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Infinity Weekly: Treated like Royalties

Issue 43 of our ever-popular weekly newsletter. Sign up today to have it delivered to your inbox!

InfinitySwap

Feb 26, 2023 • 10 min read

Welcome to Issue #43 of Infinity Weekly for our INFINISWAPPERS community. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, sign up here.

What's in Today's Email?

IC Ecosystem News
This Week in our Blog
NFT Market Bytes
Around the Web
Tweet of the Week
Video of the Week
Meme Time
A Matter of Opinion

IC Ecosystem News

♾ February Update: 2023's DFINITY Global R&D series continues with the February meeting, covering everything from the SNS Platform Release, OpenChat SNS implementation, an ICP.Lab update, demos, and more. Missed the live event? You can catch up by watching the recorded session:

♾ Très Bon: Justin Bons, Founder of CyberCapital and a well-respected figure in crypto Twitter, recently published a multipart thread critiquing what he saw as flaws in the Internet Computer blockchain and DFINITY's marketing efforts, among other points of concern. The IC community's reactions were varied but were generally civil and engaging. Bons, DFINITY representatives, and the community spoke together in a Twitter Space on Friday, where everyone was surprised by an unexpected guest--Arkham Intelligence CEO, Miguel Morel.

This is wild

In an unexpected twist, the CEO of Arkham, @RealMiguelMorel, showed up for the Twitter Spaces!

He has agreed to release the addresses it referenced if ICP also discloses its treasury addresses!

A peace deal in the making; starts at 1:47:36https://t.co/lvDyOsCdgT
— Justin Bons (@Justin_Bons) February 24, 2023

♾ My Rubic Stays Cubic:

Rubic announced this Wednesday that it had integrated the IC blockchain onto its platform. Rubic is a cross-chain tech aggregator that also provides tools for dApps. It aggregates data from over 90 DEXs and bridges, and its incorporation of the IC will likely lead to greater positive exposure to the larger crypto community.

#Rubic has integrated @dfinity #ICP, The Internet Computer - a general-purpose #blockchain that runs decentralized apps at hyper-fast speeds.

On https://t.co/rDZSZrTUTe, our users can now perform #crosschain swaps to ICP, amongst 40+ other chains. pic.twitter.com/a3XcWdkrUK
— Rubic (@CryptoRubic) February 22, 2023

♾ Join Denver: Going to EthDenver? Join DFINITY and connect with Internet Computer enthusiasts. There will be hack bounties, live workshops, and more! Plus you'll be able to meet teams developing unique dApps on the IC, like ORIGYN, Finterest, and Hot or Not.

This Week In Our Blog

Learn how the IC is addressing the issue of scalability in an innovative way compared to traditional blockchain systems. The Internet Computer's Chain Key Technology, for example, allows for greater scalability, security, and flexibility.

Reverse gas fees are one of the most radically different things about the Internet Computer. Unlike other blockchains where the user constantly has to worry about unpredictable gas fees, the IC has created a frictionless environment for ecosystem users. But how does it work, exactly? Read our deep dive into reverse gas fees:

InfinitySwap has the potential to disrupt traditional banking like no other DEX has done before. Increased security and transparency, lower costs, and greater accessibility are just a few of what InfinitySwap has to offer.

InfinitySwap is building the world's first Bitcoin-enabled EVM, a game changer for DeFi as we know it. But what is an EVM? Ethereum Virtual Machines are an essential part of the Ethereum ecosystem and a favorite playground for DeFi degens. Read our article to learn about everything you've wanted to know about EVMs.

The importance of building an EVM on the IC cannot be understated. Not only will it allow for greater interoperability between different blockchains but it will enable developers to easily port existing Ethereum dApps to the IC, paving the way for a much more diverse and rich ecosystem on the Internet Computer.

InfinitySwap is officially the first and currently only project building an EVM on the Internet Computer. But being the only player on the field isn't why we're bullish on InfinitySwap. The Internet Computer is a sophisticated blockchain and requires high technical knowledge and implementation, which the experienced and innovative InfinitySwap team can deliver.

NFT Market Bytes

· The big news in NFTs on the Internet Computer today is the launch of the first mint from the Flower Power DAO website. The DAO voted to accept a collaboration between BTC Flower artist Ludo and the Clown Skateboards team. Specifically, Ludo was able to use the logo that Banksy made for Clown Skateboards to prepare a new NFT collection. The sale through the Flower Power DAO website marks a major shift for the IC since nearly all collections currently mint on either the Entrepot or Yumi marketplace launchpads. The first 12 hours of the sale are only available to “trilogy” holders. In other words, the wallet had to hold a BTC, ETH, and ICP Flower during yesterday’s snapshot.

· Hot on the heels of their website launch last week, the Shinjuku High team is ready to release their dynamic digital collectibles. 500 NFTs will be available to mint on March 1. The collectibles will cost 15 ICP each and will be mintable on the Yumi launchpad.

