Google Cloud Teams Up With Coinbase to Offer Crypto Payments

Under the collaboration, Coinbase will use Google Cloud’s compute platform to process blockchain data at scale, and enhance the global reach of its crypto services by leveraging Google’s premium fiber-optic network.

Coinbase will also build its global data platform on Google Cloud’s secure infrastructure and utilize its data and analytics technologies to provide Coinbase customers with machine learning-driven crypto insights.

In addition, Google Cloud will let some customers pay for its cloud services via select cryptocurrencies. Web3 developers can also access Google BigQuery crypto public datasets, which will be powered by Coinbase Cloud Nodes across blockchains. The integration will allow developers to instantly and reliably operate Web3-based systems without the need for expensive and complex infrastructure.

Coinbase says it is ‘excited’ that Google Cloud has selected Coinbase to help bring Web3 to a new set of users and provide powerful solutions to developers.

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, said:

“With more than 100 million verified users and 14,500 institutional clients, Coinbase has spent more than a decade building industry-leading products on top of blockchain technology. We could not ask for a better partner to help execute our vision of building a trusted bridge into the Web3 ecosystem.”

While Google hailed the partnership for helping developers get one step closer to ‘building in Web3 faster and easier.

Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud mentioned:

“We’re proud Coinbase has chosen Google Cloud as its strategic cloud partner, and we’re ready to serve the thriving global Web3 customer and partner ecosystem. Our focus is making it frictionless for all customers to take advantage of our scalability, reliability, security, and data services, so they can focus on innovation in the Web3 space.”

Google will also use Coinbase Prime for institutional crypto services, like secure custody and reporting.

Ethereum Scaling Tool Polygon Launches its zkEVM Public Testnet

Polygon’s zero knowledge-EVM public testnet went live, which the company described as “the next step for Ethereum.”

Polygon is a scaling tool aiming to facilitate lower-cost transactions and uses the Ethereum blockchain as its base protocol. With the introduction of zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup technology, Polygon is hoping to become the chief scalable system for Ethereum.

At ETHCC in Paris in July, the company said it would be launching its zkEVM public testnet over the summer, and was aiming for a mainnet launch in early 2023. So today’s announcement was at least somewhat delayed.

Polygon’s latest technology will deploy the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) for its ZK rollup, meaning that developers won’t have to use new programming languages and can move over their smart contracts from Ethereum without any hiccups.

DeFi Protocol Temple DAO Struck by $2.3M Exploit

Temple DAO, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that offers users yields on deposits, has been hit by a $2.3 million exploit, according to numerous reports on Twitter.

The apparent exploit was first noticed by Twitter user “spreekaway”, who posted an on-chain transaction that was later verified by blockchain security firm PeckShield. Temple DAO becomes the latest DeFi protocol to fall victim to an exploit or hack.

Last week, Transit Swap lost $28.9 million to a hacker just weeks after crypto market maker Wintermute had $160 million stolen from its DeFi business.

The total value locked on Temple DAO stands at $56.93 million, according to Defi Llama, with the exploit amounting to around 4% of the protocol's assets.

The exploiter has converted all funds to Ethereum and transferred $2.34 million to a fresh wallet.

How Market Manipulation Led to a $100M Exploit on Solana DeFi Exchange Mango

Mango Markets, a decentralized trading platform on the Solana blockchain, looks to be the latest victim of a massive hack within the crypto realm.

On Tuesday evening, Mango noted on Twitter that there was “an incident” involving an attacker draining funds. By Wednesday at 12:30 a.m. ET, Mango concluded that market manipulation had allowed the attacker to extract “around $100 million at the time.”

“As of now any Mango users with deposits on the protocol are not able to withdraw assets; This incident has effectively resulted in a total draining of all equity available,” Mango tweeted.

Blockchain audit firm OtterSec also noted that it appeared an attacker “manipulated the price of MNGO up across a number of exchanges, borrowing against their unrealized MNGO gains to drain the protocol.”

OtterSec and Mango both contend that this wasn’t an issue with Solana oracles, and note that prices were manipulated on exchanges.

