An impending agreement between the blockchain scaling technology firm StarkWare and Chainlink Labs will result in the addition of Oracle services, data feeds, and price feeds to the StarkNet ecosystem. This relationship will be established in the near future.
Because of the relationship, StarkWare will take part in Chainlink’s Scale programme, and the price feeds for StarkNet’s testnet will come from Chainlink. In addition, StarkNet tokens will be used to fund some operating expenditures for Chainlink oracle nodes. This access to Chainlink oracle services and data feeds will be provided to Starket developers via the usage of StarkNet tokens.
Chainlink is a decentralised oracle network that enables smart contracts to access off-chain data sources, application programming interfaces (APIs), and payment systems in a secure manner. It makes it possible for smart contracts to interact with data and events that take place in the real world, which in turn makes it possible for them to be triggered by data that originates from outside sources.
The network makes use of decentralised nodes, which are entrusted with the responsibility of delivering smart contracts with data that can be relied on and is secure. In exchange, these nodes are rewarded with payments in Chainlink’s native LINK currency. The data that is supplied to smart contracts by node operators has been checked and calculated by those node operators before being submitted to smart contracts. This verifies that the information is accurate and may be relied upon.
According to a statement that was released by StarWare, an economically feasible framework has been built between StarkNet and Chainlink. It is also hoped that the integration would provide developers working on StarkNet with the basic infrastructure needed to build “highly performant, more sophisticated, and secure smart contract applications.”
Oracles are an important part of the system, and their value can be seen in a wide range of applications because to the flexibility they provide. Knowledge about the current value of assets or NFTs is required for a significant number of applications. Oracles are often compared to extensive toolkits due to their breadth of functionality.
During the course of the last year, the cryptocurrency and Web3 markets saw a contradiction consisting of very volatile markets and strong hopes for the future of the field.
Users and investors have both continued to pour their resources into the business, particularly in sectors that are concerned with the metaverse.
A recent study conducted by CoinWire in December 2022 among over 10,000 crypto investors indicated that user attitude towards the metaverse has digital reality positioned to affect all aspects of social life. The survey was conducted to find out how users feel about the metaverse.
69% of respondents feel that the metaverse would redefine social lifestyle with a new approach to entertainment, and 65% of respondents believe that the metaverse will bring about a new approach to social activities.
The opinions of 61.2% of people about how it would influence their income, 49.6% of people regarding how it will effect businesses, and 45% of people regarding how it will affect education were likewise high.
Microsoft has been awarded 158 patents linked to the metaverse over the course of the last five years, putting it ahead of other major tech companies such as Meta, Tencent, and Epic Games.
As the metaverse continues to advance, it will be in a position to have the potential to influence social life in a more discernible way.
At the Consumer Electronics Show 2023, for instance, it was recently announced that new metaverse capabilities would include the ability to touch and smell virtual objects.
In addition, the poll found that more over half of the respondents who are involved in the metaverse hold some type of cryptocurrency. This percentage was calculated as 53%.
The results of the poll put the United States of America in first place when it comes to innovation in the metaverse.
According to the data shown above, the countries of China and India have the most favourable attitudes regarding regular participation in the metaverse: 78% and 75%, respectively.
In addition, the report found that even though almost nine out of ten respondents had heard of the term “Web3,” 52% of them still had some kind of uncertainty as to what it actually entails when something is termed “Web3.” In line with the uncertainty that many investors feel, more than sixty percent of investors said they want more regulations to be applied to the industry.
Around the course of the last year, regulatory agencies all over the world have started adopting and debating new regulations for the business.
Despite this, aspects of Web3 such as the metaverse continue to be towards the top of the priority list in many countries.
The South Korean government has just made its test city in the metaverse accessible to the general public.
According to a research published by McKinsey, it is anticipated that the value of the metaverse would reach $5 trillion during the next seven years.
With a total of 215 crypto ATMs hosted in Spain, the country has now outpaced El Salvador, which is home to 212 crypto ATMs, down to the fourth position, following Spain’s third position.
According to data from CoinATMRadar, the European country of Spain is home to 0.6% of the global crypto ATM installations, making it home to the third most extensive network of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency ATMs after the United States and Canada.
