01/10/2021 TikTok starts flirting with NFTs

The NFT space has had quite the year, and while it can be difficult to separate the billions of dollars in crypto speculation from the potential infrastructure shifts, plenty of mainstream tech companies are dipping their toes into the space and signaling future interest.

This time itā€™s TikTokā€™s turn. The fast-growing social media platform, which just crossed 1 billion monthly users worldwide, has lined up its own NFT drop, leveraging content from some of its top creators, including Lil Nas X, Grimes, Bella Poarch, Rudy Willingham and Gary Vaynerchuk. The release of one-of-one and limited edition NFTs seems to be focused on generating buzz among the existing NFT community rather than exposing users inside the app to non-fungible tokens.

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The company is side-stepping blockchain energy concerns by placing their NFTs on a dedicated site powered by Immutable X, a Layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum which says that NFTs traded using it are ā€œ100% carbon neutral.ā€ The drop starts October 6 with a collection from Lil Nas X and will continue on through the end of the month.

Why is TikTok getting into the world of NFTs to begin with? TikTok has a fairly precise answer for that on itsdrop site:

Inspired by the creativity and innovation of the TikTok creator community, TikTok is exploring the world of NFTs as a new creator empowerment tool. NFTs are a new way for creators to be recognized and rewarded for their content and for fans to own culturally-significant moments on TikTok.

The creation that happens on TikTok helps drive culture and start trends that impact society. TikTok will bring something unique and groundbreaking to the NFT landscape by curating some of these cultural milestones and pairing them with prominent NFT artists.

Itā€™s clearly a niche early experiment for the company, which hasnā€™t previously indicated the same level of NFT interest that platforms like Twitter and Facebook have shown, but it also showcases that they think NFTs are a space worth paying some attention to.

Arts

https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/30/tiktok-starts-flirting-with-nfts/

Interesting NFTs
Smile to Shreds, Neon Gwen
The First KayPikeFashion Mint Ever. Ever feel so joyful and were grinning so hard you felt you could split in half? That punk rebel yell of glee when you pull of a particularly refined stunt? This is the paint of dreams, fangs and neon. Hellish and hard to pull off. I was able to with this work quietly paint a sweet inner tale of childhood influences, rat fink and autobody shops. All while pretending to paint gwenom for the audience. More on that in bonus material. This is my alternate animation made specifically for crypto art collectors. It will only ever exist in this format. You get the Shiny, unused in media verified image. More on that in the bonus material. Mixed Media: Bio/Digital. Glycerin on 5'9" human skin 10-14 hours Performance art. Shot on Canon EOS RP. 16 + hours Photoshop and DaVinci Resolve. All Works are SFW. Art has been Seen on the front page of Reddit, Featured in the New York Times, Galileo.tv, and multiple other promotions including Twitch.tv, Disney Interactive, RIOT games, WB games, AMD and more! More on how this art is unique and potentially explosive in the NFT world: https://youtu.be/CXbNF2Y6srs ------------------------- The purchase of this NFT Grants the buyer unique bonus material. Physical Mail Bonus Package: A verified physical Art Print. Autographed from the artist in 12x16. Please allow a few weeks for delivery. Digital Bonus Package: This image in .mp4. An "About the Art" Video and an "From the Artist" introduction. A README.txt about the artwork with some personal notes and Links relevant to the artwork.
Bush warbler and roses
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) Bush warbler and roses 1834 - Japan
Okay Bulls #1698
Okay Bulls is a clean collection of 10,000 bulls building a bullish community that will transcend the internet into the real world.
Metarift
āˆ¾ 2160 x 2160 px, Video (46.5 MB)
Auto-Erotic Sphinx with Toys
In this image, a giant sphinx spoons itself in erotic play within an aquatic styled environment littered by various denizens. These creatures include symbols and archetypes both current and nostalgicā€“each inhabiting a rootedness within mass cultural adolescence. Among the roster are Servbots, video game inspired mushrooms, a Pacman-like creature, a distant sea faring rubber duck, creatures sporting the symbols reminiscent of popular anime, and a Pokemon-like rabbit (a novel incarnation of Ganesha indicated by the Shiva trident on its nose). In addition, a few sea creatures partly inspired by sea monsters of western antiquity conglomerate along the mid left side of the composition. The Sphinx itself is an amalgam of aquatic, fetishist, ancient Egyptian, and 80ā€™s style adornments, both living, as in a clown fish, or material, such as a cassette tape. Nautically colored antennae receive somatic signals from the atmosphere, perhaps from the 8 Ball moon or giant ringed planet beyond.