The AIBC Summit has always prided itself on being a global hub for innovation, technological foresight and proactive entrepreneurship.
From combining the leading minds in the Deep Tech space to empowering visionary-led projects in the areas of IoT, blockchain, AI, quantum computing and more, the summit has always served as a nexus of discussion and debate. This year, the inaugural summit in Belgrade will platform some of the leading minds in the space to discuss some of the most exciting topics in deep tech.
Deep tech thought: Top topics at AIBC Belgrade
Spread out over two days, the summit is set to cover a series of the most vital areas of technological innovation in both the digital and physical worlds. Spread over five thematic agendas, AIBC will use Belgrade’s thriving ecosystem of developers and technical innovators to platform pertinent discussions on:
- DeFi and payments
- Web3 and the Metaverse
- Blockchain regulation, crypto Innovation and cybersecurity
- NFTs and crypto trends
- Emerging technologies and the future of AI
DeFi and payments: Tomorrow’s finance
From mass adoption to building in a bear market, this agenda will provide a glimpse into the next generation of payment strategies and microeconomics. With finance being the lifeblood of any industry as well as a pillar for adoption as a whole, discussions on crypto’s place in the global financial ecosystem as well as the presence of new players such as neobanks and DAOs are of vital importance.
Luckily enough, attendees will be guided through this journey by leading figures from ventures such as Brickken, 100xPartners, Unigrid and many more through keynotes and panels illuminating the role of tomorrow’s money.
Web3 and the Metaverse: Bridging the physical and digital
With the Metaverse being one of the hottest topics in the ecosystem, the lattice of interrelated technologies (AR, VR, Web3, blockchain and more) that will serve as the foundation for the next generation of the internet will take center stage at AIBC’s Belgrade show. Leading technologists will be showing lucky delegates how the netizens of the future will be able to interface with cyberspace in new and exciting ways, so anyone with a foot in digital assets will want to stay tuned for this.
From the pioneers and engineers of the Metaverse to entrepreneurs in the Web3 space, our speakers have come from all four corners of the Earth and cyberspace to share their insights with our delegates.
Blockchain regulation, NFTs and the future of DLT
At the forefront of innovation, blockchain and DLT technology as a whole represent a disruptive force in a wide portfolio of industries. From medical technology to data sovereignty, the ongoing wave of mass adoption stands to leave nothing untouched, with regulation and legal reform being one of the main focuses in this year’s Belgrade summit.
Covering issues such as the legal potential of DAOs to investment in digital assets, our handpicked selection of industry leaders will drive the debate on the future of blockchain forward. From Metaverse architects to leading DLT lawyers, the Belgrade Summit will bridge today’s bear market with tomorrow’s bull run.
Emerging technology and the future of AI:
With the Fourth Industrial Revolution under way, the role of deep tech has never been more fundamental in the future of society. From the incoming AI revolution to the disruptive arms race between quantum computing and blockchain security, the economy of tomorrow might not resemble anything we may be used to today. Therefore, AIBC’s thought leadership could bridge the knowledge gap between what we know, what we don’t know, and what we don’t know that we don’t know.
Some of the leading technologists from across the world will be in the spotlight at AIBC Belgrade to discuss the latest advances in artificial intelligence and its use cases, the power of IoT and the latest quantum leaps in quantum computing.
The summit
AIBC Belgrade Summit will be taking place in Belgrade, Serbia from Aug. 22 to 25, 2022. With the peninsula well-known for its natural beauty, rich cultural landscape and fantastic delicacies, the Balkans are renowned for having some of the most quintessentially Mediterranean vistas and experiences. From the Adriatic coastline of Split to the fairytale-esque castle of Lake Bled, the region has a lot to offer the world. That being said, something that fewer may know is the fact that Balkan nations are incubating a nascent but powerfully growing technical expertise when it comes to frontier technology such as blockchain, GameFi, AI and more. Therefore, the region may not only be a rich adventure into the past but may also serve as a window into the very near future.
Join the event in Belgrade for the best the industry has to offer and for a window into the future of deep tech. To learn more about sponsorship and speaking opportunities, or to inquire about attending the event, send an email to Sophie. Those interested in being one of the leading speakers at AIDC Belgrade should contact Lygia.
Verse Estate, a hyper-realistic Metaverse headquartered and fully licensed in Dubai, is introducing hyper-realism to provide a more enriching virtual environment allowing people and businesses to transition seamlessly to the virtual world.
