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The Merge and Young Platform: what will happen to your ETH?

The Merge and Young Platform: deposits, withdrawals and airdrops

Get ready for The Merge: everything you need to know about the impact of the Ethereum update on Young Platform

*Updated 14/09/2022: new features for the Earning Wallet functionality.

As an additional security measure for the funds of Young Platform users and in agreement with our partner provider of the Earning functionality, the Earning Wallet functionality will also be suspended during The Merge. All information can be found in the last paragraph of this article. 

The Merge, the update that will make Ethereum a Proof-of-Stake blockchain, is just around the corner. This is one of the biggest and most impactful updates in the entire crypto industry. In fact, Ethereum is the blockchain on which most of DeFi and NFTs are built and Ether, its coin, is the second largest crypto by market cap.

You may have wondered if the activation of the historical update will have consequences for your ETH. Here is what will change on Young Platform with The Merge.

Temporary suspension of ETH deposits and withdrawals

Deposits and withdrawals of Ether (ETH) and ERC-20 tokens on Young Platform will be suspended as of the 14th of September 2022 (10 pm UTC).

We recommend that you complete your transactions in advance of this date so that deposits and withdrawals are properly processed. Deposits made close to this date may not be counted in a possible Ethereum hard fork.

Your tokens will remain safe in your Wallet and during The Merge you will not have to perform any specific operation. Everything will be handled by Young Platform. You are free to convert your Ether before The Merge but this is not a necessary action. Likewise, your ETHs locked in the Earning Wallet section will not be affected by the Ethereum update.

Temporary suspension of MATIC, AVAX and FTM deposits

Deposits of Polygon (MATIC), Avalanche (AVAX) and Fantom (FTM) will also be suspended from the same date and time : the 14th of September 2022 (10 pm UTC)

Will there be a new Ethereum 2.0 token? What will happen to my ETHs after The Merge?

After the activation of The Merge update on the Ethereum blockchain, two possible scenarios could occur:

1. No new token will be created:

The Ethereum blockchain will switch to the Proof-of-Stake mechanism without a hard fork. In this case, there will be no substantial changes for ETH holders and Young Platform will rehabilitate deposits and withdrawals as soon as possible;

2. A new token will be created:

During The Merge, the Ethereum blockchain could undergo a hard fork and thus split and create a new token. In this scenario, one chain will operate under the new Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, while the other will retain Proof-of-Work. In this case Ether (ETH) will be assigned as the coin of the new Ethereum 2.0 Proof-of-Stake blockchain. Meanwhile the new token (ETHPOW) will replace the ETHs of the Proof-of-Work chain and will be distributed via an airdrop.

The distribution of the new token will be calculated on the basis of a snapshot concurrent with the activation of The Merge. A snapshot means that establishes which users possess ETH and in what quantity.

So, what will happen on Young Platform at this point? Should Ethereum’s hard fork occur, detailed updates on how the new token will be airdropped and what is new for the exchange will follow.

The hard fork and the creation of the new token are currently only a possibility, not a certainty.

In any case, before deciding whether to support the new token, Young Platform will subject it to all the verification procedures typical of any listing. Announcements regarding the new token will be made in a dedicated announcement.

What will happen to the Earning Wallet with The Merge? (Updated 14/09/2022)

From the 14th of September 2022 (10 pm UTC) onwards, and until further notice, it will not be possible to activate a new Earning with the Earning Wallet functionality or to deactivate an already active Earning. 

This means that during the suspension period:

  1. You will not be able to stake or unstake your cryptos in the Earning wallet until the end of this period
  2. Automatic renewals will be disabled until the end of this period
  3. The counting of rewards related to activated Earnings will continue uninterrupted.

In summary, you have these options: 

  1. Activate new Earnings before the 14th of September 2022 (10 pm UTC), your rewards will continue being counted as normal;
  2. Deactivate your already active Earnings before the 14th of September 2022 (10 pm UTC) to unstake your cryptos and send them to your Spot Wallet. Caution: if you deactivate an Earning before the end date indicated on the app, you will lose the accumulated reward.
  3. Keep your Earnings active and continue to claim rewards

Follow the activation of The Merge on the Young Platform Blog, if you have further questions, please contact the Support Centre.

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‘In-chain’ NFTs? The Moonbirds collection offers an explanation

Moonbirds NFTs: What are on-chain and in-chain NFTs?

The future of the Moonbirds NFT collection is all about being on-chain. Let’s find out what the difference is between on-chain, in-chain and off-chain NFTs

PROOF, the Web3 startup that created the Moonbirds NFT collection, has just unveiled the project’s future plans. Among the planned features is making all its non-fungible tokens ‘in-chain’. You may have already heard about the difference between on-chain and off-chain NFTs. But what exactly is meant by ‘in-chain’? 

All the records in the Moonbirds collection

The NFTs of the Moonbirds collection were released in April 2022 and within 48 hours of launch, all 10,000 NFTs were sold out. Moonbirds is a PFP collection of images designed to be used as profile photos, depicting automatically generated, pixelated avatars of owls. According to CryptoSlam, Moonbirds ranks 10th in total sales of collections, PROOF’s NFTs have generated sales of over $590 million! Thanks to these impressive numbers and the support it has received from the industry, this collection has earned blue chip status for some. Moonbirds also stands out from other collections because it introduced the staking of NFTs, called ‘nesting’.

At the end of August 2022, PROOF (coordinated by Venture Capital investor Kevin Rose) offered an explanation for the future. The creation and storage of NFT projects, including Moonbirds spin-off collections, will be managed in-chain. To understand what in-chain NFTs are, let us first look at the difference between on-chain and off-chain NFTs.

On-chain and off-chain NFTs, what is the difference?

The parameter for recognising whether a non-fungible token is on-chain and an off-chain concerns its storage. We know that the ownership and uniqueness of NFTs is guaranteed by the blockchain, but where are NFTs stored? An NFT is composed of:

●     An ID: a unique identification code that distinguishes tokens from one another and is registered via smart contracts on blockchain;

●     Metadata: as digital content. Each NFT consists of a set of metadata that configures its appearance, such as shapes, colours, names, sizes, the type of hat, the plumage or expression of the owls (in the case of Moonbirds) but also information such as maximum supply.

The non-fungible token ID is always stored on blockchain, and functions as a certificate of authenticity and uniqueness of an NFT. However, metadata is often stored elsewhere, i.e. off-chain. Storing metadata off-chain is the most popular option used by creators of NFT collections, who rely on external, centralised or decentralised hosting services and servers. In contrast, storing an NFT on-chain means that the entire token – including metadata – exists on a blockchain.

