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Young Monday: Apple and NFTs, Christie’s, the play-to-earn game about Muhammad Ali

Buying NFTs with Apple and Christie's, a play-to-earn game about Muhammad Ali

Apple will allow NFT purchases on its app store, Christie’s has a new NFT marketplace and a Muhammad Ali-inspired play-to-earn boxing game launches

The first Young Monday of October has good news in store, especially in the world of non-fungible tokens. Apple will enable NFT purchases via its app store. Christie’s, the world’s most famous auction house, launches its own NFT marketplace. On the 1st of October 2022, the occasion of the anniversary of the historic Thrilla fight in Manila, the NFT drop of the boxing-themed play-to-earn game ‘Muhammed Ali – The Next Legends’ took place. The news for this week doesn’t end there though. Mastercard has announced that it will be possible to personalise payment cards with their own NFTs from ‘blue chip’ collections: the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Moonbirds and CryptoPunks. Speaking of CryptoPunks, on the 28th of September 2022, CryptoPunks number 2924 was sold for a record 3,300 ETH, approximately $4.5 million! This is the fourth largest sale ever for CryptoPunks, what a record!

 

NFTs will soon be available for purchase in the Apple Store

Apple recently announced that it will allow NFTs to be bought and sold through its app store. However, the company has not yet fully explained the details of how this will come to be. Apple’s initiative is aimed at apps and games in the app store, in particular those that intend to sell game components in the form of NFTs. The debate surrounding this news has mainly focused on the commission that Apple plans to charge on the purchase of each NFT. It is expected to be around 30 per cent, the same percentage that is still applied today for components of traditional mobile games that can be purchased through Apple’s app store. Apple has been criticised on social networks, especially in crypto Twitter echo-chambers, for charging such high fees on the sale and purchase of NFTs. However, there have also been positive opinions for this: according to them the Cupertino based tech giant’s initiative would be an important building block for mass adoption.

Christie’s 3.0, the world’s most famous auction house is now a step further to embracing Web3

Christie’s, the world’s most famous auction house, recently launched its NFT marketplace on Ethereum. Christie’s 3.0. Among the works of art that have passed through the London auction house is the highest-price auctioned work ever: the painting ‘Salvator Mundi’ by Leonardo Da Vinci. It was bought by the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism for 450 million dollars. However, Christie’s venture into the world of Web3 had already begun some time ago. They hosted the auction of digital artist Beeple’s artwork ‘Everydays: The First 5,000 Days’, which sold for $69.3 million in March 2021. The recent Christie’s 3.0 initiative represents a further technological step forward for the auction house. But how can you buy NFTs on Christie’s 3.0? It is a real NFT marketplace, but sales will only be possible via auctions. The platform is built on the Ethereum blockchain, and to date it is not yet clear whether a secondary marketplace will be available on this platform in the future or whether those who want to sell digital works of art purchased on Christie’s 3.0 will have to rely on external NFT marketplaces.

Christie’s 3.0 was created in collaboration with two well-known companies in the world of Web3. One is Manifold, a startup that develops smart contracts. The other is Chainalysis, a Web3 company that produces software for the analysis of on-chain data with a particular focus on security. Christie’s 3.0 made its debut on the 28th of September 2022 with the PHASES collection: a collection of photo and video artworks by New York-based digital artist Diana Sinclair who is listed by Forbes as one of the 50 most influential people in the world of NFTs. Auctions for PHASES artworks will be available until the 11th of October 2022, and the starting price for the pieces is 4 ETH (approx. $5,300) for static digital artworks, and 5 ETH (approx. $6,660) for NFT videos.

 

Muhammad Ali – The Next Legends, the play-to-earn game about boxing

The 1st of October 2022 saw the launch of the Muhammad Ali – The Next Legends Pro Pack, the first NFTs of the blockchain-based game created in honour of Muhammad Ali. The NFTs cost 0.11 ETH, about $150, and are now available for purchase on OpenSea for a minimum price of 0.11 ETH. The 1st of October is no ordinary day: on this exact day in 1975, the bout nicknamed ‘Thrilla in Manila’ took place. This fight was the third and final bout between Muhammad Ali and Joe Fraizer, which took place in Quezon City in the metropolitan area of Manila (capital of the Philippines). It is considered one of the most important fights in boxing history.

The upcoming play-to-earn game, Muhammad Ali – The Next Legends will use NFT and artificial intelligence based technologies. The play-to-earn is being produced by the start-up Non-Fungible Labs in collaboration with the leading artificial intelligence company for the Web3, Altered State Machine. To play The Next Legends you have to match two NFTs: an ASM Brain, the ‘boxer’s brain’ which is an NFT equipped with artificial intelligence that allows it to evolve, and a boxer NFT. Then by using ‘Artificial Intelligence Gyms’, users will be able to train their ‘brains’ by acquiring the boxing skills necessary to defeat opponents. Acquirable skills will be agility, stamina, stance, sparring, jabs, hooks and uppercuts. The goal of the game will be to train one’s boxer and win fights against other players to become The Next Legend!

