NFTs Return to Minecraft, Coinbase Gives ENS Usernames
- Vulcan Forged game studio closes $8 million Series A round led by Skybridge Capital
- Bored Ape Yacht Club and Azuki NFTs had the best NFT sales in the last seven days
NFTs for the healthcare system
NFTs tackle the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The Women in Innovation Fund (WiN Fund) uses the proceeds from NFT’s sale to invest in women-led health enterprises in Africa, and addresses the UN’s third goal – good health and well-being.
NFTs for good causes are a growing concept, and the benefits of blockchain for healthcare and democracy are being explored in countries with unstable leadership.
Women are more attuned to the health needs of their society, according to Corinne Momal-Vanian, executive director of the Kofi Annan Foundation. “Women entrepreneurs – from what we’ve seen in Africa – can drive innovation, can drive efficiency and can really have a place in the healthcare ecosystem that governments can’t fill,” she said at a UN-adjacent roundtable discussion in New York this week.
Representatives from the World Health Organization and the World Economic Forum also attended.
WiN Fund co-founder Pradeep Kakkattil reminded the audience of an “unacceptable” statistic: Only 2% of venture capital investments globally go to women-led businesses, despite women-led businesses delivering 35% higher returns and creating 6x more jobs.
Coinbase collaborates with ENS
Coinbase has teamed up with the Ethereum Naming Service (ENS) to create its own Web3 usernames.
Built on top of ENS infrastructure, Coinbase usernames are ENS subdomains that contain a ‘.cb.id’ at the end, instead of ‘.eth.’
Users can then replace their 42-character address with a personal wallet address.
Users who already own a .eth domain now have the option to transfer ownership of the ENS name to a Coinbase wallet and choose between a Coinbase username or an existing ENS username as the primary username for that wallet.
A .cb.id username is not tied to Ethereum and can be used on multiple networks to send and receive crypto.
Simplified wallet addresses have recently increased in popularity during the last few months of the bear market. Since July, ENS registrations have increased by 200%, and the total volume of NFT sales has increased by 80% in the past three months, according to NFTGo data.
Latest NFT loyalty program: Scotch & Soda
Amsterdam-based lifestyle brand Scotch & Soda is ramping up its consumer loyalty program by launching NFT-based membership for Club Soda 3.0.
Holders are given exclusive access to merchandise and events, as well as the opportunity to create apparel with Scotch & Soda partners.
Each NFT serves as a membership card to what is called the “Free Spirit” community of Scotch & Soda lovers.
Cloud software company Salesforce chose Scotch & Soda to debut its pilot NFT Cloud service to help businesses create and manage NFTs.
NFTs back in Minecraft?
Minecraft developer Mojang recently banned NFT support in Minecraft client and server applications, but MyMetaverse has found a way around the new restriction.
The Metaverse company re-implemented playable NFTs not only on Minecraft game servers, but also on modified versions of Grand Theft Auto (GTA).
Using NFTs running on Efinity, a Polkadot parachain developed by gaming platform Enjin, MyMetaverse works with developers who build third-party servers on top of Minecraft and GTA 5 core games.
Simon Kertonegoro, CEO of MyMetaverse, told Blockworks that it works in the same way that WordPress allows people to use their technology to create custom websites. “These servers are self-hosted, modified instances of the game, running independently of Mojang or Rockstar,” Kertonegoro said.
Thus, Mojang and GTA parent company Rockstar have no official affiliation with the NFTs.
“The modified versions allow the game to connect to crypto wallets and recognize NFTs in the game, which the user can then use as in-game items,” he added.
GameFi by the numbers
- Blockchain game studio Vulcan Forged secured $8 million in a Series A funding round led by investment firm SkyBridge Capital, founded by former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. The round includes the option to invest an additional $33 million. Funding will go towards accelerating the growth of “Metascapes”, a play-to-earn feature that allows Vulcan users to build their own country in the metaverse. Vulcan Forged has approximately 200,000 active users across 15 games and decentralized applications (dapps).
- Blockchain game Splinterlands sold out its latest card pack release, Riftwatchers, in less than 2 minutes, netting $5.2 million from the sale of 500,000 packs. Within hours, community members had also purchased 30,000 previous card packs, according to the company. 25 million SPS – Splinterlands’ original token – were either immediately burned or sent to the SPS Foundation DAO.
- Immortal Game, the company bringing the game of chess to Web3, has closed $15.5 million over two rounds, including a $12 million investment in July. TCG Crypto led the Series A round – backers Cassius, Greenfield One, Sparkle Ventures, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s 35V, Blockwall, Kraken Ventures and Spice Capital also participated. It plans to use the funding to build out its platform, which is currently in beta for users who want to sign up for the game’s play-and-earn system.
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Ornella Hernandez
Blockwork
Journalist