Verse Estate wants to play a key role in contributing to the Dubai Metaverse Strategy, which aims to turn the city into one the world’s top-10 Metaverse economies as well as a global hub for the Metaverse community. The strategy was announced by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai.
To celebrate its launch, Verse Estate is organizing an invitation-only event on Oct. 24 at its newly opened, high-tech showroom in Alserkal Dubai, bringing together UAE government officials, institutions and partners, where the Good Morning Web3 podcast by thought leader John Kraski will provide a panel of experts in the field and insightful discussions allowing guests to better understand how Web3 will transform the future of the internet and how businesses can evolve to ride this wave of transformation.
The Metaverse is positioned to drastically change the business landscape, making the online presence of individual companies more essential now than ever. The Metaverse presents the opportunity to level up customer engagement, retention rates, create new revenue streams, and improve collaboration, learning and training, among many other benefits.
Verse Estate provides turnkey solutions for clients interested in pursuing the potential of the Web3 arena. The organization assists them by providing services such as planning, creation, deployment of Web3/Metaverse strategies as well as advising on how to safeguard their intellectual property.
A Citi report found that the Metaverse represents a potential $8 trillion to $13 trillion opportunity by 2030 that could boast as many as 5 billion users.
The Verse Estate team said the growth of Web3 and the Metaverse has been encouraging because it means people are seeing this underlying technology feed into different applications that go beyond just crypto and gaming.
Before mainstream adoption occurs, though, significant infrastructure investments are needed so that users can go seamlessly from one experience to another, said the Verse Estate team, adding that building a more realistic and user-friendly experience is critical.
With the Metaverse still in an early stage of development, there are a plethora of risks and challenges in technology, regulation, privacy and crypto that need to be overcome before widespread adoption takes place. As we’ve seen with Web2, there will be challenges around content moderation, free speech and privacy. The legal frameworks developing around cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance will also be relevant to the Metaverse.
The Verse Estate team believes that the Metaverse will become a seamless extension of our physical world, and if done well, it could become a positive force for access and diversity, bridging some of the divides that exist in today’s world. Verse Estate wants to contribute to the building of an inclusive Metaverse for a more equitable future while following a people-first approach.
Ever heard of the saying “When the money goes, you find out who your real friends are?” – the bear market has given us the perfect opportunity to uncover the real gamers present in Web 3.0, and the outlook isn’t that bright after all.
The mass exodus from GameFi’s ‘Rising Stars’ such as Axie Infinity and SolChicks have shown us one thing – the gameplay just isn’t there. GameFi isn’t as much for the gamers as it is for the earners, and this is becoming crystal clear in the bear-market backdrop.
So, what’s the solution?
Putting the ‘Game’ Back Into ‘GameFi’
Marketing itself as a ‘Play-AND-Earn’ ecosystem, Ryber is bringing its addictive state-of-the-art gameplay up to the level of the earning potential. Sure, Ryber’s NFT owners can earn 220% APY from staking, but they’ll stick around for the immersion, the lore, the competitive racing, exploration and never-ending fun from a never-ending selection of AAA blockchain games.
“P2E games over the past few years have served primarily as a form of income instead of a good medium for entertainment. With Ryber, we’re disrupting this trend, aiming to inflate the industry with AAA gameplay – it’s going to be epic” – Dmitry Nevskiiy, Ryber’s CEO
Okay – but what’s Ryber? A platform for game developers? Steam but blockchain? A gamified metaverse?
A 3-in-1 GameFi Spectacle to be Reckoned With
Ryber is a triple-barreled 2022 shotgun of an ecosystem, set to change the world of GameFi for good. Let’s unpack those barrels one by one.
– First up is the RyberVerse – a three-stage, gamified metaverse offering innovative Play-and-Earn game mechanics. Initially, the team is going to kick the show off with Ryber: The Lost Data Runner. Staying true to its philosophy of ‘play and earn’, the debut runner will introduce Robros, fascinatingly cute creatures, brilliantly talented at maneuvering vehicles through unimaginable twists and turns as commanded by the player. Second in the trilogy will come Ryber: Battle Royale, which will pay homage to the success of the game mode in the traditional gaming segment. Finally, Ryber’s fully-fledged gamified metaverse will be released, uniting the games aforementioned, while providing players with an unprecedented level of immersion.
