Blockchain technology is claimed to be according to blockchain proponents to be one of the most impactfull discoveries in the recent history. It is promised to have a massive potential to change how we handle online transactions. Despite some skeptics, the majority of experts agree that blockchain has the potential to disrupt the banking and financial industry, and many other ones! To put it simply, blockchain enables decentralized transactions across a P2P network. There are applications where those propertied can be very useful, but there are many cases where blockchain migh not be the best solution even though it is hyped to be solution for very many application (remember to ask Do you need a blockchain? often).
This 16 Blockchain Disruptions (Infographic) by bitfortune.net tries to help you understand how the blockchain technology can and will improve 16 different industries, from music to government.
Infographic by bitfortune.net
1,206 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/13/mark-cuban-ethereum-has-the-most-upside-as-a-crypto-investment.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is Bitcoin a Ponzi Scheme? VR Founder Seems to Think So
BY MOHIT OBEROI, CFA
OCT. 18 2021, PUBLISHED 3:29 P.M. ET
https://marketrealist.com/p/is-bitcoin-a-ponzi-scheme/
The market opinion has been divided on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. While some people see them as the future of finance, many others think that they’re worthless with no underlying fundamental value. Now, VR founder Jaron Lanie has thrown his hat into the ring and has termed Bitcoin as a Ponzi scheme. What is a Ponzi scheme and is Bitcoin one of them?
The adoption and interest in cryptocurrencies have been growing. Retail traders are especially getting attracted to them, and at least some of them have been lured by stories of people becoming millionaires through crypto trading. To be fair, the cryptocurrency market cap has swelled over 15-fold from the March 2020 lows and many traders have become rich by trading in cryptocurrencies.
What is a Ponzi scheme?
A Ponzi scheme is basically a fraudulent investing scheme wherein the capital inflows from new investors are used to pay existing investors. A Ponzi scheme usually runs on until it’s exposed by someone or the taps dry out for new funds.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3 largest cryptocurrencies account for almost 70% of all crypto market’s value
The cryptocurrency sector has in the recent past witnessed a surge in the number of new coins joining the market amid rising value. However, despite hundreds of different coins existing, only a few established digital currencies are dominating the market.
According to data compiled by Finbold, the top three largest cryptocurrencies (just 0.02% of all 12,917 coins) by market capitalization account for 68.73% of the total cryptocurrency market of $2.53 trillion as of October 20, 2021.
Bitcoin has the largest share at 47.6% or $1.2 trillion, followed by Ethereum at 17.93% or $454.76 billion. Binance Coin (BNB) takes the third spot at 3.2%.
Cardano (ADA) and Tether (USDT) round out the top five cryptocurrencies with a market share of 2.76% and 2.72%, respectively.
More:
3 largest cryptocurrencies account for almost 70% of all crypto market’s value
https://finbold.com/top-three-cryptocurrencies-account-for-almost-70-of-all-crypto-markets-value/
Tomi Engdahl says:
More than 100,000 people have had their eyes scanned in return for a cryptocurrency called Worldcoin, as a project to distribute digital money more widely around the world accelerates.
Worldcoin has distributed about 30 iris-scanning hardware devices, which they call “orbs,” to early users on four continents, who get rewards for signing up more people. Orbs take photos of a user’s eyeballs, creating a unique code that can be used to claim free digital tokens.
More than 100,000 people have had their eyes scanned for free cryptocurrency
Worldcoin reveals “orb” scanner, aims to distribute cryptocurrency to 1 billion people.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/10/more-than-100000-people-have-had-their-eyes-scanned-for-free-cryptocurrency/
The project’s developers said on Thursday they planned to release hundreds of orbs in the coming months and eventually distribute 4,000 devices per month. The team plans to debut the cryptocurrency network early next year and begin giving away the tokens at that time. They have not said how much cryptocurrency users can expect to receive.
Worldcoin amounts to one of the most ambitious and complex attempts to hand out cryptocurrency to the world’s population, similar to the economic concept of universal basic income. The project has already faced feverish criticism, and its own developers admit the “outcome is uncertain.”
Alex Blania, the cofounder of Worldcoin, denied that the project would invade people’s privacy, saying that the orbs convert iris scans into unique strings of letters and numbers before permanently deleting the images.
The resulting code would simply be used to check whether a user has already claimed a share of the Worldcoin tokens.
The team behind Worldcoin has raised $25 million in venture capital, including a round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz that valued the company, Tools for Humanity, at $1 billion.
Worldcoin plans to issue 10 billion tokens in total, with 80 percent going to users, 10 percent to the company’s investors and another 10 percent to a foundation for manufacturing the orbs and developing the network.
Like many cryptocurrency projects, Worldcoin’s tokens are not backed by any hard assets and could fluctuate in value based on their popularity.
Worldcoin estimated that it could reach more than 1 billion people within the first two years of the network’s operation, assuming people continue signing up at current rates and the team meets its orb distribution targets.
People who sign up for Worldcoin will receive their full allotment of tokens over time through a pre-planned vesting schedule, which Blania said was still in development.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jamie Crawley / CoinDesk:
Nigeria’s central bank launches eNaira digital currency in partnership with payments company Bitt, and has minted 500M coins worth $1.21M
Nigeria’s eNaira CBDC Goes Live
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2021/10/25/nigerias-enaira-cbdc-goes-live/
The eNaira was developed by fintech company Bitt, whose digital currency management system is also behind the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank’s CBDC.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Michael D McDonald / Bloomberg:
El Salvador’s Chivo wallet removes a feature that let day traders make rapid profits by freezing bitcoin’s price for a minute before an order
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-25/el-salvador-s-bitcoin-speculators-are-stifled-in-chivo-crackdown
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emily Graffeo / Bloomberg:
Study: the top 10K individual bitcoin investors control about one-third of the cryptocurrency in circulation and ~50 miners control 50% of the mining capacity
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-25/bitcoin-still-concentrated-in-few-hands-study-finds
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal:
Global money laundering watchdog FATF releases guidelines that could force crypto companies to check customers’ identities and report suspicious transactions
https://www.wsj.com/articles/global-regulators-back-tougher-rules-to-prevent-criminals-from-using-crypto-11635413402?mod=djemalertNEWS
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://futurism.com/person-furious-right-click-saved-precious-nft
Some NFT collectors are upset that vandals are right-clicking on their newly-purchased digital assets and hitting “save as.” After all, copying an NFT is often as simple as that.
Person Furious That Someone Right Click Saved Their Precious NFT
https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ffuturism.com%2Fperson-furious-right-click-saved-precious-nft&h=AT1rWr3h8QP5rdNCMC24zC358oxyVmB31LLt5_V7STO0FuOthu1Akr8ZBnvkaw7t5eCHuAQiEOs7o779g4KtS7aEnsHd4yR1GRBCuWEAVV9I0dAQGotzzKkGf7QV6HYf7L3lrC5i_MNUWvyLhA
In a mystifying new trend, people are willing to spend an astonishing amount of money on digital pieces of artwork in order to own exclusive rights to them.
Non-fungibles tokens, or NFTs, have become a mainstay of the cryptocurrency world, offering those who have plenty of cash or crypto to spare a way to “reinvest” it in what they say is exclusive ownership over what often amounts to not much more than a cartoon image of an angry ape or a whale wearing a top hat.
In short, it’s not exactly about the artistry — it’s about making claims over ownership using blockchain. What exactly are crypto-heads getting when buying an NFT? Beyond often dubious resale value, it’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer.
Some NFT collectors are upset that vandals are right-clicking on their newly-purchased digital assets and hitting “save as.” After all, copying an NFT is often as simple as that.
Most recently, Twitter user SaeedDiCaprio got confronted by an investor.
“You think it’s funny to take screenshots of people’s NFTs, huh?” the rando messaged him on Twitter, according to a screenshot he posted of the exchange. “Property theft is a joke to you? I’ll have you know that the blockchain doesn’t lie. I own it.”
DiCaprio dug deeper.
“I could make a whole NFT collection of screenshots of me right clicking and saving the image and sell it,” he wrote in a follow-up tweet.
It’s an admittedly hilarious exchange that goes to show just how strange — and absurd — the NFT trend really is. It’s trivially easy to copy NFT artwork and disseminate it elsewhere. Even the blockchain isn’t always able to back up claims of rightful ownership, depending on the platform selling the NFTs.
“Even if you save it, it’s my property,” the upset user wrote in their message. “You are mad that you don’t own the art that I own. Delete that screenshot.”
In some circles, the kind of attitude shown by SaeedDiCaprio is being labelled as “right-clicker mentality,” Vice reported this week. It’s a term first coined by NFT collector and creator Midwit Milhouse, who complained at the time that somebody was cheaply recreating gold-coated steaks online.
