October 8th's NF3 Recap: DrifterShoots, MekaVerse and Treeverse

If you don't know who DrifterShoots is, read this interview we did with him a few months back. The photographer has blown up in web3.0 circles in recent months, catapulting him to a status as one of the highest paid photographers in the world of NFT photography.

The man completed miraculous ascents around the US to shoot the images included in his coveted, "Where My Vans Go" collection. But in a cruel twist of fate, Isaac's ascents were subject to criminalization much more severe than that faced by any other urban explorers. The weight of the systemic racism imbued in our justice system fell heavy on Isaac's shoulders when he was arrested for his climbs early this year. Read more about his unjust treatment below:

Not only has Isaac overcome the radically disproportionate repercussions of his explorations (were he a white man making these ascents, the ramifications would have certainly been different), but he has gone on to thrive in recent months with numerous massive sales and plans for the future.

When I spoke to Isaac in August, I was struck by the passion of a a man who is just getting started. With a $1 million plus sale under his belt, it is safe to say that this is just the beginning. As is the case with his death-defying climbs, the sky is the limit for DrifterShoots. I can't wait to see what's next.

I don't want to concretely celebrate or condemn the execution of one of the most hyped drops in the history of NFTs this week. Instead, I'd like to examine it as what it was: a theoretically sound mechanic that can hopefully become the basis for future, better drops.

In my experience with the raffle, I was optimistic about the mechanic as an equalizer. Every wallet could only enter the raffle once and each participant could only mint up to two Mekas. In theory, this would prevent a pervasive issue in so many other NFT drops; often, the accessible user interface of a majorly-hyped drop crashes, allowing only people who are able to mint manually through the contract access to the NFTs. This has obviously favored whales and others more native to the web3.0 world over the "little guy" or someone who loved the art and just wanted to get their hands on something special.

In theory, the raffle mechanic solved this issue! Alas, that wasn't necessarily the case:

While there were certainly success stories of people winning the raffle, since its conclusion, numerous anecdotes have trickled out chronicling the means by which whales were still able to earn a vast swath of Mekas.

In conclusion, I wouldn't fault the devs behind MekaVerse for what happened. They did their best (better than numerous other projects) to look out for the little guy. That said, more steps could have been taken to avoid the utilization of bots and whales relying on dozens—if not hundreds—of wallets to bypass the 2-mint limit. I won't pretend to know what security measures can be taken to avoid this in the future, but I think that the MekaVerse drop was a good learning event for everyone. We can incorporate elements of what made the drop helpful and still think about ways that the mechanic can be improved in the future to create a more egalitarian drop structure for the future of Web3.0.

And if you managed to get your Meka playing fair, I offer my sincerest congratulations. Remember to reinvest in projects you love and communities you support; we're all in this together.

This isn't one piece of news as much as just a highlight of a project to watch. The forthcoming game the Treeverse, which is being developed by Loopify, announced today that the Timeless artworks associated with the project will be public-domain, meaning that anyone can use the artwork however they see fit without fear of takedown notices. It's an interesting return to a notion that was so prevalent in early 2021; share the image as much as you want, any press is good press.

While most artwork from NFT projects is still public-domain, lots of projects instill certain restrictions on what rights you are actually granted through your ownership of an NFT. This will be an interesting conversation to watch.

Aside from this blip of news from the Treeverse team, they've also been teasing their corresponding avatars:

If you'd like to learn more about the project, we just released a big profile on the game with quotes from the creator, Loopify. Read up and keep an eye on the Treeverse socials and Loopify's personal for the most up to date info.

Generative art continues to be one of the most aesthetically interesting lanes in the world of NFTs, so if you love some of the stuff that's been launched under the Art Blocks umbrella, her work is definitely something to keep your eyes on.

Keep your eyes on Mark's twitter this weekend for more updates on the launch.