Hello 👋
Welcome to the 27th edition of Sfermion’s Collider where we highlight the latest & greatest news in the world of web3 and gaming!
Weekly, we aim to drop a curated list of the most exciting stories & updates that we believe are enabling the emergence of the metaverse.
If you're looking forward to reading this edition of Sfermion’s Collider, please don't forget to subscribe below, share within your network, and follow Sfermion on Twitter to get the latest! Check out our Seam (💰) bio here :)
Web3 Updates
Ledger | Social Recovery & Backdoor Concerns : Ledger’s newest Nano X update allows users to subscribe to a recovery tool that encrypts the users’ seed phrase and sends it to different custodians to reconstruct the seed after going through ID verification. In response to the announcement, some Twitter users suggested that Ledger make Ledger Recover a totally separate product given the security concerns many have raised.
Coinbase | Global Advisory Council Formed : Coinbase has announced the creation of a Global Advisory Council after some of its leadership team visited the United Arab Emirates. The council is made up of former US lawmakers and industry leaders and aims to navigate the increasingly complex and evolving crypto landscape globally.
Visa | Testing Account Abstraction : Visa experiments with ERC4337 (Account Abstraction) to explore the potential uses of ERC4337 in a financial setting.
LG | TV Patent for NFT Trading : LG Electronics has recently filed a patent for its Smart TV, incorporating blockchain technology to enable users to trade NFTs.
Optimism | Bedrock Upgrade : Layer 2 scaling platform Optimism will upgrade its main network on June 6th. The work will require up to four hours of downtime. Bedrock will improve the security and resilience of the OP Mainnet bridge, and will significantly cut fees.
Soho (💰) | App Store Launch : Soho is the highly anticipated mobile platform for NFT collectors and creators. This week, they announced that Soho is coming out of beta and launching on the App Store! Soho helps you separate signal from noise and make more informed decisions about NFTs - be sure to download the app to enhance your connectivity to creators and pulse on the market.
Fabricant (💰) & Cornerstone | New VR World : Web3 fashion house The Fabricant announces a new VR world to showcase top wearables, teaming up with hyper-realistic metaverse Cornerstone. The Fabricant will use Cornerstone’s latest cloud-rendering tech to create immersive hyper-realistic experiences for its users.
Hyperspace (💰) | Sui Mainnet Launch : Leading NFT marketplace/aggregator on Solana is expanding to support Sui as well, as they go live with mainnet support earlier today.
BlockFi | Lending Platform Liquidated : BlockFi will liquidate its crypto lending platform in an effort to pay back creditors, according to a New Jersey bankruptcy court document filed Friday.
Parsons | Entering the Metaverse with Roblox : World-renowned Parsons hosts its first Roblox Course Preliminary Showcase featuring digital apparel from its students for the metaverse.
Bitcoin | 1 Million Addresses Own 1 Bitcoin : One million addresses now hold more than 1 BTC ($26,800), according to data from Glassnode.
Americana | New NFT Marketplace Launch : Backed by OpenSea and 776, Americana is a crypto-native NFT trading platform that bridges digital collectibles to real world assets. See more here.
Gaming Updates
Helika (💰) & Yuga Labs | Form Partnership : Helika teams with Yuga Labs to bring analytics to Web3 gaming.
Helika (💰) & Coinbase | Building on Base : Helika partners w Coinbase to generate unique, powerful, and customizable insights to help developers unlock the power of on-chain gaming w/ Base.
Immutable (💰) & MetaX | New Studio Partnership : Immutable highlights another strong studio partnership, this time with Meta-X. Meta-X, is backed by Tencent & formed by game industry vets from Square Enix, CapCom, Bandai Namco, and SEGA. They are gearing up to launch “The Dark Machine” - competitive AAA shooter.
Blockchain Space (💰) & Live Smart | Partnership Teaser : more to come soon 👀
Axie Infinity | App Store Launch : The rollout of the crypto game will begin in South America and select parts of Asia for a data gathering phase, before the global launch.
GALA Games | $600m Token Burn : Gala Games Burns Over $600 Million Worth of GALA Tokens as they virtually depleted its own treasury to alleviate concerns of a future token selloff.
MechaFightClub | Pausing Development : MechaFightClub NFT Game 'Paused Indefinitely' Due to US 'Regulatory Limbo'. Irreverent Labs received $40M in funding, but is now scrapping its cock-fighting Solana game MechaFightClub and offering to buy back NFTs.
Ronin | Mavis Marketplace Launch : Ronin / Sky Mavis introduce Mavis Market: Ronin's first generalized NFT Marketplace.
Army of Tactic | New Exciting Web3 Mobile Game Studio : It appears core members from Clash of Clans are building a new mobile experience with web3 elements. It’s early, but exciting news for sure. See the teaser here.
