Cities in the sky?
Digital nations might be the most ambitious blockchain projects yet. Which ones are gathering the most momentum? Plus, Ethereum's merge nears completion.
Hey Stackers,
If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, I highly recommend Balaji S. Srinivasan’s Network State. It’s both a fascinating examination of global geopolitics and a forecast of how blockchain tech could enable a new global order.
The premise of the book is that technology has enabled us to start new companies, new communities, and new currencies. But can it be used to start new cities, or even new countries?
It was great to see this week that Stack detected a project inspired by Balaji’s words. More below.
Dev Spotlight 👨💻
Stack has currently identified 88 projects with a recent spike in activity. Here’s one free insight. Subscribe to view them all here.
Nation3 is a community movement towards creating a sovereign nation on the cloud. Stack has detected a recent spike in active across their Github repos:
Top News This Week
The Nigerian Government Held a Preliminary Meeting With Binance for Crypto-Friendly Economic Zone, and Binance Will Convert User's USDC Into Its Own Stablecoin BUSD
The Nigerian government has held a preliminary meeting with the cryptocurrency exchange Binance as a means of establishing a special economic zone that is aimed at supporting to as well as blockchain-related businesses.
Based on data from the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), the authority held talks with both Binance and Talent City to discuss a proposed digital city referred to as a "Virtual Free Zone."
Binance will essentially begin converting any existing user balances and new deposits of USD Coin (USDC), Pax Dollar (USDP), and True USD (TUSD) into the company's own stablecoin known as BUSD, based on an announcement by the company. The conversion is scheduled to start on September 29, 2022.
Ethereum’s Merge So Far
Ethereum successfully completed what its developers' claim is the absolute final dress rehearsal for the massive upgrade, which is set to occur between September 13 and 15.
The Ethereum mainnet's 13th shadow fork went live without a hitch.
This was the last shadow fork, which was used to test for potential issues and simulate the act of shifting the Ethereum mainnet’s underlying mechanism from the current, Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining model to Proof-of-Stake (PoS), which will end the practice of mining on top of the network.
Google Cloud developer Sam Padilla announced that due to the massive searches on Google for the "Ethereum Merge," they have implemented a native countdown clock alongside the current hashrate difficulty and merge difficulty.
Netflix Has Banned Cryptocurrency Commercials on the Ad-Based Service, and the White House Suggested That Bitcoin Must Be Greener or the U.S. Should Ban It
The streaming giant Netflix has banned cryptocurrency-related commercials on its subscription tier, which is ad-supported, and will launch in November. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Netflix would reject all advertising campaigns related to politics, gambling, and cryptocurrencies in this subscription tier.
The White House also suggested that U.S. lawmakers and regulators could soon crack down on cryptocurrency mining, mainly due to its large carbon footprint. In a report that President Biden mandated in an executive order in March, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said that crypto miners need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with the help of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Energy (DOE), and other federal agencies.
GameStop Has Partnered With the Cryptocurrency Marketplace FTX U.S., and FIFA Partnered with Algorand to Launch a new NFT Platform
GameStop Corp. reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss, alongside a partnership with FTX U.S., to increase its overall presence within the crypto space.
This sent the video game retailer's shares up 10% in extended trading. Furthermore, the company will now begin selling FTX gift cards at some of its stores as a part of the partnership. However, the financial terms were not disclosed.
FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, has announced it will launch an NFT platform for Non-Fungible tokens (NFTs) that will represent soccer-themed digital collectibles.
The platform is called FIFA+ Collect and will launch later throughout the month. The main goal is to feature affordable, inclusive, and accessible NFTs that will depict notable soccer moments, art, and imagery, according to FIFA. FIFA+ will allow fans to own and collect FIFA World Cup and FIFA Women's World Cup moments.
LG Picks Hedera for Television NFT Support, and Sorare will Launch NFT-based Fantasy Basketball Game with NBA
The Korea-based consumer electronics company LG will release a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace called the LG Art Lab that will plug into the Hedera Network, which LG supports. This means that television owners with sets that are updated to LG's most recent software will be provided with the opportunity to buy, sell and showcase Hedera NFTs from their screens.
The NBA Association completed the deal with Sorare for an NFT fantasy game. The game will be free-to-play (F2P) and will include digital collectibles. Furthermore, an NFT component will be embedded within fantasy basketball. This will enable enthusiasts to complete newly innovated fantasy gaming experiences where they can create personal lineups of NFT-based digital porcelains.
Thanks for reading,
James