– Next up is the RyberMetaMaker – a tool for adding blockchain and P2E mechanics to games. Indeed, Web3 game developers are currently facing a myriad of issues associated with the fact that blockchain games are technically challenging to set up. Because of this, Ryber is in the process of developing a solution that will provide accessible, industry-grade tools to developers looking to create their own blockchain games. The RyberMetaMaker will lower barriers to entry for blockchain game development, catalyzing the mass adoption of blockchain technology
– And lastly, the RyberHub – a digital blockchain game distribution center. Ryber doesn’t just intend to help create AAA games on the blockchain through the RyberMetaMaker, but it aims to assist in their promotion, bringing them to their players. The RyberHub will feature unique rating and sorting mechanics, making sure that players are able to quickly find and access the games that they’ll surely enjoy, all under one roof.
Sounds exciting – what about backing?
With best-in-class partners, we’re not the only ones excited about Ryber.
As a top 50 crypto exchange entering the market in 2017, Tidex currently has a trading volume that extends up to 2 million USD per day. The exchange itself is known for an incredibly comfortable user experience, with a transparent fee structure, fees that are significantly below the market average, and more than 100 pairs on offer. Tidex also offers a launchpad and engages in a variety of well-researched investment endeavors. Of course, Ryber is one of their most recent additions.
Next up is Digital Finance Group (DFG), a global blockchain and cryptocurrency investment firm. The group was founded in 2015 and already manages assets valued at over 1 billion USD. Backing by DFG is a good sign, considering the extent of their analytical research processes. Indeed, DFG’s investment is notorious for only landing on the most impactful and promising blockchain and Web 3.0 projects globally. The fact that Ryber now makes up a portion of their investment portfolio speaks volumes as to the potential of the Ryber project and ecosystem.
Then, there’s WeWay – a major stakeholder and partner in the Ryber project, and functions as a full-scale ecosystem for brand promotion in the Web 3.0 arena. They service bridges between brands, link creators with NFTs and Metaverse promotion and are even known for their work on Web 3.0 blockchain marketplaces. They offer full-cycle services when it comes to realizing ideas on the blockchain and are marketing experts. The relationship between WeWay and Ryber is very hands-on, and this will go a long way to ensure the success of the Ryber project by making sure that no stone is unturned when it comes to propagating the social momentum of the project.
Adding its metaverse experience to the pot, the DAX estate program is a unique stakeholder in Ryber as the project aims at increasing confidence in real estate tokenization. Indeed, they look to reduce risks associated with metaverse creation, and property tokenization while protecting the rights of all participants. Dax is known for their involvement in projects functioning as a guarantor and escrow, providing due diligence, monitoring, and the necessary transparency. The RyberVerse is sure to benefit from the guidance of DAX, with their planned gamified metaverse.
I’m in, what’s next?
Ryber is only Just Getting Started…
With its NFT mint imminent, now is the time for prospective gamers, investors and collectors to get involved. Slowly but surely, Ryber will be building up their ecosystem, achieving significant milestones along the way. It’s your opportunity to get in on the ground floor, so check out their whitepaper below, and make sure to follow them on all relevant social media channels.
Site: https://ryber.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ryberofficial
Discord: https://discord.gg/rybergame
At the end of this summer, from Sept. 15 to 16, the Aeternity Universe Two conference is set to take place at Burgscheidungen Crypto Castle in Germany.
The Aeternity Universe Two conference follows the hugely successful first edition, which took place in Prague on Sept. 20 and 21 in 2019.
This September, attendees have the opportunity to become a part of Aeternity’s blockchain history! The Aeternity Universe Two conference, consisting of the conference itself on Sept. 15 and 16 as well as a grand finale of the hackathon on Sept. 17 and 18, stands to draw in hundreds of blockchain developers, researchers, entrepreneurs, designers and enthusiasts all set on a common goal: to exchange knowledge, experiences, and best practices in an effort to grow and perfect the world of blockchain technology.
The Aeternity Universe Two conference will have its doors open for everyone and will present a unique business opportunity for all interested parties to engage in networking and showcase events. Numerous blockchain experts and backers will be available for conversation in a friendly in-house atmosphere, the perfect environment for ideas to grow.
Moreover, a wide range of development workshops will take place during the conference, facilitating intense knowledge transfers and allowing blockchain experts to gain info on the latest trending areas. Of course, Aeternity’s blockchain development team will be readily available to provide further insights into protocol development and the state of Aeternity.
