DeFi

Stargate Builds a Double Exhaust for Bridges

Blockchain bridges are software used to transfer tokens from one blockchain to another. It is a service that monitors both networks at the same time. When a user wants to move tokens, the bridge picks them up in the original network and “issues” them in the required one. Blockchain bridges work just like the bridges we know in the physical world. Just as a physical bridge connects two physical locations, a blockchain bridge connects two blockchain ecosystems. 

All blockchains have their limitations but however, all blockchains develop in isolated environments and have different rules and consensus mechanisms. This means they cannot natively communicate, and tokens cannot move freely between blockchains. Based on this interoperability which bridges afford, it’s so cool to Introduce Stargate which is the first and only bridge to solve the Bridging Trilemma (The impossible trinity), unlocking seamless composability; enabling the wrapping of all existing DeFi applications.

Crossing the Bridge

The essence of bridges cannot be over-emphasized. Bridges help in a lot of ways amongst which include: Lower transaction fees. For lower transaction fees, it could be assumed that the user has ETH on Ethereum Mainnet but wants cheaper transaction fees to explore different dapps. By bridging your ETH from the Mainnet to an Ethereum L2 rollup, you can enjoy lower transaction fees. Bringing this home to Stargate, the omnichannel universe is here to stay, but the infrastructure is fragmented. 

For bridging, the focus is on user-driven asset movement between chains. Although this sounds like an intuitive approach, it’s actually far from practical. For example, if you want to yield farm on a hot new chain you must swap your assets to a bridgeable asset, bridge, and then farm all in a 20+ click multi-transaction session. In an ideal world, you could swap, bridge, and farm all in one transaction from the source chain.

Get Your Feets Ready To Sprint

The Launch of Stargate would seem like a ready-to-sprint show which will be launching on the 17th of March 2022. Stargate’s liquidity generation event begins, leading off with an auction followed by Stargate going live with a simultaneous bonding curve. To build a more robust system, all funds raised during the event will be owned by the protocol. The auction at the event will begin by 12 pm EDT on https://stargate.finance.

While the big show rolls out, the auction will end when $25M USDC has been purchased or after 48 hours have elapsed, whichever comes first. This will make the maximum price per token $0.25. The Stargate ecosystem being abreast with how to build its system will at the end of the auction, freeze the 100M STG for 12 months, followed by 6 months linear unlocking for participants.

Eureka, we got the Bomb

A little more to note is that, upon conclusion of the auction, Stargate and the bonding curves will go live on seven chains which include: Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Fantom, Arbitrum, and Optimism. With Stargate live on all seven chains, this will enable its users to be able to swap Stargate enabled assets freely between the chains allowing for everyone to participate in bonding everywhere. The bonding curve will last for 72 hours and the remainder of the tokens will be returned to the protocol.

New Climes of Golfing with LINKSDAO

The effulgence of the Metaverse into Blockchain Technology is quite astonishing knowing how it’s become a new game-changer within the space in quite a short time as it has onboarded giant tech merger companies worth billions of dollars, thereby creating a new narrative with their scope of operation/Modus operandi. The likes of Apple and Roblox can’t be excluded from this list. One of the most exciting utilities of blockchain technology and decentralized finance is brought along by LinksDAO. Without much emphasis, LinksDao has become the new game-changer within the Blockchain space.

Globally, the sports industry can’t successfully create indelible marks on the sand of time without placing Golf on its golden templates after football. Amongst its other invaluable impact, Golf as a unique sport goes the extra mile to define true sportsmanship and it’s on this premise that LinksDao holds its centers on the Blockchain technology space to become the new game-changer after Metaverse. LinksDAO is creating the modern golf and leisure club with a community of thousands of golf enthusiasts that come together to create one of the largest and greatest global golf clubs. Golf is a popular sport that originated in the early 1920s and has grown in popularity in the past few decades. 

Numbers are always interesting. 

During the last two years, the popularity of golf has increased tremendously and over 24.8 million people played golf in the US alone in 2020. Moreover, it has a significant economic impact as well with the total economic output of the golf industry in California passing the $15 billion mark. It is also projected that the revenue of golf courses will amount to approximately 24,7 billion U.S. Dollars by 2024.

In December 2020, the number of golf course users in Japan touched approximately 700 thousand people. Despite the COVID-19 restrictions, the number of golf course users in the last three months of 2020 experienced an increase.

In a bid to hold its center together, LinksDAO has smartly banked on its growing popularity by merging NFTs with the popular leisure sport. The project aims to establish a new era in golf by leveraging blockchain technology and establishing the presence of the sport in the crypto-verse. 

THE REVAMP (INTRODUCING LinkDAO MEMBERSHIP NFTs).

