Wild West-Based Battle Royale Blockchain Game Grit Gets Listed on the Epic Games Store – Blockchain Bitcoin News
On June 6, the Web3 entertainment company Gala Games announced that the Wild West-focused battle royale blockchain game Grit will soon be available via the Epic Games Store and accessible to 194 million users. The well known company Epic Games is the producer of the Unreal Engine and the popular online video games Fortnite and Gears of War.
Blockchain-Powered Grit Gets Added to the Epic Games Store — Gala Games Exec Says Epic Listing Brings Legitimacy to This New Genre of Gaming
The Epic Games Store currently hosts a blockchain video game called Grit, a Wild West-based battle royale game built using the Unreal Engine. Grit players face a gang of gunslingers “in epic showdowns and shootouts” and the game features over 400 types of old-school guns. The game crafted by the Web3 entertainment firm Gala Games is listed on the Epic Games Store but the description notes that Grit is “coming soon.”
The Epic Games Store currently lists the blockchain-based game Grit but the store notes that the game is “coming soon.”
Gala Games is also behind the Web3 first-person-shooter (FPS) Last Expedition, and the Gala Music platform. The Web3 business also has plans to launch a non-fungible token (NFT) esports game called Spider Tanks. Epic adding a blockchain-based game to its popular gaming store is a milestone according to John Osvald, the president of games at Gala Games. “Epic is a pioneer and visionary in the video game industry. Gala Games’ titles being available on the Epic Game Store brings legitimacy to this new genre of gaming,” Osvald said in a statement published on Monday.
Osvald added:
Easy access to Web3 games is a turning point for those players who have not yet seen how digital ownership can enrich the gaming experience.
Gala Games Launches ‘The Gunslinger Box’ Sale for Grit at Galaverse Event in Malta
Additionally, Gala Games is currently hosting the Galaverse event in Malta from June 6-9, 2022. The company is offering a sale called “The Gunslinger Box,” which unlocks one of the 10,000 Grit avatars. Each Grit avatar features in-game perks and generative attributes, the announcement on Monday discloses. The Galaverse event will also disclose a number of other Grit announcements during the three days.
“Here at Team Grit we are invested in this new ecosystem and see all the value that Web3 can bring to the gameplay experience,” Jon Mavor, the chief technical officer at Team Grit remarked. “We are excited to be working with Gala Games and by our presence on the Epic Games Store. Web3 will make players’ experiences in the Wild West even better.”
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blockchain game, Epic, Epic Games Store, Fortnite, Gala Games, Galaverse Event, Grit, Grit Game, Grit Gaming, Last Expedition, NFT ecosystem, NFT games, online games, Spider Tanks, The Gunslinger Box Sale, Unreal, Unreal Engine, Web3, Web3 Game, Wild West, Wild West game
What do you think about a blockchain game being listed on the Epic Games Store? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
Jamie Redman
Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Grit, Gala Games
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
On-chain data shows Bitcoin whales holding between 1k to 10k BTC have expanded their reserves recently, a sign that could be bullish for the crypto’s price.
Bitcoin Reserves Of 1k-10k BTC Holders Have Observed Growth Recently
As explained by an analyst in a CryptoQuant post, the whales holding between 1k to 10k BTC have shown smart-money behavior in the past as they usually buy near bottoms and sell near tops.
The relevant metric here is the total amount of coins currently being held by the different holder groups in the Bitcoin market.
The criteria for grouping the investors here is based on how many coins they are holding in their wallets. For example, the 100 to 1k BTC cohort includes all holders that have a wallet amount lying in this range.
Now, below is a chart that shows the trends in the reserves of the 100 to 1k BTC and 1k to 10k BTC investor groups over the past year:
It seems like the reserve of the 100 to 1k BTC holders has gone down recently | Source: CryptoQuant
As you can see in this graph, the Bitcoin reserve of the 1k to 10k BTC whales has been showing some interesting movement.
It looks like this holder group’s reserve has usually started to fall off as the price of the coin has neared any local top.
Related Reading | Bitcoin NUL Suggests More Downside To Come Before The Bottom
Also, likewise this cohort has timed their buys around bottom formations. This means that these investors have been acting like smart money in this last year and a half.
Most recently, the reserve of this investor group has observed a sharp increase in the last few weeks, suggesting that they have been buying. If historical trend is anything to go by, such a sign could be bullish for the crypto’s price.
The 100 to 1k BTC holders, however, have shown contrasting behavior when compared with these smart-money investors.
Related Reading | Can Bitcoin Become “One Of The Best Assets On Earth”? This Expert Bets On It
These holders have usually bought as the price has gone up and sold during declines. Recently as well their reserve has gone down, suggesting they have been selling while the 1k to 10k BTC whales have bought.
However, there could also be another way to look at this. The reserve of the 100 to 1k BTC group going down may be due in part to some of the holders buying enough to go over 1k BTC, making them a part of the 1k to 10k BTC cohort instead now.
BTC Price
At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price floats around $31.3k, up 2% in the past week.
Looks like the price of the crypto has shot up over the past 24 hours | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
Featured image from Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com, CryptoQuant.com
CertiK shares security tips following third BAYC security compromise in six months
On June 4, the popular nonfungible token, or NFT, project Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) suffered its third security compromise this year. Nearly 142 Ether (ETH) ($250,000) worth of NFTs was stolen after hackers gained access to the Discord account of a BAYC community manager and posted a message with a link to a fake website.
