Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini announced on Wednesday that Earn users have received .18 billion of their digital assets in kind, representing 97% of their assets owed and a 232% recovery since Genesis halted withdrawals. This recovery follows a settlement with Genesis and other creditors, ensuring that Earn users will receive 100% of their digital assets back […]
Bitcoin News
Blue Chip NFTs 101 – Azuki, A New Kind Of Brand For The Future… And A Scandal
The idea behind Azuki is phenomenal. To mix NFT culture with anime-style drawings, with a global community working together behind the scenes as a kicker. Azuki defines itself as a “decentralized brand for the metaverse.” This brand’s main product is a collection of 10K anime-style avatars in NFT form. The collection is also called Azuki and at inception was one of the NFT space’s biggest success stories…
… until admissions and revelations by one of the project’s creators cast a shadow on Azuki as a whole.
Let’s review the project’s history, its characteristics, and the interview that changed it all.
Azuki’s Origin Story
The project exists since January 12th, 2022. The team behind Azuki is Chiru Labs, their slogan is “Born in Los Angeles. Building for the metaverse.” Most of the members use pseudonyms and keep their identities private. A few use their real name, like Azuki’s co-creator and illustrator Arnold Tsang from Toronto, Canada. He’s well-know for his participation in “Overwatch,” which Wikipedia describes as “a 2016 team-based multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment.”
The community’s support is a key part of the project. On Azuki’s website, they use slogans like “A new kind of brand that we build together” and “A brand for the metaverse. By the community.” Ownership of one of the 10K Azuki NFTs gives the user access to The Garden. A virtual place Azuki promises “starts with exclusive streetwear collabs, NFT drops, live events, and much more that will be revealed over time.”
Azuki is a digital brand. A “decentralized brand of the future.”
At first, it seemed like the NFT collection was going to propel them to instant classic status. The initial success made their name recognizable and sent the collection’s floor price to double digits. At one point, it reached a maximum of 22 ETH. Nowadays, the floor price at Opensea is 7.4 ETH, what happened? Whatever the reason, the Azuki collection gets around. It has moved a total volume of 260.2K ETH so far.
We Need A Little… Controversy
The turning point for Azuki was a Twitter Space’s conversation, of all things. On May 10th, crypto influencer Andrew Wang interviewed Zagabond, one of Azuki’s founders, who just like that revealed that he was part of a few NFT projects that didn’t end well. It almost sounded like they were rug pulls, and people freaked out accordingly. The collection’s floor price started falling and it hasn’t recovered yet.
It was a mystery at first, but according to Cryptoslate, the projects Zagabond was involved with were:
- CryptoPhunks, the original CryptoPunk copycat collection. The first collection to receive a DMCA takedown from Larva Labs. Because of that, the CryptoPhunks were delisted from OpenSea. Zagabond abandoned/ transfered the project to all the holders in July, 2021.
- Tendies, a project that failed to capture the NFT culture’s imagination and shut down in the middle of the minting process.
- CryptoZunks, a collection that defines itself as “the first Punks to be generated on-chain with randomized attributes. Each Zunk is guaranteed to be unique from any Punk.” Apparently, it failed because of Ethereum’s expensive gas fees.
According to Cryptoslate, “Like the first two projects, this failed one was also a lesson. Zagabond said these three projects taught him that “blindly following the NFT meta doesn’t get you far.” He claims that all the lessons from these projects are now being applied to make Azuki a success.” None of those claims helped and the collection’s floor price fell downhill.
The question here is, were these projects rug pulls or simple failures with no bad intentions?
ETH price chart for 09/08/2022 on Bitfinex | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
Azuki, Built For The Metaverse
The definition of metaverse in Azuki’s site is controversial, to say the least.
“The metaverse today is where we currently spend most of our time: Discord + Twitter. How do we amplify this experience for Azuki members? How do we distribute the brand to places that have the most attention today? More importantly, where will the metaverse be one year+ from now?”
Is simple social media part of the metaverse? How does Azuki not know where the metaverse will be one year from now? Other blue-chip NFT collections are already building their version, laying their chips on the table. Is Azuki too late? Or are Chiru Labs just quietly working on something great? According to the company, they’re exploring the possibility of developing a video game. “Few teams have the experience and background to build a genuinely great game with mass market appeal and scalability. Though the core team has the experience, it’s a huge endeavor nonetheless.”
