Non-fungible tokens have been the hot topic of 2021 – there’s no other way around it. Their astronomic rise had the entire industry in awe, and while many might have anticipated the growth, it’s highly unlikely that anyone foresaw the rate at which it happened.

Another thing to consider is that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were also the primary on-ramp for retail investors in the field throughout 2021 (perhaps along with some other trends that weren’t as lasting).

And while NFTs have a huge number of possible use cases, art became the predominant narrative. This is also one of the reasons for which it’s hard to determine whether their wild valuations are bubbly or justified. In any case, many projects were launched, each one of which determined to digitize art in this growing digital economy.

However, it seems that a very integral part of a painting or a picture that NFTs most commonly represent is the frame. And rarely do we see an NFT project with enough attention to its framing.

“A picture without a frame is like a soul without a body”

This is a quote by the famous Vincent van Gogh – arguably one of the legendary painters. And this is exactly where Frahm comes into the picture.

What is Frahm?

The idea behind Frahm was conceptualized at the beginning of 2021, propelled by the increasing propagation of non-fungible tokens within the traditional art world. This is what led to ideations around the physical exhibition of NFTs in existing brick-and-mortar galleries.

Enters Athena van Frahm – a gallery owner and a Ph.D. in History of Art. The team behind the project says that they first focused on physical NFT frames, defining requirements around aspect ratios, frame types, digital display, sizes, wallet integration, user interface, and so forth.

In the end, though, they decided to take a different path. They believe that most of the galleries and exhibitions will exist and will take place virtually, whereby the natural environment for NFTs would be the metaverse. This could, in theory, dwarf the exposure of art in the physical world.

Frahm’s core thesis is that said NFTs in the metaverse will be framed. There are various examples of Web3 galleries.

Frames as NFTs

Digital frames will also be non-fungible tokens. Here, it’s paramount to remember that frames play a massive part in the history of art – they enhance and embody it. In a way, they are intrinsic to it.

Yet, this hasn’t caught up in the metaverse yet. There’s still room for improvement in this department, especially compared to the significance and overall usage of frames in the physical world.

Frames have the capacity to enhance digital art for creators, collectors, and for the galleries themselves. When one spends capital on an art piece, it’s only logical for the space to reflect its value. And while frames bring further beauty to art, there’s also art in framing.

Since this is such a new primitive, it’s entirely possible to imagine an avenue where digital frames become of such significance as physical frames. After all, we can already see the advent of digital art.

For more info – follow Frahm on Twitter.

The cryptocurrency has grown tremendously in the past couple of years in terms of valuations but also in terms of adoption.

From institutions jumping on the Bitcoin bandwagon to retail investors flooding memecoin markets and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) exploding in popularity, the examples are countless.

However, if there’s one constant threat that’s lurking within the industry, that would surely be security. Despite crypto becoming a multi-trillion dollar field, we hear of hacks and thefts on a daily basis. According to blockchain analytics firm Chainanalysis, $14 billion went to scammers in 2021. This is due to various reasons, but it’s also the inherent cost of early-stage decentralization in an industry where users take custody of the assets they hold.

With the emergence of Web3 as a growing concept, it becomes apparent that the security system currently in place is rather fragile. The supply of security resources tends to be insufficient and monopolized, where audit schedules are often upwards of months. Moreover, the audit results also do not guarantee threat prevention outside of the code level because a lot of the security incidents are direct consequences of phishing campaigns, fake wallet communities and addresses, contract authorization scams, and so forth.

Keeping the above in mind, it’s easy to understand why it’s hard for users, especially inexperienced ones, to secure themselves from malicious agents in the Web3 space. There’s a steep learning curve to it, though, and it takes time to adapt the system, and secure one’s self from potential dangers such as rug pulls, airdrop scams, phishing, and so forth. Moreover, there are new types of scams coming up every day, and it’s important to take the necessary precautions.

