15/01/2024 OpenSea Wants NFTs to Evolve as Market Plunges 63%

Last year was not a good one for non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Sales for the blockchain-based digital assetsfell 63%to $8.7 billion in 2023, even with volume tripling between October and November, Bloomberg News reported Sunday (Jan. 14), citing data from CryptoSlam.

As that report notes, NFTs were adefining featureof the crypto bull market in 2021, deemed the more accessible way for everyday consumers to access the digital currency market.

They were even something of a status symbol: anyone willing to spend the money could buy an NFT and make it their profile picture on Twitter. These days, Bloomberg says, X — as Twitter is now called — no longer supports NFT profile pics.

Devin Finzer, CEO of NFT marketplaceOpenSea, told Bloomberg that the industry thinks of NFTs as more than just collectibles, and said he defines industry — and company — success as more than just sales figures.

“One of the things we’ve been most excited about is not necessarily how do you drive the most volume, but rather, how do you build sort of the most compelling use cases for NFTs,” he said.

Finzer said his company is at work on “OpenSea 2.0,” an upgraded platform he said will provide a better user experience and greater differentiation between NFT categories as more uses for the tokens develop.

At the moment, he added, NFTs are displayed the same on OpenSea and other platforms, no matter if they’re a gaming token or an event ticket.

“We really want to have a marketplace interface that can be better customized to suit each type of use case,” he said, adding that OpenSea is at work on displaying ticket NFTs on a calendar and sorting them by date.

The report also notes that while NFT sales were dropping, theprice of bitcoin— the most popular cryptocurrency — jumped 160% in 2023.

However, last year crypto startups struggled to raise funds amid a regulatory crackdown and two high-profile criminal cases.

Venture capital investment in the crypto industry dropped tojust $9.5 billionduring the year, less than a third of the prior year’s total.

The sector’s troubles were especially pronounced during the fourth quarter, when FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted ofmultiple fraud charges, and Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao entered a guilty plea to violating anti-money laundering requirements.

Arts

https://www.pymnts.com/nfts/2024/opensea-wants-nfts-to-evolve-as-market-plunges-63/

Interesting NFTs
Source Code for the WWW
OWNER: Sir Tim Berners-Lee Sir Tim Berners-Lee, b. 1955 Source Code for the WWW 1990-1991 Work includes: Original archive of dated and time-stamped files containing the source code, written between 3 October 1990 and 24 August 1991. These files contain code with approximately 9,555 lines, the contents of which include implementations of the three languages and protocols invented by Sir Tim; HTML (Hypertext Markup Language); HTTP (Hyper Transfer Protocol); and URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers), as well as the original HTML documents that instructed early web users on how to use the application Animated visualization of the code being written (Video, black & white, silent), lasting 30 minutes 25 seconds A Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) representation of the full code (A0 841mm wide by 1189 mm high), created by Sir Tim from the original files using Python, with a graphic representation of his physical signature at lower right A letter written in the README.md file (in “markdown” format) by Sir Tim in June of 2021, reflecting upon the code and his process of creating it Non-fungible Token ERC-721 Minted on June 15, 2021, ed. 1/1 Smart Contract Address: 0x86ade256037d80d6d42df8df96d5be21cd25bd8f
Flarerender
A character from The Beacon
The Harvest
An anthropomorphic figure stands, wide eyed, staring at the viewer; its body masculine, muscular, and humanoid. Its “mind” dissociates into a conglomerate of structures resembling feathers, grain, teeth–as well as a radial flower “node”, casting linear rays throughout the composition. To his left, a vat of bodies gesture and writhe in a kind of amniotic soup, attended by a video game robot. The bot's red display reads “uWu”. Behind the robot and filling the left side of the composition is an archaic figure composed of a variety of vintage objects and symbols. Among them are a hardbound book with ancient cuneiform scripts, indicating barley, beer, bread, ox, house, and sky, behind which is a grimacing, salivating jagged toothed maw; and an old Commodore floppy drive. The figure’s head tilts toward an illuminated crescent moon, suggesting the Egyptian Sacred Bull. The archaic figure is composed of a variety of mutating cells, which shift in color, and pattern; eventually breaking free into an ephemeral broadcast of bubbles which move across the background. The work came into being against a psychological introspection, which included associations to pop culture such as alien abduction and pod people, as well as quite a bit of reflection on grains as a symbol of civilization, agriculture, sustenance, life, and imbibing (mainly whiskies).
Mars House
Mars House is the first NFT digital house in the world. Upon purchase of Mars House NFT, 3D files will be sent to the new owner by Krista Kim Studio Inc. for file upload to the owner’s Metaverse. Technical support for Mars House integration on Metaverse is provided. (Architectural Digest, March 14, 2021) “Kim ventured into NFTs while exploring meditative design during quarantine; her hope was to use the influx of digital life as an opportunity to promote wellbeing. Comprised entirely of light, the visual effects of her crypto-home are meant to omit a zen, healing atmosphere. The artist also partnered with musician Jeff Schroeder of The Smashing Pumpkins to create a calming musical accompaniment. So what makes the file a compelling purchase? Beyond the promise of buying into the lucrative NFT market, the home and all of the furniture in it can be built in real life by glass furniture-makers in Italy, as well as through MicroLED screen technology. Kim also has a strong visions the art being projected, as well. “Everyone should install an LED wall in their house for NFT art.” says the artist. “ This is the future, and Mars House demonstrates the beauty of that possibility.” The owner is in agreement to the following terms and conditions upon purchase of Mars House (hereby referred to as Mars House NFT): The collector agrees to own one copy of Mars House NFT on a single Metaverse platform. The collector is required to register Mars House NFT ownership with Krista Kim Studio Inc. Krista Kim Studio Inc. will provide technical support to upload and integrate Mars House NFT on a Metaverse platform. If/when Mars House is resold, the collector is required to delete all Mars House NFT 3D file(s) from his/her Metaverse, and provide verification of deletion to Krista Kim Studio Inc. before new 3D files are transferred to the new owner by the artist. The new owner is required to register Mars House NFT ownership with Krista Kim Studio Inc. Krista Kim Studio will send Mars House NFT 3D files directly to the new owner and provide support for Metaverse integration. This verified ownership transfer system will be appointed to Krista Kim Studio Inc. trusteeship, after 40 years of the date of the sale. Krista Kim Studio Inc. retains ownership of Mars House NFT copyright. All rights reserved. All reproductions of Mars House (NFT) in both digital and physical formats, are restricted. Mars House NFT physical furniture pieces, made of tempered printed glass in Italy, may be commissioned by the collector as NFT physical pieces.
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By OthersideDeployer