Binance scouts art for Pierre Gasly’s F1 helmet at Abu Dhabi GP

August 31, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Art

Binance announced a helmet design competition to shortlist the winning art, which will be used as the helmet artwork of Gasly, who won the 2020 Italian Grand Prix.

The winner of a new art competition hosted by Binance will see their design featured on the helmet of racing driver Pierre Gasly from the Alpine Formula One team during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Nov. 26, 2023.

Crypto exchange Binance announced a helmet design competition to shortlist the winning art, which will be used as the helmet artwork for Gasly, who won the 2020 Italian Grand Prix.

Gasly described the collaboration with Binance as an opportunity “to engage with both the F1 and crypto communities in a creative and innovative way.” Participants need not be Binance users, opening up the floor to non-crypto F1 fans as well. The last date for submitting helmet designs is Sept. 8, with the winner declared by Sept. 15.

According to the crypto exchange, helmet designs that reflect Binance’s values and innovative ethos while engaging the motorsport community stand the greatest chance of winning the contest. Gasly stated:

“I can’t wait to show off the winning design that will showcase our shared innovative spirit that will accompany me in the race at the prestigious Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.”

The winner will also receive a replica helmet personally signed by Gasly. Binance has also partnered with other influential celebrities, such as soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo and leading football clubs, to help improve fan engagement.

Amid massive regulatory hurdles that grip Binance, the crypto exchange continues collaborating with A-list celebrities to maintain relevance among crypto investors.

On Aug. 21, Binance revealed a partnership with legendary singer The Weekend to facilitate a Web3-powered concert tour — After Hours Til Dawn.

Fans in Australia will be offered two nonfungible tokens (NFTs) — Souvenir NFTs and Tour NFTs — that would allow for new avenues of engagement with The Weekend. As part of the deal, Binance committed to donating $2 million to The Weeknd’s XO Humanitarian Fund.

Magazine: How to protect your crypto in a volatile market: Bitcoin OGs and experts weigh in

Top 7 ways to earn free crypto

March 19, 2023 Coin Telegraph

airdrops

Learn how to earn free cryptocurrency with these seven methods, including faucets, bug bounties and more.

Due to the popularity of cryptocurrency, numerous individuals are searching for means to acquire free crypto. Here are seven methods one can use to earn cryptocurrency without having to invest your own money, including crypto faucets, airdrops, staking, bug bounties and more.

There are several common risks to be aware of when earning free crypto, including security risks, scams and fraud, limited earning potential, time-consuming activities, and potential legal or tax implications. It’s important to do your research and approach these methods with caution.

Faucets

Crypto faucets are websites or applications that provide users with small sums of cryptocurrency in exchange for doing things like completing CAPTCHA puzzles or watching advertisements. One example is Moon Litecoin, which offers free Litecoin (LTC) to users who complete tasks, such as streaming videos. The rewards from Moon Litecoin are deposited into users’ micro wallet on Coinpot.co.

Unfortunately, there are many scam crypto faucets that promise high rewards but never actually pay out. Some may require you to pay a fee or complete a certain number of tasks before you can withdraw your earnings, while others may simply disappear without warning. Therefore, it is important to approach crypto faucets with caution and do your research before using them.

Airdrops

Airdrops are free distributions of cryptocurrency tokens or coins. Businesses and projects give away a set number of tokens to people who register for their platform, carry out particular actions or satisfy certain requirements.

Staking

Staking involves holding a certain number of cryptocurrency tokens in a wallet or exchange to help secure the network and earn rewards. One can stake cryptocurrencies such as Cardano (ADA), Polkadot (DOT) and Ether (ETH) to earn staking rewards.

However, staking involves locking up one's funds for a set period of time, during which they may not be able to access or trade them. Therefore, make sure you understand the risks and potential rewards before you start staking.

Referral programs

For consumers who suggest friends and family join their platform, many cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets provide referral programs that pay rewards. Free cryptocurrency or a part of the user’s trading commissions might be given as rewards.

