Author: Jana Serfontein

Jana has keen interest in what cryptocurrencies have to offer in regards to NGO’s, governments and the financial system. And is also intrigued with the psychological effect that cryptocurrencies have on society.

Categories
Blockchain Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

Collectibles Giant Topps Releases ‘Mars Attacks’ NFT Collection

Sports and entertainment collectibles platform Topps has announced the launch of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based on the company’s vintage science fiction-themed trading card series, Mars Attacks. Hosted on the NFT platform Curio, the limited-edition collection heralds Mars Attacks’ introduction into the blockchain.

Mars Invades the Blockchain

Topps’ Mars Attacks collection recaptures all the glamour of the original set of cards launched by Topps back in 1962. The card series, created with illustrations by artists Wally Wood and Norman Saunders, follows Topps’ original science-fiction plot of a Martian invasion of Earth, depicting battle scenes between aliens and humans.

Ira Friedman, vice-president of global licensing at Topps, notes that the longevity of Mars Attacks would have been unimaginable at the time of its creation back in 1962:

It demonstrates that a classic story accompanied by extraordinary art can remain relevant while embracing advancements in technology and the new ways in which consumers experience content. Curio has been an incredible partner with its deep understanding of the entertainment industry and belief in the evolution of storytelling through NFTs.

Ira Friedman, vice-president of global licensing, Topps

Below are two examples of the NFTs available in the series:

The cards are available for purchase in different packs colour-coded as Red, Yellow and Green across a variety of rarity levels – ranging from US$49 per pack for 11 cards to US$199 for a pack of 55. Each pack will contain a random story card, with randomly assigned variants.

Exciting Developments in the World of NFTs

Meanwhile, Toys “R” Us has partnered up with NFT platform Ethernity to release the brand’s first NFT collection of beloved giraffe mascot Geoffrey. The NFTs will be available for sale on OpenSea and will feature six separate editions of “Geoffrey Through the Years”. Exciting developments are also taking place for meme avatar projects, with five new projects launching soon.

Categories
Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

Toys ‘R’ Us Launches NFT Collection of Beloved Mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe

The parent company of Toys “R” Us, WHP Global, has partnered up with non-fungible token (NFT) platform Ethernity to release the brand’s first NFT collection of iconic giraffe mascot Geoffrey.

‘Geoffrey Through the Years’

Available for sale on digital marketplace OpenSea, the series of limited-edition NFTs are designed by digital artist Exacto, also known as Bryan Lopez. Entitled “Geoffrey Through the Years”, the series will include six separate editions in pop-art style and Andy Warhol-inspired modern portraits of the famous mascot, each one a reflection of Geoffrey’s look from 1960 up until today. The collection went on sale on November 13.

The collection has also added a one-of-one piece named “The Geoffrey Stroll”, which is currently being auctioned off live – closing November 17. The 3D animation features Geoffrey as he saunters into a bright new future with an instrumental version of the Toys “R” Us jingle I Don’t Want to Grow Up, I’m a Toys “R” Us Kid playing in the background.

The buyer of this unique piece and a guest will have the opportunity to attend a Toys “R” Us store grand opening in the US in 2022.

The Geoffrey Stroll is currently being auctioned off live. Source: Ethernity

Yehuda Shmidman, CEO and chairman of WHP Global and Toys “R” Us, has said that the company will continue to invest in the growth and future of the brand, and entering the blockchain marks a big step into the future.

As we continue to invest in the growth of the brand, entering the blockchain signifies a momentous step into the future and allows us to broaden our engagement with our loyal and expanding community of Toys “R” Us fans.

Yehuda Shmidman, CEO and chairman, WHP Global and Toys “R” Us

Famous Brands Join the NFT Boom

Along with Toys “R” Us, famous brands Coca-Cola and Playboy have also entered the explosive NFT market. Earlier this year, Coca-Cola announced it would release a collection of branded NFTs to mark International Friendship Day and to raise money for Special Olympics International. The three-day auction, also hosted on OpenSea, took place from July 30.

In October, American lifestyle brand Playboy launched a series of 11,953 “Playboy Rabbitars” – 3D rabbit characters in NFT form which will serve as keys to a reimagined Playboy Club. The “Rabbitars” also give owners access to benefits such as members-only events, merchandise, artworks, and exclusive artist collaborations.

