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The 3 big advantages of choosing Freename

Why choose Freename? The 3 advantages

If crypto domains are the watchword for Web3, TLDs are the passepartout. But only with Freename.

Freename is a service that simplifies the adoption and integration of Web3 domains on the Internet. The project starts in Switzerland, the historical crypto valley, and builds its approach around three industry pillars: interoperability, entrepreneurship and transparency.

The interoperability of Freename domains

Crypto domains are not just websites: in Web3 they become the keystone, facilitating the whole online experience. Domains thus become our online identity, declined in its various applications: an alias for social networking, a professional email, a wallet, the username in a game – all collected under the same domain. This requires a high level of interoperability with decentralised applications (Dapps) and also with Web 2.0 applications, in order to speed up adoption.

However, it is important not to underestimate the basic level of interoperability needed, which is not yet an effective industry standard. Dapps, exchanges, wallets, NFTs and blockchains should be usable together, seamlessly.

Each project develops different solutions to achieve this vision. Freename, for its part, started by developing compatibility with numerous blockchains, of which four are already available.

The most interesting feature in this regard, however, is the Freename Web3 Browser Extension, available for Chrome, Firefox and Brave. This browser extension acts as a bridge between Web 2.0 and Web3 through five different functionalities:

  • Registrar, a direct link to the site for creating domains and TLDs on Freename
  • Browse, an address bar where you can enter a Web3 domain and also find its associated content on Web2.
  • Web3 WHOIS, the explorer for all Web3 domains even beyond Freename
  • Web3 Email, an interface to use your own crypto domain as an email address and communicate with other domain owners
  • Payments, still under development.

Thanks to the Young Platform integration, it is also possible to withdraw cryptocurrencies from the exchange to a Freename domain. To send crypto, it is then sufficient to type in the domain name instead of the wallet address.

The perfect solution for a Web3 enterprise

The freedom to create your own TLD is certainly one of the aspects that most distinguishes Freename from other Web3 registrars.

If you are a crypto artist, a content creator, or have a Web3 company, Freename has thought of you too. What better way to promote your business than through a dedicated TLD?

Imagine if your company name became the next “.com”. With Freename, every time someone buys a domain with your TLD you get royalties.

That’s not all: you can make your brand’s TLD a registered trademark under Swiss law, so that it is also legally protected against counterfeiting and fraud.

For particularly high-profile brands and public figures, there is also a domain and TLD protection service called ‘protected domains‘. Simply contact the Freename team to take advantage of this service.

Security and transparency starting with technology

We have already talked about the Web3 WHOIS explorer designed by the Freename team. This is crucial to give users control, as it allows them to check the ownership and operations of domains directly on the blockchain. The ability to verify the existence or authenticity of a Web3 domain also protects against phishing attempts.

The development roadmap is completely transparent: you can always see the stage of development of the service and also propose updates via the dedicated section, as well as vote on those already proposed.

In short, with Freename your Web3 site will be completely under your domain. Discover the unique opportunity to access it at a bargain price with the Young Platform Clubs.

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New Club Benefit: Get a coupon for Freename

Join a Club and get a Freename domain: together we will dominate the Web3!

Freename is a platform where you can create, buy and sell not only Web3 domains, but also TLDs. We have talked about all its innovative features on Academy, but here’s a little spoiler: it is a Web3 swiss made entity.

Web3 domains are now a must-have for every Web3 citizen, and if you are in a Club, you can get one even for free! But what are the pros of having a Freename domain?

Let’s get to it and find out all the details of this new benefit reserved for Clubs on Young Platform.

How does the benefit work?

If you are a member of a Club, from today 1st March you can get a coupon on Freename for a variable value depending on the level you belong to.

This is also valid for those who join the Clubs after 1st March!

freename web3 domain coupon

Here are 5 things to keep in mind before you start:

  1. The application of the coupon on Freename is automatic only if you start the purchase from Young Platform Web.
  2. The coupon can only be used once. Any credit not used at the first purchase will therefore be lost.
    Example: my chosen domain costs $85. I have a coupon of $110. I add the domain to the basket and proceed to the purchase. Once the purchase is confirmed, I will not have spent anything, but I will have lost $25 in coupon credits.
  3. You can purchase several domains at a time by adding them to the same shopping cart and using the same coupon for the total spend.
  4. Both the possibility of obtaining the coupon and the benefit expire on 16/08/2023.
  5. In addition to second-level domains, the coupon is only valid for the following TLDs:
    • “metaverse”,
    • “hodl”,
    • “moon”,
    • “lambo”,
    • “token”,
    • “airdrop”,
    • “chain”,
    • “layer”,
    • “satoshi”,
    • “genesis”.

Now is the time to take action and dominate the Web3!

How to buy a Freename domain on Young Platform Web

Thanks to the integration of Freename on Young Platform Web, you can search for available domains directly from your desktop account.

So here is how to make a purchase.

