
What Are the Key Events and Takeaways of This Crypto Winter?
This is just the beginning of crypto winter. What do I think about this crypto winter? I look at key businesses, the players and movements,
This is just the beginning of crypto winter. What do I think about this crypto winter? I look at key businesses, the players and movements,
On February 21, 2022, Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, declared the independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic. Arousing international outcry, this ignited the ultimate invasion of Russia on Ukraine three days later. While Ukrainians are still defying Putin’s covetous ambitions, new technologies have been floating on the surface to take advantage of each other.
As lucrative as the cryptocurrency world is, it comes with a high risk of losing your crypto because of hacks. To make sure that your crypto holdings stay safe with you, you must carefully choose effective storage solutions for them. One of the ways to keep your crypto secure is by holding it in a hardware wallet.
Work stress has become one of the most concerning outcomes of long working hours. According to Penn World Table 2019 data, Cambodia recorded the longest average working hours of 47.6 per week, while people in Switzerland only have to work 28.8 hours per week on average.
Around 130 years ago, back in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts, James Naismith invented the game of basketball. This invention has influenced millions of people. In fact, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) estimates that at least 450 million people around the world are involved in it.
That the metaverse is taking the world by storm is no news. As per a Bloomberg report, the global metaverse market could be worth US$800 billion by 2024. With more and more companies and individuals flocking to this new, virtual space, there’s a growing demand for services within the metaverse.
One of the main concerns that every single crypto publication highlights about popular cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, is that they adversely affect the environment. The proof of work (PoW) model of cryptocurrency mining followed by Bitcoin and Ethereum (till they finally switch to proof of stake, or PoS) consumes a lot of electricity. In fact, Bitcoin mining consumes more electricity than the entire country of Finland.
Imagine that you bought an iconic Louis Vuitton (LV) monogram purse from an agent online. To ensure authenticity, you brought the bag to one of the LV flagship stores; but unfortunately, you were told that the bag was counterfeit. For a lot of luxury buyers out there, this is a very real concern every single time they make a purchase.
On April 11, Meta announced its plans to allow creators to sell their own virtual assets on its virtual reality game platform Horizon Worlds. Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that this was an effort to expand the metaverse to the e-commerce realm. While this sounds great, the fact that Meta is planning to take a 47.5% cut on these sales leaves a sour taste in one’s mouth.
Few companies compare to Animoca Brands when it comes to embracing the metaverse and blockchain technology. The Hong Kong-based gaming and venture capital company invested in Axie Infinity before it took off and hedged its bets on digital property rights by way of launching The Sandbox, a virtual metaverse and mobile game. No doubt, they’ve always stayed ahead of trends in the blockchain world.
Cryptocurrency has become increasingly popular in recent years, as people have begun to realize the potential of this new form of currency. However, as with any new technology, there are always those who seek to take advantage of the uninformed. According to the 2021 Crypto Crime report by blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, scammers conned victims out of US$14 billion in cryptocurrency in 2021, an increase of 79 percent from US$7.8 billion in 2020.
Global popularity and interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have reached an all-time high. Celebrities, from Jimmy Fallon to Reese Witherspoon, are jumping on the trend and clamoring to acquire their own NFTs.
In January this year, a post by the co-Founder and CEO of a web 3.0 media company, nft now, Matt Medved, went viral on Twitter. The tweet that reads “Literature NFTs will change the world” caused a heated discussion on the social media platform.
“I love chaos”, tweeted Terra Founder, Do Kwon, just a few days before his crypto crashed to zero. For him, watching companies crumble during the crypto crash was “entertaining”…until his own did, leaving him “heartbroken” and broke. Whether he jinxed or calculatedly brought this misery upon himself is yet to be ascertained.
After entering the digital art, games and music industries, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been making their way into the film and television space lately. Aside from preventing piracy and other intellectual property-related issues, NFTs reshape and accelerate the growth of the entertainment industry.
Virtual real estate is booming, with sales topping US$500 million last year. In 2021, The Sandbox, the largest real estate metaverse, saw 65,000 virtual land transactions, totaling US$350 million. Meanwhile, Decentraland, the second-largest virtual world, saw 21,000 real estate transactions worth US$110 million last year.