Rooms.xyz | Public Launch : a16z-backed Rooms.xyz lets you build interactive, 3D rooms and simple games in your browser. The idea is something in between a simple creation tool like Minecraft and a more advanced world-building platform. Check out the platform now as they launched earlier this week!
Polkastarter Gaming | GAM3 Quests Live : GAM3 Quests are now live! Dive into in-game challenges, complete social tasks & unlock exclusive prizes.
Thirdweb & Coinbase | On-chain Game on Base : Thirdweb built an on-chain game on Coinbase’s network Base and plans to offer its tech/infra to future Base builders. The game was built in just 3 weeks, according to reports.
Karate Combat | Airdropped $KARATE & Up Only Gaming on App Store
GameDev Reports | Apptica: Mobile Puzzles market in Q1 2023
Research & Interesting Reads
Blockchain Capital | The Evolution of Player-Owned Economies and the Rise of Digital Asset Ownership
1kx | Evaluating token economics for Web3 infrastructure networks: Part I - emission schedules
a16z | From Unknown Title to Viral Game: 12 Growth Lessons From Spellbreak
Multicoin | From UGC to UGP: Consumer Brands & Co-Creation
Sino Global | Immerse, Create, and Collaborate: The Age of On-Chain Gaming
TCG Crypto | Building on Passion
Seed Club (💰) | Revenue? In This Economy?
Packy McCormick | Small Applications, Growing Protocols
Decentralised.co | The Memes of Production
ForeFront | Economic Models for Tokenized Communities
Generation AI: The New Age of K-pop
How AI Enables a New Era of Cross-DAO Collaboration
Exploring The Future of Web3 Wallets: Innovations, Challenges, and Key Questions to Ask
BanklessDAO & TalentDAO | DAOversity Report
BanklessDAO | ERC-6551: The NFT Game-Changer
NFT Drops & Updates
Pudgy Penguins | In-Store & Amazon Toys Launch : Pudgy Penguins launch their toys via Amazon - selling out over $500k in inventory in 2 days. These toys come as part of their wider IP expansion plans. Each toy comes with a digital experience linked to Pudgy World - an experience that gives the non-NFT public their very first blockchain wallet, Soulbound NFT, and Tradeable NFTs, all in one simple sign up with an email address.
Adidas | Rebrand into Web3 : Adidas formally rebrands their Indigo Herz web3 project to “Alts by Adidas” as they diver deeper into the world of web3 and community building.
Adidas | Airdropped Motel Coin NFT : Adidas has airdropped 3 Rift Valley Motel Coin NFTs (per ALT) to all ALTS holders! These coins are important for CHAPTER 2, granting one access to the next step in customizing their ALTS by adidas PFP Avatar.
Nike | .Swoosh OF1 Box Sale : Nike kicks off the swoosh experience with their first OF1 digital sneakers sale.
Yuga Labs revealed the art for its HV-MTL collection and strategic updates for Legends of Mara experience.
RTFKT | CryptoKicks iRL Unhubbing Window Live : Unhubbing is now Live. You can now unhub your Cryptokicks iRL at http: /rtfkt.com until Monday, May 29th.
Deadfellaz unveils Streamingfellaz, an extension that lets users stream video in the form of their Deadfellaz avatar.
Jack Butcher & Christies | Elements Limited Edition Drop : Elements is a 152-run of colored Checks inspired by earth, air, fire, and water. Each piece in the collection is algorithmically generated from four initial “Alpha” editions and comes in both an NFT version and a high-quality physical print. The digital editions have a subtle animation. The physicals are big 30" x 42" handmade prints from master printmaker Jean Milant. Starting bids for Alpha editions will be 0.0044 ETH. 30% of sales proceeds go to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.
Top 10 Historical NFTs Everyone Should Know
Notable Raises
Ten31VC | $100m Fund : Investing $100MM into the Bitcoin Ecosystem. Partnered with over 30 leading bitcoin companies and significant supporters of the open source movement.
Auradine | $81m raise : Auradine raises $81M to build 'next-generation web infrastructure.
NewLimit | $40m raise : NewLimit, cofounded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, raises $40M to extend life.
River Financial | $35m raise : Bitcoin services startup River Financial secures $35M from Peter Thiel and others.
Red Beard Ventures | $25m Fund : Red Beard Ventures Closes $25M Funding Round With Animoca Brands and others. The Web3 venture capital firm hopes to support early-stage DeFi and Web3 gaming projects and is also launching a tokenomics accelerator.
Super League Gaming | $23.8m raise : Super League Gaming has raised $23.8 million from selling convertible preferred stock, attracted both new and existing investors. The company said it will use the funds to settle debt, fund ongoing operations, and finance growth initiatives.
Rooter | $16m raise : Indian esports and gaming content platform streaming platform Rooter raises $16M.
Airstack | $7m raise : Airstack, an AI-powered web3 developer platform, raises round led by Superscrypt.