The link advertised a limited-time free-NFT giveaway to users who connected their wallets, which were then drained of NFTs. During two prior occasions in April, hackers breached BAYC’s Discord and Instagram pages and managed to siphon 91 NFTs, worth over $1.3 million at the time of the second attempt, via a phishing link.
As told by blockchain security firm CertiK, hackers quickly moved stolen funds to obfuscation platform Tornado Cash, making it impossible to trace any further flow of funds on the blockchain. In a statement to Cointelegraph, sources at CertiK explained that however legitimate the project may seem, “NFT holders should also be highly suspicious of anyone claiming to offer free assets, as these can often be phishing attacks.” In addition, CertiK wrote:
“In the case of the June 4th attack, the malicious carbon-copy site had some small differences. Firstly, there were no links to social media sites on the phishing site. There was also an added tab titled “claim free land” and specifically targeted popular NFT projects.”
As a precautionary measure, Certik recommended crypto enthusiasts look for subtle peculiarities on such sites, as they are frequently an indicator of malicious activity. “At the very least, users engaging with such giveaways should always make an effort to confirm the legitimacy of the site by comparing it with a known and confirmed site and looking for any discrepancies,” they concluded.
Cryptocurrency mining is the method by which individuals help create cryptocurrencies and verify transactions related to new coins on the blockchain. Crypto mining involves an extensive, decentralized network of computers that help safeguard and verify blockchains that record crypto transactions.
For contributing their processing power, these miners are rewarded in the form of new coins. Miners help secure the blockchain, the blockchain rewards miners with new coins, and the coins further incentivize miners to help secure the network.
The concept of mining crypto was fairly unknown until a few years ago when tech geeks and new crypto enthusiasts became well-known for their ability to solve complex puzzles, create blocks, and mine cryptocurrencies. These miners were busy supporting a whole new form of finance while the rest of the world looked on in confusion. When the value of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin increased in 2016, these miners suddenly became respected as a whole new class of geniuses and, of course, top earners.
While many started showing interest in mining crypto, not all interested individuals were able to actively engage in the activity due to the high investment demands of the process. Considering that cryptocurrencies are meant to be decentralized and accessible to everyone, many thought that the exclusivity of the mining opportunity was quite a letdown.
In the light of this dissatisfaction, Monero, a secure, private, and decentralized crypto network, decided to look for a better solution. By 2019, the Monero community managed to develop a new algorithm that allowed anyone with a computer to engage in mining activities and earn rewards — a step in the right direction for decentralization and fair accessibility.
This article rolls out everything you need to know about Monero: what it is, how it works, the uses of its XMR token, how to mine Monero, and why Monero mining is essential. You can also read about how to buy Monero, with expert predictions about the value of XMR and the potential of the Monero network.
What Is Monero
What is Monero animated video
Monero (XMR) is a popular open-source cryptocurrency that focuses on decentralization, privacy, and scalability. It is built by community-funded contributors and volunteers who have worked hard to ensure that Monero transactions are seamless at each step.
XMR achieves distributed consensus using the proof-of-work (PoW) mining method. Although many consider it to be similar to Bitcoin, it is different in that implementing PoW allows even hobbyist miners to try their hand at mining with nothing more than an ordinary CPU.
Monero developers have been trying to keep ASICs and other specialized machines away from the mining scene to maintain and improve Monero’s decentralization.
The CryptNight hashing algorithm has been replaced by RandomX, which was the result of a scheduled upgrade in November 2019. RandomX is a PoW algorithm that discourages ASICs and penalizes miners for using GPUs. Therefore, CPU mining is now the preferred way to go if you want to mine Monero.
Despite the mounting regulatory pressure on exchanges, Monero is still among the top 30 coins in the industry, with a market capitalization that exceeds $5 billion.
Monero is one of the few cryptocurrencies with digital transactions that are unaffected by capital controls and regulations.
Let’s have a look at the main privacy-enhancing technologies used by Monero:
Ring Signatures
Monero’s Ring Signatures technology mixes the digital signatures of the person making an XMR transaction with that of other users before creating a record on the blockchain. This mechanism makes data appear as if the transaction in question was sent by any one of the recorded signers.
Since 2019, a default Monero transaction is recorded by adding 10 signatures to each transaction group, mixing a total of 11 signatures.
RingCT
Ring Confidential Transactions are used by the Monero network to hide the exact value amounts that users exchange in blockchain-recorded transactions. This implies that no one other than the sender and receiver can know how much value is being transferred through a Monero transaction. RingCT allows transactions to have multiple inputs and outputs while protecting users’ anonymity and preventing double-spending.
Stealth Addresses
Monero’s Stealth Addresses allows users to publish a single address that creates multiple one-time accounts for each transaction. The owner will have a secret “view key,” and their wallet can identify incoming funds by scanning the blockchain to find transactions with that particular key.
What Is Monero (XRM) Used For
Monero (XRM) is a secure crypto coin ideal for fast and anonymous transactions.
Monero helps businesses maintain the privacy of their account information in light of the growing number of financial crimes.
Monero also provides much-needed privacy for individuals who wish to protect their spending and financial data from Facebook and other large data-mining companies that may sell it without consent and pocket the profit.