Is on-chain storage better than off-chain storage?

On-chain storage may be preferable because all aspects of the token are directly manageable and verifiable by the owners. However, it is a very expensive route due to the size of the data that has to be recorded on the blockchain. JPEG images for instance contain a lot of data, and collections often consist of hundreds or thousands of images all different from each other. Most NFT projects, including CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club, have chosen to store their content off-chain.

As anticipated, off-chain hosting and archiving services can be either centralised or decentralised. With centralised hosting providers, there is a risk (although unlikely) that they could shut down at any time, jeopardising the existence of the stored NFTs. All that would remain for the owner would be the ID on the blockchain. Decentralised storage is managed by systems such as IPFS. When a file is stored on IPFS, it receives a unique hash of the content that links it to the entire network. Although NFTs on IPFS are not technically stored on the blockchain, no one can lose or hack files on IPFS as no one can shut down the cloud. This is because it is managed in a decentralised manner by thousands of nodes.

Moonbirds: what are in-chain NFTs?

In contrast to this, PROOF has a plan to make its NFTs ‘in-chain’. By this term, PROOF implies that not only the data storage will be on-chain, but also the creation itself: ‘to make sure that it is fully decentralised and visible for generations to come’. The metadata will therefore be created by the same smart contract that attests to the existence and certifies the authenticity of the token. In other words, the code that creates the digital artwork will be on the blockchain. Harri Thomas of PROOF explained that with this procedure, the graphic representation of each Moonbirds NFT “will be built by the smart contract itself from art layers, which will also be stored on the blockchain”.

PROOF and Moonbirds’ roadmap also includes the establishment of a DAO and a governance token. The launch of a spinoff collection called ‘Moonbirds Mythics’, which will comprise 20,000 NFTs and will be launched in early 2023. The new collection will not follow the pixel art aesthetic, the images will be drawn with a technique that mimics the freehand style. These new designs will be made possible thanks to newly obtained funding. In fact, PROOF has just raised $50 million in a Series A funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z.

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5 interesting facts about The Merge, the update that will change crypto forever

The Merge: 5 things you didn't know about the Ethereum update

The update that will change Ethereum and crypto forever is coming. Find out 5 things you didn’t know about The Merge!

‘The Merge’ refers to the set of updates that will lead the Ethereum blockchain to change its consensus mechanism from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake. In the crypto world, this has been the talk of the town for months. The Ethereum update is so important that ‘The Merge’ has become a commonly used term to indicate the final activation of the update and more generally the passage to the 2.0 version of Ethereum.

So, what will change with Ethereum 2.0? Transactions will be faster, cheaper and more green. The network will be more decentralised and secure, which will make the Ethereum blockchain more scalable and energy efficient. However, The Merge will not only impact Vitalik Buterin‘s blockchain, the upgrade will also change the crypto world forever. Ethereum is the blockchain on which the main Decentralised Finance protocols are built and in which the world of NFTs is developed. To learn more about the more technical aspects of The Merge, we refer you to Academy’s article on Ethereum 2.0. However, read on to discover 5 things you didn’t know about The Merge!

1.   Why is the Ethereum update called The Merge?

This Ethereum update is called ‘The Merge’ because it consists of the merging of two chains into one. With the update, Ethereum’s Beacon Chain and mainnet will be merged together. The former is the Proof-of-Stake network that has been active since 2020 and used as a ‘Consensus’ layer, but not yet for processing transactions. The mainnet, on the other hand, is the only ‘Execution’ layer of the blockchain on which miners will work until The Merge. With the completion of the upgrade, these two chains will be merged together to improve the performance of Ethereum.

2.   Why is the release date of The Merge changing?

The final phase and activation of the update was planned for September 2022. For a long time no official date for the release of The Merge was communicated. In the past months, the date has been postponed more than once. Even when September was identified as a possible date, the Ethereum developers only hinted at a broad activation period, namely between the 10th and the 20th of September. On the 6th September, Vitalik Buterin narrowed it down to between the 13th and 15th of the month. But why is the exact release date of The Merge not known? Ethereum’s developers did not schedule the update based on the calendar, and thus on a time parameter, but by referring to the Total Terminal Difficulty (TTD). The TTD is the value reached at which the Proof-of-Stake update will be released. It can be understood as similar to the score obtained in order to pass a level in a video game. The Merge will only be completed when the TTD of the value 58750000000000000 is reached. The TTD is the parameter that indicates the level of difficulty that miners have to face to validate the last block in Ethereum’s Proof-of-Work. This value depends on many factors and it is therefore not possible to establish with certainty when the network will reach that value. This is why the date of The Merge is constantly changing.

3.   Beyond Buterin, here is the team of The Merge

Among the thousands of programmers who keep the Ethereum protocol going, you may not know that 119 experts are working on The Merge. Together with this group, some prominent personalities from the crypto world have also joined. From the Ethereum Foundation, researchers Danny Ryan and Justin Drake have contributed directly to The Merge project. The former has been working on The Merge since 2017 (fun fact: The Merge and the move to PoS had already been suggested in 2015, shortly after the birth of Ethereum), in relation to issues such as scalability, sustainability and security. Drake, on the other hand, had a coordination and public relations role.

Vitalik Buterin, of course, also contributed to The Merge update as the mastermind behind the new understanding of Ethereum and as a populariser with the general public. We can credit Buterin for the design philosophy of the new consensus mechanism. Another key figure is Tim Beiko who heads the team of developers. Beiko became the main spokesperson on social media for the development team and managed the many steps necessary for The Merge. Among all the people working on The Merge, we should also mention Mikhail Kalinin of ConsenSys, a software development company that collaborates with Ethereum. They established the details of the Beacon Chain and, according to Beiko, Kalinin is one of those who ‘literally built and steered the ship’. Kalinin called his experience at Ethereum ‘an example of true diversification and decentralisation of work on a research and development project’.

4.   Will there be a new Ethereum 2.0 coin?

As the completion of The Merge approaches, many have wondered whether Ethereum 2.0, the new version of the Proof-of-Stake blockchain, will have a new coin. And again, what will happen to the existing ETHs in our wallets? To answer this question, you have to consider the two possible scenarios following the activation of the update. After The Merge there could be a hard fork of the blockchain in which Ethereum would split into two different chains, one with the consensus mechanism it has always had (PoW) and another that relies instead on staking to validate transactions. In this case, a new coin would be created accordingly, which is currently referred to as ‘ETHPOW’. The chain with the PoS consensus mechanism will retain Ether (ETH) as its native coin, and the PoW chain will instead continue mining ETHPOW. The PoW chain will only remain in existence as long as miners continue to use and support it.

