🌞 Bright moments despite hacked Roses (Issue #57)

Plus, more misplaced smugness from Porsche fans.

January 27, 2023

Coming up in this week’s issue:

  • Art Blocks partners with Bright Moments 🖼️

  • Doodles eats a wolf and finds its Flow 🐺

  • StoryCo breaks out the bell bottoms 🕺

  • Kevin Rose gets hacked 🥀

  • Porsche stalls at the starting line 🏁

DYOR 🔬

Art Blocks, the most famous platform for generative art on Ethereum, had two big pieces of news this week. First, it’s added the ability to buy pieces on the secondary market to its platform, and second, it’s partnered with Bright Moments, a company famous for its ability to create unmissable real-world NFT exhibitions and live minting events (Art Blocks already has a similar partnership with Pace Gallery).

We’re bullish on this news for a few reasons. For starters, we’re bullish on generative art generally. We believe we’re in the early stages of a golden age for code-based art, and that blockchain technology and NFTs have created a unique and perfect storm for the sector to explode, both in terms of how many artists are now making generative work, and in terms of the growing appreciation and interest in it from collectors.

Art Blocks adding support for secondary sales makes it easier for collectors to use the platform’s curation tools to find art they like, but it also puts more control over the works the platform champions back in its hands. Plus, it allows Art Blocks to enforce royalties, ensuring artists are appropriately compensated for their efforts.

But it’s the Bright Moments partnership that really excites us. In-person events are essential for attracting newcomers to the generative art space and they present the opportunity to display generative works at a scale that’s hard to replicate on a phone or laptop display. They’re also awesome opportunities for creators and collectors to interact with one another and forge new bonds, or deepen existing ones. Plus, you know, the small plastic cups of box wine are fun.

🤖 It’s part of the future for sure 🦾

Probably nothing 🤔

Doodles goes with the Flow 🌊

We’ve known that Doodles 2 — the massively enlarged and customizable follow-up to Doodles — is incoming for some time now, and we knew it wasn’t going to use Ethereum because of the costs involved, but we didn’t know which chain Doodles was going to choose. Now we do, and the answer is Dapper Labs’ Flow, the blockchain best known for NBA Topshot.

The Doodles team also announced it’s acquired animation studio Golden Wolf, a studio it’s worked with before. The move is a massive boon for the studio, which now has the brand recognition, reach, and (sizeable) war chest of one of the best-known projects in the NFT space behind it.

StoryCo’s going disco dancing… in space 🪩

This week StoryCo closed a $6 million seed round to grow its team and platform (disclosure: we’re one of the investors). At the same time, it unveiled “The Disco Ball,” which it’s billing as “A groundbreaking immersive story experience through time and space.” The interactive tale was constructed by showrunner Kyle Killen, and the art comes from the creative duo shelby and sandy.

It’s free to participate, and participants will work together to solve puzzles and hang out together at real-world and virtual events. At the end of the narrative, the community that’s been built around the project will be able to claim free PFPs and will collectively take it over and decide on its future direction. We’re intrigued to see how it all plays out.

💂‍♀️ U.K. man seeking refund 🇬🇧

To the moon 🌛

Security alert 🚨

This week there were two notable hacks. The first involved Proof Collective and Moonbirds founder Kevin Rose, who inadvertently signed a bad transaction from a malicious website and lost millions of dollars worth of NFTs in the process.

The second involved Azuki’s Twitter account, which was hacked and used to post malicious links that drained over $750,000 in USDC from one victim’s wallet alone.

How do you protect yourself? Start with a hardware wallet like a Ledger to store your private keys, then create a burner wallet you can use for day-to-day activities which you top up with funds as necessary. Because even a hardware wallet can’t save you if you sign a transaction you shouldn't… but doing the signing from a wallet without much in it can.

We sort through the weekly flood of NFT news so you don’t have to. If you’re getting value from our work, please consider sharing it.

NGMI ☄️

Porsche splutters and stalls 🚘

As an astute Twitter user points out, Porsche has 2.1 million followers on Twitter. It’s also a household name with millions of loyal fans, whether they’re Porsche owners, former owners, or aspirant owners. Nonetheless, when the company tried to offer 7,500 NFTs for 0.911 ETH (~$1,400) each, sales were sluggish and eventually ground to a halt.

Following pressure from buyers, Porsche decided to stop the mint and cut supply. It’s proven to be a smart move that’s since sent the price of the 2,363 NFTs soaring to just shy of 2 ETH (~$3,200) at the time of writing. That’s good news for those who took a chance on the project, but there’s no denying the mint was an abject failure.

Porsche put out an uninspiring collection. NFT collectors punished it accordingly. Let it be a lesson to other web2 brands eyeing web3 — brand recognition isn’t enough. You need to offer something uniquely web3.

🪡 Thread of the week 🧵

Goats only 🐐

Whether you’ve never hung any of your NFTs on your wall, or you’ve run out of wall space, you should be watching or listening to Goats and the Metaverse.

In each episode, collectibles OG and entrepreneur Stan “The Goat” Meytin and Metaversal co-founder and CEO Yossi Hasson talk about digital and IRL collectibles, NFTs, and the week’s news worth knowing.

This week, they unpack the mechanics BAYC’s Dookey Dash game, and have an incredible interview with Daily Dose host and NFT icon, Ryan Carson.

Check out the latest episode here:

Aside from providing invaluable insights into digital art and collectibles, Stan and Yossi have assembled a collection of NFTs dubbed “The Goat Vault.” When the show hits 5,000 subscribers on YouTube, one of those lucky subscribers will win the contents of the vault, which at last count is valued at more than 10.10 ETH (~$13,500).

Prefer listening? Check out Goats and the Metaverse on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts.

IYKYK 😉

🤝 Connect for more from Metaversal 🔌

You can find more rapid-fire updates, insights, memes, and other mayhem from the Metaversal team on any of your preferred platforms, we’re on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Mastodon, and TikTok.

This week’s edition was compiled by Metaversal’s content director, Craig Wilson. You can find him on Twitter or Mastodon.

Until next time, see you in the metaverse!