Here’s how Thai Stock Exchange plans to connect crypto with its digital asset platform

February 22, 2022 Coin Telegraph

The SET announced its digital asset exchange early last year, originally planning to avoid cryptocurrencies.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) is looking at launching a new digital asset exchange integrated with the cryptocurrency market, according to president Pakorn Peetathawatchai.

The SET is expecting to launch its own digital asset exchange in 2022, planning to enable new exposure options like investment tokens and utility tokens, Peetathawatchai said in a Bloomberg interview on Sunday.

While the SET’s upcoming digital asset exchange will not be directly related to crypto markets, the platform will still have something to do with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC).

The stock exchange will be integrated explicitly with a cryptocurrency exchange, allowing investors to convert their crypto into fiat before trading on the SET. Peetathawatchai stated:

“Our strength has been always on the investment tools or investment vehicle and we will be looking for a way to connect to a crypto exchange to convert the cryptocurrency to fiat money and investing in our digital assets and traditional assets.”

“That would be our way of doing business on this digital and traditional asset, connecting to the cryptocurrency market,” he added.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand plans to launch a digital-asset exchange this year — but here's why it won't directly involve crypto.

Watch the full interview: https://t.co/GTzo9LHhYo pic.twitter.com/rU8cyIe6ZW
— Bloomberg Markets (@markets) February 22, 2022

The SET did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment. This article will be updated pending new information.

As previously reported, the SET initially announced plans to set up a digital asset trading platform early last year, targeting the launch in the second half of 2021. At the time, the company said that its upcoming platform will avoid crypto, citing the following:

“The SET says cryptocurrencies do not meet its product qualifications and could facilitate money laundering while causing harm to the bourse's image as a ‘high trust’ exchange.”

FriesDAO scoops up fast food franchises as part of its crypto governance experiment

February 21, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

DAO reps said they want to build on-chain and membership utility around Subway, Domino’s and more.

A new proof of concept decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, called FriesDAO wants to democratize access to the fast food industry. Cointelegraph spoke to FriesDAO advisors Brett Beller and Bill Lee about their mission to be a "part of something that will connect crypto and virtual ownership to real-world assets.”

FriesDAO aims to acquire and scale fast food restaurant franchises like Popeye's, Burger King and Taco Bell by inviting FRIES token holders to run a decentralized network of Quick Service Restaurants, or QSR. Starting with Subway franchise owners, the FriesDAO team hopes to guide their partners about the blockchain space. What “started as a joke” turned into a serious proposition when they realized there “was a hole for people that were ready to run DAOs more like a business.”

Lee clarified that FriesDAO does not directly own any of the stores due to legal reasons. Rather, the governance model allows members of the DAO to have a say in is how the treasury funds are spent, and which stores are going to be acquired. They also plan to provide nonfungible token (NFT) membership cards with perks, such as free food or discounts at FriesDAO network stores.

At time of publication, the DAO has raised $5.4 million according to its website, exceeding their minimum $5 million goal.

FriesDAO raise closes with $5.4M! $FRIES claiming is expected to be this Tue/Wed.

As a Wyoming DAO LLC, a Notice of Intent to issue tokens is being filed this Monday.

An Operating Agreement has also been released, which recognizes all $FRIES holders as co-owners of the DAO. pic.twitter.com/ehyF5sSRq7
— friesDAO (,) (@friesdao) February 20, 2022

Recently, FriesDAO added Kory Spiroff, former president of Domino’s, to its advisory board. Kory commented to Cointelegraph that he truly believes that blockchain technology can bring a new level of efficiency to the QSR industry.

"The inherent transparency coupled with the immediacy of community-based insight may significantly reduce the time and effort required to understand consumer preferences. It’s like a permanently staffed, zero-cost built-in focus group, which can be called at a moment's notice to provide critical feedback."

When asked about McDonald's plans to create McMetaverse restaurants, Beller said it was "inevitable" for the chain to "take a Metaverse approach of a virtual store that will deliver food as if you are inside of a video game."

Buzzfeed’s Bored Ape NFT dox: Danger to crypto or journalistic integrity?

February 21, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Anonymity

As the identities of more and more pseudonymous crypto personalities continue to get outed, experts weigh in on the value of anonymity.

From the very beginning, individuals making use of pseudonymous identities to protect their privacy has been an integral part of the crypto sector, however, with the market having matured a lot since the early days, the question of these practices still being morally sound has once again come to the forefront, especially in relation to projects that have achieved a certain amount of mainstream clout.

In this regard, American media and entertainment firm Buzzfeed recently outed the identities of two of Bored Ape Yacht Club’s (BAYC) four founders — i.e., “Gordon Goner” and “Gargamel” — as Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow.

To elaborate, journalist Kate Notopoulos recently authored an article titled We Found The Real Names Of Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Pseudonymous Founders in which she uncovered the pair’s names by going through publicly available records associated with Yuga Labs, the company behind the collection. Yuga was incorporated in Delaware with an address associated with Solano, while other records point to Aronow.

On the same day as the reveal, Yuga Labs indicated that its NFT collection was in funding talks with one of Silicon Valley’s top VC firms, a16z, with the firm valuing the entire collection at a handsome $5 billion.

