NFT

If you abstract it, they will come

Late last month, NFT startup Bitski held a “hybrid” exhibition at a gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn. In this very 2021 event, the displayed artworks were physical replicas of NFTs also listed online. And the show was titled “metaphysical,” a play on the “metaverse” term that’s been cropping up everywhere.

The NFT market cooled off in May, with the average price of on-chain JPEGs falling off a cliff (down ~90%). But the tides changed again last week, as OpenSea saw record NFT trading volume, driven by popular projects both new (Bored Ape Yacht Club) and old (CryptoPunks). Startups ranging from marketplaces to virtual horse racers are raking in record levels of investment. 

When it comes to NFT use cases, adoption, and functionality, “We are very early,” Bitski CEO Donnie Dinch told us. 

The company’s bread and butter

Bitski makes digital-wallets-as-a-service and creates blockchain tools for other developers. Dinch said his company is currently focused on developing its “Shopify-like experience” that lets creators mint and sell NFTs through their own storefront. 

The North Star = user-friendly services that increase NFT adoption and abstract away the complexity of the back-end blockchain work, Dinch said. The abstraction idea is increasingly common among big names in the NFT world. 

To sum it up: Onboarding normies into new technology requires services that are easy to navigate. You can use a credit card or bank account to purchase cryptocurrencies on Coinbase, or NFTs through Bitski’s white-labeled e-commerce stores. 

• It’s not just Bitski that wants to be the Shopify of NFTs. Shopify, too, wants to be this, and it recently allowed its merchants to sell NFTs through their storefronts. 

The next wave

Bitski’s goal is to “build out what our version of the metaverse is,” Dinch said, which is not one walled garden but “a constellation of places where you spend time.” 

“NFTs are the atomic unit of that, and what I would consider the ownership layer of the internet,” he added. Maybe so, but the atomic units are still very limited in scope, and visionaries need to figure out the quarks. 

• Digital art is an easier way to conceptualize NFTs, but the concept is still hard to grasp. Dinch said the Bushwick exhibition was designed to help traditional artists “build a mental model of what it means to sell digital goods.” 
• Another NFT use case that may come to the fore sooner than we think, Dinch said, is virtual goods within video games (e.g., clothing for an avatar) that evolve with a player’s progression. 

Big picture: *sighs* The metaverse is being built—or at least, imagined—by everyone from decentralization-focused, picks-and-shovels players (like Bitski) to more traditional, centralized corporations.—RD

AI

Thomas (AI)dison

Edison. Tesla. Da Vinci. The greatest inventors in history were all human, but what if the next one isnt?

An Australian federal court recently ruled that artificial intelligence (AI) can be recognized as an inventor, fully capable of creation. It can't own its invention—that designation goes to the AI's creator—but it can be listed as an inventor. 

The AI system at the center of the Australian ruling is called device for the autonomous bootstrapping of unified sentience (DABUS). DABUS was created by Dr. Stephen Thaler, and is capable of creating its own inventions autonomously— its credits already include an adjustable food container and an emergency signal beacon. 

• DABUS is made up of a host of neural networks that work in concert to come up with inventions and ideas. 
• Patents for its inventions have been filed in the US, Japan, South Africa, India, and Israel. South Africa approved the patent application, but the chances of approval in other countries are slim.

Elsewhere...the US Patent and Trademark Office ruled that patents can’t be given to AI, insisting the credit for an invention can only be given to “natural persons,” and the European Union recognizes AI only as a “tool” for human invention, not an inventor in its own right.—JM

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QUANTUM COMPUTING

Like Waterford, but for time

Here’s some news straight out of the next season of Loki. …Physicists have reportedly used Google’s quantum computer to create the first-ever “time crystal.” 

It’s an entirely new phase of matter—in other words, a new sibling to liquid, solid, gas, and plasma—and researchers have tried and failed to create it for over five years. Time crystals occur when an object’s parts “move in a regular, repeating cycle, sustaining this constant change without burning any energy,” Quanta Magazine reports. 

• Water and ice, for example, have attributes that don’t change over time, but a time crystal is both in stable condition and constantly changing. (Kind of like Schrödinger's kitty cat.) 

Why this is big: This could be the “greatest scientific achievement of our lifetimes,” reports TNW—and a key to the quantum computing puzzle. Quantum qubits tend to act differently when observed than when left alone, which makes quantum computer outputs difficult to read. A time crystal could be the cipher we’ve all been waiting for.  

Looking ahead: If everything checks out under peer review, then time crystals could make quantum computing breakthroughs a reality much sooner than anyone anticipated. Think drug discovery for cancer treatment, advances in cybersecurity, and more.—HF

BITS & BYTES

Stat: Hundreds of predictive AI tools were built to help health workers manage and treat Covid-19 patients, but the tools ultimately were of little to no help. 

Quote: “We're charged to...develop a roadmap that characterizes, ‘How might we potentially get to a national AI research resource...then also, how might we sustain it?’”—Erwin Gianchandani, co-chair of the National AI Research Resource task force, in an Emerging Tech Brew interview 

Read: The WSJ offers a look “inside the 2018 scramble to avoid the collapse of Tesla.” 

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WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• NASA denied Blue Origin’s request to get in on the moon lander action, upholding its deal with SpaceX. 
• Argo AI, the AV startup backed by VW and Ford, got the green light to offer free rides on California streets (with a human safety operator). 
• Facebook open-sourced Droidlet, its robotics development platform. 
• Rivian may be in talks with the UK to build its first international EV factory. 
• Activision Blizzard, the video game maker, has new accusations from employees following a July 20 lawsuit filed by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing. 

THREE THINGS WE’RE WATCHING

Monday: NXP Semiconductors earnings. The Dutch company is generally accepted as one of the world’s 10 biggest chipmakers, so amid the global chip shortage, lots of eyes (and ears) will be on its earnings report and call. On average, analysts expect revenue growth of ~23% year over year. 

Thursday: Cloudflare earnings. In the last two weeks, the SF-based web infrastructure company has been busy courting government agencies’ cybersecurity budgets; slamming its rival Amazon about cloud computing prices; and announcing Project Pangea, its plan for boosting internet access worldwide.

All week: It’s a video game company earnings bonanza—including EA, Sony, Nintendo, and the embattled Activision Blizzard. 

TECH THROWBACK

On July 31, 1971—almost exactly 50 years ago—people drove on the moon for the first time. It was the Lunar Roving Vehicle’s first time living up to its name, and astronauts Dave Scott and Jim Irwin took it for a monumental joyride. 

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions: 

• How mixed reality could transform the travel industry in unexpected ways
• What’s on tap for the National AI Research Resource Task Force
• Survey: US consumers prefer AR/VR hardware from Apple and Google

✳︎ A Note From eToro

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