Autor Cointelegraph By Brian Newar

Marc Andreessen may step down from Meta board due to crypto empire: Reports

Marc Andreessen may step down from Meta board due to crypto empire: Reports

Uverejnil používateľ | mar 25, 2022 |

Billionaire co-founder of crypto venture capital firm A16z Marc Andreessen may be leaving the board of directors of Meta due to his firm’s investments in the Web3 space.Business Insider reported on Mar. 25 that a source familiar with the situation said “it would not surprise me even remotely” if Andreessen exited the board in the next few months. Andreessen could leave as soon as May when the board has its next re-election.Andreessen has not made a public statement regarding his future with the Meta board.Meta has begun to build or acquire several Web3 projects related to the Metaverse, NFTs, social networking, finance, and entertainment, which means a16z’s crypto empire could create a conflict of interests. On Mar. 18, Meta applied to patent user identification software most commonly used in hardware and e-wallets similar to Metamask or Ledger.a16z meanwhile is the leading VC firm in the cryptocurrency space. It helped lead the recent investment round in BAYC creator Yuga Labs and launched a $30 million fund on Mar. 11 to support nonfungible token (NFT) art projects. The $450 million investment round in Yuga Labs marks one of the largest NFT project seed rounds ever. A16z’s other previous or active investments in the crypto space include decentralized exchange Uniswap, centralized exchange Coinbase, NFT marketplace OpenSea, DeFi protocol Maker, and decentralized lending platform Compound. A16z raised $2.2 billion for its third crypto fund in the middle of last year and intends to raise $4.5 billion for its next fund in the coming months, making it the largest such venture to date. A spokesperson for a16z denied the rumors, telling Business Insider: “If he were to step down, he doesn’t know about it. So no, it’s not happening. At least not now.”Andreessen has been on the former Facebook board since 2008, longer than any other current non-Meta team member. Early Facebook investor Peter Thiel will step down in May for a number of reasons including his crypto investments in Block.one (the blockchain solutions firm behind EOS) and crypto trading platform BitPanda.Related: Diem team members raise $200M to launch blockchain derived from it

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Russia's energy chief says it would accept Bitcoin for oil and gas

Russia's energy chief says it would accept Bitcoin for oil and gas

Uverejnil používateľ | mar 25, 2022 |

The Russian Federation’s energy chief Pavel Zavalny has floated the possibility of accepting Bitcoin as payment for its oil and gas from “friendly countries” such as China and Turkey.He said those countries could begin paying for energy in Russian Rubles, Chinese Yuan, Turkish Lira — or even Bitcoin (BTC) — rather than the international standard US dollar. According to Russian news media RBC, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Energy Zavalny stated at a Mar. 24 press conference that he and representatives from China and Turkey have been discussing changes to preferred settlement currencies for its biggest export. “We have been proposing to China for a long time to switch to settlements in national currencies of rubles and yuan. With Turkey, it will be lira and rubles. The set of currencies can be different, and this is normal practice. If there are Bitcoins, we will trade Bitcoins.”He further stated that “unfriendly countries” could pay for their oil in Rubles or gold. However, it is not clear whether Russia can change the terms of existing contracts with countries that pay in Euros or USD. Explosive.Russia is now demanding that Europe pay for gas in rubles.Europe gets 40% of its gas from Russia. That’s 200-800 million euros per day.Putin is basically saying: you want to play sanctions? Either pay up in rubles or freeze.— Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) March 23, 2022Russia has been exploring ways it can circumvent international economic sanctions levied against it for invading Ukraine. Russian banks have been removed from the SWIFT system to prevent them from settling cross-border payments, and most businesses have been prohibited from dealing with Russia, excepting for the oil and gas trade.Energy is the single most important commodity that Russia exports — and is a key energy source in Europe and other countries they are finding difficult to replace. According to Reuters, the oil and gas trade provided $119 billion in revenue for Russia in 2021. Including electricity, kerosene, coal, and natural gas, the energy trade accounted for 53.8% of Russia’s total $388.4 billion in 2021 exports according to Russia Briefing.The crypto market appears to have reacted positively to the news of an expanded international use case for BTC. Bitcoin is up 2.5% over the past day and is now approaching 30-day highs trading at $43,917 according to CoinGecko.Related: Terra’s Bitcoin purchase and BlackRock comments back ETH’s surge to $3.1KThe CEO Larry Fink of Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, may be watching his prediction of a new digital payment system come to fruition before his eyes. Fink wrote in a Mar. 24 letter to shareholders that global political instability could pave the way for nations to adopt digital currencies as international settlement tools.

