Category: Blockchain

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Blockchain Crypto News NFTs Tokens

Gary Vaynerchuk to Open World’s First ‘NFT Holders Members Only’ Restaurant

Introducing Flyfish Club: the world’s first private dining experience where VIP membership is purchased on the blockchain and owned by the token holder. The premier dining destination in New York City will only be accessible by owners of Flyfish NFT tokens.

NFTs are not just all about trading digital art. Longtime startup investor and NFT enthusiast Gary Vaynerchuk (above) is the first crypto entrepreneur to create a members-only restaurant through Flyfish Club NFTs.

There [are] so many variables that come along with NFT life that people don’t think about, that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about. We want to create incredible value for the people that are part of this process.

Gary Vaynerchuk

The team behind the Flyfish club is a company founded by Vaynerchuk – VCR group is a collective of operators and hospitality professionals who say they thrive on creating something innovative for the restaurant industry, something “fresh and fun” that has never been done before.

Adopting NFTs for VIP-only access turns club membership into an asset for those who join the Flyfish community. The NFT membership model creates an extra level of exclusivity for those seeking the high-end fine dining experience.

Flyfish Membership NFTs Sold Out

All Flyfish NFTs that went on sale through the Flyfish website have (unsurprisingly, given Vaynerchuk’s popularity) already sold out. There are two different levels of membership that will allow token holders access to the restaurant when it officially opens its doors in 2023.

The two Flyfish Club membership tiers

1. The Flyfish Token: All 2,650 Flyfish NFTs sold for 2.5 ETH each. Members can access the cocktail room, the restaurant with its outdoor space and skyline views of Manhattan, as well as admission to events (both physical and virtual).

2. The Flyfish Omakase Token: All 385 Flyfish Omakase NFTs sold for 4.25 ETH each. Members can access everything Flyfish Token holders can, plus the “Omakase experience” – dining in the private Omakase Room (with one guest), with meals curated by one of the best sushi masters in the country.

Read more about how it works on the Flyfish club website.

Vaynerchuk is the creator of the NFT project VeeFriends, which offers token holders access to exclusive events “focused around business, marketing, ideas, creativity, entrepreneurship, innovation, competition and of course, fun”.

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Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum NFTs

Decentralised Blogging Platform ‘Mirror’ Offers Writers a Way to Monetise their Articles

Thanks to the slow, agonising and ongoing death of mainstream media, writers are running out of avenues to monetise their work. One of a number of new platforms designed to address the problem is Mirror.xyz, a publishing tool that leverages cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies.

Created by Denis Nazarov, a former investment professional at US venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Mirror is a decentralised writing platform developed to help creators connect with their target audiences in a direct and innovative way.

The functionality of Mirror differs from popular blogging sites such as Medium in that it enables writers to earn in cryptocurrency rather than fiat cash transactions. Authors can also seek crowdfunding for creative projects via non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that can be continuously traded and keep earning on a writer’s behalf, via Mirror’s use of the Ethereum blockchain.

Mirror Turns Written Articles into NFTs

Typically, most NFTs traded online are for digital art and music files. Mirror makes it possible to turn various forms of creative writing into NFTs, whether they be poems, essays, novels or short stories.

Mirror allows its writers to be the gatekeepers of content. As that content is stored on a blockchain, there is less chance of it being appropriated or accidentally dumped. Each written work becomes a unique NFT that can be auctioned off or sold to the highest bidder in exchange for crypto.

You Can Take It With You

Users can leave the platform at any time and take their material with them, since it remains cryptographically safe and cannot be altered or deleted. Mirror has grown from a tool for authors to a complete Web3 creative stack for communities and DAOs, according to the developers behind it.

As soon as they link an Ethereum wallet to the platform, users may begin generating content and inserting media blocks such as films, iFrames, social media postings, NFTs, auctions and crowdfunds.

American freelance writer Meagan Loyst is just one satisfied Mirror user, making a strong case for the platform over Medium, the site she used to write for. She describes Mirror as “the future of blogging”:

Revolutions Afoot in Writing and Music

As also reported by Crypto News Australia this week, Opulous is a new blockchain-based music platform built for creators and investors to address the biggest challenge facing artists in the music industry today: raising capital. It is to musicians (and fans) what Mirror may turn out to be for writers, and ultimately readers.

