Bitcoin halving puts focus on crypto education initiatives

April 19, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Cointelegraph’s Rise ‘n’ Crypto: Unveiling the daily Web3 podcast

November 14, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Adoption

Want to keep on top of all the crucial happenings in crypto? Cointelegraph has a new daily podcast that provides a rundown of what you need to know in under 15 minutes!

Looking for a way to get all the crypto news you need each day from the best source on the net? Then look no further!

Hosted by Robert Baggs, Rise ’n’ Crypto is a daily podcast covering the most recent and important news, insights and stories without the fluff or rambling. Every morning at 9:00 am Eastern Time, while you sip your coffee, commute to work, or as you go about your day, you can get a rundown of everything you need to know about from the wild world of crypto.

Long-form, deep-diving podcasts are useful, but sometimes you just want a concise recap of what’s important right now — and that’s what Rise ‘n’ Crypto will do.

Cointelegraph provides 24/7 news coverage from every time zone, with unbiased insights and a wealth of research and data. Baggs will distill that deluge of information into what is essential and deliver it directly to your ears, Monday to Friday. Whether it’s market-moving events, legal drama, new fintech, the highs, the lows or the oddities of the crypto space, the Rise ‘n’ Crypto podcast will cover it all, from the biggest market-shaking stories to the fascinating and quirky of the past 24 hours.

So, if you want to stay ahead of the curve in crypto, follow or subscribe to Rise ‘n’ Crypto on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your favorite platform. You can also check out Cointelegraph’s full catalog of informative podcasts on the Cointelegraph Podcasts page.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

ZkDay conference and Pitch competition comes to Istanbul on Nov. 13

October 30, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

ZkDay Istanbul is all set for Nov. 13! The event marks the continuation of the premier zero knowledge-focused community conference.

Zero knowledge-proof (ZK-proof) scalability solutions have grown in prominence in the crypto ecosystem in recent years, making way for several ZK-focused conferences and events. A marquee ZK conference dedicated to the growing community will take place on Nov. 13 in Istanbul, Turkey. ZkDay is hosted by zero knowledge layer-1 platform, the Manta Network, Polychain Capital, nil; Foundation and Cointelegraph.

ZkDay is dedicated to facilitating top-notch community gatherings, fostering learning and networking, and driving the progress and application of ZK technology across the blockchain space. ZkDay Istanbul comes just three months after the success of ZkDay Paris in July, which hosted 3,000 attendees, with several participants in its “Pitch” competition securing financing rounds from tier-one investors.

Register to attend zkDay Istanbul on November 13 for free.

The conference will showcase 10+ curated early-stage ZK projects, with venture capital and ZK panels as well. There will be several sponsor booths for attendees to interact with, as well as food and drinks provided throughout the gathering, allowing for plenty of networking among participants.

Taking place alongside Devconnect, zkDay Istanbul is also hosting a zkDay Pitch competition sponsored by ETHGlobal, which will take place at the beginning of the event for two to three hours. The competition will allow ZK-focused projects from various stages to showcase themselves to the community.

We're excited to announce our partnership with @ETHGlobal, bringing you zkDay Pitch Competition at the beginning of zkDay Istanbul, featuring ZK startups at all stages.

Istanbul, Nov 13th

Apply here to participate:https://t.co/dVwr2vtUdz pic.twitter.com/eSxaW5aG6Z
— zkDay ️ Istanbul (Devconnect) (@zkdayofficial) October 17, 2023

Eligibility criteria for projects to participate in the Pitch competition include a solid idea and projects in search of funds or that have completed their seed round. Each participating project will have five minutes to pitch, followed by two minutes of questions and answers.

The winner of the zkDay Pitch competition will receive a tailored advertisement program from Cointelegraph, with an estimated budget of $20,000–$30,000. The winner also has a chance to secure a share of the sponsor-backed prize pool to be announced on Oct. 30.

The Pitch competition will be followed by keynote speeches and industry panel talks from some distinguished guests, with a lineup of over 20 speakers. The community conference will be a hotspot for networking opportunities with a broad range of industry representatives, allowing the participants to connect with important players.

