Tag: NFT

‘Flying Formations:’ Ducks football to sell NFTs created by Nike’s Tinker Hatfield

The Oregon Ducks are getting into the NFT game, with the football team announcing that they will auction off unique designs created by Nike’s Tinker Hatfield

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If you are tuned into the Oregon Ducks football social media world, you might have noticed something taking place on Wednesday morning. A bunch of the players tweeted out a video promoting a new venture that is designed to help the athletes in a new NIL venture, spearheaded by Nike legend Tinker Hatfield.

The new venture is an Oregon NFT, or non-fungible token, called ‘Flying Formations.’ It will include the sale of 120 ‘unique Duck head’ NFTs, and one shoe design, all created by Hatfield himself. According to the website, each NFT sold will come with a physical pair of special edition Air Max 1 UO sneakers.

There will be a live auction held for the digital artwork on February 20th at 10 a.m. PT on Ducksofafeather.xyz. 

According to the website, the ‘Flying Formations’ will be sold to benefit the football team directly, and two-thirds of the revenue will be shared equally among players. According to the website, the sale will go according to a ‘Dutch Auction,’ where the price starts high and decreases gradually over time. At the start of the auction, the NFTs will be listed for 12.5 Ethereum, and gradually decrease to the reserve price of 1 Ethereum.

For those who are not currently in tune with the cryptocurrency world, 1 Ethereum coin is currently valued at $3,084 according to Robinhood (value taken at 9:30 a.m. PT).

This NFT venture is a part of ‘Division Street’ which is a company created by the U of O in order to help student-athletes create and monetize their personal brands.

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‘It’s pretty tragic’ – Slime Rancher 2 game director won’t be doing NFTs

Slime Rancher 2’s game director criticizes NFTs and categorically states that Monami Park won’t be making any.

We recently got the chance to chat with Nick Popovich, game director on Slime Rancher 2 — a game with a clear eco-friendly message. You’re not in its world to do harm, and the most successful players learn how to live in harmony with its ecosystem of smiling slimes.

That’s the opposite of NFTs, which are digital receipts for digital goods, all traded with cryptocurrency. The Ethereum cryptocurrency platform uses 48.14 kilowatt-hours of energy per transaction. Every day, there are thousands of transactions, and this number will only increase as more companies jump on the bandwagon.

To give you something to measure that against, the average US household uses 28.9 kWh per day. It’s also entirely unnecessary – you don’t need NFTs to sell digital art, and every other application of the tech suggested so far is either unworkable or could be done without burning down the rainforests. A single Ethereum transaction uses almost double the energy of 100,000 Visa transactions.

Basically, any NFT group claiming to be “carbon neutral” because they plant some trees is like a serial killer promising to have a baby a year to offset all the murder stuff.

Slime Rancher 2's beach

“No,” Popovich replied when jokingly asked if his company planned to so any Slime Rancher 2 NFTs. “I think I’ve made my stance pretty clear on that. It’s pretty tragic. The truth of it is, any new technology, you know it has value or that it’s worth pursuing when you see people doing it just for the sake of doing it.

“With NFTs, you can see there is nothing but money motivating it. There are a lot of things in the world in which nothing but money motivates, and I totally get that. But this is a thing that doesn’t need to exist, and it actually ends up doing harm to us for it to exist. It’s just to create money and status online. And it’s obviously a terrible pyramid scheme, but I digress.

“I just think, in terms of keeping your eyes open on stuff like this, look for the things that people are into doing just because they exist, and they would do it for nothing, or they would do it even though it costs them greatly. That’s when you know there’s something there. Because we as people just want to explore that and not just use other people to profit off and burn a whole bunch of trees down in the process.”

Video game actor Troy Baker recently came under fire for endorsing NFTs. Retailer GameSpot has also entered the eco destruction arena, Square Enix has shown interest in NFTs, and Ubisoft has already tried to make them work with in-game helmets. It’s good to know that not every company is willing to hop on this new money-making trend without considering the consequences.

Written by Kirk McKeand on behalf of GLHF. 