Completing surveys

Some websites and apps offer users the opportunity to earn cryptocurrency rewards by completing surveys or participating in market research. Websites like Swagbucks offer crypto rewards for completing tasks, such as watching videos, answering surveys and playing games. However, one must exercise caution while engaging in any activity on such websites.

Bug bounties

Cryptocurrency projects and exchanges often offer bug bounties to incentivize developers and security researchers to identify and report vulnerabilities in their software. These bounties can be in the form of cryptocurrency rewards and can range from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the severity of the bug.

Trading competitions

Depending on their trading volume or performance, customers can compete against one another to win prizes on several exchanges that provide trading competitions. Even though there can be fierce competition, there can also be significant benefits, with some exchanges providing thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency prizes.

OpenSea implements 0% fees to win over NFT userbase lost to Blur

February 18, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

NFT marketplace Blur surpassed OpenSea in daily ETH trading volume as users — anticipating greater returns on their NFT investments — are looking for a trading arena that works in their favor.

Major nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea announced a massive structuring around lower platform fees and greater creator earnings as competing marketplaces continue to drain away its once dominant user base.

On Feb. 18, NFT marketplace Blur surpassed OpenSea in daily Ethereum (ETH) trading volume as users — anticipating greater returns on their NFT investments — are looking for a trading arena that works in their favor, shows Nansen data.

*Daily trading volume of major NFT marketplaces. Source: Nansen*

As a reactionary measure, OpenSea announced three major changes to win back its migrating customers. The measures include a 0% fee for a limited time, introducing optional creator earnings and leniency on other operators.

We’re making some big changes today:
1) OpenSea fee → 0% for a limited time
2) Moving to optional creator earnings (0.5% min) for all collections without on-chain enforcement (old & new)
3) Marketplaces with the same policies will not be blocked by the operator filter
— OpenSea (@opensea) February 17, 2023

OpenSea admitted losing users to other “NFT marketplaces that don’t fully enforce creator earnings,” and the new measures are an attempt to revitalize its dominance in the space, adding:

“Recent events – including Blur’s decision to roll back creator earnings (even on filtered collections) and the false choice they’re forcing creators to make between liquidity on Blur or OpenSea – prove that our attempts are not working.”

OpenSea believes that it defended creator earnings on all collections while reiterating its support for Operator Filter — a function that was aimed at helping creators secure their revenue for the resale of their work. However, this filter proactively blocked recommendations of marketplaces that sported the same policies.

*OpenSea's plan of action to counter falling market dominance. Source: OpenSea (via Twitter)*

Blur’s daily trading volume supremacy can be attributed to its new royalty policy showcasing differences in royalty payment options between its platform and OpenSea. It read:

“OpenSea’s current royalty policy prevents collections from being able to earn royalties everywhere. They have cited various reasons for this (see FAQ), but the end result is that creators are limited to earning royalties on only one platform at a time.”

Amid the royalty war between the two marketplaces, community members highlighted the importance of competition in the industry. If it wasn’t for zero royalty marketplaces, bigger players like OpenSea would eventually increase fee structure, which would have a negative impact on creators and collectors.

Moreover, OpenSea plans to continue testing the model and identify what works best for the community and the organization. Community members speculate that OpenSea would probably increase its platform fees in the future if it successfully manages to amass its lost customers — a predatory move often noticed in industries with less competition.

YouTube’s appointment of new CEO Neal Mohan was perceived as a win for the crypto community considering Mohan’s inclination to use NFTs and Web3 as revenue streams for creators.

Thank you, @SusanWojcicki. It's been amazing to work with you over the years. You've built YouTube into an extraordinary home for creators and viewers. I'm excited to continue this awesome and important mission. Looking forward to what lies ahead... https://t.co/Rg5jXv1NGb
— Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) February 16, 2023

As Cointelegraph reported, Mohan — while serving as YouTube’s chief product officer — outlined tentative plans in February 2022 to integrate features such as Metaverse-based content experiences and content tokenization via NFTs.

