Bitfinity Weekly: Winning Together
Welcome to Issue #119 of Bitfinity Weekly for our #BITFINIANS community. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, sign up here.
What's in Today's Email?
- Global Crypto News
- This Week in our Blog
- NFT Market Bytes
- Tweet of the Week
- Meme Time
- A Matter of Opinion
Global Crypto News
Perplexity Market: Polymarket announced their partnership with AI-powered search engine, Perplexity AI, on Monday. Perplexity AI's integration will offer AI-generated news summaries and prediction probabilities on various current events. This collaboration aims to enhance user experience by providing real-time insights driven by AI. Polymarket is a popular decentralized prediction market platform where people can place bets on the outcome of current events.
Airdrop Layer: Shocking news came out this week about how Eigen Labs distributed their employee wallet addresses to Ethereum ecosystem projects unsolicited, ahead of token launches. Eigen Labs is best known for Ethereum restaking giant EigenLayer, and at least one small project admitted to feeling pressured to allocate tokens to the Eigen Labs team. Industry experts estimate that airdrop payouts equalled to over $5m per wallet at ATH (All Time High) prices.
Instant Conversions: MetaMask and Mastercard have partnered to roll out pilot testing of a crypto-backed debit card. Instead of users having to off-ramp their crypto in order to spend it, crypto held on associated MetaMask wallets would be instantly converted to fiat at the time of purchase, bypassing the need for traditional off-ramping through centralized exchanges. Currently only a few thousand test users in Europe will be supported, but the 'MetaMask Card' is scheduled to fully roll out in the EU and UK by the end of this year.
Harbor Town: Yilport, a Turkish holding company, is investing $1.62 billion in El Salvador's "Bitcoin City", marking the single largest private investment in the country's history. The investment is intended for infrastructure development of two of El Salvador's seaports, one of which handles most of the nation's exports of coffee and sugar. According to a video statement shared by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, this investment means a "mixed-ownership company" will operate both seaports for the next 50 years.
Partnership Party : Uniquid Layer - Enable Bitfinity to become the Bitcoin L2 for Uniquid Layer users, driving a stronger Bitcoin ecosystem. Rivo - To enhance cross-chain integrations, allowing Rivo users better access to Bitcoin and EVM protocols. Bitcoin Virtual Machine - Enabling BVM users to build robust Bitcoin-powered DApps and deploy on EVM chains concurrently. Segment Finance - Provides their users with cross-chain support across Bitcoin and EVM chains. Apro Oracle - Enabling Bitfinity builders to easily leverage Apro's oracle services in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
This Week in our Blog
As the NFT market becomes more sophisticated, so do the methodology of bad actors within the space. In this week's deep dive, we take a look at some of the newest security challenges for NFT investors, as well as best practice options:
Hans
Bitfinity's Blockchain Bash highlights strategic partnerships with Bitgert, Omnity Network, Pell Network, and OrangeLayer, aiming to enhance blockchain interoperability, security, and scalability by leveraging Bitfinity’s EVM compatibility and bridging capabilities for Bitcoin and decentralized applications.
Fred
NFT Market Bytes
GeistKeeping: Pixelcraft Studios announced on Thursday that it plans to launch a 'members only' Ethereum L3 called Geist. The new chain will be focused on onchain gaming, and will be designed to overcome various hurdles that the crypto gaming sector currently battles with. High player turnover, botting and extreme gamification player behavior have all taken a toll on various NFT- and token-gated gaming projects, which Geist aims to address.
In the House: Fine arts auction house Sotheby's is holding a digital auction from August 15th to the 22nd, featuring pieces like a CryptoPunk and a Beeple NFT. The event, according to Sotheby's, will highlight the "interplay between artistic expression and technological novelty".
Immutable Forever: NFT and gaming-centric blockchain Immutable shut down its NFT marketplace completely this Tuesday. The company cited its intent to focus on expanding its ecosystem as the reason for shuttering the marketplace. The Immutable marketplace was initially developed to showcase the capabilities of its software development kit, and failed to gain significant traction.
Tweet of the Week
In our Discord server, we had several quests on the just concluded @Olympics.🪩
— Bitfinity Network (@bitfinitynet) August 15, 2024
🎉The results are in and we are glad to announce the winners.🤩
🥇 1st place: @directions_1983
🥈 2nd place: @uzEbuka1
🥉 3rd place: @090beans & @icpholder8
📢The winners will receive a share of… pic.twitter.com/mud7IpCr3b
Meme Time
A Matter of Opinion
Polymarket, a decentralized betting platform where speculators can trade on tokenized current events, has turned into a major fixture in web3 lately. Not only do self-professed crypto natives utilize it often, Polymarket has attracted the attention of a broader audience beyond the crypto sphere. It seems that with the exposure, scrutiny inevitably follows.
Prediction markets like Polymarket, which allow users to bet on outcomes of events, have attracted a lot of attention for both their technological potential and regulatory concerns. The ongoing debate over the potential ban of prediction markets by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) shines a light on this particularly complex intersection of regulation and economics.
While the CFTC expresses fears that these markets could incentivize fraud, manipulation, or even criminal activity—particularly in politically sensitive areas such as election betting—critics argue that such concerns overlook the broader benefits prediction markets offer.
Economists who oppose the ban emphasize the value of prediction markets in aggregating public sentiment and delivering highly accurate forecasts. These markets harness the 'wisdom of the crowd', often outperforming traditional polling methods. This data is not just useful for participants but can also be valuable for policymakers and businesses. This in practice could mean better public policies and practices.
However, the CFTC seems primarily concerned about the risks of market manipulation, particularly when significant sums of money are at stake. For example, large stakeholders could hypothetically influence the outcome of an event they have bet on, especially in less transparent or lower-stakes contexts. Moreover, the legality of these markets has long been a gray area, many operating without explicit regulatory approval.
Should regulators prioritize controlling every possible risk, even at the cost of innovative financial tools, or is there room for balanced regulation that fosters technological progress while mitigating those risks?
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