Tag: Editorials

What is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)? Everything You Need to Know

by CryptoPotato

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are a form of governance systems powered by their community. They can be independent of third parties, and government corporations and they also differ a lot in their business and organizational model from traditional organizations.

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What is a DAO?

In light of the above, we can pinpoint the following characteristics of a DAO:

  • Non-hierarchical system: As the name suggests, DAOs are decentralized systems owned and governed by token holders rather than presidents, managers, or executives like in hierarchical systems.

  • Self-sustained: DAO members inject liquidity into the system by staking their tokens in liquidity pools. They can also promote a crowdfunding campaign to attract investors and venture capitalist firms.

  • Wide range of use cases: DAOs can be anything — their systems allow the creation of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), digital tokens (Dash is a popular example as it’s self-governed by its community), or decentralized applications (dApps).

  • On-chain governance: Members of the DAO need to stake a certain amount of tokens to submit proposals for protocol changes or other kinds, which are voted on by other DAO members.

  • Open source: A DAO’s rules are code written and stored in its smart contract, which is visible to everybody. Each member of the DAO can see the historic data, such as transactions and changes in the protocol.

The DAO Hack of 2016: The First DAO

The DAO was the first decentralized autonomous organization. It was a venture capital fund created in April 2016 by Christoph and Simon Jentzsch.

Unfortunately, it became defunct in 2016 after several members of the community found a security hole in the smart contract’s code and went on to drain one-third of the DAO’s funds (which had roughly $168 million raised from a crowdfunding campaign). This led to a hard fork of the Ethereum blockchain.

The DAO also fell short of regulatory laws by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) when it considered its token as an “unregistered security” and therefore subject to regulatory laws.

How Do DAOs Work?

Smart contracts — digital contracts designed to run when certain conditions are met — are the backbone of a DAO.

Developers write the necessary code of the smart contract to make an autonomous system that executes operations automatically without the need for a third party. This code can then be altered following a proposal submitted by a qualifying member, and if it’s supported by a vote, the criteria of which can differ from one DAO to another.

Creating a DAO

Now, if you still find this difficult to digest, let’s try to break things down by going through a dumbed-down process of launching a DAO.

The Fundamental Roles

If you were going to create a DAO, you first need to establish a non-hierarchical structure where every member has a clear and defined role. These roles are usually, but not strictly limited to, developers, token holders, curators, community managers, and so forth.

DAOs can become large and complex organizations, and some roles might be added or deleted, depending on their needs.

  • Developers are typically in charge of writing the smart contract that will be deployed in the chosen blockchain on which the DAO will be based. They also maintain the code.

  • Token holders power the DAO by holding the native token and are rewarded with the same token for their level of commitment to the community. Token holders are also the one who vote (or delegate their voting rights) and submit proposals.

  • Curators: to prevent 51% attacks, the role of curators was created. While their usefulness has been widely discussed, the main role of the curator is to whitelist smart contract business proposal addresses.

  • Community managers: they are in charge of managing the DAO’s social media channels, answering community members’ questions, educating new members, and overall just managing the digital landscape of the DAO.

  • Financial managers: DAOs can manage a considerable amount of capital, and they usually need people with a strong financial background to manage funds distributions, financial reporting, diversification, etc.

Other roles can include a vault strategist. Every DAO has a vault — a tool that enables the generation of new tokens against locked-up collateral. As such, many roles can be created, going from the most technical level, like developers, facilitators, and financial managers, to more community-focused ones like content creators (writers, graphic designers) and community managers.

dao (1)

Writing the Smart Contract

Once the fundamental roles are set, and everyone has a clear vision of the DAO, it will come to life with the creation of the smart contract.

The developers are in charge of writing the smart contract that will be deployed in the chosen blockchain, which is usually Ethereum. However, Solana has been an attractive alternative to developers to build their DAOs, such as Honey DAO or Mango Markets.

The creation of the smart contract could take several hours, days, or even weeks as it needs to be fully tested against all possible scenarios.

Funding

Once the testing phase of the smart contract is completed, the DAO needs funding. While its members can inject liquidity, a token sale is a common strategy to raise capital and also garner members and participants.

Deploying The DAO on the Blockchain

The final step is to deploy the smart contract on the blockchain. Once this is done, the organization becomes a fully-functioning one where all the dynamics mentioned above start coming into play.

Now, there might be challenges as once the system is up and running, problems can arise – such as bugs, security flaws, and other issues that compromise the security of the DAO.

The only way to fix a security hole or a bug is by altering the original code of the smart contract, but this can only be done through a voting proposal. While the voting process takes place, malicious actors can take advantage of a framework gap and exploit the vulnerabilities, which is what happened with the DAO hack in 2016.

Regulatory Laws and Legal Structure of DAOs

The majority of DAOs are concentrated in Wyoming, which is one of the few crypto-friendly states in the United States.

In July 2021, Wyoming lawmakers created a law called DAO LLC (limited liability company). It allows individual developers and organizations to create fully legal DAOs in the state, as DAOs are viewed as member managed or algorithmically managed organizations that can receive all the benefits of LLC entities.

However, if it’s recognized as an LLC entity, it’s also subject to potential legal changes:

“Decentralized autonomous organizations are completely legal, however as with all new technologies, DAO’s are subject to significant changes in regulation. Current Wyoming legislation under Bill-SF0038 (effective 07/01/2021) dictates that the management of DAO LLC’s has many of the same requirements of traditional LLC’s, with some additional criteria for the more complex management structure and backend required for its operation.”

This is a law that has not been redacted anywhere in the world. CryptoFed, a US-based DAO, was the first DAO to be recognized as a legal entity in Wyoming. Yet, other similar approaches have been classified as “illegal offers of unregistered securities” by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission).

Uniswap (UNI)

Uniswap is one of the most popular decentralized exchanges with a self-sustained automated trading system. Its governance token, UNI, sits at the #1 spot on Coinmarketcap, with the largest market capitalization amongst DAOs at the time of writing this in February 2022.

Aave (AAVE)

Aave is a decentralized lending protocol where lenders earn interests by depositing funds into liquidity pools. This liquidity is then used by borrowers to create crypto collaterals to receive flash loans.

Aavee-min

MakerDAO (MKR)

Maker is one of the first Ethereum-based DAOs launched in 2017. It allows the issuance and distribution of DAI, a community-managed stablecoin pegged to the US dollar.

BitDAO (BIT)

BitDAO is one of the world’s largest DAOs, powered and driven by its community of BIT token holders. The project aims to create a powerful decentralized ecosystem by leveraging next-generation web3 organizations and autonomous entities in the DeFi space.

Benefits & Limitations of DAOs

DAOs have a wide range of use cases, including investment, fundraising campaigns, lending and borrowing, decentralized trading, and even NFTs. DAOs are highly attractive to the crypto community due to their potential applications not only in the DeFi space but outside of it too.

While there has been great progress, the current DAO model is limited when it comes to infrastructure and legal framework. Security flaws remain difficult to cover, as we have explained above, and breaches can be disastrous for shareholders. To name a few limitations:

  • Technical vulnerabilities as security holes in the smart contract’s code, voting procedure, manipulation, etc.

  • Majority voting could negatively impact the lowest common denominator level in the group.

  • If a DAO is designed as a for-profit organization, it runs into regulatory laws, limiting its ability to deploy capital efficiently and serve the ecosystem development.

The Future of DAOs

Many powerful projects came along with the emergence of the decentralized space, and The DAO had the potential to disrupt the traditional hierarchical system in traditional finance with a democratic, community-governed system. However, there’s still a lot of room to work to properly scale the potential of decentralized autonomous organizations.

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Solana Woes Worsen in $320 Million (120K wETH) Wormhole Bridge Hack

by CryptoPotato

A Solana bridge called Wormhole has been exploited for as much as $320 million according to reports emerging on Feb. 3.

The team posted a notice that the bridge had been hacked losing 120,000 wrapped ETH valued at around $320 million at the time. It added that ETH will be added to ensure the wrapped variant in the bridge is fully backed.


At the time of writing, the latest announcement on the Wormhole Twitter feed was that the vulnerability had been patched and that they were working at restoring the network.

Biggest Bridge Hack to Date

Paradigm security researcher “samczsun” has delved into the exploit stating that the attacker either got the private keys, or they exploited the bridge. He added that there was a “corresponding transaction on Solana where the attacker bridged out the ETH.” The hacker essentially exploited a vulnerability to mint wETH without having to deposit ETH themselves.

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Tom Robinson, the co-founder of blockchain analysis firm Elliptic, commented:

“This demonstrates once again that the security of DeFi services has not reached a level that is appropriate for the huge sums being stored within them. The transparency of the blockchain is allowing attackers to identify and exploit major bugs.”

A message on the Ethereum blockchain from the Wormhole developers has offered a bounty for returning the loot:

“We noticed that you were able to exploit the Solana VAA verification and mint tokens. We would like to offer you a whitehat agreement, and present you a bug bounty of $10 million for exploit details, and returning the wETH you have minted.”

Wormhole was developed by blockchain engineering firm Certus One which was acquired by Jump Trading in August. On Feb. 1, Solana Labs announced the launch of its payments app Solana Pay.

SOL Prices Tank

The bridge hack is the latest in a lengthening list of woes for Solana which includes 4 network outages in as many months.

SOL prices have tanked over the past 8 hours falling 12% from around $111 to $97 at the time of writing. The token is now trading 62.5% down from its Nov. 6 all-time high of $260.

Solana has often been touted as an “Ethereum killer” but this latest setback in addition to the multiple network and performance issues it has recently suffered makes this moniker moot.

