Category: Metaverse

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Samsung Opens Flagship Metaverse Store in Decentraland

The American arm of South Korean electronics giant Samsung has announced the opening of 837X, a virtual replica of its flagship 873 store, in the metaverse platform Decentraland.

Samsung Steps into the Metaverse

Samsung Electronics America has undertaken a partnership with Decentraland to open a virtual Samsung store in the metaverse. The virtual version of the store is a replica of the company’s flagship store at 873 Washington St in New York City’s Meatpacking District. The virtual store, dubbed Samsung 873X, will be open in Decentraland for a limited time only, according to a press release from the company:

Samsung joins a host of enterprises that have entered the Decentraland metaverse, including the island nation of Barbados, which has established the world’s first embassy in Decentraland.

How Users Can Get Involved

Users will be invited to explore an “experiential playground” and earn non-fungible token (NFT) rewards by completing quests. The store will offer digital adventures through three areas:

  • the Connectivity Theatre, which showcases news from Samsung’s stage at the CES 2022 tech event in Las Vegas;
  • the Sustainability Forest, which comprises a “journey through millions of trees” to mark the company’s initiatives toward sustainability; and
  • the Customisation Stage, where guests will get to experience a mixed reality live dance party hosted by DJ Gamma Vives from Samsung’s physical 873 store.

Michelle Crossan-Matos, senior vice-president of corporate marketing and communications at Samsung Electronics, said in a statement:

The metaverse empowers us to transcend physical and spatial limits to create unique virtual experiences that could not happen otherwise.

Samsung Gets Ahead of the Crypto Curve

Samsung has become one of the first electronics giants to offer an immersive experience into cryptos. Earlier this week, the company also announced it would be releasing three smart TV models with NFT trading capabilities.

According to Samsung, “In 2022, Samsung is introducing the world’s first TV screen-based NFT explorer and marketplace aggregator, a groundbreaking platform that lets you browse, purchase and display your favourite art – all in one place.”

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Crypto Art Crypto News Gaming Metaverse NFTs

ASM Brains Debuts a New Type of NFT with Artificial Intelligence

Who knew there were non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that could think for themselves?

Altered State Machine (ASM) is a platform to build, train and trade artificial intelligence (AI) “agents” using NFTs, introducing what it calls a new generation of gaming and finance in which AI bots compete and interact with each other.

NFTs With a Brain

Each agent has its own genome – effectively, its DNA. Depending on the agent’s environment, its base values are expressed in terms of strength, speed and size (in gaming) or risk tolerance and randomness (in finance). Think of it as an inboard brain.

Form, on the other hand, is what enables an agent to operate in its physical world. Owners can bring in their existing NFT art or model from another part of the metaverse, or create entirely new forms.

The third facet of agent training relates to its memories. These are specific to the agent’s genome and the world in which they were formed. Each agent can retain multiple memories, created in different worlds.

An ASM Brain NFT. Source: OpenSea

Worlds are applications that exist anywhere in the metaverse using the ASM platform. They may take the form of financial markets or sports fields, combat zones or beach bars. As new worlds grow, new forms and memories are created to explore them.

ASM NFTs are fully compatible with major platforms such as OpenSea and owners can trade their agents on the open market with players who want a head start.

AI Brings New Meaning to Football Headers

ASM Brains has a a decentralised play-to-earn gaming application called AIFA (Artificial Intelligence Football Association) Allstars, unique metaverse-ready footballers to collect and configure.

AIFA All-Stars. Source: ASM Brains

Players can build a team of Allstars, pair them with ASM Brains and train them to compete in the world’s most popular football code.

Players open an AIFA box to discover the Allstars and ASM Brain inside. The ASM Brain NFT can be loaded into any Allstar and trained to play AIFA. Owners can change the colour, body parts or accessories of characters and mint them as new NFTs to create a customised four-player AIFA team.

Holding $ASTO tokens will entitle players to vote in the DAO on the future direction of ASM.

