In a recent announcement, Binance NFT marketplace revealed the launch of its Subscription Mechanism feature. Now that this new functionality is officially live for all users, everyone will now have a fair and equal shot at buying an NFT during the highly-awaited NFT primary sales period.
This Subscription Mechanism feature will have four phases: Preparation, Subscription, Calculation, and Distribution. If you want to be eligible for participation during the Preparation phase’s NFT main sales, you’ll need to have a minimum daily average BNB holding. The NFT creators specify the amount, which may vary depending on the project.
Not only that, users who meet the minimum requirements will receive participation tickets. They can use these tickets during the Subscription period if they want to take part in the sale. The NFT projects will decide how many participation tickets will be supplied to each user who meets the qualifications.
The Subscription phase allows you to subscribe to the NFT primary sale by offering up some or all of your participation tickets to a pool. All the committed tickets have a fair chance of winning in this pool. The amount of BNB that will be locked will be determined by how many committed participation tickets there are. No worries, though, as these will be restored after the Distribution Phase.
satheeshsankaran (CC0), Pixabay
During the Calculation phase, the system will choose the winning tickets from the pool mentioned above containing all committed participation tickets. Note that this process will be done fairly and equally by the system. When a winning ticket is chosen, the holder will be given a chance to buy an NFT during the NFT primary sales.
The last phase is the Distribution phase, which helps the winners obtain NFTs through NFT primary sales. The platform will deduct the BNB equivalent of the NFT and automatically reimburse the remaining amount to the users’ spot wallets.
While discussing the new Subscription Mechanism, Head of Binance NFT Helen Hai said:
About more than a month after Binance NFT’s launch, the platform has undoubtedly become one of the fastest-growing NFT platforms worldwide. It has produced around 25 million BUSD in sales, sold more than 300,000 mystery boxes, and onboarded more than 400 producers across the globe.
Blockchain technology has seriously changed the game for so many industries in such a short period. And even though many still consider it a novelty, its existence today has significantly improved human relationships positively, not to mention it has offered a rush of new revenue streams. Overall, blockchain technology is continuously transforming how we interact with people and the world, in general.
While this technology is undoubtedly impressive, the metaverse phenomenon is jaw-dropping, as it has successfully allowed us to integrate the real world with a new and immersive virtual world.
At this time, many are interested in owning valuable in-game assets within the metaverse. However, some still haven’t found an asset worth investing in. For instance, some pet owners want to turn their pets into NFTs or, better yet, somehow bring their real-world pets into the metaverse. A couple of years ago, you’d think this dream was impossible, but technology constantly evolves, allowing a skilled team of developers to create ClassicDoge.
With ClassicDoge, pet owners can now own the digital version of their beloved pets in the metaverse. This extraordinary project uses the limitless possibilities brought about by blockchain technology, allowing dog lovers to train, play with, and immortalize their pets in a virtual universe. Not only that, they even earn rewards by making a 3D avatar NFT version of their furry pals.
How ClassicDoge Is Different From the Others
Given the number of crypto projects currently available on the market, it’s no surprise that some projects claim to create NFT animal avatars for the metaverse. However, we’ve come to find that most of the time, these avatars are fake and typically don’t even accurately represent what your pet looks like. ClassicDoge, on the other hand, allows you to turn your actual pets into 3D avatars, which you can then bring into the metaverse.
The team working on this innovative project is seriously passionate about helping pet owners turn their beloved dogs into furever companions by bringing them into the metaverse. Even if you lose your dog in the real world, the loss of your furry friend won’t hurt as much because they’ll be immortalized in the metaverse forever.
Once you’ve scanned and uploaded your fur baby, you can integrate your pet into top-ranking metaverse gaming platforms and worlds with the help of ClassicDoge. You can train, breed, and even accessorize your now-virtual companion.
Not only can you turn your pet into an NFT, but ClassicDoge has an accessories marketplace where you can purchase wearables. And by using its proprietary NFT Generator, you can even mint brand-new NFTs of your furry friend and sell them to earn a profit.