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Blockchain Crypto Exchange DeFi Markets Tokens

Bullish Signals Push DeFi Token ATOM Up 90% in the Past Month

The Cosmos blockchain (ATOM), one of the OGs in the space, has seen exceptional growth in the past month through the sea of red washing over the market, thanks to its cross-chain approach and new decentralised exchange (DEX).

A Cross-Chain Future for Cosmos

Cosmos is a community-owned and operated blockchain, and one could say it functions as a layer 0 on which other blockchains can be built and liquidity shared between chains. Cosmos can connect and exchange data and assets with other sovereign blockchains; this is made possible by using the Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC).

This technology is now being used to connect various blockchains and is considered “the safest and most secure and decentralised way to move assets across different blockchains, unlocking interoperability across multiple chains”.

ATOM Price Spike

During the past month, the ATOM token has soared close to 90 percent from just over US$21 on December 14 to around $40.83 at the time of writing. With an estimated US$162 billion in digital assets under management and 262+ dApps and services, the chain is poised for further growth.

As more chains are bridged, the total trading volume will increase. Since the release of cross-chain bridges that connect the Cosmos (ATOM) ecosystem with other Ethereum (ETH) Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible networks, the trading volume has expanded considerably.

OSMO price and DEX trading volume. Source: Token Terminal

Ups and Downs for Osmosis

Osmosis (OSMO) is one of the first DEXs to service chains connected through the IBC, and has already begun benefiting from its position. One week ago it was in the top 3 DEXs, however, at the time of writing, the exchange had gone down to rank 12th.

OSMO’s massive increase in trading volume has also been one of the factors causing the price to surge 81 percent from a low of US$4.05 on December 17 to a new all-time high of US$9.57 on January 12.

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Blockchain Crypto News DeFi Gaming Metaverse NFTs

5 Interesting NFT Projects for 2022

Last year saw explosive growth in the non-fungible token (NFT) market, with interesting and innovative projects popping up left, right, and centre. The new year already looks promising with exhilarating projects up for launch in 2022.

We’ve compiled a guide to five of the more interesting projects set for 2022, as we did for projects launching in December and for five Christmas-themed NFT projects.

Expantum: The Game

Expantum balances tokenomics and gameplay.

Expantum is a next-generation play-and-earn strategy game that uniquely balances cutting-edge tokenomics and fun gameplay and is built on the Ethereum blockchain. In the Expantum metaverse, players can prove themselves as outstanding leaders at all stages of the game, and can build provinces and capitals while organising continuous production and supply of resources. Players can choose an optimal composition of an army and customise their set, creating alliances with other players for the sake of victory.

GANime

GANime: anime characters based on AI-generated NFT videos.

GANime is on-chain machine learning-generated anime characters built on the Ethereum blockchain, based on AI-generated anime NFT videos. Its creators call it fun and accessible for all.

Solice Metaverse

Solice: an interconnected metaverse of virtual worlds, NFTs and communities.

The Solice Metaverse is the first cross-platform virtual reality metaverse on the Solana blockchain where users can play, build, own, socialise and monetise their virtual experiences. Solice is an interconnected metaverse of virtual worlds, NFTs and communities with the aim of improving overall user experience.

Illuvium

Illuvium: join the quest to hunt and capture deity-like creatures.

An open-world RPG adventure game built atop the Ethereum blockchain, Illuvium is a journey across a vast landscape on a quest to hunt and capture deity-like creatures called Illuvials. More than 100 Illuvials populate this alien world, each possessing different affinities, classes and abilities. Creatures can be captured, fused and upgraded to more powerful forms.

Opulous

Opulous brings DeFi to the music industry and a fairer payment method for artists.

Opulous, built for creators and inventors, brings DeFi to the music industry, changing how artists access funding as well as providing a launchpad for the first music copyright-backed NFTs. Opulous offers DeFi loans backed by future royalties that will replace the unfair deals traditionally forced on promising new artists. The project is powered by cryptos, using future-proof blockchain and smart contract technology to connect investors and artists like never before.

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Accommodation Blockchain Crypto News NFTs Real Estate

Crypto Community ‘Satoshi Island’ in Vanuatu is Offering Citizenship NFTs

Satoshi Island in Vanuatu is a real world blockchain use case where citizenship and all assets and rights are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) built on top of a decentralised financial system only operating in crypto.

