Author: Angela Wang

In recent months, the hype surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) has reached an all-time high, with many heralding it as game-changing technology that is revolutionizing many industries. Ava Labs CEO and financial technology expert Emin Gün Sirer, however, is not so easily impressed, believing that many of the AI tokens are highly overvalued. His views on the current state of the AI-driven projects were shared in a recent gm from Decrypt podcast.

Sirer remains mindful of the potential of AI-driven tokens, especially those that are capable of digitizing assets and executing uniform trades. At the same time, he is also aware of its two primary obstacles, which include mitigating or eliminating the gender or racial biases that can be embedded within AI algorithms, and teaching the bots to recognize black swan events.

Sirer discussed the case of AVAX and SOL prices tracking very closely together and how it could have been negatively affected due to the news of the FTX bankruptcy in November, despite having no direct connection with it. He proposed that it may have been due to the trading bots being trained to pick up on the correlation between the two tokens and being unable to ‘unlearn’ it, even in the face of new information.

To move the market and AI technology out of its current state, Sirer suggests the development of more applications that are less biased in favor of major entities, and ones that can recognize and anticipate black swan events. He also encourages investors to do their own research and to understand the larger forces in the market before investing in AI-based crypto tokens.

With AI continuing to be one of the most active corridors of development in the crypto industry, Emin Gün Sirer’s take could serve as an important reminder for both seasoned and novice investors that it is essential to keep the larger context in mind and be prepared for the unexpected.

It looks like the Solana NFT Marketplace wars are about to get even more intense, as Tensor has garnered significant attention with its recent rollout of “pro” reward boxes and loyalty airdrops. The platform, which was previously a smaller player in the market, launched its “Season 1” airdrop on Monday, giving Solana NFT traders the chance to claim free reward boxes depending on their trading activity on the blockchain network over the past months. Those who have traded on the Tensor platform were granted a whopping “25x-50x more rewards” compared to other platforms.

This move is strongly reminiscent of Blur’s approach, an Ethereum NFT platform that emerged last October and caught fire in February after a BLUR token airdrop catapulted trading volumes to new heights. Indeed, the “pro” trader interface, AMM trading option and mysterious rewards boxes—which can be claimed based on buying or selling NFTs—have a strong similarity to Blur’s model.

The airdrop sent droves of traders to Tensor, with the trading volume of Solana NFTs surging to its single-day record of more than US$480,000 on Monday. According to data from Tiexo, Tensor grabbed a sizable 19% of all trading volume over the past day, taking a significant chunk out of Magic Eden’s 60%.

This move paid off, as Tensor just announced the closing of a successful seed round, raising US$3 million with Placeholder VC in the lead. Notable angel investors included Raj Gokal and Anatoly Yakovenko of Solana, as well as pseudonymous trader HGE of Hadeswap—a rival trading platform.

Evidently, Tensor was met with plenty of skeptism from prospective investors, as numerous VCs posed the question of whether the startup planned to leave Solana. Nevertheless, this didn’t prevent the team from raising the funds for their ambitious venture.

It looks like Tensor is here to stay as it doubles down on Solana NFTs with its second season airdrop—which will be exclusively rewarding trading activity on the Tensor platform. This potential gamification of the trading process should bring in even more traders and set the platform up for long-term success.

At the same time, it remains to be seen whether Blur will experience a similar success, now that its trading awards are no longer exclusively targeting its platform. OpenSea’s initiatives, such as lower fees and creator royalty protections, could draw traders away from Blur. (https://davidsinstruments.com/) Additionally, the sustainability and value accrual methods of the Blur ecosystem and DAO will be key factors in future of NFT trading, as the interest and participation of whales is no guarantee of success.

One thing’s for sure—it’s never been a better time to be an NFT trader. With two top-tier platforms vying for trader attention on their respective blockchains, there’s plenty of rewards for those willing to pick sides and maximize their loyalty resources. It’ll be fascinating to watch Tensor and Blur contend to become the dominant NFT platform within their respective ecosystem, as the stakes have just gotten a whole lot higher.

