Walmart dives into the Metaverse: Nifty Newsletter, Sept 21-27
In this week’s newsletter, read about how UNICEF is using nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to help connect schools to the internet and how post offices are able to revive the philately sector through NFTs. Check out how an NFT gaming project lets many aspects of its game be customizable and sold as NFT packs. In other news, Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu spoke with Cointelegraph and shared his thoughts about Asia’s perception of NFTs. And, don’t forget this week’s Nifty News featuring Walmart’s entry to the Metaverse.
UNICEF Giga NFTs to connect schools in developing countries to internet
Humanitarian aid organization UNICEF has utilized NFTs as a means of raising funds to help with its mission of providing internet access to schools located in developing regions all over the world. Through its Giga initiative, it aims to help 1.1 million schools across 49 countries.
In a Cointelegraph interview at the Blockchain Expo in Amsterdam, Giga blockchain product manager Gerben Kijne mentioned that their NFT fundraising initiative attracted both UNICEF supporters who had bought NFTs for the first time and NFT collectors who wanted to get the NFTs because it was made by UNICEF.
Post offices adopting NFTs leads to a philately renaissance
European post offices utilized NFT popularity to jumpstart the philately sector, an area focusing on the study of postage stamps. PostAG philately head Patricia Liebermann and PostNL product manager Sacha Van Hoorn are leading the charge.
Speaking to Cointelegraph at the Blockchain Expo in Amsterdam, Liebermann said that they combined NFTs with physical stamps and got overwhelming feedback. According to Liebermann, they started exploring NFT postage stamps in 2019 and determined that there is a market out there who are interested in this new way of collecting.
NFTs bring in-game ownership to a new level, says Blokhaus founder
Gaming is a very popular use case for NFTs. There have been many NFT gaming projects flooding the Web3 space. Despite this, one project wants to surpass the competition by making every component of its game NFTs customizable.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Blokhaus Inc. founder Mark Soares gave a description of how their project aims to reach gamers. According to the executive, they allow the creation of their own characters within their own scenes, and these can be sold as NFT packs to other gamers.
Yat Siu: Asia GameFi opportunity huge as gamers don’t hate NFTs
Yat Siu, the co-founder of Animoca Brands, spoke with Cointelegraph at the Asia Crypto Week and argued that the Asian region presents a lot of opportunities for GameFi projects. The executive highlighted that Asia is very welcoming to NFTs compared to other regions and has the potential to lead the blockchain gaming space.
Siu mentioned that western gaming companies usually deal with consumer resistance when it comes to NFTs. However, in Asia, the executive noted that this did not happen and cited the differences in Asians’ perception of capitalism.
Nifty News: Walmart steps into the Metaverse, @NFT founder hacked and more
Retail giant Walmart has dived into the Metaverse by launching its Walmart Land and Walmart’s Universe of Play on the online game Roblox. Meanwhile, the owner of the banned handle @NFT has claimed to have lost $1 million in Ether (ETH) and NFTs after an exploit.
Thanks for reading this digest of the week’s most notable developments in the NFT space. Come again next Wednesday for more reports and insights into this actively evolving space.