A copy of the whitepaper of Litecoin’s mimblewimble upgrade was put on the Litecoin blockchain.

Developers are forking Bitcoin ordinals to give older proof-of-work networks, such as Litecoin, their first set of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Over the weekend, Bitcoin developer Anthony Gurrera forked the code behind Bitcoin ordinals to the Litecoin blockchain – placing a copy of the latter’s mimblewimble upgrade whitepaper to the Litecoin network, making it the first NFT on Litecoin in effect.

The effort likely stemmed from a public bounty of 15 litecoin (LTC) tokens by one Crypto Twitter user to any developer who could fork ordinals to the Litecoin blockchain. “Rules: Must work with Litecoin Core 0.21.2.1. Submit the Github repo below. First successful submission to port to Litecoin wins,” Twitter user Indigo said.

Ordinals Protocol, which enables users to inscribe references to digital art into small transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, essentially creating Bitcoin-based non-fungible tokens.

Already, one report from research firm FSInsight argues that an Ordinals-driven resurgence in development and the expansion in the total value transacted and secured over the Bitcoin blockchain should drive up its price.

As such, the Litecoin ordinals are open-source, meaning anyone can make changes to the code and upgrade the code.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin ordinals are proving to be fairly successful, despite initially creating drama among purist developers in the Bitcoin community. Dune Analytics data shows over 153,000 inscriptions – a term for unique tokens on Ordinals – have been created in just over three weeks after launch, with more than 5,000 created daily on average.

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The same OpenSea wallet that sold the original images of the 45th president has minted the sweepstakes prizes, from a group Zoom call to a gala dinner.

Although former U.S. President Donald Trump’s non-fungible token (NFT) collection sold out in December, its NFTs for sweepstakes winners are now flooding the market.

According to data from NFT marketplace OpenSea, the same wallet that sold the original NFTs is minting tokens that serve as access passes to the sweepstakes prizes touted during the launch of the Trump Digital Trading Card collection in December.

The tokens feature images of Trump holding a sign resembling a ticket, listing the prizes promoted during the original mint. These include a group Zoom call, a gala dinner and a hardcover copy of his book “Our Journey Together.”

The collection now has a trading volume of 35 ETH, or about $48,500, and a floor price of 0.021 ETH, or nearly $30.

Where the tokens in the original mint cost $99 to mint and enter the sweepstakes, the new token prices range depending on the rarity of the experience. While the group Zoom call costs 0.03 ETH, or $40 to access, a one-on-one meeting with the 45th president is listed at 200 ETH, or about $278,000. According to the official sweepstakes rules, the average retail value of the one-on-one meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago is “$0/Priceless.”

The original collection has seen a dramatic drop in trading volume since it launched, with a current floor price of 0.17 ETH (about $235) and an almost 99% drop in trading volume since its peak, according to data from CryptoSlam.

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A memo by the city’s securities and futures regulator reminds investors of the risks of NFTs; altcoins surge and then drop.

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was recently trading at about $30,300, up about 0.5% over the past 24 hours. Ether, the second largest crypto by market caps, was changing hands at roughly $1,730, down about 3% over the same period.

Other major altcoins that had risen significantly earlier in the day, including SOL and ADA were more recently about flat, as investors wrestled with a few positive economic signs and the months-long flow of more troubling news.

Still, a number of analysts said that Bitcoin was unlikely to take any deep dives for the time being.

“I think we may be putting in a bottom here with Bitcoin,” Greg King, CEO and founder of crypto asset manager Osprey Funds, told CoinDesk’s First Mover program.

King noted that the presence of institutional investors has differentiated the latest price slump from previous crypto winters in 2013 and 2018 when bitcoin lost over 80% of its value. Bitcoin has currently dropped about 60% since hitting its all-time peak just short of $70,000 in November.

“Institutional buyers are buying this dip and then don’t forget the macro environment,” King said, noting the four-decade high inflation rate in the U.S. “Zero yield assets such as gold and Bitcoin do very well” at these times, he added.

Stocks rose slightly on Monday with the tech-focused Nasdaq and S&P 500 increasing about a half percentage point, as was the case for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Gold, a traditional safe-haven asset, fell about a half-percentage point. Investors were buoyed by last week’s job report that suggested the economy might not plunge into recession any time soon. Some analysts also believe that inflation has peaked, although markets will be nervously eyeing this Friday’s consumer price index report, which is expected to show inflation remaining stubbornly above 8%, a four-decade high.

Volatility continued to fade in crypto markets, while the fear and greed index ticked higher, although it is still registering squarely in extreme fear territory. Bitcoin has been trading in a tight range between $28,000 and $31,500 for the past month as investors wait for clearer signals about whether the economy will sink into recession or power through its current headwinds.

King believes the increasing correlation between cryptos and stocks will reverse to some degree, calling it a “reflection of this kind of wild situation in macro markets where we have awful conditions and so it’s more of a risk-on, risk-off type of mindset.”

