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Tech company developing Web3 innovations in Telegram. Providing funding, expertise, tools, and distribution.
Due to raising concerns about the accuracy of the source of data we are updating the article about memecoins. We apologise for the misleading information and will update the article shortly in collaboration with the Re:Doubt team.
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🔝 Welcome to The Open Platform Research Telegram Channel!
This channel has been created to keep the Telegram community informed about the latest initiatives and research in our corner of the blockchain space. We will cover a wide range of topics, including the latest trends and innovations in Web3, updates about TON Blockchain, and insights into TON Ecosystem.
Check out our latest TOP research papers:
— Web3 Gaming’s New Playbook: Learning Monetization Tactics from Social Network Games
— From Bots to Mini Apps: Unveiling Telegram’s Web3 Ecosystem
— How to achieve EVM compatibility in non-EVM blockchains?
— The State of TON DeFi Q3 2023
— GameFi and User Monetization
🧭 Navigation:
#DeFi - Industry reports on various segments of decentralized finance
#TON - Insights and updates related to TON Blockchain
#Telegram - Posts related to Telegram-based products, such as Mini Apps and Telegram Wallet
#GameFi, #NFT - General reports that cover various topics within the corresponding Web3 segment
#Q4_2023 - Quarterly reviews
#December2023 - Filter out all posts for a certain month
If you're interested in informal insights on VC, crypto, Web3, and related topics, consider subscribing to @the_open_platform, a Telegram channel managed by @malev, a jr. Partner at TOP.
Join us as we delve into the forefront of blockchain technology and strive toward Web3 mass adoption.
Stay connected with us on Medium, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
topco/from-bots-to-mini-apps-unveiling-telegrams-web3-ecosystem-edea254f9b5f">From Bots to Mini Apps: Unveiling Telegram’s Web3 Ecosystem
Mini Apps are the latest addition to the Telegram ecosystem, that enhances all the features of common bots and function as independent websites within a bot. Mini Apps are the key components of Telegram's Web3 landscape, powered by Wallet and Wallet Pay. Wallet and Wallet Pay were unveiled at the Token2049 event in Singapore, marking a significant milestone for both TON and Telegram and serving as a central piece in the announcement of their partnership.
In this report you will learn about:
- The Telegram Bot tokens rally which led to its current $288.48 million market capitalization
- The history of Telegram Apps and how Mini Apps fit into the picture
- Capabilities and powerful arsenal of tools for community growth and engagement offered by Mini Apps
- Current landscape of the Telegram's Web3 Ecosystem with Wallet and Wallet Pay at its core
- Telegram Apps Center
- Resources for Telegram Mini App developers.
#November2023 #TON #Telegram #wallet
The State of TON DeFi Q3 2023 is now live. The standout development of the quarter is the surge in liquid staking, underscoring the growing demand for flexible capital efficiency tools within the ecosystem.
Key highlights of this quarter:
- The launch and rapid growth of liquid staking protocols, such as bemo and Tonstakers, are mitigating the decline in TON TVL following the end of the Liquidity Mining Campaign. Notably, both Tonstakers and bemo currently hold the top positions by TVL in TON, with the latter also making an appearance in CryptoRank's "Top-10 Liquid Staking Projects by 30D TVL Growth."
- STON.fi launched the first farming program in TON Ecosystem.
- The official TON-Ethereum bridge now supports transfers of all ERC-20 standard tokens to and from TON Blockchain and supports Wallet Connect.
- DAOLama, an NFT lending platform, and TonUP, a launchpad, are two new projects that were launched on TON this quarter.
- The unveiling of Wallet in Telegram and TON’s role in building Telegram’s Web3 ecosystem are positioning TON’s DeFi as the ultimate decentralized alternative to traditional banking.
Our previous reports:
The State of TON DeFi Q2 2023
The State of TON DeFi Q1 2023
TON: DeFi Landscape
#DeFi #October2023 #Q3_2023 #TON
We published our second quarterly report The State of TON DeFi Q2 2023. Please support us with your likes and subscribe to our Medium to stay updated on the developments in the ecosystem.