How to Upload Your Pet Into the Metaverse
Here are the steps to bring your pet into the metaverse:
Use ClassicDoge’s Furever 3D Scan app to capture the likeness of your pet.
Upload the file into the Metaverse and Augmented Reality.
Mint your newly-made avatar into an NFT, which you can later trade on marketplaces. Every piece of information about your beloved pet will be stored and readily available on the blockchain.
Since you’re now an NFT holder, you can start participating in the ecosystem’s governance by casting votes on which new features you want to see in the platform.
ClassicDoge is undoubtedly one of the most unique up-and-coming projects right now. At this time, you can purchase the platform’s native token on Pancakeswap, but it should be available on more exchanges in the future.
Kenya is one of the top countries known for trading cryptocurrencies in massive amounts. Undoubtedly, the rise of cryptocurrency has proven itself beneficial for those countries that are going through financial strain. Thanks to bitcoin, many African countries, including Kenya, have stabilized their economic conditions somewhat.
Bitcoin is one of the most commonly used cryptocurrencies in Kenya. Notably, more Kenyan residents have begun to switch to bitcoin since it’s a safer cryptocurrency than the others on the market. Not only that, recent research reveals that nearly 2.3% of Kenya’s GDP is maintained through Bitcoin.
The Process of Buying Crypto in Kenya
As mentioned above, one cryptocurrency widely bought and sold in Kenya is Bitcoin. It’s considered a revolutionary digital asset there, and more and more investors have begun to turn their time and attention to it, causing its adoption for trade to increase.
When buying Bitcoin, the most important thing you need to keep in mind is to purchase it on a crypto exchange with optimal security and the least possible fees to earn the most profit. Binance P2P is among one of the leading sites for crypto trading in Kenya. It allows investors to easily convert Kenyan Shilling into BTC and vice versa without worrying about safety or security.
Follow the steps below for those who are interested in buying Bitcoin in Kenya:
A Suitable Gadget
The first and most important requirement you must have before buying Bitcoin is to have a suitable gadget on hand. To get started, you can have any major gadgets, including an Android device, laptop, or desktop PC. Using your device, you only need to visit the crypto exchange’s website on a laptop or PC or download the app (if it has one) on your smartphone.
Registration
Next is the registration process, which you must do on trustworthy sites. This is a step you can’t skip because you won’t be able to enter the crypto world without creating an account first. You’ll need to register an account to start trading Bitcoin on your exchange of choice.
Level 2 Identity Verification
From there, you’ll need to undergo Level 2 identity verification to certify the high security of your sale or purchase. Once that’s done, you can choose among the different payment methods.
The Specifics
To start buying or selling Bitcoin, you need to specify the search criteria. You can do so by including the crypto type, how much you want to buy, and the payment method.
Afterward, the platform will offer several options for you to purchase. It would be best if you chose the offer that best suits your needs, not to mention that you should choose the one within your investment range. You can even buy a millionth part of Bitcoin if that’s how much you can afford.
Confirmation
Once you’ve finalized everything, including the deal you want to take, go ahead and confirm the transaction to receive your Bitcoins. The funds should reflect in your account within a few minutes.
Now it’s up to you what you want to do with your newly-bought crypto. You can use it for investments, save it for the future, or switch to other crypto projects if or when needed.
Conclusion
Several other crypto exchanges are available too that have a similar process to the steps we mentioned above.
Kenya’s crypto market is undoubtedly continuing to rise, and more options are being made available to interested investors and traders.
Fantom (FTM) is still on the download right now, but it probably won’t stay that way for very long. Last year, the crypto’s performance was excellent, with the coin now trading at $3 from last year’s $0.02 trading value.
Fantom is similar to Solana (SOL) in that it’s a layer-1 protocol with incredible speeds, which is why it’s jumping as much as it is now. Both Fantom and Solana’s values soared in 2021 by 14,000% and 11,000%, respectively. Compared to Solana, Fantom is much smaller with its $7 billion market cap. On the other hand, Solana’s market cap is $43 billion.