Follow zkDay Istanbul’s official website and X account for the latest updates and announcements.

Sponsored: Cointelegraph does not endorse the content of this article nor any product mentioned herein. Readers should do their own research before taking any action related to any product or company mentioned and carry full responsibility for their decisions.

Clarification on sharing false spot Bitcoin ETF news

October 16, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Cointelegraph apologizes to its readers and discusses its investigation into what led to the posting of unverified news on X about a spot Bitcoin ETF.

Dear Cointelegraph readers,

We are incredibly grateful for the support and trust you have placed in our publication over the last 10 years. We strive to deliver the most thoughtful, engaging and impactful news affecting the cryptocurrency space.

Earlier today, during routine coverage, Cointelegraph’s social media team posted a message on X without prior editorial approval stating that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission had approved BlackRock’s iShares spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, or ETF. This was false, the result of misinformation. The news lead originated from an unconfirmed screenshot posted by an X user who claimed it was from the Bloomberg Terminal.

Cointelegraph did not ultimately publish an article with this incorrect information, but we deeply regret posting this in error on X and the impact it has caused. An internal investigation revealed that our standard procedure for posting breaking news on social media, wherein sources are required to be verified before posting to social media, was not followed.

The timeline of events is as follows:

13:17:30 UTC: The editorial team was alerted to the rumored news through a Telegram channel that Cointelegraph employees use to discover stories that might be of interest to readers (Figure 1). The full conversation is shared below.

13:19:27 UTC: Employee 1 reposted the text of the lead shared by a Telegram account that has since been deleted (Figure 2) to an internal Slack channel (Figure 3).

13:24:16 UTC: In an effort to publish the developments as soon as possible, Employee 2 posted the report to X without prior confirmation of the source’s veracity from the editor. This violates Cointelegraph’s social media process, in which source confirmation and editorial approval are required before posting (Figure 4).

13:48:38 UTC: Readers reported the issue to Cointelegraph via social media channels (Figure 5).

13:52:19 UTC: In an internal Cointelegraph chat, Employee 1 flagged that the source could not be located (Figure 6).

13:54:14 UTC: Employee 3 from Cointelegraph edited the message on X to clarify that the information was unconfirmed (Figure 7).

14:03:42 UTC: Cointelegraph reached out to BlackRock and the Bloomberg Terminal and removed the post (Figure 8).

14:32:23 UTC: After receiving confirmation from BlackRock that the report was incorrect, Cointelegraph retracted the initial tweet and issued the following statement (Figure 9):

To ensure that something like this does not happen again, the Cointelegraph team is thoroughly auditing and reviewing our social media management processes, especially around the authentication of breaking news before a post can be published. We are having conversations with all of the employees involved, and we will make all necessary structural changes.

This incident reminds the Cointelegraph team that our actions have serious ramifications across the cryptocurrency community. We are committed to learning from these mistakes and adhering to the highest standards of journalism.

Sincerely,

The Cointelegraph team

Water & Music’s Cherie Hu says Web3 and AI will revolutionize creativity: The Agenda

September 20, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Water & Music founder Cherie Hu explains how technology is evolving the music industry — but is it to the benefit of musicians?

Curiosity might have killed the cat, but for musicians, it’s often the launchpad of creativity and innovation. 2023 saw the rapid growth of OpenAI’s powerful ChatGPT artificial intelligence tool, and technologies like Midjourney and Dall-E have provided content creators the ability to literally become a one-man band — or a one-person production studio.

Keeping pace with the rapid evolution of technology and its impact on relevant industries can be a challenge for the average busy person, and one of the goals of Water & Music is to offer a more research-backed approach for music industry professionals to inspect, discuss and experiment with new technologies.

On Episode 19 of The Agenda podcast, hosts Ray Salmond and Jonathan DeYoung speak with Cherie Hu, the founder of Water & Music — “an independent newsletter and research community on a mission to make the music industry more innovative, cooperative, and transparent.”

