ICYMI - Last Week in Crypto: UAE announce CBDC launch by 2024, Gucci enter the OtherSide with Yuga Labs
👀Meanwhile... The Unstoppable is coming🏇
Last week, Unstoppable Domains announced the launch of a web3 instant messaging platform dubbed “Unstoppable Messaging”. Arbitrum Network launched their native token which ammassed $2Bn in trading volume and the United Arab Emirates suggested that a CBDC set to launch by mid-2024 is under development.
Unstoppable Domains set to launch Web3 Instant Messaging Service on Polygon
Unstoppable Domains, a popular Web3 domain provider, announced on Wednesday that it is launching Unstoppable Messaging, a platform that will enable users to send encrypted messages from their Polygon-based domains to one another. Oooooooh! Facebook & WhatsApp… Be very scared!!! The Unstoppable is coming this winter!
Unstoppable Messaging mockup (Unstoppable Domains)
Unstoppable Messaging wants to assist users in maintaining their online personas throughout their Web3 experiences with the aim of assisting Web3 projects in curating and growing their communities. Peer-to-peer messages can be sent between holders using their domain endings, such as .polygon, .nft, or .x.
Unstoppable Domains' chief operating officer and director of business development, Sandy Carter, outlined how the company's newest messaging service is a further development of its goal to promote Web3 identity and unite builders through a Web3 native communication tool that also ensures privacy, a crucial feature for sensitive discussions as projects advance.
“Messaging for me is so powerful, because I came from Amazon Web Services where we always work backwards from the customer,” said Carter. “This product offering was completely driven from our partners, Polygon being one of them, and this enables them to do the messaging they wanted.”
Bringing messaging to Polygon-based projects and communities is something that Polygon Labs vice president and head of growth Sanket Shah is also excited about.
“Identity is at the center of every community. In the Polygon community, .polygon domains provide that digital identity,” said Shah in a press release. “We’re thrilled that the Polygon community will gain a Web3 solution for connecting with others using only their .polygon domains with Unstoppable Messaging.”
Unstoppable has been releasing a variety of new features and forming alliances to assist Web3 users in developing their identities. To provide support for its Polygon-based domains, Unstoppable partnered with the crypto browser Opera in February. Unstoppable hired Polygon last week to launch .polygon domain suffixes.
For now, we can expect Unstoppable Messaging to launch at the end of 2023.
Salesforce Web3 set to aid brands build trusted and scalable NFT programs
Last week, Salesforce, a provider of customer relationship management software, announced the limited availability of Salesforce Web3. According to the business, it will serve as a platform to assist businesses in the development, administration, and deployment of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in a reliable, scalable, and long-term manner. The service will let brands understand completely how customers interact with their brand across traditional and emerging digital contexts, allowing brands to communicate with their customers in a whole new way by integrating Customer 360 with Web3 data.
Salesforce claims that the features available on its Web3 platform allow businesses to "create personalized, omnichannel experiences across Web2 and Web3, providing a 360-degree view of how customers interact with their NFT collections."
In order to assist businesses in implementing Web3 and experimenting with blockchain, digital wallets, and NFT minting, the company also partnered with international consulting partners like Accenture and Deloitte Digital, as well as digital agencies and strategy consultants like AE Studio, Media.Monks, Time, and Vayner3.
According to Devin Nagy, director of technology and emerging platforms at Diageo North America, Salesforce gave the company a reliable partner to support their front-end commerce site and back-end data connector to support the #ThatDeservesACrown campaign, which allowed them to reimagine and digitally scale Crown Royal's Purple Bag Project.
She added:
"For every digital collectible claimed, we sent a care package to active duty U.S. military members around the world.”
In less than two weeks, Scotch & Soda's Club Soda 3.0 NFT pilot program gave the company real-time access to the 30% of online news, according to Claire Boots, global CRM manager at Scotch & Soda. The company selected Salesforce Web3 as a trusted partner to deploy the program securely.
Salesforce has been working to integrate its services with Blockchain technology for the past few years. According to Cointelegraph, the business declared plans to provide a Blockchain and cryptocurrency solution for its clients by September 2018.
To authenticate vintage Lamborghini cars in 2019, the Italian luxury sports car manufacturer Lamborghini used Salesforce Blockchain. Lamborghini was able to trace, certify, and authenticate classic cars more quickly and safely thanks to Salesforce Blockchain.
Additionally, Salesforce has been actively involved in the blockchain fundraising space over the years, giving TRM Labs and blockchain startup Digital Asset millions of dollars.
Arbitrum Tokens Reach $2 Billion in Trading Volume; as Analysts Predict Future Growth
In the first 24 hours after going live on Thursday, trading volume for Arbitrum's native ARB tokens reached over $2 billion, according to data.
The ARB token acts as the protocol's means of governance. ARB holders can propose and vote on protocol upgrades and changes, among other decision-making processes.
