversation with the show’s two co-hosts, edited and condensed for clarity, is below.
How did the show come together?
Jason Bailey: There wasn’t ever a scripted thing. In fact, it was almost like an anti-script, where Adam [Levine, the show’s producer] was like, “I want it to feel like a casual conversation.” And we knew that we had a target audience that we couldn’t get overly technical with, which is hard, because I think both Marguerite and I are nerds, in different ways. An audience that we had to maybe assume was new to NFTs.
Read more: 5 Ways to Earn Passive Income From NFTs
As we were recording these episodes, where the world really was opening up the floodgates to NFTs. And as part of that growth, it caught the eye of a lot of celebrities, musicians, comedians and all sorts of different folks that we were able to interview. Our job was really to try to get them to talk about what that experience has been like for them, and sort of facilitate the conversation and share some of our perspective.
Marguerite deCourcelle: I really enjoyed the process of coming together and learning in real time about these incredible people and what they were excited about exploring, what they were looking forward to, where they found themselves in the NFT space – a lot of them coming from very authentic places of excitement, and not just here to flip JPEGs.
Why animation?
MdC: The experience of watching it this way, it really has that metaverse feel to it. It’s an alternate reality. Actually, it reminds me of one of those old school MTV shows, it has a real sense of character to it. It’s saturated with creativity, and so I think it was important for it to be so thoughtful and colorful.
JB: I remember Ali [Powell, a producer on the show] compared it sometimes to “Space Ghost Coast to Coast,” as sort of an inspiration. Sometimes these conversations can get overly serious, about art or blockchain or culture. And I think it adds some levity to the whole thing. You took a wrong turn if you can’t laugh a little bit about NFTs. Especially in the art space, even the most ardent collectors and proponents like myself … we know that it’s also kind of absurd. Like, you’re buying JPEGs you can see for free. And I know it’s more than that, but there’s an element of humor and lightheartedness that you need to have about all of this.
You mention “JPEGs you can see for free” – what’s your take on NFT skepticism?
JB: I think we’re seeing maybe an all-time high right now. I’ve actually been referring to it as a moral panic that people are having around NFTs, like the Satanic Panic in the ‘80s, when people started accusing each other of being satanists. Or it’s like Reefer Madness. There’s just this illogical, outsized concern about NFTs right now. I’m open to criticism and think we need criticism in order for the space to move forward, but I think we’re seeing more criticism than ever before.
At the time that we initially recorded these [episodes], I think we were still a little bit more in the honeymoon period of the world figuring out what these things were. We kept it light, and it was sort of intentionally meant to be light.
MdC: Coming from the Bitcoin space, too, it’s such a contrast – I felt like I couldn’t really talk about things if I wasn’t a cryptographer. And as a creative, I spent a lot of time being like, ‘how do I get to participate in this really tech-centric, totally male dominated, and sometimes unfriendly space?’
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When I went to the first Ethereum conferences, I was kind of surprised about the effort that that community was making for inclusivity. I hadn’t seen that level of commitment for inclusivity ever before. And it’s true that the more perspectives and voices you have around, the more culture you can create.
Do you feel encouraged by the direction of the space right now, in regard to diversity and inclusion?
MdC: I feel like the NFT space is going through an identity crisis, and I don’t align with a lot of things that are happening. I don’t really enjoy – and it took me a while to figure this out – but I don’t enjoy the party culture, to the extreme, without real purpose or intention. Just people showboating money or NFTs.
When you get into these VIP parties, and everyone there’s a crypto-influencer, and then you’re in the back channels with a lot of them, and everyone’s pumping their bags, or their projects. It gets this really skeezy feeling to it.
And while it’s fun for some of the people at the top, look at the backlash everywhere. If you look at mainstream people who are not fully educated, or haven’t really been introduced in a friendly way to NFTs, it’s insanely polarizing. And that’s because we built this culture that’s exclusive.
Real artists – people who have chosen a path in which they want to create art and meaningful experiences – are not going to prioritize taking care of collectors and making them more rich, versus their opportunity and freedom to create expressive artwork. When I think of Rothko, I don’t think of [him] because he had the highest-selling artworks. It’s because I liked how he challenged the art space.
Granted, sometimes these things go hand in hand. But the fact is we don’t have people here actually appreciating the artwork. We have a culture of speculators and artists trying to figure out their place in it. And it’s just not friendly for a lot of people that truly have wonderful ambitions. And it’s just gonna take time.
Dan Olson, the Canadian videographer behind the “Folding Ideas” YouTube channel, has an important message for the world: NFTs are all fundamentally flawed. More so, crypto, Web 3 – those umbrella trends often discussed in hurried tones – would be a huge step back. Last week, Olson published a 137-minute documentary, “Line Goes Up – The Problem With NFTs,” going through the myriad issues crypto-based tech faces and creates.
This article is excerpted from The Node, CoinDesk’s daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news. You can subscribe to get the full newsletter here.
