Blockchain
IreneDAO NFTs causing a stir on crypto Twitter
The story of the IreneDAO NFT craze started in October when 28-year-old Chinese crypto influencer and model Yuqing Irene Zhao came up with the idea for “So-Col” with her business partner, Benjamin Tang. So-Col is short for “Social Collectables,” Irene explained to Cointelegraph, and the platform aims to help content creators monetize their content and build communities with their fans. Branded as the “decentralized version of OnlyFans, Discord, Twitch, and Patreon,” the platform allows content creators and influencers to convert their social media content into non-fungible collectible items (NFTs.) It is powered by StarkWare’s layer-two solution StarkEx and leverages the decentralized ID protocol. Fast-forward to Tuesday last week, Tang and Irene launched a sticker pack for Irene’s Telegra...
Blockchain assessment: How to assess different chains?
With so many blockchain networks appearing all the time, new or even experienced crypto enthusiasts may feel overwhelmed when it comes to deciding which are the best to invest in. In this guide, we’ll outline the most important aspects of any blockchain project, and why one should pay close attention to such details when assessing the different chains on the crypto market. Use case Arguably the most important part of any blockchain project is its use case. What is the project’s reason for existing? Is the project here to enhance payment processing? To improve on a business supply chain or to entertain users? There’s technically no such thing as an invalid use case, but some are certainly more applicable than others. For example, a project meant to assist millions in acquiring food is likel...
Panther protocol co-founder Oliver Gale discusses bringing zero-knowledge technology to multi-chain
Privacy coins and zero-knowledge technology, which some use to obfuscate the identity of sends/receivers and transaction amounts, have gained enormous popularity in recent years due to mounting regulatory surveillance against the crypto sector. But despite their rapid rise in market cap, critics continue to scrutinize such class of assets as enablers for masking illicit activities. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Oliver Gale, CEO, and co-founder of the Panther Protocol (ZKP), elaborated on the technology behind its privacy decentralized finance, or DeFi, solutions and why it’s necessary for today’s crypto space: CT: How much did you raise from your recent token sale, and what does your roadmap look like from here? OG: We’ve raised over $30 million in total. ...
Pakistan’s president calls for more training in blockchain technology
Arif Alvi, currently serving as the president of Pakistan, called for additional training in emerging technologies including blockchain, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity while meeting with a delegation of blockchain technology experts. In a Monday announcement, Alvi said Pakistan’s talent pool should be ready to meet the needs of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which includes utilizing blockchain technology in the public and private sectors. According to the Pakistan president, the technology could be used as a government tool to track transactions, reduce corruption and increase transparency. Among the panel of experts was Bitcoin SV advocate Jimmy Nguyen, founding president of the Bitcoin Association. President Dr. Arif Alvi had a meeting with an international delegation ...
Gramatik’s “Water 4 The Soul II” Album Is An Ode to Emerging Blockchain Technologies
“Strap on your headsets and gather all your assets,” commands Stehreo in the introduction of Gramatik‘s new album, Water 4 The Soul II. Gramatik’s passion for blockchain technology is nothing new, but his latest effort reveals the multi-genre producer has only become more entrenched and enamored with the promises of the metaverse, digital collectibles and more. The nine-track effort is only available on blockchain-based streaming platform Audius thus far, and is chock full of nods to emerging cryptocurrency tech with titles like “Wagmi Express” and “Hodlers in Paris.” Musically, Gramatik continues to derive inspiration at the intersection of funk and electronic with twangy pluck basses, jazzy piano riffs, and lively brass fanfare. Recom...
NFT sales and blockchain games continue to grow despite the recent market slump: Report
January 2022 continues to be rough for crypto investors as current markets see turbulent fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. Some have attributed the slump to recent federal intentions to introduce new rate hikes, and the political turmoil in Kazakhstan, which significantly lowered the hash rate of Bitcoin. On Jan. 14, the price of Bitcoin dipped below $42,000 as traders continued to hold out hope for bullish signals. Nonfungible token (NFT) trading and blockchain games, on the other hand, seem to have resisted the dip. According to reports from DappRadar, NFT transactions continued to increase amid declining crypto prices. The report stated that “the number of UAW connected to Ethereum NFT DApps grew by 43% since Q3 2021.” Numbers fr...
