Posted on

The 10 most expensive NFTs ever

The most expensive NFT ever sold: all the digital artworks

What are the most expensive NFT ever sold? Here is the list of million-dollar crypto artworks! 

Have you ever wondered: “what are the 10 most expensive NFT ever sold?” Digital works of art sold at sky-high prices. Along with Picasso‘s cubism, Botticelli’s renaissance style and Rembrandt‘s baroque style; collectors and galleries of the future (and present) will also exhibit CryptoPunks and Beeple’s digital art. 

10. CryptoPunk #7804 – 7.56 million 

In tenth place among the most expensive NFT ever sold is a CryptoPunk, number 7804, purchased in March 2021 for $7.5 million (4,200 ETH). This Punk is an ‘Alien’, a decidedly rare category – only 9 out of 10,000 exist! Hallmarks? Sunglasses and a pipe! 

9. CryptoPunk #3100 – 7.67 million

There are 406 CryptoPunks who have the tennis-style band, but only one of them is an alien. That’s the 3100. Imagine how much it could be worth? 

8. CryptoPunk #5577 – 7.7 million

As you may have noticed, CryptoPunks are leading the ranking of the most expensive NFT ever sold. The #5577 was purchased in February 2022 by Robert Leshner, the CEO of Compound, one of DeFi’s most popular lending (decentralised lending) platforms. The CEO of the protocol shelled out a whopping 2,500 ETH to get it.

7. CryptoPunk #4156 – 10.2 million

All CryptoPunks are unique, but the number 4156 stands out because of the interesting story of its former owner. The user, whose Twitter handle echoes this numerical succession, is a very famous crypto influencer on the social network who is also part of the nouns DAO development team. When @punk4156 sold the NFT because he disagreed with Larva Labs‘ copyright policies, the entire community was stunned.

6. Tpunk #3442 – 10.5 million

Another Punk, also in sixth position in the ranking of the most expensive NFT ever sold. This time, however, not one from the collection created by Larva Labs, but a TPunk, a specimen from the collection inspired by CryptoPunks but built on the Tron blockchain. Purchasing this rare piece of the ‘derivative’ collection was Justin Sun, the founder and former CEO of TRON, who pulled 120 million TRX out of his crypto wallet.

5. CryptoPunk #7523 – 11.7 million

Crypto Punk #7523 was sold in 2021 for 4,700 ETH at a Sotheby’s digital art auction. Another ‘Alien’ equipped with earrings, cap and surgical mask. Perhaps the NFT was so coveted because of the presence of this very ‘avant-garde’ accessory at the time it was purchased.

4. CryptoPunk #5822 – 23.2 million 

Wooden medal for the ‘alien’ CryptoPunk sporting the blue bandana. This NFT was purchased by Chain’s CEO Deepak Thapliyal for the astronomical sum of 8,000 ETH.

3. Human One by Beeple – 28.9 million

In third place in the ranking of the most expensive NFT ever sold is Human One, a 3D digital sculpture by the famous artist Beeple, which depicts an astronaut walking in a glass case. The backgrounds are digital and the scenery changes on a rotating basis.

2. Clock by Pak and Julian Assange – 52.7 million

The silver medal goes to Pak for his work Clock. This NFT is a timer that counts down the days since Julian Assange, the co-founder of Wikileaks, has been detained in Belmarsh prison (UK). The digital artwork was purchased by the AssangeDAO, an autonomous and decentralised organisation established with the aim of fighting for the freedom of the Wikileaks founder. 

1. Everydays: the first 5000 Days by Beeple – 69.3 million

This work by Beeple is a collage of 5,000 photographs from the Everyday project: one photograph per day since May 2017. Not only does it hold the record for the most expensive NFT ever sold, but it is also a “historic” event that brought non-fungible tokens to mainstream media for the first time. It was talked about everywhere, even on Saturday Night Live.Do the most expensive NFT ever sold list include your favourite? The digital art scene is vast and you don’t have to spend astronomical sums to become an NFT owner. There are ones for all budgets, or you can hope that the ones on this list will become cheaper. After all, the prices you see here are not definitive, it is the market that determines their value.

Posted on

ApeCoin in the spotlight: what is it and how does the Bored Ape token work?

What is Apecoin, the Bored Ape Yacht Club crypto and how it works

What is ApeCoin, the token of the Bored Ape Yacht Club community, the world’s most valuable NFT collection  

What is ApeCoin (APE), the token of the Bored Ape Yacht Club community? The ‘monkey’ NFT collection is one of the most famous in the panorama of non-fungible tokens, but for about a year now it has also been on the market for ‘fungible’ ones. Thanks to ApeCoin (APE), the token managed by the Bored Apes community and the Ape Foundation. In these lines, you will discover not only what ApeCoin is, but in general everything you need to know about the crypto of the Bored Ape community.  

What is ApeCoin and how to use it

APE is an ERC-20 token developed on the Ethereum blockchain. At its launch on 17 March 2022, it was distributed to all users who owned an NFT from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) collections through an airdrop. This free token distribution was one of the most valuable ever, with each holder of BAYC NFTs receiving more than $100,000 in APE.

Owning ApeCoins (APE) grants the right to participate in the autonomous and decentralised ApeDAO organisation. The DAO of the Bored Ape Yacht Club community, whose decisions are overseen by the Ape Foundation, serves to discuss and vote on ideas and new projects proposed by users. 

The Ape Foundation is the decentralised institution that administers the ApeCoin DAO, specifically it is responsible for the management of proposals on the platform and for accounting. At the head of the Ape Foundation is a special council, whose members are elected by the decentralised organisation itself. Ape Foundation is not linked to Yuga Labs, it acts independently by proposing initiatives for the community. 

In addition to participating in governance, the token is used as an incentive for the developers of the BAYC project. Finally, according to the ApeCoin DAO announcement, APE will also be the currency in the Bored Ape Metaverse, Otherside and will grant access to exclusive video games and events!