Take Elon Musk, for instance. His personality is constantly the target of copycat scammers, and he most recently addressed that, slamming Twitter for failing to take action and handle the problem. Musk impersonators run daily campaigns, scamming thousands of people out of their crypto.

One proposition for tackling some of the issues outlined above, and many others in the meanwhile, comes from Go Pocket. The team has built new infrastructure in the face of their Go+ Security Engine that’s designed to reshape the security value chain.

The Go+ Security Engine

Go+ Security Engine brings forward an entirely new infrastructure geared towards users in Web3. One of the problems that it aims to solve is the mismatch between supply and demand in security while also reshaping the security value chain.

The way it does it is through a set of core strategies, including the open output of security capabilities and structuring a security-oriented decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

The method in question includes a precise sequence of procedures that include:

• Building a complete security capability: This garners a database updated in real-time by many users and an automated dynamic security engine that’s used to monitor both real and simulated on-chain environments in all dimensions to achieve multi-category security risk coverage.

• Provide open APIs on demand: The team provides open API services for the actual scenarios that users face and need, based on complete security capabilities.

• Passive triggering into an active interception: The system notifies the entire network at the first moment of the user’s exposure to risk while changing the attacker’s profit model.

• Setting up a security DAO for co-construction and co-governance: This follows the principle that everyone can provide audit services for others, and everyone is a first-hand source of security information. Moreover, anyone who contributes to the security content will also be rewarded.

In addition to all of the above, the team has also developed its open-source cryptocurrency wallet called Go Pocket.

The Go Pocket Wallet

First things first, the Go Pocket wallet is available on both the App Store and the Google Play store for iOS and Android users.

Once you get the app downloaded and create a wallet, this is what the interface looks like:

So far, it looks like a regular wallet with a rather simplistic and easy-to-navigate design. However, there’s a clear focus on security. Once the user taps on the security button, they are able to add new assets for security detection by simply importing their addresses. For the sake of this example, we imported the CVX token and checked its security status. That’s what the wallet revealed:

Having all this information readily available at your fingertips is particularly convenient and can come in handy in more than one situation.

Being able to seamlessly verify the security status of a token and whether or not there are some issues associated with it in a quick and objective way is a step forward in the right direction. It not only improves the overall crypto journey of the user but also makes it easier to formulate an investment thesis and assess risk profiles of different projects.

All in all, Go+ Security’s team is doing a fair job in improving the overall experience of users and protecting them from malicious actors. They also have quite a few things planned in the pipeline. For a proper timeline and roadmap, take a look at the official website.

The world of cryptocurrencies has expanded tremendously over the past couple of years, and it shows no signs of slowing down when it comes to adoption.

Interestingly enough, throughout the past few months, we saw major crypto-related companies ink major deals with sports-related avenues. And while sports seem to be a highly targeted area for advertisers, the athletes seem to be left out of the picture.

This is where TNNS Pro comes into the picture with high hopes of changing this and putting athletes at the forefront.

TNNS Pro and Its Vision

TNNS was founded with a very simple goal in mind – to reward athletes for their commitment to the sport. The project’s CEO, Tsolak Gevorkian, is a former tennis professional and a competitor for the Armenian Davis Cup team.

Our Vision is to develop technology to create a new exciting way to reward tennis players. We believe passionately in the power to help the players perform better, think faster, and live worry-free. TNNS is a company that inspires and rewards the tennis community. We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change the world of tennis. – He said.

Along with athletes from tennis, the project also wants to include other sports such as basketball, American football, Paralympics, and much more.

In essence, TNNS is building a platform where mixed reality is a core concept. This doesn’t mean that it takes place in either the virtual or the physical world but is rather a hybrid of both.

The Launch of the TNNS Pro NFT Platform

TNNS Pro has announced that its non-fungible token (NFT) platform will be launching soon. The blockchain-based initiative is in partnership with Rabbi Rabbit Club, and it aims to bring something new to the space of NFTs – sports. Apart from a few currently existing efforts, the sports industry remains one of the least represented in the NFT field.

