Gabby Gets Controversial, Again

Limit Break announced its open-source, programmable royalties tool for NFTs. Some people love it, some hate it.

Author

The Metadata
January 11, 2023

GM. Just a daily reminder that we're all still early in one of the largest growth industries in the coming decades. And it's fun as hell. Let's get right into it.

Today we cover:

  • Google Search interest for NFTs & Bitcoin

  • Gabriel Leydon (Limit Break founder) gets controversial, again

  • Today's Most Interesting Tweets, especially on art

Google Search Interest Remains Flat

NFTs have had a pretty decent run-up in the past few weeks, with floor prices for collections like Azuki & Bored Apes rising strongly, almost seemingly invincible.

Yet one counterpoint to the sustainability of this JPEG rally is that overall mainstream attention on NFTs, and crypto in general, has still been pretty much flat. Google Search interest for "NFT" and "bitcoin" tells us so (see above chart). There isn't an influx of new participants into the space. Until that happens, it's wise to be cautious and always think about where the money is coming from.

Gabby Gets Controversial, Again

💲 What to know: Limit Break announced its open-source, programmable royalties tool for NFTs. Gabby is clearly excited about it.

He's the founder of Limit Break, a Web3 gaming studio that raised $200M in VC funding last year. He's also no stranger to controversy. In fact, we think he lives off it. Limit Break is the parent company of the DigiDaigaku NFT collection.

(h/t @simpnfteth for the amazing art)

☘️ In the weeds: Limit Break released a library of smart contracts that enable a whole set of new functionality for NFTs. It can also be applied to existing NFT collections (via staking/wrapping)

Some of these new features include:

  • New mechanics for renting, reveal and rewards

  • Whitelisting of marketplaces where the NFT can trade on

  • Set a minimum selling price for NFTs

  • Royalty sharing: can specify the % of royalties that go to beneficiaries like the creator, collectors, and other affiliates

Some people love it, some people hate it:

🤑 Why it matters: These contracts give creators greater control over what their NFTs can do but it comes at the expense of less decentralization. Creators that use these types of contracts are walking a fine line between the open, permissionless ethos of Web3 and the status quo world we live in today, which big tech companies largely control. 

NFTs are a very versatile technology that can be applied to almost limitless use cases. Our take is that this clearly isn't suitable for all NFTs — it would be a sad day if it were. HOWEVER, we imagine there will be projects that will be able to use this in a creative manner that helps them to achieve their objectives. In such cases, to the user, the additional utility far overcomes the moderate loss of decentralization. Gaming is one such example

Today's Most Interesting Tweets

🐥 Will the NFT run last?

🐥 Largest fundraising by NFT projects

🐥 Turning 2 ETH into a CryptoPunk (70 ETH) in 5 days

🐥 Foundation launches its Worlds

🐥 Art: Babylon, a new art platform, allows artists to become founders

🐥 Art: New vintage photography NFT platform

🐥 Art: Andrea's new work, Futured Past, to be released on 19 Jan

🐥 Bright Moments launches its Tokyo citizen collection, minting in May.

That's it for today folks, see you tomorrow. If you want more, follow us on Twitter (@the_metadata).  And if you aren't already a subscriber, join us now to get all the daily alpha you need.

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is for educational purposes only. None of this is financial or investment advice. It is not a solicitation to buy or sell any assets. Please do your own research