Posted on

Chris Dixon of a16z joins OpenSea

Chris Dixon of a16z joins OpenSea

What happens when the largest NFT marketplace meets the Web3 promoter of the moment? Chris Dixon of a16z joins OpenSea!

Chris Dixon is one of the most prominent figures in the crypto industry. He is best known for being a partner in a16z – the venture capital fund set up in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz – and for his commitment to promoting Web3. Dixon is by background a developer with a degree in philosophy, and has been involved in emerging technologies since the beginning of his career. The largest NFT marketplace OpenSea announced on 30th July 2022 that Dixon had joined its board of directors.

Chris Dixon, why Web3 is so important 

Forbes named Dixon the No. 1 venture investor in 2022. He has backed projects such as Uniswap, Avalanche, and Dapper Labs, which launched CryptoKitties. Uniswap’s CEO and founder Hayden Adams praised Dixon for his ability to bring the worlds of traditional finance and DeFi together, while Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou credits Dixon with predicting the rise of NFTs, ‘Chris saw this industry before it started’. In fact, Dixon’s blog and Twitter profile have been a reference for in-depth coverage of Web3 topics since the dawn of the crypto world. Dixon’s insights are both technical and theoretical, his contributions discussing the birth of ideas, the fundamental questions of Web3, and the social, economic and technological changes we are experiencing.  ‘Why Web3 matters‘ from 2021 is one of his most famous tweets that built the narrative of the internet phases, user-centricity and ownership. 

OpenSea, the NFT giant 

To date, OpenSea is the largest and best known NFT marketplace, with over 2 million collections and billions of dollars in sales. It is also one of the first marketplaces on Ethereum, and indeed it was founded in 2017 just as CryptoKitties were exploding and the world was starting to hear about blockchain. OpenSea was the brainchild of Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah, who in 2017 began engaging with users and early adopters on Discord. In addition to investment funds like a16z, OpenSea is backed by funding angels like actor and producer Ashton Kutcher, Ben Silberman, CEO and Co-founder of Pinterest, and Justin Kan, Twitch co-founder. OpenSea features all kinds of NFT, ranging across art, virtual experiences, music and virtual property certificates. Creators and artists have the possibility to create NFTs for free on OpenSea without necessarily having to know the technical workings of the blockchain. OpenSea was granted a new funding round in January 2022 and reported to have reached a valuation of USD 13.3 billion. 

Chris Dixon joins OpenSea!

Dixon officially joined OpenSea’s board of directors at the end of July, taking over from Katie Haun, who left a16z to establish another fund, Hain Ventures. Dixon was welcomed by Devin Finzer, OpenSea’s current CEO.  

Commenting Dixon’s arrival on OpenSea Finzer wrote, ‘Anyone who has spent time with Chris knows he is a principled, rigorous, and intellectually honest thinker, and he consistently pushes us to zoom out and make sure we’re solving for the long term arc of the NFT space.’

Posted on

The top 10 Venture Capitals funding crypto projects

10 crypto Venture Capitals you should know

The crypto world’s growth in recent years has been supported financially by venture capital funds. So, how do they work? Which are the main ones?

In 2021, the crypto sector raised huge funds from corporations and venture capital companies. Due to the loose monetary policy and the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, the shareholders’ tendency has been towards high-risk but high-potential sectors such as crypto, the Metaverse and Web3. However, in 2022 investments dropped by 35 per cent compared to 2021, to around USD 415 billion in the last year, the recession has driven away investors more accustomed to risk, and this is likely to be the trend in 2023 as well. But what are venture capital funds in the crypto world and how do they work? 

Crypto Venture Capital: what it is and how it works 

Venture capital funds are funds or companies dedicated to the high-risk financing of activities in innovative sectors with high development potential. The business ideas financially supported by them are generally in the early stages of development as in the case of start-ups, operate in technological fields and offer cutting-edge services, and are characterised by high financial and operational risk. Some Venture Capital companies or funds specialise in funding crypto projects.

How does a Crypto Venture Capital fund work? Be it a standard or a Crypto VC, it all starts with a group of investors deciding to fund the growth of a newly founded company with their own money, expecting it to multiply their profits soon. In terms of venture capitals, the extent of the risk is directly proportional to the profit if the business is successful. 

Venture Capital Investment Stages

Venture capital funding can take place at different moments in a start-up or business development.

  • Pre-seed :The project is at a very early stage – often no more than an idea – and the initial financial backing comes from family and friends.
  • Seed round:The project is testing its feasibility. This stage includes a potential market and competition analysis, as well as the development of a product that can generate revenue.
  • Series A :The project has passed all initial checks, is growing and is supported by a strong community. Investments at this stage are beginning to become less risky for investors.
  • Series B :The project has a large user base and is expanding. The investment focus is no longer directly on services and products but instead on marketing, sales, human resources, business development and customer service – all areas that can enhance the project’s growth. The business is normally in the scale-up phase at this point.
  • Series C: When a venture capital firm decides to invest at this stage, it means that the project is now commercially viable and is focused on expansion into new products or international markets.

The top 10 Crypto Venture Capitals

So, which are the 10 crypto Venture Capitals you should know? 

1. a16z – Andreessen Horowitz

Founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz, known as ‘a16z’, is a Californian venture capital firm with a special interest in crypto start-ups and the Web3. Currently, a16z has stakes in many of the leading cryptocurrency companies such as Compound, Phantom, Lido, MakerDAO, Yield Guild Games and many others. 

