NFT Innovation Digest #6

Most innovative (author's pick)

In his article Decentralized Autonomous Artists, Simon de la Rouviere deep dives into the concept of autonomous artists, the early projects exploring it, the current projects like Neolastics, Abraham, and NounsDAO.
Most discussed

Reddit opened a position for a senior backend engineer to work on its own NFT platform. The platform is also working on scaling its Ethereum-based tokens reward program.
More:
- "Our team is a new and exciting, rapidly growing team that aims to build the largest creator economy on the internet, powered by independent creators, digital goods, and NFTs" Reddit added to the job posting.

Adobe is launching a feature to Photoshop to generate NFTs from images. The users will be able to connect their social media profiles and crypto wallet addresses to their work.
More:
- The feature will include content credentials that NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea can display on their website. NFT buyers can verify these credentials using a dedicated tool;
- The company has partnered with the marketplaces KnownOrigin, OpenSea, Rarible, and SuperRare to display the content credentials.

The British magazine "The Economist" auctioned the front cover of its September 18 edition as an NFT for 99.9 ETH ($422k at the time). The Economist said in the press release that it aims to showcase the potential of decentralized technology.
More:
- The proceeds from the sale, minus fees and transactions cost, will go to "The Economist Educational Foundation", an independent charity;
- "NFTs, and the crypto infrastructure they sit on, could transform finance. By minting and selling our own NFT, we are experiencing this first-hand" according to The Economist;
- The Economist is not the first legacy print magazine to enter the NFT world. In March 2021, The New York Times sold one of its columns as an NFT for 350 ETH.
Mainstream Adoption

Disney and VeVe are collaborating to launch the "Golden Moments" NFT collection. The new collection will arrive at the VeVe platform on November 12 featuring famous characters and iconic items from some company's stories.
More:
- Collectors will be able to purchase and interact with digital golden statues inspired by stories and moments from Disney and as a bonus will receive three months of Disney+ courtesy of VeVe.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF ) Germany is launching an environmental initiative called NFAs (Non-fungible animals). The initiative aims to protect endangered species and will depict 10 animals in a variety of artistic styles.
More:
- The NFTs sales will start on November 2 and the buyers will need to use a Torus digital wallet. The assets can be purchased in USDC at a valuation from 79 and 799 USDC;
- “The number of the respective works is limited to the exact number of still living specimens of the respective animal species depicted. Thus, each of the NFA crypto artworks reflects a living but threatened animal that can be protected by purchasing it.” according to WWF Germany.

The F1 team McLauren launched a highly-gamified NFT fan experience on Tezos. The fans will be able to collect unique McLaren F1 car parts to build their own car.
McLaren Racing digital collectables are coming! 🙌
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) October 20, 2021
Introducing McLaren Racing Collective, a global community of McLaren fans and collectors, and the place to buy McLaren Racing digital collectables in the form of NFTs on the @Tezos blockchain.
More:
- There will be available parts enough to build only 22 complete carts, adding scarcity to the assets;
- The NFTs are part of the inaugural Tezos collection on the Sweet NFT Platform, an energy-efficient Proof of Stake blockchain;
- “McLaren Racing is revolutionizing the digital collectibles space by providing fans with unprecedented views of the MCL35M car parts as true 3D NFTs that can be spun around, fidgeted with, and viewed from all angles,” said Tom Mizzone, CEO of Sweet.
New products and ideas

Manifold announced the Royal Registry, a collaboration between Foundation, Nifty Gateway, OpenSea, Rarible and SuperRare. The Royal Registry is a smart contract that helps marketplaces to support appropriate contract royalties.
More:
- The tool enables contracts that did not originally support on-chain royalties to easily add them;
- The deployed contract can be found at engine-v1.royaltyregistry.eth and there is an On-Chain Royalty Lookup UI for searching by contract or token ID and reading the royalties specs and additional information.

The filmmakers David Lynch and the band Interpol are working on a series of eight limited-edition NFTs.
More:
- The NFTs were created with HIFI Labs and are available via the SuperRare marketplace;
- Adding to the interactive experience, fans will be able to add light personal creative touches to one of the eight pieces in the 3D gallery.

Playboy launched its Rabbitars NFT project, a series of 11,953 3D cartoon rabbits. Each Rabbitar has unique traits including background color, fur, glasses, and props.
More:
- The Rabbitars serve as keys to the Playboy Club, granting exclusive access to member events, merchandise, and artwork;
- The NFTs are live on Ethereum Mainnet as ERC-721 tokens hosted on IPFS.
Recommended Readings
- Tips for safely minting NFTs: Metaversal's article reinforces the best practices to mint your NFTs in a safe way and, being protected from malicious actors;
- Adobe's Scott Belsky on how NFTs will change creativity: Scott Belsky, CPO at Adobe, is a big proponent of NFTs and explore how they will change the future of creativity;
- Meet Manifold: This Metaversal article explores the Manifold platform and the concept of creator-owned NFT minting.
New podcasts and shows
- NFT Now Podcast: In this episode, the noted NFT collector 0xb1 and Creative Artists Agency talent agent Tom Capone talk about the future use cases of NFTs;
- Crypto Conversation Podcast: In this episode, Luke Ryan, the founder of Titan Tiki Tribe - an NFT collection taking Māori culture to the metaverse - explores the Titan Tiki Tribe project and its relevance for the Māori culture.
Save the date
- 1st-4th November: NFT NYC is the leading annual NFT event, don't miss it!
NFT space in numbers
The values below are from 22-28th October 2021. Source: DappRadar.
Top Marketplaces
Marketplace | Blockchain | Volume | Traders |
---|---|---|---|
OpenSea | ETH, Polygon | $442.2M -17.42% |
160,544 -5.81% |
Axie Infinity | ETH, RONIN | $117.42M -4.19% |
157,653 +1.9% |
CryptoPunks | ETH | $40.19M +34.72% |
108 +8% |
Solanart | Solana | $27.4M -12.65% |
30,797 -19.37% |
AtomicMarket | WAX | $20.91M +98.67% |
40,647 +52.95% |
Top Sales
NFT | Collection | Price |
---|---|---|
CryptoPunk #1422 | CryptoPunks | $2.01M 500 ETH |
DANKRUPT | SuperRare | $1.91M 469 ETH |
CryptoPunk #4992 | CryptoPunks | $1.79M 450 ETH |
CryptoPunk #364 | CryptoPunks | $1.52M 360 ETH |
CryptoPunk #8770 | CryptoPunks | $1.48M 350 ETH |
Top Collections
Collection | Volume | Traders | Sales |
---|---|---|---|
Axie Infinity | $117.39M -4.2% |
157,654 +1.91% |
463,692 +7.36% |
CryptoPunks | $40.19M +34.72% |
108 +8% |
73 +14.06% |
Boonji Project [NEW] | $34M — |
9,274 — |
17,670 — |
Bored Ape Yacht Club | $25.93M +36.15% |
262 +62.73% |
155 +66.67% |
Inertial Moment | $22.77M -27.73% |
24,612 -14.56% |
31,292 -16.23% |
Doodles V4 | $18.95M -50.87% |
2,957 -44.49% |
2,545 -83.84% |
CreatureToadz [NEW] | $14.06M — |
11,452 — |
15,140 — |
JUNGLE FREAKS BY TROSLEY | $14.04M -61.35% |
2,403 -70.12% |
1,972 -87.56% |
HeadDAO | $11.51M +41.66% |
4,492 -11.44% |
4,916 -70.2% |
Art Blocks | $10.72M -7.65% |
1,510 +4.21% |
1,203 +5.16% |