Category: NFTs

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AccuWeather Brings Weather Data to Smart Contracts Using Chainlink

US media company AccuWeather is launching a Chainlink node to place its application programming interfaces (APIs) directly onto blockchain-based smart contracts, the specialist weather information provider announced this week.

AccuWeather APIs include information such as temperature, precipitation, wind speed and natural disaster classifications. A few potential uses for AccuWeather-powered smart contracts include:

  • non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that can change depending on weather forecasts
  • weather prediction market hedges against natural disasters
  • automatic supply chain shifts correlated with the weather

Chainlink, an Ethereum-based network of decentralised blockchain oracles, allows off-chain data to be placed into smart contracts.

“As one of the first weather-related data products to join Chainlink, we are thrilled to expand our reach in bringing value to the emerging blockchain-based market,” commented Kurt Fulepp, AccuWeather’s global chief product officer.

Innovation is in our DNA at AccuWeather and integrating Chainlink demonstrates another way in which we deliver best-in class products to users and consumers in a diverse and growing number of platforms and spaces.

Kurt Fulepp, AccuWeather

How It Will Work

The ability to connect premium weather data to blockchain networks is critical to supporting the many new smart contracts being built on-chain for the forecasting industry. Smart contracts are data-driven applications that automate processes such as product pricing and contract settlement based directly on data feeds.

Smart contract developers need high-quality weather data from sources like AccuWeather to ensure outcomes accurately reflect weather conditions.

AccuWeather data can enable parametric crop and natural disaster insurance for regions where it is otherwise unavailable, hedging against future droughts, floods or associated sea level rises.

In March this year, cryptocurrency asset manager Grayscale added Chainlink to its suite of investment trusts. Shortly after, proof-of-work interactive blockchain Bytom announced it would integrate Chainlink as the oracle solution for its dApps, thus providing high-quality data and decentralised security.

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Crypto News Ethereum NFTs

Mistake Sees $69,000 CryptoPunk NFT Sold for Under 1 Cent

CryptoPunk 3860 is a male with distinctive features: cigarette, big shades, shadow beard and mohawk. The previous owner paid US$69,369 on July 29 before the NFT collectible was snapped up for less than one cent on August 4 and immediately flipped for $136,675.

According to blockchain data, new owner fazebank.eth paid 22 ETH (US$57,000) to ensure he won the sale.

larvalabs.com/cryptopunks Punk #3860

What Happened?

According to Jonathan Clark, co-founder of DeFi platform Float Capital, the owner intended to sell the punk in a whitelisted sale but accidentally made it available on the open market, meaning anybody watching the market closely could see the listing go live and snipe the sale. 

CryptoPunks – Some of the Most Valuable NFTs

The CryptoPunks project, developed by American studio Larva Labs,  has inspired the modern CryptoArt NFT movement and propelled punk-fever bidding wars – seeing the sale price for some skyrocket into the millions. In June, a whopping US$11.8 million – a new world record price – was paid for one CryptoPunk at a Sotheby’s auction in London.

CryptoPunks

Total Value of All Sales (Lifetime)
278.46KΞ ($745.58M)

CryptoPunks are a collection of 10,000 NFTs. Each punk is unique and its value is based on the rareness of its features. These pixelated faces of humans, apes, zombies and aliens have become a highly sought-after commodity among members of the crypto community who sport them as their online avatars.

New Owner Has a Set of 10

fazebanks.eth

The new owner of Punk 3860 now has a total of 10 CryptoPunks in his collection.

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Blockchain Crypto News NFTs

ERN Token Surges 45% Amid Launch of Messi Football NFT Collection

Lionel Messi, arguably the world’s greatest footballer, if not of all time, is entering the world of NFTs according to a recent announcement via Instagram. An NFT collection dubbed “The Messiverse” will be available from 21:00 UTC August 20 on blockchain platform Ethernity Chain (ERN).

ERN Skyrockets on the News

Following the announcement, the native token of Ethernity Chain climbed over 45 percent within 24 hours.

Ethernity Chain is not unfamiliar with such dramatic price surges. The token was worth US$74 back in March 2021, however at the time of publication was around US$11, a significant margin off its 2021 high.