ApeCoin tokenomics

The total supply of APE is 1 billion, and the tokens, released as of 17 March 2022, will be distributed to the market progressively until 2026. 15% of ApeCoin availability was distributed to BAYC and MAYC holders at launch, while 47% is stored in DAO-owned crypto wallets. This percentage of APE tokens serves to finance BAYC community proposals that have been approved. The remaining part of the ApeCoin (APE) is owned by investors. These include the Web3 company that created the NFT collection of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs, which owns 15% of the supply.

What is ApeCoin DAO?

The ApeCoin DAO is the decentralised community organisation of the BAYC. It is necessary to point out that it is completely separate from Yuga Labs, which can express its opinion on future decisions as if it were a wealthy user with a large amount of APE. 

The way it works is simple: anyone who owns at least one APE is entitled to be a member of the DAO, and each token held is equivalent to one vote. Members can propose so-called AIPs (Ape Improvement Proposals), i.e. improvements to the ecosystem on three broad themes: Core, Process and Informational.

Core

Core proposals concern the heart of the ApeCoin project. This category includes all AIPs requiring a financial commitment from the DAO and all those involving the ApeCoin brand and possible collaborations with other Web3 players.

Process

Proposals that intend to change the AIP approval process. For example, those that include changing the voting procedures, or the technical tools of ApeCoin. In particular, the community may decide to vote against the current system whereby 1 token = 1 vote, or it may decide that a more than absolute majority of votes in favour (e.g. more than 70% in favour) is required to approve a proposal. 

Informational

Under this category are proposals on general community guidelines.

The Process for Proposing an Idea on the ApeCoin DAO

To understand not only what ApeCoin is but also how it works within the BAYC governance, let’s look in detail at the process leading to the approval of a new ApeCoin DAO proposal.

  • AIP idea: a member of the community publishes a proposal, which must first be analysed by a moderator of the AIP Foundation;
  • Draft AIP: the draft AIP enriched with comments from other DAO members and approved by a moderator is labelled, ‘AIP-#: (Name) – (Category)’;
  • Board review: the APE Foundation’s Board of Directors reviews the draft AIP and issues a report to ensure that costs and legal implications have been considered;
  • AIP approval: the draft and report are reviewed and approved by a team of moderators according to DAO guidelines;
  • AIP voting: approved proposals are published on the DAO’s platform during the ‘Weekly AIP Release’ Thursday and users can cast their votes for one week
  • Activation of AIPs: accepted AIPs move on to the ‘activation’ phase, which will be managed by the AIP owner and the ApeCoin Foundation team, while rejected AIPs can be resubmitted using the template provided.

The ApeCoin DAO website states ‘the ways in which blockchain can impact culture are infinite, and impossible to predict them all. APE is a token created to shape the future of the Internet, controlled and developed by the community’. So what is ApeCoin? Now you know, and we even went over the mechanisms governing its DAO, so you can make up your own mind. Is the BAYC community well on its way to shaping the web of the future?

Posted on

What happens when all 21 million Bitcoins are mined?

What happens when all 21 million Bitcoins are mined?

In 2140, miners will finish issuing Bitcoin. Will their work no longer be needed? What will happen after that? 

Bitcoin, like all precious things, is limited and scarce and therefore will not be issued forever. The distribution of coins will cease at 21 million, more or less around the year 2140. This event, although very far away, will affect future miners who will no longer receive new BTCs as a reward. What happens when all 21 million Bitcoins are mined? Will the miners stop securing its blockchain?

Why aren’t Bitcoins infinite?

The maximum amount of Bitcoins that can be issued is limited to 21 million. This number is also called ‘max supply’. This limit was introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto since the creation of the cryptocurrency to curb inflation and make crypto scarce and therefore more valuable. If Bitcoin’s availability were unlimited and BTCs were mined indefinitely at some point each of these cryptos would no longer be worth anything. Currently 19 million Bitcoins have been issued and therefore there are only 2 million left to reach total supply. 

Miners’ rewards reduced by halving

Another Bitcoin mechanism, related to mining, is halving. This regulates the gradual decrease in rewards given to miners who validate blocks, which are halved about every four years. This also serves to reduce the crypto in circulation, to maintain scarcity. To date, miners get 6.25 BTC for each block they validate and with the next halving in 2024, the rewards will become 3.125 BTC. The process of validating a block takes, on average, 10 minutes.

What happens to the miners when all Bitcoins are issued?

The security of Bitcoin’s blockchain is guaranteed by the miners, so it is legitimate to wonder whether the moment no more BTCs are issued, the network will stop working, because no one will have any incentive to check the validity of transactions. 

Fortunately, Satoshi Nakamoto has also thought of this. In fact, the miners not only receive a portion of the newly mined BTC as a reward, but also the transaction fees. When all 21 million Bitcoins have been issued the fees will become the only source of income for the miners.

The end of Bitcoin minting will have an unpredictable impact. Certainly miners may be affected, and for some of them, mining Bitcoin may cease to be a profitable activity. But this depends very much on the evolution of Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency. For example, if in about 120 years BTC becomes a fully-fledged store of value, the transaction fees (which will be much more expensive than now), will probably be sufficient to reward the miners. Alternatively, they could migrate to other blockchains, as happened to Ethereum when its network switched from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism.

Lately, thanks to a new technology called inscription, Bitcoin’s blockchain is evolving. The BTC network is no longer a ‘pure’ network that only handles cryptocurrency transfers, but can also host NFTs and possibly soon decentralised applications (Dapp) and DeFi protocols. Due to inscription, activity on the Bitcoin network is increasing, which also helps to raise the fees that users have to pay on average to make a transaction. As the volume of fees increases, the miners will earn more money.

Unfortunately, there is no certain answer to the question: what happens when all 21 million Bitcoins are mined. In any case, since it is about 120 years away, the miners still have some time to prepare.

Posted on

Arbitrum news: guide to the ARB token airdrop

Arbitrum airdrop news: guide to the ARB crypto eligibility and drop

All eyes on the Arbitrum airdrop news: ARB token coming soon

It’s all over the news: the Arbitrum airdrop (ARB) is coming on 23 March! Arbitrum is one of Ethereum’s most popular and widely used Layer 2s, i.e. networks built on existing blockchains that allow transactions to be executed outside the main networks in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. In recent months, its popularity has increased significantly, and consequently, so has its use.

