Over the past couple of years, games that use blockchain technology have increased their presence in the gaming industry. While there were early examples like CryptoKitties — launched in 2017 — the trend has truly gained steam, with major gaming studios even exploring the technology. At the beginning of 2022, the market capitalization of blockchain games was around $25 billion and it doesn’t seem to be decreasing anytime soon, even in the depths of a bear market. According to the analytical service DappRadar, the two most stable areas this year in the cryptocurrency market are blockchain games and nonfungible tokens …

On Oct. 14, NFT Steez, a bi-weekly Twitter Spaces hosted by Alyssa Expósito and Ray Salmond, met with the founder of Cryptoys, Will Weinraub to discuss the current role of play and toys in regard to their integration with nonfungible tokens and Web3 as a whole. Weinraub believes that the act of play is "not restricted to children'' and believes that as adults, "we still crave the element of play throughout life." According to Weinraub, through the development of technology, "play has evolved." Nonfungible tokens, especially in gaming, have highlighted this layer of ownership through play. Technology will continue to …

Hold Bitcoin till the very end or sell a little bit to start a family? For one Bitcoiner in Northwest London, it was a no-brainer. Noodle, (a nickname) a Brit who first heard about Bitcoin around 2012, took profits on his Bitcoin buys to pay for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment for his wife. He told Cointelegraph he has “no regrets,” about his decision to start a family using fiat-denominated profits from buying, holding then selling Bitcoin. Welcoming Noodle Jr II to this crazy world. After a tough 6 days in hospital due to unforeseen complications, Mrs Noodle and I, …

Nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces should commit to combat fraudulent NFTs, but brands are far more responsible for protecting NFT investors, according to one industry executive. Brands that issue NFTs should be taking the first step to protecting themselves and potential investors from fraud, BrandShield CEO Yoav Keren said in an interview with Cointelegraph on Oct. 12. According to Keren, it’s more straightforward for a brand to recognize NFTs that were not released by the company itself rather than marketplaces like OpenSea or Rarible. NFT marketplaces usually have fewer insights into which brands are creating NFTs when they are launching and …

Solana (SOL) blockchain-based move-to-earn fitness app STEPN is reportedly laying off over 100 of its contract workers amid the ongoing crypto bear market and as its user numbers dwindle from previous highs. Moderators and ambassadors will be among the sacked staff, and investment in STEPN will be scaled back according to crypto reporter Colin Wu. There will also be a shift toward promoting STEPN's parent company Find Satoshi Lab (FSL) and its new projects, Wu claimed, citing community sources. The famous blockchain game STEPN began to lay off staff in the bear market. It will mainly lay off more than …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) led cryptocurrency’s rapid growth in early 2021, but the crypto market has since plummeted in value. Global markets have played a role, but so has recklessness among developers when it comes to both cybersecurity and (often self-serving) inflationary token models. Too much DeFi has been based on tokens minted from nothing or tokens that finance other tokens at high interest rates, with no part of the entire activity having any real underlying economic activity to back the yields offered. Secondly, security issues, hacks and exploits of DeFi contracts and bridges have been widespread, and most notable DeFi …

TempleDAO, a yield-farming Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocol, lost over $2.34M to a hack on Oct 11. The exploit was announced by twitter account holder @spreekaway, who shared that the Defi platform had been hacked, along with a snapshot of how the stolen funds had been moved. .@templedao exploited for $2m it seems pic.twitter.com/k0nBLSoxnx — Spreek (@spreekaway) October 11, 2022 Blockchain Security companies Blocksec and Pecksheild confirmed in a series of tweets that the exploit had indeed occurred. Blocksec shared that the root cause of the attack was “insufficient access to control to the migrateStake function.” TempleDao @templedao has been attacked. …

The Ethereum network brought smart contracts into the blockchain space, making concepts like decentralized finance (DeFi) possible. Smart contracts can automatically execute processes once certain conditions have been met. Along with this new technology, a new coding language was developed called Solidity. As the blockchain industry continues to grow and new blockchain networks emerge, additional programming languages are being brought into the space, notably Vyper and Scrypto. Programming languages are a set of rules that convert strings of text and numbers into machine-readable code. In simple terms, programming languages enable computers to understand instructions that are input by human beings. …

A nonfungible token (NFT) purchased for 188 Ethereum (ETH) at a cost of $623,000 in 2021 by American YouTuber Logan Paul saw a dramatic loss in value to only $10 by the end of September, but has seen a small bump in its price after it trended on social media. Paul's loss of over $600,000 on his 0N1 Force K4M-1 #03 NFT has been public knowledge for months, but after the YouTuber shared a post on his Snapchat on Sept. 27 talking about it, several Twitter users picked up the story resulting in more attention for the NFT. Now, the …

A blockchain gaming ecosystem says play-and-earn represents "the next wave of disruption" in this $250 billion industry. Catheon Gaming says the cutting-edge technology that immutable ledgers provide tackles many of the shortcomings that exist in traditional games. In-game assets are completely owned by players, monetizable, and transferable. Rather than focusing on releasing a single game, this project wants to cultivate a vibrant ecosystem that'll endure beyond the life cycle of any one title. Catheon says it currently boasts a large and growing portfolio of 25 games — and this will be further enriched with the development of its very own …

The chief operating officer for the Helium Foundation, Scott Sigel has claimed there is “no basis” for cryptocurrency exchange Binance to delist several trading pairs of its cryptocurrency — Helium Network Token (HNT). Sigel’s comments come after an Oct. 6 notice by Binance saying the exchange is removing cross, isolated margin and spot trading pairs for HNT and Binance USD (BUSD), Tether (USDT) and Bitcoin (BTC). Binance “strongly advised” users to close any positions in its listed pairs as user positions will be forcibly closed, and any pending orders canceled on Oct. 12 with only spot trading for the HNT/BUSD …

While public interest in the Metaverse has not been completely lost, brands are trying to make the most of its popularity. Many luxury brands have already jumped on the gamification bandwagon, selling branded skins and buying land in the Metaverse. We have already visited Decentraland Fashion Week, played the Balenciaga game and regularly watched digital collections move from the mass market to luxury markets. In addition, in Web3, there is a serious beef between the Hermès brand and artist Mason Rothchild, the man behind the nonfungible token (NFT) MetaBirkins furry bags. This event has attracted public attention to the fact …