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Nifty News: Mayweather returns to crypto ring after legal KO… Reef gets NFTs

Nifty News: Mayweather returns to crypto ring after legal KO… Reef gets NFTs

Uverejnil používateľ | mar 24, 2022 |

Legendary boxing champion Floyd Mayweather is taking another jab at the crypto space by launching a new NFT and Metaverse project called the Mayweverse.The nonfungible tokens (NFT) will feature the likeness of Mayweather himself and provide various utilities and prizes for holders depending on the rarity of the item. Little more is known about the project at the time of writing other than that the Metaverse will contain a boxing gym. After many months of hard workI’m launching my new NFT Project @mayweverse⁰The collection will have 5,000 NFTs (5 different NFTs cards of 1,000 each).Each card has a different rarity, utilities & prizes.More information on the roadmap will be announced soon. Stay Tuned pic.twitter.com/SxZ916p0HP— Floyd Mayweather (@FloydMayweather) March 21, 2022The launch date and prices is yet been determined, but the hype for the project is growing rapidly. The Discord channel dedicated to the project already has over 5,000 members.Mayweather’s involvement in this new NFT project is notable considering his sub-par record with crypto projects in the past. Mayweather promoted a high-profile crypto scam called Centra Tech which defrauded investors out of over $25 million in 2018. By 2019, Mayweather and co-promoter DJ Khaled were forced to pay $600,000 and $150,000 respectively for their parts in marketing the project. Twitter personality Coffeezilla claimed that Mayweather is now “frantically deleting evidence of his last NFT scam,” in order to appear to be in good faith for the Mayweverse launch. Other projects he has promoted include Floyd NFT, Bored Bunny, and Bored BAD Bunny.Floyd Mayweather is frantically deleting evidence of his last NFT scam.He’s getting roasted by the investors. https://t.co/HXUzCWi6sW pic.twitter.com/AQ92nxIhtz— Coffeezilla (@coffeebreak_YT) March 22, 2022

Own a piece of the Great Barrier Reef A marine biologist is looking to spark new conservation efforts for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef by re-mapping the world’s largest coral reef system and selling the results as NFTs one hectare at a time.Dr. Brett Kettle is working with ReeFi DAO to digitally map the entire Great Barrier Reef off the northwest coast of Australia and give people around the world a chance to see it with their own eyes. Dr. Kettle believes that access to one of the great natural wonders of the world will inspire environmental preservation efforts from owners of the NFTs. Each NFT will be “an actual three-dimensional photo-realistic model,” Dr. Kettle told Australian national broadcaster ABC. He believes that NFT owners will both be able to experience something they may not otherwise have a chance to, and help the reef’s health. The reef is suffering due to climate change and ocean acidification according to climate researchers at climatehotmap.com.Collectors will be able to act as proxy stewards of the NFT reef plot they own. “You might be sitting in an attic in upstate New York with no chance of seeing the Great Barrier Reef, but you can pull down your service provider and choose someone to remove [crown of thorns] starfish from your piece of reef.”Australia’s Qantas Airlines to drop NFTsAustralia’s biggest airline will drop a series of NFTs as memorabilia commemorating the airline’s 102-year history in aviation.The airline announced the drop on Mar. 22 on its website and stated that the collection would not just be a simple piece of history to hold. The first buyers of the NFTs will earn frequent flyer points called Qantas Points and the airline said it has “more exciting future benefits for Qantas NFT holders underway.”The NFTs are due to drop by mid-year.Krafton and Solana partner South Korean gaming company Krafton has sealed a partnership with Layer-1 blockchain project Solana (SOL) to develop and operate blockchain-based games using NFTs. Web3 Lead at Krafton Hyungchul Park said in the company’s official statement that he expects the partnership will allow Krafton to “acquire the insight needed to accelerate its investment in and output of blockchain-based experiences.”Krafton is the company behind the popular PUBG: Battlegrounds game. It is not yet clear what direction the company will take with the partnership and whether it will tokenize in-game assets from its popular battle royale game. KRAFTON, one of South Korea’s most valuable gaming companies, announced the signing of a business agreement with Solana Labs to support the design and marketing of blockchain-based games and services. https://t.co/vJkQuDahgT— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) March 24, 2022

Krafton saw its biggest profits ever in 2021 and raked in more than $1.5 billion thanks to the success from its flagship game title.Other Nifty NewsVideo game retailer Gamestop has launched an NFT marketplace on the Loopring Layer-2 solution. The beta version of the marketplace is now live. Loopring’s Head of Growth says the marketplace will allow collectors to mint and trade NFTs in a “fast, cheap, and secure” way.NFT marketplace Veve experienced a security breach on Mar. 22 that saw millions of its in-app tokens known as gems being stolen. The marketplace was shut down while an investigation took place.

