DeFi Arts Intelligencer - Feb. 15th, 2020

Welcome to the 5th issue of the DeFi Arts Intelligencer, your weekly source for key happenings around blockchain art, collectibles, and games. Subscribe here.

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For this dispatch:

🎨 Digital Art & Collectibles

• Art duo Hackatao’s new series, “The Whale,” sold out in hours for right under 17 ETH.

• SuperRare artist Pak sold “Rubik’s Misery” to WhaleShark for 25.75 ETH 🐳

• Are you an artist that wants to launch a gallery in Cryptovoxels? The aforementioned art collector and patron WhaleShark has offered rent-free CV parcels for yearlong leases to those interested.

  WhaleShark.Pro @WhaleShark_Pro

  Many new artists have joined the space over the last 2 months and I wanted to reiterate my offer to provide rent-free @cryptovoxels parcels for 12 months for those looking to build a gallery. Only catch is you need to build and maintain. Please retweet. Reply if interested!♥️

• Speaking of Cryptovoxels, its world is having its first charity auction on February 29th.

• Osinachi has a beautiful new piece, “The Thinker Gets Flowers,” out.

  Osinachi 🎨 @Prince_Jacon

  Now live on @SuperRare_co : 'The Thinker Gets Flowers'. The Thinker gets what is supposed to be a surprise – a bouquet of flowers. But is he impressed? superrare.co/artwork-v2/the… #nft #eth #ankara #flowers #osinachi #rose #thethinker #Valentines

  

• Piano Power, the 2nd album from the virtual Algorithmic Jazz Alliance group, has been released and with it a handful of commemorative NFTs to celebrate.

• OpenSea hosted an epic ETHDenver 2020 Art Gallery Auction.

• Cryptoart market rising: to date SuperRare pieces have generated 2,846 ETH in total volume (for a rise of 23% on the week), Known Origin’s pieces 83 ETH (up 360% on the week), and MakersPlace’s pieces 181 ETH (up 8 percent on the week). Per OpenSea, these platforms’ current average sales prices are 0.73 ETH, 0.32 ETH, and 0.21 ETH respectively.

• According to NFT tracker site NonFungible, the projects with the most trade volume this week were Decentraland ($635k), The Sandbox ($181k), Gods Unchained ($76k), Cryptovoxels ($44k), and SuperRare ($37k).

• Mintbase now has 300 markets.

• The NFT space a leading indicator of crypto trends? Dapper Labs’s Brian Flynn thinks so.

• Decentraland has a new naming system that’s integrated with the Ethereum Name Service (ENS).

• The Avastar project is off to a hot start.

• Madrid-based Belgian artist Skeenee, creator of the $SKULL personal token, put out an awesome new series 💀

  Skeenee.eth | CryptoArt & Tattoo @skeenee_art

  The binaryRefinery() series is mostly going to be a $SKULL exclusive available on @opensea : opensea.io/assets/binaryr… Prices will start at 5000 $SKULL and will triple on each sale! 2 have already sold, tx guys!👊 Buy some $SKULL & grab a cheap NFT! @tryrollhq #cryptoart #ganF

  

🕹️ Blockchain Games

• Meet MetaClan: the first eSports DAO.

• Gamers competing for rare digital items that gain, or are good for, Dai prizes? It’s on the horizon!

  Ross Campbell @r_ross_campbell

  ICYMI, ‘Charged Particles’ = one of my favorite Token experiments atm - for example, this code could allow gamers to compete and win rare digital items that accrue interest through DSR (‘charge’) / can be burned for $DAI Loot ⚡️💸V

  

  robsecord.eth @robsecord

  Wish I were at #ETHDenver right with all of you but I'm still hacking away at home! New landing page up, thoughts? #ChargedParticles https://t.co/9U8Tk2AJyI

• The team behind the no-loss lotto game PoolTogether clarified how winners are selected.

• Morrigan, Goddess of Death, is on sale for 10 ETH. It’s the first mystic bird in Axie Infinity. Could be a good snag for the upcoming Leeky Cup 👀

• Using the DeFiZap project’s newest tool, users can easily become Uniswap liquidity providers for Axie Infinity’s Small Love Potions (SLP).

♦️♦️ DeFi News

• The Ethereum browser wallet Metamask crossed 1 million users.

• tBTC, a trustless ERC20 version of bitcoin, is live on Ethereum’s Ropsten testnet.

• A governance-minimized alternative to the Dai, Meta, has been proposed.

• The opyn project now offers insurance for deposits on Compound.

• Want to create Ethereum-powered React apps? Sablier’s Paul Berg has you covered.

• Decentralized exchange Uniswap is shooting for the stars …

  Hayden Adams 🦄 @haydenzadams

  2019: Uniswap V1 proved AMMs can compete with traditional exchanges 2020: Uniswap V2 will prove AMMs can do things traditional exchanges cannot 2021: Uniswap V3 will face slippage and capital efficiency head on to prove AMMs can outcompete traditional exchanges on all fronts

• MetaCartel Ventures, a community investment DAO, launched with support for an initial set of tokens, including MetaGame’s $SEED, Axie Infinity’s Small Love Potions (SLP), and personal tokens like $MAGIC and $PEW.

• The new Authereum platform is bringing DeFi toward mainstream audiences.

• An assailant executed a sophisticated market manipulation attack on the decentralized trading platform Fulcrum, apparently making off with some $350k in profit. The backers of Fulcrum are conducting a post-mortem and have said users’ funds are safe.

📰Fresh Reads

• “Art for Space” - Massimo Franceschet

• “Out of Left (Brained) Field #5: How I Buy My Art” - WhaleShark

• “Meet Osinachi, The Cryptoartist Fronting The Tokenized Artwork Movement In Africa” - Collins Badewa

• “Tokens, Gaming, and Forking Gardens” - Mareen Gläske

• “Crypto memes and adoption” - Linda Xie

• “Optimistic Virtual Machine Alpha” - Optimism PBC

• “SuperRare Art Release” - Micah Johnson

🖌️Extra, Extra

• Three cryptoart collection’s I admired this week: WhaleShark’s, Plato’s, and First Edition’s. Worth checking out if you haven’t before 🔥

Thanks for reading, and stay creative on- and off-chain!

Keep an 👁️ out for the 6th issue of the DeFi Arts Intelligencer this time next week, too. Cheers ✌️

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About DeFi Arts Intelligencer

The DeFi Arts Intelligencer is curated by me, William M. Peaster, a professional writer and editor who’s been tracking the Ethereum and Dai beats in recent years.

I’m passionate about art and a DeFi optimist, so putting together this newsletter is both fun and informative for me. I hope others may find the content helpful, too. But be mindful, the information herein should not be construed as investment advice. I’m not a financial adviser, and these are my opinions. Always take care to seriously consider the various layers of risk you face in participating in the still-maturing cryptoeconomy.

If you have a DeFi tip or lead, questions or comments, or would be interested in commissioning me for a writing gig, you can ping me at wmpeaster@gmail.com or on Telegram at @wmpeaster.

This particular newsletter is a labor of love, but if you enjoy the work and want to support it, feel free to subscribe, have a like-minded friend subscribe as well, or buy some of my crypto art on OpenSea! Thanks kindly!

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🖌️Things I tokenized on OpenSea this week🖌️

Daiku #1

Two ponds split like eyes
A crane walks between the gaze
Rain ripples the stare

Sweet Pup

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