Donald Trump’s NFT Trading Card Collection

In recent days, there has been a significant uptick in the daily sales volume of nonfungible token (NFT) trading cards belonging to the former President of the United States, Donald Trump.

According to market analytics aggregator Cryptoslam, sales volumes on January 18 and January 19 saw surges of 800% and 600% respectively when compared to sales volumes on January 17.

Following reports that the former president was seeking to rejoin Facebook and Twitter in advance of the 2024 presidential election campaign, some experts believe that the rekindled interest could be due to his imminent return to social media networks. This speculation comes after it was reported that the former president was seeking to rejoin these networks.

On December 15th, a collection of 45,000 self-themed trading cards was released, and the price of each card was originally set at $99 USD.

Customers who purchased the collection were instantly placed into a sweepstakes with “thousands of prizes,” some of which included one-on-one meals, zoom calls, and games of golf with the previous President.

They sold out very rapidly and achieved daily sales volumes of more than $3.5 million, but after that, their sales volume sank to a baseline of around $26,000 by the end of 2022.

Yuga Labs, the company that created Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has blocked the secondary trade of its “Sewer Pass” non-fungible tokens on markets that do not provide full support for creator royalties.

It is possible to mint the Sewer Pass, which serves as an admission pass to its new skill-based non-flip-to-win game called Dookey Dash, but only for those who are members of the Bored Ape Yacht Club or the Mutant Ape Yacht Club.

According to the statistics provided by NFT Price Floor, The Sewer Pass has had a large amount of transactions on secondary markets, with a floor price of 1.81 ETH (which is equivalent to $2,809) and sales volumes of 15,627 ETH (which is equivalent to $24,267,411).

Secondary sales of the collection have already brought in more than $1.2 million in income for Yuga Labs, which is based on a 5% creator royalty charge for the collection.

According to the announcement, “Neopets Metaverse” will be a play-and-earn virtual pet game based on the original, and it would enable users to “grow, care for, personalise, and combat with their Neopets” on the blockchain. The game will be based on the original “Neopets.”

Neopets was established in 1999, and its parent business has high hopes that its newest product, Neopets Metaverse, would reintroduce “the magic of Neopets in a wonderfully fresh light to old-time gamers, as well as recruiting and fostering a new generation of Neopians.”

The news has been received with a lacklustre reaction from the community, with some members speculating that the community’s earlier attempt to create a Neopets metaverse was unsuccessful.

Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a pair of haptic gloves that they hope will allow users to experience the feeling of touch in the metaverse.

The HaptGlove is an untethered and lightweight glove that will enable users of the metaverse to interact with virtual items in a manner that is much more realistic by communicating a sense of touch and grip. The innovation was developed by HaptLabs.

When users put on the HaptGlove, they are able to sense when their virtual avatar’s hand touches something, as well as tell how hard the object is and what shape it is. This is made possible by the HaptGlove restricting the user’s finger positions, which enables users to sense when their virtual avatar’s hand touches something.

According to NUS, the HaptGlove will also be valuable in other fields, such as education and medicine, since it will enable surgeons to practise their procedures in a “hyper-realistic environment” and will provide students with the opportunity to gain practical knowledge via hands-on practise.

Although the idea of haptic gloves is not new, as for example, Meta is now working on their own version of them, NUS say that theirs is capable of providing users with a far more realistic feeling of touch in comparison to other haptic gloves that are already on the market.

It has been suggested by those working on metaverse games that because virtual reality is such an immature technology, it is difficult to incorporate it into metaverse products. As a result, games like The Sandbox and Decentraland have not yet fully incorporated virtual reality clients into their gameplay.

Rarible, a marketplace for NFTs, made the announcement on January 18 that it was going to extend its marketplace builder to accommodate Polygon-based NFT collections.

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance made an announcement on January 19 that it would be tightening its rules for NFT listings. As part of the new regulations, the exchange will require sellers to complete Know Your Customer (KYC) verification and have at least two followers before they can list their NFTs on the platform.

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Game review: Olympic Games Jam Beijing 2022

Olympic Games Jam: Beijing 2022 is the Winter Olympic’s official play-to-earn multiplayer mobile game, created in collaboration between Animoca Brands-owned nWayPlay game studio and the International Olympics Committee. The app is currently only available on the Google Play store for Android phones, with no official release date for iOS devices yet. In the Olympian spirit, Cointelegraph played the newly launched game and reviewed the experience.

The game flow aims to mimic the real-life olympics: players compete in real-time with up to 20 other gamers around the world in winter sport mini games until a champion is awarded. The sports are snowboard – slalom, snowboard – slopestyle, freestyle skiing and skeleton. Players have to earn their way through elimination rounds.

The game was developed to get fans to earn and buy Olympic NFT digital pins. Although no initial purchase is necessary to play, there are tiers of gameplay and difficulty that require earning certain amount of tickets, the green icons below, and gems, the purple icons below, to continue playing. According to nWayPlay, Olympic NFT pins generate tickets to be used in matches rewarding gems. A player’s gem balance is connected to an nWayPlay account, and the more gems the more pins can be acquired to play in more advanced matches. 

The first step is to customize and name an avatar. Initially there are only four male avatars available to choose from. Outfits, headwear, accessories and gear changes unlock as players advance in the competition. Country/region must also be selected. 

Related: Nifty News: Olympic Games Beijing 2022 edition

The first elimination round is Snowboard – slalom. There is a brief waiting period while the app looks for a certain number of other players to join in order to start. Competing against bots as well, a player must finish within the top 10 to qualify for the next race.

While going down the slopes, players control avatars with just a finger. When snowboarding slalom, the idea is to pass near flags and gain a speed boost. The second round is skiing and players where players can perform jumps. Then during slopestyle snowboarding, players can perform tricks off of rails and ramps to score points. In round 4, skeleton racers must stay within their lane to maximize speed. There are also power-ups that make the player go faster and resist hazards. If you place within the top three, then you can continue to play.

Related: US lawmakers issue warnings about digital yuan as Winter Olympics kicks off

Overall it is a an enjoyable and entertaining way to pass time and participate in a small way to the Olympics. I question, however, how effective Olympic Games Jam will be in the long run as a blockchain game. Without pins, a player must spend a lot of time on the app in order to unlock levels tiers of play.