Meta virtual money moves could include 'Zuck Bucks': report

SAN FRANCISCO, United States - Facebook's parent company Meta is exploring the potential of digital money referred to internally as "Zuck Bucks" in a play on the founder's name, the Financial Times reported.

Meta abandoned its effort to create a global cryptocurrency -- first called Libra but eventually re-branded as Diem -- in the face of fierce backlash by financial regulators around the world.

However, founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg has spoken about the importance of e-commerce and financial tools to his vision for an immersive online world called the metaverse.

"We continuously consider new product innovations for people, businesses, and creators," a Meta spokesperson said in response to an AFP inquiry.

"As a company, we are focused on building for the metaverse and that includes what payments and financial services might look like."

The spokesperson would not comment on specific innovations being pursued.

Products being considered at Meta include digital tokens similar to those used for transactions in video games, with the internet company's version nicknamed "Zuck Bucks" by those working on it, according to the Financial Times.

Popular games such as "Fortnite" and "Roblox" use tokens for transactions.

The tokens could potentially be used to reward creators and influencers whose posts draw online audiences.

Meta is looking to diversify its revenue beyond a reliance on targeted advertising that has provoked concerns about invading users' privacy.

Agence France-Presse

Ronin's $615 million crypto heist

LONDON - Hackers have stolen cryptocurrency worth almost $615 million from a blockchain project linked to the popular online game Axie Infinity, the latest cyberheist to hit the digital asset sector.

Ronin, a blockchain network that lets users transfer crypto in and out of the game, said on Tuesday the theft happened on March 23 but was not detected until almost a week later. Read full story

Here's what you need to know about the Ronin heist.

CRYPTO'S A BIG DEAL NOW, RIGHT?

Indeed.

Bitcoin and other digital currencies have exploded into public view in recent years, with mainstream investors embracing the sector in droves during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sector's now worth over $2.1 trillion. As money has poured in, the hacks and heists that have long plagued crypto have also grown also size. 

AND HOW DOES RONIN FIT IN?

Ronin is used in Axie Infinity, one of the world's most popular online games involving cryptocurrencies.

Its products include a digital wallet for storing crypto, and a "bridge" that allows users to move funds in and out of the game. This is where the crypto were stolen from.

Ronin takes its name from the samurai warriors of feudal Japan who did not serve any particular lord. The name "represents our desire to take the destiny of our product into our own hands," Axie Infinity said in a blog post.

Vietnam-based Sky Mavis, which launched Axie Infinity in 2018, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Ronin also did not return Reuters' messages.

Jeffrey Zirlin, one of Axie Infinity's founders, said at a conference on Tuesday: "It is one of the bigger hacks in history and we're fully committed to continue building."

HOW DID THE HEIST HAPPEN?

The Ronin hacker used stolen private keys - the passwords needed to access crypto funds - Ronin said in a blog post, after targeting computers connected to its network that help confirm transactions.

Ronin said it discovered the hack on Tuesday and that it was working with "various government agencies to ensure the criminals get brought to justice".

The identity of the hackers is still unclear.

AND AXIE INFINITY?

Axie Infinity says it has 2.8 million daily active players, with some $3.6 billion previously traded on its marketplace, making it one of the most popular blockchain-based online games.

Set in a fictional universe, players can collect, trade and play with virtual creatures called Axies, which are traded in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It is the largest NFT brand by all-time sales volume, according to market tracker CryptoSlam.

The game has attracted venture capital funding, raising $152 million in October from investors including Andreessen Horowitz.

Axie and other "play-to-earn" games allow players to spend crypto and earn financial rewards. They have surged in popularity in the past year, as a frenzy in the NFT world prompted investors to speculate in the hope of large returns.

WHERE'S THE LOOT NOW? AND ARE USERS AFFECTED?

Most of the stolen funds are still in a digital wallet, which is available to view.

Blockchain Intelligence Group, a Vancouver-based crypto tracker, said that the hackers had moved a small amount of the funds to major exchanges FTX, Crypto.com and Huobi.

