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 - NFT.com Aims to Take On OpenSea
NFT.com, headed up by CEO Jordan Fried, former senior vice president of Hedera Hashgraph, has big ambitions: they plan to usurp OpenSea as the worlds leading NFT marketplace.
This is no small task, but the NFT.com team, being advised by Kevin O’Leary (investor and “star” of Shark Tank) are brimming with confidence. They feel their unique approach, as a community-governed NFT marketplace, will appeal to creators and consumers alike.
The platform intends to release NFT “keys” which will play a role in governance as well as reward holders with other benefits.
CEO Fried says he takes issue with platforms which are backed by venture capitalist firms and wants to create one that’s governed by its community.
“A lot of the other NFT marketplaces are Web2 companies putting lipstick on and calling themselves Web3 platforms,” Fried told Decrypt.
NFT.com advisor, Kevin O’Leary, seems unperturbed by OpenSea’s first-mover advantage, saying the following:
“The game hasn't even started for NFTs yet. It's not like we're in the second inning—it hasn't even started…OpenSea is out there, but by no means have they become the standard in any way. There's all kinds of opportunity here.”
It will certainly be exciting to see what NFT.com delivers. Their Genesis Key blind auction starts on April 26th. For more details please see their Twitter account here.
To read the full article on this story, please click here.
Curated News - the best bits of the past week
BIGGEST NFT Sale: 1,050ETH for CryptoPunk #7756
Sega Lays Groundwork for Metaverse With 'Super Game' NFT Plan
Museums in the metaverse: How Web3 technology can help historical sites
BAYC and Coinbase to release series entitled “The Degen Trilogy”
MetaMask Just Integrated Apple Pay Making Buying NFTs With Fiat Easy
NFT-Backed Loan Market Heats Up as CryptoPunks Owner Borrows $8.3M
Meta plans to take a nearly 50% cut on virtual asset sales in its metaverse
Spells of Genesis celebrates 5 years by opening a virtual NFT history museum
Maybe Something - things we’re keeping an eye on
The PREMINT Collector pass has seen high volume sales this past week. As a Pass holder, you will get access to an evolving collector dashboard and features to keep you on top of the hottest mints.
Historical NFT Insight: ‘TEST’ (minted January 13th, 2014) is an NFT “Holy Grail”. It is the first tokenized asset that appeared in the form of titles on BTC’s Counterparty (XCP) blockchain. Check them out on OpenSea here.
Imaginary Ones, a hotly anticipated NFT release, just released the mint details.
Chibi Labs’ Chibi Frens sold out in 45mins, and all Chibi Holders can claim their Frens for free (gas only) from 4/14, Thursday @ 2pm ET.
“MOAR” by Joan Cornella sold out at 0.5ETH mint and has crushed it on secondary sales volumes ever since. Check out the collection here.
Gutter Cat Gang Clones (Species 2 - Gutter Rats) today at 8pm EST
The Spells Of Genesis collection will likely see some movement in light of their recent announcement (see article in above section).
Everyone is excited about the MoonBirds mint. Allowlist raffle winners will be announced on April 15th, 9:00 AM PDT.
Sixties Fashion Icon Pattie Boyd Releases An NFT Collection on 19th April
LIFE Magazine to launch historic works on Knownorigin today!
A Beginners Guide: Top 10 Most Popular Avatar PFP NFT Collections
Talking Point - The Financialization Of NFTs
I read an interesting article this week which explores the idea that NFTs need to become better utilized as financial instruments to enable the sector to continue growing at such an impressive pace. Namely, liquidity is required.
Matrixport is Asia’s one-stop digital assets financial services platform. Its founding partner and COO Daniel Yan told Decrypt the following:
The critical issue of liquidity is the "key" to building the robust financial layer that's integral to the healthy growth of the sector. Liquidity helps you to grow the thing much faster than you would have expected.
The article takes a look at how the development of the following 5 areas could help bring about much needed liquidity:
NFT Fractionalization
NFT Lending
NFT Rental
NFT Pricing
NFT Aggregators
Experts believe the verticals that make up the financial layer will attract a more diverse group of investors. In turn, they’ll bring with them a wave of liquidity which will help the industry grow and develop.
This is an important part of the space to keep an eye on. We should all be paying attention when it comes to learning how NFT collectors can further monetize their holdings. I’ll be sure to bring any developments on this front to the newsletter as they unfold.
Have a read of the full article here.
Tip Of The Week - The Guardian Contract
This week, in light of the ongoing battle against scammers and hackers, I thought we’d look at an innovative new safety measure being developed by the clever devs over at CyberKongz. It’s known as ‘The Guardian Contract’.
Here’s a summary of what the Guardian Contract does by one of the lead devs, Owl.pcc.eth:
The Guardian Contract allows you to enjoy the convenience of a hot wallet, while adding the security of a cold/hardware/multi-sig wallet on top. It even allows you to guard assets that already reside on a hardware wallet with a second hardware wallet to add another layer of protection from signing unwanted transfer or approval transactions.
The way it works is to apply a Lock Registry to an ERC-721 contract (the standard for NFTs). Whilst this lock is in place (and you can apply multiple locks) the NFT will not be able to be transferred. This means even if a wallets seed phrase is compromised, the NFT assets, if associated with a “lock”, will not be able to be moved from the wallet.
This represents a great step forward in preventing criminals from stealing your valuable NFTs.
To read the full article, please click here.
ZenAcademy and 333 Club Noticeboard
Regular Event Reminders
Join our poker nights via our Discord. Events held every Saturday 10pm GMT, with prizes to be won.
Join our weekly community initiative Weekly Creative Prompts! Find out more in our Discord by clicking here.
Our Book Club has started up. Join in on the discussions here.
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.
Weekly Movie Nights are happening. Last one was a lot of fun. Join this week in our Discord for Harry Potter And The Order of The Phoenix.
Irregular Events and Info
We are planning an event for NFT NYC. If you are interested in attending, please join 🗽 | nft nyc meetup so we can begin to get a rough head count.
We’re also planning an IRL meetup at MET Amsterdam which is taking place from the 14th-17th June. Join the chat here for more info.
333 Club members, keep across our new Events channel, hosted by DancingEddie, for all the latest updates.
Signup for Zeneca’s Nas Academy course is now live for anyone holding a ZenAcademy Genesis NFT or a 333 Club NFT. Access is very straight forward. Head to https://nasacademy.com/zeneca, click on "join this class".
Zeneca’s latest Newsletter is available here: ‘Letter 26: On cc0, Intellectual Property, and NFTs’
Check out Our Trivia Tournament of Champions: Grand Final.
ZenChats with Zeneca launched this week. It's basically taking the content from Zeneca’s YouTube channel and repurposing it for podcast format. This is the Apple Podcasts link, and this is the Spotify link.
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.