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Budweiser Releases Virtual Scoreboard NFTs Ahead of World Cup in Qatar

by Blockchain NewsOctober 16, 2022

Multinational beer company Budweiser and the international football governing body FIFA have created an intriguing method for football fans to experience the world cup, with the introduction of the “Budverse x FIFA World Cup.”

Budweiser disclosed the development in a recent tweet that a digital scoreboard will be present at the Budverse x FIFA World Cup. The NFTs are now accessible and may be bought and minted at Budweiser.com/nft through December 18.

Budweiser and World’s football governing body have been partners for more than 30 years, and the launching of the NFTs extends that relationship.

Similarly, with the use of NFTs, holders can choose a favorite team competing in the world cup, act as that team, and watch that team’s progress in real-time.

It is worth mentioning that the NFTs also automatically grant owners special access to premium packages that encompass a Budweiser football marching uniform and the opportunity to win a 360 Pass Experience. The 360 Pass Experience winner will receive special treatment for the decisive game in Doha.

The beer company is no new to the realm of NFTs, as evidenced by the “Royal Series” and “Budverse Can Heritage Edition” features it has on OpenSea.

FIFA Promotes Collaborative Merger with Crypto Companies

The fact that some cryptocurrency companies have utilized sports as a significant platform to propagate their message is no longer news, therefore the forthcoming world cup, which has a sizable fanbase following, will prominently feature varied crypto-related events.

Even though trading cryptocurrencies are technically prohibited in Qatar, the location of the world’s biggest athletic event, which is scheduled to begin in a few weeks, has an intriguing alliance with several cryptocurrency companies.

Back in May, FIFA teamed up with Algorand to be its authorized blockchain partner. FIFA’s dedication to investigating cutting-edge avenues for steady revenue growth was demonstrated by the cooperation. FIFA’s delving into the blockchain industry was formally marked by the collaboration.

FIFA launched FIFA+ Collect in advance of the World Cup following their agreement with Algorand. Built on the Algorand blockchain, the NFT collection will record memorable moments from the competition.

Furthermore, FIFA selected crypto.com as its official exchange for the Mundial, enabling the exchange’s branding to be seen both inside and outside the stadiums during the competition.

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French Bank SocGen Obtains Regulatory Approval to Offer Crypto Assets Services

by Blockchain NewsOctober 16, 2022

According to a breaking report released Sunday, Société Générale, a major bank in France, quietly received regulatory approval to operate as a digital asset service provider in the country last month.

The French bank was granted a digital asset service provider (DASP) license by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the French financial market regulator, allowing it to offer crypto services across the nation.

As of last month, through its fully integrated blockchain-focused subsidiary, Societe Generale Forge, the banking giant obtained the authorization that now enables it to offer crypto services to its customers. The move followed an increasing number of banks getting approval to provide digital asset services to users in the jurisdiction.

In July, French Bank BNP Paribas (BNP) entered the crypto custody space via a partnership with Swiss digital asset safekeeping firm Metaco. In April, the French Banque Delubac & Cie, became the first to obtain the status of Digital Asset Service Provider, allowing it to offer regulated crypto services in partnership with Swiss crypto infrastructure provider Taurus.

Cryptocurrency regulation in France took a major step in early May 2022 when the Binance crypto exchange was granted Digital Asset Service Provider registration. The registration allowed Binance to operate its crypto exchange in France.

The announcement established France as the first major European nation to give regulatory approval to a crypto exchange. The bold move secured France’s crypto exchange status and started attracting more crypto firms to operate in the country.

Early this month, Crypto.com followed Binance to launch its footprint in France after it got regulatory approval enabling it to operate as a digital asset service provider. From a regulatory perspective, France is considered crypto-friendly – it has one of the highest crypto adoption rates in Europe, with 16% of French users owning crypto.

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Tagged : CRYPTO ASSETS SERVICES / FRENCH BANK / News / REGULATORY APPROVAL / Société Générale

Blockchains Do Not Address Any Fresh Issues – Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal

by Blockchain NewsOctober 16, 2022

The Co-founder of Polygon Sandeep Nailwal has disproved one of the most harmful myths propagated by fervent blockchain skeptics and that is the fact that the Web3 revolution is not solely intended to address “new” problems.

Sandeep recently shared his opinions on how blockchain systems should handle many monetary, societal, as well as other issues on Twitter earlier this week.

He asserts that famous industry speakers shouldn’t disparage blockchain firms’ use propositions as being “imaginary” or unreal.

Sandeep further argues that a large proportion of blockchains, if not all of them, are concentrated on enhancing how current technical mechanisms meet “old” difficulties within and outside of the fintech industry.

