Awareness (ETH Merge)
Alright, I’ve stayed pretty mum about the Ethereum Merge that will be happening in ~10 hours. Outside of an explainer of what the Merge is and what it does, I haven’t really mentioned it.
Partially because I’m not an expert on the topic, partially because I’m not trying to engagement farm the crap out of it, and partially because…it’s probably overhyped.
I don’t believe the significance of the event is overstated. I believe the speculation of what’s going to happen is.
That said, it’s fun! This event brings renewed energy back into the space instead of us crying on the toilet staring at the crypto account balances on the phone. I know I’ll be refreshing my Twitter feed or watching some livestream later tonight.
It’s a monumental achievement. This is an event that (especially if successful) will be etched into blockchain lore and crypto history books. However, it’s important to take perspective.
That’s why I’m titling this segment ‘Awareness’. Well, actually 90% because I wanted alliteration in the title of today’s piece. 10% because we should be aware. Aware that:
If Web3 continues to gain mass adoption, this will be a blip in history, successful or not
Nothing could happen
If there is volatility it will stabilize over a longer time horizon
Let’s look at this from a different lens with the help of Google Trends. Over the past year:
Search interest for the term ‘eth merge’
The spike in interest in mid-August is from the Merge date announcement and interest continue to rise as the date draws nearer.
Let’s make sure this isn’t just a US thing. For simplicity’s sake, let’s compare against another English-speaking country, the UK:
Charts look similar ✅
Now let’s take a step back. Let’s compare ‘eth merge’ with ‘eth’ and ‘ethereum’.
There has been a slight uptick in search interest for the terms ‘eth’ and ‘ethereum’ likely due to the Merge news, but we can see that search interest has been
moving directionally based on the price of ETH
stable over the past few month after the decline from the bear market
May spike in search interest was due to the LUNA/TERRA fiasco (South Korea has issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon btw).
June spike in search interest was due to a lot of price volatility with big funds getting liquidated, specifically with Celsius freezing withdrawals and transfers.
Let’s take one more step back and add ‘bitcoin’ to the mix.
The spikes in May and June impacted ‘bitcoin’ search trends even more than it did ‘ethereum’, but the Merge hype has had negligible impact for the broader crypto space.
I can’t let everyone else speculate and not join in on the fun though 😈. From a broader public interest POV:
Successful Merge - Minor uptick in interest for the right reasons
Unsuccessful Merge - Major uptick in interest for the wrong reasons
Foobar sums up one of the possible scenarios well.
the merge is going to be incredibly anticlimactic
Another event in recent history comes to mind
We’ll see what happens. I’m still getting my popcorn ready 🍿
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Trad Art ➡️ Digital Art
While going through my morning Twitter scroll, I came across a tweet from GMoney
I’m probably as hyped about this as I am with the Merge later tonight. This is a big stamp of approval for digital art as whole, and probably NFTs.
A parallel comparison of this would be like Nike acquiring RTFKT or Starbucks launching their NFT loyalty program. MOMA is one of THE names in the art museum space. Other museums and galleries will be watching MOMA’s moves closely.
It was only a matter of time before this would happen though. A few months ago, I wrote a piece about the digital art space.
The MOMA and other museums understand that the tides are shifting and are adjusting their strategy to maintain relevance to younger digital-native audiences.
This doesn’t mean that the MOMA (and likely many other prominent museums) is choosing one form vs. the other. Rather they’re expanding another medium of art that is currently underweight. Many museums already have digital art collections. Probably not NFTs or JPEGs, but digital art has been a thing for decades.
The WSJ article provides more insight into the decision. If this is true for MOMA, this is likely true for most other museums.
The numbers don’t lie.
We’ll see what the MOMA buys. Digital art in museums is just getting started 🎨
Creative Assets
Earlier this week, multiple projects shared their assets to the broader community.
Historically, brands have shared creative assets to the public for specific use cases. For example, here’s a sample of what Apple provides for their App Store badges.
SO GENEROUS 😍 😂
Naturally, Web3 takes this concept a step further, especially if the project is CC0.
ₕₐₗₒ gₒbₗₒₙᵢ! wₑ ₕᵤᵣd ᵤ ₗᵢₖₑ gₒbₗₒₙᵢ, ₛₒ wₑ ₚᵤₜ ₐₗₗ dₐ gₒbₗₒₙᵢ ₑₙ ₒₙₑ ₛₚₒₜ!! ᵢₙₜᵣₒdₒₒₛᵢₙ dₐ Gₒbₗᵢₙₜₒwₙ ₒffᵢₛₕᵤₗ CC₀ ₐₛₛₑₜ ₚₐgₑ! ₕₐᵥ fᵤₙ! figma.com/file/Ltj4kdeZI…
Want to create your own Goblin? Want to create a Goblin and put it in a video, digital painting, or meme? Now you can do it with the official creative assets!
Not sure if this was coordinated, but a day later Moonbirds did the same (they’re CC0 too). You can access the assets on this github page.
Also not sure if it was coordinated, Jenkins the Valet did their version of the same, but with their legal assets.
It’s great to see companies and brands in the space open source their assets in a way that helps the broader space. And in return, they benefit as well:
Goblintown + Moonbirds: Holder and NFT community can create art with the official creative assets as they please, further promoting the respective brands
Jenkins the Valet: NFT community will continue to reference the Jenkins resources, especially if they expand upon the open-source legal asset library. Holder or not, there will be a level of respect for the efforts they’ve made to support the space around the confusing and intimidating niche that IP rights.
See you tomorrow folks. We’ll see if the Ethereum blockchain implodes from the Merge, jk 😉