Additionally, Aeternity Universe Two will feature a fully immersive art experience — both via 3D art and VR — which is sure to draw the attention of various artists and designers from the blockchain sphere. Allowing diverse sets of artists to engage with NFT technology, as well as physical and digital crypto art, will be sure to provide inspiration for future pieces.
Finally, the location itself — Crypto Castle. Dating back to the first millennia, it is one of the oldest, best-preserved baroque secular buildings in the Thuringian and Saxon-Anhalt region. Well-preserved and renovated, the castle now includes a dedicated hacker’s lab that is utilizing Aeternity’s blockchain technology.
Early registration for Aternity Universe Two is open, as is the registration for the Aeternity Universe Hackathon that began remotely on Aug. 1 via DevPost.
The event is fully powered by Aeternity. Founded in 2016 by Yanislav Malahov, the Aeternity blockchain project was born out of a desire for a more fair internet supported by scalable, open-source and cryptographic software, with a commitment to technical excellence.
The Aeternity blockchain itself launched as the public Aeternity mainnet in 2018. It is now a blossoming community of enthusiasts supported via the Aeternity crypto foundation.
Engineered to scale and last, Aeternity is an easily accessible blockchain platform for the global public. With numerous innovative functionalities and performance far ahead of earlier blockchains, Aeternity allows its users and community to seamlessly venture into the new era of society, economy and digital interactions. Its core components are written in the functional programming and fault-tolerant language Erlang, and its Sophia smart contracts are also functional.
Singapore, Aug. 17 — BENQI and Yeti Finance have chosen to partner with the highly capital efficient KyberSwap in a joint initiative to enhance liquidity and provide the best rates for sAVAX and YUSD tokens on Avalanche (AVAX).
This first phase of this joint initiative is set to bring liquidity providers over $200,000 in liquidity mining rewards, with more incentives to come in the near future.
BENQI is a decentralized non-custodial liquidity market and liquid staking protocol built on Avalanche. Benqi Liquid Staked AVAX (sAVAX) is the token that users receive when staking their AVAX on the Benqi Liquid Staking (BLS) protocol. AVAX holders can get sAVAX by staking AVAX on BENQI.
This is not the first time BENQI has partnered with KyberSwap for its capital efficiency benefits. Learn about BENQI’s first joint initiative with KyberSwap.
Yeti Finance is a cross-margin lending protocol on Avalanche that allows users to borrow up to 21-fold against their portfolio of liquidity provider (LPs) tokens, staked assets such as sAVAX and yield-bearing stablecoins in a single debt position for zero interest. Borrowers receive YUSD, an overcollateralized stablecoin that can be swapped for additional assets and subsequently re-deposited into Yeti Finance to build a leverage position.
What is KyberSwap Elastic?
KyberSwap’s newest protocol, dubbed Elastic, is a tick-based automated market maker that gives LPs the advantages of concentrated liquidity and the flexibility to achieve capital efficiency and manage risks.
With concentrated liquidity, LPs have the flexibility to supply liquidity to an Elastic pool, either by concentrating the liquidity to a narrower price range or setting it to a wider price range. Concentrated liquidity would use the pool’s liquidity more efficiently, mimicking much higher levels of liquidity and achieving better slippage, volume and earnings for LPs while a wider range would ensure liquidity for uncorrelated token pairs such as USD Coin (USDC) and Ether (ETH) to remain active even with big price swings during high market volatility.
KyberSwap Elastic also has a reinvestment curve, which compounds fees by automatically reinvesting the fee earnings of LPs back into the liquidity pool so LPs earn higher APY while saving time.
LPs on KyberSwap Elastic can also choose from multiple fee tiers to select the best-suited rates for individuals, taking into consideration factors such as token volatility, individual risk appetites and more. In addition, KyberSwap Elastic comes with a Just-In-Time (JIT) Attack Protection feature, which protects LP earnings from snipe attacks that would reduce the earnings of other honest LPs. So, LPs can earn securely while enjoying peace of mind.
Starting from Aug. 17, 2022, liquidity providers can add liquidity to the eligible sAVAX and YUSD pools on KyberSwap Elastic on Avalanche and earn KNC, QI and YETI rewards.