2. Fenbushi Capital

The name ‘Fenbushi’ comes from the combination of the Chinese words: ‘fen’ meaning ‘dust’ and ‘bushi’ meaning ‘warrior’ and is intended to describe Venture Capital as an army of blockchain warriors. Fenbushi Capital was founded in 2015 by Bo Shen and Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum. Who as of 2018 no longer works full-time on the project but plays the role of advisor. Among the Chinese fund’s investments are crypto companies from around the world, including blockchain firms Flow and Kusama, analytics and research firm Messari, and USDC stablecoin company Circle. 

3. Jump Crypto 

Jump Crypto is a section dedicated to the development of Web3 services and infrastructure of the Chicago-based Jump Trading Group. Some examples of the crypto companies in which Jump Crypto has invested are Acala, a parachain of Polkadot, Amp, Chiliz and Solana. 

4. Framework Ventures

Framework Ventures claims to be “the reference system for the global transition to decentralised technologies”; it was founded in 2018 by Alex Kolicich and Jake Medwell and its goal is to foster and accelerate the development of Web3 projects. This crypto Venture Capital fund also invests in companies developing systems for artificial intelligence, and for the Internet of Things. Among the various crypto projects it has financed are Aave, Optimism and The Graph.   

5. Paradigm 

Among the top 10 Crypto Venture Capital funds is also Paradigm, an investment company that specialises in crypto and Web3. Paradigm supports ‘disruptive’ projects with funding from a minimum of USD 1 million to a maximum of USD 100 million. “Every now and then a new technology comes along that changes everything. The Internet has defined the last decades of innovation. We believe cryptocurrencies will define the next decades” – which is precisely why Paradigm has chosen to help blockchain projects reach their full potential. Cosmos, dYdX, Optimism are some of the projects that have been funded. 

6. Multicoin Capital

Multicoin Capital has been active since 2017 and considers itself a pioneer of token-based economic models. The fund was created with the aim of devoting itself entirely to the crypto world. As well as owning a wallet composed of different cryptocurrencies, it is involved in funding blockchain-based projects from the seed stage, with a focus on the more technical aspects of the sector. Multicoin has funded Audius, Solana and The Graph. 

7. Pantera

Pantera is an American Venture Capital fund that has been funding blockchain companies since 2013. It is one of the longest-running funds in the industry, when it was launched Bitcoin was only worth $65! Pantera has invested in 1inch, Ankr and Ripple. 

8. Draper Associates

Draper Associates is a historical Venture Capital firm that has been operating since 1985. The fund focuses mainly on companies in the early stages of their development. After having contributed to the success of companies such as SpaceX, Draper Associates has also opened up to funding crypto companies. 

9. Polychain

Based in San Francisco, Polychain is one of the leading Crypto Venture Capital funds. The Polychain team values ‘long-term vision, combative intelligence, a data-driven and open-minded mentality and humility’. Polychain has funded Ava Labs, Celo and NuCypher. 

 10. Animoca Brands

Animoca Brands is the leading VC fund in the field of the Metaverse and digital entertainment. It has funded the Web3 projects Axie Infinity, Splinterlands and The Sandbox. 

All in all, crypto VC funds work like traditional VCs. The crypto sector, however, brings its own peculiarities – being a young market, processes and funding are often flexible. Most crypto projects are funded in the pre-seed and seed stages via ICOs and IPOs, Crypto Venture Capitals generally come in at the A and B stages. This is the case for Dune Analytics or Palm NFT Studio.

Posted on

Young Monday: Madonna, Damien Hirst’s NFT and Solana’s store in NY

NFTs: Madonna, Damien Hirst, Solana Spaces

A 1 million dollar Bored Ape conquers Madonna, Solana opens a new store and Damien Hirst burns part of his NFT collection!

We present a Young Monday dedicated to NFTs for the first Monday of August! Pop star Madonna dreams of a rare 1 million Bored Ape to add to her her collection, Serie A footballers become NFT cards on Sorare and Damien Hirst is destroying part of his collection of non-fungible tokens, The Currency, forever. For those on holiday in New York, from the 28th of July you can go crypto shopping at Solana’s new store!

Will Madonna spend $1 million on a Bored Ape?

Madonna has set her sights on an exorbitantly priced Bored Ape NFT! Bored Ape Yacht Club number 3756, which is currently on sale for 800.69 ETH (about $1.27 million) on Opensea. The pop star seems intent on having it back in her collection after it was snatched away by one of her fans. Why all the attention specifically for number 3756? ‘I was told it was inspired by me and modelled on me, and it was bought by a woman who is a fan of mine. She wanted to sell it to me, but it was too expensive,’ Madonna explained. Indeed, the style of Bored Ape is very reminiscent of that of the artist: leather jacket and S&M hat. The BAYC is flattered by the interest (obsession perhaps) of Madonna, the artist who in her time helped spread the punk rock style so characteristic of the Apes: ‘the Yuga Labs team loves it when people see themselves in certain Ape’. Madonna already owns a Bored Ape, number 4988 which cost $466,000 (however it’s much less rare than her favourite Ape), two World of Women (one of which is her Twitter profile picture) and a LAND by Otherside, the Metaverse of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. In May, Madonna released a set of NFTs in collaboration with Beeple: ‘Mother of Creation’, sold for charity.

Serie A teams make an appearance on Sorare

Starting with the 2022-23 season, 17 of the 20 Serie A teams will be available on Sorare, fantasy football on Ethereum. In a multi-year agreement, Sorare has brought the champions of Serie A onto the blockchain: the players of Italian clubs will be turned into NFT cards with which to play a crypto and digital version of fantasy football. The Serie A thus becomes one of the four major football leagues available on Sorare, along with the German Bundesliga, the Spanish La Liga and US Major League Soccer. Fans around the world will be able to collect, trade and line-up NFTs of Serie A players. According to Serie A CEO Luigi De Siervo, one of the goals of the partnership is to engage international audiences and bring younger fans closer to Serie A TIM football. In fact, Italy is the second largest community globally on Sorare. The Serie B, which recently elected its new board members, has also expressed its intention to rely on new blockchain technologies to improve the experience of younger fans around the world.

