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Young Monday: Boateng, a new stablecoin pegged to the Euro and the record-breaking PSG fan token

Boateng’s wedding in the metaverse, a euro-pegged stablecoin and PSG’s fan token

Weddings in the Metaverse, Circle’s new stablecoin, Lacoste’s NFT collection and Paris Saint Germain’s record breaking fan token

June is the month of weddings, and no bear market can prevent this: people are now getting married on the blockchain! In fact, just a few days ago, the wedding between the footballer Kevin-Prince Boateng and Valentina Fradegrada took place in the AR Over The Reality metaverse. It is one of the first weddings celebrated in the Metaverse and the event has attracted a lot of attention. Focussing on the NFT sector, the headline of the week involves Lacoste. The brand launched its first collection of non-fungible tokens featuring the iconic crocodile and promises of exclusive benefits. In this edition of Young Monday, you will also learn about Circle’s new stablecoin (pegged to the Euro) and Paris Saint Germain’s new record-breaking fan token!

Swearing eternal love on the blockchain

Kevin-Prince Boateng and Valentina Fradegrada took their wedding vows on Polygon. On the 11th of June, the footballer and the influencer (also multiple Wushu Kung Fu champion) got married in a location in the province of Siena, Tuscany, as well as in the Over The Reality metaverse. The ceremony was organised by Enzo Miccio, Italy’s most famous wedding planner, who took up the couple’s challenge: to organise a wedding where no one else had celebrated one before. Miccio therefore suggested a ceremony in the Metaverse that recreated a lunar landscape through 3D graphics. Miccio himself officiated the virtual wedding! Guests of the Boateng-Fradegrada couple participated by logging in with an NFT. Their fans, who were not invited to the festivities, were able to purchase a spectator ticket at a cost of around 50 Euros. Over The Reality is a decentralised metaverse that allows for augmented reality events of any kind, using the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. Its token is called OVR.

Lacoste NFT’s collection sells out immediately after launch

The French clothing brand released UNDW3, an NFT project designed to build an online community by experimenting with new Web3 technologies. The collection was released on the 14th of June, and it consists of 11,212 pieces that were sold for 0.08 ETH each. Within a short space of time, the collection was sold out. The number 11,212 is linked to the name of the iconic polo shirt, the L1212. These NFTs depict a hypnotic looking crocodile, a clear homage to the Lacoste logo. Owners of these tokens will have access to exclusive experiences, benefits and dedicated products.

Circle’s Euro-pegged stablecoin arrives

After USDC, the dollar-backed stablecoin, Circle announced that a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the euro is on the way. The new stablecoin will be called EUROC, and it is scheduled to be launched on the 30th of June 2022.

Euro Coin (EUROC) was built on Ethereum with the support of several partners from the crypto world such as Curve, Uniswap and Metamask. For all intents and purposes, EUROC will be an ERC-20 token. It will mirror USDC’s operating model: “designed to ensure stability, our Euro Coin is backed 100% by euros held in bank accounts, so it is always redeemable 1:1 in euros. EUROC, unlike USDC, will be entirely backed by cash and not by government bonds. The new stablecoin comes at a delicate time for this kind of product. After the collapse of UST, stablecoins have lost the confidence of many people. Will EUROC succeed in gaining credibility in the industry?

The record-breaking Paris Saint Germain fan token

The “PSG” token of Paris Saint Germain tops the football fan token charts with a market cap of over 20 million dollars! PSG continues to reach great heights. On the 14th of June it recorded a peak in sales volume of around $15.36 billion. This puts the Parisian club’s fan token ahead of those of Atletico Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan and FC Barcelona. Despite being far from its August 2021 ATH, PSG seems to be well liked by fans! PSG holders can vote on and suggest decisions concerning their favourite team, such as choosing the message to write on the captain’s armband or voting for the best goal of the season. PSG is a fan token of Socios, the platform built on Chiliz.

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Is Ethereum’s price under pressure? The reasons for ETH’s recent drop

Ethereum’s price: why ETH is dropping

ETH’s price is going through a crisis, and it may possibly fall below $1,000. The market has been impacted by Celsius’ issues, and the possible delay of Ethereum 2.0

Ethereum’s performance in June leaves no room for optimism, and as of today (the 16th of June), the price is hovering around USD 1100. What is happening to Ethereum? Will the price of ETH go back up? The crypto market has been in a bearish phase ever since the collapse of Terra (LUNA) and UST. Many people have decided to wait for stricter regulations or a bullish market before buying crypto again. In addition, problems with Celsius (a crypto lending platform) and a possible delay in the arrival of The Merge have contributed to this delicate moment, which is affecting Ethereum’s overall performance. Find out what is happening to the crypto market, Celsius and The Merge, and why Ethereum’s price is dropping.