  • Log in to Young Platform from the desktop version
  • Go to the Wallet section
  • You will see a box dedicated to Freename, click on the button
  • Look for the Web3 domain or TLD you want in the search bar
  • Select it
  • You will be redirected to the Freename site
  • Add the domain to the cart
  • Create a Freename account
  • Add your details to the cart and accept the Terms and Conditions
  • If it is a TLD, you can choose to tick the Royalties option, which will require you to pay $50 in order to obtain royalties every time someone uses your TLD.
  • You will see the coupon applied to your cart automatically

If you are unable to apply the coupon to a domain or TLD on Freename or to purchase a domain or TLD from Young Platform Web, it means that this domain is not covered by the Clubs promotion and is therefore not compatible with the coupon or not available, but you can still purchase it by accessing Freename directly and proceeding independently of Young Platform.

  • If the credit does not cover the entire spend, add a payment method, either Metamask or credit or debit cards are accepted.
  • Confirm the purchase
  • View the purchase in ‘Portfolio and Incomes’, under ‘Domains’.

Now the domain is yours, but the ownership is not yet registered on blockchain: you need to mint it first:

  • Click on ‘Mint Domain’ next to the purchased domain
  • Choose the blockchain you want to mint it on, based on the ones supported by your wallet and that you use the most
  • Select the destination wallet by clicking on “Add a new address”.
  • Click on ‘Connect wallet’
  • Choose Metamask (if you do not know how to create a Metamask wallet, here is the guide)
  • Give Metamask permission to connect the wallet with Freename by clicking ‘Next’ and then ‘Connect’.
  • Click on “sign new address” on Freename
  • Signature on Metamask
  • Click on “Save changes” on Freename
  • Click on “Confirm mint” on Freename

Your domain is now inviolable: being indelibly associated with your wallet, no one can take it away from you until you put it up for sale.

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Turkey and Syria emergency. Donate now for children affected by the earthquake

turkey earthquake

After the earthquake in Turkey, Young Platform renews its collaboration with Save the Children to send crypto donations

The earthquake in Turkey in February mobilised donations and solidarity from all over the world, united in the face of a natural disaster. 

As now well known, on the night of 5-6 February, the area bordering Syria was the epicentre of a strong earthquake (magnitude 7.8 and 7.5). The two tremors resounded as far as Cyprus, Lebanon and Israel. The phenomenon returned on 20 February with the epicentre in the town of Hatay in south-west Turkey, with a magnitude of 6.4 and 5.8.

The main victims of the earthquake in Turkey: children

After the first earthquake, Turkey declared over 41,000 dead, thousands injured and buildings collapsed. In all, 1.4 million children are suffering the damage of this catastrophe. The survivors among them are now without shelter.

These territories and especially their most disadvantaged inhabitants must receive as much aid as possible, international contributions are not enough, and it will take a long time to heal just one of the many wounds of these countries.

Save the Children with the Emergency Fund ensures that the children affected by the earthquake receive all kinds of help.

You can also make donations in cryptocurrencies, as was already possible this Christmas.

How to send donations for the earthquake in Turkey

Below are instructions on how to send cryptocurrencies to the Emergency Fund.

  1. Start from this page;
  2. Choose the crypto to donate;
  3. Choose whether to make an anonymous donation or enter your details;
  4. Click on ‘Donate now’;
  5. You will see the address of the destination wallet in the form of an alphanumeric code and as a QR code. Copy it to the clipboard;
  6. Open the Young Platform app in the Wallet section;
  7. Select the cryptocurrency you have decided to use;
  8. Click on “Withdraw”;
  9. Enter the amount and click on ‘Continue’; 
  10. Paste the Save the Children wallet address you copied from the link provided or scan the QR code. We advise you not to write the address manually to avoid typos;
  11. Definitively confirm the withdrawal via the email you will receive at your address. 

If you want to view the status of your transaction on the blockchain, you can paste the TxID into the search bar of a blockchain explorer such as Blockchair. 

This way you can track your crypto donations and make sure they reach Save the Children, who will use them to help the children victims of the earthquake in Turkey. 

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New Club benefit: the monthly Market Report

New Club benefit: the monthly Market Report

For Silver, Gold and Platinum Clubs a monthly Market Report created by our trading team

When your friends ask you how the market is doing, do you only answer with “Up” or “Down”? Do you get by on “hearsay”? 

No problem! Finding reliable and timely information today is not easy. That’s why we do it for you, with the Market Report. 

If you are a member of a Club, you will have already received the first two Young Platform Reports by email, with which we collected your feedback, but the time has come to make this benefit official. 

From now on, the benefit is reserved for Silver, Gold and Platinum Clubs: these members will receive an in-depth market analysis at the beginning of each month, covering the previous month. 

For those who are not yet members of the Clubs, here are the main points covered by the report: 

  • Market Capitalisation Analysis
  • Bitcoin Dominance and Price Action
  • Price action of Ethereum and the ETH-BTC pair
  • Price action of the monthly crypto
  • US monetary policies
  • Monthly news
  • On-chain data for Bitcoin, Ethereum and the monthly crypto

Is there any data or topic you would like to see covered monthly in this report? Post a suggestion on the Discord channel and we will adapt the report with the most requested additions.