There’s a possibility that this significant difference is because, unlike Fantom, you can buy and sell Solana on Coinbase, which is perhaps the biggest cryptocurrency exchange at this time. Of course, it’s not restricted to only Coinbase either, as you can buy the coin on other exchange platforms such as Gemini.
Nevertheless, many believe that Fantom will continue to outperform Solana even in 2022. With that in mind, here are some reasons why you may want to consider buying Fantom this year.
It’s Possibly the Fastest Blockchain on the Market
The crypto markets went wild over Ethereum (ETH) competitors last year. Ethereum is a powerful platform within the crypto universe. However, more and more people have become interested in crypto, causing the Ethereum network to strain a bit. The network’s “gas fees” (i.e., the cost of verifying a transaction on Ethereum’s blockchain) reached $300 at some point, which is quite a lot. Meanwhile, transacting on networks such as Fantom or Solana only costs a fraction of a penny.
You might be asking yourself, “why are the fees so cheap?” The short answer is speed. For instance, Solana can process 50,000 transactions per second, while Ethereum can only do 14 transactions per second. Although Fantom isn’t as speedy as Solana, it’s undoubtedly much faster than Ethereum.
During a test run in 2018, Fantom’s blockchain could process about 25,000 transactions per second. That said, Fantom has a pretty substantial claim to being the fastest blockchain if you consider the time to finality. This is perhaps the most important statistic to consider because that’s the moment when a transaction is considered fully validated on the blockchain. Fantom’s time to finality is only around a second, Solana’s time to finality is about 13 seconds, while Ethereum takes over a minute.
Fantom also appears to be winning the overall number of transactions on the blockchain. Fantom averaged only 4,000 transactions a day about a year ago, but now, the network averages 750,000 transactions a day. That’s a massive boost in only a year. Fantom ranks fifth in transaction amount, zooming past more prominent coins like Avalanche (AVAX).
It’s Also Compatible With Its Competitors
The blockchain universe has many challenges, and one of these challenges has to do with compatibility. You see, moving a virtual wallet from one blockchain to another can be a massive challenge, which is why many of these networks are what we call “frenemies.” After all, they’re all competing with one other, with the networks wanting to win and be better. Nevertheless, they must also find a balance to play nice and work alongside each other.
Like all the other Ethereum competitors, Fantom is also compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). As such, engineers who have ample experience dealing with Ethereum can have a much easier time developing decentralized apps (dApps) for the Fantom blockchain. On the other hand, Ethereum dApps can also have a simpler time moving to the Fantom blockchain to save some money.
On the other hand, Solana differs from the rest because it’s not compatible with Ethereum. As such, the Solana blockchain is placed outside Ethereum’s universe. However, what’s even more intriguing is that Fantom is also within the Solana ecosystem. The flexibility that the Fantom blockchain shows is undoubtedly a strength, and it will surely help it stay afloat in this saturated market. It doesn’t matter whether Solana or Ethereum comes out on top because it’s compatible with both networks in Fantom’s case. In other words, it should do just fine no matter the outcome.
Big-Time Investors Are Supporting Fantom
If you’ve been following the news regarding crypto investing, then it’s highly likely that you’re familiar with the name Sam Bankman-Fried. With a net worth of $26 billion, he ranks 58 on the Forbes 400 list. In other words, he’s possibly the wealthiest crypto magnate on the list.
Bankman-Fried is known for launching the popular crypto trading exchange FTX, but he’s also one of Solana’s early investors. He once got into a fight on Twitter, as he defended Solana’s price at the time. Bankman-Fried and Twitter user CoinMamba debated over Solana’s worth, which was around $2, $2.05, and $2.38 at the time. On January 9, Bankman-Fried tweeted, saying, “I’ll buy as much SOL has you have, right now, at $3. Sell me all you want.” By the end of the year, Solana zoomed to $149, turning his tweet into a legendary one.
Aside from being an avid supporter of Solana, Bankman-Fried is also a prominent patron of Fantom. In February, his firm called the Alameda Research purchased $35 million worth of Fantom coins. This took place when the blockchain began to incorporate itself within Solana.
