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  • Celestial Leads The Future Of Cross-Chain Gaming Metaverse | by Bit Media Buzz | Oct, 2021

    Celestial Leads The Future Of Cross-Chain Gaming Metaverse | by Bit Media Buzz | Oct, 2021

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    Bit Media Buzz

    Finland, Helsinki, October 29, 2021. Coming up as a first-mover on the adoption of blockchain gaming metaverse on the OEC public chain (formerly known as OKExChain) is Celestial, a cross-chain gaming metaverse trending in the crypto airwaves. Deploying the concept of galactic warfare, Celestial combines the concept of GameFi, SocialFi, and NFTSwap to bring one of the finest innovations to the gaming metaverse.

    Celestial has grown in popularity in the blockchain gaming ecosystem since its inception. Racking up some impressive figures, Celestial initiated a public BETA test on September 14 that contributed to over 70% of OEC public chain trading activity, resulting in high congestion of the OKexchain, with daily transactions topping 1 million at the time.

    After a series of rigorous testing, the official version of the Celestial gaming platform went live on September 29th. Commenting on the impressive launch, the Celestial team reiterated their commitment to the long-term sustainability of the Celestial project:

    “We are excited about the launch of our gaming platform. Being the brainchild of a multi-month period of development, innovation, and rigorous backend testing, this marks the beginning of an important phase in the Celestial roadmap just before our token generation events and subsequent listing on exchanges. We are excited about what the future holds for the blockchain gaming metaverse and we are happy to be leading this adoption.”

    The Celestial platform is built to enable game players to create federations in the Celestial world, explore planets and galaxy clusters, and mine rich minerals and different resources as part of a meta-universe star-wars style game using GameFi + SocialFi + NFTSwap.

    Leading up to TGE: $CELT token has recorded eye-popping success

    While the impressive launch of the Celestial gaming metaverse comes as no surprise, seeing that blockchain gaming adoption has maintained an upward trajectory, the token generation event (TGE) also recorded impressive numbers. The token price soared to the top gainers category after listing on OKEx, a leading Asia-based crypto exchange.

    CELT is the native token that powers the Celestial metaverse economy and is primarily used to settle all transactions in the Celestial metaverse. Since debuting on OKEx, CELT has amassed massive success for token holders after rising to the top-performing assets on the OEC public chain just after 15 days of trading activities.

    Celestial dual token rotation system reduces selling pressure on CELTs

    Celestial adopts a unique token system that allows a dual token rotation mechanism. In addition to $CELT, there is a sub token known as Crystals which is engineered to reduce the selling pressure on CELTs and benefit token holders in the long run.

    Through an in-house mechanism known as Pledge Mining, Celestial incorporates some DeFi futures into its ecosystem to reward players.

    Gamers may utilize this function to pledge mainstream currency like fiat for energy stones (CELT), which can be used to open mystery chests or traded for mainstream currency in CherrySwap. Celestial has introduced an intriguing feature to the DeFi pledge mining — the energy stone mining accelerator, xCELT, which can generate up to three times the earnings of CELT.

    To obtain xCELT, users simply need to mortgage CELT. As the total mining power increases, more xCELT will be needed to keep the process running, which ultimately cushions selling pressure. Currently, the project seems to be pivoting towards decentralized finance while developing its GameFi and SocialFi features. According to Celestial:

    “We think that a healthy self-rotating economic system is essential for every project; once economic development has reached its ideal state, we will enhance SocialFi and GameFi features, and the game launch will be completed.”

    The warring gaming platform seeks to create a socially permeable interplanetary exploration chain game, with player community culture as the pioneer with gaming and decentralized finance as the support. As the blockchain gaming ecosystem expands, Celestial is positioning itself to lead the adoption of the cross-chain warring metaverse.

    For more information on the game: Tutorial Download

    Celestial Official Channels

    Website: https://celt.game

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/GameCelt

    Telegram: https://t.me/CELT_Game

    Medium: https://medium.com/@celestial.gamefi

    Whitepaper: https://celt.game/static/CELESTIAL_Whitepaper.pdf

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3L64zz-sbwaEgMVotqLkTA/videos

    Coinmarketcap: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/celestial/

    Coingecko: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/celestial



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  • Coinbase Ventures 2021-Q3 activity and takeaways

    Coinbase Ventures 2021-Q3 activity and takeaways

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    Around the Block from Coinbase Ventures sheds light on key trends impacting the crypto ecosystem. In this edition, the Ventures team provides an update on Coinbase Ventures activity in 2021-Q3, and key learnings from around the industry.