Staying abreast of the market is essential to be in control of your resources and make the best use of them. With the Market Report you have a tool created by professional traders that sums up everything you need to pay attention to in order to have a thorough understanding of the current situation. 

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The Unusual World of Web Domains: Tales and Trivia

Have you ever wondered what ‘Google’ means or what the longest domain on the web is? Get ready for 90s revival-themed trivia

Digging deep into the history of internet domains and beyond, we have uncovered these 5 curiosities and trivia. Among mysterious characters only forums talk about, beyond the most ridiculous and useless websites, in the depths of vintage web archives, absurd and unexpected facts have emerged. Let’s get to it.

1. In 2015, someone bought Google.com for $12

The history of the Google domain is full of oversights, starting from its inception. Can you imagine typing Googol.com instead of Google.com? It would be ironic, since Googol was originally supposed to be the name of the famous search engine. 

The term means ‘10 to the power of 100’ (1 plus 100 zeros) and it was Larry Page‘s university friend Sean who suggested it to him in 1997. Larry approved the name and Sean registered it for him, but without knowing the correct spelling of the word, so he purchased the name we know today.

Google’s second slip-up happened in 2015, when in the middle of the night a former employee of the giant, Sanmay Ved, managed to buy Google.com.

Sanmay did not expect to be able to get the domain, and for only $12 moreover, yet he even received the invoice. Google, however, did not take too long to regain possession of his domain on the web: in just one minute, Sanmay saw the world’s most powerful URL slip out of his hands.

The trilogy ends in 2021 in Buenos Aires: it is evening and a young designer, while working, notices that Google is not working. So he checks the site responsible for internet domains in Argentina and sees that Google Argentina is for sale. Someone in his place would perhaps have thought it was an error or a bug and would have ignored the anomaly. Instead, Nicolas, our champ, decides to click and the purchase goes through for the equivalent of just €2.30. For a few hours, this time, the domain was in Nicolas’s possession, yet Google did not clarify why the domain was available, nor how it brought it back under its control. 

2. Cancelled web domains: a geopolitical ghost story

There are 5 ccTLDs that have been deleted due to geopolitical changes. Yes, Risk is also played out on the WWW and it can be fascinating to discover how these events are handled in different ways by ICANN and the entities involved, as well as being a dropcatching opportunity for the domainers of these countries.

The process of removing a ccTLD from a country that no longer exists or has a new name is not always immediate. In the case of the former Soviet countries and the USSR itself, there are many examples of transitions that dragged on for years. The .su (Soviet Union) domain itself is still usable, so much so that it still has about 100,000 registered domains and seems to be very popular with cyber criminals.

Some, on the other hand, actually disappeared:

  • .an: the Netherlands Antilles dissolved in 2010, since then ICANN accepted the domains .bq (Caribbean Netherlands), .cw (Curaçao) and .sx (Sint Maarten) as replacements.
  • .dd: the domain was originally intended for the GDR (German Democratic Republic), but was only used internally between two East German universities.
  • .um: this TLD referring to the US Minor Islands was removed in 2007. It used to be managed by the University of Southern California, but the islands have been virtually uninhabited for decades and the institute asked to be relieved of this responsibility.
  • .yu: the ccTLD of the former Republic of Yugoslavia, which was permanently dissolved in 2006, was only removed in 2010 after .yu website owners managed to move to the .rs (Serbia) and .me (Montenegro) top-level domains.
  • .zr: shortly after the introduction of the ccTLD for the Republic of Zaire, the African state changed its name to Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997 and was given the extension .cd. The .zr domain was finally deleted by ICANN in 2001.

To the domainers out there, keep your eyes peeled for geographical shifts.

3. Get the longest possible domain? Challenge accepted!

The Internet really is a wonderful place, and just as self-referential. If you’ve already got lost among the photos and wiki pages of very long place names, you won’t help but LoL about this next geographical trivia.

The world’s first longest domain is actually the name of a village in Wales. In 2002, llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllllantysiliogogogoch.co.uk was registered and entered the Guinness Book of Records with 58 characters excluding the TLD. However, consider that the maximum length allowed for any part of the domain is 63 characters.

In fact, someone in 2007, challenged this record by registering llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndwllllantysiliogogogochuchaf.eu, with 60 characters excluding the TLD. “uchaf” means the ‘old’ or ‘high’ part of the village. I challenge you to pronounce it in one breath, that would be a real record.

In those years, however, two other domains actually reached 63 characters. The first contains a blog dedicated to Pi, by a German mathematician so passionate that he memorised the whole domain name:

3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592.eu.

If, however, the requirement for the world record is to create a domain consisting of letters, thisisthelongesteuropeandomainnameallovertheworldandnowitismine.eu wins it. 

4. Coca cola made a marketing campaign using 61 domains

Coca Cola’s strategy wasn’t too different, its marketing department took domains so seriously that they made a promotional campaign out of them. You know those commercials for Santa’s favourite drink? At some point you hear an opening ‘click’ or a thirst-quenching ‘ahh‘. This is like a slogan for the scarlet brand. 

