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This week’s featured collector is Ferryirawan

Ferryirawan collects Solana NFTs, including Kami, Gapes and Angomon. Small collection with a nice range of art. Check it out at lazy.com/ferryirawan

With Bitcoin Surging, Many Are Wondering When NFTs Will Be Back.

The meteoric rise and subsequent cooling off of the NFT market exemplifies the volatile nature of new technologies, especially those at the intersection of art and finance. Beginning with Beeple’s $60 million digital painting sale at Christie’s in March 2021, NFTs briefly captivated global mindshare, promising a novel mechanism for owning digital art through blockchain technology. This frenzied period of hyper created a sense of scarcity and high investment potential, making “NFT” a buzzword.

However, as every NFT collector knows, the fervor among the mainstream has waned considerably. A significant portion of NFT collections have lost nearly all their value, and the market is now viewed skeptically in the media. Cases like the devaluation of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet NFT from millions to a mere $1,300 emphasize this sentiment. Despite the decline, some in the NFT community, especially those who invested cautiously, remain optimistic and are awaiting a market resurgence. Their hope is tethered to potential upticks in Bitcoin and Ethereum values—increases that we’re starting to see this week with Bitcoin—as well as advancements that make NFT transactions more user-friendly.

Some argue that the NFT market has bifurcated between high-profile collections, often treated as status symbols, and NFTs purchased for their aesthetic value. While the former dominated in transaction volume, both types suffered from inflated valuations.

Besides financial aspects, NFTs have also opened up enduring social dimensions. Communities on Discord servers have formed around specific NFT collections. Some see this “real utility” as a redeeming feature that could sustain the NFT market in the long term.

The consensus among NFT collectors is that it is too early to dismiss NFTs entirely. The technology is undergoing a correction but could easily return to demonstrate its transformative potential.

For a peek into the mood of the NFT community, check out this article in El Pais: ‘When are you getting the Lamborghini?’ This is how the NFT market is surviving after promising millions to its investors

This week’s poll: Are you feeling optimistic about the return of NFTs?

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This week’s featured collector is BrettsCollection

BrettsCollection is a multi-chain collection of NFTs with a focus on Ethereum, NBA Top Shots and Solana. Pretty cool to see the range of NFTs. Check it out at lazy.com/brettscollection

The Effort to Fix NFT Royalties Continues—Will It Succeed?

The Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3 (OMA3), a conglomerate of significant players in the blockchain, NFT, and metaverse communities, recently announced the formation of a specialized working group whose aim is to fix NFT royalties. The goal is to guarantee the enforcement of creator royalties within the NFT ecosystem. Among the participants are notable entities such as Yuga Labs, the force behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, and Magic Eden, the multi-chain NFT marketplace.

What Happened to Creator Royalties?

Creator royalties are fees, generally ranging from 2.5% to 10%, imposed on the secondary sales of NFTs. These fees are meant to directly benefit the creators, acting as a continuous revenue stream. Though the concept was initially hailed as a cornerstone of the crypto ecosystem, offering artists a level of financial security absent in traditional art markets, its implementation has recently come under threat. Primarily because the downturn in the crypto market has emboldened NFT marketplaces to eliminate creator royalties in a bid to capture market share.

The Larger Stakes: Interoperability and the Metaverse

OMA3 contends that the erosion of creator royalties risks not only the integrity of the NFT space but also jeopardizes the long-sought goal of an interoperable metaverse—a cohesive online environment where user-owned virtual items can migrate freely between platforms. Robby Yung, CEO of Animoca Brands and a co-founder of OMA3, argues that royalties are essential for incentivizing creators to participate in such an open ecosystem. Without them, the communal sharing of content that makes the metaverse concept viable could break down.

Yung acknowledges the pervasive issue of NFT buyers opting for short-term financial gains, often to the detriment of long-term online sustainability. The challenge is to make the community aware of the hidden costs of prioritizing immediate profit over sustainable development. As Yung puts it, “Everything always has a cost. It just may not be self-evident up front.”

Composed of key industry players like Animoca, Yuga Labs, Magic Eden, Decentraland, The Sandbox, Alien Worlds, and Upland, the working group will focus on developing universal standards to protect creator royalties across NFT marketplaces. The aim is to formulate and enforce protocols that member companies agree to uphold.

Conclusion

The establishment of OMA3’s working group signifies an important juncture in the NFT and metaverse domains. As the sector grapples with how to balance economic viability with ethical and long-term sustainability, the outcomes of this group’s efforts may have far-reaching implications for creators, collectors, and the broader digital landscape.

For further details on this new initiative check out the in-depth article in Decrypt.