What the Hell Is ‘Right-Clicker Mentality’?
A Twitter meme reveals everything you need to know about NFTs and the culture around it.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dgzed/what-the-hell-is-right-clicker-mentality
Every new subculture eventually develops its own language, and the people buying and selling NFTs are no different.
The blockchain scene is full of crypto-heads spouting phrases like WAGMI (we are going to make it), cope, and GM (good morning). Sometimes a subculture will produce a new phrase or buzzword so beautiful it gets adopted by the wider culture. So it is with “right-clicker mentality.”
An NFT-bro using the phrase “right-clicker mentality” went viral on October 26 on Twitter while talking about Salt Bae.
A popular genre of post online right now teaches you how to make Salt Bae-quality meals at bargain prices. In one video, a man recreated one of Salt Bae’s $2,000 steaks for about $90. A NFT fan apparently felt that this was an example of what they called a “right-clicker mentality” and took to Twitter to share their frustration.
“This is a great example of right-clicker mentality,” Midwit Milhouse said on Twitter. “Sure, you can make your own gold-coated steak for 65GBP, but then you don’t have the satisfaction, flex, clout that comes from having eaten at Salt Bae’s restaurant. The value is not in the cost of the steak. Go ahead, make yourself a gold-coated steak at home. Post a picture of it on Instagram. See how much clout it gets you. Salt Bae’s dish costs around 1500GBP because people want to pay 1500 GBP to show off that they can afford to pay that much. It’s all about the flex.”
So, what is the “right-clicker mentality”? Quite literally, it is referring to one’s ability to right-click on any image they see online to bring up a menu and select the “save” option in order to save a copy of the image to their device. In this term we have a microcosm of the entire philosophical debate surrounding NFTs.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are unique tokens on the blockchain ostensibly representing a receipt of ownership pointing to some (usually) digital thing, like a JPEG hosted on a server somewhere. To be an NFT collector is to philosophically buy into the idea that owning this string of numbers means you “own” a JPEG that lesser people simply right-click to save on their machines at any time.
Indeed, right-clicking initially emerged as trolling praxis as the NFT market took off in 2021, and the term “right-clicker” went viral in September
To NFT fans, then, a right-clicker is someone who doesn’t understand NFTs and will never get that to view the Mona Lisa online is quite different from having the ownership receipt for the Mona Lisa stashed somewhere. Sure, you can look at it; you can even save a JPEG of the Mona Lisa on your computer, but you will never “own” it nor will someone pay you millions of dollars for your saved JPEG. That receipt, though, is another matter entirely.
The result of this is NFT investors insisting that they’re not mad, they’re actually laughing. When one NFT collector’s valuable ape JPEGs were stolen from him by scammers this week, he begged onlookers to simply right-click save the images from his tweet rather than purchase the NFTs themselves from the hackers.
An NFT fan might call someone a “right-clicker” because they don’t “get” NFTs, and a hater might embrace the label because, hey, there’s nothing to get, and this entire idea of owning an infinitely-copyable bundle of pixels because it says so on a digital list called a blockchain is a profit-seeking farce.
The concept of “right-clicker mentality” so perfectly encapsulates the dizzying mental contortions and social dynamics inherent to NFTs that novelist Dave Whelan tweeted, “just been told about ‘the right clicker mentality’ and it annoys me so much when internet trolls are better at social satire than novelists.”
The phrase “right-clicker mentality” elevates this practical distinction to the realm of philosophy, though. To right-click is one thing, but to have a right-clicker mentality implies an ontological break between crypto-fans and critics. Indeed, it implies the person saving the JPEG to their hard drive isn’t just wrong, they’re broken in some way.
The people who use “right-clicker mentality” unironically are participating in hustle culture mutated into a new form, playing fast and loose with risky new financial products. A few of them will win big, but many will end up with some variation of crying online about having their ape JPEGs stolen. The right-clicker mentality may win in the end, but not before the NFT crowd makes untold millions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/majordomo/permalink/10162139406599522/
From discussion:
Copyrights kind of cover who owns art and how its sold. The expense or status of having a nft pointing to a url subject to url rot is kind of frivolous. All you need is a note from the artist to possess a copy of copyrighted material.
Copyrights cost $55.
yeah but copyright has problems.
You see the ridiculously high prices of specific NFTs but that’s just a fad and they can be quite cheap otherwise.
Plus it doesn’t have to point to an http link and be on IPFS instead.
Or the artist can leave their contact details to send a physical item or note as you say.
I’m sick and tired of this misinformation about NFTs being just “Purchasing a JPG”.
An NFT entry in the block chain contains no JPEG binary data what so ever.
THey’re paying for a LINK to a JPEG.
GENERALLY thats true… but not always. An NFT with true value should be entirely stored on the blockchain. This could get expensive.
> An NFT with true value
Please resolve this contradiction in terms.
actually i like that idea. A JPG-based NFT that gets re-encoded and deteriorates in quality every time it’s transferred. Would make things very interesting
digital entropy…I like it!
Whoever wrote this article doesn’t understand NFTs.
You own the token like you own a painting.
No amount of right click or taking photos of a painting will change that
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
The NFT.NYC conference, now in its third year, was a coming-out party for the NFT community, attracting a record 5,000 attendees from artists to corporate suits — NFT.NYC, a gathering for nonfungible token enthusiasts, offered a taste of a crypto-filled future.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/05/technology/nft-nyc-metaverse.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
140 million Chinese punters adopt Digital Yuan and spend up big
But central bank worries about security, usability – and business continuity
https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/05/digital_yuan_140m_wallets/
140 million digital wallets capable of storing China’s central bank digital currency – the Digital Yuan or E-CNY – have already been issued to individuals, and another ten million businesses have signed up too.
So said Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China, at an event in Hong Kong earlier this week. Those wallet-holders have already spent over ¥62 billion ($9.8B) with the 1.5 million merchants that have signed up to accept the digital currency.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Elizabeth Howcroft / Reuters:
How Christie’s and Sotheby’s are bringing in crypto-rich NFT buyers; NFTs now account for about 5.5% of contemporary art sales at the world’s top auction houses
The New Masters: How auction houses are chasing crypto millions
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/new-masters-how-auction-houses-are-chasing-crypto-millions-2021-11-08/
LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Little could James Christie have known some 240 years ago, as he sold masterpieces by Rembrandt and Rubens to Catherine the Great, that his auction house would one day offer virtual apes to a crypto company for over $1 million.
Nor would Sotheby’s founder Samuel Baker, auctioning hundreds of rare books for about $1,000 in 1744, have envisioned selling a copy of the original source code for the web, as a non-fungible token (NFT), for north of $5 million.
Times change.
“Everybody wants to sell an NFT,” said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s global head of science and popular culture. “My inbox is just absolutely clogged.”
TERS/Tyrone Siu
LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Little could James Christie have known some 240 years ago, as he sold masterpieces by Rembrandt and Rubens to Catherine the Great, that his auction house would one day offer virtual apes to a crypto company for over $1 million.
Nor would Sotheby’s founder Samuel Baker, auctioning hundreds of rare books for about $1,000 in 1744, have envisioned selling a copy of the original source code for the web, as a non-fungible token (NFT), for north of $5 million.
Times change.
“Everybody wants to sell an NFT,” said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s global head of science and popular culture. “My inbox is just absolutely clogged.”
Sotheby’s has sold $65 million of NFTs in 2021, while arch-rival Christie’s has sold more than $100 million of the new type of crypto asset, which uses blockchain to record who owns digital items such as images and videos, even though they can be freely viewed, copied and shared like any other online file.
Those sales figures for the world’s leading auction houses account for about 5.5% of their contemporary art sales, according to Art Market Research data. It’s a leap, given NFTs have only taken off in the last year.
Many buyers are from a new category of wealthy clientele: people who made their fortunes through cryptocurrencies, art specialists involved in NFT sales at major auction houses told Reuters. In a Sotheby’s online NFT sale in June which brought in $17.1 million, nearly 70% of the buyers were newcomers.
Indeed the three NFTs of crude cartoon apes which were snapped up for 982,500 pounds ($1.3 million) at Christie’s in London last month were bought by Kosta Kantchev, who runs a cryptocurrency lending platform called Nexo.
They’re not the only ones betting on the metaverse.
Whether Mark Zuckerberg is prescient or not remains to be seen. The NFTs boom is nonetheless dragging auction houses hundreds of years older than Silicon Valley into a new world.
To hunt their new breed of buyers, big auction houses are taking to social media.