Key highlights of this quarter:
- TON Foundation’s Liquidity Mining Campaign caused a surge in TVL with a substantial increase of 30.4% compared to the previous quarter. Notably, TON’s TVL growth rate outpaced that of its peers.
- During this quarter, the liquid staking protocol, bemo, was launched, and Tonstakers, OpenStake, and Hipo Finance were also announced.
- TON saw the introduction of two new DEXs: Flex, a trustless DEX, and Storm Trade, the first DEX for synthetic assets on TON, which is currently in its testnet phase.
- TON Bridge was officially launched and is now supported by DeDust and Flex.
Our previous reports can be found here:
firststagelabs/the-state-of-ton-defi-q1-2023-9c64bc6555f9">The State of TON DeFi Q1 2023
firststagelabs/ton-defi-landscape-da841036015d">TON: DeFi Landscape
#DeFi #July2023 #Q2_2023 #TON
Metaverse: June headlines
- Consumers appear less interested in more futuristic offerings, want real-world applicability, are least interested in fashion and beauty, loosing interest in metaverse socializing - McKinsey & Company (source)
- Apple bets on the metaverse: Apple unveiled its long-awaited entry into virtual reality, or what the tech giant calls “spatial computing,” in the form of the Apple Vision Pro, a $3,500 device that looks like exquisitely designed futuristic ski goggles (source).
- Banks Have Come to the Metaverse. JPMorgan arrived in Decentraland under the brand Onyx, which, according to the company, is “a blockchain-based platform for wholesale payment transactions.” DBS, Singapore’s biggest bank, purchased a large plot of land on The Sandbox to develop interactive experiences aimed at promoting a more sustainable world. South Korea’s Kookmin Bank has its own native metaverse-based financial services as well as one-on-one customer service (source).
#metaverse #trends #June2023
Wallets / Payment Solutions: June headlines
- PayPal invests in new crypto wallet service. PayPal has announced a substantial investment in Magic, the strategic funding round, led by PayPal Ventures, raised $52 million for Magic, with additional investments from Cherubic, Synchrony, KX, Northzone and Volt Capital (source).
- Atomic Wallet Hackers Use THORChain to Conceal Stolen $35M Funds: the hackers, believed to be North Korean hacking group Lazarus, have been using cross-chain bridges and liquidity protocols to mix stolen funds (source).
- Crypto.com joins ranks of licensed payment institutions in Singapore: with the MPI license, Crypto.com is now authorized to offer its DPT services to customers in Singapore (source).
- Crypto Payments Firm Wyre Winding Down Due to ‘Market Conditions’. Wyre is ceasing operations less than a year after it was valued at $1.5 billion in an abortive acquisition by Bolt (source).
- Binance struggles in Europe continue as it has lost its EURO payment partner - Paysafe,its Euro payment partner, will stop its bank transfers services from September 25 (source).
