Chocolate

American car manufacturer Ford Motor Company is the latest car brand prepping its entry into the world of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and the Metaverse — filing 19 trademark applications across its major car brands.

United States Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) licensed trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis revealed in a Wednesday tweet that the company had filed a total of 19 trademark applications covering its car brands including Mustang, Bronco, Lincoln, Explorer and F-150 Lightning, among others.

The trademark applications cover virtual cars, trucks, vans, SUVs and clothing for its brands and also cover a proposed online marketplace for NFTs.

"FORD is making a big move into the Metaverse!

The company has filed 19 trademark applications for all of its major brands claiming plans for: ▶️ Virtual cars, trucks, vans, and clothing ▶️ Online stores for NFTs#NFT #Metaverse #Web3 #NFTs #Ford #Mustang #F150 #Fordtrucks pic.twitter.com/2JK2Nf9jO7 — Mike Kondoudis (@KondoudisLaw) September 7, 2022"

According to USPTO documents filed by Ford on Sept. 2, the car manufacturer plans to create downloadable artwork, text, audio and video featuring its cars, SUVs, trucks and vans, which will be authenticated by NFTs.

The company also revealed plans for “downloadable virtual goods,” namely “computer programs” featuring vehicle parts and accessories and clothing for use in “online virtual worlds,” including online trade shows conducted in virtual reality and augmented reality.

There are also intentions to create a marketplace to promote the “digital artwork of others” through a website, along with “online retail store services featuring non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and digital collectibles.”

Ford’s decision to enter into the Web3 space comes less than a month after Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford and CEO Jim Farley announced massive staff cuts from its global workforce to reduce company expenditure.

Ford is not the first car company to make a move into the Metaverse space.

Automobile companies like Nissan, Toyota, and Hyundai have announced plans to expand into the rapidly growing Metaverse space, while luxury car manufacturers such as Bentley and Lamborghini have already rolled out NFT collections.

American multinational energy corporation Chevron has filed a new metaverse-related trademark for its name and logo with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

The applications were filed on March 2, 2022, indicating the energy giant’s plans to expand into the metaverse and offer branded non-fungible tokens (NFTs), as well as gas, renewable energy products, and convenience store products in the form of digital commodities.

Licensed trademark attorney Michael Kondoudis broke the news on Monday, March 7, adding that:

“Chevron clearly sees the potential of the Metaverse and is preparing its trademark for the coming economy of virtual goods and services.”

NFTs expand into major sectors

This move is the latest in following a trend among the corporations, brands, and celebrities expanding into the metaverse sphere.

New Starbucks Odyssey experience will offer members the ability to earn and buy digital collectible stamps (NFTs) that will unlock access to new, immersive coffee experiences

As one of the first companies to integrate NFTs with an industry-leading loyalty program at scale, Starbucks will create an accessible Web3 community that will enable new ways to engage with members and partners (employees)

Maybe cryptocurrency isn’t “rat poison” after all?

Those were once the words of Warren Buffett, the famous investor called the “sage of Omaha” for knowing things before the rest of the market. Now his money is saying otherwise.

Specifically, his company Berkshire Hathaway has bought $1 billion worth of stock in a digital bank that focuses on crypto.

Berkshire Hathaway made its crypto investment public with a SEC filing earlier this week. It revealed that Buffett’s company had purchased $1 billion in shares of Nubank, a digital bank based in Brazil, and the largest of its kind in Latin America.

Nubank is a so-called neobank, a type of bank that operates outside of the rules of the traditional banking system. The digital bank's investment unit, NuInvest, allows users to put money in a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF)—tapping a financial space that Berkshire's leaders have shown little love for.

Berkshire’s chairman and CEO has not refrained in the past from calling cryptocurrency “rat poison” and an unproductive asset that “has no unique value at all.”

Charlie Munger, Buffett’s longtime partner and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, has also hardly been one to shy away from voicing his strong opinions on cryptocurrency. Munger recently stated that he wished cryptocurrency had “never been invented,” and he has even indicated that he would not want any crypto trader marrying into his family.

Munger has a particular distaste for Bitcoin, the most popularly traded cryptocurrency, once calling it “disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization.” Munger has supported China’s decision to ban Bitcoin trading in the country and has called on the U.S. to take similar measures.

