web3 Memo #28-29
š If youāre new here, web3 Memo is a weekly email with the most interesting web3 content Iāve consumed recently. Get your free newsletter here:
Slightly longer edit today ā I didnāt send one during the week with a plan to get us back on the regular Monday schedule. Hope you enjoy!
š° In the News
Burberry launched a limited-edition virtual range of its Lola bag collection on Roblox ā arm candy for your avatars?
Supermodel Karlie Kloss is also hitting the runway in Roblox to launch āFashion Klossette Designer Showcase.ā
French designer Marine Serre partnered with Skinvaders, the platform for in-game branded skins and digital clothing by PlatformE, to digitalise its āHard Driveā collection for the Zepetoās virtual world.
Jason Wu teamed up with digital fashion marketplace DressX to release a wearable NFT; digital twin of Michelle Obamaās 2009 inauguration gown.
DressX partners with Meta to join Balenciaga and Prada at the platformās Avatar Store.
Hyundai announced the launch of an NFT membership program for its new electric vehicle the IONIQ 6.
Daimler (South East Asia), part of the Mercedes Benz Group, launches Acentrik - a decentralised data marketplace for enterprises.
Nissan (GB) extends the recent all-electric ARIYA TV campaign with a Metaversal play through electric British art.
KIA (America) ās national TV campaign stars NFT characters from Dead Army Skeleton Klub. Are characters from web3 worlds becoming the next commercial stars?
Cadbury launches NFT collection to raise funds for charity.
The PepsiCo-owned sports drink brand Gatorade launched its first NFT collection to honour the recipients of the 2021-22 player of the year award.
Jose Cuervo launched a Metaverse tequila distillery to coincide with National Tequila Day.
Outside Magazineās Outerverse aka āanti-Metaverseāplatform plans to give users incentives to ski, run, bike or hike using NFTs and other rewards.
Barcelona FC is launching its first NFTĀ via a Sothebyās auction.Ā
Manchester City FC announced the launch of āBlue Moonā, a brand-new City themed experience on Roblox.
Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt partners with a new āmove-to-earnā NFT fitness platform Step App.
NFL expands ticket stub NFTs to over 100 games for 2022 season which is nearly five times as many regular season games.
Steve Aokiās Avatars are coming to the Metaverse, in partnership with The Sandbox.
Nickelodeon launched an NFT collection of packs of virtual collectible cards featuring its memorable characters.
Netflix launched a Stranger Things NFT collection of 11,111 posters which sold out in less than 24 hours.
TIME magazine declares itās firmly āInto the Metaverseā with its new cover. Itās also looking to turn all future subscriptions into NFTs. TIME makes $24 per digital subscriber per year whereas it sees an average selling price of $1,000 on its TIMEPieces NFTs. Its web3 initiatives have so far generated >$10M in profits and more on how the 99 year-old publisher is leading legacy media into web3.
Founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, is releasing a collection of NFTs on Solana created using DALL-E 2.
Mojang Studios, the gaming company behind Minecraft, says no to NFTs.
Whereas Epic Games publicly declared their stance that NFT games will continue to be accepted. Epic is one of the most important companies in the Metaverse domain. If youāre a builder in the space, read this report to get an overview of the assets this company operates.
Square Enix launches Final Fantasy VII NFT collection on Polkadot in partnership with Enjin.
Energy giant Shell is using web3 and blockchain for sustainability and energy transition.
Dubai aims to create 40,000 virtual jobs and add $4B to its economy over the next five years via its Metaverse strategy plans.
US Federal Agency issues legal advisory on NFT investments.
āāš» web3 Tech, Platforms & Marketplaces
Ethereum Merge is likely to take place in September, but did you know Vitalik is already thinking way ahead with whatās next after The Merge?
Polygon, Scroll and Matter Labsā zkSync made zkEVM announcements.
TLDR; on zkEVM by @0xfoobar š§µ
Animoca Brands launches Interoperability DAO to develop Metaverse standards in alliance with prominent web3 projects. The launch of OMA3 comes shortly after the big tech companies such as Microsoft, Meta and Sony announced a similar Metaverse alliance.
ConsenSys launched the world's first token & decentralised marketplace for time-based services. ConsenSys Diligence will be the first to offer smart contract security auditing services through TURN token (Time-Unit Representative NFTs).
OpenSea lets go of 20% of team.
OpenSea also debuts its Solana NFT launchpad to rival Magic Eden, but to lacklustre demand.
Rarible integrates Solana NFTs - offers 0% fees for a month.
MetaMundo launches a marketplace for interoperable Metaverse NFTs.
sudoswap launched sudoAMM; a new marketplace protocol that lets users automate NFT transactions along a price curve in a liquidity pool.
WalletConnect launches WalletConnect Chat which will allow you to DM any user using any wallet on any chain.
Premint got hacked with more than 300 NFTs (~$400K) stolen. Its CEO Mulligan promises to return ETH to victims and announced acquisition of security firm Vulcan.
š» Notable Projects
Yuga Labs completed its Otherside Meta - First Trip demo and released a Litepaper.
Old Navy is selling BAYC shirts for $19.99 in a supposed IP licensing deal with the owner of ape #7285.
RTFKT x Nike AR Hoodie set launched but much to the dismay of its followers - some were stuck in a digital queue without being able to mint. Project lead took to Twitter to apologise and explain for the bad experience.
Azuki Twin Tigers jacket redemption window is now open for 30 days.
Moonbirds Oddities reveal went live.
Amazon.eth ENS domain owner disregards $1M USDC buyout offer.
Damien Hirst NFT āThe Currencyā holders have until 27th July to decide whether to swap the NFT for a physical copy.
NFT investor/influencer gmoneyĀ announced heās launching a luxury fashion brand calledĀ 9dcc.
Gutter Cat Gang will air a commercial on ESPN throughout TBT (The Basketball Tournament).
š° Deals & Dollars
ChristieāsĀ launches a web3 venture fund, makes first investment in web3 company.
Kevin Roseās PROOF acquires London-based web3 engineering team Divergence.
Uncaged Studios raised $24M to support web3 game developers.
Hologram raised $6.5M for avatars that you can use in video calls.
ā¦and more in this tracker maintained by the MilkRoad team.
Other things I read, listened to and found interesting below.
š Read
Leonardo DaVinci NFT saga in The Art Newspaper.
SBF on potential use cases of crypto š§µ
The Future of web3 Gaming and the Metaverse w/ Arianna Simpson by VentureBeat. Additional context: Andressen Horowitz recently launched a $600M gaming investment fund and Simpson is part of the team deploying it.
š§ Listen
Snowfro & Art Blocks: The Generative Art Evolution by On The Ledger. Erick Calderon aka Snowfro, the creator of Art Blocks, in conversation with Ledger CXO Ian Rogers on how generative art is different from AI, why Art Blocks came to life, on how artists in the NFT space have to be willing to give up control of the next 9,999 outputs that will be their bodywork.
Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to hit me up in the DMās on Twitter or just reply to this email!