- Mastercard plans beta for a blockchain ‘app store’ for ‘regulated’ financial apps. Mastercard said it was planning to launch a beta in the U.K. over the summer to test what it calls the Multi Token Network, or an “app store powered by blockchain technologies for building regulated financial applications” (source)
#wallet #paymentsolutions #trends #June2023
Metaverse: May headlines
- Alibaba Cloud Builds Metaverse Launchpad on Avalanche named Cloudverse, the launchpad is designed to provide an end-to-end platform for companies to customize and maintain their metaverse spaces (source)
- Top metaverse property investments suffer massive losses - Report: Popular metaverse properties, such as Otherdeeds, The Sandbox, Decentraland, Somnium and Voxels, have all depreciated in value over the past year (source)
- Chinese city releases policy draft for metaverse industry development - the policies include a series of cash benefits to attract metaverse-related companies to set up shop in the city (source)
- BuzzAR and Cypher Capital team up for Metaverse project - the partnership will allow the companies to leverage proprietary generative AI technologies on its Metaport (source)
#metaverse #trends #May2023
Crypto Payment Solutions: May headlines
- Ethereum: Payment Giant Visa Deploys First Paymaster Smart Contract on ETH Testnet - on March 1, 2023, ERC-4337 was rolled out to the Ethereum mainnet, adding the ability for smart contracts to transact on behalf of the user (source)
- Tether and Strike have partnered to make USDT easily available for transactions via Strike's payment platform, the payment app is in expansion mode and has announced the move of its headquarters out of the United States (source)
- Stripe Rolls Out New Fiat-to-Crypto Onramp To Make Digital Asset Purchases More Convenient - Web3 companies can now direct their US-based customers to the link without the need for any access code (source)
- Transak Raises $20M - the startup offers on- and off-ramps that could make it easier for new users to interact with Web3 project (source)
- Argentina Bans Payment Apps From Offering Bitcoin to Customers - the central bank said Thursday that payment platforms cannot offer crypto trading services to their customers (source)
#trends #May2023 #paymentsolutions
DeFi: May headlines
- Curve Finance Deploys Decentralized Stablecoin on Ethereum - crvUSD is an over-collateralized stablecoin backed by assets like USDC, Ethereum, liquid staking derivatives like Frax’s sfrxETH, and liquidity provision tokens of stablecoin pools (source)
- Cardano DeFi Total Value Locked Hits 400M ADA Milestone - in US Dollar terms, DeFi activities on Cardano had grown consistently since the start of the year when the TVL was just around $50 million (source)
- Tenet, LayerZero partner to drive cross-chain liquid staking adoption - Tenet’s network allows users to create projects and tokens which will now be integrated with LayerZero technology. The interoperability opens up users to the broader DeFi ecosystem across a variety of smart contract blockchains (source)
- DeFi space braces for possible increase in DAI savings rate from 1% to 3.3% - MakerDAO’s proposal to raise the DSR follows a series of rate hikes imposed by the U.S (source)
- Uniswap to Launch on Polkadot via Moonbeam Parachain - the decision follows a near-unanimous governance vote first championed by Blockchain at Berkeley, a student educational group linked to UC Berkeley, and brought back to life by Blockchain at Michigan, another educational organization (source)
- DeFi Project Bancor Hit With Lawsuit Over Impermanent Loss Protection Promises - investors claim promises fell short, adding that Bancor’s DAO was centralized and its liquidity pools operated as unregistered securities (source)
#DeFi #May2023 #trends
Web3 Creator Economy: April headlines
- Mastercard Drops Free NFTs, Launches Web3 Music Accelerator: Music Pass NFT allows musicians to access its Mastercard Artist Accelerator Program, giving artists tools and resources to bolster their Web3 music careers (source)
- Nfinity.io launched a Decentralized SocialFi Platform, Transforming the Web2 Social Media Landscape, the platform seamlessly integrates incentives with content creation and dissemination (source)
- Roblox, the dominant online gaming platform, recently rolled out a new class of wearable virtual goods that can be sold in limited quantities by third-party creators, per a recent company announcement. The goods, called Limiteds, can also be resold by Roblox users at any price of their choosing, with a 10% cut of each secondary sale going to the original creator (source)
#creatoreconomy #April2023 #trends
Wallets: April headlines
- Robinhood Launches 'Connect' to Link Native Crypto Wallet to DeFi Apps: an update that will allow users of its crypto wallet to access their credentials and funds directly from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and applications—all without having to open the Robinhood app itself (source)
- Trust Wallet Fixed Vulnerability But Warns $88,000 of User Funds Are Still at Risk: “Despite our best efforts to minimize loss, we proactively identified 2 likely exploits with a total loss of $170K,” the project said on Twitter. “To do right to users, we created a reimbursement process for affected users to make them whole.” (source)