Crypto ATM distribution by continents and countries. Source: CoinATMRadar
In addition, the data also proves that Spain is the highest contributor to crypto ATMs in Europe, which represents 14.65% of total installations in the continent, followed by Switzerland (144 ATMs), Poland (142 ATMs), and Romania (135 ATMs).
Crypto ATM installation growth in Spain. Source: CoinATMRadar
Spain installed 43 crypto ATMs in 2020 and recently shared its intent to install an additional 100 ATMs by the end of the year, which will total the number of crypto ATMs the country hosts to 300 once completed.
Greece has the sixth spot in cryptocurrency ATMs, and with the invasion of tourists in the country, Bitcoin ATM operator BCash shared insights on the usage statistics in the country.
BCash managing director and co-founder Dimitrios Tsangalidis unveiled that regardless of the installation of crypto ATMs in tourist hotspots, most usage comes from the main city area.
Tsangalidis added that a combination of crypto winter and tourist seasons has brought about a slowdown in regular traffic in crypto ATM usage.
Although not all countries in the globe have installations of crypto ATMs at the moment, however, it’s worth noting that crypto ATMs play a significant role in crypto adoption. As time passes by, we might begin to see more countries begin to host them.
Last year, the meme-based cryptocurrency, Dogecoin was made accessible at 1,800 ATMs across the United States. Individuals could purchase directly from Coinflip ATMs in 45 of the 50 US states.
Within 20 minutes, Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN) is able to undertake a pilot transaction of unifying the consent collection and sharing of shipping data using a blockchain-powered application, enhancing the speed of transactions.
As an independent and not-for-profit blockchain consortium founded by major global terminal operators and shipping lines, GSBN seeks to enhance trade finance accessibility, especially for SMEs, through its blockchain-enabled data-sharing management application.
Per the announcement:
“By supplying banks with trusted shipping data, the consortium’s solution aims to facilitate approval process and make trade finance more accessible to corporates.”
GSBN’s CEO Bertrand Chen believed that the pilot transaction painted a positive in the trade finance arena and said:
“This pilot solves a major bottleneck in the industry and is a testament to the efficiency of the network in enabling trusted data sharing.”
He added:
“Trade finance is the lifeblood of global trade, and we hope this milestone can further break down the silos between market participants and financial institutions to benefit all parties while supporting the overall growth of the industry.”
The statement reads that financial institutions can enjoy accessing a basket of trusted and immutable shipping data in a standardised and structured format. In addition, financial institutions can benefit from accurate and complete shipping data to make informed decisions and better manage risk with higher visibility.
By sharing data in a structured format, and the foundation for automated checking which can reduce approval times from days to minutes.
Therefore, this partnership has become an industry-first milestone in the global trade finance sector.
The pilot transaction was undertaken in partnership with A & W Food Service (Hong Kong) Ltd, Hapag-Lloyd, and Bank of China (Hong Kong) (“BOCHK”).
GSBN sees blockchain technology as a stepping stone toward bridging the gap in the global trade finance space, which is estimated to clock $2.5 trillion by 2025.
James Ho, the Deputy General Manager of the Transaction Banking Department of BOCHK, pointed out:
“BOCHK has been a long-term partner of GSBN, striving to help bridge the trade finance gap. We are very proud to be one of the pioneers completing this pilot transaction and contributing to the global economy by making trade finance more accessible to corporates, especially for SMEs.”
Meanwhile, India’s largest shipping port operator, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) adopted a blockchain-based platform jointly developed by IBM and Maersk to enhance verifiability, Blockchain.News reported.
Covalent, a Web3 data provider that is backed by Binance Labs and Coinbase Ventures, launched a program aimed at bridging the data analytics skills gap for workers in Web3.
Since data is considered as the new oil, the program dubbed Data Alchemist Boot-Camp will provide education related to data analytics in the Web3 and blockchain spaces. Per the report:
“The new Data Alchemist Boot-Camp expands Covalent’s existing Alchemist program but is geared toward skills development for accessible, data-rooted jobs. The need for analytical skills is rapidly growing, as user-controllable data is exploding under Web3 and decentralization.”
Through the program, Covalent intends to help recruit and train 1,000 workers for the Web3 and tech sectors. Therefore, the Web3 data provider seeks to support data analytics, which will spur more growth in the blockchain space.
