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China proposes to bring its social credit system to the metaverse: Report

Proposals to a United Nations group reportedly show China wants digital IDs and real-world punishments for actions that occur in the Metaverse.

China is reportedly looking to implement a system akin to its social credit system, but in the Metaverse and other online virtual worlds.

Proposals viewed by POLITICO and reported on Aug. 20 show the state-owned telco China Mobile proposed a digital ID for all metaverse and online virtual world users that work with “natural characteristics" and "social characteristics."

The proposals say “to keep the order and safety of the virtual world” the ID would harbor a slew of personal information and identifiable signs including a person’s job and suggested such data be permanently stored and shared with authorities.

An example of the benefits of the system was provided with a problem user that “spreads rumors and makes chaos in the metaverse” — with the digital ID allowing police to quickly find and punish the person.

The proposal mirrors China’s social credit system — an in-development infrastructure designed to improve behavior that scores and ranks citizens across various metrics which has also been an enforcement tool.

In 2019, the Associated Press reported that authorities blocked social offenders from purchasing plane tickets 17.5 million times in 2018. Other social offenders were punished by being barred from purchasing train tickets 5.5 million times.

On July 5, China Mobile put forward the proposals as part of discussions with a focus group on the Metaverse put together by the United Nations’ communications technology agency the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The Metaverse focus group meets again in October where the proposals could be voted on.

If passed they could majorly influence telcos and tech firms as the ITU’s Metaverse group is aiming to develop new standards for metaverse services.

Chinese firms taking part in the focus group are purportedly firing off many more metaverse proposals compared to those from the United States and Europe according to one group contributor that spoke to POLITICO.

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They said China is “trying to play the long game” so that its proposals are the standard for the metaverse if its use becomes widespread.

"Imagine a metaverse where your identity protocols are set and monitored by Chinese authorities. Every government must ask themselves: ‘Is that the kind of immersive world we want to live in?’” the person said.

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Futureverse co-founders launch $50M venture fund

The AI metaverse company raised $54 million in a Series A round in July.

Shara Senderoff and Aaron McDonald, co-founders of artificial intelligence and metaverse company Futureverse, have launched a new $50 million venture fund and studio.

According to an Aug. 3 announcement, the fund is dubbed “Born Ready” and will invest in emerging technology ventures possessing collaboration potential with either Futureverse or metaverse blockchain The Root Network. The co-founders say Born Ready has already invested in firms such as FCTRY Lab, Power’d Digital, Polemos and Walker Labs.

Senderoff previously founded Raised in Space, a blockchain venture fund that has invested in over 20 crypto startups. McDonald was the co-founder and managing director of NetX Fund, with investments in more than 60 portfolio companies. 

The firm says it plans to roll out an accelerator program in the near future. Futureverse previously raised $54 million in a Series A round led by 10T Holdings and with contributions from Ripple Labs. The raise saw the consolidation of 11 metaverse companies into one ecosystem. Developers said the funds would be used to build the Futureverse platform The Root Network, a blockchain dedicated to creating metaverse decentralized applications. 

The same day, Cointelegraph reported that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and its metaverse subsidiary Reality Labs surpassed $40 billion in losses as of the second quarter of 2023. Nevertheless, the Meta CEO remains adamant that the future is “all going to be smart glasses” and our time spent on digital devices will become “more immersive and look something more like VR."

Meanwhile, Web3 and crypto venture capital funding has fallen 79% year-over-year to $779 million across 62 deals in June. Almost all of the new funding went to blockchain infrastructure projects, compared with less than $2.5 million allocated to nonfungible token projects. 

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Nifty News: Yuga Labs to buy metaverse studio, Etihad NFT staking to take off and more

Roar Studios will be acquired by Yuga Labs as the latter looks to onboard talent for its still-in-development Otherside metaverse.

Yuga Labs accelerates Otherside plan

Nonfungible token (NFT) conglomerate Yuga Labs has agreed to acquire the metaverse-building startup Roar Studios as Yuga looks to bolster its Otherside metaverse.

Yuga tweeted the news on July 31 saying the impending acquisition was to “execute our expansive vision” for Otherside.

An accompanying release said Roar Studios' founder and CEO Eric Reid will join Yuga as the general manager of Otherside, charged with leading the development and production of the metaverse.