What’s Included?

Ethernity Chain has previously dabbled with football NFTs, dropping a collection last month to celebrate Argentina’s Copa America victory over Brazil. Naturally, captain Lionel Messi was one of the featured collectibles available for auction.

“The Messiverse” consists of four artworks – three by Australian artist Bosslogic, and one by an artist known only as Impossible Brief.

Source: Ethernity Twitter profile

The NFTs included are:

  • “Man From the Future” by Bosslogic
  • “Worth the Weight” by Bosslogic
  • “The King Piece” by Bosslogic
  • Untitled by Impossible Brief

At this stage, little is known of the specific details of each piece, except that they are likely to have a futuristic tone. No doubt football fanatics around the globe will be the first to sign up and be notified of the NFT drop.

NFTs and Sports – Here to Stay?

NFTs are becoming increasingly interwoven with sports, as reported earlier this year by Crypto News Australia. From the NBA to the NFL to cricket, all manner of sporting codes are getting in on the act. Will this trend continue or are we in a NFT bubble about to burst? Time will tell.

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Blockchain Crypto News NFTs Sports

World’s First Cricket-Based NFTs Launching Ahead of T20 World Cup

Indian tech startup Rario is set to launch the world’s first cricket-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on August 15, well ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup scheduled for October-November.

Subcontinental business website The Economic Times reports that Rario has already secured the Lanka Premier League Twenty20 competition as a partner and is in negotiations with three more major leagues.

Rario claims it has initially signed male and female players from India, South Africa and Bangladesh to offer their digital collectibles to fans. Big names cited include former India fast bowler and official Rario ambassador Zaheer Khan, South African batsmen AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis, plus Smriti Mandhana, a star of India’s women’s team.

Other Players, Leagues and Cricket Boards To Be Announced

Rario co-founder Ankit Wadhwa told The Economic Times: “We are in the process of signing [other] players, leagues and cricket boards. We are trying to create an ecosystem before making it a global play.”

We are living in a mobile-first world and all our interactions are primarily digital; we buy, sell and help each other online but fandom is still predominantly offline. Rario aims to change all that.

Ankit Wadhwa, Rario founder

The Rario move makes cricket the latest sport to leap aboard the NFT bandwagon. It comes after the International Cricket Council (ICC) invited companies to express interest in developing and launching a digital collectibles platform for cricket fans globally.

Other sports such as the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and Formula One teams Red Bull and McLaren have their own NFT agreements in a collectibles market now worth over US$2.5 billion and rising.

The Rario platform will not only issue digital collectibles, but also offer games and a marketplace for fans to trade their assets.

No doubt Rario will find a foothold in a cricket-mad market such as Australia, which has already shown keen interest in sports trading cards, as reported by Crypto News last month.

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Australia Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

Steve Jobs’ Job Application Auction Offers Real vs NFT Comparison

It’s an aged, yellowed piece of paper with printed text from an old typewriter and some scribbly, hard-to-read handwriting on it. But it isn’t just any piece of paper. The item in question is the first-ever job application of Steve Jobs, the man who built the Apple computer empire out of his family home garage in Los Altos, California.

As the worlds of finance and art combine, the demand for NFTs paired with the sale of real-world items is growing at a rapid rate, generating a lot of money and interest.

The physical item auction of the late Steve Jobs’ first job application was hosted on the stevejobsjobapplication.com website by internet entrepreneur Olly Joshi and closed on July 28. The NFT version went on sale separately, through NFT marketplace Rarible.

Physical Copy Achieved Higher Price Than NFT

From a total of 43 bidders who took part in the auction, the winning bid was US$343,000, almost 15 times the sale price of the NFT version, which sold for just US$23,000.

The Steve Jobs’ Job Application from 1973 is a unique piece of history from the exact moment that a dreamer changed the world. It’s a snapshot into the mind of a future genius at a moment where any small deviation from the path ahead would have meant a very different world today. This NFT listing is part of the world’s first Physical vs NFT auction.

rarible.com
Steve Jobs’ job application

The item description for the Steve Jobs’ Job Application NFT listed on Rarible adds: “The motivation behind this auction is to gain a further understanding on where true ‘value’ sits in today’s world: the physical, the digital, or can value co-exist in both? This will be the first ever minted Steve Jobs’ Job Application NFT, created from the physical Steve Jobs’ job application.”

