Cycle Thoughts, Immutable & Polygon Team Up, AI Art & NFTs, & Top Trending Coins
In This Issue
- For this weeks portfolio tip, I have some “Cycle Thoughts”.
- Web3 Academy has an article on how Immutable X and Polygon are transforming the world of gaming.
- Sam has a report for you on AI art and NFTs.
- Rebecca has this week’s top trending coins.
March Alpha Report
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- 👀 The top altcoins to watch
- 🧑🌾 The best DeFi farms
- 🙊 The most exciting NFT mints
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Lark’s Portfolio Tips
Cycle Thoughts
Bitcoin has been going up recently, which is nice, in fact it now makes up about 52% of my total portfolio, but altcoins are still lagging a bit.
This is something that we see a lot in the crypto market cycles. Bitcoin tends to be an early mover, and the rest of the market will then follow behind it. As time goes on this correlation becomes a bit more muted, since a BTC pump does indeed pull up altcoins, but what you will see is while fiat pairings for altcoins might be doing ok, the BTC pairing tend to not do very well at all in a BTC trend.
Unless something really bad happens, and of course it can, then where we are right now with Bitcoin is likely a very important time. We are right now exiting a multi month capitulation zone and price range. Macro conditions are driving markets back towards risk assets for the moment.
While there have been some altcoins that have absolutely slayed it in the last few months, we are far away from a broader altcoin season. Such a time will require BTC to have its big run, and then finally find a place to rest for a while. The market will also likely have many mini versions of this on BTC’s way to wherever it is heading. Once BTC chills, then over the following few weeks we will likely see altcoins making big moves.
I am talking broad strokes here. As we have seen there have been a lot of big money makers this year in the altcoin space that have dramatically out performed BTC. But every once in a while in crypto BTC can suck the air out of the room.
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Immutable & Polygon Are Transforming The World Of Gaming by Web3 Academy
A massive partnership has just occurred in the gaming world between two web3 giants. It will set the stage for blockchain gaming to finally reach its true form.
Here’s the situation:
Gamers have by now accepted the risks of losing their assets when companies close up shop, considering it an unfortunate but inescapable reality in the gaming world.
Similarly to how we don’t really own our data and identities in web2, gamers have never really owned any of the assets they’ve purchased inside the games.
That was the case for a long time, until blockchains came about. More specifically, NFTs. And NFTs changed everything, kind of.
They were promised to be the solution for bringing in-game asset ownership to the masses, tilting the balance of power in favor of the gamers.
But there was one problem, however. In-game assets as NFTs couldn’t scale due to the limited bandwidth of Layer-1 blockchains and the resulting high gas fees made it an impossible dream.
But necessity is the mother of innovation and so, years later, we have arrived at the perfect solution – Immutable zkEVM, the brain-child of a partnership between Polygon Labs and ImmutableX that could truly bring web3 gaming to the masses.
In short, it’s a highly scalable and customizable Layer-2 chain that empowers its users to build complex and fast applications and games without sacrifices.
It makes use of the best of Immutable and Polygon’s technologies, and combines them into a powerhouse of a chain.
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We know this phrase is thrown around a lot, but this innovation, paired with the right execution, has the potential to kickstart a new era in web3 gaming.
So let’s now explore the “Why?” of web3 gaming first, and how Immutable is leading the way.
Why Do Gamers Need Web3?
$150 billion
That’s how much gamers spend annually on in-game assets alone. The kicker? These are items that they don’t own, can’t trade, and have limited rights to.
This needs to change. In a world where we finally have technology that enables us to have ownership over digital assets such as money and identity, the same should happen for in-game items.
This is the premise on which the two Layer-2 giants, Immutable and Polygon, have built their partnership on.
After years of intense competition in the L2 space, they realized that what they should be fighting against are the incumbents of the game industry.
It was time to join forces in order to double down on the efforts to give rights to players to buy their assets, own them and sell them, and to create interoperable digital universes where they can feel creatively and financially empowered.
Why Do Game Companies Need Web3?
As much as we like to vilify the game development companies, the truth is that they’re not all that bad.
They’ve been building incredible games for decades, providing countless experiences that players have willingly spent billions of hours on.
However, the gaming industry is changing, and so are the demands of gamers.
Web3 enables game companies to offer true ownership of in-game assets, creating a more immersive and valuable experience for players.
This new level of ownership not only empowers gamers but also opens up new revenue streams for game developers.
With blockchains, game companies can create decentralized marketplaces for in-game items, allowing players to trade assets and even take them from one game to another.
This enhances the gaming experience and fosters a more dynamic and interconnected gaming ecosystem… and brings more royalties and fee revenues for the game developers!
Lastly, embracing web3 technology allows game companies to stay competitive, innovate, and differentiate themselves from traditional platforms, attracting a new generation of gamers who value digital ownership, transparency, and decentralization.
The Immutable & Polygon Web3 Playbook
Their playbook for bringing web3 mainstream has been straightforward for years.
It’s been to build fast, scalable and decentralized blockchain infrastructure that can be deployed on mass scale.
And in the meantime, invest in companies and projects building the next generation of web3-native apps, games and tools that leverage that infrastructure.
