NFTs Are Revolutionizing Event Ticketing

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What's Dropping ⚡️

• Ticketmaster finds a home on the Flow blockchain and has teamed up with Dapper Labs to make NFT tickets a reality. (Decrypt)

• Compound Labs was forced to freeze cETH market after a new proposal goes live, causing an issue in the code. (@compoundfinance)

• Co-Founder of Reddit Alexis Ohanian's firm Seven Seven Six is launching a crypto fund. They plan on raising millions for a new initiative called Kryptós that will help to onboard interested investors. (Decrypt)

• One of the most prominent ETH miners ETHERMINE launches a staking service as we near the merge, and is not available in the US. (@ethermine_org)

• Crypto-savvy residents of Mendoza Argentina may now be able to utilize stablecoins to pay their taxes. (Cointelegraph)

• NFT piece A Great Story by Bill Murray goes for $185,000 USD on Coinbase auction. (CoinDesk)

• Twitter lifts suspension on DeGods and its community's Twitter accounts 48 hours after suspension. (@Frankdegods)

• Fireblocks brings its suite of NFTs and game developer tools to Solana. (NFTgators)

Ticketmaster Enters The World Of NFTs 🎟

 Imagine buying a ticket through Ticketmaster and receiving an NFT that certifies your attendance - well that future is now upon us. Ticketmaster is permitting concert venues & ticket exchanges to dispense NFTs that are linked to tickets. These NFTs will not serve as a function to gain entry to specific events, as a ticket will still be required, but the concertgoer will receive this exclusive token that can then enable various utilities. For example, an artist or organization can decide to reward holders at some later period, or recipients may be entitled to special benefits by some other party for having it. The NFTs will be minted on Dapper Lab’s Flow blockchain. Ticketmaster previously minted out NFTs for Superbowl attendees via the Ethereum blockchain but will be allying with Flow because they are invested in its environmentally friendly qualities.

This NFT integration is exciting because it is not only another example of popular NFT adoption but also probably a stepping stone towards a future where NFTs represent tickets themselves. However, on the side to the optimism is that this integration serves the distributors more than it serves the recipients. In other words, every individual who receives an NFT is essentially tagged, and this information can be used by a number of interested parties for targeted marketing. Regardless. this is at least a promising preliminary adoption, and the insistence on NFTs serving the purpose of decentralization rather than centralization continues. 

What do you think, is Ticketmaster entering the world of NFTs in the right way? Email us back your thoughts 😊.

 Tokenproof Raises A Round 💰

When The Drop team was in New York for NFT NYC, we registered for a few events via tokenproof. If you don’t know what tokenproof is, it’s a platform that enables holders to prove ownership of an NFT without having it stored in a hot wallet. For example, if you held an Adam Bomb Squad NFT, you could acquire tickets that were then assigned to your specific NFT (max of 2 tickets). Then, you had to sign up for tokenproof and connect your one-time token. This allowed tokenproof to capture your wallet information, thus allowing you to prove ownership without actually having the NFT “on hand”, and allowing you access to the greatest private concert ever (Pusha T at Times Square).

On Tuesday, it was announced that tokenproof had raised a $5 million funding round led by Penny Jar Capital, with other investors, such as 6th Man Ventures, Keith Grossman (President of TIME), and Mark Cuban. This is to scale their platform and make it more secure, in order to get ready for future events that require NFT ownership validation, while also planning for future integrations with online services and retail transactions. According to Penny Jar, “With major brands… announcing their desire to bring better experiences and more utility to their customers, it’s clear there is a movement towards unlocking the true potential of Web3 and NFTs… But to make these visions a reality, brands need the tools to properly on-ramp and protect their customers.”

After a landmark partnership with BAYC for ApeFest 2022 at NFT NYC, tokenproof became the premier platform for proving NFT ownership while ensuring mass security. Events are one thing, but daily brand NFT engagement is on the horizon. Future trends show that brands want to utilize NFTs in their everyday transactions, and this seed capital allows tokenproof to grow in order to meet that demand when it comes. WAGMI.

Aurory Celebrates One Year 🍾

Yesterday marked one long year for another OG Solana NFT. Aurory is a player versus environment (PvE) / player versus player (PvP) gaming project using NFTs powered by Solana and Serum. For a mint price of 5 SOL, the 10,000 Aurorians NFTs were released with an on-chain Rust program on August 31st of last year.

Aurory was one of the first projects in the Solana ecosystem to introduce a gaming platform based on the play-to-earn utility mechanism. This enticed people that were not in the cryptocurrency space, thus bringing new users and capital into the market. They also made it easy to enter their ecosystem by utilizing an in-game marketplace where gamers can trade their items in exchange for tokens, or buy items they need to compete in the multiplayer game. They released a staking program that requires their in-game currency $AURY, airdrops that turn into future utility items, and rare skins in the game. Along with these utility mechanisms, an Aurorian NFT also gives you access to early land sales, boosted rewards in select game modes, and new Aurory products for the future of their project.

Aurory has secured partnerships this past year to deliver an even better gaming experience for the community at large, a few of the many of which include a partnership with a global gaming and entertainment brand: TSM. With these types of partnerships, we can see that there is still attention and interest in NFT gaming. Top-tier organizations want a piece of the pie.

It’s been a long ride for Aurory over this past year. From bull market cycles where people are ecstatic to bear cycles where holders want to know why the floor is falling, Aurory has been building throughout that time. From their recent sentiment, it seems as though they will continue to grow and prosper as long as they continue down the same path they’ve taken for the last 365 days.

Meme Drop 💧

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Disclaimer: The Drop DOES NOT provide financial advice. All content is for informational purposes only. The Drop is not a registered investment, legal, or tax advisor or a broker/dealer. Trading any crypto-related asset is extremely risky and could result in significant capital losses. 

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Gannon Breslin, Kayla Kilbride, CryptoVonDoom, Naveed Lalani, Alex Reed, Naman Patel, Big Tuna

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