Yuga is also nabbing audio, game and artificial intelligence engineers from Roar’s team which is 14 strong according to LinkedIn.

Otherside has only been glimpsed through a handful of early access demos which started in August 2022 alongside a more recent “vibe check.” It’s unknown when the project will officially launch.

In mid-July Yuga chief Daniel Alegre said it's still hard at work building Otherside adding the project will take time as it's “audacious.”

Yuga also scooped up the CryptoPunks and Meebits NFT collections in March 2022 and in November 2022 it acquired the Beeple-founded NFT game 10KTF.

Etihad NFTs to offer priority check-in, lounge access

Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad will soon take off with an NFT staking loyalty program called “Horizon Club” and is expanding its current NFT collection.

On Aug. 1, 300 new NFTs will be added to Etihad’s EY-ZERO1 collection, which will offer benefits like priority check-in, lounge access in Abu Dhabi and the ability to stake the NFT to earn flight miles.

Etihad isn’t launching the NFT staking platform until September but a trailer for the product shows users will be able to stake multiple NFTs to earn flight miles which are redeemable for various perks such as flights, upgrades and hotels.

As for the new NFTs, they depict an Etihad aircraft wrapped in branding for the latest Mission: Impossible film which the airline has a promotional partnership with.

NFT service platform Arcube collaborated on the collection and is one of the Web3 partners for the airline.

Lufthansa and Eurowings, two European airlines, have also flirted with Web3 integrations and are seeing how it could apply to their business models.

NFT Now cuts staff as crypto winter bites

NFT-focused news outlet NFT Now is reducing its staff count and restructuring, citing the ongoing crypto market winter.

NFT Now president Alejandro Navia tweeted on July 31 that it over-hired during the bull market and changing market conditions are forcing it to restructure and make cuts.

“Our company experienced rapid growth during the bull run, and we hired to service that growth,” reads Navia’s note.

“However, as we are building the business for the long term, we must adapt to changing market conditions,” he added. “Given the current climate, it is clear that this pace of growth was unsustainable and we over-hired.”

Navia said he takes “full ownership of this mistake” in his role as president. He did not disclose how many staff were impacted by the decision.

Sorare adds fiat in bid to boost adoption

The sports gaming platform Sorare has added support for fiat currencies to purchase its NFT-based digital trading cards, removing the need for users to pay in Ether (ETH).

As part of an update to its wallet users can now use U.S. dollars, euros or British pounds to buy the NFT cards which Sorare said eliminates a barrier to entry, according to a VentureBeat report.

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A Sorare-affiliated account tweeted on July 31 that the rollout of what it calls the “Cash Wallet” will progressively start on Aug. 1 with more fiat functionality coming in September.

Other Nifty News

Two U.S. lawmakers stung Apple CEO Tim Cook with a letter asking for information on if its App Store’s guidelines are dampening the growth of blockchain and NFT technologies due to it limiting the functionality of Web3 apps.

A computer scientist and an archaeologist have developed a Web3-based verification-as-a-service model for recording the authenticity of cultural artifacts as NFTs.

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The Sandbox and the British Museum bring art and history to the metaverse

The partnership between The Sandbox, the British Museum and laCollection intends to make artifacts in the museum’s collection more accessible.

The Sandbox metaverse development platform announced on July 27 that it would be partnering with the British Museum to bring it into the metaverse. 

The blog revealed that the partnership aims to create new “immersive experiences” for users to discover world history. A range of digital collectibles will be generated that reflect various collections within the museum.

Sebastien Borget, chief operating officer and co-founder of The Sandbox, called it an opportunity to share the museum’s collections with new audiences.

“This is a great opportunity for The Sandbox players, regardless of where they are, to learn about and enjoy the amazing collections of human history, art, and culture in the British Museum.”

The collaboration also includes a Web3 platform called laCollection, the museum’s licensing partner, which has also worked with leading museum institutions around the world to bring art into the digital space. 

While this moment may be the first foray into the Web3 space for the British Museum, it is not the first time a major museum has found its way into the metaverse. 

Related: Will museums of the future just be giant NFT galleries?

