ZenCaps: Edition #13

Your weekly NFT recap to cut through the noise

May 26, 2022

The NFT space can feel like information overload at times, so we’ve cut through the noise to deliver you a curated dose of what matters most. Your all-in-one weekly companion.

Headline News - Solana Overtakes Ethereum in Daily NFT Trading Volume and Magic Eden shows impressive growth

Image: Trippin Ape Tribe Twitter banner (Solana NFT collection)

Solana NFT collections are undoubtedly gaining huge traction in the NFT space, momentum that’s been building for months. A few days ago, at the launch of Trippin Ape Tribe, we saw the 24hr trading volume on Solana surpass that traded on Ethereum for the same period.

Since OpenSea launched it Solana Beta update, Magic Eden (ME) has done exceptionally well at retaining its market share, and its total volume traded has been equally as impressive. Li Jin produced a great Twitter thread outlining some key metrics between the two leading marketplaces. Some standout facts are shown below:

These numbers are from a recent 7 day period, with data used from DappRadar.

139K users on ME vs. 123K on OS (13% more users)
2.4M transactions on ME vs. 404K on OS (6x more txns)
$162M GMV on ME vs. $210M on OS (77% of OS's volume)

These numbers are staggering and it seems to have come about so fast. Clearly there’s huge interest in Solana NFTs and it’s something we should all be paying attention to.

Magic Eden’s ability to retain the market share of Solana NFT trading volume shows it had a strong and loyal customer base way before the OpenSea Solana integration, and they are more than happy where they are.

The OpenSea volume rankings now feature 22 Solana projects in the top 100. Shortly after the initial integration I counted only 3 or 4. This further gives weight to the idea that Ethereum has a very real companion to spearhead the NFT movement with.

For the full thread by Li Jin which compares ME with OS, and provides great insight, please click here.

For a full article on the impressive surge in Solana NFT popularity, please click here.

Curated News - the best bits of the past week

Maybe Something - things we’re keeping an eye on

Duppies, from the team that bought us DeGods (approx. 345 SOL floor), is minting in June. Full details here.
Historical Insight: Ether Rock ID 92 was sold for 100ETH, in a bear market. Ether Rocks were launched in December 2017 and have commanded huge price tags in hype cycles, but as we can see, it’s not cheap to get on board in a downtrend either. For more info on the project please click here.
Goblintown.wtf - What is it? Here’s a little summary of the collection
Trippin Ape Tribe had a successful launch minting out in about 1hr. They secured the top spot on OS for around 24hrs.
Dolce&Gabbana Glass Box reveal starts on Friday, May 27th from 9am Pacific
Ubisoft Entrepreneurs Lab Kicks Off Its Seventh Season with 11 collabs
TigerBob NFT launches on May 28th at 12pm EDT, 1000 collectibles at 0.25ETH
SuperRare announce SuperTrans. An exhibition of transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming artists redefining the boundaries of their craft. Launching 3rd June 2022.
Pixel Vault partners with UFC to tell athlete’s stories via various mediums
Anonymice announces mint of DNA Chips on 27th May. See more here
The Crypto Card Club Aims High with Web3 Loyalty System

Talking Point - Soulbound Tokens (SBTs)

Image: Vitalik Buterin, Soulbound Token visionary

There is a lot of buzz around Soulbound Tokens, especially since Vitalik Buterin discussed the idea more extensively in a recently co-published paper exploring the future of Ethereum. So let’s dig in.

The term Soulbound comes from the MMORPG World Of Warcraft game and refers to items that are non-exchangeable and non-transferable. The game would distribute Soulbound items for accomplishing certain quests or you could acquire them by killing unique bosses.

An excerpt from the recently published papers summary page reads as follows:

‘Web3 today centers around expressing transferable, financialized assets, rather than encoding social relationships of trust. Yet many core economic activities—such as uncollateralized lending and building personal brands—are built on persistent, non-transferable relationships. In this paper, we illustrate how non-transferable “soulbound” tokens (SBTs) representing the commitments, credentials, and affiliations of “Souls” can encode the trust networks of the real economy to establish provenance and reputation’.

This gives you the premise of the paper, and should you wish to read it in full (37 pages), it can be downloaded here, but let’s take a quick look at several use-cases below to better understand SBTs value proposition.

To clarify, only SBT creators would be able to produce SBT tokens, and they would be stored in what the paper refers to as “soul” accounts/wallets. Once transferred to these wallets, the token would “stick” to that wallet for its entire lifespan. It would not be tradeable on marketplaces, or transferable to another wallet/account.