Should a new cryptocurrency actually be created, it will be distributed via airdrop in a 1:1 ratio. Basically your ETH holdings will not change because of this. To prepare for The Merge on Young Platform, read the dedicated announcement.

5.   Sustainable NFTs in the spotlight

Among the 5 things you might not know about The Merge is the green revolution in the NFT world. Let’s consider that most non-fungible tokens are built on Ethereum. Following The Merge, there will be a drastic reduction in the environmental impact of NFT production and transactions. This is because the consensus mechanism that enables Ethereum activity will no longer rely on the computing power of the miners but on the mechanism of staking. In other words, all the electricity used to power the mining hardware will no longer be needed. All blockchain-related activities will be more energy sustainable. 

One of the main criticisms levelled at NFTs concerns the energy required for their ‘minting’, i.e. the process by which digital assets are created. Concerns about the pollution produced by non-fungible tokens have intensified, especially in the current context of an environmental and energy crisis. With greener NFTs, the sector could attract new enthusiasts and experience a creative rally. Creators and new projects will be able to indulge in creating art on the blockchain, no longer intimidated by the environmental footprint.

 

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Can you recognise the most common scams in the crypto world?

How to recognise a crypto scam: from social engineering to phishing

How can you recognise a crypto scam? Here’s what you need to know to unmask scams and keep your crypto safe.

According to a report by the data collection company Chainalysis published on the 6th of January 2022, $14 billion in cryptocurrencies were stolen through scams in 2021, mainly due to rug pulls. The figure increased almost doubled compared to the previous year. This growth in scams coincided with the development of the industry and the boom of interest in cryptocurrencies. Fraudsters and scammers take advantage of bull market periods to act on people’s optimism about the markets. When economic interests are at stake, scams spring up like mushrooms and this is also the case with cryptocurrencies. Crypto scams are unfortunately widespread. However, with a few small tricks, it is possible to learn how to recognise a crypto scam from social engineering to phishing.

Red flags: the identikit of the scam

Before reviewing the main scams that operate in the world of crypto, it is important to keep in mind some ‘red flags’ or suspicious features that could indicate you are facing a scam:

●     Someone asks you to share your private keys or passwords;

●     Someone sends you a private message offering airdrops or giveaways;

●     Someone contacts you posing as a trader or an employee of a crypto project such as an exchange;

●     The messages you receive, or the websites you surf on, contain typographical or spelling errors;

●     Someone promises you to multiply your money or receive free earnings;

No one, not even employees of crypto projects, are authorised to ask you to disclose your personal data. Very often, when something is too good to be true, in most cases it is not.

Phishing

Phishing is a common scam all over the Internet, not just for cryptocurrencies. Phishing consists of malicious people sending you messages or emails posing as services or sites that you have used before (banks, e-commerce, social networks…). They invite you to open a link or communicate personal data. When it comes to crypto, fraudsters could steal the passwords or seed phrases of your wallets through phishing, consequently stealing your crypto. Phishing messages can usually be recognised because the profiles that send them show inconsistencies with the services they are trying to imitate. Although scammers are capable of creating communications and sites that are very similar to the original ones and therefore convincing, certain details such as syntax or grammatical errors are signs of a possible scam. It is always good practice to check that the URLs of sites or e-mail addresses correspond to those of official sites, even just one character more or less can make a difference.

Fake Customer Service Representatives or Traders

In this type of scam, someone pretends to be a representative of a crypto organisation or company.  They then ask for sensitive information such as your wallet seed phrase, under the pretext of solving fake technical problems. Once the private key is obtained, the scammers drain your wallet. In this case, the scammers may also ask you to send them money in exchange for a higher value. Usually these requests are made with a sense of urgency, alerting people worried about the safety of their assets. Remember that all official communications are only ever made through official channels, do not rely too much on rumours or speculation. If you have any doubts, contact Customer Service from the official website.

Malicious people could also try to pass themselves off as telephone operator employees, offering new contracts or to change SIM cards. In possession of your phone number, they can bypass all two-factor authentications that rely on it. Some scammers also present themselves as experienced traders ready to help you. In this case, they will try to contact you, especially on social networks or online communities such as YouTube or Telegram. How to recognise this crypto scam? Due to their unrealistic promises, fake traders are easily unmasked. Beware of those who claim they can make you incredibly rich in a short time, in the world of crypto there are no shortcuts or ‘foolproof methods’.

Fake exchange apps

Among the most common scams are a number of fake apps that pretend to be the mobile version of cryptocurrency-related web services, such as exchanges or marketplaces. If you come across one of these apps in an app store, remember that the official ones are always downloadable from the relevant website. You can easily check if the two versions coincide. Again, a clue leading to a fraud can be spelling mistakes, the name of the exchange might be misspelt, or the icons might not exactly match the original ones. You can also check the number of downloads of the app. If it claims to be that of a reputable service, the downloads cannot be few. In addition, counterfeit apps usually require more permissions than necessary, as this ensures that they collect as much data as possible from the devices of scam victims.

Another type of scam app are those that promise to perform mining on your behalf and promise you rewards that never come. To avoid this type of crypto scam, it is good to know that for most cryptocurrencies, mining requires highly specialised hardware that is not compatible with mobile devices.

Rug pull

A rug pull is when scammers offer a new project, obtain funding and then disappear with the collected funds. A recent example of a rug pull was the Squid Coin scam, the token named after the Netflix series. Those who bought the token were engulfed in the hype of its quick price pump from 1 cent to $90. They then lost everything when the project’s founders stopped the activity and took the money, about $3 million, then disappeared altogether. To defend yourself against rug pull, you have to consider the project you intend to support from several points of view such as its soundness, the content of the white paper, the presence (and feasibility) of a roadmap and business model, and finally the identity and CVs of the founders. If any of these aspects are confusing or suspect, you are probably dealing with a scam.