The team has chosen Rabbi Rabbit Club because it has a solid reputation and is one of the more popular collections on OpenSea with a rapidly growing audience. The collaboration seeks to strengthen the credibility of the TNNS Pro platform.

The TNNS Pro NFT platform is one of the integral components of the TNNS ecosystem. The goal is to put together a community of elite artists, entertainers, and designers, all of whom will work together to create inspiring NFTs.

Once they are minted and sold, the parties will also enjoy a considerable revenue split where all the transaction and minting fees are passed along to the buyer.

There are over 2600 TNNS-sponsored athletes who have already lent their name, image, as well as likeness to avatar NFTs. The eSports platform, which should launch in 2022, will allow gamers to bring these 3D avatars into the game. They will then be able to earn TNNS – the native token for the ecosystem – by playing the game.

This is just one of the TNNS utilities. It will also be used as the currency for the eSport tournaments, access to private events in the VR world, purchasing NFTs, buying merchandise, live tournaments, and so forth.

The online gaming industry is thriving, and one reason for this success is the freedom players are given. In most online games, players can express themselves however they choose, from their avatar to how the characters interact. This feature has made gaming a lifestyle for millennials.

However, like any other human invention, online games come with their problems. For example, all game data is stored on centralized servers leaving the players without access. In other words, the players’ progress is entirely in the hands of a central organization.

The integration of blockchain into gaming has eliminated this limitation, though. Game data is stored on the blockchain and secured by smart contracts in blockchain games. This new development has led to the emergence of the play-to-earn model. Now players can enjoy their favorite games while still earning crypto and valuable in-game assets as a potential source of income.

Games like StarCraft, DotA, League of Legends, Fortnite, and so forth have sparked the competitive spirits of gamers throughout the entire world, with major tournaments with millions in prize money being a regular occurrence.

The gaming phenomenon is one of the world’s fastest-growing industries, which has surpassed hundreds of millions of users worldwide.

The eSportFi Model

Era7: Game Of Truth, a light Esports blockchain-based game, combines distributed ledger technology and Esports to give players a new gaming model – EsportFi. It comes with the spirit gamers are used to and DeFi to produce incentivizing arithmetic. It gives users competitive game modes while facilitating security, fairness, and circulation through decentralization.

As a result, EsportFi’s innovative model provides gamers with various features. Even though GameFi simply merges NFT + DeFi, the gaming model focuses mainly on DeFi. By supplying liquidity, GameFi allows players to profit more from their activities. In Era7, battles, contests, and card collection featured creating a new computing power system.

Features of Era7

Era7 presents some of the following features which are atypical to traditional GameFi projects:

• Better and quicker interaction speed: In terms of gameplay, the EsportFi model focuses mainly on better interactions. Each game is designed to make players more passionate to win and experience more joy from their victories.

• Applies the play-to-earn model with more rewards in less time: Era7 games are light, allowing gamers to potentially make more money and get rewarded in less time. And gamers can earn more during special during quarterly and annual events.

• ESportFi’s contest system: Later, contests will be held, allowing players to bet on games. More gamers can join the platform because of its unique gameplay and contest style. An excellent example of this highlight is HEROcoin, where players can either create their rules or follow established rules. After each contest ends, the tokens collected will be split into winner bonuses, incentives for contest creators, and participation awards.

In-game assets are often created by the platform or third party. Unlike the typical marketplace where traders are charged excessively, trading on ERA7 is more straightforward without hidden charges.

The Relationship Between eSportFi and Blockchain

As mentioned above, EsportFi is a relatively new gaming concept. ERA7 is built considering the average gamer, so the platform is easy to figure out no matter what the type of player. This allows the player to develop keen interest in the game while also being educated on the play-to-earn model and the world of blockchain-based technology.

In this regard, Era7 aims to pioneer the nascent field with incentives that will further the industry and capture more of the growing online gaming market.

The IFO event with Pancakeswap will take place in February 2022.