Damien Hirst burns his NFT collection

As of 27 July last, the British artist started to ‘burn’ some of his NFTs, permanently destroying them. A stroke of madness? No, an artistic experiment! But let’s analyse this in order. In 2021, Hirst made 10,000 NFTs associated with as many physical works painted in 2016, in a project called The Currency. The works, unique and with different titles, depict textures of polka dots. Collectors, who were awarded each piece for $2,000, were faced with a choice: keep Damien Hirst’s work in NFT format only, destroying the canvas equivalent or, conversely, give up the non-fungible token to receive the physical work. The decision had to be made by last Wednesday, when the countdown expired, 5,149 owners decided to receive the physical work and 4,851 the NFT work. A battle took place between physical and digital art, the result of which was a slight victory for the former. Damien Hirst’s NFTs were managed, from creation to burning, by the Heni marketplace on the Palm blockchain. On Twitter, the artist announced the outcome of the collectors’ choice, adding that “I still don’t know what I’m doing and have no idea what the future holds for me, whether NFTs or physical works will be more valuable or not” and that the journey has just begun.

Solana opens a store for crypto enthusiasts in New York City

Solana has opened ‘the world’s first retail and education space dedicated to Web3′ at the Hudson Yard in Manhattan. Solana Spaces is a real store where customers are invited to experience the Solana universe live. Inside Solana Spaces, you can learn how to use a wallet, discover all of Solana’s projects and dapps and buy your first NFT all with the support of the team. “Inside the shop you will learn how Solana works and what Web3 is. We will provide you with a wallet and your first NFTs, and guide you through your first on-chain transactions,” the Solana Spaces Twitter account tweeted earlier this month.

Blockchain merchandise will also be available in the store, including a limited series of Blanksoles trainers. Solana Spaces aims to be a real ‘Web3 embassy in New York’! Prior to the grand opening, the store opened to 30 preview visitors, but Solana Spaces’ showcase did not go unnoticed and was shared on social media.

Posted on

Uniswap’s moves to conquer the NFT market

Uniswap's moves to conquer the NFT market

Buying NFT on Uniswap? Now you can, with a marketplace aggregator and an AMM for decentralised purchases

All this and more for Web3! Uniswap, the largest decentralised exchange – over 1 billion dollars exchanged in the last 24 hours – is preparing for Web3 by expanding its service provision. The missing piece? A facility to buy NFTs in a totally decentralised manner. Uniswap promises to integrate NFTs in the autumn through its acquisition of the marketplace aggregator Genie and Sudoswap’s AMM protocol. 

Uniswap decentralising the NFT market

The first DEX to use Automatic Market Makers? The first decentralised exchange for daily trading? Uniswap – Hayden Adams’ brainchild, the DEX that has marked a before and after in the cryptocurrency industry. Uniswap remains true to its decentralising finance approach by working on a feature that allows the purchase of NFTs without intermediaries thanks to the liquidity pools typical of AMMs. Uniswap already uses an Automated Market Maker to provide liquidity to the exchange, i.e. it clears orders automatically thanks to price-determining smart contracts and liquidity pools. Now it is preparing to apply an AMM for the trading of NFTs on its platform as well.  In addition to having a fully decentralised system, Uniswap users will be able to choose from a huge variety of NFTs thanks to the acquisition of marketplace aggregator Genie. 

Genie’s acquisition in June

Uniswap acquired the NFT marketplace aggregator Genie on 21st June 2022. Genie provides several purchase options aggregated from various marketplaces, such as OpenSea or LooksRare, making its offer very broad. Why did the Uniswap team also choose to integrate NFTs into their products? “We see NFTs as one of the forms of value in the growing digital economy and a significant entry point to Web3 already. Uniswap’s mission is to offer a complete platform for digital economy. To mark the acquisition, Uniswap organised a USDC airdrop for anyone who has used Genie before 15th April 2022 or who owned one of the Genie Genesis NFTs. The airdrop will be launched in August and will be redeemable over the following twelve months. The integration with Genie will initially be available in the Uniswap web app, to eventually be rolled out to the APIs and facilitate developers as well. 

… and the Sudoswap integration in July

In a tweet on 22nd July 2022, Scott Gray of the Uniswap Product Team revealed that NFTs on Uniswap will also be supported by Sudoswap, an AMM-based marketplace. Sudoswap’s Automated Market Maker, released on 8th July, will make it possible to buy NFTs on Uniswap’s platform with an AMM, mirroring the operation of the exchange itself. In fact, thanks to Sudoswap’s AMM, people will be able to buy NFTs automatically thanks to liquidity pools, unlike traditional marketplaces that combine the supply and demand of sellers and buyers of non-fungible tokens. It is to all intents and purposes a totally decentralised NFT trading because all orders are managed on-chain through the use of smart contracts. 


NFTs will be available for purchase on Uniswap from next autumn. In the meantime, the DEX is engaging in discussions with its community to develop new features in the NFT and Web3 fields.