Rollkit, a modular framework for rollups, successfully launched its scalability solution on March 5, 2023. This solution brings the storage of rollup information developed for Ethereum to the Bitcoin network. This integration could help optimize the free space of Bitcoin blocks and expand the capabilities of the network.

Rollups are a way to compress or group a number of transactions into one, thereby increasing privacy and making the network more efficient. The execution layer of the blockchain, where smart contracts, protocols, and dApps reside, supports the application layer. The data layer is the most basic level of the blockchain, where the order of the blocks is handled. This layer is called the ‘data availability layer’, and it ensures all nodes are the same, recognizing the same transaction data.

The integration of Rollkit makes it possible to “run the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) on Bitcoin as a sovereign Rollkit rollup” and this has the potential to expand the possibilities for second-layer solutions. The news of Rollkit’s recent launch has stirred up mixed reactions from the Bitcoin community. While some view this as a step forward in blockchain technology, others are concerned about competing for the limited block space due to the increased functionality.

These changes in Bitcoin also impacted other rollup solutions like Stacks. Stacks, a high functionality layer 1 protocol, also relies on Bitcoin for security, but transactions take 150 Stacks blocks to reach “Bitcoin finality”. This is much different than the new proposed Rollkit, which could reach finality with just one block. The technicalities involving the quick and effective transfer of BTC between the layers is the main issue the developers need to tackle.

Recently, Sovereign Labs, a crypto project focused on rollup development, raised $7.4 million in seed funding. The team is building a software development kit (SDK) that makes it easier for developers to create custom zero-knowledge rollups. A rollup is a set of transactions that derive some of its security from another blockchain, allowing for scalability without sacrificing security.

With the help of the Sovereign SDK, developers can make these rollups compatible with any layer 1 blockchain. This makes the entire process easier and more accessible. Not only does this SDK help with scalability and security, but it also ensures that users maintain the verification processes that come with blockchains.

Overall, the integration of Rollkit’s scalability solution helps bring a new level of potential to the Bitcoin network. Expansion of the possibilities to these second-layer solutions could in turn create a healthier fee market on Bitcoin, helping to bootstrap a more sustainable security budget. Although this integration has stirred up some debates, the Rollkit team remains optimistic as they strive to bring an efficient, scalable, and secure platform to the crypto-space.

After the success of games such as League of Legends, it seems willing investors are keen to back Riot Games’ former executives and their new game studio, The Believer Company. With the help of backing from major firms, like Lightspeed Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company, the team have raised $55 million for their first game in a Series A round. It’s yet to be announced what the game will be, but the company promise it’ll be a next-generation open-world game creating a whole new IP. What’s interesting though, is their stance on one major component of their game. Namely, the whole concept of NFTs, or ‘non-fungible tokens’. NFTs are popularly used in recent gaming trends, allowing players to trade and monetize assets within games. But The Believer Company is saying a resounding “No F*cking Thanks” to these tokens. Steven Snow, co-founder and Chief Product Officer doesn’t think they enrich the industry or make the game experience in anyway more fun. In an interview with TechCrunch, Snow clarified:

“We say ‘no fucking thanks’ to NFTs. These technologies are struggling in games because players aren’t asking for them, and no one as of yet has shown how they can make a game more fun. I believe games are supposed to be fun. We’re not here to meme on tech that won’t enrich the industry for anyone, let alone players.”

So while Snow hasn’t sworn off Web3 forever, he doesn’t interact NFTs have a place in the game right away stating that more R&D needs to happen first.

It’s a savvy move on behalf of The Believer Company, considering the alternative. Web3 gaming companies like Avalon Corp have been getting investments to fund their products too. Founded by experienced game developers from companies such as Electronic Arts and Microsoft, they’re building an MMO and metaverse-style game, set in Unreal Engine 5. Angelic, from Metaverse Game Studios, is a dark science fiction-themed narrative RPG featuring turn-based combat. But both of these games aim for decentralization, with the addition of blockchain technology, NFTs, and low transaction costs.