This past spring, the Centre Pompidou, one of the top museums in France for modern art and home of the first collection of modern art in Europe, opened a new exhibition in the growing intersection of art and blockchain. 

The museum introduced pieces from some of the world’s most coveted nonfungible token (NFTs) collections, including CryptoPunks and Autoglyphs, as part of a permanent exhibition.

Prior to that, one of Ukraine’s oldest art museums, the Kharkiv Art Museum, launched an NFT collection as a fundraiser to maintain its operation and preserve its cultural heritage.

The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp in Belgium was Europe’s first museum to tokenize a classic art masterpiece valued at millions of euros.

On the other side of things, last year, the metaverse platform Decentraland held Metaverse Art Week, which included various interactive exhibitions of digital art. This included an immersive experience surrounding the life and works of renowned painter Frida Kahlo with never-before-seen digitalized art.

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Bruce Lee avatar to teach martial arts in the metaverse

Those who wish to participate can do so by minting their avatars on the Polygon and Ethereum blockchains.

Legendary martial artist and actor Bruce Lee, who died in 1973, is set to teach martial arts in the metaverse through a tribute event hosted by a social entertainment platform to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the actor’s passing. 

Metaverse project Byte City announced on July 26 that those who wish to engage with the avatar of the late actor can participate in the event by minting avatars on Ethereum and Polygon. The minting is set to open on July 27 at 9 am PST for Polygon and July 28 at 9 am PST for Ethereum.

Those who are able to mint avatars on Ethereum or Polygon will be able to utilize the playable characters that they minted within the Byte City metaverse game 24 hours after the mint. The game can be accessed through desktop browsers and through iOS and Android mobile devices. 

Byte City has also collaborated with Bruce Lee’s daughter Shannon Lee and Samsung Gaming to develop the tribute event. In a previous press release, Lee said that the game will provide an immersive experience that allows fans to celebrate her father’s legacy in a special way.

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Meanwhile, this was not the first instance of Bruce Lee diving into the Web3 world. On April 12, the Bruce Lee Foundation, which is also directed by Shannon Lee, partnered with the nonfungible token (NFT) video platform Shibuya to create an NFT collection called The House of Lee.

While the release generated about $730,000, holders of the NFTs quickly realized that only one NFT was unique in the entire collection. This led to the floor price of the collection dropping from its 0.008 Ether (ETH) minting price to around 0.002 ETH at the time of writing. 

Collect this article as an NFT to preserve this moment in history and show your support for independent journalism in the crypto space.

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Meta Q2 earnings: Reality Labs losses top $7.7B year to date

Meanwhile, Meta's metaverse-building business has racked up around $21 billion in losses since the start of 2022.

Meta's metaverse-related losses topped $3.74 billion over the second quarter with the Big Tech player spending $7.7 billion on its virtual reality business so far in 2023.

Its second-quarter 2023 results released on July 26 saw Meta report an 11% revenue gain compared to the same quarter last year, totaling $31.9 billion.

Its metaverse-focused Reality Labs revenue topped $276 million, its lowest in two years and a nearly 40% drop compared to Q2 2022.

Meta's segment results in millions since Q2 2021 with added highlights on Reality Labs' Q2 2023 revenue and operating losses. Source: Meta

On an earnings call, Meta's financial chief Susan Li said Reality Labs' revenue drop was due to lower sales of its Quest 2 virtual reality (VR) headset. The department's expenses were up 23% to $4.0 billion partly caused by a growth in staffing costs.

Reality Labs' operating losses are set to increase through 2023, Meta said. It cited VR-related product development efforts and further investments in its metaverse as the reason for the losses extending.

On the call, Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg said the firm is focusing on artificial intelligence "in the near term and the metaverse over the longer term."

He reiterated Meta is "fully committed" to its metaverse alongside its AI investments and said the two areas are "overlapping and complementary."

He added its AI model Llama is being used to build a number of products that will help users "create worlds and the avatars and objects that inhabit them as well" and said he would share more later in the year.

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Meta's stock price jumped on the earnings and is up over 7% in after-hours trading to around $320 according to Google Finance data. Meta shares have gained nearly 140% year-to-date but are still off from their September 2021 all-time high of over $378.

