NFT ERA

2022-04-02 19:30:18 ​​Reddit Integrates Ethereum NFTs

Reddit, one of the biggest social network in the world, has incorporated ethereum based NFTs within its platform.

Four NFTs (pictured above) were sold for as much as $400,000 each to use as an avatar within the Reddit platform.

You can’t use your own NFT as an avatar. If you don’t have one of the four, you’ll have to just use a given jpeg.

The extremely limited NFTs available suggests this is probably just an initial test to see how integrating NFTs might work on Reddit.

This can easily be expanded by allowing people to mint their own avatar NFTs, either as a sale or just as a function.

Or you can use any NFT you have after connecting with Metamask as required by the platform.

Their function is then to just display them on your profile page which they might be trying to make more prominent in the new Reddit design.

It could also be just a way to get people to switch from the old Reddit design, which still remains very popular, to the new one.

Twitter has also tried to integrate NFTs as a profile picture, with it not too clear how that went as we haven’t come across many of them in the wild here at Trustnodes.

There are privacy concerns, especially if the user’s ethereum address is shown as Twitter does, because then you can potentially see someone’s wealth and their financial activity.

At scale, this can all be graphed to de-pseudonymize blockchain addresses, requiring significant care in execution to not basically open source your bank account.

A problem that OpenSea doesn’t have because the blockchain address is the username and the account.

Reddit and Twitter can also allow for blockchain accounts, with the user then giving it a nickname if they want, unless they’re comfortable with attaching their ethereum address to their real name.

Thus both Reddit and Twitter are probably taking it slow in integrating NFTs, but this new invention has now become sufficiently widespread for both to try them out. Open / Comment

2022-04-01 15:35:00 ​​88% of Surveyed High-Net-Worth Art Collectors Interested in Buying NFTs

A whopping 88% of high-net-worth (HNW) traditional art collectors say they are interested in buying digital art in the form of NFTs, a new report on the art market for 2022 has found.

According to The Art Market 2022 report, which is published jointly by the annual art exhibition Art Basel and Swiss banking giant UBS, activity in the market for digital art will likely remain strong in 2022, as more traditional art collectors enter the space.

And while 88% of the HNW individuals who responded to the survey said that they were interested in buying NFTs, only 4% said they were “not at all interested.”

The report noted the growing interest in NFTs, stating:

“One of the most significant developments in the wider art industry in 2021 was the explosion of interest in NFTs, even if for now most NFT sales have been outside the traditional art market.”

Further, the report also noted that more than half – 56% to be precise – of the surveyed HNW investors said that they were not just interested, but were actually planning to buy digital art.

The figure was even higher among collectors who identified as millennials, with 61% of them planning to make an NFT purchase.

Also, higher-than-average interest was also seen among collectors from Taiwan, Singapore, and the UK, where more than 60% of respondents said they are planning to buy one or more NFTs.

The figures were based on survey responses from 2,339 high-net-worth collectors who are “active in the art market” across a number of large countries, including the US, UK, Mainland China, Hong Kong, and others.

“There are no signs that the interest in NFTs will abate in 2022,” the report commented based on the findings. It added that 2022 is likely to be “a more telling year” for assessing whether the growth that has been seen in the NFT market can be sustained.

Meanwhile, the report also outlined some risks for the NFT sector, saying that “anyone can mint an NFT for a very low cost.”

This can happen “even if they have no right to the content, and with intellectual property infringements often difficult to contest due to the anonymity conferred by them,” the art market report said.

It added that low-quality art and outright frauds in the market for digital art have made it prone to “speculative buying and selling,” and said this has become easier to engage in thanks to the much higher transaction speeds in the digital world. Open / Comment

2022-03-31 15:15:00 ​​Meet the Steel Company that Wants to Become an NFT Brokerage

A publicly listed South Korean steel company has reiterated its intention to reposition itself as a crypto brokerage and NFT issuer.
The firm – Jaeil Steel – is listed on the KOSDAQ exchange, but at a summit of major and minority shareholders, agreed to change its name to Jesco Holdings. The company first announced its intentions back in mid-March, Newsis reported at the time, following the resignation of one of its directors – who left in January to head a Swiss subsidiary of the BitMEX crypto exchange, as reported by the exchange itself.