Bitcoin is a better platform for Web3, says Lightning Competition organizer

December 16, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

A tournament to find and support new Bitcoin companies could be a way of attracting developers from Web3 ecosystems to crossover to Bitcoin.

Bear markets are for building Bitcoin (BTC) companies. At least, that’s what the Legends of Lightning, a nine-week contest for competing Bitcoin businesses, would indicate.

The tournament-come-hackathon ran more than 65 events worldwide as 73 projects battled it out to win 3 BTC ($50,000). The competition crowned Bitcoin startups Lightsats and AgriMint as winners of two separate competition tracks, Global Adoption and Building for Africa.

Organized by Bitcoin startup Bolt Fun, the competition brought together 260 makers (builders, developers, startuppers and hackers) worldwide. Speaking to Cointelegraph via Google Meet, Johns Beharry, co-founder of Bolt Fun and founder and CEO of Peak Shift, explained that the hackathon is the largest yet in the Bitcoin economy: “There is nothing remotely close to this,” he said.

The idea behind the competition was to “Onboard new makers into the ecosystem, innovate on bitcoin and lightning, and help new or existing projects incubate their ideas and turn dreams into a reality.”

The competition seeks to drive more talent to build in the Bitcoin space. Source: Twitter

In addition, the competition showcases the Bitcoin development space as an arena for developing, tinkering and experimenting in ways that would wow Web3 builders. Edward Pratt, cofounder of Bolt Fun and a Senior Product Designer highlighted that team at Bolt Fun are laser-eye focused on pushing Bitcoin adoption through building companies and expanding the Bitcoin community into other domains:

“The essence of it is that other developer ecosystems are massive. We want to do our part to push bitcoin to compete for mindshare and attention on the application layer.”

As shown in the graph below, Bitcoin has fewer developers than Ethereum and Polkadot. While Bitcoin is by far the largest and most recognized cryptocurrency, data would suggest that Bitcoin is not the space that developers and builders flock to.

Graph to show developers by crypto ecosystem in 2020 and 2021. Source: Electric Capital

Pratt and Beharry conclude that Web3 ecosystems such as Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Polkadot, and Cosmos are drawing interest and talent away from the Bitcoin-building space, despite the fact that Bitcoin offers the only decentralized infrastructure worth building on. The Legends of Lightning competition is an attempt to remedy the situation and highlight the wealth and depth of opportunities to build on Bitcoin.

Solana Hackathons offer massive prize money, and this summer, over 350 projects pitched to win a $5 million treasure chest. First prize at The Legends of Lightning, by comparison, gifted 3 BTC ($50,000) to one of the 73 competing projects, one-hundredth of the total prize money.

Pratt continued, “It goes to show the difference between the Bitcoin ecosystem and other ecosystems such as Solana.” Ultimately, the Bitcoin space competes for builders and developers that take part in Web3 playgrounds such as Solana and Ethereum.

“There’s definitely a lot of activity [in Bitcoin] but we’re not seeing as much inventiveness in Bitcoin just yet.”

Curiously, the winner of the competition, Lightsats built their project based on an idea shared in a Tweet from Bitcoin entrepreneur Brad Mills. The tweet set off a lightning-fast chain reaction of Bitcoin creation. Within a matter of weeks, Lightsats built their “Precoiner onramp project,” submitted it to the team at Bolt Fun, and won the Global Adoption competition.

We won!I’m going to frame this! Where it all started! pic.twitter.com/wLC6Yd8ica
— Lightsats (@Lightsats21) December 7, 2022

One of the ways of drawing more people to participate and build on Bitcoin is by reaching out to developers working in other ecosystems, Pratt explained. “We want to target people on the fringe of crypto and Web3,” it’s a question of “How do we get the narratives to talk to those people,” Pratt pondered.

Beharry joked that it could happen naturally; “Your web3 platform is offline, Bitcoin fixes this," referring to the numerous occasions the Solana blockchain simply stopped working.

The Legends of Lightning team hopes to repeat the event annually with heftier prizes, more entrants, and more creativity. The goal is to reach 1,000 entrants next year —a considerable leap from its current standpoint.