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Young Monday: more BTC for Michael Saylor, DC Comics NFTs, Colorado opens up to crypto

Michael Saylor buys more Bitcoin, DC Comics NFTs and Colorado

How much Bitcoin does Michael Saylor hold after his September 2022 buys? DC Comics Funko Pop NFTs arrive and in Colorado, you can pay your taxes in crypto!

What happened this week in the world of crypto? Let’s take a look at the three most interesting news stories of the week in this edition of Young Monday! We talk about shopping in style, the next NFT obsession and crypto adoption. Michael Saylor, the founder of US company MicroStrategy, is back to buying Bitcoin after his summer ‘hiatus’. MicroStrategy now has a nice haul: 130,000 Bitcoins! Comic book publisher DC Comics is set to release a collection of NFT comics in collaboration with Funko Pop and WalMart, and in the US state of Colorado it is finally possible to pay taxes in cryptocurrency.

Michael Saylor gets back from holiday and buys 301 Bitcoins!

How is Michael Saylor doing during the bear market? As we can read from the 20th of September 2022 report of the SEC (the US government agency in charge of regulating the market), Saylor bought about $6 million in Bitcoin between the 2nd of August and the 19th of September 2022. This is his first real purchase since June 2022, when the company had bought 480 Bitcoins worth about $10 million.

Given the large amount of purchases made by MicroStrategy in recent years, a question arises. How many Bitcoins does Michael Saylor hold? To date, about 130,000, for a current value of $2.5 billion. However, the bear market spares no one, and even Michael Saylor seems to be losing. MicroStrategy’s average purchase price for each Bitcoin it owns is $30,639. The US company spent about $3.9 billion to buy its holdings of 130,000 BTC, about $1.4 billion less than they are worth today.

However, Saylor doesn’t seem to care about this figure. As we can see in this tweet, the founder of MicroStrategy doesn’t reason in terms of dollar price. 130,000 Bitcoins is 130,000 Bitcoins. Well what can we say Michael, we can’t blame you!

Official DC Comics NFTs? Yes, thanks to WalMart and Funko Pop!

If you are a fan of the genre, you absolutely cannot miss DC Comics’ NFT comic in collaboration with Funko Pop! The two brands have already started a Web3 collaboration by jointly creating NFT collector cards on the WAX blockchain. These NFTs are already available for purchase on the main NFT marketplaces on the WAX blockchain such as NFTHive or AtomicMarket. A new collaboration between DC Comics and Funko Pop will open on the 7th of October 2022, with the entry of another well-known brand: US retail giant WalMart. Limited-edition covers of ‘The Brave and the Bold’ comics will be produced and can be purchased in WalMart stores.

The comic will be sold in a box featuring Funko Pop versions of the superhero protagonists engaged in a battle with an octopus-like monster.

The comics for sale will be available as 30,000 pieces, and the lucky ones who manage to grab a copy will later be able to redeem the NFT version. There will also be 30,000 NFT versions, and  they will be redeemable on the WAX blockchain. The WAX blockchain (an acronym that stands for World Asset eXchange) is one of the most widely used networks in gaming and digital collectibles. The most popular Web3 games that make use of the WAX blockchain are Animal World, Castles NFT and Real Magnate. Among the video game brands it collaborates with are Atari, Topps and the action figure company Funko, who have been keen for some time to develop digital collectibles initiatives using Web3 technologies.

The State of Colorado allows for taxes to be paid in crypto

In the US state of Colorado, taxes can now be paid in crypto! The ‘Digital Token Act’ that was passed by the state of Colorado in 2019 finally came into force, three years later. Payments for taxes will only be accepted through PayPal, a US company founded in 1999 by Confinity offering digital payment and money transfer services. The announcement of the law’s entry into force was made on Thursday, the 15th of September 2022 by Colorado Governor Jared Polis, who said: “The state of Colorado has always been at the forefront of digital innovation, whether it’s applying blockchain technologies as a new financial model, or being consumer-centric in enabling businesses and government agencies to innovate to make processes faster and more efficient. To date, Paypal accepts Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin as payment methods.

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Young Monday: Ballon d’or, Starbucks and Norway’s CBDC on Ethereum

Starbucks and Polygon, Ballon d’Or NFTs and Norway’s CBDC

Starbucks unveils its Odyssey platform on Polygon, the Ballon d’Or will also be an NFT and the Norwegian Central Bank launches its CBDC

Cryptocurrency history was written this week thanks to Ethereum’s much-anticipated update, The Merge, which successfully took place on Thursday the 15th of September 2022. It was certainly the news of the week (if not the year) but the world of crypto is always in turmoil and has so much more to offer! Starbucks unveiled its Odyssey NFT platform that will be developed on the Polygon blockchain. The most important award in football, the Ballon d’Or, will also be released as an NFT, and the Norwegian Central Bank has chosen Ethereum for the development of its digital currency.

