Gramajo's Newsletter | Is A $15M Sale Enough To Bring Back The Good Vibez?

Gramajo’s Corner

GM GM.

A couple things went down on my end this past week. 1st I created a burn to redeem for C41 Noir collectors. I have been really exploring and pushing myself with my photography and editing to find styles/things I like. I really liked how this one came out as it combines a video I took with a an image I really like. I was trying to channel my inner @IDerech and created, a piece I am calling Engine. Only one person has burned before I even announced it, so hoping to get see a couple more later this week. The burn to redeem is open till end of the year and there is a C41 Noir listed for mint price (by me).

This past week, Manifold announced that Base mints would automatically create a Frame on Farcaster where you could mint without leaving the screen. So me being someone who likes to test these kind of things, I set up a Base contract and a mint for a piece called SF Cable Car. I set the mint for 100 pieces which was sort of a joke as I have never had one of my pieces even mint more than 10 editions, but I was shocked to see how quickly all 100 editions minted and how quickly it sold out. Definitely was not expecting that but it makes me happy that so many people wanted to mint that piece. I have a couple more pieces in the hopper but going to wait and continue refining and editing them until I feel happy with them. I’ll most likely make another mint but for existing holders/holders on main net Eth. The signal to noise ration on Farcaster is insane.

Lastly, on March 6th I will be dropping my interview with ZeroX. Putting the finishing touches on two other ones currently. And I am interviewing an artist for the podcast on Friday. It is going to be a spicy couple of weeks from my end and I am happy to be sharing it with the close to 200 people here (I am sure someone will unsubscribe now that I have said it haha).

Knowledge

I stumbled across this tweet and a couple thoughts came to mind. First is how much of a trip sand really is. We can make glass with sand but it can also kill us and become quicksand. Second is the Anakin Star Wars sand comment always cracks me up and I agree with him. It really does get everywhere. So when I saw that if you put a ton of air in sand, it can become a liquid like, it hit me how crazy sand really is. And what other uses and applications it has that I am not aware of (other than it is used in construction as well).

NFT Space

A ton of people were in Paris this past week for web3 shenanigan's. Definitely easy to get FOMO but this year will be the year I go to an event or two but travelling to all with a young kid ain’t in the cards for me. With that said, Opensea found themselves in some hot water this past week after posting this pic of them at the event. Many people in the space that Opensea has been sitting on the money they earned during the bull and not really reinvested it into the platform and ecosystem overall. Most of the sentiment around the tweet was saying that Opensea is out of touch with collectors. It also does not help that at the same time, BAYC leadership and MagicEden leadership are meeting in a more down to earth setting and scheming on what comes next for both. With MagicEden dropping feature after feature and support for Ordinals and a huge airdrop in the future, they are priming themselves to take over Opensea’s throne in the space.

As mentioned above, Manifold launched support for the frame feature on Farcaster (think interactive tweets) that allowed creators that had mints on Base to sell on Farcaster without users having to leave the app. Why does this matter? Manifold has proven to be listening to artists and their needs and this is one need/gap we had and they delivered. It also matters, because they now have the foundation for when Farcaster launches not just support for Base, Warps (in app currency) but all other types of crypto transactions, which is close to releasing for developers.

Tokenframe dropped a bunch of new updates and features this past week but most notably they now support BTC Ordinals. Not sure what happened to the Tezos before end of 2023 idea but it looks like BTC Ordinals ended up winning over. Nothing beats seeing your NFTs on your wall so I truly hope support for Tezos really does come as there are some great pieces on there.

XMTP, which is a new web3 protocol that wants to tackle messaging launched two key features this past week. The first one is support for group messages. Group messages is a common way many communicate and many web2 solutions do not have end to end encryption so all of our messages can be read by our social media overlords. I know in my group of friends, Instagram is used in this manner. It irks the crap of out me but changing people mentalities will take time. The second killer feature that XMTP announced is support for Frames. As a creator this one is good because now for those that receive the newsletter straight to their messages, now can read the newsletter without leaving your messaging app. As shown below.

Speaking of messaging, as most of you know I am big advocate of privacy. And one of the things that has made supporting Signal hard for me is the strict requirement to use a cell phone number. This is great for your friends and family but if you want to add someone in Web3 or from the internet, giving someone your personal cell phone number opens up your attack vector even more as now they have your phone for sim swapping and that’s a no no for me. Well Signal recently launched support for usernames and that is a joy for me. Although you still need a cell phone to use the app, you don’t need to give that out for users to find and communicate with you, which sounds like a decent compromise to me. Remember to always to protect ya neck out there.

iPhone showing the creation of a Signal username, axolotl.99, on a lightly colored gradient background with floating numbers.

Pop Wonder dropped a new edition titled Surrender this past week which I thought deserved a call out for how beautiful it is. Although I really do enjoy the style and aesthetics of PopWonder but it is not for all.

Kipz dropped a really dope onchain piece this past week, titled Wander. Make sure to stare at it long enough as it changes. Kipz has done pieces in the past that have movement that is extremely fluid but the change in colors on this one and how gradual it is, is really nice.

Before we continue with our scheduled content, I wanted to take the time to congratulate a couple of readers and fellow web3 friends. Aldover.eth, congrats on becoming a dad. Hope you are getting some better sleep. Popts0, fellow artist friend recently sold some of his work to National Geographic, big congratulations! Photographers around the world strive for this type of goal. Well deserved. Fellow Monster friends, Howlyr and Loud, congrats on acquiring some nice grail NFTs.

The Zealy.io word for this weeks read is, “xmtp”. Make sure to get in on the fun and giveaways.

Notable Sales

In case you missed this or got too drunk in Paris, someone swept and bought 10 Autoglyphs for 5000eth aka north of $15m. Someone did not get the memo that NFTs and especially ones made by computers are dead.

Warren Buffet - Decentral Eyes - Variant 01 by Coldie sold for 12eth. RIP to the champ and definitely a dope pick up.

Kind of nuts to see this but Traitors by XCOPY sold for 3.11Eth. XCOPY has been hot for most of this bear so it is weird for me to see such a piece go for so low but what do I know.

Upcoming

Things I am looking forward to.

Sadboi seems to be cooking something on his end. I will be definitely be keeping an eye out for this piece and hoping it is an edition as I need a Sadboi piece for my collection. The amount of details and historical research/inspiration that goes into each piece is notable and definitely something I would want to hang on my wall.

Random Combo will be dropping an BTC inscription piece this week on the 27th. As a long time holder of Zhu and Mei I am looking forward to getting my piece on this new collection. If you are a holder of either of those pieces from Tezos make sure to drop your addy so you can be added to the WL.

As mentioned previously, Dylan Wade will be dropping a ton of 1/1 this week. 1/1 holders get to go first in acquiring pieces but if you hold any piece from Dylan you can snag yourself one as well if there are any leftovers. So for those that have the Noble drop from Dylan (like me) keep your eyes peeled to see if any make it to us. Overall, I am excited to see all the new 1/1s and what Dylan has been up to.

Collectibles

Nothing major to report other than I found out recently that some indie game creators are releasing brand new Gameboy games. And as someone who recently modded their Gameboy, it is really nice to see such amazing new games getting physical drops still. And what is more impressive is that the Gameboy has been long out of stock and not sold and they are still getting new games and life via the modding community. I love other nerds with disposable income haha.