Dear Bankless Nation,

On the blockchain frontier, the unfettered free market reigns. Protocols rise and fall on their merits, financial backing, and the strength of the communities that support them. Numerous lending protocols exist, as well as numerous NFT marketplaces and platforms, and their viability for long term operation is predicated on their ability to remain relevant. As early adopters, we in the Bankless Community have front row seats to the spectacles that often arise as platforms and protocols build. And we’re watching one hell of a fight unfold between the current reigning NFT marketplace, OpenSea, and their serious competitor, Blur. Kouros provides an overview.

The Rug, web3’s mostly credible news source reports on Trump’s increasing desperation; Chippi unveils Senator Warren’s plans with regard to crypto; DustyEye is back with more from the Legion of 444; and nonsense provides the alpha on this week’s art drop.

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

Latest NFT Marketplaces developments

Blur Marketplace is an NFT marketplace that launched in October last year and has been gaining popularity. According to Decrypt, NFT sales approach 2B USD in March as Blur dominates the market. The company behind Blur raised 11M USD from investors. The team includes developers and creators with experience across MIT, Citadel, Five Rings Capital, Twitch, Brex, Square, and Y Combinator. 

OpenSea, in response to Blur’s rise, has launched a no-fee 'Pro' marketplace with NFT rewards. OpenSea Pro is a dynamic NFT marketplace aggregator that is designed to fulfill the needs of advanced NFT collectors. It is a rebranding of an existing product called Gem v2 that Opensea bought a year ago.

On the other hand, LooksRare V2 has launched with new features for all users. The reduced fees and new features will make NFT trading more accessible on the marketplace and allow it to compete with the pro trading features offered on Blur and OpenSea Pro. The LooksRare version 1 platform charged 2% per trade. This has been reduced to 0.5% in version 2. In addition, V2 has more gas-efficient contracts, allowing users to save approximately 30% on gas fees versus the previous version of the app.

The Rug Weekly

Trump Launches Second NFT Project to Raise Money for Bail

Brought to you by The Rug

Trump knows no bounds. Get out of jail NFT collection coming in hot.

“The art will feature different friends and allies of the former President as imagined by DALL-E 2 in response to a prompt delivered by Trump himself."

Collect this behind bars article as an NFT on optimism.

d’ART DROPS

Weekly art drops done in collaboration with up and coming NFT artists, for the Bankless community, presented by Decentralized Arts.

By nonsense

This week brings us the fourth and final installment of our collaboration with Dark World Arts: Lastly. The collapse of the old-world financial system lies in ruin. However, with ruin comes potential; a crypto pioneer pauses in a ruined landscape, ready to begin building the world anew. What lies ahead is the promise of a more transparent and equitable system, and the pioneer is ready to lead the way.

This piece will be made available during the BanklessDAO Community Call as part of the community NFT showcase. Head over to Rarible and add it to your favorites so you’re ready to collect it when it goes on sale. 70% of each sale will go to the artist, 5% will go to the DA and bDAO collaboration with ThriveCoin, 10% will be returned to BanklessDAO, and 15% will be retained by Decentralized Arts.

Chippi Corner

By Perchy

THE LEGION OF 444 – Part 11

The Devil in a Box

Dear BanklessDAO Readers,

After the Demon in the bottle with golden flakes, today we are experimenting with another type of container, a wooden container with a lid, hinges, and a hook for closing.

In other words, the utensil known for thousands of years by the name of BOX.

Throughout history, boxes have been used to collect the most unique objects. 

It is said, anecdotally, that Dorian Gray kept a second small portrait of him inside an equally small box.

The small portrait of Dorian Grey, unlike the larger one, has never suffered any moral decay. Perhaps precisely because of the intrinsic properties of the box.

In the case of Demon #012, a handful of ritual resin has been added to ensure safer containment. We will monitor the results and keep you updated.

…see you next week,

Dusty Eye

______________________

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

Meme

A small joke contributed by The Rug.

PostScript & Acknowledgements

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.

If you enjoy reading this newsletter, please share it with someone who you think will appreciate the content. We also welcome suggestions via our feedback form.

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

Cordially,

Grendel, Kouros, Kaf, nonsensetwice, and Frank America