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News NFTs Tezos

Mystery Surrounds Abrupt Tezos NFT Marketplace Shutdown

Users have been left puzzled after the front-end of Tezos-based non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Hic et Nunc disappeared last week. The marketplace’s Twitter biography was updated with only the word “discontinued”, and the marketplace tweeted its own smart contract shortly thereafter:

Users Left in the Dark

The front-end for Hic et Nunc went offline on November 11 after its Twitter bio was updated to “offline”. Reasons for the exit are still unclear, but users are speculating that it may be linked to competitor NFT minting marketplace “objkt.com” launching the day before.

However, outside of the Twitter update, no formal explanation has been offered as to the marketplace’s sudden disappearance.

According to crypto artist @MrRudemanners, the marketplace’s developer “Raf” may have made the decision on the spur of the moment, based on the negative messages being posted.

Tezos Remains Immutable

Despite the complete disappearance of Hic et Nunc’s front-end, smart contracts for the NFTs that were listed are immutable, and the NFTs can be seen on objkt.com. Having only launched in March this year, the platform has surpassed OpenSea as the biggest NFT platform based on daily active user count.

Built upon Tezos’s open-source proof-of-stake blockchain, the marketplace has boasted far cheaper minting fees and higher energy efficiency than Ethereum. Although users are left reeling from the sudden loss of Hic et Nunc, its cleaner, cheaper ethos lives on. Once Ethereum 2.0 is launched, it will have a much lower carbon footprint along with lower gas fees.

Tezos Surges in Value

Earlier this year, Tezos surged in value when it was chosen by a Swiss banking consortium to develop regulatory-compliant digital financial products. Along with Tezos, Swiss entities – IT company Inacta, fintech specialist Crypto Finance Group, and Incore Bank, based in Zurich – will partner to power smart contracts for a range of on-chain digital financial products.

Categories
Blockchain Crypto Art Crypto News Gas NFTs

NFT Marketplace Rarible Inks Deal to Reduce High Gas Fees

Earlier this week, non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Rarible.com and Rarible protocol announced it would be integrating with the Flow blockchain. The announcement means that Rarible users are now able to create, list and trade Flow-based NFTs on the Rarible marketplace.

Lower Gas Fees, Faster User Experience

The integration with Flow – a fast, decentralised, and sustainable blockchain – now allows users to create, list and trade Flow-based NFTs on the marketplace, ensuring lower gas fees and a swift user experience. As it stands, the most expensive type of transaction on Flow costs about US$0.0001, while the throughput on the blockchain is designed to scale to millions of active users.

Flow’s low gas fees and ability to scale many transactions is akin to what the popular project Sorare is achieving at the moment. A blockchain specifically tailored for optimal gaming and NFT experiences, Flow was originally created by Dapper Labs, which brought us CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot.

Since Flow was created with both end-users and developers in mind, it will also integrate with the Rarible Protocol, meaning that users can now make use of fully open-source infrastructure to create NFT projects with Flow’s refined developer ergonomics.

Rarible Makes Strides in the NFT Game

Rarible recently also announced that it would partner up with Adobe to enhance the attribution of NFTs on the Rarible marketplace. Adobe will soon launch a “prepare as NFT” option to its Photoshop software in an attempt to counter an otherwise highly exploitable market. The system to be built into Photoshop can assist in proving that the person selling an NFT is the one who made it.

The software will allow NFT sellers to link the Adobe ID with their crypto wallets, thereby allowing compatible NFT marketplaces, such as Rarible, to show verification certificates to prove the art is authentic.

Categories
Binance Bitcoin Crypto News Investing Market Analysis Markets

Crypto Market Dips After Surge, $750 Million Liquidated

After a particularly profitable week in crypto, with bitcoin reaching new all-time highs, the market saw a sudden drop and more than US$750 million was liquidated, according to data from Coinglass.

BTC Takes a Nosedive

In the past 24 hours, after the crypto market saw some immense growth and bitcoin (BTC) reached a new all-time high of over US$69,000, a whopping 166,292 traders were liquidated to the value of over US$750 million when the price of BTC dipped below US$63,000.

The largest single liquidation order happened on Bitmex XBTUSD to the value of US$10 million. At the time of writing, the price of bitcoin had rallied to US$65,138, according to CoinGecko.

Total liquidations observed. Source: Coinglass

According to data from Coinglass (formerly Bybt), 81 percent of the liquidations observed came from long positions, with the majority of them happening on Binance.