After the incident, the attacker then made a Mango governance proposal to ask for Mango token holders to waive any criminal investigation, provide a bounty, and waive any “bad debt” on the protocol. As of Wednesday morning, the vote is 99% yes, with 33,254,078 in favor.

Anthony Hopkins NFT Launch sellout!

Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins' first NFT art collection, entitled “The Eternal Collection,” has sold out in under seven minutes on NFT marketplace OpenSea!

The collection is a series of over 1,000 original art pieces inspired by the actor’s decades-long career in Hollywood, with visual nods to his performances in films such as Silence of the Lambs, where he won an Oscar for his performance as Hannibal Lecter, and TV series Westworld.

Some of the benefits include intimate meetings with Sir Anthony Hopkins via zoom and an autographed Artbook, featuring hundreds of full-color images of paintings and drawings by Sir Anthony Hopkins

“Entering the space of NFT is like being on the moon, In awe of the limitless dimensions of technology and art,”

said Anthony in a Twitter post.

Gomu Raises $5 Million via Seed Round

Gomu, a non-fungible token (NFT) infrastructure company, has closed a $5 million seed round & the fundraising included participation from venture capital firms Coinbase Ventures, DeFiance Capital, Saison Capital, and others.

Founded earlier this summer, Gomu has launched two products, NFT Hub and Collection.xyz, which make it easier to grow NFT communities.

NFT Hub provides a customizable community hub and marketplace to NFT projects, allowing startup collections to more easily build an online space for their holders.

Collection.xyz, is a liquidity incentive protocol that makes NFTs more tradeable.

"NFTs' large potential for real-world impact can only be realized if the surge of industry interest is paired with the right infrastructure to support that growth,” said Chris Sirise, Partner of Saison Capital, in a statement.

NFTs and Intellectual Property: What Do You Actually Own?

Who owns the IP of an NFT?

Ownership over the intellectual property of an NFT is not always clearly defined. Cornell University legal scholars James Grimmelmann, Yan Ji, and Tyler Kell wrote in a blog post in March that it is often challenging to fit NFTs into the traditional framework of copyright law.

“Ownership of an NFT can be used to give the owner substantial control over a creative work, but that control is not automatic,” they wrote. “Copyright law does not give an NFT owner any rights unless the creator takes affirmative steps to make sure that it does.”

Laying out terms clearly prevents misunderstandings

Deciding what IP designation to use is an important part of a creator’s journey in releasing an NFT collection. With NFTs becoming more functional in terms of long-term utility, it is becoming increasingly necessary to define what that utility looks like for holders that buy into a project's ecosystem.

New data suggests that more NFT trademark applications have been filed this year than last year, a promising sign for creators and holders building for the long term.

Goldman told CoinDesk that there’s “a lot of mythology,” surrounding NFT IP licenses, and there is often a misunderstanding buried within the terms of the agreement – or a lack thereof.

“Unless [artists] say something out loud or put something in writing, no one gets any rights until they say otherwise,” said Goldman.

Read more at CoinDesk’s Crypto Explainer+ Article below 👇

https://www.coindesk.com/learn/nfts-and-intellectual-property-what-do-you-actually-own/

Dust Labs Announces “Proof of Work” App

Dust Labs, the creators of DeGods and y00ts, have been experimenting with various approaches to make DeGods the top NFT project.

The most recent experiment is called “Proof of Work”, which was announced on their official Twitter.

The name “Proof of Work” makes reference to the blockchain consensus model but should be followed in a literal sense, as the app’s purpose is to show evidence (proof) that the team has been working each day.

When navigating to the page, users can view a calendar and can click on each day to view the tasks that the team completed on that particular day. This is an interesting approach that allows their NFT holders to hold the team accountable, while also promoting transparency.

Additionally, it seems that Dust Labs allows other NFT projects to launch their own “POW” page by requesting access. This could be a potential way for the Dust Labs team to generate additional revenue if there is demand for this software. However, it is not known how many other NFT projects will want to take this approach and share daily updates publicly.

GameFi to Become the Onboarding Point for Metaverse — Animoca Brands CEO

The $200 billion gaming industry is rapidly becoming a key point of interaction between Web2 and Web3. In recent times, a growing number of gaming companies have integrated digital wallet support and nonfungible token (NFT)-based reward systems and even launched their own metaverses.