Posted on

Ukraine: $1 million raised by NFT collection documenting war

NFTs from the War Museum in Ukraine of photos documenting the conflict raise over $1 million

While UNESCO surveys the damage caused to Ukraine’s cultural heritage, the NFT Museum of War launches new collections to raise funds

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, NFTs, as well as cryptocurrencies, have played a key role in raising funds to finance the resistance and reconstruction of the besieged country. The Ministry of Digital Transformation has opened a collection of NFT donations and supports several collections such as Soul of Ukraine, Ukrainian Spirit and the Meta History Museum of War. Proceeds from the sales of these collections are directly available to the Ministry. Since March 2022, the Meta History Museum’s collection has raised over $1 million and added more collectible NFTs on 21 July. All over the world, non-fungible tokens are proving to be a way to give not only financial aid but also a voice to the events and people involved in the conflict. This is the case of the NFT photographs of reporter Niccolò Celesti who exhibited his photojournalistic works last month in Florence.

The NFT Museum of Ukraine continues its mission

The Meta History Museum of War was founded on 25 March 2022 thanks to an NFT platform (relying on Ethereum and Polygon) and under the patronage of the Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov. The digital museum was created with the aim of preserving testimonies, recounting key moments of the war and countering misinformation about what is happening in Ukraine, all through NFT works. With the sales of these non-fungible tokens, the Meta History Museum of War has so far raised over $1 million ($1,223,272 at the time of writing) in ETH. The sum collected has been transferred to the Ministry, which in April explained in a statement that ‘the main purpose of this museum is to raise funds to restore Ukrainian museums and theatres that were bombed by the occupiers’.

According to UNESCO, 164 Ukrainian cultural sites were damaged from the start of the conflict until the latest update of 18th of July, including 72 religious buildings, 12 museums, 32 historical palaces and 17 monuments.

The third part of the NFT of the war in Ukraine

On the 21st of July, the digital museum published the third part of the NFT Warline collection in which the events of the conflict in Ukraine from 15th to 31st of March are recounted in chronological order. Comprising around one hundred works created by artists of different genres and backgrounds (one NFT was even created by artificial intelligence), the collection marks the most significant moments of the conflict and each NFT recounts an event on the precise day and time it occurred. For example, 16 March 2022 at 17:41: ‘Ukraine won a complete victory in its case against Russia at the International Court of Justice. The International Court of Justice has ordered an immediate halt to the invasion. The order is binding under international law. Russia…”. The new drop has works by artists such as Maria Oz, Anton Abo and Oleksii Dyvysenko.

NFT Photographs: Niccolò Celesti recounts the war in Ukraine

From the 24th to the 30th of June 2022, 90 photographs of the conflict taken by the war correspondent Niccolò Celesti were exhibited at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The exhibition, entitled “Springtime in Kiev: NFTs for Ukraine“, recounted in images the moments of the conflict between March and April. The harshness of the war, the difficulties, the faces of the people, in five ‘chapters’: Escape, War, Soldiers, Bunkers and Portraits. Three of the shots in the exhibition were turned into NFT photographs and sold to benefit the Red Cross’ ‘Florence for Kiev’ fundraiser. From the three photographs, 63 unique pieces were made at a price of 100 Euros each. We can consider Celesti’s work one of the first cases of photojournalism on blockchain.

The exhibition and the creation of the NFT photographs was curated by Innov Art di Trefoloni e Associati. It is a project that aims to bring new technologies, such as blockchain, to the world of culture and entertainment. They do this by providing services to companies, public bodies and professionals, for the creation of NFTs and tokenization projects. Celesti presented his collection like this: ‘a month of war and storytelling, spent mostly trying to get news from civilians and volunteers, looking for different angles than the headlines, images, and videos that the bastions of information offer globally. At the beginning, the intention was not to follow the main facts of the war, but to try to live it in the Ukrainians’ shoes.

Posted on

Stellar experiments with DeFi, aiming for financial inclusion

DeFi on Stellar: new smart contracts and Moneygram

Thanks to DeFi, Stellar wants to make the digital economy accessible to all, with new smart contracts and integration with Moneygram

Decentralised finance on Stellar is to all intents and purposes a novelty. Since its foundation, the peer-to-peer network for payments had never integrated smart contracts. However, things have now changed and the network is preparing to offer DeFi services and solutions. Discover the new smart contracts, Moneygram and DeFi on Stellar!

It’s smart contract time for Stellar!

Stellar‘s blockchain was launched in 2014 (shortly before Ethereum) with the ambition of improving the payment system that Bitcoin already offered in terms of speed and affordability. At the time, smart contract technology was in its infancy and did not seem useful for achieving the Stellar Development Foundation’s goals. Tom Weller, from Stellar’s development team, uses this analogy to explain the initial reluctance in the face of smart contract integration: “Imagine you are in the 1980s (am I a bit old-fashioned?) and you have to do some scientific calculations. Option one is to buy an expensive, slow and buggy PC. Or option two is to buy a fancy, purpose-built, simpler, faster and cheaper TI calculator. In other words, at the beginning of our industry, Bitcoin and Ethereum were more like PCs and Stellar was more like calculators’.

The SDF (Stellar Development Foundation) was very pragmatic. At the beginning of its journey and in light of its early goals, it was not worth working on building smart contracts. Over the years, however, technology evolved and 2021 was the year that Stellar entered DeFi with the introduction of the automated market maker (AMM) functionality in the protocol. With the huge success of this functionality, came the need for decisive growth and innovation for the network. In March of 2022, the SDF announced the development of Project Jump Cannon: native smart contracts for Stellar.

How do Stellar’s smart contracts work?

The strategy is to build smart contracts that ‘enable developers to grow the Stellar ecosystem and create new financial instruments to promote inclusion’, learning from all the innovations and research that has already been done. The cornerstones of Stellar’s smart contracts will be security, scalability and fair access: ‘with smart contracts, we will see more use cases on Stellar that will give more access to the digital economy,’ comments Weller. Project Jump Cannon is named after Annie Jump Cannon, a Harvard scientist whose contributions were essential to the understanding of the universe and the participation of women in science. Currently, the SDF is working on building a smart contract platform according to the WebAssembly model (WASM) also used by Polkadot and Elrond.

