ICYMI: Last Week in Crypto - Meta quits on NFTs, Coinbase launch new NFT Creator tool, NounsDAO approve NFT movie
Have you heard of the Doodle Boy?👀
Last week, tech giant Meta announced that they were calling it 'quits' on the NFT integration feature only 10 months after its release. Coinbase released a new tool for NFT creators, NounsDAO agree to launch new feature-length NFT movie and Orange Comet sign up 13-year old Doodle Boy for NFT drop.
Meta gives up on NFTs, Pulls the plug on Instagram and Facebook
After about 10 months since its initial launch, the large tech company Meta is ditching its nonfungible token features on its social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram.
The ephemeral NFT features were first introduced in May, but according to Meta's financial technology lead, the company is "winding down" the tools to concentrate on other areas.
The announcement was made via Twitter on March 13 by Stephane Kasriel, Meta's head of commerce and financial technologies. He stated that Meta is "winding down" its NFT support in order to "focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses."
According to Kasriel, the company will continue to give users the opportunity to "connect with their fans and monetize," and will concentrate on tools like developing payment rails on its platform and through its messaging apps, as well as monetizing Reels, the brief videos that are featured on Facebook and Instagram.
Kasriel specifically referred to the company's payment platform Meta Pay, which in the future might support cryptocurrency in accordance with trademark applications from May.
In August, Instagram made NFT tools available in more than 100 countries, expanding the NFT features once more. Meta released an "end-to-end toolkit" for minting and trading NFTs within Instagram in November of last year.
NFT artist Dave Krugman tweeted that the announcement was "a short-sighted move" and that Meta "quit before [it] even started." The crypto community was incensed by the announcement.
“The trust earned over the past year is now squandered,” Krugman added
The move, according to podcaster Marc Colcer, "seems short-sighted for a company that's supposed to be thinking long term," and he demanded clarity on Meta's rationale for dropping NFT support.
More harshly critical was Allen Hena, co-founder of Web3 company Earth Labs, who claimed that Meta abandoned the plan after realizing that "using public crypto networks means you can't exploit creators."
As it focuses on its costly metaverse ambitions, Meta has eliminated its NFT tools in line with other cost-cutting initiatives taken by the company as a whole.
Its division Reality Labs, which creates metaverses, suffered its largest-ever yearly losses last year, coming in at $13.7 billion. Additionally, Meta implemented its first mass layoff in November, laying off 11,000 employees, or 13% of its workforce.
Identity crisis: “Doodles is not an NFT project” - Co-Founder reveals
Project Doodles, a nonfungible token (NFT) project, will change from being a "NFT project" to a "leading media franchise," according to one of the project's co-founders.
One of the doodle's founders, Jordan Castro, who uses the online alias "poopie," stated that the project wanted to distance itself from financial speculators in a post on March 18 on the project's Discord server.
"Our goal is to transition from a startup to a preeminent media franchise. We are not a "NFT project anymore," Castro declared.
Doodles was introduced in October 2021 and, according to a funding round in September 2022, has increased to a $704 million valuation. Pharrell Williams, a legendary musician and award-winning producer, serves as the collection's chief brand officer.
Castro claimed that going forward, Doodles will concentrate on its "most devoted collectors" and won't waste money "appeasing those with financial motivations."
Many users on Twitter criticized the project's apparent shift in focus and cited other alleged issues, including its recent lack of communication and a March 16 NFT sock drop.
The founder of the NFT startup, Daniel Tenner, tweeted that it would be better if the term "NFT project" was dropped because such projects "are all startups/businesses."
After receiving criticism, Castro doubled down on its new strategy and responded via Twitter, saying it "will continue to use NFT tech as the connective tissue between everything we do."
The objective, he continued, was to "evolve beyond vicious speculative cycles" by "bringing in intrinsically motivated users," finding solutions to real problems, and releasing products that fit the market.
Coinbase roll-out a ‘one-stop shop’ for NFT creators
A new "Creator Hub" that offers a plethora of tools for NFT creators to launch and market a collection has been released by Coinbase's NFT marketplace division.
On March 16, Coinbase NFT tweeted the announcement, praising the hub as a "one-stop shop" and outlining the latest tools available to creators.
The tool's capabilities include embedding an NFT collection on a website, tracking sales on Discord, and launching an NFT collection in three steps.
Other features included tools for the analysis of holder wallets and the ability to design gated experiences accessible only to NFT holders.
It appears that Coinbase NFT hasn't updated its platform in a significant way for some time.
““Glad to see that you're still alive and kicking, one user wrote responding to the announcement. “For a moment, we thought you were dead.”
Web3 Firm Orange Comet Hires 13-year Old Doodle Boy for NFT Drop
The 13-year-old artist Joe Whale, also known as The Doodle Boy, and Web3 entertainment company Orange Comet are working together to turn his creations into a collection of digital collectibles.
The 3,500 creatures in the collection, which is based on Whale's well-known black and white doodles, have been colored and animated by Orange Comet. In April, the collection will be offered for purchase as a primary drop on the non-fungible token (NFT) exchange OpenSea.
