Značka: Space

Not quite to the moon: Aussies offered NFT that could send them to space

Australians may not ever see their nonfungible tokens (NFTs) take them “to the moon,” but they might be able to get to the next best place — the edge of space.Crypto Competitions, an Australia-based Web3 sweepstakes startup, has recently signed a partnership with stratospheric exploration company World View, offering its NFT holders a 1-in-7,000 chance to win a priority seat in a World View space flight in 2024. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Harls Cannard, managing director of Crypto Competitions, said the sweepstakes was a way to celebrate the launch of his Web3-powered marketplace, which uses NFTs and prizes as an incentive to join its discount rewards program. “Everyone in crypto talks about like, when are we going to get a Lambo, and when are we going to the moon?”Canard said he thought the space flight was a “great way to launch,” even if it wasn’t necessarily sending someone “to the moon.” Source: Crypto CompetitionsHe explained that his Web3 company wanted to use blockchain to power its space flight sweepstakes project as the technology allows the draw to be “safe, secure and transparent.”“Because in a lot of lotteries and systems like this, you never actually know your odds of winning. You can’t verify your details to know if your name is actually in that barrel or in that draw. So we’re creating more of a trustworthy and transparent system of generating winners.”Crypto Competitions’ model bears resemblance to traditional NFT lotteries which uses an NFT to represent a sweepstake “ticket.”However, it puts a unique spin on the sweepstakes process, as it employs a gradual elimination process to determine a final winner. “We start with 7,000 NFTs that have been purchased. Then we begin to remove people that have entered […] On the final day, there might be 10 people left with 10 NFTs in the draw.”Canard explained that at each step, eliminated NFT holders or new buyers would be encouraged to participate in the secondary sales market for the surviving NFTs.“We’re creating secondary resale market value for the actual NFT.”Canard said his hopes for the company’s space flight project will showcase the capabilities of its blockchain technology.“I’ve been doing this in the Web2 space for the last four years and I’ve seen a massive gap in the market in Australia and internationally and so that’s why.”Related: Iconic brands including Nike, Gucci have made $260M off NFT salesCrypto Competitions is a Web3 company that offers a membership platform that gives members access to discounts, coupons, and rewards in over ten countries. Canard said in the future, he plans for the adjacent NFT sweepstakes product to include prizes such as Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs and more “life-changing” giveaways and experiences.

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Brazil beams Bitcoin from space: A case for BTC satellite nodes

A Bitcoiner in Brazil has beamed the blockchain from space. Mauricio Cessere, product manager at Ledn and a Venezuelan national, has established the purported first Bitcoin (BTC) satellite full node in Brazil. The full satellite node that Cessere has established downloads the Bitcoin blockchain directly from the Blockstream Satellite Network, negating the need for a reliable internet connection. It’s a small step for Bitcoin’s web of nodes but a giant leap for Bitcoin adoption, evincing that those in remote or hard to reach areas could run nodes. Cessere poses with the satellite dish that receives the Bitcoin blockchain. Source: CessereA refresher for those new to nodes: a Bitcoin full node is software that continuously monitors the blockchain and its complete transaction history. A full node prohibits non-legitimate transactions and thwarts attempts to spend Bitcoin twice, known as a “double-spend”. Cessere explains that nodes “grant their owners decentralized access to the only uncensorable monetary network that we know of today.”However, up until 2020, configuring a Bitcoin node (sometimes called a Bitcoin peer, as Bitcoin is a “peer-to-peer version of electronic cash”) was wholly dependent on local internet providers. Thanks to upgrades in Bitcoin company Blockstream’s Satellite Network, Bitcoin believers around the world can download a full node without an internet connection.The satellite receiver from novra technologies. Source: CessereBut, why does it matter? As Cessere explains: “Satellite Full Nodes are the next step to further decentralization of the Bitcoin network,” adding:“The use case for Satellite Full Nodes could not be brighter. A few offline access points of these can fully connect remote communities to Bitcoin, even ones without prior internet access.”There is a compelling case for satellite full nodes, particularly in countries that struggle with unstable governments, unreliable internet connections and weak digital infrastructure. In effect, a satellite full node can help more emerging countries and individuals without internet connections contribute and eventually participate in the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin Gandalf (not his real name), of Braiins Bitcoin mining company explained to Cointelegraph that “using Blockstream satellite adds an additional level of redundancy should more traditional connectivity methods be interrupted.” It’s taken me much longer than expected, but I will download #Bitcoin’s blockchain from space within Brazil this year. ⛓— El Sultán ₿itcoin (@elsultanbitcoin) January 27, 2022In neighbouring Venezuela, for example, a Bitcoin satellite node was installed in 2020. Venezuela benefits from a robust infrastructure of satellite dish networks which as Cecere explains, “can be leveraged to expand Bitcoin’s offline signal on earth.” Cecere connected to a Blockstream satellite from his homeland, after television network provider DirecTV left the country:“I recycled a dish that DirecTV had installed at my parent’s house more than 10 years ago and turned it into an access point to the most powerful monetary network on Earth. That’s experiencing the power of borderless money at its utmost in the flesh!”Venezuela is an increasingly pro-crypto nation, having experienced high levels of inflation since 2016. Across the border in Brazil, it’s another hotbed for adoption, particularly in light of a new bill that proposes protections to private keys as well as the legalization of crypto payments. The ability to run a satellite node in these countries as an offline connection point is a boon for adoption and the network’s resilience.For Cessere’s satellite node in Venezuela, he “modernized`“ the dish with a clothes pin to assist the download of the blockchain. Source: Cessere The Brazilian satellite full node Cessere built is connecting from a family member’s house in Santos, just south of Brazil’s largest city São Paulo . If the node runs successfully, the intention is to “port the equiment to Fundação Parque Tecnológico de Santos Gustavo,” a technology and innovation park where it will remain permanently connected as an offline connection point.   Related: Bitcoin Lightning Network developer updates node software with Taproot supportHowever, the Bitcoin space signal has some limitations. Cessere explains it’s a “one-way street, since one can only download data from it but not push any; hence, they’re not capable of broadcasting transactions to the network.”In the future, Blockstream may introduce an even more advanced version of their satellite equipment which may enable those with extremely limited access to internet access — such as crypto mining companies in far-flung destinations — to connect to Bitcoin.Then, and only then will Bitcoin take on the mantle of being “space money.”