“I personally think that crypto will emerge as – certainly things like Bitcoin – as a relative safe haven as we continue to chop through an uncertain macro environment and especially if rates continue to rise and equities continue to tank, but I don’t think that a long term correlation makes a lot of sense,” he said.

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Selected creators will participate in a one-year NFT immersion program.

Payments giant Visa (V) unveiled a Creator Program where selected small business owners in fields like music, fashion and film will be supported in expanding their operations through the use of non-fungible tokens (NFT).

“NFTs have the potential to become a powerful accelerator for the creator economy,” Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto, said in a statement. “Through the Visa Creator Program, we want to help this new breed of small and micro businesses tap into new mediums for digital commerce.”

According to Visa, the Creator Program is a one-year immersion into the world of NFTs, with support focused in technical and product mentorship, community building, access to thought leaders, exposure to Visa clients and partners, and a one-time stipend.

The so-called creator economy has an estimated market size of over $100 billion, according to Visa, citing data from Influencer Marketing Hub.

One of the first Creator Program participants is former Major League Baseball second baseman Micah Johnson, who launched his NFT character Aku last year.

The news comes a week after the company’s crypto product lead left for a new opportunity in Web 3 payments.

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State Rep. Jason Powell said crypto-friendly laws would help draw more businesses to the state.

A bill introduced by state Rep. Jason Powell’s (D-Nashville) would allow Tennessee and counties and municipalities in the state to invest in cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

It is important for the state’s lawmakers to act fast to ensure Tennessee doesn’t get left behind in the crypto tech boom, Powell told.

“I represent Nashville,” Powell said. “We’re a dynamic, growing city and I want to make sure that we foster a positive environment for all things technology, and I’m a big believer in blockchain technology.”

Tennessee has already established itself as a modest tech hub by courting crypto companies and investors. Notably, Scott Conger, the mayor of Jackson, has been outspoken about his support for cryptocurrency and has pledged to create a system that would enable city employees to receive a portion of their paychecks in bitcoin.

Friendlier crypto laws will induce more companies to set up shop in Tennessee, something of interest to politicians on both sides of the aisle, Powell said.

“I’m optimistic because I think that my fellow lawmakers want to make sure that Tennessee stays ahead, and we’re doing everything we can to create a pro-business environment that’s going to foster companies wanting to be a part of our ecosystem,” Powell said about the bill’s prospects, noting that he helped pass bipartisan blockchain-related legislation in 2018.

“It’s an issue that a lot of people – a lot of my colleagues – don’t understand,” Powell said about crypto in general. “But at the end of the day, it’s a conversation I’m going to continue. Hopefully we can get it passed, but if not, we’ll continue the conversation and continue to push legislation to promote blockchain technology in the state of Tennessee.”

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Play-to-earn games in Asia continue to attract considerable interest from investors.

Summoners Arena, a GameFi role-playing game (RPG) developed in Vietnam, closed a $3 million funding round led by Pantera Capital and counted Coinbase Ventures and Impossible Ventures as participants.

In an interview, Zoe Hoang, Summoners Arena chief marketing officer, said that the team is hoping to differentiate Summoners Arena from other entries in the genre by making it a game that people actually want to play, not just play-to-earn, she said, calling their model Play-Own-Earn.

The team plans to use proceeds of the raise to expand their headcount, and further develop the game by enhancing the graphics and adding support for VR. They also plan to create a universe of other games with the same characters.

Hoang said that gaming is the “perfect use case” for NFTs because it can create a sense of ownership for gamers. When playing a game, gamers might ‘invest’ dozens of hours of time but before GameFi there’s no way to claim ownership over this achievement.

Interest in gaming in Vietnam has accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic, with gamers primarily using their mobiles or PCs. Consoles are pretty much non-existent in the market because of their high cost and limited utility compared to a phone or computer.

Using NFTs to represent ownership of this achievement — and not just speculation — is what caught the attention of Pantera Capital, said Hoang.

“By prioritizing building an amazing game first and layering in crypto-economics second, their play-own-earn model is setting a strong example for other projects in the space, learning lessons from early attempts at the play-to-earn model,” said Paul Veradittakit, Partner at Pantera Capital, in a press release.

Although play-to-earn games are on shaky regulatory grounds in parts of Asia, Hoang said that the Vietnamese government hasn’t taken a position on crypto and existing laws have’t caught up with the technology. That being said, the government is meeting with stakeholders and has an open ear to their feedback on developing new laws.

GameFi tokens currently have a $23 billion market cap, according to CoinGecko.

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Some highlights from The Year in Ethereum 2021 report by Evan Van Ness and Josh Stark.

Earlier this week, Evan Van Ness of Starbloom Ventures and Josh Stark of the Ethereum Foundation released an Ethereum year-end report, The Year in Ethereum 2021, diving into activity on the network last year. Here are some of the report’s most promising developments and trends within the current Ethereum ecosystem.