A transparent public ledger would be ideal in a world devoid of financial crime. However, in today’s world, knowledge about salaries and revenues of individuals and companies is an open invitation to international crime.
With the help of miners and the PoW consensus method, XMR transactions on the Monero network are kept private and secure to prevent financial frauds and crimes.
What Is Monero Mining
Monero mining refers to the process through which users can earn XMR coins as a reward for verifying transactions on Monero’s blockchain. Through Monero mining, miners can create new XMR coins using Monero mining software.
A Monero miner is a physical miner who operates mining devices. Monero miners act as network supervisors and administrators, validating all XMR transactions. After transactions are validated, they are recorded in blocks that are essentially digital files. These blocks are created by Monero miners who solve complex puzzles according to the PoW method. If a Monero miner is able to solve the puzzles, they earn the right to add the block to the network and also get newly created XMR coins as Monero mining rewards per block.
Why Are Monero Miners Important
Miners act as replacements for centralized authorities and institutions that would typically control transactions and monetary dealings in traditional finance. Therefore, it’s fair to say that miners are the backbone of the Monero network.
Monero miners verify and approve transactions so that users can exchange value through the blockchain. They solve complex puzzles with equations to create new blocks that help keep the Monero network active. The block rewards they earn also serve as a crucial addition to the supply of new coins.
Monero miners also help overcome the issue of double-spending
A set of time-stamped transactions is shared with a miner after being collected into a single block. Through cryptography, each new block is linked with the previous one to form an immutable blockchain. This blockchain allows miners to determine the legitimacy of a transaction. The debit and credit are also noted down in the sender’s and receiver’s wallets, respectively, so the sender cannot possibly spend the coins again.
Why Mine Monero
Following are the two crucial reasons why individuals usually choose to start Monero mining:
Fairness of the Mining Process
Monero developers and Monero community members have created RandomX, which is an ASIC-resistant PoW algorithm. RandomX makes it impossible for miners to use specialized hardware for mining Monero, thereby leveling the playfield for miners who only have access to consumer-grade hardware.
Incentives for Mining
There’s no limit to the supply of Monero available for mining, as might be the case with other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
After the allocated 18.132 million XMR tokens are discovered by miners, the Monero will generate 0.6 XMR indefinitely through a tail emission. This process will keep miners motivated even after the total XMR supply is depleted.
Monero miners can mine blocks every two minutes, with a block reward of 0.6 XMR once the tail emission mechanism is activated in May 2022.
Tradability
The XMR acquired from mining can be directly traded for fiat on major exchanges. Monero is easily tradable for Bitcoin (BTC), which is a cheaper way to steadily build a Bitcoin holding position. The BTC can then be sold for cash, which provides an easy way to earn cash indirectly.
What to Consider Before Mining Monero
Here are some of the factors that interested miners must consider before they start mining Monero.
Profitability
Since mining is a type of business, an interested miner should think about XMR’s profitability before investing time, money, and effort in the mining process.
Mining XMR doesn’t require costly hardware, so the mining profitability of Monero only depends on the electricity cost, pool maintenance fees (if applicable), and mining hash rate.
Hash Rate
Monero uses RandomX, which supports CPUs as mining devices. Since mining is a time-based process, the higher the processing power of your CPU is, the higher the hash rate will be, making the mining process smoother.
Hardware and Software Options
Before you decide to mine Monero, you must decide which hardware and software you will be using for the process. Your hardware and software must be compatible to ensure the success of the mining process — each will have different effects on the profitability and hash rate of Monero mining.
How to Mine Monero
Following are the two main ways to mine Monero:
Monero mining with a CPU
Monero Mining with a GPU
Monero Mining with a CPU
Compared to advanced mining equipment, CPU mining is less profitable but more accessible and affordable for many miners.
Since the development of RandomX, Monero’s CPU-friendly algorithm, anyone can mine Monero using their computer’s CPU. RandomX allows smaller retail miners to have a fair shot in the competition with large-scale miners, thereby maintaining decentralization in Monero mining.
You can use almost any CPU for mining Monero, but if you’re considering buying a new CPU, select either you can choose from the following options:
Intel Xeon L5640 (130 H/s)
AMD Opteron (415 H/s)
After setting up your desired CPU for mining Monero, you will have to download an appropriate mining software like XMR-STAK-CPU. This universal stratum pool miner is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Monero Mining with a GPU
Moner’s recent adoption of RandomX has made CPU a preferred option for mining Monero by discouraging and penalizing those who use a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). That said, many still prefer GPU mining as it is known to be a more efficient mining method with a higher hash rate.
Choose your Hardware
The two primary GPU manufacturers are Nvidia and AMD.
You can choose an Nvidia or AMD Graphics Processing Unit from the following options:
Nvidia GTX 1070 (505 H/s)
Nvidia GTX 1080 (600 H/s)
AMD R9 280x (500 H/s)
AMD Radeon Rx 580 (575 H/s)
As CPUs are preferred for mining Monero with the recent RandomX algorithm, you can either use your existing CPU or buy a new one for Monero mining.
Some popular XMR-supported mining devices are:
AMD Threadripper 3990X
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Intel Core i9-10900K
Select a Software that Supports your Hardware
Since you will be using Monero mining software, you should check the compatibility of the hardware and software to ensure mining efficiency.
