Dear Bankless Nation,

This may be it! This week may be when The Merge finally takes place! The crypto world is always adapting and improving. In this edition, we talk about how well-known organizations are embracing Web3 to adjust their business models and improve user experiences. 

In the news we feature Renault, the French automaker, and its plans of establishing the brand in the metaverse. We continue talking about what other car makers are doing to adopt blockchain technology and the metaverse.  

Moving on to sports, global football association FIFA is launching an NFT marketplace to coincide with the 2022 World Cup and will feature NFTs of memorable moments from the history of the competition.

Kaf tells us about Time Magazine, its transition into Web3, and how they are incorporating NFTs and crypto culture to improve customer experiences and raise funds.

Elsewhere, we take a look at the NFT card game Skyweaver, and bring you the latest from The Rug.   

Finally, we bring you another installment of the Future Bazar by Dusty Eye with a new piece from the future. 

Welcome to Decentralized Arts.

Contributors: BanklessDAO Writers Guild (Grendel, Kouros, Kaf, nonsensetwice, Frank America)

This is the official NFT newsletter of BanklessDAO. If you were a Premium Member of the Bankless Newsletter as of May 1st, 2021, you have been subscribed to this newsletter at launch. To unsubscribe, edit your settings here. Not subscribed?

Curated NFT News

Renault To Enter The Metaverse

The Korean subsidiary of Renault, the French automaker founded in 1898 in Paris, is setting up a partnership with The Sandbox to establish the Renault brand in the metaverse and to present Renault-based virtual automotive experiences to customers.

According to Cindy Lee, CEO of The Sandbox Korea, the partnership will focus on providing "new kinds of experiences that combine automobiles and digital assets in The Sandbox." According to the statement released, the agreement also includes digital marketing partnerships for Renault Korea.

These automotive experiences aim to enrich The Sandbox platform and allow Renault to reach a more ample audience, expanding the potential customer base of their products.

Renault is not the first car maker embracing Web3. In fact, back in April, Volkswagen organized an advertising campaign called “Game On,” in which users had to hunt NFTs in the metaverse.

Meanwhile, Nissan has used the metaverse to assist in the launch of one of its latest electric cars, the Sakura. The company set up a virtual world in which potential customers could drive the car, examining its characteristics and its forms.

Also, Hyundai announced in May that they will provide future mobility experiences in its virtual Hyundai Motorstudio on the ZEPETO metaverse platform.

In addition to this, according to US intellectual property lawyer Mike Kondoudis, Ford has filed 19 trademarks applications for virtual cars, trucks, vans, clothing and online stores for NFTs.

FIFA to launch Algorand-powered NFT platform

Coinciding with the celebration of the 2022 FIFA World Cup later this year, global football association FIFA is launching its very own NFT platform: FIFA+ Collect. This marketplace is being made in partnership with Algorand. The digital collectibles will present memorable moments from football matches, and feature iconic art and imagery from the FIFA World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup tournaments. “This exciting announcement makes FIFA collectibles available to any football fan, democratizing the ability to own a part of the FIFA World Cup,” commented FIFA Chief Business Officer Romy Gai.

In the press release, FIFA announced the platform will launch later this month and will initially be available in three languages—English, French, and Spanish, with more to come—across web and mobile devices.

TIME NFTs 

By Kaf

The Internet has been the backbone of our innovation and growth for more than two decades. We´re currently in a stage of change. The web is moving towards decentralization. Large companies and major industry players have focused their efforts on transitioning to Web3. Nobody is saved.

TIME is one of these major industry players that is betting on this change. About to turn 100 years since they launched their first publication (1923), they´ve decided to join the future of the Internet.

First steps in Web3

In March 2021, the famous magazine decided to launch its first three NFTs: an exclusive series of three incredibly prescient TIME covers, including the first ever cover designed exclusively as NFT, “Is Fiat Dead?”

These NFTs were inspired by some of the most iconic covers in their history. “Is God Dead?” was a cover released in 1966. More than half a century later, in 2017, they released “Is Truth Dead?” in response to Donald Trump. TIME magazine now launches a cover stating a controversial question, again.

In an editorial for Yahoo Sports, TIME wrote the “word ‘fiat’ is not as commonly used word [sic] in American culture as God and Truth, but it certainly affects every global citizen. Fiat money is government-issued currency that is not backed by a physical commodity, such as gold or silver, but rather by the government that issued it.” Creative Director D.W. Pine went on to say, "I love the idea that it’s meaning isn’t clear to the casual viewer – much like the crazy, lucrative world of NFTs.”

These NFTs were released on SuperRare. Between the three works, TIME raised 241 ETH.

Collaboration with Cool Cats

In August 2021, TIME partnered with one of the most successful NFT collections, Cool Cats. Cool Cats is a profile picture (pfp) collection of 9999 NFTs and is considered by experts to be one of the “Blue Chips.”

The collection features cover art from the four founders of Cool Cats and TIME. It includes a total of 400 works.

TIMEPieces

TIMEPieces is an NFT community initiative that includes four collections to date:

• Genesis: entitled “Building a better future.” The release includes limited editions created from 37 unique artworks by 40 traditional and digital artists, totaling 4,676 NFTs.

• Long Neckie Women of the Year: Long Neckie Women of the Year (LNWOTY) was TIMEPieces' first artist-in-residence collection, from 12-year-old digital artist Nyla Hayes. LNWOTY was inspired by TIME's Woman of the Year franchise.

• Slices of TIME: “Slices of TIME features nearly 4,000 TIME covers from the past century. Every year since Henry Luce and Britton Hadden founded TIME in 1923 is represented in 99 original artworks, produced by TIME Creative Director D.W. Pine.”. Each piece includes "snippets" of TIME covers from that year.

