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It’s your #1 weekly NFT photography newsletter…

The NFT ecosystem is buzzing right now, which makes it our duty to give you all the latest news and insights.

Here’s what we’ve prepared this week:

• The NFT marketplace war for creator royalties

• Fidel Amos – OG NFT photographer helps others find success

• Crypto Venezuela by Pietro Paolini

The NFT marketplace war for creator royalties

Blur is a relatively new player in the NFT marketplace scene, but it has already emerged as one of the top platforms for NFT trading. One reason for this is that it doesn’t charge any marketplace fees, and allows creators to decide whether or not to charge royalty fees as well, which means more money for traders.

Moreover, Blur has launched its highly anticipated token, $BLUR, and has airdropped $400 million worth of tokens to early users of its platform. A lot of people got free money, and Blur gained a ton of activity from new users hoping to get tokens in the next round of the airdrop. In fact, Blur's daily Ethereum trading volume surpassed that of OpenSea for the first time two weeks ago.

OpenSea responded by abolishing its own mandatory royalty fees.

In the past few months, there has been a heated debate in the NFT world over whether or not to pay royalty fees. In a nutshell, these fees are a small percentage of each NFT sale that goes back to the creator, and it is one of the main reasons why creators launch an NFT in the first place.

Most marketplaces have switched to a “no royalty fee” model, except OpenSea. However, recently, OpenSea announced that it would eliminate mandatory royalty fees for a "limited time" making marketplace fees 0% with optional royalty fees starting at 0.5%. OpenSea will also no longer block other marketplaces that refuse to pay royalty fees to creators.

What’s the main takeaway?

Many speculate that Blur's recent growth has forced OpenSea to cut royalty fees to stay competitive. While it is unclear who the winner will be, one thing is becoming clear: creators are the ones losing out.

The appeal of NFTs to creators was the royalty fees, but now almost all marketplaces have made them optional, and the one marketplace that had creators' backs has turned.

We will keep watching what happens next.

Fidel Amos – OG NFT photographer helps others find success

In 2015, Fidel Amos moved to Italy from New York and started teaching photography at a college in Verona and at a local school of fashion. Due to COVID, he ended up losing his full-time job and struggled to pay his rent.

Around that time, Amos got introduced to NFTs by his brother. After doing some research, he went all-in and has been involved with NFTs ever since.

Regardless of his extensive background in traditional photography, Fidel Amos started branching out by using AI technology and collaborating with other artists in the NFT space.

He is currently working on several NFT projects and drops, including the She project and Shot Bots.

Read the full story

Crypto Venezuela by Pietro Paolini

Italian photographer Pietro Paolini embarked on a journey to capture the launch of Petro, the first digital currency of Venezuela, during the country's economic crisis in 2018.

Inflation has eroded the value of Venezuelan reserves, leading to the widespread adoption of the US dollar and cryptocurrencies.

Entrepreneurs and the socialist government are promoting digital currencies as a means of combating hyperinflation, giving Venezuelans greater financial independence.

Read the full story

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