Metaversal is a Bankless newsletter for weekly level-ups on NFTs, virtual worlds, & collectibles
Dear Bankless Nation,
The FTX blowup has been a stark reminder that people who can abuse a tremendous amount of power often will.
Amid the ugliness of this episode, we’re also reminded why decentralized finance is so important.
We can’t build the future of crypto on centralized exchanges.
We never could.
DeFi.
Through disintermediating and opening up finance, DeFi can help prevent the sorts of abuses of power that have shocked the cryptoeconomy this week.
That said, there’s still a ton of work to do to help rebuild sentiments and advance DeFi further. DeFi 1.0 has been a great start, but new experiments and innovations are needed to usher in a second DeFi golden era.
Toward that end, NFTs are a way forward. From underpinning decentralized credit scores to prediction markets, NFTs will play an increasingly pivotal role in reenvisioning and actualizing DeFi’s full potential.
Why’s that, you ask? Because NFTs unlock new possibilities around identity and sociality that DeFi simply didn’t have in its initial push. These new possibilities will make for new evolutions.
In other words, DeFi will rise out of the FTX fallout stronger than ever, and the DeFi x NFT crossroads is going to be a big part of that. In the meantime thanks for reading everyone, hold in there, and let’s get you up to speed on the biggest NFT headlines of the week for now.
-WMP
🙏 Sponsor: Sorare – Collect, Play, Win. Own Your Game.✨
📣 General NFT News
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Daylight, a wallet discovery tool I recently covered, is moving out of closed beta next week.
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JPG, an NFT curation protocol I contribute to, published A Case for Crowdsourced Information in Web3.
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MetaMask launched a bridge aggregator — fyi in case you’re trading NFTs on other EVM chains like Arbitrum or Optimism.
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OpenSea unveiled an onchain enforcement tool for NFT royalties and, after some deliberation, confirmed it will continue supporting royalties for all NFT collections.
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OpenZeppelin added support for ERC721Consecutive, which allows for efficient batch minting of NFTs.
🏆 Digital Collectibles
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Blitmap provided a preliminary overview of its upcoming Logos “villains” collection, each of which will come in three versions like so:
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Deepak Thapliyal, the CEO of Chain, is considering auctioning or fractionalizing his considerable NFT collection:
DMs open. Check them out👇
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LooksRare is launching an NFT marketplace aggregator service.
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Yuga Labs rolled out news.yuga.com, the updated home for all things BAYC, MAYC, CryptoPunks, and Meebits.
🎨 Cryptoart
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Drift became the first artist to sell out an NFT drop on Instagram with the 50-edition release of Learning to Handle Change:
Today at 5pm PT / 8pm ET I will be listing an edition of (50) Digital Collectibles on Instagram for $999.99 each, titled ‘Learning to Handle Change’. All collectors are eligible to receive a signed print
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Manifold will give artists the ability to track their royalty histories across different collectors and platforms.
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Nifty Gateway introduced the Creator Royalty Standard system and the Creator Royalty Coalition.
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SuperRare reconfirmed its commitment to artist and collector royalties.
🎮 Decentralized Gaming
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Axie Infinity published its Esports Grant 3 schedule and associated AXS allocations.
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Pirate Nation, an upcoming NFT adventure game, saw its Founder’s Pirates sell out in minutes.
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Sorare kicked off its Global Cup ‘22 event.
💽 Music NFTs
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Catalog introduced its latest artist arrivals.
🌐 Virtual Worlds
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Decentraland published its Ultimate Guide to the Metaverse Music Festival 2022.
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OPCraft, which I also recently covered, introduced View Mode:
> Scroll around the world in the 2D Map
> Double click anywhere to spawn in 3D and explore the game world and discover player’s creations
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
💎 DeFi x NFTs
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Hook Protocol, a system for NFT call options, introduced royalties on option sales:
Weekly action steps
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🆕 Read Insights from the FTX implosion in Bankless
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🗣️ Watch the Bankless x UpOnly therapy stream
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🌱 Watch Ethereum is Punk on Green Pill
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🙇 Catch up on my other write-ups from this week:
Author Bio
William M. Peaster is a professional writer and creator of Metaversal—a Bankless newsletter focused on the emergence of NFTs in the cryptoeconomy. He’s also recently been contributing content to Bankless, JPG, and beyond!
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Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here.
I am a technology and gaming writer by profession. I love NFT’s and play to earn gaming such as Axie Infinity. I love writing about anything on the blockchain, especially gaming and entertainment. I often sing, write or draw to portray my feelings. When it comes to my free time or you can say ‘ME-TIME’, I love to play with my cat, sleep an extra hour, or play my favorite video games.