If you’re mining solo, you can use a CLI or GUI wallet with a CPU only. For mining with a GPU or a pool, you will need dedicated software. Following are some mining software options that support Monero mining (some might charge developer fees):
The configuration process for each software depends on the mode of mining and the hardware you decide to use. If the hardware and software are configured successfully, the mining process will be successful.
Choose a Wallet
While determining a wallet for your Monero, you must ensure that the wallet you select is secure, easy to use, compatible with your browser, and supports XMR tokens. A good wallet option for Monero is CoinStats.
The CoinStats wallet has a simple layout where you can view and monitor your XMR holdings. The CoinStats wallet links directly to the CoinStats exchange so that the tokens you acquire are seamlessly credited to your wallet. You can also transfer your funds directly from your wallet and export your CoinStats private keys for safe storage. The CoinStats wallet also supports more than 220 crypto coins, so you can use any crypto in your portfolio to acquire XMR and later trade the XMR you have acquired seamlessly for other crypto coins.
By syncing your bank card with your CoinStats wallet, you can also buy XMR easily using fiat money — if you choose to buy Monero instead of mining, you’ll be able to find the steps for buying XMR later in this article.
Configure the Mining Software
The last step in the process for mining Monero is configuring the software. This is the main step that requires careful attention from the miner. When the software is properly configured, you can sit back and relax until the XMR tokens are mined and appear in your wallet.
Advantages of Monero Mining
Following are some of the key advantages of Monero mining:
With many big cryptos like Bitcoin, miners who possess ASIC hardware have a competitive edge over those who don’t. Monero’s mining algorithm, on the other hand, is ASIC-resistant, thereby ensuring fair competition among all participants of the Monero mining process.
Monero’s algorithm encourages more participation in the XMR mining process. Interested miners can use any computer to mine Monero without making a costly or tech-heavy investment.
Monero’s block size is adaptive, i.e., it can expand automatically when transaction volumes increase. The double-verification process may cause the transaction time to increase for some recipients, in which case, the adaptive block size serves as an advantage.
Pros and cons in Solo and Pool mining
Challenges of Monero Mining
Despite its attractive plus points, it is also essential to consider the challenges involved in Monero mining:
The Monero network is dominated by 2 or 3 mining pools, which account for half of the hashing power.
There aren’t many Monero wallet options to choose from, considering the complexity or simplicity of the user experience. (Of course, once you discover the simplicity and convenience of a CoinStats wallet, you won’t want to look much further!)
Is Monero Mining Worth It
Mining cryptocurrency, in general, is time-consuming and effort-intensive. For Monero, in particular, many don’t consider mining a worthwhile process as anyone can conveniently buy it on a crypto exchange without any hassle. While Monero mining does have some benefits, most miners tend to lose money due to the electricity cost and the prices of hardware and cloud mining services.
In short, it might be a better option for most individuals to buy Monero from a crypto exchange rather than going through the mining process.
Where to Buy Monero
Monero price on CoinStats
It is essential to check for some key requirements when choosing a crypto exchange:
Security: The exchange that you select should be 100% reliable. You must also check the link carefully to ensure you access the authentic exchange website and spend your funds in the right place.
Asset offering and payment support: The crypto exchange that you choose should, first and foremost, offer the XMR token. It should also support the payment method you want to use to fund your order. If you plan to pay with fiat money, the exchange should accept the bank transfer, credit card, or debit card you will be using. If you are swapping other cryptos to acquire XMR, you should also confirm that the exchange supports those trading pairs (e.g., BTC/XMR, ETH/XMR, etc.)
A secure crypto wallet for storing your XMR tokens.
A crypto portfolio tracker that lets you check the XMR price and make a well-informed investment.
CoinStats also provides informative content like “How to Buy Cryptocurrency” and “What is DeFi” for crypto beginners and potential investors.
How to Buy Monero
how to buy Monero
Following are three simple steps for buying Monero:
Create an account: You will have to create an account on a crypto exchange by filling in your KYC details. Once your details are verified, you will be able to start buying and selling Monero and other cryptos on the exchange.
Set up or connect your wallet: If you don’t already have a wallet, you should (optional) create one to have a secure place to store your XMR tokens when you acquire them. If you already possess a crypto wallet, you can just connect it to the exchange, and you’re all set to start buying.
Make your Purchase: After you have set up your account and wallet, you can proceed to look up Monero (XMR) on the exchange. You can place a limit order for XMR by selecting the number of tokens you wish to acquire and the price per token you are willing to pay. If the price of XMR reaches your target amount, the order will be fulfilled, and the tokens will reflect in your wallet.
Is Monero a Good Investment
As of 3rd June 2022, the Monero price is $199.10, with a 24-hour trading volume of around $146 million. Monero ranks at #27 on CoinStats, with a live market cap of approximately $3 billion and a circulating supply of about 18 million XMR coins.
Following are some of the expert price predictions for Monero’s XMR token:
Digital Coin Price
According to Digital Coin Price, the price of Monero may keep increasing throughout 2022, reaching almost $430 at the end of the year, i.e., its potential growth might go up to 56%.