Quantitative analyst PlanB, which has gained significant popularity for its eerie accuracy in predicting monthly closing prices for BTC, took to Twitter to post a funny meme about the liquidated positions:

Again, This Is Just a ‘Bit’ Too Soon

Liquidations such as the one we have just observed are becoming a far-too-common phenomenon. In September, for example, the crypto market saw some serious positions liquidated. Early in the month, the market recorded liquidations worth over US$3.7 billion due to a major downturn. Later, another major drop in the market saw over US$2.5 billion long positions liquidated in just two days.

Categories
Crypto Art Crypto News Ethereum Investing Markets NFTs

Gary Vee: NFT Winter Is Coming

Gary Vaynerchuk, affectionately known as Gary Vee, anticipates a bear market ahead for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) but still believes that “NFTs are going to be here for the rest of everybody’s life”.

Too Much Short-Term Greed Will Cause a Bear Market

In an interview with Decrypt, Vee said he believed that “winter is coming” for NFTs. While the creator of Ethereum-based VeeFriends, and a collector of CryptoPunks and other NFTs, remains very bullish on the future of NFTs, he still believes a significant pullback in valuation is coming.

When discussing why he believed people were investing in the market boom, Vee said:

The conversation is about to get very interesting when we hit an NFT winter, because there’s way too much short-term greed, and supply and demand issues.  

Gary Vee, crypto entrepreneur

Vee has pocketed a pretty penny during the NFT craze with his hand-drawn doodles netting US$1.2 million, outselling similar works by Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock.

In early 2021, the NFT market exploded and generated US$2.5 billion during the first half of the year but seemed to fade in the second half, leading some to suggest the NFT market frenzy was just a short-term fad. However, the market surged to new heights in August and DappRadar reported a trading volume of US$10.67 billion for Q3 alone – a 700 percent increase over Q2 2021.

Vee did not say he thinks a pullback per se is coming, but rather believes that a potential drop in the valuation of NFTs might occur in the future. He has previously predicted that the majority of NFT projects would lose significant value over time, but that blue-chip projects might come out even higher at the other end.

Vaynerchuk made specific reference to NFT projects such as CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club, as well as certain pieces from the XCOPY collection, which have seen numerous sales above the million-dollar mark. He added: “XCOPY shows all the nuances of potentially becoming a Warhol, a Banksy, or a Pollock.”

NFTs Will Be Here for the Foreseeable

I do believe firmly that 90 percent of the NFT projects right now, [their] values will be less than that when it’s all said and done … The problem is the 2 percent that are going to be so much more extraordinarily high … that one is required to do the homework to see the opportunity.

Gary Vee

On the current state of NFTs, Vaynerchuk has said that many people are spending money they cannot afford on things they do not understand:

Regardless of his views on the current state of NFTs, Vee predicts: “NFTs are going to be here for the rest of everybody’s life – and [they are] going to get more meaningful, not less.”

Agree with Vee? You Can Now Short the NFT Market

If you agree with Vee that the NFT market is currently overheated, SynFutures is launching NFTures, a product that will allow users to short the future prices of NFTs. As many continue to question the value of NFTs, and with many tokens serving no purpose other than being able to be bought or sold, SynFutures is looking to change the way we derive profit from NFTs.

Categories
Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs Tokens

18,666 Simpsons NFTs Sell Out in Minutes in Issue-Ridden Drop

The first-ever official non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for hit animated TV series The Simpsons dropped November 7 on VeVe, but not without some glitches.

As part of its Golden Moments collection, Disney dropped its first collection of NFTs, The Simpsons. The collection will feature some of the most beloved characters from the franchise featured on Disney+, with the entire collection minted in gold.

About The Simpsons NFT Range

Sold via NFT marketplace ECOMI, the collection launched via blind boxes. This essentially means that buyers did not know which collectible they would receive until after they were purchased.

The two available for purchase were Homer and Bart (“common” collectibles, of which there were 12,333 editions) and Bart’s skateboard (“rare” collectibles, of which there were only 6,333 editions). Each blind box cost US$60.

Problems on the Platform

When users logged on to get in on the drop, however, they were met with endless glitches. According to a tweet by VeVe, “one of our third-party providers [was] not scaled properly at drop time, which caused the performance issues”, leaving many unable to buy NFTs.

Many users took to Twitter to vent their frustrations:

Homer Makes History

With the Homer and Bart collectible sold as “common” and Bart’s skateboard sold as “rare”, questions have been raised about this classification. Buyers are wondering why a mere skateboard, instead of significant characters such as Homer and Bart, is classified as a “rare” collectible.

In any case, buyers are urged to HODL to this piece of history.