Although Bankman-Fried is considered the wealthiest Fantom backer, the most important one is most likely Andre Cronje. Cronje is Yearn Finance’s founder and is also one of the architects behind decentralized finance (DeFi). Cronje is Fantom’s technical adviser, so much so that he has even helped develop Fantom’s blockchain.
Not only that, Cronje has already developed a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace on Fantom’s network. What’s even more interesting is that it’s specially made to be a direct competitor to OpenSea, which is currently the biggest NFT marketplace in the industry. He’s also working on a secret project right now, and it may be released on the blockchain sometime this year.
Given how Fantom is receiving massive support from big-time players in the crypto industry, not to mention its impressive speed and growth rates, it’s highly likely that FTM will climb even higher this year.
Photo by: STRF/STAR MAX/IPx 2021 3/24/21 Elon Musk suspends Tesla purchases with bitcoin.
A Bitcoin and Ethereum miner appears to have discovered a way to save money on electricity by connecting his MacBook to his 2018 Tesla Model 3.
The miner, Siraj Raval, claims to have made $800 during the peak of the cryptocurrency boom early last year. According to CNBC, Raval connected a set of GPUs to his Tesla’s “frunk.” The car’s massive battery serves largely as a source of electricity, which may help reduce maintenance costs.
Despite the fact that tinkering with Tesla automobiles breaches the guarantee, Raval tells journalists that it was worth it. “It’s a computer on wheels,” Raval said of his blockchain network’s use of the Tesla automobile.
He claims that breaking into this automated vehicle is extremely simple. Raval appeared to have connected five graphics cards to his Tesla battery, allowing him to mine Ethereum coin with an algorithm.
He also used an Apple Mac Mini with an M1 chipset and a 12-volt power plug in the center console of his car. The voltage can be regulated using the inverter. Raval’s Tesla vehicle has a range of approximately 320 miles per charge and costs approximately $15 to charge. Raval’s monthly charges total $40.
It could be cheaper than the average person’s monthly electricity bill, particularly if you’re mining cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, Tesla vehicles are not cheap, with costs ranging between $50,000 and $100,000.
Raval saves money on a setup by buying secondhand GPUs on eBay. Connecting GPUs to vehicle inverters is “no huge deal,” according to famed Bitcoin miner Alejandro de la Torre.
Thomas Sohmers, a Tesla hacker and crypto-miner, says the step is unnecessary. The paper also says that the revenue generated by this process is greatly depending on when the Tesla car was purchased.
According to Chris Allessi (KmanAuto), a YouTuber and Tesla moderator, it is eligible for a recharge if the car was purchased before January 2017.
In an effort to track down the roots of a multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency scam in the region, Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has placed an official notice on cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
After receiving many reports about an ongoing scam that involved deceiving investors into sending funds from Binance wallets to unknown third-party wallets, the Pakistani government launched a criminal investigation.
According to local media, the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing has summoned Binance Pakistan’s general manager Hamza Khan and asked him to establish the exchange’s relationship to “fraudulent online investing mobile applications.”
According to the paper, an appropriate inquiry has also been issued to Binance’s Cayman Islands headquarters and Binance US to clarify the situation.
Investment fraudsters in Pakistan lured users to join Binance and transmit funds to third-party wallets with the promise of unrealistic profits.
“These schemes profit existing clients at the expense of new ones and eventually vanish after building a massive capital base worth billions of rupees,” according to the notification.
The Pakistani agency uncovered at least 11 fake mobile apps that abruptly shut down after successfully stealing the user’s money based on the accusations.
MCX, HTFOX, HFC, OKIMINI, FXCOPY, AVG86C, BB001, UG, BX66, and TASKTOK are among the applications detected by the FIA.
The fraudsters invited the victims to a Telegram channel where they would provide “expert betting signals,” as well as lead them to sign up on Binance to transfer the funds. Each application housed approximately 5,000 customers on average.