Thus in 2013 as many as 61 domain names appeared, starting with “ahh.com” and the rest was with an increasing number of ‘h’s. Today, these sites are mostly for sale or inactive, but at the time the intention was to impress millennials who were indifferent to classic promotional means.

5. One man in 2012 bought 14,692 domains in one day

If you think Nicolas or Sanmay were heroes, you haven’t met Mike Mann yet. Mike is not one of those dropcatching vultures, he creates domains. If you ask him why, he replies that it is out of greed: Mike simply wants to own the world. But who is this mysterious character with such a common name?

This greedy domainer is now 56 years old and has been in the domain scene since the beginning. In the 1990s, he founded an Internet Service Provider company, but one day someone offered him $25,000 for a domain he owned, and the next day they offered him twice as much. Realising the opportunity, having paid only $70 for that domain, he immediately dove into the at-the-time wild domain market.

Mike thus began creating and selling hundreds of domains a day, but in 2012 he outdid himself by purchasing 14,692 in just 24 hours. 

Today, the entrepreneur still owns a few domains, on which he has founded companies and organisations. He owns none other than SEO.com and Phone.com, an SEO agency and a phone service company respectively. He then founded DomainMarket.com and AccurateAppraisals.com dedicated to the Internet domain market. But he also got involved in social work, creating the educational project FearlessLeaders.com and MakeChange.com, a charity organisation. Makemillions.com, on the other hand, is the site dedicated to his book, and of course he owns MikeMann.com.

Hopefully these 5 interesting facts about internet domains made you go “ah!” at least once, like in a Coca Cola commercial. And if you’re still thirsty, discover more facts in the history of internet domains.

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The 10 most expensive internet domains in history

Internet domains: the 10 most expensive in history

Who is ready to shell out millions for a name on the Internet? Here are the most expensive domains ever and their owners

How is it possible that Internet domains, virtual properties that can be bought for as little as a few dozen dollars, come to cost millions and millions? Some are more valuable than others, and despite the fact that more than twenty years have passed since they were first traded, this market is still very active today. The rarest, and therefore most desirable, domains are those defined by unique, meaningful words. Those words that can describe a precise field or sector such as “cars”, “internet” or “sex” (as in the case of Sex.com, the domain that took everyone to court). The ranking of the most expensive domains in history is all made up of the TDL .com, the one with the most international scope.

1.    Cars.com – 872 million

The most expensive internet domain in history? Cars.com, which had a valuation of $872,000,000 in 2017. It is currently owned by the Chicago-based car company of the same name. Its value was estimated on the basis of balance sheet documents of parent company Gannet Co., Inc. 

2.    LasVegas.com – 90 million

This domain was purchased by Vegas.com, a travel, tourism and entertainment site linked to the city in Nevada. The agreement, which came in 2005, provided for a payment of $12,000,000 at the time of signing and monthly payments scheduled until 2040, when the domain will be officially transferred to Vegas.com (assuming it does not want to terminate the contract).

3.    CarInsurance.com – 49.7 million

CarInsurance.com hosts a car insurance website and since 2010 it has been owned by QuinStreet, a marketing and advertising company that is very active in domain, website and media buying and selling.

4.    Insurance.com – 35.6 million

Prior to CarInsurance.com, QuinStreet had already purchased Insure.com (for $16 million) and Insurance.com in 2009 to strengthen its online presence and identity in the field of insurance. The former was owned by a broker, while Insurance.com was bought for $35.6 million by an insurance agency.

5.    VacationRentals.com – 35 million

In fifth place in the ranking of the most expensive internet domains ever is VacationRentals.com. In 2013 it was bought for $35 million by Brian Sharples, CEO of HomeAway (now Vrbo, Vacation Rentals by Owner), a company that offers holiday rental accommodation. The purchase had a ‘defensive’ purpose at the time, Sharples explained: ‘the only reason we bought it was because Expedia couldn’t have that url’. Fun fact: marking territory did not help, Expedia acquired Vrbo in 2015.

6.    PrivateJet.com – 30.2 million

PrivateJet.com since 2012 has been owned by Nations, a platform that offers private aviation services such as buying and selling jets around the world. Nations purchased the domain from Don’t Look Media for $30.2 million.

7.    Voice.com – 30 million

You may not know that Micheal Saylor‘s MicroStrategy is also involved in trading valuable internet domains. On 30 May 2019, it sold the Voice.com domain to Block.one for $30 million to launch its blockchain-based social media platform called Voice. The word ‘voice’ in English is clear and recognisable, it immediately links to a project and the associated domain is worth so much.

8.    Internet.com – 18 million

Internet.com was bought in 2009 for $18 million by QuinStreet. However, it may have secretly climbed the ranking of the most expensive internet domains ever… In fact, an auction was organised in 2021 with a minimum auction base of 35 million. Unfortunately, there is no information on the outcome and the eventual new owner.

