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What will happen if Elon Musk brings crypto to Twitter?

Cryptocurrencies arrive on Twitter thanks to Elon Musk?

What role will cryptocurrencies play in Elon Musk’s new Twitter? Can it really become a decentralised social network?

Twitter is the platform on which the crypto community moves and also where the main topics of the sector are discussed. With over 300 million active users, it is one of the social networks with the most cultural and political influence. Since the social network has a new owner, some have wondered whether cryptocurrencies will arrive on Twitter thanks to Elon Musk. The entrepreneur’s ideas about Twitter’s crypto future are currently unclear. And that is why there are those who are beginning to move on to alternative, decentralised social networks.

The story of Elon Musk who (maybe) wanted to buy Twitter

After months of back-and-forth and twists and turns, Elon Musk finally bought Twitter for $44 billion. It all started in April 2022 when Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder with a 9.2 per cent stake. The entrepreneur at first wanted to join the board of directors, then offered to buy the social network at $54.20 per share. However, after signing a binding agreement, Musk had second thoughts, complaining about the excessive presence of bots and scam profiles on the social network. In July, Musk announced that he would buy Twitter because the social network had meanwhile sued the entrepreneur to force him to comply with the agreement. Musk could not change his mind so easily! So in October the deal was finalised.

On the 29th of October, the day of the official takeover, Twitter’s shares closed trading up 0.3% at $53.86 and the following Friday Twitter was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Elon Musk entered the headquarters of the social network and the first thing he did was to fire some Twitter managers and employees.

After the takeover: Elon Musk’s plans for Twitter

After buying Twitter and becoming its owner, Elon Musk shared a series of tweets to explain his future plans. It would appear that Musk wants to create an ‘all-in-one’ app that is not only a social network, but also a platform for shopping, messaging and money transfers.

The changes being discussed are:

  1. Ensuring maximum freedom of speech and expression;
  2. Fight against scam profiles and eliminate scams;
  3. Review policies on advertisements and advertisers;
  4. Monetising content to favour creators;
  5. Establish a paid subscription for verified accounts at $8 per month;
  6. Enabling payments in Dogecoin.

Musk has not yet announced a precise roadmap, the possible innovations for the social network are all sketched out in tweets and statements. The community and Twitter users have been commenting and asking questions for days, and several controversies have arisen. The one that stands out (and is most worrying) is the possible rehabilitation of censored accounts like Donald Trump‘s.

What happens if cryptos enter Twitter?

Is Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter good for the crypto world? There are reasons to think that the answer is ‘yes’, however the hopes of seeing Twitter decentralised are not high. We know that in the crypto world, Elon Musk is capable of moving the markets, and his entry into Twitter has boosted the price of Dogecoin (DOGE). After all, it is no mystery that Musk is a holder of DOGE and BTC (through Tesla).

However, the link between cryptocurrencies, blockchain and Twitter remains very vague. The most plausible option is to introduce crypto as a payment system and dedicate sections to NFTs. Twitter in fact already offers functionality for non-fungible tokens and the use of cryptos could be facilitated by the collaboration with Binance, which participated financially in the acquisition. On the issues of monetisation of content, data ownership and governance there are still no indications. Therefore, many are sceptical about the possibility of Twitter becoming a Web3 social network.

The decentralised alternative to Twitter: Mastodon

On hearing the news of the change of owner, many users moved elsewhere, to less centralised ‘social’ solutions. In the four days following the takeover, 120,000 people registered with Mastodon, a decentralised and open source (but not on blockchain) social network. Mastodon was born in 2016 from the idea of Eugen Rochko who was disappointed with Facebook’s data management and security policies.

Mastodon is organised in ‘lists’ or ‘interest groups’ to which one can subscribe and write and read ‘toots’ (the equivalent of ‘tweets’). Mastodon has a strong policy on data ownership and proudly states that ‘It is not for sale’. Nothing on Mastodon can be decided by companies or advertisers, all decisions are up to the users. Just as content is not determined by algorithms or advertising. At the moment Mastodon has about 4 million users. Other decentralised social alternatives are making their way, but the most eagerly awaited is Bluesky. The social on blockchain that is being planned by Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter.

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Who stole Sex.com? The domain that took everyone to court

Sex.com: the internet domain theft worth 14 million dollars

In 1995, one of the most expensive domains in Internet history was stolen under mysterious circumstances. Here is the story of the theft of Sex.com!

Would you expect drama, mystery and bounty hunters from the affairs of an Internet domain? The reports from the Web are surprising, especially those from the beginning of its history. Similarly to the Crypto.com domain, Sex.com was disputed by many. At stake were court cases, millions of dollars and an epic scam. If blockchain had been involved in this story and if Sex.com had been an NFT domain, would things have turned out differently?

The mysterious theft of the Sex.com domain

This story takes place mainly in a US courtroom. On one side we find Gary Kremen, an engineer and businessman, who was clever enough in the 1990’s to register a series of generic domains such as Jobs.com, Housing.com and Sex.com. On the other, Stephen Cohen, a hardened fraudster, who became his worst enemy. Kremen had registered the domain Sex.com in 1994, the year he also founded the online dating site, Match.com.

Eight months after registering the domain, the engineer received an unusual message informing him that the email associated with the Sex.com domain had been changed. For Kremen, this was suspicious and upon checking, he realised that the domain ownership information had been changed. In other words, Kremen was no longer listed as the rightful owner of Sex.com. The engineer immediately called the indicated helpline number to ask why instead of his name there was that of a stranger, on the phone he found Cohen’s calm voice: ‘because the domain is not yours’. From here on, for the next twenty years, Kremen and Cohen will chase each other playing cops and robbers between the United States, Mexico and the rest of the world.