The video already has 3.7 million views, making it Olson’s most popular release yet, and likely one of the most consumed individual pieces of media about crypto ever. It has been shared widely in broader tech circles. It’s not hard to see why. Olson tells a convincing story about the perils of market speculation and greed – it’s real, human drama. He starts off discussing mortgage-backed securities and the cascading market failure in 2008, the context in which Bitcoin and Ethereum were created, and shows how that capitalistic mindset rhymes with modern speculative subsectors like NFTs and DAOs.
Has crypto recreated the system it meant to circumvent?
For Olson, crypto is even worse. The technology is broken, he says, but, even if it worked, it would be net negative. His arguments are well researched and justifiable. Although there are a few factual inaccuracies (about Ethereum’s energy use, for instance), it’s tough to object to his overall point. Saying crypto fosters scammers and has real privacy issues and environmental concerns isn’t a matter of opinion. Still, there are gradations and contexts to consider, all of which could be a topic for a competing YouTube takedown video – a blog will have to do.
One of Olson’s most salient points is that people in crypto rarely take criticism well. This is fair. It was certainly on display in reaction to his video. Even industry leaders often fall back on responding to negative news or comments by labeling it FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt). Olson’s video found an audience because his concerns resonate with people. Crypto would do well by actually watching and listening to the video.
Even though crypto personalities can be abrasive or borderline antisocial, it’s worth noting they’re often self-aware and ironic. Take “right-click save,” the rallying cry of both NFT notables and critics. It’s an obvious line of attack to say supposedly “scarce” digital goods are infinitely reproducible by right-clicking and saving that JPEG. However, NFTs have utility by giving digital goods unique identities and that identity a market price … sharing an image across the web and giving it virality in some sense only makes it more valuable. But it’s an idea you sort of have to lean into.
The Defiant’s multimedia guru Robin Schmidt published a 10-minute video response to Olson, arguing that NFTs are really just a glorified file format. There’s good and bad with any technological standard, and the societal concerns Olson raises are just as easily applied to any social media environment. Casey Newton, writer of “The Platformer” Substack, similarly noted that Olson’s hatred of crypto is as a vector of “rising inequality, pandemic-era isolation and loneliness, self-dealing venture capitalists, and a desperate sense among young strivers that the future is only ever getting smaller.” Again, those issues do not belong to crypto alone.
For as substantial as Olson’s video is, he doesn’t really present any solutions. And who can blame him? We’re talking about rewriting the rules of the internet and society so speculative bubbles like NFTs wouldn’t be so attractive in the first place. Digital scarcity, empowering people to create markets for anything and letting people monetize their digital lives is a massive sea change – and one that comes with its own benefits. If there is a critical flaw in Olson’s video, it’s that he never truly considered the other side.
See also: ‘Probably Nothing’: Why People Still Hate Crypto | The Node
People young and old are excited about crypto because it presents an alternative to the current economic system. Just to say one thing: Those bankers Olson discussed at the beginning of his documentary, the ones that turned the U.S. housing market into a casino and blew up the economy – what happened to them? Did Jimmy Cayne go to jail? Did Lloyd Blankfein lose his job? I don’t bemoan wealth or value creation, but I’m a little perturbed that there’s a yacht shortage today. Crypto doesn’t fix all of that, it may even make it worse. But at least, if done right, it eliminates moral hazard. Crypto puts responsibility on the individual – and if they lose their keys, or lose their savings, that’s on them. It’s a high degree of responsibility and no one forces you to buy a JPEG.
Olson argues that NFTs are particularly perverse because they act as the top of the funnel to the crypto market. They’re one of the few things you can do with ETH or SOL, and have easy cultural tie-ins. He sees brands issuing NFTs, or brands being born from them, and thinks this is a pipeline to the larger crypto ecosystem. This appears bad if you think crypto is bad in itself, rather than just another potential avenue for monetization. The digital economy today is fundamentally broken. There are plenty of people who would willingly trade their personal data for free services, but we shouldn’t bemoan an alternative. Online payments are surveillance and can be censored – why not have an alternative?
Digital media likewise struggles. Streaming companies are unprofitable and likely unsustainable. Journalism is in crisis. NFTs are not the perfect or only solution, but they present an alternative. Just today, legacy magazine Sports Illustrated announced an NFT marketplace. Digital artist Pak is issuing NFTs to benefit WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The Associated Press is auctioning historic photographs from its collection, with the profits going to support AP’s journalism. Despite being plagued by scams, crypto provides real avenues to assist real people.
There are moments in “Line Goes Up” that truly soar. Calling NFTs the “aesthetically vacuous representations of the dead inner lives of the tech and finance bros behind them” is poetry because it’s true. He goes on, calling them “the vanguard for a new system,” one that’s littered with pyramid schemes and “fugly” cartoon apes. “A different system does not inherently mean a better system. We replace bad systems with worse ones all the time,” Olson said. (He didn’t return a request for comment, by the way.)
The question I’d ask is how much of the new system is really the old?