Starbucks Loyalty Program / NFT Beta Test — Starbucks launches loyalty program beta test in partnership with Polygon, with NFTs are now available for early participants. The company also announced it will be launching a marketplace in 2023 powered by Nifty Gateway — more
Alchemy / App Store — Alchemy, a web3 developer platform, announced a new marketplace that aims to make decentralized applications more accessible for users and developers. The product will not be monetized in an effort to build trust among developers and blockchain-curious users — more
Polygon / Warner Music Group Partnership — Polygon teams up with Warner Music Group to launch e-commerce platform LGND and begin a multi-year web3 music program that enables users to play digital vinyl records — more
Ethereum / Shanghai Update — “Ethereum’s core developers determined on a call Thursday that a network upgrade permitting users to withdraw staked ETH could launch as early as March of next year.” — more
Ledger / New Hardware Wallet — Crypto wallet maker Ledger partnered with Tony Fadel, the creator of Apple’s iPod and co-creator of the iPhone, to design + build Ledger’s new hardware wallet called Stax — more
ConsenSys / User Data Clarifications — In efforts to clarify previous announcements, the blockchain tech company Consensys stated plans to only store and retain user wallet data and IP addresses for up to seven days — more
Sam Bankman-Fried / Congressional Committee — The former FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, said he’s willing to testify before the House Committee on Financial Services in Washington, D.C. on December 13th — more
Goldman Sachs / Crypto Investments — Goldman Sachs says it plans to spend “tens of millions of dollars” to buy or invest in crypto firms whose valuations dropped due to the implosion of FTX in recent weeks — more
Silvergate / Investor Reassurance — Silvergate, a federal reserve member bank, sought to reassure investors that the bank’s assets are safe after a class action lawsuit was filed stating the bank was complicit in the movement of customer assets between two of its clients, FTX and Alameda — more
Immutable X / MoonPay Partnership — ImmutableX and MoonPay announced a partnership and launched an “NFT Checkout” feature that enables users to mint and own an asset using a credit or debit card — more
Shibuya / $6.9M Raised — Shibuya, an NFT-based decentralized video platform, raises $6.9M seed round co-led by a16z and Variant, with participation from Joe Tsai, GMJP, Kevin Durant and Paris Hilton — more
Perennial / $12M Raised — Perennial, a DeFi derivatives protocol, raises seed round co-led by Polychain and Variant, with participation from Archetype, Coinbase Ventures, Scalar Capital, Robot Ventures and others — more
The Mirror / $2.3M Raised — The Mirror, a game development platform that aims to streamline the creation of 3D multiplayer games set in virtual worlds, raises pre-seed round led by Founders Fund — more
Earn Alliance / $4.75M Raised — Earn Alliance, a gaming community platform, raises seed round co-led by CoinFund and Fabric Ventures with participation from Blockchain Coinvestors, Animoca Brands, Stake Capital, and Athena Ventures, amongst others — more
Panoptic / $4.5M Raised — Panoptic, a protocol for perpetual options trading based on Uniswap's AMM, raises seed round led by Gumi Cryptos Capital, with participation from Uniswap Labs Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Jane Street, Avalanche Foundation's Blizzard fund, and others — more
Metagood / $5M Raised — Metagood, a for-profit social impact NFT startup, raises pre-seed round backed by Animoca Brands, Morgan Creek Capital founder and CEO Mark Yusko, Virgin Group investment manager Freddie Andrewes, and others — more
AI Mediocrity / Terry Nguyen x Dirt (🤝) — “There always seems to be an undercurrent of anxiety that accompanies the debut of a new AI tool, particularly one that is as “skilled” as ChatGPT. There are often two loosely related recurring points of contention when it comes to AI technology: Its effects on the market for creative labor and its philosophical, ethical, and/or cultural implications.” — more
Crypto x AI / Denis Nazarov — “Commoditization of creativity elevates creators. If producing creative work becomes democratized via LLMs, where the effort between idea and high quality final output is drastically reduced, who produces the work becomes a lot more important. The creator’s celebrity, influence, world-building, and interaction with the rest of the ecosystem becomes much more important.” — more
Open neural networks: the intersection of AI and web3 / Rishin Sharma & Jake Brukhman — “… many critical use cases for web3 will be enhanced by the adoption of AI technologies. From generative art NFTs to metaversal landscapes, AI will find many use cases in web3. Open source AI fits within the open, decentralized, and democratized ethos of web3 and represents an alternative to the AI provided by Big Tech, which is not likely to become open any time soon.” — more
Building A Virtual Machine inside ChatGPT / Jonas Degrave — “Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard of this new ChatGPT assistant made by OpenAI… It is an amazing resource for people to retrieve all kinds of information and solve tedious tasks, like copy-writing! Did you know, that you can run a whole virtual machine inside of ChatGPT?” — more
Sign Everything / Fred Wilson — “I am certain that an AI can produce a podcast or video of me saying something I did not say and would not say. I haven’t seen it yet, but it is inevitable. So what do we do about this world we are living in where content can be created by machines and ascribed to us? I think we will need to sign everything to signify its validity. When I say sign, I am thinking cryptographically signed, like you sign a transaction in your web3 wallet.” — more
