Dear Bankless Nation,

What an incredible past couple of weeks in the wide world of web3! It appears that all eyes were watching the epic FTX meltdown. BanklessHQ had a strong write up about why the FTX fiasco is just more evidence to support moving away from centralized exchanges and custody options and moving to truly decentralized finance, where there isn’t an individual or a board scraping users’ tokens to over-leverage the funding of partner projects.

Yet while the FTX fire burned, web3 continued to grow, with greater adoption and innovation. Kouros reports on NFTs being utilized as proof of attendance and graduation by the National University of Mongolia. Not long ago, he reported on the international police organization INTERPOL developing their own metaverse for training and education. Now we’re seeing universities firing up their own metaverses to expand their reach and utility. Powerful.

Pedro gives us a quick run down of Spearmint, Alchemy’s latest feature in their ever-growing suite of web3 development tools. NFT creators now have access to improved tooling to better manage their communities, mints, and drops.

Kaf dives into the work of Refik Anadol who’s work integrates data from the world around him and utilizes AI to develop art that is nothing short of innovative.

Perchy drops another Chippi Corner, The Rug brings us the latest alternative headline that is “mostly credible,” and DustyEye announces the fiat they gathered from their chronojumps have all been distributed.  

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.

Curated NFT News

OpenSea to Enforce NFT Royalties After Creator Backlash

OpenSea revealed that it would continue to impose NFT royalties for their creators after the world’s biggest NFT marketplace, in terms of trade volume, received criticisms for its previous plan when the marketplace considered introducing optional royalties. The move came after multiple other NFT marketplaces either made creator royalties optional or outright rejected them.

The potential for the market’s largest NFT platform to stop enforcing royalties did not sit well with many prominent creators—including Bored Ape Yacht Club creator, Yuga Labs—who vocally pushed back against OpenSea and began organizing among themselves.

Your Diploma is an NFT: Mongolian Students Receive Honors on Polygon Chain

Polygon is planning to let students at the National University of Mongolia (NUM) receive their diplomas as Soulbound Tokens on-chain, the organization recently revealed.

“In a world where fake diplomas are problematic, it is commendable that NUM … along with the Ministry of Education & Science are connecting diplomas with blockchain,” Polygon tweeted.

By awarding its future graduates with a tokenized, Soulbound NFT diploma, the National University of Mongolia will lead a significant change in education through an amazing new initiative.

The proof of learning will be completely verifiable, unrecoverable, and permanently connected to the blockchain.

Polygon also announced that NUM launched a virtual headquarters on its chain dubbed Meta University in collaboration with Octagon Marketplace, an NFT Marketplace, and Guyuk Metaverse, a local web3 open-world project. Students, graduates, and staff can mint one of six different NUM NFTs depicting anthropomorphized birds of prey to use as an avatar in the virtual space.

Spearmint: The Automated Allowlist Platform

By Pedro

It seems like all major NFT projects have an allowlist for minting now, and for good reason: allowlists help prevent gas wars for collectors and traders, provide benefits for the project developers, and increase anticipation for the project’s mint.. 

Despite the utility afforded by an allowlist, building the actual allowlist mechanism takes time, which is why Alchemy just launched Spearmint, “the free and automated web3 allowlist platform.”

What Is Spearmint?

On November 3rd, Alchemy, one of the most popular web3 developer platforms, announced the launch of their new NFT tool, Spearmint. Spearmint is a free allowlist platform for both NFT creators and collectors. 

For creators, Spearmint takes away the hassle of having to build your own allowlist mechanism from the ground up, a process that can take several days. Rather than having to build everything from scratch, Spearmint provides the necessary infrastructure to build your own custom allowlist mechanism in as little as ten minutes, without having to write any code. 

Spearmint lets you pre-determine users based on wallet balance, Twitter activity, and more, ultimately enabling the creator to have more control in managing their community. Best of all, Alchemy’s infrastructure is battle-tested, having been used for projects like CryptoPunks and Decentral Games in the past. Spearmint will also offer an intuitive dashboard allowing creators to track sign-ups and attribute marketing efforts.

Of course, Spearmint can be used for more than just an allowlist. You can also leverage the platform for airdrops.

For collectors, Spearmint will provide an efficient way to discover upcoming projects with allowlists on the platform. With so many projects launching every single day, it’s hard to get ahead of everyone else and front-run allowlist spots, so having them all aggregated in one, simple-to-use platform will be huge. 

Closing Thoughts

NFTs have come a long way over the past year, though the space is still in its very early stages. Spearmint may potentially be widely used in the future. The fact that Spearmint was built by a proven, well-known web3 company is huge. Not only will we be able to leverage different tools within the overall Alchemy platform, we’ll also be able to leverage the different chains Alchemy is connected to, which includes Ethereum, Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum for allowlist creation.

NFT creators can now apply for early access to the Spearmint platform.

The Rug Weekly NFT

Apple Permits NFTs So Long As They Dont Do Shit

Brought to you by The Rug

Apple has opened its coveted app store to NFTs, and enthusiasts and digital collectors are stoked. There is only one small caveat and that is they can’t do shit. 

CMO, Derick Jenkins said, "We love NFTs. They're fun and collectible and we see them working in the mobile ecosystem... People just can't do shit with them. And we get thirty percent."

Collect this gated ethos as an NFT on optimism.