Noah Davis, head of digital art sales at Christie’s, said his potential NFT buyers were happy for him to ditch the formalities normally involved in attracting art collectors, adding that he recently negotiated a contract over the messaging platform Discord and registered buyers for an auction via Twitter.
“That’s where it happens, that’s where client services are done,” he told Reuters, adding that it was remarkable how much quicker this process compared with traditional methods.
In another big digital shift, auction houses are often sourcing NFTs directly from the crypto artists – in many cases, little-known, pseudonymous figures.
In the physical art market, by contrast, artists’ primary sales are normally run by galleries, while auction houses traditionally focus on secondary market sales.
“For me the biggest surprise is that the artists want to work with the auction houses directly. We’ve always been in the secondary market,”
“The traditional structure has been upended,”
WHY CRYPTO’S RISKY
Yet these newcomers to an untamed metaverse also confront a new sphere of risk, particularly around cryptocurrencies, which crypto-rich buyers often prefer to use to pay for NFTs.
Auction houses can face legal risks in terms of know your customer (KYC) and anti-money-laundering (AML) requirements, said Max Dilendorf, a cryptocurrency lawyer and partner at Dilendorf Law Firm in New York.
“These products could be securities and when a gallery is picking up an artist or product they better do their own due diligence,” he said, adding that money laundering via cryptocurrencies was a “known fact.”
Sotheby’s did not comment on its KYC or AML procedures. Christie’s said its KYC and AML standards in NFT sales were the same as those for physical artworks, though declined to go into detail. Phillips said it checked that buyers had sufficient funds in their crypto wallet.
Another issue is that while NFTs are marketed as a way of indisputably recording ownership of a digital asset, problems can still arise.
A Sotheby’s NFT sale in June – in which a buyer spent $1.5 million on what was marketed as the first-ever NFT, a simple geometric animation called “Quantum” by Kevin McCoy – was complicated by a claimant emerging saying they owned an earlier, original version of the same NFT, the buyer and claimant told Reuters. They said the dispute over which could truly could be called the first NFT meant the transaction was delayed, and blockchain records show the purchase was not transferred until several weeks after the sale.
Separately, after a Sotheby’s auction of an NFT representing the World Wide Web source code, which fetched $5.4 million, observers noticed errors in the included video version of the code.
the steps that auction houses had taken into the digital sphere had been very positive.
“I think they’re normalising the ecosystem, and I think that very soon they’ll find the right path,” he said.
“But the curation challenge and the technology challenge are major ones,” he added, referring to auction houses acting as galleries by handling primary sales.
Explainer: NFTs are hot. So what are they?
https://www.reuters.com/business/nfts-are-hot-so-what-are-they-2021-03-17/
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a type of digital asset, have exploded in popularity this year, with NFT artworks selling for millions of dollars and musicians such as the Kings of Leon rock group embracing them for their latest album.
The trend is perplexing those who might wonder why so much money is being spent on items that only exist in digital form and can be viewed by anyone for free.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski features as the first pro athlete to release NFT trading cards, in a combination of images released March 9, 2021. NFT/Handout via REUTERS
Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski features as the first pro athlete to release NFT trading cards, in a combination of images released March 9, 2021. NFT/Handout via REUTERS
March 17 (Reuters) – Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a type of digital asset, have exploded in popularity this year, with NFT artworks selling for millions of dollars and musicians such as the Kings of Leon rock group embracing them for their latest album.
The trend is perplexing those who might wonder why so much money is being spent on items that only exist in digital form and can be viewed by anyone for free.
Here are some facts about NFTs:
WHAT IS AN NFT?
An NFT is a digital asset that exists on a blockchain. The blockchain serves as a public ledger, allowing anyone to verify the asset’s authenticity and ownership.
So unlike most digital items which can be endlessly reproduced, each NFT has a unique digital signature, meaning it is one of a kind.
NFTs are usually bought with the cryptocurrency Ether or in dollars and the blockchain keeps a record of transactions. While anyone can view the NFTs, the buyer has the status of being the official owner – a kind of digital bragging rights.
WHAT KIND OF NFTS EXIST
All kinds of digital objects – images, videos, music, text and even tweets – can be turned into an NFT.
Digital art has seen some high-profile sales, while in sports, fans can collect and trade NFTs relating to a particular player or team.
For instance, on the National Basketball Association’s Top Shot platform, enthusiasts can buy collectible NFTs in the form of video highlights of moments from games.
NFTs can also be patches of land in virtual world environments, or exclusive use of a cryptocurrency wallet name.
HOW HAS THE MARKET GROWN?
Traded since around 2017, NFTs have surged in 2021. Monthly sales on NFT marketplace OpenSea hit $95.2 million in February, up from $8 million in January.
Total NFT trading volumes on the Ethereum blockchain amount to over $400 million, nearly half of which were in the last 30 days, according to NonFungible.com, which aggregates data from NFT marketplaces.
NBA Top Shot, which is not included in NonFungible.com data, has 683,000 users and has seen $396 million in sales, $232 million of which were in February.
WHY NOW?
Some attribute it to lockdowns forcing people to spend more time at home on the internet. But NFTs are also a way to have possessions that can be viewed by owners’ online friends.
For others, the lure lies in rapidly rising prices and the prospect of big returns. Recent years have also created a lot of crypto millionaires with Ethereum to spend.
WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?
Enthusiasts see NFTs as the future of ownership. All kinds of property – from event tickets to houses – will eventually have their ownership status tokenised in this way, they believe.
For artists, NFTs could solve the problem of how they can monetise digital artworks. They can receive more income from NFTs, as they can get a royalty each time the NFT changes hands after the initial sale.
NFTs could also transform music. Kings of Leon’s NFT allows buyers access to limited-edition vinyl or seats at future concerts.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski features as the first pro athlete to release NFT trading cards, in a combination of images released March 9, 2021. NFT/Handout via REUTERS
Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski features as the first pro athlete to release NFT trading cards, in a combination of images released March 9, 2021. NFT/Handout via REUTERS
March 17 (Reuters) – Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a type of digital asset, have exploded in popularity this year, with NFT artworks selling for millions of dollars and musicians such as the Kings of Leon rock group embracing them for their latest album.
The trend is perplexing those who might wonder why so much money is being spent on items that only exist in digital form and can be viewed by anyone for free.
Here are some facts about NFTs:
WHAT IS AN NFT?
An NFT is a digital asset that exists on a blockchain. The blockchain serves as a public ledger, allowing anyone to verify the asset’s authenticity and ownership.
So unlike most digital items which can be endlessly reproduced, each NFT has a unique digital signature, meaning it is one of a kind.
NFTs are usually bought with the cryptocurrency Ether or in dollars and the blockchain keeps a record of transactions. While anyone can view the NFTs, the buyer has the status of being the official owner – a kind of digital bragging rights.
WHAT KIND OF NFTS EXIST
All kinds of digital objects – images, videos, music, text and even tweets – can be turned into an NFT.
Digital art has seen some high-profile sales, while in sports, fans can collect and trade NFTs relating to a particular player or team.
For instance, on the National Basketball Association’s Top Shot platform, enthusiasts can buy collectible NFTs in the form of video highlights of moments from games.
While these highlights can be seen for free on other platforms such as YouTube, people are buying the status as the owner of a particular NFT, which is unique due to the digital signature.
NFTs can also be patches of land in virtual world environments, or exclusive use of a cryptocurrency wallet name.
An auction for the first ever tweet from Twitter boss Jack Dorsey – “just setting up my twttr” – ends on March 21.
HOW HAS THE MARKET GROWN?
Traded since around 2017, NFTs have surged in 2021. Monthly sales on NFT marketplace OpenSea hit $95.2 million in February, up from $8 million in January.
Total NFT trading volumes on the Ethereum blockchain amount to over $400 million, nearly half of which were in the last 30 days, according to NonFungible.com, which aggregates data from NFT marketplaces.
NBA Top Shot, which is not included in NonFungible.com data, has 683,000 users and has seen $396 million in sales, $232 million of which were in February.
(Interactive chart)
WHY NOW?
Some attribute it to lockdowns forcing people to spend more time at home on the internet. But NFTs are also a way to have possessions that can be viewed by owners’ online friends.
For others, the lure lies in rapidly rising prices and the prospect of big returns. Recent years have also created a lot of crypto millionaires with Ethereum to spend.
WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?
Enthusiasts see NFTs as the future of ownership. All kinds of property – from event tickets to houses – will eventually have their ownership status tokenised in this way, they believe.
For artists, NFTs could solve the problem of how they can monetise digital artworks. They can receive more income from NFTs, as they can get a royalty each time the NFT changes hands after the initial sale.
