May 28, 2022
Issue No. 4
CURATORS:
EDWIN ONG, JOEL COLON, ASHRAF AHMAD
Welcome to this week's AtherXplorer, covering the latest in gaming, blockchain, and everything in between.
This week’s top picks include:
- Blockchain & Defi: Tether launches $MXNT — a Mexican Peso backed Stablecoin; Brave Wallet Supports Solana Tokens and Integrates Ramp Network
- NFTs: Solana NFTs catching up; SuperRare Debuted its First “Pop-Up Gallery”
- Gaming: V Rising - Just another Vampire game or more; Roaring start to Splinterlands License Nodes Sale
- Legal Landscape: Legal Defense for DeFi Protocol crowdfunded via NFT Collection Launch
Blockchain & DeFi Developments
Tether launches $MXNT, a Mexican Peso backed Stablecoin
Tether, the company behind the most commonly used stablecoin, $USDT, announced its foray into the Mexican market. $MXNT will be available on Ethereum, Tron, and Polygon on launch.
When asked about the strategy behind the launch of $MXNT, CTO Paolo Ardoino noted that cryptocurrency usage has increased over the last year, and Tether was looking to capture the first mover advantage in Mexico, citing reports that 40% of Mexican companies were looking to adopt blockchain.
Brave Wallet Supports Solana Tokens, and Integrates Ramp Network
Brave, the Chromium-based Privacy Web Browser, and the team behind $BAT, have recently pushed out their 1.39 desktop version. The new version’s Brave Wallet now extends support to the Solana Blockchain and its tokens, in the first of a series of planned upgrades.
Also included in this new version is the integration of Ramp, a Fiat-On-Ramp provider, which allows Users to convert their Fiat Currencies to Crypto.
NFTs
Solana NFTs catching up!
Last month Okay Bears became the first Solana project to take the throne of the top volume project based on the 24-hour volume. This month, the Trippin Ape Tribe takes the throne as the only other Solana NFT project to take the 24-hour throne above a slew of other Ethereum and Solana collections.
Solana’s move to overtake Ethereum in 24-hour NFT trading volume is the latest sign that the Solana market is picking up serious steam. The rise of Okay Bears was another key signal, with that collection now topping $100 million in secondary sales in less than a month.
This all started with OpenSea opening up Solana NFT trading on their platform back in early April. As much as projects like Okay Bears and the Trippin Ape Tribe have had their moments to shine, only type will tell if Solana NFTs can consistently compete with ETH projects which have set the precedent in the NFT space.
Games & Blockchain Gaming
V Rising - Just another Vampire game or more?
V Rising launched through Steam Early Access on May 17 and has hit 1 million players after a week! V Rising is an ARPG, Open-World, Survival vampire game where you play as a...vampire. With all the things we love about vampires like feeding on humans or sleeping in your very own creepy coffin, V Rising adds some sugar and spice, making the game a real craving for those who thirst for more than just blood. Let's dive further into what V Rising does right.
A Survival Game If you stop feeding, your character can quickly run out of blood, causing you to lose health or be quickly burnt down by sunlight as you innocently explore your map. Plus, with higher-level enemies like Vampire Hunters roaming around the map even around your starting area, V-Rising manages to keep players on the edge.
More than just Survival
Besides being a survival game, V - Rising provides players with a wholesome gameplay experience. Construct and develop your very own castle. Decorate your castle as you see fit as you progress along with your game and fight alongside other players or against them in PVE or PVP servers.
With various types of equipment and weapons to craft which can alter your playstyle and numerous type of crafting stations to construct to level up your gear level, the game makes the player feel truly rewarded for progress.
Real Fun: Truly Unique Enemy Types
As you progress, you will be forced to strategize your playstyle according to the area of the map you are exploring. As you go along the Cursed Forest, invisible lurkers will ambush you or the cursed witch will hex you and turn you into a piglet, making you unable to attack for a small duration.
As you explore the Silverlight Hills, paladins will attack you with their holy magic and priests will provide healing support to mobs around the area forcing you to reprioritize your targets. Remember to grab a holy resistance potion before heading there!
Unique enemy types and the sheer number of attack types for each enemy you encounter make the gameplay feel so fresh and truly fun.
V- Rising evolves as you progress and is many games packed into one. Whether you're just looking to chill at your castle and add in decorations, roam around the world to hack and slash some priests and farm for materials or join your friends in a PVP server to raid castles, V- Rising has something for you!