Could blockchain save the Sex.com domain?

It was initially unclear how Cohen had managed to pull off the theft of Sex.com, a domain worth millions of dollars even then. Apparently, Cohen cheated Network Solutions, the company that had sold the domain to Kremen, by posing as the new owner with a forged letter. Once he had obtained the domain, Cohen started to run the site by selling advertisements and earning half a million dollars a day. All this at a time when there was no Google or search engines, and people surfed the Internet using domain names directly. And not surprisingly, the word ‘sex’ attracted many curious people. Daily visitors to the Sex.com site hit record figures for the time.

Would the theft of the Sex.com domain happen with blockchain? Unlike traditional internet domains managed by centralised providers, the certification of ownership of NFT domains is immutably recorded on the blockchain and therefore difficult to falsify. Perhaps it would not have been so easy for Cohen to steal Sex.com if it had been an NFT domain. You cannot send letters to the blockchain and ask it to modify a smart contract. As with all NFTs, the NFT domain information is transparent and certifies that it is unique and in your possession. And anyone at any time can verify this. This is why NFT domains are used to keep your identity safe on the Internet. 

Manhunt in Mexico and Sex.com today

After five years of litigation, Kremen won the case and a precedent was set. Domains are in effect property, even if intangible, and therefore can be stolen. In 2001, Sex.com was returned and Cohen was ordered to pay Kremen $64 million in damages for lost profits from the use of the site. Here begins the second part of the incredible story of the Sex.com domain. Cohen, in order not to reimburse Kremen, fled across the border to Tijuana. The engineer then plastered the Mexican city with ‘wanted’ signs worthy of an old western film and thus unleashed bounty hunters who were unsuccessful. Kremen is still looking for Cohen.

Meanwhile, in 2006, Kremen auctioned Sex.com, which was bought by Escom for USD 14 million. After just four years, Escom was forced to sell the domain because it could not repay its debts and was about to face a lawsuit for insolvency (another trip to court). In 2010, Sex.com passed to Clover Holdings for USD 13 million. Currently, the domain is associated with a pornography site where users can upload and share with other users.

The story of the internet domain Sex.com is key to understanding why the internet needs the blockchain. On the Ethereum Name Service, a platform to buy NFT domains on Ethereum, the NFT domain “Sex.eth” was registered in 2019. While Unstoppable Domains‘ “Sex.crypto” was sold for 230 ETH (about $90,000) in 2020, making it the most expensive “.crypto” domain to date.

Will history repeat itself? Maybe even NFT domains with a ‘sex’ theme will be contested like Sex.com, for sure there will be a blockchain to support them with all its advantages.

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6 ways to use your Monuverse NFT

6 ways to use your Monuverse NFT

In preparation for the release of Episode I of Monuverse’s NFT collection, let’s explore 6 ways of using them

Let’s recap how the collaboration between Monuverse and Young Platform works, explained in full in this article.

By the 9th of November at 5 p.m. (UTC), Club members who want to attempt to be whitelisted must register with their wallet address on the whitelist page (check your email for link and password).

Those who are on the whitelist will be able to purchase and mint a maximum of 3 NFTs at the advantageous price of 0.07 ETH each on 11 November from 5 pm to 7 pm (UTC).

Once purchased, you can display your NFTs on OpenSea and similar applications.

Remember you will be able to see the real image or video you have purchased  only after the Reveal phase is completed.

Once you have obtained the NFT and discovered its contents, there are 6 benefits and uses to which you have access.

1. Protection and promotion of cultural heritage

You are officially a Web3 philanthropist: by purchasing an NFT, you are helping to fund the preservation of the Peace Arch. And, by purchasing future Episodes, you will do the same for other monuments.

For Episode I, the Milanese monument protection organisation will receive 12% of the royalties from your purchase in the primary market (minting), while in the secondary market it will receive 1%.

In metaverse galleries, on compatible social networks and on your screens at home, you will be able to display and promote your work freely. The blockchain will irrefutably tell your story about how you helped preserve an artistic work.

2. Web3 Community

Crypto communities are typically found on messaging and social apps, e.g. Discord, Reddit, Telegram, while projects and teams communicate mainly on twitter (for now). Monuverse also has a Discord server for its patron community and a Twitter profile for official communications.

As is often the case, the possibility of participating in events and conversations with the team is much higher for owners of rare NFTs.

3. PFP and Avatar

There are different types of NFTs. Among them, PFPs are very popular on social media. They are simply NFTs used as profile pictures, so they are usually static images representing the face of a character. The NFTs of the Bored Ape Yacht Club for example are widely used as profile pictures.

An Avatar, on the other hand, is a 3D version of a character. It is usually used in video games or simply in a metaverse and is often customisable through accessories and skins.

Monuverse gives its community a PFP and an Avatar in the metaverse it is building, and you can use them not only on Monuverse, but on most Web3 applications.

Each Episode corresponds to PFPs and Avatars that reflect the historical period or culture of the chosen monument. So, for example, for Episode I, centred on the Arch of Peace, characters from the Napoleonic era will be distributed.

4. Whitelist

Owning a Monuverse NFT grants you priority access to the whitelist of future episodes. This means that you can mine your NFT at a cheap price compared to the public sale price. The rarer your NFT is, the more likely it will be to be whitelisted.

