Google Eyes a Grammy 👀

AI Music. Gamers do Dookey. And an NFT-backed Film Wins a Sundance Award.

👋🏽 Hello everyone, gm gm, WELCOME BACK to another edition of the Overpriced JPEGs newsletter, where we’re catching you up on the world of web3, NFTs, and the metaverse. 

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🥊 Marketplace Wars Round 12: OpenSea v. Blur

• Blur discovered and is exploiting a loophole to bypass OpenSea’s ‘blocklist control,’ which bans marketplaces that don’t respect creator royalties

• Built on OS’s very own Seaport protocol, Blur created two systems to execute trades behind the scenes on its marketplace

• While Blur is enforcing royalties via the loophole, it technically doesn’t need to - and OS isn’t getting its 2.5% marketplace fees on these Tx’s

• The exploit is likely music to traders’ ears, but the jury’s still out on whether Blur can maintain market share after farmer incentives disappear when $BLUR finally drops later this month

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🎮 Pro Gamers Dash Towards Dookey

• Amidst speculation that Sewer Pass holders have been paying Pro Gamers to play the game for them, top Fortnight player Mongraal revealed himself to be the #1 ranked player in Yuga’s Dookey Dash

• NFT-gaming influencer Brycent’s viral Dookey vid had 55k views in < 24 hrs and all the mainstream attn has people wondering: could Yuga have better leveraged Dookey to expand the ecosystem? Here’s one idea.

• Most suggested using APE to pay for access; some felt macro sentiment isn’t there to support wider virality anyway; while others say Dookey’s got ppl talking - and that’s a web3 net positive

  TheFirstMint @TheFirstMint

  

🎥 web3 Studio Roundup

• Filmmaker and SuperRare artist Miguel Faus sold $750k in NFTs to finance his film, Calladita, which took home Steven Soderbergh’s Andrews/Bernard Sundance Prize

  • Holder perks ranged from discord access to Assoc. Producer credits

“While the world may not be ready to buy a monkey JPEG, the idea of direct funding and supporting their favorite creator may be the spark that launches a Web3 and Film3 revolution, creating a direct connection between filmmakers and their audience.” Decrypt

• Disney launched a new ad engine, and it could be the foundation for more innovative advertising in the metaverse down the road

• Google might not be eyeing a Grammy yet… but it did just launch MusicLM, a new AI text-to-music generator (Think: ChatGPT, but for sound). The outputs aren’t terrible, but Billie Eilish can prob keep her day job.

• Japan’s “ruling Liberal Democratic Party Web3 project team” issued a crypto-friendly policy proposal recommending tax reform, legislation for DAOs, consumer protection rules for NFTs

• Hermés v. MetaBirkin trial began this week in Manhattan 

  • Hermés alleges digital artist Mason Rothschild is in trademark violation with his MetaBirkin collection; Mason believes his work is protected under 1A

• State Senator Wendy Rogers is trying (again) to get Bitcoin recognized as a legal tender in Arizona

• SEC again rejects ARK’s attempt at a Bitcoin ETF while uncoincidentally, Goldman Sachs names Bitcoin as best performing asset of 2023

🌐 web3 + NFTs

• A new Bitcoin NFT project is stirring up debate about whether Bitcoin should be used solely for financial transactions or a wider variety of data

  • Bitcoin’s PoW and if NFTs take off, it could create congestion and hefty fees

• Music artist Arden Jones is selling NFTs of his song “Parallel Parking” and using the funds to pay off people’s parking tickets

• Punks Legacy Project is gearing up to make another donation to a major institutional collection 

• Magic Eden is incentivizing users with a ‘dynamic trading rewards system’ with better benefits awarded for higher trade volume

📈 Brands + Biz

• Bleacher Report dropped its interactive fan loyalty program ‘Watch to Earn,’ a trivia game airing during NBA on TNT; B/R tokens are redeemable in its upcoming online marketplace

• Irish Distillers files NFT and metaverse trademarks for Jameson whiskey

• Sorare signed a multi-year deal with the top tier of the men’s English football pyramid, The Premier League

🤖 Metaverse + AI

• Workplace VR startup Gemba raised $18 mil for executive training in the metaverse

• Univ. of Texas at Austin & edX are partnering to offer an online MS in Artificial Intelligence

• Singularity is the moment AI “exceeds beyond human control and rapidly transforms society” and some say it could happen within just 7 years

  • Raoul Pal thinks AI and ChatGPT is creating one of the biggest deflationary shocks in all of history

• Warner Music Group is debuting the world’s biggest demo drop DJ contest in The Sandbox

• Spatial Labs is connecting fashion to the blockchain with a $10 mil raise (including investment from Jay Z’s VC firm, Marcy Venture Partners)

• In our first ever token-gated livestream event, renowned analyst and global macro investor, Raoul Pal, joins Carly for a lively discussion on economics, NFTs, and what’s next for his financial media brand, Real Vision. Come for the accent, stay for the crypto price predictions.

• Gavin Purcell, former Showrunner of The Tonight Show, joined the pod for our weekly recap. He shares his thoughts on recent Doodles news, where the best Discord communities are, and takeaways from Porsche’s fumbled NFT drop.

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