With KyberSwap’s Elastic protocol, LPs can enjoy benefits such as concentrated liquidity and compounding fees, providing higher capital efficiency and optimized rewards. KyberSwap Elastic also has JIT protection, so LPs will have their earnings better protected and enjoy better peace of mind.
BENQI and Yeti finance pools on KyberSwap Elastic: Avalanche
Eligible pools and fee tiers:
- sAVAX and AVAX: 0.01%
- sAVAX and YUSD: 0.04%
- USD Coin (USDC) and YUSD: 0.01%
A full list of eligible pools for yield farming on Avalanche can be viewed on kyberswap.com.
KyberSwap: Benefits for the BENQI and Yeti ecosystem
For traders:
- Best swap rates for sAVAX and YUSD through decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregation while letting users identify other tokens even before they trend or moon via on-chain metrics.
For LPs:
- Concentrated liquidity for sAVAX and YUSD pairs and any other tokens, stables and non-stables
- Auto-compounded LP fees
- Bonus liquidity incentives through yield farming
- Sniping and JIT attack protection to protect earnings for BENQI and Yeti LPs.
For developers
DApps can integrate with KyberSwap’s pools and aggregation API to provide the best rates for their own users, saving time and resources.
With these benefits in mind, KyberSwap is proud to partner with BENQI and Yeti Finance in this initiative to enhance liquidity on Avalanche for the benefit of all four ecosystems.
About Kyber Network
Kyber Network is building a world where any token is usable anywhere. KyberSwap.com, its flagship DEX aggregator and liquidity platform, provides the best rates for traders in DeFi and maximizes returns for liquidity providers.
KyberSwap powers 100-plus integrated projects and has facilitated over $9.9 billion worth of transactions for thousands of users since its inception. It is currently deployed across 12 chains, including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, Fantom, Cronos, Arbitrum, Velas, Aurora, Oasis, BitTorrent and Optimism.
Taking place on Sept. 18 to 24, ETHSafari is an event that will be held in Kenya to bring together an auspicious group of 1,000 people from Africa and around the world to learn, hack, discuss and celebrate the Ethereum ecosystem, the decentralized future, the use cases transforming Africa, and the people that are building them in the continent.
Safari means “journey” in Swahili. Everyone today is on this journey of decentralization together. The question is: Safari Wapi? Journey to where?
The event will host learning, hacking, speakers, discussions and celebrations to showcase innovation around the region and bridge the gap between the global Ethereum ecosystem and the African ecosystem. The event will feature five main tracks: DAOs, DeFi, Gaming, NFTs and impact.
For those that want to get up to speed before the hackathon, ETHSafari is hosting a two-day bootcamp on Sept. 18 and 19 with both in-person and online content. The hackathon will start on Sept. 1 and run through Sept. 22. It will pair teams with local and international mentors to take on critical challenges and will generally follow the five event tracks, but any teams can enter.
ETHSafari core contributor Sunny Satva said, “Great events leave space for others to bring their creativity and energy. We’ve purposely left lots of gaps in the Nairobi schedule so that our local frens can host events and meetups.” On Sept. 22, ETHSafari will board the “blocktrain,” aka the Madaraka Express, from Nairobi to the coast through the Kenyan savannah and Tsavo National Park with views of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Hacker teams will hack aboard the train while others will attend talks and meetups in other train cars.
Everyone will then arrive at the venue Beneath the Baobabs in Kilifi to welcome drinks in the afternoon and a fireside chat in the evening. There will be a two-day conference to bring together global and local players, strengthening the bonds between ecosystems. The event will close with an epic celebration of the decentralized future on Sept. 24.
Ethereum Foundation Africa Fellow and an instigator of ETHSafari, Benson Njuguna, said, “We’ve already had more than 300 signups for the event with nothing more than some dates and a logo announced to date. It shows that there’s huge interest in the space and we’re excited to fill a gap in hosting the very first Ethereum ecosystem event in the region, and setting the stage for many future ETHSafari events around the continent.”
Also launching at ETHSafari will be Artstorm.nft, a sister project of ETHSafari to transform brown spaces around Kenya into Green Art Spaces together with partners and the local communities.
About ETHSafari
ETHSafari is a DAO, established to raise the profile of African Web3 projects and bridge the gap with the larger Ethereum ecosystem around the world through conferences, hackathons and other projects across the continent.
Learn more about ETHSafari on via its website, Twitter or Instagram.
Support ETH Safari via its Juicebox.