The former director has since “decided to maintain a close cooperative relationship” with the firm and its “new virtual currency and NFT projects,” Fn News reported yesterday.

A number of proposals made by minority shareholders were rejected at the meeting. The minority shareholders – a group of six individuals – had opposed the crypto move, and had gone so far as to file an application for an injunction at the Ansan branch of the Suwon District Court last month.

The group had demanded that new directors and auditors be appointed, but appear to have failed in their bid to derail the company’s plans to “go crypto.” The majority shareholders stated that they had “rejected” the injunction application “according to due legal procedures.”

Instead, the firm reiterated its wishes to change its business avenues to include a digital contents business, a virtual reality platform development department, a blockchain-based software development arm – as well as “virtual currency-related business operations.”

It also outlined its wishes to launch a range of NFT services, including minting, authentication, brokerage, and sales – in addition to continuing with its steel-related business operations.

In March, the firm also said it would appoint a number of experts in fintech, crypto, and NFTs as “outside directors.”

Per EDaily, the firm posted annual operating profits of over USD 4.3m in February, in addition to a growth of over 120% in sales. Open / Comment

2022-03-30 16:15:00 ​​Visa Program to Help Creatives Build Their Businesses With NFTs

Payments giant Visa (V) unveiled a Creator Program where selected small business owners in fields like music, fashion and film will be supported in expanding their operations through the use of non-fungible tokens (NFT).

“NFTs have the potential to become a powerful accelerator for the creator economy,” Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto, said in a statement. “Through the Visa Creator Program, we want to help this new breed of small and micro businesses tap into new mediums for digital commerce.”

According to Visa, the Creator Program is a one-year immersion into the world of NFTs, with support focused in technical and product mentorship, community building, access to thought leaders, exposure to Visa clients and partners, and a one-time stipend.

The so-called creator economy has an estimated market size of over $100 billion, according to Visa, citing data from Influencer Marketing Hub.

One of the first Creator Program participants is former Major League Baseball second baseman Micah Johnson, who launched his NFT character Aku last year.

The news comes a week after the company’s crypto product lead left for a new opportunity in Web 3 payments. Open / Comment

2022-03-29 15:30:00 ​​Raul Pal urged the creators of NFT collections to develop effective tokenomics

Former Goldman Sachs manager Raul Pal believes that the era of social tokens has come with the advent of NFT collections with an actively growing community and some shortage of tokens on the market.

Raoul Pal, CEO of Real Vision, after acquiring NFT from the Bored Ape (BAYC) collection, stated that non-interchangeable tokens from such well-known series create the direction of social tokens, that is, crypto assets representing shares in communities.

"I believe that the future belongs to social tokens, and this is the way forward. You start with NFT communities (the Thousand True Fans model) and then build a social graph. I heard about a potential social token around BAYC, so I focused on it so as not to be distracted by others," Pal commented on his purchase.

The ex-Goldman Sachs manager expressed the opinion that collectible tokens will eventually be integrated into various aspects of society and the economy. Pal noted that bitcoin can be considered as non-interchangeable tokens only in another community and with other functions.

"I believe in NFT as a Universal Basic Equity and the future of culture and community, municipalities and charities, business models and economics. In the end, BTC is just a social token with unique attributes, and all these social tokens work for various models of digital sovereign states, which I think we are moving towards," he concluded.

Pal called on the creators of NFT to create effective tokenomics aimed at promoting projects.

"I don't think social tokens are get—rich-quick schemes. They grow slowly if the community creates a utility that has long-term value. Create a utility, an active growing community and some quantitative deficit, and over time you will create value, everyone can participate either by investing in a utility token (as a deferred future utility), or by adding value to the community and receiving a reward in the form of tokens. The brand or the creator are on equal terms. All the incentives have been agreed," the macroeconomist noted. Open / Comment