Features / 303 posts found
What Blur’s Blend Protocol Means for NFTs
Once again, the NFT marketplace and aggregator Blur has shaken up the NFT space. On May 1, the company announced the launch of Blend, a peer-to-peer lending protocol built alongside Web3 investment firm Paradigm. Blur claims the new protocol will help unlock liquidity for NFTs and help grow the market overall. In the first 24 hours of its release, Blend became the number one lending protocol both by volume and users on the Ethereum blockchain. Unsurprisingly, the launch has been met with praise, criticism, and everything in between. Blur is no stranger to controversy, but its latest move is its […]
How a Digital Artist Used Chat GPT to Create a $50M Meme Coin
Anything can happen in Web3. In fact, one of the most alluring aspects of the crypto and NFT space is its Wild West-like nature; play your cards right, and you might stumble into generational wealth in a way that just isn’t possible anywhere else. And while scams, fraud, and ruin certainly rank among the seemingly endless possibilities the space has to offer, it’s important to remember that innovation and even altruism do, too. One of the more encouraging stories Web3 has seen in the last few days is the rise of $TURBO, a meme cryptocurrency created as both an experiment […]
The Rise of Token-Gated Streaming: A Guide to the Benefits and Risks
The incentives of being a music fan have been waning over the years. Ticket prices continue to skyrocket thanks to monopolized ticket marketplaces, and streaming prices are also rising. As a result, attendees are finding it less rewarding to show up for their favorite acts, and artists are having an increasingly difficult time mustering connections with their core audiences. All in all, the music economy feels incredibly constricted. This is precisely why creators and consumers have been turning to the blockchain. It’s a way to circumvent some of the worst features of the music industry. Now, some of the NFT-enabled features […]
Mad Lads: What To Know About the Project Reviving Solana
The Solana NFT ecosystem has been facing a few challenges as of late. With the larger-than-life DeGods and y00ts collections opting to migrate off of the blockchain and top Solana marketplace Magic Eden finding it hard to appease both collectors and creators simultaneously, many of the chain’s devout supporters have been left wondering what’s next. Yet, sometimes, all it takes is a single NFT project to act as a catalyst for a major market shift. We’ve seen it happen on the positive end of the spectrum with Bored Apes, Azuki, Checks, and more. All of these helped revive ETH at […]
Next Up: Five Ones to Watch in May 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 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 last […]
What Will It Really Take To Make Web3 Mainstream?
It seems that everyone plans to onboard the next billion people to Web3. Nike, Time Magazine, Budweiser, Nickelodeon, and a host of other influential brands (nft now included!) have all promised to onboard the masses. But what will it really take to bring blockchain tech from niche to mainstream? Looking at the progress so far, it seems very few have any serious idea of how to make the metaverse a reality. So, to try and determine what might break down the barrier between Web2 and Web3 once and for all, we turned to experts and holders of the Now Pass […]
10,000 Photos in 20 Min: Jeremy Cowart on His Attempt To Make Art History
The more Web3 evolves, the more challenging it is for artists and builders to innovate within its walls. Gamified drops, unique burn mechanics, and more are all now commonplace in the NFT ecosystem. Each new pioneering dynamic raises the stakes just a bit higher. This is a blessing for collectors, but it puts the onus on creators to stay on their toes and do something, well, new. Thankfully, even in the depths of an increasingly brutal bear market, the space isn’t short on creatives willing to step up to the plate. Enter visual artist Jeremy Cowart, a painter, illustrator, and […]
How BrainDrops Is Curating AI Art’s Future
To say most of the discussion surrounding artificial intelligence in the last six months has centered around AI art tools is no injustice to the technology’s broader context. While programs like ChatGPT have done much to showcase AI’s disruptive capabilities in the public’s eye, its advancements in AI art tools that have stirred up the most uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, and conversations about what it means to be human in an age where human exceptionalism finds increasingly fewer places to hide. It’s not that artists using machine intelligence is anything new — creatives have been exploring the potential of AI to […]
Beyond Ordinals: Discover the Rich Tapestry of the Bitcoin Ecosystem
Since the launch of the Ordinals protocol by software engineer Casey Rodarmar on January 21, 2023, almost 2,000,000 “digital artifacts” have been created — ranging from memes to massive NFT projects like Taproot Wizards. But despite the explosive rise and frenzied media coverage of these seemingly new “Bitcoin NFTs,” developers have been focused on improving the protocol’s functionality since at least as early as 2012. In short, there have always been ways to mint and launch assets on Bitcoin’s underlying blockchain. These tools began with things like Bitcoin Colored Coins and, later, platforms like Counterparty in 2014, which helped lay the […]
Jenkins the Valet: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of the Azurian PFP
Web3 has seen many instances of Bored Ape holders monetizing their NFTs, taking full advantage of their IP rights through ape-branded clothing brands, food retailers, or other ventures. While there are 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs, some have gained more popularity than others due to these creative business endeavors. A prime example is Jenkins the Valet, a fictional character created by Tally Labs and dramatized around Bored Ape #1798, who acts as the Head Valet of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. But Jenkins’ story isn’t that straightforward. To help tell it, along with the story of Tally Labs’ subsequent controversial Azurbala […]