Ganesh Swami, Covalent’s CEO, pointed out:
“There is a real need for individuals who are experts in this new cross-section of data and blockchain. We want to help train these future leaders to quickly fill these new roles in the near-term. This boot-camp is how we try to spark change in an excited and rapidly growing community.”
The program will equip learners with crucial blockchain business analytics, with a chance to earn $2,000 after tackling curriculum-based challenges. The first class is scheduled for October 19, 2022.
Brandon Rochon, a Covalent data scientist, stated:
“We believe that everyone deserves equal access to education and well-funded opportunities to explore career paths in Web3. The Alchemist Program has allowed us to expand these opportunities, while providing an environment to explore and learn alongside their peers in a way that is engaging, accessible and effective.”
Likewise, Crypto exchange KuCoin announced a $100 million “Creators Fund” to enhance the Web3 ecosystem and support early-stage non-fungible token (NFT) projects in sports, arts, GameFi, and celebrities, among others.
Ripple, a leader in enterprise crypto and blockchain solutions, has opened a key engineering hub in Toronto, Canada, to enhance crypto innovation.
In a statement, Ripple revealed that 50 engineers would initially be hired in the new Toronto office. Still, plans are underway to bring on board hundreds of blockchain software engineers, such as data scientists, applied machine learning scientists, and product managers.
“Crypto and blockchain present an incredible opportunity for engineers to tackle difficult problems, with the potential for these solutions to impact the movement of value around the world.”
Despite various crypto players announcing hiring freezes and layoffs amid the crypto winter in the market, Ripple said that they are looking for a bigger picture of presenting world-class talent, which would spur innovation in coming years.
Garlinghouse pointed out:
“We are continuing to scale and invest in our business by expanding our presence globally with our first office in Toronto.”
With the North American region being a prominent tech hub, Ripple sees the strategic expansion plan as a stepping stone toward tapping local talent to foster crypto growth.
Devraj Varadhan, SVP of Engineering, acknowledged:
“We are excited to tap into Toronto’s technical talent pool and add builders to address the unmet customer needs on behalf of global customers – our teams here will play a key role in driving Ripple’s innovations, ranging from blockchain protocol development and decentralized applications to machine learning and payment solutions.”
Toronto’s mayor John Tory welcomed Ripple’s decision to set base in the area and said:
“I’m thrilled that Ripple is putting down roots in Toronto where we know the company will be able to benefit from the highly skilled technical talent, booming ecosystem, and competitive economic advantages the Region offers.”
A previous Ripple report indicated that 99% of respondents would consider using digital assets for cross-border payments, Blockchain.News reported.
To maximize healthcare operations and processes through the latest innovations in the non-fungible token (NFT) and decentralized identification (DID) technologies, DEVITA has joined the Polygon network.
As a blockchain-based health data platform, DEVITA ensures data sovereignty as users’ health records are transmitted, exchanged securely, and stored in a decentralized way.
Polygon (MATIC), an interoperability layer-2 scale solution for Ethereum-compatible blockchains, improves speed and tackles transaction complexities on blockchain networks using multiple tools.
By leveraging the Polygon network, DEVITA intends to attain lightning-fast data access and transmission and lower transaction costs. As a result, provide users with personal data management and equitable healthcare.
Eric Choi, DEVITA’s co-founder, noted:
“From the beginning, it was clear to us that Polygon’s fast transaction speeds and low fees would be indispensable to achieving our goals. Joining the Polygon network marks an important milestone in our journey.”
He added:
“Ultimately, our vision is to create the intersection between blockchain technology and the right to better healthcare because that is what we find meaningful. Polygon’s network, with its capabilities, can be seen as the highway upon which that endeavor truly commences.”
DEVITA also uses an ERC-1155 NFT token (ONE-ID) that renders decentralized data ownership by giving users universal control and access over their encrypted data.
The polygon network has been making notable strides, given that it is home to at least 130 million addresses and more than 7,000 decentralized apps (dApps). Furthermore, it has processed nearly 1.5 billion transactions.
Polygon is also utilized by leading brands like Dolce & Gabbana, Aave, and OpenSea.
Robinhood, an American financial services company, recently rolled out more crypto offerings, including Polygon, to meet customer requests, Blockchain.Newsreported.