The letter stated that “at least 26 questionable blockchain wallet addresses (Binance wallet addresses) where illicit monies may have been sent have been discovered.”
It further stated that a letter was sent to Binance Holdings Limited in order to collect the data of these blockchain wallet accounts and debit block them.
PayPal Holdings Inc. recently confirmed that the company is currently considering developing and launching a stablecoin. This confirmation came after a developer uncovered some references within PayPal’s iOS app to something called the “PayPal Coin.”
For the unfamiliar, a stablecoin is a form of cryptocurrency pinned to a stable reserve asset. Some excellent examples would be the dollar or gold. The benefit of a pegged coin is that its price is more or less stable. Not only that, its volatility is drastically reduced, unlike the other cryptocurrencies. These days, stablecoins have become more popular, thanks to their ability to allow transfers between exchanges and for everyday commerce.
Last Friday, senior vice president of crypto and digital currencies at PayPal Jose Fernandez da Ponte told Bloomberg that the company is looking into a stablecoin at this time. If or when they decide to push through and launch it, Ponte ensures that they will be working closely “with relevant regulators.”
mohamed_hassan (CC0), Pixabay
As for the PayPal Coin code discovered by Steve Moser, PayPal confirms that it’s in no way related to their ongoing stablecoin plans. Rather, the company reveals that the code came from an internal hackathon, where PayPal engineers brainstormed and developed brand-new potential products that may never see the light of day. In other words, if the PayPal stablecoin is eventually launched to the public, it could have a different name, logo, and other features altogether.
PayPal first joined the crypto scene back in October 2020 when it released a service that allows users to buy, hold, and sell crypto directly from their PayPal accounts. The service was initially launched in the United States with support for popular assets like bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. They later expanded the service to the United Kingdom in August.
At the time, PayPal president and chief executive officer Dan Schulman said:
That said, PayPal’s path towards developing and launching a stablecoin may not be an easy one should they move forward with their plans. Meta Platforms Inc. has had plans to release its own stablecoin for a couple of years now. It was originally named Libra but was later changed to Novi.
However, it seems Meta’s attempts at a stablecoin only brought in controversy and regulatory obstacles. While we believe that PayPal’s stablecoin won’t be as controversial, but there’s still a good chance that it will encounter some regulatory issues.
PayPal appears to be considering the launch of its cryptocurrency backed by the US dollar, as the online payment corporation looks to include opportunities for customers to engage with digital coinage on its platforms.
PayPal confirmed to Bloomberg that it is considering developing its stablecoin, a cryptocurrency backed by and anchored to an existing currency.
In recent months, PayPal has made a significant push into cryptocurrencies, launching new facilities for buying and keeping digital currencies, as well as the ability to pay for transactions with them.
A developer named Steve Moser dug deep inside the PayPal app and discovered evidence that the firm was experimenting with a cryptocurrency called “PayPal Coin” backed by the US dollar.
According to his website, The Tape Drive, Moser also identified ties to another cryptocurrency, Neo, in PayPal’s iOS app. Currently, PayPal supports buying, selling, and holding Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
PayPal began allowing its US customers to store cryptocurrency in October 2020, and in March of the following year, they were able to make purchases from the platform’s over 30 million merchants using supported cryptocoins.
PayPal does not charge fees for bitcoin storage, but it does charge a small transaction fee of up to 2.3 percent for each transaction. The advantage of using PayPal for cryptocoin transactions is that it provides fraud protection for purchases made with fiat money on the site.
It’s unknown how much PayPal has invested in its stablecoin, but according to a corporate official, the code proof, which includes a PayPal Coin logo in the app, resulted from an internal hackathon.
If PayPal launches its cryptocurrency, the name and other characteristics are likely to change.
PayPal isn’t the only tech firm considering creating its cryptocurrency. Meta Platforms Inc., formerly Facebook, has been aiding in creating the Diem stablecoin, and Visa Inc. has just permitted a stablecoin backed by the US dollar to settle a transaction with the network.