This is evident from the high number of transactions processed by the network. This Layer 2 was created in 2018 by Off Chain Labs, a New York-based startup founded with the aim of developing scalability solutions for Web3. ARB will be distributed to users who have interacted with the Layer 2 in the past months on 23 March. Here you will find everything you need to know about the Arbitrum airdrop news or, more specifically, the ARB token release.

How to get the arbitrum airdrop: eligibility requirements

23 March was the day chosen for the Arbitrum airdrop, i.e. the token launch: users who have interacted with the Layer 2 over the past months are eligible to claim the ARBs to which they are entitled. You can already check your arbitrum eligibility and how many ARB tokens you will receive by linking your crypto wallet to the Foundation’s website. The quantity is calculated based on the number of transactions executed on the network and the frequency with which they were made. 

The number of Arbitrum tokens a user receives will increase if they have executed transactions on the Layer 2 regularly during the past months. The ARB airdrop had been announced in January via Twitter by the project’s co-founder, Steven Goldfeder: “the appetiser always precedes the main course,” referring to the main competitor’s airdrop, Optimism, that had just taken place. 

In these hours, most Crypto Twitter users are wondering about the Arbitrum airdrop price, and wondering whether its countervalue in dollars will be comparable to that obtained with Optimism’s airdrop. OP’s free distribution in April 2022 was worth between $3,000 and $30,000 to users who had interacted with the network, depending on the quantity and complexity of interactions. No one can, as of today, know whether the airdrop of the Arbitrum token (ARB) will be as generous.

Arbitrum airdrop: price and distribution

The initial supply of the Arbitrum token will initially be 1 billion ARB, distributed in this way:

  • 12.75% to the community through airdrop; 
  • 42% will be owned by the Arbitrum DAO, to finance governance decisions and the most widely used dapp;
  • 29.94% to Offchain Labs, the startup developing Arbitrum;
  • 17.54% to the investors who financed the project.

The circulating supply of the Arbitrum token has not yet been disclosed, and it is therefore impossible to predict the Arbitrum airdrop price. However, should the market capitalisation be similar to that of its main competitor Optimism, i.e. around 0.7 billion, the price of ARB could be close to the dollar.

What can I use the Arbitrum token (ARB) for?

The Arbitrum token distributed through the airdrop on Thursday, 23 March, will be used primarily with governance functions. The Arbitrum Foundation intends to entrust the most important decisions for the future of the blockchain to the people who use it, and this is where ARB comes in. At the launch in fact, the Arbitrum DAO will be set up, which will be composed of the holders of the Arbitrum token, who will be able to vote on all future decisions of the project. Users will also be able to create their own sub-networks, called ‘Layer 3’, should they receive approval from the Arbitrum DAO.

Arbitrum: excellent performance in recent months

Ethereum’s Layer 2s, in particular Arbitrum and Optimism, which together have surpassed the number of transactions processed on the ‘mother’ blockchain, have been the protagonists of the last period. On Arbitrum, the number of transactions executed daily, as of November 2022, hovers between 200,000 and 500,000. Despite the raging bear market, which has caused losses for all major crypto networks, the total locked-in value (TVL) on the network has continued to orbit around $1 billion. This allowed it to climb the ranking of the most widely used blockchains, compiled taking into account their TVL, to fourth position. We await the Arbitrum airdrop (of its token) to find out whether its blockchain’s TVL will rise further.

The last few months have been positive not only because of increasing adoption, but also because a number of important updates have been implemented. These include Nitro, which has enabled the network to process faster and cheaper transactions, and the integration of Arbitrum Nova, a sub-network dedicated to gaming and decentralised social networks. In addition, the arrival of the Arbitrum token and the birth of the Arbitrum DAO opens up a number of interesting opportunities for Layer 2 on the technological side as well. For instance, the possibility for users to create their own sub-networks.

The best dapps on Arbitrum

A portion of Arbitrum tokens will also be distributed to the most successful decentralised applications (dapp) in the ecosystem. The best known of these are those originating in Ethereum that have landed on Arbitrum in recent months. From Uniswap to Aave, from Sushi to Opensea, practically all the most famous Web3 companies have decided to integrate the blockchain of the moment, facilitated by the great similarity between Ethereum’s blockchain architecture and that of its Layer 2. 

Among Arbitrum’s most successful projects is the decentralised exchange (DEX) GMX, which originated here and on Avalanche. GMX allows its users to engage in leveraged trading through financial instruments called perpetual futures. 

Arbitrum’s blockchain is not only populated by decentralised finance projects (DeFi) but also by dapps dedicated to gaming and NFTs. One of the most famous of these is Treasure, a gaming metaverse that claims to be ‘the Nintendo of the Web3’ on which various play-to-earn video games can be played. Its entire ecosystem functions thanks to the MAGIC token, which allows for the non-fungible tokens needed to play and is distributed to players as a reward. 

In short, this Layer 2 is proving to be one of the most promising scalability solutions for Ethereum. The arrival of the Arbitrum airdrop news and the ARB token, could help make the definitive leap forward for a blockchain that will most likely continue to make waves in the cryptocurrency world.

Posted on

Bitcoin price: trends and history from 2008 to today

Bitcoin price: history, value and trends over the years

The price of Bitcoin has grown exponentially over the years, what have been the main milestones in its history?

The Bitcoin price history has, to date, been full of twists and turns. Although the value of BTC tends to be bullish, it has also gone through bearish periods in its first fifteen years. And you, do you know what the bitcoin price in 2008 was compared to today? What events have most influenced its value and the cryptocurrency’s performance?

What was the Bitcoin price in 2008 at launch?

At the beginning of its history, when Bitcoin was created, cryptocurrency exchanges did not yet exist, so users in order to sell or buy BTC had to agree among themselves to establish its value by engaging in a real negotiation. The value of a crypto is determined by its conversion into fiat currency, and since transactions at the time were only done through peer-to-peer exchanges, it is impossible to trace the exact price of BTC at the time of its launch.

However, we know the bitcoin price in 2009, when it was first converted into dollars on 12 October. On that day, a user known on the ‘Bitcointalk’ forum under the pseudonym ‘New Liberty Standard’ bought 1,309 BTC for one dollar. Dividing one dollar by the number of BTC the user bought, we can say that the price of Bitcoin started at around $0.0009. Today, the value of the cryptocurrency is about 20 million times higher than it was initially. 

