As the two-year anniversary of the global COVID-19 pandemic begins to hurtle toward us, we are no closer to knowing when our social lives will return to normal or what will the new normal be. The effect this has had on businesses like nightclubs, music venues and musicians have been immeasurable. With crowded in-person events either made impossible — or far more difficult and laborious — at many points over the last two years, changes to the industry that were already set in motion have been accelerated. Namely, the music industry’s adoption of digital instruments, among others and, increasingly, the …

Spanish LGBT-related token MariCoin (MCOIN) has responded to the community following skepticism around the project’s concept and goals. Some had even criticized the project for its name, which played on a homophobic slur in Spanish. But according to key people in the project, they have simply misunderstood. MariCoin CEO Francisco Alvarez told Cointelegraph that the project’s name is about “turning an insult into a fortress,” referring to peculiarities of tackling homophobic language as the very word word “gay” is still being used as an insult in some communities. “In Spain it is very common for members of the gay community …

The cryptocurrency community has raised concerns about Maricoin, a new token supposedly related to the LGBT+ community, with some people even suspecting the project to be a scam. Launched in December 2021, Maricoin promises to enable a “social, ethical, transparent and transversal means of payment” targeting the global “pink economy,” which is estimated to amount to trillions of dollars. One might question Maricoin’s ethics though, as its name is a portmanteau that plays on a Spanish slur for homosexuals. According to the project’s website, Maricoin runs on the Algorand blockchain, with creators planning to list the token on several crypto …

In a recent YouTube video, Charles Hoskinson highlighted the rapid growth of the Cardano (ADA) ecosystem while clarifying the concerns raised by other members of the crypto community over the past year. “We live in a world where arbitrary groups of people get to be fact-checkers and decide what's legitimate,” said Hoskinson while speaking about the government’s perception of cryptocurrencies. He pointed out that a vast majority of financial crimes are done with the U.S. dollar or other fiat currencies. According to Hoskinson, the growth of the crypto ecosystem this year might be slower than 2022: “It's hard to argue …

Public blockchain network Terra has confirmed an ongoing scam attack via an official governance poll on Mirror, an in-house synthetic assets protocol. According to Mirror, the attacker launched a public poll on Mirror’s official website, which proposes a freeze on the community pool in case of a scam. NEW MIRROR POLL! ALERT: Poll 211 is SCAM -- sending 25,000,000 MIR to itself ... #vote on 212: https://t.co/FH6RqTbJ2j $MIR $LUNA #terra — Mirror Polls (@mirror_polls) December 25, 2021 According to Poll ID: 211, named “Freeze the community pool in case of scam”, the scammer proposes an upgrade of safer community governance …

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) may have been a distraction from the COVID-19 pandemic, but now they are all the rage and a very key piece to pop culture. Each NFT exists as a one-of-a-kind asset minted on the blockchain, each being scarce in quantity and often high in value. While these assets may exist as collector’s items for holders to show off, they also act as a ticket into a fun and exciting community, where users can earn real rewards as they interact on an online medium. The thing is, many limit their imagination to only think of an NFT as …

People have talked in glowing tones about the transformative properties of blockchain since Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin (BTC) back in 2009 — books have been written, thousands of panels and presentations have complemented its prospects, costumed Bitcoin maximalists have flaunted their newfound wealth. Despite these commendations, the transformation has been slow. However, whether the delay was due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, or just the time needed to create innovation, we are now on the cusp of change that is creating new economies and ways of human interaction. The Metaverse, with the powerful combination of game theory and blockchain, is …

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are evolving from a niche interest to a mainstream conversation. The variety of NFT art — from cuddly to edgy to menacing — is drawing in a new audience of enthusiasts. Beyond the art, NFTs are providing a glimpse into a new layer of social interaction. When framed as micro-social networks, NFTs could lead the way to a new form of social media based on creativity, ownership and contribution. Groups serve as epicenters of NFTs projects Every week, dozens of Discord and Telegram groups appear in support of new NFT projects. These groups serve as the epicenter …

Crypto has seen a rise in novel uses of liquidity mining and rewards through protocols like Uniswap, Aave and Compound. More recently, a new crop of DeFi 2.0 protocols such as OlympusDAO, Alchemix and Abracadabra are exploring new ways of operating without giving up token rewards. For all the innovations happening with decentralized systems in crypto, they are still failing to open new pathways for economic prosperity for the most marginalized. In its current form, DeFi remains open only to people who already have access to the financial system and live in countries with strong financial markets. This is evident …

Online communities, those that share a common interest on the internet, can range from social networks, grassroots organizations and customer communities. We, as a society, are naturally communal, so it makes sense to engage in ideas and interests with others online. Whether we build relationships with people directly or indirectly, communities are built. However, how we do so differs. In 2006, web expert Jakob Nielsen proposed a 90-9-1 rule based on participation inequality in social media and online communities. According to Nielsen, in most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers, i.e., those who observe, but don’t contribute, nine percent …

Crypto-social platform Rally has earmarked $12 million for external developers to improve the functionality of the ecosystem, potentially setting the stage for new innovations that would benefit creators. The grants program will be distributed through RLY tokens, the native cryptocurrency of the Rally ecosystem, the company announced Friday. A community-elected developer council controls $5 million worth of RLY, giving it considerable sway over which types of bounties and rewards get distributed. Prior to establishing the new program, Rally awarded third-party developer grants to Bonfire, MintGate and David Young, the creator of the PLAY coin, which is built on Rally. Rally …

Polkadot founder Gavin Wood has unveiled a $777-million development fund ahead of the network’s parachain lease auctions. Wood tweeted on Sunday that Polkadot’s treasury has allocated more than 18.9 million Polkadot (DOT) (worth roughly $777 million at the time of writing) to a development fund that will be disbursed through community governance. Wood gave broad suggestions as to how the funds might be spent, stating the capital will be mobilized to realize the community’s vision for “building, improving, educating” Polkadot’s ecosystem, in addition to “anything else that the Polkadot governance believes valuable.” According to Polkadot’s Wiki, the treasury funds can …