5. Voting rights

You can vote with the rest of the community to choose the next monuments that Monuverse will commit to replicate and protect. From the roadmap, the team also plans to create a more extensive voting system for the community and a DAO to reward active user participation.

6. Buying and selling

Of course you can resell your Monuverse NFTs either before the Reveal phase or afterwards, on the secondary market of OpenSea and other aggregators such as LooksRare, Rarible, x2y2. You can sell as many as you want; giving up ownership of all NFTs. However, this also means giving up the community and its benefits.

Moreover, selling is only an option if you think that the NFT you own may be in such demand on the market that it will bring you a significant profit for you in the chosen period. 

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Young Monday: Instagram, JP Morgan and Microsoft

Instagram NFT marketplace, JP Morgan gets involved with DeFi

Instagram and Game Stop’s NFT marketplace, JP Morgan and Microsoft get involved in Web3, the Premier League chooses Sorare

For this first Young Monday of November 2022, our protagonists are ‘traditional’ companies grappling with Web3 adventures. The first of these is Instagram, which plans a ‘leg-up’ entry into the non-fungible token market through the development of its NFT marketplace. Then we move on to JP Morgan, one of the most important banks in the United States. They debuted in the world of decentralised finance (DeFi) with their first transactions on Aave, while Microsoft invests in crypto gaming. Concluding with another news item on mass adoption, Young Monday unveils the plans of the English Premier League. The world’s top football league is in fact negotiating with Sorare for the production of an NFT collection.

Gamestop and Instagram launch their NFT marketplaces

Buying NFTs on Instagram? It’s almost a reality! On Wednesday, the 2nd of November 2022, Meta announced the integration of an NFT marketplace on Instagram. Meta’s plan to bring non-fungible tokens to the social network is proceeding step by step. Already in August 2022, in a test phase, some users started to post and display NFTs on their profiles. But soon, it will be possible to create and sell NFTs directly on the app.

Users who create NFTs on Instagram will do so thanks to Polygon’s blockchain. In Instagram’s NFT marketplace, it will also be possible to link their OpenSea account and transfer their tokens from one platform to another. This option will initially only be available for NFTs built on Polygon and Solana (thanks to the collaboration with Phantom).

Instagram’s marketplace will initially be tested by a few sectioned creators. And, according to the official announcement, the Instagram marketplace will not charge commissions in its initial phase. Following the important announcement, on Thursday 3rd of November 2022, the price of MATIC (the crypto on Polygon’s blockchain), drew a green candle on the chart with a price increase of more than 10%.

GameStop also has some updates on its Web3 adventure. This adventure began a year ago now, in November 2021, with the purchase of an NFT domain (nft.gamestop.com). Subsequently, the video game store started building its NFT marketplace and developed its self-custodial crypto wallet. A few days ago, GameStop’s NFT marketplace finally concluded its beta phase, allowing the final version of the NFT marketplace to be activated on the ImmutableX blockchain. ImmutableX is an Ethereum sidechain dedicated to crypto gaming. The partnership between ImmutableX and the famous video game store started in February 2022. The beta version of Gamestop’s NFT marketplace went live 5 months later. To date, the platform provides access to Web3 games built on the blockchain, such as Gods Unchained, Guild of Guardians and Illuvium.

JP Morgan and Microsoft take their first steps into the Web3

For our “institutions join web3” paragraph, this week, we take a look at JP Morgan. The world’s largest bank is part of the American Big Four in the financial sector, along with Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo. In finance jargon, these kinds of giants are called institutional investors. By ‘institutional investors’ we mean organisations that are the benchmark for a certain sector and make periodic and systematic investments using large amounts of capital.

Last week, precisely on Wednesday the 2nd of November 2022, JP Morgan carried out its first transaction on a decentralised finance platform (DeFi). The transaction was processed with the help of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and is part of a pilot programme called ‘Project Guardian’, which was set up to explore the potential of decentralised finance in financial markets populated by large capital. This is the first case of a traditional bank using a DeFi platform in a public blockchain.

JPMorgan deposited Singapore dollars and Japanese yen tokens on the Aave liquidity protocol. These tokens were used for trading and the transactions were finalised using Polygon’s network (preferred to Ethereum for its low fees). According to Aave’s spokespersons, JP Morgan’s first DeFi transaction is a ‘milestone’ for the industry, as it ‘represents a huge step towards moving traditional financial assets to DeFi’.

Bill Gates‘ company Microsoft has also recently invested in Wemade, a Korean play-to-earn video game company. Wemade, which was founded in the early 2000s, recently received some USD 46 million from Microsoft and other companies to devote to the development of crypto games. This is not Microsoft’s first investment in Web3, in February 2022 the company had invested in the blockchain software company Consensys. In September, it participated in a funding round for the decentralised data platform Space and Time.

Sorare and Premier League: one step closer to collaboration

The English Premier League has decided to enter the NFT market through a partnership with Sorare. The partnership has not yet been made official, but if it goes through, it would be Sorare’s third international partnership in a few months. It would follow those with American sports leagues the National Basketball League (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB). According to rumours, the English football league’s collection could be similar to NBA Top Shot, and thus represent iconic moments of the world’s most popular and followed football league. A similar crypto football-themed collection already exists, it is the one between Algorand and FIFA dedicated to the World Cup.The uncertainty about the success of the deals is mainly related to the economic part of the question, will Sorare accept the Premier League’s current $34.7 million offer? The English football league, before knocking on Sorare’s door, sounded out the market through relations with some competitors such as Dapper Labs and Consensys. However, it seems that the proposals made by the Web3 companies did not take root. For Sorare, this could be an opportunity to improve on its already incredible performance in 2023.