Could Ethereum 2.0’s release be delayed? What is the ‘difficulty bomb’?

Here is the first piece of bad news for Ethereum that may have had an impact on its performance: the ‘difficulty bomb‘ has been postponed. But first; let’s see what is implied by this term.

Ethereum is a proof-of-work blockchain, but it won’t be for much longer. The most anticipated update of all, Ethereum 2.0, will change the consensus mechanism and make it proof-of-stake. According to Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, and the other developers of the Ethereum Foundation, the update (called The Merge) will improve the performance of the network and decrease the environmental impact of crypto caused by mining.

The ‘difficulty bomb’ is a system that developers have implemented to make ETH mining more difficult and less profitable. This is meant to discourage miners and to convince users to stake their ETH on the Consensus Layer (i.e. the proof-of-stake layer, now still in beta). This system was supposed to make mining counterproductive the day the update was released, but it was postponed. Tim Beiko, Ethereum’s lead developer, said that postponing the difficulty bomb could ease the stress on developers:”… too much pressure puts a strain on development teams, and that’s a situation we want to avoid”.

What can be deduced from this situation is that the delays to the release of Ethereum 2.0 are putting the entire crypto market in trouble. In fact, Ethereum’s overall performance is dropping. This is probably also due to fears that the update will not work and it could cause the entire network to collapse. According to the developers, however, this fear is unfounded, since the testing phases have gone quite well and the code is almost ready to be made public.

DeFi’s largest lending platform, Celsius, is in trouble: is Ethereum’s performance falling because of this?

One of the factors that could have a bearing on the performance of Ethereum and the price of ETH is the difficult time that the lending platform Celsius is facing. Celsius is one of DeFi’s largest centralised platforms for exchanging, borrowing and staking crypto. The platform was well known in the crypto environment because it offered high rewards to users who staked their cryptocurrencies, up to 17% per year.

How does Celsius work? It is a centralised DeFi platform, in essence, an ‘intermediary’ between the user and the world of decentralised finance. Users entrust their cryptos to these platforms, who use them to exploit DeFi’s potential (e.g. through lending, staking or liquidity farming). In return, the platform offers an annual return to users.

This system worked well when the crypto market was bullish, but now Celsius seems to be struggling. On the 12th of June, the platform was forced to halt all operations, probably because it found itself unable to pay its users back. If that were the case, the halting of Celsius’ operations could prove to be a blow to the entire crypto community. However, the platform has announced that it still has a good amount of BTC in its reserves that it can sell to repay debts. The issue is, Bitcoin sell-off would put Satoshi Nakamoto’s crypto even further into crisis. Bitcoin is already dangerously close to the $20,000 mark. If this were to happen, it is possible that the price of Ethereum would also be affected.

The price of Ethereum in the first 6 months of 2022

This first half of 2022 proved to be full of surprises for the traditional market and also for the crypto market. Ethereum’s performance in particular has been mixed, although the first week of 2022 proved to be positive for Buterin’s crypto. In fact, at the beginning of the year, Ethereum’s price structure was even more solid than Bitcoin’s, holding firmly at around $3,700.

The first difficulties occurred around mid-January, when Russia announced that crypto would be regulated or, worse, banned. On that occasion, the price of Ethereum fell, reaching a low of USD 2160. And just as it was trying to rise again, a second blow, the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war in mid-February dashed the hopes of all Ethereum enthusiasts, sending the price of ETH back to around USD 2150.

Signs of an upturn only returned around the beginning of April. On the 5th April, the price of Ethereum reached USD 3520, only to fall to a resistance threshold of 3200. The threshold was quickly broken, however, and Ethereum began a downward trend along with the rest of the crypto market. It was precisely in these ominous market conditions that the collapse of Terra (LUNA) took place, which shook the market terribly. The price of Ethereum reached a low of 1966 dollars! The last time ETH was trading at less than two thousand dollars? the 21st of July 2021.

Over the past few days, the price of Ethereum has continued to drop precipitously, and on the 15th of June it came perilously close to three digits, trading for $1030. In all of this, Ethereum miners are preparing for the transition to proof-of-stake, selecting new shores to migrate to.