“The Chinese made the correct decision, which is just to simply ban them,” he once said.

But even though its owners have expressed their personal disdain for cryptocurrencies and the crypto market, Berkshire Hathaway’s latest investment in Nubank is not the first time the conglomerate has dabbled in this market.

Berkshire already bought a $500 million stake in Nubank last summer, months before the company went public in December 2021. At the time, Nubank announced that this had been the largest single investment the fintech bank had ever received.

As Berkshire was upping its investments into the crypto sphere last year, the company also dropped some of its other, more traditional financial assets. In the same SEC filing that showed the $1 billion investment in Nubank, Berkshire revealed that it had dropped over $3 billion in its shares of Visa and Mastercard.

While Buffett and Munger may have a personal distaste for cryptocurrency, the superstar investment pair may be seeing an entirely different kind of opportunity in digital financial service providers like Nubank.

There is huge competition among up-and-coming digital banks in Latin America, where a large portion of the population feels underserved by the traditional banking and financial system. Companies like Nubank are looking to tap into a massive potential consumer market of people largely dissatisfied with the existing system.

“There is so much opportunity in the [Latin America] region. The combination of a great population, horrible customer experiences, and very high fees, it is unmatched,” Nubank cofounder Cristina Junqueira told Fortune last June. “Worldwide there is no place that is better suited in terms of having a great opportunity for fintech companies to tackle.”

Amazon is laying the groundwork to give its customers the ability to purchase NFTs tied to real-world assets that are delivered to their doorstep, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

The move is a significant upgrade from the e-commerce giant’s earlier steps in developing its NFT platform, a move previously reported by Blockworks. And the company is planning to notify every Amazon Prime customer — at least in the US — of its digital collectibles initiative once it goes live, an additional two sources said.

Amazon shoppers, for instance, would be able to purchase a fashion-oriented NFT tied to a pair of jeans — and pay with a credit card, sources said, just as they would with any other Amazon purchase.

The timing of the massive enterprise’s launch still appears to be in flux, although The Big Whale today reported a date of April 24. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment. Two sources said a launch would come by this May at the latest.

One mechanism Amazon is considering for spreading the word about its digital collectibles push is sending out an email blast to every US-based Prime subscriber, one source said. An additional two sources said the company is planning to notify its Prime customers in some capacity — either before or when the product goes live.

“They can onboard millions of users without educating people about self-custody, without educating people how to [set up] a MetaMask wallet,” one source said, likening Amazon’s move to Starbucks loyalty program with Polygon. Amazon currently has approximately 167 million Prime members in the USA.

The back end blockchain technology isn’t clear, and the company appears to have considered a number of different options for integration since it began working on the ambitious initiative.

Representatives for Amazon working on the project have contacted layer-1 blockchains, blockchain gaming companies and other types of both emerging and established digital asset projects. The company has either hired or is looking to hire or partner with dozens of Web3 oriented developers.

Amazon’s intention is to create some type of private blockchain, multiple sources said — adding that it’s not clear whether that could come about via a fork of an existing protocol. Several sources said it’s also not definitive, to their knowledge as of publication, whether an Amazon token would be part of the deal, with one of them dubbing the setup as a “very walled garden.”

For those who are skeptical about the future of the metaverse—believing it's only about Mark Zuckerberg and Meta, formerly known as Facebook—it may come as a surprise that giant, big-box retailer Walmart that serves the average American is diving into virtual reality and launching its own Walmart token cryptocurrency and NFTs.

The retailer filed about seven applications and trademarks with the U.S. Patents Office. The company plans to sell virtual goods, ranging the gamut from electronics, home decorations, children's toys and games, sporting goods, personal care products to physical fitness training services and health and nutrition classes in augmented and virtual reality.

Walmart is not the first merchandiser to do this. It's becoming a gold rush for retailers and apparel makers, as they’re turning toward virtual reality and don’t want to be left behind. CNBC reported that German sportswear company Adidas has released NFTs and purchased land on the Sandbox VR, a virtual real estate company. Adidas, in addition to the real estate purchase on Sandbox VR, announced it had “collaborated with Bored Ape creators Yuga Labs and others in the space to launch the ‘Into the Metaverse’ collection via its lifestyle label, Adidas Originals.” Glossy reported, “The 30,000 NFTs went on sale on December 17 for 0.2 Ethereum (about $800) each, selling out in minutes and making the company more than $22 million in the span of an afternoon.”

