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Blockstream and Block Inc to build solar Bitcoin mining facility powered by Tesla technology
The site will use a combination of solar panels and battery storage from excess daylight to power Bitcoin mining.
On Friday, cryptocurrency storage company Blockstream and Block Inc. (formerly Square) announced the construction of a solar-powered Bitcoin (BTC) mining facility in Texas. As told by Blockstream, the mining site will be outfitted with 3.8 megawatts (MW) of electrical capacity using Tesla's Solar photovoltaic cell array and a 12 MWh Megapack.
Manufactured by Tesla Energy, Megapack is a powerful lithium-ion battery that provides energy storage and support. In context, one of the leading publicly-listed Bitcoin mining companies, Hut 8 Mining, has about 209 MW in total contracted mining capacity. The purpose of the venture is to investigate the feasibility of operating a zero-emission energy Bitcoin mine. Blockstream and Block began collaborating on the project last June, with Block promising to invest $5 million for its construction.
In addition to its physical construction, the teams at Blockstream and Block will build a publicly accessible dashboard to report on the project's economics. Key metrics will include power output, the number of Bitcoin mined, storage performance, total uptime, expenses and return on investment, etc. It will be accessible 24/7 from any browser. Read More
Review: Gala Games blockchain platform combines gaming and commerce
A new gaming platform by Gala Games combines development, play-to-earn, and a gaming store in one spot.
Gala Games presents itself as a gaming blockchain ecosystem. Its digital fuel is the Gala Games (GALA) token, created according to the ERC-20 standard on the Ethereum blockchain. It is also compatible with the Binance Smart Chain.
The decentralized ecosystem of Gala Games aims to provide gamers with control over gaming assets. Thanks to decentralization, they not only own their game items but also have a right to influence the whole project. Players will be engaged through distributed voting mechanisms to help determine which games should be added to the platform.
The Gala Games ecosystem includes five components: the games themselves, the game publishing platform, the NFT marketplace, cloud hosting, and tokenomics. Read More
Museums in the metaverse: How Web3 technology can help historical sites
Historical-site metaverses may become a new business model for tourism, and they may rewrite history in the process.
Metaverse events at ancient and historical sites could soon shape up to be an alternate future for tourism.
Owners of physical castles and villas who have drafted up augmented reality blueprints of their properties think their ambitious plans to attract visitors in the metaverse will work, as virtual events can help them pay the hefty maintenance bills for their aging properties and also offer a chance to change historical narratives.
The metaverse tourism model was expedited by downturns in tourism brought about by COVID-19, but the industry may have already been heading that way.
Currently, major metaverse platforms are clunky, difficult to use, and waiting for more “real estate” development, but firms are concentrating on what could be. Brands seem to be entering the metaverse en masse just for PR bragging rights.
So, it seems the possibility of learning existing, new, and revised histories through the metaverse is not so remote. Read More
Algorand founder Silvio Micali wants to usher in the democratization of finance
Cointelegraph conducted an exclusive interview with Silvio Micali at the Paris Blockchain Week Summit.
Cointelegraph’s Joseph Hall sat down with Silvio Micali, founder of Algorand, as part of its on-the-ground coverage of the Paris Blockchain Week Summit. Algorand is a blockchain that uses a pure proof-of-stake (PPoS) protocol, and the company was one of the main sponsors of the summit.
Micali started by explaining that the blockchain trilemma — which claims that no blockchain can be both secure, scalable, and decentralized — is false. He affirmed that Algorand is actively working to solve this so-called trilemma by pushing the limits of scalability via its PPoS algorithm.
With Ethereum set to transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake later this year, Algorand will stand in direct competition with Ethereum. It was originally Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin who coined the concept of the trilemma, and Micali recognized that “perhaps scalability was sacrificed for security” in Ethereum’s case. However, since it’s not yet known exactly which type of proof-of-stake Ethereum will take on, Micali welcomes the competition.
“Competition is always good. I believe in democratization and meritocracy. There is room to collaborate.” Read More
We have a lot to be grateful for within Markethive. It’s like stepping out of the rat race into an oasis of humanity at its best. As an inbound marketing, business-based blockchain platform with an inherent entrepreneurial spirit, we have all the tools to get our message out to the whole world. We have a social media interface with a collaborative ethos rarely experienced on legacy social media.