Starbucks enters the Web3 with its Odyssey platform

Impossible to start Monday morning without a hot cup of coffee! This week’s Young Monday is no exception thanks to the new collaboration between Polygon and Starbucks. The coffee franchise officially unveiled the Starbucks Odyssey initiative on Tuesday the 13th of September 2022, a Web3 platform built on the Polygon network. Starbucks Odyssey will work in a similar manner to the loyalty programme called Starbucks Rewards, which has already been running for some time and grants customers rewards in exchange for the ‘stars’ they earn from their purchases.

Through the Odyssey platform, Starbucks wants to take the relationship between the brand and their customers to the next level by allowing users to obtain a wider range of rewards and creating a real community. Thanks to Odyssey, Starbucks customers (only in the US for the time being) will be able to obtain and purchase digital collectibles and unlock exclusive experiences, all of them coffee-themed. “Leveraging Web 3.0 technology will allow our members to access experiences and ownership that was not possible before. Starbucks Odyssey will transcend the foundational benefits that our Starbucks Rewards members have come to love, and unlock digital, physical and experiential benefits that are uniquely Starbucks.” explained Brady Brewer, CMO of Starbucks.

To develop the project, Starbucks brought in Adam Brotman as a special consultant. He is the mastermind behind the Mobile Order & Pay system and the Starbucks app. Brotman recently founded Forum3, a Web3 startup that aims to redefine the relationship between consumers and brands through NFTs and cryptocurrency technologies.

The 2022 Ballon d’Or will also be an NFT

The world of football and NFTs are very much in sync lately. Following last week’s news about World Cup NFTs coming to Algorand, it was revealed that the winners of the 2022 Ballon d’Or will also receive an NFT version of their trophy. The ceremony will take place on the 17th of October 2022 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. For the second year running, the Socios platform on Chiliz was selected as the official Web3 partner. The winner of the 2022 Ballon d’Or will not only be engraved on the famous golden trophy but will also for the first time be registered on the blockchain in the metadata of a smart contract. France Football, the French awarding magazine, has not yet specified which blockchain the NFT will be created on.

In addition to the men’s and women’s Ballon d’Or NFTs, which award the best player and the best female player on the planet, three other prizes will also be handed out. The Kopa Trophy (best young talent), the Yachine Trophy (best goalkeeper) and the Müller Trophy (best striker). The highest-ranked winner for the Ballon d’Or 2022 seems to be French striker Karim Benzema, who is already familiar with the world of NFTs, having previously launched his own NFT collection called KB Metaclub.

The Central Bank of Norway chose Ethereum for its CBDC

Last week saw a successful completion of Ethereum’s update, The Merge! However, the news concerning Ethereum does not end there! The Norwegian Central Bank has reached an important turning point with regard to the development of its CBDC, i.e. its digital currency. What is a CBDC? Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are digital currencies issued by a central bank. Just like cryptocurrencies, CBDCs are digital currencies, but they are issued by a government and are therefore centralised. The Norwegian CBDC will be an ERC-20 token, around which various financial services will be built. The Norwegian Central Bank’s project is supported by Nahmii, a scalability solution for Ethereum.

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Young Monday: Muse’s NFT album, Cardano’s Vasil update, Sorare and the NBA

Muse’s NFT album, Cardano’s Vasil update, Sorare and the NBA

Muse’s NFT album ‘Will Of The People’, Cardano’s Vasil update and how Sorare’s NBA cards work

Music and sport take the spotlight again in this edition of Young Monday! Muse smashes the competition with their NFT album ‘Will Of The People’. Cardano confirms that the Vasil update will take place on the 22nd of September 2022, and Sorare becomes the platform for fantasy basketball by announcing a partnership with the NBA. Find out how to play Sorare NBA in this article!

Muse’s NFT album Will of the people tops the world charts!

Muse are breaking records with their new NFT album: Will of the people. One week after its release date at the end of August, Muse sold 51,500 copies of the album. This is more than the sum of all sales of other albums in the UK top 10. Of these 50,000 copies, 1,000 were sold as NFTs. The sales of NFT albums took place on Serenade, an application for the sale of non-fungible tokens that relies on Ethereum’s Layer 2 blockchain, Polygon. The available NFT copies sold out within 25 minutes. What happened is a real record as far as the world of Web3 music is concerned. But what is meant exactly by musical NFTs?

NFTs are a technology that is now beginning to express their full potential in the world of music, which is why musical NFTs are spreading. This type of non-fungible token can take different forms. They can be associated with songs, concert tickets or much more. In the case of ‘Will Of The People’, the British artists decided to sell an NFT package including all tracks of the new album in a high-quality audio format called FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec). This audio format was chosen because the files undergo less compression, only about 50 percent, and consequently provide the listener with higher sound quality.

The NFTs of Muse’s album, however, are not only audio files but also pictures. They are also limited edition covers autographed by the band. But how can you buy Muse’s album NFTs? Although the NFTs sold out in a very short time, it is still possible to buy them on secondary markets! The collection is in fact available on OpenSea. However, the price is much higher than it was at the time of release. The first 1,000 purchasers only paid $20. Now, the current price is about 0.17 ETH or almost 300$. Has the time come to say goodbye to the idea of music collecting to which we are accustomed? Instead of huge libraries full of vinyls and CDs, a crypto wallet might be enough in the future!

