Web3 Whirlwind: U.S. Clashes over Privacy, BRICS Rethinks Trade, and Shopify Goes Crypto | Issue #40

Privacy is important, protect your neck!

Welcome to another edition of the Weekend Degen Report.

What to expect: 1221 words a 5.5-minute read.

TLDR: CIAHOAD

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Creative Corner

GM GM from Europe.

As most of you know i’ll be taking some much needed rest to recharge my batteries with the family. But don’t worry I got you covered on some content while I am out.

I recently dropped a premium article for shitheads, which can you see below. If you are not a premium subscriber there is a small preview and you can get a glimpse of the level of content on my YouTube channel if that is more your flavor.

On September 1st, I will be dropping a new Behind The Screen podcast episode this time with Seattledog. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast.

Lastly, I will be dropping new Deep Dive pieces with Mr.Lakon and Niche during this time off. So stay tuned!

Knowledge

Nothing major on this front other than I will be reading a ton on art history and launching Shithead History of Arts Major once I have a couple books in. This will be a series where we can all learn about Art History and becomes better ambassadors of the space while having fun. If this sounds up your alley, let me know which artist in history you would like me to cover.

NFT Space

It's been another crazy week in Web 3, so let's dive into it.

The U.S. government is trying to arrest or is arresting the TornadoCash developers Roman Storm and Roman Siminov. It's a really sad day for privacy in this country. Many people say that if you're worried about privacy, then you have something to hide. However, that's not really the case. Privacy is a fundamental right, especially in this technology world. Unfortunately, for Ethereum, it is an open blockchain. So something like TornadoCash is a very interesting tool in your arsenal. But the underlying technology itself is kind of flawed in this sense, in my opinion. It's sad to see that something like this is leading to people getting arrested. It should be interesting to see, because we've seen that writing code can sometimes be considered a First Amendment freedom of speech legal scenario. Only time will tell.

The BRICS nations, currently Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, have been considering the idea of abandoning the U.S. dollar for settling their trades. There are also discussions of new members joining the BRICS nations, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Argentina, and Ethiopia as an alternative to the Western countries. It should be interesting to see what develops in this area. There are rumors it could be the Russian Ruble to even a new CBDC between all of them.

On the technology side of things, Solana and Shopify announced checkout with Solana and Solana Pay. This is big news, as Shopify has been exploring token gating, NFTs, and Web3 as a whole. With Solana Pay, it showcases some of the benefits that Solana has, such as fast transactions. However, it is a centralized blockchain, so that's something to keep in mind. It's great to see Shopify embracing and using crypto, benefiting both Solana and its users.

An image of Solana Pay and Shopify's logo combined on a purple and green abstract screen

Teia, a Tezos marketplace, announced their Teia token, which you can claim on Tezos. There's a blog post with more information, and you have until November 20th to claim it. From there, they're discussing opening the Teia DAO.

On the art side of things, Jeremy Booth has a new physical and NFT pairing dropping soon. Partnering with Transient Labs to bridge the physical and digital assets. This piece is titled “Ride Out” and it is epic.

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Dylan Wade announced a buy now price for his piece called Duet, priced at 2.5 ETH. It's a gorgeous piece, reminiscent of duck stamps collected by waterfowl hunters.

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The 6529 collection also announced its new meme card, number 135, featuring Xcopy's character and created by RustNFT.eth, titled “Summer Garden”. It's a beautiful piece that has drawn inspiration from Xcopy.

JediWolf recently interviewed Xcopy Art, and the thread can be found on Twitter. Some interesting questions were asked, such as Xcopy's belief in living in a simulation and his passion for GIFs. What stood out to me was Xcopy has been posting on Tumblr for over 10 years and has been motivated by people liking and sharing his work. He truly enjoys what he does which has led him to doing something over a long period of time regardless of success.

In more somber news, SuperRare saw less than 1 ETH in total sales in a day for the first time ever. This is surprising, considering the current sales and news in Web3.

Last two rapid fire ones, Luis Ponce previewed a new piece called Sinking In My Thoughts. Die With The Most Likes showed off a velvet hat, is this a hint at possible merchandise in the future? I dont know, other than this hat fucks.

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On a side note, the Zealy.io word for this weeks read is, “summergarden“. Make sure to get in on the fun and giveaways.

Notable Sales

We had a Punk, Punk 1002, sell for 61 ETH.

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Some nice 1/1 sales this past week (hat tip to NFTStats): Superfan by OSF sold for 15.6 ETH, Death by Alien Queen sold for 12 ETH.

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This past week is 209 editions of Player sold for 3.3 ETH in about 2 minutes. Something to keep in mind with that Player piece, it's already had 70 ETH in secondary volume, which is crazy.

And from there, the big 1/1 Sam Spratt piece that everyone has their eye on. The Monument game sold for 420.69 ETH, which is close to $700,000.

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Upcoming

And going back to the overall Sam Spratt game that's going on, currently right now, like I said, 70 ETH in total volume. I think they had three people in total not submit an observation, so really high levels of participation. The finalists will be announced on August 28th, and on August 31st, the three Skulls of Lucy winners will be announced and revealed. So definitely a crazy week this week. We shall see what happens.

We also got our first look at Noble Gallery Summer Finale. This piece by Xsullo, titled “BLOWBACK” is an epic piece. I know Lucrece is also working on his piece and hoping to get a preview soon.

Meme Of The Week

I guess BarkBark.Eth does not need to perform the ceremony haha.

Fin

Have a great rest of your week!

CIAHOAD-Rick James

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