The growing prominence of GameFi in the Web3 economy makes the likes of Animoca Brands believe that it will become an onboarding point for the Metaverse. During the Future Blockchain Summit fireside chat hosted by TDefi CEO Gaurav Dubey, Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu said that its focus is on the gaming industry, as it’s closer to a metaverse than any other industry. He noted that GameFi would become an “onboarding point for metaverse and introduce people to digital ownership.”

Siu noted that currently, a large chunk of the $200 billion gaming ecosystem doesn’t go toward the gamers or even the gaming companies but mostly toward promoters and advertisers like Facebook and Apple. He added that the advent of Web3 could end that monopoly and bring the power back to gamers and gaming companies.

“More than half of the value that is generated in the gaming industry goes to Apple, Facebook and Google. How much of that goes back to the gaming industry? Zero. This is the issue today, and it makes the ecosystem unhealthy.”

Siu noted that the Metaverse won’t be a single or central entity but a combination of several metaverses. He said the Metaverse will be a “construction of new economies and is all about digital ownership.” He explained further:

“Metaverse to us is a whole economy. We don’t want to measure the future of these companies using PNL, we want to measure it in terms of GDP. Just like we can’t define Ethereum’s value by how much gas it generates but rather its utility as a whole, in the same way, the metaverse is an all-accomplishing picture. So, thematically, it’s a metaverse; but practically, itu2019s digital ownership."

RTFKT Announces Project Animus

RTFKT, which was acquired by Nike, has been making moves and working hard behind the scenes to enter the metaverse.

The official RTFKT Twitter account recently released a teaser trailer for their new “Project Animus” (click below to watch the trailer 👇)

In the video, we can see a small creature accompanying the main RTFKT character and another (larger) creature, as they walk into a room containing many eggs. The Tweet also includes a “hamsa” emoji, followed by an egg emoji.

The RTFKT team confirmed that the eggs will form part of their ecosystem via a follow-up reply to the announcement. The Tweet states that RTFKT Clones will receive eggs on November 2022 and that they will be “coming to life” in 2023, which might indicate that the eggs can be hatched into creatures.

Sentiment around Twitter seems positive. However, some Twitter users are saying that the smaller creature in the trailer is a copy of the Yuga Labs’ Koda, from Otherside.

Whether it is a copy or not, that’s up for debate, but there’s no denying that there’s a lot of hype around this trailer.

Liverpool and Meta Partner to Release Digital Metaverse Apparel NFTs

Liverpool has partnered with social media giant Meta to create a non-fungible token (NFT) digital clothing line for the English soccer giants’ fans to buy for their digital avatars in the metaverse.

The NFT apparel collection in the Meta ‘Avatars Store’ includes Liverpool’s home and away kits, alongside other club-branded sportswear. The eCommerce store is accessible via Meta-owned Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. A virtual reality (VR) version of the platform will also be rolled out later this year for use with Meta’s Quest headsets.

The agreement – which is active in seven markets, including the US, UK, and Spain – sees Liverpool receive a cut of sales revenue.

Liverpool’s agreement with Meta is a first for a European soccer property. However, Liverpool’s rivals Everton and Spanish top-flight soccer club Real Betis also both sell digital avatar apparel via the Fancurve platform.

Liverpool’s past Web 3.0 initiatives have not enjoyed a large degree of success, with the ‘Heroes’ NFT collection failing hit sales targets, but the club insists it is their responsibility to explore technologies that offer new experiences to their global fanbase.

Shrapnel Releases Multiplayer Gameplay Footage!

The supposed AAA FPS Game, Shrapnel, released multiplayer gameplay footage on the 12th of October and saw mixed reviews.

The gameplay shows the character sprinting and reloading the weapon excessively while the weapon and the camera shake all over the screen causing nausea to some viewers.

The developers of Shrapnel released a cinematic trailer early in October which garnered a fair amount of hype and attention as the trailer was built in Unreal Engine 5. The Shrapnel team has acknowledged that there is a lot more work to be done and the game is in fact being built on Unreal Engine 5.

