The Golden Ticket 🎟️
Featuring NFT tickets, Parallel realities, Porsche disaster, Dookey Dash, and more memes than we've ever had.
Welcome to our new subscribers! This newsletter hits your inbox 3x times a week, and this specific Saturday edition recaps the week in web3 x sports.
If you’re looking for “what to do” in the space, scroll down to the Making Moves⚡ section for quick and easy (and often FREE) moves to make right now.
Do you keep any ticket stubs?
From a movie. From the zoo. From a conference. From a trip?
If you do, I can’t blame you. Ticket stubs are a special item.
Not only is the original ticket packed with value (some tickets cost a lot), but tickets hold a special place in our psyche.
From a young age we are conditioned to think that a ticket is special.
I can still remember the way it felt to hold my ticket to my very first Maple Leafs game. Or even as a teen, the ticket to my first concert!
And yet, tickets have barely ever evolved. Heck I think most people have never even thought of ticket stubs as something that could change.
Yes, some sports events now feature pictures of players on the tickets, and now you can also get them as a QR code in your phone, but that’s it.
Once the game is done - the ticket does nothing (unless you’re one of those towns where everyone gets pizza when the team strikes out 10 batters).
But I think we all feel that’s about to change thanks to web3.
At last, sports are catching on, and turning their tickets to authentic and traceable tokens. Yes, a digital collectible for fans is a small step - after all, we don’t know how many will actually claim the token. But the potential is there.
I’ve been working on a podcast episode about tickets (it’s not ready yet), as I really believe they could be one of the major keys to mass adoption. It hasn’t been easy - most of the people involved don’t want to talk about it yet! But I’ll make it work, one way or another 😉.
In the meantime, please let me know what your most memorable ticket was, or just the one you’d love to own.
Now lets get into all the action from this past week.
📦 Top Shot Questions Parallels
Months ago, I wondered aloud what exactly Parallel moments were and why they exist in the ecosystem. And I guess i wasn’t alone!
In a blog post released this week, NBATS addressed this matter, with a simple explanation of “The concept of Parallels is very popular in the physical sports collectibles space”.
Personally, I think the Parallels were a mistake, as was the entire plan for supply of Series 4 on the platform. Its simply way too much as this point in the game, as proven by the $1 floor that once seemed inconceivable. 8,000 mint moments is just way too much given the demand and low active user base. Scarcity above all else!
We also got a big old nothing burger update on the Pack Marketplace, which was promised multiple times through 2022.
The blog wasn’t all bad - it also detailed:
Rookies will only having ONE base mint in Series 4 (thank god).
The plan for the Giannis S1 MGLE Moment (airdrop for holders).
The next Locker Pack drop (February 1st).
Why Challenges are
just designed to make people buy unwanted momentsharder for collectors now.Latest Net Circulating Supply, which imo is total BS because locking does not equal neutral supply.
Series 4 was seen as the big turnaround for TS. And halfway through the season, the jury is still out on what exactly a turnaround looks like, and wether it will take place anytime soon.
I need to think on this a bit. It’s a tiresome game to cover TS, as most of the NFT community moved on a long time ago, and expectations have been difficult to manage. As a writer and enthusiast, I think I could stand to do a bit of soul searching on what exactly would define a “positive outcome” on TS for me, rather than constantly nitpicking the misses. More on this later this quarter.
📦 The Dash Continues on BAYC
Last week, I wrote about the start of Dookey Dash, the new (and first) game from Yuga Labs, makers of the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
There were a few days there where I thought maybe normies like me would have a chance at securing a top spot, or at least a decent score.
Man, was I wrong.
Reaching #1 spot on Dash has caught the attention of professional gamers, with some collectors even offering money to hire pros to play on their behalf.
And to give you a sense of just how fast the top scorers really are, watch this video from someone who took first place Thursday night:
The contest wraps February 8th.
📦 Porsche Crashes, Burn, and Returns
This last week, auto brand Porsche released their first NFT collection and it was a complete - yet typical - disaster for such a big brand in web3.
In rough order of events:
Porsche collected names/addresses for an Allow List.
The Mint went live for 0.911 ETH each (lol) with a total supply of 7,500.
The mints slowed down almost immediately, as the floor on secondary failed to keep up with the mint price.
The FUD began, as NFT Twitter hailed the drop as a total disaster.
To make up for it, the brand announced the project would be halting the mint and burning the remaining supply.
And naturally, the floor priced tripled overnight.
However, some eagle-eyed collectors noted that the wallets buying up the floor may have been created by the team themselves, thus creating artificial demand.
And to add insult to injury, this guy Paul realized the Terms of Service on the NFT mint stated buyers would be eligible for a refund on the NFT within 14 days of purchase.
Man. What a world.
As someone who worked with big brands in social media for over a decade, including in their infancy back in 2009-2010, I can tell you that these major fuck ups are par for the course.
Inevitably, even the most well intentioned and premium brand will fall victim to the “Marketing Specialist” that seems to have this new medium all figured out. It will happen again, and it will take years before brands develop a proper playbook for how to do this.
And even then, they probably still won’t get it right.
A bit light this week. I don’t want to send you guys down the Open Edition Art rabbit hole. So here is what’s on tap:
🔴 Own The Moment Streak | 30 seconds
OTM has launched “streak” where you pick a daily outcome of an NBA game. It literally JUST launched, with rewards coming to those who do all the “tasks”.
🟢 Get a Rebate on Flowty | 2 minutes
Flowty unexpectedly launched a Marketplace for Flow collections this week, including no royalties on Top Shot/ALL DAY. Plus a $5 FLOW rebate to the first 500 buyers on the platform.
🔵 Prepare for a FREE Super Bowl Mint | Wait 2 weeks
Gabriel Leydon, the founder of Digidaiku, has bought an ad during the Super Bowl and will be offering a FREE mint for those who scan.
🔵 Calculate your NFT Earnings on NFT Bank | 30 minutes
Tax season is coming so get your full CSV transaction download on NFT Bank (its free!). I used this last year to do my taxes (it was still challenging). We are not affiliated.
Despite living in the age of Steph Curry and his governance over the long distance shot, we can still appreciate love full court buzzer beater.
Can we get more Ant highlights please? Feel like his star has faded a bit since his rookie season. But damn, Kermit is a freak!
TIL that Ja Morant has a niece that can BALL.
We’ll end on a more emotional note.
This clip of LeBron describing what it meant when Kobe gave him a pair of shoes as a teenager is very enticing heartwarming. But even wilder when you realize it was recorded the day before Kobe passed away.
Notable highlights from the last seven days:
Web3
Doodles will be taking their talents to
Roham’s Yachtthe Flow Blockchain | FlowKevin Rose was hacked and lost $2M worth of NFTs | 0xQuit
Wagmi.io was bought by Floor App | Decrypt
Doodles acquired an animations studio prior to their move to Flow | The Drop
The Weekly Chart
La Liga is still posting up relatively impressive volume (considering its very much in super beta mode). AD also wreaked havoc following more playoff action.
**This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter, podcast, or publication should be considered financial or trading advice of any kind. Please do your own thorough research and make your own trading decisions. This is not advice.”
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