- Uniswap Launches Mobile Wallet. The wallet is intended to enable users to buy crypto, offering what the protocol says is a competitive 2.55% fiat on-ramp fee. Users can also swap funds on popular DeFi platforms, including Polygon, Arbitrum and Optimism. The wallet features in-app token price and NFT data, allowing users to favorite tokens and wallet addresses so they can track the trading activity that matters most to them. (source)
- MetaMask Denies Wallet Draining is Due to Exploit, which is a response to a Twitter thread tracing fund related to the loss of about 5,000 ETH. According to the wallet provider, an attacker withdrew 5,000 Ethereum (ETH), worth about $10 million, from different addresses across 11 blockchains rather than only from MetaMask users. (source)
- Trust Wallet Partners With Web3Auth to Simplify Web3 Onboarding Using Social Logins, the solution eliminates the current requirement of a written-down seed phrase, safeguarding users from human error and a single point of failure and thus strengthening account safety and security (source)
#wallet #April2023 #trends
Metaverse: March headlines
- NVIDIA and Microsoft to Bring the Industrial Metaverse and AI to Hundreds of Millions of Enterprise Users via Azure Cloud: NVIDIA today announced a collaboration with Microsoft to provide hundreds of millions of Microsoft enterprise users with access to powerful industrial metaverse and AI supercomputing resources via the cloud (source)
- Disney cuts metaverse division under Iger’s restructuring as part of the layoffs set to begin in March (source)
- Animoca Brands Cuts Metaverse Fund Target to $800M, the fund previously announced in November 2022 that it was working on a new Animoca Capital fund with a target of $2 billion (source)
- Meta says its single largest investment is now in ‘advancing AI’, analysts mention that Zuckerberg "altered the narrative of the company to one focused on efficiencies rather than looking to grow the metaverse at any cost" (source)
- South Korea invests $51M into metaverse projects, South Korea’s Ministry of Science said the earmarked funds will be used to prop up 13 new projects leveraging virtual worlds in the health, tourism, and education industries (source)
#metaverse #March2023 #trends
Crypto Payment Solutions: March headlines
- Telegram's Wallet Bot @wallet Integrates Tether (USDT) Payments on Tron Network: users can now send and receive USDT directly from their chats, as well as buy, swap, and make P2P trades with the stablecoin (source)
- Silvergate suspends crypto payments network; shares fall after-hours: Silvergate on Wednesday warned in a filing that it was evaluating its ability to operate as a going concern, Coinbase Global Inc, Galaxy Digita, Paxos, Circle, Bitstamp and Gemini suspended their partnerships with Silvergate after the warning (source)
- Visa, Mastercard Halt Crypto Initiatives Pending Industry And Regulatory Recovery, previously both companies forged multiple partnerships with crypto firms and dedicated teams to explore blockchain technology (source)
- U.S. Federal Reserve’s Real-Time Payments System FedNow Coming in July, FedNow has been seen as a potential precursor to a central bank digital currency (CBDC) (source)
- Bybit Launches Debit Card for Crypto Payments: the Bybit card will operate on the Mastercard network and will initially allow fiat-based transactions by debiting cryptocurrency balances when used to pay for goods and services (source)
#paymentsolutions #March2023 #trends
DeFi: March headlines
- DeFi sees its biggest hack in 2023 as Euler loses $197M: Euler Finance faced a flash loan attack on March 13, the attacker stole millions in DAI, USDC, staked Ether (StETH) and wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) (source)
- CFTC’s tech committee gathered in DC to talk DeFi: most of the participants agrees that they can "no longer ignore decentralization", and that its "benefits “far outweigh” the challenges, which they believe will “self-resolve”. Members unanimously voting for creating a Digital Assets and Blockchain Technology Subcommittee. (source)
- The U.S. Treasury Department is close to releasing a risk assessment analyzing criminal use of DeFi: the department has reviewed decentralized finance’s role in such incidents as North Korean ransomware attacks, and will issue a risk assessment (source)
- DeFi TVL Reaches 2023 Highs as Lido Liquid Staking Expands Its Lead: given that stakers will be able to withdraw their Ethereum after the upcoming Shanghai upgrade, demand for Lido liquid staking is surging (source)
- DWF Labs Invests $20M in Derivatives Trading Platform Synthetix, Synthetix's perpetual futures product will be integrated into DWF Labs' trading business with the aim of boosting Synthetiix's trading volume (source)
#DeFi #March2023 #trends
Meme Coins Contribute to More than 80% of the Trading Volume on TON: The Rise of TON Meme Coins
Jettons on the TON blockchain, especially meme coins, have seen a dramatic surge in popularity, with some experiencing over 2000% gains in price over the last week. Meme coins currently contribute to 84.5% of the total trading volume on TON. DEXes are facing the challenge of balancing asset diversity with the crucial need to safeguard against potential scams and pump-and-dump schemes. We are addressing this surge by covering the essential information about the scene along with the insights on the current market. Learn about:
- Key stats on the jetton rally
- Community response to the influx of meme coins and challenges faced by TON-based DEXes
- Scanning, research and trading tools focused on jettons.