The Ethereum mining industry, currently worth $19 billion, has been struggling for some time. In May, for example, revenues from mining activities fell by 27%. The average price of gas fees for transactions on Ethereum also fell. While this is positive news, it also means that there is less interest in Ethereum. Perhaps users are waiting for The Merge to happen before they start using Buterin’s blockchain again.

The crypto market is not the most prosperous at the moment, and the price of Ethereum is falling. But the reasons are not only to be found within Ethereum, as The Merge update is proceeding smoothly. Despite this, Ethereum’s psychological threshold of one thousand dollars has come close. Will Ethereum’s price be able to recover and return to its ATH of 4878 dollars? Especially during a bearish market, always remember the old adage of the crypto world: DYOR!

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Terra 2 is coming, find out how the new LUNA airdrop works

LUNA Airdrop 2.0: how it works and how to get it

It’s official: the new Terra 2 chain will be released on the 27th of May! Find out everything about the new chain wanted by Do Kwon and how the LUNA 2.0 airdrop works

Do Kwon’s proposal passed: a new Terra is on the way. With 66 percent of votes in favour, the community voted in favour of the creation of a new chain. The old LUNAs will be called LUNA Classic (LUNC) and the migration will take place on the 27th of May, through an airdrop that will try to give back to the LUNAtics what they deserve. Find out all about the release of Terra 2, how LUNA 2.0’s airdrop works, and how to get it!

What is LUNA 2.0, the new chain proposal from Do Kwon

After the collapse of LUNA and UST, the crypto community found itself in dire straits. Terra’s founder, Do Kwon, came up with a proposal to create a new chain from nothing. The proposal in question, published on Terra’s Agora, received 66% positive votes despite the fact that some members of the Terra community spoke out against the idea.

Despite criticism from some users, Do Kwon has found support from the majority of the community in creating a fork of Terra. Terra 2 will not exactly be a ‘hard fork’ similar to Ethereum’s actions after the 2017 attack. Instead of “resetting” the blockchain to a time before the collapse (7th of May, in this case), Do Kwon will create a new blockchain from scratch, but without the UST algorithmic stablecoin.

With this fork, Terra’s founder wants to recreate the blockchain by eliminating the weak point that led the old chain to collapse, namely UST. Terra 2 will become a strong DeFi ecosystem with all the dapps already ready to be implemented.

How LUNA 2.0’s airdrop works

The airdrop of the new LUNAs will be gradual and will mainly reward those who held LUNA and UST before the collapse. Before launching the new chain, the developers will take a snapshot (at 8:59pm UK time on Thursday 26 May) of all tokens in the old chain and then distribute the new LUNAs on the updated version. The new LUNAs received will automatically be staked.

Do Kwon’s plan is for the new chain to start from a ‘virgin’ state, i.e. block 0, with a circulating amount of tokens equal to 1 billion. How does the airdrop of LUNA 2.0 work? The new tokens will be distributed in this way:

–       35% of the initial tokens will be divided among all LUNA holders before the crash. This means that as much as 350 million of the new LUNAs will be reserved for LUNAtics who purchased the tokens before 7 May, and held them even during the crash. Wallets with less than 10,000 LUNAs will get 30 per cent of their share immediately, and 70 per cent will be returned gradually over two years. Whales, on the other hand, will have worse conditions, and will get all the LUNA they are entitled to over four years.

–       15% of the LUNAs will be reserved for those who held aUST (i.e. USTs locked on Anchor Protocol) before the collapse. In this case, however, whales will have a maximum of 500,000 LUNA, to give priority to small UST holders.

–       15% of the initial tokens of the new chain will be reserved for those who bought USTs after the 7 May collapse.

–       10% of the new LUNAs will go to those who bought LUNAs after the collapse, and will be returned gradually over a period of two years.

–       Finally, the remaining 30% will end up in the community pool, to support the effort of dapp developers and ensure that the new chain maintains its value as a DeFi ecosystem.

The system is quite complex but Do Kwon thinks this is the best way to compensate LUNAtics fairly and to recreate a functional and effective network in the DeFi landscape.

In the proposal, Terra’s founder writes that the LUNA airdrop will take into account all on-chain assets (including, for example, LUNAs in staking or those on some centralised exchanges), except for a few specific ones due to technical reasons. For example, USTs and LUNAs ‘transferred’ with a bridge to other blockchains will not be part of the airdrop unless they are returned to the original chain (e.g. Terra’s official wallet, Terra Station). LUNAs blocked in the most popular DeFi protocols will also be returned. For more information, please refer to Do Kwon’s official proposal, which is constantly being updated.

