Metaverse & Web3 Weekly

Ringing Nasdaq’s Opening Bell in the Metaverse?

My team at Journey and I, accompanied by friends, partners, and clients, opened the Nasdaq this week and, as the company’s Chief Metaverse Officer, yours truly was invited to ring the bell. Of course, the bell needed to ring in the metaverse too. So, as it rang in the physical world, it was also rung in a virtual world by a cast of real-time response avatars of the team through support from Manticore Games. We did this LIVE on LIVE TV! It was also a moment to highlight the importance of creating an inclusive future for all.? The bell ringing served as an unofficial kickoff for NFT NYC.?

A new Metaverse standards group

You may be thinking “oh, another metaverse standards group.” But no, The Metaverse Standards Forum to end all metaverse standards groups. Maybe literally. Many of the founding members are existing metaverse standards groups, including the Khronos Group, the W3C, the Open AR Cloud Association, and the Open Geospatial Consortium.

That’s not all that sets this group apart. It’s not just a constellation of standards groups. Other principal members include Adobe, Autodesk, Avataar, Epic Games, HTC, Lamina1, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Sony, Unity, and the XR Association.

Davis leaves Christie's for Yuga

Noah Davis is leaving as the head of NFTs at Christie’s Auction House to become the Brand Leader for Crypto Punks under the umbrella of Yuga Labs, according to a tweet by Davis , confirmed by Yuga Labs. As of this writing, neither Christie’s nor Yuga Labs have officially published the news.

You might not know the name, but you know the work. Davis helped bring NFTs to Christie's in the first place, including working on the auction of Beeple’s “First 5,000 Days,” which arguably brought NFTs mainstream – or, at least, helped establish them in the art market. It will be interesting to see who Christie’s finds to fill the position.

Snoop Dogg and Eminem show off their Bored Apes in new video

Speaking of Yuga Labs, Snoop Dogg and Eminem appear as their Bored Ape avatars in a new video - an elaborate video for their new song “From the D to the LBC. ” The lyrics don’t have to do with NFTs (and be advised that the song is very explicit) but the video is perhaps the most robust example so far of the potential of NFT avatars in media. They gave the world a first glimpse of the video onstage at Ape Fest during NFT NYC. I’m a proud member of the Bored Ape Yatch Club, as a Mutant Ape.

Sutu releases AR Face-Filter NFT line

Renowned digital artist Stuart Campbell, better known as Sutu, has released a series of AR face filters as part of the “Sutuverse.” The “10,000 unique retro futurist avatars” called Neonz Facez are minted on the Tezos blockchain and will be usable in the “Neonz” Web3 game set to launch next month.

Burberry Returns to Blanko’s

Luxury fashion brand Burberry announced a Series B NFT release on Blanko’s Block Party . The return will reward players who joined in on the fun last year, but will also give new players a chance to get in on the game as the initial NFT series sold out shortly after its launch last year.

Snap “Redefines the Body” with Vogue, launches new creator program

In other luxury fashion news, Snap and British Vogue partnered with seven luxury fashion brands to create a collection of lenses and filters. The experiences take on special power at an exhibition currently happening in Cannes, but Snapchatters anywhere can use the app to try on items like Balenciaga earrings, a Gucci hat and glasses, and hats by Kenneth Ize and Richard Quinn.

Snap also announced a new accelerator program to support black creatives. Applications are open now with the first cohort set to be selected in September. Winners will receive support in bringing their own ideas to life but will also receive access to closed-beta experiences from the camera company.

Fed likes the crypto downturn, but not for the reasons you think

Securities and Exchange Commissioner Hester Pierce told Forbes that the current crypto bear market can strengthen the industry over all by shaking out weak projects. Pierce also said that her commission, which she has led since 2018, can learn more about the crypto market and its bad actors because both operate differently during bear markets.

Forbes names most influential CMOs

Also this week, Forbes named the fifty most influential chief marketing officers . The list includes a number of emerging technology names such as Lego’s Julia Goldin, Leslie Berland of Twitter, Activision Blizzard’s Fernando Machado, Salesforce’s Sarah Franklin, Apple’s Greg Joswiak, Meta’s Alex Schultz, DT’s Ulrich Klenke, and Qualcomm’s Don McGuire.