Ultimately, both The Believer Company and the alternative of Avalon Corp and Angelic demonstrate that the gaming world has changed from a few years ago. With advances in technology alongside a new gaming audience, it’s hard to say which strategy will be victorious in the long run when it comes to the use of NFTs, but for now The Believer Company is taking a public stance of ‘no thank you’. (https://www.focolare.org)

The Believer Company’s next-gen open-world game still has yet to be announced, and perhaps with the hefty injection of capital, they’ll be able to create something revolutionary. But what’s clear is that the focus of this game will be firmly outside of NFTs, something that will no doubt be keeping other Web3 game companies on their toes.

Block, Inc. is leading the charge in Bitcoin mining revolution with its latest announcement of a “Mining Development Kit (MDK)”. The company believes that it and developers can work to build better Bitcoin rigs through the use of the MDK. It would serve as a do-it-yourself kit that would pave the way for innovation in Bitcoin mining hardware.

The MDK kit is set to include basic components of a Bitcoin mining rig, including a hashboard, controller board, open-source firmware, software, and lots of documentation. In Block’s announcement, Naoise Irwin, Block Mining Hardware Senior Product Lead, said the MDK would be useful in developing projects to integrate Bitcoin mining into various novel use cases such as home mining and off-grid mining. He also mentioned its potential usefulness in “optimization of Bitcoin mining hardware for traditional commercial mining operations”.

Last year, Block, Inc. took a step further into the Bitcoin mining sector by contributing $5 million to a joint venture with Tesla and Blockstream to pilot an all-solar Bitcoin mining facility in Texas. More recently, the company also revealed its plans to design its own Bitcoin mining semiconductor chips – commonly referred to as ASICs.

If that wasn’t enough, Block also takes significant initiatives to invest in the Bitcoin ecosystem. It has made significant contributions to open source projects through its independent team Spiral, the decentralized finance development platform TBD, as well as its self-custody wallet.

The company is optimistic that its efforts will help address inefficiencies in the current financial system, especially with respect to identity and trust. Its ambitions may have made a 21% gain since the start of this year, however, investors have yet to be fully convinced as they have seen the company’s shares trading at $78.04, down 3% for the day.

But despite the downturn of the crypto markets, Blockstream, who has notably worked with Block, is still pushing forward with its fundraising. The crypto infrastructure firm is looking to raise funds at a much lower valuation than its last funding round, valued at $3.2 billion in 2021. Bloomberg reported that today that valuation may have fallen almost 70% to below $1 billion.

Blockstream CEO and cryptographer Adam Back noted that this capital will be invested into expanding the firm’s mining capacity. The series B funding round brought in $210 million and over four rounds, the firm has currently raised $299 million.

But miners are suffering from a triple-whammy of high hash rates, energy prices, and low BTC prices. That’s why the Blockstream monthly newsletter in December 5th revealed that its Blockstream Mining Note (BMN) token has earned around 5.37 BTC cumulatively in returns nearly halfway into its three-year term.

With the increasing competition in the Bitcoin mining industry, the MDK and the larger Bitcoin mining projects being developed by Block, Inc. and Blockstream look to be a promising but risky move. If the projects can effectively bring down the costs of mining and make it more widely available, it will be a major boon for the industry as a whole. We’ll have to keep an eye out for more announcements in the coming weeks and months for more details on the revolutionary projects Block and Blockstream are working on.

This week, the crypto world had a lot to talk about. On Tuesday, the $4 billion company Yuga Labs made history with the launch of the first-ever Bitcoin-based non-fungible-token (NFT) project, TwelveFold, a limited-edition, generative art collection inscribed onto satoshis on the blockchain network. The collection garnered bids of over $16.5 million.

Yuga has been an industry juggernaut in the NFT space, having developed three of the current top ten most valuable NFT collections, so the foray into Bitcoin NFTs is a notable shift for the company. And it’s not just Yuga that’s made the move; the Ordinals protocol has gained much attention of late and is becoming increasingly popular. The number of ordinals generated through this protocol has crossed over 100,000, resulting in Bitcoin NFTs becoming a more established idea.

Bitcoin has long been regarded as a pet rock rather than a source of sound money, and so the appeal of Bitcoin-based NFTs lies in the potential push for “greater adoption” of the currency. Bitcoin’s mempool and taproot utilization recently exploded as a result of the Ordinals protocol, but the trend may fizzle when the Initial Collection Auction (ICA) of TwelveFold is over.

