TLDR Crypto 2022-02-14

Pearpop, a social media collaboration marketplace, is launching Pearproof, a web3 app that allows creators to mint NFTs of their social media posts. Pearproof uses an algorithm that allows the assets to gain value as a post gains more social engagement. Posts level up according to a tier system. Creators can decide what rewards are associated with these levels. The project will leverage the Solana blockchain, which was chosen for its low transaction costs and lesser environmental impact.

FTX US, a platform for crypto spot trading, has opened up a waitlist for stock trading. The company has been planning stock features for a while. FTX plans to add derivatives trading due to its success with crypto futures. It aims to add Bitcoin and Ethereum futures and options in the US within a year.

OpenSea is launching an investment arm dedicated to growing the web3 ecosystem. It will also launch a grants program aimed at creators, developers, and others looking to enrich and expand the NFT ecosystem. OpenSea Ventures will be led by OpenSea co-founder Alex Attalah. The platform traded more than $5 billion worth of NFTs in January.

This thread tells the story of how a group of well-funded and organized scammers almost scammed the founder of a DAO out of all their ETH. The scam involved having a graphics designer join the organization and work for free to gain trust and introduce a business contact. The business contact claimed they were working on another project and eventually offered the founder a free NFT, which they insisted had to be put in the founder's main wallet. On inspecting the smart contract, the founder discovered that there was code that would allow the scammers to spend all his ETH.

The ease of forking a project in the web3 space makes it hard to determine which protocols will be valuable in the long term. One way to determine a project's long-term value is to look at its unforkable utility, the hard-to-replicate value to a protocol user. Unforkable utility allows open web3 protocols to retain long-term value despite frequent forking attempts. This article discusses the six types of unforkable utility: protocol capital, protocol liquidity, a critical mass of network participants, security, asset acceptance, and asset liquidity.

This article looks at several Bored Ape Yacht Club owners and how they have used their investments. Owning a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT can come with benefits like being invited to exclusive parties and networking with thousands of other owners. Bored Ape NFTs come with the rights to the art, so users can put their NFT art on brands to sell products. Many have started putting their Apes on cannabis marketing and branding.

Axie Infinity is adding free in-game starter monsters alongside a new battle system in a gradual rollout beginning at the end of Q1 2022. Users currently must purchase three Axie monster NFTs to play the Pokémon-inspired game. The free monsters will not be NFTs that can be sold or transferred. They will not be able to earn SLP reward tokens. The new battle system will be richer and more strategic than the current model and will feature new battle cards, power-ups, and other tweaks.

While digital real estate is created with code, it is not limitless. The idea of digital real estate is not new. Digital items and land have been sold for high prices in many games in the past. There are now many different growing metaverses, all selling digital land and goods. Some crypto enthusiasts think that the speculation hurts the public image of the market. The speculation may crowd out the gaming fans and social media users that the metaverse is supposedly being built for.