LinksDAO is a membership-based platform that, on New Year’s Eve 2021, dropped LinksDAO Membership NFTs. These NFTs gave the holder access to community access, governance, several perks and games in the future. These NFTs act as the key to unlocking membership at LinksDAO’s first golf and leisure club. 

Moreover, as Links is a DAO platform, it is governed by the community, and every NFT holder will have the following governance rights. 

  • Approval of LinksDAO functional operating committees
  • Physical club selection process and approval, as proposed by the relevant operating committee
  • Club rules, including culture, activities, design, and overall vision
  • Club membership rules and admissions policies
  • Marketing, partnerships, and sales

Moreover, apart from creating a global membership club for all golf enthusiasts, LinkDAO is also transparent about the usage of processes from the NFT sales. All the proceeds and net of taxes will be used by LinksDAO to, 

  • Chief DAO Officer and operational leadership, including course scouting, financial and acquisition planning
  • Product & engineering
  • DAO infrastructure setup and fees
  • Legal, compliance, and accounting
  • Marketing, partnerships, and sales
  • Community development
  • Further initiatives as approved by the DAO

LinksDAO is a membership-only club and is active on the Discord channel, where a global community of golfers and leisure enthusiasts of different skill levels connect and share their love for the sport. To learn more about LinksDAO, visit https://linksdao.io/

Hydraverse, an NFT dragon racing game that offers players huge earning opportunities

Technology is rapidly evolving, making this an exciting moment to be in the blockchain gaming industry. AR/VR, Blockchain, and other fascinating topics are all popular currently. As a result of the growing fame of blockchain games, the Hydraverse team has launched a new project that will merge its 3D NFT x Metaverse x Dragon racing game into a truly interactive adventure for all players.

The project’s creators hope to create a one-of-a-kind gaming experience that blends dragon racing with P2E activities while using cutting-edge technologies like AR/VR and blockchain.

The gaming business has seen enormous growth in popularity in recent years, and it currently has a sizable user base. Over the next 10 years, the total gaming market is expected to develop at a quick pace, reaching USD 545.98 billion by 2028 and increasing at a CAGR of 13.20 percent from 2021. The Hydraverse team hopes to grab a large share of the market’s profit and become the new hub for players seeking pleasure and gain.

How does Hydraverse work?

Dragons racing is common mythology, with each version differing from the one before it. Dragons are described as flying monsters that launch fireballs and resemble reptiles with wings in some accounts. In some stories, they are shown as possessing human characteristics or even immortality.

Hydraverse is a play-to-earn PVP dragon racing game in which players can make loads of money by racing digital NFT dragons across the metaverse. Hydraverse wants to be a leader in the play-to-earn market by building an inclusive metaverse environment.

What makes it unique?

After purchasing one Hydraverse dragon, players could engage in a range of game activities, such as breeding, training, racing, and renting. Then, with each player’s unique training methods and a dash of luck, they can compete in the Hydra Cup for the world’s largest reward.

Hydraverse has the following features: AR/VR compatibility; 3D NFT x Metaverse x Dragon racing; 2D/3D dual-platform gameplay for PC and mobile. Also, there is the eradication of hackers or fraudsters; strengthened security, which guarantees that the players’ earnings are kept safe; Players will be able to earn extra money by participating in unique gaming activities.

Improving your dragons in the game

As dragon trainers, players can earn more by leveling up their dragons. Here are some ways to ensure dragons keep performing in the game:

Training Dragons: Players can rank up their dragons by training them in the training area after finishing their duties. As a result, training chores serve as a mini-game in which the user can acquire experience points and level up their dragons.

Awakening Dragons: Players can awaken their dragons at any level or star. After the dragon is awoken, its stats will improve. The ingredients provided in the shop must be purchased to successfully awaken the dragons.

Funding to boost the platform

Hydraverse has undertaken private funding where over $1.5 million was raised. Everse Capital, Exnetwork, Roseon Finance, BSC News, X21, Alpha Crypto Capital, Brotherhood Ventures, Mars DAO, Almora Capital, Dutch Crypto Investors, SafeLaunch, BinStarter, CCK Ventures, Enjin Starter, Babylons, AlphaMoon Capital, DareNFT, Avalon Wealth Club, Avstar, SGN Capital, MG Ventures, Diversity Ventures, 6kWW, and VBC have all contributed to Hydraverse. 

The funding will be used to develop the platform and market it through influencers, social media campaigns, conferences, and other techniques.

Follow Hydraverse’s links:

 Website l Twitter l Whitepaper l Medium l Facebook l Instagram

IBM and HSBC announce the successful creation of a multi-ledger central bank digital currency

Tech giants HSBC and IBM have announced the successful test of an advanced token and digital wallet settlement capability comprising direct transactions between two central bank digital currencies (CBDC) in a hybrid cloud environment.