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What Are CryptoPunks and Why Are They So Expensive?

by CryptoPotato

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) became a huge trend in the crypto industry throughout 2021. The demand for unique, rare, and scarce tokenized items continues to shoot through the roof at the time of this writing in January 2022. Artists, celebrities, and creators are launching different NFT projects to satisfy the insatiable cravings for the new asset class.

But while there are now hundreds if not thousands of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) flying around, with each aiming to become the next megahit, the whole NFT craze started with one project – CryptoPunks. And fun fact – it was back in 2017. Yes, you might guess what was their price back then (or find out later in this guide).

Today, CryptoPunks are some of the most popular and expensive NFT collections in the world, with some Punks selling for tens of millions of dollars. But what exactly are these crypto arts, and why are they so popular and expensive?

Just hang on, this guide provides all the information you need to know about CryptoPunks.

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What Are CryptoPunks?

CryptoPunks is a well-known pioneer in the world of NFTs, as it is one of the earliest series developed on the Ethereum blockchain.

Created by the New York-based software firm Larva Labs in 2017, CryptoPunks is a collection of 10,000 algorithmically generated 24×24, 8-bit-style tokenized and pixelated art images.

Each CryptoPunk NFT is randomly generated from several different attributes, effectively allowing them to be unique as no two CryptoPunks are exactly alike.

Types of CryptoPunks

The CryptoPunk collection consists of a vast array of designs featuring humans, zombies, aliens, and apes. The more unique their combination of distinctive features are, the rarer the CryptoPunk NFT.

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Source: Larva Labs

There are nine aliens, 24 apes, 88 zombies, 3,840 females, and 6,039 male Punks, with each possessing some distinctive features, including mutton chops, 3D glasses, rosy cheeks, pigtails, buck teeth, lipstick, beanies, and many more.

The first 1,000 CryptoPunks were reserved for the project’s developers and are known as the Dev Punks. About eight Punks have no distinctive features, and they are often referred to as the Genesis Punks while one CryptoPunk, #8348, has the seven basic attributes and is one of the most coveted art pieces in the CryptoPunk collection.

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Crypto Punk #8348. Source: OpenSea

The First Punks Were Given for Free

Interestingly, the idea behind the world’s most popular NFT project started as an experiment.

In 2017, Matt Hall and John Watkinson, the founders of Larva Labs, developed a software program that would create thousands of different pixelated images of misfits and non-conformists.

The idea was to use the program and the avatars in a smartphone app or game and had been inspired by the London Punk movement of the 1970s.

But little did they know that their small project would pioneer the massive NFT industry as we know it today.

Subsequently, the collection of 10,000 CryptoPunks was launched on the Ethereum blockchain at a time when the ERC-721 token standard was not even a thing.

CryptoPunks were initially issued for free, with every Ethereum wallet holder having access to the NFT collection. Shortly after, the 9,000 available Punks were snatched up, leaving the rest for the developers.

Fast forward to 2020, the NFT market exploded. Demand for digital images with ownership rights on the blockchain soared, and CryptoPunks became the most sought-after.

Their values on secondary NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea shot through the roof resulting in multi-million-dollar sales, auctions at some of the top auction houses in the world, including Christie’s and Sotheby’s, and attracting several high-profile investors, including Jay-Z, Gary Vaynerchuk, and more.

As of January 2022, CryptoPunks have generated over $2.5 billion in total traded volume on OpenSea alone, with the popularity and market value still increasing as the NFT space reaches mainstream users.

But why are these tokenized images so popular? Let’s find out.

CryptoPunks: The Most Ancient NFT Series

When there’s high demand for a commodity with limited supply, the price will jump sky-high. And that’s the case with the revered CryptoPunks. In fact, the NFT is so popular that Visa had to join the craze by purchasing a Punk for $160,000.

But the big question is – what really drives the demand for something critics would call a bunch of pixelated images?

While there are several reasons for the increasing demand for CryptoPunks, two factors stand outage and scarcity.

Age

The CryptoPunk collection is revered as one of the oldest NFT projects around. An aged NFT, such as CryptoPunk, is valued as much as a famous old painting like Picasso’s “Femme nue couchée au collier” of 1932 that was purchased and tokenized by TRON’s Justin Sun.

So, the age of CryptoPunks on the blockchain adds to their desirability. Most investors simply buy Punks to get their hands on one of the oldest NFT artworks still around.

Scarcity: Jay-Z, Serena Williams, and More

NFTs, in general, derive much of their value and popularity from the rarity and scarcity of tokens. CryptoPunks are also not left out.

The limited supply of CryptoPunks available for purchase adds to the thrill and pushes demand to the moon and beyond. The rarity of most CryptoPunks makes them highly coveted.

The plain-looking Punks are valued less than the rare Punks. For instance, alien CryptoPunks are among the rarest in the entire collection. As a result, they are super expensive.

Other demand drivers for the NFT collection include its popularity among high-profile individuals, including Jay-Z, Serena Williams, and many more. The images have been used as profile pictures on social platforms, which really clicked with the crypto community, further boosting the demand for them.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the most expensive CryptoPunks sold to date.

The Most Expensive CryptoPunks Ever Sold

Below are some of the most extravagant amounts that investors and avid digital art collectors have paid to get their hands on rare CryptoPunks.

  • CryptoPunk #7523 ($11.75 million)

img3_cryptopunks
Source: OpenSea

CryptoPunk #7523 is an alien Punk, and there are only nine of them in the collection. This makes it one of the rarest art in the collection. It depicts an alien wearing a surgical mask, and someone paid a jaw-dropping $11.75 million for the NFT at the popular London auction house Sotheby’s.

The Punk was purchased by Shalom Meckenzie, a major shareholder in the daily fantasy and sports betting firm Draftkings.

  • CryptoPunk #4156 ($10.26 Million)

img4_cryptopunks
Source: OpenSea

With only 24 ape Punks in the collection, an investor spent a hefty $10.26 million to acquire CryptoPunk #4156 in December 2021, making it the second most-expensive Punk ever sold to date.

  • CryptoPunk #7804 ($7.56 Million)

img5_cryptopunks
Source: OpenSea

CryptoPunk #7804 is a pipe-smoking alien wearing a hat and sunglasses. It was sold for $7.56 million to Dylan Field, the CEO of the cloud-based design tool, Figma.

  • CryptoPunk #3100 ($7.51 Million)

img6_cryptopunks
Source: OpenSea

CryptoPunk #3100 was last sold for $7.51 million earlier in March 2021. It is one of the alien Punks but with a white-blue headband.

  • CryptoPunk #5217 ($5.44 Million)

img7_cryptopunks
Source: OpenSea

CryptoPunk #5217 is an ape Punk wearing a red knitted headgear and a gold chain. It was last sold for $5.44 million.

How to Buy a CryptoPunk NFT?

As with other non-fungible tokens, you can view all of the available CryptoPunks in several NFT marketplaces, including on OpenSea, which is the biggest secondary NFT marketplace.

However, investors can only buy CryptoPunk through the Larva Labs website. There, the firm provides several tools needed to help buyers select which avatar they wish to buy, including a tracker that shows all of the listed Punks and their various prices.

First, you will need to log in with an Ethereum-based wallet, MetaMask preferably. Once you have gained access to the platform and are granted the necessary permissions, you can bid on, buy, and sell CryptoPunks using Larva Labs’ official website.

When you bid on, buy, and sell the NFTs on the marketplace, you can observe the status of each CryptoPunk NFT based on the color of their background.

A blue background implies that a particular CryptoPunk is not for sale and does not have any open bids at this time. A red background denotes that the owner of the Punk has placed it for sale, and a purple background shows that there is an active bid for the selected CryptoPunk NFT.

With all of the above in mind, we’ve prepared a detailed step-by-step guide on how to buy and sell NFTs on OpenSea that you can check out.

The Future of CryptoPunks

CryptoPunks have attracted several high-profile investors into the NFT space and are leading the way in the crypto art movement. In just four years, the price of one Punk has gone from being worth virtually $0 to several million dollars.

While there is no way to know if the current demand for CryptoPunks and NFTs, in general, will continue in years to come, one thing is certain — they will always be an integral part of the NFT world as the most ancient series, several years before the Bored Apes Yacht Club and other popular NFTs.

That said, Larva Labs is constantly exploring new ways to improve the project even further since it’s very unlikely that it will issue more CryptoPunks as their limited supply is one of the critical drivers of their popularity.

The software firm revealed that it had put all of the CryptoPunk attributes and images on-chain on the Ethereum blockchain, which will help to secure their longevity and the durability of CryptoPunks investments.

For more information: The official website.

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Top 10 Most Expensive NFTs Ever Sold (Updated 2022)

by CryptoPotato

2021 was the year when cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology witnessed massive growth, both in market capital and infrastructure development.

One thing that caught the attention of the crypto community and the mainstream audience was the rise of non-fungible tokens (NFT). In case you’re unfamiliar with what these are, please take a look at our video guide on NFTs, or its written version.

They saw exponential growth in 2021, as the digital space was being reshaped by the blockchain, where anything could be tokenized and turned into an NFT. With billions of dollars swirling in the industry, we take a look at some of the most expensive NFTs sold to date.

10 – Save Thousands of Lives — $4.5

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Save Thousands of Lives is an NFT created by Noora Health, an organization that saves the lives of at-risk patients in South Asia. The artwork was sold for 1337 ETH, worth $4.5 million in May 2021. The profits were allocated to the organization’s program aimed at saving newborns’ lives instead.