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Lord of the Rings tokens and NFT news for October

NFT: The Lord of the Rings collection and October news

October NFTs news summarised in 5 items: Lord of the Rings, Art Gobblers, Reddit, blue chip collections and the royalties debate!

So, what happened in the NFT market this October? Among the new collections is the eagerly awaited Lord of the Rings collection, as well as Art Gobblers, a sui generis crypto art project. Record NFT sales involve blue chip collections, but all that glitters is not gold… Reddit’s NFTs continue their conquest of the industry, which in the meantime is busy deciding: should NFT royalties be paid to artists?

New: Lord of the Rings NFTs

Among the most interesting collections of the past month is certainly the one involving Lord of the Rings NFTs. On the 21st of October, Warner Bros. released 10,999 NFTs based on the first chapter of the saga inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s universe, The Fellowship of the Ring. The NFT collection is part of the broader ‘Warner Bros Movieverse‘ project unveiled by the film studio to create Web3 experiences and digital collectibles for fans (examples include exclusive behind-the-scenes content or augmented reality set exploration). The collection was built on the Eluvio blockchain, which describes itself as a ‘crypto content chain’. The Lord of the Rings NFTs were released in two different purchase options:

  1. “Mystery Edition”: at a cost of $30 (payable in fiat or crypto coins), an NFT representing the landscape of the Shire (common), with Rivendell (uncommon) or the Mines of Moria (rare) is minted and randomly awarded. By purchasing one of these tokens, you receive access to the extended 4K version of the film, eight hours of special content and commentary, images and themed collectibles. These NFTs were minted in 10,000 copies (at the time of writing, 5,230 are still available);
  2. “Epic edition”: at a cost of $100, it was possible to purchase an NFT depicting one of the landscapes from the “Mystery Edition” or to surprise others with additional special content. The 999 Lord of the Rings ‘Epic Edition’ NFTs are sold out.

In addition to the rights to Lord of the Rings, Warner Bros. owns those to the Harry Potter saga, DC heroes, Scooby Doo and the Hanna-Barbera classics. But it would seem that the next literary universe to enter the Warner Bros Movieverse will be that of the Iron Throne, as Game of Thrones NFTs were announced a few hours ago in collaboration with marketplace Nifty’s. The collection dubbed ‘Game of Thrones: Build Your Kingdom’ will be released in December 2022.

The top collection of the month is from the creator of Rick and Morty

Although Lord of the Rings NFTs were a real hit with fans, the token collection that really exploded in October was Art Gobblers. It was imagined by Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland, in partnership with Paradigm, a well-known crypto-themed venture capital fund. Art Gobblers NFT was launched on the 31st of October on Ethereum. In just four days, it raised over $45 million ($13 million in the first two hours after launch alone). What is the special feature of this collection?

The Art Gobblers project is a ‘decentralised art factory’ owned by aliens, but that is another story. Using a drawing tool available directly on the site, anyone can create illustrations or patterns that are then randomly combined to generate unique NFTs. The Art Gobblers are called this way because they incorporate and display artists’ works directly in their stomachs. The NFTs are created without human intervention, meaning that Art Gobblers is a generative art project. The collection will consist of 10,000 pieces, and the first 2,000 non-fungible tokens were minted on the 31st of October. The remaining 8,000 can be created directly by the artists by paying a commission in the GOO token, owner of the project. One of the rarest Art Gobblers, number #9949 was purchased for 21.5 ETH (about 33,000 USD).

Reddit’s NFTs bring 3 million people into the crypto world

Reddit’s first NFTs were launched in July as avatars for use on the platform. On the 21st of October, the ‘second generation’ of avatars came out. Around 40,000 copies all sold in a single day for between $10 and $100 (although the most expensive was bought for $40,000). The tweet by Mihailo Bjelic, co-founder of Polygon, the blockchain on which Reddit’s NFTs were developed, shows the economic impact of the collection. But it’s not just for the sales figures that these tokens have attracted attention. Apparently, Reddit’s NFTs have brought 3 million users into the crypto world without ever having used the words ‘NFT’ or ‘cryptocurrency’ (and ‘blockchain’ only once). Millions of users were unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies but intrigued by a useful and curious initiative for Reddit users. The campaign to communicate and promote these NFTs took place under the terms ‘digital collectibles’. In fact, according to Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, the term “crypto” would have confused people.

Blue chip collections still in the rankings but their value is no longer the same

The collections with the highest sales in October are obviously the blue chips we know very well, such as CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club. The most substantial sales were:

  • CryptoPunks #924 for $737,160;
  • CryptoPunks #9476 for $487,830;
  • Fidenza #783 for $471,150.

However, the biggest winners in the NFT space are also the biggest ‘losers’. On DappRadar you can see that although these collections are the most valuable, their value has dropped dramatically within a year. For example, the CryptoPunks #5822 previously bought for $23.58 million is now worth ‘only’ $2.64 million. Or the Bored Ape #8817 sold for $3.4 million by Sotheby’s auction house and now has a market value of $805,043.