The Azuki collection is down, but not out. The team seems to have shaken the stink that Zagabond’s revelations brought, but did so in the middle of a bear market in which the whole NFT market is down. Azuki stopped the bleeding. Can Chiru Labs reclaim and even surpass past glories?
Featured Image: Azuki banner from their site | Charts by TradingView
NewsBTC
Taki Enters The Indian Market with First of its Kind Engage-to-Earn Crypto Economy
Taki, a blockchain-based social media platform that rewards users for their engagement with quality content, has announced a milestone of reaching approximately 600K users on the product waitlist.
With the IEO launch of the $TAKI token, TAKI DAO raised 0K USD from individuals around the world. This, along with the fact that trading started at 10x the IEO-price of .04, is a strong indicator of community excitement. Trading volume peaked at M before settling down with three exchanges adding the token by the IEO day’s end.
Earlier this month, Taki raised .45MM USD through 11 marquee global web3 investors, including Solana Ventures, CoinDCX, OKX Blockdream Ventures, Alameda Research, Formless Capital, Gemini Frontier Fund, and Coinbase Ventures.
While expressing excitement over the achieved milestones, Taki’s co-founder Sakina Arsiwala said, “Taki wants to empower creators and give them a platform to bring forward their content and earn an income. With this IEO launch, users can better understand our vision and gain more confidence in Taki’s future growth.”
The success of Taki’s IEO is a testament to the growing interest in cryptocurrency and blockchain in India.
What is Taki?
Taki’s rapid growth and adoption can be attributed to its unique value proposition, which is to establish a first-of-its-kind engage-to-earn crypto economy.
Users can engage with their favorite content creators, create their own content, and earn TAKI tokens along the way.
Taki was founded to be easily accessible and serve as a gateway into Web3 while addressing the fast-growing demand for alternative social media engagement channels, especially given the rise of censorship across centralized social media platforms.
With Taki, users not only have the freedom to engage with the content they love, but they also get cryptocurrency rewards for producing their own content.
Powered by the RLY protocol and built on Solana’s blockchain, Taki can get accessed through a mobile app that is capable of some of the fastest transaction throughputs in Web3.
Taking into account the interest shown by the over 600,000 users on its waitlist, Taki is already proving to be more than just an alternative, but a next-generation social media platform for all.
According to the platform’s co-founder Arsiwala, “The platform is designed in a way that anyone can use it, even those who are not well versed with crypto. This is where the $TAKI token will play its charm.”
Arsiwala added that, “With $TAKI token, creators, users, and crypto-enthusiasts will be able to monetize their engagement and content on the platform.”
Moving towards web3 Social Media
Over the years, there has been a growing shift towards decentralization as users become more aware of the benefits of web3 applications. At its core, web3 products such as Taki enable users to both have more control over the content they produce and also get rewarded for engagement.
This is in stark contrast to the current web2 social media landscape, which is dominated by a handful of centralized platforms that have been known to censor content and throttle user growth.
The Taki team believes that now is the time for a shift in how social media platforms operate.
Taki is governed by a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), which ensures that decisions are made swiftly and in a decentralized manner. This decreases the chances of centralized censorship taking place.
According to the team, creators will see their content distributed across multiple platforms instantly, with rewards going directly into their wallets within minutes.
As noted by Arsiwala, “Taki wants to empower creators and give them a platform to bring forward their content and earn an income.”
Conclusion
Despite regulatory uncertainty concerning crypto by the Indian government, the Indian population remains one of the most crypto-savvy demographics in crypto and blockchain worldwide.
After the ICO boom of 2017, India’s government has refrained from terming crypto as legal. Even so, the country has moved forward to introduce a 30% tax on cryptocurrency transactions, which could be a sign of good things to come for the overall crypto community in India.
Given the growing demand for web3 applications in the country, Taki is progressing on its mission to be a gateway for crypto-enthusiasts in India and around the world.