Following the “doxing” — an informal term referring to the publishing of private information about a particular individual on the internet — both Solano and Aronow took to Twitter to highlight the importance of individual privacy, especially within the context of Web3 vs. Web2.

Is doxing ever ethical?

According to Notopoulos, when a business as big as BAYC — i.e., one attracting billions of dollars annually — is operating on a global scale, it is imperative that the company’s founders or CEO use their real name and not a pseudonym, adding:

“There are reasons why in the traditional business world, the CEO or founder of a company uses their real name and not a pseudonym. How do you hold them accountable if you don’t know who they are?”

To further strengthen her case, she added that executives associated with publicly traded companies in the United States are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission to fill out several disclosures and reports while smaller firms are subject to intense banking regulations as well as Know Your Customer laws requiring all executives to use their real names.

That said, the apparent “non-consensual exposure” of BAYC’s founders has brought to the forefront a number of criticisms, especially from those individuals operating within the burgeoning Web3 ecosystem. For example, prominent crypto podcaster Colbie referred to the article as journalistic “trash” meant simply to attract clicks with Messari founder Ryan Selkis echoing a somewhat similar sentiment.

Doxxing people for clicks and ad revenue. Typical Buzzfeed trash. Wonder if I can short Buzzfeed somehow. https://t.co/xDarnhoEqb
— Cobie (@cobie) February 5, 2022

However, amid all this backlash, Notopoulos seemed to remain relatively unfazed, claiming that she did what she needed to do both from an ethical as well as journalistic standpoint.

The experts are divided

Giselle Nagle, operations head for PhotoChromic, a blockchain-based digital identity protocol, told Cointelegraph that the issue of identity protection is highly complex/multifaceted and one that is notoriously difficult to solve, adding:

“To distill it down, there are two main aspects to your identity — personal and public. Pseudonymous identity works best when you need to trust that the individual behind the identity is who they say they are and when sensitive information is being exchanged. However, in both cases, the individual should have full autonomy over whether or not to expose their identity.”

She added that a person’s identity is their greatest asset and that it is a must that everyone — especially those individuals operating within the realm of digital tech — know how to place mechanisms to protect their information. “For the first time since the advent of the internet we are starting to see the pieces of the puzzle come together to unlock the huge potential of a holistic view of your own identity,“ Nagle opined.

Similarly, Jaya Klara Brekke, chief strategy officer at privacy tech startup Nym Technologies, told Cointelegraph that Buzzfeed’s aforementioned move was extremely shady and as a result, it is becoming increasingly important to have stronger privacy protections in place — especially as the industry continues to mature.

In Brekke’s view, individual pseudonyms are no longer enough, adding that with tools allowing for the analysis of public ledgers, traffic and metadata now easily available on the open market, issues relating to privacy are more problematic. She said:

“We are quickly headed towards a bigger privacy problem than ever. Which, in turn, feed into discriminatory profiling and identity systems, blocking open access to technological resources. We need technology that remains neutral, open and available to all.”

A somewhat contrary opinion was shared by Lior Lamesh, co-founder and CEO for GK8, a cybersecurity fin-tech, who told Cointelegraph that blockchain, by its very nature, is private and that as long as the organization running a blockchain initiative can govern its operations according to the law of the land, it has the right to keep the identities of its users and stakeholders private.

Lamesh also stated that journalists are truth-seekers by nature and therefore have the right to do their jobs and in this case, Notopoulos revealing the identities of BAYC’s founders was fine:

“This should not be interpreted as a cause for concern. What can be said now is that these digital arts will almost certainly not be used as a conduit for money laundering because the BAYC team will implement new data protection methods. So, in terms of a chance to do the right thing, we can't say the Buzzfeed journalist's move is out of place.”

The doxing trend may continue to gain traction

It is worth mentioning that Solano and Aronow aren’t the first big names in the crypto space who have been publicly outed this year as earlier in 2022, “0xSifu,” the pseudonymous treasury manager for controversial Avalanche-based protocol Wonderland Money, was revealed to be former convict as well as co-founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, Michael Patryn.

Patryn’s criminal past has made major waves within the global crypto landscape back in 2019, when QuadrigaCX’s operator Gerald Cotten — who was working closely with Patryn — died under mysterious circumstances, taking $169 million worth of investor’s crypto with him.

Following the scandal, it was unveiled that Patryn’s real name was Omar Dhanani, an indicted criminal who was forced to spend a total of 18 months in a U.S. federal prison on identity theft charges more than a decade and a half ago. Following his release, Dhanani changed his name to Michael Patryn and subsequently became associated with the crypto space, launching QuadrigaCX and more recently joining the Wonderland team.

Therefore, as we head into a future where crypto companies continue to become more and more accepted within the mainstream, it will be interesting to see how much longer the pseudonymous operators of various platforms will be able to keep their identities private.

Russian Social Media Network Vkontakte to Introduce NFT Support

February 21, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Mining worldwide: Where should crypto miners go in a changing landscape?

