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Welcome to another edition of the Weekend Degen Report.
What to expect: 1560 words a 8-minute read.
You can support me on Patreon or subscribe to premium below. I also encourage you to check out my archives and podcast for more interviews and writing.
GM GM.
I’ll keep this short, working hard on my end on some behind the scenes stuff. Really gassed with some of the people I have been getting introed to for interviews and more. I also have a new podcast episode coming out this Thanksgiving for yall.
I dropped a new piece for the shitheads that you can check out below. Had a little fun with this one. Feel free to check it out if you missed it.
In the spirit of decentralization, over at snapshot, I am running a proposal to get feedback on the 52nd issue celebration collab NFT I am doing. If you have collected my artwork before or reached out to me with your wallet, you will have the power to vote and propose on ideas I/others have. If you want to be added, reach out to me and I can add you as well.
For the readers abroad, Thanksgiving is this week. It is a time where we get together, eat a ton of food and do weird shit. But most importantly, it is a time to be thankful. So I am thankful for all 100+ of you in here who read these weekly and support me outside of your email. So even if you are not American and celebrating, make sure to thank someone this week.
What is sort of interesting about this holiday is Canadians also celebrate Thanksgiving (not sure if many of you knew that). In an even more hilarious fact is, Thanksgiving was celebrated in Canada way before it was in the USA. Which is kind of hilarious, because many Americans don’t even realize Canadians celebrate their own Thanksgiving (it already passed) and to make matters worse, it seems we copied their holiday lol.
Van Arman had a SuperRare drop this past week that was 128 pieces, all for 1eth. Really dope pieces from Van Arman. On top of that, for anyone that bought on secondary, there were some prints available as well. This drop did extremely well, even with some snaffus along the way with SR.
A little more on Van Arman, the MoMA postcard drop that's happening. His community really came through and they were able to cross into 125,000 miles, which puts them in first place. He's sending signed postcards celebrating this accomplishment. For the number one spot, a postcard will be sent to the first 200 people that provide an address. This distance is pretty crazy because on the Monster side we are in 18th place with ours and we did 80,000 miles. Congrats to the Van Arman community and Van Arman as a whole.
Gnosis dropped a game-changing feature with Google. You are now able to create a safe wallet/a smart wallet, by connecting with Google. Please note as long as your Google account stays safe, this an easy way to deploy a smart wallet. They're trying to onboard the masses and this is definitely one way to do it. There's a step-by-step guide on how to do it. Right now it's only on Gnosis Chain, their Layer 2 chain. It's free, gasless. Big news on trying to make this process as frictionless as possible.
The 6529 Memes collection, the most recent artist was Die With The Most Likes with a piece called All Things Fail. Awesome piece, which led to some activity on the MoneyClicc side as well as Batsoupyum. Acquired one of the reserve pieces that Die worked on with the Clicc (Keep Warm). More people are coming around to Die after Marfa. Congratulations to Die and the 6529 team.
On the technical and privacy side, ProtonMail is exploring working with crypto technology to ensure emails go to the intended recipient. They're going to use a key verification system to check that the person sending you the email and the person you're intending to send it to is actually the right person. Currently, this will only work on ProtonMail web app. You can turn on that setting to ensure the person you are emailing is authentic, like a PGP check while leveraging blockchain tech.
Also, I saw a post by JohnWu on Aztec, a Layer 2 on the Ethereum network. He gave a breakdown of how Aztec works. At a high level, Ethereum works on public execution. All transactions are executed by a specific node that has all the history, rules, etc of the ETH blockchain, and anyone with an Ethereum node can verify and ensure all the rules were followed/everything is in order. With Aztec, you introduce privacy. Instead of server-side execution, it will be done client-side. This would be on your actual device, like an app, or on your laptop. Client-side, wtf does that mean?
It brings down the computing power from the blockchain to your device. All those rules and checking is done on your device vs the node. But how do you trust something like that? The user would decrypt the data, run the computation on their own device, then generate a SNARK proving the correct execution. From there, you'll be able to achieve privacy through assurance of proof. You will provide your executed hash to the network. Aztec is able to combine multiple hashes, put it into one block, and settle it back into Layer 1, into Ethereum. It's a bit crazy, but it's like everyone has a mini roll-up, and you have your own private node on your device. Aztec's able to put all those into one large pool and settle that off-chain. As always, I highly recommend reading that thread if you want to learn more and I am always in support of more privacy especially when it comes to public blockchains (protect ya neck).
Back to the degen work. RTFKT x Nike Dunk, dropping the date this newsletter drops (the 20th). This is the counterpart to the previous ghost version we saw (white). Nike has been really doing well with their nike dunk drops recently and this one is not exception. It's a cool-looking Nike SB Dunk. Not really for me, but I do like Nike Dunks. Merging physical and digital space, which I love to see. Which one is your favorite?
We got news of Maker's Place doing a showcase of Jack Kaido x Transient Labs in Miami. We got a preview of the piece he will bring to Miami with Transient Labs and Maker's Place. It's called Nostalgia.zip. It's a dope piece, open to interpretation. What makes this piece special is it's Jack Kaido's first ever physical piece. And not just another physical piece but one made digitally first, digitally drawn, then printed with oils onto a canvas with a computer plotter. Definitely check out that piece and the interview with Maker's Place and Jack Kaido.
Phantom Labs a Solana-based wallet. They recently announced they'll be launching more features with ETH. It looks like service providers for the Solana ecosystem are dabbling in the ETH environment more. Magic Eden announced they'd be doing more with Eth and now Phantom, one of the biggest wallets from the Solana ecosystem, is also messing around with ETH. Should put MetaMask on notice.
If you missed the first edition of the Meridian books, the second editions are now available. You can get a copy yourself. Just be aware it's coming from Europe, so shipping fees are a bit high (if in the USA), but it's a good-looking book. I've been digging this one, and I think I'm going to get it for sure.
The Zealy.io word for this weeks read is, “miami”. Make sure to get in on the fun and giveaways.
One of my favorite xcopy pieces (The State of Us) sold for 30eth. Congrats to the buyer and seller on this amazing piece.
Another xcopy piece (Hello Admin DM Me) sold for 35eth. Xcopy pieces remain hot throughout this whole market (bear or bull).
Not NFT related, but had to highlight the absolute diamond hands this degen had. 1962 Topps Sealed Box, Retail Price: $1.20. Sold for $240,000.00, the feeling: priceless. So next time you want to sell, think of this person who held for 60+ years lol.
It looks like the hyper and demand for the pepe ledger was too strong. We will have a larger drop soon for the pepe ledger.
Atelie is an artist I have been tracking for a bit and we will be getting an onchain collection soon enough. And you know I love me some onchain art.
Have a great rest of your week!
CIAHOAD-Rick James
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