Objective No. 1: ‘Financial inclusion’

On 21 July 2022, the Lumen (XML) network reached 7 million accounts. The network is now used in more than 16 countries and handles hundreds of millions of dollars of transactions per year. In 2021 alone, the Stellar network processed more than 2 billion transactions, including 155 million payments. The digital economy that Stellar champions, however, is not yet widespread enough. It is said that the digital economy is for everyone, but who is included in “everyone”? Everyone who has an identity? Worldwide, however, 1 billion people have no official identity. Does this mean everyone who is a participant in the economy at present? One has to consider that 1 in 4 women do not have access to banking services, 60% of workers worldwide belong to the ‘cash economy only’. In light of this data, Stellar proposes to think of simple ways to include all the people who are cut off from the traditional economy into the digital economy. One of these ways is to facilitate the conversion of cash into cryptocurrencies and vice versa, in other words, to facilitate the use of digital money.

Stellar and the integration with Moneygram

To expand global access to cryptocurrencies and decentralised financial services, in January this year, Stellar entered into a partnership with Moneygram, one of the world’s most widely used peer-to-peer money transfer services. For Denelle Dixon, CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation, “the much-needed solution to the problem of switching from cash to crypto has arrived. Today, nearly 2 billion people rely on cash for their livelihoods, with no access to the digital economy”. By using Moneygram on Stellar, you can convert your crypto to fiat currency and vice versa, without necessarily having a bank account or credit card. This facilitates access to digital services for people who only use cash and is at the same time a quick and convenient way to convert crypto for those who routinely use blockchain as a payment system.

DeFi on Stellar is still to be fully built, the turn towards smart contracts will give the project a new face and set increasingly ambitious goals for the network that aims to be a global system for payments. Borderless and open to all! 

Posted on

The top 10 crypto news stories of 2022 (so far)

10 crypto news stories from the first half of 2022

The top 10 decisive crypto news stories of the first half of 2022? Discover the list of the most important events in the crypto space (so far)

With a flashback to these early months of the year, we look back at the 10 decisive news stories of the first half of 2022. Crypto is a sector in turmoil, and we have selected the events that have made their mark so far.

1.   The collapse of the Terra (LUNA) ecosystem

One of the events that has had a major impact on the crypto world is certainly the Terra debacle. After what is called the ‘UST depegging incident’, in which Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin lost its dollar peg between the 9th and 10th of May, the network suffered a general meltdown that led Do Kwon to abandon ship and rebuild the project. The collapse came as a shock to the markets and the community. From being considered a top-of-the-line blockchain, Terra lost all its value in a very short time. Before losing the peg, UST was the third largest stablecoin by market cap! The causes of the collapse have not been clearly defined, but it is likely that Terra and LUNA suffered from a number of factors such as the bearish market. On the 28th of May, through a fork, the new Terra 2 network was released. The idea of Do Kwon and the community was to rebuild the ecosystem by sacrificing the weak element, the algorithmic stablecoin. Terra is currently trying to get back on its feet but user trust has not yet been regained, so much so that native dapps are migrating to other networks.

Our article covering LUNA 2.0’s airdrop:

●     Terra 2 arrives, find out how the new LUNA’s airdrop works

2.   Litecoin’s privacy update

After two years of development, the Mimblewimble update was activated on Litecoin‘s network in February 2022. The first altcoin in history is improving its privacy standards with this protocol that determines a new system to manage the storage of information on the blockchain. Mimblewimble adds Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) to Litecoin, a type of cryptography that allows sensitive information to be rendered invisible when transactions are validated and recorded. In addition to the other four types of cryptography, ECC is already operating on Litecoin. Each type of cryptography hides different data such as values, senders and recipients. Litecoin is thus working on privacy at several levels. Mimblewimble also increases the scalability of Litecoin, as the less information that needs to be recorded, the smoother the blockchain will work.

Our Academy article dedicated to the Mimblewimble update:

● Litecoin: the privacy of Mimblewimble

3.   Crypto and the conflict in Ukraine

On the 24th of February, a conflict broke out in Europe that still shows no sign of ending. Two days after Russia’s initial military escalation, Ukraine‘s official Twitter profile posted the address of a wallet with an invitation to donate cryptocurrencies. Aid to the invaded country came via blockchain, with cryptocurrencies proving to be the most effective and fastest way to bring in economic resources from abroad, especially after banking systems were compromised. In fact, to avoid the collapse of their banking system, Ukraine restricted money withdrawals from the early stages of the conflict and subsequently froze them. In less than a month, around 100 million dollars in crypto donations arrived. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law on virtual assets on the 16th of March 2022, making cryptocurrencies legal in the country. Ukraine has opened a digital museum that will store and sell NFTs documenting the war.

4.   The Bored Ape Yacht Club makes NFT history

The Bored Ape Yacht Club’s sensational year began with the acquisition of CryptoPunks, one of the first NFT collections to become famous for its sky-high prices. On the 12th of March, Yuga Labs bought the intellectual and commercial rights to CryptoPunks and Meebits for a rumoured sum of $200 million. Yuga Labs has thus brought together the most important NFTs on the crypto scene in terms of both popularity and sales. On the 17th of March, ApeCoin made its appearance. It’s an Ethereum token, developed as the key to the Bored Ape Metaverse. Delivering on their promise, within a few months BAYC announced, developed and launched the first demo of Otherside, its metaverse. Its LAND sales exceeded $1 billion. The Bored Ape Yacht Club is attracting entertainment personalities and has infiltrated pop culture, so much so that the first legal battles over the brand and its image are beginning to arrive.