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SpaceX to follow Tesla in accepting DOGE payments for merch: Elon Musk

Just four months after EV manufacturer Tesla started accepting Dogecoin (DOGE) for merchandise purchases, Elon Musk announced his plan to extend the payment option for his space exploration company, SpaceX. Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has been a staunch supporter of the DOGE ecosystem since 2019 and has since publicly revealed interest in accepting meme coin payments across his multibillion-dollar enterprises.Tesla merch can be bought with Doge, soon SpaceX merch too— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 27, 2022Historically, Musk’s pro-Dogecoin tweets have had an immediate and positive impact on DOGE’s market prices as investors try to cash in on the hype. However, the recent revelation about SpaceX’s plan to accept DOGE payments for merchandise had no significant effect on the price amid a bearish crypto market.Moreover, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView show that DOGE lost over 55% in value between the 8th and 12th of May and trades at $0.08077 at the time of writing.Dogecoin price 1-day chart. Source: TradingViewIn December 2021, DOGE gained 25% after Musk confirmed that Tesla will accept DOGE for merchandise. Along similar timelines, the entrepreneur revealed his belief about DOGE being a better everyday payment option as compared to Bitcoin (BTC).Maybe one day— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 27, 2022

If things work out just as planned by the world’s richest man, Musk might eventually start allowing DOGE payments for Starlink subscriptions. Related: ‘Yikes!’ Elon Musk warns users against latest deepfake crypto scamMusk recently issued a public warning against an ongoing scam wherein attackers have been found to use deepfake technology to impersonate the entrepreneur and promote fabricated crypto-shilling videos.Yikes. Def not me.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 25, 2022

Originally shared on Twitter, the deepfake video of Musk promoted a cryptocurrency platform boasting 30% returns on crypto deposits.

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US Air Force files trademark application for 'SpaceVerse' initiative

The United States Air Force has filed a trademark application hinting at the military branch potentially expanding into the metaverse.According to a Thursday application submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Department of the Air Force trademarked the word “SpaceVerse,” defined as “a secure digital metaverse that converges terrestrial and space physical and digital realities and provides synthetic and simulated extended-reality (XR) training, testing and operations environments.” It’s unclear if the initiative is connected to the U.S. Space Force, which according to its website is “organized under” the Air Force, but operates as a “separate and distinct branch of the armed services.”The United States Air Force has filed a trademark application for SPACEVERSE for a metaverse that 1⃣ converges terrestrial and space physical and digital realities 2⃣provides extended-reality training, testing, and operations environments#Metaverse #Web3 #USAF #Space pic.twitter.com/OVkcnKvX6M— Mike Kondoudis (@KondoudisLaw) April 19, 2022The trademark application connected to activities in the metaverse followed several from a variety of firms including credit card companies Mastercard and American Express, footwear and apparel manufacturer Nike and the New York Stock Exchange. The various applications included trademarks on the use of logos and branding in a virtual environment as well as authenticating certain files with nonfungible tokens, or NFTs.Some major brand names have launched virtual stores or other environments for users following Facebook’s announcement in October 2021 that the social media giant would be rebranding to Meta. In February, U.S. bank JPMorgan entered the metaverse by launching a virtual lounge in the blockchain-based online world Decentraland. Samsung also launched a virtual store modeled after a real-world shop in New York City.Related: Meta files 8 digital asset and Web 3 trademark applicationsOf the six branches of the U.S. military — Marines, Coast Guard, Army, Navy, Air Force and Space Force — the latter half have previously announced major initiatives aimed at incorporating blockchain technology or otherwise adopting digital assets. In June 2021, Space Force said it would be releasing NFT versions of patches and coins designed for the launch of one of its vehicles. The U.S. Navy also inked a $1.5-million deal with Consensus Networks to develop a blockchain-enabled logistics system named HealthNet.

