ICYMI - Last week in crypto: Turkey Earthquake Aid receives Crypto in Millions, Bitcoin NFTs blow up, Paris Hilton preaches Love in VR
or how to find love in the metaverse💑
Last week, various crypto organizations raised millions of dollars in crypto for the Turkey earthquake relief fundraiser. Pop artiste Rihanna sold out a song as an NFT ahead of the Super Bowl, Paris Hilton launched a virtual dating space on the metaverse dubbed “Parisland” and Bitcoin NFTs spike in price by over $250,000.
Turkey Earthquake Aid: NonProfits Raise Millions of Dollars in Crypto
A campaign to raise millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to help those affected by the region's significant earthquake is being led by nonprofit organizations that are new to cryptocurrency.
In less than a day, the Turkish singer Haluk Levent's charity Ahbap raised about $2 million in cryptocurrency donations on the Avalanche, BSC, and Ethereum blockchains, leading the response. Additionally, local exchange Paribu is raising money for two charities that are supporting the response.
Levent asserted on Twitter that the addresses had been approved by Turkey's Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) despite the country's central bank's April 2021 ban on cryptocurrency payments. MASAK did not respond right away.
The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by trading volume, Binance, also promised to airdrop $100 in BNB, the platform's native token, to every Turkish user. This amount is equivalent to $5 million.
The project is the newest illustration of how cryptocurrency is being used to crowdfund international responses. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February of last year, the government of Ukraine raised millions of dollars for its war effort. Also, late last year, Facesofweb3 spearheaded the raise of over $5,000 for the victims of the Nigeria October floods through their Non-profit drive Naijafloodaid.
According to Nansen, at the time of publication, AVAX, Avalanche's native token, accounted for $55.56% of all donations made to the Ahbap's cryptocurrency addresses, or about $1.1 million. The $1 million pledge came from the Avalanche foundation.
Additionally, stablecoins (a class of cryptocurrency whose value is linked to an asset like the US dollar) account for 42.65% of all donations. Users of cryptocurrencies have given about $788,000 in USDT, USDC, and BUSD.
Bitcoin Punks: Ordinal NFT Collection Spike in Value
The "Bitcoin Punks" project, which is modeled after the well-known CryptoPunks collection, is rapidly increasing in value as the buzz surrounding Bitcoin non-fungible tokens (NFT) continues to grow.
According to a tweet from last Wednesday, one Ordinal Punks NFT, Punk 94, sold for 9.5 BTC, or about $214,000 at the time.
100 NFTs in the style of the NFT colossus Yuga Labs' CryptoPunks collection, which is based on Ethereum, are part of the NFT collection minted on the Bitcoin-native Ordinals Protocol, which sold out its mint earlier this month.
The Taproot upgrade for Bitcoin is used by Ordinals Protocol to strengthen network security and accelerate transaction processing. It does so by "inscribing" data in satoshis, or sats, which are equal to one hundred millionth of a bitcoin and are used to store NFTs.
The NFTs that make up the Ordinal Punks collection were produced on the first 650 Bitcoin network inscriptions.
Within the community of the leading blockchain, the idea of Bitcoin NFTs has sparked a contentious discussion. While some purists think the blockchain should only be used for financial transactions, others see the popularity of the Ordinal Protocol as a positive catalyst for further blockchain development.
Sam Callahan, a Bitcoin analyst at the financial services firm Swan Bitcoin, asserted that while the appeal of Ordinal Punks will boost demand for block space, miner income, and eventually Taproot adoption, it is not without dangers.
“In the long term, if demand for these inscriptions proves to be long lasting, there is a risk that these inscriptions could impact other Bitcoin use cases like payments via the Lightning Network due to distorting Bitcoin’s fee market away from its use as an open monetary protocol,” said Callahan.
Polkadot-Based GameFi Ajuna Network Bags $7M for Ecosystem Development
Ajuna Network, a decentralized gaming platform built on Polkadot, has raised $7 million through private and seed funding rounds from business investors.
The project will use the funds to enhance its tools and gaming ecosystem.
With the additional funding, the platform plans to expand its network and toolkit by incorporating better game engines and off-chain game operators. With the help of blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens, Ajuna hopes to improve the gaming experience (NFTs).
A press release states that the private round, which happened first and was led by the Asian venture capital (VC) company CMCC Global, raised $5 million.
By investing, CMCC Global has added its name to a growing group of investors who support BloGa Tech AG, the parent company of Ajuna, including Animoca Brands, OKX Blockdream Ventures, and Signum Capital.
Commenting on the private round, Charlie Morris, Founding Partner of CMCC Global, said:
“We are thrilled to be leading this funding round into Ajuna. The platform empowers studios to incorporate immutable digital assets into their games, resulting in powerful new experiences for gamers. We are excited about the upcoming releases on Ajuna and look forward to supporting the team as they take blockchain gaming mainstream.”
This month saw the announcement of the seed round, which brought in an additional $2 million. Fundamental Labs, a VC firm with a focus on blockchain, led the round.
Cedric Decoster, CEO of Ajuna Network, said:
“We are ecstatic by the support of our new investors led by CMCC Global, who not only share our drive to build out Ajuna Network but also our passion for the gaming space. With this strong support and growing community, we will continue building out on Polkadot, Ethereum & Polygon.”
According to a statement seen by a correspondent of FacesOfWeb3 on Friday, Ajuna provides a product suite that enables developers to use industry-leading game development engines - Unreal and Unity - to create decentralized games, making it simpler for both traditional developers and players to enter Web 3 gaming.
According to the company, to reduce latency, the game engines are run in trusted execution environments (TEE) off-chain connected to the Polkadot blockchain.