This work in progress shows an early 1st look at SHRAPNEL multiplayer gameplay. There is a long way to go, but it shows the trailer we put out is in fact playable & built in UE5. We're showing early WIP to keep our promise to our community. More Shrapnel updates coming soon

- Shrapnel Team

Appsumer on Ad Channel Diversification

Performance marketing and user acquisition intelligence platform, Appsumer, has written a new blog post detailing how diversifying ad channels can help a business scale.

The blog states that AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) has been a milestone in mobile performance advertising.

“Deterministic targeting and measurement data, the pillars that advertisers relied upon to simplify scaling their app user base, were shaken. Perceived performance on core app advertising channels had noticeably dipped. And the biggest victim in all of this? Mobile apps who had yet to reach scale.”

The post notes that larger apps could better navigate the new environment with existing resources, whereas smaller apps faced significant challenges such as ad monetization and user acquisition.

Focusing on Google Play, the post notes that there are, at present, 3.5 million apps in the store, all of them competing for users. This means that smaller apps may struggle with user acquisition. This level of competition leads to higher auction prices on ad channels and increases the cost per acquisition (CPA). To increase install volume, developers thus have to utilize more ad channels.

Appsumer states that

“When to add new channels is a simple calculation. If you can no longer increase the volume of app installs on your existing channels without exceeding your target CPA or re-evaluating your KPI targets, then quite simply you need to add more channels.”

What Makes a Game Pay-2-Win (P2W)?

Recent free game releases like Torchlight Infinite & UnDecember have been pummelled by players and are now being labeled as "Pay-2-Win". They have both received negative reviews on Steam with most of the negative reviews highlighting the distasteful monetization model. However, before labeling these games as BAD, it is important to understand what is Pay 2 Win and what are players winning.

Defining a "WIN" is unique to the player, as there are a number of ways a player can win in a game. For example, completing PVE Quests might be considered winning, or just being able to reach the maximum level might be considered a win. What might also be considered winning is competing to see who completes the game the fastest or showing off status by equipping the best gear for your character. Now comes the problem where paying real money crosses the boundary and corrupts the player's intention and definition of winning.

For example, in Diablo Immortal, a player is able to progress faster by paying to buy gear. This corrupts the idea of winning for a player that feels that completing the game quickly is winning because another player can just buy all the pieces of equipment and completely outmatch a free player.

Similarly, when there is a Dungeon Completion leader-board and players who pay to purchase gear are at the top, it might alienate F2P players who feel that doing speed runs on dungeons is winning!

So is there a solution?

There might be none, as some portion of the player base might be unhappy that a cash shop even exists! Developers often try to reach for a fair solution where there is an in-game FREE way to attain the same items that are attained via the cash shop. For example, the player can either purchase the weapon via the cash shop for $10 USD or "grind" for 1 hour for that same weapon. In this case, however, the player needs to determine if the grind is worth their time investment.

Ultimately, the focus could be on developing an extremely fun gaming experience whilst trying to keep the opportunity to WIN available for as many players as possible. Some games like Tower of Fantasy have a balanced loadout for characters and enhance them to the max star level in PVP so that both paying & free playings could have an even opportunity to win!

First Major Crypto Esports Event?

The first crypto esports event has just announced its incredibly lucrative prize pool to fans.

W3E is a crypto gaming expo that is holding the first dedicated crypto esports event in Instanbul, Turkey on the 17th of November.

EV.io, a popular free-to-play, play-to-earn first-person shooter game available on PC and Mac, is the game that will be hosted during the event.

Players will be competing for a grand prize of $15,000 and ultimate bragging rights over the professional blockchain gaming industry. Also up for grabs is a winner’s trophy and also special edition NFT collectibles usable in the EV.io game.

Don't Do That: What to Avoid When Soft Launching a Game

A soft launch is the release of a game to a restricted audience in advance of a worldwide launch in order to improve the product based on the received feedback. This type of launch could save you money and help decide whether it is worth continuing to work on the game.

AppQuantum's Sergey Ryabtsev and Alina Zlotnik reflect on the mistakes made on a canceled project and share advice on soft launching in the mobile free-to-play space.