Gov Capital
Gov Capital stated that Monero’s price could increase by more than 70% through the year, reaching the $350 price point in 2022. Gov Capital analysts don’t predict downward trends for XMR and consider Monero to be a profitable investment.
WalletInvestor
WalletInvestor predicts that Monero might remain at its current price point for a long time. XMR is expected to peak at $360 by mid-2022, and its minimum price may rise to $320 by the end of the year.
TradingBeasts
Analysts at TradingBeasts are confident that XMR won’t crash and has good growth potential. TradingBeasts forecasts suggest that XMR may grow by around 110% in three years. The price of Monero may rise as high as $360 by the end of 2022 and $500 by the end of 2023.
Whether you choose to mine or buy Monero, the market risks will still define the value of the token you are ultimately trying to acquire. Therefore, despite the mostly positive XMR predictions, potential investors must monitor the charts diligently for a while before making an investment decision.
Closing Thoughts
Monero mining is open to everyone in that the algorithm does not need any special mining equipment. Even with just a basic CPU and any operating system, pretty much anyone can mine XMR tokens.
The main factors you must evaluate before you start to mine XMR as a solo miner are the profitability of Monero mining, the hash rate in relation to the CPU hardware and mining software used, pool maintenance fees, and power consumption demands.
Monero miners play an important role in verifying transactions and maintaining the security of the Monero network. Mining XMR also helps add to the circulating supply of tokens.
An interested miner can choose from the best Monero miner software and hardware options detailed in this article.
Even though the process of Monero mining is accessible to all and doesn’t require too much financial investment, the miner will still have to put in time and effort to solve the complex puzzles, complete blocks, and earn rewards.
Many find Monero mining to be quite tedious in comparison to buying the Monero coin directly from an exchange.
CoinStats provides the perfect exchange for purchasing and trading Monero, as well as a wallet for storing XMR tokens securely. You can also use the CoinStats portfolio tracker to monitor the performance of XMR and other cryptos in your portfolio.
The overall price predictions of the Monero coin seem to be mostly positive, but you should still do your own thorough research and monitor the charts regularly before spending time and effort mining Monero or buying it from an exchange.
If you’re interested in mining Monero, you can start your journey by visiting the Monero website and saving this article for reference along the way.
Following a lackluster month in April, May saw further correction across cryptoasset sectors as they all fell a minimum of -17%. Layer 1, metaverse and meme coins declined the most at -43%, -42% and -39%, respectively.
How did major players in the crypto space cope? In Kraken Intelligence’s latest report, Hold Steady, the team unpacks what went down in crypto and what may lie ahead.
A month of red candles
Despite historically posting positive returns in May, BTC fell -16% over the course of the month to 10-month lows. BTC was also much more volatile in May, with an annualized volatility of 79%, as compared to April’s 49%. As BTC fell in May, stock market participants also felt the pain. Overall, BTC remained positively correlated with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 equity indices last month.
ETH posted losses of -29%, with annualized volatility leaping to 100%. However, this didn’t deter ETH whales, who added to their positions during the downturn.
DeFi assets saw major losses in May, ranging from -3% to -53%, as TerraUSD and its collateral asset, LUNA, collapsed in a death spiral. Meanwhile, privacy coins performed comparatively better, posting losses of -19% over the same period.
NFT markets on OpenSea slowed down last month. While daily users fell -7% and daily transactions increased +1.1%, daily volume was hit the hardest, as it declined by over -87%.
It’s not all bad news
This broader market correction didn’t stop major players from making headlines for their investments across the crypto industry in May. Dapper Labs launched a $725M fund to invest in projects native to the Flow ecosystem and Andreessen Horowitz pledged $600M to back the development of metaverse gaming projects.
Kraken also announced the waitlist for its upcoming NFT marketplace, featuring zero gas fees while trading within Kraken NFT and built-in tools that track rarity scores.
Want to learn more about what went down and what’s ahead? Download the Kraken Intelligence report, Hold Steady,to understand what’s moving the crypto market.
Monthly NFT Sales Have Dropped Over 65% Lower Than the Month Prior, NFT Google Queries Sink – Markets and Prices Bitcoin News
Non-fungible token (NFT) sales are down a great deal, as 30-day statistics show NFT sales recorded last month saw just over $4.6 billion settled but today, sales are down 65.43% to $1.59 billion. Furthermore, Google Trends data indicates that interest in NFTs has dropped to the lowest point since the first week of October 2021.
From $4.6 Billion to $1.5 Billion — NFT Sales Slide More Than 65% Lower Than the Month Before
Over the last two years, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become very popular and a billion-dollar industry in a relatively short period of time. However, in recent times NFT interest and sales have been slashed significantly, and monthly NFT sales metrics show a gradual decline during the past few months.
For example, 30-day NFT sales statistics from the analytics web portal cryptoslam.io reveal that NFT sales have dropped 65.43% since last month. The month prior, $4.6 billion in NFT sales were recorded across 17 different blockchains, but over the last 30 days, only $1.59 billion in NFT sales were settled.
NFT sales stemming from the Ethereum blockchain were the most dominant, capturing $1.31 billion out of the $1.59 billion settled. However, ETH-based NFT sales are down 67.99% among 250,925 buyers and 1,047,363 transactions.