So let’s look at the main stages in Bitcoin price history to find out how it established itself and what difficulties it has faced.

From Bitcoin Pizza Day to the first exchanges (2009-2012)

In 2009, Bitcoin was a niche technology, a phenomenon linked to a subculture of computer engineering and had no real market. The first time it was used to purchase a ‘real world’ asset was on 22 May 2010; on that day, a user on the Bitcointalk forum bought two pizzas in the American fast food restaurant Papa John’s for 10,000 BTC. This event, dubbed ‘Pizza Day’, has become a real holiday that crypto enthusiasts remember every year. To give you an idea of what it meant, Bitcoin price in 2010 reached the ATH at 0.39$. 

2010 also saw the birth of BitcoinMarket.com, a rudimentary website that allowed its users to exchange BTC, which, however, shut down the following year. In 2011, however, the crypto world’s first exchange was launched: Mt.Gox. The birth of Mt.Gox drew attention to cryptocurrency by also making it easier to buy. Bitcoin price in 2011 reached $1 in February, while in July of the same year, one BTC was already worth $15.

From 2012 to 2015: the first bull market and the Mt.Gox hack

2012 was a bad year for Bitcoin price history. From the high of $15 touched in July 2011, the value of BTC fell dramatically to $3, a zone on the chart in which it was caged until the beginning of 2013. With the new year, however, the cryptocurrency changed gears completely, thanks to a great wave of interest in the sector. The first crypto bull market in history had begun!

In 2013, the price of Bitcoin rose from $12 to $1,000 driven by some Chinese institutional investors and companies that started accepting it as a payment method.

But then also came the first crypto bear market in history, coinciding with the hacker attack suffered by Mt.Gox on 24 February 2014. Then, during the summer of 2015, when some institutional investors, such as Goldman Sachs and Nasdaq approached these new technologies, the market rebounded. 

On 30 July 2015, Ethereum was launched through an ICO and a new bullish phase began for the price of Bitcoin, which was around $400.

2016 to 2021: the second halving and COVID-19

The second halving on 9 July 2016 breathed new life into the price of Bitcoin, which had already started its upward movement in the summer of 2015. The bull market that followed was explosive. Bitcoin price in 2017, from the $1,000 zone it was in in January, reached $20,000 by the end of the year. In that period, media interest around cryptocurrencies grew considerably: the first ETF on Bitcoin was approved in the United States, the Chinese government regulated crypto trading, and several companies, including Microsoft and Dell, chose to accept BTC as a payment method.

In 2018, Bitcoin’s value then plummeted from a high of $20,000 to $3,000, stabilising at around $3,700 at the end of the year. 2019, the year in which the 10th anniversary of the cryptocurrency’s birth was celebrated, was also not good due to the failure of the exchange Quadriga CX and a hacker attack on Binance. The Bitcoin price in 2019 fluctuated in the range between $3,000 and $14,000, changing direction several times. 

With 2020, the crypto market shone again thanks mainly to the decentralised finance applications (DeFi) born on Ethereum. The collapse of Bitcoin’s price that occurred at the same time as the start of the COVID-19 pandemic was absorbed quickly, a few days later the bull market began, taking the crypto’s value to a time high of $68,800. This period also saw the emergence of NFTs, which gave the whole sector a further boost.

2021 to the present: how long until the end of the bear market?

The latest phase in Bitcoin price history is the one we have been experiencing since November 2021. After hitting $68,000, the crypto market was hit by a series of internal negative events, such as the collapse of the Terra-Luna ecosystem and the bankruptcy of FTX. But also external: the macroeconomic crisis caused by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and inflation. These episodes have also had an impact on the value of the cryptocurrency, which today lies in the area of the $20,000 chart, undecided about which direction to take.Will the bear market end soon? Will the next halving, scheduled for early 2024, shake things up? No one can know for sure whether the bear market will continue or whether 2023 will be remembered as a restart year in Bitcoin price history.

Posted on

Bitcoin mining: what does it take? Does it still make sense in 2023?

How to mine Bitcoin? It's getting harder but it’s a good thing!

How to mine Bitcoin? Years ago an ordinary computer was enough, and today? 

How to mine Bitcoin? If you have known the crypto world for a while, you surely have asked yourself this question at least once. Mining is the process by which transactions are validated on Proof-of-Work blockchains, and thus also on Bitcoin‘s. Miners, through very complex calculations, create the network blocks and allow the network to function. And they receive rewards for their work.

Mining is also a competitive activity, as rewards are only given to the first miner to solve the mathematical problem. The amount of miners participating in the network influences the mining difficulty: a parameter that measures how difficult it is, on average, to validate a block. The difficulty also increases in relation to the power of the hardware. 

Now that you are clear on the big picture, find out how to mine Bitcoin and why it is getting harder!

Bitcoin mining: what does it take?

The answer to the question ‘how to mine Bitcoin’ has varied a lot over time. If we had asked a miner in 2010 he would have answered “with a normal computer and mining software”. 

The same question, in 2015, would have had a different answer. Back then, miners had already started using specially designed machines called ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits). And today? How do you mine Bitcoin in 2023?

  • Hardware: in order to mine Bitcoin, it is necessary to start with hardware. From simple computers that were used years ago to sophisticated ASICs. There is a wide range of devices with which it has been possible to mine Bitcoin over time. Miners in the past used GPUs (video cards) because they had much more computing power than CPUs (processors) and were cheaper than ASICs. 

GPUs used to be connected in series, i.e. one in a row, and by doing so, their computing power added up. Today, however, even this method has become obsolete and it is not possible to mine Bitcoin unless you have an ASIC.

  • Software: an aspiring miner must obtain or develop ad hoc software. This point is even more complex than the previous one because it requires, in most cases, a high degree of computer knowledge. Some mining devices already have software installed inside them to be configured, but in most cases, the ‘command prompt’ or ‘terminal’ must be used to activate them. That is, the black screen in which to write code that anyone who is not a computer scientist ‘accidentally’ opens on their computer from time to time.
  • Crypto wallet: The last thing a miner must have is the crypto wallet on which to receive rewards for validated blocks. A user who is in the process of building their own mining business should definitely not neglect this point if they do not want to work for free! This is definitely the easiest part of the whole process. Usually miners, like crypto enthusiasts, prefer to use hardware wallets, which are more difficult to hack since they are not constantly connected to the network.

