Metaversal is a Bankless newsletter for weekly level-ups on NFTs, virtual worlds, & collectibles
Dear Bankless Nation,
Ethereum is on pace to undergo “The Merge” in September 2022.
This will be Ethereum’s biggest upgrade to date and will shift the leading smart contract network to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus.
Over time, this evolution will be a gamechanger for Ethereum in multiple ways, especially with regard to efficiency and security. But the advance will also cleave our perceptions of Ethereum into two eras: pre-Merge and post-Merge.
You know what that means — the “Historical NFT” category is about to get a new sub-category, i.e. pre-Merge. And while it may take years for this distinction to really set in, right now you have a chance to collect such NFTs before everyone else wakes up to the history of digital collectibles.
Maybe in 10 years and beyond these pre-Merge NFTs will be celebrated as having come from a legendary time. In the very least, I think we’ll see this thesis more and more in the coming years. For now, though, plan how you see fit and have a great weekend — thanks kindly for reading ✌️
-WMP
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🛒 General NFT News
Mirror, a web3 publishing dapp, unveiled a subscriptions functionality.
Optimism launched a Get Started onboarding quest that rewards everyone who finishes with an NFT.
Rainbow rolled out support for L2 NFTs:
🏆 Collectibles
Nick Tomaino bought iconic ape CryptoPunk #4156 for 2.69k ETH:
VeeFriends closed a seed round from a16z crypto.
🎨 Art
Fingerprints, a blockchain art collector group, became the largest holder of Mutant Garden Seeders by artist Harm van den Dorpel:
Infinite Objects unveiled authenticated physical prints for Chromie Squiggle holders.
shl0ms minted DAVINC‧I on Foundation:
XCOPY minted God is typing… on SuperRare, after which the piece promptly sold for +256.5 ETH:
Zien, a WhatsApp digital art institution focused on NFTs, published its introduction.
🎮 NFT Gaming
Axie Infinity rounded out the first season of its Origin Alpha:
Aavegotchi launched Season 4 of its Rarity Farming play-to-earn system.
Noun Esports is holding a Dota 2 art contest.
Yield Guild Games (YGG) published a retrospective report on the organization’s first year.
💽 Music
Arpeggi unveiled its first Sound Puzzle campaign.
Audius, a decentralized music streaming platform, published a post-mortem in the wake of a recent governance attack.
🌐 Virtual Worlds
Decentraland announced its entry to The Open Metaverse Alliance.
Robotos launched its Robopolis Microverse experience.
Webaverse is conducting its public mint on August 3rd, 2022, with prices starting at 0.2 ETH per NFT.
💎 DeFi x NFTs
Abacus, an NFT pricing protocol, released a primer on its spot pools system.
Botto and SuperRare DAO agreed on a token swap.
Action steps
📺 Watch interviews with Roundtable anchor Rob Nelson and Devotion co-founder Andrew Wang on Overpriced JPEGs
📺 Watch interviews with Metalabel co-founder Yancey Strickler and Toucan Protocol founder Raphaël Haupt on Green Pill
🧐 Catch up on my other write-ups from this week:
Author Bio
William M. Peaster is a professional writer and creator of Metaversal—a Bankless newsletter focused on the emergence of NFTs in the cryptoeconomy. He’s also recently been contributing content to Bankless, JPG, and beyond!
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Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here.
This is Dabtastic News
cant wait for the webaverse mint