NFT Innovation Digest #11

Most innovative (author's pick)

The Signature is a conceptual art project that explores the importance of the provenance of an artwork in relation to it being used as an NFT. Anyone can mint a signature piece at any time and all the pieces are equal. The premise is that the piece's provenance by the time and holder from mint add value to the piece rather than solely the content of the art itself.

Most discussed

Budweiser announced the launch of its Ethereum-based NFTs "Key to the Budverse". The NFT series is called Budverse Cans: Heritage Edition and contains 1,936 unique collectibles that will allow access to the unreleased "Budverse".

More:

• The brand entered into the NFT space in August by purchasing a Bud-themed piece from Tom Sachs’ Rocket Factory collection and using it as its Twitter profile picture, and also registering and using the Ethereum domain name "beer.eth";
• Each NFT will feature classic photos, ads, and design documents of the history of the brand and will be sold in two rarity levels, with Core Cans available at $499 and Gold Cans at $999 each;
• The NFTs will be minted on the Ethereum network and sold at OpenSea, but the company will mint the NFTs beforehand and distribute them to the users, covering Ethereum transaction fee costs.

A plot of land in Axie Infinity sold this week at a record price of 550 ETH (about $2.4 million). The land is part of the extremely rare "Genesis" type, located at the center of the game's map, and is capped at 220 plots.

More:

• In February, nine plots of land in the game were sold for over 888 ETH (about $1.5 million at the time);
• This latest record in land sales comes amidst the rising popularity of the Metaverse and virtual land in the blockchain gaming space. Early this week, Canadian investment firm Tokens.com purchased a virtual land in Decentraland or a record price of $2.5 million in MANA, Decentraland's native token.

Mainstream Adoption

Sony Pictures and AMC launched "Spider-Man: No Way Home" NFT giveaway. Anyone that preordered a ticket for the opening day of the movie is in line to receive one of the 86,000 free NFTs.

More:

• In total, 100 different designs are available for the collectibles, featuring the characters of the movies. The NFTs are built on top of the WAX blockchain, famed for its energy efficiency and eco-friendly transactions.

Adidas deep-dived into the NFT space with multiple announcements. On November 18th the company announced the release of a POAP, a few days later it released a partnership with Sandbox and with coinbase, and finally, the collector gmoney tweeted an image of a 3D model character with the brand's logo alongside the Bored Apes and Punks logos.

More:

• On Thursday the company officially announced its leap into the Metaverse on Twitter with the link to the Adidas Metaverse website;
• Adidas Originals Twitter account also updated its profile picture to a Bored Ape wearing a classic Adidas jacket.

New products and ideas

Snoop Dogg partnered with the multimedia artist Coldie to release “Decentralized Dogg”, an NFT collaboration minted on SuperRare. The NFT was minted on SuperRare on Monday and will be on auction until Friday.

More:

• The NFT is a 3D collage of 10 different portraits of Snoop Dogg from various stages of his life alongside an original NFT-inspired soundtrack by him.

FTX US NFT Marketplace opened the trading of Ethereum NFTs alongside the already supported Solana NFTs. The centralized exchange will allow users to buy NFTs in USD using credit cards or funds via ACH or wire transfer.

More:

• The platform will support ERC-721 tokens and feature popular collections such as CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club at launch;
• As with the Solana NFTs, the FTX US NFT market is a centralized, custodial exchange, and requires the same level of KYC as the FTX US cryptocurrency exchange. The NFTs need to be transferred to the marketplace's platform to put them on sale;
• Since the NFT sales on the platform happen off-chain, on FTX's platform rather than in the Ethereum blockchain, the users don't have to pay any gas fees for placing bids, or buying/selling NFTs, but this comes with the cost of centralization.

Recommended Readings

• Exploring the possibilities at the crossroads of NFTs and Creative Commons: This Metaversal article explores the characteristics and possibilities of open-source intellectual-property NFTs and how projects are taking advantage of them;
• NFT valuation heuristics: This Twitter thread by MetaStreet explores useful valuation heuristics to assert (even if estimated) of NFTs.

New podcasts and shows

• Zima Red Podcast: In this episode, Andrew interviews Justin Trimble on his background and on how NFTs, culture, and AI are impacting society;
• Overpriced JPEGs Podcast: In its third episode, Carly interviews Mack Flavelle, the Co-Founder of CryptoKitties, Dapper Labs, and Big Head Club.;
• The Delphi Podcast: In this episode, Tom talks to a PleasrDAO member Jamis (Chief Pleasing Officer), Andy (founder of Fractional), and gmoney (INFINFT Partner), to explore the origins and goals of PleasrDAO.

Save the date

• 7th December: Metaverso is Puerto Rico’s first summit on NFTs, it's a great catch!

NFT space in numbers

The values below are from 26th November - 2nd December 2021. Source: DappRadar.

Top Marketplaces

Top Sales

Top Collections

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