Mining is also a team game

To be able to compete with the large mining companies that have many ASICs synchronised with each other, the ‘smaller’ miners have learnt to play as a team. Thus, mining pools were born, organisations that enable them to coordinate and work together to find the correct hash in the shortest possible time. Thus, you can try to mine Bitcoin even if you only have one device; by participating in pools and sharing the prize with other participants. Unfortunately, however, it is not possible to know for sure whether or not you will be able to mine any blocks, and you need to buy at least one ASIC to be admitted to a mining pool.

Mining is increasingly difficult

The hardware that can solve the very difficult calculations and the large amount of electricity required to run them makes mining a very expensive business. Moreover, the difficulty grows over time as it tends to adapt to changes in the hashrate, i.e. the total computing power of the network. The latter takes into account the hardware and software characteristics of all the miners that are connected to the BTC network and is updated every fortnight. It is however positive that mining Bitcoin is becoming increasingly difficult, the more miners participate in block validation the more secure the blockchain is. 

Now that you know how to mine Bitcoin it is up to you to decide whether to start. However, if you have read this article carefully you may have realised that the game is probably not worth it (anymore). Unless you have access to a large amount of cheap electricity. There are, however, other less expensive ways to secure blockchains and obtain rewards, such as opening a node on a Proof-of-Stake network. You can take a cue from former Ethereum miners who have reinvented themselves since their blockchain changed consensus mechanism.

Posted on

Ethereum Shanghai, the latest update explained

Ethereum Shanghai: everything you need to know about the upgrade

Ethereum: what will happen after the Shanghai update?

We are very close to the activation of Ethereum‘s new update, Shanghai. This will allow users to withdraw ETHs they had locked in staking from 2020. That year marked the beginning of Ethereum becoming a Proof-of-Stake, thanks to the emergence of Beacon Chains, a parallel network managed by the new consensus mechanism. It was the developers who chose to block withdrawals for this long period of time. The reason? To ensure maximum security of the blockchain that could have been in trouble due to mass withdrawals. 

After the Beacon Chain came The Merge update, which was activated on 15 September 2022. On that occasion, the merger of the parent blockchain to the Beacon Chain took place, the union into a single blockchain managed by a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. Now all eyes in the crypto world are once again on Ethereum because of the Shanghai update. Everything you need to know is in this article! What impact could this have on the price of ETH?

Ethereum Shanghai: what is the update for? What happens next?

The purpose of the Shanghai update is very simple and clear: to enable withdrawals for those who have staked their ETH so far. 

After activation, those who participated in Ethereum’s consensus mechanism by staking can decide whether to leave their ETHs where they are. Or whether to redeem them with the ‘unstake‘ function. In this case, it is not possible to choose an amount of crypto to unstake, the entire amount originally staked will be returned. 

With the activation of the Shanghai update, all users, both those who decide to redeem their crypto and those who continue with staking, will receive the rewards they have accumulated through the validation of transactions on the blockchain. The rewards will be sent automatically to users’ wallets if they have provided their withdrawal address. 

For those who have staked through providers, and not directly on Ethereum, precise instructions on how the unstake will be handled have not yet been communicated.  

Shanghai Activation Date

The date on which Ethereum’s Shanghai update will be activated has not yet been announced. What is known, however, is the day on which the last testbed will take place: 14 March on the Goerli testnet; during the previous tests, which took place in February on Zhejiang and Sepolia, everything went smoothly. The mechanism regulating the activation of Shanghai is described in the ‘Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP -4895)’, in which all the functions that will be inserted or changed within the smart contract that regulates staking are set out. 

How will Shanghai affect the price of Ethereum?

The Shanghai update is a key turning point in Ethereum’s roadmap and therefore could have an impact on its price. Although it is impossible to predict with certainty what will happen, one can speculate. Here are the factors that could cause ETH’s price to fall and those that could lead to a pump.

Why could the price of Ethereum collapse?

The update could cause increased selling pressure and consequently a drop in price. Users could withdraw Ethereum en masse and sell it on the market together with the Ethereum distributed as a reward. If this were to occur, we could see a domino effect that would cause the price of ETH to collapse.

Will the price of Ethereum rally after Shanghai?

Looking at the on-chain data, there are those who argue that the price of Ethereum will rise. In particular, the value to watch is the amount of ETH currently blocked in the staking smart contract.

To date, there are about 17 million Ethereum staked, which corresponds to less than 20% of the circulating supply of about 120 million. This figure is much lower than on other Proof-of-Stake blockchains, where the percentage of staked cryptos is around 40% (on Solana and Cardano it is even higher than 70%).

At the moment, not many users have locked their ETH in staking, the main reason being that their crypto is tied up for long periods of time. After Shanghai the situation might change, we will be able to withdraw and deposit freely. In this case, we could see the number of staked ETH increase and consequently see a reduction in selling pressure on Ether and thus an increase in price. 

It is important to note that a large percentage of the ETHs staked were deposited by users more than a year ago, and the average purchase price of these cryptos is over $2,000. To date, users staking Ethereum who are in profit are only 16% while the remaining 84% are in loss. Therefore, to cause a decrease in the price of Ethereum, users would have to sell their Ether at a loss, a hypothesis that seems remote. Indeed, it is assumed that those who have chosen to staking their cryptos without knowing when they will be able to unlock them, strongly believe in Vitalik Buterin‘s project.

The future of dapps for staking

Those who will definitely be affected by the Shanghai update are the dapps that offer staking and yield farming services on Ethereum. These include liquid staking platforms that are used by those who only want to stake small amounts of Ether. The possible consequences for these types of services are mainly twofold.

With the possibility of depositing and withdrawing ETH at any time given by the Shanghai update, these dapps could develop new functionalities. New DeFi projects will probably also emerge to explore all opportunities to maximise rewards. 