9.    360.com – 17 million

The owner of 360.com is Qihoo 360, a Chinese company specialising in security software. The domain, which previously belonged to Vodafone, was acquired to improve brand perception. Compared to ‘qihoo’, ‘360’ is a more immediate and easy-to-remember name due to the technical term ‘360 degree’.

10. NFTs.com – 15 million

This crypto-themed domain closes the top 10, NFTs.com was bought for $15 million on 3 August 2022. Although the buyer has remained anonymous, it is known to have links to Web3 projects such as the Digital Artist platform. It is one of the most expensive crypto word domains (Eth.com was sold for ‘only’ 2 million).

Crypto.com, Stake.com and Bitcoin.com also seem to fall into the category of the most expensive internet domains in history. In these cases, however, negotiations remained confidential.

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Cryptocurrencies to keep an eye on in 2023

Crypto: plans and news for 2023

Let’s analyse the memorable trends and events of 2022 and discover the most interesting crypto projects for 2023. Here are the ones you cannot miss!

After the excitement of the all-time high we started with this year, cryptocurrencies have been through a lot during 2022. And so have we. From the tightening of monetary policies, to the failure of some crypto projects considered to be giants in the industry. In this situation, some virtual currencies have fared better than others. We are here to review and analyse the trends and events of 2022 and to discover the most interesting crypto projects for 2023.

The crypto market in 2022: what happened?  

Before analysing the new projects and innovations that the most capitalised cryptos have in store for 2023, let’s do a quick recap of what happened in the industry during this difficult year. 2022 in Crypto can be summed up in these two concepts: failures and adoption. We started the year still enthusiastic about the price spikes that had just been reached, but we soon entered a negative economic situation. Emerging markets, such as the cryptocurrency market, were affected by increasingly strict monetary policies. Many times this year, the performance of Bitcoin and Ethereum has followed macroeconomic events. The US stock market has lost over 15% in value, the bond markets 20% and the crypto market has fallen over 50% from its peak in November 2021.

In the first months of the year, cryptocurrencies were actually not particularly affected, or at least not until the collapse of the blockchain Terra. A new blow then came a few weeks ago with the bankruptcy of FTX. The failure of these two crypto projects has brought attention to the need to regulate the sector to protect users. A topic we will probably hear a lot about in 2023. 

Although these failures affected the market, it is important to note that neither was caused by problems with blockchain technology per se. On the contrary, in 2022 the technical development continued on its path and for cryptocurrencies the progress made is remarkable. 

Trends: mobile breakthrough and the quest for scalability

The cryptocurrency world this year seems to have finally realised the importance of the ‘mobile’ medium. Concretely, this shift has been reflected by the development of new crypto projects including dapps, wallets and play-to-earn games for mobile devices, and by the launch of actual smartphones to facilitate the use of services. As in the case of Saga, Solana’s mobile phone. The goal of these projects is to improve the user experience, embracing mobile is necessary to reach the goal of one billion people transacting cryptocurrency on a regular basis (currently estimated at 300 million) as soon as possible. For many, mobile dapps and crypto smartphones in a few years’ time will be far more prevalent than AR and VR devices for the Metaverse. In the wake of this trend, 2022 was also the year when NFTs arrived on social networks. 

As we will see in the following paragraphs, the main goal that the most capitalised crypto projects have set themselves for 2023 is to enhance their scalability. That is, to make networks faster and cheaper to operate.

Bitcoin 

Nakamoto’s coin starts its 2023 with a record! The Layer 2 project of the world’s longest-lived and most famous cryptocurrency, the Lightning Network, reached the capacity, i.e. the maximum exchangeable value, of 5,000 BTC in the last days of 2022. This value grows proportionally to the use of the Lightning Network, which is now at an all-time high mainly due to adoption and integrations for small payments. At the same time, with a virtuous circle, capacity increases the speed and quantity of transactions. Another new development for Bitcoin is the development of Taro. The creators of the Lightning Network themselves announced this new crypto project that will allow stablecoins to be developed on the BTC blockchain. 

Ethereum

The most important blockchain event of 2022? The Merge! That is, the transition of Ethereum from the Proof-of-Work to the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. The complexity and scope of the consequences of this change make The Merge one of the biggest milestones in the history of blockchain. But what are the new projects and innovations of Vitalik Buterin’s crypto for 2023? The first item on the roadmap is the Shanghai update that will complete the transition to Proof-of-Stake by regulating staking activities for validators. The Ethereum Foundation has set itself two further goals: to be able to process up to 100,000 transactions per second and to reduce fees on its network. Both of these improvements can be achieved thanks to new features that will be implemented by a new update package, known as ‘Sharding’.

Polygon

The MATIC team in 2022 also focused on improving the scalability of the blockchain. The biggest innovation in this respect is the integration of zk rollups, a Layer-2 technology that allows transactions to be grouped off-chain and transferred all together on-chain. This decreases the time it takes to validate transactions and lightens the burden of data being transcribed on the blockchain. This year has been a busy one for Polygon, as well as achieving its goal of becoming carbon neutral (and offsetting all emissions since its founding), it has entered into numerous collaborations with iconic companies and brands outside the cryptocurrency market. New plans for MATIC, Polygon’s crypto, for 2023 will focus on further increasing the scalability of its network and progressive adoption.