Change is inevitable

When asked about what’s new in the music industry, Hu recognized that “the old music business very much was driven by a small group of gatekeepers,” and she suggested that the pandemic, new technology and perhaps even some of the ideology that backs the Web3 movement would eventually change this status quo.

“The pandemic, I think, woke a lot of people up,” Hu said. “I think it encouraged people to become a lot more proactive about speaking out about and advocating for changes that they wanted to see.” She added:

“A lot of the most critical, like deeply critical, conversations I’ve heard about streaming have come in the last three years just because, due to the pandemic, artists were put in a position where they had to essentially rely solely on digital sources of income to make ends meet without touring. And then they look at their streaming checks and are like, ‘This is this is nothing. I can’t live off of this.’ And so, there have been a lot more productive conversations around alternative models to monetizing music in a digital context. Web3, of course, has played a huge, huge role in this.”

Historically, breaking into the music industry meant artists either needed to know the right people to get picked up or be able to fund their endeavors in a way that created enough ripples to capture a wider audience. Hu believes that within the traditional music industry, “a lot of those mechanisms haven’t really changed for like the last 10, 20, even 30 years,” but she also acknowledges that new technologies have opened up new methods for creators to completely circumvent the conventional path to success.

Hu said:

“The way that culture is moving, especially if you look at apps like TikTok and the impact that ecosystem has on music culture and what music, what songs get big, it just moves so quickly. The unfortunate part of the music industry is that the financing element has not caught up to it.”

According to Hu, Water & Music aspires to take a more analytical approach to how the music business is evolving and being impacted by emerging technologies.

“So when we think about the new music business, we definitely focus on new technologies that enable people to participate in the music industry. You know, whether it’s creating music, marketing music, building communities around it, monetizing it in totally new ways. We’re interested in that entire stack.”

Web3 ideas and practices could become endemic to the music industry

Blockchain-based gaming, nonfungible token collections and other Web3 gimmicks were all the rage in 2020 and 2021 when the broader crypto space was in a bull market, but host Salmond wondered how relevant these tactics are today, particularly in the music industry.

Hu explained that with gaming, there are currently “more opportunities for building experiences than for monetizing them and building a business out of them. I would say that element is still missing and still challenging for a lot of indie artists.”

The infrastructure, time and overhead required to build out entire worlds is labor-intensive and not necessarily proven to be sticky, except for major gaming platforms like Roblox. Hu explained that a more pragmatic opportunity for artists might be sync licensing. According to her:

“Sync, or synchronization, licensing is the music industry term for licensing music for any kind of audio-visual multimedia experience, so like a film or a podcast or a game. And there are actually a lot of mobile games, especially, which I think is probably one of the more underexplored areas of music and gaming partnerships. You normally think of these huge games like League of Legends or Fortnite, but there are a lot of emerging mobile games, a lot especially built around music, that are looking for partnerships with the music industry.”

To hear more from Hu’s conversation with The Agenda — including her deeper explanation of how subscribers have benefited from the research published by Water & Music — listen to the full episode on Cointelegraph’s Podcasts page, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And don’t forget to check out Cointelegraph’s full lineup of other shows!

Cointelegraph Accelerator welcomes Web3 venture builder GAMI as a strategic partner

June 19, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Adoption

GAMI, a Web3-focused Venture Builder, hosts a variety of products tailored to the web3 and blockchain world, with partners like Gerard Lopez, a globally renowned entrepreneur and investor.

Cointelegraph Accelerator, the startup booster leveraging Cointelegraph’s media capabilities, has announced GAMI — a Web3 Venture Builder — as its new strategic partner.

The blockchain and crypto ecosystems are expanding into a much broader universe with the rise of Web3. With decentralization as a core value, Web3 brings more utility and use cases for blockchain-based technologies in a user-centric environment. Although initiated by decentralized finance (DeFi), Web3 offers a much broader spectrum of digital interactions and experiences, including nonfungible tokens (NFTs), loyalty programs, action-to-earn and gaming.