Moreover, there are those who see Shanghai as the next standard of basic staking returns for the entire crypto world. These dapps will thus have to compete directly with Ethereum, as well as with their own competitors, and offer rewards more profitable than those guaranteed by the blockchain created by Vitalik Buterin.

In short, Shanghai will start a new cycle of innovation for the Ethereum network that could affect a huge number of projects and hundreds of thousands of users in the crypto world. 
But Ethereum’s renewal does not end with the Shanghai update. The developers are always working to improve the blockchain. On the horizon are Sharding and then The Surge, The Verge, The Purge and The Splurge updates!

Posted on

The top 5 cryptocurrencies in the Metaverse

The top metaverse crypto project

The Metaverse cryptos regulate the internal economy of decentralised virtual worlds. Which ones are the most popular on the market?

What are the top Metaverse crypto projects? The latter combines the immersive environments of virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR), the engagement of video games and the social interaction of social networks; but a crypto Metaverse also includes an economic component that is managed and regulated through cryptocurrencies. 

The crypto metaverse and its economy

Before discussing Metaverse cryptos, it is necessary to make a few clarifications. The term Metaverse refers to an immersive virtual world shared between users who, through avatars, can interact, participate in experiences and build digital objects. Among the many things you can do within it, there is certainly participation in the most varied events: parties, weddings, art exhibitions, fashion shows, university lectures, business meetings. This is not a new concept, many video games such as massive-multiplayer online games have always proposed this kind of scenario. What is changing in the Metaverse emerging in recent months is the use of blockchain as a core technology. 

The blockchain determines the functioning of the Metaverse in at least two senses. Firstly, it allows these virtual worlds to possess a real internal economy, managed with cryptocurrencies. The digital objects that the crypto Metaverse offers are in NFT format, i.e. non-fungible tokens, and cryptocurrencies are used to buy them. This means that the objects you buy are your property, indelibly and immutably guaranteed by the blockchain. Without this technology, should a video game be withdrawn from the market, you would lose all the digital objects you own in it. The first aspect that distinguishes any crypto metaverse is therefore the traceability of the ownership of objects and their economic value in the real world. 

Secondly, using blockchain technology means giving a Metaverse a decentralised structure, this implies that the management of the project is not in the hands of a company or corporation but is given to the users. Owning a certain number of the cryptos in the Metaverse gives the right to participate in governance and vote on decisions and choices about the future of the project. Many virtual worlds in fact rely on DAOs, decentralised autonomous organisations set up by the community. But which are the most popular and capitalised Metaverse crypto projects?

The Sandbox (SAND)

The crypto of The Sandbox metaverse is SAND, an ERC-20 type token based on the Ethereum standard. SAND is one of the main cryptocurrencies in the virtual world and handles most of the transactions and interactions in The Sandbox. It is used to buy accessories and tools to customise avatars, to manage LAND rentals and is distributed as rewards to users who win challenges and achieve goals. Metaverses are virtual worlds and like the real world they are also divided into territories, LANDs, in the form of NFTs. And like in the real world, they are not infinite; for instance on The Sandbox there are 166,464. During the first year of The Sandbox itself, these virtual land plots could be purchased through the metaverse’s crypto, SAND. 

The digital plots of land that exist to date are all sold out and the only way to own one is to buy it with ETH on an NFT marketplace, such as Opensea. 

The LANDs of The Sandbox host various brands and celebrities, some examples? Snoop Dogg, Gucci and Adidas! This Metaverse has also been selected by TIME for the list of the “100 Most Influential Companies” of 2022, under the category “pioneers”.

Decentraland (MANA)

Decentraland’s crypto metaverse is also built on Ethereum, its token is called MANA and can be used to purchase all digital objects in the virtual world, including land. This is a community-driven space where users create digital experiences, content and services and then exchange them with each other. Decentraland is not only developed by its users but is also managed by them, in fact its governance is totally entrusted to its DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation), an organisation in which MANA owners can participate by proposing and voting on initiatives. The crypto of the Decentraland metaverse thus plays a dual role within the virtual world, it is the main exchange token in this economy and also functions as a governance token. With MANA, you can purchase LAND, clothes and accessories for avatars and generally all the assets of Decentraland. These virtual assets also include Decentraland Names, ERC-721s tokens integrated with the Ethereum Name Service that appear as ‘jane.dcl.eth’. They are unique names to give to your avatar but also function as wallet addresses to receive your cryptocurrencies there directly. Why is MANA considered one of the top Metaverse crypto projects? Decentraland is increasingly often the venue for innovative and international events such as Metaverse Fashion Week, an annual event attended by famous fashion brands such as Dolce and Gabbana, Etro, Tommy Hilfiger and many others. 

Axie Infinity (AXS)

Axie Infinity is a cryptocurrency metaverse that revolves around a specific type of digital objects, the Axies, NFT pets that users can collect, care for, and race. On Axie Infinity, users have the opportunity to earn cryptocurrencies in the metaverse by playing, completing quests, and reaching goals. The virtual world of Axie Infinity is made up of many different mini-games, in fact, compared to The Sandbox and Decentraland, it is more focused on gaming rather than entertainment or exploration. Its economy relies on AXS, another ERC-20 token. AXS is used for two purposes: for crypto payments in the metaverse and for voting on governance proposals in the DAO. In addition, Axie Infinity’s cryptocurrency can be staked on the official dapp (decentralised application). 

Otherside (APE)

Yuga Labs, the Web3 company of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, is also building its own metaverse, Otherside. This virtual world was supposed to come out in April 2022, but has not yet been released. For now, all that is known is that it will be an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) on blockchain, and the key will be NFTs. Although the virtual world of Bored Ape does not yet exist, the crypto of their metaverse is already on the market. ApeCoin (APE) will be the token of Otherside and to date is used by the ApeCoin DAO, a decentralised autonomous organisation of which Bored Ape owners are members, where initiatives are proposed for the development of the entire Bored Ape ecosystem. APE, the cryptocurrency of the Otherside Metaverse and the ApeCoin DAO, was released on 17 March 2022 and as of today occupies the 34th position among the most capitalised cryptos on the market. 

