Category: NFTs

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Crypto News NFTs Solana

You Can Now Buy NFTs Through a Vending Machine in NYC

A New York City vending machine is now allowing users to purchase NFTs with fiat currency. Having closed a US$3 million seed round last month, the bold new project from Neon brings a Solana-based NFT marketplace to the real world:

With the goal of simplifying the NFT purchasing process, Neon’s co-founder and CMO Jordan Birnholtz collaborated on the idea with a summer intern in mid-2021 and soon came to the realisation that when it comes to ease of use, a vending machine ticks all the boxes.

We built it because it shows how powerful and easy it can be to support digital artists, and to demystify the process of getting an NFT.

Jordan Birnholtz, co-founder and CMO, Neon

Crypto Support is Coming

The vending machine is mounted within a shallow shopfront, highlighted by neon lighting. Users can make a purchase with a credit card and scan a QR code stored within the dispensed envelope to claim their NFTs online. Last month’s seed round closed a US$3 million profit and Neon intends to support crypto payments in future.

Expanding Accessibility of NFTs

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is rumoured to be launching an NFT marketplace of its own after it reportedly filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

As NFTs and cryptocurrencies develop, the financial sector is changing and updating its services to keep up. Mastercard has plans to offer consulting services for all things crypto this year. The brand’s payments-focused consulting service intends to expand its brief by catering to open banking, open data, crypto and digital currencies, and ESG.

By Lauren Claxton, Crypto News Guest Author

Categories
Crypto News Metaverse NFTs Sports

Puma Enters Web3: Renamed Puma.eth on Twitter and Partners with Cat-Themed NFTs

Having bought a decentralised .eth URL from the Ethereum Name Service (ENS), Puma has duly followed rival sports brands Nike and Adidas into the metaverse. As a full signal of intent, it has even renamed itself puma.eth on Twitter.

Puma’s new Twitter profile

Puma Partners With Gutter Cat Gang … More to Come?

Fuelling rumours of associated partnerships, Puma has also purchased a catalogue of cat-related NFTs, which include Cool Cat #32 (bought for 14 ETH, roughly US$36,000 at the time of writing); a Gutter Cat worth about US$20,000; a pair of pudgy pussies from the CatBlox Genesis collection, and a Lazy Lion.

As for the German multinational’s move into the metaverse, the company is looking to hire a “Digital Culture Manager” and an associate creative director, both positions listing knowledge of the metaverse as a prerequisite. As the ad on Puma’s website specifies, candidates are required to have an “understanding of web3 including NFTs, gaming, metaverse, cryptocurrencies, and DAOs”.

Puma Debuts at #13 on the .ETH Leaderboard

At the time of writing, Puma ranks 13th on the .eth Leaderboard, which lists the most followed Twitter accounts with .eth names. Leading the pack are parishilton.eth and shaq.eth, owned by socialite heiress Paris Hilton and former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal, respectively.

Besides Puma, another major corporation sporting an .eth domain is beer brand Budweiser, which bought the Beer.eth domain name for 30 ETH (around US$100,000 at the time) in August last year.

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Crypto News NFTs Scams

Mintable Recovers NFTs Stolen in OpenSea Exploit

NFT marketplace Mintable has recovered three NFTs that were stolen in a recent phishing attack on the OpenSea platform. The company is now looking for the owners of the NFTs so as to return three Azuki NFTs that were among those stolen:

Azukis Found on LooksRare

According to a press release issued by Mintable, its team was acquiring Azuki NFTs on the LooksRare platform for its February Floor Buster flash sale when it found and bought Azukis #1178, #4176 and #1180, which had been lost in a February 19 exploit on OpenSea. The team at Mintable said in an announcement that it “would like to return them to their previous holders”.

The exploit on OpenSea saw about US$1.75 million worth of NFTs stolen via a phishing scam. Zach Burks, CEO and founder of Mintable, said: “This exploit was possible because of a bug on OpenSea, and if OpenSea isn’t going to make it right, someone has to.”