Nonetheless, the Ordinals project has been a driving force of this transition, tipping the number of non-zero Bitcoin addresses to a new all-time high of 44 million, according to Glassnode. And amidst chatter of the Ordinals project being both hated and embraced, one thing is clear: Bitcoin provides a new potential for digital artifacts and it’s time for the crypto community to explore it.

Trust Machines, a startup aiming to build the Bitcoin ecosystem, raised $150 million last year, which suggests that there is a demand for Bitcoin applications. Moreover, projects like Counterparty, Liquid, Stacks, RSK, Lightning and more have been around for years building infrastructure around the sound money of Bitcoin. (Alprazolam)

The appeal of Bitcoin NFTs also lies in their secure nature. Bitcoin-based assets, like those featured in TwelveFold, are much more secure than their Ethereum counterparts, which often have their data stored on external servers. Settlement for Bitcoin NFTs stay on the blockchain forever, meaning that their integrity is guaranteed. Furthermore, Casey Rodamor’s “burn address” allows projects previously built on Ethereum to be copied onto Bitcoin, potentially making it easier for users to explore the network.

Yuga’s groundbreaking venture into Bitcoin NFTs may just be the beginning. The development of projects like Ordinals has made people ask: Could Bitcoin be bigger? It looks as if the potential for Bitcoin to expand is there, and this week certainly showed it. If an industry giant like Yuga can embrace Bitcoin, that’s an encouraging message for the community and a powerful reminder of the limitless possibilities to be explored in the volatile and ever-evolving crypto world.

A revolution is happening in the contemporary art world, and its name is non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This new form of digital asset, based on blockchain technology, seeks to authenticate ownership of digital objects like art, music, and videos. And more and more major art institutions around the world are becoming enchanted by this trend, making NFTs more present than ever before in the physical art world.

This month, leading the charge of this revolution is none other than AI artist Claire Silver. Her new collection, titled “Can I Tell You A Secret,” is set to debut at the Louvre Museum in Paris, with physical support provided by Superchief Gallery, a physical space that exhibits NFTs located in New York and Los Angles. The exhibition will begin on March 21, making Silver the first AI artist to be represented by global talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME).

“We’ll bring AI art to mainstream culture together,” Silver tweeted about the partnership. WME is indeed sending many waves throughout the NFT world, having signed many prominent names of the Web3 sphere, such as Dapper Labs, CryptoKitties co-founder Mack Flavelle, NFT gallery Bright Moments, NFT project Non-Fungible Heroes, NFT startup Boss Beauties, and more recently, NFT artist Valfré.

Silver’s exhibition is an especially noteworthy moment in the NFT world, given that her work is being presented at one of the most prestigious art institutions in the world. It follows in the footsteps of another pseudonymous NFT collector and influencer, Cozemo de’ Medici, who donated several of his digital artworks to Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) last month, as well as Biyan William, who donated a CryptoPunk to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.

As if her own NFT collection wasn’t exciting enough, Silver will also be showcasing a one-of-one art piece at the Louvre titled “Love in the 4th Turning.” According to its description, the concept for this artwork was based on the Strauss-Howe generational theory, which suggests that “there is a recurring generational cycle of archetypes throughout history. (https://fii-institute.org) ” The piece is available on OpenSea and at the time of writing, the highest bid stands at 44.44 wrapped ether, or $68,677.

Silver’s exhibition comes alongside other major art institutions’ embrace of blockchain-based talent as well. Paris’s Centre Pompidou, for example, just announced an upcoming permanent exhibition targeting the intersection between art and the blockchain represented by nonfungible tokens (NFTs). It will feature NFTs from over 16 digital artists around the world, including popular collectibles such as CryptoPunk #110 and Autoglyph #25. Meanwhile, NFT artist Refik Anadol is presenting his generative art at New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in a temporary installation titled “Unsupervised” that will run until April 15.

Ultimately, it’s clear that the connection between physical and digital art forms is only strengthening, and the presence of both NFTs in major art institutions and prominent artists such as Claire Silver exhibiting in the Louvre is solidifying this crossover. One thing’s for sure: we’re entering an era of innovation and creativity, reshaping the world and the way we experience art.