Huobi said it was investigating the hack and communicating closely with Axie Infinity. FTX and Crypto.com did not immediately responded to requests for comment.

Ronin said in a blogpost that Sky Mavis was "committed to ensuring that all of the drained funds are recovered or reimbursed," without giving details. Making sure there is no loss of funds "is our top priority", it added.

It said it was working with major blockchain tracker Chainalysis to trace the stolen funds. Chainalysis declined to comment.

-reuters

Intel launches blockchain chip to tap crypto boom

Intel Corp launched a new chip for blockchain applications such as Bitcoin mining and minting NFTs to cash in on the rising usage of cryptocurrencies.

The chip will ship later this year and the first customers include Block Inc, the Jack Dorsey-led firm that recently changed its name from Square Inc to highlight its growing focus on the blockchain.

Blockchains serve as public ledgers that keep records of transactions on a network of computers and have grown in prominence in recent years. Their rise has also triggered a buzz around words like "Web.3" and "NFTs" that tout the decentralization of technologies.

Intel said its chip is an energy-efficient "accelerator" designed to speed up blockchain tasks that require huge amounts of computing power and thereby consume a lot of energy.

Chip designer Nvidia Corp, whose graphics cards are used widely for mining activities, also has a separate chip meant for Ethereum mining.

As a part of furthering its footprint in the space, Intel has also formed a new segment called Custom Compute Group within its Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics business.

-reuters

YouTube will explore NFT features for creators

YouTube is exploring features for its video creators to capitalize on non-fungible tokens, its chief executive officer said on Tuesday, becoming the latest tech company to tap into a digital collectibles craze that has exploded in the past year.

"We're always focused on expanding the YouTube ecosystem to help creators capitalize on emerging technologies, including things like NFTs, while continuing to strengthen and enhance the experiences creators and fans have on YouTube," wrote YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki in a letter on the company's 2022 priorities. 

NFTs are a type of digital asset which exists on the record-keeping technology blockchain. They have seen a surge in popularity over the last year, with people buying artwork and video highlights from sports games as NFTs.

Sales of NFTs reached some $25 billion in 2021, according to data from market tracker DappRadar, although there were signs of growth slowing toward the end of the year.

A spokesperson for Alphabet Inc's YouTube declined to share more details about the potential NFT features, which were first reported by Bloomberg News.

Last week, Twitter Inc announced the launch of a tool through which users can showcase NFTs as hexagonal profile pictures. The Financial Times reported this month that Meta Platforms Inc were working on ways to let users create and sell NFTs on Facebook and Instagram. In December, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the company was exploring NFTs.

The popular short video app TikTok in September ventured into the craze, announcing an NFT collection designed by some of its top creators.

Reddit Inc has also been exploring the space: recent job listings from the company on LinkedIn advertised for several engineer roles for a "rapidly growing team that aims to build the largest creator economy on the internet, powered by independent creators, digital goods, and NFTs."

-reuters

Crypto market value tops $3 trillion for first time

LONDON - The world cryptocurrency market is worth more than $3 trillion for the first time, according to calculations Monday, as mainstream investors increasingly jump on board.

The value has reached $3.007 trillion (2.6 trillion euros), said CoinGecko, which tracks prices of more than 10,000 cryptocurrencies.

"The crypto market is growing at a mind-blowing speed," noted SwissQuote analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya.

"A part of it is speculation of course, but a part of it is real," she told AFP.

"Crypto is now making its way to traditional finance and everyone is on board."

Bitcoin, the world's biggest cryptocurrency, hit a record-high $66,000 last month after taking another step towards mainstream status.

It surged back above $66,000 on Monday close to its all-time peak after a five percent jump.

Ethereum, the second biggest cryptocurrency by market value, hit a record high $4,768 on Monday.

A bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund, a type of financial instrument, launched on the New York Stock Exchange in October.

The ETF is a more accessible vehicle that puts bitcoin within the grasp of even more investors.