Web3 gaming is a catch-all term for games that enhance the user experience by utilizing blockchain, cryptocurrency, or non-fungible tokens (NFT). These blockchain-based initiatives want to give users more power and control over their digital identities and assets.
Following the announcement, Ajuna intends to work with other organizations to keep creating community products that will be used on its network.
The company has also debuted the first season of the "Awesome Ajuna Avatars," in keeping with Ajuna's vision to use blockchain and NFTs. More seasons will be released later this year and will draw inspiration from the platform's flagship game, BattleMogs.
Popular Rihanna Song Sold Out as NFT With Royalty Sharing Ahead of Super Bowl
On Thursday, a popular song by music artist Rihanna was made available as a non-fungible token (NFT) through Web3 music startup another block, allowing holders to receive partial streaming royalties. The new platform works with rights holders, such as artists, producers, and writers, to sell a portion of their streaming royalty rights as fractionalized NFTs.
Deputy, who worked with Kanye West, Travis Scott, and WondaGurl to create Rihanna's hit 2015 single "B**** Better Have My Money," is donating a portion of his streaming royalties to collectors via anotherblock.
According to a press release, the song went triple platinum in the United States when it was first released and has since racked up nearly 1 billion streams across music sharing platforms.
The 300 royalty-linked NFTs were available for purchase at $210 each beginning at 5 p.m. GMT/12 p.m. ET on Thursday. According to the company, each holder will receive "a portion of 0.0033% of the streaming royalties" for the song.
Holders will receive their first royalty payment on February 16, according to the company, and will receive payments every six months based on streaming revenue.
According to the company's tweet, the collection sold out in minutes.
Holders will receive their first royalty payment on February 16, according to the company, and will receive payments every six months based on streaming revenue.
Collectors of the NFT will receive a custom music track, as well as "a real-world legal contract specifying the terms of the streaming royalties and guaranteeing real-world ownership for the NFT holder."
Holders also have access to a gated Discord community, real-world events, and first dibs on upcoming NFT releases.
The NFT release coincides with Rihanna's Super Bowl LVII halftime performance on Sunday.
Other music NFT services have grown in popularity recently, including Royal, a platform for music tokenization created by DJ and entrepreneur Justin "3LAU" Blau, Sound.xyz, a platform for minting music NFTs, and Catalog, a main marketplace for single-edition music NFTs.
Friends With Benefits DAO Launch Social Networking App
Friends With Benefits (FWB), a well-known decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), announced on Twitter on Thursday that it is launching a social networking application.
In addition to hosting regional in-person meetups, FWB was founded in 2021 with the intention of creating a social community that is enthusiastic about Web3 adoption and education. It raised $10 million in September 2021, with the help of the cryptocurrency venture firm a16z, to expand its global community both online and offline.
The FWB app will facilitate communication through a decentralized, members-only platform, whereas the company first established its community through a token-gated Discord channel. The app will enable users to connect with one another, read governance proposals, and find upcoming in-person events, according to FWB in a blog post.
“Our social platform isn’t meant to onboard millions of users as quickly as possible; instead, it is a human-scaled piece of software that optimizes for positive group dynamics, digital socializing, meaning-making and hanging out,” FWB said on Twitter.
Members of the community must possess 75 FWB tokens, which is equivalent to about $800, in order to sign up for the app.
Through its website, the FWB community accepts membership applications.
Over 3,500 active members have joined the community so far as at the time of writing, the organization claims. The organization is voting on several in-person social initiatives as well as the production of its well-known music and arts festival FWB FEST in 2023 in addition to launching its social platform.
“Find Love in the Metaverse” with Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton, a popular American media personality, believes that finding true love may be easier in the metaverse.
The reality TV star and celebrity declared in a tweet on February 9 that she would collaborate with The Sandbox to bring "Parisland" to life.
The concept, which is set for a Feb. 13 release in time for Valentine's Day, is essentially a Virtual Reality (VR) dating experience crossed with a reality dating show.
In an "in-game dating reality show" hosted by Hilton, players will interact virtually with five potential partners, according to a Feb. 9 statement.
Get ready to party on the beach, pick up cute collectibles and explore my newest tropical Parisland metaverse! 💖
I'm launching a new experience in @TheSandboxGame on February 13th 👇🌴https://t.co/roREhkM4LF pic.twitter.com/cdSY5OEC2o
— Paris Hilton (@ParisHilton) February 9, 2023
Players can complete quests to win nonfungible tokens (NFTs) or SAND rewards and memorabilia during the experience, which is available until March 13.
Choosing a wedding outfit and ring is one of these quests, as is "saving a castaway and flirting with other contestants."
Nothing shows true love to someone you just met online like NFT “interlaced love rings.” Image: Parisland
Players will have a virtual wedding and Hilton herself will spin the decks for their first dance when they have finished all the quests and found the love of their lives.
Parisland's landscape was created to encourage real connections and relationships between players, according to a statement from Sandbox COO and Co-Founder Sebastien Borget.
The creation of Parisland was done in cooperation with Hilton's 11:11 Media. The goal of Parisland, according to the company's Web3 and metaverse strategy lead Cynthia Miller, is "to help people find love," and she expresses hope that users will be able to form genuine romantic connections while participating in the experience.
The Sandbox, which is based on Polygon, has seen several famous people purchase expensive virtual land in its metaverse, including rapper Snoop Dogg and electronic musician deadmau5. It's also important to remember that, despite the fact that a virtual "sandbox" might sound like something for children, The Sandbox's Terms of Use only allow adults over the age of 18 to use its platform.