What is happening with Telegram and Reddit’s NFTs? Beijing and MTV interact with the metaverse
September is just around the corner and the last Young Monday of August cannot fail to talk about this summer’s hottest topics: NFTs and the metaverse. As far as NFTs are concerned, Reddit has started distributing its avatar collectibles on Polygon‘s blockchain, while Telegram is planning to turn usernames and channels on the platform into NFT domains. Speaking of the metaverse, the MTV Video Music Awards are adding a new category, ‘Best Metaverse Performance’, and the city of Beijing is signing a two-year plan to enter the metaverse.
Reddit starts distributing its NFTs on Polygon and Telegram plans its entry into the industry with TON
Reddit’s NFTs take centre stage again for this edition of Young Monday. On Thursday the 25th of August 2022, the airdrop of Reddit avatar collectibles began. These NFTs had already been created by users on a dedicated page of the social network and will be fully managed by the Vault portfolio also developed by Reddit. The four available collections were ‘The Singularity‘, ‘Aww Friends‘, ‘Drip Squad‘ and ‘Meme Team‘. The NFTs are on the Polygon blockchain and it is already possible to trade them on OpenSea. We knew for a while that Reddit chose Polygon for its NFTs, but we can now finally enjoy the new Avatars designed by independent artists on the most popular NFT marketplace! CEO Pavel Durov also plans to answer the call in a slightly different way for Telegram NFTs, by collaborating instead with the TON ecosystem. The TON blockchain was initially designed by Telegram. However, in June 2020 following some legal disputes, it broke away from the social network, becoming a separate entity called The Open Network. Telegram’s idea, proposed by CEO Pavel Durov, involves the migration of all usernames and channels to the NFT market.
The aim of the initiative, which will be made possible by the concept of digital ownership, is similar to that of ENS domains on Ethereum. ENS is a protocol for the creation and management of decentralised domains. Thanks to ENS, any individual can purchase one or more domains on the Ethereum blockchain. These domains also serve as wallets for cryptos and NFTs. The Open Network has already developed an initiative almost identical to ENS’s called Ton DNS, which has so far sold very well. But how will this technology work in relation to the Telegram social network? Each username or channel will be an NFT, whose ownership will be immutably registered on the blockchain. Furthermore, there will be the possibility to put them up for sale on a secondary market. The messaging platform with more than 700 million users expects unbridled competition for the most sought-after Telegram user-names!
MTV introduces an award for the best performance in the Metaverse
The second hot news topic in this edition of Young Monday is all about musical performances in the metaverse. This summer, we finally got back to enjoying live events and concerts, and it was awesome. However, interest in virtual events has not waned at all. MTV has picked up on the trend of many famous artists performing in the metaverse and created an ad hoc award within its Video Music Awards 2022: the ‘Best Metaverse Performance‘ award. This award is in addition to the more traditional accolades of ‘Video of the Year’, ‘Artist of the Year’ and ‘Song of the Year’ and will be in place from this year! There are six artists competing in this category: Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Twenty One Pilots, Charlie XCX, BTS and Blackpink.
But the news doesn’t end there. In addition to awarding prizes, the TV programme has embarked on its first experience in the metaverse. The Paramount Media Networks-owned company recreated the VMA experience on Roblox. The VMA Experience comprised three games through which players could accumulate tokens that will grant voting power during the VMA event scheduled for tonight. Although Roblox is not a Web3 game, and it does not use blockchain technology or cryptocurrencies, the process is certainly reminiscent of the DAO mechanism. We will see who will prevail tonight and win the first ‘Best Metaverse performance’ in history!
Beijing: a plan to enter the metaverse
Our last (but not least) news item is that Beijing intends to enter the metaverse. China’s Web3 declarations always make the crypto sector’s ears perk up. We all remember the May 2021 ban on cryptocurrencies. This time, however, the news seems favourable, at least as far as technology is concerned, as the Chinese government has announced a plan for the city of Beijing to enter the metaverse. The plan will last two years, from 2022 until 2024, and is aimed at increasing the development and innovation of metaverse technology.The plan calls for all districts of the city to build a city-wide technology infrastructure and to promote its use in various fields, including education and tourism. This is not the first time China has shown interest in this type of technology; in 2021, it was the city of Shanghai that planned investments in the metaverse. However, China has already shown in the past that these policies are often aimed at large Tech companies, and not at individual users. Moreover, the concept of decentralisation does not seem to fit into the government’s idea of Web3. Financial instruments such as the digital yuan, a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currencies), i.e. a digital currency controlled by the country’s central bank, and government control of the NFT market do not actually incentivise decentralisation and do not embody the core values and principles of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.