Pierre Gasly Partners with Fantom to Become the First Formula 1™ Driver to Offer One of a Kind NFTs for Fans
Blockchain technology is coming to Formula 1™ as Pierre Gasly partners with Fantom to bring NFTs to the world’s fastest sport
Non Fungible Tokens (NFT) have taken the world by storm in 2021. The previously maligned sector of the cryptocurrency market which was known for clogging the Ethereum network with CryptoKitty’s has emerged as the fastest-growing subset of the crypto market with billions of dollars in transactions happening monthly.
Slow transaction speeds coupled with unpredictable and high transaction fees have rendered the Ethereum network all but inaccessible to the average user and highlighted the strengths of newer smart contract platforms. Among these next-generation protocols, Fantom stands out for its 1-second transaction times and consistent, low to no cost transactions.
Fantom’s capabilities have not gone unnoticed by the wider crypto community, and popular NFT projects like Pumpkittens have embraced the user-friendly network with much success.
The ecosystem has also caught the eye and garnered the respect of well-known influencers and sports personalities including Grand Prix-winning Formula 1™ driver Pierre Gasly, who recently announced a partnership with Fantom to offer fans the chance to purchase NFTs tied to physical assets that commemorate the highlights of Gasly’s career.
As the world’s fastest-moving sport, Formula 1™ has entertained and thrilled fans for decades but is usually enjoyed on television screens that don’t offer the same excitement that going to a race in person and meeting popular drivers firsthand offers dedicated followers.
Now, thanks to blockchain technology and the power of smart contracts, fans have a new way to show their love for Formula 1™ and hold a piece of rare history while also entering for a chance to meet their favorite driver in person.
This groundbreaking partnership makes Gasly the first Formula 1™ driver to release NFTs for fans. The sale is set to go live on Wednesday, October 20th with the auction of three unique, 1-of-1 NFTs that represent each time Pierre stepped onto an F1 podium.
Each of these NFTs will be redeemable for both unique physical objects and real-life experiences, including the chance for a VIP experience with Pierre during race weekend.
There will also be an additional fourth NFT that is composed of 350 separate tokenized pieces available for purchase beginning at 2 pm UTC on Friday, October 22 that also link with special edition merchandise.
Fans who are interested in these limited edition items can access them on the Artion NFT marketplace, where users can use wFTM to make bids on all four pieces while the Fantom-based tokens ZOO and TOMB can also be used to purchase individual pieces of the fourth NFT. All auctions will close at 2 pm UTC on Saturday 23rd October 2021.
With 80 Formula 1™ Grand Prix races under his belt, the 25-year-old from Rouen, France is uniquely positioned to help introduce the world of NFTs and blockchain technologies to Formula 1™ fans.
According to Gasly, who is a well-known crypto and NFT enthusiast, “We’ve been planning this NFT drop together with Fantom for quite some time now, but as often with innovative projects, our initial excitement hides the level of complexity behind it.”
With the finished product now on the starting line and ready for its public debut, both Formula 1™ fans and the Fantom network are about to kick fan interaction and engagement into high gear.
Tobacco Giant Philip Morris Is Building a Different Kind of Public Blockchain
Tobacco giant Philip Morris is working on a public blockchain, an executive said, though not quite in the commonly understood sense.
CryptScout #BitFeed RSS – Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency News 24/7
Professor and Author Argues That Blockchain Represents a New Kind of Trust
In a presentation given at Princeton University earlier today, University of Pennsylvania professor and blockchain author Kevin Werbach has claimed that distributed ledger technology offers humanity an entirely new kind of trust.
Rather than being a “trustless” technology as many crypto proponents argue, Werbach instead posits that blockchain both expands trust, whilst simultaneously reducing the level of trust required for a system to serve all parties fairly.
Blockchain Tech: An Entirely New Concept of Trust?
Professor and author of, The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust, Kevin Werbach, has given a presentation for students, faculty, and invited members of the public on blockchain technology and its relationship with the notion of trust. The lecturer on Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania has argued that, contrary to popular believe, the technology backing various crypto assets not only relies on trust but provides humans with an entirely new form of it to boot.
To support his thesis, Werbach drew on the recent example of the QuadrigaCX exchange and the millions of dollars supposedly lost following the death of the exchange’s CEO, Gerard Cotten, earlier this year. The professor stated that the example highlighted the fact that distributed ledger technology did indeed rely on numerous different kinds of trust.
