ICYMI - Last week in crypto: World Cup Fever Continues
Until we can mint goal replays as NFTs 🧐
The builders in Web3 reigned supreme as the Spanish football federation announced its partnership with RealFevr to release video NFTs, German luxury car company Porsche announces NFT launch and Orca DEX integrates with Stride to enable fiat-to-crypto transactions.
Spanish Football Federation launches Copa Del Rey NFT collection with RealFevr
RealFevr and the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), the top football governing body in Spain, announced a three-year partnership to gamify legendary Copa del Rey moments last Tuesday.
As a result of the partnership, unique digital collectibles showcasing memorable video clips from one of the most popular football tournaments will be possible. Footballing greats like Diego Maradona, Iker Casillas, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Thibaut Courtois, Thiago Silva, David Beckham, Gaizka Mendieta, Paulo Futre, Roberto Carlos, Neymar, Raul, Andrés Iniesta, Hugo Sanchez, Gareth Bale, Santiago Caizares, David Villa, Samuel Eto'o, Gerard Piqué, and many others are just some of players who fought for the ultimate Spanish cup.
A decentralized Web3 platform created by RealFevr will enable football fans to purchase digital packs, gather classic video moments, and then sell them peer-to-peer (p2p) on an online marketplace. With several collections of moments that it launched and quickly sold out, totaling more than 145 thousand packs sold since the first edition launch, the cutting-edge Portuguese startup is currently regarded as one of the most experienced businesses in this ground-breaking sector. In addition to being able to be recorded, these moments can also be used in the upcoming Web3 game called FEVR Battle Arena.
Spain's football league, La Liga is run by the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). The most significant competitions, including the "Copa del Rey," the "Supercopa de Espaa," and the women's "Copa de la Reina," are organized by the federation. With a history spanning more than 113 years, RFEF is now taking a fresh approach to sports innovation, with the main goals being the organization's professionalization, modernization, and digitalization.
The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) will be the first national football association in the world to produce authorized digital video collectibles from one of its events.
The current Board of Directors' 2020-2024 strategic plan, which cites the professionalization, modernization, and digitalization of the organization as one of the major challenges, fully aligns with this innovation-related step. The Copa del Rey has a new format that was introduced four seasons ago, and it keeps all of its historical significance and prestige while improving in terms of intensity, goals scored, and fan appeal.
RealFevr's CEO, Fred Antunes, said:
“Progress is made one step at a time. And today, we proudly affirm being one step closer to the implementation of our vision, not just as a company, but also as an active contributor to the digital revolution in the sports industry. RFEF trusted us to take this massive step, becoming the first national football federation in the world to do so. And now, we will be able to bring beautiful pieces of Spanish football history to fans all over the world, in the form of digital collectibles.”
The marketing director of RFEF, Rben Rivera, added:
“Our agreement with RealFevr is great news for Copa del Rey fans around the world and will allow us to share with them historical moments of the competition that will be unique within the web3 ecosystem thanks to Realfevr’s expertise and magnificent community of users.”
All football fans who are interested in expanding their own collection should follow RealFevr and RFEF on social media or register their interest on the RealFevr website as the first RealFevr x RFEF drop of moments will be released in 2022.
RealFevr, a Portuguese startup, is introducing the first video-based NFTs marketplace for football collectibles. Since every digital collectible moment has a valid license, it has real intrinsic value. RealFevr, a company based in Lisbon that was founded in 2015 with the intention of revolutionizing the Fantasy Leagues market. It has made a name for itself in the rapidly expanding blockchain, NFTs, and cryptocurrency markets. These will be playable items in the Web3 games that the company is creating, in addition to the exclusivity of collectibles in video format whose utility goes beyond the purely collector's perspective. $FEVR will serve as the ecosystem’s fuel, being the currency used to buy the drops.
Porsche set to launch a 7,500 NFT collection for use in a “Virtual world”
Porsche is planning to introduce a 7,500 NFT collection for use in a virtual environment.