9 – This Changed Everything — $5.4M

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This Changed Everything is an NFT of the source code used for one of the earliest versions of the World Wide Web. It was sold on June 30, 2021, to an anonymous user for $5.4 million via Sotheby’s.

The NFT comes with several perks for the owner, like a letter written by Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, an English computer scientist and the inventor of the internet, a digital poster of the code written by him, and time-stamped documents recording the history of the internet in its early days.

8 – Beeple, Crossroad — $6.6M

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Crossroad is an animated NFT created by Mike Winkelmann, better known for his artistic pseudonym Beeple. It features the former US President Donald Trump laying on a field while bystanders ignore him.

It was sold for $6.6 million in February 2021 on Nifty Gateway, but the sale execution was made on the secondary market.

7 – Art Blocks, Ringers #109 — $6.93M

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Ringers #109 is a generative art collectible from the Art Blocks collection. It consists of a total of 99,000 Art Block NFTs.

Ringers #109 was sold for 2,100 ETH worth $6.93 million in October 2021, according to Dappradar.

6 – Xcopy: Right-Click and Save As Guy — 7.09M

img5_top10

Right-click and Save As Guy is an NFT image auctioned on the decentralized marketplace Superrare, sold for 1,600 ETH worth 7.09 Million on December 10 to Comozo de Medici.

Interestingly enough, the buyer’s alias belongs to no other than hip hop legend and world-class celebrity – Snoop Dogg.

5 – Larva Labs, CryptoPunk #3100 — $7.58M

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CryptoPunk #3100 is part of the 9 Alien Punks series, and it’s slightly above CryptoPunk #7804 as one of the most expensive Alien Punks sold to date. #3100 is an Alien wearing a blue and white headband.

It’s worth noting that only 406 of the 10,000 CryptoPunks have a headband. It was first released in 2017 and rose to prominence with a $2 million bid in March 2021, eventually selling for $7.58 million that same month. The NFT is currently for sale for 35000 ETH, which is around $100 million at the time of writing.

4 – Larva Labs, CryptoPunk #7523 — $11.75M

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The CryptoPunks is an NFT collection that consists of uniquely generated characters based on the Ethereum blockchain.

On June 2021, London’s auction house Sotheby’s saw CryptoPunk #7523, also dubbed “Covid Alien,” sold for $11.75 million, making it the most expensive CryptoPunk sold to date. The NFT belonged to a series of rare aliens, which consisted of 9 “Alien Punks.”

3 – Beeple, Human One — $29.98M

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The Human One is a dynamic, life-generative sculpture created by Beeple. It consists of an astronaut wandering across shifting environments and can change depending on the artist — Beeple has promised to “update” the Human One during his lifetime so the art will never remain static.

The concept attracted numerous investors at Christie’s, but it was crypto billionaire Ryan Zurrer who snapped it up for $29,985,000 on December 9, 2021.

2 – The First 5000 Days

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Everydays: The First 5000 Days is an NFT artwork created by Michael Winkelmann, a digital artist known as Beeple. The artwork was auctioned at Christie’s with an initial bid of roughly $100 made by traditional customers.

But the bigger bids came shortly by crypto enthusiasts. Beeple was well-known in the crypto art community with six-digit sales like Crossroads, so it only took an hour for the piece to skyrocket to more than $1 million, with the final result being $69 million for the piece completed on the 21st of February 2021.

The First 5000 Days is an important artwork in the NFT community as it paved the way for mainstream audiences to explore on-fungible assets.

Fun fact: the art piece was bought by MetaKovan —the pseudonymous founder of Metapurse, an NFT investment fund. He wants everyone to download and copy the expensive artwork he bought. Why? Because he believes in free information.

1 – The Merge — $91.8M

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The Merge is a digital artwork created by an anonymous digital artist nicknamed Pak. It was sold on Dec. 6, 2021, for $91.8 million on the NFT decentralized marketplace Nifty Gateway. However, the piece was fractionalized to 312,686 pieces distributed to 28,983 buyers. The catch here is that The Merge was a single artwork composed of a collection of “masses” that users could buy.

These pieces could be stockpiled to make a bigger mass and sell it on the secondary market. By the end of the sale, a total of $91.8 million was spent, making it the most expensive NFT sold to date.

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Decentraland Guide and Review: How to Play the Blockchain Game?

by CryptoPotato

Online gaming is arguably one of the best use cases for blockchain-based technology. The ability to assign traceable and verifiable ownership to in-game items provides tremendous capabilities.

This concept has grown in popularity, and perhaps one of the first games to pioneer the field was Decentraland.

The below is a comprehensive guide on Decentraland – what it stands for, how it was launched, and how to play it in a detailed step-by-step guide.

Quick Summary:

Name: Decentraland

Launch date: 20.02.2020

Tokens and network: Ethereum, LAND, MANA

What is it about: Decentraland is a decentralized virtual platform where users can create, travel, and monetize experiences, content, and applications.

Associated brands and celebrities: Samsung, Australia Open 2022, Digital Currency Group, JJ Lin, and others.

What is Decentraland?

Decentraland brings forward a decentralized virtual reality (VR) platform that’s built on top and powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Within it, users are able to create, experience, and monetize experiences, applications, and content.

In essence, it’s a virtual reality where the 3D land is permanently owned by the community, which provides members with absolute control over their creations. You can log in, create an avatar, and start exploring, buying land, and building all sorts of builds ranging from playgrounds to virtual cinemas and galleries.

Those who own land can control the content published to their portion of the land and these contents can range from interactive systems such as games to static 3D scenes such as paintings, for instance.

One thing that makes Decentraland different compared to other popular blockchain-based games is the fact that it’s not controlled by a centralized organization. Instead, there’s a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) that governs the policies created to determine how the Decentraland world would behave.

As of writing this, there are already many cool places that users can visit in Decentraland, but more on that in the How to Play section below.

img14_decentr
Gameplay Image of Decentraland

The Decentraland DAO

The Decentraland DAO was created to turn the game into the first truly and fully decentralized virtual world and it has been a part of the original vision of the game’s developers.

The DAO owns the most important smart contracts, as well as the assets that make up Decentraland – the LAND Contract, the wearables, the content servers, the Estates Contract, and the marketplace.

This DAO also owns a lot of the game’s native MANA tokens, which allows it to be autonomous while also enabling it to subsidize different operations and initiatives.

Those who participate in the DAO (read all LAND and MANA holders) can schedule votes to decide on different issues such as:

  • Addition and replacement of content servers

  • Upgrading LAND to add more features

  • Specifics and dates of LAND auctions

  • Primary sale fees

  • Addition of new wearables and so forth

The Team Behind Decentraland

Decentraland was conceptualized in a detailed whitepaper written by Esteban Ordano, Ariel Meilich, Yemel Jardi, and Manuel Araoz. It’s also worth noting that they got some help from notable experts such as Michael Bosworth from Google, Jon Choi from Dropbox, Jake Brukham from CoinFund, and so forth.

The team’s vision became a reality on February 20th, 2020 (20.02.2020), when Decentraland went live to the public. The launch included the establishment of the Decentraland DAO, as well as the full decentralization of the world’s infrastructure and the public access to what it had to offer.

It was an important moment in Decentraland’s development roadmap because, after it, no single entity was ever able to single-handedly modify the rules of its code stack.

While there are no verified sources of information revealing the current playebrase of Decentraland, the fact that it has grown to become one of the leading metaverse-based virtual realities in the blockchain industry right now (as of writing these lines in January 2022) is undeniable.

A lot of this was made possible thanks to the big players who stepped through its digital doors and set foot into its digital lands.

From Samsung to AO 2022: Noteworthy Decentraland Partnerships

Speaking of partnerships, one of the most considerable advents in this regard was surely Samsung revealing its attempts to dive deeper into the metaverse through Decentraland. These include limited-supply collections of Samsung Decentraland wearables that users can buy to customize their in-game avatars.

One of the four tennis Grand Slam tournaments – the Australian Open, also announced that it will join the metaverse by partnering up with Decentraland.

One of the well-known backers of the project is the industry-leading Digital Currency Group spearheaded by famous crypto proponent Barry Silbert.

In June 2021, Sotheby’s – the world’s older auction house, also claimed its stake in the metaverse. It opened the first-ever virtual gallery, choosing Decentraland as the main destination. This is how it looks from within the game itself:

img10_decentr

Decentraland Tokenomics: Explaining LAND and MANA

The game itself is comprised of many parts, and its intricacies are numerous. However, understanding its tokenomics is critical to being able to play it. The two primary tokens in Decentraland are LAND and MANA.

LAND Token Explained

The land within the Decentraland metaverse is represented by non-fungible LAND tokens. In essence, these are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that track the land ownership on Ethereum’s blockchain.

For a detailed guide on what is an NFT – take a look here. To see how to mint NFTs on OpenSea – click here.

LAND tokens are built on top of the ERC721 protocol standard which makes it a digital asset that can be traded with other users – just like any other NFT.

One of the main differences between LAND and other NFTs like the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, for example, is that players are able to use LAND within Decentraland to construct 3D spaces and applications like in the example below:

img1_decentraland

Land parcels are 16m x 16m. The height is restricted based on these limitations as well. Moreover, LAND is a digitally scarce token, and it corresponds to the fixed total amount of MANA tokens.

Quick Interesting Facts:

  • On November 24th, 2021, TokensCom paid 618,000 MANA (worth $2.4M at the time) to buy a patch of land in Decentraland. This is the most expensive virtual real estate to date (January 2022).

  • In June 2021, someone bought a plot of virtual land for $1 million.

  • Chinese celebrity singer JJ Lin has bought three pieces of virtual land on Decentraland.

How to Buy LAND?

