New NFTs from Lamborghini, Fox’s Krapopolis
- Krapopolis will be the first blockchain-based animated series on broadcast TV
- Moonbirds floor price has dropped 20%, from 18 ETH to 14 ETH in the last week since moving to a CC0 public license
This week, Nas Academy collaborated with Invisible College and the NFT project Decentralien for token-gate online courses focusing on Web3.
In funding news, Andreesen Horowitz (a16z) invested $6 million in Web3 startup Halliday, while NFT (non-fungible token) distribution platform Pinata raised $21.5 million in funding rounds led by Greylock, Pantera, and Offline Ventures.
Blockworks summarizes other notable stories that caught the eye of Web3 Watch.
The best drops of the week:
“Krap Chickens” NFTs
“Community” and “Rick and Morty” creator Dan Harmon is behind Krapopolis, a new NFT-powered animated comedy show, produced in partnership with Fox Entertainment’s Web3 media and creative technology arm, Blockchain Creative Labs.
Set in mythical ancient Greece, Krapolopolis tells the story of a dysfunctional family of humans, gods and monsters. Scott Greenberg, CEO of Blockchain Creative Labs, told Blockworks that Krapopolis is the first animated series to premiere on broadcast television that uses blockchain technology “at the heart of the process.”
NFT Marketplace Rarible operates Krapopolis’ own custom NFT marketplace for the Krap community to buy, sell, and trade Krap Chicken NFTs, launching on August 11th to coincide with Krap Chicken’s NFT release.
“Through the show, we invite animation fans and creators to connect more closely with the series, with Dan and with each other, opening a new and innovative entry point for viewers to Web3,” said Greenberg.
The Krap Chickens will give collectors access to exclusive content and private screenings, meet-and-greets with cast and producers. Holders are given voting rights to shows, allowing fans to provide real-time feedback.
Lamborghini’s “Epic Road Trip”
With its third and final NFT collection, Lamborghini promises to take collectors on an epic road trip “to the moon and beyond.”
The Italian sports car maker will release a series of four NFTs during one week each month for the next eight months. The NFTs are available for only 24 hours and are sold over four consecutive days. The first three NFTs of each month are unlimited, while the fourth comes with a supply cap.
It’s a puzzle: holders of the unlimited coins can reveal a silver piece every month; collectors with all 4 NFTs will reveal the gold puzzle.
At the end of the journey, which ends in March 2023, those who have completed the puzzle will unlock a hidden NFT – a bid to ensure long-term commitment to the project.
[ Ledger ] Market x BRICK
Hardware wallet maker Ledger recently launched its NFT distribution platform called [LEDGER] Market, or [L] Market for short and the Genesis Pass NFTs topped the OpenSea sales charts in the first 24 hours.
The second collection, BRICK NFTs, launched this week in collaboration with Brick, a brick-and-mortar Los Angeles-based music venue by night and community-driven space by day. It was founded by Lee Spielman and Garrett Stevenson, members of the band Trash Talk and the creators of the streetwear brand Babylon LA.
BRICK NFT holders will get voting rights to programming and free access to the space, which plans to host live concerts, comedy shows, music classes with major artists and even crypto workshops from Ledger. For non-LA members, Brick will buy land in the metaverse and stream concerts and classes. Digital merch and tour posters can also be sent out.
This type of NFT-based membership, like token-gate’s artistic and educational platforms, is becoming increasingly popular.
Web3 app spotlight: Raelic
Pictures are worth a thousand words, but according to Andrea Castiglione, the founder of venture capital and consulting firm Silent Unicorn, they are also temporary.
That’s why Castiglione, along with co-founder former professional soccer player Alessandro Del Piero, created Raelic (pronounced relic) – a peer-to-peer NFT-based social networking mobile app. Think Instagram meets Patreon.
Raelic users can create photos or videos as tradable NFTs in the app for a gas fee and post them in a scrollable feed reminiscent of Instagram’s user interface. NFTs can be minted on Ethereum, Klaytn, Polygon or Binance Smart Chain.
Blockworks participated in an early access app test and spoke with Castiglione to learn more about Raelic’s ambitions.
Blockwork: Tell me about some of the pain points of Web2 that you’re trying to address through Raelic.
Castiglione: First, it has always been very difficult to interact with decentralized applications and for people to understand that they need to install a browser plugin. Then they have to put some money on that plugin. And to do that, you need to get an exchange account on Coinbase or Binance or any other exchange and load it. Then you can use the app [decentralized app]. That’s just step one. Everything is very web based and it is not very mobile friendly.
And the ability for people to produce content from their phone is what made the internet explode, and TikTok and Instagram. So you need a social layer that lets people easily create from their phone. But to be true to Web3, it needs to be custody-free.
Another major problem was the disconnect between existing social networks such as Twitter, Instagram or TikTok where people discover NFTs and specific communities. Then they have to go to OpenSea or LooksRare to buy it. After they go to Discord, full of sneaky little bots, to talk to other people in the same gathering. So you go to three platforms to do something that you can do on a cell phone.
Blockwork: So Raelic is like a one-stop shop. Can you give me some examples of unique use cases?
Castiglione: I don’t think we’ve really gotten into the creative economy yet. For example image reporting. Take a picture, try the moment, block the moment, then write the story below in the description. You can sell it to the local newspaper or outlet later.
Or let’s say you’re a busker in London. You are always singing and you used to post on your Instagram account, but people who go to your Instagram can only follow you. Now you can go to a social media account [Raelic] where you start building your followers who may also buy a video of that song you sang beautifully.
Blockwork: Is Raelic considered a Decentralized Social Media Platform (DeSoc)?
Castiglione: I would say it’s a hybrid because we’re a centralized service, it’s a brand. But every interaction is peer-to-peer. So you buy and sell completely peer-to-peer. We do not receive any information about that transaction and we do not charge any fees. You can create on the blockchain with complete autonomy and things are completely non-custodial.
But the steering right now is in our hands. So it’s a centralized service provider that makes tools that are non-custodial and true to Web3. Going forward, we may one day want to decentralize ownership with a governance token or DAO [decentralized autonomous organization].
But we take one step at a time. So today we ask – How do we bring the next billion people into the Web3 world in such a way that they can create content that they actually own and interact with people?
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Ornella Hernandez
Blockwork
Journalist
