ALTCOIN JOURNAL

2021 is proving to be a breakthrough year for NFTs, but what is driving such impressive performance? This Altcoin Journal Research report has the answers. In 2010, if someone had told you that Internet memes, digital artwork and Twitter avatars would sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, would you have believed them?  Well, these are nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, in a nutshell. NFTs are driving blockchains toward uncharted territory on the backs of cute kitties and pixelated punks. What may appear to be a shroud of speculation over pointless collectibles is actually the clouded horizon of fintech innovation. NFTs represent a turning point. Blockchain technology is now being used to represent assets beyond the chain. In order to understand the thriving and intriguing world of NFTs, the Altcoin Journal Research team delves deep into this new space, presenting the findings in the latest report “Nonfungible Tokens: A New Frontier.” This report covers the history and development of ...

Goodbye Spotify, music nonfungible tokens have arrived: Reimagining the music streaming model in the Web 3.0 era. The music industry has undergone a massive transformation in recent years. We have seen the advent of the internet leave its mark on music, and most notably, 1999 spelled the coming of Napster. This then-revolutionary peer-to-peer online streaming service defined a whole generation and enabled musicians to share their creations with the world. Streaming has become the dominant format for music today, through Apple, Amazon, Tencent Music and the clear category winner — Spotify. The goal of distribution services and platforms like Spotify is to enable and empower artists to create more without worrying about anything besides honing their craft. However, that’s just on paper — does reality reflect this utopian ideal? Not so much. Sure, the “transformation” of music in the past decades is evident, but it seems that someone got left behind. And the saddest thing is that those wh...

Metaverse Group has snapped up a lot of land and has said it has no plans to stop buying plots of metaverse land across various metaverse platforms. Metaverse Group, which is headquartered in Decentraland, announced on Nov. 23 that it had completed what it calls “the largest Metaverse land acquisition in history.” The subsidiary of Tokens.com snapped up 116 parcels of land “in the heart of the Fashion Street district” in Decentraland. The total size of the land purchased is equivalent to 6,090 square feet of land at the cost of 618,000 MANA tokens worth about $2.5 million. Metaverse Group plans to develop the estate for fashion shows and commerce. It will also form partnerships with fashion brands looking to expand their presence in the Metaverse, especially in Decentraland. “Fashion is the next massive area for growth in the Metaverse,” said Sam Hamilton, Head of Content at the Decentraland Foundation. The deal is the first of many by Metaverse Group since Tokens.com became its primar...

Search queries for “NFT” and “nonfungible token” have become even more popular than searches for “Dogecoin”, “blockchain” and even “Ethereum.” Google’s keyword search data shows interest in nonfungible tokens (NFTs) has surged to record levels, with traffic beating out search terms pertinent to many crypto assets ranked among the top ten. According to Google Trends, interest in NFTs saw a dramatic spike at the start of the year as Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot and vintage Ethereum-based NFTs saw frenzied speculation. While the bubble initially appeared short-lived — with search volume drying up by roughly 75% as of the end of June, interest began to bounce back in July before breaking into new highs at the end of October. Search volume for “NFT” (blue) and “non-fungible token” (red) over 24 months: Google Trends Since then, Google search traffic for NFT-related keywords has continued to surge, doubling over the past three months. The spike in interest has seen “NFT” overtake many of keywor...

With NFTs and blockchain technology, artists are empowered to monetize the secondary market and eliminate ticket fraud. The music industry is dominated by scalpers who are looking for arbitrage opportunities to resell tickets. Although the phenomenon is not new, it has only become more apparent with the impact of the pandemic, making the market even more centralized than it had been previously. The sad reality is, now artists’ insiders, automated bots, partnerships with second-hand ticket retailers and those looking to make ticket resales their business have used these actions for their own personal gain. Unfortunately, many still do not recognize the impact this has on their favorite artists. The result has been that artists now have a more difficult time making a decent living. Typically an artist's album sales will go directly to their label, making them more reliant on revenue from performing live shows, which is further amplified by artists who will lose out on a good chunk of...

While Jason Citron said the NFT feature was in “pre-release” mode, he has now changed his tune after being bombarded with thousands of comments calling on him to drop the plans. Popular community messaging app Discord has been forced to walk back its plans to integrate with Ethereum-based nonfungible tokens (NFTs) following a strong backlash from a significant number of its user base. The pushback started on Tuesday after Discord’s founder and CEO Jason Citron tweeted “probably nothing” accompanied by a screenshot of the app’s user settings page that displayed an Ether (ETH) logo and option to connect digital wallets such as Meta Mask and Wallet Connect. Citron was then bombarded with thousands of comments calling on him to abandon the plans along with users threatening to cancel Nitro subscriptions. The crypto-skeptics asserted that NFTs are a Ponzi scheme and damaging to the environment due to the amount of energy consumption used to mine cryptocurrencies. "I kindly request that...

FIDE said that it hopes to “welcome a new crypto demographic” through the “gamification of iconic match moments, unique collectibles [and] chess-related art.” Digitalization keeps on coming to one of the oldest games in the world as FIDE, the International Chess Federation, announces its plans for a nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace. The group said that the marketplace, which launches at the end of November, will be called ChessNFT.  FIDE is the first global sports federation to create its own NFT ecosystem and it does so ahead of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2021. The event is set to take place at the Expo 2020 Dubai from Nov. 24 to Dec. 16. Just last month, the reigning world champion, Magnus Carlsen, won an NFT trophy in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. A replica trophy was auctioned off to a fan for 6.88 ETH, with the winner also getting the chance to play with Carlsen. By further delving into the world of NFTs, FIDE said that it hopes to “welcome a new crypto demogra...