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Actor Troy Baker endorses NFT voice AI that aims to replace actors

Voiceverse NFT uses AI to generate voiceovers that sound like your favorite celebrities.

Troy Baker, most famous for his performance as Joel in The Last of Us and its sequel, has endorsed an NFT company. Voiceverse NFT allows you to use an AI to generate voiceovers that sound like your favorite celebrities. 

“Imagine being able to create customized audiobooks, YouTube videos, e-learning lectures, or even podcasts with your favorite voice,” the company says in a tweet. “All without the hassle of additional legal work. This also allows people with limited resources to access professional-grade voices more easily.” 

Basically, if you have a monkey NFT avatar on Twitter and you want to animate it and make Troy Baker’s voice come out of its mouth, you can do that. No idea why you’d want to, but you can. You even get a little digital receipt, though anyone on the internet can still save what video you create. But it’s yours. Kind of. 

Voiceverse says it plans to allow you to speak in the voice of the characters you are playing as in a video game. If you’ve ever played an online video game, you probably know how that one will end. 

While Voiceverse says the actors who help feed the AI voice samples will get royalties, it’s difficult to know how this stacks up to union rates. Actors in the video game industry have fought for years to get compensated better for their work, which is often hard on the vocal cords because they have to record hours of effort sounds, death cries, and other taxing noises. They also don’t often get residuals as actors do in movies. 

One major concern around this tech is how it could undercut new actors. When anyone can use an AI to generate the voice of a known actor, it may make it more difficult for newcomers to stand out in such a competitive industry. It could potentially also devalue the work voice actors do. 

Voiceverse is founded by the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), which has recently made the news because of stolen NFTs. Some claim that NFTs are a Ponzi scheme since they require a constant stream of new investors for a lucky few to make money on them. NFTs can also be easily used for money laundering, thanks to the anonymity of sales using cryptocurrencies. Criminals don’t need to run money through a front when they can simply buy a cartoon monkey from themselves and claim it as legitimate profit from digital assets. 

Other criticisms arise from the environmental impact of the technology. The Ethereum platform uses 48.14 kilowatt-hours of energy per transaction, and there are thousands of transactions per day. This number will only increase as more people employ the tech. To put that into perspective, the average US household uses 28.9 kWh per day. It’s also entirely unnecessary – most of the things NFTs currently offer could be done without using power-draining blockchain technology. 

“I’m partnering with @VoiceverseNFT to explore ways where together we might bring new tools to new creators to make new things, and allow everyone a chance to own & invest in the IP’s (sic) they create,” Baker said on Twitter. “We all have a story to tell. You can hate. Or you can create. What’ll it be?” 

The gaming community has been vocally critical of NFTs for many of the reasons stated above. Players are also worried that they will be the next insidious monetization strategy following loot boxes and online passes. While publishers are trying to push it as “play to earn”, where players can make money from playing and creating within games, the house always wins. And outside of that, it means games are built around the technology first rather than, you know, aiming to be a good video game. 

Written by Kirk McKeand on behalf of GLHF.

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Ubisoft is getting into NFTs with Ghost Recon: Breakpoint

Blockchain technology comes to the tactical shooter.

Ubisoft Quartz is the company’s new Non-Fungible Token (NFT) system coming to Ghost Recon: Breakpoint.

Beginning Dec. 9, the tactical third-person shooter will make use of Ubisoft Quartz — blockchain technology tied to in-game cosmetics. How it works is unique serial numbers are attached to items (called Digits) like helmets or gun skins that players can trade with each other for agreed-upon prices. A literal in-game economy, more or less. Ghost Recon: Breakpoint  on PC will be the first title Ubisoft to utilize the technology, though.

Ubisoft Quartz will be available in the following regions:

  • USA
  • Canada
  • France
  • Germany
  • Belgium
  • Spain
  • Italy
  • Australia
  • Brazil

A trailer for Ubisoft Quartz in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint  is below. And yes, Ubisoft wants you to pay real money for these completely dull skins at the ultra-low-cost of (potentially) destroying the earth! 

Ubisoft knew its community would be furious over the implementation of NFTs, not unlike how  Dead By Daylight  fans roasted Behaviour Interactive’s did in October. In a preventive damage control measure, Ubisoft addressed the environmental impact element of the controversial technology  on its website.