This week’s poll: Will efforts to guarantee NFT royalties succeed?

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This week’s featured collector is Manuelino

Manuelino is a multimedia artist based in Lisbon who also works as a photographer and videographer. They got their start in photography as a concert photographer for iconic bands like U2, Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode. Check out Manuelino’s NFTs at lazy.com/manuelino

Tutorial: Create Dynamically Generated NFTs with Chainlink Functions and Google’s Vertex AI

The intersection of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence is a frontier teeming with possibilities. For those interested in exploring the intersection of AI and NFTs, this tutorial from Google Cloud on creating dynamic NFTs with unique, AI-generated artworks is worth checking out.

View Tutorial

What’s particularly useful about this tutorial is its focus on practical application. It takes you beyond the theoretical foundations and demonstrates how to dynamically update NFTs based on real-world data or random seeds. This means you can leverage generative AI to create unique digital artworks that are both dynamic and interactive. You’ll learn how to handle authentication secrets, configure Chainlink Functions, and initiate on-chain requests—all essential steps in creating a seamless integration between smart contracts and external AI and Machine Learning services.

Whether you’re an AI enthusiast, a NFT creator, or somewhere in between, you’ll find something worth learning. Check it out on Google Cloud’s Medium page.

This week’s poll: How many NFTs have you created in the last 12 months?

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This week’s featured collector is Vittorioilmagat

Vittorioilmagat is an engineer and artist. Their Lazy collection features many of the artworks they have created, such as this uniquely compelling collection of eyes. Check it out at lazy.com/vittorioilmagat

Documenting CryptoPunks: Indie Exploration of an NFT Icon

Indie filmmaker Sherone Rabinovitz’s upcoming documentary, “CryptoPunks Origins,” traces the journey of the CryptoPunks NFT project from its experimental beginnings to its role as a seminal work in the digital art movement. With a decidedly independent production ethos that mirrors the punk spirit of the project’s creators, the film aims to offer an grassroots narrative about CryptoPunks, capturing its essence well before it caught mainstream attention.

Watch the extended trailer here.

MoMA Launches NFT Art Project to Encourage Creativity on the Blockchain

The MoMA Postcard project is an innovative experiment in collective creativity on the blockchain. It kicked off with a pre-launch titled “MoMA Postcard First 15,” involving 15 artists from across the globe who contributed to digital postcards. These artists iteratively added to each postcard, which traversed multiple cities and continents, while responding to a designated prompt.

Artists who have engaged with the project highlight the global, community-driven nature of blockchain art. They point out that the blockchain ecosystem enables new dialogues between artists and collectors, challenging conventional art-world norms. MoMA’s Postcard project is also a celebration of accessibility, shifting focus from high-value auctions to community building and shared creativity.

The significance of the MoMA Postcard initiative is twofold: it showcases the potential of blockchain for revolutionizing how art is created, shared, and preserved; and it also marks a milestone for an established institution like MoMA in embracing web3 technologies. Artists involved in the project are optimistic that it is the start of a monumental shift in the narrative surrounding blockchain, contemporary, and digital art.

This week’s poll: Which aspect of blockchain’s influence on art and culture interests you most?

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This week’s featured collector is Benza

Benza minted their first NFT in June 2020 after being inspired by the Crypto Campfire podcast. Soon after, a friend on Twitter suggested that they mint their chalk art. ‘Chalk art became my niche in this crazy world of crypto art and NFTs,’ says Benza. Check out their collection at lazy.com/benza

PayPal Files Patent for NFT Purchase and Transfer System

PayPal has submitted a patent application, documented as US-20230298001-A1 in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, for an innovative “NFT purchase and transfer system.” This move aligns with the company’s strategic foray into the realms of cryptocurrencies and web3 technologies. The proposed system is designed to enable off-chain transactions in an NFT marketplace, a feature that offers the potential benefits of reduced transaction costs and expedited asset transfers. Furthermore, the application outlines the system’s capacity to integrate multiple digital wallets, thereby granting diverse users access to NFT assets.

Essentially, PayPal’s proposed system streamlines NFT transactions between users of the same service provider. It performs these operations off-chain, likely reducing transaction costs and speeding up the process. This method preserves the decentralized ethos of blockchain while integrating with a centralized service provider, offering a blend of both worlds.

The development is noteworthy in the context of NFTs becoming increasingly mainstream, with their adoption expanding beyond niche communities. PayPal’s entrance into this space stands to amplify the legitimacy of NFTs, given the company’s established prominence in the online payments ecosystem. The patent application was made public on September 21, and it remains in the pending stage, with further details anticipated as it progresses through the bureaucratic pipeline.