Cointelegraph Accelerator’s newest strategic partner GAMI works as Venture Builder with many products focused on DeFi and Web3, including the data-based marketing platform Midle, the move-to-earn app GAMI Move and the blockchain-based crowdfunding platform GAMI Launchpad. Together with several other projects in the pipeline, they form the GAMI World ecosystem, which uses GAMI as its native utility token. Launched in October 2021, the GAMI token offers various utilities on all platforms in the GAMI World ecosystem. GAMI has more than 40,000 users, including token holders and project participants. Last year, GAMI announced its partnership with the major Turkish soccer team Galatasaray SK.

Founded by a team of senior executives coming from the capital markets and the startup landscape and with over 20 years of experience, GAMI aims to build its Web3 ecosystem with a wide range of decentralized apps (DApps) and DeFi services. GAMI currently has three active platforms. The GAMI World ecosystem will continue to expand with other products in the near futured.

As the first platform of the GAMI World ecosystem, Gami Launchpad includes the latest initial DEX offers (IDO) and initial NFT offers (INO) to track and participate in new projects.

The GAMI World ecosystem consists of many web3 and blockchain applications. GAMI, the native utility token of the ecosystem, provides various utilities to users on these platforms. Source: Gami

The GAMI World ecosystem consists of many web3 and blockchain applications. GAMI, the native utility token of the ecosystem, provides various utilities to users on these platforms. Source: Gami

GAMI Move, the ecosystem's second platform, is a move-to-earn App where users who own GAMI Move NFTs can earn GAMI tokens by walking through the GAMI Move Mobile App.

To push Web3 adoption even further, GAMI also launched Midle.io, a Web3-based marketing tool that brings together projects, influencers, DeFi and crypto communities, and users. Midle.io users can collect points by completing tasks and earn rewards according to their progress. The goal of the platform is to create a sustainable and effective crypto marketing method and to strengthen the loyalty between users and projects.

How does Midle.io work? Source: Midle.io

How does Midle.io work? Source: Midle.io

The Cointelegraph Accelerator program empowers promising Web3 projects and startups by helping them tap into Cointelegraph’s global audience and established leadership in the media landscape. The program selected Gami as its strategic partner to help the latter build an ecosystem of services with a growing community. Together with Cointelegraph Accelerator, GAMI aims to become a unicorn, with a focus on scaling its product suite globally.

Web3 gaming gets competitive edge as Maniac Panda Games joins Cointelegraph Accelerator

June 2, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Adoption

European game studio Maniac Panda Games aims to onboard mainstream players to Web3 with its flagship MMO title.

As the Web3 gaming landscape is getting bigger by the day, mainstream players who enjoy playing popular titles games such as PUBG, Fortnite or Apex Legends are starting to take notice. However, there’s still a technical understanding barrier before Web3 gaming can reach a broader audience. Players need gameplay elements that they are familiar with to warm to blockchain games that usually come with technical lingo like play-to-earn (P2E), nonfungible tokens (NFTs) or crypto wallets.

The gaming world is no stranger to blockbuster titles that initially started as an adaptation of literary work. From The Witcher series to the first Bioshock (which was inspired by Ayn Rand’s dystopian classic Atlas Shrugged), using books as a reference for worldbuilding is a tried-and-true method for game developers. An upcoming Web3 game applies the same formula by building a virtual world around a fantasy saga to create the familiar feeling of ‘becoming someone else in an alternate world’ for players.

Inspired by the fantasy Outer Ring saga of novels of the same name written by Daniel Valdés-Araiz, CEO of the company, Outer Ring MMO is set in a lore-rich universe that has five species divided into four different factions, all fighting for control and resources. The game is a online multiplayer role-playing game (MMORPG) with extensive gameplay that ties in multiple components, including PvP, PvE, housing and crafting in a vast, sci-fi-themed metaverse.

Using 3rd person perspective, players can compete against each other, engage with brands and in-game businesses in real-time, socialize and monetize the time spent in the game. Known for their Valorant performance, major esports club Team Heretics announced that they will take part in the Outer Ring MMO PvP experience.