In the South Pacific, nestled among the other islands of Vanuatu, there is a 297-hectare private holding called Satoshi Island under development to become a sustainable smart city dedicated to the crypto community.

Get Your Own Piece of Satoshi Island

The developers want to create a place where crypto enthusiasts and professionals can converge, with the goal of creating “the crypto capital of the world”. Individuals wanting to attain citizenship and own a piece of land on the island can do so by getting their hands on a Satoshi Island NFT:

The island will be built with blockchain technology at its heart, running the first real world crypto economy built on an entirely decentralised financial system and blockchain-based democracy. The developers of the island also welcome crypto projects to set up shop, offering the community networking opportunities and a way to live and work among like-minded people. With events planned all year round, inhabitants only need to keep their ear to the ground.

Concept house on Satoshi Island. Source: satoshi-island.com

With the first stage of development already completed, early visitors will be greeted by classic-style villas. As the project progresses, the island will be further developed with ultra-modern modular sustainable houses and offices designed by renowned Hong Kong-based architectural firm Cybertecture.

Concept offices on Satoshi Island. Source: satoshi-island.com

This idea is not unheard of; just last month, a group of cryptocurrency investors gathered capital through crowdfunding a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) to buy a tokenised island in the Bahamas.

Get a Citizenship NFT for Satoshi Island

Anyone can visit Satoshi Island, but by holding a Citizenship NFT there are exclusive benefits to be had. These NFTs will be limited to 21,000 and will be released in collections. First-edition citizenships will be granted via airdrop to early supporters of the project, as detailed on its website.

The benefits of holding a Citizenship NFT are:

  • voting rights on policies that govern the island;
  • access to long-term accommodation at lower rates not available to short-term visitors; and
  • citizenship holders with Land NFTs can develop property on their chosen space.

Island Has 2,100 Blocks of Land NFTs 

The island has been subdivided into 2100 unique blocks of land, which anyone can own by purchasing a Land NFT. Each block is large enough to build a house on and those who own multiple Land NFTs can combine them to develop office blocks, mansions, or even apartment complexes to add to a unique property portfolio.

The private opening is envisaged for Q4 2022 with the public opening scheduled for Q1 2023. Once Satoshi Island is privately opened, citizens can visit short-term. After it is publicly opened, properties can be developed, occupied, or rented out to short and long-stay guests.

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Blockchain Crypto News NFTs

Opulous is Providing Artists with Music Copyright-Backed NFTs

The days of signing bad deals with unfair terms are a thing of the past – artists no longer need to sell their souls to greedy record companies in order to get their music out into the world.

Opulous is a new blockchain-based music platform built for creators and investors. It is addressing the biggest challenge facing artists in the music industry today: raising capital.

Opulous allows fans to bankroll their favourite artists by harnessing the power of DeFi. They can also benefit from music sales as part copyright owners, thanks to NFTs.

Opulous brings Decentralised Finance to the music industry, changing how artists access the funding they need and providing a launchpad for the first music copyright-backed NFTs.

opulous.org

Artists Retain 100% of Copyright, Fans Share in Earnings

How will Opulous help artists? Based on historical data, Opulous calculates an artist’s future earnings and offers loans based on that forecast, while allowing the artist to retain 100 percent of their music’s copyright.

By implementing NFTs, Opulous makes it possible for artists to split up the ownership of their music into tokenised shares and offer them directly to fans. This means fans can invest in the artists they love and financially benefit themselves through earnings made from sales.

The Opulous model provides a monetary incentive for fans to help further an artist’s career and encourages them to promote the artists they have invested in. The more successful the artist is, the more money the fan makes, through royalties paid out every month.

Opulous model explained. Source: Opulous

Crypto investors can buy and stake OPUL tokens with the reassurance and trust that their investment is backed by actual real-world assets. Watch the video below to learn more about how Opulous works:

$OPUL Rewards and Staking

After Opulous launches this month, you can stake OPUL to earn more OPUL. The video below explains how the Opulous dashboard works. Read more about how to stake OPUL and earn more OPUL on the Opulous medium.

NFTs are playing a major role in reshaping the music industry. The technology is revolutionising the payment structure for artist royalties and making it possible for artists to receive a larger (and fairer) cut of sales while maintaining ownership of their own brand and product.