February 19, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Price

Which nations are the new harbors of miners, and where can Ether and Bitcoin be successfully — and profitably — mined in 2022?

One of the main themes among the crypto community in 2021 was China’s aggressive policy toward mining, which led to a complete ban on such activities in September.

While mining as a type of financial activity has not gone away and is unlikely to disappear, Chinese cryptocurrency miners had to look for a new place to set up shop. Many of them moved to the United States — the world’s new mining mecca — while some left to Scandinavia and others to nearby Kazakhstan, with its cheap electricity.

Mining activities can’t stay under the radar forever, and governments around the world have begun to raise concerns over electricity capacity and power outages.

Erik Thedéen, vice-chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority — who also serves as director general of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority — has called for a ban on mining proof-of-work cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) in Europe.

As jurisdictions around the world begin to crack down on mining-related activities, it begs the question: “Where is it still profitable, and legally favorable, to mine crypto?”

North America

It’s no secret that the U.S. is the main country for crypto mining, particularly in the Lone Star State, Texas. After the exodus from China, crypto miners and billions of dollars of capital flooded into the southern state. This is largely due to state policy, with Governor Greg Abbott having actively supported the Bitcoin industry.

Philip Salter, CEO of crypto mining firm Genesis Digital Assets, told Cointelegraph the reason the state became a popular destination for miners:

“The most prominent location for miners worldwide may be Texas right now. Its huge amounts of wind and solar power are causing a surplus of affordable energy. Privately owned power grids ensure a fast path for new projects, without being hindered by slow bureaucracy. The benefits of Texas aren’t so new though. Miners started building there already years ago, even if not as aggressively as now.”

Texas has experienced its own problems with electricity infrastructure, with massive blackouts affecting much of the state in 2021 amid unseasonable winter storms. But miners there have been relatively understanding about electricity consumption, and large companies have even periodically turned off equipment to give priority to residential consumers and critical infrastructure.

America’s northern neighbor, Canada, has also been actively attracting mining companies. Recently, authorities in Alberta invited cryptocurrency miners to the province, touting its cheap electricity prices thanks to an abundance of local natural gas.

Latin America

Latin American countries have been expending considerable effort to attract miners, with El Salvador, in particular, showing a favorable attitude toward mining. The country was the first in the world to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender. The Salvadoran government has not hesitated to directly invest in Bitcoin and even plans to build a city dedicated to the preeminent cryptocurrency where electricity to mine BTC will reportedly come from volcano-fired geothermal plants.

Costa Rica is also gradually becoming mining-friendly due to low electricity prices. Thanks to mining, a hydroelectric power plant that was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic has now reopened.

Large crypto companies have also begun to set up operations in Costa Rica. Chia Network, a blockchain network created by BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen, has agreed to provide technical services for Costa Rica’s national climate change initiatives.

Argentina was very popular among miners until the government decided recently to cut subsidies for miners and raise taxes on mining activities. So far, these financial policy changes for mining are limited to the province of Tierra del Fuego, which is known for its cold climate. Nevertheless, Argentina remains a good place for mining farms even after the electricity price increases, keeping in mind the energy crisis in competing regions like Europe.

Mining is still possible in Europe

Crypto mining operations in Europe remain relatively limited, as high electricity prices amid the energy crisis and a generally skeptical attitude toward cryptocurrencies from regulators make crypto firms think twice before locating to the continent.

Indeed, the Nordic nation of Iceland was previously a hotspot for Bitcoin mining, with its subarctic volcanic landscape providing cheap electricity and low cooling costs for mining farms.

*A mining farm of Genesis Mining in Iceland. Source: Marco Krohn.*

However, late last year, the country’s national electrical company, Landsvirkjun, cut the amount of power it would provide to energy-intensive industries like Bitcoin mining and aluminum smelting, citing capacity concerns.

Despite limitations on the continent, there are a few spots in Europe where miners have decided to set up shop where geography and climate play an important factor in attracting business.

In Georgia, located in the Caucasus region, the large number of hydroelectric power plants built during the country’s time as a Soviet republic — along with its relatively modest population — have provided a large amount of cheap electricity for miners.

Major crypto mining companies have already set up operations in the country. Back in 2014, Dutch mining company Bitfury opened its first data center, with a draw of 20 megawatts, in the eastern Georgian city of Gori.

The success of Bitfury opened the eyes of many Georgians who actively began to acquire powerful video cards and create their own small crypto mining farms. According to the World Bank, 5% of the Georgian population was engaged in crypto mining in 2018.

It should also be noted that Russia remains an epicenter for crypto mining thanks to low energy costs and a cold climate.

Andrei Loboda, public relations director of BitRiver — the largest cryptocurrency mining colocation services provider in Russia — shared with Cointelegraph some specific regions where it will be convenient for miners to work if the Russian government becomes more supportive of cryptocurrencies:

“According to BitRiver, today, about 300,000 individuals are engaged in mining Bitcoin alone in the Russian Federation. Our company performs energy-intensive, high-speed computing in data centers in a number of the Russian Federation regions, including the Irkutsk Region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The green and digital technologies that we implement in our work as part of the digital energy transition have already given an additional impetus to the development of the regions.”