In a world where money is power, power is centralized in the hands of those who control money. Dependent on them, the people of the world are devoid of the opportunities while also being unable to do anything about their purchasing power fading away.

If individuals are to determine their own financial futures – and thus their lives – power must be decentralized and returned to them.

Failures of Fintech and Traditional Finance

In a panic to uphold their economies, world governments printed tens of trillions of dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic, consequently diluting the buying power of citizens globally. Now, inflation is on the rise – over 7% in the United States, upwards of 5%in India, and so forth. World governments have made it very clear that they can print as much money as they like, regardless of the cost.

Fintech does as much to reduce access to financial services as it does to increase it. Inhumane automated systems determine insurance rates, big players on Wall Street are in control of the markets, financial institutions harvest people’s activities for their data, and governments take a piece of every dollar that citizens earn before they’re even paid.

But that’s only for those lucky enough to have access to financial services in the first place. While bank accounts and loans are common in Western countries, many people have no financial access at all. To the unbanked, college loans, home ownership, insurance coverage, investing opportunities, and stable pay are all unfamiliar privileges.

A New Financial System

DeFi stands for Decentralized Finance, a new type of financial system in which individuals use cryptocurrency to provide financial services to each other, without the need for centralized authorities or intermediaries (like banks and escrow services).

DeFi is powered by blockchains, decentralized records of transactions, and smart contracts, bits of software that run on decentralized computers and enforce agreements in cyberspace. Together, blockchains and smart contracts enable trustless financial cooperation, in which all financial agreements are automatically enforced. This eliminates the need for banks, credit agencies, loan officers, and escrow accounts. Blockchain and smart contracts replace them all, removing middlemen, making finance more efficient, and lowering barriers to entry.

Because DeFi is decentralized (or at least to a certain extent), nobody can prevent others from joining. Anybody can visit a DeFi platform in their browser and instantly gain access to cryptocurrency trading, Peer-to-Peer loans, and high-yield saving programs. Here are some additional benefits of DeFi:

• The unbanked can use DeFi to bank themselves.
• DeFi allows individuals to earn passive income by providing services to others.
• There are no credit scores, meaning that all people have equal access.
• Growing DeFi ecosystems themselves act as major investment opportunities.

So then, why hasn’t DeFi caught on? The truth is that DeFi is new, and some of the kinks are yet to be worked out. While the engineering behind DeFi platforms is safe and secure, most are difficult to understand and use. This is where DeFiChain, a people-oriented DeFi platform, can help.

DeFiChain believes in empowering individuals and understands the needs of users. This pushes them to create fast, intelligent, and transparent decentralized financial services that are accessible to everyone. Some of its features include:

• A secure platform built on Bitcoins principles
• A thorough learning platform with easy-to-understand DeFi guides and educational videos.
• A fully-fledged computer app that can be used to exchange tokens and liquidity mine
• A platform for users to mint stock-based tokens, providing users with exposure to securities.

Little Victories of DeFi

While it hasn’t hit mass adoption quite yet, DeFi is making waves and generating buzz. Brands like Adidas, Coca-Cola, and several others entered the DeFi NFT space. Bitcoin ETFs have seen a few successful launches around the world. Homes are selling through the blockchain. Sports teams score sponsorships from cryptocurrency projects. And El Salvador adopted Blockchain as legal tender. DeFi victories pop up everywhere, and the world slowly becomes a freer place.

Exchange listings can take time, especially when you’re being careful about what projects to onboard.

Typically, exchanges tend to do proper research and due diligence before onboarding any new projects, making sure that they are safe for the users to engage with and trade. Phemex is no exception, and with its latest spree of projects, the focus is clear.

Phemex has been vocal in its support for the metaverse, and with blockchain-based non-fungible token projects at the heart of the metaverse movement today, it only makes sense they onboard projects like SAND, ALICE, ANKR, GTC, YGG, AGLD, and SLP.