Scams on social networks

Social networks are a frequently used channel for crypto scams. As already mentioned, YouTube is teeming with comments from fake traders promising easy money or “fake” livestreams asking people to send money in order to receive a larger sum. During these kinds of live feeds, the scammers are likely to pretend to be prominent industry figures willing to share their wealth with users. In this case, make sure that the channel from which the live is broadcast is official. On Instagram and Telegram, private messages dispensing supposed financial advice and proposing one-off deals are widespread. On Twitter and Instagram, you can also find posts promising fake or non-existent giveaways, or even fake profiles of projects or personalities from the crypto world trying to fool people. The most famous and popular ones in recent times are those that promise you NFT airdrops, but you only end up with your personal data getting stolen.

Social engineering: the basis of crypto scams

To recognise a crypto scam, it can be useful to study the basis of all such scams, namely the mechanisms of social engineering. This term refers to the persuasion schemes that fraudsters use to lure and scam people by exploiting their weaknesses and their good faith. Social engineering mechanics are behind strategies to lure victims, to befriend them via social networks or dating apps, and to induce them to download scam apps or to steal their crypto by accessing their sensitive information. Scammers investigate people’s weaknesses by exploiting people’s desires, emotions and cognitive biases to manipulate them.The techniques and types of scams that endanger our digital assets and information are diverse; learning how to recognise crypto scams is the first step to defending yourself.

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What happened at Decentraland’s Metaverse Art Week exhibition 2022

What happened at Decentraland’s Metaverse Art Week 2022

From the 24th to the 28th of August, the most famous digital artists and projects gathered in Decentraland. Find out what happened at Metaverse Art Week 2022!

Decentraland, the virtual world on Ethereum, hosted the third edition of Metaverse Art Week from the 24th to the 28th of August. After the first metaverse Fashion Week this March, Decentraland dedicated five days to contemporary art on the blockchain. In the metaverse’s art districts such as Soho Plaza or the Voltaire Art District, events, exhibitions and panel discussions dedicated to digital art on blockchain took place. The theme and title of Metaverse Art Week in Decentraland was ‘The World is Made of Code‘. Reality can be considered as a set of codes, patterns and formulas that shape both the natural and especially the virtual world. The initiative therefore welcomed artworks and immersive experiences inspired by the drawings and mathematical patterns found in nature. Top artists from the NFT scene and beyond participated in Metaverse Art Week. Find out about the art projects in Decentraland and what happened at Metaverse Art Week 2022!

The theme of the Metaverse Art Week: the relationship between mankind and technology

The immersive art installations, performances and conceptual art exhibitions of the Metaverse Art Week opened a debate on the topic of the relationship between individuals and technology and how the latter shape reality. This theme is inspired by the guiding questions of the Art Biennale in Venice opening in April 2022. The artists currently exhibiting in Venice have questioned the changing definition of mankind in relation to technology, as well as its pervasive and transformative presence. Decentraland’s Metaverse Art Week explored ‘code’ as a factor that brings virtual worlds to life, and how ““the human spirit is hardwired to elicit an emotional response when presented with art inspired by the mathematical designs present in nature”  . The Decentraland initiative was a moment of alignment between the reflections of the contemporary art world and the new frontier that is Web3.

An audio-guided tour and Artnet debates

One of the novelties of the Metaverse Art Week was an art walk with an audio guide made possible by Audio Art Tour. Once you successfully landed in the welcome area with your avatar, you could request a pair of virtual headphones with which to listen to the guide along the entire route of the exhibitions in Decentraland. Just like in a museum, the voice of a guide explained the works in detail and presented the projects. During the five days of the event, Artnet, one of the largest online art communities, organised artistic performances, live-poetry sessions and the creation of pieces of art with artificial intelligence in connection with the theme of the Art Week.

Frida Kahlo’s artistic legacy on show at Decentraland

Frida Kahlo‘s family, in collaboration with Ezel (a platform offering services to create Web3 experiences, opened a permanent installation called Frida Kahlo Family Red House in Decentraland. It tells the story of the first half of the artist’s life and displays some never-before-seen works. For the occasion, unpublished artwork, artefacts and family histories of the Mexican painter were digitised. The founders of Ezel claimed to have collected almost 800 unique pieces that belonged to the artist, including sketches, original artwork and other objects used in Kahlo’s daily life.

Each piece of content was scanned using high-resolution image capture tools, requiring at least 30 different images and videos. Decentraland users will be able to visit the works within the installation that replicates the Red House owned by the family in Mexico. Pedro Quinzaños Cancino, the founder of Ezel and a friend of the Kahlo family, said in an interview that when he suggested the project to Frida’s heirs, he was met with some resistance and scepticism. Later, the Kahlo family chose to rely on emerging technologies such as the metaverse to tell stories that would otherwise have disappeared.

The Sotheby’s and UXart Lab exhibition

During the event, UXart Lab exhibited the works of some Latin American artists from the 1960s such as Marta Minujín, Gyula Kosice and Eduardo MacEntyre who best represent kinetic and pop art, but also contemporary and digital artists such as Alberto Echegaray Guevara. These artists are currently exhibiting in real life at the Venice Biennale. Another art company that is no stranger to virtual galleries in Decentraland is the auction house Sotheby’s. Its vice-president Michael Bouhanna explained that their experience with Decentraland allowed them to experiment with cutting-edge exhibitions for digital works and transpositions of physical works. At the Metaverse Art Week, Sotheby’s reaffirmed its interest in NFT and blockchain art by presenting new pieces in the exhibition such as jewellery sculptures in collaboration with Metagolden. Decentraland’s Metaverse Art Week was also attended by a number of NFT marketplaces such as Rarible, OpenSea, SuperRare and Know Origin. The latter presented an installation entitled ‘Crypto Winter’, which mocks the volatility of cryptocurrencies.

The Ukrainian Museum of War History

At Metaverse Art Week, an exhibition space was also reserved for the works of the Meta History Museum of War: the NFT project that chronicles the war in Ukraine step by step since the beginning of the conflict. The aim of the digital museum, founded on the 25th of March 2022, is to document what is happening on the frontline through artistic expression and to raise funds for the reconstruction of the country’s artistic heritage. From the sale of these non-fungible tokens, more than $1 million has been raised.

Cash Labs’ gallery with Damien hirst and Estée Lauder’s POAPs

Cash Labs, a Web3 content creation platform, launched its first art gallery in Decentraland. Among the artists it presents are Damien Hirst, Laurel Charleston and Justin Aversano. The Cash Labs exhibition has been organised on four levels, the first group working under the theme ‘From Physical to Digital’, and it is the level where Hirst is exhibited. The second level is entitled ‘Art for the Metaverse. The third level of the Cash Labs exhibition is dedicated to the first NFT collection by Nick Knight, the British fashion photographer and founder of SHOWstudio.com. On the fourth and final floor, users who visited the entire exhibition received a free POAP by Estée Lauder as a certificate of participation.