Africa’s top golfers to shoot for Bitcoin prize on Sunshine Tour

May 6, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Africa

Africa’s top golfers are set to receive Bitcoin prize money after ground-breaking sponsorship of the Sunshine Tour.

Top golfers from Africa and Europe will be eyeing lucrative Bitcoin (BTC) payouts at the end of the 2022 season after a new sponsorship of South Africa’s Sunshine Tour.

The year-long season sees golfers compete for the top spot on Sunshine Tour’s overall leaderboard - the Order of Merit. Crypto platform Luno, which has a big footprint in South Africa and the wider African continent, has assumed the title sponsorship of the overall rankings.

Money talks in sport but the language is certainly evolving, with Luno casting aside Rand-based awards for the top golfers on the Order of Merit in favor of Bitcoin. The golfer that tops the Luno Order of Merit will receive R500,000 worth of BTC - equivalent to $31,000 or 30,000 Euro at the current exchange rate.

The second and third-placed golfers will receive R200,000 and R100,000 in BTC respectively while Luno will also be sponsoring every professional golfer on the Sunshine Tour R1000 worth of BTC to encourage them to explore the exchange’s mobile application.

The Sunshine Tour is also using the new sponsorship to make a change to its rankings system, shifting from money-based to a points-based ranking from May 2022. This intends to create a more even playing field for golfers vying to top the Order of Merit at the end of the season.

There’s plenty to play for as well - with the number one spot also including entry to two of golf’s Majors in the US Open and British Open as well as a year-long luxury vehicle sponsorship.

Cointelegraph attended the sponsorship announcement at the prestigious Houghton Golf Club in the heart of Johannesburg and spoke to Luno’s general manager for Africa Marius Reitz, who has facilitated a couple of sports-focused marketing campaigns over the past year.

“It’s significant on a couple of fronts, firstly the fact that there is Bitcoin prize money which is a first for South Africa and probably Africa,” Reitz said, adding, “I think it's the first sports sponsorship in South Africa involving a crypto company.”

Luno intend to break new ground with their first sponsorship involving a professional golf tournament, with synergies between the two highlighted by Reitz:

“The Sunshine Tour is an established brand, they’re the home of golf in South Africa. It is a trusted guide for golfers from a young age up to a professional level. The association of trust and safety makes sense for us.”

Luno has made efforts to position itself as a trusted cryptocurrency exchange that introduces new users to the ecosystem with the help of a learning portal. The company made waves last year with a high-profile advertising campaign featuring Rugby World Cup-winning Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus teaching users how to buy BTC.

The company has now continued its exploration of the sports industry in the country - a point that Sunshine Tour Commissioner Thomas Abt believes will benefit both industries in kind:

“I think it's fantastic when a new brand comes into the space. They have a strong backing, they want to make noise and they’ve been doing it like you’ve seen with the Rassie advert. They’ve done it well and I’m sure they will continue with the Sunshine Tour.”

The impact was not lost on the golfers either, with Sunshine Tour professional Callum Mowat also drawing comparisons between the mentality needed to master both the world of golf and crypto:

“As a golfer you have to take risks and you also have to believe you are never out of the game, especially after a bad shot. I am not too familiar with cryptocurrencies but I know that you need patience to master both of these.”

Reitz also acknowledged that the cryptocurrency space is still relatively nascent with onboarding new users and education of basic principles a primary focus. The Luno Africa GM said a focus on learning and education is key, while slowly introducing wider audiences to cryptocurrencies through avenues like sports sponsorships and marketing campaigns:

“Golfers think differently, they’ve got a different way of looking at risk and reward - each and every shot they play they have to take calculated risks. It’s the same in crypto. It’s still new and for people to start using it in their everyday lives will require a mind shift change and that doesn’t happen overnight.”

The sports industry continues to be an enticing avenue for cryptocurrency exchanges, service providers and companies to advertise their offerings. Crypto brands are actively involved in the biggest football leagues in the world, on the canvas of the UFC’s octagons and around various tracks on the global Formula 1 roadshow.

Competitions