🎵 Crypto Boy

Coinbase Web3 Browser, ABC Documentary, Merge in August? 🤝

Dear NFTimer,

Such an amazing week! While prices are still down, the crypto community came together at Permissionless conference in Palm Beach, Florida, and Veecon in Minneapolis. The importance of IRL events cannot be overstated. We love the metaverse, but connecting with people face to face is so much better.

Veecon had thousands of attendees and hundreds of speakers. Some of the panelists and attendees were Snoop Dogg, Pharrell, Mila Kunis, Steve Aoki, Eva Longoria, Spike Lee, Beeple, pplpleasr, FEWOCiOUS, Danny Cole, and founders of World of Women, Art Blocks, and Cool Cats & more.

Gary is the GOAT! And I’m not just saying this because I work under the VaynerX fam, but because I really am such a huge fan.

On the Permissionless side, Ethereum Core Dev said Merge could come very soon near August — and that it’s ready. The Bankless duo Ryan and David also met IRL for the first time.(crazy)

Also announcement: I’m starting a weekly Twitter Space with Adam from Rarible where we will chat about the news of the week! Tune in today at 2pm EST / 5pm PST. You can find it by going to my Twitter, or Rarible’s!

Rarible @rarible

Need some NFT alpha? 🎙️🔥 Join @adamilenich and @aleyna_eth for their new, weekly NFT news roundup hosted by @rarible on @TwitterSpaces on Mondays. You won't want to miss this! 👇 https://t.co/5avap9IuaO

Dive in👇

🎨 NFTs

• Rarible marketplace has been launching project-specific marketplaces for projects. Last week, they launched V1 CryptoPunks marketplace.

• Getty Images is launching its first NFT drop on Palm blockchain.

• Okay Bears became the most successful Solana project to date. Their messaging is cool — that it’s okay to be okay. A little later, someone launched Not Okay Bears on Ethereum, using reversed artwork from Solana’s Okay Bears project. (OpenSea removed the collection — lmk your thoughts here)

fxnction aka bigdickfxnction.sol 🟠 @0x_fxnction

ETH dropping a Solana derivative is really a full circle event lmao

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👾 NFT Games

• Short-form video platform FreshCut raised $15 million. They hope to create a platform specifically for gaming creators to upload content. TikTok meets Twitch!

• Azra Games raised $15 million to develop play-to-earn role-playing games with NFTs.

• One of the round participants in Azra Games, Andreessen Horowitz also launched a $6 million fund focused on metaverse games.

• Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin raised $24 million for Web3 gaming company Metatheory. 

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🎵 Music

• Universal Music Group signed a deal with the new music NFT marketplace LimeWire to let its artists release NFTs on the platform. 

• Writer and singer of the “Crypto Boy” song Salem Ilese is launching an NFT collection with Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova next week. I can’t get the song out of my head.

spencernoon.eth @spencernoon

i don't care about ur crypto, boy not at all not even 1 bit, coin

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🎥 Movies

• Web3 film funding platform Decentralized Pictures is launching a $50,000 documentary funding award in partnership with The Gotham Film & Media Institute.

• Spike Lee is releasing NFTs based on his role as Mars Blackmon in “She’s Gotta Have It” film, through a new filmmaking platform called The Visible Project, which supports young directors and lets NFT holders vote on which films get funded.

• ABC released a documentary short called “NFTs: Enter the Metaverse”

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🔥 What else is hot?

• Ethereum Merge, which is expected to reduce the energy consumption of Ethereum network by 99%, will come in August (as revealed by Ethereum Core Developer at Permissionless)

• Coinbase launched The Coinbase Institute, a global crypto-native think tank.

• Coinbase users can access Web3 apps without a self-custody wallet with the new “Browser” feature, made possible by splitting your ‘key’ between you and Coinbase.

• Robinhood is launching its own non-custodial Web3 wallet with no gas fees.

• The company behind the MetaMask, ConsenSys, shared plans to create VillageDAO, which would build a solution to a lack of customer care in Web3.

• UnicornDAO announced today the raise of $4.5 million to support women and LGBTQ+ artists and underrepresented groups in Web3.

• Vitalik is not a billionaire anymore?

vitalik.eth @VitalikButerin

@ne0liberal (btw btw I'm not a billionaire anymore)

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❓Question of the Week

New section alert! Answer the poll by clicking the tweet & let people know your thoughts on the topic!

aleyna.eth ⚡️ @aleyna_eth

Is it correct to delist Not Okay Bears on OpenSea? Thoughts👇

📖 Reading List

• “Web3 Is Our Chance to Make a Better Internet” by Li Jin and Katie Parrott

• “State of Crypto 2022” by a16z

• “Future of the Creator Economy: How Individuals are Utilizing Social Tokens” on 137pm

• “10 DAO Tools You Should Familiarize Yourself With” on CryptoSlate

• “Decentralized Society: Finding Web3's Soul” by Vitalik, Puja Ohlhaver, and Glen Weyl

🧵 Threads

Jesse Pollak (jesse.xyz) @jessepollak

Excited to share @coinbase’s latest thinking on protocols — TL;DR we believe they are a critical part of the cryptoeconomy and will be integrating them deeply as well as supporting their development. Quick 🧵 on what this means and how I’m involved blog.coinbase.com/embracing-dece…

blog.coinbase.comEmbracing Decentralization: Integrating and Building Protocols at CoinbaseBy Jesse Pollak, Senior Director of Engineering at Coinbase

Jason Levin @iamjasonlevin

What is the future of Ethereum? Last week, Vitalik Buterin co-published a paper predicting Ethereum's future. I read the 37-page paper and interviewed its co-authors so you didn't have to. [🧵 THREAD]

danielgothits.eth (@ VeeCon) @danielgothits

.@Pharrell “NFTs/web3 changes the paradigm for creators” 📈📈 #VeeCon @veecon

𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚝𝚝 𝙻Ξ𝚠𝚒𝚜 🌾 @scott_lew_is

before nfts: after nfts:

Tell me what you’re working on in the discussion thread! I’ll make sure to check it out, and you might get a feature in the next NFTimes edition! 

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Disclaimer: Investing in NFTs comes with inherent risk including technical risk, human error, platform failure and more. This newsletter is strictly educational and nothing we offer is financial advice. We are not professionals or licensed advisors. Views my own and not any other company I’m affiliated with.