Trump trumps himself and PayPal spoons MetaMask (Issue #52)
There's a reason so few people name their children "Icarus" anymore.
Frens, inconceivably it’s almost the end of 2022. And that means you survived, and we survived, and we get to do it all again in 2023. Well done! Not only for making it this far, but for your evident commitment to the cause of web3. We see you. We appreciate you.
To celebrate the highs of 2022 (and commiserate about the lows), we put together a little something we think you might enjoy. We’re calling it “The 2022 Rewind,” and if it makes you laugh (or cry), we hope you’ll share it with someone.
Right, let’s get straight into it!
DYOR 🔬
This week, 2024 presidential candidate and notable Floridian septuagenarian, Donald J. Trump, launched a forthcoming collection of trading card-style NFTs. The promotional video and website announcing the collection are works of art, do check them out if you haven’t. So much so, there was some concern at first that the whole thing was an enormous prank, or the result of some deepfakery high jinks. But unbelievably, it was absolutely, totally, entirely genuine.
Arguably the former President made the right call, at least financially. Because his fans (and plenty of degens) absolutely loved it. The entire collection of 45,000 collectives — priced at $99 a piece — sold out, and some of the rarer ones are selling on the secondary for many multiples of their mint price. With 10% royalties, that means the project’s raised nearly $5 million to date.
You can dispute many things (election outcomes, toupees, golf handicaps), but even we can’t deny Trump’s ongoing ability to attract attention, or his ability to leave his dignity at the door when there’s the chance of a quick buck. Each virtual card features imagery of the world’s most infamous “Florida Man” in one or another outfit or scenario that truly pushes the limits of the suspension of disbelief for someone with the diet and exercise regime of a toddler.
The best part is Trump claiming the virtual cards “celebrate [his] life and career.” To our knowledge, he’s never played competitive football, been to space, or enjoyed the power of laser vision. He’s also never been as svelte or as ripped as the cards suggest. But again, this is a man who’s never let verisimilitude stand in his way. Besides, in the most basic sense of the word, they are “art” — artist and illustrator Clark Mitchell (who’s worked for Disney, Marvel, Mattel, and others) designed them.
At launch, you could buy the Polygon-powered NFTs using a credit card or cryptocurrency, and those who did stand the chance to win various prizes depending on their card’s rarity, like dinner or a Zoom call with the man himself, or the chance to play golf with friends at one of his golf courses. In fact, those people willing to buy 45 cards up front are guaranteed a ticket to a Trump-hosted gala dinner… but they’ll still have to pay for their flights and accommodation.
We must admit the visuals perfectly keep with the former reality star and businessman’s outsized sense of his importance and achievements. The closest thing we can think of is Putin barechested on a horse… except, you know, Putin was in a photograph. Trump’s fantasies are best realized by those who trade in fantasy professionally... like comic book artists.
Knowing how competitive The Don is, he must be delighted that his first foray into NFTs has far outperformed that of his third wife, Melania, whose own web3-powered coffer-bolstering debut using watercolor-inspired pictures of her eyes (👀) attracted so few bids it was eventually paid for by the same wallet that set it up. Yikes.
Intriguingly, Trump chose this moment — where all eyes are on cryptocurrencies thanks to FTX’s collapse, and regulators baying for blood — to pitch, umm, an NFT collection. He’s also been vocal about his opposition to all things blockchain before. But perhaps we’re selling him short, and it’s a shrewd and calculated move designed to capitalize on the current fervor. Or, and this seems far more likely, perhaps his 2024 fundraising efforts aren’t going as well as hoped. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Whatever the reason, at least we’ve gotten a good laugh out of it all. Because while Trump’s cash grab is a regrettable advertisement for web3, in what’s been a pretty dark year, this totally unhinged, inelegant, and embarrassing move from a man who was once the most powerful person on earth is the sort of farce you really can’t make up.
🙃 Sure, well, no, I mean, fine 🤔
Probably nothing 🤔
PayPal x MetaMask 🦊
If we were in a bull market this is the sort of news that would send the price of Ethereum soaring, along with PayPal’s share price. But we’re in a bear market, so the proverbial needle has hardly twitched. Nonetheless, we consider the news that one of the mainstream financial world’s most-recognizable brands (PayPal) and MetaMask (the best-known cryptocurrency wallet) have cozied up.
The TL;DR version is that PayPal customers can now buy Ethereum directly from their accounts. The service will only be available to PayPal customers in the U.S. initially, which is suboptimal given PayPal’s sizeable European user base. Nonetheless, it’s another in the growing number of recent moves from big-name brands to make engaging with web3 easier and more seamless. And we — as the saying goes — are here for it.
Notes from the underworld ⚔️
The Potatoz, The Memes by 6529, and Valhalla have all been grabbing headlines this week, but it’s the last of these we’ve been watching with the most interest. With ambitions of not only being the web3 equivalent of gaming service Twitch but of usurping the throne of the current king of anime NFTs (Azuki), there’s a lot of hype surrounding the project… but there are also some fresh innovations that are helping drive it.
Following an application process for allow list spot, the project minted out at 0.5 ETH despite criticism that the price point was too high. It dipped beneath mint for a time thereafter, but then began to climb fast and, at the time of writing, is sitting just below 1 ETH.