Crypto News Australia has a wealth of additional information relating to exciting new play-to-earn NFT projects on the Solana and Cardano networks.

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Australia Crypto News Metaverse NFTs Sports

Australian Open Grand Slam Embraces Crypto with Virtual Tennis Arena and 6,776 NFTs

In a world first for top-level international tennis, the Australian Open – the 2022 season’s first Grand Slam tournament – is set to combine non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with on-court action as the event gets under way in Melbourne from January 17.

The AO, as it’s popularly known, is releasing a collection of 6,776 NFTs that align with tiny squares on the tournament’s centre court surface, along with a virtual event on the metaverse platform Decentraland.

Fans Can Buy a Piece of the Action

Fans can literally buy a piece of the action via an NFT that gives them “property” rights to a 19cm x 19cm area of Melbourne Park’s Rod Laver Arena. They stand to win a prize should the last bounce of the ball fall into their square on the deciding point in any of the approximately 600 matches during the tournament, including men’s and women’s singles, doubles, mixed doubles and wheelchair events.

From day one of the AO, fans will be able to access the virtual centre court via Decentraland, “walk around” it using a keyboard and mouse, watch the tennis action on big screens as they go, and later buy souvenir items in an online shop. They can even enter the virtual Rod Laver Arena and play a game with a simulated tennis ball machine.

Every winning shot from the tournament’s 600 matches will correspond with one of the collection’s NFTs. Owners will receive an airdrop with footage of the point, virtual wearables and AO merch. The data extracted to match the NFTs will be gleaned from the same electronic line-calling technology used to judge actual in-game points.

If the winning point happens to take place in a final, the owner of the NFT square on which the ball lands will receive the actual ball in a custom engraved case. The AO has partnered with metaverse design firm Run It Wild for the event’s construction.

Australian Open NFT Project Collaborators

How to Participate

The court location for each NFT will be determined after the collection’s minting, which takes place from 10am AEDT on January 13 for 0.067 ETH (US$225, or A$315) each. Details can be found at the ao.artball.io site.

Out of the total of 6,776 NFTs:

  • 169 will feature custom designs from winners of the AO Artist Series competition;
  • 22 will be wrapped in historical AO artwork; and
  • the remaining 6585 will be randomly created using an algorithmic combination of unique colour schemes, patterns and textures.

Tennis Australia expects to raise A$2.4 million if all of the NFTs sell, with the majority of funds going to charitable causes, the Australian Tennis Foundation and carbon offsetting.

If last year’s wildfire success of sports trading cards in Australia is any guide, the AO’s innovative NFTs are bound to be a … hit.

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Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Gaming Metaverse NFTs Tokens

South Korean Presidential Candidate to Use NFTs to Raise Funds for Campaign

In a blatant pitch for the tech-savvy youth vote, South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party (DPK) is to issue non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for electoral fundraising purposes in what it claims is a political world first.

Digital images of Lee Jae-myung, the ruling party’s presidential candidate, will be sent to supporters who donate money to his campaign from this month. The party says that these NFTs, which feature Lee’s photos and details of his policies, will serve as a kind of bond so holders can freely exchange the assets with others.

Digital Assets to be Taxed … But Not Just Yet

The party was quick to confirm that South Korea’s National Election Commission had quietly decreed last month that fundraising using NFTs does not violate the Political Funds Act or the Public Official Election Act. And while the South Korean Financial Services Commission said in November that NFTs would not be regulated, it has since backpedalled by announcing the digital assets would be taxed from January 2022.

But in a convenient loophole for candidate Lee and the DPK, the implementation of the new tax has been delayed a year because of flaws noted by party scrutinisers.

Lee Declares His Support For Gaming NFTs

As part of his efforts to win over Korean Millennials and Gen Zs, candidate Lee openly supports the gaming industry’s use of NFTs. In an interview last month with a gaming YouTuber, Lee said that Korea should lead the global trend of integrating games with virtual assets and NFTs. Failing to do so, he added, would be tantamount to isolationism.