A defining characteristic of Web3 gaming is its user-centric economy, where players can own, trade and monetize game-related assets. As blockchain technology enables the creation of economic infrastructure in Web3 games, native tokens or NFTs created on the same network can act both as an in-game item and a crypto asset that can be traded on different marketplaces. Similarly, the player-driven economy found in Outer Ring MMO enables users to generate in-game assets and items and then convert them to NFTs. Through this process, players can own those objects and generate value by selling them.

Introducing a Scavengon, one of the 5 playable races in the game. Source: Outer Ring

Introducing a Scavengon, one of the 5 playable races in the game. Source: Outer Ring

In terms of tokenomics, Outer Ring MMO is built as a part of the developers’ Galactic Quadrant (GQ) ecosystem. It would use the same GQ token as the governance currency, while Exocredits (EXO) will act as the in-game currency. Other games to launch within the same ecosystem already available to play in their early stages are the racing game RacerLoop, the trading card game Underground Waifus and the gambling title CryptoDuels.

Developers at Maniac Panda Games, the gaming branch of Nexxyo Labs - a 300-employee Spanish studio regarded as one of the largest Web3-native video game studios in Europe - aim to seamlessly connect Web2 and Web3 gaming. The studio is looking to introduce Web3 gaming to the masses through their flagship AAA-tier game developed by former talent at Rockstar Games (the studio after Grand Theft Auto), Ubisoft and Electronic Arts. Cointelegraph Accelerator selected Maniac Panda Games as a participant of the program with an aim to boost adoption in Web3 gaming space.

Launched in 2023, the Cointelegraph Accelerator program aims to help up-and-coming Web3 ventures reach a broader audience and acts as a catalyst in assisting them in achieving their Web3 potential. By becoming a part of the program, Maniac Panda Games will tap into Cointelegraph’s global audience and its established leadership in the crypto and blockchain media landscape since 2013.

Aside from Cointelegraph Accelerator, Outer Ring MMO has seen interest from organizations in a wide range of industries, including basketball club Baskonia-Alavés, movie theater chain Kinépolis and decentralized finance app DexTools. All of them have sealed deals to tap into Web3 by the hand of Outer Ring and have their respective functional presence and integrations running within the game to interact with users and players. Following the closed pre-alpha release of Outer Ring MMO, which is slated for June 28, 2023 for PC and Mac operating systems, the team will continue to develop the game’s player-driven economy and expand the overall GQ ecosystem with more strategic partnerships.

Web3 gaming gets competitive: QORPO Game Studio joins Cointelegraph Accelerator

May 31, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Adoption

Web3 game developer QORPO Game Studio aims to introduce competitive esports to the Web3 gaming ecosystem.

The Web3 gaming world saw consistent growth and exciting developments in the first quarter of 2023, according to a DappRadar report. Traditional Web2 gaming companies started to notice blockchain technology’s potential, resulting in a total of $739 million invested in blockchain games and metaverse projects during the first quarter of 2023.

From the open-world role-playing games to battle royale-themed shooters, gaming quickly turned to a major point of interaction between users and Web3, with almost half of blockchain activity coming from gaming. While play-to-earn provides a fresh take on players’ experience of a game, there’s an even bigger potential for Web3 gaming with microtransactions. Web2 gaming offers skins or other in-game items via microtransactions, but the inefficiency and lack of transparency of traditional payment methods are often met with criticism from players.

Founded in 2018, QORPO Game Studio seeks to pair up blockchain technology and esports — a major Web2 gaming trend with skyrocketing popularity — to act as the gateway between traditional gamers and Web3 opportunities. The Web3 game developer joined the Cointelegraph Accelerator Program to ramp up the development of end-to-end blockchain gaming solutions.

Citizen Conflict is a PvP shooter in which heroes with different skills and gameplay compete against each other. Source: Citizen Conflict

Citizen Conflict is a PvP shooter in which heroes with different skills and gameplay compete against each other. Source: Citizen Conflict

Given a team of seasoned game developers who previously worked on major titles, including Arma 3, Overwatch and Mafia II, the studio’s main project Citizen Conflict, a free-to-play shooter, aims to bring triple-A gaming to Web3. Citizen Conflict is a team-based cyberpunk shooter created in Unreal Engine 5 where three hostile organizations wage an endless battle for dominance.

