Tag: metaverse

OpenSea To Enforce NFT Royalties After Creators Backlash

Posted on by Augustine Ojeh

OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace by trading volume, announced today that it will continue to enforce creator royalties on NFTs following significant pushback from the community.

“We will continue to enforce creator fees on all existing collections,” the firm wrote in a tweet thread. “We’re awed by the passion we’ve seen from creators and collectors alike this week. We were looking for your feedback, and we heard it, loud and clear.”

OpenSea On NFT Policy

On Saturday, OpenSea said that it was reconsidering its policy towards enforcing creator royalty fees on NFTs. This was following a wave of rival marketplaces that had either rejected such fees or made them optional. Optional for traders to pay. A royalty fee is set by the NFT artist or creator. The fee typically falls between 5% and 10% of the secondary sale price.

OpenSea set a self-imposed December 8 deadline to take in community feedback and consider possible courses of action. One which it said included making creator fees optional for traders. This means that enforcing these fees will only be as regards to some types of NFT collections.

However, the potential for the market’s largest NFT platform to stop enforcing royalties did not sit well with many prominent creators. One of these creators include Bored-Ape-Yacht-Club creator, Yuga Labs who vocally pushed back against OpenSea and began organizing amongst themselves.

Furthermore, on Tuesday, noted streetwear brand The Hundreds stepped up its response by making an announcement. They announced that they had canceled a planned OpenSea NFT drop this week. “May it be a reminder to them, to you, and the world that the artists are always in control.” The above statement was given by the firm’s founders.

OpenSea Reacts

As its tweet suggests, OpenSea got the message “loud and clear” from the community. The $13.3 billion Web3 startup explained that it was “​​seeking guidance from our community,” however, that was not the case. The startups pointed to data showing that the share of market-wide creator royalty fees is tumbling. Especially in recent weeks as royalties-rejecting marketplaces gain steam.

“Unless something changes soon, this space is trending toward significantly fewer fees paid to creators,” OpenSea wrote. “No policy that we implement will reverse this trend if this behavior continues.”

OpenSea encouraged creators to create additional incentives for traders to honor royalties and point them towards marketplaces that honor them. It also pointed towards implementing additional enforcement methods.

Royalty Enforcement System

On Saturday, OpenSea announced a royalties enforcement system for newly-created NFT projects. One that is built around a blacklist that blocks listed marketplaces from handling those transactions. The method targets marketplaces that do not fully enforce royalty fees, which are among OpenSea’s biggest rivals.

Some of the NFT world’s most prominent creators are speaking out in defense of royalties this week. This started after OpenSea said it is considering changes to its enforcement including potentially making them optional for traders. Now one brand has taken things a step further by canceling an Ethereum NFT drop planned this week.

Finally, Bobby “Bobby Hundreds” Kim tweeted on Tuesday night. He said that his streetwear brand The Hundreds will not launch its Badam Bomb Squad on OpenSea this week. This is due to the company’s unclear communication around its creator royalties stance.

“We were waiting to see if OpenSea would take a stand to preserve creator royalties for existing collections. This is especially after they’d heard from the artists, founders, and NFT community.” The above statement was tweeted by the brand. “Unfortunately, that announcement has not arrived in time.”

Bitcoin And Ethereum Could Be Poised For Recovery

Posted on by Augustine Ojeh

The bitcoin price has been bouncing around $20,000 per bitcoin since mid-June (despite some eye-popping bitcoin price predictions). However, ethereum has fallen sharply in the aftermath of its long-awaited, energy-saving upgrade, flying in the face of expectations.

Now, as Blackrock and Fidelity make surprise moves to enter the bitcoin and crypto market, a new finding surfaces. A survey of professional investors who collectively manage $2.2 trillion in assets has returned a huge crypto price prediction.

How Investors Are Taking This Bitcoin Price Action?

Institutional investors and wealth managers were found to be optimistic about the future price of bitcoin and ethereum. Furthermore, 46% forecasting bitcoin will be worth $35,000 or more within six months. However, 64% predict the price of ethereum will exceed $2,000 during the same period.