Criticisms for LUNA’s fork go beyond the community

The collapse of LUNA and UST has obviously divided the crypto community. Although many support Terra’s fork, not everyone believes that the airdrop of LUNA 2.0 is the best solution to repair the damage caused by the collapse. Criticism, especially on Twitter, abounds: but it is not only the users who oppose Do Kwon’s and the rest of the community’s decision.

Lido Finance, one of Ethereum’s most important liquid staking protocols, refused to support Terra 2.0. Lido’s DAO voted ‘no’ decisively, with 95 per cent voting. Less than 5% of the participants were in favour of bringing Lido Finance onto the new Terra chain.

Despite the fact that Lido Finance had a locked-in value of almost $10 billion on Terra before the collapse of LUNA and UST, the DAO practically rejected Do Kwon’s proposal. “We will think about it after the launch, first it is better to see if Terra 2.0 is a legitimate project and supported by the community. At the moment there are too many doubts about the new chain,’ wrote one of the users against Terra 2.0.

The 27th of May will be a date that will go down in history not only for Terra, but for the entire crypto world. Only one day to go until the decisive date: will airdrop be enough to win back the market’s favour?

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5 curiosities that make Fantom a unique DeFi platform

5 interesting facts about Fantom

What metaverse and NFTs are on Fantom? Why is it linked to Cronje? What is its logo doing on F1 circuits? Find out 5 interesting facts about Fantom!

FTM, the Fantom token, is now available on Young Platform! Surely you’ve already heard about it, this blockchain platform is one of the most widely used for the provision of DeFi services, but are you sure you know everything about it? Certainly its “spooky” branding doesn’t go unnoticed, between emoji of ghosts and the reference to the musical “The Phantom of the Opera,” the developers who use Fantom indulge in metaphors and creepy names. One example? The BOO token from Spookyswap, the dapp Tomb Finance and the NFTs from Fantums of Opera. But the FTM ecosystem doesn’t only hide horror easter eggs, here are 5 interesting facts about Fantom!

1. Andre Cronje’s history with Fantom

A simple search on Google or Twitter shows that Fantom is often associated with the name Andre Cronje. But who is Andre Cronje? And most importantly, why is he so important to Fantom? Cronje is one of the most prolific developers in the DeFi industry, creating several protocols and dapps that have helped shape the current image of DeFi and Web3. Cronje has become a crypto star because of his coding skills but also because of his repeated “rage quitting” over DeFi (after the last one a few months ago, in the past few days he broke his silence by talking about the need for crypto regulation). His most famous creations are Yearn Finance and Keep3r, but Cronje has also contributed to the development of other protocols such as Fantom. The developer worked on Fantom from 2018 to 2022 as a technical advisor and as chairman of the Fantom Foundation Technology Council. His imprint was decisive and his prestige in the DeFi field attracted the trust of many people who became Fantom supporters.

After Cronje’s farewell, Fantom suffered in terms of popularity and TVL decline, but DeFi is not made by individual developers. The team has continued to work, gaining deserved success!

2. Fantom cradle of Metaverse

When designing a Metaverse on blockchain you have to take into account all the transactions that need to be processed by all the active users, and Fantom has all the makings of a platform loved by Metaverse developers: it’s fast, scalable and cheap! 8BIT Nostalgia is one of the Metaverse on Fantom, essentially an interactive 3D space that can be explored by avatars sold as NFTs. On 8BIT there are game areas and arenas where users can come together to chat and design new features. 8BIT is expanding through various collaborations, for example owners of the ADAPunks collection on Cardano will be able to use their skins on Fantom as well. As the name implies, the atmosphere of 8BIT is very nostalgic. You can’t help but shed a tear when you think back to Pokemon Perla on Nintendo DS!

Another Metaverse on Fantom is Pod Town, which is distinguishing itself by building a solid in-game economy. Pod Town is integrating a number of DeFi services that allow players to manage and monitor their in-game assets and wallets. The third noteworthy project is Slothtopia, this Metaverse on Fantom is developing a 3D virtual world compatible with VR. 

