#1: What’s good in NFTs
Happy fathers day for yesterday to all the dads out there, especially the Crypto Dads and the DadBods! For my first edition below, you’ve got Recent news, NFT projects that stood out and why, Hot events happening (who’s joining me at NFT.NYC?) and some Tips and insights. Let’s do it:
Recent News
Artists, activists & builders commemorate Juneteenth with NFTs.
Juneteenth, the annual holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the US saw some innovative projects like Juneteenth holograms by Jadu. This single edition NFT representing three of the most iconic dance trends (10B+ views) to celebrate Black Culture from Hip Hop, Jersey Club & Country Rap. These pieces were captured with 106 cameras and immortalized as holograms, all are AR and metaverse ready with reclaiming credit for the original creators — Jalaiah Harmon, Cookiee Kawaii, Blanco Brown.
MY TAKE: Love everything about this. Great use of technology to highlight powerful and important stories.
A crypto winter during summer?
At time of writing, bitcoin is trading below $USD20,500 ($17,500 on Saturday afternoon) and Ethereum just over $1,000 ($880 on Saturday afternoon). Is this a time when legends and fortunes are made? Yes according to Pomp (Anthony Pompliano)
MY TAKE: Below are the two outcomes, tell me where you sit.
The Godfather of the metaverse is building something: Hello LAMINA1
The person who first coined the term ‘metaverse’, Neil Stephenson (spotted taking selfies with fans at Consensus conference) is launching a new company called LAMINA1 to help build the open metaverse together.
MY TAKE: God-like status + a stellar team with building chops to pull it off is quite the combo. Is the only person missing Matthew Bell?
The latest status symbol flex? — Tag Heuer watches display NFTs on watch face.
“*Excuse me, do you have the time please?”. “Why yes of course, sir… (checks NFT watchface) … its half-past *Doodle”. Weeks after legendary watch maker Tag Heuer started accepting crypto payments, their latest model shows NFTs by synching to digital wallets on smart phones. Buy it now for $1,800USD.
MY TAKE: Seems they nailed first-mover advantage… and this is bang on for the target market. If you can afford a tag watch, chances are you’ve got a decent NFT to display.
Saleforce dives into NFTs: launches NFT Cloud platform.
The move is partly due to ongoing requests from top CMOs (among others) on “where’s my NFT strategy?”. In private beta for now, but the ability to mint and sell NFTs on a trusted platform will get a lot of brands looking at this.
MY TAKE: This is big news. Good luck finding a Fortune 500 brand that’s not powered by Salesforce. So this move greases the wheels for tons of big brands to get into the space.
Does web2 + web3 = web5? Jack Dorsey thinks so with Web5 announcement
Twitter & Square (now Block) founder and web3 hater @jack is now building an extra decentralized web platform with a vision for your data and your identity becoming decentralized using one blockchain: Bitcoin.
MY TAKE: . Wait, what happened to 4? Is this a perfectly timed marketing stunt? Or is bitcoin literally the OG network in Jack’s mind and he’s going all in to fix decentralization once and for all.
NFTs that stood out & why
Can an NFT be Possessed? It seems so, and the outbreak is imminent.
The Possessed NFT is a joint venture by designer, builder, and entrepreneur duo tmw (c,c,c) and Joe (c,c,c) and is launching in 10 days. You can meet Joe here and Tom here. This innovative new NFT project is developed to reawaken your creativity, generate real human interaction through community and challenging each other to experiment through collaboration.
MY TAKE: Definitely one that stands out. This collection ticks all the boxes for remarkable experiences, passionate community, generating real buzz, all from respected founders. Official twitter handle here.
A new NFT sold every 24hrs forever? Introducing NounsDAO.
These NFTs are created at random every day based on a series of attributes e.g. accessories, backgrounds, bodies. The project is ran with a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) where members vote on proposals / ideas on project decisions. The technology that generates Nouns, and the art, is open-source — so anybody may build on it.
MY TAKE: interesting for two reasons. 1 — a unique concept with every 24hr creation. 2 — Nouns have been selling for up to 84 Eth even in a bear market.
No plan. Out of nowhere. Crazy behavior… Say hello to the Goblins.
The Goblins confused many (check out their site), but excited enough to make this an overnight success. This started with a free public mint, then soared to an average price of over 8ETH at its peak and over $37m of these have been traded. These are spooky goblins are used as profile pictures on social, each has unique characteristics and accessories. Here’s why its crazy: intentionally misspelled words everywhere, no roadmap, no discord, no utility, live audio meetups on Twitter spaces with people making annoying mumbled sounds and talking gibberish??
MY TAKE: Absolutely flies in the face of typical projects that have a solid strategy to the point of being laughable. Shows that going against the grain in unexpected ways with a touch (or ton) of crazy vibes and perhaps perfect timing can create a flash in a pan movement… and make anonymous founders rich.
Hot events happening
NFT.NYC — the Superbowl of NFTs started yesterday!
The best NFT builders, thought leaders and ideas hit New York starting tomorrow. In a pre-event interview when asked about tips for trading collectibles, event producer, Jodee Rich says “Trading is the least interesting part of the ecosystem. We want thought leadership around NFTs”.
MY TAKE: This quote is not surprising given the current downturn, but also not surprising given the shift from just art collectibles to utility offerings of NFTs (the experiences that can be unlocked by the holder). That’s the territory we’re in now. This event will be awesome. Who wants to meet there?
Cannes- for many, the Oscars of the creative industry. Started yesterday!
Artists and brands see their creativity rewarded with ‘Lions’ awards at Cannes — and the effect of their thinking and execution are often driving force for business, for change and for good in the world. And the first NFTCannes Summit is taking place. Omnicom is broadcasting live from the event on the Radio Omnicom app, details here.
Consensus took place June 9–12 in Austin, TX.
For those committed to a decentralizing the world — this event covered Finance, investing, NFTs, DeFi, regulation, Web 3 and the metaverse. Here are some key takeaways (thread).
A few Tips & Insights
Starting an NFT collection and want to be sure to sell out?
Its not as hard as you might think. Hint — explore the power of a Reserve list.
How web3 unlocks the holy grail for brands.
The holy grail for brands is a direct connection to customers. Previously only possible if a brand had a customer’s email. The web3 wallet is this new connection. I threw together some slides together on the how and why.
That’s it.
I’m experimenting with format here, so let me know if this was helpful and please share with those who may benefit 👍.