Cardano 

For Cardano in September 2022 came the Vasil update, designed to enhance blockchain performance in terms of scalability and speed. The update changed the validation and transaction transmission system and also the programming language for Cardano’s smart contracts, Plutus. Vasil is one of the ADA team’s initiatives to attract dapp developers, especially DeFi developers. In short, thanks to this update, Charles Hoskinson’s blockchain is looking forward to a 2023 marked by the development of many new crypto projects on its network. 

Dogecoin 

The flirtation between Dogecoin and Elon Musk will presumably continue in 2023. Probably thanks to him, this cryptocurrency made it through 2022 without too much damage. The price of Dogecoin has kept pace with Musk’s statements and business decisions, and for every new development, we have found a pump. The growth of the meme coin was particularly pronounced in November, when Musk bought Twitter, making plans for the future of the social network. One of the crypto projects the tycoon might involve Dogecoin in? Twitter’s payment methods. 

Stablecoin 

If we take a look at the ranking of cryptocurrencies by market cap, between Bitcoin, Ethereum and the others we have just reported on, we find a few stablecoins lined up. How did 2022 go for Tether and USDC and what plans do these dollar-pegged cryptos have in store for 2023? After Terra’s stablecoin depegging, which caused the collapse of the entire ecosystem, the reputation of these digital coins was tarnished. Tether and USDC have therefore spent these months working on transparency and maintaining user trust. Tether, which has since also expanded to Polkadot, assures in a statement on 9 November that ‘the tokens are 100% backed by our reserves’ and that ‘Tether holds a strong, conservative and liquid portfolio, which includes cash, equivalents and US Treasury securities’.

Circle, the company that manages USDC, also confirms the soundness of its reserves and this summer also launched a new stablecoin pegged to the euro. The efforts of the centralised stablecoins seem to be paying off as their market capitalisation continues to grow. New ones are also expected to arrive in early 2023, notably Aave and Curve, which are a lending protocol and a decentralised exchange, respectively. Will the two DeFi giants be able to continue with their plans to create stable cryptos by the end of 2023?

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Young Platform gets licence to operate in France from Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF)

Young Platform gets licence to operate in France from Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF)
  • Young Platform, the leading Italian crypto-exchange, is now fully authorized to operate in France after receiving registration as a digital asset service provider by the French Financial Markets Authority. 
  • This milestone recognizes the high quality and security standards that Young Platform upholds. 
  • The French crypto ecosystem is one of the most vibrant ecosystems in Europe: French people who own cryptocurrencies (8%) already outnumber those who own shares (6.7%).

Paris – January 4th, 2023  – Young Platform, the leading Italian crypto-exchange, announces it has been registered as a digital asset service provider (prestataire de services sur actifs numériques, or PSAN) under the number E2022-60 by the French Financial Markets Authority. The Autorité des Marchés Financier (AMF) is an independent authority that plays a key role in protecting investors and promoting transparency and stability in French financial markets. With the registration of Young Platform, the AMF confirms the soundness of a model that protects users.

The registration with the French Financial Markets Authority is another major milestone in Young Platform’s ambitious European expansion plan and comes just six months after a €16 million funding round led by Azimut to educate Europe on crypto. Young Platform gathers a growing community of more than one million members and can now kick off its next phase of growth by becoming a key actor in the french crypto ecosystem, one of the most vibrant ecosystems in Europe.

According to a study conducted by consulting firm KPMG on behalf of the Association for the Development of Digital Assets (Adan), nearly 8% of French people own cryptocurrencies, and 30% are considering buying them. This figure is interesting to put into perspective with the number of French people who own shares: about 6.7% of them, according to the AMF. Thus, to date and despite the youth of digital assets, more French people hold cryptos than own shares.

Young Platform aims to simplify access to the world of cryptocurrencies for its users by providing a set of digital products and services that meet different needs according to skill level, from beginner to expert. Young Platform targets a wide audience and promotes an intense educational activity on blockchain technology and virtual currencies through an app as well as dedicated editorial content.

“Beyond simple cryptocurrency conversion, Young Platform’s mission is to convert the complex technical concepts developed by a handful of talented developers into simple mechanics accessible to the greatest number of people. Indeed, we fully believe that the enabler of this market is not technological but educational. Our ecosystem of applications allows users to progress at their own pace to make informed investment decisions,” explains Ambroise Hélaine, Country Manager France at Young Platform. 

“Young Platform’s expansion into Europe is an important step for business growth and represents a new opportunity for anyone interested in the crypto market to access Young Platform’s innovative solutions. We are excited about this important milestone and look forward to expanding and offering our services to an even wider audience,” concludes Andrea Ferrero, CEO at Young Platform.

