This week, Google made a big shift in their policy towards NFTs, allowing apps in the Google Play store to include the ability to buy, sell, or earn tokenized assets. Meanwhile, Starbucks Odyssey, the brand’s Web3 loyalty program, announced their next Stamp would be designed by Aku, the NFT character launched by former LA Dodgers player-turned-artist Micah Johnson. Snoop Dogg and a16z-backed decentralized music venture Sound announced a $20 million funding round and we got another phygital sneaker drop.
Google’s shift towards NFTs is a big move for the Web3 space, as developers are now required to make it clear on their Play Store page and make sure they don’t run afoul of Google’s gambling and contests policies. Starbucks Odyssey’s next Stamp is designed by Aku, a character created by former Major League Baseball player Micah Johnson. As part of the release, Starbucks will donate $100,000 to Blessings in a Backpack, a non-profit tackling food insecurity among children.
Snoop Dogg and a16z’s $20 million investment in Sound is a bet that creators can make a sustainable living by selling their creations to fans through decentralized platforms. Puma, Roc Nation, and Legitimate also released a Mixtape of Phygital sneakers this week that unlock exclusive digital music content.
Snowfro aka Erick Calderon’s iconic, colorful Chromie Squiggle NFTs were the genesis collection for generative art NFT platform Art Blocks in November 2020. After the initial mint of 9,040 NFTs, the remaining NFTs in the 10,000 collection are minted by Calderon at his discretion. This week, Calderon revealed he would be minting 81 additional NFTs on Twitter, but then disappointed hopeful buyers by informing readers that none would be for sale. Instead, Calderon explained he had earmarked every one of the valuable NFTs for people and organizations that had supported him and Art Blocks over the years.
Convenience store 7-Eleven extended their annual celebration of the date that shares its name to Web3 with free Slurpee NFTs. The self-described No. 1 CryptoPunk announced he was going to be repped by powerhouse talent agency WME to expand the Seedphrase brand through partnerships in luxury fashion, music, and digital art. NFT project Particle, which fractionalizes art in the form of NFTs, is loaning out its Banksy painting, Love is in the Air, to museums all over the world.
Meta released their Twitter-alternative, Threads, and it’s already handily passed 100 million downloads. One of the interesting promises of the new app is that it will support ActivityPub, a decentralized social media protocol, which means users will be able to interact with other platforms in the so-called fediverse like Mastodon and vice versa.
This week saw a lot of exciting news in the Web3 space, from Google’s shift towards NFTs to the release of Meta’s Threads app. With the ActivityPub Protocol, users will be able to interact with other platforms in the fediverse like Mastodon and vice versa.