3. A strong team

Fantom works with the crème de la crème of Web3. In fact, among the protocols integrated into the blockchain platform are Chainlink, The Graph and Ankr. In detail, Fantom works with Chainlink to ‘build secure and scalable DeFi products such as decentralised stablecoins, lending protocols and synthetic assets’. Developers using Fantom’s infrastructure can freely access Chainlink’s oracles to combine and compare on-chain and off-chain data from trusted sources. The Graph, on the other hand, comes in handy when one wants to consult information from different blockchains, information that can be useful for developing and offering cross-chain solutions. With The Graph, Fantom has found the solution to interoperability problems. Finally, Fantom uses the API and development tools of the Ankr protocol.

4. Book your holidays with Fantom

Among the five facts about Fantom, there is an initiative that makes people dream about holidays. In 2020, Fantom started a partnership with Travala.com, the leading cryptocurrency travel booking platform active since 2017. Thanks to this partnership, people can directly use their FTMs on Travala to book hotels, houses, flights, tours and various activities. The Travala project aims to make the travel industry cheaper, fairer and more inclusive, those who use FTM for payments will be able to save over 40% (compared to other classic online travel agencies) and be able to choose from 2 million properties and 600 airlines. 

5. Speed champions agree: Fantom and F1

Fantom has signed two agreements to sponsor Formula 1 projects. In 2021, the partnership with the Italian team Scuderia Alpha Tauri was announced, with the Fantom logo appearing on the car, helmets and drivers’ overalls. 

Since March 2022, the Fantom brand has also been present on the equipment of Pietro and Enzo Fittipaldi, the two F1 drivers also known as the Fittipaldi Brothers. In addition to the sponsorship, the two brothers have chosen Fantom as the platform to create their first NFT collection. “My brother and I have been interested in the cryptocurrency space for some time, we are fascinated by the potential it has to inspire financial freedom and the tools for athletes to engage with their fans,” commented Pietro Fittipaldi.

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Comment reconnaître un Bitcoiner en 6 mèmes

Bitcoin : comment reconnaître les fans en 6 mèmes

Les dictons sont nombreux chez les adeptes du Bitcoin et reflètent la communauté des fans de Satoshi Nakamoto. Découvrez les principaux !

Il y a ceux qui possèdent des bitcoins pour diversifier leurs portefeuilles, et il y a ceux qui en possèdent parce qu’ils croient au concept, et puis il y a les fameux maximalistes qui voient l’or numérique comme la seule vraie monnaie. Les Bitcoiners les plus avides suivent une philosophie bien précise, dans la lignée du whitepaper publié en 2008 qui a tout déclenché. Pour simplifier les concepts les plus importants, au fil des années, la communauté a utilisé des idiomes qui peuvent sembler étranges à ceux qui se sont récemment aventurés dans la blockchain. Découvre comment reconnaître un fan en 6 mèmes !

Les chiffres grimpent

Le premier dicton largement utilisé est « number go up » et fait référence à la nature déflationniste du Bitcoin. Habituellement, les monnaies fiduciaires sont inflationnistes et perdent donc de la valeur avec le temps. Le Bitcoin, en revanche, a un maximum de 21 millions de pièces. Lorsque ce nombre sera atteint, plus aucune pièce ne pourra être « émise » ! Number go up fait donc référence à la valeur du Bitcoin qui, selon une théorie née sur les réseaux sociaux, aurait tendance à augmenter sur le long terme. En particulier quand le marché est en baisse, les bitcoiners se consolent ainsi en se répétant « number go up » et en s’encourageant ! L’avenir du Bitcoin en dépend-il vraiment ?

Le Bitcoin règle cela

Tu n’aimes pas le système économique actuel ? Tu détestes le fait que ton compte bancaire perde de la valeur même si tu ne dépenses rien ? Le Bitcoin peut y remédier ! Cet idiome est largement utilisé par les Bitcoiners qui tentent de faire comprendre à leurs amis le potentiel de la blockchain. Les passionnés de Bitcoin, en fait, croient que les crypto-monnaies sont le seul moyen de « réparer » le système économique actuel. La monnaie fiduciaire ? Vade retro !

Analyse les chiffres, fais les calculs

Le grand avantage de la blockchain est que chacun peut contribuer au développement des plateformes décentralisées, et surtout chacun peut vérifier que les transactions sont correctes ! « Fais le calcul » est très similaire à l’autre principe de base de la crypto, à savoir DYOR. Les organismes centralisés ne sont plus dignes de confiance, quelque chose ne va pas ? Toi, l’utilisateur, disposes des outils pour t’assurer que tout fonctionne correctement ! Et si la communauté travaille ensemble, alors un système décentralisé devient plus sûr qu’un coffre-fort !