Naturally, the list also includes CMOs from non-tech companies embracing new technology in their outreach strategy. Readers may recognize Burberry’s Rod Manley and Gucci’s Robert Triefus, among others.

MoonPay launches “Self-Service" NFT Minting

MoonPay announced “HyperMint”, a “self-service NFT minting platform.” While the tool is intended to empower independent creators, the organization showed off its ability by starting off with some big-name collaborations including projects with Creative Artists, Universal Pictures, and Death Row Records – owned by Snoop Dogg, who is also a MoonPay investor.

Tribeca recognized immersive experiences

The Tribeca Festival concluded this week and announced the winners of its various awards – including the immersive categories. “Kubo Walks the City ”, an artistic exploration of Japanese-occupied Korea in the 1930s, won the award for the “storyscapes” category. The LGBTQ+ VR Museum, an immersive collection of queer stories told through digital artefacts, won in the “New Voices” category.?

OpenSea switches to a more efficient protocol

OpenSea announced in a blog post that it will be using a new marketplace protocol called Seaport. The new protocol was announced in an earlier blog post this Spring, but was not yet ready for deployment.?

According to the blog series, the biggest differences that users will notice are decreased gas fees, simplified contract language, the end of the account initialization fee, and the ability to bid on multiple pieces – or even entire collections – at once. The blog post also suggests that Seaport is more agile than the Wyvern Protocol that it is replacing, so future updates will be easier to implement.

Gemini changes its fee schedules

Gemini is also changing its fee schedule. The cryptocurrency exchange announced in an email this week that ETH and ERC20 tokens will be subject to a dynamic fee, while non-crypto withdrawals will be subject to a flat fee varying on the specific token.

Snap unveils partnership with Tiffany & Co.

Snap announced a partnership with Tiffany & co. Visitors to the luxury brand’s London location have access to a large-scale location-based experience, but Snappers anywhere have access to a lens featuring the iconic Tiffany bird.

Images of the Tiffany bird as a radiant 3D model in the Snap Lens have been used internally at Snap summits for a while now to showcase evolutions in the AR platform’s rendering technology. This experience finally shows us why the bird made an appearance in the familiar mobile lens.

Jadu continues to bring us into their Mirrorverse

Also on Twitter, Jadu continued expanding their universe . We’ve been seeing NFT items for use in the coming AR game for months now, and last week the company gave us a glimpse at what the avatars are going to look like. This time, a thread peaked at the plot, backstory, and the world in which the game is set.

Seeing these previews of the built out Mirrorverse of Jadu is exciting from the standpoint of someone who is looking forward to playing the game. From a more practical and pragmatic standpoint, a lot of people have already invested in this game and it’s reassuring to see how it is developing. Companies have appeared in the past and made money from assets without ever launching a full experience.

What do crypto prices do to NFT value?

To bring the last two items together, an interesting thing is happening in the world of NFTs. The prices of NFTs are listed in the token of their native blockchain. So, as the price of cryptocurrencies go down, the floor value of NFTs is coming down too. Before NFTs, cryptocurrencies were only currencies so when their value changed it didn’t directly impact the price of digital commodities, like inflation in fiat money.

Some have advocated for raising the floor price of NFTs so that they cost the same dollar amount – even if that means that they end up costing more in terms of cryptocurrency coins. Others, rallying around the cry “one ETH equals one ETH” think that this provides a greater opportunity for people to get tokens and crypto at lower prices – a reward for buying in times when many are too cautious.

He’s a lion who can talk.

To end this week’s article with some serious food for thought, Publicis Groupe announced a Chief Metaverse Avatar . It’s a virtual lion named Leon Avatar. The interesting thing is that we’re not entirely sure what Leon is. The release from Publicis refers to Leon as an “interface” suggesting that the character is an embodied AI, but he seems pretty lively speaking for himself in an introductory video .?

See you next week!