There are a couple of ways users can buy virtual properties (LAND) in the Decentraland metaverse. The first one of them is to participate in timely auctions that are announced by the team every now and then and sell unclaimed LAND.

The more popular one is to go to Decentraland’s Marketplace and buy it there. Once you get to the marketplace, you will get prompted to connect a web wallet and we recommend that you use the most popular one – MetaMask (unless you have another one that you’re used to.) If you don’t have the wallet installed, visit the official website, install the Google Chrome extension and follow the instructions carefully.

Important: in case you install the wallet for the first time, be aware of phishing and double check you visit the correct website URL, read here for more security tips.

Once you have your wallet connected to the Marketplace, you can click on “Land” in the top left corner, and you will see the following map:

img2_decentraland

The little squares are the LAND units, and you can click on each one of them to check their details and place a bid (in case it’s owned by someone, like most of them already are). To buy it, you have to place a winning bid:

img3_decentraland

MANA Token Explained

The other token that’s essential to Decentraland’s in-game economy is MANA. Unlike LAND, MANA is a fungible ERC20 cryptocurrency that can be burned or spent in exchange for LAND parcels. It can also be spent in the Decentraland Marketplace to buy various things that the game has to offer.

How to Buy MANA?

Unlike LAND, MANA is traded freely on many leading crypto exchanges such as Binance. You can create an account at each one of them and buy some of it on the open market. If you want to use them in the game, though, you need to transfer them to the wallet you are using.

Now that all of the above is clear, let’s see how to actually play the game.

How to Play Decentraland

Once you get to the official website of the game, you will see a big red button in the middle that you should click to get started. Then, you will be prompted to either play using your wallet or continue as a guest:

img4_decentr

For this guide, we will connect a MetaMask wallet and sign the necessary permissions. Once the game loads, you will be able to create your very own avatar. This will be the character that you play the game with, so make it pretty:

img5_decentr

There’s a bunch of traits that you can choose from, such as the body, head, top, bottom, shoes, accessories, and add different collectibles. Additionally, you can also buy items using the Marketplace but more on that below.

Once you have your avatar ready to roll, hit the “done” button in the bottom left. Now you would have to name it, agree to the terms and conditions and you’re ready to roll.

You get dropped at Genesis Plaza alongside all the new players that have just started their journey:

img6_decentr

Notice that there’s a tutorial box towards the bottom of your screen – we highly recommend that you keep that up until you are used to playing the game, as it will give you the basics.

Once you’re at Genesis Plaza, start controlling your avatar using the traditional “W, A, S, D” keys – just as in most MMO games.

All around Genesis Plaza, you will find a few pillars, each one of which is filled with different activities that you can do:

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Alternatively, you can also jump through the middle in the giant hole-looking whirlwind thing and explore other avenues:

img8_decentr

Another cool thing is that when you press M, you toggle the map. There, you can search for different locations and “jump in” right to them without having to walk there.

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On the bottom right, you will find your current location. On the top, there is a navigation menu that allows you to explore different options. For example, if you hit the “explore” button you will get redirected to a page where you can find various places, events, and so forth.

Remember that earlier in the guide we mentioned that Sotheby’s opened a gallery in Decentraland? Well, let’s check it out.

Exploring Decentraland

Once you click on Explore on top of the page, you will also find the “Places” button, and as soon as you hit it, some of the popular locations in Decentraland will pop up. We selected Sotheby’s gallery and jumped right to it. Here’s where we ended up:

img10_decentr

And the cool thing is that Sotheby’s has actually displayed some art pieces to check out. For instance, this is one of Banksy’s pieces:

img11_decentr

You can also just click on the painting itself, and it will send you to the official Sotheby’s page containing the full art details.

What Else Can You do in Decentraland?

It’s important to keep in mind that Decentraland is not exactly the type of game that many would probably be used to – you don’t get to fight other players or go against the environment. Instead, it’s designed to be a pixelated virtual alternative to our world with all the bells and whistles.

Those who buy land can build on it using the builder tool that’s also available from the top navigation menu:

img12_decentr

It’s clear that the possibilities are virtually endless. Take our short cruise to Sotheby’s, for example. Just as an idea, you can build out an impressive art gallery, and if players come to visit it, you can commission artwork on display. For instance, if an owner of a Bored Ape NFT wants to sell it, he might consider paying you to display it if gets the sufficient exposure – just as Sotheby’s is doing for their artists.

There are many other avenues that can be explored. You can also go to various theme parks, ride a bus or just run around and explore the Decentraland, which is already getting rather big, and there’s plenty of things to discover.

The Decentraland Marketplace

The Decentraland Marketplace is an integral part of the game. It allows users to buy and sell various items such as collectibles, wearables, and whatnot.

To access it, all you need to do is visit the official website and hit “marketplace” on the top. You can also access in-game by hitting the M button and finding it on the top navigation menu where the map and the builder tool are.

This is what the marketplace looks like:

img13_decentr

You can browse for various items and buy them using the in-game currency – the MANA token.

Decentraland Review: Revolutionary but not Unreal

Decentraland boasts a complete metaverse experience as many would imagine it. It’s a fully-fledged digital alternative to our lives on a blank canvas where users are able to build everything from the ground up, and some have already started.

The fact that it’s decentralized and governed through a DAO does set it apart from some other popular releases in the industry.

We spent a couple of days exploring Decentraland’s universe, and it’s safe to say that it is undergoing serious in-game development. There are massive structures being built, galleries, museums, arcade parks, and even a university (albeit not quite finished yet). This shows that there’s some serious interest in the game.

Although anecdotal, it also feels like the game is getting more popular. We played it a couple of months ago and failed to encounter anyone out of Genesis Plaza (the starting zone), but now – we saw quite a few players cruising around and exploring various locations. This is promising.

Of course, if you are used to a triple-a gaming experience, flawless Unreal graphics, and gameplay, Decentraland is not for you – the game is currently a very simple browser-based experience that wouldn’t really impress anyone in terms of design and/or gameplay.

However, it’s one of the earliest attempts to create a blockchain-based game where transactions happen on-chain and users have legitimate and verifiable ownership over the in-game items. As such, the developers have done an admirable job, and it looks like it has a very bright future ahead of it.

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The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT Collection: Everything You Need to Know

by CryptoPotato

Non-fungible tokens have been the hottest trend in 2021. They saw global recognition, mainstream adoption, and overall acceptance in and out of the cryptocurrency industry.

The astronomic surge in popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) led to a massive demand (and an even higher supply) of various collections, each one with its intricacies and perks.

Undoubtedly, one of the most popular NFT collections, which even became the most expensive in terms of floor price as of writing this in January 2022, is the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).

In this editorial, we will take a closer look into the BAYC collection, why it is so popular, what’s the most expensive Ape sold on the market, and which celebrities have been endorsing it so far.

What is the Bored Ape Yacht Club?

The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a club unlike any other. It’s a virtual lounge reserved only for its members, and there will never be more than 10,000.

Why 10,000? You might ask.

Well, in essence, BAYC is a collection of 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs. These represent unique digital collectibles built on top of Ethereum’s blockchain. Each Bored Ape also gives its owner membership to the club and grants access to some benefits that are dedicated to the selected few.

This is how some of the NFTs look like:

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Bored Ape NFTs. Source: NFT Culture

Each NFT has its unique traits such as clothing, headwear, expression, and more. Just as other NFTs on Ethereum, these are stored as ERC-721 tokens.

As of writing these lines, they have grown to become the most popular profile picture (PFP) NFT project, and multiple celebrities have already bought and used them for this exact purpose, but more on this later.

Why do people buy Bored Apes?

One of the perks of owning a Bored Ape NFT is access to the so-called bathroom which is essentially a virtual hangout place with a canvas that’s accessible only to wallets that contain at least one ape. This is where owners can draw, write expletives, or do whatever they see fit. Every ape-holder is allowed to paint a pixel on the bathroom wall every fifteen minutes. Essentially, buying an ape NFT makes the owner a member of an exclusive club that has a membership cap.

In addition, owning a high-prized NFT and one that’s recognized within a community is much like buying a valuable painting. Its value is derived from the subjective worth of what it means for the owner himself. And remember – each Bored Ape NFT is completely unique, and there will never be a second one like it.

Last but not least, some of the users who buy these NFTs look at them as an investment. There’s a finite supply of them on the market, and as they might continue growing, they could also get more expensive, thus becoming a worthwhile investment. So far, as of writing this in January 2022, this has proven to be the case.

Who Created BAYC?

The Bored Ape Yacht Club was launched by anonymous developers that go by the pseudonyms Gargamel, Gordon Goner, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, and No Sass. There’s also an entity that took responsibility for the creation of BAYC called Yuga Labs.

The story of BAYC is actually quite interesting. On April 23rd, Gordon Goner – one of the project’s creators, announced the pre-sale launch on Discord. The announcement itself was met with almost no reactions.

img2_bayc

Only about a few hundred apes during the week and, it’s worth noting, that their owners hadn’t yet seen their NFTs and how they looked. On April 30th, the reveal happened, and once people saw the art, the collection spread like wildfire, and all apes were sold a day later at a price of 0.08ETH each. 30 apes were saved for the team members, giveaways, and promotions.

How do Bored Ape NFTs Look Like?

As mentioned above, each ape is provably unique, scarce, and impossible to replicate. This is part of their inherent worth of being non-fungible tokens.

One can imagine that there’s a variety of outlooks, so below is a brief example of some:

img3_bayc
Bored Ape NFTs. Source: RollingStone

What Makes the BAYC a Unique and Revolutionary NFT Collection?