NFTs could also transform music. Kings of Leon’s NFT allows buyers access to limited-edition vinyl or seats at future concerts.
WHAT ARE THE RISKS?
Given that anybody can create NFTs, the scarcity of each piece does not guarantee value. Losses can stack up if the hype dies down.
In a market where many participants use pseudonyms, fraud is also a risk.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple is ‘looking into’ cryptocurrency, says CEO Tim Cook
https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/09/apple-is-looking-into-cryptocurrency-says-ceo-tim-cook/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sandra Upson / Wired:
Profile of CryptoPunks, an NFT project founded by two Canadian developers in 2017, which has reached $1.5B in lifetime sales as NFTs explode in popularity — When two Canadian coders started an online project called CryptoPunks, they had no idea they’d spark a hyped-up, blockchain-fueled cultural juggernaut.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-10000-faces-that-launched-an-nft-revolution/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wall Street Journal:
A look at Binance, which sources say could be worth $300B if it goes public, as its unfettered, unregulated growth comes to an end amid global scrutiny — The trading platform surged by operating from nowhere in particular—without offices, licenses or headquarters. Now governments are insisting on taking some control.
$76 Billion a Day: How Binance Became the World’s Biggest Crypto Exchange
https://www.wsj.com/articles/binance-became-the-biggest-cryptocurrency-exchange-without-licenses-or-headquarters-thats-coming-to-an-end-11636640029?mod=djemalertNEWS
The trading platform surged by operating from nowhere in particular—without offices, licenses or headquarters. Now governments are insisting on taking some control.
The world’s fastest-growing major financial exchange has no head office or formal address, lacks licenses in countries where it operates and has a chief executive who until recently wouldn’t answer questions about his location.
Started just four years ago, Binance is the exchange giant that towers over the digital currency world, a crypto equivalent of the London, New York and Hong Kong stock exchanges combined. After a burst of growth, Binance processes more trades for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether each day, $76 billion worth, than its four largest competitors put together, according to data provider CryptoCompare.
The years of largely unfettered, unregulated growth for Binance in particular and the crypto industry broadly, however, are coming to an end.
Financial regulators increasingly worry that digital assets, until recently dismissed by some as a fad, have grown so quickly they now are systemically important. In an October speech, Bank of England official Jon Cunliffe brought up the 2008 subprime-mortgage-fueled crisis and said of crypto, “When something in the financial system is growing very fast, and growing in largely unregulated space, financial stability authorities have to sit up and take notice.”
Binance is drawing the most regulatory attention. Authorities in a dozen countries have cautioned users in recent months the exchange is unregistered or not authorized to provide various services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Owen Fernau / The Defiant:
Ethereum Name Service’s ENS token hits $1B market cap, just two days after its airdrop in which users received the token for free in their crypto wallets — ENS, the governance token of Ethereum Name Service, hit a market capitalization of $1.1B in early morning trading Eastern Standard Time.
Ethereum Name Service Jumps to $1B Market Cap After Airdrop of ENS Token
https://thedefiant.io/ens-airdrop-ethereum-governance-token/
ENS, the governance token of Ethereum Name Service, hit a market capitalization of $1.15B in early morning trading EST. That’s equal to about 10% of the value of GoDaddy, the 24-year-old internet domain registrar and web hosting company.
Airdropped ENS became claimable on Nov. 8. While it looks like Ethereum Name Service came out of nowhere it actually started back in 2016 as a side project of lead developer Nick Johnson.
State, as they go by on Twitter and who works on governance at Aave, is a major proponent of the project. “Seems like ENS could become [the] basis for web3 identity and portable profile that u can plug into metaverse/games so it succeeds and everyone wants one = more revenue?,” State tweeted. “It’s a good coin,” as State told The Defiant in a DM.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Universal Music Group says it is creating a “band” called Kingship out of four Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs and plans to feature them in video games, VR, and more — Kingship, consisting of four virtual apes, reimagines the idea of a band — and a brand
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-11/the-world-s-largest-record-company-is-creating-an-nft-super-group
Tomi Engdahl says:
Taylor Locke / CNBC:
An overview of Bitcoin’s Taproot upgrade, which makes transactions more private, less expensive, and will let bitcoin users execute more complex smart contracts — Taproot, a highly anticipated upgrade to bitcoin, went into effect on Sunday at block 709,632.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/12/what-investors-should-know-about-the-bitcoin-taproot-upgrade.html
Wolfie Zhao / The Block:
Taproot, the first major upgrade to Bitcoin’s code since the introduction of Segregated Witness in 2017, goes live — Taproot, Bitcoin’s long-anticipated code upgrade with a focus on enhancing the network’s privacy and security, has been activated. — The upgrade went live …
Bitcoin’s long-anticipated Taproot upgrade is activated
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/124276/bitcoin-taproot-activated
Taproot, Bitcoin’s long-anticipated code upgrade with a focus on enhancing the network’s privacy and security, has been activated.
The upgrade went live when the Bitcoin blockchain reached block 709,632 at 5:15 UTC time on Sunday, which was mined and replayed by F2Pool. That has effectively activated the first major upgrade to the network’s code since the introduction of Segregated Witness in 2017.
As The Block explained previously, Taproot introduces Schnorr signatures that can make more complex transactions on Bitcoin – such as those from multi-signature wallets – look like just any other transaction, hence improving the privacy and security of the transactions. The switch to Schnorr signatures also has implications for network scaling, as the Taproot upgrade swaps out the cryptographic framework ECDSA.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg:
China is warning state firms to exit cryptocurrency mining and is considering punitive measures for those that do not comply
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-16/china-warns-state-firms-on-crypto-mining-mulls-punitive-steps
Tomi Engdahl says:
Packy McCormick / Not Boring:
A look at ConstitutionDAO, which has taken $4M+ in crypto donations to bid at an auction on one of the original copies of the US Constitution, printed in 1787 — ConstitutionDAO, web3, and America … Today’s Not Boring is brought to you by… Secureframe … Schedule a Secureframe Demo
Let’s Buy the US Constitution
https://www.notboring.co/p/lets-buy-the-us-constitution
Happy Monday! Last week was a big week around here.
On Monday, Mario and I published a piece on Discord. That afternoon, Discord CEO Jason Citron replied to my tweet with a preview of Discord’s first web3 integration. The replies were fierce — I was getting 15 new notifications per second — and Citron pulled back.
That night, The Economist published a piece that Chris Dixon and I wrote on web3, and on Wednesday, I announced that I’m joining Chris and team as an advisor to a16z Crytpo. Nothing changes here at Not Boring
And one more thing…
Let’s buy the US Constitution together.
Yesterday morning, I was in the middle of writing a typical Not Boring Monday essay. This one, which I may still write, was about the idea that while people are waiting for “real use cases” for web3, a set of new web3-native use cases is emerging that might be more important than the “real” ones.
I planned to write about the Olympus DAO forks, the ENS airdrop, NFT fractionalization, appraisal, and lending, and this wild adventure that began on Thursday: ConstitutionDAO.
ConstitutionDAO is what it sounds like: a DAO organized to purchase a copy of the United States Constitution when it goes up for auction at Sotheby’s this Thursday at 6:30pm ET.
https://twitter.com/ConstitutionDAO
The World Ahead 2022
Chris Dixon and Packy McCormick on the future of crypto
There’s more to crypto than currency and financial applications
https://www.economist.com/the-world-ahead/2021/11/08/chris-dixon-and-packy-mccormick-on-the-future-of-crypto
The year ahead will show that blockchains can support a lot more applications beyond money and finance. In 2022 decentralised services will chip away at big tech companies’ stranglehold on the internet. A cluster of new “web3”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emele Onu / Bloomberg:
Nigeria says 488,000+ people downloaded the wallet for eNaira, its central bank digital currency, and ~78K merchants from 160+ countries enrolled to use it
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-15/e-naira-lures-about-half-a-million-people-weeks-after-its-launch
- attempt to try to get people to use central bank digital currency instead of cryptocurrency
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sam Dean / Los Angeles Times:
LA’s iconic Staples Center to be renamed as Crypto.com Arena, sources say in a deal worth $700M+ for 20 years — Staples Center is getting a new name for Christmas: Crypto.com Arena. — The downtown Los Angeles venue — home of the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Sparks …
Goodbye, Staples Center. Hello, Crypto.com Arena
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-11-16/crypto-staples
Staples Center is getting a new name for Christmas: Crypto.com Arena.
The downtown Los Angeles venue — home of the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Sparks — will wear the new name for 20 years under a deal between the Singapore cryptocurrency exchange and AEG, the owner and operator of the arena, both parties announced Tuesday. Crypto.com paid more than $700 million for the naming rights, according to sources familiar with the terms, making it one of the biggest naming deals in sports history.