#TON #jetton #DEX #DeFi #January2024
Web3 Gaming’s New Playbook: Learning Monetization Tactics from Social Network Games
Gaming, particularly through Mini Apps, emerges as one of the central pieces of the Telegram’s new Web3 Ecosystem.
A lot can be learned from Web2 casual gaming by Web3 developers. It is evident that Web3 casual gaming remains a relatively untapped market, with only a handful of casual titles making it to the top ranks. This presents an opportunity for Web3 game developers to learn from Web2 gaming market leaders, while adding a new dimension to the traditional casual gaming experience and empowering users with assets that possess real utility within and outside of the game.
This report includes:
- An overview of the social network gaming platforms (Facebook, WeChat, TikTok, Douyin, VK, QQ Games)
- An overview of the highest grossing casual titles in the social networks and their monetization models
- A glimpse at the current state of GameFi
- Suggestions on how to enhance the traditional monetization models used in casual gaming with Web3 elements.
Check out our previous report GameFi and User Monetization.
#December2023 #GameFi #Telegram
How to achieve EVM compatibility in non-EVM blockchains? Find out in our new report.
Key takeaways:
- The most commercially successful cases of bringing EVM capabilities to non-EVM compatible blockchains are Aurora (a smart contact on NEAR that executes an EVM code), Moonbeam (a parachain on Polkadot) and Kava (a sidechain on Cosmos). Lido on Solana, which made up 19.2% of Solana’s TVL, is also a notable case, however, the transfer of Lido to Solana did not involve any solutions for EVM compatibility.
- Developing a workchain built on the EVM to support Solidity smart contracts appears to be the most feasible approach for TON, enabling Ethereum-based dApps to be deployed on TON, while utilizing TON’s unique “blockchain of blockchains” structure.
- Implementation strategies may include adopting an independent blockchain as an internal EVM compatible workchain (possibly with acquisition) or partnering with a provider of L2 solutions to build an alternative solution, such as a rollup. These are the strategies implemented by other blockchains, such as Venom (acquisition of Everscale) or Cardano and Algorand (partnership with Milkomeda).
#DeFi #November2023 #report
Check out our new report "GameFi and User Monetization". The report highlights common monetization sources in GameFi dApps and explores the potential for new revenue streams. Here are the key takeaways:
- Popular monetization sources range from Play-to-Earn modes, in-game purchases, and NFTs to integration with traditional gaming and gaming investment funds.
- Future revenue streams could come from integrating SocialFI mechanics, hosting e-sport competitions, or implementing GameFi in traditional education and training models through blockchain gaming.
- TON & Telegram offer a unique advantage for GameFi dApps: seamless transactional experience, minimal compliance constraints, and the ability to seamlessly exchange Web3 assets with other users in Telegram's chat interface. However, the convergence of Telegram and GameFi projects remains a challenge that the community needs to address.
#GameFi #NFT #August2023
Is there any money to be made in blockchain oracles? How do we bring oracles to TON?
