Bitfinity Weekly: Epic Things Ahead
Welcome to Issue #85 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
🌞 SOLar Power: Solana is having a good week. The L1 blockchain has seen a lot of activity lately, with renewed interest in the Solana Saga smartphone as well as a bustling memecoin trade. In fact, on Wednesday Solana's native token $SOL flipped $XRP to become the fifth biggest cryptocurrency by market cap and Thursday saw Solana's DeFi volume push past Ethereum's for the first time ever.
👁️ Orbs Wide Shut: Worldcoin, an iris biometric cryptocurrency project founded by Sam Altman (of OpenAI fame), is no longer offering its Orb-verification service in France, India and Brazil. This news comes just six months after Worldcoin's international rollout of its signature orb eye scanner to onboard new users. A spokesperson for Tools for Humanity, the foundation behind Worldcoin's development, told TechCrunch in an exclusive statement that they are "working with partners globally to ensure [the service] meets regulatory requirements".
🍀 Lucky State: As crypto entities brace themselves for increased regulatory scrutiny in the dawn of MiCA, Ireland is seemingly becoming the country of choice for web3 businesses. This week Ripple ($XRP) registered with the Central Bank of Ireland as a virtual asset service provider and announced its intentions to seek a license to operate from Ireland ahead of the Markets in Crypto-Asset regulation rollout next year. Exchange giant Coinbase has also chosen to establish its EU headquarters in Dublin.
This Week in our Blog
Runes is a proposed fungible token protocol for Bitcoin by Casey Rodarmor, who created the Ordinal theory. This new protocol aims to deal with the problems of congestion. Our deep dive into Runes covers all you need to know, plus how the Bitfinity EVM can potentially help relieve Bitcoin's scalability issues:
Hans
DePin (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) present a new model for developing global infrastructure through blockchain technology by lowering barriers to entry and cutting out the middlemen. We cover how DePin works as well as key points and players in this introductory article:
Hans
NFT Market Bytes
👨🎤 Higher Standards: On Wednesday Yuga Labs unveiled a new wrapper for CryptoPunks, called "CryptoPunks 721" which allows the early Blue Chip NFTs to be traded like an ERC-721 token. CryptoPunks, which were created in 2017, predate the ERC-721 token standard, which considered a standard for most NFTs currently in circulation. This upgrade comes with a safety risk caveat however, as being wrapped to be compatible with other ERC-721 tokens means CryptoPunks are now vulnerable to the same exploits as ERC-721s.
🧑🎨 A New Framework: Frame, an upcoming Ethereum L2 network focusing on NFTs, announced a massive token airdrop this Tuesday for their governance token $FRAME. Anyone who has traded NFTs on Ethereum within the past two years is eligible, making this one of the most widely distributed airdrops in history. While the network and tokens aren't due to go live until January, the Frame network aims to onboard NFT traders as well as creator and create an ecosystem that enforces creator royalties at the network level.
🕵️♀️ Hit the Floor: Flooring Protocol, an NFT-fi platform that serves to provide a liquidity layer for NFTs via fractionalization/tokenization, was exploited earlier this week. The security breach resulted in three dozen Pudgy Penguins and 15 Bored Apes stolen (worth roughly $1.54 million at the time of theft). This exploit follows last week's major hack on NFT Trader, during which dozens of high value NFTs were similarly stolen.
🎮 Game On: Epic Games, the entertainment giant known for publishing web2 gaming megahits like Fortnite, has made changes to their content policies on Tuesday, allowing blockchain games like Gods Unchained and Striker Manager 3 to return to the Epic Games Store. NFT and blockchain-based games had received an "Adults Only" (AO) rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board due to play-to-earn elements. Prior to this week's policy change, games with an AO rating were allowed on Epic Games' storefront.
Tweet of the Week
🎉 We're thrilled to introduce #BTC Domains!! A campaign in collaboration with @Dmailofficial @bsc_daily @guildxyz
— Bitfinity Network (@bitfinitynet) December 22, 2023
For a chance to win a Bitcoin Domain and Airdrop Points:
1️⃣ Retweet this 💫
2️⃣ Join the quest https://t.co/SePVBfZPha 🪄
Let's take a look at what's inside 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/5YFoq1AinL
Meme Time
A Matter of Opinion
Midst the chaotic news tornado of protocol hacks, memecoin trading, and regulatory decisions yet to be cast, one trend seems to be broadcasting strongly, signaling that blockchain-based gaming may become a major catalyst for web3 and the broader gaming industry much sooner than you might expect.
Many things stand in the way of web3 games taking off. For one, legacy gaming companies and AAA studios seem hesitant to touch anything relating to blockchain or NFTs. While we saw some companies like Sega dip their toes into the web3 world, most (Sega included) decide to leave the pool almost as quickly as they enter it. No wonder they don't stick around, gamers still have an overwhelmingly negative impression of NFTs and the legal ramifications of allowing gamers to trade virtual currency is too murky for gaming giants to bet on... yet.
Epic Games' decision to change their terms of use on the Epic Games Store platform signals that gaming giants are eager to get involved in whatever way they can. By allowing independent devs and studios to launch NFT- and crypto-backed games, Epic can establish a foothold in the web3 world without risking too much of their reputation or resources. Apple, arguably the largest gatekeeper of the mobile game world, has similarly eased some of its harder stances regarding web3 games within this past year.
These shifts in policy from industry heavyweights suggest an acknowledgment of the tremendous potential behind blockchain games. As more creators, big and small, explore ways to integrate blockchain technology into games, the trajectory for web3 becomes increasingly optimistic. The gradual thawing of skepticism and the willingness of gaming giants to experiment with blockchain demonstrate an industry in transition, poised to embrace the decentralized and player-centric future that blockchain gaming promises.
In the grand tapestry of technological evolution, blockchain games emerge as not just a niche trend but a linchpin that could reshape the gaming landscape. As we navigate the uncharted territories of web3, the fusion of blockchain and gaming holds the promise of empowering players, fostering innovation, and dismantling the traditional boundaries that have long confined the gaming experience.
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*Important Disclaimer: While every effort is made on this website to provide accurate information, any opinions expressed or information disseminated do not necessarily reflect the views of Bitfinity itself. The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice.
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