Axie Infinity & the play to earn revolution
We’re revisiting the best Crypto Conversation podcast episodes of 2021. In this episode, we talk to Jeff Zirlin, co-founder Axie Infinity, a Pokémon-inspired blockchain-based digital pet universe where players can earn tokens through gaming. Players can battle, collect, breed, and build a kingdom for their pets. Like CryptoKitties, Axies are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) represented as cryptographically unique characters that can’t be replicated. And like Pokémon, they are born to battle. While Axie can be just a game, it has built a strong social network, passionate community, and emerging jobs platform due to the play to earn opportunities it is generating.
Hoverboards – Jadu is building the Mirrorverse, an AR layer for metaverse avatars
Jake Sally is the COO of Jadu, an AR platform and narrative layer for Web3 and the metaverse. Jadu is pioneering the functionality of digital assets in AR and the physical world by converting 3D NFTs into playable avatars and objects that can interact with each other in an ever-expanding AR game world. Jadu is minting 5555 hoverboard NFTs in December.
Snow Crash – Crash Punks is inspired by sci-fi, anime & Neal Stephenson
Artist Grace Ng is about to launch Crash Punks - an NFT collection on Stacks/Bitcoin. Crash Punks is inspired by sci-fi, anime, and Snow Crash, the iconic 1992 novel by Neal Stephenson. Snow Crash has been an inspiration for the Stacks and Bitcoin communities and is considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time.
Meet The Arties – An Open Art Source Movement
Cecil Pang and IIan Klein are co-founders at Open Art Source, a blockchain-supported marketplace where artists can sell their works. It provides the tools necessary for artists to showcase their works and for collectors to research their purchases. The Arties is an NFT collaboration between Open Art Source, Shaderverse, and NFT artist Spencer Terry. The project is funding the development of the Open Art Source platform, which brings a blockchain data layer to the physical art market.
Battle Drones – The NFT project taking crypto games to console
Battle Drones is a collection of 10,000 programmatically generated collectible artworks, hovering on the Solana blockchain. Each Battle Drone provides access to the Battle Drones ecosystem and play-to-earn game. A console Battle Drones game is coming in 2022. The artwork is inspired by the founders' PhD studies in the field of human drone interaction at the University of Auckland.
The Witchz – It’s a Spooky Halloween episode!
ArrowHaven and OpalAbyss from the Witchz NFT project join Andy for a Crypto Conversation Halloween special. The 6666 Witchz pay homage to the Witches of North America and Europe and take inspiration from films, Wicca, mother nature, and the four elements of the universe.
Titan Tiki – Māori culture enters the Metaverse
Luke Ryan is the founder of the Titan Tiki Tribe - an NFT collection taking Māori culture to the metaverse. The Titan Tiki team has an indigenous Māori background, deep respect for the protocols of Māori, and is proud to show the wairua (energy) of the Titan Tiki Tribe. Bill Takarei is a respected Kaumatua (Māori elder) and spiritual guide to the Titan Tiki, ensuring Māori culture is represented according to custom.
Bitcoin ETFs go live – Bullish for Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is poised for further upside as the first two futures-based Bitcoin ETFs prepare to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange. On Tuesday the ProShares ETF goes live with the Valkyrie ETF due to begin trading later this week.
Virtual Worlds – Decentraland + NFTs = Metaverse
Adam De Cata is the head of partnerships at Decentraland, a virtual social world, created and owned by its users. Decentraland is an early version of the metaverse.
Metaverse Topologies – Art Wallet, NFTs, Swarm intelligence, and holonic philosophy
Joel Dietz is a technology entrepreneur and early contributor to Ethereum. The founder of Swarm Network Joel is researching blockchain network topologies, swarm intelligence, and holonic philosophy. Joel is working on Art Wallet, a smart wallet for NFTs.
A Bullish Q4 – Bitcoin warms up and Coinbase picks a fight with the SEC
Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points.
The Creator Economy – Rally uses Social Tokens & NFTs to monetize Creators
Chris Fortier is Vice President of Product at Rally, a project built on Ethereum that helps creators develop economic relationships with their audiences by launching their own crypto social tokens and NFTs.
The Crypto Crash – BTC is legal tender in El Salvador, the President buys the dip
Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points.
Star Trekking – Jules Urbach is the Elon Musk of Rendering
Jules Urbach is the CEO of OTOY, a leading cloud graphics company that is pioneering technology to redefine content creation and delivery. The work of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry is being cataloged in a new digital archive by OTOY.
FLUF Metagame – Supercharging NFTs with the Altered State Machine
Aaron McDonald and Brooke Howard-Smith are co-founders at Non-Fungible Labs, the team behind the FLUF World NFTs. FLUF World is home to 10,000 unique 3D animated rabbits. The FLUF metagame describes the emerging, expanding metaverse treasure hunt that the FLUFs exist in.
Yield Aggregator – Vaulty enables automatic asset allocation across DeFi
Konstantin is the founder and CEO of Vaulty Finance - a vault that bridges Defi and NFTs on the Binance Smart chain. The Vaulty platform is a yield aggregator that offers multiple strategies to optimize yield farming through regular auto-compounding.