Part of the project's appeal is the airdropped “Armory Tokens” that enable users to “re-roll” certain traits — from hair to weapons. Another is the artwork, for which the market evidently has a taste. Will Valhalla be the next Azuki? It’s too soon to say. But we can tell you we’re not going to be caught sleeping.
👇 Same as it ever was 🤝
NGMI ☄️
Yeah, sorry, Twitter again 🥲
The past week on Twitter’s been a real doozy, unless you like watching billionaire hypocrites do their thing. First Tweeter-in-Chief Elon Musk managed to undermine Dr. Antony Fauci (hallowed be his name) while also being transphobic and sounding a dog whistle to extremists, all in a single tweet.
Then he banned numerous high-profile journalists after they reshared stories about the banning of a Twitter account — run by a college student and Musk fan — that was sharing (publicly available!) flight data pertaining to the new Twitter boss’s private jet.
Grimes’ baby daddy then ran a poll asking whether the journalists should be banned entirely, temporarily suspended, or have their accounts reinstated immediately. When most people voted for reinstatement… he ran another poll with a longer timeline, only to get owned again. Oh, and after those same journalists showed up in an enormous Twitter Spaces event discussing the move, he showed up for a few minutes, ran away when pressed about the logic behind his decision, and shut down Spaces the following day, claiming it was so key upgrades could be performed. 🙄
In between all of this, he also managed to release “The Twitter Files,” an incredibly underwhelming selection of internal documents — pertaining to actions like the removal of Trump from Twitter after he, you know, pushed for a coup — using two of the worst pretenders to the label “journalist” he could find: Bari Weiss and Matt Taibbi. Plus, in banning journalists on a whim, Musk’s been more reactionary and petty than the handwringing and prevaricating Jack Dorsey and co. ever were. Which, admittedly, is a low bar.
Anyway, we digress. The good news is, you can always join the decentralized and federated service Mastodon. You can find us on Mastodon over here.
🍺 Future me is on it, I promise 🤞
To the moon 🌛
ApeCoin staking went live, introducing plenty of speculation and consternation about the various merits (and dangers) participating entails. See the Goats and the Metaverse episode below for a full breakdown of the salient points.
Gm $APE fam. Exciting news from the @FlexaHQ team! ApeCoin is now live on Flexa, which means you can use your $APE to make instant payments at 45,000+ places across the U.S.Are you ready for Day 10 of #12DaysofFlexa? $APE IS NOW LIVE ON FLEXA! ApeCoin is a token for culture, gaming, and commerce used to empower a decentralized community building at the forefront of web3. It’s now spendable at over 45,000 retail locations using the SPEDN app. https://t.co/Eb8LDtYUaZ
Flexa @FlexaHQSam Bankman-Fried became Sam Bankman-Detained and looks set to become Sam Bankman-Incarcerated soon enough. The former FTX and Alameda founder was meant to testify before congress but instead got arrested in the Bahamas and looks set to be extradited to the U.S.
Thanks to pressure from EU regulators, the next generation of iPhones will come with USB-C ports rather than Apple’s proprietary Lightning. Now it looks like we can chalk up another W to those same regulators. Bloomberg reports Apple is going to allow third-party app stores next year. That’s great news for web3 entrepreneurs who might otherwise have to cede 30% of every transaction fee to the Cupertino-based behemoth.
Moonbirds announced custom backgrounds, including a collaboration with XCOPY:
NFT Now asked the question a lot of us have been — Are NFT conferences broken? — and came back with the right answer: yes, yes they are.
Overpriced JPEGs (OPJ) released an NFT priced at 0.065 ETH that comes with the right to claim a bottle of “Overpriced Jin” a bottle of gin emblazoned with artwork by Amber Vittoria, and access to select future OPJ events.
Social media influenza (sic) Vanessa Sierra responded to pretty-hard-to-deny allegations (the blockchain doesn’t lie, folks) of having rugged her NFT project Smol Boyz Land by submitting a plethora of DMCA reports to Twitter aimed at those who’ve called her out. She still hasn’t denied the allegations, though. Tell us you’re guilty without telling us you’re guilty, yeah?
🪡 Thread of the week 🧵
Goats only 🐐
Whether you bought one Trump Card or a more patriotic 45 of them, you should be watching or listening to Goats and the Metaverse.
In each episode, collectibles OG and entrepreneur Stan “The Goat” Meytin and Metaversal co-founder and CEO Yossi Hasson talk about digital and IRL collectibles, NFTs, and the week’s news worth knowing.
This week, they unpack the intricacies and complexities of ApeCoin staking.
Watch the latest episode here:
Aside from providing invaluable insights into digital art and collectibles, Stan and Yossi have assembled a collection of NFTs dubbed “The Goat Vault.” When the show hits 5,000 subscribers on YouTube, one of those lucky subscribers will win the contents of the vault, which at last count, includes more than a dozen shiny NFTs.
Prefer listening? Find Goats and the Metaverse on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts.
IYKYK 😉
Follow for more 🐦
Congrats on making it all the way down here, fren!
If you’re reading this, it’s not too late to follow @HelloMetaversal on Twitter. And if you watch the video pinned there, spot the easter egg, and follow it, you could put yourself in pole position for a very sweet opportunity in 2023. 👀
Until next time, see you in the Metaverse.