Providing a secure ecosystem for our users 

While doubt & fear stormed the crypto market since last year’s ATH (BTC reached 60K last December), the registration of Young Platform as a digital asset service provider is a badge of honor for the company and a testament to the high standards of Young Platform’s internal processes.

Regulated, transparent, onshore, and/or audited exchanges are seeing a dramatic increase in market share. This is essentially getting back the customers who fled to offshore exchanges for more assets/potentially unregistered securities offered to trade, more leverage and lower fees. Since October, the market share of regulated exchanges has increased by 30 percentage points. The obvious trade here is it will come back to regulated exchanges. 

Growth in dire conditions 

As with the stock market and financial markets, the correction that digital assets are undergoing is furthered by the failure of the major players that served as gateways to the crypto world. Unlike other crypto exchanges, which rely on a portion of their users’ assets to build the much-needed “liquidity pools” to protect the overall user experience, Young Platform adopted, from DAY 1, a philosophy based on user protection:

  • A clear separation of company funds from user funds
  • Strategic partnership with external providers of real-time crypto-asset liquidity

Young Platform based its first growth stage on this asset, quickly establishing itself as one of Italy’s fastest-growing startups despite tough market conditions on the crypto scene. 

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Young Platform wins Startup of the Year 2022 award

Startup of the Year 2022: Young Platform wins the award together with epiCura

Young Platform wins the ‘Startup of the Year 2022’ award from I3P, the Innovative Companies Incubator of the Politecnico di Torino

Here at Young Platform we ended the year on a high note with an award that we’re really proud of! In December, we received the ‘Startup of the Year 2022′ award during the 23rd edition of the ‘Festa delle Startup I3P’, the annual event of the Incubator of the Politecnico di Torino that celebrates innovative Italian start-ups. 

The Startup Party 

Every year at the ‘Festa delle Startup I3P’, the new companies selected to enter the Politecnico di Torino incubation programme are introduced and awards are presented to the start-ups that have distinguished themselves through their successful journey.

The event was an opportunity to discover innovative products and services ready to conquer the market, and to tell the story of start-ups that took their first steps from the Politecnico di Torino and have proven their value over time. During the ‘Festa’ on 21 December 2022, Young Platform received the ‘Startup of the Year 2022’ award, tied with epiCura, the first digital platform providing home care services. 

Young Platform’s 2022

There are years made for dreaming and planning, others for building, and some for reaping the fruits of one’s labour. In 2022, we at Young Platform expanded and gave our all, we became one of the top three cryptocurrency trading platforms in Italy, with a 36% market share and over a million active users on our products. We launched our YNG token, inaugurated the Clubs and concluded a 16 million euro funding round led by Azimut. Throughout all this, we stayed focused on our goal: facilitating access to the world of cryptocurrencies through simple and clear applications and through intensive educational activities on blockchain technology and its solutions. 

Thank you I3P!

In the course of our history there has always been a fundamental figure who never stopped believing in us. We could not have achieved these milestones without the support that I3P has guaranteed us since 2019, when we joined its incubation programme for fledgling start-ups. 

Last December, Giuseppe Scellato, the president of I3P, commented on our award as follows: ‘Young Platform, with its crypto exchange features, is operating in a sector that is constantly evolving and is thus able to address the new generation of investors.’ and referring also to epiCura: ‘we are proud to have supported these start-ups on their path to growth: our goal is to continue to be a point of reference for innovation in Italy, supporting and promoting ideas and projects with high technological potential that work on services with a direct impact on the lives of citizens’.

Even today, after three years: thank you I3P!

The Startup of the Year award put the fintech sector in the spotlight, once again at Young Platform we raise a glass with our community to going even further together. An unforgettable 2023 awaits us! 

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Everything about Aptos, the new Layer 1 blockchain for lightning transactions

Aptos: the new cryptocurrency and Layer 1 blockchain explained

Aptos is a brand new Layer 1 blockchain. What is it and how does it work?

This October, Aptos was launched. It is a new Layer 1 blockchain developed by former Meta employees. Only a few days after its debut in the crypto world, Aptos has already been making waves, both in a positive and negative sense. On the one hand, there are those who present Aptos and its APT crypto as the possible Solana Killer, due to the large amount of transactions per second it promises to be able to process. On the other hand, Aptos’s launch has been criticised due to several factors, such as the ‘premature’ listing on well-known crypto exchanges prior to the release of APT’s tokenomics. Find out what the Aptos project is, and what the main controversies surrounding the launch are!

The birth of of a brand new crypto: Aptos

Aptos is a Layer 1 blockchain founded by a group of former employees of Meta (formerly Facebook). The group of developers founded the Aptos Foundation in August 2022, which is responsible for defining the guidelines of the project. The new blockchain uses a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm to validate transactions on its network. The new Aptos crypto is programmed in Move, a smart contract writing language developed by Facebook in 2019. Move was created to build Facebook’s native blockchain, Diem. However, the project was abandoned in January 2022.

