Author: Jeremy Ryan

NFT Romania’s National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics, or ICI, plans to launch “ICI Decentralized Services,” an NFT trading platform on MultiversX. The platform will officially launch on April 26 and a handful of NFT collections — of Romanian sports teams, athletes and libraries — will be ready for purchase at launch. In fact, the ICI itself will be launching an NFT collection titled “Past Present Future,” which it says will showcase scientific breakthroughs and technological advancements over the past half-century. The Romanian NFT trading platform will mark one of the very first government initiatives in the country…

Blockchain In the 1988 movie “Die Hard,” a New York City police officer travels to Los Angeles to reunite with his estranged wife at her company’s holiday party. As the party is underway, terrorists seize control of the building and take everyone hostage. The intruders were on a mission to steal $640 million in bearer bonds, which, unlike registered bonds, carried no serial number or registration records and are untraceable with no record of ownership. If they had been successful, the law would have presumed the person in possession of the bond (the bearer) was the rightful owner. Anthony Bufinsky…

NFT Corite is a Web3 engagement platform designed to help artists raise funds. Corite has raised over $1 million for its artists through Fan Campaigns so far. It currently has over 100,000 users. Corite, the Swedish music-tech startup, will host a sale of NFTs that let fans get a share of British rapper Central Cee’s hits. The seller is top producer Young Chencs and the sale will include hits such as 6-For-6 and Little Bit of This. The sale will be done using NFTs, and a presale will be offered for the most loyal and active fans on April 26.…

NFT Sotheby’s will auction a series of blue-chip NFTs that belonged to the now-defunct crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, with the auction house saying the “multi-part sales series” will begin in May and continue throughout the year. Listed NFTs in the “Grails” collection include the zombie-styled CryptoPunk #6649, Ringers #879 by Dmitri Cherniak, and Fidenza #216 by Tyler Hobbs. “This expansive collection marks an important moment in the rise of generative art on the blockchain in 2021, and was guided by an ethos of acquiring the highest quality and rarest works available on the market,” Michael Bouhanna, Sotheby’s head…

NFT Rapper-turned-crypto-enthusiast Soulja Boy has promoted dozens of crypto coins and non-fungible token (NFT) projects, some of which turned out to be scams, according to research by internet sleuth ZachXBT. Best known for his 2007 hit “Crank That,” Soulja Boy has in recent years expressed an interest in cryptocurrencies and NFTs. The rapper bragged about bitcoin gains on the 2018 track “Bitcoin” and released a 3D NFT collection earlier this month. According to ZachXBT, Soulja Boy tweeted about various crypto projects and NFTs 73 times since March 2021. In particular, ZachXBT cites a complaint made by the U.S. Securities and…

Blockchain After spending a day building hype with a series of cryptic tweets including images of orange balls, A16z Crypto just revealed what all the fuss was about: a new Layer 2 rollup client called Magi. The venture capital giant’s client software is being built on the OP Stack, a software stack to create a blockchain dApp ecosystem around the Optimism Layer 2 network, according to a blog post announcing the launch. Magi is a new rollup client developed in Rust to increase client diversity and improve the OP Stack ecosystem. It is in its early stages and needs further…

Another gaming ecosystem throws their hat into the arena with a free to play, one-on-one, FPS titled One Tap. This first game from Qorbi World will include blockchain rewards, NFT assets, and is currently in alpha testing. It seems that an increasing number of development studios are no longer content to create one game. Instead they want to build a suite of games that are interconnected. Usually that connection just comes simply from the platform and the token. But some ecosystems are building out cross-game NFTs. In the case of Qorbi World, that NFT is known as a Qorb. Qorbs…

According to recent reports, the producers of fan-favourite 2013 movie, Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, are looking towards web3 and to making NFTs. This, as a means to monetise merchandise from the valuable IP. Quick Takes Red Granite Pictures partners with Aventus to create ‘The Wolf of Wall Street Experience’, featuring NFT drops. NFTs will be launched in Q2 of 2023, and purchasers will receive limited access to an invite-only event to celebrate the film’s tenth anniversary. Aventus’ carbon-neutral, Polkadot-based layer 1 blockchain offers enhanced scalability, speed, and security for the NFTs, which will be usable across 50+…

Blockchain The OpenZeppelin Defender smart contract security platform has now integrated with Coinbase’s Base network, allowing Web3 app developers on Base to automate security tasks. According to an April 19 announcement from blockchain cybersecurity firm OpenZeppelin, app developers on Base can now use the Defender software to create multi-signature admin contracts and timelocks, employ Relayers to store keys and sign transactions along with creating automated “sentinels” to monitor the blockchain and react when events occur. These tools can be used for routine but sensitive admin tasks such as upgrading contracts, tweaking numerical parameters, or pausing a contract should an emergency…

NFT An unidentified non-fungible token (NFT) whale recently sold a substantial collection of 43 Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFTs for a sum exceeding $1 million. The distribution event took place earlier today and was executed through a series of bulk transfers completed within a one-hour time frame. NFT Whale Alert, a notable Twitter account dedicated to tracking NFT-focused whale transactions, recently called attention to the development. According to available data, the anonymous seller divested themselves of all 43 MAYC NFTs, realizing a cumulative value of 513 ethereum (ETH) tokens, which is estimated to be worth over $1.02 million. 0x2c645…