crypto
3 embroidery artists weave NFT charity drop to help victims of human trafficking
Three embroidery artists — Russia’s Katerina Marchenko, Brazil’s Aline Brant and Ninni Luhtasaari of Finland — announced Thursday that they will be auctioning their nonfungible token (NFT) art pieces to support Hope for the Future (HFTF), a registered charity based in Austria. Proceeds from the auction will help victims of human trafficking find entry-level work positions after their harrowing experiences. Katerina Marchenko embroidering. Source: Katerina Marchenko The NFT sale will take place on Orica between Dec. 27–30, with each piece having a floor price of $500. The auction’s goal is to raise $10,000 for the employment program. “Even when one offers survivors the possibility to get out, they are mostly very traumatized by their experiences, they have littl...
Retailers to drive crypto payments adoption: Survey
Crypto payments might be the innovation companies are looking for. A recent survey by payment network Mercuryo revealed that 57% of respondents believe accepting cryptocurrency payments would give companies a competitive edge. Among the other standout statistics, more than one-third of businesses reported that customers had asked to pay in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) or another digital currency. Hot on the heels of news that Dogecoin (DOGE) will trial for Tesla merchandise payments and WhatsApp began testing payments with Meta’s Novi wallet, the Mercuryo report highlights that retail payment services will continue to be a key crypto adoption driver. The report surveyed 501 senior financial decision-makers in the United Kingdom. Almost half of the sample size consisted of large businesses em...
Hong Kong NFT project Monkey Kingdom loses $1.3M in phishing hack, launches compensation fund
On Tuesday, Solana nonfungible token (NFT) project Monkey Kingdom, which has received notable backing from American DJ Steve Aoki, announced via Twitter that hackers made off with $1.3 million of the community’s crypto funds through a security breach on Discord. According to its developers, the hack first occurred with the breach of Grape, a popular solution for verifying users on Solana. Hackers then used the exploit to take over an administrative account, which posted a phishing link in the Monkey Kingdom Discord’s announcement channel. Users who followed the link connected their wallets expecting they would receive an NFT but instead were drained of their SOL tokens by the scammer. Announcement on the discord hack pic.twitter.com/1r7svjlZcB — Monkey Kingdom (@MonkeyKin...
‘You don’t own Web 3.0,’ says Jack Dorsey, criticizing its centralized nature
In a series of tweets posted on Tuesday, Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, as well as the founder and CEO of Square (now Block), voiced his criticism over the direction of Web 3.0 development. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, joined Dorsey in the mockery. On an unrelated note, the same day, Dorsey replied, “Bitcoin will” when asked if crypto will replace the dollar. Within context, Web 3.0 is a decentralized version of the virtual world that will, in part, feature public blockchains, metaverse technology, nonfungible tokens and decentralized finance free from the grasp of centralized power sources, such as corporate servers. You don’t own “web3.” The VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives. It’s ultimately a centralized entity wit...
Medical Q&A platform Ask The Doctor files lawsuit against Shiba Inu, engages war of words on Twitter
Tuesdays can be boring, but an ongoing Twitter drama is captivating the attention of many blockchain enthusiasts. Ask The Doctor, a Canadian medical questions and answers website, announced that it would be suing Shytoshi Kusama, volunteer project lead of meme token Shiba Inu (SHIB), for alleged libel and will attempt to uncover his personal identity in court. Kusama immediately fired back, alleging that “it is illegal [for Ask The Doctor] to take people’s money for a service it never provides.” Tell your legal team that it is illegal to buy a verified account to use it to scam other people. Tell them it is illegal to take people’s money for a service you never provide. And if you REALLY want to come and get me… COME GET ME. It’s almost time anyway…...
Behind the scenes of the first AAA shooter game built on the blockchain
Shrapnel is the world’s first AAA shooter game built on the blockchain, at the intersection of community, creation and ownership. The team is comprised of BAFTA and Emmy award-winning talent that has worked on blockbuster franchises such as HALO, Call of Duty, Madden, Bioshock, Destiny, Star Wars, Hawken Skylanders, Westworld and more. It is built on the blockchain gaming platform, Forte. In an exclusive ask-me-anything session with Cointelegraph Markets Pro, Don Norbury, head of studio at Neon Media, the game’s developer, offered an in-depth take on what the game has to offer. Shrapnel game banner. Source: Shrapnel Cointelegraph Markets Pro User: When I think of gaming, I think of Galaga, Pac-Man, Tomb Raider, Timesplitters. These games were fun and puzzling and con...
