Openware Crypto Digest #13: The Metaverse is Upon Us
Welcome to the latest Openware Crypto Digest. Let’s go over some of the most influential news from last week in the blockchain and crypto industry.
This digest will emphasise the Metaverse since it is picking up traction quickly and is likely the industry’s future.
- What is Metaverse? Facebook rebranding to Meta; Microsoft Teams Enter the Metaverse with 3D Avatars and Immersive Meetings; Nike Is Preparing for the Metaverse; Enjin Has Allocated $100 Million to Fund a Metaverse Efinity.
- The SQUID Cryptocurrency Scammers Vanished with $3.39 Million.
- Burger King Goes Crypto and has Announced Its Partnership with Robinhood.
- Justin Sun Announces $1.1 Billion Fund to Charge the Growth of the Tron Ecosystem.
What is Metaverse?
The Metaverse is a shared online virtual environment that people with specific VR and augmented hardware and an internet connection can access.
Technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality are combined within the Metaverse to create a brand-new virtual experience for consumers.
The world’s largest social network Facebook recently rebranded to Meta to push the Metaverse concept even further.
Microsoft Teams Have Entered the Metaverse with 3D Avatars and Immersive Meetings
There has been an ongoing race and Metaverse competition between the IT giants. Microsoft has entered this race, with their start at building a Metaverse inside Microsoft Teams, just days after the Facebook rebranding.
Microsoft is building Mesh, a collaborative platform for virtual experiences, and will be implemented directly within Microsoft Team next year.
Microsoft Teams will receive new 3D avatars, where you will not need to put any VR headset on to use them. So if a user doesn’t want to turn on the webcam, they can use their avatar instead.
Microsoft and Meta are likely to be direct competitors in the Metaverse. Let’s see how the future unfolds.
Nike has filed several trademark applications as it prepares to pursue its path into the Metaverse
As a part of the application, the company has indicated that it intends to make and sell virtual branded sneakers and apparel.
According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Nike filed applications on October 27 for “Nike,” its slogan “Just Do It,” and the logo. Two more applications were filed for the “Air Jordan” and “Jumpman” logos a day after that. That said, so far, seven total logos have been submitted.
Enjin Has Allocated $100 Million to Fund a Metaverse Efinity
On November 4, Enjin announced that they are allocating $100 million to the Efinity metaverse fund.
The new Metaverse fund is intended to be built on a new, dedicated blockchain network called Efinity. This Efinity Blockchain is designed to be launched on Polkadot and allow teams to create a Metaverse that will serve as the base infrastructure for games, tokenized collectibles, and other decentralized applications (dApps).
This fund aims to support Enjin and Efinity adopters and other organizations working on the Enjin Ecosystem Integration, Metaverse Projects, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), and dApps, among others projects.
The SQUID Cryptocurrency Scammers Vanished With $3.38 Million
With the ticker symbol SQUID, the unofficial Squid Game cryptocurrency launched and vanished within less than a month. The creators behind the project are anonymous. However, they pulled out of the project with $3.38 million.
What needs to be noted is that SQUID coin was not officially affiliated with Squid Game, the popular Netflix show that saw its debut on September 17 and took the world by storm.
Suppose you were an investor and went to the official website, squidgame.cash, which is now defunct, or on its Twitter handle, and bought SQUID coins. In that case, you could not sell it on the cryptocurrency exchange PancakeSwap, even if its value jumped by thousands of dollars.
There was even a detailed SQUID white paper, a rule book, where an anti-dump mechanism was put in place, forcing you to attain “Marble” tokens through a play-to-earn game to sell your SQUID coins.
Everyone ended up losing on this project, except for the scammers that vanished. The authorities are investigating. We will see how the story unfolds.
We pass our warmest condolences to everyone affected. The SQUID Scam is a reminder that cryptocurrency investment is extremely risky, volatile, and not safe in the current crypto industry environment. Invest carefully and at your own risk.
Burger King Has Announced Its Partnership with Robinhood
Burger King announced its partnership with Robinhood that will leverage its loyalty program.
From November 1 to November 21, Royal Perks members can receive rewards in the form of crypto for spending $5 or more on the BK app, website, or any store by using “My Code” at participating United States Locations.
This partnership will mainly focus on offering Dogecoin (DOGE), with some Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) being rewarded to lucky BK Royal Perks Members.
In the form of a celebration, Burger King even released a series of shorts centered around explaining the world of cryptocurrencies through its menu.
Justin Sun Has Announced a $1.1 Billion Fund to Charge the Growth of the TRON Ecosystem
Within three years after the launch of TRON’s mainnet, it has managed to build a large ecosystem through its sustained efforts.
TRON expanded its offerings to many competitive fields, such as decentralized finance (DeFi), Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), stablecoins and even distributed storage.
That said, on October 26, TRON’s founder, Justin Sun, tweeted about his plans to establish a $1,111,111,111 fund to power the growth of the TRON ecosystem.
This fund is intended to provide developers with more efficient and affordable development tools. It can even allow protocols on the network to yield more returns while also providing users with access to transactions at the lowest possible costs.
That said, TRON’s ecosystem has expanded its reach in many fields, including stablecoins, wallets, lending, exchanges, cross-chain assets, oracles, liquidity mining, storage, and others. Notable hits from TRON include JustLend and JustSwap.
Thank You for Reading
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