31/07/2023 The Airdrop: Reddit Releases New NFTs, Crypto Twitter Leaves Threads on Read

Reddit has released its latest NFT avatar collection aimed at inspiring "warm, fuzzy feelings of nostalgia” among collectors, while Amazon added new blockchain tools to its Amazon Web Services cloud platform as it continues its Web3 expansion.

Also, we chatted with Web3 influencers to suss out if the crypto degens are ready to migrate from Twitter to Meta’s Threads or another decentralized social media platform.

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This Week's Alpha

Much ado about Snoo:Redditreleasedits Gen 4 Collectible Avatar series, bringing a new batch of colorful collectibles to its NFT shop reimagining the platform’s iconic "Snoo" character. Titled “Retro Reimagined,” the microblogging site says it is meant to inspire "warm, fuzzy feelings of nostalgia” and features designs from 100 independent artists and popular NFT collections like Cool Cats.

  • Learning from the past:Previous releases havenot been entirely smooth, so this time around, the Reddit team implemented anti-bot measures like CAPTCHA to create a better user experience. In addition, the platform introduced spend limits and launched an “initial access” period on the first day to limit the number of NFTs a user could sweep in one go. Still, itwasn’ta perfect launch.
  • Soaring sales:According todatafrom Dune Analytics, there are now over 14.5 million avatar holders.

Amazon primed and ready:The e-commerce giant hasaddednew blockchain tools to its Amazon Web Services cloud platform, expanding the capabilities of its Amazon Managed Blockchain service that provides manicured infrastructure for developers looking to build Web3 applications faster. The new tools, "Access" and "Query," allow developers to interact with public blockchains more seamlessly and expand node offerings with serverless, scalable access to blockchains.

  • Add to cart:The new tools expand the platform’s already-growing Web3 ambitions, whichreportedlyinclude plans for an NFT marketplace.

Threadheads:While Meta’s new Threads social apprecentlyonboarded millions of normies, the question remains: Will it be cool enough to lure the vibrant crypto community away from its native Twitter homebase? Some Web3 strategists and builders areskeptical of its pull. “I don't need a Twitter clone – I need Meta to think deeper about creating new ways to connect,”Riley Blackwell, Web3-focused community-building strategist, told us.

  • Decentralized dreams:While the platform is compatible with decentralized social media protocolActivityPub, which would allow users to interact with other social media platforms like Mastodon, Bluesky and others, signing up still requires an existing Instagram account. This makes it more difficult to maintain anonymity online, which is important to a number of Web3 artists and creators. It’s alsovirtually impossibleto leave the platform once you join.
  • Scoring on simplicity:The platform does offer a more simplified and seamless onboarding process that allowed it bring in new users so quickly. A thread can be cross-posted as an Instagram story, sowing early seeds of interoperability. Still, Threads users are already spendingway lesstime on the app, which could make it a passing fad – a phenomenon high-speed crypto traders are all too familiar with.

Project in the news

Who: VeVe and Kartoon Studios

What: NFT marketplace VeVe has released a new series of chibi-style NFTs based on Marvel legend Stan Lee. Each of the four artworks had various edition numbers and rarity ranks. Kartoon Studio, which partnered with VeVe on the release, said that the collectibles experienced a “near-instantaneous” sell-out of its over 8,000 NFTs.

How: The collectibles, released as “blind boxes” that were only revealed after purchase, were priced at $15 each. According toBloomberg, the drop brought in about $120,000 and rose in value by at least 500% by Monday morning. On the VeVe app, some collectibles were listed for resale for up to $749.

In Other News

No admission fee:The 270-year-old British Museum is entering the metaverse through a partnership with The Sandbox, bringing its collection to the virtual world as well as releasing a collection of NFTs.

Twitter trading:Web3 walletSuku has launched an appthat allows Twitter (X?) users to directly send digital currencies and NFTs to each other, a feature Musk hopes to add to his social media platform.

Frequent flier:United Arab Emirates carrier Etihad Airwaysplansto introduce a Web3 loyalty program that will allow holders to stake NFTs for miles and travel perks.

Non-Fungible Toolkit

In the past few months, several Web3 projects have adopted the ERC-6551 standard, or token-bound account. The new standard opens up a plethora of use cases across NFTs, gaming, DAOs and the metaverse.

