The firm behind major South Korean social gaming app GameTalkTalk has rolled out a blockchain project for gamers. The new platform includes a reward-based social media DApp, a matchmaking peer-to-peer gaming platform and a digital item exchange. Vinetree Corporation, the company behind GameTalkTalk, announced the Ludena Protocol on April 20, saying that, in the second quarter of 2020, users worldwide will be able to receive the app’s internal digital assets — know as "stars" — for completing in-game missions and downloading new games. A native token and user data collection are on the roadmap Stars can be used to purchase …

Binance Chain developers have proposed specifications for a new blockchain that would enable complex smart contract functionality within the Binance Coin (BNB) ecosystem. The specifications are available in its white paper, released on April 17. The new Binance Smart Chain will be independent, but tightly integrated with the original Binance Chain. The team explains that it had to create a new chain in order to maintain the high performance of the original, which hosts the Binance decentralized exchange. The white paper notes that “the execution of a Smart Contract may slow down the exchange function and add non-deterministic factors to …

A company that aims to change advertising through blockchain announced its decentralized application is now functional across several social networks, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. The Atayen-owned Smart Advertising Transaction Token, known as SaTT, claims it upgrades the advertising transaction process thanks to blockchain while removing the high costs associated with launching a campaign, reducing payment delays for publishers that rely on ad revenue, and injecting some much-needed transparency into the industry with performance-based payments. At the same time, this helps remove from the process third parties that inflate costs for everyone, achieves automation and allows brands to assess …

Blockchain investment company Eterna and venture capital fund Borderless Capital have teamed up to launch Eterna Borderless Venture Studio, to support projects on the Algorand platform. The aim is to drive adoption and growth by providing tools and resources to decentralized app — or DApp — developers and entrepreneurs. Startups are eligible to receive funding up to $100,000, with Borderless Capital able to offer a follow-up investment of up to $2 million for companies that emerge as category-leading businesses. The venture studio includes student groups from some of the world’s more prestigious universities — including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College …

Crypto analysis firm DappReview published its quarterly report examining transaction volumes for decentralized applications (DApps) on April 8. The report finds a significant increase in total DApp activity during the past three months when compared to Q1 2019, despite a drop in the number of new projects and users. Quarterly DeFi volume nearly doubles year-over-year While Quarterly Ethereum-based DApp activity has surged almost 650% year-over-year (YoY), both EOS and Tron-based DApps have seen a decline in volume compared with Q1 2019. DappReview notes $7.9 billion in DApp volume transpiring across 13 blockchains in Q1 2020 — an 82% increase YoY. …

We’re certainly in the early days of the decentralized Web 3.0, but many parallels exist to what we went through in the 1990s during Web 1.0 and during the mobile boom of Web 2.0. What’s great about that is we have lots of models to learn from, and while the technology is different, the end goal is the same: Creating amazing applications that help people, make money, save money, save time, learn, play, organize and a ton of other important (and sometimes less important) things. Related: Web 3.0 Initiatives Can Drive Crypto Adoption Across the Globe With that in mind, …

Rapper and entrepreneur, Akon, shared the whitepaper for his upcoming ‘Akoin’ cryptocurrency project exclusively with Cointelegraph. The document describes Akoin as a cryptocurrency “designed for entrepreneurs in the rising economies of Africa and beyond,” adding that the project’s mission is to “unlock the potential of the world’s largest growing workforce” using blockchain technology. Mobile credit trading in Africa The whitepaper describes Akoins as utility tokens that power “atomic swaps” between cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies, and mobile phone credits on the Akoin network. Speaking with Cointelegraph, Akon emphasized that mobile credits are being used as a currency in Africa, stating: “We have …

Chainlink, a major smart contract technology supplier, has tapped a new partnership to streamline one of the biggest issues around smart contracts. According to a March 11 tweet, Chainlink has partnered with Hdac Technology, a blockchain startup founded by Dae Sun Chung, CEO of software firm Hyundai BS&C and member of the Hyundai family. By bringing their forces together, the firms intend to jointly develop a system for delivering off-chain data on blockchain in an attempt to bolster smart contract execution. Specifically, Chainlink and Hdac will be addressing the blockchain oracle problem, which is considered to be the biggest obstacle …

Major decentralized finance (DeFi) player MakerDAO (MKR) partnered with payment processor Simplex to create a fiat on-ramp for its Dai (DAI) decentralized stablecoin. According to an announcement on Mar. 3, the partnership makes it possible to buy Dai with the credit and debit cards of Simplex’s partner firms. Maker’s business development representative in Europe, Gustav Arentoft, said: “Having Dai integrated into Simplex is a benefit to current and future users, [...] it gives them a straightforward fiat on- and off-ramp with access to the industry’s biggest players.” MakerDAO is a leading player in the DeFi space and the organization behind …

Who knows what’s responsible for the current bull run? It could be the upcoming halving, it could be the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s debut of institutional-grade crypto-backed options, or it could even be the coronavirus. Whatever the reasons, it seems safe to say that the crypto winter is well and truly behind us. If this trend continues, it will only be a matter of time before we begin to see a fresh wave of adopters, eager to capitalize on the growth of crypto as it blooms into a new season. It’s fair to say that the crypto scene has evolved significantly …

The Tron Foundation, a cryptocurrency firm that is known for hyping its long ledger of partnerships, appears to have entered a particularly important one today. The maintainer of major cryptocurrency Tron (TRX) has just partnered with Steemit, a major blockchain-based blogging and social networking website to provide its network for Steemit services. Steemit old token STEEM to move to the Tron blockchain, too As part of the strategic partnership, the Tron Foundation will work with the firm to move Steemit and other Steem blockchain-based decentralized applications (DApps) to the Tron blockchain, the firms said in an announcement shared with Cointelegraph …

Privacy-centric computing network and app ecosystem Blockstack has paused its App Mining pilot due to a range of challenges. Rolled out in 2018, the App Mining project is designed to incentivize developers to build apps on Blockstack. Although the startup has ostensibly seen a healthy app growth throughout 2019 — from 46 to more than 400 apps so far, — it admitted an array of challenges in running a program of increasing size and complexity, according to a Feb. 10 blog post. Three key challenges to be solved As such, Blockstack has decided to pause the pilot until it resolves …