“Digits are the first Ubisoft NFTs, playable in a HD game and stored on the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain Tezos,” Ubisoft explains. “PoS blockchains work on a consensus mechanism that does not rely on complex computational efforts to validate transactions and therefore does not incentivize extreme amounts of energy consumption.”

NFTs in gaming is a hot-button issue. Recently, Xbox head Phil Spencer said   what he’s seen from cryptocurrency is ‘exploitive’ while Valve Software  outright banned the technology from Steam.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Thursday Night Football picks and prop bets: Cardinals take on depleted Packers

What can the depleted Packers muster against the league’s last undefeated team?

The Arizona Cardinals (-6.5) are rolling. Kyler Murray has been playing MVP caliber football while leading his team to an undefeated 7-0 record. After two years of false starts, the Cardinals appear to have built the kind of momentum that can carry them through an entire regular season and into the playoffs.

The Green Bay Packers were rolling. The Pack got starched in their season opener by an enigmatic New Orleans Saints team, then ripped off six straight wins to reclaim their spot atop the NFC North. But their streak may not be derailed by solely by a superior team (though the Cardinals certainly look like one), but COVID-19.

Green Bay will be without defensive coordinator Joe Barry, valued target and downfield blocker Allen Lazard as well as star wide receiver Davante Adams due to virus protocols. They’ll join the sideline alongside Pro Bowlers David Bahktiari, Jaire Alexander, and Za’Darius smith, all of whom have missed extended time this fall due to injury.

That’s bad news for a team whose winning streak included just one game against a team that currently has a record above .500 — and even that was a few feet away from a Cincinnati Bengal win. Arizona-Green Bay was supposed to be a preview of a playoff showdown. Instead, it could be a test of the Packers’ resilience and a tempting “what if” to tide us over until January.

Can Green Bay slap some Flex Seal over its puncture-ridden raft and paddle to victory anyway? Or has a path been cleared for the Cardinals to slide to 8-0? Let’s talk about it. All odds via Tipico

Raiders Hall of Fame RB Marcus Allen releases first-ever NFT’s

Raiders Hall of Fame RB Marcus Allen releases first-ever NFT’s

With the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremonies coming up this weekend, a few Hall of Famers are putting out some pretty cool collectibles. In a series called Playbooks, six greats will be featured including Raiders greats Marcus Allen and Tim Brown.

This is the first-ever NFT for Allen who, like Brown, is in the rare group that won the Heisman Trophy and later was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Allen carries the distinction of being the only NFL player ever to win a Heisman, NFL MVP, Super Bowl, Super Bowl MVP and be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

With that resume, you can bet he’s got a lot of stories to tell. Many of which people may not have heard before and which offer a unique in-depth look at what made Marcus Allen one of the NFL’s greats. He tells those stories through his NFT’s.

“I’m surely captivated by new technology and I also thought it was an innovative way to tell different stories,” Allen told RaidersWire.

“It’s my words and really, truly what it means to me. There are several plays in my career that may not be as meaningful to some, but once I tell the story, it’d sort of a stepping stone to get me where I eventually got to in the Hall of Fame.”

The Playbook series features a set of four NFT’s called Phenom, Star, Legend, and Icon. Essentially covering each stage of his football career from USC to being a star running back for the Raiders, continuing his legendary career in Kansas City, and ultimately being immortalized in Canton.

“I think the stories are endless,” Allen continued. “I could go on and on. When you play as long as I did and played in as many great games that I played in, and you had as many challenges that I had, when you played in a phone booth, and you played in a different era — the game was different, the rules were different, all those different things — I think you’d find that interesting.”

These NFTs are brought to you by the Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Company and Dolphin Entertainment. They are priced at $25 each and go on sale today at Blockfolio by FTX with a limited number of different custom NFT’s available.

Other Playbooks NFT’s feature RB Earl Campbell, TE Shannon Sharpe, QB Joe Theismann, and RB Doak Walker.