Many other blockchains have seen massive NFT sales declines over the last 30 days, as Polygon NFT sales dipped 70.86%, Ronin’s non-fungible token sales dropped by 70.26%, Wax blockchain NFT sales saw a decline of around 43.89%, and Avalanche’s non-fungible token sales are down 91.43%.
Palm-based NFT sales are down 60.59%, Cronos has lost 76.09% in non-fungible token sales, and Arbitrum NFT sales have slid 66.74% since last month. The top NFT collection last month in terms of overall sales volume was Otherdeed’s $143,562,582 in sales, but that metric is down 82.25% lower than the month prior.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) was the second largest collection in terms of NFT sales with $119 million recorded. But BAYC’s overall NFT sales have dropped 62.44% lower than the month before. Out of the top five, the Azuki and Goblintown NFT collections were the only projects that saw 30-day gains.
Goblintown sales were not recorded the month prior and Azuki sales climbed 31.56% higher. Mutant Ape Yacht Club was also a top-five contender but the $74.5 million in sales are down 76.77% lower than the month before.
Otherdeed, Bored Apes Dominate Last Month’s Most Expensive NFT Sales — Google Trends Data Shows NFT Interest at Lowest Point Since October 2021
Google Trends (GT) data worldwide indicates that this week the search term “NFT” has slid to its lowest point since the first week of October 2021. Weekly statistics for the week of May 29 through June 4 show the search term “NFT” has dropped down to a score of 23 out of 100. The last time NFT interest was this low, at least according to GT query metrics, was during the week of October 3 through October 9. The search term “NFT” tapped a high score of 100 during the week of January 16 through January 22, 2022, but search interest has been dropping lower ever since that day.
Out of the top-five most expensive NFT sales during the past 30 days, three of the sales stemmed from the Otherdeed collection. The sales include Otherdeed #17,164 which sold for 601 ether or $1.14 million, Otherdeed #66,813 which sold for 303 ether or $776K, and Otherdeed #55,197 which sold for 214 ether or $563K.
Other NFTs included in the most expensive NFT sales during the last month include Ken Hicks (Token ID: 6,908) that sold for 332.52 ether or $849K, and Bored Ape #1,725 which sold for 250 ether or $584K. Out of the top-20 most expensive NFTs sold in 30 days, other collections include Clonex and Ken Hicks, but 18 of the 20 most expensive NFTs sold come from the Otherdeed and BAYC NFT compilations.
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What do you think about the last 30 days of NFT sales declining more than 65% lower from the month prior? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
Jamie Redman
Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
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Scaling Container Technologies at Coinbase with Kubernetes | by Coinbase | Jun, 2022
Tl;dr: Our recent evaluation of Kubernetes underscored its suitability for scaling Coinbase into the future. In the past, a migration to Kubernetes raised concerns due to the operational burden of running and securing the control plane in-house. We’ve now concluded that managed Kubernetes offerings reduce this operational burden without compromising our stack security.
By Clare Curtis, Coinbase Staff Software Engineer
Almost two years ago we released a blog post detailing why Kubernetes is not part of our technical stack. At the time, migrating to Kubernetes would have created a whole new set of problems that outweighed any near-term benefits. However, as these technologies have matured, our newly-formed Compute Team devised a strategy for leveraging Kubernetes in a way that can deliver a more flexible and scalable version of our current system.
Coinbase has grown substantially since we first considered migrating to Kubernetes. With any growth of this kind, it is important to prioritize scalability concerns. As we continue to scale, one of the main areas in need of future-proofing is Coinbase’s compute platform. In mid-2020, our largest service was configured to run a relatively small number of hosts, whereas today it’s running 10x that number.
In this same period, we quadrupled the size of our engineering organization causing a substantial increase in the number of deployments — each needing completely new hosts. The increase in the number of deployments have raised concerns over future scalability as we are already running into technical limitations of current APIs and resources. Recurring issues with getting enough capacity and having it delivered in a reasonable timeframe, caused an increase in failed deployments and required our largest services to dramatically slow down their release process.
While these issues are solvable, we decided to take this opportunity to evaluate whether it made sense to continue investing in a homegrown system or consider an open source alternative that would be much more scalable in the long term.
In our evaluation of Kubernetes, we found that one of the biggest advantages of a migration is that it decouples host provisioning from service deployment, moving the burden of managing host acquisition from individual teams to the broader Infrastructure team. This empowers the Infrastructure team to take a holistic approach to host management. Also, capacity constraints are less likely to affect deployments, and we reduce the amount of cloud provider specific knowledge that individual engineers need to maintain.
The Kubernetes community has created a wealth of knowledge and tooling that we can utilize to provide better support to teams and quickly enable new features. Additionally, as Kubernetes is extensible, there is still the option to build tooling internally and open source it for use within the wider community.
Security is incredibly important at Coinbase and securing Kubernetes clusters is a non-trivial undertaking. Transitioning from highly-isolated and single-tenant compute to a system which promotes multi-tenancy requires deliberate security design and consideration. Because we have high-security workloads where we have to guarantee isolation, we must run separate clusters and build automated tooling that handles all cluster operations. Giving individuals access to operate high-security infrastructure is not allowed.
