The Week in Facts n°10
We kept an eye around the world on facts and news we feel you need to know, check them out!
Mobility: Mercedes Benz and Polygon launch Acentrik for data sharing on the blockchain
According to reports, Daimler South East Asia, part of the Mercedes Benz Group, this week launched Acentrik: the new Polygon-based platform for sharing data.?
Essentially, Acentrik was a pilot project started two years ago by Daimler with AI organization Ocean Protocol for decentralized data exchange.
Today, that pilot project has become the new platform that uses Polygon (MATIC). Acentrik is not industry-specific. So it could be used for clinical trial data, insurance information, or anything else. And this is where it comes in.?
Acentrik specifically targets business users, including Know Your Business and broad access controls.?
Data is not stored on the blockchain, but an NFT represents each dataset, while a hash of metadata is stored with it.?
Transactions are executed on Polygon’s public blockchain or the Ethereum Rinkeby test net.?
Users can pay for the data with a stablecoin or another cryptocurrency. The MATIC crypto will be needed to pay Polygon’s fees.
This is the latest blockchain implementation in a big industrial company. For sure, it can be considered an experiment that can be a reference for other companies that want to make tests with web3 technologies.
Fashion: Balenciaga’s Demna Tapped by President Zelensky to Raise Funds for Ukraine
Demna, artistic director of Balenciaga, will be an ambassador for United24, the fundraising platform for relief efforts in Ukraine established by the country's President Volodymyr Zelensky.
As part of the partnership, Balenciaga will distribute a T-shirt on Thursday to raise funds and awareness for United24's Rebuild Ukraine fund, dedicated to restoring the country's critical infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and roads.?
One hundred percent of net profits from sales of the T-shirt will be donated to the fund, United24 said in a statement.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, Demna was one of the first fashionable public figures to address the humanitarian crisis, and he did so in a memorable way. Having fled his native Georgia at the age of 12 after Russia's invasion of the country,?
"the war in Ukraine unleashed the pain of a past trauma that I've been carrying since 1993,"?
the designer wrote in a letter published on the sidelines of his Fall/Winter 2022 runway show, during which models trudged through wind and snow carrying their belongings in garbage bags while explosion-like flashes lit up the skyline.
Others chosen for the initiative included American actor Liev Schreiber, pop group Imagine Dragons, retired soccer star Andriy Shevchenko, and Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina.
NFT: Free-to-Mint NFT Hit The Saudis Becomes Second Most Traded Collection on OpenSea Over Past Week
A new free-to-mint NFT project called The Saudis has become the second most traded collection on major marketplace OpenSea over the past seven days.
At the time of writing, the collection has notched over ETH 7,000 (USD 7.4m) in trading volume over the past week, only second to popular NFT collection CryptoPunks which has scored ETH 9,574 (USD 10m), according to rankings by OpenSea.?
Similar to other free-to-mint hits, the project’s momentum is fueled by its vocal army of social media users, many of whom are creating Saudi Arabia-inspired meme videos to spread the project’s hype. (Video)
The Saudis are the latest hit NFT collection that comes just a month after another free-to-mint project Goblin Town made waves across the NFT market with its performance. In a month, Goblin Town sales dropped 60%, the floor price slipped almost 4%, while the number of owners increased 30%, per data from Cryptoslam.
WEB3: Uncertainty around French laws prompted F1 racers to remove crypto branding
Spectators could not see Crypto.com’s logos during Formula One's French Grand Prix, while staff from Alfa Romeo, AlphaTauri, and Alpine reportedly removed crypto-related branding.?
Luxury car manufacturer Alfa Romeo, which participated in the French Grand Prix, reportedly removed branding related to crypto lender Vault and meme cryptocurrency Floki Inu (FOLKI), citing possible legal concerns:
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"The team is complying with all French regulations with regard to crypto partner advertising on the car. We have been advised that, in order to display a cryptocurrency partner logo in France, the cryptocurrency brand must be registered at the AMF, which is not the case of two of our cryptocurrency partners.”
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The AMF, or the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, announced on July 21 that it would be working with France’s Professional Advertising Regulatory Authority to amend its existing regulatory framework to include crypto-related advertisements. The regulator called for recommendations on token offering ads, adding that digital asset service providers should include information about the possible risks of crypto investments.?
Many global regulators have scrutinized ads for crypto products and services as the space grows. In January, Spain’s financial regulator announced it would be requiring ads to be “clear, balanced and fair,” while providing information on the risks around crypto investments.?
The uncertainty about crypto industry goes on
Luxury: Why Hermès’ MetaBirkins Lawsuit Has High Stakes for Brands and Creators
The trademark dispute between Hermès and MetaBirkins creator Mason Rothschild is set to establish important elements of the legal framework for brands and creators in the web3 era , if the case isn’t settled first.
Hermès first sued Rothschild at the start of the year, claiming his MetaBirkins infringed its trademarks and diluted the Birkin name. As the legal filings and first orders from the judge have come in, they’ve more clearly defined what’s at stake, which goes well beyond a simple trademark fight.
Right now, the court has focused on the MetaBirkins as static images. But what if the allegedly infringing object were a digital wearable made for use in an online game or other virtual environments??
Chakrabarti likened it to the difference between a painting of a handbag versus a version made from leather and metal and put on the street for sale.
For brands trying to protect their intellectual property in digital worlds, there’s more at stake than just lost sales of virtual products. They use their design, distribution and marketing to carefully manage how they’re perceived because their images are crucial to how they attract and connect with shoppers.?
It’s a “big deal” that the highest court in the US agreed to hear a fair-use case, Chakrabarti said, and her clients who deal in NFTs and art will be watching closely as arguments begin in October. The MetaBirkins case, meanwhile, will offer some of its own answers on where the lines are in the legal relationship between brands and creators making NFTs based on their products, assuming Rothschild and Hermès don’t settle first.
“I think all attorneys at least are hopeful that we get more guidance from a court,” Chakrabarti said. “It’s going to have a lot of implications for how aggressive brands decide to be in the metaverse in terms of their own expansion but also enforcement measures.”
Will it be a significant path for the industry?
Metaverse: Zuckerberg unfazed about $2.8B metaverse division loss in Q2
Meta’s virtual reality (VR) and metaverse division Reality Labs has posted its seventh straight quarter of losses, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg remains steadfast in investing in the technology, which he calls a “massive opportunity.”
?During Meta’s Q2 earnings call on Wednesday, Zuckerberg acknowledged that such losses could continue for several more years until VR applications and its metaverse platform are mature enough to tap into the “massive opportunity” worth “hundreds of billions of dollars:”
“This is obviously a very expensive undertaking over the next several years,” Zuckerberg added, “I’m confident that we’re going to be glad that we played an important role in building this.”
Zuckerberg also noted that a “challenging macro environment” could be exacerbating the losses.?
He said that the economic situation now is worse than it was a quarter ago, and his opinion is corroborated by the fact that the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.75 percentage points for the second time in a row on Wednesday before the Meta earnings call took place, adding:?
?“We seem to have entered an economic downturn that will have a broad impact on the digital advertising business. In this environment, we’re focused on making a long-term investment that will position us to come out stronger.”
Despite the economic troubles, Zuckerberg is confident that his company and its subsidiaries will come out of the current economic downturn as “a stronger and more disciplined organization.”
Will they be able to regain their luster?