As the young generation[s] are interested in emerging technologies, including virtual assets, NFTs and the metaverse, this type of fundraising could appeal to them. If we deny what actually exists, it will be similar to an isolationist foreign policy.

Lee Jae-myung, presidential candidate, Korean Democratic Party

Party officials claim that if Lee’s initiative is successful, he will become the world’s first politician to issue NFTs to help finance a presidential bid. The NFTs, representing political memorabilia, could also hold future value and serve as an investment for donors. Donated digital monies will be converted into Korean won through a crypto exchange and then deposited into the campaign’s account.

Trump, Snowden Challenge Korea’s ‘World First’

As for the DPK’s claim of a political world first, former US first lady Melania Trump may have beaten Korea to the punch with last month’s launch of her own NFT platform. Its first offering was a tokenised watercolour of husband (and former president) Donald Trump’s eyes.

But as long ago as April last year, whistleblower Edward Snowden sold an NFT to help raise funds for the Freedom of the Press Foundation. That would certainly fit the description of a political act.

 

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Crypto Art Crypto News Ethereum Metaverse NFTs

Eminem Buys Bored Ape for $452,000, Holds Another 166 NFTs

Slim Shady – aka Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem – joined the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) community late last year by buying a non-fungible token (NFT) from the collection for a sobering 123.45 ether. The rapper paid US$452,000 to add BAYC #9055 to his already impressive collection of 166 NFTs.

Slim Shady Slides into the BAYC Community

There is no doubt 2021 was the year of the NFT, with the BAYC NFT project alone grossing over US$1 billion in trading volume worldwide. BAYC recently entered partnerships with Rolling Stone to release two digital magazine covers featuring Bored Ape Yacht Club characters. Adidas also recently announced a collaboration with Bored Ape creators Yuga Labs to enter the metaverse. As a show of good faith, the sports apparel brand also bought its own BAYC NFT.

On December 30, Eminem joined the BAYC project by purchasing BAYC #9055 for a cool 123.45 ETH, or US$452,000. The rapper shared his new purchase by changing his profile picture on Twitter:

Eminem’s new Twitter profile picture. Source: Twitter.com

The BAYC #9055 purchase was further confirmed by the OpenSea platform, which indicates the new owner of the NFT to be “Shady_Holdings”. The portfolio also owns a number of Lil Baby Doodles X NFTs, Ditaggdogg#1 featuring a stencil image of the famous rapper, and Superlatives Apes #3880.

In fact, Eminem owns a number of ERC721 NFTs, including Shaq Gives Back #4077, and Adult Fantasy Sub-Dude (130/151). He bought BAYC #9055 from the NFT’s former owner GeeGazza, who took to Twitter to share his excitement:

In fact, GeeGazza predicted the sale back in November last year:

Eminem Now Owns 166 NFTs from 32 Collections

The sale was facilitated by digital agency “Six”, who proclaimed on Twitter that its creator-focused agency helped secure the ape for Shady, and are now calling the NFT “EminApe”. Admittedly, the ape does rather resemble its new owner.

According to data from dappradar.com, the rapper owns 166 NFT assets from 32 collections. As it stands, Shady_Holdings address holds 1.52 ETH following the purchase. Eminem got 124 ETH from an account that uses the name georgio.eth. That account holds 504 NFTs from 51 different collections, including BAYC #4936, and it also spent 43.98 ETH on two CryptoPunks.

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Crypto News Events Metaverse NFTs Real Estate

New Year’s Eve Takes Place in Decentraland This Year

During unprecedented times such as the Covid-19 pandemic, large gatherings of people have had to come up with creative ways to remain safe and still enjoy themselves. New York City’s iconic New Year’s Eve Ball Drop is just one major event to have suffered the perils of the pandemic.

The virtual event, dubbed ‘MetaFest 2022‘, will include non-fungible token (NFT) art galleries, rooftop VIP lounges, and virtual musical performances. Virtual billboards will tie the experience to the event’s metaverse counterpart via live streams from New York City.

