Features / 303 posts found
Pplpleasr’s Two-Year Journey to NFT Stardom Highlights the Importance of Humility
So you just became internet famous. Now what? This is the situation Emily Yang faced in March 2021. Better known in the NFT space as pplpleasr, Yang’s was a different kind of fame. Rather than going viral on social media, Yang’s fame came with a payout of half of one million dollars. After the monumental 310 ETH (around $530,000) sale of Yang’s NFT, titled x*y=k, the budding artist was propelled to Web3 stardom. Not only did she become a niche internet microcelebrity overnight, but her influence immediately spread throughout the NFT space, propelled by the creation of her very own […]
SuperRare Co-Founders Explain How the Merge Will Shape the Future of NFTs
The Ethereum merge is still fresh. Not even a month has passed since the second-largest blockchain switched from an energy-intensive proof of work validation mechanism to proof of stake, lowering its energy consumption by 99.5 percent. But context clarifies the magnitude of this change. In the summer before the merge, Ethereum consumed nearly 60 tera-watt hours (TWh) per year, which was roughly on par with the country of Uzbekistan’s annual energy needs. It also meant that the blockchain had a carbon footprint comparable to Azerbaijan’s, emitting roughly 33 megatons (MT) of carbon a year. Take a look at the graph […]
Rug Pull Comeback? Pixelmon CEO Opens Up in an Exclusive Interview
What happens when you wake up with $70 million in the bank and a tattered reputation? If you’re Martin van Blerk, the former head of Pixelmon — the infamous NFT project that spectacularly failed to live up to its promises, enraged swindled community members, and whose floor price tanked as a result — you get humbled. Before Pixelmon’s fateful February 7 launch this year, van Blerk had done an undeniably fantastic job of building up a mountain of expectations for the project, accruing more than 200,000 Twitter followers in the span of roughly a month. He did this mainly by […]
Next Up: Five Ones to Watch in October 2022
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. In our October edition, we’ve curated a list of […]
In Web3, Ownership Could Eclipse the Popularity of Play-to-Earn
If you’ve paid even the slightest bit of attention to the blockchain gaming space, you’re already familiar with a three-letter word that’s come to define this growing gaming sector in the past years: play-to-earn. The world first heard about play-to-earn (P2E) games thanks to Axie Infinity, the massive blockchain gaming juggernaut that aimed to reward players with real money in return for their time and effort. But it’s been a long five years since Axie first showed up on the radars of the terminally online. Today, the game is still reeling from a massive $615 million dollar hack, and the […]
Sex Workers Are Using NFTs to Take Control of Their Content
Two things are true about sex work: it’s popular, and the people who power the industry are still stigmatized, just like the work itself. While more than half the population of the United States says they’ve watched porn, for example, and traffic to websites like PornHub tally more than 40 billion visitors annually (with the U.S. firmly leading the pack), 56 percent of Americans think that porn is “morally wrong.” Sentiments regarding off-camera sex work are similarly divided, though recent years have seen increasing support for the idea of decriminalizing it. The idea of regulating sex work leads to messy […]
NFT Theft: Here’s How the Dark Side of Web3 Gets Away With It
How do NFT thieves get away with heists in the millions (or even billions) of dollars, in plain sight? Crypto transactions happen on the public ledger, so finding the culprit should be simple. Despite this, NFT thieves are nearly impossible to catch. Part of the problem comes with the territory, since successful NFT scammers and thieves live on the cutting edge of the space. But there are deeper reasons for this than simply being familiar with the space — and examining the deeper story could help all of us better shield ourselves from future onslaughts. NFT theft, high art, and […]
Magic Eden Opens Up About Its Controversial NFT Tool
The debate is heating up surrounding creator royalties in the NFT space. Initially instigated in response to platforms like sudoswap, X2Y2, and Yawww emerging as opponents of cookie-cutter creator royalties, the conversation has continued to expand cross-chain, prompting Solana NFT marketplace giant Magic Eden to chime in. In support of creators taking control of their secondary sales kickbacks, Magic Eden has introduced something called MetaShield to its platform. With MetaShield, launched in partnership with NFT marketplace and aggregator Coral Cube, NFT creators now have the ability to review listings and sales of NFTs, giving them a recourse of action if collectors […]
Exclusive: MoonPay CEO Talks Universal Partnership and the Future of NFTs
When asked about MoonPay’s upcoming collaboration with Universal Parks & Resorts, MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright couldn’t help but look back on his childhood experiences in the theme park — particularly its long-running Halloween Horror Nights program. “[I]t’s kind of a weird full circle to me. I never actually used to go with my dad back in that day,” said Soto-Wright in an exclusive video interview with nft now. The tagline for the Horror Nights program was that “they’re there to scare the sh*t out of you […] But the point is that they’re there to scare you.” Through its numerous […]
Sell Shaming and Knee-Jerk Negativity: Why Web3 Needs to Do Better
Criticism is easy. But it’s even easier online, where relative anonymity can tempt people into giving themselves carte blanche to condemn a topic, artistic creation, or personality that has, for whatever reason, become the target of someone’s ire. Examples abound. YouTube comment sections often require an intellectual and moral hazmat suit to navigate, Twitter discourse regularly escalates to mob mentality, and Facebook may as well be the official mascot for the most cringe-worthy political tirades. While breaking with the Web2 contentions above, Web3 isn’t wholly exempt from knee-jerk negativity. Criticism within NFT communities can be even more unsavory than in […]