Besides the provable and verifiable uniqueness of each NFT, the Bored Ape Yacht Club, as a project, is also interesting because of a few other attributes.

Right off the bat, the project launched with a detailed roadmap from the start. The relatable attributes for the Bored Apes also managed to make them perfect for online avatars and grew to become the biggest PFP project.

The number of unique owners is also quite enough for a relatively strong NFT community. In addition, owners get the rights to use the Bored Apes commercially – something that’s critical for the future development of the project.

There’s already a very strong community centered around BAYC, and it grows each day. This is also because a considerable number of celebrities have jumped on board, which brings us to our next point.

Which Celebrities Bought Bored Ape NFTs?

Undoubtedly, the most famous person who has purchased a Bored Ape NFT and used it for their Twitter profile picture (PFP) is Marshall Mathers, better-known for his stage name – Eminem.

As CryptoPotato reported, the rap icon bought his ape for a whopping $462,000.

img4_bayc
Source: Twitter

Other celebrities who are known to own Bored Ape NFTs include Snoop Dogg, NBA superstar Stephen Curry, Jimmy Fallon, and so forth.

BAYC’s ROI and How Much a Bored Ape Costs Today

Bored Apes are likely to be amongst the NFTs that brought the most disproportionate returns to early owners. As mentioned above, they were minted at a price of 0.08 ETH each in April 2021.

At the time of this writing – January 2022, the floor price on OpenSea sits at 77.99 ETH, which is a return of almost 100,000%.

While many apes sold for six and even seven figures, the most expensive one seems to be Bored Ape #3749. It sold for 740 ETH, worth around $2.9 million at the time of the purchase. This is how it looks like:

img5_bayc
Source: OpenSea

There are other notable mentions here, including Bored Ape #2087, which sold for $2.3 million, Bored Ape $8585 – sold for $2.67 million, Bored Ape #7090 – sold for $2.27 million, and so forth.

How to Buy Bored Ape NFTs?

As mentioned above, Bored Ape NFTs were first minted at a price of 0.08 ETH each, but that was only available for a short period of time upon the project’s launch. Now, the only way to buy them is on secondary marketplaces, and the most popular one is OpenSea.

To buy a Bored Ape NFT, you would have to visit OpenSea and connect your MetaMask wallet. Once there, find the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection in the search bar, and you can start browsing. This is how the dashboard looks like:

img6_bayc

Once you select the ape that you want to buy, you need to click on the image which will take you to a separate window where you can place your bid:

img7_bayc

If the seller accepts your bid, the NFT will be transferred to your address.

Safety tip: make sure to connect your MetaMask through a hardware wallet like a Trezor or Ledger. Bored Ape NFTs are particularly expensive, at least at the time of this writing in January 2022, and there have been many cases where owners have been scammed and got their apes stolen. You should also follow some general security tips to make sure that your crypto is stored properly.

Mutant Apes and the Kennel Club: Exclusive to BAYC Members

Beyond owning a verifiably scarce NFT, Bored Ape owners are also exposed to other benefits. More specifically, back in June 2021, the BAYC team introduced the Bored Ape Kennel Club. Bored Ape NFT owners were given the opportunity, for a limited period of one week only, to “adopt” a club dog NFT from the Bored Ape Kennel Club.

At the time, claiming the token was free and all members had to do was to pay for the gas fees. The Kennel NFTs were not put up for sale, so the only way to mint one was to own a Bored Ape NFT.

This is how the Kennels look like:

img8_bayc

At the time of writing this guide, the Bored Ape Kennel Club collection on NFT has a floor price of 6 ETH.

But that’s not all.

Later on, in August, the team introduced another collection of 20,000 Mutant Apes in the form of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club. The drop took place on August 20th, and the community was nothing short of ecstatic.

Mutant apes were created in one of two ways: either expose a Bored Ape NFT to a special Mutant Serum or mint a Mutant Ape directly during the public sale. These are the last tier of the BAYC membership and part of the team’s Roadmap 1.0. The Mutant Ape Yacht Club collection on OpenSea currently has a floor price of 14.75 ETH.

This is how they look like:

img9_bayc

The Future of the Bored Ape Yacht Club

A large part of the project’s roadmap has already been completed, but part of the reasons for which BAYC became so popular is the constant team effort to discover new avenues.

In 2021, a very popular trend that emerged and took the market by storm was the play-to-earn phenomenon.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club has teamed up with one of the leading entities in the field of P2E – Animoca Brands, in a bid to develop a play-to-earn blockchain-based game.

Speaking on the partnership was a spokesperson from Yuga Labs who said:

“We’re excited to work with Animoca Brands to grow the BAYC universe and expand the utility and benefits offered to all Bored Ape NFT holders.”

All in all, the project seems to be undergoing regular developments while the community is growing as ape owners have the commercial rights to their NFTs, and it’s in their best interest to constantly move forward.

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How to Buy and Sell Your First NFT on OpenSea? A Step-by-Step Guide

by CryptoPotato

Before diving in and showing how to buy an NFT on OpenSea, let’s take a step back and briefly remember what non-fungible tokens actually are.

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are encrypted digital files stored on the blockchain. They are tokenized versions of digital items, such as images, videos, artworks, etc. And what is tokenization? The concept is complex, but it basically means to turn an asset into a digital token that can be moved and stored on a blockchain, such as Ethereum or Solana, for example.

Quick Navigation: How To Buy and Sell NFTs on OpenSea


In contrast to NFTs, fungible goods are interchangeable and indistinguishable, like fiat currency. You can exchange a 50 euro bill with another genuine 50 euro bill, and they will have the same value. Bitcoin is also fungible – it doesn’t matter which particular bitcoin you own. In contrast, non-fungible assets are not interchangeable and scarce. An example can be a work of art. You can’t swap the Mona Lisa for another painting, for instance.

This guide will explain how to buy (and sell) NFTs on OpenSea. However, we have also created a second guide for creating and minting your NFTs on OpenSea.

Why Are People Buying NFTs?

There are many reasons for which people buy NFTs. The most primal one of them would be because they want to invest in a new, speculative, and very volatile asset. The market for NFTs exploded in 2021, and plenty of collections such as the Crypto Punks or the Bored Ape Yacht Club saw their valuations skyrocket.

Apart from speculating on their future valuation, though, some investors choose to purchase NFTs as a form of digital art. As the world moves more and more towards a digital future where a lot of our interactions and time is spent online and as the concept of a metaverse continues to catch speed, many people want to own scarce, verifiably authentic digital art.

Other people might buy an NFT as a gift to someone they know would appreciate it, and so forth. The reasons are different, but it’s a fact that the market has become a considerable one that’s not to be overlooked.

Now, let’s see how to buy an NFT on OpenSea.

How To Buy an NFT on OpenSea

Step 1: Get a wallet and fund it

You need a digital wallet with funds to buy NFTs. On OpenSea, the currency you will use to buy is Ether (ETH). For this guide, we’ll use MetaMask, the most popular web wallet for NFTs.

Important: in case you install the wallet for the first time, be aware of phishing and double-check you visit the correct website URL, read here for more security tips.

If you don’t already have a wallet installed, go to metamask.io and get it as an extension for your web browser and connect it to OpenSea. In order to do so, go to OpenSea and navigate to the top right bar and click on profile. You’ll be redirected to a new page prompting you to connect your wallet. Choose MetaMask.

img1_nft

Grant OpenSea all the necessary permissions to use your wallet and sign the signature request.

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Once installed, you are ready to check out the NFT collections available on the OpenSea marketplace. If you don’t have ETH, go to your MetaMask wallet and click on “Buy” — you can make a crypto deposit directly or use a debit/credit card.

Step 2: Browse the OpenSea NFT collections

First, you need to find the NFT you want to acquire. Go to your OpenSea profile and click on “Explore.” There, you’ll see the thousands of NFT collections available.

On the top right bar, you can filter your search by clicking on Trending, Top, Art, Collectibles, Domain Names, Music, Photography, Sports, Trading Cards, Utility, and Virtual Worlds.

img3_nft

Step 3: Found Something You Want? Buy Now or Make an Offer

When you find something you like, you can buy it directly or make an offer. Keep in mind that some NFTs will have the option “Place Bid,” where you can make an offer to the owner to acquire the item. If you see an NFT like this, make sure you see the number of offers already made to have an idea of how much money you can bid.

On OpenSea, bids must be at least 5% higher than the previous one. But for the sake of the example, we’re just going to buy at a fixed price.

Step 4: The Actual Purchase

In this case, we’re buying an artwork called “Great Ball of Fire.”

img4_nft

Hit “Buy now” to proceed to checkout. You’ll see the details of the NFT, like name, its respective collection, the subtotal, and the total. Click on Confirm Checkout.

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Next, OpenSea will load up your MetaMask wallet.

img6_nft

Here you’ll see all the details of your purchases, like the estimated gas fees and the amount of time to process the transaction.

You can change the gas fees by clicking on Edit, but keep in mind that lowering gas fees will considerably reduce transaction speed. The best time to buy using MetaMask is when the Ethereum network is less busy.

Check out the Ethereum Gas Tracker on Etherscan to view current gas fees. You can also check the recommended gas prices on ETHgasstation.

When you’re ready to buy, hit confirm and wait until your purchase is processed.

img7_nft

Just sit back and relax! In just a few seconds, your brand new NFT will appear in your collection. Simply go back to your profile and wait until your new NFT appears.

img_nft

Easy, right? Click on it to see the details of your NFT.

img8_nft

What if You Want to Sell Your NFT?

