The blockchain gaming industry is experiencing a "massive shift," with the once-popular play-to-earn (P2E) model falling out of favor and focus directed now at improving gameplay experience, a new survey has found. The survey results were included in a newly released annual report from the Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) on Jan. 12, which was conducted with 347 professionals, representing 252 different projects or companies in the blockchain sector. Most of the respondents were young adult males working for blockchain gaming companies in middle and top management positions, according to BGA. One of the trends gleaned from the report was an …

'Degen' season smells like pixelated feet Feetpix.wtf’s newly launched nonfungible token (NFT) collection, “Feetpix” has seemingly taken the NFT community by storm with surging trading volumes, prompting some to suggest the return of “degen” season. Feetpix.wtf’s collection soared ahead of the likes of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) on Jan. 11 with the fifth-highest trading volume recorded on NFT marketplace OpenSea. The project — which released 10,000 Feetpix NFTs — has traded over 825 Ether (ETH)($1,157,000) across nearly 18,000 transactions since its release on Jan. 8. Crypto Twitter is still split on what inspired the surge in foot fetish-NFT trading …

In this week’s newsletter, read about how the metaverse may integrate touch and smell. Check out how the nonfungible token (NFT) project Moonbirds plans to become a global brand and how NFT marketplace Magic Eden will refund users affected by a recent exploit. In other news, find out how NFT image hosting issues can be resolved, according to executives within the NFT space. And don’t forget this week’s Nifty News featuring a warning to gamers about a fake Pokemon NFT game spreading malware. Touch and smell become the next big thing for the metaverse at CES 2023 One of the …

The music industry is notoriously centralized, with major record labels often controlling nearly every facet of an artist’s career — from which songs they are allowed to release to what percentage of the royalties they keep and more. While the rise of streaming platforms like SoundCloud and Spotify has helped democratize the industry and made it significantly easier to get one’s music in front of more ears, it’s still an uphill battle to build a dedicated fanbase and generate enough revenue to survive. Enter music NFTs. For those in the blockchain space, nonfungible tokens represent an opportunity for fans to …

As trading becomes increasingly difficult during the bear market, a nonfungible token (NFT) platform aims to lighten the load on traders and help them get a closer look at the strategies of successful collectors. In an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, NFT platform Upshot said that it launched Upshot GMI, a tool that scores and classifies wallets based on their NFT trading performance. Taking inspiration from the crypto slang WAGMI, GMI stands for “gonna make it,” as it analyzes which wallets are, in essence, going to make it based on data available on the blockchain. According to Upshot CEO Nick Emmons, …

The average crypto investor probably isn’t planning on dying of old age anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have a plan in place to pass on their crypto in the event they meet an unlikely demise, lawyers warn. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Dubai-based crypto lawyer Irina Heaver believes that “billions” worth of Bitcoin (BTC) has been lost due to a lack of proper death-related planning by hodlers. She noted that many families have been unable to access their loved one’s crypto assets due to private keys being taken to the grave, and emphasized the importance of discussing crypto assets …

Blockchain security firm SlowMist has highlighted five common phishing techniques crypto scammers used on victims in 2022, including malicious browser bookmarks, phony sales orders and trojan malware spread on messaging app Discord. It comes after the security firm recorded a total of 303 blockchain security incidents in the year, with 31.6% of these incidents caused by phishing, rug pull or other scams, according to a Jan. 9 SlowMist blockchain security report. Malicious browser bookmarks One of the phishing strategies makes use of bookmark managers, a feature in most modern browsers. SlowMist said scammers have been exploiting these to ultimately gain …

A secure cryptocurrency wallet is crucial for those investing in the growing cryptocurrency market. Technically, crypto wallets are pieces of software that enable users to send and receive digital currencies, like Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC). Cryptocurrency wallets are typically used to store multiple coins and tokens at once. However, most wallets only support a limited number of digital currencies. These wallets can come in the form of hardware (much like a flash drive) that can be connected to the internet as needed or digital storage (like a banking app) that can be accessed on a device. To …

The sense of smell has been added to the virtual reality (VR) experience as showcased by metaverse-focused companies at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023. A recent report from consulting firm McKinsey & Company predicted that the metaverse could potentially generate $5 trillion in value by 2030. However, the report noted that metaverse success would need a more developed human aspect that delivers positive experiences to its users. One of these catalysts may be the integration of the sense of smell and touch into VR experiences which were showcased at the recent CES. As reported by Fortune, one of the …

It’s no secret that in 2022 the world of Web3 and decentralized finance (DeFi) experienced a slew of major exploits and attacks. From the Ronin bridge attack to the Nomad hack, the top 10 exploits alone saw over $2 billion lost. In the Beosin Global Web3 Security Report 2022, it revealed that of 167 major security incidents over the last year those rooted in DeFi were the most vulnerable. DeFi projects were attacked 113 times, which accounted for approx. 67.6% of recorded attacks. This is followed by attacks on exchanges, nonfungible token (NFT) projects, cross-chain bridges and wallets in that …

Hackers hide malware in fake NFT game A phishing website purporting to offer a Pokémon-branded nonfungible token (NFT) card game has been spreading malware to unsuspecting gamers, a cybersecurity firm has warned. The website, which at the time of writing was still online, also claims to offer an NFT marketplace, with a link to buy tokens and even an area to stake NFTs all based on the popular Japanese media franchise. However, an arm of the South Korean cybersecurity firm AhnLab, warned the public about website on Jan. 6, noting that instead of downloading the game, users were actually downloading …

YouTuber Logan Paul has deleted a video in which he threatened to sue internet detective Stephen "Coffeezilla" Findeisen over a three-part series that painted Paul’s CryptoZoo project as a "scam." According to Coffezilla in a Jan. 6 Twitter post, Paul has promised to drop his threats of filing a defamation lawsuit over the videos. Logan called me. He said he’s deleting the two responses, and is dropping the lawsuit threats. I believe he’s making a 3rd response, which I’ll be delaying my video to include. Hopefully this time he takes accountability and refunds the victims of CryptoZoo. That’s what matters. …