What in the Ethereum application ecosystem excites me / Vitalik Buterin — “My excitement about Ethereum is now no longer based in the potential for undiscovered unknowns, but rather in a few specific categories of applications that are proving themselves already, and are only getting stronger. What are these applications, and which applications am I no longer optimistic about? That is what this post will be about.” — more
High Frequency Issue #14: Editor’s Note: The Spirit of Web3 / Wallace Morgan x Noise DAO (🤝) — “Walking into the Peppermint Club in LA on a Wednesday night for Sound Lounge Live, I don’t know what to expect. I’ve spent the past decade following the music and chasing the buzz, and have been to more shows, showcases, and industry events than I can count. But tonight is different. This is my first web3 music event. Months of online interactions and interviews, I’ve yet to be face-to-face with anyone in this room. Countless conversations around the culture of web3 and its community, I’m finally IRL to see for myself. What am I hoping to find? The next wave.” — more
The Artist/CEO Generating $1.4B – and Growing – in Generative Art Sales / Sam Ewen — “On Erick Calderon’s LinkedIn page, he is still listed as the president of La Nova Tile Importers, a “family owned and operated porcelain and ceramic tile and slab importer.” In many ways Calderon is still in the business of tiles, but these days the expression of creativity is code, not clay, and the designs are not in kitchens or offices but in crypto wallets and hanging in virtual galleries in the metaverse.” — more
Seed Club (🤝) / Fifth Demo Day — Seed Club announces their upcoming Demo Day for the fifth accelerator cohort, taking place on December 16th at 10am PT. The event will feature leaders from the current cohort who are building thoughtful projects at the intersection of web3 and community — more
Rainbow (🤝) / Bridging + Cross-chain Swaps — Rainbow wallet announces a new unified experience for bridging assets and cross-chain swaps. Users can now move assets across Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon, and Arbitrum — more
Sound.[xyz] (🤝) / Officially Turns One — In the first year, Soundxyz onboarded 240 artists, dropped 709 tracks, reached 6,200 collectors, minted and 33,771 NFTs, and paid $4M to artists. In celebration, they’ve airdropped State of Sound Vol. 1 to all Sound collectors, which includes 55 songs submitted by artists — more
Mathcastles / Zero Knowledge Artwork — Mathcastles deployed a new work called ZERO, which uses Zero Knowledge SNARKS to create a system for drawing that can be proven to exist, but can never be known. Thirteen “Protoform” pieces will be released soon and ten will be available for sale — more
Mona (🤝) / Avatar Marketplace — 3D world-building platform, Mona, announce the launch of unique and interoperable avatar collectibles on the Mona Marketplace. The initial drop features seven initial launch partners, but any creator can upload their custom VRM Avatar on the marketplace to mint, sell, or use in a Mona space — more
Axelar (🤝) / Arbitrum Transfers Live — Secure cross-chain communication layer, Axelar Network, announced that users can now transfer assets from any connected chain to Arbitrum — more
Variant Fund / Nouns Acquisitions — Variant, an early-stage web3 fund, announced they’ve “purchased a number of Nouns”. The Nouns project is an experimental attempt to improve the formation of on-chain avatar communities. Variant stated they were brought to Nouns because they “think it’s one of the most actively engaged, creative communities in all of web3.” — more
RTFKT x Nike / "Cryptokicks IRL” — RTFKT, a subsidiary of Nike, launched the first web3 physical sneaker that will later enable a move-to-earn mode where users get rewarded for certain physical activity. The release is limited to 19,000 pairs and the prices range from $450-$1333 — more
Steve Pikelny / Art Blocks (🤝): Pointers — “A simulation of me sketching 100 variations of the same idea. My focus and attention to detail wane with each successive drawing as boredom, frustration, and feelings of inevitability begin to sink in. By the end I find myself repeatedly asking: What's the point of it all?” 100 pieces, minting 12/9 at 10:30am PT — more
Alma Deutscher / Async Art (🤝): Alma's Digital Collectibles — “Alma Deutscher, the 17 years-old prodigy composer, conductor, pianist and violinist, debuts on Async with Ekaterina Lestienne as her visual artist to create a digital set of collectibles featuring her unreleased concert tour. There are 4 legendary mints within the 444 possible mints, legendary holders gets 2 free tixs to her upcoming shows, personalized CD, full ownership of songs, and access to her unreleased music.” Minting live — more
Junia Farquhar / Art Blocks (🤝): Dipolar — “The vein running through my work, linking each piece to the next and to me as an artist, is the opposition between physical rationalism (the idea that physics seeks to reveal the true nature of reality) and empiricism (the idea that physics seeks to identify the behaviour of the world through experiment). Empiricism describes the world, while rationalism explains it. This conflict has been at the core of me throughout my studies, and I explore the idea further in this project.” 256 pieces, minting Dec. 14th, 10:00am PT — more
Erick Calderon / On the Creator + Platform Royalty Debate
Art Blocks (🤝) / On Royalties
OpenSea / Creator Ownership Research Institute
DCinvestor / Takeaway on AB
RabbitHole (🤝) / Quests V2 👀
Blur / Airdrop #2 Goes Live
Jesse Lyu / GAMA (🤝) x OpenAI 👀
iyk / Art Basel Recap
Hume (🤝) / Angelbaby x Clio x RTFKT: Episode 1
SuperMassive / Fraz Cola Brand Ambassador
punk6529 / MYTY (🤝) Summer Glasses
Refik Anadol / In an AI World
🤝 = Collab+Currency Portfolio Company
Curated by @Collab_Currency x @_cutbank
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