“Predicting future price movements in the cryptocurrency market is always a challenging endeavor. However, the survey clearly points to constructive price recovery expectations by institutional investors.” This was stated by Anatoly Crachilov, the chief executive of London-based crypto asset manager Nickel Digital.

Meanwhile, over half (58%) of respondents said they expect the crypto bear market to end within six months. This suggests a spring price rally.

“It is a well-grounded long-term optimism,” Crachilov added. “Investors acknowledge that the ongoing crypto winter still has some way to run but there is also a recognition that, if history is any guide, once the winter ends these high-beta markets will stage strong recovery.”

This Week on Bitcoin And ethereum

This week, as the stock market buckled under pressure from the Federal Reserve and fears rampant inflation could require an even stronger response.  Bitcoin, and other crypto prices climbed before falling back, with the bitcoin price dropping to just over $18,000.

“The $18,000 level has continued to provide decent support and if bitcoin doesn’t break down in the coming days, we could see upward movement in October with $24,000 and $26,000 being initial levels to watch,” Joe DiPasquale, the chief executive of bitcoin BitBull Capital, said in emailed comments.

After a sharp drop in the last few days, crypto tokens regained some flair. Top crypto tokens were moving in tandem with other riskier assets, rising higher on Thursday.

Whats Up With The Crypto Markets In Russia

Russia escalated its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the prospects of a severe global recession increased exponentially. Consequently Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was trading above $19,000.

Barring the US dollar-pegged USD Coin, all top crypto tokens were trading sharply higher on Thursday. BNB zoomed more than 5%, whereas Bitcoin, Solana and Ethereum rallied 4% each. XRP and Polygon were 3% up.

The global cryptocurrency market cap was trading significantly higher at $941.75 billion, jumping by 3% in the last 24-hours. However, the total trading volume tumbled over 12 per cent, close to $82.32 billion.

Expert take

This week, the global crypto market cap saw rapid changes with key cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum plummeting. The tokens dropped below their reserve prices but only to make corrections as spot volumes increased. According to Prashant Kumar, Founder & CEO, weTrade.

“Almost a fortnight after the Merge, Ethereum is trading at $1,300,” he added. “The strengthening US dollar, increased rate hikes and calls for broader regulations for stablecoins by the US Federal Reserve chair are all affecting the market.”

On the global scene, AQUA, a Web3 community platform for gamers, has launched its flagship marketplace for trading in-game assets. The startup also announced a $10 million investment from DIGITAL, an investment firm backed by Steve Cohen.

KlayMeta Is Bringing NFTs Into MMORPGs

Posted on by Augustine Ojeh

Since gaming began, avatars and characters have always been used. They are used for immersive reasons, one of which is to create point-of-view style gameplay. However, what those games were missing, was what if you could irrefutably own the character? Yes, what if you can own the character you’re on that journey with? In a multitude of different MMORPG’s, players have put 1000’s of hours of progress into a single character. But, what if the game suddenly shut-down. Will it all be  completely wiped out? Let’s see how KLAYmeta changes this by making all their avatars NFTs.

First, Definition

What is an NFT? Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are virtual assets on a blockchain that signal ownership of a virtual or physical item. 

Varying widely from houses to tickets, NFTs are, a way to irrefutably prove ownership.

From a gaming perspective, NFTs are a way to transfer progression into ownership. Instead of just playing with the same character for thousands of hours, how about owning that character? No one can take that away from you.

Now that you know what they are, it’s important to understand how they’re used in KLAYmeta. Let’s jump into it.

How NFTs Are Used In KLAYmeta

Avatars as NFTs In KLAYmeta, avatars are the lifeblood of the game. Without them, it would feel very sparse. Users can summon and hold an unlimited number of avatars. However, a singular avatar can only ever be owned by one person at a time.

Why? Because each avatar within KLAYmeta is its own NFT, stored on-chain. 

Currently, they’re KIP-17 compliant for the Klaytn Network. Soon, however, KLAYmeta will be transitioning to the BNB Smart Chain as it launches internationally. So, we’ll see BNB-based avatars popping up everywhere.

