Polygon (MATIC), a layer-two network designed for scaling and application infrastructure development on Ethereum (ETH), has been making rounds among blockchain enthusiasts as of late. From its $1 billion investment into zero-knowledge technology to co-launching a $200 million Web 3.0 social media initiative and up to integrating with Opera's web browser to make its decentralized apps accessible to 80 million Android mobile users, the network's momentum is going strong. But partnerships and business aside, the technological capacities of the network, especially when compared to Ethereum, are also attracting the attention of many blockchain developers. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, …

Yaniv Tal of The Graph Yaniv is the co-founder and CEO of Edge & Node and a co-founder of The Graph, a decentralized indexing protocol used by blockchains such as Ethereum. Mass awareness of crypto and Web3 has already started. Celebrities, mainstream media and even the U.S. government are all talking about crypto. The next stage is for usage to exceed speculation, which we see coming very soon. As the Web3 stack solidifies, better applications will become possible with network effects around composable data that will launch Web3 into widespread use. These quotes have been edited and condensed. The views, …

Nonfungible token, or NFT, became such a tech buzzword in 2021 that even Collins Dictionary declared the abbreviation its word of the year and Google searches for NFTs spiked to record levels. Behind the term is a market that approaches $17 billion, according to Cointelegraph Research. And the NFT marketplace OpenSea is responsible for processing most of these transactions, with a trading volume that recently surpassed $10 billion. NFTs’ potential reaches far beyond art to include music, sports collectibles and video games, while its utility encompasses ownership as well as exclusive access to unique functions and features. From CryptoPunks and …

On Tuesday, Solana nonfungible token (NFT) project Monkey Kingdom, which has received notable backing from American DJ Steve Aoki, announced via Twitter that hackers made off with $1.3 million of the community's crypto funds through a security breach on Discord. According to its developers, the hack first occurred with the breach of Grape, a popular solution for verifying users on Solana. Hackers then used the exploit to take over an administrative account, which posted a phishing link in the Monkey Kingdom Discord's announcement channel. Users who followed the link connected their wallets expecting they would receive an NFT but instead …

On Wednesday, Psychedelic, a Web 3.0 development studio building solutions for the Internet Computer, launched Terabithia, a cross-chain contract communication and asset mirroring protocol. Beginning with the Internet Computer (ICP) and Ethereum (ETH), users will have the ability to mirror and use any ETH tokens, fungible and nonfungible, on the Internet Computer blockchain and vice versa, effectively turning ICP into a layer-two scaling solution for ETH. The protocol attempts to tackle the problem of Ethereum network congestion and high gas fees. The Internet Computer, meanwhile, uses a "reverse gas model" where developers supply the funds needed to run the applications …

Yat Siu of Animoca Brands Yat is the executive chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, which delivers digital property rights to the world’s gamers and internet users, thereby creating a new asset class, play-to-earn economies and a more equitable digital framework contributing to the building of the open Metaverse. “2021 was the year of NFTs, and in the second half of the year, we saw a growing emphasis on GameFi. This trend will continue well into 2022. Real mass adoption of DeFi will happen via GameFi, which will explode in growth during 2022 as the potential for mass financial inclusion …

On Wednesday, Opera, an internet browser with Web 3.0 application support and a built-in crypto wallet, announced an upcoming integration with Polygon (MATIC). The integration, which is scheduled to go live in the first quarter of 2022, will first open Polygon's ecosystem to Opera's over 80 million users on the Android mobile, then to the rest on other devices and platforms. Polygon is a layer two Ethereum (ETH) scaling solution designed for lower gas fees and faster transaction times. Through the integration, Opera users will be able to access Polygon decentralized applications, or dApps, such as Sushiswap, Curve, and Aave, …

Enterprise blockchain has come a long way since its inception in 2017. Blockchain for enterprise use initially began as a technology built on private, permissioned networks, primarily used for supply chain management. As blockchain matured overtime, enterprises began to leverage public, permissionless networks like Ethereum to conduct business. Fast forward to 2021 — enterprises are now applying decentralized concepts to create more efficient workflows in the Metaverse. William Herkelrath, head of business development at Chainlink Labs — a decentralized oracle network — told Cointelegraph that while the Metaverse is hard to define, he believes that it’s a collection of ecosystems …

Earlier this year, gaming giant Ubisoft joined the aleph.im network as a core channel node operator after the blockchain-based storage and computing startup became a part of Ubisoft’s Entrepreneurs Lab. On Tuesday, aleph.im announced that it will offer a decentralized storage solution for Ubisoft Quartz in order to further incorporate nonfungible tokens (NFTs) into Ubisoft’s AAA games. https://t.co/oTzJGUOcyw partners with Ubisoft to bring playable NFTs to AAA games for the first time!!! Read all about how we did it here https://t.co/JiFlATvFcX#aaa #games #decentralized #storage #computing pic.twitter.com/eytP8etvyI — Aleph.im Network (@aleph_im) December 21, 2021 Players will be able to acquire dynamic …

Shrapnel is the world's first AAA shooter game built on the blockchain, at the intersection of community, creation, and ownership. The team is comprised of BAFTA and Emmy award-winning talent that has worked on blockbuster franchises such as HALO, Call of Duty, Madden, Bioshock, Destiny, Star Wars, Hawken Skylanders, Westworld, and more. It is built on blockchain gaming platform Forte. In an exclusive ask-me-anything session with Cointelegraph Markets Pro, Don Norbury, head of studio at Neon Media, the game's developer, offered an in-depth take on what the game has to offer. Cointelegraph Markets Pro User: When I think of gaming, …

Barbados, a paradise island in the West Indies, is known for its azure beaches, tidal waves, shipwrecks, homegrown grown Barbadian (Bajan) hospitality, and more recently, an influx of remote workers. Now, one can add cryptocurrency innovations to that list as well. Bitt, a Bajan fintech firm developing blockchain technology, has successfully created the eNaira central bank digital currency, or CBDC, for Nigeria and is on the path to creating an electronic Hryvnia for Ukraine. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Brian Popelka, chief executive officer of Bitt, discussed the technology behind the eNaira and the roadmap for the firm going …

Cointelegraph is following the development of an entirely new blockchain from inception to mainnet and beyond through its series, Inside the Blockchain Developer’s Mind. In previous parts, Andrew Levine of Koinos Group discussed some of the challenges the team has faced since identifying the key issues they intend to solve, and outlined three of the “crises” that are holding back blockchain adoption: upgradeability, scalability and governance. This series is focused on the consensus algorithm: Part one is about proof-of-work, part two is about proof-of-stake and part three is about proof-of-burn. In the first article in the series, I explored proof-of-work …