Some investors sees cryptocurrencies as a hedge against inflation, which is surging worldwide as economies reopen after pandemic lockdowns.

"Bitcoin is bouncing higher again, close to all-time highs," Hargreaves Lansdown market analyst Susannah Streeter said Monday.

"The recent surge in the crypto... partly seems to have been caused by investors piling in, seeing it as a hedge against inflation," Streeter added. 

No more than 21 million bitcoin can be created, helping its price to trade way above its rivals, but trading of cryptocurrencies in general has shown to be extremely volatile with massive price swings a common occurrence.

Agence France-Presse

Bitcoin hit with record weekly outflow as rally ebbs: CoinShares data

NEW YORK, United States - Bitcoin posted a record weekly outflow, with overall sentiment on cryptocurrencies turning cautious as the digital asset's searing rally hit a wall, data from digital currency manager CoinShares showed on Monday.

Outflows for bitcoin hit $21 million for the week of April 23, the largest weekly outflow on record. Total weekly inflows for the sector were just $1.3 million, the lowest weekly figure since October 2020.

That said, CoinShares said outflows last week were 0.05 percent of the crypto sector's assets under management, while weekly inflows this year averaged 0.6 percent.

Total assets under management were $54.3 billion as of last week, down from $64.2 billion in mid-April.

"We saw investors shifting funds away from bitcoin amid some idiosyncratic developments last week, prominently including the temporary power outage in mining mecca Xinjiang," said Matt Weller, Global Head of Market Research at Forex.com and City Index.

Amid serious coal mine accidents in China's Xinjiang, Shanxi and Guizhou provinces, the Chinese government directed local coal-based power stations to conduct inspections of security measures. Data centers in Xinjiang, including bitcoin mining farms, had to shut down due to subsequent power cuts, according to media reports.

After hitting a record high just under $65,000 in mid-April, bitcoin has plunged nearly 25 percent. On Monday though, the world's largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization rallied as much as 10 percent and last traded at $54,031, highlighting the asset's extreme volatility.

The second largest cryptocurrency ethereum, meanwhile, showed strong inflows of $34 million. So far this year, inflows were $792 million, or 8 percent of total AUM, reflecting renewed positive sentiment among investors.

"Cryptoasset investors continued to accumulate ethereum as the highly-anticipated July launch of EIP-1559, which will cut the new supply of ETH dramatically, approaches," said Forex.com's Weller, referring to the blockchain's planned upgrade.

Grayscale remains the largest digital currency manager, with $41 billion in assets as of April 23, down from $49.5 billion the previous week. CoinShares, the second biggest and the largest European digital asset manager, oversees about $5.2 billion, slightly down from $5.7 billion in assets as of the mid-April. 

-reuters

Bitcoin slumps 14 percent as pullback from record gathers pace

Bitcoin, the world's biggest cryptocurrency, fell as much as 14 percent to $51,541 on Sunday, reversing most of the big gains it made over the past week.

Bitcoin was last trading down 10 percent at $53,991 as of 1320 GMT, a whopping $12,000 below record highs set on Wednesday. Smaller rival Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, dropped 10% to $2,101.

Data website CoinMarketCap cited blackout in China’s Xinjiang region, which reportedly powers a lot of bitcoin mining, for the selloff.

Luke Sully, CEO at digital asset treasury specialist Ledgermatic, said in an email that people "may have sold on the news of the power outage in China and not the impact it actually had on the network".

"The power outage does expose a fundamental weakness; that although the Bitcoin network is decentralized the mining of it is not," Sully added.

Some widely-followed blockchain analysts on Twitter pointed to a sharp drop in "hash rate" due to the outage.

Hash rate refers to the volatility index that measures the processing capacity of the entire Bitcoin network, and it determines the power required by miners to produce new Bitcoins.

"Typically shocks to hash rate do not cause price drops. A hash rate reduction slows transactions, which ironically makes it harder to move coins to exchanges for sale. The recent price drop is well within the bounds of typical volatility, it is noise not signal," said Edan Yago, co-founder at Bitcoin-based decentralized finance protocol Sovryn.