Is mining worth it?

Geography is a critical element for miners to consider, be it for electricity and cooling costs or regulatory concerns. However, there are some expenses, like hardware, that miners will carry with them wherever they go.

With demand for mining equipment on the rise and a recent slump in the markets after 2021’s bull run, when is mining worth it with all the hardware costs?

*A homemade Bitcoin mining rig with GPUs. Source: Bitcoin Wiki.*

2021 was the most profitable year for mining Ether (ETH) with graphics processing units since 2016. This is not surprising, as Ether’s price more than quadrupled last year. But the main issue for miners is electricity and equipment expenses, and the price of the latter is growing rapidly.

Nevertheless, while the profitability of Ether mining remains high, the payoff period for equipment purchases is growing, partly due to the London hard fork in August 2021 that reduced the payout for each block mined from 8–20 ETH to 2 ETH. Another negative factor for miners will be the much-anticipated transition of the Ethereum blockchain to a proof-of-stake consensus, after which they will have to start mining altcoins or recertify as stakers on the network.

The Bitcoin network’s mining difficulty recently hit an all-time high despite the strong decrease in BTC’s price in January, which hit a monthly low of around $34,300.

It is surprising that, against this background, the cost of ASICs didn’t fall. At the same time, the ASIC payoff period this year is a little over 1,000 days, or almost three years. Not everyone can afford to carry those expenses for such a long time.

There are a multitude of changing factors that miners have to take into consideration, but one thing is clear: Cryptocurrency mining is a flexible, adaptive industry, and firms have proven they are willing to relocate to more beneficial locations should their current one prove less than ideal.

More playing and less earning will make better Metaverse games

February 19, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain Game

Blockchain’s interoperability may be the key to both the macroeconomics of metaverse games and what keeps them fun.

If you’re not keen on joining Mark Zuckerberg in the Metaverse, I have bad news for you: You’re already there. You don’t need a virtual reality headset to enter a virtual world. Humans have been representing reality since our distant ancestors first painted on cave walls. If TV, radio, books or newspapers have ever given you access to events that you did not physically attend, you have experienced a kind of metaverse already.

Sport and games are another reality that we often partake in virtually — in the stands or behind a screen — when not on the field.

So, it’s no coincidence then that, thus far, games dominate what most people understand as the Metaverse, or more widely, Web3. Our innate love of play, our understanding that fulfilling games depend on rules and structures and our willingness to ascribe value to events that unfold in them are integral to our cultures — from soccer to chess to Roblox. They’re also an important part of the economy: The global sports market reached nearly $400 billion in 2020, even after pandemic lockdowns and market estimates for video gaming to reach $178 billion annually.

Therefore, it’s entirely natural that games are likely to lead the journey into more immersive and interconnected metaverses. It’s also likely that games will continue to deliver financial value to consumers, companies and countries in their meta-realities. Microsoft’s recent bid to purchase Activision Blizzard in an all-cash deal certainly underscores this point.

How such major online game franchises will integrate into a Web3 metaverse is yet to be seen but blockchain-based games that have risen to prominence so far such as Axie Infinity, Decentraland and Alien Worlds. These games have pioneered a play-to-earn (P2E) model that gives insight into that future.

Leveraging nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and in-game digital currencies enable players to generate assets in these games, trade them in token form and transfer out value into real-world currencies through crypto exchanges. A compelling development for gamers and non-gamers alike is that instead of brand owners (Facebook/Meta, Microsoft, et al) extracting all the value from games, players themselves can have a stake in a game’s success.

Stories already began emerging last year of communities in the Philippines earning income from playing Axie, attracting so much attention that government officials suggested play-to-earn income should be subject to taxes. This phenomenon offers a glimpse of how an emerging crypto-economy could create financial inclusion opportunities. But, the rise and fall of one of Axie’s in-game currencies reveal the inherent challenges in developing sustainable economic models for games, as well as a practical reality that for metaverse games to succeed: They should be more about playing than earning.

It’s not the tokenomy

As an example, Axie Infinity is a game involving digital pets called Axies. When players contribute to the game’s ecosystem, they earn tokens. But, to get started, they must purchase their first Axie — an NFT that can appreciate in value over play. The game involves two tokens built on the Ethereum blockchain: Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) and the brilliantly-named Smooth Love Potions (SLP). SLP is earned in-game and is required to “breed” new Axies (please don’t ask how).

In a game world, a number of factors can contribute to the price performance of a digital asset such as Axies’s SLP. The way a token is distributed, the rules around supply, price-stability mechanisms, how governance is conducted and, of course, the power of expectation from the game audience itself all matter. But, utility may be the most important factor for a token that powers a game. Simply put, does the asset enable the holder to have the experience that they want? That might include aspects of gameplay to community status to earning opportunities. If players perceive value, then they’ll hold on to them or even buy more. Otherwise, as with any asset, people will sell off and invest time and money in something else.

In Axie Infinity, the utility of its SLP construct is how it allows players to create new Axie pets, which can make more SLP and create further value for the player. That positive feedback loop drove SLP prices to soar over the summer of 2021, but it has declined by 94% since then. That implies people have placed a higher value on what they can gain from selling SLP than from holding it and “breeding” more Axies. In other words, they have preferred to cash out than continue playing the game.