Marketplaces and NFT artists fight over royalties

The NFT world in October was also marked by the debate on royalties for non-fungible tokens. A ‘royalty’ means the percentage of a sale that goes to the artist or author of a work. Earlier this month, Magic Eden, the NFT marketplace on Solana decided not to make it compulsory for buyers to pay royalties, with the aim of attracting more collectors. Recently, this strategy was also adopted by the LooksRare marketplace. For some, royalties are indispensable to support artists’ work and are the basis of the creator economy. For others, royalties have become just a way to enrich the owners of large collections.

Confirming the latter thesis is Galaxi Digital’s report showing that the creators of collections on Ethereum have so far earned $1.8 billion from royalties from secondary sales on marketplaces such as Opensea. Of this figure, 20 percent is in the hands of only ten collections, the remaining 80 per cent is split between 482 projects. Topping the list in terms of royalty earnings is Yuga Labs with a take of $147 million, keep in mind that only royalties are being considered, this therefore excludes the cost of the NFTs themselves.

Magic Eden, despite the controversy over its decision and the dissatisfaction of crypto artists, registered 300,000 trader sign-ups in October.

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Tourism in the Metaverse: stop in Italy with Monuverse

The Monuverse metaverse: tourism and heritage with NFTs

The Monuverse metaverse promises to enhance cultural heritage through NFTs. How can the blockchain benefit tourism?

It has been a year since Facebook turned into Meta and brought the word ‘metaverse’ into the limelight. Since then, all centralised projects, such as Roblox, or decentralised projects (the most popular being Decentraland and The Sandbox) that virtually connect people from all parts of the world have gained popularity. This is particularly welcome in light of what was experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. But what can be done in the metaverse today? The different platforms offer services and experiences of all kinds, from play-to-earn video games to concerts, fashion shows and art exhibitions. Many projects, such as the Italian Monuverse initiative, have shown that the metaverse lends itself to enhancing the arts and tourism sector.

Blockchain for tourism and cultural heritage: use cases

The crypto metaverse, with its blockchain-based technology, promises to improve many aspects of our daily lives. If we consider tourism and the art world, NFTs and the metaverse are already being used on various levels. Non-fungible tokens, for instance, are being used as a format to sell tickets for events and exhibitions. The metaverse also allows people to visit museums and archaeological sites directly from their homes. Crypto metaverses in the style of Decentraland host reconstructions of monuments and digital art exhibitions as in the case of Decentraland Art Week. In general, the blockchain is used by tourism operators to build platforms for booking crypto holidays, tracking data and organising loyalty programmes. NFT artwork is also used as a tool to finance the reconstruction or preservation of historical monuments, as in the case of the Ukrainian Meta History Museum of War or the Monuverse metaverse,

In the Metaverse, art and monuments are boundless

From the point of view of the public, tourists, art lovers and collectors, the metaverse has arrived to enhance their experience by making it borderless. Digital museums are truly for everyone. Reconstructing a monument in the metaverse means making works of art more accessible both economically and geographically, as it should always be according to the concept of public goods. The experience in the metaverse, without replacing a trip to the real world, can be an opportunity to experience a work of art from an unusual point of view. As well as being free, accessible from home and environmentally sustainable. With the blockchain, tourism becomes unconditional and limitless because sites of interest are always available at any time. Digital tourists can discover the world with their own eyes, from wherever they are. The digital experience can only complement that of offline tourism.

The Monuverse metaverse: close to culture with NFTs

Monuverse, the crypto art project supported by Reasoned Art, fits into this landscape. Monuverse is building a virtual reality (accessible with Oculus) to host all the world’s most important monuments in NFT format, thus making them visitable by anyone. The Monuverse metaverse will become a central environment for digital tourists, artists, creators and brands by hosting cultural promotion events. The monuments in this metaverse will then be transformed into collectable NFTs. Regarding Italian monuments, Monuverse has an agreement with the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage to donate a percentage of royalties on NFT sales to institutions that restore works. The first monument chosen by Monuverse is the Arch of Peace in Milan, built in 1807 under Napoleon’s rule as an entrance to the main road that connected the Lombard capital with Paris.  In this case, Monuverse entered into an agreement to donate a percentage of NFT sales to the Milan Superintendence of Cultural Heritage for the conservation and restoration of the monument itself. 

The Peace Arch NFTs are examples of the generative art style and will be minted (in crypto jargon, created and registered on blockchain) on the 11th of November in 7,777 copies with different rarities.The owners of these NFTs, with their purchase, will directly contribute to the preservation of the Peace Arch and will be able to decide what the next work in the metaverse will be.

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Young Monday: Udinese Calcio, the UK and L’Oréal Paris

Crypto in the UK: Rishi Sunak is bullish and open to stablecoins

The UK is increasingly bullish on crypto, Udinese launches its fan token on Socios, L’Oréal and Meta fund Web3 startups

Electrifying news for this Halloween edition of Young Monday, but fear not, nothing scary! The first item concerns fan tokens. Socios launched the Udinese Calcio crypto on Wednesday the 26th of October 2022. The UK introduces the Financial Service and Markets Bill to regulate cryptocurrencies and Meta is working with L’Oréal to fund Web3 startups.

Socios launches Udinese Calcio fan token

On the 26th of October 2022, Udinese Calcio, Friuli’s Serie A team, launched its UDI fan token on the Socios.com platform. Socios is the most popular fan token platform, built on the Chiliz blockchain. The Udinese Calcio UDI fan token will allow fans to participate in the team’s decisions through surveys, and access exclusive promotions for customised products and content. There are 25,000 UDI fan tokens and they were sold through three different stages, which ensured that most fans will own at least a few.