Ceres is proud to announce the launch of DEO Arena, one of the first play-to-earn games in the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems.
DEO Arena is built on the Sora network and is currently available to play at deoarena.io. In its beta phase, DEO Area is available as a player-vs-player game, with each match costing 4 DEO tokens. Players receive points in each match, which are used to determine their rank on the leaderboard within the DEO Arena league. Each league season will last four weeks. A player must have played at least 100 games to enter the leaderboard.
The prize pool for the first season is a minimum of $20,000 in XOR, divided into four different ranks — meaning over 50% of all participating players could be eligible to win prizes!
There is also an optional NFT Boost, which gives you more season points while playing the game, but the game itself is purely skill-based.
The maps in DEO Arena will be large enough to accommodate several players, which will be necessary when facing other players in Battle Royale mode, which will be available soon. A referral system will allow players to invite their friends to face off in DEO Arena and earn special prizes.
The Ceres team commented:
“It will be quite fun, as many players are going to face each other at the same time, and the last one to survive will take the tokens of all the others. This mode will attract the most attention from users since you can earn a lot with very little money — if you can win, of course.”
See you in the arena!
About Ceres
Ceres has developed several DApps on the Sora network, including: Ceres Tools, the most trustworthy source of information about tokens on the Sora network; Liquidity Locker, a transparent safeguard for the liquidity of projects building on the Sora network; Token Locker, a service for vesting a project’s team tokens integrated with the Ceres Launchpad; the Demeter Farming platform; and most recently, DEO Arena.
Hong Kong and Sydney, Aug. 16, 2022 — Catheon Gaming, named by KPMG-HSBC as one of the 10 leading emerging giants in Asia Pacific and the world’s fastest-growing integrated blockchain gaming and entertainment company, and Cointelegraph Media Group, the world’s largest independent digital assets media holding, are pleased to announce a strategic partnership to further progress its shared vision of bringing forward the mass adoption of blockchain gaming and entertainment.
Exclusive analysis and case studies from Catheon Gaming’s extensive game portfolio will highlight key developments occurring across the broader blockchain gaming market and the latest industry innovations. The partnership represents a significant boost to the blockchain gaming industry through Cointelegraph’s extensive reach comprising over 20 million readers worldwide. More details of the partnership will be unveiled in due course.
Catheon Gaming is well positioned to deliver industry insights given its rapidly growing portfolio of 25-plus games published on behalf of a number of highly successful game development studios, with more than 50 million game cumulative downloads across the existing game portfolio.
About Catheon Gaming
Catheon Gaming, named by KPMG-HSBC as one of the 10 leading emerging giants in Asia Pacific, is the world’s fastest-growing integrated blockchain gaming and entertainment company.
Catheon Gaming is the only end-to-end platform providing world-class technical, publishing and partnership capabilities for the world’s leading game studios, companies and brands seeking to navigate their path into Web3. By being the partner of choice, Catheon Gaming has built the industry’s largest portfolio of blockchain games underpinning its vision to revolutionize the way people play, live and earn.
About Cointelegraph
Cointelegraph is the leading independent publication focused on blockchain technology, with a global presence providing original content from all over the world. Local editorial teams publish unique insights in 11 different languages to a loyal community with interests in emerging technologies, investing and fintech applications. The digital news platform sits within the broader Cointelegraph ecosystem — which includes consulting services to promote blockchain adoption, market analysis and interviews with key figures — as the magazine news publication that delves deeper into key stories, educational content and social media.
William Wu, co-CEO of Catheon Gaming, commented, “We are delighted to be partnering with Cointelegraph, the most influential platform in the blockchain community. We look forward to contributing high-quality educational content and expertise to Cointelegraph’s global audience. We have a firm belief that gaming will be the key driver in accelerating blockchain mass adoption, a shared goal of both Catheon Gaming and Cointelegraph.”
Anastasia Drinveskaya, creative director of Cointelegraph, said, “We are pleased to be partnering with Catheon Gaming, one of the largest and fastest-growing companies in the sector. We look forward to the thought leadership and industry insights that Catheon Gaming can deliver to our audience. We are excited to be shining a spotlight on the blockchain gaming industry, given the high potential for it to drive mass consumer adoption of blockchain technologies.”