Early days

It’s important to remember that the play-to-earn concept is still in its infancy. Games like Axie are early experiments in models that combine gameplay with economics. Axie itself introduced SLP as a second in-game currency after it found that a single-token economy had its own problems with liquidity. Experimentation will continue but a key lesson for metaverse game developers is that the fun of playing a game still needs to come first, not the earning.

The risk of prioritizing economics over gameplay is simply that it turns players off. Attempts at Sega, Konami and Square Enix to bring NFTs into popular games have encountered user backlash, for example. Over time, however, we can expect increasingly sophisticated and expansive metaverse games will come to offer an incredible range of experiences. Greater choice and richer play will naturally lead to more users finding utility in holding tokens and, therefore, more sustainable game-based economies.

As more games and sports become established in the Metaverse, a critical factor will be the quality of the spectacle. We humans need contests, heroes, narratives and wagers. We want to interact as part of an audience having a shared experience, as well as to participate in games ourselves. There’s no reason why games on the Metaverse shouldn’t be as real and exciting to us as the English Premier League, NBA or the Free Fire World Series — 2021’s most-watched esports event.

Better gameplay is the stickiness that can make a specific game’s micro-economy more sustainable. What blockchain can add is a level of interoperability to make the macroeconomics of metaverse games, in general, more liquid and fairer than those of big-sport today. Interoperability opens opportunities for players to take digital assets or status out of one game straight into another, or even further out and onto social platforms. That gives players a bigger share of value creation and more power and, therefore, interest — as opposed to the economics and rights associated with game franchises and leagues today where owners and publishers grab all the benefit.

You may not be keen to join Mark Zuckerberg in his Metaverse, but on the blockchain, it should be game on for ordinary fans and players to have fun and capture more value for themselves.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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.

Ben Caselin is the head of research and strategy at AAX, the crypto exchange to be powered by London Stock Exchange Group’s LSEG Technology. With a background in creative arts, social research and fintech, Ben develops insights into Bitcoin and decentralized finance and provides strategic direction at AAX. He is also a working member of Global Digital Finance (GDF), a leading industry body dedicated to driving the acceleration and adoption of digital finance forward.

NFTs and DeFi are revolutionizing real estate investing and homeownership — Here’s how

February 18, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Altcoin Watch

NFTs, DeFi, crypto-backed mortgages and fractionalized ownership are the new trends set to alter the face of real estate investing in 2022.

NFTs continue to make an impact on multiple sectors, and this mainstreaming is opening up new opportunities and revealing new trends for blockchain technology.

Recently, the real estate sector has shown interest in blockchain technology because it opens up the potential for fractionalized ownership, cryptocurrency-backed mortgages and other unique ownership, financing and payment models.

Here’s a look at a few real estate-oriented blockchain projects that are to integrate decentralized finance, cryptocurrency payments and nonfungible tokens (NFT) to the sector.

Propy

Propy is the largest real estate-focused protocol in the cryptocurrency market, and it’s focused on automating home buying and making the closing process faster and more secure.

After becoming the first company to launch a real estate NFT in 2021, Propy made waves for the recent real estate NFT auction in the United States after selling a home in Tampa, Florida for 210 Ether (ETH) worth roughly $650,000.

It's a wrap!

The first real estate NFT auction in the US is history now. Thank you so much to everyone who participated and to those who cheered us on. Congratulations to the lucky winner, we can't wait to see what you do with the #PropyNFT next! What a blast! pic.twitter.com/LHfZrNSwTN
— Propy (@PropyInc) February 10, 2022

In addition to providing proof of ownership to the holder, real estate NFTs created through Propy can also be used as proof of collateral for crypto-based borrowing and lending.

Milo offers crypto-based mortgages

When it comes to paying for a mortgage, crypto holders currently have to grapple with choosing which of their tokens they are willing to cash out and also incur a taxable event because there are few options for paying a mortgage with cryptocurrency.

Milo is a Miami-based fintech startup that claims to offer the world’s first “crypto mortgage” by allowing customers to use Bitcoin (BTC) as collateral to qualify for a 30-year loan.

Once launched, the service will be open to American and international customers looking to purchase real estate in the United States.

The company has already processed a few loans during the ongoing early-access stage, but interested parties are encouraged to sign up for a waitlist.

Home equity goes DeFi

Evidence of the growing popularity of real estate-focused projects in the blockchain ecosystem can be found by looking at several projects that have emerged onto the scene in 2022.

Vista Equity is a recently launched project with the goal of becoming the world’s first peer-to-peer marketplace for real estate-backed NFT assets.

WE HAVE LAUNCHED! A home can now be fully tokenized giving consumers new financial freedoms. Investors can now buy real estate backed NFTs as securities. Read our press release https://t.co/x7WKKyiCnH. Share, like & follow. @Algorand @wsford @silviomicali #realestate #blockchain pic.twitter.com/IiCDfv6034
— Vesta Equity (@vestaequityvpm) February 15, 2022

The goal of Vesta Equity is to allow homeowners who own their homes outright to tap into the equity in their homes through tokenization. According to the company, token holders would then be able to sell off a portion of it as a fractionalized NFT.

