ICYMI: Last Week in Crypto - Robin Arzón builds Swagger Society, Audius & TikTok merge, Meta launch new AI
👉Web3 for One, Web3 for all🤗
Last week, KnownOrigin — an NFT platform from eBay launched a smart contract protocol for creators and Peloton's Robin Arzón announced that she was building a Web3 community for fitness programming. The battle for AI supremacy continues as Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of a new AI model, LLaMa.
e-Bay NFT platform KnownOrigin roll-out creator smart contract
A tweet from eBay's nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace KnownOrigin on February 16 claims that it will introduce creator smart contracts for its artists. The new agreement allows artists to share profits and collect royalties as co-creators.
Users have been testing KnownOrigin's Creator Contract beta release for the past few weeks, according to the company, with 84 contracts deployed and 250 editions of NFTs produced so far. Beginning on February 24, all KnownOrigin creators who have been approved will be allowed to deploy and mint their own work for public distribution. Deployment won't need coding expertise.
So far, users have tested the creator contract beta release, deploying 84 contracts and producing 250 NFTs.
KnownOrigin was purchased by eBay for an undisclosed sum in June 2022. The Ethereum-based platform aims to "empower artists and collectors by offering them the capacity to promote, sell, and acquire unique, authorized digital things," according to its co-founder David Moore.
Since May 2021, eBay has allowed NFT listings on its direct marketplace. Blockchain technology has not yet been incorporated by the business to facilitate transfers or cryptocurrency-based sales on its platform. Users had to use on-platform messaging or email to receive their NFTs during an airdrop in May 2022 if they wanted to get them elsewhere. Currently, EBay does not support postings that request cryptocurrency payments or transfers.
KnownOrigin, which was established in 2020, is renowned for its devoted, exclusive community of NFT artists and producers. With 27 editions and 559 sales, the most popular collection currently available on the platform was produced by XCOPY. The collection, which is well-known for featuring "digitally glitched" and flashing picture artworks, has topped 1,523.78 ETH ($2.56 million) in total sales.
Australian cocktail bar launches NFT membership program
Australians who enjoy fine cocktails and NFTs now have a new hangout option in Sydney that gives NFT holders access to exclusive benefits at the bar. "This one is for my Chardonnay drinkers"
On February 21, a cocktail bar in Sydney titled Bar Lulu and a bar for NFT members called Cryptolulu were both opened.
Customers must purchase the Sydney-based NFT member club bar on the Ethereum network's OpenSea NFT marketplace in order to access certain perks.
NFT Artist Credit: Arturo Rodriguez and Mark Monfort. Source: Bar Lulu.
The three available tokens are Jia Lulu, Joo Lulu, and Ryuu Lulu.
Each NFT stands for a new membership tier that will open up exclusive and incremental awards, priorities, and perks.
Holders of tokens have access to exclusive VIP lounges and dinners as well as a variety of Web3 networking events and educational seminars.
The NFT membership scheme, according to Bar Lulu, is a first for Australia.
The bar continued by saying that the debut followed months of observation of how comparable experiments in other countries' hospitality industries fared.
Pantera Invests $10M in Metaverse Game Worldwide Webb
Pantera Capital, a cryptocurrency-focused investment firm, has contributed $10 million to Worldwide Webb's Series A funding round for the maker of a pixel art-based metaverse game. The money will be used for employment, adding new non-fungible token (NFT) collections to the game, and establishing alliances with companies who own brands and intellectual property.
Players can utilize their current NFT collections as avatars in the Web3 game.
“Worldwide Webb bridges the gap between traditional gaming and NFT communities via an ever-expanding catalog of browser-based mini-games, where every player can leverage a unique identity (in the form of an NFT,” Pantera investment associate Sehaj Singh said in a press release.
“Not only has Webb’s rapid-iteration on game development led to fun and engaging mini-games, but the Worldwide Webb platform has provided yet another channel for NFT communities to enhance engagement and community building.”