The first survey in which Udinese Calcio fan token holders were able to participate was launched by Socios at the same time as the first phase of the UDI crypto sale. Fans were able to choose the ‘motivational’ slogan to be printed on the shirts that the players will use for the pre-match warm-up. Voting participants will also take part in a draw, the prize of which will be an official jersey autographed by all members of the Friulian team. Udinese Calcio and Socios have been working together since February 2022 with the aim of involving fans more closely in the club’s decisions. In this regard, more than 500 surveys will be offered to fan token holders by the end of the year.

Growing adoption in the UK thanks to Rishi Sunak

On the 25th of October, the UK presented the ‘Financial Services and Markets Bill’, a bill aimed at strengthening the country’s position in the cryptocurrency sector. The aim of the bill is to turn the UK into a global hub for crypto and Web3 in general. What is the first step to achieve this? Expanding and amending existing regulations, especially those relating to stablecoins. The latter will be renamed to ‘Digital Settlement Assets’ within the document, and could be added to the list of accepted currencies for payments and thus become a widespread means of payment.

This openness of the UK on the subject of cryptocurrencies is not surprising, given the interest in the topic of the new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Sunak replaced Liz Truss on Monday the 24th of October 2022, who resigned after only 40 days in office. Sunak, during his previous tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister), had already demonstrated his interest in crypto and Web3 technologies. The idea of making the UK a global technology hub for crypto assets was conceived at that time, along with the even more ambitious proposal to create an NFT collection for the British royal mint. Rishi Sunak has also spoken out on a number of occasions about CBDCs. As far back in 2011, he proposed creating a UK Central Bank Digital Currency to be called ‘Britcoin’.

Meta and L’Oréal, working together to finance Web3

Meta and L’Oréal have decided to join forces, assisted by the French business school HEC Paris, to launch a Web3 startup accelerator to promote creativity in the metaverse. Startup accelerators, or incubators, build growth pathways to help young companies with innovative ideas make a name for themselves in an industry. Meta, L’Oréal and HEC will help start-ups that want to specialise in the production of Web3 technologies, in particular augmented reality (AR) virtual reality (VR), 3D production, user experience portability and the token economy.

The collaboration, which will run from January to June 2023, will be entirely hosted by Meta, within its startup campus in Paris, Station F. Applications to participate are open until the 20th of November 2022, and will be judged by a jury composed not only of Meta, L’Oréal and HEC employees, but also of entrepreneurs and investors with experience in the sector. Meta’s Vice President for Southern Europe, Laurent Solly, said, “We are proud to partner with L’Oréal on this ambitious project, which aims to support the French startup ecosystem and will play a key role in building a shared, creative and inclusive metaverse.”

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Crypto.com: the story of the internet domain worth millions of dollars

The Story of the Million Dollar Sale of the crypto.com domain

The story of the million-dollar sale of the Crypto.com internet domain tells of the importance of having a recognisable name on the web!

To those of us who use the Internet on a daily basis, the decisive role of Internet domains may escape your attention. Between the late 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium, domains were the subject of real speculation. In even more recent times, the sale of certain addresses has reached astronomical figures. Such is the case of the Crypto.com domain, registered in the 1990s and resold for millions of dollars in 2018. The story of the million-dollar sale of the Internet domain Crypto.com provides much food for thought on the importance of identity on the Web!

‘Crypto.com’ is not the real name of the exchange

You may not know that ‘Crypto.com’ is not the original name of the well-known centralised cryptocurrency exchange. The company was founded in Hong Kong in 2016 by Bobby Bao, Gary Or, Kris Marszalek and Rafael Melo. It was created under the name ‘Monaco’. Only a few years later, in 2018, the exchange was renamed ‘Crypto.com’, thanks to the purchase of the rights to the internet domain of the same name. The company spent a huge amount of money to obtain this domain, fighting with the previous owner who for many years refused any offer. How much was Crypto.com bought for? The negotiation has always remained secret, but the estimated figure is between 5 and 10 million dollars.

Who was the owner of the Internet domain Crypto.com?

The first owner of the Crypto.com domain was Matt Blaze, a professor and cryptography researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, who registered it in 1993 at the beginning of his academic career. Blaze had deposited the domain for free at the time, because it was not until 1995 that the organisation that managed the Domain Name System (DNS) decided to monetise domain registration. Blaze used the domain Crypto.com as the address of his personal cryptography-themed blog in which he shared resources and tried to dispel the myth that cryptography is a business for criminals. As early as 2000, a company called ‘Crypto.Com, Inc’, which dealt in encrypted communication services, made the first proposal to buy the domain owned by Blaze. But it was only with the cryptocurrency boom, around 2016, that Blaze was inundated with offers for Crypto.com. However, the professor never intended to give up his valuable domain, stating repeatedly and publicly that Crypto.com was not for sale.

Crypto.com, a valuable internet domain (for many reasons)

Throughout its history, Crypto.com has proved to be a valuable domain because it is unique and capable of communicating a precise identity, that of the cryptocurrency world. Anyone who uses it will immediately be associated with the sector it represents.

The Crypto.com domain was so coveted that a potential buyer came to Blaze’s office at the university, begging the professor to accept his offer.

But why did Blaze so strongly oppose the sale of the Crypto.com domain? Again, the question of identity returns. In a nutshell Blaze argued that the domain should refer to a cryptography project and not a cryptocurrency project, since the original meaning of ‘crypto’ relates to the former semantic field. Blaze criticised the use of the term ‘crypto’ to refer to cryptocurrencies; ‘crypto’ originated as an abbreviation of ‘cryptography’ and not ‘cryptocurrency’. The professor did not want to fuel the association of cryptography with cryptocurrencies, which he personally has always viewed with suspicion and little connection to cryptography.