The purchase of these NFTs provides several opportunities to unlock a variety of “extra” opportunities for engagement and interaction, including signed memorabilia, “meet and greet” opportunities and other unique experiences.

Collectors purchasing all “Playbooks” from a particular player within a certain amount of time will automatically be invited to join a video conference with that player, for example, while collectors who purchase the most “Playbooks” from a specific player within that same window will have the chance to receive signed jerseys, helmets and in the case of Doak Walker, even two tickets to next year’s Hall of Fame Enshrinement, courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. More details can be found here.

“I’m just looking forward to this new genre and what we’re creating for collectors. I think it’s fascinating,” Allen added. “It will be interesting to find out how many people are really excited about it. This is what we call progress. This is what we call change. It’s something new and exciting and hopefully, people will see this as something they want to be a part of.”

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Spencer Dinwiddie Q&A: How he used his ACL rehab to create a new blockchain app for creators

Spencer Dinwiddie, who is reportedly nearing a long-term deal to sign with the Washington Wizards, has a lot more to offer than his scoring.

NBA guard Spencer Dinwiddie was recovering from a torn ACL in the midst of a pandemic. Outside of his rehab, he had nothing but time on his hands.

If you follow Dinwiddie on social media, you’ve seen him tweet his insights about cryptocurrency, investments, blockchain, NFTs and more. The 28-year-old, who played for the Brooklyn Nets between 2016 and 2021, is applying that knowledge into one place as the chairman and co-founder of Calaxy.

Calaxy, a social media app he is launching for creators that is currently in beta testing, is designed to use the blockchain to reimagine the way people use social media. He aims to empower more meaningful and fulfilling fan experiences by giving creators a toolkit to interact with their fans in one place — while also rewarding fans for their engagement.

The company has already raised $7.5 million in funding, including notable investments from the likes of NFL star Ezekiel Elliott and The Bachelor‘s Matt James. Some of the other big names attached include entertainment superstar Teyana Taylor and NBA champion Iman Shumpert.

Dinwiddie, who will reportedly join the Washington Wizards on a multi-year deal, told For The Win that he will also continue promoting Calaxy on his Instagram and that you can request a beta key on their website before their launch in the App Store — which will likely come around Q3.

Please note this interview was minorly edited in its transcript for clarity.

LaMelo Ball to auction off autographed triple-double shoes tied to NFTs

In another trendsetting move, LaMelo Ball will auction off shoes from his historic triple-double tied to his recently-launched NFTs.

In line with his trendsetting ways, LaMelo Ball will auction off the pair of autographed shoes worn during his historic triple-double in his rookie season. The auction will be tied to his recent nonfungible token (NFT) release, specifically the Gold Sun No. 1, Ball’s most valuable and first NFT. The auction will take place at lameloball.io.

Gold Sun is tied to the Rookie of the Year award. If the NBA announces that Ball has won Rookie of the Year, the NFT will evolve.

Purchasing the Gold Sun comes with a 50% chance at autographed memorabilia, participation in his endorsement deals, potential to win NBA game tickets, Ball’s official merch and other opportunities. There are 500 Gold Suns, numbered in order.

Gold Sun No. 1 will be auctioned off beginning Thursday at 7 p.m. PST. Along with the autographed shoes from the triple-double, the auction winner will receive a signed jersey, signed collectible card and all other Gold Sun benefits.

To date, Ball has issued the third highest-selling NFT ever by an athlete. This week, Ball outsold Floyd Mayweather, Damian Lillard and the entirety of the MLB.

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Raiders Hall of Fame WR Tim Brown launches first ever H2H collectible NFT

Raiders Hall of Fame WR Tim Brown to launch first ever H2H collectible NFT

How many players in NFL history can boast of earning a Heisman Trophy and a bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame? That list is a short one. Just ten players long, in fact. And it includes legendary Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown.

To commemorate that accomplishment, Brown is the first of the select group to debut his own NFT. The H2H series will be released by Hall of Fame Resort and Entertainment Company along with Dolphin Entertainment and will feature others such as Doak Walker and Earl Campbell soon to follow.