For example, let’s say aPFPNFT collection implements an ERC-6551 token standard. If the collection has its own native cryptocurrency, the NFT could custody those tokens. It could also custody derivative NFTs such as digital wearables for the avatar, like socks or sneakers or hats.Here’s what you need to know about ERC-6551.

Arts

https://www.coindesk.com/web3/2023/07/29/reddit-returns-with-new-nfts-and-crypto-twitter-leaves-threads-on-read/?outputType=amp

Interesting NFTs
The Switch
The Switch is a unique, “one of one” NFT that demonstrates the evolution of artwork in the digital realm. The Switch is developed to change form at a specific point of time in the future, known by Pak. The evolution is determined and rendered immutable by smart contracts, or self-executing code on the Ethereum blockchain.
No Favour (cold) #17/25
No Favour for you. Cold variation.
Genesis
JosĂ© Delbo sent me his striking pencil sketch and powerful inked work, which I then interpreted in oil on canvas. I wanted to create a very painterly piece with obvious brush marks etc, but I was also aiming for a nostalgic feel, a kind of 1980’s superhero comic book look, the kind I grew up with. My goal with this animation was to try to recreate, in part, the creative process that both artists went through with the visual information I had. I was able to showcase my painting process more accurately as I could take photographs of my progress throughout. Consecutive images could then be layered like brush strokes over José’s drawing to create the impression that this was one continuous artwork from pencil, to ink, to completed painting. The representation of the line sketch at the beginning, then pencil/ink and lastly the paint layers being applied demonstrate both artists’ struggle for the right lines, tone, form, and colour until the work is finally completed. As the oil was still wet with each photograph the glare of my studio lights can be seen in the brush strokes. Eventually, the figure emerges and as it does, our hero comes to life, looking directly at the viewer -- but is he grimacing in approval or disgust? We will never know for sure as just before he can say anything, white paint is brushed across the canvas entirely and the process begins again. Only the bat is quick enough to escape.
#61301
By OthersideDeployer
Alex in Wonderland
A figure, Alex, stands mostly naked in the midst of a physical and psychological maelstrom. He is clad only in nostalgic 80’s era socks, on a tenuous island between active waters and a variety of shark denizens. Sharks on the right side of the image are all beached, including a shark with a quartz crystal snout, an orange shark wrapped in a life buoy, and a shark further in the distance wearing an 80’s style shirt with the number “88”. On the left side is the largest shark, wearing bright glossy red lipstick and brandishing prominent teeth with braces. She is cordoned off from the figure by a roped float divider, and within her thought bubble is a warning symbol. Behind the figure, hovering in the air, are Grey aliens emerging from the distance, out of a series of elliptical UFO shaped interdimensional membranes. The Greys take on the visual form of spermazoa ostensibly impregnating the interdimensional thresholds. As is typical, these Greys inhabit a zone just behind the unconscious topology of Alex’s dissociative mind. Though Alex’s bottom half is representative, his top half mutates into a psychological cornucopia. In a manner akin to “Auto-Erotic Sphinx”, a predecessor work, the figure has self suctioned—an act of sensual infatuation, enjoyment, and exploration. Upward exists the figure’s primary conscious eye, adorned with a revolutionary beret emblazoned with a Bitcoin badge. The figure’s summit features the nose of a fighter jet facing off against video game Bullet Bills, one of whom is marked by a communist North Korean star. A cropped section of a UFO observes the contest. Alex’s mind branches both left and right. To the left is more singular embodied consciousness, manifesting two eyes and a Ganesh trunk grasping crayons. The right branch dissociates upward diagonally, emerging into an array of eyes, faces, teeth, tail, a unicorn horn, and much more—all of which participate in expressing his unconscious being; a democracy of psychic factions representing thought impressions and associations. All illumination and darkness– fernal, infernal, high consciousness and corporeal underbelly–reside in this realm. In the distance are relatively languid, light clouds, and against the firmament hovers a colossal distant eye peering over the scene and far beyond. This painting possesses underlying genetic traits with previous works such as “Auto-Erotic Sphinx with Toys”, “Dionysus”, and “Fuku-Shiva”. The work serves also as a nod to an earlier period of art inspiration during late teens and early twenties— born out of the nakedness, vulnerability, curiosity, and wonder inherent to coming of age and all subsequent psychedelic revelation.