From eNaira to eHryvnia, a Caribbean fintech develops CBDCs around the world
Barbados, a paradise island in the West Indies, is known for its azure beaches, tidal waves, shipwrecks, homegrown grown Barbadian hospitality and, more recently, an influx of remote workers. Now, one can add cryptocurrency innovations to that list as well. Bitt, a Barbadian fintech firm developing blockchain technology, has successfully created the eNaira central bank digital currency (CBDC) for Nigeria and is on the path to creating an electronic hryvnia for Ukraine. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Brian Popelka, CEO of Bitt, discussed the technology behind the eNaira and the roadmap for the firm going forward. Cointelegraph: Would you please describe the technology behind the eNaira digital currency that you created? Brian Popelka: It’s really a stablecoin...
From the Altai Mountains to the Gobi Desert: Tokenizing the history of nomadic horse riders through Mongol NFTs
Mongolia is a land of endless steppes, hosting mystic Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and fierce horse warriors blessed by the eternal Tengri, the sky god in folk shamanism. For centuries, the harsh, cold climate of the plains forced its people to venture to the world beyond in a series of journeys and conquests. And now, blockchain enthusiasts can hear their stories in the form of nonfungible tokens through the Mongol NFT platform. Since its inception in September, the platform has surpassed 100,000 registered users and close to 400 creators in various stages of their projects. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Gabit Bazar and Adiya Bayansan, co-founders of Mongol NFT, discussed the future of the project that’s bringing Mongolia (once again) to the world stage.&n...
Genius Yield raises $118M via ISPO in first 48 hours
On Dec. 15, Genius Yield, a decentralized automated market maker and liquidity management protocol built on the Cardano (ADA) blockchain, announced the launch of its initial stake pool offering, or ISPO. The fundraising will continue for six months until June 15, 2022. At the time of publication, more than 95.8 million ADA, worth approximately $118 million at the time of writing, have been delegated to the stake pools. In an ISPO, blockchain enthusiasts stake their cryptos in a protocol and receive tokens of the new project they fund as rewards. After a lockup period, investors can then reclaim their staked cryptos. By utilizing this method, investors not only harvest yields, but they also, on paper, get back their initial investments. Of course, the setup is still susceptible to ris...
Reddit co-founder and Polygon launch $200M Web 3.0 social media initiative
On Friday, Polygon and Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital firm, Seven Seven Six, announced a $200 million initiative backing projects operating at the intersection of social media and Web 3.0. The initiative will focus on gaming applications and social media platforms built on Polygon’s infrastructure. Ohanian co-founded Reddit in 2005, left in 2010 and returned as executive chairman in 2014 to lead a turnaround before resigning in 2020. He has been a seed investor in several prominent tech and blockchain firms such as Coinbase, Instacart, Sky Mavis — the developer of Axie Infinity — and Patreon. As an Ethereum scaling solution, Polygon’s ecosystem has expanded rapidly this year, with over 3,000 decentralized applications built on its network. Earlier this month, Polygon announced...
Circle and Endaoment to create USDC-based disaster relief fund for communities impacted by deadly tornado
Circle, the company that created the USDC stablecoin, announced a partnership with public charity Endaoment to create a disaster relief fund. The fund will help mid-western American communities impacted by last week’s deadly tornadoes. The two entities hope to raise $1 million in grants to support the American Red Cross and local non-profits. Via Endaoment, blockchain enthusiasts will be able to directly contribute USDC or other cryptos using connected wallets with a minimum donation of $20. The funds will be distributed in $20,000 intervals to seven participating charities, the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund, Center for Disaster Philanthropy, Team Rubicon, All Hands and Hearts, Midwest Food Bank NFP, American Red Cross, and Mutual Aid Relief. At the time of publication, t...
HSBC and IBM create successful multi-ledger CBDC demo
On Thursday, HSBC and IBM announced the successful test of an advanced token and digital wallet settlement between two central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, in a cloud environment. The experiment consisted of transactions between CBDCs, eBonds, and forex. IBM’s Hyperledger Fabric and enterprise technology provider R3’s Corda served as the basis of the distributed ledger facilitating the transactions. The project was overseen by central bank Banque de France as part of a series of tranche projects to implement a digital Euro. Previously the French and Swiss central banks reported positive results on a pilot run of the digital Swiss Franc and Euro. Nevertheless, the two financial institutions issued caution on the subject, citing regulatory concerns. Mark Williamson, managin...