Burks added that “for some of these people, all their net worth is tied up in their NFTs and it’s horrible to have them stolen. We like the Azuki community and we want to help give back to the people who lost over $140,000 through the exploit.”

The attack was initially reported to be an exploit, but OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer subsequently stated that users had fallen victim to a phishing attack that “did not originate” on OpenSea itself. Finzer added that users had inadvertently “signed a malicious payload from an attacker, and some of their NFTs were stolen”:

OpenSea in Troubled Waters

OpenSea is undergoing difficult times as it continues to fall victim to exploits and other malicious activities. The platform is also being sued for US$1 million in damages after a user had his Bored Ape #3475 stolen from his crypto wallet.

Many users have taken to Twitter to express their concerns:

Categories
Crypto News NFTs Solana

NFT Marketplace ‘Magic Eden’ to Airdrop Tokens for its Coming DAO

Magic Eden, the largest NFT marketplace on the Solana ecosystem, has begun an airdrop of its Magic Ticket NFTs in preparation for the launch of its new DAO.

The airdrop will provide recipients with access to the coming DAO, called MagicDAO. Magic Eden said the new DAO would help strengthen the wider Solana NFT ecosystem and allow its community to help guide future expansion:

Since its launch in September 2021, Magic Eden has rapidly grown to become the dominant NFT marketplace on the Solana network. In its first five months, Magic Eden has already attracted over 410,000 users and racked up over US$700 million in trading volume.

NFT Access-Based DAO

Unlike most DAOs, MagicDAO doesn’t have an associated token – rather, it’s being referred to as an NFT-gated DAO. This model uses NFTs, known as Magic Tickets, to grant membership to the DAO at one of three tiers based on when members made their first transaction: OGs, degens and normies. 

The various tiers will give members a range of rights in the DAO and access to different perks such as free merch, access to participate in hacker challenges, NFT collection whitelists, and entry to online founder AMAs.

Governance Remains With Team For Now

Initially, governance will remain largely centralised within the Magic Eden team with a view to increasing community participation in the future. Members of MagicDAO will be able to vote on less important issues – such as which collections to feature on the homepage – but important governance decisions will continue to be made by the team for the foreseeable future:

In the beginning, Magic Eden’s team will be more heavily involved in decision-making since we want to start slowly and make sure MagicDAO is successful. Over time, we hope the community will play a larger role. 

Magic Eden statement on MagicDAO

The seed funding for the DAO is 1000 SOL, sourced from Magic Eden fees; ongoing funding will come from a 5 percent levy on creator royalties and secondary sales, and 2 percent of trading fees on Magic Ticket.

The launch of MagicDAO follows the recent launch of OpenDAO, a DAO that aims to protect buyers and strengthen the NFT community on the Ethereum blockchain. This may be part of a larger trend, which sees the NFT market maturing and taking more seriously its responsibilities to investors.

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Crypto News Cryptocurrency Law NFTs

Former Bored Ape Owner Sues OpenSea for $1 Million in Damages

Timothy McKimmy, a Texas-based NFT (non-fungible token) collector, is suing OpenSea for US$1 million in damages after his Bored Ape #3475 was stolen from his crypto wallet.

McKimmy filed a lawsuit last week in the US District Court demanding OpenSea return his Bored Ape or pay US$1 million in damages.

On January 26, a bug found on the OpenSea platform allowed attackers to snap up NFTs at previously listed prices – well below current market prices. This was due to the sellers not delisting the item correctly by paying a gas fee.

McKimmy says he’s the owner of Bored Ape #3475, which was stolen during the attack and later listed for 225 ETH – or approximately US$592,000 at the time of writing.

Flaws in the Legal Glass

The lawsuit, however, has a couple of flaws. For starters, the plaintiff listed the defendant as OpenSea instead of the company’s legal identity, Ozone Networks. Ozone Networks is also based in Delaware – not in New York, as listed on the lawsuit.