NYE Comes to Decentraland

On December 29, DCG and Jamestown announced their intention to recreate a significant cultural site within the metaverse – One Times Square. The 26-storey building in the heart of Manhattan’s Times Square is home to the annual New Year’s Eve Ball Drop celebration, now limited to 15,000 socially distanced and fully vaccinated attendees due to a rise in the number of Covid cases in New York.

NYE Ball Drop in Decentraland.

According to Simon Koster, DCG’s head of real estate, “This event highlights how virtual events can cohesively integrate with real ones in an effort to bring once-in-a-lifetime experiences to so many that would have never been able to participate otherwise.”

‘MetaFest2022’ is not the first event to take to the metaverse. As also reported this week by Crypto News Australia, a new project called Animal Concerts is building a virtual touring company to host VR live music events in the metaverse.

“The metaverse is an important part of the evolution of real estate and the built environment,” said Jamestown president Michael Phillips. “Whereas physical real estate is largely limited to people with geographic proximity, the metaverse can give people around the world meaningful access to places through immersive virtual experiences.”

To join in on the experience, users can create personalised avatars and explore the Times Square Plaza.

More and More Moving into the Metaverse

As the metaverse continues to explode, more and more industries are moving into the digital space and many are choosing the Decentraland metaverse to facilitate their move. In November, the Caribbean island of Barbados announced it would become the first sovereign nation to have a digital embassy in the metaverse, forging an agreement with Decentraland to host it.  

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Blockchain Crypto News Metaverse NFTs Tokens Virtual Reality

Music Concerts in the Metaverse: the New Wave of Adoption?

A new project called Animal Concerts is building a virtual touring company to host virtual live music events in the Metaverse. Through the project, artists can earn up to 50 percent of revenues from both ticket and NFT sales.

It’s time for the next generation of concertgoers and fans to deck out your home theatre, get a VR headset and watch your favourite artists from the comfort of your lounge.

The Animal’s Metaverse will include online concerts, virtual merchandise in the form of digital collectible NFTs, and a community of superfans. Bringing together all aspects of a real-world live event, Animal Concerts will be the hub for delivering online immersive virtual reality experiences for fans like nothing they’ve encountered before. Founder Colin Fitzpatrick says the goal is to become the “Netflix of live streaming concerts”.

With 360-degree cameras on stage, you can use a VR headset to get an immersive experience – like you are dancing on stage with your favourite bands, from your living room anywhere in the world. We want to enable you to enjoy the concert with friends by seeing their avatars.

Colin Fitzpatrick, founder, Animal Concerts

The platform will use cutting-edge technology, setting up multiple 360-degree cameras on stage to feed high-quality footage and audio directly into punters’ VR headsets. Click here to read the full roadmap of features outlined in the Animal Concerts Whitepaper.

A-List Artists to Promote the Metaverse

Animal Concerts will leverage the online fan reach of the A-list artists it promotes by contracting them to help market and push the brand of the platform. “No other crypto will have this many celebrities onboard, promoting us on social media,” its website boasts. “Propelled by these celebs, we will achieve the biggest social following of any cryptocurrency.”

Restrictions on travel and gathering in numbers over the past two years of the pandemic has decimated the revenues of artists who rely on live performance to generate income. Album sales have also been in sharp decline as streaming services continue to replace traditional methods of music consumption.

Round Up Your ANIMAL token

$ANIMAL will be the native token for Animal Concerts. Holding the Animal token will allow users:

  • payment for concert tickets, NFTs and other merchandise on the Animal Concerts marketplace;
  • tiered rewards for early investors;
  • governance, voting and fan interaction, free tickets, limited-edition merch and early access to unique materials and collectibles;
  • discounts for fans purchasing tickets with the ANIMAL token over platforms such as Ticketmaster, etc;
  • participation in online communities of loyal fans; and
  • creation of art, gaming and music NFTs.

