Here’s your weekly dose of metaverse news
Grimes performed at Ultra Music Festival last week and then released a collection of free NFTs. Courtesy of Zora
Welcome to This week in the Metaverse, where Fortune rounding up the most interesting news in the NFT world, culture and metaverse. Email [email protected] with tips.
A big change in the NFT world is imminent, and Solana could end up as the biggest loser. In December, DeLabs, the creator of the popular y00ts and DeGods projects, announced that both collections would move from the Solana blockchain.
DeGods was to be ported to Ethereum to join the likes of other popular projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, said DeLabs founder Rohun Vora, also known as Frank DeGods. Meanwhile, Ethereum scaling network Polygon won over y00ts in part due to a $3 million non-equity grant from Polygon Labs as part of the deal to move over y00ts.
On Monday, DeLabs announced the y00ts migration to Polygon, and according to Decrypt, more than 75% of the NFTs in the collection had been migrated to Polygon in just 24 hours.
On Friday, the even more valuable DeGods collection begins its migration to Ethereum, and the excitement was already evident on Crypto Twitter.
If users migrate NFTs within the first 24 hours, the gas charges associated with the move will be covered by the company. And if holders at least start the process on the first possible day, they are eligible to win a Bitcoin DeGod NFT.
In a nod to NFT marketplace OpenSea, DeGods chose up-and-coming competitor Blur as their “recommended marketplace experience for DeGods on Ethereum,” according to a tweet from the project.
We cooperate with @blur_io as our recommended marketplace experience for DeGods on Ethereum.
We will be hosting a 1:1 Twitter Spaces with Blur founder @PacmanBlur & @frankdegods on Saturday.
Set reminder: pic.twitter.com/icJbU4ho8r
— DeGods III (@DeGodsNFT) 30 March 2023
Suffice it to say, it doesn’t bode well for Solana, which has already taken a hit to its credibility following the fall of FTX and Alameda Research and Sam Bankman-Fried’s close ties with the Solana Foundation, the nonprofit that supports the blockchain. In addition, SBF’s companies were major owners of SOL.
That said, SOL has still doubled since January 1st, and even with the news of two massive NFT projects exiting the price, it didn’t take a huge hit, according to CoinMarketCap.
The Solana Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thought bubble
Argentinian low-cost airline Flybondi carried out one of the most interesting applications of NFTs to the traditional business world that I have seen in some time.
This week, the airline became the first in the world to offer blockchain-based NFT tickets for all domestic routes. The “Ticket 3.0” launch means that for a fee, customers will now be able to rename a ticket, transfer it or give it away so that someone else can use it all without having to deal with the hassle of involving the company.
The airline teamed up with NFT ticketing company TravelX for the initiative, which FlyBondi said cost the partner $7 million to develop. The company is not taking a cut of the first NFT ticket sale, TrevelX’s blockchain manager told CoinDeskbut the company and airline take a 2% cut when the tickets are traded on the secondary market.
The tickets can be bought with fiat and managed through Flybondi’s website, a clear sign that the functionality is intended for mainstream adoption.
In other news
Web3 domain company Unstoppable Domains brings AI and NFT together with a new PFP collection. For $14.99, the company will analyze 10 to 20 photos of your face and create 200 AI-enabled renderings of it. You can then turn your favorite into an NFT. There are also some with profiles of famous people available on OpenSea starting this week for, at the very least, just over $900.
Courtesy of Unstoppable Domains
Canadian musician Claire Boucher, aka Grimes, launched a Gen 1 Avatar NFT collection, in collaboration with digital art platform Zora, following an appearance at Ultra Music Festival last week. The free collection is the first in a series of virtual AI avatars within what Grimes calls the “AI Oracle Neural-Network.” (Watch out Neuralink?) The avatar has already been liked 43,000 times. The last day to stamp is Friday.
Courtesy of Zora
NFT marketplace Magic Eden will open its Ethereum marketplace, Eth Genesis, on April 6, the company announced this week. Although the marketplace was initially limited to Solana collections, it has since added support for Polygon and most recently Bitcoin NFTs, called Ordinals. Magic Eden will have more than 10 new collections at launch, including Hashflow, CNWAFUKU and KaijuKingz. All ETH NFT collections traded on native listings will include creator royalties.
