A History of Collecting

The Drop Space, History of Collecting, and Early Bull Vibes

Author

Forefront
December 11, 2023

Happy Monday!

Welcome to the 170th edition of the Forefront Newsletter, now more dynamic than ever. If you’re new here, we give you a weekly roundup of the best news and insights at the intersection of crypto, culture, and community. Got just few mins? Read our onchain tl;dr…

If you have any new insights, interesting stories, or experiences that you think would enrich our newsletter, please don't hesitate to share them with us. You can send your contributions or ideas via email to [email protected].

This week we’re covering:

Let’s get into it…

Week’s Highlight

Introducing the Drop Space, a Forefront media experiment unlocking the power of onchain curation and conversation. The first piece of featured media in the drop space is an insightful essay on 'The History of Collecting', a meta-exploration of the action driving the ecosystem.

Essay & Mintstream: At the heart of this experience is an interactive essay. Every reader can mint excerpts using Zora Notes, bringing a new dimension to content interaction. Accompanying this is the Mintstream – a dynamic, live feed showcasing mints and discussions directly from the essay.

Engage and Create: As you navigate through the essay, you're encouraged to highlight and mint your favorite quotes or sections. These snippets are then added to the Mintstream, enriching the ongoing, onchain conversation.

A Dive into Collecting: The essay presents a captivating narrative on the evolution of collecting through various historical milestones. It's designed to be open-ended, sparking reader participation and interpretation.

A Collaborative Platform: The Drop Space is an evolving platform, constantly introducing new ideas, experiences, and content. Have ideas on how we can highlight new and interesting media in the Space? Reach out! We'd love to hear from you!

We invite you to check out the Drop Space here and immerse yourself in this unique interactive experience. As you explore, share your favorite quotes with us on Twitter. Your engagement and insights help shape this vibrant community. Join the conversation today!

What’s Poppin’

a16z Crypto partners have released some of their predictions on where the market is headed in 2024. From DAO decentralization to AI + blockchains to ZK SNARKs, there is something for everyone in this piece. We’re most excited about the rise of NFT brands and exploring new and more simple UX for consumer applications in crypto. 2023 was a year of building – 2024 will be another year of distribution.

Web3 developer platform Thirdweb disclosed a major security vulnerability discovered in an open-source library. This vulnerability, which Thirdweb became aware of on Nov. 20, affects multiple NFT collections that used pre-built smart contracts it provided. The firm has not clarified which collections may be impacted. OpenSea came forward in response, noting that some NFT collections on its platform were impacted. OpenSea said it's working with those collections to mitigate security issues.

Traditional web protocols like SMTP, HTTP, RSS, etc are not monetized. They are free to use and build on and maintained as open standards that anyone can use for free. That has worked reasonably well in the web era so the question arises why we would want to monetize the new protocols that are emerging in web3. Fred Wilson argues that the governance and security aspects of open web3 protocols make it more favorable – if not necessary – for the protocols to be monetized, maximizing value across the ecosystem.

NFTs on Ethereum are resurging, hitting their highest trading activity across all marketplaces in six months, following a recent two-year low. Total NFT trading volume for the week ending on Monday, Dec. 4 exceeded 105,000 ETH, a more than 250% increase since the week ending on Oct. 9, Nansen data shows. A local trough in early October saw the lowest recorded level since July 2021, right before the first explosion in NFT trading. Is a new bull market coming soon?

Decrypt, the news company that covers crypto and web3, has signed a letter of intent to merge with Rug Radio, a decentralized media company funded off of community NFT sales. The deal brings Decrypt further into the Web3 ecosystem and gives Rug Radio and its ad partners closer proximity to the journalism brand and access to wider distribution. Rug Radio’s current co-CEOs, Loxley Fernandes and founder Farokh Sarmad, will become CEO and president of the new holding company, respectively.

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