Enjin (ENJ)

The Metaverse’s fifth major crypto is not a virtual world, but a platform for creating video games and NFTs on blockchain. We are talking about Enjin and its ENJ token! The project was born in 2009 to make life easier for gaming workers, and over the years it has grown closer and closer to the crypto Metaverses. Currently, Enjin offers a set of tools for developers, enthusiasts or companies to create and monetise any kind of digital content in NFT format. The ENJ token is the medium of exchange for all goods, tools and services offered by the platform; in particular, it is used by users to buy NFTs and by game developers to buy the tools needed to integrate blockchain technology into their products.
Now that you have discovered which Metaverse crypto projects are the most popular on the market, you just have to enter these virtual worlds and start using them. Only in this way can you fully understand how they work and their usefulness in the field of cryptocurrencies and beyond.

Posted on

How to access the main Metaverses

Metaverse: how to enter? All the steps to enter

How to access the Metaverse? All you need to know and the guided steps to join the most popular virtual worlds

Are you wondering how to access the Metaverse but thinking that it is something complicated and expensive? Actually, to explore these virtual worlds you don’t need sophisticated visors or special computers. Just follow a few simple steps. Read this article with instructions on how to enter the three most popular metaverses: The Sandbox, Decentraland and Roblox!

How to access the metaverse of The Sandbox

The Sandbox is a metaverse based on the Ethereum blockchain. It is a community-driven platform, i.e. it evolves according to the creativity of its users. Accessing the world’s most popular decentralised metaverse is very easy! 

The first things to do are:

  • register on the official website, you can also log in with Google or Facebook;
  • create your own personal avatar;
  • connect your crypto wallet (this is not required to access the Metaverse but is required to sell or purchase in-game items); 

After registering, download Game Maker. This is the programme for creating the objects in Voxel Art and the mini-games that populate the virtual world. To download it, go to the ‘Create’ version of the site and start the download; it is available for both Windows and Mac OS. On Game Maker you can also try out the game experiences created by other users, there are tens of thousands of them! Once downloaded, open it, log in, and… congratulations, you have just entered the metaverse of The Sandbox. 

If the single player mode bores you and you want to interact with other users, you can participate in the endless offers and events of The Sandbox. To access the current ones, go to the ‘Play’ section of the official website, choose the one that suits you and click on the ‘Play’ button. Now that you know how to access The Sandbox metaverse, all you have to do is start exploring it!

Decentraland

If, on the other hand, you are wondering how to access the Decentraland metaverse, know that you can enter it directly from the browser you use on a daily basis. The team recommends downloading the desktop programme for smoother gaming experiences. 

The first steps to be completed are: 

  • register on the official website (also with Google or Facebook); 
  • connect your crypto wallet (otherwise, you can only log in in ‘guest’ mode); 
  • create your own avatar, if it does not fully reflect you, don’t worry, you can change it as many times as you wish. 

Once you have created your virtual alter ego, within moments you will find yourself in the middle of Genesis Plaza, the main square of Decentraland. From this place, 8 roads lead to 8 plazas, forming the distinctive skeleton of the virtual world. After logging in, explore the world of Decentraland and participate in game experiences on the most popular virtual lands, such as the Luxury Fashion District that hosted the first Metaverse Fashion Week. You can move between the various scenarios of Decentraland with a single click on the ‘Jump in’ button.

How to access Roblox?

Roblox is the world’s most popular virtual world, thanks to the 150 million monthly users who frequent it. But how to access this metaverse? The steps to enter Roblox are very similar to those we have already seen. First you have to create an account on the official website. Then you need to download the game client, which unlike the previous metaverse is available for both desktop and mobile, for practically all devices (Windows, Mac OS, iOS and Android).

Once you have downloaded the game programme, created your avatar and logged in, you can start exploring this infinite Metaverse. Inside there are thousands of virtual worlds to discover, each with its own setting. If you’re thinking of logging into Roblox, know that you can also create mini-games and worlds from scratch and sell them for official game coins. 

The latter have no value outside of Roblox. Those of Decentraland (MANA) and The Sandbox (SAND), on the other hand, are real cryptocurrencies that can be exchanged with others on the market, such as Ethereum or Bitcoin, or sold for fiat currency. Moreover, these decentralised virtual worlds are based on blockchain technology and NFTs, which guarantee and certify the ownership of all objects that users buy or create in the Metaverse. To fully exploit the potential of these metaverses, it is advisable to own a non-custodial crypto wallet, e.g. Metamask. 


So here’s how to access the metaverse free and easy; all you have to do is register and, at most, download a programme to your computer. What are you waiting for? Hurry up and log in to try out the Metaverse that inspires you the most!

Posted on

What is the Bored Ape Yacht Club? Everything you need to know about the NFTs of the moment!

bored ape yacht club

How much do you know about the Bored Ape Yacht Club, the collection that made NFT mainstream? Here’s its full story!

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) marked the success of NFTs and made them mainstream. At almost two years old, it is the second largest non-fungible token project in terms of trading volume. But what is the Bored Ape Yacht Club? Who is behind it? Why are these ‘bored apes’ worth so much? In this article you will find everything you need to know!

Bored Ape Yacht Club: what is it?

The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of 10,000 non-fungible tokens released by Yuga Labs in 2021. Each NFT in the collection represents an ‘Ape’, i.e. a monkey, generated by the combination of 170 randomly chosen characteristics, including expressions, headgear, and clothing. The concepts of combination and rarity are reminiscent of CryptoPunks, with the Bored Ape also being distinguished by its reference number. Technically speaking, these non-fungible tokens are ERC-721 tokens on Ethereum and their metadata are hosted in the decentralised repository of the IPFS.

Two spin-off collections derive from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, the Mutant Ape Yacht Club representing the monkeys in a ‘mutant’ version and the Bored Ape Kennel Club, consisting of the primates’ four-legged friends (pooches).

