NFTY NEWS [January 8, 2019]

NFTY NEWS is a weekly newsletter covering the latest developments of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the blockchain space – collectibles, games, new platforms, and much more. NFTY NEWS is created by contributor Brian Flynn and adapted from his Medium page. For more information on NFTs, check out Brian’s reading list to get you up to speed on crypto digital assets.

NFTY #33: Coindesk Enters the Fray

The relevance behind Coindesk’s Influencer Reveal using NFTs

It’s been a relatively quiet week for news, but the major story was Coindesk doing their top influencers reveal using cryptocollectibles. While this seems insignificant at first, I outlined some reasons why this should be taken more seriously.

Coindesk reveals top influencers of the year through limited edition collectibles

Coindesk revealed the 2018 top influencers by issuing NFTs for each individual. Influencers included Jeremy Allaire, Glen Weyl, Elizabeth Stark, and more. Collectibles were issued as cards representing real game assets like Chibi Fighters, CryptoKitties, HyperDragons, and even Blockade Games’ newest plasma experiment Plasma Bears.

This is an extremely significant event — it’s exactly the point in which collectibles transform into pieces of media with value forming for the creator & the owner. The creator (Coindesk) can now monetize and draw buzz around content forever embedded through unique cryptocollectibles, and even program the collectibles for future access/discounts.

These collectibles are both a toy and a ticket that has no promises. And that’s powerful. It offers flexibility to brands.

Non-fungible tokens can now be seen as a future, non-obligatory promise for future access from creators with the value increasing for as many third-parties that plug into the original token.

Influencers also make out in this Coindesk Influencer scenario — a portion of the proceeds of each sale (and even secondary transfer sales?) go towards a charity of their choice.

Brave came under a ton of scrutiny recently when it started collecting BAT payments on behalf of creators without their permission. However, this might be on the right track… users are starting to tip more. If creators could delegate tips to a non-profit, perhaps they’d be more welcoming of tips.

Required Reading: Devin Finzer’s piece on blockchain gaming’s layer 2

This is an excellent analysis from the CEO of OpenSea on business model exploration for blockchain games. Games are milked in their closed ecosystems, and if they were to transition to an open ecosystem they would lose the moat they built for themselves.

Closed ecosystems are still heavily looking at the opportunity.

If you are working on creative use cases, or working on trying to get more people into crypto and reaching end users using non-fungible tokens, I would love to talk about how I can help. Reach out to me on twitter @flynnjamm, my DMs are always open.

Contributor Name: Brian Flynn
Website: http://nfty.news/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Flynnjamm
Medium: https://medium.com/@brianubiquik