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 - Salesforce Launching Platform for Brands to Mint and Sell NFTs
As always, there was a lot of NFT-related news that came out this week. Apefest tickets go on sale today, Antony Hopkins adopts an Ethereum name, Snoop Dogg to open a Bored Ape NFT-themed dessert restaurant, APECOIN to officially remain on Ethereum and a US real estate firm puts a New York building up for sale as an NFT priced at 15,000ETH.
Amongst all this and much, much more, there was also news of Salesforce, a multi-billion dollar company, entering the crypto/NFT realm with their product NFT Cloud.
The company website reads ‘Mint and sell NFTs on a trusted, sustainable platform.’ The primary use-cases are outlined below:
Launch your brand into new digital worlds.
Link data, communities, and wallets.
Deploy from secure, sustainable technology.
Bridge physical and digital experiences.
The cloud software giant expects the new platform, launching now with a pilot program, to be widely available by October. It will represent an end-to-end NFT solution for small businesses and beyond.
The Salesforce team have not yet announced which blockchain will be used to mint their NFTs. However, they have stated they will not be using a blockchain that employs the energy-intensive PoW (proof of work) consensus model due their commitment to sustainability, which for now, includes Ethereum.
For a more detailed article on this story, please click here.
Curated News - the best bits of the past week
BIGGEST NFT Sale: Otherdeed for Otherside #8088 for 200ETH
Ticket requests for ApeFest ‘22 go live at 9am ET, June 8th, for 36 hours or while supplies last.
Fully managed end-to-end marketplace releases NFTs with high holder rewards
ApeCoin DAO officially favor to remain within Ethereum ecosystem
$72M Illuvium NFT Land Dutch auction saves buyers thousands on gas fees
CoinbaseNFT announced updates to their UX on June 4th, 7th and 9th. See details of each update by clicking on the relevant date.
Maybe Something - things we’re keeping an eye on
Hyped project The Possessed Finally Reveal Their Mint Price And Date
DEGEN PLAY (DYOR): Godly Legion got some attention in past 24hrs, but very little is known about the project. A few notable wallets bought.
The GODA Mint Pass went live today. It has seen huge volume and is sitting 2nd overall in 24hr rankings. Floor is hovering around 7.5ETH.
Budweiser has teamed up with ZedRun as their “Official Beer of ZedRun”.
Christie’s announced Cartography of the Mind, an NFT auction to benefit the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. June 21st to June 28th.
FWENCLUB: MOAR will be airdropping serums to holders in June.
Sartoshinft tweeted a teaser with date and time of 9th June 12pm EST
CyberKongz announced a collab with Stephen Curry and tagged Under
Armour. They also announced the launch of their marketplace a few days later.
Parallel PDIV (Pack Drop 4) is on June 11th @ 5pm EST.
Historical Insight: The FDCARD, the first mint in the Spells Of Genesis series is considered one of the “holy grails” in the vintage NFT space. It’s native to XCP (Counterparty blockchain), but can be purchased on ETH via the Emblem Vault on Opensea. It’s traded at over 100ETH on several occasions with a current floor of 89ETH. Note: there are fractional versions, which are NOT the full NFT. Please be careful and seek advice before making any purchases.
Talking Point - Where do Ethereum gas fees go?
Anyone buying and selling NFTs on Ethereum will be well aware of gas fees. They are a topic of hot debate and are seemingly always in the headlines. Most recently it was the Otherdeed for Otherside mint which drew attention to the potentially colossal outlays consumers are having to pay to acquire certain NFTs.
In the past, friends of mine have simply refused to enter the NFT space based on how expensive gas fees were (granted this was in the summer of 2021 when prices were crazy high). I myself remember paying well over $100USD per transaction during the hype cycles, and on numerous times paid more in gas fees than the value of the NFT I was buying. In hindsight it all seems a bit crazy.