    Coinbase Ventures (or “Ventures”) has grown into one of the most active VC investors in crypto by deal count. In Q3, Ventures made a record 49 investments, averaging a new deal every ~1.8 days. This is up from 28 investments made in Q2, and 24 in Q1. As of Q3 2021, the Ventures portfolio size stands at over 200+ companies and projects.

    On a cumulative basis, 90% of the capital invested by Ventures has been deployed in 2021 YTD, reflecting the accelerated pace of Coinbase Ventures in its fourth year of operation. 50% of the new unique “logos” in the portfolio have also come in 2021.

    Motivation & philosophy

    Coinbase Ventures primary mandate is to support the growing crypto ecosystem. As such, we invest broadly across the space in strong entrepreneurs driving crypto forward. We want the crypto ecosystem to bloom and are not focused exclusively on specific outcomes (as is typical with corporate venture capital).

    Ultimately, we see crypto as a rising tide, and growth in the ecosystem lifts all boats — Coinbase included. Traditional strategic benefits, such as commercial partnerships and potential M&A, are great, but we view them as icing on the cake.

    Investment Categories

    Coinbase Ventures investments range from six-figure seed deals to multi-million dollar growth rounds. There are many ways to slice our investments, but at the highest level we break down the market across the following categories: Protocols + Web3 infrastructure, DeFi, CeFi, Platform + Developer Tools, NFT / Metaverse, and Miscellaneous.

    Our current distribution of total investments by company is as follows:

    Key Themes & Learnings

    *Coinbase Ventures portfolio company

    In our most active quarter to date, we saw heavy development across centralized finance (CeFi) in the United States, Layer-1/Layer-2, cross-chain protocols, as well as Web3 tooling. Here’s some of the major themes we observed.

    Regulators and centralized players waded deeper into the crypto waters

    Regulatory bodies made their presence more widely known in Q3, as the SEC and Treasury Department in the US, and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) internationally, all stepped up engagement across the crypto ecosystem. This has introduced some forms of regulatory risk for early stage protocols and teams. On the flip side, the largest cap asset scored positive tailwinds in the form of the BTC Futures ETF approval which we believe will allow latent capital to enter crypto markets, leading to significant volumes, inflows, and interest.

    Web 2.0 companies like Square, Twitter, Stripe, and Tik Tok also expanded their crypto strategies in Q3. Square announced a Bitcoin based platform for financial services, Twitter revealed future BTC Lightning and NFT integrations, and Stripe announced its return to crypto with a new dedicated crypto team. Tik Tok announced a partnership with ImmutableX* to launch a creator-led NFT collection.

    Meanwhile, banks, fintechs, and broker dealers moved to further integrate crypto into their product offerings, enabled by Coinbase Prime, Coinbase Cloud and other third party platforms. All in all, the crypto industry made tremendous strides with respect to maturation and institutional adoption over the quarter.

    The multichain ecosystem hit its stride

    Following years of development on solutions designed to alleviate bottlenecks on Ethereum, scaling is finally here with a range of Layer-1 and Layer-2 ecosystems taking off. The majority of the current traction is on solutions leveraging EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) compatibility, allowing users and developers to migrate to new environments with relatively low switching costs. Users can access EVM compatible L1s like Avalanche, or sidechains/L2s like Polygon*/Arbitrum*/Optimism* with their existing wallets. Solidity smart contracts can also be generally copy + pasted to any EVM compatible L1/L2, which has led to implementations of popular DeFi applications across multiple chains.

    As CeFi exchanges have been slow to integrate with these new L1s/L2s, we saw traction across newly launched cross-chain bridges. These bridges facilitated the movement of billions in funds from Ethereum to various L1s/L2s.

    While EVM compatible applications written in Solidity saw the most traction on L1s and L2s in Q3, other ecosystems are bringing more expressive programmability to the table. New primitives focused on more familiar programming languages like Rust (Solana, Polkadot), Golang (Cosmos), and Move (Facebook Diem*, Flow*) may usher in a wave of new Web 2.0 developers to the industry.

