Web3 Watch: Can you find love on the blockchain?

Unlonely is hoping to find out with its “Love on Leverage” live streams. Plus, OpenSea ends lazy minting and Yuga Labs announces layoffs

by Jack Kubinec /

October 7, 2023 12:00 pm

Ondrej Prosicky/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

Maybe crypto’s killer app is a tokenized prediction market for dating.

Unlonely is a crypto-native streaming platform where creators can launch streamer-specific tokens and host live betting markets. The platform’s most popular channel is “Love on Leverage,” where crypto singles have a live-streamed virtual first date and viewers can use ether to bet on whether there will be a second date.

“[L]ivestreams aren’t about consuming content, they’re about experiencing something,” Brian Guan, Unlonely’s co-founder, told Blockworks via Telegram message. “[S]o, perfect place to test tokens.”

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Guan’s sister and co-founder Grace Guan said the show’s first week garnered more than 5,000 viewers, with a peak of 150 watching at one time. Participants drove a total of $8,000 in trading volume via the betting feature.

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Unlonely is the latest among a crop of “SocialFi” products to generate buzz in today’s bear market. Friend.Tech has generated nearly $20 million in revenue since its August launch, per DeFiLlama.

OpenSea launches creator studio

OpenSea ended lazy minting this week with the launch of OpenSea Studio. Lazy minting refers to how NFT creators could keep their work off-chain until a piece is sold.

OpenSea believes “the future of NFTs is one where creators deploy and mint from their own independent contracts,” the company wrote in a blog post accompanying the launch. The company also teased forthcoming “immersive video/image/text modules” and an Editions product making dropping an NFT “as simple as posting a photo on Instagram.”

The release drew ire from some in the NFT space for the 10% fee charged on primary drops, which lazy minting did not require.

Also of note:

The English Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur sold $1 million worth of fan tokens in five hours through sports finance network Chiliz.
Bored Apes developer Yuga Labs announced an undisclosed number of US layoffs. Bored Apes sales are down 33% in the last 90 days, and CryptoPunks, acquired by Yuga Labs last year, saw an 81% decline in the same time frame, per NFT Price Floor.
Nitro Nation World Tour, a free mobile racing game that lets users own their cars as NFTs, launched on iOS and Android this week.

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