These are the themes that we explored in our “Oracles: Revenue and Tokenomics” report. Here are the key findings:
- The typical revenue model involves validators setting a fee for a data request to cover their gas and maintenance costs, while users pay for each request. Validators use the platform’s token as collateral, and the protocol selects the validator with the most staked tokens to fulfill the request. As a result, fees represent most of the protocol’s revenue, while demand for the utility token creates upward pressure on its price. Oracle protocols also receive grants from foundations and compensation from Web2 organizations for integrations and consulting services.
- Monetizing oracle platforms can be challenging. Popular platforms do not disclose their profits, but it is believed that most of their revenue is distributed to node operators and token holders through node incentives and staking rewards. While Chainlink is not viewed as a for-profit project, it likely generates revenue through partnerships and integrations with its commercial entity, SmartContract Chainlink. However, specific revenue figures are not publicly available.
- Attracting a partner is likely to be a better option from the standpoints of market saturation and development complexity. There are various partnership options, including partnerships between entire networks or individual projects and an oracle provider, collaborations between foundations and oracle providers, running a node in exchange for the oracle provider’s decentralized services, or the participation of individual projects, such as DEXs or DeFi protocols, in the oracle provider’s acceleration programs.
- Building our own TON oracle is the preferred option if our objective involves exploring business models such as data marketplaces for individuals and organizations within the TON ecosystem. By relying on a TON-based oracle, we can ensure that TON captures all of the economic benefits generated by data requests.
Don't forget to leave a like on our Medium post and subscribe to stay updated on our regular reports. Also, check out our Hackernoon post here.
#DeFi #oracles #July2023 #report
Web3 Creator Economy: June headlines
- Mythical Games Secures First Close of $37 Million Towards Latest Round of Funding. The round was led by digital asset manager Scytale Digital, with participation from ARK Invest, Animoca Brands, PROOF, Stanford Athletics, MoonPay. Existing investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Gaingels, Signum Growth, Struck Capital, and WestCap also participated in the round. Mythical is a next-generation games technology company creating a web3 gaming ecosystem by leveraging blockchain technology and playable NFTs for tools that enable players, creators, artists, brands and game developers to become stakeholders and owners in new “play and own” game economies (source).
- NFT Creation Platform Zora Launches Creator-Focused Layer 2. In a statement to CoinDesk, a spokesperson for Zora said that the platform has been building a "culture of creativity and community" since its inception, putting artists and creators at the forefront of its products (source).
#creatoreconomy #trends #June2023
DeFi: June headlines
- Real-world asset protocols outperform DeFi blue chips due to tokenization wave. The top uncollateralized lending protocols for institutions, TrueFi and Maple, have increased by 26.6% and 117.8%, respectively, in 2023. Centrifuge, a real-world asset tokenization platform, has surged by 32% year to date (source).
- DeFi Platform EigenLayer Rolls Out Restaking Protocol on Ethereum Mainnet, EigenLayer's developers raised $64.5 million in a series of investment rounds (source).
- Arbitrum-Based DeFi Project Chibi Finance Rug Pulled: Over $1 Million Drained: On-chain analysis conducted by blockchain security platform CertiK revealed that Chibi devs deployed a malicious contract that enabled them to steal user funds from the protocol’s smart contracts (source).
- DeFi Protocol Maverick Raises $9M Led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, the round also included contributions from Pantera Capital, Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures and Apollo Crypto (source).
- BlackRock Executive: Knowing Who Counterparties Are Is Key to Engaging Institutions in DeFi. Issues such as the automated market making in DeFi instead of central order limits books are just fig leaves, said Chalom. "We need clear understanding of who is in a pool" (source).
