Singapore Using NFTs In New Social Welfare Program

Estimated Read Time: 5 min

Hey friends,

Great to have you back for today's round-up. Today we have some intriguing stories from Magic Eden to Marathons, so let's jump into it!

Magic Eden Makes Creator Royalties Optional

A leading factor for the initial NFT revolution was an artist's ability to earn royalty payments on secondary sales of their NFT art. However, the feature widely believed to be mandatory has been easily circumvented by some platforms. Solana's largest NFT marketplace, 'Magic Eden' announced through Twitter it would make artist royalty payments optional, saying “This is not a decision we take lightly. We understand this move has serious implications for the ecosystem. We also hope it is not a permanent decision. Today, royalties are not enforceable on-chain. We welcome and hope to see new standards that protect royalties”. Magic Eden has been the leading NFT marketplace on Solana, home to 95% of the eco-system earlier this year, but after a rise of royalty-free competitors, Magic Eden's market share dropped by about 60%. In turn, this motivated Magic Eden to take similar action. Magic Eden also simultaneously announced a campaign to temporarily waive all platform fees, trying to further incentivize Solana traders back onto Magic Eden, which has worked considering 86% of Solana's NFT volume has been on Magic Eden over the past 24 hours. 

The contentious move from Magic Eden has yielded an interesting consequence that forced OpenSea to remove Solana NFT projects from its leaderboard. OpenSea, which honors creator royalties, removed Solana projects from their leaderboards due to market manipulation that comes from wash trading on the network. Due to even fewer fees in buying/selling, wash trading has occurred where people will artificially trade an NFT between controlled wallets to boost the trading volume of a project, thus elevating it on leaderboards and leading to market manipulation, which I'm sure the SEC would not be happy about. Magic Eden's controversial decision is likely to raise eyebrows in the community as royalties have been critical to some projects, but may in-act motivation for the industry to find a way to enforce creator royalties on the blockchain.

Singapore Using NFTs To Help Vulnerable People And Families

In pretty much every newsletter, we cover a brand new use-case of NFT technology that is pushing the envelope of how these “monkey jpegs” will change the world, and this time it's Singapore leveraging NFTs to benefit the less privileged. The South East Community Development Council in Singapore will distribute NFTs to 120 vulnerable people and their families over a 10-year period. In partnership with a local Web3 company LifesDAO, the NFTs will give access to the LifesDAOs network of over 100 merchants that include services from hairdressers to traditional medicines. Over the 10-year period, ten NFTs with a value of $6,000 each will be given to people selected from the council's social programs, the Mayor of South East District Fahmi Aliman, says “It is the first time we are social brokering through NFTs to provide services for the vulnerable in our community. We are heartened to have such meaningful partnerships, initiatives like this serve as a part of our mission to strengthen social infrastructure in our community by identifying and addressing the different needs of our residents”. This is not the first time we have seen NFTs be used in charitable endeavors, but instead of the typical auction of a collection, LifeDAO is better at utilizing the technology so the real-world utility can uplift the real-world community.

Adidas Issues NFT Medals For Marathon Runners

Here at Morning NFTea, we firmly believe in NFTs and their ability to revolutionize the world through the brand-new opportunities that the technology has opened up. On the road to this mainstream adoption, it has been refreshing to see an increasing number of NFT implementations that have not solely had a monetary focus. The most recent evidence of this is Adidas teaming up with Qurable to issue NFT medals to competitors at the latest Buenos Aires International Marathon. Qurable is a Web3 platform that helps brands leverage NFTs. Recently, they teamed up with Adidas and created the “NFT Finishers Medal”. Participants will be able to collect a custom digital medal that certifies their finishing times on the blockchain while giving access to other benefits through the Adidas AdiClub loyalty program. Quarable CEO Federico Garcia says “We understand the value of this new technology, and what validation and authenticity processes involve in the blockchain. We picture all marathons around the world awarding this type of medal allowing runners to truly live a decentralized experience and certify their performance before any organization in the world”. Although not a game-changing use case, this nonetheless exemplifies the almost infinite possibilities of the technology, whether that be personalizing a marathon runners medal with verifiable performance, or helping Singaporean families through tokenized access to everyday services, the possibilities of NFTs are endless and we have barely even scratched the surface.

Thank you for joining us on today's edition of Morning NFTea. Have a wonderful day and we will catch ya on Monday for the next edition of Morning NFTea!

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DISCLAIMER: 

None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.