    Better Web3 UX is on the way

    In Q3 we saw further development of Web3 tooling that will simplify the experience of Web3 interactions. XMTP* is spearheading a messaging standard across Web3 addresses. Spruce* is standardizing “OAuth” (open authorization), which will allow users to securely share digital credentials, private files, and sensitive media with Web 3 applications. Snapshot* is making it simple to access governance forums and decisions across Dapps.

    Meanwhile, a tremendous amount of work is being done to create added security for Web3 applications. OpenZeppelin’s decentralization effort, Forta*, is making progress on real-time security monitoring of smart contracts with the goal of providing more transparency around smart contract code execution, detection of bugs, and eventually, the prevention of hacks in real-time. Similarly, Certik* is providing a “fast-and-easy” automated audit tool to help Dapps go-to-market more quickly.

    Simultaneously, the DAO tech stack continues to evolve, with the technical and legal formation of on-chain communities beginning to take hold. Syndicate* (among others) aims to be the “AngelList of crypto” through the creation of a decentralized investing protocol and social network.

    NFT 2.0 & crypto gaming took flight

    Q3 also saw a ton of development focused on NFT creator tools that will ultimately broaden the scope of NFT use cases and audiences while creating new social features.

    Meanwhile, NFT based gaming continued to accelerate led by Axie Infinity, as its play-to-earn model took hold in emerging markets (Philippines, Brazil, India among others) attracting 2M DAUs and generating over $2B in revenue. Loot Project also captivated the industry by introducing an inverted model for game development. This was done by first releasing NFT based game assets to the public in order to bootstrap a community and incentivize further development.

    Stay tuned

    Stayed tuned for more insights and updates from the Coinbase Ventures team in the future. Also check out previous editions of Around The Block that you may have missed:

    • The Coinbase Ventures Guide to NFTs
    • Loot Project: the first community owned NFT gaming platform
    • Axie Infinity, Yield Guild Games & the play-to-earn economy


    Coinbase Ventures 2021-Q3 activity and takeaways was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.



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  • Halal MRHB DeFi integrates zkSync’s ZK-RollUp solution for Ethereum | by Bit Media Buzz | Oct, 2021

    Halal MRHB DeFi integrates zkSync’s ZK-RollUp solution for Ethereum | by Bit Media Buzz | Oct, 2021

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    Bit Media Buzz

    Dubai, U.A.E., October 28, 2021 — MRHB DeFi the world’s first inclusive and ethical DeFi platform is integrating the Ethereum scaling solution zkSync, developed by software experts Matter Labs.

    The move will mean that the MRHB DeFi ecosystem will benefit from the low fee transactions zkSync enables, while developers will be able to utilize zkSync technology on the platform’s architecture to improve efficiency, speed, scalability, security and privacy.

    ZK RollUp solves Ethereum Scalability with Zero Security Compromises

    zkSync is an innovative technology that is already live on the Ethereum mainnet. It allows for extremely low transaction fees, relies on a trustless protocol, and keeps funds cryptographically secure. Transactions use zero-knowledge proofs and on-chain data availability to keep users’ funds safe, with computation and storage being performed off-chain.

    At Marhaba, we strongly believe zkSync will lead the way as a ZK-RollUp solution for Ethereum,” said Deniz Dalkilic, CTO of MRHB DeFi. “Given its ability of 100% Solidity compatibility, fast finality with low fees while having the ability to secure unlimited amounts of TVL($), it makes it the perfect L2 solution for DeFi.”

    Built on ZK Rollup architecture, zkSync ensures that it strictly inherits the security guarantees of the underlying L1. Unlike sidechains, Rollup validator(s) can never be corrupted. Smart-contract friendly, exchange friendly, the technology allows for contract-interoperability and atomic swaps on different exchange protocols and even includes native support for NFTs.

    MRHB CTO Dalkilic highlighted that Vitalik Buterin has declared that “in the medium to long term, ZK rollups will win out in all use cases as ZK-SNARK technology improves.”

    The technology is already in use by a wide range of leading blockchain projects, including Curve, Argent, and Balancer, and was supported in its ecosystem funding round by leading names in the blockchain space, including Binance, Huobi, Coinbase and many more.

