Author: Jeremy Ryan

The developer behind the Mutant Ape Planet non-fungible token (NFT) collection – a knockoff of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs – pleaded guilty on Tuesday to defrauding buyers in a rug pull that netted almost $3 million, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Aurelien Michel, a French citizen who lived in the United Arab Emirates, was arrested earlier this year in New York. He faces up to five years in prison and has agreed to pay $1.4 million in forfeiture, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “Our office is acutely aware…

Huawei Cloud unveils innovative Web3 services at the SUSTAINABLE WEB3 SG 2023 Summit. Huawei Cloud has recently announced a significant move into the Web3 sector at the SUSTAINABLE WEB3 SG 2023 Summit, a key event jointly organized by Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and the Singapore University of Social Sciences. Huawei Cloud introduced a suite of Web3-focused cloud services, aiming to catalyze advancements in this emerging sector. You might also like: OpenSea users targeted in phishing scam disguised as official NFT offers The services include the Node Engine Service, confidential computing, and the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). These offerings are designed to…

Marek Olszewski, co-founder of Celo and CTO of cLabs, said that the development of Layer 2 solutions has enabled Celo’s plan to integrate back into the Ethereum ecosystem. Born from the vision of building an easy-to-use mobile wallet on Ethereum, Celo evolved into its own EVM-compatible and scalability-focused Layer 1 blockchain in 2020. “At the time, Ethereum’s scalability plans were evolving and the fastest way to build a scalable EVM chain that developers were demanding was to launch as a Layer 1,” Olszewski said. However, with Ethereum’s scalability roadmap via rollups now in place, Olszewski sees it as an opportune…

SAN FRANCISCO – Ankr, in partnership with Optimism, introduces its groundbreaking Rollup as a Service, offering businesses and developers a streamlined process to configure and launch dedicated OP Chains. These chains inherit the technical and governance advantages of the Superchain ecosystem.— Ankr will provide the necessary engineering and infrastructure, making it easier than ever to deploy new OP Chains. The collaboration between Ankr and Optimism was officially announced during OP Labs’ Onchain Summit at Devconnect in Istanbul.Ankr’s Rollup as a Service empowers users to establish an independent OP Stack-based L2, exclusively catering to the needs of their applications or projects.…

In a recent blog post, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin revisited the concept of Plasma, a once-prominent scaling solution, underscoring its potential resurgence in the blockchain ecosystem with new technological advancements. As Vitalik Buterin explains, Plasma, a blockchain scaling framework first introduced in 2017, is poised for a comeback. Initially overshadowed by rollup technology due to its inherent limitations in client-side data storage and adaptability beyond simple payments, Plasma is garnering renewed attention. Buterin’s perspective, shaped by advancements in validity proofs, particularly ZK-SNARKs, highlights how these developments could mitigate Plasma’s previous shortcomings. Editor’s Note: For those who struggle with Vitalik’s complex…

Disney, the iconic, century-old brand known almost as much for its pursuit of technical innovation as much as its continually expanding catalog of entertainment products, is taking another stab at digital collectable non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This time it’s through a partnership with Dapper Labs, the Vancouver-based blockchain firm with experience building successful, consumer-facing Web3 apps including NBA Top Shot. And thus, Tuesday launches Disney Pinnacle, a mobile-based application being unveiled at 9:00 A.M. in an “early access, closed release” for invited users (aka a waitlist to join a testing and feedback phase). An official launch will follow “soon thereafter” on…

INATBA forms Industrial Blockchain Task Force to evaluate blockchain tech projects in Europe. Task Force aims to enhance innovation and collaboration in industrial sectors using blockchain, with a focus on VeChain. The International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA) has launched a groundbreaking initiative, the Industrial Blockchain Task Force, featuring key industry players like VeChain. This task force brings together experts from both the public and private sectors to assess and scrutinize tech infrastructure projects employing blockchain technology. The primary objective is to deliver a comprehensive report by January 2024, mapping these projects and evaluating their technical foundations, identifying synergies,…

Social networking app MeWe said it was able to migrate around 170,000 of its users to Web3 while avoiding disrupting their experience in the months following its integration with the Frequency blockchain, according to an emailed announcement shared with CoinDesk on Tuesday. MeWe said at Consensus 2023 in April that it would be adopting the Polkadot parachain Frequency to bring self-sovereign blockchain-based identities to its 20 million users. Frequency evolved out of the work of the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP), which allows applications to deliver Web3 features to their users. DSNP was supported by Project Liberty, a non-profit funded…

In the weeks leading to November, nonfungible token (NFT) data showed a consistent upward leap in weekly sales. While the volume is still far from its peak in 2021, executives in the industry believe the upward trend will likely continue. On Nov. 6, data published by blockchain analytics firm Nansen showed that NFT sales volume leaped from $56 million in the week ending on Oct. 9 to $129 million in the week ending on Nov. 6. NFT sales volume data in the last year. Source: Nansen According to Jonathan Perkins, the co-founder of NFT marketplace SuperRare, this trend is likely…

Modhaus, a South Korean blockchain-based K-pop startup, has raised $8 million in its series A funding round led by Sfermion, a U.S. venture capital, to fuel its growth to introduce more blockchain-based use cases in the Korean entertainment world. The company said in a statement shared with The Block that the funding round was also participated by investors including SM Culture Partners, Laguna Investment, KDDI Open Innovation Fund III and Foresight Ventures. Founded in December 2021, Modhaus has formed tripleS — a K-pop girl group that has over 1.74 million subscribers on YouTube — through its non-fungible token voting system.…