Even before its launch, Aptos’s Layer 1 blockchain and its APT crypto have been the talk of the town. How come? A great amount of interest in the project was shown from major venture capital funds, who also decided to invest in the project. Aptos raised 350 million through three different funding rounds between March and September 2022. The funds came from some of the most important venture capitalists in the crypto market such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Jump Crypto, FTX Ventures and Binance Labs.

How does Aptos work? The new Layer 1 blockchain

The new Aptos Layer 1 blockchain underwent an intensive testing programme during the months leading up to its launch. Using a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm, Aptos works thanks to 102 validators who are responsible for the security of the network. The project wants to distinguish itself by its ability to process more than 160,000 transactions per second, a number far greater than that of other Layer 1 blockchains. To date, the competitor to beat is Solana. On paper, this Layer 1 blockchain can process the largest number of transactions per second, reaching a maximum of 65,000. For this reason, Aptos was called a possible Solana Killer at its launch.

The Aptos Foundation wants to ensure a high amount of usability of the network for its users. One of the main weaknesses that Web3 is facing is complexity of use. Thanks in particular to the Move programming language, Aptos wants to improve this! Move has been designed to build more user-friendly smart contracts and DApps, which can also be used by those who are not familiar with the technologies involved.

In this first week since its launch, the Aptos network became very active. Especially so with regard to NFTs, which have recorded considerable volumes. For instance, the Aptos Monkeys collection, which was launched on the NFT marketplace Topaz, raised nearly 300,000 APTs (around $2.7 million) in the first 24 hours after its launch. The main wallet for storing and using APT tokens and NFTs on Aptos is a web extension called Petra, which has already exceeded 300,000 downloads on the chrome web store.

Aptos: an opaque beginning?

The launch of Aptos has undoubtedly broken the monotony of this bear market, generating much controversy but also some appreciation. Let’s proceed in order. The first criticism arose in the hours before the launch. Users who had participated in the Aptos testnet (an almost identical copy of the main blockchain being used for experimentation), received a very substantial airdrop. The rewards distributed via the airdrop were either 150 or 300 units of the new Aptos cryptocurrency, depending on the tasks the users performed on the testnet. The Aptos Foundation distributed 20.1 million crypto APTs, representing approximately 2% of the total supply. This amount of APT was, at the time of distribution, worth between 200 and 260 million dollars. It was divided among 110,235 crypto wallets.

The criticism in this case was that the airdrop was excessive and benefited the so-called ‘airdrop hunters’. They are users who complete tasks required by blockchain protocols using different wallets. Once they receive the airdrop, they instantly sell the crypto they have received.

The second wave of criticism concerns the choice of Aptos and some exchanges including Binance and FTX to make trading available before the tokenomics were officially released. This choice by the Aptos Foundation put potential investors in an uncomfortable position. On the one hand, they would not have wanted to miss the launch of Aptos, but on the other hand, they felt insecure given the lack of transparency shown by the project.

The tokenomics of APT, the crypto of Aptos

The tokenomics publication, which came only after listing on some of the best-known exchanges, provides for a total APT supply of one billion tokens. 510 million are held by venture capital companies, and 410 million are held by the Aptos Foundation. These 410 million tokens are locked as of today, and will be unlocked progressively over the next 10 years. The remaining part of Aptos’ supply, a total of 80 million APTs, have partly been distributed through airdrops and partly will be made available to projects that will be created on the blockchain.

If the delay in the publication of tokenomics generated controversy, the structure of tokenomics itself only increased it. The price of APT has suffered as a result. The main factor that created discontent is the amount of APT owned by venture capital companies and the Aptos Foundation. According to users, there are too many tokens held by institutional investors and the Aptos Foundation. This could generate strong sell pressure on the APT token in the future.

The influence on the price could be seen immediately after the launch. The starting price of the Aptos crypto was around $14. In the first hours after the launch, it marked a downward movement of more than 40%. In the days following the launch, the price of APT ‘stabilised’ at around $9.

PancakeSwap is the first DeFi DApp to land on Aptos

On Monday the 24th October 2022, PancakeSwap, the decentralised exchange (DEX) built on the Binance Smart Chain, announced that its platform will also be available on Aptos. The decision was made following a vote within PancakeSwap’s DAO. PancakeSwap’s ecosystem on Aptos will be similar to the one already present on the Binance Smart Chain.

Thus, Swaps will be enabled. These are a mechanism through which tokens built on the Aptos blockchain can be exchanged. Farms and Pools, where you can stack your tokens in exchange for rewards, will also be made available as well as the IFO section. The acronym stands for Initial Farm Offering, and it is a kind of ‘Initial Coin Offering’ (ICO). IFOs have the dual purpose of allowing to raise development funds for emerging projects, and incentivising users to hold crypto in the ecosystem. To participate in an IFO, it is necessary to lock your tokens in an LP (liquidity pool), which consists of 50% CAKE crypto and 50% APT.

The integration of PancakeSwap, which is the eighth DeFi ecosystem in terms of TVL, is certainly a good achievement. We will see if the new Aptos Layer 1 blockchain will continue to integrate new features at this pace, and if it will one day be able to compete with Solana in the challenge for creating the most scalable network.