The retreat in Bitcoin also comes after Turkey's central bank banned the use of cryptocurrencies for purchases on Friday.

Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, said cryptocurrencies had been ripe for a pullback.

"The market has become overly aggressive and bullish on everything," said Edward Moya. "It could have been any bearish headline that could have triggered this reaction."

Many cryptocurrency markets operate 24/7, setting the stage for price swings at unpredictable hours. Historically, retail and day traders have driven the moves.

Despite the sudden selloff, bitcoin is still up 89% so far in 2021, driven by its mainstream acceptance as an investment and a means of payment, accompanied by the rush of retail cash into stocks, exchange-traded funds and other risky assets.

-reuters

Atari creates blockchain division for cryptocurrency, games

PARIS - Video game pioneer Atari announced on Tuesday the creation of a blockchain division that will seize on the technology to develop games and a cryptocurrency that players could spend on items.

Blockchain technology gives value to cryptocurrency and other "non-fungible tokens" (NFTs) -- such as digital works of art, photos or videos -- by making them impossible to duplicate.

The company said in a press release that it wanted to push its "Atari token" as payment for digital goods within the content on its own "Video Computer System" console and other platforms, but also third party games and applications.

"Atari will also continue to evaluate opportunities in blockchain gaming, NFTs, and blockchain-based online worlds," it said, citing "the immense possibilities of crypto and blockchain-enabled games".

The release also alluded to the possibility of the new division becoming an independently-listed entity, though it said that there is "no assurance any such potential spin-off will occur".

Atari said it was also creating a gaming division that will focus on "the expanding market of retro gaming".

The company's licensing division has already gone beyond the realm of the virtual with an agreement announced in March to build gaming-themed Atari hotels in Dubai, Gibraltar, and Spain.

Launched in California in the early 1970s, Atari is famous for its "Pong" table tennis game, widely regarded as the first video game to achieve serious commercial success.

The brand with its portfolio of more than 200 games and franchises was saved from bankruptcy in 2013 by French company Ker Ventures owned by Frederic Chesnais and American fund Alden.

Atari said Tuesday that Chesnais will relinquish his CEO post to head up the blockchain division and licensing while American Wade Rosen, currently chairman, will take over from his French colleague.

Despite disappointing results in the first half of the year, with revenues down 27 percent to 7.8 million euros, the share price has doubled since January 2021, valuing the company around 250 million euros.

Agence France-Presse

Otaku Coin, new virtual currency created for anime fans

A new virtual currency, based on blockchain technology used in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, is under development. Its target market are fans of anime, manga, games and other interests in the realm of Japanese subcultures.

Aptly called “Otaku Coin” the cryptocurrency came from online store Tokyo Otaku Mode (TOM) which specializes in selling various anime, manga and game-related products.

TOM aims to make Otaku Coin a means for fans worldwide to support the anime industry and other industries connected to it, like plastic figures, light novels, collectible merchandise, and more.

The word “otaku” refers to someone with an obsessive interest in a particular topic. Contemporary use refers to fans of anime, manga and games, but there are also train otakus, military otakus, among others. The English vernacular has the words “nerd” and “geek” as counterparts.

Otaku Coin will launch sometime this June. Like other cryptocurrencies, anime fans can “mine” Otaku Coins by watching anime, sharing content and writing reviews. They could also cash in through an Otaku Coin issuer.

The Coins can then be used to support new projects in development or purchase goods at events. Otaku Coins could also be earned as rewards for supporting projects by big companies and creators directly. It could be a new anime, manga or an independent game.

In a way, the Otaku Coin system works like crowdfunding setups such as Patreon and Kickstarer, except it uses cryptocurrency.

It has been known to fans for some time that the anime industry in Japan has been struggling. Creators are paid low salaries and are forced to work within very tight deadlines, making it hard to recruit new talent.

