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OpenSea Adopts Scarcity Tracking Tool OpenRarity
OpenSea has adopted OpenRarity - a scarcity tracking tool that allows buyers to check the rarity of a specific non-fungible token (NFT).
Following the adoption, OpenRarity will help OpenSea to remove opacity as to how rare certain features in an NFT are. It will also further eliminate the use of third-party NFT scarcity tracking tools.
Other popular NFT projects that have used OpenRarity are Pudgy Penguins, Cool Cats and Moonbirds.
All of these NFT collections have between 8,888 to 10,000 NFTs within their collection made from algorithmically generated images, according to The Block, and "some of the features in these NFTs are found within less than 1% of the collection, such as a pillowcase on its head in the case of Pudgy Penguins or a robot face for Cool Cats."
Rarity plays a vital role in the NFT sector as it can dictate the value of the item. A potential buyer these days usually seeks to understand the rarity of an NFT even before the NFT’s purchase history or who it’s currently owned by. Read More
Helium migrates its blockchain to Solana following T-Mobile partnership
The project's developers cite Solana's ability to improve efficiency as scalability as reasons for the move.
On Thursday, the Helium Foundation announced that it would be moving its mainnet to the Solana blockchain following a community vote. According to the proposal, proof-of-coverage and Data transfer mechanisms will be moved to Helium Oracles.
Meanwhile, Helium's tokens and governance will relocate to that of the Solana blockchain. As told by developers, the benefits of the move would include more of its native token HNT available to subDAO reward pools, more consistent mining, more reliable data transfer, more utility for HNT and subDAO tokens, and more ecosystem support.
Helium is a blockchain wireless communications protocol. The same week, Nova Labs, the creator of Helium, signed an agreement with American telecommunications provider T-Mobile to launch Helium Mobile, a crypto-powered mobile service that will enable subscribers to earn crypto rewards. Helium Mobile subscribers on this cellular plan can opt-in to earn token rewards for sharing data about coverage quality and helping identify Helium dead-spot locations nationwide. A 5G capable device is required. Read More
Will Crypto Withstand The Quantum Apocalypse?
As the threat of quantum attacks on crypto comes closer to materialising, how ready is the industry for such an event? Will crypto be able to resist such an attack?
Asymmetric cryptography is based on a mathematical principle called a “trapdoor one-way function”. This enables a public key to be derived from a private key, but not the other way around. The currently known algorithms would need such an astronomically huge amount of time to break the key that it just wouldn’t be feasible to do so.
However, according to a Deloitte article, in 1994, a mathematician called Peter Shor developed an algorithm that could break the security of the most common asymmetric cryptography algorithms.
This means that if a sufficiently large quantum computer can be built, then Shor’s algorithm could be used to derive a private key from its corresponding public key, allowing the quantum computer user to falsely sign the digital signature and steal all the cryptocurrency in a wallet. Read More
Top Ripple Lawyer Warns Crypto Regulatory Hostility Is Hurting the US Severely – Here’s Why
Ripple’s top lawyer thinks “regulatory hostility” is hurting crypto innovators and retail investors alike.
Ripple’s general counsel, Stuart Alderoty, says in a new discussion at a Politico event that the San Francisco-based payments firm has not signed a single US customer to its platform since December 2020, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued the company.
The SEC and Ripple are embroiled in a lawsuit that accuses Ripple of selling XRP as an unregistered security.
Still, Alderoty says Ripple is thriving despite the domestic challenges, noting the company’s payment rails will facilitate more than $10 billion worth of transactions this year.
“In the past two years, we had the strongest years ever as a company. That $10 billion in volume mostly is driven offshore. And by the way this is all done compliant with anti-money laundering laws, OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] laws, anti-sanction laws etc. Why is that? Why haven’t we signed a single US customer in the past two years? Because of regulatory uncertainty and really regulatory hostility.” Read More
A democratic society values a free-flowing media ecosystem. A healthy media ecosystem is one of the characteristics of a democratic society. Mass media outlets such as newspapers and cable TV networks were prominent in the past. Today, the internet and social media platforms allow for greater communication across society.
Journalism, investigative correspondents, and even freelance writers are essential to that ecosystem. High-quality reporting revealing brutal truths and users' scope and exposure on social media to either create or access information are forces that can drive genuine societal change. And even keep the power structures in check.
Despite the positive aspects mentioned above, harmful practices and negative external forces related to the media ecosystem often eclipse them. These issues are usually easy to recognize once they’re identified. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge them and spread awareness about their potential risks.