#DeFi #trends #June2023
Web3 Creator Economy: May headlines
- Humans.AI launches blockchain innovation for safe AI management - "Humans.ai's revolutionary blockchain is poised to reshape the landscape of AI execution, deployment, and governance, setting the stage for an unparalleled creator economy where developers possess the ability to truly own and monetize their digital assets" (source)
- What are NFT royalties, and how do they work? Cointelegraph outlines the basics behind the concept (source)
- Sotheby's Launches NFT Marketplace, Platform To Enforce Creator Royalties Using Smart Contracts (source)
- How Are DAOs Important for the NFT Platforms? - For both crypto-curious and natives, a DAO’s utility is its ability to facilitate Web3’s goal of democratizing the creator economy through more immediate and open connections between networks and particular projects (source)
#trends #creatoreconomy #May2023
Wallets: May headlines
- Ledger Crypto Wallet Under Fire Over Seed Phrase Recovery Service - in a nutshell, it’s an ID-based key recovery service that backs up users’ seed phrases. To use the service, users must provide a passport or national identity card to confirm their identity. While this service requires users to opt-in and pay a $9.99 monthly fee, some are concerned that this could even pose a security risk for those who don't opt in (source).
- PayPal Ventures Leads $52M Round for Crypto Firm Magic - the startup offers non-custodial wallet infrastructure for an enterprise client list that includes Macy’s and Mattel (source)
- Decentralized Wallet Developer Odsy Network Raises $7.5M at $250M Valuation - the funding round was led by Blockchange Ventures and included participation from Rubik Ventures, Node Capital and FalconX among others (source)
- Openfort Raises $3 Million for 'Frictionless' Web3 Gaming Wallet - Openfort is building infrastructure for game developers and aims to reduce the number of times gamers have to engage with the blockchain (source)
- Crypto Storage Firm Qredo's Revamped Self-Custody Wallet Goes Live - The New Qredo remains aimed at the institutional crypto market, but now it's low-cost and open to anyone, says COO Josh Goodbody (source)
#trends #wallet #May2023
Metaverse: April headlines
- What is Apple's Approach for the Metaverse? Apple is yet to confirm the rumours of it launching a long-rumoured VR or virtual reality glass at its annual Worlwide Developers Conference in June (source)
- Mark Zuckerberg denied the ‘narrative’ that he’s ditching the metaverse and he unveiled a new goal: bringing ‘A.I. agents’ to ‘billions of people’, previously Zuckerberg fired off a series of figures and metrics showing progress in the metaverse: More than one million Meta avatars have been created; Half of the people who use the company's Quest VR headset every day spend more than one hour inside its virtual realm (source)
- Shiba Inu's Metaverse Will Partially Open by End of 2022 - the metaverse is unlikely to be fully completed on release as it will be an “ongoing project,” developers said (source)
- UK’s New Technology Department to Tackle Country’s Metaverse, Web3 Strategy: the department will explore economic growth, investment and business opportunities in these areas, as well as implications on regulation (source)
- AI Will 'Accelerate' the Metaverse, Empower Creators: The Sandbox Co-Founder: “What used to take days before, from ideation and conception, can now take just a matter of seconds,” Borget told CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” on Thursday. AI will “accelerate and empower even more creators,” he said. (source)
#metaverse #April2023 #trends
Payment solutions: April headlines
- Alchemy Pay Raises $10M at $400M Valuation to Push South Korean Expansion Plans - the funding came from DWF Labs, its eighth investment of $10 million or more in the last six weeks (source)
- FedNow is set to launch in July: U.S. Federal Reserve wants to release a real-time payments and settlements service in order to boost the country’s infrastructure. Experts ask: Why not use crypto? (source)
- Stablecoin payments: Visa shares plans for ‘ambitious’ crypto product: According to a Visa job posting published on April 20, the company’s crypto division is building the “next generation of products” to facilitate the digital commerce of everyday life (source)
- NOWPayments, a Renowned Cryptocurrency Payment Provider, Integrates Shibarium for Efficient Crypto Payments - this integration allows NOWPayments to cater to the needs of various projects and tokens that operate on the Shibarium network (source)
#paymentsolutions #April2023 #trends
DeFi: April headlines