The arena’s new logo will debut Dec. 25, when the Lakers host the Brooklyn Nets, and all of Staples Center signage will be replaced with the new name by June 2022.
Crypto.com’s chief executive, Kris Marszalek, hopes that the new name will come to be seen as a sign of the times.
“In the next few years, people will look back at this moment as the moment when crypto crossed the chasm into the mainstream,” Marszalek said when reached at his home in Hong Kong.
AEG and Crypto.com are still working out exactly how far the partnership will go beyond the name, but integrating cryptocurrency payments into the arena and online purchases may be on the horizon.
The storied venue got its original name in December 1997, when then-booming Staples Inc. paid $100 million for the rights for 10 years. Beckerman, who was chief financial officer of AEG when the arena complex was first being developed, said that the value of the name was less of a sure thing back then.
Staples signed a deal in 2009 for naming rights in perpetuity — but AEG bought the naming rights back for an undisclosed sum in 2019. The pandemic put the search for a new name sponsor on hold, but the Crypto.com deal came together quickly after conversations began at the end of summer.
Staples’ fortunes have declined since the late ‘90s, but the office supply company still has more than 1,000 stores across the country and has been on the Fortune 500 list for the last 21 years. Crypto.com is 5 years old, and its business relies on a form of money that has been officially banned in China — though the company says it complies with all relevant regulation in the countries where it does operate. Marszalek has never attended a game at Staples Center; the Christmas game will be his first visit.
But AEG’s Beckerman said he was impressed by the company’s commitment to the arena. “The long-term piece of this is actually most important to us, and they shared this vision,” Beckerman said. He described AEG as “bullish” on cryptocurrency more broadly.
L.A.’s isn’t the first NBA arena to get a crypto rebrand. In March, the cryptocurrency exchange FTX — a company run by the “richest man in crypto,” according to Forbes, that recently relocated its headquarters from Hong Kong to the Bahamas — signed a $135-million deal for the 19-year naming rights to the Miami Heat arena, formerly named after American Airlines.
Crypto.com paid more than five times as much for the rights to L.A.’s arena — but Marszalek isn’t worried that the investment might not pan out. “There’s not a shadow of doubt in my mind that it was worth it,” he said. “My level of conviction is 100%.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gene Maddaus / Variety:
Miramax sues Quentin Tarantino over copyright infringement for selling NFTs based on Pulp Fiction screenplay excerpts; Miramax says it owns screenplay rights — Miramax filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing Quentin Tarantino of copyright infringement by selling NFTs based on the screenplay for “Pulp Fiction.”
Miramax Sues Quentin Tarantino Over ‘Pulp Fiction’ NFT Auction
https://variety.com/2021/film/news/miramax-tarantino-pulp-fiction-nft-1235113383/
Miramax filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing Quentin Tarantino of copyright infringement by selling NFTs based on the screenplay for “Pulp Fiction.”
Tarantino announced the sale at a recent crypto-art convention in New York.
“I’m excited to be presenting these exclusive scenes from ‘Pulp Fiction’ to fans,” Tarantino said in a Nov. 2 press release.
The plan is to auction off NFT — non-fungible tokens — based on excerpts from Tarantino’s original handwritten script for the film, accompanied by commentary. The NFT is pitched as “secret,” meaning that its contents will be viewable exclusively by the owner.
But according to the suit, Tarantino did not consult beforehand with Miramax — which still owns the rights to the director’s 1994 classic.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Brave now has a built-in cryptocurrency wallet, sidestepping the need for extension-based wallets like MetaMask — Why use an extension when it’s a built-in tool? — Brave has announced that its web browser now includes a native cryptocurrency wallet, replacing the previous one that was based on the MetaMask wallet extension.
Brave built its own crypto wallet into its browser
Why use an extension when it’s a built-in tool?
https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/16/22785588/brave-web-browser-crypto-wallet-web3-nft-native?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4
Brave has announced that its web browser now includes a native cryptocurrency wallet, replacing the previous one that was based on the MetaMask wallet extension. With it, most users should have their blockchain needs covered (depending on what blockchain they use, more on that in a second): they’ll be able to buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, store their NFTs, keep track of how much coins are selling for, and experience the magic of Web3, or websites that have built-in blockchain features.
Brave also says that its built-in wallet will take up fewer CPU resources compared to extension-based ones (like the aforementioned MetaMask) and be less susceptible to phishing or attempts to steal NFTs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg:
Celebrity NFTs from Grimes, A$AP Rocky, John Cena, and others have dropped significantly in value, leaving some buyers with large losses
Celebrity NFTs Risk ‘Catastrophic failure.’ Just Ask John Cena
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-15/nfts-by-celebrities-like-grimes-john-cena-and-a-ap-rocky-fall-in-value
Tomi Engdahl says:
Omar Abdel-Baqui / Wall Street Journal:
A look at some of the practical issues faced by ConstitutionDAO if they win the auction, such as how to pay, ownership, who picks it up, and where to display it — A group of friends in the cryptocurrency world are repurposing digital tools to make a run at a rare analog document up for auction Thursday
Crypto Group’s Bid for Constitution Faces Real-World Snags—Who Picks It Up?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/crypto-groups-bid-for-constitution-faces-real-world-snagswho-picks-it-up-11637187153?mod=djemalertNEWS
A group of friends in the cryptocurrency world are repurposing digital tools to make a run at a rare analog document up for auction Thursday
A group of internet friends decided last week to bid on the last privately held original copy of the U.S. Constitution, a mission with all the hallmarks of the cryptocurrency world they sprang from.
Their name, ConstitutionDAO, is short for decentralized autonomous organization—just like digital currencies, which have no central organizing authority. Fundraising efforts for the document have taken place on the Ethereum network and moneys collected through a platform called Juicebox. ConstitutionDAO advertised its undertaking on Twitter and Discord, where contributors can get to know each other, as well as hear live Constitution readings over lo-fi beats.
Using blockchain platforms, the friends have raised more than $25 million in a matter of days for their bid Thursday evening at Sotheby’s auction for the rare document. It is valued at $15 million to $20 million.
The hitch? The copy of the Constitution is a real-world thing, not a digital asset. The consortium—whose members work at social-media companies, have founded apps and buy crypto and NFTs—don’t have much experience buying objects at traditional auctions.
“The Constitution is not a security,” said Brian Wagner, one of a few dozen core organizers of the group.
“We actually had to figure that out, which is hilarious,” said Miguel Piedrafita, a 19-year-old organizer who works at an NFT social-media company and lives in Spain.
Other tricky questions the group has to ponder, should it win: How will they pay for it? Who owns the document? Where will it go? Who will pick it up?
The group’s organizers have been consulting legal, historical and auction experts to smooth out some of the challenges of crowdfunding with new technology to purchase a centuries-old artifact.
“It’s a document,” Mr. Wagner said. “A lot of the complexity is related to the fact that it’s not on the blockchain,” a data structure that makes it possible to create a digital ledger of transactions and share it among a distributed network of computers.
There are no returns on investment here. Contributors, who can remain anonymous, won’t make a cent if the group wins the auction. And no one person will own the physical copy.
Instead, taking an antiestablishment posture that might have been familiar to America’s Founding Fathers, as well as crypto enthusiasts, the group agreed to get the document out of millionaires’ art collections and back in the hands of the people, according to organizers.
If they win, ConstitutionDAO’s goal is to have the document housed in a place that is free and accessible to the public. But, like the object they hope to possess, they have left that final decision to contributors. Each will be allotted voting power, determined by how much crypto they contributed.
Mr. Piedrafita said ConstitutionDAO chose to use Ethereum because it’s one of the most secure smart contract networks, which use blockchain technology to verify and conduct transactions. Juicebox allows users to safely transfer funds and easily get them back should ConstitutionDAO lose the bid, he said.
With no one person to lay claim to ownership if the group places the winning bid Thursday, organizers are trying to figure out which museum or historical artifact expert will pick up and transport the copy of the Constitution.
Sotheby’s will hold the object for 30 days, giving them time to talk to museums about long-term and short-term storage as they sort out their vote on the document’s ultimate destination, organizers said.
“A group of people are voting using blockchain technology,” Mr. Wagner said, “…and we have to make sure this physical thing” gets delivered.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Abram Brown / Forbes:
ConstitutionDAO loses Sotheby’s US Constitution auction to an undisclosed winner’s $43.2M bid, after crowdfunding over $40M — This story has been updated to reflect the full price that the Constitution sold for after all auction fees. — A rare copy of the U.S. Constitution sold …
Crypto Investors Lose Out In $43.2 Million Sale Of Rare Copy Of U.S. Constitution
https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/11/18/constitution-dao-crypto-ether-constitutional-sothebys-sale-auction/?sh=1a3d0286ad4c
A rare copy of the U.S. Constitution sold for $43.2 million at Sotheby’s Thursday, and while the winner remains unknown, the internet collective called Constitution DAO, which mounted an upstart bid and publicly touted its interest, has confirmed it wasn’t the buyer.