Typically, property owners tap into their equity by refinancing or selling, and tokenization remedies this problem by providing investors with a simplified way to invest in real estate.

QuantumRE is a similar project that is just getting started. Like Vista Equity, the goal of QuantumRE is to link homeowners with investors to help provide homeowners with access to debt-free financing, while investors get access to residential real estate.

To do this, QuantumRE helps with the process of originating Home Equity Agreements (HEA), a type of financial tool that allows homeowners to get a cash lump sum for the equity held within their home with no monthly payments, interest or added debt.

The agreement can be settled by selling the home, refinancing or renewing the agreement. By creating liquidity and a trading platform for HEAs, QuantumRE is supporting a secondary trading marketplace for HEAs, which can be tokenized and split into fractional units.

QuantumRE indicated that the first fractionalized HEAs will be offered on the platform during Q1 of 2022.

On an interesting side note, both Vista Equity and QuantumRE are launching their products on the Algorand blockchain, citing the network’s fast processing speeds and low gas fees when compared to the Ethereum network.

Want more information about trading and investing in crypto markets?

Propy rallies 227% as real estate NFTs become reality and PRO lists at Coinbase
Fintech startup Milo is offering 30-year ‘crypto-mortgages’
The metaverse is booming, bringing revolution to real estate
3 things the crypto sector must offer to truly mainstream with TradFi
Can DeFi and CeFi coexist? Three takeaways from experts panel

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Here’s why AI-equipped NFTs could be the real gateway to the Metaverse

February 18, 2022 Coin Telegraph

NFIs could be the next step for NFTs and ASM’s Artificial Intelligence Football Association could be P2E gaming’s next breakout project.

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have been largely acquired as proof-of-profile pictures (PFPs) that represent a brand, embody culture or ultimately, reflect as a static status symbol. Blue-chip NFTs like the Bored Ape Yacht Club or Cool Cats were not originally backed by any tangible utility other than speculative value and hype, along with the promise of an illustrative roadmap, but in 2022, investors are looking for a little bit “more.”

However, nonfungible tokens are finding their use beyond branding and status symbols by attempting to build out an existence in the Metaverse and some are ambitious enough to start within it.

The Altered State Machine (ASM) Artificial Intelligence Football Association (AIFA) has introduced a novel concept to NFTs called nonfungible intelligence or NFI. By tokenizing artificial intelligence, the ASM AIFA has captured the attention of investors who are thinking long-term about the future of the Metaverse and decentralized play-to-earn (P2E) economies.

The $ASTO token is coming and it's going to power the ASM economy in many ways.

DAO Governance
Genome Mining
️ Agent Training
Ecosystem Development
and more... #ASTO #ASM #NFI #NFTs #Token pic.twitter.com/Jw573MMlB7
— Altered State Machine (@altstatemachine) February 6, 2022

In fusing AI features to the three growing markets of gaming, decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs, the ASM AIFA has the potential to be a lucrative long-term bet.

As an investor, these are the strategies I’ve considered when thinking about investing in the ASM AIFA, while also factoring in the impending tokenomics that will be integrated into the nascent blockchain P2E game.

Follow the linear path by buying genesis boxes

The ASM AIFA genesis box collection is essentially a starter booster pack toward its ecosystem. A box includes four ASM AI agents or all-stars as well as an ASM brain, which is the intelligence that powers each ASM all-star.

Currently valued at 5.369 Ether (ETH) ($16,768.84), the box is a valuable bet for those who hold long-term convictions in the ASTO economy and its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) but more so, the Metaverse as a whole.

Since the ASM AIFA intends to award its early adopters and players through its play-and-earn model, the genesis box is essentially equipped as a ASTO generating set-up.

According to the ASM AIFA whitepaper, each brain will be able to mine ASTO and each all-star will be able to generate ASTO through training. Not only is ASTO the utility token of the Altered State Machine metaverse, but it's also the governance token in the ASM ecosystem.

Furthermore, these brains are not only limited to the ASM AIFA collection. They will also be supported in other notable NFT projects like FLUFF World NFT, making it interoperable as well.

ASTO tokens are needed to train the AI all-stars and also to create more AI agents. AI agents do not have to be limited to playing soccer in-game, its ASM brain can be trained to be a trading bot as well since it's dependent on its learned memories.

The project launched on Oct. 18, 2021, and since hitting the secondary market, ASM AIFA genesis boxes have increased by nearly 1,200%, suggesting there is growing interest and owners have recognized the value of AI.

*ASM AIFA all-time average price / volume. Source:* *OpenSea*

In the last seven days, the average sale price of the genesis boxes have been on a downward trend, dropping from 6.3 ETH to 5.3 ETH. It seems that even with a slight correction, the genesis boxes have not dipped below the 4.75 ETH in the last month.