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Charles Hoskinson cheekily admits: 'I was wrong' about DApp rollout

Charles Hoskinson cheekily admits: 'I was wrong' about DApp rollout

Uverejnil používateľ | mar 24, 2022 |

Co-founder of the Cardano blockchain Charles Hoskinson has cheekily admitted that his July 2020 forecast of the number of DApps coming to the blockchain has not yet come to fruition. Referring to his famed July 2020 tweet, Hoskinson tweeted on Mar. 23, “Remember when I predicted thousands of assets and DApps on Cardano? Well I was wrong, there are now millions of native assets issued and DApps are now in the hundreds. #SlowAndSteady.” Remember when I predicted thousands of assets and DApps on Cardano? Well I was wrong, there are now millions of native assets issued and DApps are now in the hundreds. #SlowAndSteady https://t.co/mK4So6NHa1— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) March 23, 2022However he may have misremembered his own tweet, as he had predicted back in July 2020 that by 2021, there would be “hundreds of assets and thousands of DApps” on Cardano (ADA). While the number of assets appears to have exceeded his predictions by 2022 thanks to new nonfungible token (NFT) minting protocols, the number of decentralized apps running on the network isn’t so impressive.The decentralized finance analytics platform DeFiLlama tracks just seven DApps running on Cardano and a total of $315.72M in total value locked (TVL), excluding staked governance tokens. Two of those DApps have $0 TVL outside of governance tokens. Hoskinson believes that developers are waiting for the deployment of the Vasil hardfork upgrade on Cardano scheduled for this June to launch their projectsCardano DApps tracked by DeFiLlama.According to the leading Cardano ecosystem tracker Cardano Cube, there are 579 DApps in various stages of development.What most also don’t understand is that many Cardano DApps are waiting for the Vasil hardfork in June to launch to benefit from pipelining. So it seems we ain’t seen nothing yet on TVL https://t.co/mMHxwRrF96— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) March 12, 2022

While the data contradicts some of Hoskinson’s loftier predictions from 2020, it does confirm that Cardano’s ecosystem has been on a steady rise throughout 2022 so far. The Jan. 21 launch of the SundaeSwap decentralized exchange (DEX) helped spark a big increase in total value locked (TVL). Leading up to the launch, Cardano TVL shot up more than 24 times from $3 million to $87.7 in a single day from Jan. 20 to 21 according to DeFiLlama.Cardano TVL has been on a steady climb throughout 2022 – DeFiLlamaIncluding the value of staked tokens, the ecosystem’s TVL now sits at an all-time high of $315.7 million with the Minswap DEX leading all other dApps with $195.2 million. That makes Cardano the 25th-largest blockchain network by TVL. If counting the value of staked governance tokens, Cardano’s TVL is about $421.5 million.Related: Grayscale launches smart contract fund for Ethereum competitorsDespite the growth of Cardano this year, the network’s TVL still pales in comparison to that of its Layer-1 competitors in DeFi, such as Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL). The two chains command a massive $137.3 billion and $7.2 billion respectively, according to DeFiLlama.

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How NFTs create a 'beautiful cycle' between artists and fans

How NFTs create a 'beautiful cycle' between artists and fans

Uverejnil používateľ | mar 23, 2022 |

The nonfungible token art industry has developed into a “beautiful cycle” thanks to the connection artists have with their fans according to artist Danielle Weber who spoke at the Australia Blockchain Week conference. Weber spoke on a March 23 panel discussion titled “Pushing the boundaries of NFT utility and art – Homegrown spotlight” about the benefits of the nonfungible token (NFT) ecosystem bringing artists closer together with their fans. She highlighted the fact that such closeness provides mutual advantages for both artists and fans: “It’s a beautiful cycle that we’re seeing in this space. We are closely connected to our fans… so we know what they want, and they motivate us to create work that is true to ourselves and true to our craft.”That connection with fans is apparent the moment one enters the NFT space. A collector may join a Discord channel from an NFT project or begin following an artist or a collection’s account. Through those media, collectors can voice their opinions and get real-time updates directly from the content creators about the direction they are taking with their art. As Weber stated, such an arrangement allows artists to “think more widely about how we can give back to our supporters.”She believes that this two-way street of communication between artists and fans “has taken out the middlemen and the galleries” which “pushes you to stand up as an artist” and be “at the forefront of your project.” The process that generated the apparent give-and-take cycle in the NFT space took time to develop, as noted by another panelist and founder of the Metakey NFT collection, “Matty”. He said that when he started his foray into the NFT space about four years ago, “every Discord had like 200 people, and if it had 1,000, it was a big project.” However, sales in the NFT industry currently outweigh those from the traditional art auction industry. Last year, NFT sales totaled about $23.1 billion according to DappRadar while traditional non-NFT art auction sales topped $16.8 billion according to news outlet International Business Times. Related: Snoop Dogg may be the face of Web3 and NFTs, but what does that mean for the industry?Matty attributes the growth of the NFT space to a small number of catalysts such as Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot NFT collection that “built something that was really easy to understand, and it clicked.” In his view, there will be more catalysts in the gaming and creative industries that begin to integrate NFTs.As of the time of writing, the NBA Top Shot discord channel had nearly 224,000 members.

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