These were the highlights of what happened at Metaverse Art Week 2022 in Decentraland, the public reception was good but there was no shortage of criticism. Some participants pointed out that the graphic layout of Decentraland’s metaverse was still primitive and unsuitable for conveying the complexity of contemporary art. For Decentraland, however, this can only be constructive criticism.

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How do you choose your first NFT? A Beginner’s Guide

Which NFT should I buy? A Beginner's Guide

What should you consider when shopping for collectibles for the first time? Here is the guide to figuring out which NFT to buy!

NFT trading is very popular these days. The NFT market exploded in 2021 – the NFT Golden Year – and non-fungible tokens have now become a cultural phenomenon. This is partly due to the attention NFT’s are getting from celebrities, who can afford to buy blockchain artwork at exorbitant prices to then show them off on their social media. However, there are also people who, despite being intrigued by this technological innovation, do not know where to start when it comes to collecting NFTs. 

Which NFT to choose? If you are a beginner, read on and find out what you should consider before buying a non-fungible token!

Buying NFTs: you don’t necessarily need to spend millions

To give you an idea of the amount of money circulating around the non-fungible token market, just think that the Rare Pepe series piece, ‘Pepenopolous’, which was auctioned for $3.65 million, doesn’t even rank in the top 10 most expensive NFTs! NFTs, however, are not all worth six-figures. Some collections and blockchain artworks are affordable to everyone. It is a good idea to follow some simple rules to make sensible purchases and avoiding buying NFTs blindly, but first of all, you must set your budget. 

Which NFT to choose? The 4 basic questions to ask yourself

When presented with a single piece in the form of a non-fungible token – which can be an image, a video, an audio file and much more – you may ask the questions of ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ is its value at that level. You can often find the answers in the project’s presentation pages and sites as well as in their official communication channels, bearing in mind that the NFT community moves mainly on Twitter. 

1) Who created the collection?

If you are a potential buyer and are wondering which NFT to choose to kick off your collection, you should look into the people behind the various projects offering non-fungible tokens. NFTs can be presented by individual artists on popular marketplaces, art collectives, brands or charities. The key thing is to ask yourself about their trustworthiness and mission. After all, you are going to give them your money and it is fair to ask if it is safe. 

If you are interested in an NFT drop, i.e. a new collection launch event, take into consideration the NFT creators’ growth and development goals. Will the creators be able to enhance the work? How do they plan to release the tokens onto the market? What is their strategy?

2) What kind of NFT is it?

Answering the question of ‘what’ will give you a clear idea of the product you are going to buy. What type of NFT is it? Dynamic, PFP, collectible? What does the work consist of? What is the artist’s identity? Also, if you imagine reselling it, to which potential market or audience is the non-fungible token addressed?

3) How and where do you buy the NFT?

The ‘how’ question illustrates the process of buying the NFT. The steps must be described in a simple and transparent manner, without using vague or ambiguous language. This is crucial to further establish the seller’s trustworthiness. Before buying an NFT make sure that both the NFT and the marketplace are trustworthy.

4) What is the NFT’s value?

The value of an NFT can be measured by several parameters such as aesthetics, utility, prestige or rarity of the work. Non-fungible tokens are not all the same, it can be useful to ask yourself about the idea behind a collection, why a certain design is worthy of purchase over others, what its key features are.

How to choose your first NFT: further considerations

Once you have the answers to the initial questions, there are further points you need to consider to make an informed decision on which NFT to buy. If you plan to buy an NFT for future returns, you may ask yourself whether the token in question is capable of maintaining or gaining prestige over the long term. It is not easy to evaluate this aspect, however, you can weigh up the solidity of the project, the existence of an outlined roadmap and the cohesion of the relevant community. For instance, the Bored Ape Yacht Club has built an entire ecosystem – ranging from a Metaverse to the native token, ApeCoin – around its NFT collection, which is why the cult around its works is constantly growing. Another feature that could affect the value of the token is the connection to physical works or artefacts. This is the case with Damien Hirst’s collection The Currency, which has associated paintings to non-fungible tokens. It is also good to investigate the management of artwork ownership – once purchased, can it be resold? As far as Soulbound NFTs are concerned, it might not be possible to transfer ownership.

Finally, if you want to start collecting NFTs, familiarise yourself with the concept of rarity, which is widespread in this industry. Most collections of non-fungible tokens are generated through the mechanisms of Generative Art which randomly combines more or less rare elements. This means that you will find NFTs with different degrees of rarity within the same collection. As you might guess, the rarity of a token raises its price considerably. A very famous example of how rarity works is the CryptoPunks collection, which distinguishes each NFT by the number of occurrences of an attribute. 


These thoughts and considerations will lead you to make an informed purchase and choose your first NFT with full knowledge of the facts. It is essential to keep up to date with the changes and novelties in the ever-changing NFT world to be able to decide which NFT to buy in the multitude of collections that are coming out these months.

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Damien Hirst’s NFT artworks

Damien Hirst NFT: all art pieces and collections

Damien Hirst’s NFT pieces combine his subversive art with blockchain technology – explore the British artist’s pieces and collections

Damien Hirst is one of the most influential contemporary artists of our time, his controversial and provocative artwork has been the symbol of British art since the 1990s. Hirst has distinguished himself in his career by his tendency to break away from the traditional art world channels such as galleries, preferring instead to address the audience directly. Perhaps this is precisely why he decided to experiment with NFTs, which promise to revolutionise the transmission, fruition and market of art. In a recent tweet, Hirst explained that he believes in art in all its forms and that the NFT world is very exciting. For the artist, the Web3 community is doing great things and has exciting ideas. A technology that disrupts the canons of art like NFT can only intrigue such a subversive artist! This article looks at all of Damien Hirst’s NFT pieces and collections.

The Currency, the first of Damien Hirst NFT pieces

Damien Hirst’s first NFT collection is called The Currency. What are NFTs? NFT stands for ‘non fungible token’ and refers to a particular type of token, i.e. an asset registered on the blockchain. NFTs differ from cryptocurrencies in that they are not fungible, i.e. they cannot be exchanged for other equivalent NFTs. Each NFT is unique, which is why they are used to create unique digital products like works of art. The Currency art project takes two different shapes, in that it consists of 10,000 NFTs attached to as many physical art pieces painted by Hirst in 2016. The physical pieces are A4 sheets depicting compositions of polka dots. These paintings were categorised by AI based on four variables: how much the polka dots overlap, the amount of sketching, the texture and the density of the drawings. The same AI also assigned titles to the paintings based on the lyrics of Hirst’s favourite songs. The NFT collection was sold in 2021 at $2,000 per piece.