Physical Item Value Increased 1200% in Four Years

Auctioneers Winthorpe Ventures said it was decided to offer the document in two formats in two separate auctions “to test the appetite for digital assets in contrast with physical equivalents”.

Jobs’ application has gone under the hammer on three other occasions, selling for US$18,750 in 2017, $174,757 in 2018, and $222,400 in March. Prior to the latest auction, the physical item’s worth increased more than 1,200 percent over four years. The latest sale of $343,000 saw the value appreciate a further 55 percent in five months.

Crypto News Australia recently reported how Australian artists are creating their own NFT exhibitions, as NFT mania sweeps the country. In June, a highly valuable collection of historic Australian photographs was auctioned as NFTs.

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Coinbase Crypto News Crypto Wallets Cryptocurrencies Ethereum NFTs

New Record: Ethereum Hits 12-Day Winning Streak

ETH is on the move again as it climbs steadily back up towards the $3,000 mark in its longest ever continuous winning streak. According to data from Coinbase, it is up over 43 percent, achieving daily price gains over the past 12 days straight.

ETH daily chart. Source: TradingView

This price gain is leading up to the ETH London Hard Fork which will happen on Aug 5. The upgrade has been long-awaited and highly anticipated following April 15’s Berlin hard fork, which at the time pushed the price of ETH to its all-time high.

The London upgrade is meant to complement the Ethereum 2.0 transition that will change Ethereum from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) model. This may see ether becoming a store-of-value as it moves to become a deflationary asset, like Bitcoin.

Whales Are Making Moves

A fortune in Ethereum valued at over half a billion dollars is on the move as crypto whales relocate their bags of ETH. On July 30, blockchain tracker Whale Alert sighted a series of massive transactions in which large Ethereum holders moved 237,419 ETH in just over 10 hours.

Ether trading volumes have been higher than Bitcoin in the first half of this year as institutions invest heavily. Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap with a current trading volume of over US$300 billion.

For now, HODLers are enjoying the ride:

Crypto News Australia reported last month that a soon-to-be-released documentary on Ethereum, The Infinite Garden, raised 1,036 ETH (US$2.3 million) worth of crowdfunding in just three days.

The funds will help defray production costs for the first feature-length documentary about Ethereum, which includes interviews with creator Vitalik Buterin. It has a cool NFT movie poster too:

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Australia Blockchain Crypto News NFTs

Aussie DJ/singer Alison Wonderland Drops NFT ‘Dragon Eggs’ on Decentraland

Australian DJ, singer and recording artist Alison Wonderland, born Alexandra Sholler, has gone down the non-fungible token (NFT) rabbithole with a new blockchain project called WonderQuest.

Alison Wonderland in DJ mode. Source: theurbanlist.com

The fantasy-inspired project, launched August 1 on Decentraland, a blockchain-powered 3D virtual reality platform, allows investors to purchase a dragon egg – at a cost of 0.0888 Ethereum (ETH) – approximately A$300, with more than 6,500 already sold and another 3,500 minted leading up to the launch – as an NFT from the WonderTown market.

The on-sale period ends with a “hatching” event at which owners can figuratively hatch their dragon eggs, allowing further interaction with the virtual fantasy realm.

Alison Wonderland Plays Live Inside the Metaverse

The project incorporates virtual gift quests, discussions and musical performances, the VR game itself climaxing with a live performance from Alison Wonderland inside the metaverse.

Sales for the NFT project have already gone past A$2 million, with the full extent of the 34-year-old singer/DJ’s earnings to be revealed after the project concludes.

Decentraland describes WonderQuest as “an immersive exploration of Alison Wonderland’s virtual world of dragons and black magic”.

It starts with a single egg and ends with an epic musical odyssey in Alison’s very own Temple of Wonderland. Those brave enough to embark on this journey will be treated to money-can’t-buy experiences, live performances, fireside chats and epic quests through Decentraland.