Managed Kubernetes offerings, such as AWS EKS, take on the responsibility of operating, maintaining, and securing the control plane, reducing the operational burden of running many clusters. Reducing our operational burden and security responsibility enables us to focus on building the orchestration and automation that is required to support many clusters across a large engineering organization. EKS has significantly matured over the past few years and shown that it provides stable, operational Kubernetes while also integrating with features that are commonly used in EC2 such as being able to attach security groups to pods and IAM Roles to service accounts. Having those integrations reduces the risk and cost associated with migration, as they allow for migration without having to change the identity or access patterns of our current platform.
While the migration to Kubernetes spurred concerns in the past, we’ve now concluded that managed Kubernetes offerings, such as AWS EKS, can reduce the operational burden without compromising security. Ultimately, we realized there is a clear ceiling to the ability of our homegrown system to scale, and while there is a large set up and migration cost associated with a move to Kubernetes, we are confident that it will be more flexible and scalable than our current system.
SpartaCats Meme Coin PURR Lists on Two DEXs: PancakeSwap and FlatQube
On June 4, 2022, the meme coin project SpartaCats, whose purpose is to unite meme coins and NFT enthusiasts into a one-for-all smart ecosystem, added its native token PURR to the listings of two decentralized exchanges: PancakeSwap and FlatQube. On the same day, SpartaCats launched liquidity pools, followed by a farming program on BNB Chain and Everscale.
On the first day of trading, the coin showed an X8 price increase, and this is definitely a good start, since the project by all indications promises to become a new Dogecoin, which showed an increase of 15,000%. So buying a PURR token early is definitely an event not to be missed.
Who Are SpartaCats?
SpartaCats is the first meme coin project in history that has real utility value. It is also an independent autonomous decentralized organization (DAO) of the same name based on self-government, with the PURR token at the heart of its economy.
An important part of the SpartaCats philosophy is understanding the role of cats in our lives. Cats are objectively more popular than dogs in most countries, and there is probably no need to talk about how many memes with cats exist. Yes, there are a lot more cat memes than dog ones. At the same time, today, the place of cats in the meme coin market is free, and this is the place that SpartaCats will occupy! This furry army is ready to go into battle,
because in addition to their charm, they have something very significant that they can oppose to dog meme coins.
How Does PURR Differ from All Other Meme Coins?
Until today, all meme coins creators launched them with only one goal — to entertain the crypto community. These coins didn’t have any outstanding technology or useful product behind them. This did not prevent the meme coin promoters from earning obscenely large amounts of money on them. The most striking example is Elon Musk, who pumped up Dogecoin to unimaginable heights with his influence: the coin is now on the 10th line of the CMC, and dozens of really valuable coins are far behind it. At the same time, DOGE`s got absolutely no value behind it. It has always been, and still is, a joke coin.
The SpartaCats project seeks to change this state of affairs. Appreciating the potential of meme coin as a universal tool for conveying meanings to a wide community of crypto enthusiasts, the team created their own meme coin under the affectionate name PURR, which, however, will not be at all gentle with dog meme coins, which, by coincidence, flooded the crypto market.
The main difference between PURR and other meme coins is that behind this token there is an entire ecosystem, a full-fledged DAO community, where PURR is both a unit of account and an element of influence. The utility properties of PURR lie in the fact that with their help, users form clans and communities, hold competitions, which ultimately lead to the formation of an effective economic hierarchy in the meme coin market.
SpartaCats also keeps in touch with real-life cat shelters and communities around the world, and this interaction is an important part of the project`s philosophy, since it`s loving cats that inspired the team to create the PURR meme coin.
The Role of NFT in the SpartaCats DAO Community
NFT is a tool of influence in the SpartaCats community. In total, the project will issue 300 NFTs, gradually over 4 years. All 300 unique tokens form the SpartaCats DAO Foundation, which will jointly own 15% of all PURR tokens. The community decides what to spend these tokens on, whether they should be burned for the purpose of increasing the rate, or something else should be done with them. These tokens will replenish the general DAO pool in parallel with the NFTs minting.
Each member of the DAO Foundation holds at least one NFT which is equal to one vote. As SpartaCats is the classical DAO, all issues are decided by its participants voting here.
PURR Tokenomics
Total Supply: 1.000.000.000.000
The DAO Foundation manages 15% of all PURR tokens. Of these, only 2% will be unlocked immediately for the Core Team, while the remaining 13% will be unlocked in parallel with the release of the NFTs. With each new NFT sold at auction, an amount will be unlocked at the DAO Foundation`s disposal.
Dividend program: 5% (0.0185% every week to all NFT holders)
Seed round: 10% to be vested linearly over 12 months
Launchpad: all the funds collected will be directed to the liquidity pool
Liquidity Pool: 10% (LP tokens will be sent to the genesis block (zero-address)
Airdrop: 10%
Farming BNB Chain: 20%
Farming EVER: 20%
SpartaCats Bounty Program
SpartaCats team is looking for community members that are willing to be its cat face and meow voice. To become the first PURR`s lucky owners, bounty players should complete tasks, gain access to the game, and be able to claim their NFTs and SpartaCat`s tokens. They can also earn 10% PURR Tokens from friends they invite. Here’s the Bounty program bot —
What Financial Benefits Can PURR Holders Receive?
