GULF NEWS ENDORSES THE FUTURE INNOVATORS OF THE WEB 3

Created and conceptualized by agnc3 of Gulf News, the 2 day Web3 DeCode summit was held with top speakers, NFT artists, an exhibition and finally the awards. The Web3 DeCode summit’s focus was on the next super phase of the internet, the WEB 3, and how decentralization will provide amazing opportunities, like NFT, DAO, DeFi, Metaverse, the new blockchain based web, and their impact on commerce, culture and communities, from some of the most prominent leaders in the sector.

The opportune provided Gulf News to foray into Web3 by launching its own NFTs at the event, which included digitized versions of its historic front pages, photos and iconic covers, published in the newspaper, with blockchain-based virtual reality platform, Virtua. Gulf News is reported to become a proud owner of their non-fungible tokens (NFTs) collection that was created and went live for the first time in the digital world. The NFT launch was led by Dr. Marwan Al Zarouni, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Dubai Blockchain Center, with Abdul Hamid Ahmad, CEO, Editor-in-Chief and Executive Director of Publishing at Gulf News.

Dr. Marwan Al Zarouni, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Dubai Blockchain Center delivered the opening remarks on the fabulous opportunity WEB3 and METAVERSE has, how startups are gearing up for it, and how Dubai will play a leading role.

The Future FinTech Group’s Inc. (Nasdaq: FTFT) subsidiary FTFT Capital Investments LLC., a Dubai-based blockchain investment company, was the strategic partner with Gulf News for the ‘Web3 DeCode” event.

“We are thrilled and looking forward to the strategic partnership with Gulf News. Its foresight in educating the public about Web3 including NFTs and the metaverse is remarkable. The exhibition will deliver the essentials of Web3, deciphering NFT and the metaverse, feature NFT art, NFT projects recognized, and the Metaverse experienced.” – Ola Lind – CEO & Managing Director, FTFT Capital.

As Web 3.0 is unfolding and eventually will blur the distinctions between digital content and physical objects, FTFT Capital reiterated its stance in the WEB 3 sector and teamed up with Gulf News to create awareness of Web3 technology, its proliferation in emerging markets such as the United Arab Emirates, and its implications for innovation and lifestyle.

“Collaborating with Gulf News on this event will straighten our shared commitment to the dissemination and promotion of the world’s latest technologies in the fields of Web3, NFTs, and Metaverse, so people can gain the experience, access new opportunities for entrepreneurship and investment,” said Ola Lind, Chief Strategy Officer of FTFT Group, CEO, and Director of FTFT Capital.

Crypto Oasis joined forces with Gulf News to bring blockchain, Web3, and the Metaverse to the mainstream, as their exclusive ecosystem partner. Gulf News as a partner of Crypto Oasis, will have access to top tier blockchain industry experts in numerous areas of the ecosystem and together they can bring this expert knowledge to a larger audience.

“We are proud to welcome Gulf News into the Crypto Oasis Ecosystem with its Web3 DeCode event. As one of the largest traditional media companies in the region moving into the decentralized world, it is lighting the path for all others to follow.” – Ralf Glabischnig, Founder of Crypto Oasis

Web3 DeCode is a testament to a flourishing blockchain industry with limitless potential. Crypto Oasis welcomes Gulf News into the ever-evolving digital world and looks forward to having a long-term mutually beneficial partnership that will accelerate the growth of the ecosystem and bring us closer to a decentralized future.

Dubai’s very popular NFT community Arts Dao, gathered prominent artists to interact with the audience and elaborate further on their collection, and other artists exhibited their exclusive NFT collections through dedicated dark rooms and theme-based activations. Startups had exhibited their real-world applications of Web3 technologies and a pitching contest was held to a panel of investors, for them to identify most promising entrepreneurial projects in the Web3 space and interact with the entrepreneurs, and possibly raise funds for their startups. Arts DAO co-founders Anas Bhurtun and Rahim Mahtab revealed how the platform brings together artists, collectors, builders, entrepreneurs. Anas said, “Our aim is to bring more people into the Web3 space, while together pioneering the next phase of the internet. This is great for what is happening in the region and seeing a more collaborative approach considering there are less than a million people around the world into NFTs in Web3.”

Creative studio BOREDPUMA had exhibited the NFT collection with Dubai-based retail company Splash Fashions, part of the Landmark Group, called the Celestial Collection at the Gulf News WEB3 summit/exhibition. This collection is recognized as the first ever NFT collection and collaboration of its kind in the Middle East, signifying the future of NFTs, the metaverse, and beyond.

At the end of the two-day event, an elegant gala dinner and the region’s first Web3 Awards was held to recognise projects in categories such as tech, gaming, art and other related industries, and with the awards, every winner was gifted tokenized NFT of the winning award.

The awards had highly distinguished jury, with the jurors who recognized digitally innovative projects in categories including technology, games, fashion, art, and other related industries.

Fifteen winners comprising of the artists, collectors, builders, entrepreneurs, gamers, and designers, were presented with the region’s first Web3 awards, who were picked through a jury selection process which also included people’s choice of winners.

The first set of eight jury based awards were presented by Dr Marwan Al Zarouni, CEO of Dubai Blockchain Centre and the People’s Choice Award categories were given out by Abdul Hamid Ahmad, CEO, Editor-in-chief and Executive Director of Publishing at Gulf News.

The awards were given to the most seamless collaboration of an NFT between two and more creators, the most creative and iconic NFT project by a celebrity, the NFT marketplace that from both a user experience and visual perspective, created the top place to buy and sell NFTs, among several others.

At the Web3 DeCode summit, the exhibition had a very dramatic surprise, the suave beast, the $5 million + ROLLS ROYCE PHANTOM, a fully customized PHANTOM with 6 wheels, yes 6 wheels, 6×6, with a digital NFT of the PHANTOM 6×6 as well. This customization of the suave beast is the collaboration between Christopher Quet, co-founder, and CEO at virtual world builder OurVerse and VVerse, and Eric Favre, founder of EFAE, Eric Favre Art Editions, a digital gallery of art that houses installations from artists. 

“What we do is bring physical artists with physical art into the digital era, opening them to the Metaverse, NFTs and NFT marketplace,” explained Christopher Quet, further said, “NFTs were limited to digital art, and you had real-world physical art that was left behind, and when they sell an expensive piece of physical art, it’s always one-to-one. That doesn’t help them engage with the community. So, by giving an access to physical artists who sell their art but also make a series of NFTs and bring it to the Metaverse and the NFT marketplace.”

“The world is changing and business evolves. With the entrepreneurial experience of its founder, Eric Favre Art Edition decided to participate in the Gulf News Web3 DeCode in order to launch its platform under construction with unique artwork in the world and introduce in Avant premiere the Rolls Royce R6WHEELS as a central piece of the show – the world of yesterday put on the page of the digital world, with NFT, metaverse, crypto and physical art.”

– Eric Favre – Founder, Eric Favre Collection.

The awards were followed by delicious wine, dinner and desserts, mingling with the hi-calibre experts and guests from the Blockchain, WEB3 and Metaverse world.