Decentraland announcement

Aussies Catch the NFT Bug En Masse

Last month, Australian pop star Tones And I featured on Rolling Stone Australia’s first NFT magazine cover. Aussies are also showing wild enthusiasm for sports trading cards, with several businesses hoping to cash in by offering famous sporting moments as NFTs.

NFTs generally are a trend that most exchanges are keen to exploit. In June, Binance launched its ‘100 Creators’ campaign, which features Australian artists, sports stars and musicians contributing work sold as NFTs. Crypto.com also recently launched its own NFT marketplace, with contributions from music and sports celebrities.

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Blockchain Crypto News Gaming NFTs

Blockchain NFT Gaming Coins Are Soaring in 2021

This has been a year of unprecedented growth in blockchain non-fungible token (NFT) gaming coins. With some blockchain-enabled games seeing growth of almost 700 percent in a single week, digital games are becoming surprisingly profitable.

Playing Games and Earning Crypto

Mobile gaming, traditionally largely centralised, now benefits massively from NFTs, which allow gamers to transfer items that were won or purchased from one game to another game, thus conferring real-world value on digital in-game assets.

The transfer of NFTs outside of the ecosystems they were designed for gives them distinct value. Users have been found to spend 10-100x more on in-game NFT assets. This is because NFTs are unique and will remain with buyers forever.

To truly understand the extent of this phenomenon, let’s look at a few games that are realising mind-boggling growth.

StarLink

The price of StarLink ($STARL) token jumped a massive 40 percent over just 24 hours after a week of immense growth, with its trading volume rising 80 percent to just under US$29 million. The crypto gaming currency claims to be the “first 100 percent community-owned decentralised virtual space project” in which users can buy, sell and trade virtual satellites and spacecraft, and enact landings as they explore the solar system.

StarLink is following the ‘metaverse’ trend by creating a virtual world that can host data, ideas and NFTs. The company aims to evolve into a platform that offers visual and audio adaptations to drive NFT technology further, bringing it into real-world space and virtual reality concepts.

Splinterlands

NFT game Splinterlands is a new wave online collectible card game with the aim of replacing traditional trading cards. It has raised over US$3 million through a private token sale, which led to a price rally of over 100 percent for the newly issued token.

Online cards are minted as NFTs, meaning that players can own digital cards in the same way they would physical cards. The company has introduced a play-to-earn system where players can earn crypto rewards based on their in-game performance.

Splinterlands supports cross-compatibility blockchains to ETH, Tron and Wax, so that players can earn and trade coins.

FaraLand

FaraLand has been voted one of Binance Smart Chain’s top winning NFT projects.

The NFT metaverse game has gone up almost 700 percent in a week. This turn-based RPG game native to Binance Smart Chain makes use of NFTs to allow players involvement and ownership of their in-game assets.

Players own their warriors, pets, armour and items in the form of NFTs that are used to engage in “thrilling battle”. The in-game token, FARA, can be used to upgrade characters, reinvest in the game, and can even be cashed out for real-world prizes.

Flow

The price of Flow, a token from Dapper Labs, the company that brought you CryptoKitties, has risen from US$18.26 to US$27.56 following an announcement from Binance that it intends to list the project. The Flow blockchain is highly scalable and allows easy integration for third-party developers.

Fear

NFT-based horror game Fear has seen a growth in price of 429 percent in a single week in anticipation of the launch. Fear joins other video games in utilising crypto underpinnings and NFT mechanics to add another layer of player involvement and ownership.

Fear, the first horror game in a series native to the ETH blockchain, launched on July 20, and holders of the FEAR coin will have access to NFT trades and sales. Like other games, NFTs represent in-game items and allow users to become more involved than ever in the workings of the game.

Players will be able to earn FEAR coins by simply playing the game, and will be allowed to farm in-game items. This gamifies staking and yield farming and serves to strengthen the ties between crypto and gaming.