And the numbers don’t lie. They are the two largest funders in the web3 gaming space, with Immutable and Polygon having invested ~$1B each in the ecosystem in 2022 alone!
They are also the only ones who are really taking web3 gaming seriously on such a large scale.
They are making sure that not only the proper infrastructure is built, but also that sufficient funds are going into projects, and that partnerships between them and the biggest web2 companies are being forged.
And this last point is particularly important, as there’s no adoption without willing adopters that can kickstart a network effect.
As we’ve said before, you can’t just build a thing and expect everyone to jump on-board. You have to show competence, a track record, and, most importantly, build relationships.
The business development arms of both companies are incredibly strong, which is a rarity in this industry. They’ve been forging partnerships left and right, onboarding many large web2 brands and companies.
And now, with the announcement of their partnership and the rollout of Immutable’s innovative Layer-2, they have likely cracked the thick barrier separating them from the incumbent game companies.
Large, ossified, successful companies do not change easily. Because of their size, they need to be given hard evidence that this latest technology is worth its salt, and isn’t just hype.
What’s more, they need to see that these novel technologies have competent companies behind them that have a track record of success, and the business savvy and financial resources to facilitate the on-boarding of such massive companies onto their platforms.
Both Polygon and Immutable have excelled in this area.
The partnership bolsters trust in Immutable, enabling them to offer major game companies like Activision and Ubisoft a comprehensive solution for blockchain integration and proving it’s financially beneficial for them.
Game companies need Web3 to evolve with the changing landscape of gaming and to meet the growing demands of modern gamers.
Slowly, but surely they will all become web3-pilled, once they realize the full benefits of blockchains.
And Immutable is steadily paving the way towards this very future.
AI Art and NFTs by Sam
A big part of the NFT world is the overlap between art and technology, so it makes sense that AI art and NFTs can make for a natural combination.
AI art refers, as you might expect, to any art generated with the assistance of AI. That’s a little vague, though, and there’s already a category of art that’s very prevalent in NFTs called generative art.
Generative art means art that’s generated via an artist-created algorithm, although it might include components (perhaps hand-drawn) created by the artist. You might sometimes see it referred to as creative coding.
AI art, on the other hand, may be created by an AI system (such as Midjourney or DALL-E) that operates purely on natural text prompts from the user. But then, AI output might (or might not) be altered and adapted by an artist to create a composition that is more than just the AI output.
It’s an area with no clear boundaries, generative art and AI art are closely interlinked, and there’s plenty of debate around the subject, but let’s put that aside for now, and hone in on some NFT platforms, collectives and creators that fall within the AI art category.
Platforms and Collectives
BrainDrops
Co-founded by Justin Trimble and Gene Kogan, the BrainDrops platform specializes in AI art released as NFTs. Carefully curating what gets released through the platform, it functions also as a community hub, and generate a lot of interest when it mints a new collection.
Brain Drops dates back to 2021, when, on November 15th, three collections (by Gene Kogan, Claire Silver, and Pindar Van Arman) were minted. These are known as the Day One set, and if you hold a piece from each collection, you gain access to pre-mints from future drops.
There are currently seventeen BrainDrops collections, and it’s a great starting point from which to explore AI art NFTs.
Obvious
This French art collective is famous for creating a piece called Edmond de Belamy, which was the first AI artwork to sell at auction, in 2018, fetching $432,500 at Christie’s New York. That wasn’t an NFT, but Obvious now releases work as NFTs too, with 1/1s for sale on SuperRare, a collection released with BrainDrops and, recently, a collaboration with Opera de Paris, as well as physical art works.
Bright Moments
Focused on generative art and AI art, Bright Moment is an accomplished NFT platform that brings together physical and digital experiences at its live minting events. The platform started in California, but feels international, is touring galleries in cities around the world, and has partnered with Pace Gallery and Art Blocks.
The ongoing NFT collection at the core of Bright Moments is called CryptoCitizens, and there are Mint Passes to attend the IRL events (at which CryptoCitizens are minted), the next of which is happening in Tokyo in May, and features an AI art collection.
Sansa
This is an NFT marketplace specializing in generative and AI art. It’s not focused only on AI, but a lot of AI artists and projects seem to favor Sansa over OpenSea and other well-known marketplaces.
Artists
Claire Silver
Perhaps the biggest name in AI art NFTs is Claire Silver, who has grabbed headlines with some big sales, including two works that were each bought for 52.69 ETH on SuperRare, and a 40 ETH sale on MakersPlace.
Silver comes originally from an analog art background, moved into digital formats, and takes an experimental, open-minded approach, describing herself as collaborating with AI. And if you think AI art isn’t really art, then Silver has a collection actually called AI Art is Not Art that might be of interest.
Pindar Van Arman
Another big name is Pindar Van Arman, who describes himself as “collaborating with my artificially intelligent painting robots”. He has a strong media presence, and his blog is a very unpretentious and accessible place to learn more about AI art.
Van Arman’s on-chain, animated bitGANs project–featuring psychedelically distorted 8-bit loops and characters familiar to anyone holding pieces from the Nouns NFT project–is particularly well known.