Je suis dans les Bitcoins pour la technologie

Qui a dit que le Bitcoin n’était qu’une monnaie ? La blockchain a apporté d’innombrables innovations dans de nombreux domaines, et promet de continuer à le faire à l’avenir. Dès lors, si le prix du Bitcoin baisse, il est facile de reconnaître un fan : il te dira sûrement qu’il possède la crypto non pas à cause de son prix sur le marché, mais à cause de sa vraie valeur, la technologie. 

Peu de gens le comprennent

Pour un Bitcoiner, le Bitcoin n’est pas qu’une monnaie mais une véritable révolution. Et, comme on le dit souvent sur les réseaux sociaux, peu le comprennent ! En effet, il est difficile de penser que les crypto-monnaies puissent changer radicalement le système financier tel que nous le connaissons, composé de monnaies fiduciaires, de géants et d’institutions financières centralisées.

Pourtant, l’esprit d’un Bitcoiner est toujours projeté vers l’avenir. S’il est impossible de prédire les politiques économiques des États et des banques, la politique économique du Bitcoin est écrite dans son whitepaper depuis 2008, et reste immuable. Donc, si un de tes amis t’explique tous les avantages de la blockchain, prépare-toi à rejoindre le club des « rares personnes » qui comprennent le potentiel du Bitcoin !

Taux d’accumulation

Si tu crains qu’il ne soit trop tard pour acheter du Bitcoin, ne t’en fais pas, les vrais fans sont toujours ouverts aux nouveaux arrivants ! Même si un Bitcoin vaut aujourd’hui plus de 30 000 dollars, ne baisse pas les bras, tu peux aussi te contenter d’en acheter juste un « morceau » ! Un satoshi équivaut à 0,00000001 BTC et est la plus petite unité de division possible d’un Bitcoin. Même si tu ne peux pas te permettre d’acheter un Bitcoin complet, tu as encore le temps d’accumuler des satoshis ! Le nom dérive évidemment du célèbre Satoshi Nakamoto, à qui la communauté a voulu rendre hommage en donnant son nom à la « petite monnaie » du Bitcoin.

Tu sais maintenant comment reconnaître un fan de Bitcoin ! Es-tu d’accord avec ces mèmes ? Ou peut-être te sents-tu plus proche de la façon de penser de l’équipe Ethereum ? Le challenge entre Bitcoiner et Etherean est toujours ouvert !

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Exclusive Interview with Sebastién Borget, The Sandbox Co-Founder

Diego: Sebastien is COO and co-founder of The Sandbox. So, can you describe to our community what the Sandbox project is all about. And if you want you can describe your role at The Sandbox.

My name is Sebastien Borget and I’m COO and co-founder at the Sandbox

The Sandbox is a gaming virtual world on the Ethereum blockchain where creators can make free assets and games and monetise them through the use of Non-Fungible Tokens, NFTs, as well as SAND, our main utility token of the platform.

We are a franchise that has existed for now 10 years. We started on mobile in 2011, we had more than 40 million players in installs back then.

Over the last 3 years we launched a sequel, a new version that this time is in 3D multiplayer, multiplatform, and it uses NFTs to allow anyone to make their own NFT and start owning the assets, owning the land where they publish the games, monetise their time, monetise their creation, trade them, exchange them, sell them, if they want, on Marketplaces.

We have more than 60 partnerships to date, including major brands that are part of our virtual world

So far the Sandbox is one of the most active communities, we are really thankful to our community and specifically to our community today for being part of this fantastic journey with us.

 

Diego: Thank you Sebastien, and how did the idea for the Sandbox come about?

When we founded my previous company, Mobile Games Studio. As i mentioned, the Sandbox came out about 10 years ago. There was this kind of game, called Powder game, this game where you could play with physical elements: salt, water, steam etcetera, and it was mostly a physics simulator.

We took that idea and we said “what if we just allow any player to become the creator?” dropping elements with the touch of their fingers on the mobile screen, and share those creations online.

That’s how the first Sandbox idea started. And 10 years later, the new Sandbox, this time 3D and on the blockchain is essentially keeping all the roots from the franchise.

We want to allow anyone to make games without any programming knowledge, to just drag and drop assets, to drag and drop NFTs into a virtual world, and publish that world on the LANDs so that they can then allow players to participate in game experiences, play, earn, collect rewards, collect tokens and engage with that.