Making everything into an NFT doesn’t necessarily make it great. We’ve all seen how saturated the NFT market is becoming. 

However, for KLAYmeta Avatars, making them NFTs was about more than just ownership. It is to allow the player to feel more connected with their avatar. Furthermore, to also allow users feel proud of their progression in the game. Provided the player doesn’t sell their avatar on the marketplace, or burn it through Fusion, it will be there forever. This is something old-school MMORPG players could never say!

Why Bother With NFTs In Gaming?

Why bother? It may seem like all this is too much of a hassle. Why even bother with NFTs in gaming? Well, here are a few reasons why they are worth the effort and why games are trending in that direction:

NFTs bring more value into gaming. What do I mean by value? value by ownership. If a player can own certain aspects of their gaming experience, they’re more likely to come back to the game. They are more likely to interact with the community, and progress further.

Why do you think so many apps are gamified now? It’s because humans crave progression. NFTs are just the next stage in gamification.

NFTs Progression Into Ownership

That crave for progression can be muted if we are continually reset back to the beginning, some sort of groundhog day. 

Therefore, crypto games with NFTs but without progression you can’t come back  day-in and day-out. This is a real problem. KLAYmeta seems to fix this.

Lastly, although cross-chain crypto assets are still not as easy as one thinks, assets on the blockchain are “forever”. 

As KLAYmeta will be transitioning over to the BNB Smart Chain, all avatars will become on-chain assets. Doing this will solidify their existence regardless of if the KLAYmeta game continues on.

Summon Yourself It can be hard right now to visualize NFTs as the future, but that’s exactly what innovative technology feels like, new and exciting. Traditional gamers probably never expected to feel so attached to a character they can’t own. Well, now they can!

NFTs To Be Introduced Into The Metaverse By Snoop Dogg And Eminem

Posted on by Augustine Ojeh

Snoop Dogg and Eminem will bring their Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs to the VMAs this Sunday, performing from inside Yuga Labs’ upcoming metaverse game “Otherside.”

The rap superstars will perform their song, “From the D to the LBC,” according to MTV and Yuga Labs.

“Otherside” And mainstream Culture

“Otherside” is still in development and does not yet have a confirmed release date. According to the company, the Web3 metaverse game is currently in Phase 1. This means only owners of its Otherdeed land NFTs and select developers have been able to try out aspects of the MMORPG-inspired title.

This VMA performance is yet another example of NFTs bleeding into mainstream culture. NFTs have become digital status symbols for the rich and famous. And Bored Apes have been co-opted for everything from fast food restaurants to M&Ms. 

The promoters say Snoop and Eminem’s “Otherside” performance will be a never-before-seen experience. Their music video for “From the D to the LBC” came out two months ago and features 2D animations of their Bored Ape NFTs, but no metaverse footage.

Since its release, “From the D to the LBC” has been a notable success, both for the rappers and for the emerging trend of Bored Ape-themed music videos. The “D to the LBC” YouTube video has garnered over 46 million views and a VMA nomination for “Best Hip-Hop” song. On Spotify, the track has racked up nearly 25 million streams.

Eminem And Snoop Get Involved 

Eminem is clearly getting good use out of his BAYC NFT. One which he bought back in December for a hefty $450,000. The rapper has used it as his Twitter profile picture ever since. Snoop got his Ape from crypto payments company MoonPay. The company transferred Bored Ape #6723 to Snoop Dogg’s son, Champ de Medici, back in December. 

While “From the D to the LBC” is a lyrical hit for many fans, there has been no shortage of complaints about the NFTs featured prominently across the song’s cover art and music video.

“Fuck NFTs, but THIS is the Em I’ve been wanting for YEARS,” one Redditor wrote in a comment with over 400 upvotes.

“Good song tho [sic] but damn those BAYC things are annoying,” another complained.

While the BAYC has plenty of haters, this celebrity exposure is showing no signs of slowing down. 