Amongst their reflections, they discuss:

• Countries that are most popular for a soft launch
• Common rules for a soft launch

• Some tips to avoid failing on a soft launch:
• Planning
• Do not rush
• Do not test all the changes simultaneously
• If you are running out of time, it is better to test several features that influence different metrics

Read more below 👇

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/dont-do-that-what-to-avoid-when-soft-launching-a-game

OpenSea Now Supports Avalanche

OpenSea, the largest non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace in terms of trading volume, will now support Avalanche, TechCrunch reported Tuesday. The platform will now allow creators to mint, list, and trade NFTs on the layer 1 network.

Avalanche, primarily touted as a DeFi chain, is often mentioned as a challenger to Ethereum with its fast transaction speeds and low gas fees. On the other hand, Avalanche has not yet had a strong presence in the NFT space, which this new partnership aims to address.

A spokesperson for Ava Labs, the firm behind Avalanche, told CoinDesk the chain’s bridge released in June revealed “surprising” insights about the chain’s amount of DeFi activity, and that “a lot of people will discover the same [surprise] about Avalanche NFTs with OpenSea joining the community.”

Magic Eden Losing Market Share as Solana NFT Traders Reject Royalties

The debate over NFT royalties is raging again, this time in the Solana NFT space—and marketplaces that eschew creator royalties are finding eager traders while capturing market share in a way that they haven’t yet in the larger Ethereum NFT community.

The company announced on Wednesday that it was “joining forces” with Coral Cube, a marketplace and aggregator that allows zero-royalty NFT sales. Magic Eden also teased that it will give users “the ability to determine what royalties on our platform will look like.”

Tiffany Huang, Magic Eden's Head of Marketing and Content, told Decrypt today that the startup will "protect" its brand by keeping creator royalties intact on Magic Eden. But it will also offer the option for traders to sell NFTs without paying royalties via Coral Cube—an apparent attempt to have it both ways in a quickly shifting market.

Konami, Japanese Gaming Giant, in Hiring Mode Ahead of NFT Marketplace

Japanese gaming giant Konami is seeking to expand its crypto-versed talent pool while it eyes the development of Web3 and metaverse “experiences” and a nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace.

The gaming giant is the latest in a lengthening list of big names signaling interest in expanding its Web3 offerings by seeking to acquire new talent.

On Oct. 13, the company announced that it was recruiting a “wide range of talent” for "system construction and service development,” relating to the future metaverse and Web3 platforms.

Konami stated that it has been conducting research and development to incorporate the “latest technology” into its games and content, adding it also has plans to launch an NFT trading platform where players can trade their in-game digital items.

The company is well known among traditional gamer circles as the publisher behind the Metal Gear Solid franchise, Castlevania, Dance Dance Revolution, and Frogger.

Konami is looking to fill several positions including system engineers, programmers, project managers, designers, and directors for its venture into Web3.

The successful applicants will work on a “unique digital item distribution platform” that conforms to Japanese guidelines for blockchain games.

This is not Konami’s first foray into nonfungibles. In January the firm launched a collection of NFTs to celebrate the anniversary of its Castlevania franchise.

CNN Shutters Vault NFT Marketplace, Prompting Rug Pull Accusations

CNN announced on Monday that it’s shutting down Vault, a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace highlighting major moments from its history, prompting some community members to accuse the platform of orchestrating a “rug pull.”

The cable news network shared a statement on its plans to leave the platform behind, as well as information on the collection’s legacy.

CNN said that it originally launched the project in June 2021 as a six-week experiment, though support from the community kept it going for over a year. The platform immortalized the media giant’s most significant archival moments – from Nelson Mandela’s release from prison to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s swearing-in ceremony – as NFT collectibles. Vault partnered with Dapper Labs, the creator of the moments-based sports collection NBA Topshot, to mint its moments on the Flow blockchain.

In its statement, Vault encouraged people to head to its Discord channel to learn more about what shuttering its platform means for collectors. The move prompted some to accuse CNN of orchestrating a rug pull – a type of crypto scam where creators pull the plug on a project suddenly and make off with investor funds. Others said they were disappointed by promises of long-term utility for holders, including exclusive perks, merchandise, upgrades, and discounts on future drops.

