As the ETHDenver developer conference gets underway, the incubator ConsenSys Mesh told Cointelegraph that it's planning a Friday announcement regarding a new addition to its portfolio. Joseph Lubin, Ethereum co-founder, will debut details about TreeTrunk, a nonfungible token, or NFT, platform that aims to eliminate the risk of centralized platforms failing to pay royalty payments from secondary sales correctly or on time. TreeTrunk is launching a beta release on the Polygon Mumbai testnet. According to the company, TreeTrunk has introduced a pioneering smart contract that collects and distributes royalty payments from the secondary sales of NFTs immediately and securely on …

Ownership is one of the most critical aspects of nonfungible tokens (NFT). They are a representation of the evolution of execution and ownership of art, content, music, in-game assets, etc., since they are digital assets with distinctive identities that are verifiable on a blockchain network. However, they have also created a new dimension of discussion about the interaction and grey area around copyright, intellectual property (IP) and trademark laws. In a recent highly publicized fiasco in the cryptoverse, crypto decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) Spice DAO was mocked for believing that the ownership of a copy of the unpublished manuscript of …

Kanye West won’t be purchasing a Bored Ape Yacht Club nonfungible token (NFT) any time soon. In a strongly worded Instagram post made on Monday, Ye stated “Do not ask me to do a f*cking NFT.” The message in the photo, shared with his 10.5 million followers, explains he is focused on “building real products in the real world.” He didn’t mince his words in a follow-up comment to the Instagram post: “STOP ASKING ME TO DO NFTs I’M NOT FINNA CO-SIGN … FOR NOW I’M NOT ON THAT WAVE I MAKE MUSIC AND PRODUCTS IN THE REAL WORLD”. Whereas …

As the two-year anniversary of the global COVID-19 pandemic begins to hurtle toward us, we are no closer to knowing when our social lives will return to normal or what will the new normal be. The effect this has had on businesses like nightclubs, music venues and musicians have been immeasurable. With crowded in-person events either made impossible — or far more difficult and laborious — at many points over the last two years, changes to the industry that were already set in motion have been accelerated. Namely, the music industry’s adoption of digital instruments, among others and, increasingly, the …

Though the likes of Bored Apes and Pudgy Penguins take the headlines, and the potential for decentralized finance (DeFi) and play-to-earn gaming is undeniably grand and exciting, the marketing potential for nonfungible tokens (NFTs) deserves equal attention. It boils down to this: With NFTs, virtually anything can be gamified to promote desired marketing outcomes. Gamification — defined by Gabe Zichermann, author of The Gamification Revolution, as a “process of using game thinking and game dynamics to engage audiences and solve problems” — is not new to sales and marketing. What is new are the mechanisms by which you can engage …

U.S.-based music platform LÜM is set to announce 25 partnerships with globally known musicians as part of a re-launch involving NBA Top Shot’s Dapper Labs later this quarter. LÜM was founded in 2018 and built up a user base of more than 200,000 users with a platform that provided services such as social media, music streaming and micro-tipping for its partnered musicians and fans. The firm has raised around $4.4 million worth of funding since 2018 according to data from Crunchbase, and partnered with popular R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo back in 2020. However, LÜM is now moving on fro that business …

Nonfungible token, or NFT, became such a tech buzzword in 2021 that even Collins Dictionary declared the abbreviation its word of the year and Google searches for NFTs spiked to record levels. Behind the term is a market that approaches $17 billion, according to Cointelegraph Research. And the NFT marketplace OpenSea is responsible for processing most of these transactions, with a trading volume that recently surpassed $10 billion. NFTs’ potential reaches far beyond art to include music, sports collectibles and video games, while its utility encompasses ownership as well as exclusive access to unique functions and features. From CryptoPunks and …

For the past three years, NYC.NFT has been the leading annual gathering in the nonfungible token and digital blockchain art world. This year, over 5,500 attendees and 135 sponsors joined debates, talks, workshops and briefings in the namesake event. In an exclusive ask-me-anything session, Cameron Bale, co-founder of NYC.NFT, joined Cointelegraph Markets Pro users to discuss the outlook on the NFT industry. Here's what Bale had to say. Cointelegraph Markets Pro User: You had some amazing speakers in NFT.NYC 2021. Can you tell us a bit aboutwhat insights were shared by some of those heavily influential folks? Cameron Bale: Some …

In 2021, the market cap of cryptocurrencies skyrocketed 286% year over year, uplifting a $2.17 trillion industry into the stratosphere. But, with this vast creation of wealth comes the explosion of peculiar tales throughout the sector. From the suspicious death of multiple crypto-evangelists and crypto scams involving hacked Twitter accounts of heads of states to much-promoted celebrity NFT drops that bombed at the auction, 2021 was truly a wild year for the cryptocurrency cyberspace. Without further ado, let’s look at the top strangest stories that have captivated blockchain enthusiasts this year. No 1. The death of John McAfee On June …

It is no secret that nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are still a niche subject. Despite their rapid surge in popularity during 2021, there is still a significant percentage of people who do not know what an NFT is. Reflecting on the graph below, it is evident that a lot of work needs to be done for NFTs to truly hit the mainstream. However, it is clear from recent months that there is potential for this to happen, and there have been many signs of awareness and adoption which I will discuss in this article. Celebrities Celebrities have been a key proponent …

Eventually, all museums will build their digital copy in the metaverse, according to Dmitry Ozerkov, the head of the Contemporary Art Department at The State Hermitage Museum. Ozerkov is currently developing the “Celestial Hermitage”, a digital version of the iconic Russian museum, which will be exhibiting NFT art. "We are all moving into the digital era and our digital twin will be following us everywhere", Ozerkov told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview. The State Hermitage in Saint Peterburg, Russia, is the largest museum in the world by gallery space with around 3 million works of art. In September 2021, the …

Dance music star Deadmau5 and Grammy award-winning indie rock band Portugal The Man (PTM) have teamed up to release one million copies of their new single “This is Fine” as nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The single was released on Deadmau5’s (whose real name is Joel Zimmerman) label, Mau5trap with the aim to have the single be the first NFT to go platinum. The artists minted one million units on the NEAR protocol blockchain and released them on marketplace Mintbase. A quarter of a million units were available for purchase during Art Basel’s “Miami Beach” art show on Dec. 2. We are …