Upscale fashion house Gucci partnered with gamemaker Roblox to sell items. Balenciaga struck a deal with Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, to offer clothing that can be purchased in virtual stores. Louis Vuitton created Louis The Game, showcasing its high-end brand.

Google has updated its mobile software marketplace policy to allow application developers to integrate digital assets like NFTs into their games through its Play app store, the company’s group product manager Joseph Mills announced on Wednesday.

As part of the policy update, Mills stated that apps must be “transparent with users about tokenized digital assets” and developers can’t “promote or glamorize any potential earning from playing or trading activities.”

Apps that aren’t in line with Google Play’s Real-Money Gambling, Games and Contests policy or fit eligibility requirements also can’t accept money for chances to win assets, including NFTs. “This includes, but is not limited to, offering mechanisms to receive randomized blockchain-based items from a purchase such as ‘loot boxes,’” Mills said.

Those limitations could potentially prevent NFT newcomers from being duped into believing that buying these tokenized assets could result in massive gains — an oft-used marketing tactic for some projects in the space.

This new change will also allow apps and games on Google Play to reconceptualize “traditional games with user-owned content to boosting user loyalty through unique NFT rewards,” Mills noted.

The company anticipates users will begin seeing in-app and game experiences later this summer, as a select group of developers are helping to test out the new policy ahead of its wide rollout to all developers on Google Play later this year.

11 February 2021 — Microsoft and Enjin are celebrating the International Day of Women and Girls in Science by launching customisable Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) compatible with the popular and beloved game Minecraft.

The NFTs can be earned through the Azure Space Mystery, an educational, interactive space exploration game that utilizes the Microsoft Learn platform and aims to champion women in science and technology.

During the Azure Space Mystery game, players will embark on a journey to save the International Space Station, while learning from and celebrating prominent European female scientists, including Caroline Herschel, Mary Somerville, Hypatia and Raymonde de Laroche.

“Education is key to empowering the next generation of innovators. Enjin is proud to work alongside Microsoft to generate innovative opportunities for merging virtual worlds, bringing digital communities closer together and celebrating powerful women in science and tech,” said Bryana Kortendick, VP of Operations & Communications at Enjin.

Those who complete the game will receive an Enjin Beam QR code that, when scanned, delivers a limited-edition Learner Badger NFT to the user’s wallet. While the Learner NFTs have infinite supply, the tokens received during this event will feature custom art that will never be available again.

The Learner NFTs have been integrated into Minecraft, enabling its holders to gain access to a sequel quest in the MyMetaverse Minecraft Network. This cross-game functionality is made possible by Enjin’s “EnjinCraft” plugin, which has just been upgraded to allow any Minecraft server to integrate and support NFTs.

Microsoft’s Azure Heroes companions can be summoned in the Minecraft sequel, joining users on their next quest. Completing the quest will enable players to unlock more unique collectibles in Minecraft, including “XX & XY Certified Equal,” a tokenized certificate that encourages equality of the chromosomes and all genders.

Enjin and Microsoft’s ongoing partnership via the Azure Heroes program leverages Enjin’s blockchain ecosystem to distribute exclusive NFTs as rewards to the Microsoft Azure developer community and raise awareness about NFT technology for enterprises.

“Enjin’s platform powers innovative projects across the gaming and wider blockchain ecosystem. Our collaboration has allowed Microsoft Azure to integrate cutting-edge technology with educational tools and recognize the contributions of our developer communities around the world,” said Sherry List, Azure Developer Engagement Lead at Microsoft.

By collaborating with global leading technology and gaming companies like Microsoft, Enjin is leveraging the power of its blockchain adoption ecosystem to create simple, user-friendly bridges between centralized and decentralized gaming technologies.

NFTs have gained much in popularity and use in 2021, with a collection of NBA-themed digital artworks recently attracting more than $31.8 million in sales.