In an interview with CoinDesk, Whale expressed his excitement about using NFTs to revitalize his work. Prince William and his wife are among the teen's fans, and she has already partnered with Nike and Disney. He is now prepared to advance his artistic career by utilizing digital collectibles and growing his fan base.
“I’ve only ever drawn with a black marker and a blank sheet of canvas, but I’ve always imagined my art coming to life in other formats in my head,” Whale said.
“There's so many things you can do [with NFTs], and with my characters I imagine them in my head coming to life, just being able to see that I think it's really important,” Whale told CoinDesk. “Being able to interact and look at the storylines and things and really get into the characters is one way that it will help my community.”
The collection will change throughout the week of its release even though the mint starts on April 25. Customers who purchase the NFT will begin with Whale's initial doodle, which will later develop into a clay rendering over the course of several days before becoming the final, digitally-created 3D model of the token.
“The reason we want to do that is because we have to pay homage to how this collection started. And it's all with Joe and a doodle,” - Dave Broome, CEO of Orange Comet.
In the past, Orange Comet has had success with its celebrity NFT collaborations. Examples include the actor Sir Anthony Hopkins' collection in October, which broke OpenSea records by selling out in under seven minutes, and NBA champion Scottie Pippen's virtual sneaker drop in December. Orange Comet raised $7 million in equity in February and anticipates raising more money later in the year.
LinksDAO Wins Bid to Buy Scottish Golf Course
A DAO created by individuals with interests in both cryptocurrencies and golf has demonstrated that selling NFTs can be used to purchase a million-dollar Scottish golf course.
The Spey Bay Golf Club was built in 1907 by renowned golf course architect Ben Sayers. The winning bid for the club came from LinksDAO, a crypto-focused community of about 5,400 golfers.
LinksDAO was established in late 2021 at the height of the cryptocurrency bull market, raising at the time $10.5 million in ETH through the sale of NFTs that offer two membership tiers: Global and Leisure.
These grant varying degrees of DAO governance votes, as well as the option to purchase individual or family memberships at the golf courses, actually bought — the first being Spey Bay, presuming the deal closes following due diligence.
Access to the 450 golf clubs in the Links Play network is the most notable perk. Others include access to a Discord community, member-only events, and various other benefits.
The total sales and resales of the 9,090 NFT memberships, according to CryptoSlam!, came to $29 million.
Notably, the decentralized autonomous organization LinksDAO won't actually be the one running or owning the club. Links Golf Club is a typical business with the capacity to carry out necessary tasks, such as owning property. At its core, the DAO is a yes-or-no organization that decides whether to proceed with acquisitions and other matters.
Despite the intention to focus on American clubs, the purchase of Spey Bay received 88% of the vote.
Given its list price of $905,000, Spey Bay was deemed to be an opportunity too good to miss, according to Links' management, who spoke to Golf Digest.
The family-owned club will receive maintenance funding, which has been somewhat neglected.
Democratizing Golf, The Web3 Way
Wider democratization of the country club membership experience was the overarching goal, according to Jim Daly, CEO of Links Golf Club, who spoke to CNBC shortly after LinksDAO was established.
According to Links Head of Strategy Adam Besvinick, that is still the case. He stated:
"The older, traditional club membership feels too rigid, too structured and too limiting for the vast majority of young golfers regardless of income. Not everyone wants to join one single club and only play that course all year. What we're trying to build is something that bridges an online and offline community of thousands of golfers who are passionate and obsessed with the game in a variety of ways."
DAOs have taken other steps into the real world, such as the Constitution DAO, which unsuccessfully attempted to purchase a copy of the United States Constitution for a staggering $46 million due to the excessively deep pockets of billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin.
More recently, Doge DAO has begun planning a "pilgrimage" to Japan in order to meet Kabosu, the Shiba Inu dog who created the meme that Dogecoin later took after.
NounsDAO Approves Proposal for Feature-Length NFT Movie
NounsDAO, a Web3 community, has approved a plan to produce a full-length animated movie with some of its well-known non-fungible token (NFT) characters.
In order to "continuously produce a series of episodic content via consecutive proposals," the proposal collaborates with Atrium, a network of independent Web3 artists and creators.
"Nouns: A Movie" will be produced in a number of story acts that can be combined to "form the first feature-length cinematic content introducing Nouns to the world," according to Atrium.
This is a first for the NFT sector; we haven't seen any other truly decentralized organizations commit to producing high-quality features at this level. According to Atrium's press release: Writers and producers that will help animate the film from Atrium include William Yu, HKJay, Zen Doubt, 3DPrint Guy, and Meta Ent.
The initial installment's spending cap has been set at $125,000. The proposal states that the pilot will be made public in 90 days, at which point the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) will decide whether or not to continue funding the project. Members of Nouns will be able to submit plot arcs and suggestions for upcoming episodes.
A recent short film made by Atrium's 3DPrintGuy was supported by a prior NounsDAO proposal. The short's main characters were all made available as collectible NFTs.
To further develop its ecosystem, the NounsDAO community recently endorsed additional creative projects. The group decided to develop a comic book series with NFT community ComicsDAO and book publisher Titan Comics last month. The Australian Open tennis competition announced in December that it would collaborate with NounsDAO, OnCyber, and Vayner Sports Pass to publish its second ArtBall NFT collection.