![](https://www.newsbtc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/shutterstock_607094732.jpg)
Users storing funds on QuadrigaCX prior to Cotten’s death certainly trusted the exchange with their funds.
Despite how unfamiliar Werbach’s name might be to those interested in either crypto or blockchain technology, the UPenn professor does have the credentials to make his views worthy of consideration. Werbach is described as a “world-renowned expert on emerging technology” in a report by the publication of Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy, Freedom to Tinker. The blockchain author reportedly focuses on business and public policy relating to various technologies, such as the internet, big data, and blockchain.
Werbach also provided services to the Obama Administration’s Transition Team, as well as insight for President Clinton back when the internet was considered an emerging technology.
In today’s presentation, Werbach went on to outline some of the different kinds of trust that exist in society today. He spoke about peer-to-peer trust, based on the relationships between individuals; about Leviathan trust (first detailed by British philosopher John Hobbes) being a social contract between the individual and the state, giving the latter the power to enforce agreements made in private; and intermediary trust, or trust that relies on a central entity to manage various transactions.
Werbach argues that blockchain adds to these an entirely new form of trust. Rather than trust in any single actor to validate updates to a ledger recording anything (Bitcoin ownership, for example), instead users of blockchains can trust in the design of the system, which makes censorship of data all but impossible.
Blockchain technology interacts with the concept of trust in two ways for Werbach. Firstly, it minimises the requirement of trust through the removal of a single point of failure, reduction of the likelihood of monopolies forming, and making intermediation processes much more efficient.
However, blockchain also works to expand trust. The tech achieves this by minimising reconciliation, carrying out automated execution of transactions, and making records publicly auditable.
Werbach went on to state that there is a clear conflict of interest between blockchain technology and regulation. This is because blockchains are entirely agnostic towards transactions. Does the Bitcoin blockchain treat coins used to finance the murder of someone any differently than it does those units of BTC that are being transacted for the first time after they were mined? Of course not. Therefore, despite the greater auditability of public blockchains, blockchain-based currencies are prized by criminals for the permissionless nature upon which Werbach elaborates.
In concluding today’s presentation, the author stated that there were three main trade-offs all blockchain system designers needed to balance: trust, freedom of action, and convenience. By optimising for one of these qualities – for example, convenience – developers must sacrifice some of one or both of the others. Bitcoin, for example, suffers in terms of convenience thanks to its robust trust model. Conversely, more centralised crypto assets might optimise for convenience (fast transaction times, instant settlement, etc.), at the expense of either trust, freedom of action, or both.
Related Reading: Bitcoin Blockchain Costs Approx. million a Day to Stay Secure
Featured Image from Shutterstock.
The post Professor and Author Argues That Blockchain Represents a New Kind of Trust appeared first on NewsBTC.
Bitcoin Futures: Make Way for a New Kind of Whale
A rude awakening? That might be what’s in store for the bitcoin market’s so-called whales according to trader Lanre Sarumi.
CoinDesk
Galaxy eSolutions the Global eCommerce Marketplace and Distribution, First of its Kind, to Launch ICO
Hong Kong – November 14, 2017 – Pre-Sale ICO of Galaxy eSolutions a global e-commerce marketplace specifically for refurbished consumer electronics will begin on 17th November 2017 at 12:00 UTC. About Galaxy eSolutions (GES) Galaxy eSolutions is based in Hong Kong, with global e-commerce marketplaces for refurbished, pre-owned consumer electronics. The range of products are from pre-owned consumer smartphones to other consumer handheld electronics. The whole process is managed by GES from procuring the electronics, refurbishing them, to re-selling and distributing them globally. The process provides high-quality products with affordable prices for consumers. (Video) – https://youtu.be/fYuXpIJRNJ0 “The GES ICO is
BitNewz.net
A New Kind of Bitcoin Exchange is Opening in China
Following China’s crackdown on trading against the yuan, some of the country’s major bitcoin exchanges are now shifting to the OTC market.
BitNewz.net
Blockbid Announces Launch of ICO Backed by First of Its Kind Multi-Cryptocurrency Trading Platform
[…]
The post Blockbid Announces Launch of ICO Backed by First of Its Kind Multi-Cryptocurrency Trading Platform appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.