Time for Cardano to upgrade: 22 September hard fork!

Following the example of Ethereum, with which it shares one of its founders Charles Hoskinson, the Cardano blockchain is ready to make the long-awaited Vasil update! The release date has been set for the 22nd of September 2022. The update is the cornerstone of the fourth phase of Cardano’s life cycle called Basho, dedicated to scalability. For now, there are five phases in the roadmap, all named after artists, writers and intellectuals. Byron, Shelley, Goguen have all been successfully executed. Now only Basho and Voltaire are missing.

The Vasil update aims to increase the speed and cost-effectiveness of transactions on the network so as to increase the number of users interacting with the blockchain and the number of developers ready to create new ecosystems. It is precisely because of the latter goal that Vasil will also update the Plutus programming language. The Cardano team expects a network increasingly populated by NFT collections, metaverses and play-to-earn games.

Playing with NBA champions on Sorare

September marks the start of a new season for fantasy football. Have you already prepared your squad? What better time to talk about the unique and inimitable crypto fantasy football platform Sorare. The game that is based on player’s cards will no longer just be a crypto fantasy football, but will soon also become a fantasy basketball platform too!

On Wednesday, the 7th of September 2022, the Ethereum platform announced on Twitter a partnership with the world’s most famous basketball league: the NBA. Basketball fans, it’s your time to shine! Challenge your friends by creating an unbeatable team. But how does Sorare NBA work? For now, information is still scarce. However, according to rumours, the Sorare variant will be the equivalent of the football version. Sorare is a play-to-earn NFT game on the Ethereum blockchain in which users must create a football team through NFT cards and compete against each other for prizes. Soon you will be able to become the general manager of an NBA franchise, field the cards of your champions and win your first NBA ring. If you don’t want to arrive unprepared, check out this guide to learn how to play Sorare and secure an advantage over your opponents!

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Young Monday: Vitalik Buterin’s first book, OpenSea and MATIC, Hermès in the Web3

Vitalik Buterin’s new book, Hermés and Web3, Opensea and Polygon

OpenSea also opens its marketplace on Polygon, Hermès joins the Web3 fashion companies and Vitalik Buterin announces the release of his first book!

September has arrived and in the world of Web3, it’s time for good resolutions as well as breaking news. As usual, in this edition of Young Monday, we give you a debrief of the three newest crypto stories of the week! Hermès is laying the foundations for its entry into the world of NFT fashion by patenting an ad hoc brand for Web3 initiatives. Speaking of NFTs, the OpenSea marketplace has also started accepting Polygon’s native MATIC blockchain token for payments thanks to the new Seaport protocol. Last but not least, Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, announces the release date of his first book about Proof-of-Stake!

Vitalik Buterin’s book coming at the end of September!

The month of September 2022 is destined to go down in the annals of crypto history, and this time Ethereum is taking centre stage! The stars of the month will certainly be The Merge event as well as Vitalik Buterin. According to the countdown to the event, the transition to Ethereum 2.0 should take place on the afternoon of Tuesday the 13th September 2022. The news doesn’t stop there though. Vitalik Buterin announced the release date of his first book: ‘Proof of Stake: Essays on the Making of Ethereum and the Future of the Internet’. The book will be released on the 27th of September 2022 in both physical and digital versions.

Ethereum’s founder stated on Twitter that the book collects some of his writings produced over the past ten years. As can be deduced from the title, one of the main topics the book touches on is the Proof-Of-Stake consensus mechanism, which is now ready to be implemented on the Ethereum blockchain. Vitalik Buterin’s first book will go beyond simply  presenting technical notions. Within the essays, there will also be room for reflections on the future possibilities of new technologies as well as the impact of blockchain technology on social, economic and political changes. So, where is Vitalik Buterin’s new book available for sale? As far as digital copying is concerned, the process is very curious and innovative! Simply go to this link and donate any amount in Ether to receive an NFT that will turn into a digital copy of the book signed by Vitalik Buterin on the day of release. For  Proof-Of-Stake physical copies, however, the purchase will be done in the traditional way, you can already pre-order the book on Amazon at a price of around 18€. All proceeds from the sales of the book will be donated to Gitcoin, a crowdfunding platform for budding Web3 projects.

Hermès prepares to launch its fashion NFTs

Would you like to own an iconic Birkin or a beautiful Hermès belt in the metaverse? Maybe in the future it will soon be possible. Hermès has joined the big list of fashion brands in the NFT world! On Friday the 26th of August 2022, the French brand filed a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (UPTSO). The application relates specifically to software for the management of digital assets and collectibles. It includes the main blockchain-related technologies: NFT, crypto and the metaverse. This request comes in the wake of the lawsuit filed by Hermès against the NFT collection called MetaBirkins, as well as its creator Mason Rothschild. The NFT collection features a series of bags that closely resemble the shape of the French brand’s iconic product. The lawsuit points to the misappropriation of the Birkin name, which Mason Rothschild allegedly used to promote his NFT fashion collection. The fashion world is certainly one of the worlds most in tune with Web3. Will we be treated to seeing Hermès at Metaverse Fashion Week 2023?