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5 cryptocurrency projects that made waves in 2021

2021 was a breakout year for the cryptocurrency market in many respects and most investors are absolutely thrilled that Bitcoin (BTC) price established a new all-time high of $68,789. In the same timeframe, Ether (ETH) went on a parabolic rally which saw its price gain 565% from Jan. 1 to hit a record high at $4,859 on Nov. 10.While it was a banner year for large cap cryptocurrencies, some of the biggest gains and most impactful developments came from the altcoin market where decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) rallied by thousands of percent and helped to usher in a new level of awareness and adoption for blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. Here’s a look at five altcoin projects that made significant contributions to the cryptocurrency ecosystem in 2021. UniswapThe decentralized exchange Uniswap (UNI) has arguably had the greatest impact on the crypto ecosystem as a whole since launching in the summer of 2020, with the DEX seeing significant growth throughout 2021 as it helped facilitate the launch of thousands of new crypto projects by removing the barriers to launch that existed on centralized exchanges.Data provided by Dune Analytics shows that Uniswap has been the dominant DEX throughout the year and it has consistently seen more trading volume than all other DEXs combined. Monthly DEX volume by project. Source: Dune AnalyticsAs seen on the chart above, the volume traded on decentralized exchanges really started to ramp up in the second half of 2021 led in large part by activity on Uniswap. Throughout 2021 Uniswap led the field in development as well, with the developers behind the protocol announcing the release of Uniswap v3 in March. The v3 upgrade included multiple protocol upgrades and it built the foundation to integrate layer-two scaling solutions like Optimism and Arbitrum with Uniswap as a way to help reduce the transaction costs and processing times for users. AaveAave (AAVE) is a DeFi lending protocol that allows users to deposit their tokens and lend them out as a way to earn a yield or pledge them as collateral in order to borrow another asset.As the DeFi sector started to gain traction in early 2021, AAVE emerged as a community favorite thanks to the wide swath of crypto assets supported and the backing from some well-funded players.Over the course of the year, AAVE expanded its capabilities and reach with the release of AAVE v2 which added support for Polygon, a layer-two scaling solution, and Avalanche, which is a popular cross-chain blockchain network.Total liquidity on the AAVE protocol. Source: AaveAs a result of these added capabilities, the total liquidity available on the AAVE protocol has surpassed $25.7 billion, making AAVE the top-ranked DeFi protocol by total value locked (TVL). CurveCurve Finance is a stablecoin-focused protocol that utilizes an automated market maker to manage liquidity on the platform and across the DeFi ecosystem. Stablecoins have emerged as a foundational piece for the cryptocurrency community as a whole in 2021 because they provide sufficient liquidity for the market and a safe haven for traders seeking shelter during periods of high volatility. The growing importance that stablecoins have benefited Curve protocol and its native CRV by accelerating its integration of stablecoins into many of the top DeFi protocols, including the Yearn.Finance ecosystem and Convex Finance. Despite the fact that a significant portion of the assets locked on the Curve protocol are stablecoins, the platform now ranks as the second leading protocol in terms of TVL behind AAVE, with data from Defi Llama showing that $21.77 billion in value is now locked in Curve vaults. Total value locked on Curve. Source: Defi LlamaCurve has also integrated with many of the most active blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Avalanche, Harmony, xDAI, Polygon, Arbitrum and Fantom, which is further evidence of the protocol’s quest to be the stablecoin liquidity provider for the entire crypto market. Related: US Financial Stability Oversight Council identifies stablecoins and cryptos as threats to financial systemAxie InfinityAxie Infinity is a play-to-earn (p2e) trading and battling game that allows participants to collect, breed, raise, battle and trade NFT-based creatures called Axies. The p2e model emerged as a new fan favorite over the course of 2021 because it provides users with the ability to earn a daily income alongside their gameplay, which offers a few unique advantages when compared to the traditional pay-to-play model.Alongside the rise in popularity of Axie Infinity came a new all-time high for the platform’s native AXS token. As the token stormed to new highs, the platform generated a daily revenue of $17.55 million at its height on August 6. Axie Infinity price vs. total revenue. Source: Token TerminalAxie Infinity was also one of the earliest projects to establish the trend of migrating away from the Ethereum network because of high fees and slow transactions. Earlier in the year the project migrated to the Ronin sidechain and in November the project launched its own DEX called Katana.DogecoinDogecoin is an open-source proof of work cryptocurrency that leads the field of “meme” coins that made headlines all throughout 2021. While the project has few contributions on the technological or development front, frequent shilling from the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban helped to push Doge into a 23,746% rally that saw the price rise fr from $0.0031 on Jan. 1 to an all-time high of $0.74 on May 8. DOGE/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingViewOn top of the gains seen in DOGE price, the token received increased attention after it was announced that it would be used to help fund the launch of a lunar satellite by SpaceX and the Dogecoin movement also kicked off a meme-coin rally and spawned a bevy of copy-dog projects li Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogelon Mars (ELON). The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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