Therefore, creating new application scenarios for blockchain-based technologies does not seem reasonable in the context of promoting blockchain integration on a global scale and addressing pressing cross-national issues.

Meanwhile, It was confirmed earlier this past week that Polygon (MATIC) is currently employed as a technical system for police reports in the Firozabad district (Uttar Pradesh, India)

The use of Polygon (MATIC) for receiving and handling police reports will increase the immutability and transparency of the legal system

Polygon (MATIC) zkEVM commences onboarding Dapp

According to US.Today, Polygon’s (MATIC) most recent project, zkEVM, garnered media attention back in August 2022. This platform opens doors for ZKP-based protocols that were not available in the past.

Recall that back in September, Polygon introduced the gnosis bridge for Web3 users to transfer assets to their Ethereum crypto wallet.

According to Polygon, the gnosis bridge is the best method for Web3 teams to move their safe assets between polygon and Ethereum.

Interestingly as per the integration, users can now use safe multi-sig technology without sacrificing ease of use, cost, or security.

Previously Matic Network used to be the name of Polygon. Ethereum’s Polygon Network, a scaling solution for Ethereum, is powered by the Polygon (MATIC) token. Polygon leverages Layer 2 sidechains—blockchains that operate in parallel with the Ethereum main chain—Polygon intends to offer quicker and less expensive transactions on the Ethereum network.

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Tagged : BLOCKCHAIN SOLUTIONS / Industry Expert / Polygon / Sandeep Nailwal

China’s Digital Yuan Has Topped Over $14 Billion in Transaction Volume

by Blockchain NewsOctober 16, 2022

The Chinese Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) also known as the e-CNY has hit close to $14 billion (100.04 billion Yuan) from 360 million transactions as it gains widespread acceptance in the country.

The People’s Bank of China reported the news and that about 15 provinces have been selected as of August 31 to carry out the work of distributing the digital Renminbi (RMB) across10 institutions in various sectors such as healthcare, education, culture, and tourism.

The report also revealed that the e-CNY, which meets the public’s demand for mobile payments and provides safe and innovative payments for visitors from outside of China, was included at the 2022 Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics in Beijing.

A number of e-government platforms have established the Digital Renminbi Payment Services, which encompass both online and offline channels to handle a variety of public utility payments. The e-CNY can also be used to provide tax refund money, special funds for monthly medical insurance payments, funds for helping persons in need, and “specific, special, and novel” Enterprise assistance funds.

The advantages of the e-CNY as a form of legal tender include trust, interoperability, and late development which is helpful in increasing transaction transparency and intelligent level of fund management while lowering settlement and compliance costs.

China is Accelerating The Digital Economy.

Even though the e-CNY doesn’t appear to have increased exponentially since the People’s Bank of China reported it had transacted over $12 billion (87.565 billion Yuan) in January, there is still hope that the number of transactions will rise before the end of the year as the digital renminbi pilot project is put into action.

The Bank of China recently introduced an educational electronic RMB smart contract prepaid fund management product, expanding the pilot’s focus to school education, in partnership with the Education Bureau and the financial authorities of Chengdu’s Longquanyi District.

China has kept up its impressive efforts in perfecting the e-CNY. The digital yuan app now enables users to use the e-CNY to pay for public transportation on 10 bus lines.

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Tagged : CBDC / China / Digital Yuan / E-CNY

MetaStreet Raises $10M in Seed Funds to Launch New Products

by Blockchain NewsOctober 16, 2022

MetaStreet, a provider of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) debt, has raised $10 million in a recent capital fund round according to a news report.

The company is expected to use the money to develop trust, credit, and ownership products that facilitate debt and strengthen the lending infrastructure of the NFT sector.

The first product that will be launched is called the ‘PowerSweep’, an NFT trading platform to further expand and bring in new users. With the addition of the $14 million in total initial money obtained in February, MetaStreet has now raised a total of $24 million.

DragonFly Capital, Nascent, and Ethereal Ventures, which previously supported MetaStreet, are among the investors in the round while OpenSea Ventures, Fintech Collective, DCG, TheLAO, Focus Labs, Mirana Ventures, Metaversal, Ledgerprime, Meta4, Flying Falcon were among the new investors that took part in the recently fund round.

MetaStreet is an NFT platform that scales up global trust, credit, and separate ownership of digital goods.

“At such an early stage in the Metaverse’s development, we’re lucky to be firmly embedded in NFT finance, since it lets us experiment with new technologies that can provide substantial benefit to users, almost instantly,” says Co-founder and CEO of MetaStreet Conor Moore.

