The Metaverse is quickly becoming one of the biggest trends of 2022. Recent data found that the metaverse sector currently has a market capitalization of over $26 billion. While impressive, new capabilities are also being added to virtual worlds to create more immersive experiences. For example, metaverse communities that cater to creatives are starting to unfold, allowing users to customize their own interactive experiences. Although this is still an emerging concept, the incorporation of music appears to be one of the defining characteristics of social metaverse environments. Music as NFTs For instance, music in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) …

Once hailed as the "Ethereum of China," Neo's token price has fallen on hard times ever since the world's most populous nation introduced a series of acute bans on cryptocurrency operations last year. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Neo's developers — who wished to remain anonymous — explained that partners run most projects sponsored by Neo Global Development, or NGD, from a wide range of countries outside China that serve users all over the world. In addition, Neo continues to expand inside China. It is currently one of seven open permission blockchains servicing the nation's Blockchain-based Service Network, or …

There are a number of challenges for the development of blockchains in their current state. Data sources are limited, economic models have not been verified, prediction scenarios are restricted by the performance of the blockchain, and the interactions between the information itself are not communicated effectively. Plug Chain is a high-performance public chain that aims to solve these challenges and critically improve intercommunication between public chain contracts using cross-chain technology. Cointelegraph talked to a founder of PlugLink Funds, Joey Huang, or as he prefers to be called, Mr. Joey, about the Plug Chain objectives, solutions it can provide, and how …

The Wonderland protocol became the talk of the decentralized finance (DeFi) world after the platform was found at the center of a brewing controversy. On Jan. 27, DeFi analyst zachxbt revealed that one of the anonymous co-founders of Wonderland happened to be QuadrigaCX co-founder Michael Patryn, who has been operating under the name of Sifu. QuadrigaCX is a defunct crypto exchange from Canada which closed when Gerald Cotten, the exchange founder and sole person with knowledge of the exchange's wallet keys, passed away. Following his death, $169 million worth of user funds were irreversibly lost. Cotten's passing led to a …

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) offer a new way of organizing businesses in a non-hierarchical structure that encourages participation from every member of a community. With no central leadership and decisions made collectively, DAOs could revolutionize the way we think about work, but their implementation is not without challenges. The term DAO is sometimes used to refer to a system of software processes that coordinates and operates itself in a fully automated way, relying on humans only indirectly via outsourcing specific pieces of work to them as needed. The classic example would be a blockchain-based network that sells file storage space …

In the past year, we’ve seen the crypto economy undergo exponential expansion as heaps of money poured into various cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFT), crypto indices, insurance products and decentralized options markets. The total value locked (TVL) in the DeFi sector across all chains has grown from $18 billion at the beginning of 2021 to $240 billion in January 2022. With so much liquidity in the ecosystem, the crypto lending space has also grown a significant amount, from $60 million at the beginning of 2021 to over $400 million by January 2022. Despite the exponential growth and the …

It has arguably never been easier to participate in the crypto ecosystem. After centralized exchange powerhouse Coinbase recently began allowing its users to deposit part of their fiat paychecks into the exchange in the form of crypto, more people are beginning to realize the potential of the industry and participate in this ever-growing ecosystem. But, crypto is commonly perceived as fundamentally intricate or lacking the proper interfaces, and whether this is right or wrong, this has been the perception for some time. To some people, the premise of digital currencies will always seem far too complicated. More recently, however, there …

While the organizational structure of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is fundamentally meant to be “decentralized,” some of the biggest DAO protocols including Uniswap are not. A lot of the day-to-day activities within DAOs still involve a few core members of the organizations to make major decisions. This raises the question as to whether DAOs are completely decentralized. And, if not, is complete decentralization even possible? More broadly, DAOs can be compared to how democratic nations are run. While the ideology is to have decisions for the country made by the people, it’s mainly governed by a few powerful individuals …

Last year was impressive for blockchain startups, as research from CB Insights found that venture capital funding reached new heights during every quarter of 2021. According to CB Insights’ “State Of Blockchain 2021” report, $25.2 billion worth of venture capital funding went to global blockchain startups last year, demonstrating a 713% increase from $3.1 billion in 2020. The report also found that the United States led the greatest amount of funding deals in Q4 of last year, generating $6.26 billion for 157 deals. The document notes that global growth was driven by increasing consumer and institutional demand for crypto-related products …

On Thursday, Jump Crypto, a crypto venture capital firm that owns Certus One, the developer of the Wormhole token bridge, announced it had deposited 120 thousand Ether (ETH) into a Solana-Ethereum bridge that suffered a devastating exploit. The day prior, hackers fraudulently minted 120 thousand wrapped Ether (wETH) worth $321 million on the Solana (SOL) platform, then redeemed 93,750 wETH for ETH on the Ethereum network while swapping the rest for other altcoins on the Solana network. The cross-chain ETH-wETH is supposed to have an exchange ratio of 1:1 against one another. Therefore, unauthorized minting of wETH leads to significant …

On Thursday, iconic brick-and-mortar video game retailer GameStop announced a partnership with layer-two nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, Ethereum (ETH) scaling solution Immutable X to develop GameStop's upcoming NFT marketplace. GameStop will utilize Immutable's technology for trading and minting NFTs. We’re thrilled to announce that @Immutable is taking another leap forward in the gaming & blockchain industry by partnering w/ @GameStop to power their NFT Marketplace: https://t.co/Tase31CBt3 Continue for more… pic.twitter.com/8v6Titg3kq — Immutable | $IMX (@Immutable) February 3, 2022 Immutable developers claim that the new NFT marketplace will be 100% carbon neutral with no gas fees. In addition, both Immutable and …

A new report indicates that the blockchain industry is set for astronomical growth in the next decade, with the North American market leading the way. The report by Fortune Business Insights, titled “Blockchain Market Analysis Research Report, 2021-2028,” mentions that the global blockchain market size is expected to reach a whopping $104.19 billion by 2028, exhibiting at a CAGR of 55.8% across the forecast period. The presence of major industry players such as IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, AWS, Digital Asset Holdings and others in the North American market is expected to have a significant impact during the forecast period. For comparison, …