*ASM AIFA 30-day average price / volume. Source:* *OpenSea*

Based on the price points of the items in the genesis box, the floor for the ASM all-stars currently costs 0.21 Ether ($654.37) with a team of four, totaling approximately $2,617.48. The cheapest ASM brain is currently priced at 3.92 Ether ($12,214.96) bringing the total sum of the contents in the box to approximately $14,832.44 or 4.77 Ether.

Essentially, at these current prices, buying a genesis box costs roughly the same as it would purchasing the items separately. However, both the ASM brains and all-stars have experienced price fluctuations that have previously made purchasing the box a cheaper alternative than buying the items separately.

Depending on an investor's motives and strategy, they could sort other methods to own a piece of the ASM metaverse.

Genesis brains will also mine ASTO

ASM AIFA genesis brains are unique artificial intelligence-equipped NFTs and the architecture of the brain is currently under patent pending where owners will have full rights to the machine-learning (ML) model of their NFI.

This provides an added layer of utility toward the ASM economy and a unique feature is that the ASM brains do not always need a form (avatar) and can exist and function with the parameters of its trained memories.

*ASM AIFA genesis brains. Source: ASM AIFA*

The ASM brain is the most expensive piece of the collection that will also be able to mine ASTO tokens. In this way, an investor can potentially make back their original capital investment via the brain's token emission. Currently, the cheapest ASM brain is worth 3.92 Ether ($12,214.96,) a 300% increase in floor prices in the last 60 days.

*ASM AIFA genesis brain daily floor price. Source:* *NFT Price Floor*

The ASM brains retain their value largely in part because of their genome matrix whose attributes enable for the brain to be integrated in other worlds outside of the ASM ecosystem. Meaning, the brain can be used in other ecosystems.

According to the ASM roadmap, each ASM genesis brain is slated for an ASTO token drop. Investors who are looking for exposure with AI, could consider purchasing ASTO for a more financially feasible bet.

Just stack ASTO?

There’s no denying that the ASM AIFA project is not the cheapest entry to the ecosystem, but for those investors who are strongly interested in the developing features of NFIs, investors could consider investing into the token or the AI all-star agents.

ASTO is the native currency that will govern activity in the ASM ecosystem. Since it’s needed to train the ASM brain and any AI agent, there will be an economy of gym owners who will provide GPU cloud computing for every ML model. In return for their time and energy, gym owners will be rewarded in ASTO.

When the ASTO token launches, the ASM team will host an auction to determine the price of ASTO in a unique method they have dubbed “discovery auction.” ASTO will also be dropped to owners of the ASM all-stars and ASTO can be staked to mine the next generation of brains in the ecosystem. In preparation for AIFA’s launch, the ASTO token could be desirable to load up on.

As NFTs are finding ways to justify their value outside of speculation and the ways they can be integrated in the Metaverse expands, projects are beginning to build from the inside out. Time will tell when we begin to see more projects beginning to integrate AI features, but ASM AIFA seems to be a top contender as one of the first movers.

Cydia Dev Discloses Ethereum L2 Bug — Optimism Attacker Could Have ‘Printed an Arbitrary Quantity of Tokens’

February 13, 2022 Bitcoin.com

‘Wave of litigation’ to hit NFT space as copyright issues abound

February 7, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Art

As the NFT industry grows with increasing market penetration, research and consumer education are key to the domain’s evolution.

Ownership is one of the most critical aspects of nonfungible tokens (NFT). They are a representation of the evolution of execution and ownership of art, content, music, in-game assets, etc., since they are digital assets with distinctive identities that are verifiable on a blockchain network.

However, they have also created a new dimension of discussion about the interaction and grey area around copyright, intellectual property (IP) and trademark laws.

In a recent highly publicized fiasco in the cryptoverse, crypto decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) Spice DAO was mocked for believing that the ownership of a copy of the unpublished manuscript of the film Dune granted them its copyrights as well. The DAO intended to produce an “original animated series” inspired by the book to be sold to a streaming service for which it would require copyrights. The book was won at a Christie’s auction in November last year for over $3 million.

In this case, copyright laws dictate that the copyright is valid throughout the lifetime of the creators and even 70 years after their death which entails that the DAO cannot make the animated series without the permission of the living co-creator, Alejandro Jodorowsky. Cointelegraph discussed this incident with Andrew Rossow, a technology attorney and Ohio law professor, who said:

“The Spice DAO and Dune fiasco was a landmark in its own right that sends a very powerful message to everyone involved in the NFT space — creator or owner. The $3-million mistake that was made proved that intellectual property’s dominion in digital fine art is essential to its success and longevity.”

While it might not be a secret that the ownership of an NFT doesn’t necessarily mean that the underlying copyright of the work has been transferred to the owner, it doesn’t seem evident to all market participants. Rossow explained that copyright law affords six “bundles of rights” or exclusive rights to a creator, which collectively establish their copyright. The first four rights are crucial to NFTs right now — the right to reproduce the work, the right to create derivative works, the distribution right, and the public performance rights.

Marie Tatibouet, chief marketing officer of cryptocurrency exchange Gate.io, spoke with Cointelegraph about the Dune fiasco, noting that anyone who did the proper research and due diligence would’ve known that the sale of a book’s copy had no copyrights attached to it. She said, “There still seems to be a wider misconception around what exactly NFTs are and what’s included when one purchases or trades an NFT in the space. As the industry develops, so will educational resources and a wider understanding of the market.”