Now, if you wish to put it up for sale, just click on “Sell” at the top right bar, and you’ll be redirected to a new page to fill in the conditions of the sale.

imgnft

Choose whether to sell it at a fixed price or a timed auction, the currency, and the expiration date for the sale. Listing is free, but OpenSea charges 2.5% of each sale.

Now, if you want to see your NFT on your MetaMask wallet but it doesn’t appear, don’t worry, it’s not that it’s not there — you have to add it manually.

First, click on your NFT and scroll all the way down to Details.

img10_nft

On that section, click on Contract Address — this will redirect you to the Etherscan page of the specific address of your NFT.

img11_nft

Copy that address and go back to your MetaMask wallet. Below, you’ll find the option “Import Tokens.” Click there and choose “Custom Token.” Paste the address that you copied from the Etherscan page.

img12_nft

The token symbol is just the public name tag, and Token Decimals is just a way to view your NFT. It won’t change the amount that you’re holding. For example, if you choose 3, it will give you 0,001. In this case, we’re going to put 0 and proceed to add it.

img13_nft

Now you can see your NFT right below your funds.

Final Thoughts

Buying and selling NFTs on OpenSea is not as hard as you would think. However, be aware that there are a lot of scammers in this field, and prices can be extremely volatile.

It’s not uncommon to see people lose their money to scammers through phishing or rug pulls. The NFT field is also riddled with wash traders who would generate fake trading volume on certain collections to make them more appealing for investors.

In any case, it’s important to keep in mind that this is a very young market that’s heavily unregulated in the majority of jurisdictions. As such, it’s necessary to address it as such and take the precautions needed to protect your capital.

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How to Play Axie Inifnity? A Step-by-Step Guide

by CryptoPotato

Earning money through playing video games is a dream of every gamer, but in the traditional industry, it’s something that only professionals achieve.

However, things move fast in the field of cryptocurrencies, and the above is now becoming possible thanks to the P2E (Play to Earn) business model.

The combination of blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) implemented in video games is giving crypto enthusiasts and gamers alike the opportunity to earn money by beating other players or just playing versus the environment.

One of the leading and most popular games in the field is Axie Infinity. In this guide, we’ll learn step by step what Axie Infinity is, its history, and how to play it.

Quick Navigation


Axie Infinity’s Tokens: AXS and SLP Explained


How to Play Axie Infinity


What is Axie Infinity?

Axie Infinity is a popular Pokemon-inspired, blockchain-based P2E game where players collect virtual creatures in the form of NFTs called Axies.

These creatures can be collected, bred, and sold at a price that depends on their rareness. Their price can range between a few dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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Axie Infinity. Screenshot

Who is the Team Behind Axie Infinity?

The history of Axie Infinity spans back to 2017 and has to do with Trung Nguyen, a Vietnamese software developer who was thrilled with the success of the famous CryptoKitties, collectible NFT kittens stored on the Ethereum network.

Nguyen wanted to take advantage of all the benefits of blockchain technology and implement it into video games, giving players true ownership of the in-game items they collected.

Nguyen co-leads Sky Mavis, a tech-focused gaming studio. Witnessing the success of P2E games, the team decided to create a Pokemon-style game using the Ethereum blockchain. In 2021, the company raised $152 million – giving Sky Mavis a valuation of $3 billion, becoming one of the top gaming companies worldwide.

Axie Infinity’s Project Launch

Axie Infinity debuted in March 2018, hoarding capital from notable investors such as Mark Cuban, Blocktower Capital, and Libertus. But it wasn’t until October 2020 that the AXS token called the attention of the crypto community when Binance hosted the AXS initial exchange offering (IEO) on its Launchpad. Each winning lottery ticket received 2,000 AXS at the price of $0.1 per token.

Just one year later – during October 2021, after the project boomed in popularity and the token price skyrocketed, each ticket was worth roughly around $250,000, representing an increase of almost 125,000% in just one year.

Axie Infinity’s Tokens: AXS and SLP Explained

Before diving into the game itself, we need to talk about the Ronin Network and the two tokens related to the game: Axie Infinity Shard (AXS) and Small Love Potion (SLP).

So, why does Axie need two tokens, and what is the difference?

The Network: Meet the Ronin Sidechain

The Ronin wallet is a browser extension for Google Chrome and Firefox. It’s the digital wallet of Sky Mavis’ Ronin sidechain.

Ronin is designed as a whole ecosystem for the Axie Infinity metaverse. It allows a more open economy for players and enables them to escape the elevated gas fees on the Ethereum network.

Ronin is an Ethereum-linked sidechain with its own set of smart contracts where users will be able to migrate all of the in-game assets, such as Axie creatures, land, and land items, from the Ethereum blockchain to the Ronin blockchain,

You can install Ronin wallet as an extension on Chrome or Firefox. Set up your – password make sure you write down your seed phrase (remember to never share your seed phrase with anyone) – once ready, you can access your wallet at the top right bar on Chrome by clicking extensions and choosing Roning.

Important: Ronin can be integrated with a Trezor hardware wallet, and it is recommended for increased security.

SLP Token Explained

First and foremost, Small Love Potion (SLP) is the token you receive as a reward for every battle won when playing Axie. It can be used to breed your Axie creatures and sell it at a set price or auction in the Axie Infinity Marketplace. The SLP token, unlike AXS, doesn’t have a limited supply.

SLP can be traded for other tokens on Katana, the decentralized exchange on the Ronin network, launched by Axie Infinity. The DEX is designed to allow anyone within the ecosystem to trade ingame assets and other cryptocurrencies, like wETH (wrapped Ether) and USD Coin (USDC).

AXS Token Explained

AXS is an ERC-20 utility token in Axie Infinity, and it’s given to the best players from all of the 19 seasons in the game as a reward. A lot of players also choose to swap their SLP for AXS due to its limited supply. The consensus algorithm is the Proof of Authority, and Sky Mavis chooses the validators.

  • AXS holders have governance rights, which allows them to vote and send governance proposals. They can stake their AXS to win rewards and access various ingame features.

  • AXS is used to instigate the Community Treasury, which receives all the revenues that the game generates. By now, there are only two streams of inflow: 25% from the Axie Marketplace transactions and the AXS share of the breeding fee.

  • The Treasury will eventually be governed by AXS holders as soon as the network reaches a sufficient level of decentralization, allowing token holders to change or implement new monetization strategies for the fund.

The AXS token distribution has a capped supply that can never exceed 270,000,000. The total supply of AXS tokens will be unlocked for 65 months. Below we can see the maximum possible issuance of AXS in the upcoming years.

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Source: Axie Infinity Whitepaper

The Axie Infinity Land

The Axie universe is called Lunacia – an open-world driven by its players and composed of several plots of land. This land is divided into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that players can buy, lease, and develop.

Lunacia is a 301×301 grid. Each square represents a tokenized plot of land. The land game is currently under development, but players and investors are already loading up to buy genesis lots. CryptoPotato reported that a plot sold for $2.3 million worth of ETH, making it the highest sum ever paid for a genesis lot of real estate in a metaverse.

How to Play Axie Infinity

Before You Start – Setting Up MetaMask

You can access Axie Infinity by setting up your MetaMask wallet and connecting it with Ronin. As we explained above, Ronin is an Ethereum-based sidechain downloadable as a Chrome/Firefox extension. Head to metamask.io and download the extension on the browser of your choice. After you install it, an orange fox will appear on the upper right side of your browser.

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If you have never used MetaMask before (or any digital wallet), then there are important safety measures you need to be aware of. Beware of phishing scams, and always make sure you double-check the correct website URL.

Now that you have MetaMask register on the platform and connect your MetaMask wallet. First, go to Axie Marketplace and click on the top right Login button.

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You’ll be redirected to the login page where you can register using MetaMask or just email and password. Click on Metamask, and a pop-up will appear. Connect your wallet and sign the request (this process is for free).

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After completing the procedure, your account will be live, but you need to set it up by filling your email, username, password and later verify it through a code sent to your email.

Downloading and Setting Up Ronin

Your account is now live, but to play the game, you have to download it for iOS, Android, Mac, or Windows.

  1. Head to axieinfinity.com and click on “Getting Started.”

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2. Create your Ronin wallet and add it as an extension for your browser or mobile device.

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3. Buy your first Axies and set your team up – you’ll use them throughout the game in Adventure and Arena mode. On the screen of the third step, you’ll see a link to the Axie Infinity Marketplace. Click on it.

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  1. Head over to “Marketplace” at the upper left side.

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  1. You’ll be heading to the auctions site. Here you’ll see all of the Axies currently up for sale.

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  1. Before you buy any Axies, you need to understand the basics of each creature.

    You will set your triangle according to the nine classes of Axies – Reptile, Plant, Dusk, Aquatic, Bird, Dawn, Beast, and Bug. Each Axie has six different traits, and each sums up four points to its base statistic. All Axies can reach a maximum of 165 points of total stats. These stats are:

  • HP (Health Points): increases the health points of your Axie.

  • Speed: determines the speed of your Axie when it’s time to attack and also affects the attack order – the fastest Axie is the first to attack on each round until it’s defeated.

  • Skill: the more skillful, the more damage your Axie inflicts – it also generates an additional shield when you play your cards in a combo or chained.

  • Morale: increases the chances of inflicting a critical hit on your opponent, the amount of damage of these critical hits, and the amount of bars in Land Stand – a temporary lifeline extension.

    Depending on your Axie’s Morale, when your Axie is at 0 HP, it might enter in Last Stand mode – with 1 to 5 bars shown above it. So if you have three red bars during Last Stand, you can execute three cards against your opponent. Your Axie will still die after that.