Buying NFTs on OpenSea using MATIC? It’s now possible!

OpenSea is the number one NFT marketplace created for Ethereum by volume in the entire world of Web3. It has also long since integrated other blockchains into its DApp. On OpenSea, it is possible to use the Polygon, Solana and Klaytn networks. However, in order to purchase NFTs created on Polygon, it was until recently not possible to use its native MATIC token. It was therefore necessary to own Ethereum on Polygon’s blockchain. These Ethereums are actually wrapped Ethereum, and are represented as WETH. Wrapped tokens are crypto tokens anchored to the value of another asset. These tokens are qualified as wrapped because the original asset is placed in a wrapper, i.e. a kind of digital safe, which allows the wrapped token to be created on another blockchain. Since the end of August, it has been possible to list and buy NFTs directly in MATIC! This integration was made possible thanks to Seaport, an open-source protocol, which was also implemented on Polygon’s blockchain after being launched on Ethereum in June 2022 .

The new protocol chosen by OpenSea introduces further changes. With the previous protocol, the minimum price at which one could sell or buy a non-fungible token was five dollars. Whereas, thanks to Seaport, this threshold has now dropped to one dollar! Also soon to be integrated is the Dutch auction buying mechanism, in which the price of the NFT instead of increasing, decreases proportionally over time. The latest upgrade concerns the wallets with which you can buy digital assets on OpenSea: you will soon be able to buy NFTs and automatically send them to other wallets. Very useful if you want to surprise someone with a gift!

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Young Monday: Telegram and Reddit’s NFTs, MTV and Beijing in the Metaverse

Young Monday: Telegram and Reddit's NFT, Beijing’s metaverse

What is happening with Telegram and Reddit’s NFTs? Beijing and MTV interact with the metaverse

September is just around the corner and the last Young Monday of August cannot fail to talk about this summer’s hottest topics: NFTs and the metaverse. As far as NFTs are concerned, Reddit has started distributing its avatar collectibles on Polygon‘s blockchain, while Telegram is planning to turn usernames and channels on the platform into NFT domains. Speaking of the metaverse, the MTV Video Music Awards are adding a new category, ‘Best Metaverse Performance’, and the city of Beijing is signing a two-year plan to enter the metaverse.

Reddit starts distributing its NFTs on Polygon and Telegram plans its entry into the industry with TON

Reddit’s NFTs take centre stage again for this edition of Young Monday. On Thursday the 25th of August 2022, the airdrop of Reddit avatar collectibles began. These NFTs had already been created by users on a dedicated page of the social network and will be fully managed by the Vault portfolio also developed by Reddit. The four available collections were ‘The Singularity‘, ‘Aww Friends‘, ‘Drip Squad‘ and ‘Meme Team‘. The NFTs are on the Polygon blockchain and it is already possible to trade them on OpenSea. We knew for a while that Reddit chose Polygon for its NFTs, but we can now finally enjoy the new Avatars designed by independent artists on the most popular NFT marketplace! CEO Pavel Durov also plans to answer the call in a slightly different way for Telegram NFTs, by collaborating instead with the TON ecosystem. The TON blockchain was initially designed by Telegram. However, in June 2020 following some legal disputes, it broke away from the social network, becoming a separate entity called The Open Network. Telegram’s idea, proposed by CEO Pavel Durov, involves the migration of all usernames and channels to the NFT market.

The aim of the initiative, which will be made possible by the concept of digital ownership, is similar to that of ENS domains on Ethereum. ENS is a protocol for the creation and management of decentralised domains. Thanks to ENS, any individual can purchase one or more domains on the Ethereum blockchain. These domains also serve as wallets for cryptos and NFTs. The Open Network has already developed an initiative almost identical to ENS’s called Ton DNS, which has so far sold very well. But how will this technology work in relation to the Telegram social network? Each username or channel will be an NFT, whose ownership will be immutably registered on the blockchain. Furthermore, there will be the possibility to put them up for sale on a secondary market. The messaging platform with more than 700 million users expects unbridled competition for the most sought-after Telegram user-names!

MTV introduces an award for the best performance in the Metaverse

The second hot news topic in this edition of Young Monday is all about musical performances in the metaverse. This summer, we finally got back to enjoying live events and concerts, and it was awesome. However, interest in virtual events has not waned at all. MTV has picked up on the trend of many famous artists performing in the metaverse and created an ad hoc award within its Video Music Awards 2022: the ‘Best Metaverse Performance‘ award. This award is in addition to the more traditional accolades of ‘Video of the Year’, ‘Artist of the Year’ and ‘Song of the Year’ and will be in place from this year! There are six artists competing in this category: Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Twenty One Pilots, Charlie XCX, BTS and Blackpink.