Several use cases that have been discussed so far are as follows:

Certificates and Documents - Universities and colleges could issue degrees as SBTs. This would largely eradicate the issue with degree certificates being sold online should they be issued as a standard NFT, for example.
DAOs - SBTs could be used to prevent Sybil attacks, whereby malicious actors seek to gain 51% voting rights to pass certain proposals.
Uncollateralized Lending - This is largely impossible at present. Due to anonymity issues, there’s no way for platforms to validate individuals’ credentials such as credit ratings. SBTs issued as (periodic) credit ratings would help with this issue.
Proof Of Presence - Entities could issue attendees to conferences or such with SBTs as a proof of attendance. These could also be used to contact these participants at a later date, or to reward them should they wish.
Medical - SBTs could be used for a whole range of medical reasons, far outside the scope here, but simply storing important information related to your medical history is one example. Blood type and allergies for example.
Personal Identification - SBTs could be used to create accounts with personal data to prove who you are and express your social identity (interests and beliefs etc.).

I hope this overview gives you an initial taste for the potential held within Soulbound tokens. Vitalik predicts first use-cases being experimented with towards the end of 2022 and added, "I suspect the 2024 up cycle will focus on them."

For a full thread on the topic, please click here.

Tip Of The Week - Batch send NFTs on Gem

This section has been all about marketplace developments over the past few weeks, as rivals attempt to offer customers the best experience with the least hassle by constantly adding new and innovative tools to their platforms.

This past week Gem.xyz made the following announcement:

gem.xyz @gemxyz

✨ New at Gem: Batch Send NFTs ✈️ Send any NFT you own to another wallet. You can now send multiple items at once - saving you time and gas!

Sending multiple NFTs at once can be both costly and time-consuming. This new addition to Gem helps alleviate both issues. Try it out for yourself and see what you think.

ZenAcademy and 333 Club Noticeboard

Regular Event Reminders

Join our poker nights via our Discord. Events held every weekend, with prizes to be won.
Weekly Movie Nights are going strong. This week is The Princess Bride at 5:30pm UTC on Friday 27th May. See more info here.
ZenAcademy runs a guided meditation/gratitude circle in Discord for a weekly reset.
Reminder: As a ZenAcademy member, you get exclusive access to market health statistics and analysis updated every 12hrs. For a full rundown of how to get the most out of these charts, click here.

Irregular Events and Info

The ‘Daily News’ channel has been changed to a more general ‘Content Feed’ channel. This will include the Daily News, ZenCaps newsletter, Two Bored Apes podcast, ZenChats podcast and any other relevant content. Enjoy.
Two Bored Apes episode 43 is available in the the Content Feed on Discord. Luna/UST Fiasco, Azuki and Zagabond, BAYC, Art Blocks (and generative art in general), and a lot more. Listen on Spotify here.
The latest edition of ZenChats is out. Zeneca talks with Jason Michael Primrose, a masterful storyteller and world-builder, about his magnum opus / life's work turned into an NFT behemoth: Lost Children of Andromeda.
ZenAcademy & 333 Club are collaborating with NFTYEA to help give everyone their time back in this space. The team is attempting to tackle a problem I think we all have at this point: Discord fatigue. The founder is a member of our community: @GamesMaster.
We’re also planning an IRL meet up at MET Amsterdam which is taking place from the 14th-17th June. Join the chat here for more info.
We have a community event (most likely ZA/333 token holders only) at NFT NYC on 23rd June (3pm till 6pm). Add to calendar using this link.
They’ll be a breakfast event on Wednesday, June 22 from 9-11 am at NFT.NYC in collaboration with Curious Addys and Meta Angels communities. There will be 75 spots per community, and raffles will kick-off on 1st June, so watch out for more info in Discord.
There is a great opportunity for 333 Club members to learn about and acquire a VA this week. Head into the announcement channel and find the post on 14/5/22.
A reminder to all new and old that Zeneca’s course 'How to Launch an NFT Project' is available for free for anyone holding a ZA/333 NFT. You can sign up at: https://nasacademy.com/zeneca.

Nothing in this or any other ZenCaps publication should be construed as financial or investment advice. The views and opinions expressed in ZenCaps publications do not reflect those of Zeneca_33 or the ZenAcademy.

Always exercise caution within the NFT space and adhere to best practices when it comes to making any investments. There is plenty of potential, but this comes with inherent risks.

Stay safe, and as always, good luck.

ZenCaps: Your Weekly NFT Recap to Cut Through the Noise

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