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As shown above, an Axie is composed of six body parts – mouth, eyes, back, tail, forehead, and ears. Only four of the six parts – mouth, forehead, back, and tail –  will affect the results of your available cards, as shown on the right side of the image above.

You will use and prepare these cards in a combination, or use them individually against your opponents when it is your turn to attack.

Now that you have a basic understanding of what Axies are and how they’re composed, you’re ready to download the game and start playing. We’ll be using the PC version for this guide.

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Playing Axie Infinity

To the right side of the main menu, you’ll find the Adventure and Arena mode, the leaderboards, battle log, your friend list, and settings.

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At the top left side, your name is displayed, next to daily quests and the amount of energy you have. Energy is important – you use it to join an Adventure/Arena battle. You also need it to earn EXP (experience points) in Aventure and rewards in Arena. The maximum energy depends on the number of Axies you own. Energy is refilled daily at midnight UTC time.

Below, you have Axies. There you can see your Axies’ stats, like level, HP, speed, skills, morale, and their different parts – remember we explained above how the different parts of the Axie affect your available cards for that specific creature. Also, the # refers to the Axie’s ID.

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The overall gameplay consists of the modes Adventure and Arena. In Adventure, you’re on a quest to fight and win against various monsters spread out in 36 levels called Ruins – doing so earns about 50 SLP per day.

One way to gain SLP is by Farming, which basically means getting rewards for completing daily tasks, like winning 10 battles in Adventure mode and winning 5 battles in Arena mode. You can receive up to 25 SLP per day for completing these objectives.

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Both modes consist of opponents taking turns to plan and perform their attacks. Below you have a row of cards that you will use to make a combo and attack your opponent. After you line up your card combo, hit “End Turn” to perform your attack. There are several strategies you can plan and different Axies to line up in your team.

After you complete your daily quests, you can claim your SLP on the Quests section.

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On the other hand, in the Arena mode, you’re fighting against other players’ Axies, and each player receives SLP depending on their MMR (Matchmaking Rating).

The player with the highest MMR takes the bigger cut, up to 21 SLPs per win. In the main menu, head over to Arena mode – you will be matched with an online player to start the battle.

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If you win, you’ll earn between 15 to 20 trophies, but you’ll lose the same amount if you get defeated.

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What is Breeding Axies and How to Earn Money From It?

The other way to earn is by breeding Axies. Every creature has unique traits that separate them from the others.

The process of breeding, however, is not free. Axie will charge you SLP and AXS for it – fees vary depending on how many times the Axie has been bred – there’s a limit of seven times before it goes sterile.

To know how much it will cost you to breed your Axie, you can head to Axie.tech and select the number of breeds to calculate the total cost.

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Of course, the value of your Axies will depend on the level of their traits, like purity, body parts, and rarity. Some Axies are sold for thousands to even tens of thousands of dollars. The most expensive Axie sold for 300 ETH in October, which at that time was roughly $250,000

You can put your Axies up for sale on the Axie Marketplace. You’ll need to connect your Ronin wallet to your account first.

Final Words

With its success, Axie Infinity has proven players can earn while playing and having fun. It has become the most popular P2E Metaverse/NFT game in crypto history, hoarding millions of monthly active players. The use of blockchain technology brings transparency and security to the community and combined with NFTs, it promises a vibrant ecosystem where gaming and DLT come hand in hand.

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10 Most Influential Crypto People of 2021

by CryptoPotato

2021 was indeed an eventful year for the cryptocurrency industry. Many milestones were achieved within the last 12 months. We saw an influx of institutional investors adopting crypto assets, especially Bitcoin, as a hedge against inflation.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) became a thing for celebrities and retail investors, with billions of dollars traded in exchange for different digital collectibles.

While the landmark growth of the industry was championed by different players, including retail and institutional investors, as well as blockchain developers, certain individuals were more instrumental in fostering the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies in 2021.

Top 10 Influential Crypto People in 2021

To wrap up the year, CryptoPotato has curated a list of the top 10 most influential people in the crypto space for their wonderful contributions to the growth of the industry.

It’s important to note that this list doesn’t intend to rank anyone by means of contribution or anything else.

Samuel Bankman-Fried (SBF)

Founder and CEO,  FTX exchange 

SamBankmanFried
Sam Bankman-Fried. Source: CryptoPotato archives

Sam Bankman-Fried has made fierce contributions to the crypto-verse. He is one of the pioneers of the loving marriage between crypto and sports in the United States.

His exchange, FTX, inked a long-term partnership with American professional basketball team Miami Heat, which saw the club rename its stadium to FTX Arena, and different crypto-related commercials displayed on the pitch screens during games.

FTX also became the official cryptocurrency exchange of Major League Baseball (MLB), giving crypto another major push towards mainstream awareness.

According to a Forbes ranking, Bankman-Fried became the world’s richest 29-year-old billionaire, with a net worth of $22.5 billion. His achievement as the richest young billionaire in the world came after FTX raised $450 million, putting the company’s valuation at an estimated $25 billion.

Michael Saylor

CEO of MicroStrategy 

MichaelSaylor
Michael Saylor, Source: CryptoPotato archives

Michael Saylor was one of the key players in the crypto industry in 2021. After he led his company, MicroStrategy, into buying bitcoin for the first time in August 2020, the billionaire became one of the pioneers of institutional adoption of the crypto asset.

Saylor promoted Bitcoin throughout the year on his personal Twitter account and even displayed his fate in the asset by revealing that he personally owns 17,732 BTC worth over $832 million at the time of writing.

Aside from Saylor’s personal stash, MicroStrategy has never missed an opportunity to buy Bitcoin dips since its first purchase. Currently, the prominent business analytics platform holds 124,392 BTC worth $5.8 billion, making it the number one public company with the biggest Bitcoin portfolio.

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) Pseudonymous Developers

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Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. Source: Twitter

Aside from the massive interest in fungible assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu, the industry also experienced a massive surge in non-fungible tokens’ popularity in 2021.

While critics were still thinking NFTs were a joke, BAYC’s pseudonymous developers showed the world that the asset class is worth more than a fortune. There are 10,000 BAYC NFT collections, and the cheapest amount that a trader can obtain for one of the collectibles is 52 ETH ($194,000).

To date, Bored Ape #2087 remains the most expensive BAYC that has ever been sold, which went for a whopping 769 ETH ($2.9 million), and according to NFTs Street, the item has been sold twice in the last five months.

Trung Nguyen

CEO of Sky Mavis and Developer of Axie Infinity   

vietnamnet
Trung Nguyen. Source: Vietnamnet

2021 was indeed a great year for play-to-earn (P2E) gaming, thanks to the massive success recorded by the popular blockchain gaming project Axie Infinity.

Despite not being a fan of blockchain in 2017, Trung Nguyen went on to develop one of the most disruptive P2E games that gained traction in 2021. The popularity around it saw the value of its native token AXS move from $0.4 to $95.7 within the last twelve months.

Nguyen’s Sky Mavis has also attracted investments from notable investors this year, including the $150 million Series B funding round led by American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

Anatoly Yakovenko

Founder of Solana 

anatoly
Yakovenko. Source: Twitter

Solana is no doubt one of the most successful blockchain projects in 2021, and it all happened because of the commitment of the team led by Anatoly Yakovenko.

Solana became the home for decentralized application (dApp) developers following the massive network congestion that troubled Ethereum. The widespread adoption of Solana contributed to an increase in its native token SOL, and an investment of $1000 in the token in January 2021 was worth $138,000 in September 2021.

According to DeFi Llama, the total value locked (TVL) on Solana is currently at $11.41 billion. But Yakovenko believes this is only the beginning. In a recent exclusive interview with CryptoPotato, the Solana founder noted that the network will experience tremendous growth in all ramifications, including scalability, over the next five years.

Senator Cynthia Lummis

Member of the U.S. Senate 

Even politicians were bullish on crypto in 2021. Throughout 2021, Senator Cynthia Lummis, who is currently representing Wyoming in the United States House of Senate, did not cease to advocate for Bitcoin’s mainstream adoption at every slightest opportunity she gets.

The Republican Senator for Wyoming was a long-term Bitcoin proponent even before her election into the Senate in November 2021. Per a report in October, Lummis increased her bitcoin portfolio by between $50,000 and $100,000. The Senator has always aired her support for the crypto asset while preparing to counter negative remarks made by politicians within the country.

Last month, Lummis responded to comments made by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, calling on U.S. financial authorities to embrace the technology instead of fighting against it.

Bobby Ong

Co-Founder and COO of Coingecko 

Bobby Ong was one of the most influential people in the crypto space in 2021. Ong co-founded the popular cryptocurrency data aggregator platform, Coingecko in 2014, and the site has experienced major success since then.

bobby_ong_coingecko
Bobby Ong. Source: CoinGecko

From starting as a two-man operation consisting of Ong and co-founder TM Lee, Coingecko grew to a team of 16 full-time employees in 2020, and the number increased by 54% in 2021.

Coingecko is currently one of the most reliable cryptocurrency aggregator platforms for traders, tracking more than 12,000 assets and over 530 exchanges.

Speaking to CryptoPotato in an exclusive interview, Ong noted that the company’s goal is to drive mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies.

“10 years from now, we foresee cryptocurrencies gaining mainstream adoption and blockchain being used by many applications in the background without users even realizing it,” he said.

Changpeng Zhao (CZ)

Founder and CEO of Binance

CZ
CZ, CEO of Binance

Changpeng Zhao (CZ) needs no introduction, and his role in the cryptocurrency industry cannot be overemphasized. He has been instrumental in different aspects of the market, from providing funding for new startups to offering users a reliable platform for trading more than 700 crypto pairs.