Added Utility for Simpsons NFT Range

As with other NFT collectibles, buyers bought in just for the sake of collecting them. With The Simpsons NFT range, buyers who purchase NFTs from the Simpsons Golden Moments range will also receive a three-month subscription to Disney+.

This is similar to what actor/producer Mila Kunis is doing for the Stoner Cats series. Fans of Stoner Cats have to mint an NFT to get access to the first five-minute episode, but that NFT will also function as a lifetime pass for all subsequent Stoner Cats episodes.

Hollywood Gets Into the NFT Game

Amid the NFT boom, Hollywood also has skin in the game. Just last week, writer-director Quentin Tarantino announced he would release seven never-before-seen scenes from his cult classic film Pulp Fiction as NFTs. Earlier this week, Warner Bros, owners of popular film franchise The Matrix, also announced it would release a series of NFTs for just US$50 each from November 30, ahead of a Matrix reboot, The Matrix Resurrections, due for cinema release on January 1.

Categories
Crime Crypto News Crypto Wallets Google Scams

Google Ads Scam Alert: $500,000 Stolen Through Fake Crypto Wallets

According to a Check Point Research (CPR) report, users of crypto swap platform PancakeSwap, as well as crypto wallets MetaMask and Phantom, have been targeted in a phishing scam involving the theft of over US$500,000.

The crypto world is full of scammers and dangers, and in recent weeks CPR has identified multiple reports of phishing scams in which crypto wallet users have had their funds stolen while trying to install well-known wallets. The scam worked by using Google Ads to direct users to fake crypto wallets.

According to the CPR report:

Over the past weekend, CPR encountered hundreds of incidents in which crypto investors lost their money while trying to download and install well-known crypto wallets or change their currencies on crypto swap platforms like PancakeSwap or Uniswap.

Check Point Research (CPR) report

Scammers Replicate Official Websites

CPR has found that the scam has been hitting popular crypto wallets MetaMask and Phantom, with the scammers mimicking the legitimate websites almost exactly. Phantom and MetaMask wallets are the most popular wallets for both the Solana and Ethereum ecosystems.

CPR added:

CPR researchers spotted multiple phishing websites that looked like the original website because the scammers copied its design.

Check Point Research (CPR) report

For the Phantom domain, users were scammed when encountering domains such as “phanton.app” and “Phantonn.app” instead of the legitimate “phantom.app”. The same applied for MetaMask. Users encountered domains such as “MètaMask” on Google Ad campaigns.

The scam works as follows: attackers buy Google Ads in response to searches for popular crypto wallets.

Google Ads for the fake phishing scam websites. Source: CPR

By clicking on the ad, the unsuspecting user is redirected to a phishing website, which looks almost identical to the official wallets’ website.

The phishing website, which looks almost identical to the actual website. Source: CPR

The user then clicks on the “Create New Wallet” button, which generates a message about a secret recovery phrase. Users think it is the phrase with their new wallet, though it’s actually a recovery phrase for the attacker’s website. The attacker then moves on to also steal the user’s password.

The user then clicks on “save and continue” and is redirected to the original wallet’s website. If the user then adds the chrome wallet to their browser and inserts the newly created recovery phrase, they log into the attacker’s wallet instead of creating a new one. If the user then transfers any funds, the attacker will immediately intercept them.

CPR advises crypto wallet users to “refrain from clicking on ads and only use direct, known URLs”.

Scams on the Rise

Last year, hardware wallet provider Ledger suffered an internal break of security which resulted in the exposure of 250,000 to 1,000,000 customer email addresses. Recently a number of fake Ronin wallets were spotted circulating on the Apple and Google App Stores. Fake wallets trick users into disclosing account information which then drains the funds or collectibles held within the wallets.

Categories
Crypto News Facebook Tokens

Microsoft Follows Facebook Into The Metaverse

Microsoft is hot on the heels of Facebook, now known as Meta, and has entered the metaverse race by introducing 3D avatars and immersive meetings, according to a Tweet by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Soon after Facebook announced it would be rebranding as Meta to reflect its engagement with the metaverse, Microsoft is also now gearing up to launch its own version, “Mesh”, which will likely focus more on the corporate world. Nadella tweeted about the metaverse, a space where digital avatars of people can interact at work and play, saying that it is “not only transforming how we see the world but how we participate in it”.

Nadella’s tweet included a video that shows how Microsoft plans to integrate itself into the virtual world. Microsoft intends Mesh to be a collaborative platform for shared virtual immersive experiences on Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Meshes into the Metaverse

According to Microsoft officials, Mesh for Teams will start to roll out in preview during the first half of 2022, with a set of pre-built immersive spaces for both corporate and social meetings. Microsoft has also indicated it will add tools to allow customers to customise their own spaces.

