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SXSW 2022 points to NFTs as the next champion of the music industry
Paintings are instantly deemed one-of-a-kind, leaving many to wonder why music, another form of art, is not being considered the same.
In the last decade, streaming platforms like Spotify, Soundcloud, and Apple Music have completely transformed the music industry, allowing music to be streamed far and wide and accessible to all online. But for the artists, accessibility has posed a big issue when it comes to monetizing and owning the music they poured their hearts into. To put these values into perspective, 97% of artists on streaming platforms such as Spotify are currently earning less than $1,000 per year.
It is only now that the right technologies have emerged with the potential to return power to the artists. With a rise in digital assets known as nonfungible tokens (NFTs), artists are given a chance to fully own their content, directly connect with their fans and ultimately make a living from their music. Due to their significant potential, one of the largest music events of the year, SXSW, has made this topic one of the main takeaways.
At the latest event, one of the companies highlighted was Pianity, a music NFT marketplace. The project, which has made it their mission to shape the next iteration of the music industry, was hand-selected by the judges as finalists, where they were given a chance to give a three-minute presentation of their platform. Read More
The DOT Technology In A Nutshell
There are payment systems like Bitcoin, developer blockchains like Ethereum, and then there is Polkadot. The "multi-chain network" that has ranked among the top 10 crypto projects since 2020. It’s been called the Ethereum killer, leading innovation platform, and Internet of blockchains.
With over $1.2B of value locked and a $20M+ market cap, DOT's numbers show some truth to these names. But if you ask any Polkadot investor, hardly any of them can explain what it does.
To understand why Polkadot is essential for the future of blockchains, let's start by its formal definition:
Polkadot is a blockchain with heterogeneous multi-chain and translation architecture. It allows interoperability, scalability, and innovation for layer 1 blockchains. Read More
Inside the blockchain developers’ mind: What is the ultimate scaling solution?
Any innovation must be engineered so that as adoption grows, the right scaling technologies can be integrated into it at the right time.
Cointelegraph is following the development of an entirely new blockchain from inception to the mainnet and beyond through its series, Inside the Blockchain Developer’s Mind, written by Andrew Levine of Koinos Group.
Scalability is a popular topic in blockchain, but few ever explain what we mean by that term. When we at Koinos Group talk about scaling what we mean is scaling to the masses. Creating a blockchain that everyone on Earth can use. That means the blockchain network has to be able to support that level of load, which is typically what people mean when they refer to scalability.
But what they talk about far less is the obvious implication that you must have a user experience that everyone on Earth can find pleasurable. Terrible user experiences are infinitely scalable because there is no demand for bad user experiences and the underlying network resources required to deliver them.
This is demonstrated by the fact that when most projects talk about scaling, they talk about technical implementations like sharding, proof-of-history, or layer 2, which are the solutions that Ethereum is using to solve its scaling challenges. Read More
Gold Industry Associations Launch Blockchain-Based Integrity System
The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and the World Gold Council (WGC) have made a joint announcement in which the two gold industry associations have partnered to launch a new, blockchain-based system.
The 'integrity system' as it were will that would help develop and implement standards for gold bar integrity, and help boost functionalities for chain of custody and provenance. As organizations prominent in the gold industry, LBMA and WGC represent a strategic move towards innovating and developing blockchain use-cases in the sector.
As an industry-specific move, the program is supported by groups such as Metalor, Barrick Gold, Brinks, Royal Canadian Mint, CME Group, Newcrest Mining, Hummingbird Resources, Argos Heraeus SA, Asahi, Aura Minerals, and Perth Mint, among other gold industry firms looking to utilize blockchain technologies for their operations.
“This transformative project is the first step towards a more aligned gold industry, where we work together to ensure a more accessible and transparent market. Consumers and investors want to know their gold has been responsibly and sustainably produced and tracing the origin of gold bars will help enforce the highest standards across the entire supply chain." shares David Tait, CEO of the World Gold Council. Read More
Solana is the first blockchain crypto ecosystem to implement a timestamp mechanism by building a decentralized clock into its own native blockchain. Why is this important? Because Solana proves that it’s possible to be decentralized, secure, and scalable and shows that this can be done without using any layer two solutions like Ethereum 2.0’s Sharding protocol or Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.