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August 15, 2022 — Starfish Finance is a pioneer project in the Astar incubation project and the first decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible token (NFT) finance platform on Astar Network. It recently closed its seed round led by Next Web Capital, joined by GBV Capital, Parity, Acala, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Tokensoft, Paribus, Alphanonce, MindWorks Ventures, Popfield Ventures, MetaverseHub, Oriole Ventures and others. The round signals a deep and long-term collaboration between Starfish Finance and renowned strategic partners, and the protocol is vigorously supported.
The essence of Starfish Finance derives from the power of community. Since its conception, An exceptional amount of community members have gathered on the social media channels of Starfish Finance.
Their fraternity is now Astar Network’s most valuable and active society. Soon, the Starfish culture will propagate the entire Polkadot community with its unique lifestyle.
The three Excaliburs of Starfish Finance
Based on an enhanced Balancer version 2.0 model, the architecture of Starfish Finance is built around three pillars: stablecoin liquidity pools, cross-chain DeFi and NFT finance.
- Multi-token pools with multiple leading stablecoins
Starfish supports liquidity pools consisting of up to eight crypto assets with customizable weighting, offering more flexibility and risk management for DeFi users. Users can farm yields on Starfish’s stablecoin liquidity pools. In addition to Astar and Polkadot native stablecoins, the pools will support leading ones such as Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC) and Dai.
- Boosting cross-chain liquidity efficiency
With its strategic partner Celer Network, a prominent cross-chain asset transfer technology, and the recent cross-consensus messaging format (XCM) update on the Polkadot ecosystem, users will be able to bridge their crypto assets seamlessly across different layer-1 (L1) and layer-2 ecosystems. Starfish Finance has plans to deepen collaboration with a wide range of decentralized protocols outside and inside the Astar network to enlarge the ecosystem.
- Cross-chain NFT lending and borrowing
Starfish’s partnership with Celer Network goes beyond just a ubiquitous DeFi bridge. This time, the latest Celer’s inter-chain message framework is fused within the Starfish Finance protocol. Users can securely lock their NFTs on their native chains, enabling them to borrow various crypto assets cross-chain on Astar Network. The beauty of such a mechanism is that users will not risk security issues locking their NFTs on cross-ecosystem bridges. In addition to Celer’s engineering, Starfish Finance adopts Decentralised Information Asset’s decentralized oracle to acquire tokens and NFT price feeds instantly across centralized exchanges and various L1 ecosystems, including multiple NFT marketplaces, decentralized exchanges and DeFi protocols.
Liberating NFT liquidity
NFT “hodlers” need not sell their beloved NFTs for instant liquidity. Instead, they can collateralize their NFTs to apply for a crypto loan on Starfish Finance. Moreover, lenders will be able to earn yields by providing liquidity in the Starfish Reserve Vault.
To ensure the collateralized NFTs will add more value than risk, Starfish will screen out NFTs that are not qualified as collateral. In the event of a liquidation, SEAN holders will have the chance to bid for blue-chip NFTs at a discount. Besides, once the Starfish decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is formed, SEAN holders will have voting power to whitelist other cross-chain NFT projects.
The Starfish vision
Community
Starfish Finance is fundamentally community driven. Starfish values its community and endeavors to promote its spirit across communities in other ecosystems. Being part of the Starfish community is to participate in a liberal, fraternal and equal culture.
Collaboration
The Starfish team gathers tenacious believers in Web3. Its leadership actively seeks to partner with distinguished players in the blockchain economy to broaden Starfish users’ experiences in DeFi and NFT finance — on Astar Network and beyond.
Convenience
Through its minimalistic user interface and lively graphics, Starfish unleashes the interoperability of assets between Astar Network and other L1 chains with a smooth user experience that fuses with Starfish’s open and easy-going culture.
What’s next?
In the imminent future, Starfish is launching its public sale on Tokensoft, a tier-one and reputable initial DEX offering platform with a track record of successful token launches for prominent projects like Acala, Moonbeam, Litentry, The Graph, Avalanche and Tezos. In September 2022, Tokensoft will launch Starfish’s $SEAN tokens via two private rounds and one public round.
More strategic partnerships with non-Polkadot native projects will move forward simultaneously. Starfish will be at the core of the Polkadot DeFi ecosystem, and Starfish’s community will enjoy first-mover advantage at the early stages of development. Stay tuned for more Starfish Finance development and strategic partnership updates.