A CNN staff member, “Jason,” said in the Discord channel that the platform plans to compensate collectors over the coming weeks by paying them roughly 20% of the tokens’ original mint price in either stablecoins or FLOW, the native token behind Flow.

Infinity NFT Marketplace Seeks to Replace Royalties With Launch of ‘Curation’

What if there was a new model that could align the incentives of both NFT teams and communities?

That was the question Infinity NFT marketplace founder Adi Kancherla found himself asking for the past year. And he believes that he has finally found the solution, a new feature that he calls ‘curation’.

Here’s how it works:

If a user believes strongly in an NFT collection, they can place votes for that collection on the Infinity platform via the $INFT token.

The top-voted collections are then highlighted on the Infinity home page, which helps new collectors to discover them.

Lastly, users who curated a collection receive a proportional % of all the trading fees on that collection, based on the % of the total votes they have placed.

The beauty of this model is that it aligns NFT communities with collections. By earning a % of all trading fees, communities are incentivized to put skin in the game and raise awareness for their favorite collections.

Meanwhile, NFT collections benefit from increased awareness, and can also benefit directly by also voting for their own collections.

Lawmakers Overwhelmingly Back EU's MiCA Crypto Law in Committee Vote

European Union (EU) lawmakers on Monday voted 28 to 1 in favor of landmark new crypto laws, virtually assuring the passage of legislation that was signed off by the bloc’s national governments last week. The Markets in Crypto Assets regulation (MiCA) lets providers of wallets and other crypto services market themselves across the bloc if they register with national authorities and meet minimum guarantees intended to protect investors and maintain stability.

The Monday vote by the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, based on a deal struck privately with EU member states that meet in a body known as the Council, took place without further discussion, clearing the way for endorsement by the full European Parliament before the end of this year.

Lawmaker Stefan Berger, who shepherded talks for the parliament, called the move “good news” in a tweet welcoming the vote.

The European crypto industry has broadly welcomed the regulatory recognition, even if there are some qualms over the restrictions it places on the use of stablecoins, crypto assets that seek to maintain their value with respect to fiat currencies, as well over uncertainties about whether the rules will apply to non-fungible tokens (NFT). The law will enter into force between 12 and 18 months after being published in the bloc’s official journal, which is likely to happen next spring.

Shortly after the MiCA vote, lawmakers also supported a separate law to identify the participants in crypto transactions in a bid to curb crypto money laundering. The Transfer of Funds Regulation, which previously raised industry hackles for threatening to regulate the use of private wallets, was jointly agreed upon with the parliament’s civil liberties committee.

SEC Probing Bored Ape Creator Yuga Labs Over Unregistered Offerings: Report

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is probing Yuga Labs, the creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, over whether sales of its digital assets violate federal law, according to a report from Bloomberg, citing an unnamed source close to the matter.

At issue, the source said, is whether some of Yuga’s non-fungible tokens are closer to stocks and thus should follow the same disclosure rules. The key legal question at the center of the probe, according to Bloomberg, is whether NFTs are securities – a question the SEC has reportedly been investigating since March. People familiar with the matter said at the time that NFT creators and crypto exchanges were being looked at.

The SEC is also reportedly looking into how ApeCoins, the Ethereum-based governance and utility tokens used within the APE ecosystem, were distributed to holders of Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and Bored Ape Kennel Club members.

The tokens were first announced in March with the establishment of the community-driven ApeCoin DAO and the Ape Foundation. Sixty-two percent of the fixed one billion supply of ApeCoins was allocated to the ApeCoin community, including 15% airdropped to existing NFT holders. Additional percentages of tokens were allocated to Yuga Labs and the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation, alongside launch contributors and the four founders of Bored Ape Yacht Club.

CoinDesk noted at the time that the accompanying press materials appeared to go to great lengths to distance ApeDAO’s token launch from the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection. That's because club-style NFTs with perks for long-term members can start to resemble investment contracts, potentially attracting the interest of the SEC.