BlockFi, an American cryptocurrency platform to buy, sell and earn crypto, has confirmed that some of its client’s data stored on Hubspot, a Customer Relationship Management platform, have been compromised.
Taking to Twitter to announce the incident, BlockFi said the compromised data were limited to name, email addresses, and phone numbers.
BlockFi said it proactively informs its affected clients of the incident, which is suspected to be tilted toward a phishing attack before the bad actors will attempt to utilize the stolen data. The investigation regarding the hack is still ongoing. The platform confirmed that it does not store the most sensitive data, including BlockFi’s account and its passwords, information of government-issued ID cards, and social security numbers on Hubspot; hence these are safe.
In a bid to allay all fears, BlockFi confirmed that no user’s funds were stolen as the breach remains only with Hubspot. The platform advised its users to beware of emails sent with a demand in urgency to change passwords and the likes. The company asked its users to implement additional safeguards to improve their accounts’ security.
As part of the recommendations BlockFi gave is the activation of Two-Factor Authenticator (2FA), the permission of the platform’s ‘Allowlisting’ feature places withdrawal on at least a 7-day hold should a new address be listed for withdrawal. The platform said this can significantly protect its clients from being exploited by bad actors.
In whatever format they come, hacking or protocol breaches are not uncommon in the digital currency ecosystem, especially amongst cryptocurrency exchanges and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platforms. Earlier this year, Singapore-based Crypto.com suffered the first major crypto exchange breach for the year as far back as January. This incident impacted about 400 accounts with more than $34 million lost.
Per the BlockFi-Hubspot breach, the platform said continuous collaborations would be advanced, and affected clients would be updated about discoveries in the near term.
On Jan. 30, the South China Morning Post reported that one of the largest Asian pharmaceutical companies, Zuellig, had launched a blockchain-based system to track the quality of COVID-19 vaccines. Called “eZTracker,” it allows any user to “instantly verify the provenance and authenticity” of vaccines by scanning the QR code on the package. Somewhat surprisingly, throughout the pandemic, there have not been many reports of blockchain-based products adopted by big pharma or global healthcare organizations to bolster the anti-COVID effort. Here is a rundown of the major cases of such adoption, along with possible reasons for the limited interest in blockchain among healthcare officials.
South Korea: Blockchain vaccine passports
In April 2021, the South Korean government became the first to introduce blockchain-based vaccine passports amid the COVID-19 crisis. Putting proof of vaccination on a distributed ledger ensures the authenticity of the document as many people around the world tend to counterfeit such “Green Passes,” which sometimes can secure access to restaurants, public spaces and travel.
The app, which goes by the name COOV, was developed by London-based Blockchain Labs and is available on the App Store and Google Play Store. It generates a QR-code for each user and ensures that all personal data is stored on the user’s device, exchanging it with the app host through blockchain only.
Brazil: The National Health Data Network
The blockchain-based National Health Data Network is not being built specifically to fight the coronavirus — it constitutes a vital part of the ambitious plan to digitize Brazil’s entire healthcare system. Yet, the system has been used to respond to coronavirus-related challenges since late 2020.
The main use of the Brazilian network, like that in South Korea, is vaccination tracking. The system registers every jab immediately, creating a database that allows for a “continuity of care in the public and private sectors.” The national healthcare digitization project is expected to be completed by 2023.
Mexico: COVID-19 test certificates
In October 2021, private healthcare provider MDS Mexico launched a rapid COVID-19 testing service, backed by blockchain. The digital platform allows patients to get their test results in real-time via a QR code and to safely store their vaccination history. Once again, the company cited the fight against counterfeit vaccinations as the key mission of the platform:
To avoid the falsification of negative results, we began to certify the SARS-CoV-2 detection tests with blockchain technology and cryptographic signature, which protects the information in a unique, immutable and unalterable QR Code that can be verified worldwide.
The private initiative followed the earlier announcement of Mexico’s National Chamber of Commerce that it plans to digitize vaccine passports with the use of blockchain technology.
Other ideas
These examples represent only a small fraction of all blockchain-related projects that are being developed to combat public health threats. Distributed ledgers can help to manage supply chains, ensure the quality of drugs, hold medical records, process insurance claims and increase the efficiency of systems performing a range of other tasks.