Celebrities who own Bored Ape

Owning a Bored Ape means belonging to an exclusive club of community benefits but above all social prestige. There are many people from show business who have climbed aboard the club that grants real status. Let’s take a look at some celebrities and their Apes:

  • Shaquille O’Neal
    The NBA champion owns a Mutant Ape, bought for $14,000;
  • Jimmy Fallon
    The Bored Ape number #599 is currently owned by the host of the famous American talk show, he bought it for $224,000;
  • Eminem
    In December 2021, Eminem bought an Ape for more than $450,000. An Ape that looks incredibly like him;
  • Neymar JR
    The player in January 2022 for 1 million took home two Apes, number #6633 and #5269;
  • Gwyneth Paltrow
    Paltrow’s last non-fungible purchase appeared on Twitter last January;
  • Justin Bieber
    The pop star keeps Bored Ape #3001 in his wallet.
  • Snoop Dogg
    The rapper in question, under the pseudonym Cozomo de’ Medici, is a big NFT collector. He certainly couldn’t pass up a few Apes.
  • Stephen Curry
    The four-time NBA champion also owns a Bored Ape, number #7990, which he has displayed for a few months as his Twitter profile picture.
  • Madonna
    “The Queen of Pop” owns BAYC number #4988, paid around $466,000.

How the Bored Ape Yacht Club came into being

Like all great stories, this one started with four friends at the bar. Gargamel, Gordon, Tomato and Sass, four eccentric, out-of-the-box types decided to experiment with blockchain and create some not-so-smart-looking monkeys. The first step was taken by Gordon who immediately came up with a detailed and enviable business plan, namely a chat message: ‘let’s make an NFT’. Gargamel and Gordon had stumbled upon cryptocurrencies in 2017 and in the famous bar they tried to pull the other two in. You know that friend for whom any opportunity is good to talk crypto? Spoiler: if you can’t think of anyone, it’s you.

Tomato and Sass’s role in the project was technical, meanwhile another message had arrived: “do you know JavaScript?”. Apparently it seemed essential to them to create NFT (spoiler #2: it’s not so much). All four of them together founded Yuga Labs to make digital, authentic art on blockchain. In February 2022, the American tabloid BuzzFeed published a report revealing the identities of two founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, specifically Gordon and Gargamel whose real names would be: Wylie Aronow and Greg Solano, two 30-year-old Florida residents. The article triggered a fierce reaction from the community, which accused BuzzFeed of illegally violating the privacy of the two founders.

But why monkeys? In the crypto world, monkeys are common animals, almost as common as whales. According to a long tradition, cryptocurrency traders affectionately refer to each other as ‘monkeys’. Cryptopunks also have monkeys, and they are among the rarest.

Key moments in the history of the Bored Ape Yacht Club

The Bored Ape was released in April 2021 and in just a few years wrote NFT history, achieving sensational milestones. Here is a brief summary of the highlights of BAYC:

  • 23 April 2021: launch of the collection with a one-week pre-sale. During this time, only 500 Ape were sold at 0.08 ETH (at that time about 220 USD);
  • 1 May 2021: crazy night when all 9,500 remaining Apes were sold! On that night, BAYC’s smart contract was the most used smart contract on Ethereum: “our Discord went from totally dead to the most hype place in the crypto world”. The collection thus sold out;
  • 8 August 2021: opening of the BAYC Riverboat Casino in Decentraland developed with Decentral Games;
  • 28 August 2021: arrival of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, each ape owner received a symbolic ‘serum’ to mutate their ape with matching but ‘genetically modified’ traits. In addition, 10,000 more Mutant Apes were born,
  • 9 September 2021: During an auction at Sotheby’s (the famous auction house), a lot of 101 Apes was sold for almost $25 million;
  • 17 December 2021: collaboration with Adidas to bring the sports brand into the Metaverse.
  • 18 March 2022: airdrop of Apecoin (APE), the BAYC governance token, developed by ApeCoin DAO and not directly by Yuga Labs;
  • 19 March 2022: launch of Otherdeed, the LANDs of the Bored Ape Metaverse, Otherside (not yet officially released);
  • 16 July 2022: online the demo version of Otherside in which 4,500 users participated, the first exclusive journey into the Bored Ape Metaverse;
  • 19 January 2023: release of Doo-Key Dash, a mini-game for NFT holders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club to win valuable prizes;

Who illustrated the Bored Ape?

The Bored Ape originated primarily as an art project, their ‘bored, scruffy, punk’ graphic design stemming from the joint work of several freelance artists. All Seeing Seneca worked for four days under the creative direction of the founders to outline the basic character, later Mig and Thomas Dagley and two other artists who wish to remain anonymous created the expressions, clothing, accessories and design of the club itself within a month. The Mutant Ape Yacht Club is the work of Dagley and Lovans Hartes.

The Bored Ape are the undisputed stars of the crypto space

BAYC is now an institution in the crypto space. Apes are used as avatars for experiences that have to do with the Metaverse or Web3, such as Jenkins The Valet, the creative writing project using NFTs, or the digital band set up by Universal Music, in which the members are four Apes. A Bored Ape even appeared in the Adidas commercial for the 2022 World Cup, on the packaging of a cereal box. These are just a few examples, to keep up to date with all BAYC initiatives, there is The Bored Ape Gazette.

Another project developed by Yuga Labs is ‘The Bathroom‘. A virtual bathroom where each club member, i.e. those who have at least one Ape in their wallet, could paint a pixel on the wall for 15 minutes. “As with any good dive bar bathroom, this is the place to draw, doodle or write expletives”. An artistic and collaborative experiment for the cryptosphere, as crazy and creative as the four founders of BAYC. The (improvised) writers of the Bored Ape Yacht Club did a rather original job, even two Crypto Punks appeared on the canvas!

The universe of the Bored Ape

Yuga Labs is regularly releasing applications and features that help expand its ecosystem. The most important project is certainly the Otherside metaverse, announced in March 2022 and already ‘tested’ by the community. It is not yet known when this virtual world will be available, but to console users who can no longer wait, the mini-game Doo-Key was released in January 2023, opening a new chapter in the lore (plot) of the Bored Ape Yacht Club.

To gain access to the game, NFT Yuga Labs owners have previously minted the Sewer Pass. In the game Doo-Key, the objective is to retrieve a valuable key lost by the careless character Jimmy The Monkey while darting through the sewers. This key, if collected, will allow you to open the door to the next scenario, learn about new plot developments and qualify for exclusive prizes all from Bored Ape Yacht Club.