At Last, a Serious Challenge to Spotify

Major streaming service Spotify, however, has been criticised for undercutting musicians’ revenues and has upset the industry with its unfavourable artist royalties distribution model. Animal Concerts is set to change this, allowing performers to earn 50 percent of revenues from both ticket and NFT sales. By benefiting the artists directly, Animal Concerts provides a massive incentive for celebrities to entice their fans into the metaverse.

Aiming to launch upwards of 20 virtual reality concerts in 2022 along with NFT collectibles, Animal Concerts has announced a lineup of artists that includes Adele, Arctic Monkeys, Beastie Boys, Backstreet Boys, Bruno Mars, Drake, Ellie Goulding, Fatboy Slim, Frank Ocean, Gwen Stefani, the Killers, Kings of Leon, Miley Cyrus and more.

Teaming up with some of the biggest players in the metaverse, Animal Concerts has partnered with 3D virtual world platform Decentraland, NFT and gaming giant Enjin, and blockchain payment company Circle, among others.

Participate in the IDO

Animal Concerts will be launching on PolkaBridge on January 18. To participate, fill out the registration form for Animal Concerts before January 17 and be sure to have ETH in your wallet:

As a precursor to the Animal Concerts model, in October the US financial services company Republic announced the launch of “Republic Music”, an investment product offering “an entirely new way to create, produce and share royalties from music”.

In an earlier challenge to the dominance of Spotify, Audius, a music streaming platform based on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains, partnered with popular Chinese video-sharing and social media app TikTok to create TikTok Sounds. Within 24 hours of the August announcement, the $AUDIO token’s price spiked over 200 percent.

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Blockchain Crypto News Gaming Industries Metaverse NFTs

Report Reveals NFT Gaming Generated $2.3 Billion in Q3 Alone

A report published by the blockchain game alliance (BGA) shows that non-fungible token (NFT) games generated billions in revenue in the third quarter and generally saw remarkable growth throughout the year.

According to the report, the third quarter of 2021 was dominated by NFT gaming, with 2.5 million Unique Active Wallets (UAWs) connected to blockchain dApps on average “making blockchain games responsible for half of all blockchain usage”.

With the surge in NFT games, the sector accumulated US$2.32 billion in revenue between July and September, representing 22 percent of total NFT trading volume industry-wide for that period.

The report also cited DappRadar’s data showing a 6,566 percent increase in daily UAWs interacting with game-related smart contracts, rising from 23,100 in Q3 2020 to 1.54 million daily in Q3 2021. However, UAW numbers do not translate to unique users, since a single individual might use multiple wallets to interact with a single dApp.

The Metaverse Raking in Digital Dollars

The metaverse has drawn much attention since a few major names in the tech industry mentioned they were dipping their toes in. The industry was also fuelled by virtual land sales that hit US$42.6 million and are continuing to grow; the market cap for virtual world dApps reached a new all-time high, surpassing US$4.6 billion at the end of November.

Blockchain gaming has firmly established itself as the industry’s darling. With the consumer growth participating in blockchain games, dApp and gaming trends will come together into something even bigger and potentially all-encompassing: the metaverse.

Dragos Dunica, co-founder, DappRadar

Recently, venture capital firm Galaxy Interactive raised US$325 million to focus on gaming startups and interactive technology. The spark of interest hasn’t just been for investors, but also the general public. As the year moved on there was a noticeable increase in web searches for the terms “metaverse” and “play-to-earn”.

Online mentions of metaverse, play-to-earn and NFT. Source Meltwater

The Issue with NFT Games

According to those working in the industry, many of the current challenges faced in the industry are caused by:

  • regulatory uncertainty;
  • the need for user education;
  • technology limitations;
  • poor user experience; and
  • gameplay quality (or lack of).

The majority of respondents (52 per cent) stated that regulatory uncertainty was their biggest concern and the industry’s most significant challenge, since in-game assets – if not structured properly – can be treated as securities under some laws and could cause unwanted complications.