The Currency is not just artistic expression in two mediums, but an experiment on the public’s perception of digital art – Hirst posed the question of whether people value digital or physical art more. Buyers of The Currency were asked to choose by 27th July 2022 whether to keep the art piece in NFT format only and destroy its physical counterpart, or vice versa, so that they would only have one version of the piece. The experiment resulted in physical art winning out slightly, with 5,149 collectors opting to keep the physical version and 4,851 choosing the NFT version. Hirst then began to ‘burn’ the NFTs and the physical pieces that hadn’t been picked, to destroy them permanently. The practice of ‘burning’ is widespread in the crypto world and involves destroying tokens or cryptocurrencies to increase their scarcity and thus their value. 

NFTs having an economic value is difficult to grasp for some. At the same time, the idea of digital property equating to physical property is still deeply rooted. In this regard, the Injective Protocol project bought Banksy‘s 2006 piece Morons for $95,000, transformed it into NFT and then burned the physical copy. Their aim was to highlight the indestructibility, immutability and uniqueness of NFTs, and encourage the exploration of a new artistic medium. Banksy’s piece NFT was then sold on Opensea for 228.69 ETH. 

One month after its launch, Damien Hirst’s first NFT collection The Currency has generated $25 million in sales. It was the artist himself who announced the milestone on Twitter with a graphic in the shape of a shark – recalling his iconic piece The Physical Impossibility of Death In the Mind Of Someone Living, which depicts a tiger shark preserved in a formaldehyde case. To date, sales of The Currency’s NFTs have reached almost $67 million, with a 50% spike after the late July 2022 burning (data from CryptoSlam). 

Great Expectations, an ode to life’s possibilities

Great Expectations is Damien Hirst’s second NFT collection. The artworks were distributed free of charge in November 2021 to people who already owned at least one of The Currency’s non-fungible tokens. Aesthetically, the Great Expectations digital pieces echo the Certified Lover Boy album cover that Hirst made for American rapper Drake. The NFTs in question are made up of emojis depicting 12 pregnant women, each created using the same sketch and smudge technique. Each NFT features emoji attributes – there are various accessories, backgrounds and physical characteristics such as hair or skin colour. In his own words, Hirst wanted to create ‘An NFT that could communicate to people who haven’t been born yet what’s it’s like for us to be living in the complicated world of today. I figured that everybody loves their mother (well almost everybody), everybody loves babies and the future, everybody loves colour, everybody loves art, everybody loves freedom and everyone loves emojis. What’s life about? If it isn’t about the hope of motherhood?’. The artist imagined the 12 pregnant bellies as 12 gifts representing infinite possibilities, like Pandora’s boxes in which so many different paths can be explored. 

The Empresses: NFT to narrate women of power

Damien Hirst’s most recent NFT collection is The Empresses and it was released in February 2022. The Empresses consists of five prints depicting images of butterflies composed in the guise of mandalas. The prints are named after five sovereigns, the empresses in fact, who exerted a particular influence: Wu Zetian, Nūr Jahān, Theodora, Suiko and Taytu Betul. Their story is rebuilt by the tones of red and the themes such as “life, war, power, anger, love, joy and fortune,” which Hirst chose to represent in the collection. The butterfly has always been one of the most recurring subjects in Hirst’s work; in The Empresses collection, he used it to express female vitality and power through “dazzling visual celebrations.” 

What blockchain are Damien Hirst’s NFTs built on?

To make his NFTs, Damien Hirst relied on Heni, a platform based on the Palm blockchain. It is an Ethereum sidechain specialising in cheap and environmentally friendly NFT minting. 

Damien Hirst has also involved his son in his passion for NFTs – Cassius Hirst is in fact collaborating with Prada on limited edition digital clothing.

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Are all NFTs the same? Here are the main types

Types of NFTs: PFP, Blue Chip and Dynamic

Due to differences in technicalities, applications and purposes, non-fungible tokens are not all the same. Find out about all types of NFTs!

The term NFT often comes to mind quickly, but it can actually mean many different things. In fact, non-fungible tokens have different nuances and peculiarities. In general, each NFT represents a specific digital asset that has value. The ownership, uniqueness and authenticity of the asset is certified by its inscription on the blockchain. That being said, NFTs can differ from one another in terms of criteria such as their application, their technical characteristics, their applications and finally their price.

In this article you will explore all the main types of NFTs: from PFPs to Blue Chip to dynamic NFTs.

1.   Applications: NFT for all tastes

NFTs have become popular as digital collector’s items, but they can represent many other things: 

  •     the ownership of a music file,
  •   a photograph
  •     a document such as a diploma or the deed to a house,
  •     a plane ticket or concert ticket,
  •     an object from a video game,
  •     a meme,
  •     access to exclusive experiences,

The list goes on and on and, as is often said in such cases, the only limits for creating NFTs are the limits of one’s own creativity. The applications of non-fungible tokens are potentially endless.

2.   Technical specifications

NFTs can also be distinguished by their technical characteristics, which in turn determine their properties and make them suitable for different purposes.

  • ERC-721 vs ERC-1155 standards

The majority of NFTs follow the Ethereum ERC-721 standard, which unlike ERC-20 does not allow the token to be interchangeable. This means that each token that follows the ERC-721 standard is unique and there will never be an identical one. Since their inception, NFTs have always had this standard as a reference, but the industry is also experimenting with new means. One of these is the use of the ERC-1155 standard, which allows for the creation of semi-fungible tokens. They can be useful for instance when creating a digital work of art in the form of several copies that are equivalent to each other but still limited in number.

NFTs exist on numerous blockchains, not just Ethereum! All major blockchains that support smart contracts can host NFT minting, i.e. the process by which a non-fungible token is created on a blockchain. Among these blockchains are Polygon, Avalanche and Polkadot.

  • Soulbound: is NFT ownership forever?

The first to speak about Soulbound NFTs was Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum. According to Buterin’s vision, NFTs can only be truly useful if they cannot be transferred in any way. The term ‘soulbound’ was taken from the video game World of Warcraft. Soulbound NFTs are non-fungible tokens that are not tradable and as such guarantee effective, perpetual and non-transferable ownership of what the NFT represents. Buterin finds them particularly useful when it comes to recording personal achievements such as degrees or diplomas on blockchain and for digital identity certification.