Innovative music platforms harnessing the blockchain offer exciting features that directly benefit artists and fans alike: a virtual touring company called Animal Concerts is bringing live music events to the metaverse, and music streaming platform Audius is the largest decentralised consumer blockchain application, with a roster exceeding 100,000 music artists. The future of music looks bright.

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Blockchain Crime Crypto News DeFi Illegal Scams

Report: Crypto Crime Reached New Highs in 2021

In its annual Crypto Crime report, New York-based blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has reported that although the percentage of illicit crypto transactions fell drastically in 2021, their dollar value surged significantly.

As per the Chainalysis report, the value of crimes involving cryptos surged to a new high of US$14 billion in 2021. This represents an increase of 79 percent from US$7.8 billion reported in 2020, which is mainly due to the upward spiral in crypto prices experienced in 2021.

The cryptocurrency market has expanded to such an extent that Chainalysis has even opened a new office in the Australian capital due to increased mainstream adoption in the Pacific region.

Year-to-year comparison of illicit share of all cryptocurrency transaction volume. Source: Chainalysis

Although the dollar value appears to be astronomical, the activity represents a mere 0.15 percent of the total of US$15.8 trillion in crypto transaction volumes over the year – the lowest percentage ever recorded. To put this in perspective, the illicit share of crypto transaction volume in 2019 was 3.37 percent, and 0.62 percent in 2020.

DeFi Scams and Rug Pulls Main Drivers of Crypto Crime

The Chainalysis report attributes the growth in the volume of scams and legitimate crypto transactions to the boom in decentralised finance (DeFi). While scams accounted for the largest share in 2021, rising 82 percent to US$7.8 billion, nearly US$3 million of the total crime value came from rug pulls.

Last year, Crypto News Australia reported that crypto scams, particularly rug pulls, have become the main trust issue in the crypto space, especially for newcomers.

DeFi protocols have become the primary target for cryptocurrency crimes. Source: Chainalysis

Aside from rug pulls, DeFi platforms were also widely used for money laundering and were targeted by hackers for large-scale theft.

As Chainalysis head of research Kim Grauer noted: “DeFi services were hacked at rates that we’ve never seen before. Not only are people using DeFi to carry out crime, they’re also targeting DeFi for crime.”

Grauer added that DeFi platform protocols were often hacked because it’s a new industry and a lot of the code is open-source, exposing vulnerabilities.

In 2021, US$2.2 billion worth of cryptos was stolen from DeFi protocols, which accounts for two-thirds of all cryptos stolen in 2021 – this figure represents a 516 percent increase on the numbers reported in 2020.

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Bitcoin Blockchain Crypto News Markets

BTCS Launches ‘Bividend’, the First NASDAQ Company to Pay BTC Dividends

A little-known NASDAQ-listed blockchain company, BTCS, has made history by becoming the first to offer a Bitcoin dividend, dubbed quite appropriately, a “Bividend“.

Bividend Explained

BTCS, which describes itself as as “securing the next-generation blockchain infrastructure and providing data analytics tools for your crypto portfolio”, announced this week that it was proceeding with a so-called “bividend”, the first dividend payable in Bitcoin by a NASDAQ-listed company.

The company intends to pay a once-off dividend in either Bitcoin or cash, equivalent to US$0.05 per share, on March 16, 2022. To qualify, you must be a shareholder of record, meaning that the shares cannot be held by a brokerage firm such as Robinhood, where you are merely the beneficial owner. You also need to specifically opt in if you prefer Bitcoin over cash.

We want to reward our long-time shareholders for their continued support and encourage financial freedom by providing the means to enable direct ownership of Bitcoin and other digital assets.

Charles Allen, CEO of BTCS

Allen added that BTCS had a history of breaking new ground:

In the crypto space BTCS has a long history of firsts, including being the first pure-play US public company focused on cryptocurrencies and blockchains, the first US public company to mine Bitcoin, the first … to implement a digital asset treasury strategy, and the first … to secure next-generation proof-of-stake blockchains.

Charles Allen, CEO of BTCS

BTCS shares soared on the announcement, pushing the price as high as 43 percent on the day, taking its market capitalisation to around US$43 million.

BTCS share price. Source: Tradingview

Publicity Stunt?

While some have seen the news as bullish, others have adopted a more cynical view, suggesting it is merely a publicity stunt.

Matt Levine of Bloomberg describes BTCS as a “somewhat unloved micro-cap company” that pulled off an effective marketing trick, propping the shares up more than 40 percent on the day.