Another Block | $4.3m raise : Anotherblock, a startup using NFTs as a way to sell streaming royalties to music fans, raises round led by Stride VC.
Another Ball | $2.2m raise : AnotherBall raises $2.2M in its angel round from renowned investors and announces "IZUMO," a VTuber project in the age of AI and Web3.
NFT Studios | Strategic raise : NFTStudios raises strategic capital from Pak, Hackatao, Tom Sachs and others to build our NFT tools/infra for creators, and to also reconstruct the ASH Ecosystem.
Polygon Co-Founder | Nailwal Fellowship : Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal and the venture capital firm he helped found, Symbolic Capital, announced Monday the launch of the new Nailwal Fellowship to provide early-stage builders with financial support in making the jump from Web2 to Web3. Nailwal is pledging his own money toward the $500,000 cohort of 10 builders selected each year.
Mo & Andrew's Curated
Metaverse Live Ep. 15 - Exclusive INSIDER Scoop! Arca’s Crypto Hedge Fund :
Web3
7,352
How the term "wallet" is psychologically limiting web3's growth potential, and a case for abandoning it.
We can only fight the fights on privacy, self-custody, innovation, etc. when we are somewhat serious.
And with @Immutable now building on Polygon, these numbers will only grow to be larger.
Polygon: DeFi, Gaming, Loyalty/Rewards, Sports, PFPs, Enterprise,…
Soon users on Ethereum will be able to install and use multiple browser wallets
This is a monumental UX improvement for Web3
While it’s still in Draft I would like to invite all Wallets to review this
eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-6963
, starting with the problem:The blockchain didn't "finalize" for about 20 minutes on Thursday and again on Friday. But what does that mean? (1/9)
NFT
Here's how it works and the impact on your experience as an NFT holder.
(1/15)
You can now give holders 100% of royalties
and completely stop Blur and Opensea from setting royalties to 0%
Why you should care about this new kind of NFT (ERC721-C)
1/13
We discovered that:
the first purchase EVER with bitcoin was buying a JPEG for 500 BTC in Feb 2010 it pre-dates the the famous 10,000 BTC pizza satoshi himself helped facilitate the JPEG sale laser-eye cult in absolute SHAMBLES
How @eth_ben went from being a small NFT influencer to raising $6.9M USD in under 72 hours
(1/24)
It currently holds the record for having the most inscriptions.
5,896 inscriptions to be exact.
That's 93.3% of its transactions.
Ordinals and BRC-20 are literally the number one use case on Bitcoin.
The downstream effects of this are going to be incredible.
Does #ApeFollowApe still work?
Exciting news!
We're collaborating with @gitssac2045 for an exclusive Solana co-branded STEPN Sneaker Raffle on #MOOAR
Get your hands on 1900 OGs + 100 Genesis co-branded sneakers!
Read on for the full details
[1/5]
A
on utility for gamers, retail investors, and creators.
Gaming
Original PvE vision from 2019 is no more. Talent trees scrapped, and there will be no standalone version.
It's just little bits of PvE such as missions/stories released with each PvP season as part of their live service.
Man...
Introducing World Engine -- a sharded rollup SDK built to horizontally scale onchain games and blur the line between onchain games vs. traditional game server
1/4
Netmarble is developing a "metaverse" kind experience.
Netmarble is one of the biggest mobile game publishers with 100s of millions in downloads.
V-Tubers are one of the groups they're targeting.
what I would have given for such stellar engagement stats in F2P, thanks @HelikaAnalytics for the sit down/interview with @VentureBeat 
Helika teams with Yuga Labs to bring analytics to Web3 gaming
Whenever a new game platform arises, so too does an analytics startup. That's because analytics deliver insights.
)
AI
Introducing the ChatGPT app for iOS
The ChatGPT app syncs your conversations, supports voice input, and brings our latest model improvements to your fingertips.
ChatGPT is now falling behind.
Here are 10 things you can do with Bard that aren't possible with ChatGPT:
In the last 4 days:
JIZAI Robots
Med-PaLM 2
Google x Adobe
Tesla Optimus AI
New ChatGPT UI
Unreal Engine 5.2
Amazon Burnham
Amazon AI Search
Sam Altman in DC
Apple Voice Cloning
Alzheimer's Detection
OpenAI: Open-Source LLM
Here's what you need to know:
Random
Updating our inactive account policies
Starting later this year, we are updating our inactivity policy for Google Accounts to 2 years across our products.
💰 = Sfermion Portfolio Company
Curated by @mopat1214 + @AndrewSteinwold
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Sfermion does not offer investment advice/analysis and makes no recommendations on how to act. Information regarding any company or investment in this Newsletter, including any links to information on our website, should not be viewed as an endorsement or recommendation of that company or investment for any purpose whatsoever. Any person receiving this Newsletter is encouraged to consult with their own financial advisor, or relevant personnel, before making any investment decision.