Lawsuits begin to pour in

As things now stand, brands and companies have begun to crack down against NFT projects that violate copyright, IPs and trademarks. On Feb. 4, Nike filed a lawsuit against StockX for trademark infringement on Nike sneaker NFTs. The sneaker company has lodged a 50-page long complaint that claims the reseller has sold nearly 500 Nike brand sneaker NFTs impacting Nike’s reputation and legitimacy. Additionally, the shoemaker has accused StockX of selling the NFT sneakers at inflated prices amid “murky terms of purchase and ownership.”

Even French luxury fashion house Hermes has recently had a legal confrontation with Mason Rothschild, creator of Hermes Birkin bag-inspired NFTs MetaBirkins. Hermes mentioned in its complaint, the “defendant’s MetaBirkins brand simply rips off Hermès’ famous Birkin trademark by adding the generic prefix ‘meta’ to the famous trademark Birkin.” In response, the creator compared himself to Andy Warhol painting Campbell soup cans in that he is making art from a well-known commercial image.

Jeff Gluck, CEO of CXIP Labs — an NFT minting platform — discussed the incoming lawsuits with Cointelegraph. Gluck is also an IP and copyrights lawyer with over 14 years of experience in the legislative domain. He stated:

“There are dozens of artists preparing lawsuits against OpenSea for selling infringing NFTs. These examples are a sneak preview of a wave of litigation heading towards the space. It’s both good and bad in that it discourages creativity and growth in some ways, but it’s beneficial because it will ultimately help provide some guidelines in terms of clear legal parameters and guidelines for the space.”

Gluck further pointed out that one of the biggest problems NFT marketplaces are facing right now is that if they mint NFTs for their users and/or provide any level of curation, they are not shielded by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and thus can be sued directly for copyright infringement by creators. The DMCA was passed in 1998 to implement the 1996 World Intellectual Property Organization’s Copyright Treaty and Performances and Phonograms Treaty. In part, it creates limitations on the liability of online service providers for copyright infringement.

Rossow believes that is an essential requirement for any NFT creator to highlight the copyright, trademark and IP implications of the NFTs they launch. He said, “The smart contract behind an NFT is what governs the rights on how it can be used. It would also make sense that the creator(s) behind any NFT project are crystal clear to their audience before minting on what rights they will have with the NFT once they mint and purchase it.”

Blockchain and copyright laws

The NFT industry has grown faster than even its participants could have imagined. The market sales surpassed $40 billion in 2021 just on the Ethereum blockchain. A recent NFT market report from Chainalysis found that the weekly total cryptocurrency value and average value per transaction have grown hand-in-hand from January to October in 2021. The prime reason for this growth is the hype that has surrounded these assets for the last two years from minting platforms, games, marketplaces, exchanges and others.

As a by-product of this high supply and demand, there are a lot of scams, hacks and other intentional property law violations that have been become more frequent. Tatibouet elaborated on this phenomenon, stating, “Considering many platforms have made minting NFTs quick and easy, it’s also made it possible for those with malicious intent to produce and sell NFTs of copyrighted items. Platforms are slowly starting to adapt to this; however, it may remain to be an issue for the foreseeable future.”

She also noted that platforms will need to adapt quickly and introduce barriers to those looking to abuse the system since they are liable to face legal repercussions, being the direct link between consumers and creators. As multinational companies that have large intellectual property libraries that are being abused, the NFT industry can expect legal issues down the road.

However, NFTs are also a relatively new innovation compared to the existing prevalent copyright, IP and trademark laws, which could be an opportunity to amend the law to account for this new technology. Varun Sethi, founder of blockchain legal services firm Blockchain Lawyer, told Cointelegraph that copyright laws need to recognize the tokenization of digital assets as a revolutionary and evolving legal option and accept the NFTs owner as the copyright owner.

However, Sethi noted the obstacles involved, saying, “There are challenges pertaining to updating of the registered owner as per copyright record plus fragmentation of ownership of a single digital art into multiple NFT owners plus payment of filing fees for becoming actual owner and not just an ostensible owner.”

Sethi foresees even more ownership issues when NFTs change hands unless the law is amended so that all NFT sales are recorded as ownership swapping as per the copyright office’s records.

Even though NFTs as a whole fall under copyright and IP laws of the countries in which they are issued, there are NFT projects that are now aiming to solve the grey area around this legal concern and offer copyrights for NFTs as well. CXIP Labs is such an example wherein copyright registrations are included in the minting process itself.

A platform called GuardianLink is using its proprietary artificial intelligence technology to monitor the web for any duplicate, rip-offs and copy-cat NFTs of the creators using their platform. This enables both creators and collections to protect their NFT assets.

The cryptocurrency community is known to adapt to changes fairly quickly due to the nascent nature of the industry and the technology. Thus, as the legal issues around NFTs develop and reveal more about what modifications need to be made to the prevalent structure, there will also be protocols that adapt.

Tokens