Solana is named after a beach slightly North of San Diego, in the US, where Solana cryptocurrency founder Anatoly Yakovenko worked for nearly 13 years as a software engineer at Qualcomm and was instrumental in developing the technology used in Andriod phones. Qualcomm is a Fortune 500 company specializing in software, hardware, and wireless technologies for mobile phones.
Initially, Anatoly was not a very big fan of cryptocurrency, and he wasn’t impressed with Bitcoin and was only slightly interested in Ethereum. That was until one strange night in 2017, with what he described as a “caffeine-induced fever dream,” Anatoly figured out how to improve cryptocurrency blockchains by time-stamping transactions. The analogy Anatoly uses to explain this process will help you understand how. Read More
Blockchain ecosystem run by DAO lets users solve tasks to get voting power
While DAOs are meant to empower communities, many of them end up having a governance structure similar to traditional companies.
Blockchain is the technology that provides the conditions and premises to rethink governance by transferring all the power to communities. This is achieved through various consensus mechanisms available today.
However, while many decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) tout their governance as an almost perfect one, the decision-making power is often in the hands of those who hold more native tokens.
It happens that most DAOs end up having a governance structure similar to banks or corporations, even though they indeed may empower communities to a certain level. One blockchain project is seeking to find the perfect tune of decentralized governance. TheGreatReset.Finance has split the economics from governance on its ecosystem so that everyone could enjoy equal chances of influencing the project direction. Read More
Decentralized Lotteries And What They Have To Offer To The Industry
Decentralized lotteries use blockchain technology to operate as a lottery system that will offer more benefits for the players. These benefits include:
Transparency and Fairness: Blockchain technology offers the lottery industry a much-needed boost of transparency since it is an open-source, public ledger that makes it easy for anyone to check the exact workings of the lottery. It also reduces inefficiency and fraud as it minimizes or entirely removes human error during transactions. Alongside this, automated systems can be used to ensure that luck has less of a role in deciding who wins and who loses.
Security: Decentralized lotteries operate on a decentralized cryptocurrency, which is brought into existence through mining rather than being printed by a government agency. The operating system has a complete record of their asset, which is transferred to the lottery operators and it is difficult to tamper with these records. This ensures that players cannot be cheated into having their chance at winning a million reduced. Read More
US Congress agency recommends 4 key policy options for blockchain
GAO aims to help policymakers, including Congress, federal agencies, state and local governments, observe seamless blockchain implementation.
Per the request of the United States Congress, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) laid out four policy options to help policymakers implement blockchain technologies while enhancing benefits and mitigating challenges.
The technology assessment shared by the GAO acknowledged the potential of blockchain technology in improving a variety of financial and non-financial applications even though it raised concerns about introducing new challenges while trying to resolve issues related to traditional systems:
“A blockchain might both increase the speed of a title registry system and lower the cost of title insurance by making title registration simpler and more trustworthy.” Read More
Is Austin the next US crypto hub? Officials approve blockchain resolutions
The City of Austin gears up to become America’s next crypto hot spot by passing two resolutions focused on cryptocurrency and blockchain innovation.
Innovative cities across America are racing to become the next hot spot for cryptocurrency and blockchain adoption. Miami was the first city to adopt its own part of CityCoins last year, allowing it to implement its own cryptocurrency called “MiamiCoin” to be used for civic engagement.
New York City has also made a name for itself as a crypto-friendly city by implementing educational initiatives and with Mayor, Eric Adams receiving his paycheck in Bitcoin (BTC) in January this year.
Austin takes a strong stance:
Most recently, Austin — the state capital of Texas that goes by the slogan “Keep Austin Weird” — has taken a strong interest in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. While Texas’ desire to lead the way for crypto innovation was established about a year ago when Governor Greg Abbot tweeted that he is a “crypto law proposal supporter,” the city of Austin has taken additional measures to ensure the acceptance of cryptocurrency for city services. 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.