2020 saw the release of Worldwide Webb, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) where users can bring their own NFTs from other blockchains to use as avatars while completing quests, raids, and fights. Global Webb will introduce Blockbusterz, a browser-based player against player game, in the upcoming weeks. More levels of NFT mints are available to players who win more battles. In order to expand its ecosystem, the organization is also aiming to partner with more brands.
“We're building tools to allow them to bring their IP into the game. This is through land where they can build spaces, integrate their existing NFTs and build new ones into the Webb ecosystem,” - Worldwide Webb founder and CEO Thomas Webb.
“We're excited to build long-term relationships with brands and IP as we not only integrate their NFTs as avatars, but also bring their IP into the Webb universe through meaningful in-game features such as quests, boss fights, items and more.”
Web3 Music Streaming Platform Merges with TikTok
The famous social media network TikTok will now be supported by the Web3 music streaming service Audius, the firm announced on Thursday. "Ladies and gentlemen, Web2 meets Web3 once again”
Users of Audius can sign up for the program using their TikTok accounts and upload videos to the social networking site that feature tracks from the streaming service.
With the integration, users new to Audius can Web3 music streaming platform Audius is adding support for the popular social-media platform TikTok, the company said Thursday.
Users who are new to Audius can now easily create accounts by connecting their TikTok profiles. Listeners can then easily import their handle, contact details, and TikTok verification status to Audius.
Users can now use Audius music on their TikTok videos. The integration could extend the Audius' reach because TikTok sounds are a well-liked app feature that can help creators' videos go viral.
The chief product officer and co-founder of Audius, Forrest Browning, said that he is eager to open the doors for producers to engage with Audius and attract celebrities to TikTok.
“TikTok has grown into a social-media juggernaut over the past few years, and we’d love to let the Audius ecosystem tap into that,” Browning said.
“Anything that’s good for artists is good for the Audius community, and by letting artists import their verified status from TikTok, we think it’ll attract an even wider group of talent.”
In August 2021, TikTok started allowing Audius streamers to provide music to the platform's sound library, which marked the beginning of their collaboration. The price of AUDIO, the native token of Audius, doubled as the word of that new feature spread, bringing the market capitalization to over $1 billion at that moment. However, the price increase was short-lived; as of the time of this writing, the cost of AUDIO was 32 cents, a 90% decrease from August 2021.
In September 2021, the platform attracted the attention of musicians Nas, Katy Perry, and the Chainsmokers, who contributed to the $5 million investment round for the establishment.
Swagger Society: Robin Arzón announce Web3 Fitness Community
The Web3 lifestyle membership club "Swagger Society", which intends to develop a fitness community in Web3, will shortly emerge under the direction of the exercise giant's vice president of fitness programming. "A fit-fam community in Web3, LFG💪"
Gamification techniques have been utilized for a long time in the fitness industry to promote wellbeing. Data gamification has provided fitness brands with new insights into customer behavior while motivating gym goers to stay on target with their goals. Examples include FitBits and workout-tracking apps.
Arzón has been investigating if centralized membership platforms or Web3 can empower fitness groups more successfully. A Web3 lifestyle membership organization she has launched called Swagger Society is set to open in the near future. Although she favors "throwing barbells" over her head and sprinting over using augmented reality (AR) games and virtual reality (VR) headgear for exercise, she is open to the ways that Web3 technology could enhance our general health.
“Anything that gets people moving is a good thing,” says Robin Arzón, vice president of fitness programming and head instructor at Peloton. “I've gone through seasons of gamification in my life, even though I certainly wouldn't call myself a gamer.”
“Who knows what the future holds?” says Arzón. “I'm not going to knock somebody's path to wellness. If [games] work for them, and they're able to do it consistently — go for it.”
