Rug Radio Recap - April 9, 2023

gm fam! It was somewhat of a quiet week with crypto prices relatively unchanged and not too many notable stories, but with NFT NYC this week, it won't be quiet for long.

If you can't make it to NYC and are based in Texas, mark your calendars for Friday, April 28th at 8pm where we'll be hosting an exclusive Rug Radio holders event at Speakeasy in Austin, TX. We'll have more info about how to get your tickets later this week!

Here's what we've got in this week's recap...

• Rug Radio Updates: Audio Galleries x OpenSea, Photography Week, Coindesk interview

• NFT NYC Events

• The Bitcoin whitepaper is on your Macbook

Audio Galleries 🤝 OpenSea

Ben, a Rug Radio creator and founder of Audio Galleries, announced an exciting new partnership with Opensea. Audio Galleries, Ben's art-focused project and weekly show, features conversations with different artists about their work and stories. As a special perk for Audio Galleries NFT holders, they will have exclusive access to mint a unique piece created by each artist. This partnership means that each artist edition will now be held exclusively on OpenSea.

Ben's first featured artist under this new partnership was Amber Vittoria, an artist, poet, and author based in Los Angeles, California. Vittoria's art aims to represent the nuances of womanhood through her use of abstract forms, colorful ribbons, and uplifting words. Through this collaboration, a total of 1,116 pieces were minted.

Rewards Store Photography Week

It's Photography Week in our rewards store, and we're excited to feature six stunning pieces of photography generously donated by two talented artists, Karen Jerzyk and Chilingo. Each artist has contributed three pieces, and we'll be auctioning them off to lucky bidders. As a special bonus, the winners of each auction will receive a high-resolution version of their chosen image, allowing them to print it out and display the piece.

Starting on Wednesday, we'll be auctioning off Karen Jerzyk's stunning photographs, followed by Chilingo's equally impressive works on Thursday. The auctions will kick off between 11am and 11:30am ET each day. Here's a sneak peek at two of the pieces that will be up for grabs...The top image is by Karen, while the bottom image is by Chilingo.

Coindesk Interview

Ahead of Consensus, a crypto and web3 event by Coindesk, Farokh sat down in an interview with Daniel Kuhn of Coindesk to get his thoughts on what it takes to build a decentralized media ecosystem, how to deal with the pressures of fame, and why Web3 communities are sometimes like religions.

Rug Radio Ecosystem Recap

Need a refresher about all of the tokens in the Rug Radio ecosystem and how they work together? Farokh posted this extensive tweet outlining the Membership Pass, Genesis NFTs, PFPs, as well as the $RUG and $RDAO tokens.

NFT NYC Events

Are you going to be in NYC this week, and need some event recommendations? Whether you're looking to hear from some amazing speakers, vibe with incredible artists, get involved in a treasure hunt, or hit the soccer pitch...We got you with a short list of a few top events to check out!

Proof of People

• When: April 12th from 2pm - 11:59pm ET

• Where: ZeroSpace, 337 Butler Street

• What: In partnership with Proof of People and RefractionDAO, we'll be at ZeroSpace for two days of art, talks, music, and audio-visual performances with 80+ artists being exhibited.

• RSVP: Fill out this form

Comp Stomp Studios

• When: April 12 - 15 from 9:30am - 11pm ET each day

• Where: Comp Stomp Studios, 70 Hester St

• What: Comp Stomp Studios is a Me Llamo Art gallery featuring 150+ lens-based artists across 4 days with each gallery curated by both artists and collectors.

• RSVP: Open to everyone, no RSVP needed

9dcc NYC Treasure Hunt

• When: April 12th from 10am - 6pm ET

• Where: Brothers Candy & Grocery Store, 542 E 14th St #1

• What: This spot marks the kickoff of the 9dcc Treasure Hunt where you will get instructions on how to visit other stops, and the opportunity to win an unminted Chromie Squiggle.

• RSVP: Get your tickets through Tokenproof

W3FC

• When: April 13th from 1pm - 6pm ET

• Where: Socceroof, 14b 53rd st 3rd floor

• What: W3FC is a global football collective powered by web3, and after successfully hosting their first event earlier this year in Paris, they're bringing the game to NYC!

• RSVP: Whether you're playing or vibing, fill out this form

 Looking for even more events? Snax.eth has put together the ultimate spreadsheet of events.

OpenSea rebranded Gem V2, the market aggregator they acquired last year, to OpenSea Pro in an attempt to compete with Blur, and offered a free NFT claim.

The desktop version of MetaMask now offers native NFT support, including viewing and sending NFTs.

Ralph Lauren announced that their new store in Miami would accept crypto payments in the form of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Matic, as well as an activation experience utilizing NFTs.

Independent blogger, Andy Baio, discovered that the Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in recent versions of MacOS.

Context

• Wrapped Cryptopunks continued to outpace other collections with volume on Blur contributing to most of that, while DeGods made their way into the top 10 post-migration.

• On Wednesday, we saw ETH run up to $1,945, it's highest level since August of 2022 ahead of the highly anticipated Shanghai upgrade on April 12th.

• In the week ahead, we'll get a few key economic reports including the Consumer and Producer Price indexes. We'll also see how the Shanghai upgrade, which allows for validators to withdraw staked tokens, affects the price of Ethereum.