The Constitution sold Thursday is one of 13 remaining from a printing made for the 1787 Constitutional Convention and one of only two privately owned copies. Constitution DAO had hoped to place it in a museum or another public home; it has said it would return the money it raised if it lost.
The Constitution’s previous owner, Dorothy Goldman, plans to donate the proceeds from the sale to her foundation, which supports constitutional law study. She should be pleased: The transaction represents a 24,700% return on the $165,000 her husband, real estate developer S. Howard Goldman, paid for the Constitution in 1988.
Constitution DAO crowdfunded its bid, attracting thousands of individual donors who contributed in Ether, a popular cryptocurrency. The group’s organizers first met a week ago and began soliciting donations on Sunday, ochestrating a word-of-mouth campaign through Twitter and other social media. (Most of Constitutional DAO’s original organizers have revealed themselves—largely a group of young people working in technology and crypto—but the majority of its membership remains anonymous.) It set a goal of $20 million, the high end of what Sotheby’s had originally estimated the document could fetch. By Tuesday, it had raised $5 million. A day later, over $40 million. It’s not clear how much the group eventually raised or why it wasn’t able to surpass the winning bid.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/11/16/what-is-a-dao-us-constitution-sothebys-goldman/?sh=2a05b13f1e46
Tomi Engdahl says:
JUST IN: Hundreds of billions have been wiped from the cryptocurrency market Tuesday amid a market-wide crash that has seen the prices of major cryptocurrencies plummet and fall sharply from near record highs this week.
Hundreds Of Billions Lost As Major Cryptocurrencies—Including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano—Tumble In Crypto Crash
https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/11/16/hundreds-of-billions-lost-as-major-cryptocurrencies-including-bitcoin-ethereum-solana-cardano-tumble-in-crypto-crash/?sh=5121f67e2925&utm_source=ForbesMainFacebook&utm_campaign=socialflowForbesMainFB&utm_medium=social
Hundreds of billions has been wiped from the cryptocurrency market Tuesday amid a market-wide crash that has seen the prices of major cryptocurrencies—including bitcoin, ethereum, cardano and solana—plummet and fall sharply from near record highs this week.
The price of bitcoin plummeted to around $60,500 Tuesday morning, down 8% from 24 hours before, according to CoinGecko
Most major tokens—including ethereum, XRP, cardano, solana and dogecoin—experienced similarly steep drops over the last 24 hours, falling between 7% and 10%.
Of the four most valuable cryptocurrencies by market capitalization—excluding the biggest, bitcoin, and tether, a stablecoin pegged to USD—ether fell 9.6% to around $4,300, Binance’s BNB 8.9% to $590, solana 7.5% to $225 and cardano 9% to $1.90.
XRP, polkadot, dogecoin and shiba inu coin—the next largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, excluding another stablecoin, USD Coin—fell 9.3%, 12.4%, 8.8% and 6%, respectively.
The losses come as part of a wider rout in the cryptocurrency market, which is now worth some $2.76 trillion, according to CoinGecko, down 8.6% from the day before.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nft-huumalle tylytystä Pirate Bayta ihannoiva projekti sisältää 15 teratavua kuvia https://www.tivi.fi/uutiset/tv/16324a12-6c42-4b68-9d58-fe623b4f6a5e
Non-fungible tokenit eli nft:t ovat olleet suuressa huudossa tänä vuonna. Näitä digitaalisia keräilykohteita on myyty jopa kymmenillä miljoonilla ja kuplimista on ollut havaittavissa. Hienoisena vastaiskuna tälle huumalle on synnytetty The NFT Bay, joka on samalla myös kunnianosoitus tunnetulle piratismisivu Pirate Baylle. Nft Bayn kuvauksessa jäljitellään Pirate Bayn ulkoasua ja kysytään seuraavaa:
“Tiesitkö, että nft on vain hyperlinkki kuvaan, joka on yleensä tallennettu Google Driveen tai muulle web 2.0 -alustalle?”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The popular cryptocurrency has plummeted nearly 49% from an all-time high set in September—but it’s still up about 800% this year.
Cardano’s Ada Piles On Major Losses After eToro Discloses Plans To Delist Tokens Over U.S. Regulatory Concerns
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2021/11/24/cardanos-ada-piles-on-major-losses-after-etoro-discloses-plans-to-delist-tokens-over-us-regulatory-concerns/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie&sh=4783c55610dc
Cardano’s ada token plummeted to its lowest price in more than three months on Wednesday after popular retail-trading platform eToro announced plans to delist the cryptocurrency in the United States due to regulatory concerns—making ada the latest victim of the murky regulatory waters that have repeatedly pummeled the nascent crypto market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Älysopimus tekee lohkoketjuista mahdollisia
https://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12863
Älysopimukset ovat digitaalisia sopimuksia, joissa hyödynnetään lohkoketjuteknologiaa. Niiden odotetaan mullistavan tapaa sopia asioista ja ne ovat saaneet paljon huomiota niiden etujensa ansiosta. Älysopimuksien perusteisiin kannattaa tutustua, jotta niiden ominaisuudet, hyödyt ja uhat ovat tiedossa.
Älysopimukset ovat koodeja, jotka tallennetaan lohkoketjuun. Ne ovat digitaalisia sopimuksia, jonka kaksi osapuolta ovat laatineet ja jonka ehtoja osapuolien on noudatettava. Älysopimus noudattaa automaattisesti siihen ohjelmoituja sääntöjä ja ehtoja. Siihen voidaan liittää jopa sanktioita, jotka käyvät toteen sopimusta laiminlyödessä. Ehdot ja säännöt ovat muuttumattomia, eli niitä ei voi enää muokata, kun ne on tallennettu lohkoketjuun.
Älysopimukset toimivat Ethereum-alustalla, jonka on perustanut Vitalik Buterin. Buterin halusi luoda ekosysteemin, jossa kuka tahansa voi luoda älysopimukset mahdollistavan dApp-sovelluksen. Ethereumin taiva on ollut huimaa ja se on nykyään tunnetuin kryptomaailman jättiläinen heti Bitcoinin jälkeen. Kryptovaluutoista voit lukea lisää Cryptomeister.comista.
https://cryptomeister.com/fi/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:
Q&A with Christie’s head of marketing Neda Whitney on selling NFTs, expanding beyond traditional high-value artwork, the metaverse, and more — Neda Whitney, Christie’s head of marketing for the Americas, talks about demystifying nonfungible tokens, showing up in the metaverse and reaching …
How Christie’s Is Pitching Its Expansion From Picassos to NFTs
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-christies-is-pitching-its-expansion-from-picassos-to-nfts-11637700438?mod=djemalertNEWS
Neda Whitney, Christie’s head of marketing for the Americas, talks about demystifying nonfungible tokens, showing up in the metaverse and reaching a younger bidder with a new definition of luxury
The Christie’s auction house may summon images of richly-priced art, wealthy buyers with small paddles and intense specialists taking bids at a phone bank.
But that’s been changing. This year, the company has sold $136 million in nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, vouchers of authenticity for digital assets that can be traded and tracked indefinitely with blockchain technology. In March, Christie’s made headlines when an NFT by the artist who goes by Beeple fetched $69.3 million at auction.
The auction house’s customers are skewing younger, with millennials making up about a quarter of bidders this year, up from 20% in 2019, the company said.
More bidding migrated to the web during Covid-19, while sales of new products like NFTs are redefining the art industry and the way people think about luxury. So Christie’s, with a presence in London, New York and other cities around the world, is looking to update the way people see its brand.
WSJ: What was the company’s marketing objective when you joined in January?
Neda Whitney: My personal goal is to get the narrative of Christie’s into the hearts and minds of all types of clients. For a lot of people, they think of it as an auction house where we sell a $100 million Picasso painting, but in reality there’s a number of different types of art and objects we sell at different price points.
New kinds of clients were less aware that we’re not limited to those categories. We sell things like NFTs. Luxury can be streetwear—Supreme [the clothing brand] sales, sneaker sales—and wine, watches, decorative art and jewelry.
WSJ: How do your audiences today think about luxury?
Ms. Whitney: The definition of luxury is much different than it was before. Sometimes I call it the Kardashian effect. People used to save money for a rainy day, for special occasions and gifting moments. Now if I have $700 to buy Gucci loafers, I’m spending it on Gucci loafers.
