21/04/2022 Coinbase launches social NFT marketplace in limited beta, just as NFT sales dive

Image: Coinbasenone

Coinbase announced on Wednesday that its NFT marketplace is now in beta and accessible to “a small set of beta testers who’ll be invited based on their position” on its waitlist. The company is looking to take on established players in the space by adding social features, like a comment system (with upvotes and downvotes) and an algorithmic feed.

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Visually speaking, the screenshots Coinbase includes in its blog post look like a cross between Instagram and OpenSea, one of the largest NFT marketplaces. There are profiles where users can show off their collections (and which other people can follow) as well as a discover feed that Coinbase says will recommend NFTs to you “based on what you buy, what’s trending, who you follow, and more.” The marketplace also supports favoriting NFTs, as do OpenSea and other marketplaces.

Profiles look a bit like Instagram — but with NFTs you’ve made or bought instead of pictures.Image: CoinbasenoneThe comments currently on the site are about what I would’ve imagined.

Of course, there’s also a “Shop” tab that beta testers can visit to purchase NFTs. Currently, the marketplace only supports the Ethereum blockchain, and beta users log in using a wallet like the one Coinbase offers or MetaMask. While the company has said that Coinbase NFTwill support Mastercard in the future, prices are currently only listed in ETH.

While Coinbase is a major player in the crypto exchange world, it does feel like it’s getting into NFTs a bit late.AsBloombergpoints out, the market is showing some signs of flagging:DappRadar’s NFT marketplace tracker shows that trading volume and the number of traders on the top marketplaces have almost universally decreased in the past month. OpenSea, the largest NFT shop, has around 67 percent fewer trades compared to what it had in March and 23 percent fewer traders. And while search interest in NFTs rose between October, 2021, and January, 2022, it’s since declined back to around normal levels.

Worldwide search interest in NFTs between the beginning of 2021 and now.Graph: Google Trendsnone

The companyannounced its NFT marketplace in Octoberand says that there are a variety of seemingly essential features that aren’t in the current beta. Minting, NFTs on other blockchains (OpenSea has preliminary support for Polygon and Solana), and even the ability to purchase the tokens with your Coinbase account or credit card are all currently planned for the “coming weeks and months.” It’s also, of course, not accessible to everyone right now. The company says it’s going to work through the waitlist, where people are ranked in part by how many others they’ve gotten to join the waitlist.

Arts

https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/20/23034269/coinbase-nft-marketplace-social-platform-sales-opensea

Interesting NFTs
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.
#65297
By OthersideDeployer
SAN-D AMUR RAGDOLL COTTONCANDY
Good day! I'm SAN-D AMUR RAGDOLL COTTONCANDY. I've never told anyone this, but I once headbutted a dog. I once headbutted a rooster. I don't like to talk about it. I think you'll love me beclaws I have cattitude.
Domestic - 2017
“Domestic is the manifestation of the cultural patriarchy in my home. The wooden "woman's" tragedy of false desire. It was done in a moment of breakup. The hollow 3d body & its lost eyes, invites you to fill up. Trying to reach out, encumbered and wrapped in its own fragility, the new mother rises."
Who Is The Creator 2
The idea for this piece was borne out of a tweet of mine that caused a bit of a stir. I’d posted a link to a blog article I’d written a number of months previous titled ‘Who is the Creator’ discussing various types of creative collaborations and why I hire people to work on my animations. It generated a lot of debate around creation and attribution with the community split on whether it’s right or wrong for an artist to hire other professionals to help them realize their art projects. I decided to push the boundaries even further and see how the cryptoart community responded. What if I quite literally had nothing to do with the physical or digital elements of the work other than coming up with the concept and coordinating it? I decided there was one artist in the space who could add huge value to this idea on levels that none other could and so I gathered my courage and contacted the great JosĂ© Delbo to ask him if he’d be interested in a very unique collaboration. I explained to him that to make this piece ‘work’ he couldn't have any say in what I produced and moreover, he wouldn’t even be allowed to see the animation until it was dropped on MakersPlace. To my surprise, Mr Delbo agreed to my proposal. The animation tells the story of the creative process, which includes my roles as writer, director, and producer working with a team and making edits and changes ‘in real time’. The dialogue between myself and my ‘hired guns’ plays out in front of the viewer. The music written for the piece adds to the nostalgia of the comic book superhero theme but other elements such as the snapping and kicking of the pencil and the signing of my signature at the bottom incorporates further layers and challenges the viewer to ask important questions, such as, is the ‘Art’ the final animation (the creation) or is the ‘Art’ the concept/credit for the creation itself?