Refik Anadol

It's not “Human vs Machine”, it's “Human + Machine”

By Kaf

Data is the next language of humanity. Every machine, computer, phone, WiFi, Bluetooth system is all about data collection.

Artificial intelligence works by combining large amounts of data with fast, iterative processing and intelligent algorithms, allowing software to learn automatically. New technologies, and artificial intelligence in particular, are drastically changing the nature of creative processes such as music, architecture, fine art, and science.

All of this, combined with the development of NFTs, provides artists access to a completely new range of possibilities.

Refik Anadol, is an artist whose work combines innovation and artificial intelligence, in an investigation that has been going on for several years and has positioned him as one of the most outstanding digital artists in the world.

Who is Refik Anadol?

Refik Anadol (born 1985) is a Turkish-American media designer and artist. His projects consist of data-driven machine learning algorithms that create abstract, dreamlike environments.

Anadol received a Bachelor of Arts in Photography and Video, and a Master of Fine Arts from Bilgi University. After his studies in Turkey, he moved to the United States to attend the Design Media Arts program at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Turkish artist quickly gained attention in the art world due to his fresh and innovative approach by using digital data. Currently, Refik Anadol is considered one of the most important digital creators in the world.

Through his art, Anadol explores how the perception and experience of time and space are radically changing now that machines dominate our daily lives.

Refik Anadol Studio (RAS)

Since 2014, Refik Anadol Studio employs a unique team of leading computer scientists, software developers, architects, engineers and designers to bring the artist's vision to life.

The studio focuses on space, especially as it relates to the domains of artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and architecture.

A pioneer in its field and the first to use artificial intelligence in a public work of art, Anadol partnered with teams from Microsoft, Google, NVIDIA, JPL/NASA, Intel, IBM, Siemens, and Epson to apply the latest and most advanced science and technology to his work.

Anadol's site-specific audiovisual performances have been presented at iconic venues, museums and festivals around the world, including Walt Disney Concert Hall, Hammer Museum, International Digital Arts Biennial Montreal, Ars Electronica Festival, l'Usine | Geneva, Arc De Triomf, Zollverein | SANAA School of Design building, Santralistanbul Center for Contemporary Art, Outdoor Vision Festival, Istanbul Design Biennale, Sydney City Art and Lichtrouten, among many others.

Refik Anadol Studio takes the invisible data around us as the main material and the computerized mind as a collaborator, to create unique poetic experiences.

A new stage thanks to NFTs

Before the advent of NFTs, collectors could only look at Anadol art. Now they can own it. Anadol launched his first NFT in December 2020, which sold out in seconds.

Refik Anadol @refikanadol

Dear friends, yesterday my very first #nft drops @niftygateway sold out in just a second!!! Thank you to #Cryptoart community for your wonderful support! Very excited to see auction results!!!

niftygateway.comNifty Gateway

4:10 PM ∙ Dec 1, 2020

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59Likes4Retweets

Since then he has launched numerous collections with overwhelming success. His background as an artist quickly opened a gap for him among the most prominent artists in web3.

The most important utility of Anadol NFTs is the art itself. In addition,  they offer burn mechanics, a token for your next metaverse, and physical impressions. Another utility that RAS offers is that each NFT drop has different mechanics to receive physical impressions.

The team is working on their own metaverse called Dataland. A place that will integrate art, technology, science and nature. It will have its own token that will be key to engage with all the experiences that RAS develops.

The token will be airdropped after a snapshot is taken of collectors holding Anadol NFTs. When it will launch has not yet been disclosed.

For those who want to know more, the team does AMAs in Zoom periodically, with the goal of keeping the community informed. Attendees at these events are eligible to win giveaways.

The technological habits of the next generations will make it easier for them to use these web3 tools. This thought is shared by the most important galleries in the world. MoMa provides a strong example:

Refik Anadol @refikanadol

I’m deeply honored and excited to announce our exhibition — Unsupervised opening on the 19th of November at MoMA! It’s a dream of many artists to have the opportunity to imagine, practice and exhibit for such an important institution that supports the creativity of humanity!

3:48 PM ∙ Nov 4, 2022

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1,784Likes432Retweets

Final Thoughts

Millions of people are already learning how to make art with AI. As suggested earlier, it is no longer human vs. machine, but human + machine.

AI is a powerful tool that allows us to improve our creative capacity and expand the limits of our imagination.Botto, a "decentralized autonomous artist," is a great example of AI that generates art from the comments and opinions of the governing community.

According to Anadol, data is a type of memory, and this memory can have a wide variety of shapes, colors, and textures. The artist and his group intend to keep utilizing AI in the framework of web3 while increasing its use cases.

Needless to say, his passion for the future of space, and all the tools at his disposal to revolutionize and empower it, is contagious.

Chippi Corner

By Perchy

The End of Ukron Banknote Stock

UKRON currency becoming ultrasound money?

Great news for all UKRON currency holders: The DustyEye crates have dried up, in other words Dusty Eye has Ukrons in denominations of 50 and 100 in their possession.

It is a long-awaited moment since 2018, when the Dusty Eye group began their distribution. From today, anyone wishing to own a Ukron banknote will have to contact the network or any other channel, with the hope of finding a benefactor willing to give them to them.

If, on the other hand, you have a satisfactory quantity, we recommend that you visit the upcoming DustyEye store.

______________________

WEB: www.DustyEye.com
IG: @DustyEye_DE
TWITTER: @Dusty_Eye

Meme

A small joke contributed by The Rug.

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