ApeCoin DAO Approves Sister DAO for NFT Acquisitions Amid Market Downturn

ApeCoin DAO, the decentralized autonomous organization affiliated with Yuga Labs’ native token, has narrowly approved a governance proposal aimed at launching a sister DAO. This initiative, known as AIP-297 and spearheaded by Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu, secured a slim majority of 53.6% on September 21. The proposal outlines the allocation of 750,000 APE tokens (~$945,000) from the ApeCoin treasury to establish a community-governed vault focused on the acquisition of influential NFTs. These NFTs would cover various domains including art, music, virtual worlds, and gaming. The management of the acquired assets would be subject to voting by members of the sister DAO, and APE token holders will have the opportunity to leverage the intellectual property of these NFTs, possibly via future grants denominated in APE tokens.

While this sister DAO will function autonomously, it will still fall under the governance of APE token holders, maintaining a level of continuity within the broader ApeCoin ecosystem. This move comes as a strategic response to the declining fortunes of both the ApeCoin community and the NFT market at large. Data from DappRadar indicates a sharp downturn in NFT trading volumes and sales, showing a 70% decline to $559 million and a 45% decrease to 3.2 million transactions since March. Against this backdrop, APE’s value has plummeted over 95% from its April 2022 peak, paralleling similar devaluations across most Yuga collections.

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This week’s poll: Will PayPal’s Patent for an NFT Purchase and Transfer System Affect Mainstream Adoption of NFTs?

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This week’s featured collector is NelbRodrigues

NelbRodrigues is a Fine Art Photographer, born in Brazil and based in Italy. Nelb’s Lazy profile features a few of their recent photographs. Check it out at lazy.com/nelbrodrigues

Nouns DAO’s NFT Governance Experiment: A Treasury-Draining Fork

Nouns DAO, a notable NFT community project, has recently completed a “fork” that allowed some holders of the NFT to redeem assets from the community’s treasury. Nouns DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that raises funds by auctioning a unique NFT once a day. The revenue from these daily auctions contributes to its treasury, which is then allocated based on community decisions for various projects and endeavors.

As a mechanism to manage dissent within the community over how the treasury was being spent, the DAO introduced a “fork” – a move hailed as a progressive step towards decentralized governance. However, the introduction of this fork proved a double-edged sword. While it was designed to protect from potential threats like a 51% attack, it inadvertently attracted savvy arbitrage traders who manipulated the fork system for profit. These traders, having accumulated Nouns NFTs below their “book value,” utilized the “rage quit” mechanism, ultimately draining over half of Nouns DAO’s $50 million treasury. This incident underscores the complexities of decentralized community management.

While the fork in Nouns DAO resulted in financial loss for the project’s treasury and was seen by some as a shortcoming of decentralized governance, the incident serves as a pivotal learning experience for the NFT community. The events highlighted the tension between two primary factions within the DAO: those focused on promoting the NFT brand through high-visibility expenditures, and those with a more conservative financial approach. Additionally, the rise of arbitrageurs, who saw the fork as a financial opportunity, added another layer of complexity. Despite the challenges, many within the Nouns community remain committed to the vision of the DAO and see this event as a chance to refine and improve the DAO’s governance structure.

For a detailed analysis of the Nouns DAO fork, check out this article in Coindesk.

Bitcoin Ordinals Controversy: Rodarmor’s Proposed Renumbering Sparks Backlash

Casey Rodarmor, creator of the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol, which has produced numerous “NFTs on Bitcoin,” is considering retracting a key promise made to Bitcoiners about the immutability of ordinal numbers, suggesting they be renumbered and potentially changed in the future. Ordinal numbers have been a vital aspect of the collectibles’ appeal, with many collectors valuing specific ordinal numbers for their significance. For instance, OnChainMonkey Genesis chose Ordinal #20219 to mark the month and year of its creation, and many ordinals embed their unique number in the name. Rodarmor claims that preserving the rank and order of these ordinals complicates his work on new versions of the protocol, and making the inscription numbers “unstable” would facilitate new software features. However, the proposed change has been met with skepticism and backlash, especially from those who have invested heavily in specific ordinal numbers. Developer Raphjaph has suggested an alternative that wouldn’t alter existing numbers, but only the future generation method. Although a vote has been proposed regarding the changes, Rodarmor, who has significant control over the ORD protocol, could potentially overlook its outcome.

We made some merch!

For us, Lazy = efficiency. Agree? Spread the ethos. Or just love Lazy? Show it off IRL.

Buy Lazy Merch

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Click here to buy Lazy merch.

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This week’s poll: Should NFT projects allow “rage quitting” and distribution of the treasury?

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