Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have come a long way in a relatively short period of time. In 2017, the NFT project CryptoKitties made headlines as the largest decentralized application on the Ethereum network. While CryptoKitties accounted for a notable portion of Ethereum transaction volume in 2017, these NFTs mainly served as digital collectibles geared toward the crypto community. It wasn’t until March 2021 when NFT artwork started gaining traction due to the financial potential behind these creations. This was demonstrated when digital artist Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, sold his NFT piece titled “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days,” which raised …

While many gamers are critical of blockchain-based gaming, Myspace co-founder Chris DeWolfe believes adoption is on the way as the business model inherently provides players more control over their in-game experiences. DeWolfe, who is now the CEO of game development firm Jam City, told Cointelegraph that “the quality of the game and how developers interact and engage with players to set expectations” could eventually change the perception of skeptics. The former Myspace CEO also compared the advent of Web3 gaming to the early days of Web2. According to DeWolfe, many analysts were skeptical of the viability of Web2 advertising and …

There’s no denying the current narrative about Web3: it’s a boys club. And, if we keep affirming this narrative, it’s bound to come true. The truth of crypto as a boys club won’t just be detrimental to women — it’ll be detrimental to the entire promise and growth of Web3. Web3 is not an exclusive club designed to keep people out. It's a rising-tide-lifts-all-boats party that gets better every time someone new joins. The more people involved, the better the outcomes for everyone. My introduction to crypto came early: It was 2013, and I’d been invited to a small get-together …

Reli3f, a humanitarian initiative birthed upon the innate artistic commitment to narrate stories in times of hardship, launched its second nonfungible token (NFT) collection on Thursday, raising over $300,000 for recognized Ukrainian charities and taking their total to over $1.5 million. Founded by several esteemed Web3 entrepreneurs — Satvik Sethi, Andrew Wang, Giovanni Gussen, Aleksandra Artamonovskaja, Raskalov and developer SignorCrypto — in late February this year, Reli3f has unified the talents of 62 artists across the world to showcase the enormous philanthropic potential of NFTs for social good. The team chose to distribute the first collection’s fund across a range …

People interact with open-source applications like MetaMask, Web3 games, the metaverse and DeFi protocols every day but don’t often stop to think about what happens in the background for it all to work. If we think of Web3 as a burgeoning new city, node infrastructure providers are the underlying power grid that makes operations possible. All DApps need to communicate with blockchains, and full nodes serve billions of requests from DApps to read and write data to chains every day. We need a huge node infrastructure to keep up with vastly expanding DApp ecosystems and serve all of the requests. …

The feeling in the crypto and decentralized finance space has been shifting and evolving. The industry is also becoming more scrutinized and, inevitably, more organized. Some weeks ago, United States President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order to expedite and focus regulatory oversight of the $3-trillion industry. The order will spur the government to examine the risks and benefits of cryptocurrencies, with a particular focus on consumer protection, financial stability, illicit activity, U.S. competitiveness, financial inclusion and responsible innovation. While the results of this order have yet to unfold, this moment helps to set the table for more clarity, predictability, …

American comic book publisher Archie Comics, known for its iconic Riverdale characters, is leveraging the blockchain to develop fan-generated art and stories as well as Archie-inspired nonfungible token (NFT) collections. Laura Braga and Vincezo Federici, the artists behind the 80-year-old franchise, partnered with Palm NFT Studio, to create a new blockchain-based writer’s room called the "Archiverse: Eclipse." According to the company, the Archiverse intends to empower Archie Comics fans to author the brand's future through generative storytelling. Its writer’s room invites fans to create and submit new storylines for their characters. The creators of selected submissions will be directly rewarded …

The world’s energy market is rapidly evolving, moving from hydrocarbon plants to a future centered around clean energy enabled by wind and solar power. As such, today’s energy market is shifting to an increasingly decentralized, real-time model based on distributed energy resources (DERs) including battery energy storage systems, solar arrays, natural gas generators and more. Recent findings from Allied Market Research show that the global distributed energy generation market size was valued at $246.4 billion in 2020, yet this number is predicted to reach $919.6 billion by 2030. Web3 technologies for managing energy assets Given today’s advancing energy market, Jesse …

In a letter sent to the Twitter chairman Bret Taylor on Thursday, entrepreneur Elon Musk, best known for founding and heading Tesla and SpaceX, offered to purchase the entire company for $54.20 a share, stating that the social media platform has “extraordinary potential” that he will “unlock.” In a 13D filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk states that “Since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.” Following this, Musk categorically states that the offer …

Video games have evolved significantly since their initial release in the 1970s. Following the Pong days, the world experienced unprecedented internet growth in the 2000s. In this time period, gaming developers were introduced to new business models, such as free-to-play, a staple of Web 2.0. With a free-to-play model, users were given access to their favorite games for free, with in-game assets costing money. Even for those who don't consider themselves gamers, this evolution presented the world with a new reality of continuous revenue for video game companies and lower barriers to entry for players. The major drawback with free-to-play …

Attending and reporting from the two-day Paris Blockchain Week Summit (PBWS), Cointelegraph’s managing editor, Alex Cohen sat down with Helen Hai, head of Binance's NFT platform for a candid discussion on the early inspirations for their NFT platform, as well as her vision for regulatory communication, among other topics. Citing the methods in which the Asian economy capitalized on the growth potential within the second industrial revolution by driving job creation for the lower and middle classes, Hai stated that the internet era — typically referenced as Web2 — was a contributing factor for the widening of digital-economic disparities between …

In November 2021, MoonPay announced a $555 million Series A financing round that brought the crypto payment platform's valuation to $3.4 billion. On Wednesday, the fintech company revealed that $87 million of the total $555 million came collectively from more than 60 public figures and celebrities in the music, sports, media and entertainment industries. While the Series A round was led by firms like Tiger Global Management and Coatue with participation from Blossom Capital, Thrive Capital, Paradigm and NEA, the following household names are also considered strategic investors: Gwyneth Paltrow, Maria Sharapova, Eva Longoria, Gal Gadot, Matthew McConaughey and Bruce …