Does intense marketing play a significant part in a decentralized cryptocurrency system? According to Sandeep Nailwal, the co-founder of Polygon, its role is potentially a lot.
Crypto-analyst Spencer Noon remarked on December 2021, saying that even though many Web3 enthusiasts consider Solana to be the second-most used platform for smart contracts, it appears that the data for “daily active users” revealed a different platform altogether. The data revealed that the platform in question is Polygon.
Polygon co-founder Nailwal responded on January 9, saying:
It’s worth mentioning that even though Polygon is mainly India-based, Solana’s headquarters is reportedly within the United States. Not only that, but Nailwal also claimed that Polygon’s active developer teams are around 2,000-3,000. Meanwhile, Solana has fewer teams, with only 200-300.
In Nailwal’s Twitter thread, he retweeted another user who asserted that Solana has a different way of measuring its statistics. This is quite a big deal, especially since how a network portrays its activity to the public can significantly impact people’s perspectives.
For instance, when the Solana wallet Phantom released its 2021 stats and touted that it had over 1.8 million monthly active users, journalist Laura Shin double-checked with the network to make sure it referred to active users and not addresses.
Not only that, but Nailwal also retweeted a user who tweeted that many of those active Solana users were merely bots. In a recent report by Electric Capital that measured and compared developer activity, both Solana and Polygon were among the top names on the list. The report found that among the biggest ecosystems in the sector included Ethereum, Bitcoin, Polkadot, Cosmos, Solana, BSC, NEAR, Avalanche, Tezos, Polygon, and Cardano, with each network having over 250 monthly active developers.
On another note, the report noted that Solana’s average monthly active developers grew by over 4.9x in 2021, while Polygon only grew by over 2x.
A Bad Time for MATIC
At press time, MATIC’s trading value was at $2.01. The altcoin dropped by 5.26% in the last day and saw significant losses of 20.55% in the last week. MATIC isn’t the only coin to be experiencing this red flood, though, as it seems the larger market is also undergoing the same thing, and many are frightful for the market’s future.
Still, some MATIC supports like crypto-influencer Lark Davis are still optimistic about the future of Polygon and its place within the market.
The NFT sector continues to be one of the most rapidly expanding digital assets for tokenizing artworks and other valuable physical goods. Their architecture incorporates the same programming as other cryptocurrencies, however, they are incompatible.
According to recent OpenSea statistics, the nonfungible token’s trade volumes on the platform have increased significantly. Despite the revised speculative frenzy on the two Yuga Labs of Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and Bored Ape Yacht Club, this quick gain has continued in January (BAYC).
According to Rchen8’s Dune Analytics report, OpenSea had amassed over $700 million in trading volume as early January 2022. Furthermore, according to the study, Monday had the largest value in the new year, with a 24-hour trading volume of around $255.8 million.
According to OpenSea’s monthly trade volume, the project had $3.24 billion in December. This valuation was down roughly 5.3 percent from the all-time high (ATH) of $3.42 billion in August.
The current record on Monday trading volume on OpeaSea elicits strong comments from notable industry observers. Wu Blockchain, one of these noteworthy experts, crowns the Monday trading value as the highest value for OpenSea.
On the other hand, Dune Analytics already has a higher value of $322 million posted by Rchen8 on August 29, 2021, as the all-time high for OpenSea 24 hours trading volume.
However, with a record of over 700 million trade volume in just four days of January, OpenSea is expected to set a new ATH this month if the current pace of its trading operations continues.
A closer examination of the recent spike in OpenSea’s trading volume reveals a connection to the strong mania of its Yuga Labs projects. These include the MAYC NFTs, the BAYC NFTs, and other programs.
MAYC and BAYC NFTs were ranked first and second in seven-day trading volumes on secondary markets, according to a report from CryptoSlam. The former has a value of around $93.2 million, while the latter has a value of approximately $88.4 million.
MAYC and BAYC NFTs had a bullish value of $189.7 million and $182.6 million, respectively, based on a 30-day analysis. The NFTs were ranked third and fourth in the NFT collections ranking at the time of publication.