The Commitment of DragonFly and OpenSea in the Digital Space

The recent funding from Dragonfly comes as a fulfillment of their commitment to fund projects in the diverse digital ecosystem during the launch of a new venture capital fund worth $650 million. According to Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner of DragonFly Capital, the funds will be distributed out across the board, from Decentralized Finance (DeFi) to gaming and the metaverse, rather than being concentrated in one particular area of the digital currency ecosystem.

Blockchain gaming platform SludgeFeed has partnered with OpenSea, a well-known online marketplace for crypto collectibles, to promote the use of blockchain gaming by displaying pertinent products on its framework. By working together, OpenSea will provide SludgeFeed with technical assistance as it develops a special non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace that seamlessly ties into its platform and content.

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Tagged : DRAGONFLY CAPITAL / Finance / METASTREET / OPENSEA VENTURES

African Crypto Traders Get a Community-Driven Token Created By CYF

by Blockchain NewsOctober 16, 2022

African development-focused platform Community Yield Farming (CYF) has developed a community-driven token solely for crypto traders in Africa.

Launched on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), the CYF community-driven token is deflationary and has a distinctive minting feature and a limited supply of 100T CYF.

The token comes with an algorithm developed to provide value to its community while advancing crypto adoption through an active ecosystem. As reported in the press release, the token provides its holders with some features such as rug pull-proof, community reward, and self-providing liquidity.

The token also rewards its holders via a unique smart minting that redistributes up to 35% of token sales to the community. In addition, the token creates and grows liquidity through the community reward program.

CYF is a platform that represents the African community. It focuses on the development of Africa, mainly in its technology and digital sector. The platform aims to further crypto adoption across the African continent by reflecting on issues affecting global cryptocurrency adoption.

With the CYF’s latest token launch, the platform has seen prominent global investors such as Wolf of Congo investing in the project. CYF is not the only platform looking to advance crypto adoption in Africa. In May, crypto exchange Mara raised $23 million in funding to build a trading platform designed for Africans.

As reported by Blockchain.News, the funding was raised from Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research (FTX), DIGITAL, Nexo, Huobi Ventures, and nearly 100 other crypto investors in the industry.

Furthermore, while some firms and organizations are aiming to foster crypto adoption in Africa, some countries in the continent are already making their move towards adopting this digital currency.

In April this year, the Central African Republic (CAR) adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender, taking its place as the second country to ever adopt cryptocurrency after El Salvador.

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Tagged : Adoption / Bitcoin / Blockchain / Cryptocurrency / News

Solana NFT Platform Magic Eden Moves To An Optional Royalties Method

by Blockchain NewsOctober 16, 2022

Solana-based NFT platform Magic Eden announced on Saturday it’s opting for an optional royalties method for its users.

Users will now have the option to pick between giving the creator royalties or not and how much they wish to pay as royalties to creators when purchasing an NFT from the platform.

“After some difficult reflection and discussions with many creators, we’ve decided to move to optional royalties on @MagicEden,” Magic Eden said in the Twitter announcement. The platform added, “The decision on how much royalties to pay will be passed to the buyer.”

By default, the platform stated ALL collections/listings would honor full royalties. However, at the same time, buyers would also have three options to choose from to set their preferred royalty percentages.

Buyers would be able to set up their user profile to input a specific royalty percentage payment that will apply to all NFTs they purchase on Magic Eden. Alternatively, they would also be able to select a royalty percentage for a particular collection or a single NFT.

Magic Eden further said this new option is not a decision the platform “takes lightly,” and the team understands this move has severe implications for the ecosystem, so they hope it would not be a permanent decision as royalties today are not enforceable on the chain.

One other thing the NFT platform mentioned is that it will also waive transaction fees on NFT purchases. The platform charged 2% on every sale.

Notably, this new move from Magic Eden comes during the ongoing argument about NFT royalties in the industry. Some individuals believe royalties shouldn’t be enforced on users, while creators say royalties payments are a reward for their efforts on projects.

In addition, looking at users’ reactions to the company’s update, some seem rather unimpressed, while others appear to buy the idea of not enforcing royalties.

A tweep commented, saying, “This is by far the worst decision you guys could have made. Creators/founders stuck by you through thick and thin. This will send projects to zero and disincentivize new project growth. Consider building a method to enforce royalties rather than giving in.”

Another tweep said, “Royalties are stupid and shouldn’t exist. Glad to see platforms taking this approach. Any project that depends on royalties from secondary sales is unsustainable and defined to fail.”

Speaking of Magic Eden, in July, the platform announced the establishment of its venture outfit called Magic Ventures, focusing on bootstrapping Web3.0 gaming protocols.