BAYC updates: 

●     Yuga Labs hires NFT expert to breathe new life into Cryptopunks

5.   The Layer 1 blockchain trend: reducing environmental impact

A recurring theme among blockchain initiatives in the first half of 2022 is the reduction of environmental impact. In April, Polygon released its plan to make MATIC a green cryptocurrency, promising that it would become carbon neutral by the end of 2022. Polygon succeeded in its venture back in June. The aim of MATIC‘s network is to make every operation on the blockchain sustainable from smart contract execution to NFT minting. After studying how much Polygon’s network pollutes, it was decided to offset emissions with carbon credits. For the Polygon team, the ambition, hard work, challenges and victories of blockchain will not be decisive without a concrete blueprint for cryptocurrency sustainability. Algorand has also chosen carbon credits, the purchase of which goes to finance projects that combat the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. On Earth Day (22nd of April), Micali’s blockchain sent an environmental message by disconnecting the electricity in Times Square in New York.

The green side of cryptocurrencies:

●     Young Monday: Pride parades on The Sandbox, Polygon is now carbon neutral and Pharrell Williams’s NFT

6.   The first Metaverse Fashion Week

Among the 10 decisive events of the first half of 2022 features the first Fashion Week in the history of the Metaverse. A virtual version of fashion week took place in Decentraland between the 24th and 27th of March. Etro, Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce and Gabbana presented their digital fashion items for avatars in the Metaverse with exclusive fashion shows and parties. Decentraland’s Fashion Week was designed to make haute couture accessible to everyone, not just insiders as is the case at events in Paris, Milan, New York.

When technology reframes haute couture: 

●     Meta and The Fabricant, 2 ways of understanding digital fashion

 

7.   Football and crypto increasingly in tune

Sports marketing agencies are looking for crypto partnerships for their clients, according to industry experts there will be no niche in the world of sport that will stay away from blockchain for long. But football is the sport that is getting closer to cryptocurrencies than any other. Among the partnerships signed in recent months is one between Algorand and FIFA, with the blockchain becoming an official sponsor of the federation. The first major event in which Algorand will appear associated with FIFA will be the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Tezos has signed a deal with Manchester United to appear on the men’s and women’s first team training kits. Alessandro del Piero and Lionel Messi are ambassadors of Chiliz and Socios and Kylian Mbappé is the face of Sorare, fantasy football on Ethereum. NFT, fan tokens and sponsorship are a new way to build the relationship with fans.

Football and blockchain, the formation deployed:

●     Complete guide to Sorare, the crypto fantasy football on Ethereum

8.   The European Union approves crypto regulation

On the 30th of June, the European Union approved MiCA (Markets in Crypto Assets), a package of laws to regulate the cryptocurrency market. The document aims to impose standards on the industry to safeguard users. The MiCA provides rules for stablecoins, establishes legal and financial responsibilities in cases of bugs or insolvencies, and designates supervisory bodies and prerequisites for companies that want to provide services on blockchain. This is the first real EU initiative in the crypto field, and its effects will be decisive. MiCA is expected to enter into force by 2024, in the meantime crypto players will have time to adapt to the new regulations.

All points touched upon by MiCA:

●     MiCA approved, new European crypto law to be ratified by late 2024

9.   Solana works on a Web3 smartphone

In June, the Solana team announced the development of an Android smartphone integrated with all crypto services. Web3 is looking to move more to mobile platforms in order to facilitate the simple and immediate spread of blockchain technologies. Solana Saga is the name of the smartphone, and it will be compatible with the decentralised applications typical of Web3. Solana promises a technically impeccable smartphone: 6.67-inch screen with a refresh rate of 120Hz, 512 GB of memory, 12 GB of RAM, 50 MP camera and Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen1 processor. Solana Saga is attracting the attention and curiosity of many, so much so that even Polygon has revealed its mobile plans.

10.  NFTs take to social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Web 2.0 platforms are also attracted to the possibilities of non-fungible tokens! The first rumours about the integration of NFTs on Meta date back to January 2022, at which time there were rumours about the preparation of Meta’s products to accommodate blockchain technologies. More recently Adam Mosseri, an Instagram executive, announced that he and his team had begun testing NFTs on the platform with the aim of supporting creators financially. Finally, in July, the Meta developers released previews of the integration of NFT on Facebook; it will soon be possible to associate one’s profile with collections or individual digital works and share them as posts. At first, only NFTs on Ethereum and Polygon will be supported, but in the future, those on other blockchains will also be integrated. Facebook is thus preparing to become an NFT platform. On Twitter it is already possible to show off your NFTs as profile pictures by linking to your wallet!

The NFT social journey:

●     Facebook crypto breakthrough – NFTs arrive on the social network platform

The list of the 10 most important crypto news stories of the first half of 2022 ends here, but this year still has a lot to offer. One example? The Merge, Ethereum’s historic upgrade to Proof-of-Stake!

Posted on

Otherside takes centre stage, Bored Ape’s metaverse is a hit

Bored Ape Yacht Club opens its metaverse: Otherside

The Bored Ape Yacht Club launches the Otherside metaverse. Here’s what happened at the 16th of July demo and the details of the Litepaper!

On the 16th of July 2022, 4,500 users participated in the first Otherside demo. LAND owners in Otherdeed explored the Bored Ape metaverse for the first time on the “first journey”. The feedback was positive and the Otherside roadmap promises great things, according to the participants the success is overwhelming. The Bored Ape Yacht Club inaugurated Otherside and the project’s Litepaper was also published on this occasion. The challenges of the near future will be mainly technical. How does Otherside intend to develop the technology of the metaverse?