Besides safe data management and vaccine tracking, healthcare researchers see opportunities to use blockchains in an even greater variety of areas. A group of American medical scholars proposes a blockchain-based movement pass that relies on smart contracts and tokens to facilitate social distancing. A Scottish research group came up with a project of a blockchain platform, synchronized with the Internet of Things (IoT), that can trace contacts without compromising user identities.
Promoting cross-border compatibility
Enabling cross-border data sharing that could preserve patients’ privacy is a humongous task. To solve it, two scientists from the National Institute of Technology Raipur (India) designed a consortium blockchain to identify and validate COVID-19-related reports through the comparison of the perceptual hash of each report with existing on-chain perceptual hashes.
Reporting COVID-related data to healthcare authorities can get problematic in a pandemic. Jim Nasr, CEO of Acoer — the company that launched the first decentralized COVID-19 tracker back in 2020 — shared his U.S. experience with Cointelegraph:
Every state has its own requirements and mechanism for collection of state-level COVID data. In turn, the states have mandatory infectious disease reporting obligations to federal government entities that largely fund them. The quality and timeliness of data reporting is at best inconsistent, inefficient and publicly non-transparent.
The problems that remain
Currently, the vast majority of COVID-19-related projects still live only on paper. As the most acute phase of the pandemic is arguably over, healthcare innovators seem to be less inclined to focus specifically on the coronavirus. Meanwhile, the number of medical blockchain startups remains on the rise in a variety of more general areas, such as patient consent, clinical trial recruitment, IoT device management, clinical goods supply, finished goods traceability and many others.
Nevertheless, the larger problem of the relationship between blockchain innovation and healthcare officials persists. As Nasr notes, many traditional public health institutions are not ready to embrace blockchain-powered innovation:
In my experience, many of their KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) are under-informed about DLTs and largely [concerned] about the noise in the space (e.g. scamming, cryptocurrency volatility, dealing with keys & wallets, etc).
It is not solely the lack of information that affects adoption. At the end of the day, both public and private healthcare sectors could lack the incentives to innovate in the direction of transparency. Nasr believes that some current problematic aspects of the healthcare industry — “particularly siloed data and opacity of pricing and process” — maintain its profitability and support a thick layer of intermediaries who all benefit along the way. The missing component here is patient pushback that could arise from a better understanding of their rights of data transparency and privacy.
Last year was impressive for blockchain startups, as research from CB Insights found that venture capital funding reached new heights during every quarter of 2021. According to CB Insights’ “State Of Blockchain 2021” report, $25.2 billion worth of venture capital funding went to global blockchain startups last year, demonstrating a 713% increase from $3.1 billion in 2020.
The report also found that the United States led the greatest amount of funding deals in Q4 of last year, generating $6.26 billion for 157 deals. The document notes that global growth was driven by increasing consumer and institutional demand for crypto-related products and services.
VC funding focused on crypto adoption
Chris Bendtsen, a senior analyst at CB Insights, told Cointelegraph that CB Insights’ report contains data aggregated from private marketing funding from over 3,000 blockchain and crypto companies that the firm regularly tracks. Bendtsen further explained that while the title of the report references blockchain, this serves as an overarching category that includes cryptocurrency, nonfungible tokens (NFT), enterprise blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFi). Bendtsen pointed out that the majority of VC funding mentioned throughout the report was allocated to crypto-focused startups. The report states:
“Over $100M mega-rounds (worth $100m+) were the driving force behind blockchain’s record funding year. The 59 mega-rounds in 2021 accounted for just 5% of total deals but 60% of total funding. The biggest mega-round deals went to crypto exchanges, brokerages, NFTs, gaming, and payments.”
According to the report, $1 out of every $4 worth of funding went to crypto exchanges and brokerages, which also equates to a quarter of all global blockchain funding in 2021. Bendtsen remarked that while the biggest deals went to major crypto exchanges such as FTX — which ranked as the second-largest equity deal for brokerages and exchanges in Q4 of 2021 — funding for country-specific exchanges has also been on the rise.