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Tagged : Bitcoin / Blockchain / Industry / Market / NFT

Kraken Hires Gemini Executive Blair Halliday As UK’s Managing Director

by Blockchain NewsOctober 16, 2022

Kraken crypto exchange has appointed Gemini’s U.K. Chief, Blair Halliday, as its new Managing Director for its UK operations. Blair Halliday has been serving as UK Managing Director for the Winklevoss twins’ exchange Gemini, and this means that he is taking over the same role at Kraken exchange.

According to a statement released on Friday, Halliday will replace Curtis Ting, who has been appointed as a global senior Managing Director to be in charge of covering multiple jurisdictions.

Halliday will oversee Kraken’s “commercial, regulatory and political relationships in the UK,” as well as its 350-employee base, the report stated.

Stephanie Ramezan, a former Director of Business Development at Gemini, will replace Halliday as the new Managing Director in charge of UK operations.

Halliday had been working at Gemini since 2020, first serving as its Chief Compliance Officer for Europe before being promoted to its UK Managing Director in July 2020.

Amid a bear market, there has been a series of job shifts among crypto executives as some join other Web3 ventures leaving investors with uncertainty.

Alex Mashinsky, the CEO of the bankrupt crypto lender Celsius, was among the latest executives who recently resigned from their positions. The surge in departures has raised serious concerns over investors’ deposits in crypto platforms.

In August, ZebPay CEO Avinash Shekhar quit the oldest cryptocurrency exchange to start his startup in the Web 3.0 landscape. His new venture is reportedly dealing with crypto tax compliance issues.

In February 2022, WazirX co-founders Nischal Shetty and Siddharth Menon quit their day-to-day roles in the company, India’s leading cryptocurrency exchange. Menon deals with the Tegro marketplace for game assets, on the other hand, Shetty established his Web3 project Shardeum.

While investors’ money would not be lost if executives shift their positions, the moves usher in changes within the organizations. Protecting investors’ funds is the core principle of every exchange, but this staff personnel has different value sets.

When the market goes up, normally people do not see many changes in the senior leadership. But in a bear phase, managerial changes are reported frequently due to market and shareholders’ pressure. Market cycles could not only remove the unfit companies the business but also the people associated with them.

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Tagged : BLAIR HALLIDAY / Exchanges / EXECUTIVE MOVE / GEMINI EXECUTIVE / Kraken

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong To Sell 2% Stake to Fund Science and Tech Development

by Blockchain NewsOctober 16, 2022

Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase Global Inc., has announced plans to sell about 2% of his holdings in the firm over the next year to fund scientific research.

He tweeted the matter on Friday night. Armstrong owns a 16% stake and controls 59.5% of voting rights in Coinbase, according to the company’s 2022 proxy statement. The CEO plans to use capital to fund some scientific research and companies including biotechnology company NewLimit and scientific research firm ResearchHub.

Armstrong informed his Twitter community followers about his decision, which is based on his desire to assist in accelerating science and technology to help solve some of the major challenges in the globe. He, therefore, plans to sell his 2% stake in Coinbase to fund scientific research and companies.

NewLimit deals with researching epigenetic drivers of aging and developing products that can regenerate tissues to treat specific patient populations. On the other hand, Research Hub focuses on accelerating the pace of science by rewarding the open sharing and discussion of academic research.

Besides his intentions to sell some of his holdings to fund science and technology developments, Armstrong reaffirms his bullishness on Coinbase and the crypto landscape, showing his intentions to serve as CEO for the long term.

“For the avoidance of doubt, I intend to be CEO of Coinbase for a very long time and I remain super bullish on crypto and Coinbase. I’m fully dedicated to growing our business and advancing our mission, but I am also excited to contribute in a different way.”

This appears in contrast to the current trends in the industry that has seen several crypto CEOs stepping down from their roles in recent weeks.

Last month, the crypto industry’s epic shakeout that recently caused massive job losses and a series of consolidations reached the corner office. Crypto executives such as Genesis CEO Michael Moro, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, Alameda Research co-CEO Sam Trabucco, and FTX.US President Brett Harrison stepped down from their positions a few weeks ago.

The departures illustrate an ongoing shift within the beleaguered crypto industry, which is still reeling from the humbling market crash earlier this year. On Friday, shares of Coinbase Global (COIN) fell more than 8%, with the current price trading at $63.59. Recently, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan downgraded Coinbase shares to “sell” due to the continued fall in crypto prices and the ensuing fall in industry activity levels.

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Tagged : Brain Armstrong / Coinbase / Funding / Industry Expert