A Metaverse on trial

Otherside is a metaverse that is still under construction, and will be tested in stages by Voyagers, i.e. the owners of Otherdeed, before being opened to the public. The release will therefore be progressive and features will be unlocked one by one. More precisely, Yuga Labs, the laboratory from which Bored Ape and Otherside originated, envisages three phases, divided into several “journeys”. Each of these journeys will allow the user to explore certain areas of the metaverse, interact with the virtual environment and become familiar with the elements and mechanisms of this digital world. Although Otherside is primarily an open world in which it is possible to build and play without constraints, in these test phases the game experience will follow a pre-established narrative. The first phase is divided into 11 parts linked to the mysterious appearance of an Obelisk in the Otherside universe. The second and third phases have not yet been presented.

The Otherside demo and various tests are only available to selected developers and the 4,500 owners of the metaverse. For them, on the 16th of July, the adventure began by following an oversized boring monkey into the beating heart of the metaverse, the “Biogenic Swamp”. The first test was carried out on the avatars, in actions such as dancing, running, jumping. The Voyagers will be responsible for reporting bugs and giving critical feedback on key aspects of the metaverse’s development.

What does the Otherside metaverse look like now?

The Bored Ape Yacht Club has finally opened its doors in Otherside, the place where “normal rules don’t apply”. At the moment, the metaverse appears partly as a galaxy and partly as an archipelago, with islands ranging from the Biogenic Swamp to the Infinite Expanse. These islands are none other than the various LANDS of the Bored Ape metaverse. Otherside is populated by indigenous creatures, the Koda, and relies on four types of elements that shape its world: soul, ore, shard and root. Otherside is also full of hidden objects and materials to collect.

The Otherside Litepaper: community and interoperability first

The Litepaper, a beta and draft version of a classic Whitepaper, sets out the basic principles and roadmap for the Otherside metaverse. On Twitter, the team explained: “This document serves as an initial guide for Otherside. It covers the basic principles of the platform, the prerogatives of developers and the possibilities of creating collective communities.

The first fundamental guideline is precisely the centrality of the community: “In order to plant the seeds of a successful community, we begin the development of Otherside with the Voyagers, our first supporters and followers. Here, Otherdeed LANDs becomes the key to participating and co-creating the final version of the Metaverse. So Voyagers are actively involved: “this deep connection with our most passionate supporters and creatives will be key to understanding what features, moderation, tools and support our community needs as we develop this ecosystem together, from the bottom up.” Otherside’s roadmap also includes the integration of a governance system to manage peaceful coexistence between users. In an atmosphere of trust, communication and shared goals.

The technological challenges of Otherside? The same as the other metaverses

The Otherside Litepaper’s analysis is particularly interesting as it highlights the challenges of technological innovation that affect all metaverses in general, in order to make the sector more mainstream. The main challenge concerns the processing of data to allow large numbers of people to interact simultaneously in the metaverse: “the metaverse does not work without a crowd”. To enable thousands of people to participate and interact at the same time, Yuga Labs relied on Improbable, a company specialising in infrastructure for video games and interactive Web3 events. Otherside’s roadmap also includes offering an interoperable metaverse that can be accessed on all devices. Interoperability means the ability to create elements such as NFTs or games that can also be used in other metaverses outside Otherside. This is the function of the Otherside Development Kit (ODK), which is a set of programming tools for creating interoperable characters, objects and locations.

Improbable’s experience in virtual worlds

With Otherside, Bored Ape Yacht Club also inaugurates its collaboration with Improbable. Since 2012, this British company has been working on multiplayer video games and collaborating with the most important production companies in the game industry. Improbable decided to use its expertise to build architectures capable of supporting the information and data density of the metaverse. Thanks to Morpheus, the technology developed by the Improbable team, Otherside will be able to support the rendering of thousands of unique avatars and handle thousands of audio streams. In addition, Improbable has developed a machine learning-based system to access the Bored Ape metaverse with any device, even mobile phones with less than perfect connections.

Otherside’s “first journey” ended on a positive note, leaving the Voyagers satisfied! The Bored Ape metaverse also continues to grow economically, LAND in the form of NFTs, since its launch in May, has seen sales of over $1 billion, and the ApeCoin token after the 16th of July demo increased its volume by 52%.

Posted on

BTC salary for the New York Yankees

Bitcoin: Crypto salaries for the New York Yankees

Players and employees of the famous baseball team can now be paid in Bitcoin. But how interested are people in crypto salaries?

Salaries in crypto for the New York Yankees! The Major League Baseball team has begun a partnership with NYDG, a company that provides Bitcoin-related services to companies, to allow New York Yankees players and employees to receive a portion of their salaries in crypto. The initiative is part of the Yankees’ plan to increase employee welfare, a recent report shows that among workers, especially younger ones, these kinds of cryptocurrency-related benefits are appreciated.

Crypto salaries for the Yankees

For the Yankees, it will be possible to offer salaries in crypto thanks to a partnership with New York-based company NYDG. The official press release kicking off the partnership was released on the 14th July 2022, Kelly Brewster, CMO of NYDG, said “we are proud to partner with our city’s team and iconic sports franchise, the Yankees, to further our mission of bringing Bitcoin to everyone. Initiatives like these actually aim to spread awareness about BTC and its various uses. Thanks to this multi-year agreement, players and employees of the Yankees will therefore be able to access a ‘Bitcoin Savings Plan’ called ‘Bitcoin Savings Plan’, one of the main services offered by NYDG. In essence, players will be able to choose whether and how much of their salary to convert to BTC without paying transaction fees and to accumulate it directly on the platform.