  • What are dynamic NFTs?

Of all the types of NFTs, another peculiar one from a technical point of view are dynamic NFTs, i.e. tokens that change over time on the basis of characteristics programmable by their developers. In what sense do they change over time? Dynamic NFTs can interact with certain external data and conditions that alter their configuration. For instance, the hat worn by the character in an NFT image may change colour depending on the average daily temperature in Madrid, or the expression of a footballer in an NFT sticker may change based on the results of his last match. In a nutshell, the metadata of dynamic NFTs embedded in smart contracts adapt to information from sources that monitor the outside world such as weather forecasts or sports results. Oracles are very often used to program dynamic NFTs.

One of the most famous examples of a dynamic NFT is Crossroad by Beeple, the artist made the final appearance of his piece dependent on the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election. Dynamic NFTs make it possible to have a collection that evolves over time!

3. What are NFTs used for? Use cases and purposes

NFTs started out as collectibles, i.e. items like stamps, figurines or comics. A bit later, when non-fungible tokens encountered the world of art, their use cases also became of an aesthetic nature. Today, NFTs go beyond the world of art. They can be used for many different purposes, even more practical ones such as buying a ticket or keeping a diploma.

  • Blue chip NFTs

Some see NFTs as an alternative way to deal with the bear market, in fact even when markets are not the most favourable, some blue chip collections retain their value. In a similar vein to the more general definition for companies, blue chips are NFTs that have proven over time to have a certain price stability and solidity of design. Among such collections are certainly those of Yuga Labs, such as the CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Within these collections, there are NFTs that are seen as more ‘blue chip’ than others, often those with the rarest attributes. Blue chips are considered by some to be the only NFTs that are truly valuable over the long term!

  • PFP: Web3 profile images

The term PFP (profile picture) refers to NFTs that are used as profile pictures in social networks. PFPs can be individual NFTs or entire collections designed for this purpose. Typically these collections are based on a common character or theme to be replicated in all works. Among the most famous PFPs is the Bored Ape Yacht Club but also Doodles, World of Women or Meebits. The popularity of using NFTs as profile pictures led Twitter to introduce the possibility of certifying the NFTs used on its platform.

  • POAP, NFTs of events

Our list of all types of NFTs would be incomplete without mentioning POAPs! The acronym stands for Proof of Attendance Protocol and represents unique NFTs that are distributed at events to certify people’s attendance. Organisers of courses, conferences, concerts, fairs can make POAPs to distribute to participants. POAPs are considered as the ‘bookmarks of your life’ because they build a map of your experiences and achievements on your wallet. POAPs look like medallions and badges. Their main utility is to ensure people’s involvement in some project or activity.

4. Why are NFTs so expensive?

A final criterion to distinguish different types of NFTs is the price difference. Although the media puts the spotlight on astronomical sales, there are NFTs for all budgets. Crypto art is worth millions, but not all non-fungible tokens are necessarily expensive. The difference in price depends on factors such as the utility of the token, the quality of the reference project, the size of the metadata, and gas fees. Beyond these right now, the price of NFTs is determined by their rarity and prestige.

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A guide to Mirandus, Gala Games’ top class play-to-earn

Guide to Mirandus, Gala Games’ play-to-earn videogame

Free to play, open world and play-to-earn, Mirandus is Gala Games’ centrepiece. Read on and explore the GameFi project!

Gala Games’ play-to-earn game Mirandus is among the five most eagerly awaited video games on the GameFi scene. Although the video game is still in development, it has already gathered a very enthusiastic community and its first NFTs have long since sold out. How does the quest-free fantasy role-playing game Mirandus work? 

Gala Games and the GALA token: on-blockchain gaming

Mirandus is developed on Gala Games, a game-making network on blockchain. The Gala Games platform functions as a marketplace where users can explore different video games and purchase game tools and items in the form of NFTs. The Gala Games network runs on GALA, the Ethereum-based utility token.

Most of Gala Games’ video games are in development or testing. The platform does not only host video games by the Gala Games team, but is also open to developers from outside the project. Currently, Gala Games has directly made Mirandus, Town Star and Town Crush. For Gala Games, fun comes first, which implies that the blockchain must be ‘invisible‘ in their play-to-earn games. The complexity of this technology should not be an obstacle for those who want to play, which is why, despite being based on blockchain, the game dynamics are simple and accessible to everyone, even non-experts. Players only need to know that everything they own in the game is also their property outside it. Gala Games boasts great community involvement and aims at full decentralisation based on active user participation – ‘Through decentralisation, players not only own their in-games items, but they have a voice in how the Gala Games roadmap develops’, all through voting mechanisms. 

Mirandus, an unpredictable fantasy Metaverse 

Mirandus is described as a Fantasy RPG and is set in a world ruled by five monarchs, based in five different cities. The play-to-earn video game itself has no quests, missions or levels to overcome. Players are free to venture into the wilderness and try their luck in the Mirandus metaverse. You can participate in the game with your own avatar, you can go on a monster hunt in the forests, lend your services to some knight or run a small village shop. All possibilities are open on Mirandus. All these features make Mirandus by Gala Games an open world. 

How does Mirandus play-to-earn work? 

The peculiarity of a play-to-earn video game like Mirandus is the possibility of obtaining crypto rewards while playing. Gala Games has devised a sophisticated internal economy for Mirandus, based on the two tokens GALA and Materium (MTRM), both ERC-20. While GALA is used to purchase all the NFTs that ‘beautify’ the game, Materium is the token that moves actions and characters in Mirandus. Everyone in the game is looking for Materium, which on a technical level is a token that can also be traded on the free market, but within the game is a powerful ‘mother’ substance. Materium is, indeed, a concentrate of magic with amazing powers that can be used to increase your abilities, prepare spells, create artefacts and teleport. Mirandus populations claim territories and citadels in order to grab the miraculous substance. So, prepare to unearth Materium in every corner of the Metaverse to get your rewards! However, Mirandus is also a play-to-earn because you receive tokens every time you achieve small objectives, such as founding a city or defeating monsters. 