• Beatclub Collection: Timbaland, the GRAMMY Award-winning producer and entrepreneur, is the second artist-in-residence for TIMEPieces. TIMEPieces and Timbaland enlisted 14 amazing and diverse artists to create artistic NFT videos incorporating a unique Timbaland beat.

Owners of TIMEPieces will be able to connect their digital wallets to the website to receive unlimited access until TIME's 100th anniversary in 2023. Other benefits offered by NFTs include exclusive invitations to in-person events and access to special digital experiences.

First complete edition of a magazine as an NFT

On March 18, TIME announced the launch of the first complete edition of the magazine in NFT format. Vitalik Buterin appears on the cover, the man who is on everyone's lips following the announcement of The Merge.

After the success of its previous collections, TIME is taking another step in its transition to Web3.

In a press release, TIME President Keith A. Grossman outlined the importance of the move and its value to members of the TIMEPieces community, saying, “as TIME continues to push the boundaries of what is possible within the web3 ecosystem, producing the first full magazine on the blockchain seemed like a natural extension for our brand, and we knew this issue, in particular, would be appreciated by our community.”

The future of magazines is on-chain

Since 1923, TIME covers have been reproduced millions of times in different formats: shown on television, in print, and re-imagined by artists in the frame.. Being able to own them now on the blockchain is the next level.

Since beginning to design its first NFT covers, in addition to earning over $10 million, TIME has built a community of over 25,000 NFT artists, collectors, and enthusiasts. TIME has been the pioneering medium for subscriptions in NFT format.

Many historical magazines have wanted to join this revolution and have already launched their NFTs collections, including Rolling stone, New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, andPlayboy, among others.

Print formats have been in decline for a long time, while digital editions have reached a larger readership. With the arrival of NFTs, digital property acquires new perspectives and a world of possibilities opens up.

The Latest From The Rug

“So imagine that the old Ethereum is this congested highway and the new Ethereum is this other highway that’s also going to the same place, and then when The Merge happens it’s like… wait, hang on, let me start over.”

So begins the newest edition from crypto’s mostly credible news source. You can dive into the rest of it here.

Skyweaver 

By Pedro

Growing up, I was always a fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh card game.

Although there are several awesome NFT card games in the market today, like Gods Unchained & Splinterlands, Skyweaver is the game that most closely resembles the user-friendliness & familiarity I was used to seeing in Yu-Gi-Oh. 

Skyweaver just launched their open beta earlier this year, and so far they have managed to reach over 4M in USDC volume, over 4.8M ranked matches, with over 400K accounts created.

What is Skyweaver 

Skyweaver is a blockchain-based NFT trading card game that was developed by Horizon Blockchain Games–a Web3 wallet, infrastructure, and gaming company.

Development for this game started four years ago and involved a number of high-level investors, including Coinbase & Polychain.

It wasn’t until the game’s soft launch in November 2021, that the game started opening up to people in the community. Then in February 2022, the game finally launched an open beta, where anyone was able to start playing the game. 

How it works 

After creating an account and obtaining your wallet, you are given a free deck of cards–as NFTs–to begin playing. There are two different game modes you can play: Ranked, and Conquests.

The type of game mode you decide to play determines the rewards you’re able to win:

• Base Card NFTs: free & non-tradeable; acquired by leveling up

• Silver Card NFTs: tradable; given to the top-ranked players each week

• Gold Card NFTs: tradable & worth the most; only acquired through conquest mode 

Heroes & Prisms

Each deck is composed of two types of cards:

• Unit Cards: your allies in battle (attack & defend)

• Spell Cards: immediate, one-use effects on other cards

The types of unit/spell cards you can use depend on your hero NFT, which every deck has. There are 15 different heroes to choose from, each representing a certain prism, or combination of prisms, of which there are five: wisdom, intellect, agility, strength, and heart.

Marketplace

Players can purchase cards using Skyweaver’s built-in marketplace, which is powered by Horizon’s in-house developed Niftyswap protocol, an NFT Automated Market Maker (AMM). 

The cool thing about this marketplace is that because of this AMM, card prices are set automatically, based on a fair & transparent formula. 

Roadmap

Since releasing the open beta earlier this year, the Horizon team has been hard at work, developing more and more features over time. You can check out their 2022 development roadmap, to see what’s coming this year.

Future Bazar

Rarities from the Coming Centuries

By Dusty Eye

The DustyEye group owns a Time Machine. With a series of chronojumps to one of the many possible futures, they have collected many artifacts and memorabilia.

!!!!ATTENTION!!!!We only accept payments in Ukron.

#13 - THE FUEL CAP

Like many cars, android N°44's teleportation vehicle requires fuel to ignite and shift. 

The tank cap has a circular shape and is dyed in fire red enamel, so that in the darkness of the most remote sidereal spaces it is not difficult to trace it.

MATERIALS: stone, metal

SIZE: 10x12x10 CM (base included)

YEAR: 2352-2374

VALUE: 800 Ukron

______________________

WEB: www.DustyEye.comIG: @DustyEye_DETWITTER: @Dusty_Eye

Decentralized Arts is written and produced by a small team of contributors who are passionate about art, both visual and written, and its growing place in crypto and NFTs. With each edition, we aim to bring you not only the most current and relevant news in the NFT space, but also explorations in what it means for our culture and societies for this market to continue to grow and expand. When everyone is an owner of art, we all gain a deeper appreciation for it.

With great appreciation for you, we thank you for reading and subscribing to Decentralized Arts.

Cordially,

Grendel, Kouros, Kaf, nonsensetwice, and Frank America