And it appears to be affecting token prices as well. Back in June, Yuga Labs’ Apecoin (APE) token pumped 22% after the music video for “From the D to the LBC” was released. 

Despite that exposure, APE—the official cryptocurrency for “Otherside”—has still struggled to gain value. The crypto, since May hovers around $5.27, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Sunday’s performance will mark Em’s first return to the VMAs in 12 years. And Snoop’s first performance at the awards show in 17 years. 

Over the course of his illustrious rap career, Eminem currently has 13 VMAs and is a nominee for 60. That makes him the second-most nominated VMA artist behind Madonna, who has received 69 noms (and who also loves the Bored Apes). Snoop has received thirteen VMA nominations and secured three wins. 

Regardless of how Snoop and Em’s “Otherside” performance pans out, it’ll surely be one for both the rap and Web3 history books.

Meanwhile Cyber Criminals Are Stealing NFTs 

Over $100 million in NFTs have been stolen in the last year, according to a new report by Elliptic. The report released on Wednesday, “NFTs and Financial Crime,” covers nefarious crypto activity between July 2021 to July 2022.

NFTs And The Metaverse 

Posted on by Augustine Ojeh

Some experts are of the opinion that the Non-fungible tokens are sustaining the cryptocurrency markets. The crypto winter has persisted and bitcoin seems stable at $23,000 so far.

This stability has been attributed by some experts to the eventfulness of the NFTs scene. With the cryptocurrency and blockchain markets having matured reasonably, attention is now being placed on NFTs. Not just NFTs but also the more encompassing Metaverse. NFTs are becoming a very significant part of the web3. The Metaverse’s popularity is also increasing for both customers and companies. 

Often, it has been presumed that NFTs are the building blocks on which the Metaverse can run. Furthermore, the UAE have taken the forefront in adopting tech that are significant in these fields.

The amount of people in the UAE owning NFTs is double the worldwide average. It is also interesting to know that the country is on its way to becoming a major player in the Metaverse.

However, members of the public are wondering where we are headed with all the jazz on NFTs and the Metaverse.

A Surge In NFTs?

NFT transaction volumes, users and active collections all soared through 2021. The term “NFTs” earned the converted title as Collins Dictionary’s ‘word of the year.’ This momentum continues as the Chainalysis State of Web3 report finding that collectors sent over $37 billion to NFT marketplace. This happened  between January to May this year. This indicates that they are on track to outdo their 2021 total of $40 billion.

There are generally peaks and troughs in NFT activity. This is due to marketplaces undergoing periods of growth, downturns and recoveries, caused by global trends and levels of user demand.

Even after taking all of these into account, there is no doubt a rise in the number of active NFT buyers and sellers. With an increase every quarter, there is no doubt that there has been serious NFTs activities. There’s been a steady growth, too, in the number of active NFT collections on OpenSea since March 2021, with over 4,000 reached in late April 2022.

NFTs And The Metaverse

With NFTs, people can own digital assets like images, audio, and video, and can sell, buy, and transfer items. Within the Metaverse, it’s even possible to own virtual real estate. Many brands, gamers and individuals are already treating the Metaverse as a lived reality. A reality which reflected in the price for virtual real estate. 

Blockchain-based virtual real estate prices grew by 879% from September 2019 to March 2022, while real estate prices grew by 39%.

The collection of 2,003 limited-edition collectables includes Etihad’s Manchester City FC offers a number of travel-lifestyle benefits. And Dubai’s stunning Museum of the Future is collaborating with Binance NFT to develop a range of virtual assets. The first NFT drop is in the coming weeks, according to reports.

The Metaverse is an emerging space, so the long-term price of virtual real estate relies on current and potential utilities. Utilities related to accessing exclusive communities and events. So far, this has been a major driver of NFT demand, and the current signs are that it’s crossing into actual virtual domain.

Synergism

The future of the Metaverse largely depend on how well the entire system can work together. It is not known yet how if brands will create their Metaverses in a way that is peculiar to them. In a way the Metaverses can operate seamlessly with current Metaverse projects and blockchain technologies.  However, there are some early signs that this will eventually become the case.