With over $250 million worth of ARB traded, Bitget and Huobi led all cryptocurrency exchanges in terms of volume. Over $227 million in trading volumes were recorded on the decentralized exchange Uniswap, which uses smart contracts to match trades between users and generate over $500,000 in fees for liquidity providers.
According to CoinMarketCap, ARB had a market capitalization of $1.8 billion as of Friday at a price of over $1.43, based on a circulating supply of 1.25 billion ARB.
While others warn about short-term volatility, market analysts predict future growth and potential lie ahead for ARB tokens and the Arbitrum ecosystem.
“We’re seeing a feverish trading environment for ARB tokens as the airdrop just launched. Airdrops logically garner a lot of retail attention, but often result in the price tanking as traders offload their tokens rapidly,” said Henry Liu, CEO of BTSE, in a Telegram message to CoinDesk.
“Despite the selling pressure from the airdrop, it remains to be seen what potential utility there is, and whether integration into Arbitrum’s wider [decentralized finance] system could provide some new impetus for bullish sentiment,” Liu added.
Magic Eden Partner with Top Publishers, Communities to form Web3 Games Collective
The Web3 Games Collective (W3GC), which was founded by a number of top publishers and communities, is Magic Eden's latest step in its Web3 gaming expansion.
The new industry group, which was introduced at the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on Friday, will use its combined knowledge and resources to promote the widespread use of Web3 gaming. W3GC members include Web3 gaming decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) Game7, Web3 gaming publisher Fenix Games, and Web3 gaming guild network Yield Guild Games.
“We’ve seen an emphasis on infrastructure investment for blockchain games, and many teams are doing great work tackling important problems in the technology and services ‘stack’” said Steven Chen, core contributor at Game7. “A focus on bringing in more quality games and [intellectual property] will drive the sector forward, as we saw with PC, console, and mobile games.”
Finding and playing Web3 games are still too difficult for the typical user, according to Gabby Dizon, co-founder of YGG.
"Working with a DAO like Game7 and a game publisher like Fenix Games enables YGG to address the industry's challenges by simplifying the landscape and growing the ecosystem for mass adoption."
The group wants to find and scale a blockchain "mega-hit" that will attract new users as well as "de-risk" the space for investors and developers.
In recent months, Magic Eden has revealed a growing interest in Web3 gaming. Chris Akhavan, a former executive at Electronic Arts, was named the company's chief gaming officer in December. In February, Magic Eden Ventures invested in 11 Web3 gaming studios.
UAE Announces CBDC Strategy, First Phase to Roll-out by Mid-2024
According to a statement made on Thursday by the central bank, the United Arab Emirates expects to finish the first phase of its digital currency strategy around the middle of 2024. Proof-of-concept work for a wholesale and retail CBDC is included in this.
The Central Bank of UAE (CBUAE) also disclosed a partnership with regional cloud platform G42 Cloud and blockchain company R3 in New York as the infrastructure and technology providers, respectively.
Furthermore, the announcement stated that the first phase of the CBUAE's CBDC (The Digital Dirham) is anticipated to be finished within the following 12 to 15 months and will consist of three significant pillars.
The first pillar is the soft launch of the ongoing project mBridge, which involves a collaboration between the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the central banks of Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, and the Chinese mainland to research cross-border payments.
The second pillar consists of proof-of-concept work for a bilateral CBDC bridge with India, and the third pillar consists of proof-of-concept work for an internal wholesale and retail CBDC, the details of which were first revealed last month.
The UAE had made its digital dirham one of nine key initiatives of its new Financial Infrastructure Transformation Program at a time when central banks all over the world were working to investigate CBDCs.
Gucci and Yuga Labs Partner to Bring High Fashion to the Otherside
Gucci, a luxury digital fashion brand, announced on Monday that it is collaborating with non-fungible-token issuer Yuga Labs, the organization responsible for the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT line.
Gucci and Yuga Labs, according to a report from Business of Fashion, have entered a multiyear partnership to work together within Yuga Labs' Otherside metaverse and its 10KTF collection with the aim of examining shared opportunities between Web3 fashion and entertainment.
In a tweet announcing the news, Gucci said, "Stay tuned as a new narrative takes shape, blurring the boundaries between the physical and digital."
The announcement comes after Yuga Labs' second visit to The Otherside, a gamified experience that unites the company's diverse range of projects, including Bored Apes, CryptoPunks, and Meebits.
Previously, Gucci and Yuga Labs worked together to create the Gucci Grail collection, which featured Wagmi-San, the designer of 10KTF, as the collection's inspiration.
Gucci entered the Web3 market earlier last year. In order to test its ideas for hosting virtual experiences, the company bought an undisclosed amount of land in the metaverse game The Sandbox in February 2022. Gucci invested $25,000 in native tokens from NFT marketplace SuperRare in June of last year in order to join the decentralized autonomous organization and launch a digital art vault.