📚 Read the Academy article on the Sandbox here.

Diego: Everyone right now is talking about these NFTs, Non-Fungible Tokens. Can you describe to our community what is a Non-Fungible Token and why do you think they can represent a real revolution?

We’ve been true pioneers in the space of Non-Fungible Tokens – we’ve been building the Sandbox for the last 3 years and we launched already several ones.

What is a Non-Fungible Token? It essentially is a piece of digital asset. It can be music, it can be art, it can be a collectible, it can be game assets, sports tickets, anything essentially that is reproduced on the blockchain and has specific attributes.

Those attributes being the fact they have scarcity, so a limited supply that anyone can see on the blockchain.

They are unique, so unlike one bitcoin and another bitcoin, which can be interchanged, with NFTs – each one is unique.

So a gold sword and a silver sword even if they are both swords they have different attributes, they cannot be interchanged that easily. They are undividable.

Similarly, you cannot have 0.00001 of a sword, 1, many or zero and one main benefit of these NFTs is that as a user, as a player is that you own them in your wallet and you can use them in a game but you can also trade them in marketplaces in a permissionless manner. You don’t need to ask the permission to the developer of the game to be able to transfer the content to another user, to sell that content on marketplaces, or use that content potentially in other games, which is a major revolution in gaming.

Games today are centralised, well-guarded, they are trying to keep their users and they have all the data, all the virtual currency of the game assets that you bought in-game, you can never take them away.

If you leave the game you basically lose all your progress, all your content, all your virtual currencies, all that content you bought, you spent time to acquire by playing was never really yours, basically – and it’s difficult to put value on something that is not really yours, you cannot transfer.

With the use of Non-Fungible Tokens, all the content, all your avatars, you identities the objects or assets you acquire are yours, including also the tokens, the equivalent of virtual currency, so SAND in our case.

So this is because it’s yours, it can be exchange, it can be valued, other users can want it. So this is the premise of building a virtual economy into a virtual world, this is why NFTs are so important.

They are growing, they facilitate access to the greater economy, to monetize your time in ways that were never done before.

That’s why now we are seeing a lot more influencers, celebrities, artists, creators, game makers as well, jump on board.

📚 Learn all about NFTs!

Diego: You mentioned these NFTs connected to the world of art, music and of course video games, how do you see them connected to the world of videogames?

Because you mentioned that with NFTs you are the real owner of something, even in a non-physical world – how do you see them connected to the specific world of videogames?

In videogames, more specifically, unlike art, music and sport collectibles, which are also very hot NFTs at the moment. Those are just collectibles. You own them, they are rare, but they don’t necessarily have a specific utility.

Rather than being maybe aesthetically great-looking, or just being rare, in videogames NFTs have additionally a utility. Like if you acquire a character that is very powerful and rare, you’re most likely to be able to use that character in the game.

The characteristics, the attributes of that character will impact your gameplay, will impact maybe the way that you can earn rewards, finish first at the tournament, complete your goals. And this is participating to a new model called play-to-earn, where your assets can be put to use to produce actively more return on your time for you and that I think is something really interesting and unique in gaming, that you don’t find in other industries.

In The Sandbox, additionally, there’s this concept of virtual real estate, with LAND, because, besides being a gaming platform, we’re also a virtual world with a limited map and on each of those maps – and it’s pretty simple to understand – as you own the map, it’s a piece, it’s a place, it’s a digital space where users can publish their games can start monetizing their content.

If you cannot publish your game, you cannot monetize it to have players coming into it and also enable other business models like renting that LAND to a creator creating different points of attraction based on your content etc.

So, that’s something we’re seeing more and more people interested in – digital land, virtual land as NFTs.

Diego: About The Sandbox, what are the developments that await us in the coming months?

We’ve already achieved several milestones at The Sandbox. Since about 3 years ago we’ve launched in beta several creation tools for our platform, our NFT maker, called VoxEdit, which is a 3D editor where you can make Voxel-based content, animate them, publish it to the marketplace or the users to acquire it

We’ve launched the marketplace and it’s essentially a map where we sold in the pre-sell round up to 35% of the whole map, each of those LAND being a unique NFT, and interestingly last month, in February we sold more values than in the past 2 years, showing an acceleration in the adoption of NFTs in general.