These defects were pointed out by Twitter user exlawyernft:

OpenSea was ‘Aware of the Vulnerabilities’, Says McKimmy

As per the filing, McKimmy stated that OpenSea was fully aware of the vulnerabilities on its platform. If the case makes it to court, he’ll have to prove this in order to win.

As per the lawsuit:

Defendant’s security vulnerability allowed an outside party to illegally enter through OpenSea’s code and access Plaintiff’s NFT wallet, in order to list and sell Plaintiff’s Bored Ape at a literal fraction of the value (at .01 ETH). Essentially, OpenSea’s vulnerabilities allowed others to enter through its code and force the listing of an NFT.

McKimmy vs OpenSea, US District Court for the Southern District of Texas

Exlawyernft pointed out that “the negligence cause is a pretty good argument” – adding, however, that it will be interesting to see how “the jury interprets the blockchain”:

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News NFTs

Komodo (KMD) Surges 54% After Adding 13 More Tokens to Cross-Chain Protocol 

Decentralised multi-chain platform Komodo has announced the addition of Polygon, Avalanche, Harmony, and 10 other chains to AtomicDEX, the announcement of which sent the KMD surging.

KMD is the native token of Komodo and was trading at US$0.45 on February 20 before pumping 54 percent to a daily high of US$0.68 on February 22.

Komodo to Launch NFTs

In addition to AtomicDEX adding support for 13 more blockchains, the increased price action for Komodo could also be due to the introduction of NFTs to its ecosystem. The upcoming launch of Cyber Komodos is a collection of 777 unique NFTs to be launched on the Tokel NFT platform on March 15.

Secure Bridge for Cross-Chain Swaps

Bringing further attention to Komodo is the swapping capability of AtomicDEX. Komodo offers secure and truly peer-to-peer cross-chain interoperability. This is a very attractive feature for crypto users as many cross-chain platforms have been exploited in hacks, such as the recent US$326 million Wormhole breach and US$3 million Multichain hack.

To learn more about AtomicDEX, see it in action in the video below:

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Culture Vault NFTs Press Release

Culture Vault Releases New NFTs From Romance Was Born, the Injury, and Pan and the Dream

Culture Vault drops second instalment of NFTS, fashion industry to join the metaverse lineup.

Culture Vault – a new curated platform and creative agency that presents and sells high-quality NFTs and helps artists and cultural brands navigate the blockchain – today announces its second drop of NFTs by heralded fashion industry creatives, joining the robust lineup of interactive works announced last week. The new works represent Culture Vault’s expansion into the fashion realm after its first foray into both art and music earlier this year, with food, dance and generative art projects on the near horizon. 

The works released today are by Romance Was Born, The Injury, and Pan & The Dream. Works will be available for sale through Culture Vault, with prices ranging from 0.1 ETH to 3 ETH (approx. A$400 to $12,000).

Artist highlights of today’s release on Culture Vault include: 

  • Fashion industry luminaries Romance Was Born have joined forces with master creative Ribal Hosn on an inaugural NFT collection entitled A Certain Romance. The series features three unique 1/3 original works with the conceptualisation for the series stemming from the thought of seeing things that aren’t really there. Utilising purely analogue techniques without any special effects, each piece features a unique garment and its distorted reflection captured randomly on film. Throughout each work, the performer moves and interacts with the space and her reflection. The reflections were manually distorted by bending the mirror at certain moments and the mixture of colours changes based on the performer’s movement and position. The collection pays tribute to the Rorschach test, traditional filmmaking, and to the malleability of our perception of reality.
  • Acclaimed fashion label Injury has joined forces with Real Parent to create Extended Dreams Vol 1. The works explore the relationships between physical and digital souls, probing ongoing topics such as reality, illusions, life and dreams. Their genesis NFT collection originated from INJURY’s film “The Butterfly’s Dream”. The main character, named Real, is going through a metamorphosis, presenting itself as a half-human, half-butterfly persona. The Extended Dreams Vol.1 series includes four 25-38 second animated NFTs, consisting of digital fashion couture collectibles (fashion wearable NFTs) and narrative artwork with tailor-made soundscapes. #extendeddreamsnft
  • New York-based print magazine Pan and the Dream is an annual publication that presents images and words that show how art, beauty and dress can combine to provide new vistas at a moment in history when utopias seem more necessary than ever. PAN’s genesis NFT collection consists of seven unique artworks – a combination of movies, GIFs and high-quality still photographs. Reflecting times where individuals must turn to inner worlds for sustenance, audiences escape into lush visions and toy with the uncanny, and be transported through visual fantasy. PAN constructs a visual world to comfort, tantalise and challenge – a dreamscape that hovers between real, unreal and surreal. The past and possible imagined futures inform the present. 