Chase Guo, Binance Investment Director, noted in an interview this December that the exchange’s VC unit Binance Labs has incubated over 100 cryptocurrency projects in more than 25 countries since 2018.

Despite regulators from various parts of the world coming hard at the exchange over operating an unregistered crypto asset trading platform, CZ has tried to keep Binance away from getting sanctioned.

Binance scored major points earlier this month when it acquired an 18% stake in private securities exchange HGX while also receiving regulatory approval from authorities in Canada and Bahrain.

Francis Suarez

Mayor of Miami 

photo_2021-06-04_16-42-11
Francis Suarez at Bitcoin 2021. Source: CryptoPotato

Francis Suarez, the Mayor of Miami, has been one of the major players promoting the widespread adoption of Bitcoin. Suarez turned Miami into a crypto-friendly city and established several initiatives in a bid to get more people to adopt the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

After converting a percentage of Miami’s treasury reserves to Bitcoin in February, Suarez became the first U.S. politician to get paid in BTC. The Bitcoin-loving mayor also disclosed in an interview last month that some Miami residents will be given free bitcoins, further granting US citizens more exposure to the asset class.

Nayib Bukele

President of El Salvador 

PresidentSalvador
President Nayib Bukele

Nayib Bukele inked his name indelibly into the pages of world history when he made El Salvador the first country to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender.

But President Bukele’s bullish move did not end there. The country has been on a bitcoin buying spree, increasing its BTC reserve at the slightest opportunity.

Aside from building 20 Bitcoin schools and a mining facility in El Salvador, the President has promised that the country will also build a city that will be powered by the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

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Solana’s Phantom Wallet CEO: 2022 Will Be Huge – Mobile App, NFT Features, Possibly Native Token (Interview)

by CryptoPotato

Solana is undoubtedly amongst the fastest growing ecosystems, as well as one of the hottest networks. There are hundreds of teams building various projects ranging from financial applications to non-fungible tokens and blockchain-based games. It has managed to successfully position itself as one of the main competitors for Ethereum.

The vibrant and dynamic ecosystem was perfectly represented during the Solana-dedicated conference that took place in Lisbon earlier in November: Breakpoint.

During the conference, CryptoPotato had the chance to interview Brandon Millman – the CEO and Co-Founder of Phantom Wallet – the leading non-custodial wallet on Solana. We talked about the exciting intricacies of building in this thriving environment while also discussing some of the challenges businesses face.

We wanted to start by asking why Phantom chose the Solana blockchain, but the vibe of the conference gave it all – there are so many projects, filling up the conference hall, building a variety of applications in a multitude of market segments: From gaming and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to financial apps and wallets, there’s been a bit of everything, and it was a pleasure to see.

First Time to Meet In-Person, the Phantom Users

With this in mind, we asked Millman what was his impression of the conference and if he’s seen anything like it before.

“The conference has been really awesome. I feel like there’s a lot of really awesome energy and part of it is people being tired of COVID and whatnot. I think it’s the first conference for many people in a while. And I think people are just kind of extra enthusiastic.

But yeah, it was the first time for me to meet so many people who use Phantom in person. So that’s been really awesome.”

And while we all knew that the Solana community is strong, seeing it live is an entirely different ballgame. Millman said he “was also pleasantly surprised.”

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Brandon Millman, CEO of Phantom

Now, it’s worth noting that Phantom recently revealed that they are working on a mobile app, so we were eager to understand what’s the next big thing to expect from Phantom. 

Millman: “We’re aiming to get a beta by the end of the year. So real users will be able to use the app before the end of the year, and then, we aim to launch the mobile app sometime in early 2022.

There’s a couple of things that we’re looking at for later: We’re also looking to add more NFT specific features like being able to buy and sell NFTs or that sort of thing. We’re thinking about some of those.

And then, probably earlier next year, we’re thinking about adding support for EVM-based chains like Polygon. Right now, we are very focused on the mobile app.”

5 New Fake Android Phantom Apps Added Daily

We also wanted to talk about some of the phishing and scamming attempts that Phantom had to deal with and the lessons they’ve learned from it.

“We’ve kind of got hit by such a large growth of users recently that we’ve become a very big target for phishing and scamming. So, it wasn’t an actual security breach or anything like that – just a lot of phishing and scamming.

The main lesson here is that anti-phishing and anti-scamming have to be a core part of the company moving forward. Scamming is only getting more sophisticated, so we’ll basically need to be able to play this sort of cat and mouse game.

For example, there are five new fake Android apps coming up every day. We’re working proactively with an external firm to help take those down as soon as they come up.

That’s just something that we didn’t really anticipate. The other common scam is when they take out Google Ads under the Phantom name and make people go to a fake website where they give them something called a rotten seed phrase.

Basically, it’s a seed phrase that they already control, but they’re giving it to the user as if it’s a new one, and then they go, and then they ask the user to download the app and then put the phrase in there.

From one side, we, as the community, want to make crypto more accessible to everyone. But on the other side, when more users or new businesses come into the industry, we can expect a lot more phishing incidents and security incidents. Where is the equilibrium point between the two?

“I think there’s a couple of different things that we can do to try to solve some of this. A big one is education. Investing in user education, whether that means video series or articles and stuff like that, is important, and I think the entire industry can help with that.

The other direction that we’re thinking about as well is just rethinking. I talked a little bit about this on my panel yesterday (i.e., during Breakpoint conference 2021), but basically, there are non-custodial wallets where you just give the user the private keys, and they manage it themselves. And then there’s the other end of the spectrum – custodial wallets where the company itself is managing the private keys.

But there are some interesting solutions that are sort of in-between. For example, social recovery or multi-party computation where we can experiment with some sort of in-between solutions.”

Rising Contingent of Users from Southeast Asia

We also discussed some interesting facts about Phantom’s user base. Millman revealed that the majority of them are coming from the US, but “there’s a rising contingent like Southeast Asia and Russia, more specifically, has also been growing. 

In terms of usage, all of the hypergrowth on Solana has been related to NFTs like drops and secondary marketplaces. These have been the most popular applications that just dwarf DeFi usage as far as we can tell.

Do you have any plans to integrate multi-channel capabilities and data networks apart from Solana?

“Actually, when we started Phantom, it was originally conceived as like a multi-chain MetaMask competitor, where you would be able to use the wallet to access DeFi apps no matter how they’re implemented, and that’s still the long-term goal.

We wanted to get to a point where if someone wants to use a DeFi app or an NFT app, the first thing they should do is download Phantom to be able to access those things no matter what blockchain they live on.

But that being said, we’re very focused on Solana right now, just because of the awesome growth that’s been happening. And we’ll probably be focusing on Solana for at least the next six months or so. It’s hard to tell, but I think next year we’ll think about doing EVM-based chains like Ethereum and Polygon.

I think the EVM compatibility will be cool because we can add things like Arbitrum and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) – that’s something we’ve been thinking about for the middle of next year. It’s interesting, the team – the three founders, we used to work at a decentralized exchange company called 0x on Ethereum. So, Ethereum is like our bread and butter – where we come from.”

Phantom Wallet – When Token?

With the increasing trend of decentralized governance and many companies airdropping tokens to their communities and early adopters, we couldn’t help but ask the question if Phantom has something similar in store.

“I’ve definitely heard the rumors […] I’d say it is not on our roadmap right now. But it’s probably something that we’re keeping an eye on. I think that, nowadays, we have not just normal tokens, but we have NFTs as well. And so, I think there’s a lot of room for experimentation in terms of what types of tokens might make sense with the wallet. But right now, there are no concrete plans.”

Speaking of NFTs, we also wanted to know how Millman sees the future of Solana – whether it hides in the non-fungible tokens or the newly emerging play-to-earn field.

The vast majority of the growth, recently, has been NFT-related. I think that because of the cheap fees, Solana really lends itself well to that specific user base – a lot more casual users who are not necessarily moving around in big numbers. So, I think NFTs will definitely continue to grow.

And I’m also really excited about the play-to-earn and gaming stuff coming up. I think there’s a couple of really cool teams that are building things on Solana right now, but it’s just taking a little bit longer. There’s a bit of lead time required because they’re building like full-on game experiences. I think that will be the next wave of activity on Solana, hopefully early next year.”

Do you see Solana competing with Ethereum in the long term? Do you think, eventually, it will be like a winner-takes-all scenario or whether there will be networks working with each other? 

“It’s hard to tell. I think that right now, blockchain apps are serving such a small set of users, and already, the supply of blockchains is not really able to keep up.

If we are actually going to start bringing on tens of millions of users, I think that we’ll probably see multiple networks spinning up to serve that demand, at least in the near future. So, I think there will be multiple chains, just because I feel like we haven’t really even seen how the blockchains deal with tens of millions of users.”

From Twitter Dev to 0x and Phantom

Last but not least, we wanted to know something more personal – how Millman got into crypto and what would he say to developers and entrepreneurs who are looking to join the industry. Is it too late? 

“Me personally, I joined the crypto industry in 2017 – basically the last hype cycle with a lot of ICOs and that sort of thing. I used to be a software developer at Twitter before that. I found myself reading all these whitepapers and becoming so interested in this crypto stuff that I was spending more time learning about it than focusing on normal work.

So I took it as a good signal just to sort of dive in. I started at 0x and worked there from 2017 to 2021, and as for tips – I’d say to people that it’s still really early.

I think it’s the perfect time to join, and if someone finds themselves really interested in this stuff, but they are just having a little bit of trouble getting that final push over, I’d say just take the leap. It’s a really exciting industry – there are so many different projects out there, so many different things going on, and really a lot to learn.”

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