Meta's stock price spiked to over $320 in after-hours trading on July 26. Source: Google Finance

Zuckerberg mentioned its July 6 launched platform Threads was “seeing more people coming back daily than I’d expected” and said Meta was focused firstly on Threads user retention, then growth and would later focus on monetizing the platform.

The comments come the same day as a July 26 report from data analytics firm Similarweb that claimed Threads users have declined 60% from launch.

Threads peaked at 49 million daily active users on July 7 but fell to 12.6 million daily active users by July 23 with users spending less than five minutes a day on the app over the past week.

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McDonald’s Uses the Sandbox (SAND) for New ‘McNuggets Land’ Metaverse Experience

McDonald’s Uses the Sandbox (SAND) for New ‘McNuggets Land’ Metaverse Experience

Fast food giant McDonald’s has launched a new metaverse experience using the virtual world blockchain The Sandbox (SAND). According to a statement from Animoca Brands, the company behind The Sandbox, McDonald’s Hong Kong has built a new metaverse game experience called “McNuggets Land” for the 40th anniversary of Chicken McNuggets. Animoca says that users can […]

The post McDonald’s Uses the Sandbox (SAND) for New ‘McNuggets Land’ Metaverse Experience appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

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McDonald’s debuts McNuggets Land in The Sandbox

McDonald's Hong Kong has picked The Sandbox to build its first Web3 experience, the McNuggets Land.

McDonald's Hong Kong has picked The Sandbox to build its first Web3 experience, the McNuggets Land, a virtual world dedicated to celebrating Chicken McNuggets' 40th anniversary. 

The experience takes users to a virtual store, with a hidden factory and a tour through the history of the chicken snack, allowing gamers to play and complete quests to win rewards, such as the metaverse utility token SAND, which is used to purchase virtual goods and customize avatars on the platform.

Hong Kong users can also win 365-day free Chicken McNuggets coupons for redemption at the chain's restaurants. To join the virtual world, users only need an email address.

Chicken McNuggets characters created by Hong Kong-based metaverse studio Pangu by Kenal. Source: The Sandbox.

Metaverse experiences have emerged as a tool for brand-building strategies in the past few years, allowing companies to gamify products and services, as well as establish online loyalty programs.

Sebastien Borget, co-founder and COO of The Sandbox, noted in a statement shared with Cointelegraph that the partnership with McDonald's takes The Sandbox to "a new level" and brings it "closer to realizing the ultimate goal of mass adoption of the metaverse.”

The giant fast food chain has chosen Web3 tools to engage customers in the past. In 2021, for instance, McDonald's China released a set of 188 nonfungible tokens (NFT) to celebrate its 31st anniversary in the local market. 

McDonald's isn't the first global brand to embrace the virtual world through collaborations with The Sandbox. The Web3 firm previously partnered with 400 companies, including Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, Gucci, Adidas, as well as Snoop Dogg, The Smurfs, Care Bears, The Walking Dead and Atari.

“The launch of self-publishing now allows our partners to realize the true potential and monetise their brand in the metaverse by making their customer experience available to everyone, all the time,” said Borget about the recently released feature that allows brands to launch experiences directly on the platform's map.

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Ripple and Crypto Heavyweights Invest in New Artificial Intelligence Metaverse Project

Ripple and Crypto Heavyweights Invest in New Artificial Intelligence Metaverse Project

Ripple Labs and crypto investment firm 10T are investing $54 million into Futureverse, a crypto technology and artificial intelligence (AI) gaming startup. According to a new announcement, Futureverse plans to use the funds for research and development, including advancing its technology called the Root Network. The Root Network is a blockchain and suite of protocols […]

The post Ripple and Crypto Heavyweights Invest in New Artificial Intelligence Metaverse Project appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

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Nifty News: Metaverse bank robberies, Trump NFT biz prefers crypto over cash, and more

The Bank of America’s metaverse trains staff on resolving customer disputes or helps them relax by riding a virtual unicorn.

Stick em' up! Bank robbery drills in the Metaverse

The Bank of America is mixing a virtual reality metaverse and artificial intelligence to train new employees on everything from handling angry customers to bank robberies.

Bloomberg reported July 13 that the bank’s 2,000 new hires undergo a week-long training regime that includes slipping on a VR headset to practice responding to a variety of simulated situations.

