Rally Digest #42 (September 13, 2021)

Welcome to the Rally Digest, a weekly round-up of everything that’s happening around the Rally project.

New Creators:

Faye Matta/ $ANIME

Faye Mata is an award winning voice actress for characters in anime and video games and a former competitive gamer. Some of her best known roles are Aqua (Konosuba), Petra (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Astolfo (Fate/Apocrypha), Lulu (League of Legends), Kagami (Miraculous Ladybug), Yukako (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable), Metera (Granblue Fantasy Versus), and Katie Killjoy (Hazbin Hotel). She also provides voices for other popular series such as Sailor Moon, Pokemon, Hunter x Hunter, LEGO Friends, and more.

HEKATE Records/ $HEK

HEKATE Records is a record label founded in 2021 by Sara Landry. Named for the Greek Goddess of witchcraft and wild places, HEKATE was created as an homage to the power and intensity of the divine feminine, with offerings made in the form of chaotic, esoteric industrial techno. More than anything else, HEKATE is a movement that inspires women to step into their power, and as the first woman-run techno label to launch a cryptocurrency, to encourage forward-thinking innovative ideas that break the rules in new ways and help women define their own creative futures.

Tim & Barry/ $TAB

For the past 20 years, Tim & Barry have redefined a multitude of creative disciplines, that range from shooting award-winning photography and video, to curating ground-breaking live music events.They are feted for their idiosyncratic, arguably eccentric, approach to creating and documenting contemporary cultural movements.

Project News:

UCLA sophomore and basketball star, Jaylen Clark and Rally made history on Thursday, when Clark launched $JROCK, marking the first time a college athlete had launched a cryptocurrency. Fans of Clark who purchase $JROCK will be given access to a host of benefits including access to exclusive merchandise and a chance to star in his next YouTube video. As a means of community building, Clark will also host a live stream on Instagram where he will promote a giveaway for the first one hundred people to purchase coins through the Rally platform.

“I love my fans and I’m looking forward to fostering a strong sense of community and providing exclusive access to what goes on behind the scenes in the life of a college basketball player,” said Clark. “Joining the creator economy opens up so many possibilities and allows me to bring my fans into the experience, which is something I’m very passionate about.”

The launch received substantial media coverage including ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Reporter, Los Angeles Times, DeCrypt and more.

Thought Leadership:

• Rally’s Director of Fine Arts, Tam Gryn co-wrote a byline in Bankless on why crypto is a new opportunity for art.

Rally in the News:

• Rally Creators Jeremiah Owyang, Xtina Holder and Joe Pulizzi appeared on Real Vision Crypto sharing the story of their individual social tokens and tips for other creators interested in the space. Watch Jeremiah’s episode here, Xtina’s here and Joe’s here.

Industry News:

• The App Store is no longer the exclusive domain of Apple’s payment processor, a judge has ruled in the showdown between the iPhone maker and Epic. Apple must now allow consumers to pay with a multitude of payment options. It’s a significant crack in Apple’s famous walled garden, Wired reports.
• Live-shopping is the hot new category for creators, if Whatnot’s latest funding round is anything to go by. The live-shopping platform’s new funding values it at $1.5 billion, with fresh cash coming from Andreessen Horowitz and others, The Information reported. Live-shopping is where influencers and creators stream themselves talking about and selling stuff to their audience, including things like Pokemon cards.
• Vine co-founder Dom Hoffman is on a crypto roll. After releasing Loot, his latest project is WAGMIGOTCHI, a critter that lives on the Ethereum blockchain that requires the collective care of Ethereum users to live. Users have to pay fees to the network to interact with it, amounting to over $43,000 so far, CoinDesk reported. Users don’t appear to profit from playing with it, as they don’t receive a tradable token.
• You’ve heard about DAOs and how they’re the future of business for creators and communities. Now go deeper with this comprehensive report on DAO creators from the donations platform Gitcoin and the Ethereum podcast Bankless.
• Dune NFTs are coming. The collection, called Dune: Future Artifacts, will drop on NFT market MakersPlace sometime this month. A new Dune movie is coming out in October. But the NFT collection has prompted backlash because of concerns over the technology’s environmental impact, especially because Dune itself is about ecological impact, Decrypt reported.
• A blockchain game is starting a major NFT collection.The game, called The Sandbox, has amassed a collection of NFTs worth $13 million. It comprises blue chips like Bored Ape Yacht Club and more. The game’s maker believes an in-house NFT collection will enrich the game’s metaverse environment for players, Decrypt reported.