The future of banking and financial services in Pakistan has taken an exciting turn with the signing of a project contract between the Pakistan Banks’ Association (PBA) and Avanza Group to build the country’s first blockchain-based national eKYC banking platform.
The aim of the initiative is to strengthen Anti-Money Laundering capabilities and tackle terror financing, an important matter for the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), as well as to improve operational efficiencies and customer experience during onboarding.
The project contract was signed in Karachi on 2nd March 2023 by the group of 31 traditional banks associated with PBA, some of the bigger names being Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Citibank and Deutsche Bank. With the launch of the eKYC system, these banks will be able to assess existing and new customers based on the sharing of customer updates with their explicit consent.

The eKYC system which has been coined as ‘Consonance’, will allow the banks to standardize and exchange customer data via a decentralized and self-regulated network. This platform provides convenience and increases the risk management of KYC processes and AML regulations, with the blockchain technology optimizing data verification and authentication.

In related news, the SBP has recently proposed new laws to ensure the launch of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by 2025. Through the licenses to electronic money institutions for CBDC issuance, the SBP is showing commitment towards progress, adoption of technology and digitization of the financial system.

Pakistan is among the countries striving ahead in the digital currency race and making steps in the digital payment system wave. This has been acknowledged by the Binance and BNB Chain execs, who have teamed up with the National Bank of Kazakhstan to launch their own CBDC project. The Astana Financial Services Authority has granted Binance a permanent license to manage a digital asset platform and provide custody services in October 2022.

The Central Bank of Kazakhstan has embarked on its project of centralized digital currency ‘digital tenge’ and is set to run its project until the end of 2025. Moreover, Kazakhstan is also partnering with Binance to teach blockchain technology courses to 40,000 people across the country, introducing students to blockchain technology as part of the university curriculum.

Now, with the PBA leading the way in blockchain technology, it is expected that more financial institutions will join in its effort to create an easier and secured banking experience for Pakistan. The PBA’s new eKYC system will cut down the time on manual KYC processes for customers. In the coming years, this platform could not only lay the foundation for a digital economy even further, but also improve the banking experience for all Pakistani citizens and businesses.

In conclusion, the move towards blockchain technology and the digital currency is a welcomed one and could be a big stepping stone in the future of financial services. By the end of 2025, the State Bank of Pakistan could potentially launch its CBDC and the PBA’s project would no doubt play an important role in implementing and regulating the platform. All these efforts could help unlock the future of finance in Pakistan.

Cryptocurrency and the Web3 have revolutionized the concept of decentralization, allowing for a new era of trustless investments. With over 16,000 cryptocurrencies available, however, investors often feel overwhelmed. To alleviate this problem, crypto launchpads have risen to facilitate the curation of investment opportunities. They offer retail investors preferential or exclusive terms while also providing investors access to useful information.

The primary benefit of crypto launchpads lies in the access they provide to high quality deals. In contrast to websites like Y Combinator, accelerator models are now accessible to retail investors. This provides them with the benefit of detailed due diligence reports and vetted financials. In addition, project creators are able to select the right investment opportunities through launchpad tokenholders who can offer high quality investments and exclusive terms.

In the tripartite model of the launchpad ecosystem, all players benefit. The startup gains capital, the investor receives exclusive deals, and the community has more decision-making power. This dynamic is especially valuable in the DeFi space, where smart contracts and oracles must be vetted for investor security. Crypto launchpads provide this service, cutting out the noise and identifying viable projects.

Despite these benefits, crypto launchpads are far from perfect. Communities could be better equipped with experienced investors and quality launchpad communities, and token holders need to be further educated on how the system works. Self-regulation may also be necessary until regulations are put in place.

These issues notwithstanding, crypto launchpads have the potential to revolutionize decentralized finance. By giving retail investors access to high-quality deals, providing project creators with necessary resources, and offering the community more responsibility, launchpads differentiate Web3 from Web2. With the right follow-through, crypto launchpads may be the beginning of a decentralized venture capital model: one that not only facilitates trustless investments, but brings these opportunities to the masses.