To put it simply and briefly, everyone saw the wild Xs, up to 15,000%, that Shiba Inu and Dogecoin showed! Meme coins have an amazing potential for mass adoption, and if a meme coin also has a real ecosystem behind it, a developed infrastructure with exchanges and wallets, if it has a DAO Foundation run by people, a competent and open tokenomics — then such a meme coin is simply doomed to success. And since there are simply no cat meme coins in the market at the moment, SpartaCats` PURR`s got a great chance to compete with Dogecoin and become the top-1 very quickly.
SpartaCats is waiting for everyone at PancakeSwap and FlatQube to join PURR trading!
Blockchain-based move-to-earn app Stepn under DDoS attacks after upgrade
Solana-based move-to-earn application Stepn has reported multiple denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks in the aftermath of the platform proceeding with a major anti-cheating upgrade.
Stepn took to Twitter on June 5 to report that the platform has suffered a number of DDoS attacks causing recovery maintenance and associated improper performance.
1/2 We have been under multiple DDOS attacks in the past hours. Securing the servers and recovery may take anywhere from 1 to 12 hours. We recommend you take some rest during the maintenance or otherwise the work-outs may not be recorded properly.
— STEPN | Public Beta Phase IV (@Stepnofficial) June 5, 2022
According to the statement, Stepn was expecting to secure and recover the servers in up to 12 hours but has not posted an update for 20 hours by the time of writing.
“Our engineers are working hard to fix the problems. We will announce here once recovery is complete. Thank you so much for everyone’s patience,” Stepn wrote.
The attacks came shortly after Stepn introduced its anti-cheating system referred to as “Stepn’s Model for Anti-Cheating,” or SMAC, on June 3. The system aims to eliminate fake users from the platform as well as to prevent fraudulent motion data on the Stepn app in an attempt to gain unfair profit from the platform.
“SMAC system specifically targets the movement simulation by amending real walking/running data, thanks to our machine learning algorithm,” the anti-cheating system’s description reads.
Stepn reported on major platform issues soon after proceeding with the upgrade, with SMAC mistakenly identifying some genuine users as bots. Other problems included network issues caused by a “25 million DDOS attack” as well as the temporary inability to track any bots on the platform.
“We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience caused to users. The anti-cheating update may seem small, but it is actually an important cornerstone of Stepn’s long-term development,” Stepn said.
Despite the platform’s DDoS issues, Stepn’s native token, the Green Satoshi Token (GST), has not seen any critical decline over the past several days. On the contrary, the GST is up around 10% over the past 24 hours, trading at $1.04 at the time of writing. The token’s market capitalization amounts to $624 million, according to data from CoinGecko.
Green Satoshi Token seven-day price chart. Source: CoinGecko
Related: People want to be paid crypto to exercise in the Metaverse: Survey
Launched in December 2021, Stepn is a major move-to-earn mobile nonfungible token (NFT) game allowing users to earn tokens by walking, jogging or running outdoors with an NFT sneaker. The game has a dual token system, including the GST token and the Governance Token (GMT).
The news comes as Stepn prepares to limit its platform’s availability for users in mainland China by mid-July.
We’re thrilled to announce that Kraken now supports new margin pairs for ApeCoin (APE) and Waves (WAVES)!
Trading
Margin trading for these assets is available now. You can add these tokens to your Kraken account by navigating to Funding.
Pair base
Pair name
Available leverage
Long Position Limit
Short Position Limit
APE
APEUSD
3X
10,000 APE
10,000 APE
APEEUR
3X
5,000 APE
5,000 APE
WAVES
WAVESUSD
3X
3,000 WAVES
3,000 WAVES
WAVESEUR
3X
3,000 WAVES
3,000 WAVES
Here’s what you need to know about the assets:
Waves (WAVES) – Waves is a blockchain platform that supports a full range of decentralized applications, known as dapps. Waves enables anyone to create their own cryptocurrencies, crypto collectibles or blockchain services. WAVES tokens serve as the native cryptocurrency of the network, used to secure the network through staking and to pay for fees.
ApeCoin (APE) – ApeCoin is a community-owned token for culture, gaming and commerce. ApeCoin is an ERC-20 governance and utility token designed to be used within the APE ecosystem to empower a decentralized community building at the forefront of Web3. ApeCoin allows holders to participate in the ApeCoin DAO, access exclusive APE ecosystem perks and pay for goods and services.
Keep an eye on our status page for updates. Check out all of Kraken’s supported margin pairs here.
Note:
Will Kraken list more assets?
Yes! But our policy is to never reveal any details before launch – not even which assets we are considering. All of Kraken’s listed assets are available on our website and all future tokens will be announced on Kraken’s blog and social media profiles. Our client engagement specialists cannot answer any questions about which assets we may be listing in the future.
Trade with caution
There is no guarantee that a limit order will execute. There is also no guarantee of executing at a certain price for a market order. The availability and liquidity of the particular digital asset will impact these types of orders.
Listing an asset or token for trade is not a recommendation to buy, sell or participate in the associated network. Do your own research and invest at your own risk.
These materials are for general information purposes only and are not investment advice or a recommendation or solicitation to buy, sell, or hold any digital asset or to engage in any specific trading strategy. Some crypto products and markets are unregulated, and you may not be protected by government compensation and/or regulatory protection schemes. The unpredictable nature of the cryptoasset markets can lead to loss of funds. Tax may be payable on any return and/or on any increase in the value of your crypto assets and you should seek independent advice on your taxation position.