Boys Noize Empowers NFT Collectors to Mint Their Own Techno With “Rave Pigs” Project
Boys Noize and the SuperFarm NFT platform are bringing cultured swines to the blockchain. Their forthcoming “Rave Pigs” project turns trunk-thumping techno and psychedelic art into digital collectibles. Best of all, those who choose to participate in minting the collection will retain full rights to a piece of Berlin underground culture. The copyrights afforded to NFT holders have been a hot topic in recent months. Though some of the world’s most prominent collections frequently fetch exorbitant prices on the open market, many of them do not afford the holder the full copyrights to the audio and visual works displayed in the NFT. Conversely, “Rave Pigs” holders will retain the rights to both the art and the music heard in the collectibles they own. So it’s easy to see how ...
3 reasons why Near Protocol (NEAR) just hit a new all-time high
The layer one (L1) battle is starting to heat up again and multiple protocols have seen their token values rise in recent weeks as traders venture out to see what life is like outside of the Ethereum (ETH) network. One L1 protocol that has seen its token price climb to a new all-time high this week was NEAR, a community-run cloud computing platform focused on interoperability and lightning quick transaction speed. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView show that, following a pullback that hit a low of $13.10 on Jan. 9, the price of NEAR climbed more than 50% to establish a new record high at $20.36 on Jan. 14. NEAR/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView Three reasons that contributed to the growing strength of NEAR include the successful completion of a $150 millio...
Stacks ecosystem becomes #1 Web3 project on Bitcoin
On the first anniversary of the launch of Stacks blockchain (STX), which seeks to make Bitcoin (BTC) programmable, the network achieved over 350 million monthly API requests, 40,000 Hiro (development tool for Stacks to build applications on Bitcoin) wallet downloads, and 2,500 Clarity smart contracts. According to a report by Electric Capital, a venture capital firm focused on cryptocurrencies and fintech, these statistics make Stacks the largest project on Bitcoin. More than 11,000 users earned more than 100 BTC rewards per month on Stacks due to its unique proof-of-transfer, or PoX, consensus mechanism. Miners bid BTC to verify transactions, execute smart contracts and mine new blocks on the STX blockchain and earn STX as rewards. Meanwhile, the BTC bids are sent to STX holders as reward...
TokenBot helps crypto traders build social communities and monetize market knowledge
There are many advantages to automating one’s trading tactics instead of pointing and clicking with a mouse. For starters, bots can execute trading decisions free of emotion, are lighting fast and have far fewer margins of error. According to CNBC estimates, crypto trading bots account for 70% to 80% of the overall trading volume. TokenBot is an automated copy-trading platform designed for social trading groups and communities within messaging apps such as Discord, Telegram and Slack. Once added to a social media group, TokenBot monitors the admin’s account on an exchange and automatically notifies members of their trading activity details in real-time. The bot has more than 8,000 daily active users and streams close to $100 million per day in trading volume. In an exclus...
Iota selected for Phase 2A of EU blockchain initiative
On Thursday, the Iota Foundation, which oversees developments in the namesake Internet-of-Things transactions blockchain (IOTA), announced that it had been selected as one of five contractors by the European Commission to develop blockchain and distributed ledger technology in the region. According to the announcement, phase 2A aims to advance European Blockchain Services Infrastructure, or EBSI, in five areas: It will investigate the feasibility of sharding as to exponentially scale the Iota network on EBSI. Develop an approval weight consensus mechanism that will be highly flexible and allow both permissionless and permissioned use cases. Ensure any Iota-based solution for cross-border transfers abides by EBSI governance structures and any regulatory requirements from EU member states. I...
Trap Music Pioneer UZ Is Remastering His Iconic Tracks and Selling Them As NFTs
It’s 2012. SoundCloud is the biggest thing in music since the iPod. UZ, Baauer, Flosstradamus and HU₵₵I are dropping the craziest songs you’ve ever heard. You show your friends and become an aux legend. Life is good. Before SoundCloud’s broken business model drove artists away like bad breath, it was the epicenter of electronic music discovery. And the advent of trap music on the platform led to the genre’s explosion—with UZ’s fabled “Trap Shit” series serving as ground zero. Considered a pioneering trap artist, UZ was emblematic of the golden era of SoundCloud, when bedroom producers could scrap together 808s and a simple chord progression and blow up overnight. Just ask RL Grime, who abandoned his mainstream dance music alias, Clockwork, after th...