Demand for blockspace on Ethereum skyrocketed during 2021, with $9.9 billion in transaction fees being paid throughout the year. Since fee per transaction is vastly different chain to chain, the metric is not great for comparing usage on layer 1s and 2s, but it does provide insight into how eager users were to access DeFi, NFTs and DAOs.

On basically every metric, Ethereum showed adoption: total value locked in DeFi, active addresses on the network, OpenSea volume and application developer activity all grew exponentially.

More important, the report highlighted that Ethereum is no longer a one-chain ecosystem. In order to achieve scalability, the Ethereum community will need to offer layer 2 technologies capable of handling transactions from billions of users. 2021 proved to be the first step in experimentation with both optimistic and zero knowledge proof rollups, and the two finally began to take significant market share in daily transactions away from Ethereum L1.

As a technology, Ethereum and other smart contract chains have proved to be an exciting and profitable platform for creators and developers to build and share their work. DeFi developers have created billions of dollars in value by building financial products open and accessible to the world, and artists have found amazing success with creating digital, liquid art in the form of NFTs. That being said, Ethereum’s “creator economy” is competing with top platforms like YouTube, Spotify and OnlyFans, delivering $3.5 billion in earnings to those building on top of the network.

The report also focused on the technical state of the network, diving deep into the pending transition to proof-of-stake, EIP 1559’s effect on the network and the issue of client diversity on the Beacon Chain.

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• NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, are the key to the metaverse, experts say.

• With the digital tokens, people are becoming owners on the internet, instead of simply renters.

• The world is still only in the very early stages of the metaverse, said crypto podcaster Andrew Steinwold.

And just like that, the term “metaverse” has gone mainstream. Last week, social media giant Facebook announced it would change its name to “Meta” in an effort to move into the future of the internet, called Web3 or the metaverse.

Now, headlines about the metaverse, blockchain, and NFTs are dominating the news, and you might be wondering how they’re all connected.

But let’s start with the basics. What even is the metaverse?

Think of your physical world, the things around you, what and who you interact with. Now think of that physical world being digital. That’s it. That’s the metaverse.

Cathy Hackl, who has earned the title of godmother of the metaverse, put it like this to Vogue in an interview in September: “It’s about the internet breaking free from the rectangles in our hands, desks and walls and being all around us.”

It’s like that Sims game so many grew up with, but better. Platforms like Decentraland and Cryptovoxels are already the social media of the metaverse in a way, said Andrew Steinwold, who hosts the crypto podcast Zima Red.

There, “you can build a gallery; you can put photos of yourself, just like regular social media. You can get creative, scratch that itch. You can be social. You can go talk to your neighbors, go attend events.”

But what do NFTs and crypto have to do with all this?

Everything you should know!

NFTs are the digital key to unlocking the metaverse, Shreyansh Singh, the head of Polygon’s NFT and gaming arm, wrote in a Decrypt article.

An NFT, or a nonfungible token, is a unique digital asset stored on a blockchain, the same technology that underpins cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. The tokens give users ownership in the digital world. “That was kind of the missing piece of the puzzle,” said Steinwold, who’s also a managing partner of NFT-focused firm Sfermion. “Now that that’s enabled, the metaverse is actually coming to fruition.”

Wait … what?

Let’s say you have a Fortnite skin, Steinwold said, referring to a digital outfit for your video game character. You don’t actually own it, even if you spent countless hours getting it. Epic Games, which makes Fortnite, owns it.

“It’s kind of up to Epic Games’ total purview whatever they want to do with it,” Steinwold said. “If they want to delete my account, then they can do that … They can just say, ‘You know what, Andrew tweeted “screw Epic Games” this morning, we’re going to delete all this stuff.'”

It’s a communist system in the sense that users add value to the system but get nothing in return, Steinwold said. With NFTs, the internet is becoming more capitalistic, “where your time-money effort is actually rewarded through ownership.”
“It’s like if I use Facebook, and they somehow gave me some portion of stock from commenting, from liking, from uploading photos, because I’m adding value to that platform,” he said, adding that people on the internet are becoming owners, instead of renters.

Will Facebook or Meta – be part of the metaverse?

Some, including a key architect of Facebook’s metaverse, have been skeptical of the company’s plan.
As Steinwold put it, “If Facebook turned into a decentralized organization where it was user owned and governed, that would be a true part of the metaverse.”

So what’s next?

We haven’t seen anything yet. You may remember, perhaps, the early days of “dial-up” internet in the 1990s when aol.com was the main platform. That’s where we are with the metaverse and NFTs, Steinwold said.
“It’s almost like if you asked me about Google or Airbnb or Uber back in the 1990s. I couldn’t even explain to you what those are,” he said.

“We are not even in the first inning, like the game hasn’t started. We’re still warming up.”

By Natasha Dailey

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