NFTs ➡️ Real World
Tarantino embroiled in NFT lawsuit, LinksDAO plans to buy a golf course
Cultured is a newsletter by Otis that gets readers up to speed on the most interesting things going on at the intersection of finance, art, collectibles, NFTs, and more.
🗞 STORIES OF THE DAY
Quentin Tarantino will sell Pulp Fiction NFTs, facing down a lawsuit from his movie studio
Quentin Tarantino is planning to sell several NFTs of the original, handwritten script for the 1994 cult classic Pulp Fiction.
When Tarantino first announced plans for the NFT back in November, the movie studio that produced the film sued, claiming breach of contract and IP violations. That case has yet to be decided, but Tarantino has decided to go ahead with the sale anyway.
The main question in the lawsuit is whether NFTs can be considered unique. Tarantino’s team says he’s just reproducing copies of the original script, which he has the right to do.
Our Take: NFTs are increasingly auctioned off in conjunction with real-world items, raising important questions about their legal status.
There’s nothing stopping Tarantino (or anyone else, for that matter) from minting thousands of identical NFTs. People in the crypto world would argue that the blockchain would make it clear which NFTs are the real ones and which are fake. However, intellectual property laws have yet to catch up with this new approach to ownership. For that reason, the outcome of the Tarantino lawsuit will likely have a significant impact on future sales of memorabilia NFTs.
A DAO sold $10M in NFTs to buy a real-world golf course
LinksDAO, a decentralized group created with the purpose of buying a golf course for its members, sold out of its first batch of NFTs and raked in $10.5 million. The NFTs offer access to membership in the future golf course.
The organization plans to issue a governance token called LINKS in the near future. The token will be used to assign voting power to the members of the DAO.
PGA-certified courses can cost tens of millions of dollars to purchase, and they aren’t cheap to maintain either. This initial NFT drop is a strong initial fundraising effort, but the founders say they’ll need more cash to make the project work.
Our Take: DAOs are moving into real-world assets, testing the feasibility of their democratic model.
Organizations like LinksDAO are capitalizing on the success of ConstitutionDAO, the group that raised $40 million to buy a copy of the constitution. While ConstitutionDAO didn’t succeed in buying the copy, its fundraising success has been a model for other orgs looking to take the DAO model into the physical world. However, the non-crypto world isn’t set up for decentralized organizations and DAOs that buy real world assets need to manage that. LinksDAO says it’s looking into creating a holding company to purchase and manage the future golf course, but how that will be governed remains to be seen.
✨ AROUND THE INTERNET
Hot on the heels of a major fundraising round, OpenSea is in talks to buy crypto wallet and trading platform Dharma Labs for around $120 million.
A prolific collection of German Expressionism is going up for auction in Germany. Hermann Gerlinger’s 1,000-work collection will be sold over the next four years and is expected to fetch tens of millions of dollars.
The creator of MetaBirkins has been hit by a cease and desist from Hermés. The popular NFTs were also pulled from OpenSea.
A Welshman was arrested after he tried to destroy a Banksy in his hometown. He wasn’t a hater, but a fan who was angry that the work had been sold to a collector who planned to relocate it.
Mr. Potato Head has joined the Force. Star Wars has released a mashup with the iconic toy called the Yamdalorian, which comes complete with a cape and Baby Yoda.
If you haven’t seen Walmart’s cursed 2017 vision of shopping in the metaverse, prepare yourself. It’s deeply disturbing and uncanny…kind of like shopping at a Walmart, I guess.
Or I could just buy it on Amazon and skip this dystopian nightmare.