In support of this thesis, Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, a journalist with expertise in hacking and cybersecurity, also spoke out in 2017. Franceschi-Bicchierai showed how on Google News or according to vocabulary, ‘crypto’ referred to cryptography. “Think, for example, of the term ‘crypto wars’ (‘Crypto Wars’), which refers to government (originally the US) efforts to undermine and slow down the adoption of unbreakable communication systems”. The journalist’s contribution also includes a statement by Emin Gün Sirer (who had not yet founded Avalanche) in which he explained that cryptography in cryptocurrencies is an ‘ancillary’ element and that the real innovation is the use of blockchains as consensus mechanisms and distributed systems.

This was the case in 2017, but now the situation is definitely reversed. Language has evolved and searching for ‘crypto’ on Google means coming across content and information exclusively related to the world of Bitcoin&Co. Today in dictionaries, the first meaning is ‘abbreviation for cryptocurrency’, only the second is ‘relating to crypto’.

The Million Dollar Sale of the Crypto.com Domain

Suddenly, however, in 2018 Blaze writes on his blog: ‘over the past few years I have received a growing series of offers, many of them obviously not serious, but some of them frankly attention-grabbing, for the Crypto.com domain. I ignored most of them, but it became increasingly clear that keeping the domain made less and less sense for me. Earlier this year, I entered into confidential discussions with some serious potential buyers. Last month, I reached an agreement to sell the domain.

The cryptographer Blaze had actually sold the Crypto.com domain to cryptocurrency exchange Monaco for a few million dollars. After the purchase, the former company ‘Monaco’ implemented the rebranding operation to become ‘Crypto.com’ as we know it now. The case of Crypto.com is just one of many examples of how important a domain name can be in the identity of a brand. Being recognisable on the Internet, with the most appropriate name, becomes a (million-dollar) business matter. The Hong Kong exchange’s operation has ensured that its brand is directly identified with its product, crypto.

Many other crypto-themed domains have had a similar history to Crypto.com and have passed into the hands of companies in the industry. Among these Internet domains are Tokens.com sold for $500,000, Cryptoworld.com for $195,000, Eth.com for $2 million and Bitcoinwallet.com for $250,000.

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Polkadot: new parachains on board, here comes auction No. 30!

Polkadot parachain auctions: 4 new projects in October 2022

Which latest projects won Polkadot’s parachain auction? There are four of them and they will be active in the Relay Chain from October 2022. Find out what they are all about!

Almost a year after the launch of the first parachain auctions on Polkadot, the Dotsama (Polkadot + Kusama) ecosystem is experiencing the peak of its technological development. According to GitHub data, more than 500 programmers per day were working on Polkadot’s infrastructure in September 2022. Polkadot’s developers, together with those of Ethereum and Cosmos, are the most active in the industry. At the end of September, the Polkadot team released an updated roadmap presenting upcoming features, including the launch of paratherads, i.e. blockchains that pay for the use of Polkadot’s Relay Chain without participating in auctions. In total, 30 auctions have taken place already and there are 27 active parachains on Polkadot (41 on Kusama). Let’s look at the four projects that won the auctions for Polkadot parachains between the end of August and the beginning of October 2022.

What are parachain auctions on Polkadot?

Parachain auctions on Polkadot are ‘sales’ of slots on the Relay Chain. Polkadot is a multichain ecosystem that offers its infrastructure to build blockchains with specific use cases. Projects that win one of the slots can develop their own blockchain idea using the core network for the consensus mechanism and security, becoming parachains for all intents and purposes. These are ‘candlestick’ auctions, i.e. auctions that end at a random time during a period of about a week. At the end of the auction, the project that has collected the most DOT, the Polkadot coin, wins. To participate in the auctions, various projects bid by locking in DOT (bonding) collected internally within the project or through crowdloans among the community. The slots on Polkadot last for a maximum of 2 years (96 weeks). After the end of the period, the DOTs in bonding are released and are made available again to the project that had initially blocked them. 

1. Aventus Network

Aventus Network won the 26th auction for Polkadot parachains by raising 200,000 DOT (approximately $1.2 million). It is a blockchain founded in 2016 with the aim of making decentralised services on Polkadot and Ethereum accessible to companies that want to include them in their customer offerings. Aventus Network thus proposes the development of NFTs, video games, loyalty programmes, event tickets, and supply chain management. One of the projects already using Aventus Network to manage its tokenomics and blockchain transactions is FruitLabs, the social network for gamers. On FruitLabs, gamers get PIP token rewards when they share their gameplay.

2. Watr

The winner of Polkadot’s 27th parachain auction was Watr, a blockchain that wants to introduce a method to market a ‘new class of ethical commodities’. By definition a ‘commodity’ is a raw material e.g. oil, coal, sugar. Watr was created to make commodity trading ethical and tracked via blockchain. The services this new parachain wants to offer are the tokenisation of non-digital assets (real world) and management of production chains. Watr’s project is still in its infancy: the whitepaper is in the works these days as well as the tokenomics of their WATR token. The mainnet is scheduled to launch in January 2023. To win its slot, Watr raised 125,224 DOT ($778,893) at auction.