That said, with updates such as EIP-1559 and the upcoming Merge (explained in ZenCaps Edition #12), we are slowly heading towards an environment that will have much-reduced Ethereum transaction fees. Just yesterday, the Ethereum Merge Upgrade went live on the longest-running testnet known as Ropsten.
This kind of progress is great news, but today I simply wanted to answer a question i’ve been asked numerous times over the past few weeks as more people i know get into NFTs. And it came up again last night over dinner with friends, both of whom are well-versed in NFT acquisitions. The question is this: Where do the ETH gas fees go?
The simplified answer is this: Every gas fee is comprised of a base fee and a priority fee. The base fee acts as a reserve price for your transaction to be eligible for processing at the time you initiate it. The priority fee is optional but is included in the total fee to get your transaction processed in a reasonable timeframe. The higher the priority fee, the faster your transaction will be processed.
Once your transaction is processed the base fee is "burned", removing it from circulation. The priority fee is distributed to the miner/s who help support and secure the Ethereum network.
In short, a portion of your Ethereum gas fee is burnt and the rest goes to the miners.
For a much more detailed look at how gas fees work, please take a look at this documentation on the ethereum.org website.
Tip Of The Week - Reducing your Gas Fees
In keeping with the topic of gas fees from above, here’s a few things you can do to help reduce your transaction fees.
Conduct transactions when the network is quiet: By transacting on Ethereum at particular times of day, for example very early in the morning or late at night (for the USA), you’ll often find the network is less congested, resulting in lower fees.
Pick your own gas limit: There’s options on Ethereum to set your own gas limit to a price that suits you. Be aware that this particular option can mean you wait a long time for the transaction to be processed, and in high volume collections, you may well lose out to another buyer who’s willing to pay more in fees.
Pre planning: You can check historical network congestion by using tools like EthereumGasPrice. By checking historical gas data, you’ll be able to ascertain which days and time periods generally have cheaper gas fees.
Try Ethereum layer-2 alternatives: Layer-2 protocols are used to help scale an application by processing transactions outside of the Ethereum Mainnet (layer-1). Protocols such as Polygon, Arbitrum, Loopring, Immutable X and the like offer such alternatives.
Use another blockchain: This option won’t always be suitable, especially if you are after an Ethereum-native NFT, but you can buy and sell NFTs on blockchains that have much lower gas fees or no gas fees at all. So if Ethereum is simply unviable for you, check out NFTs on blockchains such as Tezos, Solana, Cardano and Wax.
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. 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
Episode 45 of Two Bored Apes is Live! In this episode, Zeneca and Jaime talk about the week's news, goblintown.wtf, Nate Chastain, Jaime's Bored Ape, a lot of generative art and Tezos, plus more. Listen on Spotify here.
The most recent ZenChats episode, with New York-based artist Amber Vittoria, is now available on YouTube and as a podcast. Click here to visit YouTube version.
FREE Beer giveaway raffle in collaboration with MetaBrewSociety. Click here to see more info in Discord.
Our GITBOOK is now live! It is a repository for all of the information relating to ZA (our values, the team, our partners, perks, and plenty of helpful resources). You can visit it by clicking here.
There will soon be a tokenproof sign-up page for the event being hosted at NFT NYC. The ZA event has a limited capacity (due to high demand) so it will be on a first-come-first-serve signup basis. Link will appear in ZA Discord on Thursday, 9th June at 9:00pm UTC.
Latest MET Amsterdam meet-up plans: Wednesday, June 15th - Meet-up at De Bakkerswinkel from 1pm-4pm. Thursday, June 16th - Zeneca's Keynote at 1:40pm. Join the chat here for more info.
ZA project founders now have the opportunity to apply for a consultation session with Zeneca. All you need to do if fill out a form, which you can find here in Discord.
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.
Zeneca donated 4.4 ETH ($8,105.31) to support Ukraine. This was made possible by everyone who paid for the NasAcademy course. Zeneca will continue to donate for the life of the course. Big thanks to all participants.
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.