But the news doesn’t end there. In addition to awarding prizes, the TV programme has embarked on its first experience in the metaverse. The Paramount Media Networks-owned company recreated the VMA experience on Roblox. The VMA Experience comprised three games through which players could accumulate tokens that will grant voting power during the VMA event scheduled for tonight. Although Roblox is not a Web3 game, and it does not use blockchain technology or cryptocurrencies, the process is certainly reminiscent of the DAO mechanism. We will see who will prevail tonight and win the first ‘Best Metaverse performance’ in history!

Beijing: a plan to enter the metaverse

Our last (but not least) news item is that Beijing intends to enter the metaverse. China’s Web3 declarations always make the crypto sector’s ears perk up. We all remember the May 2021 ban on cryptocurrencies. This time, however, the news seems favourable, at least as far as technology is concerned, as the Chinese government has announced a plan for the city of Beijing to enter the metaverse. The plan will last two years, from 2022 until 2024, and is aimed at increasing the development and innovation of metaverse technology.The plan calls for all districts of the city to build a city-wide technology infrastructure and to promote its use in various fields, including education and tourism. This is not the first time China has shown interest in this type of technology; in 2021, it was the city of Shanghai that planned investments in the metaverse. However, China has already shown in the past that these policies are often aimed at large Tech companies, and not at individual users. Moreover, the concept of decentralisation does not seem to fit into the government’s idea of Web3. Financial instruments such as the digital yuan, a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currencies), i.e. a digital currency controlled by the country’s central bank, and government control of the NFT market do not actually incentivise decentralisation and do not embody the core values and principles of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.

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Young Monday: Google invests in the world of crypto, Gordon Ramsay on The Sandbox and Dogechain

Young Monday: Google, Gordon Ramsay and Dogechain

Google invests more than 1.5 billion in the world of crypto, Hell’s Kitchen and Gordon Ramsey enter The Sandbox metaverse and Dogechain makes an appearance

Google is the leading company when it comes to investments in the world of crypto! Thanks to its parent company Alphabet, it has invested some 1.5 billion USD in Web3 projects from September 2021 to June 2022. Speaking of The Sandbox, after having ended their collaboration with Paris Hilton last week, now it is Gordon Ramsey’s turn. If you ever wondered how many restaurants Gordon Ramsey has, he will soon have one more, but in The Sandbox metaverse! Finally, what is Dogechain? A network on Polygon Edge created in honour of the Web3’s most famous doggo!

Google’s investments in the crypto world

Google is the leading investor in the Web3 sector. According to a report published on the 17th of August 2022 by Blockdata, Alphabet, Google’s holding company, has invested USD 1.5 billion in the world of blockchain. The investments focused on four Web3 companies. The companies are custody provider Fireblocks, NFT company Dapper Labs, a scalability solution for Bitcoin called Voltage, and venture capital firm Digital Currency Group. If you don’t recognise these companies, don’t worry, among the brands they have invested in are some names that will sound familiar. For example Dapper Labs is the platform that has spawned successful projects such as CryptoKitties or NBA Top Shot. While the venture capital firm Digital Currency Group has financed famous realities within the Web3 such as The Graph, Decentraland, Brave and Etherscan. Beyond Google, other companies are also continuously increasing their investments in the crypto sector. Among the big names, which rank right behind the US giant, are other iconic brands such as Samsung, Paypal and Microsoft.

Gordon Ramsay is the first Chef in The Sandbox metaverse

If you want to learn how to make Gordon Ramsay’s Beef Wellington, forget about YouTube videos, you can do it in the metaverse of The Sandbox! Hell’s Kitchen and TV chef king Gordon Ramsay have teamed up with ITV’s The Sandbox. The goal?  To open the first digital restaurant in history. It will not, however, be ‘just’ a digital restaurant. A special LAND based on Hell’s Kitchen, will be built by the metaverse’s development team. There will be not only avatars of chef Gordon Ramsey, but also other virtual tools for those who want to build culinary experiences in the spirit of Web3. Gordon Ramsay said, “There is nothing more exciting for me than to venture into new territory, whether it’s creating an iconic dish, a new restaurant concept, a new show, and now a virtual experience in The Sandbox,” the chef continued, “I have been fascinated by The Sandbox and its offering in the metaverse. I couldn’t think of a better platform to convey the great energy that characterises my Hell’s Kitchen brand.” To answer the question in the introduction, how many restaurants has Gordon Ramsay actually opened in his career? Twenty-six if you count the in on The Sandbox too. Who knows, maybe he will be able to earn Michelin stars in Web3 as well.

Dogechain, what is it and how does it work?

There has been a lot of talk lately about the new blockchain platform that allows users to use their Dogecoin on DeFi platforms and to buy NFTs. This platform is called Dogechain, but what is it and how exactly does it work? Many thought that Dogechain was a Layer 2 built on Doge’s blockchain. Wrong! It is not a Layer 2, but a simple network built on Polygon Edge. Polygon Edge is a Polygon framework that can be used to build Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks. In addition, it should be specified that this is not an ‘official’ Dogecoin product: the team has tweeted about it, declaring itself to be completely uninvolved in the project.