A bividend is a terrible name but an obviously good meme-y crypto stunt to increase attention … BTCS will pay about $500,000 in bividends, which bought it about $15 million of market cap. Just a good trade!

Matt Levine, writer, Bloomberg

Cynicism aside, he may not be wrong. BTCS is still almost 50 percent off its September high when it debuted on the NASDAQ.

Whatever your take, it’s clear that:

  • regardless of whether it was a publicity stunt or not, it worked; and
  • given its success, there are likely to be a host of copycats in the near future leveraging the Bitcoin brand to elevate their own.
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Blockchain CBDCs China Crypto News

China Pilots Mobile Wallet for CBDC Ahead of Winter Games

The People’s Bank of China (PoBC) has launched iOS and Android apps for digital yuan transactions in selected cities ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics. This comes after China declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal last year.

How the App Will Work

The new app will link users’ phone numbers to payment services provided by commercial banks using China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC).

China published a whitepaper outlining the progress of the CBDC, formally called e-CNY. The document reveals that the e-CNY uses smart contracts programmability as part of one of its seven major features.

According to the above tweet from BlockBeats, individual users in China may now download a version of the app to try out “personal wallet opening and management and e-CNY exchange and circulation services”. The app is currently only available for trial in 11 locations within China: Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong’an, Chengdu, Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xi’an, Qingdao, Dalian, and the area where the Winter Olympics will be held.

Thus far, China has been testing the digital yuan through lotteries in some cities for limited users. The central bank hopes to expand the number of people using the digital yuan.

China also undertook CBDC tests in mid-2021 to determine the usefulness of digital currencies. Following testing, China announced it would pay the salaries of certain residents in the Xoing’an region in digital yuan.

PRC Unveils ‘FinTech Development Plan (2022-2025)’

Along with the release of its digital wallet, the PBoC has unveiled its FinTech Development Plan (2022-2025), which outlines the importance financial planners place on the digitisation of the economy. The document does not explicitly discuss blockchain technology, or cryptocurrency, though the trend has been toward exerting greater control over the trajectory of China’s digital economy to ensure government access to financial data.

Last year the Chinese government expelled the majority of bitcoin mining operations, crushing the country’s contribution to the Bitcoin network’s hashing power within the country and pushing the miners that remain further underground.

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Blockchain Crypto Art Cryptocurrencies NFTs

Display your NFTs in Real Life with a Digital Art Frame by Netgear Meural

Meural digital frames were originally designed for displaying private collections of one’s digital photos. Electronics manufacturer Netgear has now announced its plans to expand Meural Canvas capabilities to include the display of digital artworks (NFTs).

Netgear unveiled the new Meural NFT integration at the tech trade show CES 2022 in Las Vegas, US, and it is currently in beta. The new feature will allow users to connect their MetaMask wallets to the Meural device and access any NFTs they own, enabling digital art collectors to physically display NFTs in a framed “smart” canvas hanging on the wall.

Partnership with Async Art

The Meural online platform is a digital canvas marketplace to which members can subscribe and access thousands of images to display on their Meural digital frames. Joining forces with blockchain-based art platform Async Art, Meural owners will be now be able to showcase programmable NFT artworks. Async allows art enthusiasts to create, collect and trade programmable art. This technology is an extremely exciting innovation for artists and art collectors alike:

Async Art is a new art movement built on the blockchain. Create, collect, and trade programmable art: digital paintings split into ‘layers’, which you can use to affect the overall image. Art that can evolve over time, react to its owners, or follow a stock price is now all possible with programmable art.

my.meural.netgear.com

Watch the video below explaining how Async Art works:

NFT art has grown into a US$11.7 billion industry over the past year. It’s no wonder that hardware companies such as Netgear are cashing in on the opportunity to provide new products to service this fast-growing market. Check out the Meural Canvas II in action in the video below. The frames are already available in stores, although the added NFTs function is not yet released.

Netgear Follows Samsung into the NFT Market

Netgear isn’t the only tech company with eyes on the NFT market. Samsung is also set to release smart TVs with NFT trading capabilities. These new digital display devices with blockchain interoperability will help drive the online digital art movement into the mainstream and real world.

There are already online NFT art galleries in cyberspace, and it won’t be long before real-world art galleries exhibiting NFT art in digital displays such as Meural Canvas become the new normal.