Welcome to the OpenSea Digest, our recap of the biggest NFT and web3 news from the week.
Ethereum NFTs continue to sell at record prices
Ether Rocks is making a splash as Sotheby’s prepares for its sealed sale on February 14, with the upcoming event bringing one of the oldest NFT series (first minted in 2017) back into the spotlight.
This week, digital rock prices have skyrocketed, with EtherRock 19 selling for 279 ETH (about $739,015) and EtherRock 46 selling for 200 ETH (about $497,479).
The sale appears to have sparked a debate among NFT enthusiasts over Sotheby’s claim that Ether Rocks shaped the NFT movement.
Sotheby’s revised the auction information on February 8.
Whatever you think of the series’ casting in 2017 and its meme-inspired resurgence in 2021, Ether Rocks was indeed important this week. As for historical importance? Only time will tell.
ERC-404 token standard gains attention
A new Ethereum token standard is gaining attention on Crypto Twitter. Created by anonymous developers including ctrl, Searn, Acme, and Hohenheim under a project called Pandora, ERC-404 provides the basis for so-called “semi-fungible tokens.”
The new standard mixes the technology behind ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens, the two most widely used Ethereum token standards.
The ERC-404 standard attempts to solve the liquidity problem by allowing fractional ownership of digital items, which in layman’s terms means that people can use it to buy a single token that represents a portion of an NFT.
According to The Block, the Pandora team tested the concept by creating 10,000 NFTs called "Replicants" and linking them to 10,000 corresponding Pandora tokens. Purchasing Pandora tokens will grant the holder a Replicant NFT.
When a holder spends half of their Pandora tokens, the linked NFT is destroyed, demonstrating the fractional relationship between the token and the Replicant NFT.
While the NFT community is intrigued by the potential of ERC-404 tokens, ERC-404 tokens are still in an experimental phase and require further optimization to better address transaction costs, and the new standard is still awaiting review as an Ethereum Improvement Proposal.
Sasha Stiles’ NFT Poetry Exhibited at Gucci NYC
Acclaimed poet Sasha Stiles returns with her latest collaboration with Gucci.
The poem, titled “REPETAE: AGAIN, AGAIN,” is currently on display alongside creative director Sabato De Sarno’s debut fashion collection, Ancora, and can be viewed at the newly opened Gucci boutique on Wooster Street in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood.
Stiles’ artwork originally sold at the Christie’s x Gucci auction in November 2023 for a staggering 3 ETH, with the piece’s title paying homage to De Sarno’s design: “I was moved by the Gucci team’s poetic take on Ancora – a beautiful word that means stillness or again, evoking the complex value of bringing the past forward,” Stiles told web3 outlet nftnow in November 2023.
The poem was produced by Stiles’ poetic alter ego, Technelegy, an AI co-author and collaborator to whom Stiles provides Italian material and prompts him to produce novel work.
Terrell Jones Announces First Solo Exhibition at Superchief LA
Exciting news: Artist Terrell Jones will be opening his solo show “PARIAHS” at Superchief LA this March, a show that will feature artwork of the fictional Deville crime family in Jones’ unique style.
Jones, whose work the artist describes as “pop precisionism,” explores themes of inherent evil and social influence, and his upcoming exhibition will combine immersive installations, interactive works, and digital artworks created during his time between his hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Los Angeles art scene.
Farcaster Frames lets you build apps that can be embedded in social posts
Decentralized social media protocol Farcaster has recently surged in popularity, reaching a $600,000 revenue milestone, with the growth driven by the introduction of an in-app monetization tool called Frames and the resulting increase in user engagement.
The trend has sparked discussions about the protocol’s sustainability compared to predecessors like social token-driven social network Friend.tech.
Farcaster charges users for storage and offers unique monetization opportunities with interactive elements like polls, live feeds, and photo galleries, and users are reportedly using Frames to embed the app into social posts and reward new followers with NFTs.
Netflix Launches the Black Mirror Experience: Smile Club
The day when web3 meets dystopian TV series Black Mirror has finally arrived, as sources have revealed that Netflix has partnered with interactive entertainment platform Pixelynx to create The Black Mirror Experience, a new storytelling series featuring gamified challenges, quests, and community moments.
The first experience, Smile Club, is based on a weird, unsettling social credit scoring system that rates people’s social interactions, as featured in the Black Mirror episode “Nosedive.”
Inspired by the episode, Smile Club participants must turn on their computer cameras and smile for at least five seconds to earn a spot on the game’s allowlist, with some speculating that these smiles could be recorded on-chain, and Pixylynx founder Inder Phull called for 1 million participants to sign up and record their pearly whites.
Sotheby’s Metaverse integrates with Kresus Wallet
Sotheby’s Metaverse now partners with Kresus SuperApp, a user-friendly crypto wallet designed to help newcomers smoothly enter web3.
According to sources, the app uses advanced security features such as biometric authentication to bypass what some consider to be the hassles of using complex mnemonics.
The collaboration is expected to bring a more familiar wallet experience to art lovers and collectors who already know Sotheby’s Metaverse as the premier destination for one-of-a-kind digital fine art collectibles.
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