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In this week’s Web3 Watch, Blockworks catches up with Rarible co-founder Alex Salnikov for his take on NFTs during market downturns
Animated series “Love, Death & Robots” went Web3 with its third season, which was released in conjunction with a digital scavenger hunt for nine QR codes tied to NFTs hidden across social media accounts, physical billboards and even within the show itself.
The NFTs (non-fungible tokens) represent artwork from each of the season’s nine episodes. Viewers who spot and scan a QR code can either mint the art as an NFT or right-click and save it. For now, only US fans can choose to mint them through a MetaMask wallet or Coinbase account, for which they must pay Ethereum gas fees. Only four QR codes have been unveiled at the time of publication.
Reportedly, neither Netflix nor the show producers make money from the NFT sales.
9 pieces of art. 9 codes. the hunt begins #lovedeathandart https://t.co/h4Ijk7RrGI pic.twitter.com/uM51UOBnUj
Italian fashion brand Prada announced Monday a monthly NFT giveaway titled Timecapsule. The luxury goods company also opened a new community server on Discord called “Prada Crypted.”
Prada’s first Timecapsule collection dropped in December 2019, and it will continue with a 24-hour limited edition item reveal on the first Thursday of every month starting on June 2, 2022.
On those days, NFT customers can acquire a one-off shirt designed in collaboration with artist Cassius Hirst, son of Damien Hirst. This collaboration follows the recent launch of the Cass x Prada’s Prada America’s Cup sneaker.
NFT owners can also gain access to VIP experiences as well as future drops. Prada Timecapsule NFTs are issued on the Ethereum blockchain and are powered by the Aura Blockchain Consortium, a members-only blockchain also backed by LVMH and Mercedes-Benz.
Warner Bros. Pictures biopic “Elvis” premiered last week at the Cannes Film Festival and with it a multi-metaverse Elvis on-chain NFT project.
Elvis Presley Enterprises and Web3 studio Run it Wild partnered with companies including The Sandbox, Decentraland, Voxel Architects, DAPPCRAFT and Metakey to create a meeting place for Elvis fans in the metaverse.
The NFT project will launch 1:1 Elvis Genesis Key NFTs, based on a 1968 special that marked Elvis’ stage comeback. In addition to access to a members-only Discord, physical and virtual galleries, NFT exhibitions and pop-ups, holders will also get to vote for never-before-seen releases from the Elvis vault.
We can’t wait to party with our Elvis avatars! https://t.co/lwpbXImOEk
Blockworks spoke to Rarible’s co-founder and chief strategy officer Alex Salnikov about the marketplace’s community and his views on talk of an NFT winter.
BW: How does the bear market affect the NFT market and the greater Web3 ecosystem?
Salnikov: Bear markets often present developers and start-ups with new opportunities for greater innovation. They are able to take a step back and assess what is truly needed to push the Web3 industry forward. During bear market times, maintaining a strong sense of community becomes extremely important to the success of NFT projects.
That’s why Rarible recently launched our own accelerator and grant program, AcceleRari. Through this campaign, we will host nine Twitter Space pitch sessions in which selected NFT start-ups will be able to pitch their idea to our Rarible Protocol team. Of those projects, five will be chosen to receive support and resources from the protocol team, including engineering and technical development support to marketing and business development guidance.
BW: What is the key to NFT projects and communities thriving in the long run?
Salnikov: With the explosive growth of the NFT industry over the last year, we’ve seen an extremely diverse range of NFT projects come to fruition, from PFP [profile pictures] to trading card or unlockable IRL [in real life] experience collections. In the long run, the NFT projects which continue to offer users a strong sense of utility or community engagement will thrive whereas collections which derive their value from price speculation or other projects’ popularity will begin to be weeded out.
BW: How is Rarible building a strong community and infrastructure to back NFT collections?
Salnikov: Rarible Protocol is focusing its efforts on supporting the launch of custom, community marketplaces for various innovative NFT collections. We view custom community marketplaces as the Apple Store of NFT marketplaces, compared to an Amazon-esque NFT experience. These platforms are tailored specifically to the NFT collection and can be customized to suit needs and interests of the collection’s community.
Additionally, community marketplaces are vital for the industry’s decentralized future. Right now, most NFT trading happens on just a few sites, which is not exactly in line with the Web3 ethos of decentralization. For example, Rarible Protocol collaborated with the Degenerate Ape Academy – one of the leading PFP projects on Solana – and the V1 CryptoPunks community marketplaces.
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