To use the blockchain, you simply have to move your WDOGE onto the network via a Bridge, and in doing so you will receive WDOGE Wrapped Dogecoins in return. Thanks to these tokens it will be possible to interact with DeFi applications, NFT marketplaces, and perhaps some games in the future. In the first days since its inception, the blockchain recorded a very high amount of transactions, around 500,000. The platform’s main DEX, DogeSwap, has exchanged almost 20 million dollars worth. Beware though! Roc Zacharias, co-founder of one of the most widely used DEXs on Polygon, QuickSwap, who collaborated on the Dogechain project, expressly stated to be very careful when interacting with the network. He called it a wild ‘place’ where risks are always around the corner! The tokens that have been launched on Dogechain already number more than 600 and the names are practically all memes, e.g. DogeEat Doge and Doge Shrek. We will see if Dogechain will have the strength to establish itself, and be recognised by the Doge team, or if it will remain merely the realm of meme coins.

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Young Monday: Paris Hilton, The Merge and NFT news for Instagram

The Merge, The Sandbox and Paris Hilton, NFTs on Instagram

Paris Hilton enters The Sandbox’s metaverse, Instagram’s NFTs soon available in more than 100 countries, and The Merge on the Goerli testnet is a hit!

For August, we present you the hottest Young Monday of the year! So much for Crypto Winter. Whether you’re chilling at the beach, firing up the barbecue or hiking in the mountains, a question might suddenly come to your mind: what on earth happened to Paris Hilton? In the real world she is a DJ (and has a dog called Ether Reum), but it’s in the virtual world that she is at her best. Until yesterday, her Paris World could only be found on Roblox, an MMO video game developed and published in 2006. However, it will soon also be possible to join her in the metaverse of The Sandbox. On Thursday, the 9th of August 2022, the heiress made the announcement on her Twitter profile! The anticipation for The Merge grows day by day, this week the last test on the Goerli network was completed and everything went according to plan! Mark Zuckerberg announces that his NFTs will be available in more than 100 countries, but what will Instagram’s NFTs look like and where can you buy them?

Paris Hilton moves into the metaverse of The Sandbox

Paris Hilton has long topped the list of celebrities exploring the world of NFTs and the metaverse. The heiress has chosen The Sandbox’s metaverse as her next virtual home. The Sandbox is one of the most popular metaverses, is built on Ethereum‘s blockchain and allows users to create customised environments and gaming experiences. In July 2022, the metaverse announced the arrival of Alpha Season 3, which will introduce some new features such as customisable avatars. After news of the new features spread, The Sandbox saw an increase in active users of over 90 per cent. The team will build a villa in The Sandbox metaverse identical to the one the showgirl owns in Malibu. Paris Hilton will not need an architect! This is not Hilton’s first experience in the virtual world; back in 2015, she had already promoted the construction of her virtual world, Paris World on Roblox, an MMO (online multiplayer) video game that does not use blockchain technology!

However, Paris Hilton is not the only celebrity to have partnered with The Sandbox. In fact, the metaverse is already populated by celebrities such as Snoop Dogg and Gordon Ramsey. In connection with this trend, the American consumer protection organisation Truth in Advertising (TINA) alerted seventeen celebrities for promoting NFTs without proper warnings. These names include Gwyneth Paltrow, Floyd Mayweather, Tom Brady as well as the star of this Young Monday, Paris Hilton. The advice the organisation gives to celebrities is to clearly disclose any material connection to the NFT companies they are promoting. There is no denying that celebrity interest in NFTs has accelerated the adoption of these assets. However, one must not forget to shop consciously.

New details about NFTs on Instagram revealed. How and where can we buy them?

Mark Zuckerberg announced on the 4th August 2022 that NFTs on Instagram will soon be available in more than 100 countries. The feature that allows people to link their crypto wallets to Instagram has already been available to a limited number of US residents since May 2022. But how can NFTs be purchased on Instagram and with which cryptos?

The wallets that will be able to interact with the social network are Metamask, Trust Wallet, Rainbow, and Dapper, while the supported blockchains will initially be Ethereum, Polygon, and Flow. NFTs will then be able to be purchased with the native assets of these chains, i.e. in ETH, MATIC, and FLOW. It is not yet clear, however, whether the process of buying and selling NFTs on Instagram will take place directly on the social network or whether one will be redirected to NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea or LooksRare.

Posts containing NFTs will be distinguishable from classic posts thanks to a shimmering effect, and the content creator will also be tagged within the non-fungible photo or video. According to Meta – formerly Facebook and the current owner of Instagram – the initiative is aimed primarily at supporting content creators. In fact, artists will have the opportunity to earn money from their art, which is already possible thanks to Web3 technologies, also on Instagram. If you are a fan of NFT you will soon be scrolling through Instagram all day looking for the latest trends!

The final test for The Merge was a success. The countdown begins!