Thanks to Otaku Coin’s apparent mandate to preserve the anime industry, support from individuals like Palmer Lucky of Oculus Rift and Christopher Macdonald of Anime News Network, and famous virtual YouTuber Kizuna Ai have come in, reports SoraNews24.

Meanwhile, how Otaku Coin will work in the anime industry’s favor remains to be seen. JB

source: technology.inquirer.net

Bitcoin’s ‘blockchain’ tech may transform banking

New York, United States—The technology that drives the shadowy cryptocurrency bitcoin is drawing interest from the established banking industry, which sees a potential to revolutionize the sector.

Although bitcoin and related virtual currencies are limited to a small set of transactions and are often associated with the underground economy, the so-called blockchain technology is gaining currency in the financial world.

A blockchain is essentially a shared, encrypted “ledger” that cannot be manipulated, offering promise for secure transactions that allow anyone to get an accurate accounting of money, property or other assets.

“The blockchain, which is the technology behind the encryption and e-certification, that is a technology which might very well be very useful,” said Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase at a conference earlier this year.

Leah Gerstner, a vice president for public affairs at American Express, said the financial group made its first investment in a digital currency company called Abra “as a way to get a better understanding of blockchain technology and explore its potential.”

Gerstner told AFP that “we believe blockchain technology is playing an important role.”

The use of blockchain began in 2009 with the introduction of bitcoin and other virtual currencies that are generated by complex chains of interactions among a huge network of computers around the planet, and are not backed by any government or central bank, unlike traditional currencies.

The blockchain offers potential to the traditional finance sector due to its ease of transaction with verification from any point on the platform.

“You can imagine a number of potential use cases for this technology in financial services across both business-to-consumer and business-to-business transactions—from international money transfers to stored value,” Gerstner said.

The Linux Foundation recently announced a new collaborative “Open Ledger” project to advance blockchain technology, teaming with tech firms such as IBM and Intel, stock exchanges and major banks including Wells Fargo and Mitsubishi UFJ.

“Distributed ledgers are poised to transform a wide range of industries” including banking and shipping, among others, said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation.

Transparency, lower costs
Blockchain technology could lower the cost for many kinds of consumer cash transfers that now are handled by companies like Western Union and MoneyGram.

The banking industry could save $15 billion to $20 billion in transaction costs for international payments by using the technology, according to Banco Santander, which is working on its own virtual currency.

A consortium of global banks including Morgan Stanley, HSBC, UBS, Credit Suisse, Barclays, Societe Generale and Commerzbank are working with the finance tech startup R3 to use blockchain technology for a wide range of applications.

Others moving forward include Bank of America, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, which is working on its own virtual currency that could cut out intermediaries for settlements between financial institutions.

The technology could help facilitate instantaneous, secure financial transfers which now sometimes can take days when moving internationally, according to blockchain backers.

“This would change the way settlements of securities are traditionally carried out,” said Prableen Bajpai, founding director of the India-based research firm FinFix.

The use of a cryptographic currency such as the one being developed by Goldman Sachs “facilitates rapid, secure and confirmed transactions via network, thereby eliminating the need for a third party,” Bajpai said.

“The results are extremely timely and efficient settlements.”

Another advantage is that transactions could be made without revealing identities and other information—which could be important for institutions trying to keep personal data secure from hackers.

But a number of issues need to be resolved before virtual currencies and blockchain technology become mainstream.

The anonymity of the transactions is something that concerns regulators seeking to crack down on money laundering, and financing of criminal or terrorist activity.

New York state, for example, is pressing to require the identification of those engaging in financial transactions.

Nonetheless, many see blockchain technology as the wave of the future.

“Ultimately, blockchain could become a way for those around the world who don’t have a bank account to make purchases on the Internet. And that could affect the banks, as well as credit card companies like American Express, MasterCard, and Visa,” says Ed Yardeni at Yardeni Research.

“Blockchain still needs to show that it can grow to the size of Visa’s or MasterCard’s networks. But there are certainly many smart folks throwing a lot of money at the technology, which may one day prove disruptive.”

source: business.inquirer.net