web3 / 509 posts found
What’s the Difference Between Rare NFTs and Rare Traditional Art?
Rarity is a priceless resource for curators and collectors. From one-of-a-kind oil paintings to vintage baseball cards, or even giant Cheetos emerging from regular-size consumer bags, people enjoy things that break from the norm. However, the vast world of art is generally ruled by supply and demand, which makes rarity (often interchangeable with the term scarcity) an elusive and ambiguous term to define concretely. While 1/1 works are widely accepted as the highest form of any single craft, rarity itself isn’t actually an official measurement of appraisal, but one of many factors that helps to determine the value of a […]
A Guide to Meebits: More than Just 3D CryptoPunks
Although perhaps best known for kicking off the PFP NFT craze with the CryptoPunks collection in 2017, Larva Labs didn’t rest on its heels following that massive “W.” Since then, it’s launched Autoglyphs, an on-chain generative NFT art collection, and of course, Meebits. A 20,000-piece collection of PFP NFTs hosted on the Ethereum blockchain may very well represent the future of this type of NFT. Launched in May 2021, Meebits can be viewed as the spiritual successor to the still-iconic CryptoPunks collection. And, if CryptoPunks functions as the ideal 2D avatar for Web2 social media accounts, Meebits aims to be […]
Bigger Than Middle Earth? An Inside Look at Forgotten Runes Wizards Cult
In the world of traditional media, IPs often have to wait to receive a big-budget adaptation before mainstream audiences embrace them. For instance, George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones took 15 years to receive an adaptation — and audiences across a wide gamut of demographics ate it up. However, in the spirit of Web3 making new approaches possible, the Forgotten Runes Wizard’s Cult hopes to flip that meta on its head. “We’re speedrunning the next big fantasy franchise,” said Forgotten Runes co-creator Dotta in an interview with nft now. How big? “Bigger than Middle Earth, Westeros, and Hogwarts combined,” […]
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 […]
Linagee Name Registrar: The Oldest Ethereum NFT Contract Rediscovered
When it comes to historic NFT projects, the general rule is: older means better. Although legacy collections like CryptoPunks, CryptoKitties, and Curio Cards have gained newfound popularity in the last few years, the fact that we can trace their provenance back through the annals of the blockchain contributes a wealth of historical and cultural value to these projects. Yet, while many collectors pride themselves on obtaining relic tokens of old, it seems a single, classic NFT collection has eluded even those who purport to be NFT historians. With the resurgence of Linagee Name Registrar, the collective NFT community has found itself […]
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 […]
Gala: A Platform Spending Billions to Build a Web3 Powerhouse
For Web3 companies in the entertainment industry, it’s crucial to understand how flexible NFT minting can be, especially when the goal is to onboard as many people to Web3 as possible. This is why diversifying platforms still under construction is so common among firms making their ascent in the space. And Gala is attempting to do just this. Perhaps best known for its Gala Games and Gala Music platforms, it took steps to expand its lead within Web3 via the August reveal of Gala Film, a platform that offers users the opportunity to enjoy “watch-to-earn” mechanics. Calling Gala “ambitious” may […]