🤔 Ubisoft executive defends NFTs
Players just "don't get it"
⠀
⠀
Hey Waivly Crew! 🌊 VP at Ubisoft's Strategic Innovations Lab, Nicolas Pouard, has responded to the hate received after Ubisoft entered the NFT space. LeBron James and his non-profit have announced a multi-year partnership with Crypto.com.
⠀
Want more from us at Waivly? Join Waivly+, the premium Waivly membership with exclusive content, resources, giveaways, events, and so much more, all blended together into one super low-cost and quick to join subscription 🎉 Head over to our website and hit “Subscribe” to get onboard!
Ubisoft says players don't understand NFTs
Late last year, Ubisoft announced Quartz, its own NFT platform for unique items in AAA games, and it’s safe to say it has not been successful for a range of reasons.
⠀
Even though Ubisoft promised that Quartz is energy efficient because it was built on the proof-of-stake blockchain Tezos, fans have continued to stand against the company’s decision to enter the NFT space.
⠀
However, in a recent interview, Nicolas Pouard, VP at Ubisoft’s Strategic Innovations Lab, said that fans simply don't understand the benefits of NFTs and explained that Ubisoft is getting in early on a "paradigm shift in gaming".
⠀
"I think gamers don't get what a digital secondary market can bring to them," Pouard said. "For now, because of the current situation and context of NFTs, gamers really believe it's first destroying the planet, and second just a tool for speculation. But what we [at Ubisoft] are seeing first is the end game. The end game is about giving players the opportunity to resell their items once they're finished with them or they're finished playing the game itself.
⠀
"So, it's really, for them. It's really beneficial. But they don't get it for now.”
⠀
"Also, this is part of a paradigm shift in gaming. Moving from one economic system to another is not easy to handle. There is a lot of habits you need to go against and a lot of your ingrained mindset you have to shift. It takes time. We know that."
⠀
To prove how bullish it is on NFTs, Ubisoft has become a key investor in Frontier, a community-driven PvP game that plans to utilize NFTs. When it launches next month, players will be able to buy NFTs called “Blocks" to help fight enemies.

$80 million in cryptocurrency stolen from the Qubit DeFi platform
The decentralized finance platform Qubit Finance recently fell victim to a hack that stole about $80 million worth of cryptocurrency.
⠀
The company has acknowledged this in a recent incident report that they have published via Medium. The report has explained that the hack occurred on the 27th of January at around 5 PM ET.
⠀
Qubit provides a service that bridges different blockchains together by allowing deposits made in one type of cryptocurrency can be withdrawn in another. An analysis put together by a blockchain auditing and security company CertiK has explained that the hackers were able to exploit a security flaw within Qubit’s smart contract code which allowed the hacker to deposit 0 Ethereum onto the platform while withdrawing about $80 million worth of Binance Coin.
⠀
The finance team at Qubit has posted on Twitter a direct appeal to the hacker. The appeal asks the hacker to negotiate with the company to minimize any more losses within their community. The finance team has tried to offer the hacker the max reward of Qubit’s bug bounty program to mitigate any more withdrawals from the hacker. The bounty offer is said to be roughly $250,000.
The Waves
🤦 OpenSea reimburses users $1.8M following NFT listing error
📷 Don't underestimate the NFT photography space
📈 Bored Ape Yacht Club hits 100 ETH floor price
👀 Recapping The Past Week In Crypto: 24th to 30th
NFT Special
Harshith is an NFT artist who is big into technology. When he creates NFTs, he drifts away into a whole new world. The 3D art piece above is from his collection called “Trippy Heads, which will eventually consist of 420 unique NFTs.
⠀
Neo Osaka Club is a collection of mainly pixel art NFT's, focussed around an alternate future. The collection is split into two main branches, EXO NODES, a community-driven project, and the Art Club, for those who just want NFT's for the art they are.
⠀
Crypto ice-cream is a collection of unique pixel ice creams by Nova Hart. Each and every is hand-made with a range of different types available.
LeBron James partners with Crypto.com
NBA superstar LeBron James and his Akron, Ohio-focused charity, the LeBron James Family Foundation, have partnered with crypto exchange Crypto.com.
⠀
The partnership will provide crypto and blockchain-related education and resources that will create job opportunities focused on Web3 through the foundation’s I PROMISE program.
⠀
“Blockchain technology is revolutionizing our economy, sports and entertainment, the art world, and how we engage with one another,” James said in a statement. “I want to ensure that communities like the one I come from are not left behind. Crypto.com and I are aligned on the need to educate and support my community with the information and tools they need for inclusion.”
⠀
Last year in a $700M deal, Crypto.com purchased the naming rights to the home of James’ Los Angeles Lakers, the Staples Center, and on December 25th, it officially became the Crypto.com Arena.
Own and secure your crypto with Ledger
If you’re into cryptocurrency and own crypto assets, you need a secure place to store your coins and tokens. You probably already know that you shouldn’t store your crypto on an exchange due to potential hacks, not being solely in control of your crypto’s private keys, and for other reasons, and so a hardware wallet is the way to go and the best option to protect your private keys, therefore, you should make the move to a Ledger wallet.
⠀
Ledger wallets are an extremely secure and premium way to secure, manage, and grow your crypto assets with their Bluetooth-enabled hardware wallets, and easy-to-use app which lets you manage your portfolio on the go. They let you manage multiple assets, buy, sell, grow, and exchange crypto, gain financial freedom by you being in full control and ownership of your private keys, and so much more.
⠀
The wallets are really simple to setup, and to move your crypto over to, so there’s no reason not to secure your assets and take control of your cryptocurrency now and get yourself a Ledger device. You can manage 1800+ coins and tokens directly in the Ledger Live app once you’ve got your device up and running, so you’ll always have your entire portfolio covered.
Share The Wave
That wraps up today's newsletter. Thank you for reading through, and we hope you liked today's content. Know someone else who would enjoy this newsletter just as much as you do? Send them to our website, and get them onboard the Waivly Crew and involved in The Wave. Get more from us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
⠀
Want more from us at Waivly? Join Waivly+, the premium Waivly membership with exclusive content, resources, giveaways, events, and so much more, all blended together into one super low-cost and quick to join subscription 🎉 Head over to our website and hit “Subscribe” to get onboard!
⠀
*Waivly+ is a premium Waivly membership. Join at anytime by clicking “Subscribe” on the Waivly website, and cancel anytime by heading to your account on Waivly.
*Waivly is an official affiliate of Ledger. See our Ledger Affiliate notice here.
Create your profile
Only paid subscribers can comment on this post
Check your email
For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.
Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.