The VR modules include mundane situations like helping an upset customer or quizzing one which asks for a large swath of cash, and extreme ones, like a full-blown bank robbery.

The newcomers can also just chill out in VR by riding a unicorn or sitting on an island.

An upset virtual customer the new BoA staff have to calm. Source: Bloomberg

AI is also deployed in the training, the new hires practice conversing with a bot acting as a customer and are helped through the conversation by yet another AI bot.

Currently, over 200,000 global BoA staff have been privy to the virtual training. The bank’s call centers also have an AI coaching bot to assist in drilling conversations with clients. Managers can also handball further staff training to the bots.

The innovation and design executive of the BoA’s Academy, Mike Wynn, told Bloomberg that the training is advantageous as these scenarios are “hard to teach traditionally.”

“VR creates anxiety, it gets your heart rate up. It makes you nervous,” he added.

Use of its metaverse is also being mulled for use at job fairs in a bid to entice a younger audience for an enthralling career in banking by having them virtually live out the hum-drum of a bank associate.

Donald Trump’s NFT business opts to hold funds on-chain

Former United States president Donald Trump’s nonfungible token (NFT) licensing business is seemingly choosing to hold its funds on Ethereum, with recently updated disclosures showing next-to-nothing in its bank account.

The update disclosures filed by Trump with the Office of Government Ethics made public on July 13 provided more details on his finances and business dealings — a legal requirement as he again makes a bid for the presidency.

CIC Digital, the firm that gains the revenue from licensing fees for the NFT collections that use Trump’s likeness, has a U.S. bank account with a balance of less than $1,000.

Meanwhile, the company’s Ethereum wallet holds anywhere between $250,000 and $500,000.

In a previous April disclosure, Trump said he earned anywhere between $500,000 to $1 million from his NFT licensing deals.

Trump’s renewed bid for president legally requires him to file a “Personal Financial Disclosure” which can be broad in nature, but it's unclear why he updated his financial disclosures to be more specific.

Two rounds of NFT collections have been released bearing Trump’s image the last of which, released in April, sold out on their first day.

Siemens $560K campus to be built in the metaverse first

German tech conglomerate Siemens has committed to building a $560,000 (500 million euros) new tech campus in near Nuremberg, Germany, but will appear first digitally in the metaverse.

On July 13 Siemens said it’s spending $1.1 billion (1 billion euros) investment to make a “blueprint for the industrial metaverse” in the country. Half that amount is going to the campus with the goal of making it a hub for what it calls the industrial metaverse — a digital recreation of locations used for troubleshooting and analytics.

The campus will be built just north of Nuremberg and before construction begins the buildings will be planned out and simulated in the metaverse, then copied into the real world, according to Siemens.

The digital replica will allow for the layout to be optimized and adjusted before any ground is broken. The campus will sit alongside its existing factory that makes electronic components.

The funding is part of the firm's $2.2 billion (2 billion euro) investment plan announced last month which aims to build the company new education centres and regional hubs.

Puma sneaker NFTs let you listen to tracks, while on track

Sports shoe company Puma, NFT company Legitimate and rapper Jay-Z’s entertainment agency Roc Nation have teamed up for a sneaker collection integrated with NFTs.

The collection dubbed "The Evolution of the Mixtape" collection was released July 14 and features three sneaker models called “Disc,” “Cassette Tape” and “Playlist.”

The tongue of the left shoe features an NFC chip that can be tapped with a phone to grant access to an exclusive portal featuring unreleased music from Roc Nation artists, video content and a documentary.

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The shoes are priced at $130 a pair and Legitimate touts their NFC tags can be linked with an NFT that authenticates the real product.

Such “phygital” streetwear has proven popular, in June French luxury brand Dior shipped a new line of sneakers with one pair that came with a “digital twin” — an NFT.

More Nifty News:

NFT firm Dapper Labs had its third round of layoffs in nine months on July 13 with 51 full-time staff and contractors let go, which was around 12% of the company’s staff. In November last year and February 2023 it reduced headcount by 22% and 20% respectively.

An NFT collector shared how they secured a $35,000 decentralized finance (DeFi) loan by putting up a Patek Phillipe luxury watch as collateral which was then made into an NFT granting ownership of the watch to secure the transaction.

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