It’s been a turbulent past seven days in the crypto market, with prices largely flat as investors look to U.S. Central Bank Chair Jerome Powell’s upcoming testimony before Congress. Bitcoin and Ethereum’s price index opened the Asia business day flat, and 24-hour trading volumes have dropped significantly. (https://www.sullivansusa.net/)
Meanwhile, Filecoin, the decentralized storage network with a two-billion-dollar market cap, has been the top performer of late, driven in part by its exposure to China and its generous subsidies for those storing data on its network.
But the success may be short-lived due to Filecoin’s heavy centralization around its top-10 miners, many of which are based in China and owned by cloud storage companies. To combat this, Filecoin has launched its ‘Filecoin Plus’ program, which seeks to carve out quality storage providers from the ones polluting the network with junk data. To incentivise this, Filecoin Plus subsidises by offering a 10x larger block reward.

One factor to watch is how storage demand holds up when storing data isn’t free. Filecoin’s revenue has slumped wtihin the past year, and it remains to be seen what affect the subsidies will have in the long-run.

Short bitcoin funds had nearly $10 million in inflows over the last week, while long bitcoin funds had $12 million in outflows. Equity markets have returned to their winning ways, and technology-focused Nasdaq, S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial Average have all ticked up.

Ahead of his return visit to Congress, Chairman Powell is likely to be in a predicament, as the U.S. economy doesn’t seem to be responding to previous interest rate hikes. January’s unexpected job numbers demonstrated that the Fed has a lot of work to do in bringing down inflation. The CME’s FedWatch tool is predicting a 69 percent chance of a 25 basis point rise, and a 30 percent chance of a 50 basis point rise.

Investors have taken to the prediction market PolyMarket, also putting an 80 percent chance of a 25 bps increase during the March meeting, and a 23 percent chance of a 50 bps increase in the near future.

Additionally, the decentralized computing market is seeing increased activity, with other storage networks like Storj and Siacoin rising 16 percent in the last week. On Tuesday, BTC was recently trading at about $24,273, down 2.2%, while ETH was changing hands at $1,647, off 3.5%. Despite the bearish market, Bitcoin traders have been liquidating both long and short positions, with $130 million and $179 million of BTC short positions liquidated in the last week respectively.

In the end, one should anticipate the crypto market to tread carefully in the near future, and with Filecoin hoping to introduce its Filecoin Virtual Machine, the success of the project depends on whether its userbase can pay the premiums that come with decentralization.

As the ETHDenver conference concluded on Sunday, March 5, the Colorado capital city saw a few weeks of networking, collaboration and meetings at the “hacker houses” scattered around the Denver Metropolitan Area.
Though attendees of ETHDenver had to grapple with their own COVID-19 diagnoses, they still managed to find time to network and develop interesting projects within the four “hacker houses” sponsored by blockchain companies, and overseen by hosts Jessy and Waylon Jepsen.
The “hacker houses” weren’t just a temporary haven for ETHDenver attendees: they also provided an opportunity to form long-term connections and meaningful relationships, while also having access to potential investors and co-founders.

Jesse, the host of Jesse’s hacker house, was inspired to organize one during the last ETHDenver conference after noticing a few people from abroad posting about their hunt for a place to stay in Denver. Despite the positive test results for some of her house-guests, Jesse stayed positive, and beamed of her house-guests while providing Cointelegraph with a tour at one of the hacker houses. With 300 technical-minded individuals applying for a place to sleep and network at the hacker houses, Jesse wanted to make sure the vibe was right and the people seemed suitable for her event.

During ETHDenver’s closing ceremony, John Paller, one of ETHDenver’s co-founders, announced that next year’s mascot will be the “SporkWhale” which will represent ownership in the community. Plans for satellite feeder events in other countries in preparation for the ETHDenver “Super Bowl” were also mentioned at the closing ceremony.

Overall, ETHDenver provided a unique, rowdy and yet entrenched atmosphere for thousands of crypto members and developers, making it a truly one of a kind event. It was a place for attendees to create meaningful connections and establish relationships with those who share the same ethos and ambition. As the crypto and blockchain communities continue to grow, events such as ETHDenver will become ubiquitous and allow more blockchain enthusiasts to mingle and meet, making the bonus mile of networking even more accessible.