The Singapore-based exchange also plans to list the Ethereum-based public decentralized identity protocol, ENS, along with decentralized encryption service and access control system NU. Additionally, the platform also listed the decentralized data monetization project OCEAN, along with MASK, a platform that allows users to send encrypted messages through Facebook and Twitter.

The ERC-20 version of the USDC token for smoother Ethereum-based transfers of the USD-pegged stablecoin is also available on Phemex. Between mid to late January, Phemex will list these 12 new tokens, bringing their total number of tokens on offer to 52 trading pairs on its spot and derivatives platforms.

Phemex’s Growth Since Launch

Much like the rest of the industry, in the past couple of years, Phemex saw considerable growth. Just last month, the exchange celebrated its 2nd anniversary, running a ‘Dream With Phemex’ campaign to make a few lucky winners’ dreams come true. Literally.

Besides conducting various trading competitions since 2019, Phemex has paid keen attention to its community’s demands, hosting all kinds of giveaways, promotional events, and awareness campaigns. From just three contract trading pairs at launch, the Singapore-headquartered exchange has blossomed into one of the world’s most renowned crypto-derivatives platforms, with over 40 trading pairs and over 2 million users – a 300% increase in just the last year.

In the future, Phemex hopes to increase its listing capabilities to provide its community with more options.

Jack Tao spent over a decade on Wall Street before quitting his job to start Phemex. Along with his team of veteran Morgan Stanley executives, he co-founded the exchange after noticing just how biased the traditional financial system was towards retail investors. Centralization may have poisoned traditional finance, but blockchain technology can help neutralize its long-term threats.

Tao was quick to see the potential blockchain could pose to the world of financial services.

By distributing control between disparate, incentivized actors, everyone takes ownership of the network without anyone actually owning it, and this is the basis for how cryptocurrency transactions are secured today.

From a viral online 2.1 BTC giveaway to spread awareness of private key self-custody to expansive events with prizes collectively worth millions of dollars, the exchange has managed to remain in touch with its traders and their needs.

Furthermore, Phemex is hosting a special Metaverse edition of their popular Grab a Coin Campaign where users can join to win a variety of tokens such as SAND, ALICE, YGG, SLP, and AGLD.

We live in an increasingly digital world where many of our day-to-day interactions take place on an online medium. We talk through our smartphones, we chat through them and through our PCs, we even socialize via digital mediums like Facebook, Twitter, and whatnot.

This, along with many other things, fuels the concept of a metaverse. The first to make a considerable stride in this direction was Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook’s Founder and CEO, who revealed that the company will be renamed to Meta and further capitalize on the digital frontier.

The concept of a metaverse has grown to be one of the hottest topics in the cryptocurrency field and beyond. In this conversation, your digital identity matters – it’s the user’s digital extension and how people would approach them.

With this said, it’s absolutely no wonder that profile picture projects (PFP) and online avatars are skyrocketing in popularity. Novatar is an upcoming project that aims to capture this attention and become a force to be reckoned with.

What is Novatar?

Novatar is a limited-edition collection of 25,000 non-fungible token avatars. An interesting trait of these is that they can age from a baby to an adult – something that’s not commonly seen amongst a lot of other projects.

Every single one of the AI-generated avatars has unique facial traits, characters, expressions, and in certain cases – even a profession. An example of how an adult Novatar would like is given below:

Starting from the beginning, users will be able to choose from a set of unique avatars in the form of newborn babies, each one of which comes with different facial features, expressions, races, and colors.

The aging technology would allow the user to make a choice to launch the process on the blockchain and reveal the adult version of their avatar. Alternatively, they can choose to keep using the cute baby instead.

In general, the main idea is for the users to take advantage of Novatars and use them as their new identities across social media and metaverses.

How Does it Work?

Starting off, users would have to buy a Novatar to gain a unique passing ticket into virtual life. All of the 25,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will be in the form of newborn babies, each one being absolutely unique.

This is how the babies look like:

Users will then have 30 days to decide whether or not to let their novatars to age into an adult or remain a baby. There is a corresponding aging button that should be available on their official website.