After announcing a forthcoming nonfungible token (NFT) project featuring 7,500 customizable tokenized vehicles, German luxury car manufacturer Porsche has indicated it will be significantly stepping up its Web3 efforts.
Porsche announced on Nov. 29 that the NFTs would go on sale in January and would allow users to customize various elements of the cars' performance and appearance.
Patrick Vogel, a designer and 3D artist, is creating the actual NFT art, with each piece centered around the renowned Porsche 911 model.
Unreal Engine 5, developed by Epic Games, will be used to design these virtual assets, which is noteworthy and indicates that game integrations are in the works.
On November 30, the business provided a sneak preview of the project at the Art Basel convention in Miami. Although specifics have not been disclosed, the company did mention that owners would be able to use the vehicles in the "virtual world," which is most likely a metaverse.
In a broader sense, Porsche hinted that it intended to significantly increase its exposure to Web3 going forward, noting that:
“Digital art is just one aspect of Porsche’s Web3 strategy. The sports car manufacturer is working to integrate the potential of blockchain technology into existing and future processes and solutions.”
Porsche previously participated in the launch of NFT collectibles with a soccer theme in June 2021 as part of a project called Fanzone, but it now seems to be taking the tokenization of its vehicles more seriously.
Solana-based Orca DEX integrates with Stripe for Fiat-to-Crypto transactions
For the first time on any blockchain, Stripe has integrated with a decentralized exchange with the Orca onramp.
Orca, a top decentralized exchange with its headquarters in Solana Beach, has launched a fiat-to-crypto onramp in association with the leading payments service provider. Stripe has integrated a decentralized exchange with the Orca onramp for the first time on any blockchain.
At launch, Orca users will have direct access to Stripe's straightforward order flow, enabling them to directly purchase crypto assets like SOL and USDC with fiat money. In the token panel, purchased tokens will then be transferred back to customers' Solana wallets.
“A core part of Orca’s mission is to enable broader economic access,” said Orca co-founder Ori Kawn. “With this new integration, we hope to make participating in the DeFi ecosystem even more accessible to the entire Solana community.”
The Orca platform, which went live in February 2021, enables users to trade Solana SPL tokens using an automated market maker. The protocol is permissionless, so smart contracts alone are in charge of carrying out trades. Orca places a strong emphasis on usability in an effort to differentiate itself from other decentralized exchanges. To improve its user experience, the protocol has released a number of noteworthy updates over the course of its development, including a fair price checker and in-app improvements.
Orca raised $18 million in September 2021 from a number of the top venture capital firms in the cryptocurrency industry, including Polychain, Coinbase Ventures, and Jump Capital. Additionally, it has successfully integrated with other top Solana DeFi protocols like SolScan, Jupiter, and Tulip.
Stripe has continued its entry to the world of digital assets with the Orca integration. In April, the company piloted Twitter cryptocurrency payouts via Polygon, returning to the cryptocurrency market after ceasing all payments in 2018. Since then, the payment services provider has shown support for the cryptocurrency industry more generally by providing a variety of services to cryptocurrency exchanges, onramps, wallets, and NFT marketplaces.
Coinbase Cancels iOS NFTs As Apple Extends 30% Cut to Gas Fees
NFTs were recently removed from the Coinbase Wallet due to crypto's ongoing battle with Apple's App Store policy, which mandates that Apple take a 30% cut of every sale.
The @CoinbaseWallet Twitter account announced on Thursday that "can't send NFTs on Coinbase Wallet iOS anymore," according to the company. This is due to Apple preventing the release of our most recent app until the feature was turned off.
"Apple's claim is that the gas fees required to send NFTs need to be paid through their In-App Purchase system, so that they can collect 30% of the gas fee," the article stated as the issue.
Which, it said, is a problem "for anyone who knows how NFTs and blockchains work" for a number of reasons.
"The biggest impact from this policy change is on iPhone users that own NFTs — if you hold an NFT in a wallet on an iPhone, Apple just made it a lot harder to transfer that NFT to other wallets, or gift it to friends or family."