Players will heavily rely on vehicles to get around the world of the Ether Islands with gameplay that is characterized by its humorous yet gritty gameplay that evokes a war-like environment and trading features brought about by blockchain technology. Following its alpha test in Q2 2023, QORPO Game Studio is planning a public beta phase of its competitive mode in the third quarter.

QORPO Game Studio is also working on an open-world action RPG, AniMate, which aims to deliver extraction and battle royale gameplay. Inspired by companion-based adventures such as Pokemon, AniMate takes players to a world divided into islands and centered around five essential elements.

AniMate blends Pokemon-esque graphics and narrative with Fortnite’s battle royale game mechanics. Source: QORPO Game Studio

AniMate blends Pokemon-esque graphics and narrative with Fortnite’s battle royale game mechanics. Source: QORPO Game Studio

Users will be able to customize their characters and join an open world to engage in dangerous challenges as they battle other players and loot NPC-guarded camps. Each monster has unique powers and is subject to different weaknesses at various stages of evolution. Following the release of the game, QORPO Game Studio also plans to launch AniMate comics and a physical trading card collection.

The Cointelegraph Accelerator program helps fresh Web3 startups and projects prosper by leveraging Cointelegraph’s network and leadership as the leading crypto and blockchain media outlet since 2013. As part of the program, QORPO Game Studio will continue developing its two titles, focusing on bringing the skill-based competitive niche to Web3 gaming.

Financial surveillance, privacy and CBDCs: Why are governments going cashless?

May 24, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

Attorney Marta Belcher joins The Agenda podcast to unpack financial surveillance’s vast infrastructure and warn of the potential ramifications of central bank digital currencies.

When most people think of surveillance, they probably think of cameras on street corners, government agencies collecting emails, or smartphones and smart home devices listening to conversations. But there is another form of government and corporate surveillance that gets less attention but is just as prevalent: financial surveillance.

On Episode 12 of The Agenda podcast, Jonathan DeYoung is joined by Marta Belcher, a cryptocurrency and civil liberties attorney who serves as president and chair of the Filecoin Foundation and general counsel and head of policy at Protocol Labs, which helps develop the Filecoin protocol. The two discuss a wide range of topics, from the ins and outs of financial surveillance in the United States to why governments are turning away from cash in favor of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

What is financial surveillance, and why does it matter?

To understand how financial surveillance is carried out in the United States, one must first understand the U.S. Constitution. “The Fourth Amendment basically says, if you want to get information about a person in the United States, you as law enforcement have to have a warrant that has to be signed by a judge based on you having probable cause of suspecting them of a crime,” Belcher explained.

However, under what is known as the “third-party doctrine,” the U.S. government holds that any information voluntarily handed over to a “third party” — such as a bank — can be collected without a warrant or probable cause. Given the amount of customer information banks are required to collect under the Bank Secrecy Act, the government winds up with a significant amount of information on the financial lives of everyday citizens.

“When you think about today’s world, we live our entire lives through third parties. At any given moment in time, we are sending massive amounts of data to all sorts of third parties,” said Belcher.

“The government can get basically any information about us, and it’s rendered the Fourth Amendment useless.”

However, not everyone cares that such vast amounts of information are collected about them — but should they? “As an advocate for privacy and civil liberties, I encounter this common refrain of, ‘Okay, but why should I care?’” Belcher explained. “I have nothing to hide, and I don’t care if the government sees my financial transactions.”

According to the civil liberties attorney, this is a limited perspective:

“You may think you have nothing to hide right now, but at any point in time, the law could be different. At any point in time, an administration can change. And I think that it is important, and people are starting to understand why it’s important, to be able to make transactions that the government can’t see.”

CBDCs: A cause for concern?

CBDCs are controversial, with some arguing countries must digitize their currencies to remain competitive — while others condemn governments having greater control over everyday people’s finances. Belcher believes that a significant reason governments worldwide are developing CBDCs is to make financial surveillance easier, and that these programs are part of broader initiatives to phase out cash and other untraceable transactions.