Doing so will help you make informed decisions about how you use media and how it can impact your life and the lives of others. The following are a few issues pervasive in many digital news sites, forums, and social media platforms. Read More
Markethive Media has embraced blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, building an ecosystem that belongs to “we the people,” eliminating many of the issues plagued by media outlets today. With its meritocratic culture, dynamic social media interface, and growing community, Markethive is enhancing and bringing the platform into the future internet with new technology and interfaces, but still in keeping with the human touch.
Web3 technologies could be a game changer for the travel industry
NFTickets could potentially allow airlines and events to increase their revenue through resales on the secondary market.
Many companies and industries are incorporating Web3 technologies into their business structures, and the travel industry is no exception.
On Wednesday, Flybondi, an Argentinian airline, announced a strategic alliance with TravelX, a blockchain technology company responsible for tokenizing flight tickets. The partnership intends to enable travellers to purchase airline tickets as nonfungible tokens through Binance Pay, using USD Coin (USDC) as payment for transactions.
Speaking with Cointelegraph, the co-founder of TravelX, Facundo Diaz, shared that he was fully convinced that Web3 technologies could allow the travel industry to expand, not only in market size but also in terms of use cases and benefits for travellers:
Diaz believes that NFTickets could be beneficial to travellers, because it would allow flyers to auction, sell, trade and transfer tickets from wallet to wallet, giving them full control over managing and disposing of their travel assets freely and seamlessly:
“Imagine being able to sell your NFTicket if you cannot travel, or sending it by text message as a gift to your mum whenever you want.” Read More
What is a cryptocurrency mining pool?
A fraternity-based approach to mine crypto, mining pools let miners combine their computational resources for a better chance to win rewards.
In the early days of Bitcoin (BTC), crypto enthusiasts only required a basic personal computer with an internet connection to generate new BTC tokens through a distributed computing process known as mining.
However, with more people chasing the same number of block rewards, Bitcoin’s mining process has become more challenging with time. In fact, the quantum of rewards will progressively reduce by half every four years, making it less rewarding for individual miners who will need to allocate greater computational resources with time.
Available on blockchain protocols that employ a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, this mining process requires application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) to be deployed in the form of large rigs so as to complete the complex nature of mathematical problems within the time needed to mine a block.
With the increasing difficulty of the mining algorithm and the rewards for mining a block reducing with time, it has become impossible for a piece of single personal computing equipment to successfully mine a block. Read More
NFTs bring in-game ownership to a new level, says Blokhaus founder
NFTs improve interactivity by allowing users to unlock fully modular, community-driven in-game experiences to which they own the pieces, explains Mark Soares, the founder of Blokhaus Inc.
Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have taken the gaming world by storm. Whether it’s through limited edition collectables, avatar enhancement or play-to-earn incentivization, digital assets have given in-game ownership a new meaning.
The ways in which NFTs are available to players are becoming increasingly tangible. In the case of Blockxer, the latest blockchain game from Blokhaus Inc., every component of the game has been NFT-ized and available for modification by users.
Mark Soares, the founder of Blokhaus Inc., told Cointelegraph that when every aspect of the game is an NFT, users can create completely “bespoke” game experiences. Everywhere a user turns in this 8-bit, arcade-inspired game, there is an NFT — from the background and the characters to the weapons and more:
“Imagine the ability to create your own characters, in your own scene, and the ability to gift or sell these mods as an NFT pack to other players." Read More
Reversible transactions could mitigate crypto theft — Researchers
The proposal puts forward an “opt-in” token standard that would enable victims to report the theft to a governance contract, with algorithms helping to identify and freeze ill-gotten gains.
Stanford University researchers have come up with a prototype for “reversible transactions” on Ethereum, arguing it could be a solution to reduce the impact of crypto theft.
In a Sunday tweet, Stanford University blockchain researcher Kaili Wang shared a rundown of the Ethereum-based reversible token idea, noting that at this stage, it is not a finished concept but more of a “proposal to provoke discussion and even better solutions from the blockchain community,” noting:
“The major hacks we've seen are undeniably thefts with strong evidence. If there was a way to reverse those thefts under such circumstances, our ecosystem would be much safer. Our proposal allows reversals only if approved by a decentralized quorum of judges.”
The proposal was put together by blockchain researchers from Stanford, including Wang, Dan Boneh and Qinchen Wang, and it outlines “opt-in token standards that are siblings to ERC-20 and ERC-721” dubbed ERC-20R and ERC-721R. Read More
Disclaimer: These articles are provided for informational purposes only. They are not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other advice.