The Merge is definitely the topic of the year in the crypto world. The update will give birth to Ethereum 2.0, a version in which the consensus mechanism will be changed from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. According to the developers, The Merge will allow Ethereum to reduce its environmental impact and greatly limit inflation. The latest news from Young Monday is that from Wednesday, the 10th of August 2022,  the last phase of testing on the Goerli network was successfully concluded. This is a testnet, they are almost identical copies of the main blockchain and are used for testing. The testing period began some time ago with the launch of a new dedicated testnet, called Beacon Chain, which started phase 0. Phase 1, on the other hand, began last June when testing started on the classic ETH testnet. The first was Ropsten, then Sepolia and finally Goerli itself, which concluded this phase a few days ago. Everything is therefore ready for The Merge, which should officially take place on the 19th of September 2022.

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Young Monday: Gucci and ApeCoin, Mercedes and Polygon, Tinder

Gucci ApeCoin, Mercedes with Polygon, Tinder’s Metaverse

Gucci accepts payments in ApeCoin, Mercedes Benz relies on Polygon for artificial intelligence and Tinder backs down on the Metaverse

These days, you will not have missed the hack targeting Solana’s wallets. Despite huge losses, the blockchain was not compromised. Beyond this, the past week has been crowned with important collaborations between brands and Web3. Gucci will now accept payments in ApeCoin, the crypto of the BAYC (Bored Ape Yacht Club). Mercedes Benz will use Polygon’s blockchain to develop a data sharing platform. Tinder on the other hand is backing off, it will not be launching its metaverse and crypto (for now).

The Bored Apes go shopping at Gucci

Bored Apes holders, and ApeCoin holders in general, will be able to redo their wardrobe in style! The announcement came via a tweet on Gucci’s official page on Tuesday, the 2nd August 2022. The iconic brand described the decision as a further step into exploring Web3. Gucci had already made itself available to accept payments in twelve different cryptocurrencies a few months ago.

APE, the Bored Apes Yacht Club’s DAO governance token, is an ERC-20 token that was distributed to holders of BAYC and MAYC (the Mutant Ape Yacht Club’s NFT collection) on the 17th of March 2022 through an airdrop. For now, it will only be possible to pay with APE tokens at Gucci stores in the US. But the news about the Bored Ape Yacht Club doesn’t end there! Recently, Artsy Monke was created! An art project whose pieces were created thanks to Google’s artificial intelligence, Google Cloud Neural Networks. Their protagonists are the precious NFT monkeys. The AI has in fact transformed the 10,000 NFTs into abstract works of art using textual descriptions of the Bored Ape. This new type of art, commonly called generative art, is becoming very popular recently in the Web3 world. Pieces from the Artsy Monke collection have already been launched on OpenSea. If you are expecting exorbitant prices comparable to BAYC, you will be disappointed. The initial price was only 0.0001 ETH, or about $1.40!

Mercedes and Polygon: collecting data for artificial intelligence

What a memorable time for Polygon! After announcing a collaboration with Disney, a new partnership arrives this week with Mercedes. This time, however, it is not about entertainment on blockchain, but rather the collection and management of data for artificial intelligence and machine learning. The partnership will lead to the launch of the Acentrik platform. The main function of the platform will be the sharing and selling of data, Acentrik can be used to exchange information of various kinds depending on the company using it. Mercedes, for instance, will use Acentrik to exchange automotive data. Acentrik could help the car manufacturer overtake, or at least catch up with Google in the development of self-driving cars. Google is obviously far ahead when it comes to data collection, which is the bread and butter of Big Tech. Mercedes on the other hand is trying to make its way in the sector thanks to Polygon.

But what is Polygon’s role in the project with Mercedes? Polygon will handle all transactions on the platform. In addition to the native MATIC asset, users will also be able to use the most popular stablecoins such as USDC and USDT to register and thus freely consult a multitude of data recorded on Acentrik. For Polygon, this is a real coup in terms of image. The company proves once again, very shortly after the last time, that it is the ideal partner for big brands.

Has Tinder given up its Metaverse?

The Metaverse and crypto have not yet won over Tinder’s heart! The brand owned by Match Group has in fact decided to scale back the funds previously allocated for the development of Web3 projects. This is not an outright rejection of the project. The current CEO of Match Group, Bernard Kim, has stated that he does not want to abandon Web3 projects for good, Tinder will probably have a metaverse, but its putting into place may take longer than expected. The CEO explained that his intention to explore the digital goods sector is real, and that he is excited about the idea of being able to make dating and love possible in the metaverse. As is often the case in relationships, it is not always good to rush things. Kim believes that a lot of study and observation is needed to be ready to make the most of this new technology. Tinder’s plans were originally to develop a Metaverse in which users would get to know each other and socialise, and to launch a coin that would be dedicated to in-app purchases, the TinderCoin. So for now, no match between Tinder and the Web3, but don’t worry, nothing is lost. In love and in the Metaverse, whoever runs away wins?

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

NFTs: Madonna, Damien Hirst, Solana Spaces

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

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

Will Madonna spend $1 million on a Bored Ape?

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

Serie A teams make an appearance on Sorare

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

Damien Hirst burns his NFT collection

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

Solana opens a store for crypto enthusiasts in New York City

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

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