For those unfamiliar, NFT means Non-Fungible Token. To put it simply, it’s a digital collectible. But this isn’t just like a football card or an autograph. This is next-level stuff. What Tim Brown refers to as a “quantitative leap” from the sports memorabilia that existed during his playing days. The kind of thing that many rabid Raiders or Tim Brown fans will want to own.

“I didn’t know anything about this a couple months ago,” Brown told Raiders Wire on Monday. “So, when it popped up as a memorabilia piece where your fans can possibly have something that is really special, I was all in. I’ve been signing autographs for people since I was 19 years old. Most of the time you’re signing the same pieces; you’re signing the same cards or pictures and jerseys or whatever and really nothing new has come on the scene for a while, as far as NFL players anyway, and this was the opportunity to throw something out there for your fans that is a piece of art that they’ve never seen before that they can own by themselves, that one person can own. We’re doing the Playbooks deal too. I think for me just being excited about reconnecting with the fans in a different way was high on my list.”

In total, there are two NFT’s. The first is a one-of-a-kind collectible which is being auctioned off starting today and going over the next week and includes a surprise virtual meet-and-greet call from Tim to the auction winner’s person of choice, a personalized Notre Dame or Raiders official jersey and two tickets to a future Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony of the winner’s choosing.

The second release is a limited edition (100) collectible called Playbooks. Those collectibles sell for $1500 each with the person who buys the 100th one receiving their choice of a personalized Notre Dame or Raiders official helmet.

What these two NFT’s promise is to allow fans to connect with Tim Brown on a deeper level than perhaps they ever had before.

For Brown, this NFT is about navigating his football journey from lining up in a three-point stance in the backfield at Notre Dame to coming into the league as primarily a return man, to an injury threatening to cut down his career just as it was beginning, to ultimately becoming the most prolific receiver in Raiders history.

“It’s just an incredible thing to be where I am right now, because in my mind I knew I could play in the NFL as a punt returner and a kick returner,” Brown said of the start of his NFL career. “I knew I could do that. I didn’t know all the little nuances of being a receiver, because in my mind, even when I was in high school and in college, I always thought of myself as a running back who was a receiver, even though I played the receiver position most of the time.”

“If you’re a real Raider fan . . . [you] know how this wasn’t easy for me. And my relationship with Al Davis, both good and bad, so I think the real fans that followed me over the years know that,” Brown added. “Is it possible to get all that into an NFT? Maybe not really, but at the same time I think some of the things that you’ll hear and see will remind you of some of the things that I’ve gone through in my career.”

In the 1-of-1 NFT, Brown narrates the experience in which the viewer is led on a journey through the highlights of his career. It was created by Dolphin Entertainment’s Digital Studio in partnership with Shane Griffin, an award-winning visual artist, director and NFT developer. Griffin’s recent work includes projects with Wiz Khalifa and Kanye West, and brands such as Nike, Apple, Adidas and Givenchy. He is a winner of PRINT Magazine’s New Visual Artist and ADC Young Guns award.

The second offering will be the first in an exclusive H2H limited edition series of NFTs which will be available on a mass scale. This series will be spearheaded by the award winning partners at Reference.

This NFT auction will take place on OpenSea digital marketplace from May 17th (today) thru Monday May 24th.

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Warriors become first professional sports team to launch NFT collection

On Tuesday, the Golden State Warriors announced they would be the first professional sports team to launch an NFT collection.

On Tuesday morning, the Golden State Warriors became the first professional sports team to enter the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace.

The team announced a release for the Warriors legacy collection to the OpenSea platform, featuring digital championship rings for each of the franchise’s championships. 

The Warriors will also have digital commemorative ticket stubs available from memorable games, including the “We Believe” upset, the 2016 team’s 73rd victory against the Memphis Grizzlies, and the final game at Oakland’s Oracle Arena.

Via @warriors on Twitter:

 

Golden State’s decision to release an NFT collection comes after the league’s wild success with the blockchain-based platform NBA Top Shot. Top Shot allows users to buy, sell and trade different numbered versions of officially licensed individual highlights from specific moments around the league.

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There will be limited available NFT options for each item in Golden State’s legacy collection. The different pieces from the collection are currently available for auction online.

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