Aryn Sobo, vice-president of the New York Yankees, explained “we are always looking for innovative ways to expand and improve the experience of our employees, NYDIG has made it easy to add Bitcoin to our list of benefits and we look forward to leveraging the NYDIG platform to offer this opportunity to our employees.

Bitcoin as a corporate benefit

But are Yankees players happy to receive their paychecks in crypto? People’s interest in a paycheck in Bitcoin, remains to be determined. In this regard, NYDG conducted a survey that was published in January 2022, entitled ‘Bitcoin Benefits’. The research was conducted on a sample of 2,562 full-time working US citizens who were asked to comment on the possibility of receiving a paycheck in Bitcoin. What emerged was first and foremost a fear of an increasingly rigid labour market and rising inflation, which worries younger workers in particular. 36% of the sample, in the under-30 age group, expressed an interest in receiving part of their salary in BTC. According to NYDG, there would thus seem to be a link between fear of inflation and the choice of BTC as a means of receiving wages. Moreover, about 1 in 3 workers within this 36% said that between two different job positions, they would be inclined to choose the one with a crypto payment option. In today’s environment it is increasingly difficult for employers to find and keep talented workers, could implementing corporate welfare with crypto payments be a solution?

Posted on

Young Monday: Disney and Polygon, Reddit and the renaissance of Terra’s dapps

Polygon: Disney, NFT Reddit and Terra’s dapps

Disney and Polygon unite for Web3-style entertainment, Reddit’s NFTs and the revival of Terra’s dapps!

Young Monday doesn’t go on holiday, and Polygon doesn’t take a breather either! The undisputed protagonist of the week, gave us the three most interesting news items from the crypto world. Disney has chosen MATIC‘s blockchain for its Web3 entertainment development programme, Reddit has built its NFT avatars on the same blockchain, and the dapps from the defunct Terra ecosystem are migrating to Polygon. Check out the news and Polygon’s week of fire!

The blockchain where ‘dreams are wishes’? Polygon!

Polygon has been selected by Disney for its Web3 development programme. MATIC’s network will participate in Disney’s Accelerator Program. Since the program’s first edition in 2014, has been promoting research into technologies developed to innovate the most magical brand there is. This year’s edition of the Accelerator Program aims to develop projects focussed on augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI) and NFTs. This means that Polygon will have access to funds and facilities to work on these areas in touch with ‘Disney’s creativity, imagination and experience’ .

The participants in the programme were announced on the 13th of July. In addition to Polygon, among them are Flickplay, an app that allows NFTs to be discovered in the real world through augmented reality. Lockerverse was also included, a platform for companies that want to do storytelling in the context of Web3 ; as well as Obsess, an immersive e-commerce platform and Red 6, which developed a headset and interface for AR. Registration for the programme, which opened on the 22nd of April, closed on the 13th of May. Disney explained that the intention was to intercept ‘growth-stage companies with a vision to impact the future of technology and entertainment’.

Bonnie Rosen, general manager of the Disney Accelerator programme said: ‘For nearly a century, Disney has been at the forefront of harnessing technology to build the entertainment experiences of the future. We look forward to continuing our commitment to innovation and continuing to bring magical experiences to Disney audiences and guests for the next 100 years.” On the other hand, Polygon’s Ryan Watt pointed out that Polygon was the only blockchain selected by Disney. A great source of pride that “speaks volumes about the work [Polygon] has done and the direction we are taking as a company.“

Avatars on Reddit will be NFTs

New Reddit avatars in the form of non-fungible tokens will be released in the coming weeks. Created by independent artists and loyal users of the platform, the NFT avatars will use Polygon as their reference blockchain! According to the official press release, Polygon was chosen for its low transaction costs and its commitment to environmental sustainability. The avatars are currently in pre-sale for a selected part of the community, and will also be available for purchase in fiat currency in the Avatar Builder section, already used by Reddit users to create their virtual characters. The difference of these new NFT avatars on Polygon lies in the blockchain registration that allows for verification of ownership and the calculation of royalties. Artists will receive compensation for all secondary sales of their digital works. Reddit’s NFTs will provide exclusive benefits within the platform and can also be used outside of it. On Reddit, it is already possible to use NFT as a profile picture.

More than 48 Terra projects are migrating to Polygon

What’s left of Terra’s DeFi ecosystem? Polygon is gathering the ashes of Terra’s dapps and a few months after the collapse of LUNA Classic and USTC, some 50 projects are migrating to MATIC’s blockchain for good. Well-known dapps such as One Planet NFT, one of the leading marketplaces for non-fungible tokens on Terra, and Derby Stars, a play-to-earn crypto video game, have already begun this process. Ryan Watt, CEO of Polygon Studios, announced on Twitter that over 48 blockchain projects are coming to Polygon. Watt hinted at his satisfaction and the success of the Terra Developer Fund, which has attracted successful talent and dapps.

One Planet NFT has been a catalyst in this migration, as the marketplace has become a reference point for all projects with the intention of switching blockchains. One Planet started the ‘Ark*One‘ initiative, or its own version of Noah’s Ark, “to save Terra’s thriving NFT biodiversity and bring it to a new home”, providing technical and financial support. “A total of 48 NFT projects, comprising 90 NFT collections, have applied for the mass rescue operation. This is a large percentage of Terra projects, including some that were not launched on One Planet before the cataclysmic de-peg event.”

The One Planet team is also in charge of tracking the progress of this transition and communicating it to the crypto community, the Polygon network is preparing to host some of the most innovative projects! One Planet NFT is expected to complete its migration to Polygon in August.