The Culture Vault platform (Culturevault.com) is purpose-built to bridge the gap between the traditional art world and the crypto-community. It consists of a curated platform and creative agency, offering a one-stop shop for both first-time NFT-buyers and seasoned digital art collectors to acquire a curated selection of premium NFTs by some of the world’s leading artists. 

Luke Sales, Fashion Designer from Romance Was Born, commented on the launch of their works on Culture Vault today: “As fashion designers, we’re always looking for ways to take our work into expansive new worlds beyond stores and the runway. Releasing this exclusive digital drop on the site has allowed us to collaborate with the incredible talent that is Ribal Hosn and do something that is completely different.” 

CEO and Founder Michelle Grey said: “We’re thrilled to be adding fashion designers and industry creatives to our NFT drops. We believe that creative practices come in many forms and are excited to help a diverse array of creatives and not just traditional artists to explore beyond their traditional practices.”

Culture Vault is unique among NFT platforms in dedicated professional support for artists and brands to assist with their entire crypto journey – from setting up their smart contracts and crypto-wallets, to advising them on pricing and edition numbers, paying their gas fees, minting their NFTs, instructing them on how to use Discord (the social media platform preferred by the crypto community), and providing them with an opportunity to cash out their royalties into the currency of their choice.

The release of fashion NFTs from Culture Vault comes in advance of the platform’s “The Future Is Phygital” exhibition, free to the public from March 18-20, 2022, at Verona Studios, 17 Oxford St, Paddington, Sydney from 10am-5pm.

Categories
Blockchain NFTs

Hundreds of Salesforce Employees Protest Company’s NFT Plans

Salesforce’s recent announcement that it plans to enter into the NFT space has been met with anger and suspicion by some employees, according to internal company documents obtained by Thomson Reuters Foundation: 

More than 400 employees have signed an open letter addressed to the company’s co-CEOs, raising concerns about the high energy use of some blockchains and the significant risk of fraud and criminality in the NFT market.

The announcement that sparked this reaction outlined a plan by Salesforce to launch an NFT sales platform, called NFT Cloud, which would allow users to create and sell NFTs:

NFTs Undermine Company’s Core Values, Employees Claim

Coming just days after Salesforce aired a Super Bowl ad touting its commitment to sustainability, employees perceive this foray into NFTs as hypocritical and not in line with its stated values:

In the letter, the employees argue that the sale of NFTs conflicts with the company’s five core values of trust, customer success, innovation, equality and sustainability.

With Market Growth Comes Increased Scrutiny

It’s no surprise that large enterprises are starting to show interest in NFTs given the global market has exploded in the past 18 months, growing from US$95 million in 2020 to around US$25 billion in 2021, an approximate 250x increase.

This explosive growth brings with it increased scrutiny and pressure for the NFT space to clean up its act, especially with regard to fraud and energy use. 

Recently, several organisations have faced criticism over their intentions to sell NFTs: the WWF was forced to rethink its strategy to create and sell NFTs following supporter backlash; and video game companies Sega and Team 17 both recently abandoned plans to use NFTs in their games following player anger.

