In an announcement made on Wednesday, China’s official Xinhua News Agency will issue its first series of NFT collectibles. The move is a thumbs up to blockchain technology previously shunned by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In an official notice, Xinhua plans to publish 10,000 copies of 11 photos taken by journalists in 2021. The stride into NFTs is puzzling in light of recent events in the world’s second-largest economy. Following a nationwide crypto crackdown where Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) mining was banned, China recently aimed NFTs in the Metaverse and proposed that they should be heavily monitored. …

Apparently, it only took a pandemic for the writers behind the animated TV series South Park to offer their take on nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies… and it’s not a positive outlook. In its “Post COVID: The Return of COVID” special that aired Thursday, South Park depicted one of the show’s protagonists, Leopold "Butters" Stotch, also known as Victor Chaos, locked away in an insane asylum for years after it’s discovered he has a certain power to wreak havoc on the world. That power? Gathering investors to put all their money into NFTs. When he manages to get out of …

Today, the future of content production is ripe for disruption. With advances in technology and the rise of a generation of influencers, the skills of content production have been adopted en masse. Individuals and groups are now producing valuable streams of all forms of content across multiple channels, including YouTube, Instagram, Twitch and lesser-known distribution channels. This has seen a devaluing of the content itself. Although the creator is putting a lot of time and effort into the production process, it is often the case that the commercial return does not reflect this effort. How do we ensure that the …

Tesla CEO Elon Musk believes that Bitcoin (BTC) is not that good for everyday payments as the meme-based cryptocurrency, Dogecoin (DOGE). Musk compared the world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, to DOGE in a Time Magazine interview shortly after being named Time’s 2021 Person of the Year. “Bitcoin is not a good substitute for transactional currency. Even though it was created as a silly joke, Dogecoin is better suited for transactions. The total transaction flow that you do with Dogecoin, like transactions per day, is much higher potential than Bitcoin,” Musk said. Tesla CEO emphasized that Bitcoin is more suitable as a …

While some major Chinese cryptocurrency-related publications seem to be shutting down, a number of local news agencies continue running by moving to social media like Twitter. China’s most recent crypto ban would not significantly affect local crypto media sources as there are a number of ways to disseminate industry information, according to an executive at one of the biggest crypto publications in China. The exec, who asked to remain anonymous, told Cointelegraph on Dec. 1 that several local crypto sites have been moving their community to other media channels like Twitter and Telegram after the government enforced a new crypto …

South Park, the animated TV series which often tackles topical issues with a comedic twist, showed Bitcoin being used as a mainstream means of payment in the not too distant future. In the “Post COVID” episode of its 24th season which aired today, South Park depicted one of the show’s protagonists, Stan Marsh, paying for a stay in a cheap motel using Bitcoin (BTC) roughly 40 years from now, when the pandemic is jokingly about to end for good. The fictional Super 12 Motel Plus — in a future where nearly all brand names have “plus” and “maxx” included — …

Time Magazine, the media company that has been an American institution for almost a century, is partnering with Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital in an effort for its readers to explore the metaverse. In a Thursday announcement, Time said the partnership with the investment management firm was aimed at educating its readers about the metaverse. The long-running magazine will be releasing a weekly newsletter on the metaverse, hosting educational resources on its website, and including the virtual space as a category in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Novogratz said the partnership was part of …

The Associated Press news agency announced it would be launching its own Chainlink oracle node to ensure any data from its U.S. newspaper and broadcaster members would be cryptographically verified. In an Oct. 21 announcement, the Associated Press, or AP, said smart contract developers would have access to the agency’s “economic, sports, and race call data” once the node was operational. According to the AP, it will be publishing data on-chain for developers to access and reference in any relevant applications, in addition to providing information on upcoming elections and serving artists working with nonfungible tokens. “Chainlink technology is the …

Social media platform TikTok has announced its first foray into the nonfungible token, or NFT, market with a new collection inspired by its leading trend-setters. On Thursday, the company unveiled TikTok Top Moments, a new program that allows creators to be recognized and rewarded for their content. The NFT drops will be launched on Ethereum and powered by Immutable X, a new scaling solution for layer-two NFT protocol Immutable. TikTok Top Moments is said to feature a selection of six TikTok videos from the network’s most influential creators. Each one is intended to celebrate the impact of these creators in …

Time magazine has named Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin one of the most influential people this year, along with musicians, world leaders, activists, and others. Appearing in the list of Time’s innovators for 2021, Buterin is named alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Tesla CEO and Dogecoin (DOGE) proponent Elon Musk, and others. In his profile on the Ethereum co-founder, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian cited Buterin’s role in building the Ethereum network to a market capitalization of more than $400 billion and encouraging the development of decentralized apps and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. “No one person could’ve possibly come up with all …

A cat-themed animated series featuring prominent entertainers and personalities from the crypto space is reportedly back on schedule after an unexpected delay. Stoner Cats is an NFT series launched by actress Mila Kunis in partnership with CryptoKitties co-founder Mack Flavelle, CryptoPoops NFT creator Jonathan Howard and others through their recent endeavor, Big Head Club. The project is scheduled to launch at 5:00 pm EST today after a false start prevented the tokens from dropping on Monday. The project's NFTs, which feature characters from the show, will allow holders to watch episodes as they're produced and, at some future point, may …

Readers expect their news content to be reliable and trustworthy, yet many doubt it actually is. Readers cite issues like unchecked sources, rushing too fast to print, careless reporting and news sites being deliberately misleading as contributing to their eroding trust in published content. Yet readers seek out — and are even willing to pay for — credible, factual, objective news. Increased trust will come from providing more transparency into the reporting and writing process, and the solution to this for news sites will come from an unusual source: blockchain technology. State of trust in publishing today We recently conducted …