    An Ethical and Inclusive DeFi Vision

    MRHB DeFi was founded with a vision of providing greater access to the growing opportunities and utilities of the cryptoverse for excluded and cautious communities, and has a particular focus on delivering faith-based DeFi services which adhere to the ethical investment and financing principles rooted in Islamic Finance, many of which align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Such business practices include those that avoid interest, usury, social exploitation and other acts deemed unethical as well as support sustainability, asset/utility backed financing, transparency and equitable risk/reward sharing.

    With the Islamic Finance industry sized at around USD 3 trillion of assets, bringing even a small portion of Shariah-sensitive liquidity into DeFi will represent a major boost to the total value of the DeFi sector worldwide.

    MRHB DeFi has also received strategic investments from Blockchain Australia, Mozaic, Contango Digital Assets, NewTribe Capital, Sheesha Finance, Acreditus Partners and EMGS Group.

    About MRHB DeFi

    MRHB (pronounced ‘Marhaba’) DeFi is a decentralised finance platform built to bring ethics to the DeFi space with an approach that supports the inclusion of faith-based and other excluded communities in addition to existing crypto-natives so that everyone can benefit from the full empowerment potential of DeFi to help build a true peer-to-peer financial and economic value system.

    Based on the tenets of blockchain such as trust, transparency, and security, MRHB DeFi has encapsulated universally applicable principles of Islamic Finance into those tenets of blockchain to render a suite of offerings that are also ESG compliant.

    The project is backed by a diverse and strong team with backgrounds spanning crypto, technology, faith-compliant investing, finance and seasoned institutional veterans of industry. The public sale offering will be in December. Register your interest and read more about MRHB DeFi’s Shariah Concept Paper, Lite and White Paper here.

    MRHB DeFi Official Channels

    Website: https://marhabadefi.com

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/marhabadefi

    Telegram: https://t.me/mdf_official

    Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/marhabadefi_ANN

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHuvZG9DbS5ffeoqLX_bERg

    Medium: https://medium.com/@mrhbdefi

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marhabadefi

    Telegram (Arabic): https://t.me/mdf_arabic

    Telegram (Russian): https://t.me/mdf_russia

    Telegram (Turkish): https://t.me/MarhabaDefiTR

    About zkSync

    zkSync is taking a cryptography-first approach to scaling blockchains and spearheading the scaling revolution by offering the cheapest token transfers on Ethereum. Next, they are launching general programmability, EVM-Compatibility, and off-chain data availability for a seamless developer and user experience, for the lowest transaction fees.

    Website: http://zksync.io

    Medium: https://medium.com/matter-labs

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/zksync

    Telegram: https://t.me/zksync_community

    Discord: https://discord.com/invite/px2aR7w



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  • Robinhood’s Crypto Activity Drops 78%, Stock Tanks Below IPO

    Robinhood’s Crypto Activity Drops 78%, Stock Tanks Below IPO

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    Robinhood had a net loss of $1.32 billion this past quarter, recording a plunge of 78% in revenue from crypto transactions from 2Q. Their shares dropped 12% to $34.80 at 9:46 a.m. in New York, $38 below the IPO price in late July, Bloomberg reported.

    Robinhood
    Robinhood Markets Inc. shares down to $34.80 on the daily chart – Source: Robinhood Markets Inc on TradingView

    Analysts had estimated Robinhood Markets Inc. would have a total revenue of $423.9 million during an earlier Bloomberg survey, but the numbers fell short hitting only $364.9 million.

    Vlad Tenev, Robinhood’s Chief Executive Officer, had predicted that the trading activity would tumble in the third quarter of 2021 and fewer accounts would open. As he stated during the Q3 Earnings Call, the tumbling numbers do not worry them since they have different short-term goals.

    The fourth quarter might be falling short as their anticipation for Q4 is that “total revenue will be less than $325 million and full-year revenue will be less than $1.8 billion. At the top end, this implies full-year revenue growth of 85 percent.”, said Jason Warnick, Chief Financial Officer.

    Warnick also reminded that they typically show a “seasonality curve that shows higher growth in the first quarter of the year versus the last three quarters.”, and further explained their Q3 focus on building a team:

    We continue to make progress building our teams with increases primarily in engineering, customer service, and our regulatory, and compliance teams. In the quarter, we added 580 new full-time employees across the company, growing 21 percent sequentially versus Q2.