Huemin
Creating AI art since 2021, Huemin has become a prominent creator in the AI NFT world, and recently dropped a collection through BrainDrops called Materia Mania, which depicts colorful but minimal 3D shapes. Not for everyone, perhaps, but it’s the kind of style that goes down well in NFT art circles (see Chromie Squiggles for an iconic example).
For more substantial images, take a look at the New Dimension collection, which is inspired by the work of Hasui Kawase, an early twentieth century Japanese woodblock printer, but which incorporates techy geometric patterns. And if you want to dive into a creative AI community, you can join Huemin’s Deforum Discord server, where you’ll find art and some very technical discussions.
Helena Sarin
Describing herself as an engineering artist, Helena Sarin comes from a practical tech background (having worked as a designer of both communication systems and computer vision software), and an analog artistic background (utilizing watercolor and pastel), and she now combines these tech and art strands to produce AI art.
As well as 1/1 NFTs, she produces physical prints and ceramics patterned with AI designs, and one of her works, called On The Sunny Side of AI, Swinging Out Easy recently sold for 16 ETH to the influential 6529 Capital investment fund.
Roope Rainisto
While some other artists refer to themselves as collaborating with computers, Roope Rainisto is not worried about hurting the AI’s robotic feelings, describing himself as “enslaving computers to create art”.
With a career background in design, UX and writing, Rainisto is now focused on the creative possibilities enabled by AI, and gained a lot of attention recently for his Life in West America project. Glanced at from a distance, the photo-style images in the collection look like classic Americana, but on closer inspection, they’re replete with weirdly unsettling AI distortions.
And finally, Rainisto’s Life in West America loops us back, again, to the BrainDrops platform, through which it was released.
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Trending Coins This Week by Rebecca
Here are my key takeaways from the trends this week and whilst the banking crisis continues to cause chaos in traditional markets, the crypto market is only getting stronger.
- Radiant Capital is a decentralized, non-custodial lending protocol on Arbitrum that’s just launched Radiant v2. Radiant’s DAO will also be launching on Binance’s BNB Chain.
- Ovr is an AR platform on Ethereum that’s announced it will be at the Metaverse Fashion Week at the end of March.
- Camelot is an Arbitrum-based DEX that’s reached $100M in total-value locked (TVL). The GRAIL token is also now listed for borrowing and lending on Vendor Finance.
- inSure DeFi is a decentralized insurance ecosystem that’s been listed on some new platforms including the Vulkania app and O3 Labs.
- Arbitrum is an Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution that’s finally announced its ARB token and will be launching on March 23 with an airdrop to the community. This will also mark Arbitrum’s transition to a DAO.
- Optimism is an Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution that’s seen its nodes affected by Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade in the Goerli testnet. Optimism needed a critical update for node operators to resume syncing.
- Conflux is a PoW/PoS hybrid blockchain that’s announced a $10M investment from KuCoin Ventures to fund a Chinese yuan-pegged stablecoin.
- Magic is a decentralized gaming ecosystem that’s announced it will be one of the first to build on Arbitrum.
- Stacks is a Bitcoin smart contracts platform that’s launched its major 2.1 upgrade and the STX token is up 76%.
- GMX is a DeFi perpetual exchange that’s seen its token jump 21% in the aftermath of the banking crisis, proving DeFi is the future. GMX has also seen a boost in activity due to the Arbitrum token airdrop announcement.
- Hop Protocol is a protocol for sending tokens across rollups that’s been featured in a video from DeFi Dad on Twitter. The ConsenSys zk-EVM has also recently been integrated into Hop’s testnet site.
- Vela is a DEX on Arbitrum that’s reached $4B in trading volume after just one month in beta. The exchange has also launched its official Vela NFT in open beta.
- Gala is a play-to-earn (P2E) gaming and music ecosystem that’s launched its token burn for TOWN as the ecosystem bids farewell to the token ready for Town Star’s new economy.
- JOE is a DEX on Avalanche that’s teasing a new launch over on Twitter. Uniswap has also announced it will deploy on Avalanche and add support for the AVAX token.
- Ethereum has been used by Australia’s National Bank to complete its first stablecoin transaction on the network. The go-live date for the Shanghai upgrade has also been announced and will happen on or around April 12.
Follow Rebecca on Twitter and Instagram.
Final Notes
Huge crypto news for Bitcoin, Coinbase, Polygon, and The FED! Make sure to find out what it is in the video below 👇
Thank you so much for your support, and I truly hope that today’s issue will give you insights needed to help you master your wealth.
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See you next time!
Lark and the Wealth Mastery Team
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Wealth Mastery (Lark Davis, and the Wealth Mastery writing team) are not providing you individually tailored investment advice. Nor is Wealth Mastery registered to provide investment advice, is not a financial adviser, and is not a broker-dealer. The material provided is for educational purposes only. Wealth Mastery is not responsible for any gains or losses that result from your cryptocurrency investments. Investing in cryptocurrency involves a high degree of risk and should be considered only by persons who can afford to sustain a loss of their entire investment. Investors should consult their financial adviser before investing in cryptocurrency.
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