After whitelist giveaway campaigns in June and July, ZKSpace, the leading zk-Rollup-based Ethereum layer-2 (L2) protocol, is set to roll out the public sale of the James Rodríguez “Zurda” nonfungible token (NFT) collection on Aug. 15, 2022. Zurda — meaning “left foot” in Spanish — is an official collection of commemorative NFTs created in collaboration with football superstar James Rodríguez to be issued on ZKSea, the NFT minting and trading platform of the ZKSpace ecosystem.
The “Zurda” NFT series is the first digital asset collection that assembles all key highlights from James Rodríguez’s illustrious football career spanning three continents.
This limited-edition NFT collection contains 1,500 pieces in four rarity levels: one Platinum, 10 Gold, 400 Silver and 1,089 Bronze. With exquisite artwork digitally hand-painted by professional artists, these digital collectibles give fans a chance to relive iconic moments and build connections with the sports influencer’s global fan community of 70 million.
James Rodríguez is one of the greatest Colombian attacking midfielders of all time. Having a magical left foot and being able to play anywhere behind the front line, he is regarded as one of the most creative players in the game. He previously played for Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Everton FC, winning a list of honors, including two Champions Leagues, two FIFA Club World Cups and a World Cup Golden Boot.
In launching his commemorative collection, James Rodríguez has joined the likes of athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo — who previously announced his partnership with Binance — in exploring the possibilities of promoting the sport and engaging fans via the influential blockchain innovation of NFTs.
Online assets combined with physical gifts has proven to be a modern and fashionable way to bring fans closer to teams and players. The convergence of the sports industry and the exciting blockchain sub-sector NFT has also seen great success, one example being NBA Top Shot, the marketplace selling basketball video clips, generating over $230 million in sales within a year of its launch.
The different rarity tiers in the “Zurda” NFT collection attach a higher value to the rare collectibles. By selling NFTs of different undisclosed moments through mystery boxes, it also makes the buying process fun and exciting, as no one knows when or what they will own, including the tier of rarity, until a box is opened.
NFTs with digital and real-world benefits
During the public sale, the Platinum and Gold NFTs, which are based on some of the most memorable moments of Rodríguez’s career, will be offered through an auction while the Silver and Bronze NFTs will be sold through mystery boxes two days after the auction closes.
The sole Platinum and 10 Gold NFTs were inspired by a total of 11 memorable moments, including Rodríguez’s 2014 Puskas Award-winning goal. The auction will begin on Aug. 15, 2022, at 7 am UTC, on ZKSea.
The mystery box sale will go live on Aug. 17, 2022, 7 am UTC. The price of the mystery boxes is 0.15 Ether (ETH), and they contain “Zurda” NFTs in Silver and Bronze grades. Whitelisted participants will be able to purchase the mystery boxes for just 0.12 ETH.
“Zurda” NFT holders can win signed jerseys and photos that ZKSpace has disclosed on Twitter, a video call or video recorded by James Rodríguez and access to multiple events on ZKSpace, including stake-to-earn events, future NFT giveaways and the ZKSpace Football Metaverse — all in celebration of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Why issue on ZKSpace?
ZKSpace — formerly ZKSwap — is a full-featured L2 protocol leveraging zk-Rollups technology to provide users with an ultra-fast, cheap and secure way to transact cryptocurrencies. ZKSwap’s version 1.0 mainnet launched in February 2021 as the first Ethereum L2 zk-Rollup-based decentralized exchange. It implements all the functions of Uniswap on L2 and solves the problems of slow transaction speeds and high gas fees on the Ethereum mainnet. So far, ZKSwap has gone through three major version iterations — ZKSwap rebranded and upgraded to ZKSpace at the end of 2021 — and has carried out hundreds of function iterations and optimizations without any security incidents.
ZKSea is the world’s first zk-Rollups-based platform supporting layer-1-to-L2 NFT mutual transferring and is the designated NFT-launch, -mint and -trade marketplace of the ZKSpace ecosystem. It is the blockchain technology partner of some prestige brands, including Coach New York, GQ Magazine, Shu Uemura, Atta and more. Moving forward, ZKSea will feature some exclusive NFT drops aside from the James Rodríguez commemorative-edition NFT collection, proving a popular alternative to L1 marketplaces and allowing more people to get involved in NFTs.
For new users looking to be a part of the NFT movement, ZKSpace also features a user-friendly fiat on-ramp, boosting usability and democratizing access to the exciting future of NFTs for anyone worldwide.