By Jana Serfontein, Crypto News Guest Author

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Ethereum Gas NFTs

$719,000 Lost in Failed ETH Transactions as Stoner Cats NFT Cartoon Goes Live

The new animated adult show Stoner Cats lost close to its total of 310 Ethereum (US$719,000) from failed minting of associated NFTs. Due to the huge demand, the NFTs sold out in record time, spurring an incident where miners were mostly only able to process high gas fee transactions.

Stoner Cats title page: Let’s Eat Cake

The latest non-fungible token (NFT) craze took place on the Ethereum blockchain this week with the release of Stoner Cats, an animated cartoon series with a few hard hitters on board such as Chris Rock, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane, and even Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

The first drop on July 27 made a total of 10,420 NFTs available and they were selling for 0.35 ETH each on the Stoner Cats website. (The NFT doubles as exclusive early access to the show before opening to the public, and provides lifetime access to the future episodes.) The high demand for the cartoon drove the network to capacity:

High Network Capacity Leads to High Fees

Selling out in minutes, the volume of purchases drove the gas price off the scale. When transactions are conducted on the Ethereum blockchain, like most blockchains it requires gas (gwei for Ethereum) in order to enable miners to process transactions or mint NFTs.

Users who didn’t set a high enough gas price had transactions that were left uncompleted as miners opted for higher-priced transactions.

In this case the gas limit wasn’t set high enough to cover all steps in the transaction, so the transaction failed. However it’s not failing until it runs out, so ~100% of allocated gas is actually being used even without the transaction succeeding.

Daniel Kuhn, Coindesk

During such situations, competition for transactions to be written into the block increases, incentivising miners to prioritise the highest-priced transactions. The developers are being held responsible for not setting the default gas limit high enough.

Blockchain a New Funding Medium for TV?

Stoner Cats is the first TV show to be funded entirely from the sale of NFTs. The team behind it says this was done to escape TV network censorship and retain creative control. The production team, led by producer Mila Kunis and husband and fellow actor Aston Kutcher, plans to release a further 3,000 NFTs per episode and will continue making the series as long as fundraising goals are met.

The profit realised by the NFT sales indicates the Stoner Cats team must have made more than US$8 million on the 10,000 NFTs.

The upcoming Ethereum documentary Ethereum: The Infinite Garden has also recently had its very successful funding round and is planned to premiere by 2023.

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Crypto News Ethereum NFTs

Coca-Cola Drops Its First NFT Collection in Charity Auction

The world’s most recognisable beverage brand is set to release a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to mark International Friendship Day and raise money for Special Olympics International.

Peer-to-peer marketplace OpenSea is holding a three-day auction for Coca-Cola-branded NFTs from July 30. The collections, created in partnership with digital designer Tafi, were “inspired by video-game loot boxes” and contain “hidden surprises” available only to those who purchase the artwork.

The so-named “Friendship Boxes” include a classic Coca-Cola esky, a wearable bubble jacket that can be used in the Ethereum-based VR world Decentraland, and a friendship card.

That Familiar Fizz of Effervescence

An added feature is a “sound visualiser” that plays audio of a bottle opening, a beverage being poured over ice, and the accompanying familiar fizz of effervescence common to carbonated beverages.

Coke enthusiasts can place their bids in Ether through OpenSea until August 2.

Each NFT was created to celebrate elements that are core to the brand, reinterpreted for a virtual world in new and exciting ways. We are excited to share our first NFTs with the metaverse.

Global Coca-Cola trademark president Selman Careaga

Coca-Cola says it will donate auction proceeds to Special Olympics International, a sports organisation dedicated to ending discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities.

In May, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated US$60 million in ETH after dumping his huge stash of three dog-theme coins. Buterin dispersed the resulting funds to various non-profit organisations, donating the dog-themed tokens and even some of the ETH he made in the sale.

Coke Bottlers Cotton On to Crypto

Though the company is not renowned for its involvement in the crypto and blockchain space, some of Coca-Cola’s bottling partners use decentralised ledger technology for supply chain management.

The 129-year-old Atlanta-based beverage behemoth retains an interest in the potential of blockchain technology, however. In September 2020, its Australasian arm Coca-Cola Amatil partnered with Centrapay to allow Australians and New Zealanders to buy Coke from vending machines using bitcoin and other cryptos.