For instance, CoinSwitch Kuber, one of the largest crypto trading platforms in India, ranked No. 4 for top equality deals for brokerages and exchanges in Q4 of 2021, generating over $260 million in its recent Series C funding round. “Based on these findings, it’s become evident that we are seeing the globalization of crypto, as more country-specific exchanges are raising impressive rounds,” said Bendtsen.
Bendtsen further pointed out that global VC funding for crypto custody and wallet providers reached $6.3 billion last year. “Toward the beginning of 2021, a lot of funding was going to consumer-driven exchanges, but there was a shift later in the year that saw major funding rounds go to crypto custody providers and custodians,” he remarked.
For example, the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) ranked as the top equity deal in Q4 of 2021 under the category of custody and wallet providers. In December 2021, the institution specializing in Bitcoin (BTC) financial services secured a $1-billion equity investment led by WestCap Group. Fireblocks, the digital asset custody platform, ranked directly under NYDIG with its $550-million raise from Sequoia Capital.
Michael Shaulov, CEO of Fireblocks, told Cointelegraph that he believes investors are paying more attention to custody and wallet providers because this has been the biggest barrier to entry for institutional participation. “Having a direct custody solution and technologies that can plug and play into the crypto capital markets is a game-changer for businesses and individuals alike,” he said.
“Our investors see us as the picks and shovels of the crypto industry. This includes everything from direct custody wallets and settlement networks to compliance integrations with Chainalysis and Elliptic, along with access to staking providers.”
In regard to the company’s latest funding round, Shaulov said that Fireblocks plans to expand its offerings to include securing high-value transactions around DeFi and NFTs. This is important, especially now as the number of scams and fraudulent activities within the DeFi and NFT sectors has increased.
Although criminal activity within the NFT space has started to quickly unfold, the CB Insights report found that funding allocated to NFT startups grew by a margin of 130 times. In 2020, NFT startups generated $37 million in VC funding, which reached $4.8 billion in 2021. “Gaming, marketplaces, and infrastructure are the top 3 NFT categories driving the funding craze,” the report highlighted.
Animoca Brands, which ranked as the No. 1 investor by company count in Q4 of 2021 according to CB Insights, made at least 49 investments in blockchain projects last year. Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, told Cointelegraph that NFT and blockchain gaming overall were major drivers of the growth in funding last year:
“We have always believed that NFTs, and in particular gaming, are key to the mass adoption of blockchain, and I think what happened in 2021 strongly suggests that this thesis will be realized in 2022. It’s interesting to note that in 2021, many new blockchain users entered the world of crypto not because of cryptocurrencies but because they were seeking to acquire NFTs.”
Traditional VCs take an interest
In addition to where funds are going, Bendtsen noted that the CB Insights report found that more traditional investors started taking interest in blockchain startups last year:
“Over the course of 2021, Andreessen Horowitz jumped out as a smart-money investor. They are one of the biggest VC firms in the world and announced a huge crypto-focused fund in June of last year.”
As Cointelegraph previously reported in June 2021, the Silicon Valley venture firm launched “Crypto Fund III,” a $2.2-billion venture fund co-led by Andreessen Horowitz general partners Chris Dixon and Katie Haun. According to the CB Insights report, Andreessen Horowitz was ranked as the No. 3 blockchain investor in 2021, falling under Coinbase Ventures and China’s AU21. “Our numbers show that Andreessen Horowitz invested in 46 blockchain startups last year, the third-most of any investor out there, including the crypto-focused funds. This shows that we are seeing more traditional firms coming into the crypto space,” remarked Bendtsen.
While this may be, Siu noted that Andreessen Horowitz has had a much longer history with blockchain investments. For instance, the venture firm invested in blockchain-company Dfinity in 2018. As such, Siu remarked that while Andreessen Horowitz isn’t new to the space, the company did ramp up its investments in Web3 startups throughout 2021.
“It is very clear that A16z and other major investors like Sequoia China understand the enormous potential of Web3 and of the value that the application of blockchain can deliver, and they are investing accordingly,” he said. Given this, Siu believes that more well-known venture capitalists and firms will continue to invest in blockchain startups, particularly those innovating with NFTs.
Will crypto price volatility impact funding?
While recent growth for blockchain startups has been impressive, crypto price volatility and unclear regulations may create challenges for companies looking to raise funds in the future. For instance, rising inflation in the United States may further impact the price of Bitcoin. Also,