Mirandus’ NFTs

Mirandus is fundamentally a free-to-play crypto game, which means that you do not have to pay a fee or buy components to start playing. Avatars are available as free versions for all players, however, you have the option to buy NFT characters with increased powers – the Exemplars. There are 5 types of Exemplar, the Elves, Halflings, Orcs, Dwarves and Humans. Each category is divided into ‘families’ and each avatar is unique. Orcs are best suited to exploring the wilderness, while Dwarves are the most Materium-hungry. At the time of writing, 90% of the Exemplars have been sold but can be bought on secondary markets. To give you an idea of the average price, an Orc on Gala Games costs about 19 thousand GALA (about €1100), while you can find Humans for 0.06 ETH on OpenSea. 

The game is based on the core principle of resource property, be it land, buildings, or means of transport. NFTs in Mirandus also include land (‘property is power’ on Mirandus), ships and docks. 1650 pieces of land are available and once the game is launched, owners will be able to choose in which geographical area of Mirandus to place theirs. You can build dwellings or offer services on the land, and it is also crucial to have suitable walls to protect yourself from enemies and monsters. At a glance, Mirandus NFTs can be characters, land (Deeds), buildings, docks or ships. Each non-fungible token is distinguishable by characteristics, rarity and ‘value’ within the game. The network has pledged to plant a tree for every purchase on the Gala Games marketplace through the One Tree Planted platform.


The videogame’s release date has not yet been announced. Gala Games’ play-to-earn Mirandus trailer features a mysterious traveller in worn-out clothes and a filthy face, everything about him seemingly screaming ‘strenuous endeavour in progress’. Indeed, everything is yet to be built on Mirandus, and there is nothing more intriguing than the power to create. Unlike other MMORPGs like Warcraft or Final Fantasy, players are not invited to explore cities or places imagined by the developers. Everything on Mirandus is in the hands of the players!

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What is generative art and how it is used to create NFTs

What is generative art and how can it create NFTs

What is generative art and how can it create NFTs? The blockchain has become a creative tool for artists, a work of art can now be created out of a smart contract

Can art be created on the blockchain? The rise of generative art, artificial intelligence and NFTs demonstrates the development of a new artistic trend that harnesses the latest technologies. The first NFT collections have become popular as sets of very expensive images that differ from each other by a serial number or a single randomly assigned feature. The concept of randomised generative art underpins these collections, but what is generative art and how can it be used to create NFTs?

What is generative art? The artist becomes an algorithm

Generative art is nothing new. In fact, it is an art form that has been around for centuries in music and painting. One of the earliest examples of generative art is a musical game by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dated 1792. The game involved creating a complete piece of music by randomly combining previously composed fragments of music by rolling dice.

We have come a long way from dice, but the concept behind generative art remains the same. This type of art consists in creating a piece by assembling different elements previously prepared by an artist, or at least a human element, in a random manner, by means of autonomous systems that can be mechanical, chemical, computer or robotic. Generative art pieces are produced autonomously but they start from a human idea – the artist may for example indicate colours, shapes, sizes and sounds that an algorithm will then combine into a single piece. Algorithms in generative art make decisions that would normally be up to the artist, which is why this type of art is said to do away with the artist’s intentionality. Although the human element sets up the elements and the process, the realisation is down to the machine. 

Generative art and artificial intelligence

Generative art, images, sounds or any other artistic expression, is very often realised through artificial intelligence. A software that is paving the way for artificial intelligence art is DALL-E, which generates digital images from verbal descriptions. DALL-E was developed by OpenAI and uses 12 billion parameters (or elements) to turn words into images, following the pattern used to associate text and image on the Internet by search engines. DALL-E is currently in beta testing, but its work is already impressive and advanced.

The history of NFTs began with collections generated by the random combination of attributes, such as CryptoKitties or CryptoPunks. NFTs – or non-fungible tokens – are unique digital assets registered on blockchain that certify the uniqueness and ownership of the works of art they represent. For example, for CryptoPunks, the algorithm developed by Larva Labs gave birth to 10,000 unique pieces through the combination of attributes. The algorithm randomly assigned each artwork its attributes in the process of creating the tokens. Essentially, it can be said that NFTs as artworks originated from the concept of generative art. In the early NFT collections, including the Bored Ape Yacht Club, the blockchain was only used to record and store images in the form of NFT but was not directly involved in the creative process. However, smart contracts can also be used to create generative art. 

Creating generative art using smart contracts: the Art Blocks example

The blockchain offers new opportunities for artistic creation – smart contracts can in fact be one of the autonomous systems used by generative art. Instead of using a simple algorithm, some artists have chosen to rely on a smart contract which, from a technical point of view, is a software that automatically triggers actions based on the occurrence of various conditions. In practical terms, the generation of an artwork is triggered by buying a non-fungible token and sending a crypto share to a smart contract. This is how generative art can be used to create NFTs.

Art Blocks is an Ethereum platform for making generative art NFTs. It was founded by one of the first collectors of CryptoPunks, known by his nickname Snowfro. After selling part of his collection of Punks, he used the proceeds to develop a platform where the blockchain would help artists create NFTs. You can not only buy works of generative art on Art Blocks but – and this is the project’s peculiarity – you can interact directly with the algorithm by purchasing instantly created works of generative art. Art Blocks hosts the artists’ codes and smart contracts, so, after choosing a collection or a particular style, you pay the fee and receive an NFT randomly created by the artist-designed algorithm in your Ethereum wallet. This makes each result different and the combinations are almost infinite. To date, Art Blocks has a total sales volume of over $1 billion and is one of the most successful generative art NFT projects. 

Also amongst the best known NFT generative art projects is Autoglyphs, a 2019 project by Larva Labs on Ethereum. Autoglyphs’ algorithm created 512 NFTs for the collection, which is now available on secondary markets and has achieved sales of $48 million.

Monuverse: generative art for cultural heritage 

A further example of the trend to combine generative art and NFTs, is Monuverse. It is an Italian project that aims to build a metaverse in which all the most iconic artistic monuments of the planet can be housed. The first monument chosen to inaugurate the project is the Arco della Pace in Milan. It all started with a live performance at the end of 2021, in which a digital artwork was projected onto the Arco della Pace. From this performance, and thanks to the mechanisms of generative art, Monuverse and the Ouchhh art studio, an NFT collection was created. Although all the non-fungible tokens represent the Milanese monument, each of them is unique. The uniqueness comes from the random combination of a series of graphic elements created by Ouchhh. The collection consisting of 7,777 pieces with seven levels of rarity, will be minted on the 11th of November 2022. Exclusive benefits are reserved for owners of Monuverse NFTs, such as the possibility to select the next monuments to be included in the project, to participate in future whitelisting and the allocation of an avatar for the metaverse currently under construction.