Several past projects have shown support for CDBCs, securities, and/or foreign exchange on their own. The project, which was conceived and conducted in four months, was effective in supporting such a complicated multi-asset transactional scenario across ledgers.

CBDCs, eBonds, and currency transactions were used in the experiment. The distributed ledger allowing the transactions was built on IBM’s Hyperledger Fabric and enterprise technology supplier R3’s Corda.

Details of the initiative

As part of a series of tranche projects to develop a digital Euro, the project was handled by the central bank Banque de France. Previously, the French and Swiss central banks said that a pilot run of the digital Swiss Franc and Euro had had positive results. Despite this, the two financial institutions released a cautionary statement on the topic, citing regulatory concerns.

Reaction from the parties 

Reacting to the success, Mark Williamson, managing director of GFX eRisk, partnerships & propositions at HSBC, said:

“Interoperability across different distributed ledgers and technologies was key in demonstrating how to save time, reduce market risk and improve security for transactions between central banks, commercial banks, and in time our clients around the world.”

Likhit Wagle, general manager of global banking & financial markets at IBM explained that the newly launched initiative would go a long way in bringing a roadmap for financial institutions seeking greater clarity. Wagle said, “As central banks around the world begin to explore the potential for CBDC to bring greater transparency and security to financial transactions, this initiative provides a comprehensive roadmap.”

“Our collaboration with HSBC, a leader in foreign exchange trading, and Banque de France, a pioneer in the use of central bank digital currency, to create a foreign exchange settlement capability that has the potential to reduce costs and improve security, is an important accomplishment that stands to benefit the global financial services industry broadly,” Wagle added.CBDC is growing in popularity

CBDCs are gaining acceptance around the world, in part because of their utility as a way to prevent the emergence of stablecoins, which some see as a danger to the financial system. Several policies are being made in its favor and more are expected to be announced.

For example, not too long ago,  the Australian Reserve Bank’s Project Atom CBDC investigation identified a slew of advantages while Kazakhstan’s central bank announced favorable findings from its CBDC pilot project around the same time. Furthermore, Russia is emphasizing the construction of a digital Ruble, and the Eastern Caribbean CBDC has expanded to two more countries.

Square Announced its Name change to Block a few weeks after Facebook changed to Meta

Square, Inc. has confirmed a series of changes that would see it renamed as Block. The name of the company as a legal entity will be Block. The company has become reputed for providing top services that cut across commerce, financial solutions, and software services to its clients. The name change would represent Square’s ambition to spread its influence in the system.

The name change to Block reflects the company’s expansion. Since its inception in 2009, the company has grown to include Cash App, TIDAL, and TBD54566975 as subsidiaries, and the name change allows for even more expansion. Individuals, artists, fans, developers, and sellers are all served by Block, which is an encompassing ecosystem comprising various enterprises unified by the goal of economic empowerment.

Reacting to the development, Jack Dorsey, co-founder, and CEO of Block, said, “We built the Square brand for our Seller business, which is where it belongs. Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same. No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help increase access to the economy.”

Changes to be Made

The sudden change of name to Block separates the company from its companies or structural components.  Despite the name change, there will be no organizational changes, and the brands Square, Cash App, TIDAL, and TBD54566975 will remain the same. 

At the corporate level, a core team, which comprises departments like Counsel, People, and Finance, will continue to govern the ecosystem. Square Crypto, a distinct effort of the corporation focused on promoting Bitcoin, will now be known as Spiral as a result of the name change.

Symbolism 

The name change is symbolic for many reasons. It represents a relatable title to the community as it gives a picture of a united community. Block is also an allusion to the company’s expanding interest in blockchain and cryptocurrency. 

“Block references the neighborhood blocks where we find our sellers, a blockchain, block parties full of music, obstacles to overcome, a section of code, building blocks, and of course, tungsten cubes,” the company wrote in a Tweet.

Square Follows the Trend

The company’s New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol will remain “SQ” for the time being, it added; however, its legal name will change from “Square, Inc.” to “Block, Inc.” around December 10. Cash App and music streaming service Tidal, which are now under the Square umbrella, will keep their own names and organizational structures. 

Square’s renaming mirrors that of other significant internet companies, such as Google, which merged with parent company Alphabet in 2015. In late October of this year, social media behemoth Facebook changed its name to Meta along with a new logo.

The move came as the company faced growing criticism in the press and in Congress. However, like Square, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg believed that the Facebook brand didn’t adequately represent the company’s expansion to include products such as Instagram, WhatsApp, Horizon, and Quest.

Other Changes

In other changes made by Square, Afterpay and Square decided to merge earlier this year. Tidal’s Cash App recently expanded to allow minors aged 13 to 17 to establish accounts with parental supervision, and the firm is gearing up for a shift toward direct artist royalty payments in the coming year.