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Bitcoin Crypto News DeFi Metaverse NFTs

Jack Dorsey Causes Twitter Storm, Calls Web 3.0 a Centralised Venture Capital Playground

Following his recent departure from Twitter, many suspected Jack Dorsey would be spending his time on Bitcoin after saying earlier this year, “I don’t think there is anything more important in my lifetime to work on”. While his plans remain under wraps, Dorsey ignited a Twitter storm after criticising Web 3.0 as being centralised and for the benefit of venture capitalists.

The Promise of Web 3.0

Web 3.0 envisions a future state of the internet based on decentralised public blockchains where users own and govern sections of the internet, rather than requiring access through centralised entities such as Google or Facebook.

Unlike Web 2.0 where users are the product and unable to own a piece of the internet, Web 3.0 is “owned by the community” and “trustless” in the sense that an intermediary isn’t required for transactions.

Among other things, Web 3.0 includes decentralised finance (DeFi), a favourite among venture capital firms at the moment and a sector into which enormous sums of money have been ploughed.

Web 3.0 Decentralised?

Web 3.0 promises a decentralised version of the virtual world featuring public blockchains, metaverse technology, non-fungible tokens and DeFi free from the grasp of centralised power sources. But how much of this is true?

One place to start is with the data. Earlier this year, Messari published a report illustrating the initial token allocations for some of the most popular blockchains. Evidently, insiders such as venture capital firms, founders and foundations represent the bulk of initial allocations in most cases, suggesting that they may not offer the promise of decentralised governance purported.

Initial token allocation for public blockchains. Source: Messari

The crux of Dorsey’s criticism is simple. Venture capitalist firms (VCs) frequently fund Web 3.0 projects in direct competition with genuinely decentralised alternatives such as 100 percent initial coin offerings. By owning a controlling stake, they are able to pressure blockchain co-founders and influence the direction of the project. In addition, as insiders, VCs are well-placed to pump their bags and time their exit at the expense of retail investors.

Naturally, Twitter’s favourite billionaire troll couldn’t resist commenting too:

Taking a step back from the Twitter storm, it’s clear in the end that Dorsey feels as if Web 3.0 is decentralised in name only. While he quite obviously is not opposed to centralisation or venture capital – see Twitter and Square – he simply wants people to know what they are getting into.

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Crypto News Crypto Wallets Metaverse NFTs Social media

Instagram CEO Admits It is “Exploring” NFTs

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has revealed the social network giant could possibly integrate NFT features to its platform, as per a Q&A posted on his Stories.

Nothing Official … Yet

During the Q&A, a user asked Mosseri his thoughts about NFTs and if there was any chance they would soon be integrated into Instagram. Messari tweeted that while there’s nothing official yet, the platform is “actively exploring” NFTs and how to take the best out of the space.

Nothing to announce yet but we are definitely actively exploring NFTs and how we can make them more accessible to a broader audience. I think it’s an interesting place that we can play … and also a way to hopefully help creators.

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri

Instagram Has Been Working Quietly on NFT Collectibles

Rumours of the Meta-owned photo-sharing giant exploring the NFT market started in early 2021 when digital artist Sean Williams posted a Twitter thread claiming that the app was building an NFT platform and reaching out to digital artists in the community.

It wouldn’t come as a surprise if Instagram announced support for NFTs anytime soon, considering the extant NFT boom and the rapid expansion of the Metaverse, propelled by Facebook’s decision to rebrand itself to Meta.

On top of that, app developer Alessandro Paluzzi has stated numerous times that Instagram was already working towards the integration of digital wallets such as MetaMask, Coinbase and Novi.

Social Media Giants Moving Toward Crypto

The crypto community is witnessing social media giants embracing crypto and blockchain technology, with Jack Dorsey’s Twitter one of the biggest advocates. Twitter Crypto is the name of the recently created team in charge of bringing blockchain, DApps (decentralised applications), and all things crypto to the platform for a variety of use cases.

The NFT space is expanding fast, but of course not everybody is an expert on the topic, a reason why so many scammers are taking advantage of boom to fool naive investors. To help fight theft, Adobe is preparing a tool that will assist users in proving that the person selling an NFT is the actual owner.