- Treasury Releases 2023 DeFi Illicit Finance Risk Assessment, the assessment highlights that "illicit actors, including criminals, scammers, and North Korean cyber actors are using DeFi services in the process of laundering illicit funds" and proposes measures to strengthen U.S. AML/CFT regulatory supervision (source)
- SEC’s Proposed ‘Exchange’ Definition: “The SEC’s proposal to replace ‘orders’ with ‘trading interest;’ remove ‘multiple’ before ‘buyers and sellers;’ and add ‘communication protocols’ would meaningfully expand the SEC’s ability to enforce registration requirements against DeFi protocols that perform the functions of securities exchanges” (source)
- What DeFi Must Sacrifice to Appease Regulators? SEC pushes towards programmable compliance, regulation and privacy-preserving Identity (source)
- Older Version of DeFi Yield Aggregator Yearn Finance Exploited for $11.6M: attacker minted 1.2 quadrillion tokens by exploiting a Yearn vulnerability, selling them for $11.6 million in stablecoins (source)
- Deposits to zkSync surpass $110M as its DeFi ecosystem explodes: crypto traders are actively investing in projects launching on zkSync as the hype around its potential governance token airdrop increases (source)
#DeFi #April2023 #trends
Web3 Creator Economy: March headlines
- Animoca Brands Japan invests in global entertainment company Rainshine Global Inc., the two companies aim to build a gateway for Japanese intellectual properties (IPs) to reach new global markets (source)
- Instagram scraps its Web3-related initiatives for now, previously Instagram tested the idea of limited-edition NFTs or digital collectibles minted from photos that users could create and sell (source)
- NEAR Protocol is Taking a Step Towards Web3 Social Networking: NEAR Discovery, "the easiest point of entry into Web3", is meant to make it easier to create Web3 social networks. Many of the blockchain operating system’s building blocks already exist, like NEAR Crowd, a gig economy platform, and NEAR Social. They aim to address the drawbacks of centralized platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, including little to no anonymity or privacy, few rewards for content creators, no community input and censorship concerns (source)
- Epic Games announced updates this week to Unreal Engine 5.2, including MetaHuman technology and procedural generation tools that allow creators to design custom maps and experiences within the game (source)
#creatoreconomy #March2023 #trends
Wallets: March headlines
- EU Lawmakers Vote in Favor of Payment Limits on Anonymous Crypto Wallets: Damien Carême, the French lawmaker who leads the parliament’s negotiations on the overhaul, earlier told reporters that the plans wouldn’t prevent crypto payments, because the cap of 1,000 euros won’t apply if a regulated wallet provider is involved or the identity of the payer is known (source)
- Elizabeth Warren is back with an Anti-Money Laundering act that would is likely to drive wallet providers overseas and weaken consumer choice: the act prohibits the use of digital asset mixers and requires self-hosted wallets, along with miners and validators to have AML policies (source)
- Crypto Wallet Prototype Discovered Inside Microsoft Edge Browser - the unreleased features suggest the tech giant is considering a deeper move into Web3 (source)
- Coinbase is starting a “wallet as a service” business that will allow companies to customize blockchain wallets for their own customers - the service could be used by gaming apps where tokens or NFT are part of the game, or by companies that might want to incorporate a wallet into an app and make that “almost invisible to the end user,” Patrick McGregor, Coinbase’s head of product for Web3 developer platforms, said in an interview (source)
#wallet #March2023 #trends
Metaverse: February headlines
- Meta Free Cash Surge Clears The Way For More Metaverse Investment: with support from better-than-expected performance across the family of apps, including Facebook breaking into 2 billion daily active users for the first time, the results are likely to limit investor objections to the company’s spending on developing its metaverse (source)
- Tencent scraps plans for VR hardware as metaverse bet falters (source)
- Pantera Invests $10M in Metaverse Game Worldwide Webb - the Web3 game allows players to use their existing NFT collections as avatars (source)
- Colombia’s legal system experiments in the metaverse: a Colombian court recently hosted its first legal trial in the metaverse, with the court magistrate saying it felt “more real than a video call” (source)
- Mitsubishi, Fujitsu and Other Tech Firms to Create ‘Japan Metaverse Economic Zone’, the goal of the metaverse alliance is to help build the framework for corporations to tap into Web3 marketing, work reform and consumer experience initiatives (source)
#metaverse #February2023 #trends