Features / 303 posts found
Next Up: Five Ones to Watch in March 2023
In 2021, a new creator economy was born on the blockchain. Since NFTs took center stage, artists have achieved NFT superstardom, billion-dollar brands have been forged in just a few months, and many lives have been utterly transformed time and again. Yet, the most inspiring thing about the NFT space is the number of artists of all creeds and mediums who have found community and support by embracing this technology. In keeping with our mission to empower creators, we present Next Up — our monthly franchise dedicated to showcasing rising artists. Although the NFT space has changed significantly over the […]
NFT Marketplace Blur Is Beating OpenSea, but Will It Last?
The Web3 landscape is shifting. With the explosive rise of the NFT marketplace and aggregator Blur in recent weeks and months, OpenSea now finds itself in an uncomfortable and unfamiliar position: it now has a legitimate contender for the title of NFT marketplace leader. If Blur’s steadily growing presence since its launch last year wasn’t indicative of this change, the previous month certainly has been. In the last 30 days alone, the platform has done $1.24 billion in trading volume. And OpenSea? Nearly $383 million. In the aftermath of Blur’s token launch on February 14, activity on the platform has […]
How NFT Misinformation is Harming the Environment
In 2019, wildlife photographer Frank Liu took a shot of a spotted Zebra. The photo was covered in National Geographic, Forbes, Smithsonian Magazine, and featured on the cover of several South African publications. Today, Liu is trying to move beyond his Web2 legacy and traditional media. He’s traveling the world building a community of artists interested in facilitating wildlife conservation using Web3 technologies. But there’s a problem. A combination of blockchain fear-mongering and misunderstandings about NFTs and the environment have thwarted his conservation efforts — and what might be one of the greatest funding opportunities many small NGOs have ever […]
Women Rise Founder Maliha Abidi on Art, Education, and Web3
There’s a delay between the moment that Maliha Abidi’s avatar flickers onto the screen and connects to her audio. In those first silent seconds, a chartreuse, stretched canvas reveals itself propped on the wall behind her. A crescent of a woman’s painted form, a graphic rose tucked into dark waves of hair, creeps out from behind Abidi’s silhouette. The woman’s outline is of Madam Noor Jehan, an award-winning singer and actress who made waves as the first female Pakistani film director, inspiring countless generations of women. Abidi partially eclipses Jehan in the frame, which seems fitting because although she is […]
17 Influential Black Artists Shaping the Future of Web3
In 2023, crypto is seemingly becoming less of a stomping ground for wealthy white men. While racism and prejudice undoubtedly still exist on the blockchain — and the “crypto bro” stereotype has undoubtedly affected the formation of Web3 thus far — the NFT space has slowly but surely become a more equitable place for people of color to find community, support, and prosperity. From POC creators leading the charge in Web3 music to helping popularize IRL NFT activations to bootstrapping organizations so other marginalized groups can flourish, there has been no lack of decentralized Black excellence in the past few […]
5 Web3 Projects Fighting for Racial Justice
Web3 isn’t necessarily known for its inclusiveness or its diversity. And while the NFT space needs to ensure it’s doing everything it can to not pigeonhole itself into a one-dimensional club for the financial and social elite, the perception that it’s dominated by white men is increasingly becoming a stereotype. According to research from Charles Schwab, a larger percentage of Black Americans own crypto than white Americans. Twenty-five percent own some form of crypto compared to just 15 percent of white Americans. That statistical split jumps to 38 and 29 percent, respectively, when looking at investors under 40 years old. […]
Web2 Media Is Broken. The Future of Media Is Tokenized.
“We need more reach.” “This will get a lot of clicks.” “The client won’t be happy with these numbers.” We’ve heard these narratives nonstop since our media careers began more than 15 years ago. They are thought patterns that have been normalized in newsrooms and ad agencies across the world. And this is just the beginning of the issues with the current state of media. The truth is this: Web2 media is broken. The traditional models and ways of doing things in media just don’t work anymore. This behavior did not come out of the blue. So how did we […]
Neal Stephenson Reveals How He Created the Metaverse
When New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson first coined the term metaverse in his 1992 cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, he set a high bar for other science fiction authors to come, including the worlds subsequently created in films like The Matrix. His immersive literary technique and attention to detail in each of his works – Seveneves, Anthem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon – have created a world that, today, we are actually working to build: this next-generation information era, dubbed Web3. As one of the most popular sci-fi books of all time, Snow Crash’s first inception was a graphic novel undertaken by […]
Deep Fake: The World’s Largest AI Art Exhibition
The AI art movement is accelerating fast. And because the very concept of AI art sits at the center of one of the most contentious cultural debates in recent history, the creators driving the trend forward seemingly have both nothing and everything to prove to those attempting to delegitimize the technology and its use. Against a hostile backdrop, artists continue to push the boundaries of what can be accomplished with the help of civilization’s latest art tools. And the proliferation of those tools and the enthusiasm with which they’ve been adopted by millions across the globe means that physical exhibitions […]
Ordinals: Bitcoin Congestion Is Actually a Blessing in Disguise
Bitcoin Ordinals are here and seemingly here to stay. But not everyone is happy about their presence. Because Ordinals increase traffic on the blockchain, seasoned HODLers and those accustomed to using Bitcoin solely for its primary purpose (transacting) have raised concerns about the congestion these digital artifacts might be causing. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that when independent developer and Taproot Wizards founder Udi Wertheimer purposefully orchestrated the largest block and largest transaction in Bitcoin’s history, the keepers of tradition weren’t thrilled. But to industry disruptors like him, maxing out BTC’s block size and its corresponding effects aren’t a […]