In an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, the Algorand team said that it partnered with Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad and the Indian School of Business with the intention of launching educational programs. This includes programs for both faculty development and student developer training. In addition, the firm will also be hosting a master class for businesses looking to dive into the Web3 space. Anil Kakani, Algorand's recently-appointed country head for India, said that the partnerships aim to build sustainable impact. He explained: Algorand Foundation announced several partnerships in India, including collaborations with schools to develop educational programs that will help …

Blockchain scaling technology firm StarkWare is set to partner with Chainlink Labs to bring oracle services, data and price feeds to the StarkNet ecosystem. The coalition will see StarkWare join Chainlink’s SCALE program and brings Chainlink price feeds to StarkNet’s testnet. Starknet tokens will also be used to fund certain operating costs for Chainlink oracle nodes, giving Starknet developers access to Chainlink oracle services and data feeds. Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that enables smart contracts to securely access off-chain data sources, APIs, and payment systems. It allows smart contracts to interact with real-world data and events, making it …

Blockchain-powered fantasy sports firm Sorare has sealed a deal with the English Premier League to mint Ethereum-based digital player cards on its platform. Sorare has driven an interesting use case for Ethereum-based fantasy sports and digital card trading in recent years, offering fans the ability to mint, collect and trade various player cards with other users across a variety of nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces. Cointelegraph reached out to Sorare to clarify details of their latest deal which brings the Premier League to the fingertips of football fans. While the partnership was officially announced on January 30, a Sorare spokesperson said …

Avalanche (AVAX) came into the spotlight early at the beginning of 2023 by adding its blockchain support to Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. However, empirical and on-chain analysis suggests that Avalanche’s price surge is likely due to a broader cryptocurrency market pump which will likely end with the rest of the market. Is Avalanche’s Amazon news exaggerated? While integration with the world’s largest blockchain service is a positive step for Avalanche, the hype around its implications might be exaggerated. The evidence lies in a similar move that Avalanche’s team made in December 2022. Avalanche’s team established a deal with Alibaba’s …

The Amazon Web Services (AWS)-Avalanche “cooperation,” as it was carefully described last week, should almost immediately make it easy for developers to establish nodes on the Avalanche blockchain, including via “one-click node deployment.” Eventually, too, it might make it simpler for everyday businesses — i.e., non-crypto-related enterprises — and even individuals to establish their own subnets like smaller, private, layer-2 blockchains. But perhaps the outstanding message from the Jan. 11 announcement is that the blockchain revolution isn’t just about cryptocurrencies. It’s also about things as prosaic as storing documents more securely and sensibly so they can be quickly retrieved during …

The NFT-focused company was founded by early-stage Facebook and Twitter investor Kevin Rose, and designer Justin Mezzell in February 2022. The company also has the Proof Collective and Oddities NFT collections in its catalog. Announcing the move via Twitter on Jan. 6, Rose suggested that the goal of the deal is to get the Moonbirds brand known on a “global” mainstream scale, as opposed to just being recognized as a big hitter in the Web3 space. “What does UTA bring to the table? They are 1,400 people strong, with divisions in film, television, music, video games, sports, books, branding and …

Fiat-to-crypto on-ramp solution provider Juno has urged its users to sell or self-custody the crypto on its platform citing “uncertainty” with its crypto custodian partner Wyre. In a Jan. 4 tweet, the platform explained it that it doesn't hold any of its customer's crypto, and relies on its “crypto partner” for those services. “Due to uncertainty with our crypto partner, we have taken preemptive action in the interest of our customers,” it wrote, adding it’s also actively reaching out to customers to ask them to self-custody. 2/ Juno as a platform doesn’t custody crypto assets & relies on our crypto …

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance is making a move in the hardware wallet industry, with its venture capital arm investing in the cold wallet platform Ngrave. Binance Labs has made a strategic investment in the Belgian hardware wallet firm Ngrave and will lead its upcoming Series A round, the firm officially announced on Nov. 21. Founded in Belgium in 2018, Ngrave specializes in self-custody, providing a security suite comprising three major elements, including connectionless hardware wallet Zero, key backup tool Graphene and the Liquid mobile app. Yi He, co-founder of Binance and head of Binance Labs, pinpointed that security remains one …

Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology firms continue to feature in the world of Formula 1, with a nonfungible token (NFT) making its mark on Red Bull Racing’s vehicles to close out the 2022 calendar. Red Bull Racing dominated the F1 season, topping the constructors’ standings, while Max Verstappen closed out the drivers’ standings for a second consecutive season. With the curtain closing on 2022’s race schedule in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 20, the team’s cars will feature an NFT on their livery in what is being called a first in F1. Red Bull Racing struck a deal with cryptocurrency exchange ByBit …

Nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace LooksRare is the latest in a string of NFT markets to do away with enforcing creator royalties by default following the likes of Magic Eden and X2Y2. The platform tweeted on Oct. 27 that it would not be supporting creator royalties by default, instead choosing to share 25% of its protocol fees with NFT creators and collection owners. Buyers can still choose to pay royalties when purchasing an NFT but will be on an opt-in basis. Explaining the changes, it said 0.5% of its 2% protocol fee would go to collections, as long as that collection …

Credit reporting company Equifax, known for suffering from one of the largest customer data breaches to date, has partnered with blockchain company Oasis Labs to build a Know Your Customer (KYC) solution. Equifax and Oasis said on Oct. 26 that the latter would be building a decentralized identity management and KYC solution for the industry on Oasis’ platform which will leverage Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) from Equifax to help with checks and user identification. The announcement made no mention of the exact technology which will underpin this offering and Cointelegraph’s request for comment was not immediately responded to by either …

Meta Platforms has partnered with technology giant Microsoft to bring a range of Microsoft Office 365 products into Meta’s Virtual Reality (VR) platform, aiming to entice companies into working in virtual environments. During Meta’s Connect 2022 keynote on Oct. 11, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said its Teams video calling app would integrate with Meta’s “Quest” and newly unveiled “Quest Pro” VR headset allowing people to gather in a virtual space akin to a boardroom. Familiar Microsoft productivity applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and SharePoint will also be made available within Meta’s VR. Nadella added future functionality would include …