We’ve launched the beta of the Game Maker as well. That, as I mentioned, enables anyone to create game experiences by drag-n-drop, no programming knowledge required. And we have hundreds of active users using those products on a daily basis. The next step for this year is to open the public Alpha to players, so to let them discover some of the games made by the creators using the tools to participate in play-to-earn seasons where they’ll be able to collect rewards and exchange those rewards if they want to for tokens of value and hence turn their time into a potential revenue stream.

We’re also preparing our soon-to-open marketplace in beta, allowing anyone to make their NFTs and start selling them. We’ll do it progressively, first through selecting great content and high-quality creators and we know we do have some in our Italian community, so I’m excited to see this content coming from Hackatao – to mention one of the most talented creators working with us on The Sandbox, but there are many others and we’re excited to have this marketplace launch – I would say before the end of the month in March – and really enable anyone to buy, collect, own and use NFTs in The Sandbox.

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Everything you need to know on Ripple, XRP and the SEC

According to European legislation, Ripple is compliant. Therefore Young Platform will not be removing XRP

The Enquiry

On 22 December, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, the company behind the cryptocurrency XRP. The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is the federal agency that oversees the US stock exchange. The SEC is investigating the relationship between Ripple Labs and XRP, alleging that the latter is actually a security token.

The SEC alleges that the founders launched the XRP currency by selling it as a share of the Ripple company, without registering it as such. The ICO launched by XRP raised more than $1.3 billion from investors all around the world. Therefore, the lawsuit centres on the fact that the SEC holds Ripple Labs responsible for failing to register its offering as an investment contract for investors. Ripple promptly responded to the lawsuit, anticipating the SEC’s official charges on Twitter.

XRP will stay on Young Platform

The debate has led to the major US-based exchanges delisting or planning to delist XRP.

However, according to European legislation, Ripple is compliant. Therefore Young, like other European exchanges, will not be removing XRP from the Young Platform and Young Platform Pro exchanges at this time. This is because we want to avoid harming our users and give them the ability, in accordance with current European regulations, to continue to sell, buy or trade their XRP.

The future of XRP on Young Platform

Should the company’s main liquidity providers remove Ripple from their offerings, it is likely that Young will also be forced to delist XRP. Should this happen, our customers’ funds will still be protected by allowing them to be converted to fiat or sent to external wallets prior to removal. Again, users will be notified well in advance to allow them to better plan and manage their XRP funds.

Young will continue to follow the debate closely and keep its users updated.

XRP recorded a 55% growth in the last 24 hours.

Read more about Ripple and XRP in our dedicated Academy article.

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How Bitcoin community helps Italy during coronavirus emergency

Looking at the fundraising campaign powered by Croce Rossa and Young Platform: Bitcoin are a powerful tool to deliver fast economical aid during calamities,

On April 6th the second level Advanced Medical Post for pre-triage was set up in Castel Gandolfo by the Italian Red Cross – Colli Albani Committee. The AMP was purchased using the bitcoin donations raised thanks to the Helperbit platform and with the support of Young and Blockchain Education Network Italy, and in a short time, it was delivered and deployed.

On March 12th, Colli Albani Committee launched a bitcoin fundraising campaign focused on the COVID-19 emergency in Italy. This was the first initiative in the cryptocurrency sector and this led to media attention and international visibility. The first target of € 10,000 in BTC was achieved in just three days; it was possible to quickly exchange the raised money in Euro and purchase the material needed to build the AMP, which is already functioning at the time of writing. The fees of the procedures, from the initial donations to the purchase, are worth 0.55%.

The campaign is still running and the second target of € 25,000 in BTC is almost reached.

Bruno Pietrosanti, President at Colli Albani Committee, said: “With great pleasure, we reached the first main milestone of our fundraising. We are happy to have turned the received donations into a tangible aid and we are excited to have received so much help from the Bitcoin community.”

Guido Baroncini Turricchia, CEO at Helperbit, commented: “When Colli Albani Committee sent me photos of the tent, a gift granted by the solidarity of the Bitcoin community, I was excited. The efforts of Helperbit, jointly with Bitcoin donors, are now saving lives and helping to protect first responders on the front line. Those people, that in the silence of their home donated to the project, must be proud to be part of this charitable initiative. Bitcoin confirmed to be a powerful tool, a technology that allows to deliver direct and fast international aid during calamities, increasing also the transparency level. ”

Fundraising project created by Colli Albani

The Italian Red Cross – the Colli Albani team during the set-up at Castel Gandolfo
The QR code, which shows the Bitcoin address managed by the Albani Colli Committee