Roaring start to Splinterlands License Nodes Sale!
Splinterlands is an auto-battler card game where every card is a collectible NFT. Built on the Hive blockchain, Splinterlands features daily quests, seasonal rewards every two weeks, guilds, a tournament system, and an in-game marketplace that includes card rentals!
According to Footprint Analytics, based on the data back in April, Splinterlands ranked number one with more than 350,000 daily active users, leaving the second, and third titles far behind.
Splinterlands raised a total of $4 million with the presale phase of their Validator Node Licenses. 2000 Validator Licences were sold which resulted in a burn of 14.5 million $SPS, along with 1 million vouchers burnt. 3.6 Million SPS was added to their DAO. A total of about 18 million SPS tokens were removed from the market in 11 minutes!
Validator nodes run on a delegated proof of stake system, where anyone with staked SPS can vote for a particular validator. The validators with the most votes will be the ones used to validate transactions and receive rewards. The distribution of the rewards is weighted by the number of votes they have.
Splinterlands will now offer Licenses! Basically, Licenses allow the holders to run a validator node and receive rewards, even if they aren’t one of the top-voted validators! License holders split 3,375,000 SPS per month and another rewards pool of 20,000 vouchers per month, providing them a steady stream of passive income.
Ather Labs’ Backers
DelphiDigital Takes a Deep Dive into Ethereum’s Ambitious Roadmap
IndiGG (YGG India) Invests in OlaGuildGames
NFT Marketplaces
SuperRare Debuted its First “Pop-Up Gallery”
SuperRare, a digital art market on Ethereum’s blockchain powered by the RARE token, debuted its first pop-up gallery on May 19 in SoHo, the historic New York City neighborhood known internationally for its affinity for artists and their artwork.
The gallery’s opening is a prime example of the metaverse, a digital reality that exists both in the people’s collective imagination and across a network of computer nodes. It too looks to establish its physical footprint in art history.
The brightly lit, two-story exhibition, curated by An Rong and Mika Bar-On Nesher, centered around pieces from 15 SuperRare artists that touched on sci-fi and cyberpunk, themes integral to the idea and concept of the “metaverse.” The gallery, which will be open to the public until August 28, is looking to revolutionize how we relate to art in an increasingly digital age.
GameStop Launches Digital Wallet and Plans to Launch NFT Marketplace in July
On Monday, GameStop launched a beta version of the new browser-based wallet, which will allow holders to access, spend, and trade cryptocurrencies and other digital assets without leaving a game.
The wallet will eventually become available as a mobile app that can be downloaded directly to a smartphone, according to GameStop.
Wallet holders will be able to use it to store and trade NFTs and other digital assets in decentralized apps, including GameStop’s upcoming NFT marketplace, according to the company. GameStop’s NFT marketplace will launch by the end of July, the company announced in its fourth-quarter earnings report in March.
National Policies & Legal Updates
Legal Defense for DeFi Protocol crowdfunded via NFT Collection Launch
A legal suit in the USA has been launched against DeFi Protocol PoolTogether and its investors, notably, Dragonfly Capital, Compound Labs, Galaxy Digital Capital Management, as well as other Individual Investors like Aave’s CEO, Stanislav Kulechov, reports Coindesk.
One of the objectives of the suit is to determine who is legally responsible when a DeFi protocol ends up ‘harming’ a user. The outcome of this case would be groundbreaking for the DeFi industry at large, as this could set a precedent for future legal suits against DeFi protocols, and depending on the outcome may cause Investors and VCs to be warier of protocols they are willing to be associated with.
Nevertheless, PoolTogether’s approach towards crowdfunding its defense fund via an NFT Collection was certainly novel, with DeFi users on Twitter sounding a rallying call to defend the “Principles of DeFi” by calling others to fund the Protocol by Minting the Available NFTs on their Website.
So far, while the Collection has not yet sold out, it has already reached 23% of its funding goal in 2 days since launch, with an additional 26 days to go.
Circle Appeals to US Federal Reserve to Reconsider Central Bank Digital Currency Direction
Circle, in a letter to the US Federal Reserve, has attempted to sway US monetary policy away from the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), by citing “risks to the traditional banking industry” and “creating a chilling effect on new innovations (from the private sector)”, reports Coindesk.
$USDC can be seen as a competing product to a potential US-Dollar CBDC (often touted as a major catalyst for the mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrency), with Circle’s continued business hinging heavily on the decision that the US Federal Reserve makes.
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