Art Basel Miami Through the Lens of Web3 Polkadot, Generative Art, and Gaming/Esports

“The biggest criticism of Polkadot is its lack of marketing; this lack of marketing is by design; it is software built for engineers, not an investment mechanism for retail. The aim of Polkadot was not to create any sort of alternative currency or method of payment.”?

We were very excited to speak at the Miami Web3 Conference, for the first time publicly on behalf of the Web3 Foundation and Polkadot on Less Trust, More Truth: Polkadot’s Native Token (DOT) Has Morphed and Is Not a Security. Please Join Us TODAY for a Twitter Spaces - December 6, 2022 at Noon ET / 6pm CET - to discuss. See Web3 Foundation blogpost here.

For the past week and a half, Miami has been brimming with artists, collectors, developers, and creators who were, despite the tech and crypto market malaise, as actively as engaged as ever.?Last year, the press comment that really resonated with us was, ‘2020 was a crypto conference, while in 2021, only Tezos remained.’ This year, it was more of the same, but different - crypto continued to dwindle, while Tezos was the only Layer-1 protocol which has literally and figuratively staked a claim on the inside of the Art Basel gates. Its spacey, intriguing space at the North end of the center, was passed by all who entered the main hall. Tezos and its accompanying generative art platform, Fxhash, commanded a presence, connecting the cutting edge world of digital to the contemporary art scene. Pace Verso, featuring digital works in collaboration with Art Blocks, were there too, and other NFT communities like?Bored Apes?and?Doodles?arrived in numbers to token-gated parties and IRL pop-up events.

Web3 Gaming is Going to Look a Lot More Like Gaming + Esports (Think Authentic Community) Than Crypto??

In addition to the on-stage discussion referenced above, we mainly stayed in our Web3 gaming, esports and entertainment lane - a highlight event was the FaZe Clan Together gathering, which included FaZe talent, partner Moonpay, disruptive gaming companies like Mythical, and an icing-on-the-cake meeting of?Betty Deadfellaz?and?ThankYouX.?(Full disclosure: SGC’s CEO Angela Dalton is incredibly biased as a member of the FaZe corporate board, and as an early investor in Mythical.)

Mythical CEO John Linden regularly makes a point that we need this space to be accessible by real gamers, or hundreds of millions of people. Reddit seems to have cracked the code by calling NFTs “digital collectibles” which is more in line with what they actually are. We first talked about Reddit’s Collectible Avatars on a gaming?Twitter spaces?in October. At the time, the free NFTs had been claimed by 2.8m of Reddit’s 50m DAUs, and had about $11m in secondary trading volume on OpenSea. Since November, holders of Collectible Avatars have?increased?from roughly 2.8m Redditors to 3.8m! Secondary sales units have also nearly doubled from 52k to 93k, while total value is roughly flat from $11.07m to $11.65m.

"My background and experience gave me the credibility and the context to be able to explain it (entertainment disruption) to people in the traditional entertainment world. Web3 is similar in that it requires translation - translation for people who are somehow resistant. Sometimes mindsets are based on something and they are resistant to change." - Lee Trink, CEO FaZe Clan?

FaZe is taking part in the transition from Web2 to Web3 with their digital ecosystem?FaZe Forever, accessible through the?V.A.S. Cartridge, a free-to-claim digital collectible facilitated by Moonpay. The gaming tastemakers deliver a story behind the cartridge involving a world called?Arcadia, populated by people just like us, and plagued with rogue members of society called?Centris?(sentries),?who steal data, advertise, and censor the digital world they live in.?The Cartridge is only available to claim for a limited time and will unlock a myriad of features in the future.

FaZe is a company that has pushed the boundaries of what gaming is, reshaping the perception of video games from a hobby to a sought-after skill set and massive entertainment opportunity. We think FaZe will keep innovating with FaZe Forever, whether it's by creating in-game items as NFTs, bringing exclusive experiences with brands and streamers to players, or by helping define the standards of the new age of gaming that's being created.

Porsche

First teasing their NFT project through twitter on November 21, Porsche announced at Miami Art Week an in-depth look at their digital debut, built for, and around the automotive community. The 7,500 piece collection is centered around the iconic Porsche 911, and will bring holders through journeys akin to “television series,” says Deniz Keskin, Director of Brand Management and Partnerships. Starting next month, holders can choose between three initial paths: Performance, Heritage, and Lifestyle. Each one offers unique digital experiences and will affect the appearance of each NFT, as well as provide holders access to additional digital and IRL content.?

The project is designed in collaboration with architect Patrick Vogel and his studio, ALT/SHIFT, who will turn each NFT into 3D models with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. Alongside their NFT explorations, Porsche has also mentioned they are looking into how digital technologies can enhance the vehicle purchasing experience, supply chains, and the metaverse. We’re hoping the combination of NFTs rendered in Epic’s Unreal and the explorations of the metaverse mean we’ll see official Porsche-branded cars in games!

If you want to keep track of Porsche’s NFT yourself, check out their twitter @eth_porsche, website: nft.porsche.com, and Discord https://discord.gg/eth-porsche for all updates.