3. OAK Network

OAK Network, with OAK standing for On-chain Autonomous Kernel, is the winning parachain of the 28th auction with 149,998 DOT in bonding ($932,990). OAK Network’s target sector is DeFi. Specifically, the project wants to build tools for ‘event driven’ automated payments and trading: ‘one of the great opportunities of blockchain technology is the concept of “programmable money”. The ability for entrepreneurs to create, trade and use digital assets globally will likely have the same impact as when people were able to create and consume information globally through the web’. According to the OAK team, this opportunity is not adequately exploited because “today most transactions on the blockchain are simple one-off events”. What OAK is aiming for is to create a DeFi hub to enable buying and selling transactions at certain prices or events as well as recurring transactions. In a nutshell, it is about creating tools for automated trading. Before offering itself as a parachain on Polkadot, OAK network tested its chain with the Turing Network project, a parachain on Kusama.

4. Bitgreen

The fourth new project that will be operational on Polkadot from October is Bitgreen. Already from its name, you can guess the distinct environmental vocation of this parachain. Bitgreen wants to offer itself to NGOs and Web3 projects to support important sustainability initiatives on topics such as renewable energy, forest conservation and the development and support of local communities. For example, Bitgreen enables the creation and trading of carbon credits.

Together with Sequester, another project that aims to provide tools to minimise the environmental impact of the Dotsama ecosystem, Bitgreen suggested to turn the parachains’ micro-fees into carbon credits. This initiative aims not only to make Polkadot’s ecosystem neutral but also positive in terms of its environmental footprint.

Bidding for the Polkadot No. 30 parachain auction is active from the 18th of October (17:53 UTC) for approximately five days. The winning project will win a slot on the Relay Chain usable from the 20th of November 2022 to the 25th of September 2024.

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Young Monday: Ethereum Shanghai update, Guinness World Record and Jack Dorsey

Ethereum: next Shanghai update arrives

The next Ethereum update arrives, Bitcoin is awarded a Guinness World Record and Jack Dorsey unveils his new social network

Ethereum never stops updating! A little over a month after the activation of The Merge, the next update: Shanghai is coming on the Ethereum testnet. Shanghai will be instrumental in setting up the new Ethereum 2.0 set-up. From the largest Proof-of-Stake network, we move to the largest Proof-of-Work network. Bitcoin has entered the Guinness Book of World Records with three different records, and the record committee is not the only one who has paid tribute to BTC. A few days ago Kanye West was spotted wearing a hat with the inscription ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’.

Some pointed out that this fashion choice comes just after the rapper was forced to withdraw money from his JPMorgan bank account. The photo of West and his baseball cap sent social media into a frenzy. Speaking of social media, the latest Young Monday news reveals the latest details on Bluesky, Jack Dorsey‘s new decentralised social network.

The next Ethereum update: Shanghai is coming!

News about Ethereum is back, in particular about updates to its blockchain. As of the 14th of October 2022, the testnet dedicated to the next Shanghai update went live. The testnet is called Shandong and should remain active until September 2023. At that point, Shanghai should be activated on the main network. It is the follow-up update to Ethereum’s Merge, which was successfully activated on the 15th September 2022, changing the consensus algorithm of the blockchain created by Vitalik Buterin. From Proof-of-Work, the network successfully shifted to Proof-of-Stake.

The main new feature to be introduced with the Shanghai update is the possibility of staking ETHs at any time (but with certain limitations). Staking has become the mechanism behind the operation of Ethereum 2.0. Since it was implemented on the Beacon Chain, more than 13.4 million ETHs have been blocked on the network. That is almost 18 billion USD which corresponds to 11% of the total ETH supply in circulation. After Shanghai, users will be able to unlock their staked cryptocurrencies for a maximum of 43,200 ETH per day. This limit was imposed to avoid mass withdrawals that would make Ethereum’s network vulnerable.

Shanghai will also introduce a beta version of a rollup mechanism to process transactions on Layer 2s, which some say could lower Ethereum’s gas fees.

Bitcoin enters the Guinness Book of World Records

Bitcoin has entered the Guinness Book of World Records, and was awarded three different records! The first prize BTC won is for the ‘first ever decentralised cryptocurrency‘. Bitcoin did not win the record for the first crypto ever, but only the record for the first decentralised crypto, because digital currencies had already been created by a number of companies in the 1990s. These included Bit God, Wei Dai and Hash Cash.

Bitcoin was also reported as the ‘oldest cryptocurrency’, created on the 3rd of January 2009, and the ‘cryptocurrency with the largest value’. At the time the prize was awarded, Bitcoin was worth around $43,000, and its market cap was over $800 billion. These prizes were awarded in March 2022, and will now be included in the 2023 Guiness World Record volume in the ‘cryptomania’ section. Here you can also find the record for the most expensive NFT (the CryptoPunks #5822 sold for $23.7 million in February 2022) and the ‘most valuable fan token’ (i.e. CITY, the Manchester City fan token with a market cap of $25 million).

Jack Dorsey talks about his new idea for social networking

Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, announced on the 18th of October 2022 that his new social network, Bluesky Social, is in beta stage for some users and will soon be launched. In 2019, Dorsey had already expressed his desire to create a new ‘decentralised’ social network to enhance the user experience, to allow for more  personalisation and to manage their own data.

Furthermore, Bluesky wants to be open to developers who want to build and innovate in complete freedom. The vision of the former Twitter CEO is certainly very ambitious and if it is realised, it will lay the foundations for a new class of social network. So far what we know is that Bluesky will be interoperable with other social platforms and that it will be based on the decentralised AT Protocol.