GM

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Mint or Skip. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of classical literature most of the esoterica will go over a typical reader's head. There's also Yung Cicero's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation - his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they're not just funny - they say something deep about LIFE.

Links for the Top 25 drops are HERE.

Three great posts worth reading

It’s rare to find something published on the island of misfit toys known as crypto Twitter that’s worth reading, let alone sharing. 

And yet, O Dearly Beloved, you’ll be surprised to hear that today I’ll be providing not one, but three interesting posts found in the last 24 hours, along with some of my thoughts. 

How did we ever get so lucky? 

–

“BILLION DOLLAR ROBOT”

Original article at cyborg.art

TLDR

Cyborg DAO released an incredibly robust overview of the inner workings, risks, and potential around Botto, the AI agent that makes and sells NFTs through a DAO (first covered here). 

It ends with a turbo-bullish conclusion: how Botto’s token could reach a $1 billion valuation in the coming years (it’s currently valued at $22 million). 

My thoughts

I don’t have any takes on the valuation itself, but I’m just feeling thankful that I spend my time in a space where anon Twitter accounts called pepe will write Wall Street reports explaining why I should buy a robot artist’s computer coin. 

Worth reading to understand how Botto became the best-selling SuperRare artist last year and what might lie ahead. 

“Our Predictions for 2024”

Original article naavik.co

TLDR

Naavik is a gaming consulting firm that generally puts out thoughtful pieces. Yesterday they posted their 2024 predictions, and here were some interesting points for Web 3 gaming specifically: 

1. Web3 will be strong in the East and fledging in the West. They believe Western countries will remain uninterested in web3, while Asia will move faster given that their focus on complex in-game economies and pay-to-win mechanics fits perfectly with NFTs. 

2. Fully onchain games will establish a foothold in web3. They expect this genre will roughly double in size in 2024 (which isn’t saying much tbh). 

3. The first successful mobile game with NFT implementation will finally land in the Play and App stores this year, and one will be a hit. 

My thoughts

Overall these are pretty conservative predictions, certainly not the revolution that some are expecting. 

But I generally agree here – most of the popular upcoming “games” so far have simply been token farms in disguise, and that will probably continue to be the case this year barring a few exceptions: Parallel, Pirate Nation, NFL Rivals, and maybe Maplestory (off the top of my head). 

“Old ct is dead”

Original article at @0xBender

TLDR

Popular crypto dev 0xBender made a viral post today lamenting the downfall of crypto Twitter. 

The problem, according to him, is that posters have shifted from sharing “alpha” to primarily making view-driven content designed to maximize engagement. This means a lot more noise and a lot less motivation to search for truth. 

My thoughts

Twitter/X has always been the closest thing to an actual crypto metaverse. It’s the connective tissue that brings everyone together, and PFPs + bull posts are the leaderboards that drive people’s desire to engage. 

But I find that I’m spending less time there than I have in previous years. 

In fact, one of the reasons I started this newsletter was because I realized that I had to wade through all the nonsense on Twitter just to track upcoming NFT mints. I figured if I could pull those insights out and send them directly to people, then we could all spend a little less time in a toxic hellscape, which is kind of nice. 

So in a way, I started an entire company built on not wanting to be on Twitter, which sounds pretty ridiculous when you think about it. 

I don’t know if it’s the shift to view-driven content, or the bear market, or the erosion of people’s sanity after one too many trips to the casino, but it does seem like the magic is retreating to private chats or alternative platforms like Farcaster. 

NOTE: These drops are lightly curated. Our only requirement is that they have recognizable founders. As usual, DYOR. To learn more go here.

The Flood by Yoshi Sodeoka

Boasting a 30+ year art track record and collaborations with some of your favorite bands like Metallica and Tame Impala, New York artist Yoshi Sodeoka is making his Verse debut with The Flood.

Comprising 42 pieces in two series, Orchestrated and Chaos, The Flood’s video loops showcase 2D spiders dancing along swerving black lines on a blurred white canvas.

The difference between the series, and the center point of the collection, lies in the contrast between the spiders’ patterns, highlighting the calculable yet unpredictable essence of nature.

The perfect prank gift for that arachnophobe friend of yours.

Farcana Ordinals

Following the sellout of their free Polygon collection Mars Enigma Vault last month, Animoca-backed shooter game Farcana is running it back with another free mint, this time on Ordinals with a 333-supply.

Seemingly a utility pass, the token will grant an airdrop for the game’s upcoming $FAR token and a limited edition in-game skin among other benefits, although more details should be coming soon.

Check out a recent gameplay video here to see if Farcana entices your gamer brain.

OverTrip

OverTrip is an upcoming web3 battle royale game (sane, non-gamer readers think Fortnite) with an upcoming free mint.

The game’s being developed by GGXYZ, a studio founded in 2021, which recently just launched its second game ever, Dark Frontiers.

The studio is linked to the Gamestarter platform, also a launch partner for this release, and backed by VC firm Shima Capital in this instance, who’ve previously invested in notable projects like Pudgy Penguins.

No gameplay is available yet, and details for the mint are scant, although the drop looks to be in-game characters/skins from looking at the website.