People are choosing different paths about how they go about life and come into money—those who decided not to go to college and just started to invest and dabble in art and crypto. They’re wealthier, they’re younger. We’re seeing that happen with Silicon Valley and other places. They want to participate in the same types of art and culture.
Thirty-four percent of our buyers are new buyers. Seventy-two percent of the NFT bidders and buyers this year are new to Christie’s.
WSJ: What are you doing to change the way people perceive Christie’s?
Ms. Whitney: The biggest change to date has been with our interaction with our NFT community. We want to be a thought leader in the space. We’re active on Twitter. We have people with Discord accounts. I’m going to luncheons to speak about NFTs. We have an Art + Tech summit. We’ve all gone out there to help demystify the world of the NFT.
We’re exploring platforms like TikTok that we haven’t traditionally been in.
We had a trending hashtag for a sale in Asia—#suitson4christies. People put their Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs [a collection of 10,000 NFTs by the artist organization Yuga Labs] in suits. I think that was our first trending hashtag we’ve ever had.
I was like, “Guys, I’ve done a million of these. Let’s lean into it. Let’s do a social media takeover for when we announce the Beeple sale.” [Christie’s auctioned a Beeple video sculpture and NFT earlier this month for $28.9 million.]
It’s not something historically we’ve done.
WSJ: How are you measuring success?
Ms. Whitney: We have a couple key performance indicators. One is new clients. We have a very detailed system to know client registration and who comes from where and who is bidding. That will be one measure of return on investment; it’s a very direct measure.
The other measure of success is brand affinity, and we are doing brand-affinity studies. There’s an agency we’re working with to measure brand halo and affinity.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://futurism.com/person-furious-right-click-saved-precious-nft
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mr Goxx, the cryptocurrency-trading hamster, dies
https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fnews%2Ftechnology-59432659&h=AT1XbUfSJTrI_oCy5pOCRm1dg6p7XvUu3RUPqzLq4x0a4_OE2unItKdHEvluaMMjHZ7-g5TUnCffTRE4uOLno3OhpySA5W4fnDSD0CPp8T_PbpRls_ECeXsxP4StnLS-YA
The rodent, who shot to internet fame for his ability to often outperform human investors using a specially built trading cage, died on Tuesday.
Mr Goxx’s trading office, attached to his regular cage, was watched by thousands on a Twitch livestream. He would famously make decisions by running on his “intention wheel” to select which cryptocurrency he’d like to trade and subsequently entering either a buy or sell tunnel on his ‘office floor’.
Every time he ran through a tunnel, the electronics wired to his office completed the trade according to Mr Goxx’s desires.
The tiny trader began his financial career on 12 June 2021.After his final day of trading on 22 November, his portfolio was up 19.7% and he had made about 98 Euros profit.
Recent calculations by crypto-news site Protos suggested the hamster’s latest financial results beat investing supremo Warren Buffet’s company, Berkshire Hathaway.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have fallen sharply, wiping around $300 billion worth of value from the combined crypto market in just two days…
$300 Billion Bitcoin And Crypto Price Crash After Stark Fed Warning—Ethereum, BNB, Solana, Cardano And XRP In Free Fall
https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2021/12/03/300-billion-bitcoin-and-crypto-price-crash-after-stark-fed-warning-ethereum-bnb-solana-cardano-and-xrp-in-free-fall/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Valerie
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2600net/permalink/3185045675051869/
What’s fascinating about blockchain is you can trace all the shitcoins being sold from the $150 million Bitmart hack in real time.
Here’s the stolen Eth address https://etherscan.io/address/0x4bb7d80282f5e0616705d7f832acfc59f89f7091
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackers Steal $119M From ‘Web3’ Crypto Project With Old School Attack
The hacker took control of the web infrastructure of BadgerDAO decentralized autonomous organization and tricked users into giving them control.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkpp4n/hackers-steal-dollar119m-from-web3-crypto-project-with-old-school-attack
An unknown hacker or hackers stole a reported $119 million in cryptocurrency from a blockchain-based decentralized finance (DeFi) platform on Wednesday.
In a Tweet on Wednesday, BadgerDAO (decentralized autonomous organization) wrote that it received “reports of unauthorized withdrawals of user funds.” According to blockchain security company PeckShield, the hackers stole around 2100 BTC ($118,500,000) and 151 ETH ($679,000) worth of cryptocurrency tokens.
Notably, the hack did not involve complicated smart contract exploits. Instead, it was a front-end attack targeting BadgerDAO’s web infrastructure, in particular its Cloudflare account, BadgerDAO’s content delivery network. When interacting with BadgerDAO using a Metamask wallet, users were confronted with illicit permission requests. Users noticed the attack when they saw that their wallets were being emptied, and BadgerDAO then “paused” all smart contracts.
it appears someone injected a malicious script into BadgerDAO’s frontend after compromising an API key for BadgerDAO’s Cloudflare account. Cloudflare is a web infrastructure, content delivery network, and website security company, which is used by millions of sites on the internet.
“The malicious script basically tricked people into giving the address rights to send the tokens to the exploiter address,” Jonto told Motherboard in an online chat.
BadgerDAO’s admins and developers have been doing damage control in the official Discord channel.
“Everyone is angry and shocked and [sic] what happened,”
DeFi platforms like BadgerDAO have proliferated recently, with billions of dollars lost to scams and hacks along the way in the fast-moving industry. The idea is to create financial systems based on the blockchain, and BadgerDAO in particular was designed to be a “bridge” for people to take, say, their Bitcoin, and use it equivalently on Ethereum-based DeFi projects by “wrapping” it.
Earlier this year, the crypto lending service C.R.E.A.M. got exploited via a complex “flash loan” and lost $130 million, and a hacker stole around $600 million from the popular platform Poly Network—and later returned the money in one of the most bizarre hacks of the year. These are just examples from this year, there have been many more in years prior.
Notably, though, the BadgerDAO attack seems to not have targeted the smart contracts or used any clever blockchain trickery. Instead, it was an attack targeting Badger’s web infrastructure.
As it turns out, so-called web3 can depend heavily on good old web1 security.
“Supply chain integrity means every link in the chain,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
After China’s Crypto Ban, Who Leads in Bitcoin Mining?
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/after-chinas-crypto-ban-who-leads-in-bitcoin-mining/
The Briefing
China issued a ban on all crypto activities in September 2021
As a result, the U.S. has greatly increased its share of global Bitcoin hash rate
Bitcoin Mining Moves to America
Bitcoin mining is a process that verifies transactions on the blockchain ledger, while also bringing new bitcoins into circulation.
To be successful at this, cryptominers require vast amounts of computing power, meaning electricity becomes one of their most significant costs. This pushes them to locate wherever electricity is cheapest.
For years, China was the optimal location—the country has an abundance of cheap, coal-powered electricity. However, in September 2021, the Chinese government issued a blanket ban on all crypto activities.
The University of Cambridge maintains various datasets on the Bitcoin blockchain, including power consumption and hash rate. Global hash rate measures the total computational power that is dedicated to mining.
Just two years ago, China accounted for over three quarters of global Bitcoin hashrate. The country is now expected to miss out on $6 billion in annual cryptomining revenues.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Andrew Hayward / Decrypt:
Ubisoft will add NFT items into its games, starting with Ghost Recon Breakpoint on the Tezos blockchain, becoming the first major gaming company to do so — In brief — Major game publisher Ubisoft will implement in-game NFT items into its games, starting with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
Ubisoft Becomes First Major Gaming Company to Launch In-Game NFTs
https://decrypt.co/87752/ubisoft-first-major-gaming-company-launch-in-game-nfts
After years of dabbling in the crypto and the NFT space, game industry giant Ubisoft is taking things to the next level.
Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon will now have in-game NFTs. Image: Ubisoft
In brief
Major game publisher Ubisoft will implement in-game NFT items into its games, starting with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
Ubisoft’s Quartz NFT platform runs on Tezos, a proof-of-stake blockchain platform.
Today, the publisher behind Assassin’s Creed and Just Dance revealed Ubisoft Quartz, a platform that lets players earn and purchase in-game items that are tokenized as NFTs on the Tezos blockchain
. Quartz will launch first in the PC version of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint, the latest online game in the long-running tactical shooter series.
Ubisoft is referring to its NFT drops as “Digits” and plans to release free NFTs for early adopters on December 9, 12, and 15, with further drops planned for 2022. An infographic shows items such as weapon skins and unique armor and apparel, along with a message that teases future initiatives: “This is just the beginning…”
An NFT effectively serves as a receipt for a provably scarce digital item, and while digital illustrations and profile pictures have been popular, they can also represent video game items. Ethereum-powered monster-battling game Axie Infinity is currently the biggest player in the space, racking up more than $3.6 billion in trading volume to date, per CryptoSlam.