But more importantly, according to Coinbase Wallet, "the in-app purchase system does not support crypto so we could not comply even if we tried. This is comparable to Apple attempting to charge a fee for each email sent using open Internet protocols.
"Simply put, Apple has introduced new policies to protect their profits at the expense of consumer investment in NFTs and developer innovation across the crypto ecosystem."
According to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, the policy is "a good example of the kinds of discussions we have with Apple on a monthly basis, to deal with their app store monopoly." It has at times become pretty absurd.
The 30% Conundrum
Wanting to take a cut of gas fees is much more burdensome—or, to be more precise, technically impractical—than Apple's new NFT policy, which was announced on October 24.
However, it stipulates that all sales must be made in dollars, not cryptocurrency, even though it expressly permits NFT sales. Which is actually less burdensome because it keeps up with a rising trend of selling NFTs for both fiat and cryptocurrency.
The 30% fee is also applied to all sales of NFTs under that policy. Because of this, many popular marketplaces, including OpenSea and Rarible, have browse-only apps.
It also introduces a number of new limitations, such as a prohibition on NFTs being used to unlock additional app features and, of course, any alternative payment methods offered by those apps — the same legal battle Epic Games is currently engaged in with Apple.
As a result of concerns that his free speech policy will allow more objectionable material, including hate speech, to reappear on the platform, Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, recently attacked Apple over the 30% fee and threatened to remove the Twitter app from 1.2 billion iPhones if it violated Apple's extremely broad objectionable material clause.
AAX clients storm exchange's office in Lagos following operations halt
According to a Dec. 3 report by a major Nigerian news website, Nigerian users of the cryptocurrency exchange AAX stormed the company's office in Lagos and harassed its staff after the exchange stopped allowing withdrawals.
Local media reported that after withdrawals were halted on AAX, a group of outraged users attacked staff members of the cryptocurrency exchange.
The Nigerian Blockchain Technology Association Stakeholders (SiBAN) condemned the attack on November 28 despite it being unclear when it occurred. It pleaded with irate users to exercise patience with the exchange's staff members, who have also been negatively affected by the withdrawal freeze. SiBAN reported:
"Therefore, we appeal to and discourage any dissatisfied or angry user or investor from harassing or victimizing the AAX Country Manager (Nigeria), other local staff members, and AAX ambassadors nationwide. These persons are also facing the same situation as disgruntled users and investors are. At the time of writing this notice, we are aware that communication between these persons and AAX headquarters has been equally strained at this time. We therefore appeal for understanding and patience from all Nigerian AAX users."
The AAX drama began on November 14 when the exchange stopped withdrawals due to a system upgrade bug. When FTX collapsed, AAX assured its community that the stoppage in withdrawals had nothing to do with the troubled exchange.
On November 15, the AAX team announced that it was working to raise additional capital because investors had begun withdrawing their money out of fear that the contagion from FTX's bankruptcy would spread further. The SiBAN offered the following analysis of the circumstance:
"Considering that AAX’s system upgrade came at a time FTX collapse is still causing a contagion effect on the entire crypto industry, AAX’s timing of its system upgrade was suspicious and questionable in the first place. Consequently, for many AAX users and the members of the public, the prolonged AAX system upgrade till the time of writing this notice significantly raises more questions than answers. And AAX, contrary to its promise to maintain a daily update of the situation, has so far neglected or failed to maintain the trust and confidence of its users."
The Nigerian association also mentioned that some of the clients affected include its own members.
However, AAX's vice president for global marketing and communications, Ben Caselin, announced his resignation on November 28. This sparked rumors that the exchange might not reopen. Despite his efforts to advocate for the neighborhood, Caselin claims that "none of the initiatives we came up with were accepted. Any communication role I still had became hollow.
The former AAX executive also disagreed with how the company was handling its problems, calling it "overly opaque" and acting "without empathy."
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