“A cashless society is really a surveillance society. And what we’re seeing worldwide is this push to make transactions surveilable. And that includes things like pushing central bank digital currencies.”

According to Belcher, the potential ramifications of adopting CBDCs go well beyond expanded surveillance: “They’re also about control.” She explained that governments could theoretically not only create but revoke money, alongside controlling how and where individuals spend their funds.

A CBDC is a perversion of cryptocurrency, or at least the founding principles and protocols of it—a cryptofascist currency, expressly designed to deny you the basic ownership of your money by installing the State at the center of every transaction. https://t.co/720SYvqzZM
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 9, 2021

“For me, that is terrifying, right?” Belcher said. “For the government to not only have visibility potentially into all of your financial transactions and to really shut down other potential avenues for those types of transactions, but for the government to also be able to revoke money is really terrifying.”

To hear more from Belcher’s conversation with The Agenda — including her experience interviewing Edward Snowden, the benefits of privacy coins and what people can do to challenge surveillance — listen to the full episode on Cointelegraph’s Podcasts page, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And don’t forget to check out Cointelegraph’s full lineup of other shows!

Magazine: Asia Express: Ripple, Visa join HK CBDC pilot, Huobi accusations, GameFi token up 300%

Web3 zombie apocalypse is here: Last Remains joins Cointelegraph Accelerator

May 19, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Adoption

Backed by industry heavyweights; this new blockchain game aims to get a foothold in the competitive arena.

Blockchain-based gaming has gained momentum in recent years as the novel sensation in the crypto universe, to the point where blockchain games accounted for half of all blockchain activity in early 2023. As the trend expands, new players have joined the fray, looking beyond the initial token-collection craze and shifting the focus to gameplay elements.

The latest and greatest games are built with players’ evolving needs in mind, taking into account the popular genres that captivate the public, such as stealth and battle royale. On top of those, Last Remains is also looking to throw a zombie twist into the Web3 gaming scene.

Gameplay improvements drive blockchain gaming adoption. Source: BGA

Gameplay improvements drive blockchain gaming adoption. Source: BGA

Last Remains, a triple-A Web3 multiplayer battle royale zombie game that previously secured $4.75 million in funding from notable players in the crypto industry, including CoinFund, Fabric and Animoca Brands, has become the latest strategic partner of the Cointelegraph Accelerator — the startup booster leveraging Cointelegraph’s media capabilities.

Developed by a team with prior experience at Riot Games, Bethesda, Junglee Games and Blizzard Entertainment, Last Remains seeks to take the much-loved formula and bring it to a new level of quality by making use of Web3 technologies.

Staying true to the dynamics of the battle royale genre, players in Last Remains start the round at random locations throughout a zombie-infested city. While they begin with no real means to survive, the city map has no shortage of lootable items, consumables and weapons.

Combat-wise, the game offers a mix of Assassin’s Creed stealth action and PUBG’s iconic battle royale elements. Players can sneak up on the zombies, take them down with melee weapons, or rush in guns blazing.

In Last Remains, players will have to outlast both other players and zombies. Source: Last Remains

In Last Remains, players will have to outlast both other players and zombies. Source: Last Remains

It’s up to the player to pick from a large selection of weapons to fit their playstyle, from the iconic frying pan to the ever-popular katana. The ultimate goal is to survive until the rescue team swoops the winner up from an ever-shrinking active map. Among the first three players who reach the pick-up point, the one with the highest score — based on their loot and kills throughout the game — takes the round.

As part of its launch roadmap, the Last Remains team announced the minting of the first 5,000 Genesis Character nonfungible tokens. Following the sale, developers will spend the rest of Q2 conducting monthly alpha tests, followed by the beta phase in the next quarter.

The Cointelegraph Accelerator Program supports up-and-coming Web3 startups and projects by providing exposure through Cointelegraph, the pioneering crypto and blockchain media since 2013. The program picked Last Remains as a partner for its focus on gameplay, high production quality, the strong backing the game has received, and the developers’ track records. As part of the Accelerator program, Last Remains aims to establish its brand in the competitive arena by partnering with content creators and game developers.

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