    Warnick added that they are not worried about the near-term profitability, rather they feel safe about being “a profitable company over the long term.”

    Robinhood’s Crypto Activity Drops-Off

    In Robinhood’s report they show a big drop-off on their monthly active users (MAU) from 21.3 million in the second quarter to 18.9 million in this third quarter. Their crypto activity tumbled as well, as they had significantly fewer new funded accounts.

    Many thought Robinhood would improve the way to invest in the crypto market. However, many wonder if they can meet with many of their clients interests, such as integrating new digital coins.

    Related Reading | Strategist: Next Wave of Bitcoin Investors Likely to Come from Robinhood

    Crypto activity and revenue plays a big role in Robinhood’s platform. Ever since they announced their intent to offer a crypto wallet, a waitlist of 1 million clients surged. On the potential growth that this project might bring, Tenev commented:

    We actually believe that by rolling out wallets, we will go a long way toward addressing the primary pain point that customers feel right now.

    Regulatory Requirements Vs. Crypto Platforms

    Tenev stated during the Earnings Call that “the regulatory landscape is increasingly uncertain.” As they want to enhance their involvement in the crypto space, they also intend to watch over their platform and keep it safe by “introducing products that comply with legal and regulatory requirements.”

    He explained that Robinhood is carefully looking into new virtual currencies, but they mantain the focus on meeting regulatory guidelines since they do not want another run-in

    Related Reading | Robinhood Fined $70M For Causing “Significant Harm” To Customers

    In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Blockchain Capital General Partner Spencer Bogart reacted to Robinhood’s tumbling numbers and suggested this drop-off aligns with the frustration that the historically unfriendly regulations from the U.S create for crypto platforms.

    Bogart explains that “Historically, the U.S. has been so unfriendly to innovation in the crypto space that most platforms are forced to ban Americans.” According to his opinion, regulations have only worked against the American people’s freedom rather than being implemented in their favor.

    For a country that is founded on the principles of freedom, growth, and innovation, to see the U.S. on a shortlist that these merging crypto platforms cannot service, alongside Syria, Sudan and North Korea, it is not just a disgrace, it is a disservice to the American people who should be able to access this technology.

    He clarifies that he is unsure of Robinhood’s inside issues, but he understands the landscape behind Tenev’s comments about the regulatory situation “where there really isn’t much clarity”. However, he remains positive as he sees “the tide turning” for crypto.

    Robinhood does not sound worried about the Q4 result and they are aiming to play the profitability slow and steady. Warnick said they are investing in crypto and looking forward to diversifying their product selection.

    Crypto
    Total crypto market over $2.4 Trillion in the daily chart | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap from TradingView.com

     

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  • European Central Bank announces digital euro advisory group members

    European Central Bank announces digital euro advisory group members

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    The European Central Bank (ECB) has announced the formation of a Market Advisory Group for the purpose of exploring the infrastructural and circulation potential of the digital euro from the perspective of industry spearheads.

    The group also aims to uncover the digital euros optimal function within the pan-European currency’s vast payments ecosystem. 

    The group includes a number of well-established experts from the banking and financial sector, including Aleksander Kurtevski, managing director of Bankart, Antonio Macías Vecino, head of payments discipline at BBVA and Axel Schaefer, payment regulation and innovation specialist at Ingka Group (Ikea), among others.

    It is expected that initial consultation meetings will commence in November 2021 and will operate on a monthly basis. The 30 members will work in advisory roles and report their findings for consideration in retail payments discussions within the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB).

    In mid July this year, the Governing Council of the ECB disclosed plans to commence a two-year preliminary research initiative into the feasibility of the digital euro project, assessing parameters such as infrastructure creation, distribution and design, with an assured intention to “complement cash, not replace it.”

    Related: Stablecoins are assets — not currencies, says ECB president

    ECB Board Member Fabio Panetta expressed his high-expectations for the project’s success:

    “I am pleased that many high-quality experts from the private sector are willing to contribute to the digital euro project. Their expertise will facilitate the integration of prospective users’ and distributors’ views on a digital euro during the investigation phase.”

    This is a developing story, so more detail will be added shortly.