Mesh for Teams as a feature of Teams will “combine the mixed-reality capabilities of Microsoft Mesh, which allows people in different physical locations to join collaborative and shared holographic experiences, with the productivity tools of Teams, where people can join virtual meetings, send chats, collaborate on shared documents, and more”.

While Facebook – now Meta – says it is dedicating its efforts to the future of the internet “more than any other company in the world”, Microsoft’s new take to Teams is a massive step in the right direction for metaverse fans.

Microsoft intends to utilise AI to “listen” to users’ voices and thus animate their avatars. “We are able to interpret your vocal cues to animate that avatar, so it feels present [as if] it’s there with you,” said Katie Kelly, principal product manager for Microsoft Mesh.

Facebook Shifts Its Focus

As Facebook/Meta deals with issues of privacy, security, and its failure to control fake news, misinformation and hate speech, the rebrand has many speculating it’s merely a diversionary tactic to diffuse criticism against the company.

Although Facebook has said it intends to build the metaverse “responsibly” and has vowed to invest US$50 million into building toward this goal, many remain doubtful.

The news of Facebook’s rebranding has, however, been very bullish for other blockchain-based metaverse projects. Since the announcement, The Sandbox (SAND) surged 158 percent, and Decentraland (MANA), as well as Axie Infinity (AXS), have also seen big surges in price.

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News NFTs Privacy Tokens

Quentin Tarantino to Auction 7 Unseen ‘Pulp Fiction’ Scenes as NFTs

Quentin Tarantino will auction off seven never-before-seen Pulp Fiction scenes as non-fungible tokens amid the expanding NFT craze, the legendary film director announced earlier this week.

The Secret Is Out

The NFT market has truly exploded in 2021, and Tarantino is the latest to join in on the mania. Tarantino’s film Pulp Fiction, released in 1994, quickly became a cult classic, earning US$213.9 million on a US$10 million budget, and its writer/director an Oscar for best screenplay.

Quentin Tarantino announces his Pulp Fiction NFTs. Source: gamingdeputy.com

And to keep fans on their toes, Tarantino will now auction off seven NFTs that will include previously unseen content only accessible to its buyers. The collectibles will be “Secret NFTs” built upon the SCRT Labs’ Secret Network, which will enable the NFTs to have both a public-facing and a secret element.

The collection will be auctioned off on OpenSea and will be built on Secret Network, a blockchain focused on privacy. Secret Network allows its users to post content that has hidden embeds. Secret NFTs are tokens issued on the network that allow their creators to include public and private metadata, with the choice of displaying ownership or keeping it confidential.

The public-facing element of the NFTs will be uncut and unreleased scenes from the film, each NFT containing a ‘secret content’ item that will only be accessible by the buyer. Among the seven NFTs, the secret elements will include the first uncut handwritten scripts of the film and exclusive custom commentary from Tarantino himself, in which he reveals secrets about the film and about himself.

“I’m excited to be presenting these exclusive scenes from Pulp Fiction to fans,” Tarantino said, adding:

Secret Network and Secret NFTs provide a whole new world of connecting fans and artists and I’m thrilled to be a part of that.

Quentin Tarantino, director, screenwriter and producer

Guy Zyskind, co-founder of Secret Network and CEO of SCRT Labs, highlighted the power and obsessive madness surrounding NFTs in saying that “NFTs could be the most disruptive technology to come out of this decade”. He continued:

The art community is alive with innovation and the media is actively exploring all the potential use cases associated with the technology. Now, we have privacy and access controls courtesy of Secret Network. Ultimately, that will enable a whole litany of new potential use cases.

Guy Zyskind, CEO, SCRT Labs, and co-founder, Secret Network

Hollywood Presents: the Blockchain

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Hollywood is expanding its reach into the blockchain. Earlier this year, it was announced that Zero Contact, a pandemic-themed picture with Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins in the lead role will premiere on the new NFT platform Vuele. The film will be the world’s first to be offered for sale as an NFT.

Furthering the role of blockchain in Hollywood is Roman Coppola, a member of one of Hollywood’s most influential filmmaking families. He and his two sisters have founded Decentralized Pictures (DCP), a decentralised film financing platform based on blockchain technology.

The company aims to use its blockchain-powered platform to decentralise the film financing process, hoping it will lead to the discovery and support of many underrepresented filmmakers.