Swipe right in the metaverse
Famous New York socialite Paris Hilton thinks the Metaverse may be the perfect place to find her true love.
In a Feb. 9 tweet, the celebrity and reality TV star said she’ll be working with The Sandbox (SAND) to bring “Parisland” to life.
The idea is essentially a virtual reality (VR) dating experience crossed with a reality show and is set to release on February 13 in time for Valentine’s Day.
Get ready to party on the beach, collect cute collectibles, and explore my brand new tropical Parisland metaverse!
I’m starting a new experiment @TheSandboxGame February 13 pic.twitter.com/cdSY5OEC2o
— ParisHilton (@ParisHilton) February 9, 2023
According to a February 9 statementplayers will participate in an “in-game reality show” hosted by Hilton, where they will virtually meet five potential lovers.
The experience will run until March 13, and players will also complete quests to earn Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) or SAND prizes and souvenirs.
These quests include choosing an outfit and a wedding ring as well as “rescuing a castaway and flirting with other candidates”.
Once players have completed all the quests and found the love of their life, they will have a virtual wedding and Hilton herself will spin the bridges for their first dance together.
The event is organized in conjunction with Hilton-founded entertainment company 11:11 Media. The company’s head of Web3 strategy and metaverse, Cynthia Miller, said she was on a “mission to help people find love” with the experience.
Imitation CryptoPunk Ordinals Make Bank
Bitcoin (BTC) NFTs enabled by the Ordinals protocol have caused a stir in the community, but that hasn’t been enough to stop some from paying thousands of dollars for certain collections.
An imitation of the Ethereum-based CryptoPunks NFT collection has made its way to BTC called Ordinal Punks which currently has a total supply of 100 according to the project. website.
According to a price stream in Discord Projects, Feb. 8 Punk 94 sold for 9.5 BTC or around $215,000 at the time.
This is the most expensive anyone has paid for a Punk clone BTC from the collection so far and it’s about double the price of the last sold CryptoPunk from the original Ethereum collection – which sold for 70 Ether (ETH), or $110,000 according to OpenSea data.
Other sales from the last 48 hours show one Ordinal Punk selling for 6 BTC, or around $130,000 and others selling for around 4.5 BTC, or around $100,000.
This is a significant price jump from the end of last week, where some Ordinal Punks sold for as low as 0.07 BTC ($2,200) on February 2 according to sales data.
RhiRhi royalties sell via NFTs
Rhianna’s 2015 hit song royalty rights Bitch you better have my money just went on sale as part of a collection of 300 NFTs.
Jamil “Deputy” Pierre was one of the song’s producers who has now sold around 1% of his stake in streaming royalties through 300 NFTs which give the holder a lifetime share of 0.0033% of the royalties for the record when streamed digitally on platforms like Spotify.
THE collectionsold by Deputy in partnership with NFT music royalty platform anotherblock, was set up on February 9 for 0.128 ETH each, or roughly $210.
On the same day, anotherblock tweeted that the collection sold out “within minutes”.
sold out in minutes on whitelist sale
our community is absolutely amazing without you it would never have been possible▪️ our next music release pipeline is absolutely amazing, rest assured
▪️ on February 16 our first holders will receive the first payment pic.twitter.com/pCPSOopvsV
— another block ◼️ (@anotherblock_io) February 9, 2023
anotherblock predicts that an NFT will give a “probable” return of 6.5% in the first year, which would earn $13.65 per year. At this rate, it would take a holder about 15 years to break even on their investment.
It’s unclear how much of the song royalties the deputy kept after the NFT sale.
Def Jam Launches Virtual Band With Solana NFT Collection
Def Jam Recordings, a subsidiary of the Universal Music Group label, is attempting to create a native Web3 band through a partnership with the Solana (SOL) NFT collection, The Catalina Whale Mixer.
Announced via a billboard on February 8 reportthe group, called “The Whales”, will consist of the whale cartoon characters that make up the collection similar to the virtual group Gorillaz.
Catalina Whales later revealed in a tweet that the group would be a “gamified music group” and that NFT holders on the show could “land a role for (their) whale”.
Meet The Whales, an avatar music band created with you and for you.
The penetration has begun. @defjam @UMG @solana
— THE CATALINA WHALE MIXER | POW POW (@catalinawhales) February 8, 2023
The musicians behind the project have yet to be confirmed by Def Jam, but it reportedly said it would involve a “who’s who” of talent and The Whales will release a full album but did not disclose a timeline.
Def Jam has signed artists such as Justin Beiber, LL Cool J, Rihanna and Nas.
In 2021, another Universal subsidiary label, 22h22, signed a similar NFT-backed virtual band called KINGSHIP consisting of four monkeys from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT Collection.
Other interesting news:
Luxury fashion brand Hermès has won a trademark infringement lawsuit against NFT artist Mason Rothschild over its use of the Birkin trademark for its MetaBirkins NFT collection. The company was awarded $133,000 in damages.
YouTuber Stephen Findeisen, better known as Coffeezilla, tricked mixed martial artist Dillon Danis into promoting a fake NFT collection that Findeisen says “literally spells out SCAM”