“Ubisoft Quartz is the first building block in our ambitious vision for developing a true metaverse,” said Nicolas Pouard, VP of Ubisoft’s Strategic Innovation Lab, in a release. “And it can’t come to life without overcoming blockchain’s early-form limitations for gaming, including scalability and energy consumption.”
Much of Ubisoft’s announcement today highlights the difference in environmental impact between the proof-of-stake Tezos blockchain and the energy-intensive Bitcoin.
Tezos claims that a single transaction on its network uses “more than 2 million times less energy” than Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency. It also suggests that a single Tezos transaction uses about as much energy as a 30-second streaming video, whereas a Bitcoin transaction is estimated to measure up to the environmental impact of a full, uninterrupted year of streaming video footage.
The perceived environmental impact of blockchain technology has created backlash within the traditional video game market in the past
Ubisoft first began exploring the crypto and NFT space years back, developing a Minecraft-like game prototype called HashCraft that Decrypt first covered in early 2019. Since then, Ubisoft has worked with numerous crypto startups
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cryptocurrency prices have been on the back foot in the last month, many falling heavily from highs. What should investors do now?
Crazy Moves For Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, Compound And Sushiswap
https://www.forbes.com/sites/investor/2021/12/08/crazy-moves-for-bitcoin-ethereum-polygon-compound-and-sushiswap/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Valerie&sh=2110d70241e9
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jackie Davalos / Bloomberg:
Kickstarter plans to transition its crowdfunding site to a newly created blockchain-based protocol in 2022, and will offer tools for others to build on it — It’s creating a new company to develop and distribute the technology. — For more than a decade, Kickstarter PBC has convinced …
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-08/kickstarter-blockchain-will-combine-crowdfunding-with-crypto
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kollen Post / The Block:
At a congressional hearing with six crypto executives, committee members voiced concern about stablecoins and exchanges but showed a warming reception to crypto — Quick Take — Today’s hearing before the House Financial Services Committee confirmed: Congress is warming up to crypto.
What we learned at Congress’ much-anticipated summit of crypto execs
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/126866/what-we-learned-at-congress-much-anticipated-summit-of-crypto-execs
Quick Take
Today’s hearing before the House Financial Services Committee confirmed: Congress is warming up to crypto.
Fiat-backed stablecoins are likely to face a new oversight regime for their reserves, but other issues are still very much up for discussion if the Wednesday event was any indication.
The firms represented — Bitfury, Circle, Coinbase, FTX, Paxos and the Stellar Development Foundation — were not necessarily the largest by valuation but were among those most engaged with U.S. politics.
As The Block wrote yesterday, the central concerns were regulatory regimes for stablecoins and trading platforms. As Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters commented, “Currently, cryptocurrency markets have no overarching centralized framework.”
The stablecoin piece was especially pressing — Congressman Warren Davidson called it “the lowest-hanging fruit” — as it seems the most similar to existing rules for banks. And indeed, frequent crypto critic Rep. Brad Sherman lamented that Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer, “didn’t even show up.”
“Is it consistent to take the position that only banks should be allowed to issue stablecoins, but then fail to grant bank charters to the largest issuers of stablecoins?” asked Brian Brooks, current CEO of Bitfury and a former Comptroller of the Currency.
The argument for a consistent regulatory regime drew some sympathy across the committee, but the devil remains in the details. The SEC and its sister regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, are themselves arguing out their respective roles within the crypto ecosystem. There is more and more talk of expanding the CFTC’s regulatory purview into spot markets for cryptocurrency, where the commission currently only regulates futures trading.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss decried the current regime of regulation by enforcement and negotiation on a “one-off basis” with the SEC and CFTC. He seemed to echo FTX’s policy push for a designated primary single regulator, at least on a temporary basis.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/12/09/the-complexities-of-nft-creation-and-ownership-in-entertainment/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie&sh=2ac133e97509
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Powerful Right-Click Artwork Is Made of 10,000 NFTs
https://www.vice.com/en/article/3abnwv/this-powerful-right-click-artwork-is-made-of-10000-nfts
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/right-click-save-as
Tomi Engdahl says:
If your AWS account gets hacked you’ll have to foot a massive bill, $45,000 in this case, for making someone else some extra cash.
$45,000 AWS Crypto-Mining Hack Generates $800 of Monero
By Francisco Pires published 1 day ago
Lots of work for $800 worth of cryptocurrency.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/aws-45000-usd-bill-for-crypto-mining-hack?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=tomsguide&utm_campaign=socialflow
An Amazon Web Services (AWS) customer had a really bad day when they received an unsolicited $45,000 bill for renting computing power from Amazon’s cloud based servers. Further investigation showed that the customer’s account was hacked, allowing the bad actors to spin up AWS servers around the globe while running a cryptocurrency mining software for privacy-focused coin Monero.
the advent of cryptocurrencies brought about the possibility to directly exchange computing power for cryptocurrency tokens. That, in turn, has turned users’ cloud computing accounts into gold. Even if in this case, the amount of cryptocurrency actually earned was comparably pitiful compared to the costs it generated with it: 6 Monero coins worth approximately $800 were minted for a $45,000 cost.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
Study: stablecoin supply has reached $140B+, up 388% in 2021 from $29B at the start of the year, driven by DeFi and derivatives markets — The market for stablecoins experienced breakneck growth in 2021, with the supply for dollar-backed cryptocurrencies surging by 388%, according to data compiled by The Block Research.
Stablecoin supply grew by 388% this year, driven by DeFi and derivatives
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/128027/stablecoin-supply-grew-by-388-this-year-driven-by-defi-and-derivatives
The market for stablecoins experienced breakneck growth in 2021, with the supply for dollar-backed cryptocurrencies surging by 388%, according to data compiled by The Block Research.
As indicated by The Block Research’s 2022 Digital Asset Outlook report, the aggregate supply of stablecoins has increased from $29 billion at the start of 2021 to more than $140 billion. That growth benefited a swathe of stablecoins, including tether (USDT) and USD coin (USDC), which is managed by a consortium that includes Circle and Coinbase.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOMEONE MADE A “DOOM” MOD WHERE INSTEAD OF SHOOTING DEMONS, YOU TAKE SCREENSHOTS OF NFTS
byNOOR AL-SIBAI
https://futurism.com/the-byte/doom-mod-screenshot-nfts
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THE NFT DIVIDE COULDN’T GET STUPIDER.
Someone who seems to really hate non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has made a modified version of the classic video game Doom where the whole premise involves “killing” NFTs via screenshot.
As PC Gamer reports, the biggest difference between regular Doom and NFT Doom is that, instead of shooting the hellish monsters that populate the original, players take screenshots of Bored Ape-esque primates and, in turn, rack up as much in-game money as possible.
With the way things are accelerating in the wacky world of NFTs, our guess is that making fun of NFTs will be too stupid to be laughed at by 2022.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NFT Sneakers Take Off as Nike and Adidas Look to Cash in on Digital Shoes
https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsingularityhub.com%2F2021%2F12%2F22%2Fnike-just-acquired-an-nft-studio-to-make-digital-sneakers%2F&h=AT0fGtg-aOPgxcC-Iz6uiViNkT-vIt45hjDJjEGUF2NbK1-Sjg4q0lPGkkk72zGIMHOk7WRGEqJh4zwk5r7kDjL6wJ0ogsfXwTsOAxluW5a7rs21ypjF85lco6-3QRBKjFwGIkzfAAwCOf9veA
Recently NFTs have taken the form of everything from apes to a yacht to a life-sized 3D video sculpture. As trading volume of NFTs hits a staggering $22 billion and we near the end of the year, another new type of NFT is being added to the list: shoes.
And not only shoes, but other athletic wear, some of which even comes in non-digital form. That’s right—you can spend thousands of dollars on shoes or a sweatshirt and actually get shoes or a sweatshirt you can wear in real life. Who’d have thought we’d circle back to an economy where you can pay money for a thing and hold that thing in your hands instead of just looking at it on a computer screen?
Last week Nike announced its acquisition of RTFKT, an NFT studio that in its own words “uses the latest in game engines, NFT, blockchain authentication and augmented reality, combined with manufacturing expertise to create one of a kind sneakers and digital artifacts.” That’s right, the company name is pronounced “artifact.” Wouldn’t have figured that out in 100 years? Me either.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Daily Crunch: Bitcoin is religion; web3 is greed
https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/21/daily-crunch-107/