If they choose to transform the baby into an adult, they will be able to enjoy its exciting genetic development. This specific feature where the baby transforms into an adult is advertised as an industry-first.

In addition, these Novatars will also serve as tickets to online and even offline events for Novatar NFT holders as the team plans to organize four key events.

The world is going digital, and there’s no denying it. Over the past decade, much of our social interaction has shifted to online social mediums like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and whatnot. And just as this was a major paradigm shift, perhaps the next one to follow will be the metaverse.

This concept has been thrown around a lot lately, especially as Facebook rebranded to Meta in a massive push towards its adoption. However, it encompasses more than one would imagine, and eSports are likely to be one of the fields that will see massive traction.

Just as we’re currently having a lot of our interactions online, this medium can also provide a better future for sports and athletes.

This is what TNNS Pro is working on, creating a mixed reality domain merging the real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations. In this domain, digital objects and athletes co-exist and interact in real-time.

CryptoPotato interviewed the CEO of TNNS Pro – Tsolak Gevorkian – a former professional tennis player and member of the Armenian Davis Cup team.

Can you please tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background? 

“I was born in Armenia and started playing tennis at age of 5. When I turned 7, I began traveling to Russia to play in events. I played in tennis tournaments all across Europe and then moved to the United States at the age of 16. I lived with an incredible host family – the Mansourians – who helped with all kinds of things, from assisting with my education, teaching me American culture, and much more.

When I got an 85% tennis scholarship to Arizona State University, the Mansourians paid for the rest of my education. I eventually transferred to Boise State, where I was the #2 ranked NCAA Division 1 player in the entire nation.

I graduated from Boise State with a marketing degree and then played on the professional ATP Tour and represented Armenia on the Davis Cup team. At a business summit a few years ago, I met longtime financial and blockchain expert Nicholas Williams. We were both seeking funding at the time and started to enjoy a great collaborative working relationship.

When Nick and I began discussing what was going on in sports, we decided that we could use blockchain technology to tackle important issues across the globe, such as pay inequity and the lack of technologically literate athletes.”

How did you come to the idea of pinning sports and technology together?

“I have been involved with blockchain technology for 4 years, helping brands protect against counterfeits and supply chain issues.

I came up with the idea when I saw articles on Tennis players struggling with sponsorships. One article, in particular, was about a tennis athlete who had won an event but still only could afford a cup of coffee after paying for all his expenses to that tournament.

I needed to help, and that is when we created TNNS Pro (TNNS).”

Why blockchain? What was the reason for building your platform on the blockchain?

“The nature of the public ledger is that the data within the blockchain is fully encrypted and protected, meaning that no single party has the power to manipulate the information within, making the technology ideal for startups to leverage.

We also see this can be applied in the world of gaming and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The goal of our marketplace is to offer a genuinely safe space for gamers to conduct transactions in confidence, all generated through immutable blockchain technology.”

Why did you choose the Binance Smart Chain?

“We chose BSC as our starting network as the fees were low for transfers and generating NFTs. But we will be building bridges to Solana and other networks so we can take advantage of their features.”

What sports will the platform focus on?

“To start, my main focus was on Tennis, but as we spoke to more athletes, we learned that there is a huge problem with sponsorship across all sports. We are looking to help athletes across all sports, but of course, tennis is a big part of my life, so that will always be my major concern.”

Do users need any type of special equipment to participate in tournaments and/or other activities on the platform?

“With the VR esport play-to-earn games we are developing, they will just need a VR headset. We are developing VR play-to-earn games starting with tennis and then Fortnite-style games where players can compete against 100-500 others in winner-takes-all tournaments.”

Can you tell us what is it that you’re most excited about in the short-term future?

“This year is a big year for us as we have a lot of TNNS projects that will be completed, and we are starting to develop our own VR metaverse land. We will be auctioning land within our NFT site and creating a total VR experience from play-to-earn gaming to VR events, purchasing land and buildings for virtual living.”