Changing the Game
Unity x MetaMask. Starbucks Levels Up. And the AI-pocalypse.
šš½ Hello everyone, gm gm, WELCOME BACK to another edition of the Overpriced JPEGs newsletter, where weāre catching you up on the world of web3, NFTs, and the metaverse.Ā
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š¹ Itās Game On!
After Fortnite gaming phenom Mongraal sold the infamous Golden Key for 2x his 4-year career earnings, pressure mounted that his win would singlehandedly open the web3 floodgates to gamers. Well, he can breathe a sigh of relief because the reinforcements are here.
Unity, a cross-platform game engine with a user base of 2.7 billion, is bringing web3 gaming to the masses with new support for decentralized assets š¤Æ
13 web3 coās were added as Unityās āVerified Solutions Providers,ā including Immutable X, Solana, and Aptos Labs - But the inclusion of MetaMask is the biggest unlock here.Ā
MetaMask support makes it significantly easier for devs to integrate crypto and NFTs into games and expands the potential user base far beyond the confines of web3
Unity expects the gaming industry to grow more than $300 bil over the next 5 years andĀ wants to stay ahead of top competitors Unreal Engine and Electronic Arts (whose founder, Trip Hawkins, just started a blockchain gaming business of his own)
āYou can look at the rise of Unity-based gaming over the past two decades to guesstimate that if NFT games really do break through into the mainstream in the coming years, MetaMaskās arrival in the Unity Asset Store will undoubtedly prove to have been a pivotal early catalyst in that direction.ā - William M. Peaster, Bankless
šŖ¦ Tracking the AI Apocalypse
In case you donāt have time (or the emotional fortitude) to watch folks tell us over and over again that AI is going to discriminate against us, steal our jobs, or just outright be the end of humanity as we know it - donāt worry, weāve got you covered. Hereās a roundup of this weekās most intriguing developments in AI:Ā
Elon and Zuck are once again in lock step, this time jumping on the AI bandwagon by recruiting teams to build ChatGPT rivals for what we can only assume are very altruistic reasons
Snapchat released āMy AIā to paid subscribers; a fast, āsafety-restrictedā in-app version of ChatGPT thatās designed to be more of a friend than a search bar
Global consulting firm Bain forged a massive partnership w/OpenAI and weād expect to see big implications as they push for AI integration with their clients
Coca-Cola was Bainās first client to sign a deal with DALL-E and ChatGPT, hinting at āmarketing, sales, and human resourcesā implementations (read: lots of lost jobs)
Corridor Digital dropped a pretty incredible anime vid made entirely with AI and included an instructional companion vid detailing their process
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āļø Starbucks has More Brewing
Donāt look now, but wall street suits seem to be warming up to web3 š, with Bank of America analysts crediting Starbucks for its āholisticā approach and transformational on-chain loyalty programĀ
Starbucks Odyssey kicked off its beta in December and itās clear theyāre leveraging their rewards program to build a lifestyle brand for an audience of coffeeholics eager for product and experiential benefits. And itās working:
The programās already seen $148k in total volume, the bulk of it generated from secondary sales of a free, limited edition holiday stamp earned by the very earliest adopters
Starbucks execs acknowledged heightened consumer engagement on the last earnings call, and CEO Howard Schultz hinted at a ātransformative new category,ā which some think refers to the Alchemy Web3 development platform
Next on deck for the worldās most ubiquitous coffee shop? The introduction of paid stamps next week (up until now you could only earn) and profile Avatars
Visa reaffirmed its commitment to crypto after it was reported, alongside Mastercard, to be delaying the launch of their crypto partnerships amid increased regulatory scrutiny
A judge ruled that the use of these emojis ā> š + š° + š legally translates to the expectation of financial return.āš on the other hand, is still fair game
Ten prominent Japanese companies are collaborating to build the āJapan Metaverse Economic ZoneāĀ
Ethereum testnet token āGoerli ETHā inadvertently monetized, some hoarders cash out while devs are concerned
Owner of mysterious crypto wallet worth $400 million either lost their keys or is just the worldās greatest HODLāer
Robinhood said it was issued a subpoena for info about crypto listings, custody, and platform operations shortly after FTX filed for bankruptcy
š web3 + NFTs
Yuga introduced TwelveFold, a limited collection of 300 generative inscribed ordinals, and Garga revealed 10kTF co-founder Figge to be the artist
Doodles says everything in their Genesis Boxes will be rare, but are they tho?
One of Vincent Van Doughās āNotable Pepesā was delisted on OpenSea after a DMCA notice was received; Floor Price was hovering around 4.5 ETH prior to takedown
Polygon President Ryan Watt shared ā5 Lessons from My First Year Working in Web3ā in Rolling Stone
The Block published an alarming exposĆ© on CEOās Roham Gharagozlouās extravagant lifestyle that resulted in a toxic work environment according to the 11 employees interviewed for the piece
š Brands + Biz
GQ Magazineās first NFT collection includes access to a merchandise, live events, and naturally - a subscriptionĀ
Physical relics recovered from the sunken RMS Titanic will soon see new life as NFTs
Adidas exploring token-gated sneaker drops; cites bot prevention as a possible benefit
āThere are interesting payments in Apecoin and some of the other coins that are coming out that could be even more surprising if Adidas was going to maybe gate exclusive drops for specific communities and specific currencies. I think that's something that might be more compelling to us."
A number of C-Suite execs are making the move from big tech to the world of web3
š¤ AI + Metaverse
Last week we featured YouTubeās web3-friendly CEO, Neal Mohan. This week he announced theyāre developing generative AI tools for content creators.
Hologram brings your PFP to life via webcam so you can create content as your NFT
Startup Wist Labs builds Black Mirror-esque VR tech that allows you to āreplayā your memories in the exact location that they happened. IKRĀ
Neil Stephenson famously coined the term āmetaverseā in his novel Snow Crash and now, a combination of digital and physical items related to the book (including the original manuscript) are being auctioned by Sothebyās.
Carly and Hollywood veteran Jon Rogers debut Blockbuster, a new recurring deep dive into the world where entertainment meets the blockchain. In this inaugural episode, Jon tells us his thesis on NFTs and entertainment, how brands can best leverage IP licensing, and his perspectives on how some of the big studios are approaching web3.Ā
Gavin Purcell has joined the Overpriced JPEGs team and heās back for another lively weekly recap. Theyāve got takes on Spotify, Amazon, and YouTubeās web3 integrations; the new Coinbase Layer 2; and the continuing marketplace wars.Ā
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