We are starting to see new integrations in the blogging section in preparation for the customized, more intuitive interface and dashboard of Markethive and, of course, the Markethive Wallet that will facilitate the Merchant accounts for members as well as personal transactions, the Vault, etc.
The new-look Blogcasting Hub is located at the top of all blogs in the system. Blogcasting is a term introduced by Markethive and is an enhanced broadcasting system. In the traditional broadcasting sense, only the people who physically subscribe to your blog or newsletter are usually notified of your updates via email.
With this blogcasting system, your social networks are informed of your blog as and when you publish them. What this means is the potential reach is into the millions. Read More
Here’s what’s happening in Web3 across Africa
Leading blockchain protocols and other actors jockey for position in the race to build and mold Africa’s emerging Web3 economy.
Whatever you prefer to call it — crypto, blockchain, or Web3 — this new segment of the digital economy is booming across Africa. If you’ve been sleeping on the sector, now’s a good time to wake up.
Why? Well for one, according to analytics firm Chainalysis, Africa’s crypto market increased in value by more than 1,200% between July 2020 and June 2021. Led by especially high adoption rates in Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, and Tanzania, Africa had the third-fastest growing cryptocurrency economy worldwide during that period. And that’s not all. Chainalysis also found that Africa leads the world in the share of overall crypto transaction volume coming from peer-to-peer, an indication that African consumers in crypto-unfriendly jurisdictions are increasingly finding workarounds to explicit and implicit bans. Read More
TravelX, Air Europa Launch World's 1st Flight Ticket NFTs
TravelX announced on Monday that it has partnered with Air Europa to release the world's first non-fungible token (NFT) flight ticket collections or "NFTickets." The owner can issue a matching flight ticket by presenting the NFT, the company said.
TravelX claims to be building the travel industry's first blockchain-based distribution protocol. While Air Europa is the third largest Spanish airline flying to over 60 destinations around the globe.
The announcement clarified that with the purchase of the NFTs titled "The Art as the Destination", owners of the tickets will get access to a special Air Europa flight to Miami Beach this November 29 and the premier art show of the Americas taking place this December in Miami.
The NFTickets were created in a series of 10 in partnership with various artists, and they will be released every 14 days through TravelX's auction platform. The auction went live on April 11.
"Innovation is in our DNA, we have been pioneers in applying new technologies within our industry, and it can not be different with NFTs, which could be the next step in the travel industry," said Bernardo Botella, Global Sales Director at Air Europa. "We are proud to be the first airline to adopt blockchain technology for inventory management and distribution. We're excited to see where this could take travel as a whole and how it could improve customer experience." Read More
Ethereum Devs Now Testing ETH 2.0 Upgrade on 'Shadow Fork'
Ethereum devs have created a "shadow fork" of the mainnet to better test the merge that will transition the network to proof of stake.
The Ethereum Foundation got a step closer to deploying Ethereum 2.0 and has been using “shadow forks” to make its testnet more closely resemble the Ethereum mainnet.
Over the weekend, Ethereum DevOps engineer Parathi Jayanathi said on Twitter that the team had done three shadow forks of the Goerli testnet, finding “bugs varying from sync code to request timeout” in the process.
“We’re very close to a historical event. We’re testing PoS on #Ethereum,” Marius Van Der Wijden, an Ethereum software developer, said on Twitter this morning. “Today will be the first mainnet shadow fork ever.” Read More
Uniswap Labs Launches Venture Arm To Invest In Web3
Uniswap Labs has announced the launch of its investment arm to invest in other crypto companies and expand its presence in Web3.
Launch Of Uniswap Labs Ventures:
Uniswap Labs is the parent company behind the renowned decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Uniswap. Its new division, Uniswap Labs Ventures, has been launched to fund the crypto and other web3 companies across various stages of development. The initiative will extend support in the fields of infrastructure, developer tools, and consumer-facing applications. The company announced the launch on Twitter,
“At Labs, we want to onboard millions of users into the web3 economy, with the goal of unlocking universal ownership & exchange for all…Today we're proud to announce the launch of Uniswap Labs Ventures! And in keeping with our ethos of decentralization and community engagement, ULV will be participating in the governance of portfolio protocols. To start, these protocols include AAVE, Compound Finance, MakerDAO, and ENS Domains.” 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.