· This week, the Internet Computer’s top photographer, Oliver Savage, will be launching his third collection featuring the dancer/model known as Wing. The original collection (titled Wing) has a floor price of 145 ICP. There is also a collection called Flight, which was an airdrop for holders of the first collection. Grounded, the latest release will feature 15 new photos with four editions of each. The collection of 60 will launch on Friday with a private sale for Wing holders at a price of 15 ICP, followed by a public sale at 17 ICP.

Around the Web

🧐 Review Session: Australia's Finance Regulator has announced a targeted review of Binance, particularly in regard to its derivatives trading services. While Binance has stated that it is committed to complying with all relevant laws, the exchange has faced scrutiny from regulators in a number of countries in recent months, leading some speculators to wonder if Binance is doing all of its business above board.

💻 Based: Coinbase announced on Thursday that it would be launching Base, an Ethereum Layer-2 network. The company declared its intention to make it a decentralized product eventually, though no plans for tokenization are currently in the works. Mainnet is expected to roll out in the next few months.

🇨🇦 Oh, Canada: Canadian regulators are tightening their reins on cryptocurrency once again as they published a list of requirements for crypto companies to stay legally compliant. Stablecoin platforms seem to be the target, as the country will now be prohibiting customers from buying or depositing stablecoins without written consent from the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA).

🎨 All A Blur: Blur, an NFT trading platform that has increasingly grown in market dominance, clearly has its sights on Opensea. Not long after their airdrop, they announced that the next airdrop event will heavily reward users who list their NFTs exclusively on Blur. In response, Opensea announced that they were reducing their fees to 0% for a limited time, but stealthily reactivated fees in less than a week. Of course, this move did not go unnoticed by traders.

💅 Material Goerls: Goerli Eth, a token used by devs to test their dapps on the Gorli testnet, has seen an unexpected and sudden spike in price this week. Although the token can be acquired for free (in limited amounts) for devs, it has seen a severe supply crunch in recent months, leading to testnet tokens being traded in exchange for real Eth.

Tweet of the Week

$ICP has been built to utilize much of the groundbreaking technology introduced on the #Ethereum network, while simultaneously working to improve upon it and bring new outcomes to IC users.
The EVMC will bring a new era of development to the chain#INFINISWAPPERS pic.twitter.com/A4wJRgLnRL
— InfinitySwap #DFINITY (@infinity_swap) February 25, 2023

We have started to create content explaining the significance and importance of our EVM. We truly believe that the EVM will secure a DeFi boom on ICP. Expect to see a lot of content in the coming weeks to introduce what we are building.

Video of the Week

Here, YouTuber Andrei Bedene outlines exactly what ICP is, and why it is so important for the emergence of web3.

Meme of the Week

A Matter of Opinion: Adam 'Freelance Ghostwriter' Kantrowitz: The Necessity of Royalties

Adam has been a community stalwart since Genesis and has written as many articles as anyone to promote the Internet Computer, with a specialized knowledge base of NFTs. Here, he shares his opinion regarding the necessity of royalties for artists.

OpenSea has finally capitulated to pressure from competing markets and has essentially rugged artists. On February 17, in a lengthy thread about why they backtracked on their promise to defend creator earnings, OpenSea revealed what was really most important to them – remaining the #1 NFT marketplace on Ethereum.

It all started with the X2Y2 marketplace switching to optional royalties. Then LooksRare followed suit in October. Blur made waves by creating a rival ETH NFT marketplace with optional royalties. And OpenSea finally gave in as they saw their customer base slip away.

But who really made all that money for OpenSea? Wasn’t it the creators who were drawn to NFTs with the promise of royalties (actually, a commission is more accurate, but you can read about that here)? Now, the marketplace has turned its back on the artists who made their fortune for them. It’s shameful.

Of course, all of this is happening on blockchains like Ethereum and Solana. The marketplaces on the Internet Computer have all thus far honored artist royalties (except for a few months on Entrepot, where binding offers that got accepted were not taking out the artist's cut, but this has now been resolved). So what does this mean for artists on the IC?

I want to take this opportunity to challenge the NFT marketplaces of the Internet Computer to publicly reaffirm that they will support artist royalties on into the future.

This is essential for maintaining a quality NFT marketplace. After all, the only people who benefit from optional royalties are flippers and scammers. Real artists rely on royalties. Real NFT marketplaces should rely on real artists. Real collectors and long-term investors need solid projects, and that requires funding which often comes from royalties.

Do you think these flippers who don’t want to pay a few percent to a hardworking artist are willing to pay 20/30/40/50% to the government? Many of these flippers are also likely to be the same people cheating on their taxes and giving the entire crypto/NFT space the bad reputation it has today.

If you are tired of subpar art, you need to be willing to pay royalties. If you want the top artists to support your marketplace, you need to pay royalties. If you want NFTs to have long-term value, royalties are a must. If you’re just here to use the community as exit liquidity to make a quick buck, feel free to show your true colors and demand optional royalties. But just know, we’re onto you. No legit collector or investor fears an artist commission.

We want to say thanks to Adam for everything he has done to contribute to the knowledge of ICP, via both Coinhustle and InfinitySwap. We can all agree the ecosystem is so much stronger because of him!

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