Despite turbulent market conditions over the last year, the metaverse and its potential utility remain steady in the minds of consumers. According to data from a new survey by Capgemini, a business and technology strategy advisor, over three-quarters of consumers expect their interactions with brands and individuals to be impacted by the metaverse. This also goes for organizations, as 7 out of 10 believe that the metaverse and immersive experiences will be a market differentiator in terms of customer experience. The report surveyed 8,000 consumers, along with 1,000 organizations in 12 countries across different sectors to understand metaverse competency, interest …

In this week’s newsletter, read about how the word “metaverse” placed second in Oxford’s Word of the Year. Check out how Meta is pushing forward its metaverse plans amid doubts and how the nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace Magic Eden announced a tool to enforce royalties. In other news, find out how the Opera Crypto Browser is integrating NFT minting. And, don’t forget this week’s Nifty News featuring a new all-time high for Reddit avatar minting. Metaverse comes in second place as Oxford’s word of the year The term “metaverse” have gotten second place in Oxford University’s Word of the Year …

The metaverse platform Decentranland announced a new platform feature which allows its users who own virtual LAND to essentially become landlords. Owners can now officially rent out their property to other users on the platform for predefined periods of time. This allows users to earn passive income off of their metaverse assets. Decentraland classifies LAND owners as accounts or wallet addresses which own the smart contract for LAND, whether it be “a Parcel, an Estate, or both." All LAND rentals are performed in (MANA), the native token of Decentraland and paid upfront in total. The platform gave examples of digital …

E-commerce and interactive platform builder LGND.io has announced a multi-year partnership with blockchain network developer Polygon and global entertainment company Warner Music Group to create a Web3 music platform called LGND Music. LGND Music, scheduled to launch in January 2023, is designed to be a music and collectibles platform that supports “digital collectibles from any blockchain in a proprietary player,” thereby making it possible for users to play their digital collectibles on the go. The partnership will allow select Warner Music Group artists to launch digital collectibles on both the app and desktop platforms. Creators will also be able to …

Digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification company Animoca Brands has secured a majority stake in the Los Angeles-based music metaverse gaming platform Pixelynx. Animoca Brands expects its acquisition will expand on the integration between gaming and Web3 technologies and communities, the company announced on Dec. 6. The financing terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Animoca implied that it would continue to invest in and acquire digital studios that would aid in its effort to integrate the music industry with Web3 — a broad umbrella term that refers to some future iteration of the internet powered by blockchain technology. Pixelynx already …

The Oxford University Press team chose 'metaverse’ to come in as a runner-up to ‘Goblin mode’ for the word of the year in 2022. In a Dec. 4 announcement, Oxford Languages said the viral term ‘Goblin mode’ had beat out ‘metaverse’ and millions of other words to become the team’s 2022 word of the year. According to Oxford’s research, usage of the term metaverse “increased almost fourfold from the previous year in the Oxford Corpus,” driven in part by Facebook’s rebranding to Meta in October 2021. Metaverse lost first place to ‘Goblin mode,’ a phrase that went viral in February, …

Bank of Indonesia governor Perry Warjiyo has announced developments in its plans to launch a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, for “various digital economic and financial transactions.” In a Dec. 5 speech at the central bank’s annual meeting, Warjiyo said the bank planned to release details on the conceptual design of a digital rupiah — a currency the equivalent of the country’s fiat — and open the matter to public comment. According to the governor, the Bank of Indonesia intended for the digital rupiah to be “integrated, interconnected, and interoperable” with other country’s CBDCs following discussions with central bank …

Reddit’ NFT minting hits new high Reddit’s nonfungible token (NFT) collection hit another milestone on Dec. 3 with a record 255,000 of its “avatars” minted in the one day. The new minting record beat the previous all-time highs on Aug. 30 and 31, which saw just over 200,000 Reddit avatars minted each day. The NFTs are primarily used on the social media platform as a users’ avatar and are created by a number of independent artists that use the platform. At the time of the collection's launch in July, it was widely seen as a way to boost mainstream adoption …

On Dec. 2, NFT Steez hosts Alyssa Expósito and Ray Salmond chatted with Victor Solomon to discuss his journey into bridging his in-real-life artwork into NFTs and how he cultivates the community and culture that surrounds it. Solomon's work centers around basketball, not just the object, but the sport itself. For Solomon, the inspiration for his work comes from his early childhood of wanting to play hockey, a sport that was not accessible for him, and his eventual discovery of basketball which he discovered to be more accommodating. Solomon said: "Basketball was such an inspirational platform for me since there's …

The GameFi champion and metaverse developer Animoca Brands has a billion-dollar fund in its plans, according to a report from Nikkei Asia on Nov. 30. Animoca Brands’ co-founder Yat Siu said in an interview that the fund could potentially have up to $2 billion dollars to allot to mid to late-stage startups with a metaverse focus. The fund and the exact amount available to developers have yet to be finalized. Cointelegraph reached out to Animoca Brands for a comment, to which the company confirmed that the fund is “in the works.” According to the interview with Siu there will be …

The web developer Mozilla, mainly known for its internet browser Firefox, has joined the rush of legacy internet platforms jumping into the Web3 and metaverse development space. In a blog post announcement on Nov. 30, the company revealed its acquisition of Active Replica, an immersive experience developer. Active Replica is joining Mozilla’s Hubs creator platform to help create virtual events. Already the virtual experience developer has worked with Mozilla during its multi-day arts and tech festival Mozfest earlier this year. According to Mozilla the acquisition will also be important to accelerate in demand work, personalized subscription tiers, on-boarding improvements and …

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is still hopeful about the company’s Metaverse plans regardless of the billions of dollars it’s sucking up from the company, claiming “someone has to build that.” Appearing remotely for an interview at the Nov. 30 DealBook Summit in New York, Zuckerberg was asked his thoughts on whether the tech giants’ Metaverse play was still viable given its cost and the doubts cast over the platform, answering: “I think things look very different on a ten-year time horizon than the zone that we're in for the next few years [...] I'm still completely optimistic about all the …