With Web3, comes the move-to-earn economy
Today, behavior change is a key focus of the majority of fitness facilities. Private data-tracking apps that sync with members' devices and track progress over time are frequently included with gym subscriptions. The culture of the fitness sector is somewhat akin to that of Web3, which places a strong emphasis on motivating involvement. Due to a shared adherence to financial incentives, many decentralized protocols (DeFi) protocols and Web3 communities operate without difficulty.
Examples include distributing proof-of-attendance protocols (POAP) for attending an event and giving away non-fungible token (NFT) airdrops to devoted followers. With mining rewards, which compensate miners for utilizing their processing power to validate transactions, even the existence of cryptocurrencies is made feasible.
When we mix the fitness industry and the Web3 economic model, interesting possibilities start to take shape. Move-to-earn (M2E) games, a new fitness-focused subcategory of blockchain gaming, tested the idea that incentivizing users with cryptocurrency tokens would encourage them to exercise last year.
StepN, a popular M2E game built on Solana, generated $122.5 million in earnings in the second quarter of 2022, while GMT, the ecosystem token, has a market cap of over $231 million. In addition, StepN claims that its customers ran more than 104 billion miles last year to earn their cryptocurrency, indicating the potential effectiveness of M2E gaming. But can such development be maintained?
It's true, according to Arzón, that gamification can encourage behavior, but the real power of fitness as a lifestyle lies beyond any fancy new gizmos and devices. According to Arzón, a person needs an accountability partner for this level of change rather than just a game or a token.
“Finding like-minded, values-driven folks who are willing to put those values into action is what gives [a new behavior] ‘stickiness,’” said Arzón. “That's certainly what Swagger Society will be based on, community as the linchpin of everything that we do.”
She thinks that NFT membership models may offer the ideal level of "stickiness" because members become more than just monthly subscribers, going beyond the short-term incentives of M2E gaming. An NFT purchase provides lifetime access to a community run by their preferred instructors without the use of centralized platforms or third-party intermediaries.
“It's exciting for me to be able to reward my day-one followers and my new followers in unprecedented ways, as well as have them invest in this new creative economy in a way that's never been possible before,” said Arzón.
She anticipates that joining Swagger Society will improve her ability to interact with her fans directly and establish a "feedback loop" that will help her better understand their demands.
“I want to engage in a way that I've never been able to do before this technology,” she said. “I’m interested in being a fire starter in people's lives through the mechanisms with which I can do that the most dynamically, robustly and directly.”
Mark Zuckerberg Announces Meta’s New AI Model Amidst ChatGPT Success
With Mark Zuckerberg's announcement of Meta's new language model in response to ChatGPT's success, the AI arms race has officially started. Each generative AI system needs a language model as its base, and both Google's Bard and OpenAI's chatbot use robust language model architectures.
According to CNBC, Meta has trained the LLaMA system that it will reveal to researchers. The development therefore illustrates the tech sector's present interest in leveraging ChatGPT's viral success.
Unveiling Meta's New Language Model
ChatGPT has grabbed news in the tech sector for the past few months. Users were taken aback by the system's sophisticated skills and the speed at which technology is developing when it was built by OpenAI. Inciting a race for AI supremacy at the same time among numerous tech firms.
After the success of ChatGPT, Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg has now joined the fray by announcing Meta's new language model. Any generative AI system must have a language model as its basis, just as Google's rival Bard is built on the LaMDA language model and the OpenAI chatbot is built on the GPT language model.
On Friday, researchers were introduced to LLaMA, Meta's version of this technology. The model is also "designed to assist scientists and engineers investigate applications for AI, such as answering queries and summarizing documents," according to the study. On the other hand, it was created by Meta's Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) Team and is an additional indication of a market trend.
An AI arms race to gain a share of the expanding industry has begun with the release of ChatGPT and Google's follow-up Bard. The CEO claimed that the technology developed by Zuckerberg and MEta had the potential to handle "more difficult jobs like solving mathematical equations or forecasting protein structures."
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