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Crypto News NFTs

Artist Blows Up Lambo to Protest ‘Get Rich Quick’ Crypto Culture

Pseudonymous artist SHL0MS has taken an unusual approach to protesting crypto’s focus on profit by blowing up a US$250,000 Lamborghini Huracan in an undisclosed desert location for a groundbreaking NFT project.

The supercar-related memes are funny, but they also implicitly symbolise the popular association of cryptocurrency to short-sighted profit-seeking and zero-sum behaviour … this project is intended to serve as a reminder of the revolutionary potential of the underlying technology – if we wield it correctly instead of solely for personal gain.

SHLoMS

Lambo Wreck Turns into NFTs

In rotating videos, 999 fragments of the blown-up car have been categorised, documented and filmed, intending to highlight the “striking stochastically-generated abstract forms produced by the wreckage”.

The Lamborghini pre-explosion. Source: SHLoMS

Each video will then be turned into an individual NFT and sold via a unique auction, which has a mechanism designed to limit the outsized power of so-called crypto whales.

By defiling the stereotypical aspiration of the crypto world and positioning the charred wreckage as fine art, SHL0MS is said to have delivered a “smouldering critique of zero-sum, extractive practices in the crypto industry while postulating a way forward that centres around long-termism and a focus on using technology for broader societal value rather than self-enrichment”.

The Lamborghini explosion. Source: SHLoMS

SHL0MS had been plotting the project for some time, and was open about his distaste for Lamborghinis in a since deleted Tweet:

The explosive approach is no doubt novel, and quite clearly in opposition to that of the car manufacturer itself, which last year released its own NFT collection in celebration of its founder.

Potential Sales vs Initial Investment

Like most people, SHL0MS is probably not purely motivated by ideological reasons. You have to imagine that behind the scenes there was a commercial calculation examining whether the NFT sales (and ongoing royalties) plus publicity were likely to exceed the initial investment (ie, a reported total of US$1 million sourcing and blowing up a Lamborghini).

SHL0MS clearly thought that the juice was worth the squeeze. Time will tell whether the hefty upfront investment was worth it, or a costly ideological statement.

Either way, if you’re keen to participate in this unique sale, the auction kicks off February 25 on the official site.

Categories
Crypto News DeFi Ethereum NFTs

New Decentralised Video Platform ‘Shibuya’ Set to Launch on Ethereum Next Month

Digital artist Pplpleasr has announced she is helping to launch a decentralised video platform called Shibuya.

Pplpleasr, aka Emily Yang, is the artist responsible for last year’s Fortune NFT cover as well as the decentralised art collection platform PleasrDAO, which to date has raised US$69 million to assist in the launch of the Shibuya platform, set for March 1.

A ‘Mix of Vimeo and Netflix’

According to Pplpleasr, the project will be a mix of Netflix, Vimeo and the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, but with a decentralised twist. Shibuya will enable its users to directly influence the platform’s content through the use of NFTs and cryptos.

Speaking at the Ethereum-focused ETHDenver conference last week, Pplpleasr said: “Shibuya is a decentralised Hollywood, where cultures and ideas meet in one eclectic and inspiring place.”

The complete version of the New York-based artist’s YouTube interview can be viewed below:

The first piece of media Shibuya will launch is “White Rabbit”, which the artist has described as containing elements of anime, the British television drama Black Mirror, and Web3. A short preview of the piece can be seen in the video above.

For users to be able to view the episodes, they must mint NFTs on Shibuya that can be staked to cast a vote on the episode’s direction. Voters will thereafter be rewarded with a White Rabbit token, which also serves as fractionalised ownership of the web series. The project has not yet accepted any outside funding but is also working with popular Polish-born NFT artist Maciej Kuciara.

More Decentralised Projects Pop Up

Last week, Crypto News Australia reported that Aave had launched its “Lens Protocol” to power decentralised social media platforms. And in January, the decentralised blogging platform “Mirror” started offering its writers a way to monetise their articles.