Kio's weekly newsletter #24
What happened last week in the world of crypto, Solana and NFTs?
Ever felt overwhelmed by the number of things happening in the world of crypto, Solana, and NFTs? Don't have enough time to spend on Twitter to keep up with everything? Don't worry, I got you. Kio’s newsletter is here with all the highlights from last week
Index
Crypto and NFTs
🟡 Amazon (AWS) partners up with Avalanche to scale blockchain adoption
🟡 The Yuga Labs skill-based mint
🟡 Axie infinity passed the Google Play Store review
🟡 New Jersey is set to make NFT trading without a license illegal
Solana
🔵 The state of Solana
🔵 Backpack wallet integrates Magic Eden’s OCP
🔵 Solana is the fastest-growing developer ecosystem
🔵 The Saga dev kit just arrived
Solana NFTs
🟢 BONKz 1/1s
🟢 Okay Bears introduced us to OKAY
Crypto and NFTs
General information about cryptocurrencies and NFTs
🟡 Amazon (AWS) partners up with Avalanche to scale blockchain adoption
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has partnered with Ava Labs, the team behind Layer-1 blockchain Avalanche, to scale blockchain adoption across governments, institutions, and enterprises.
The collaboration will provide flexibility for developers, increase network strength, and make it easier to launch and manage nodes on Avalanche. AWS will incorporate Avalanche's decentralized application ecosystem, infrastructure, and one-click node deployments, and will also include AWS Activate to help entrepreneurs and startups get started on its platform. Ava Labs will also add Subnet deployment to the AWS marketplace and become a member of the AWS Partner Network, allowing firms to launch offerings in over 150 countries with more than 100,000 partners.
🟡 The Yuga Labs skill-based mint
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you must know at this point that Yuga Labs (parent company of BAYC) is launching a new NFT collection.
The first question that comes to mind is: How do I get a WL?
Well, first you need a sewer pass. If you are a BAYC or MAYC holder, congratulations! You get one for free. Otherwise, if you are among the rest of the mortals that do not own one, you’ll need to buy it. At the time of writing this article, the floor price for the Tier 1 pass is at 2.17 ETH.
Okay, let me load up my wallet and buy one. Is that it?
Not quite. After buying your sewer pass, you need to play the game. You only need to play once to be eligible for the summoning though. But there’s more. The higher your score in the game, the rarer the NFT you get. This is what skill-based mint means.
So if you want to get the rarest of them all, you better start practicing!
You can also increase your chances of getting a high score by buying a boost with APE
🟡 Axie infinity passed the Google Play Store review
In a historic move for the world of Web 3.0 gaming, Axie Infinity's latest game, Origins, has officially made it through the rigorous review process of the Google Play Store. This is a major breakthrough for crypto games and could open the doors for other blockchain-based titles to follow suit.
It's been a tough journey for Axie, who saw their previous game, Axie Infinity, become a global sensation in the play-to-earn space, with players in developing economies earning a living from playing. However, a hacking incident in March 2022 resulted in a loss of $610 million and forced the company to rebuild.
With the support of Animoca Brands, who invested in Sky Mavis, the Vietnamese company behind Axie, the news of Origins' inclusion on the Play Store could be a sign of more exciting developments to come.
In a blog post announcing the news, Axie stated that they've been working closely with the Play Store over the past year and have shared their learnings as the leading web3 game developer. Origins will initially be soft-launched in the Malaysian Play Store, allowing the team to gather data and continue testing and improving the game.
However, it's important to note that the play store iteration of the game will have limited features, and players will not be able to earn tokens, in compliance with current Play Store policies. But Axie remains committed to its vision of a player-owner digital nation and will continue working with app platforms to unlock that in their builds.
The news from Axie is a significant step forward for the crypto gaming community, and if and when play-to-earn mechanics are integrated into Google Play, it could change the game for the entire industry.
🟡 New Jersey is set to make NFT trading without a license illegal
A new legislation that is being proposed in New Jersey, called the Digital Asset and Blockchain Technology Act, has the potential to become law and make it illegal to sell NFTs without a license or even hold NFTs or other crypto assets.
This news has caused concern in the crypto community as it could have repercussions for everyone and could set a dangerous precedent for other states to follow. The legislation would require anyone engaging in digital asset business activities, such as storing, holding, or maintaining custody of a digital asset on behalf of others or issuing a digital asset, to be licensed by the state or file a pending license with the department. Failure to comply with the legislation would result in a penalty of $500 per day.
The crypto community is calling for pushback against this legislation as they believe it is a step backwards in the adoption and understanding of digital assets and blockchain technology.
Solana
Everything about the Solana ecosystem
🔵 The state of Solana
After the recent rise in price across the board in crypto, Solana enters the top 10, with a market capitalization of 9 billion dollars, slightly above Polygon, with $8.7B
With the SOL price at $24.36, we also saw how the Solana NFT bluechip USD Index, which had been trending down for months, finally started increasing. The SOL Index, on the other hand, after trending up since the FTX crash, went down, as a result of the repricing of the NFTs
The number of Solana daily active addresses, which had been under ETH and Polygon for most of December, also went up in January, surpassing all the other blockchains and is now sitting at 402k
🔵 Backpack wallet integrates Magic Eden’s OCP
Backpack, the everything wallet, just integrated Magic Eden’s Open Creator Protocol (OCP), allowing users to send NFTs between their own wallets
🔵 Solana is the fastest-growing developer ecosystem
A recent report by Electric Capital showed that Solana is the fastest-growing developer ecosystem, surpassing 2000 developers in 2022. Second only to Ethereum in raw numbers
🔵 The Saga dev kit just arrived
The Solana phone developer kit just arrived. Here’s what you can expect from the first blockchain smartphone
Solana NFTs
What’s going on with your favorite Solana projects?
🟢 BONKz 1/1s
With its successful mint and remarkable price increase, BONKz is currently the most sought-after NFT reveal in the Solana ecosystem, alongside Taiyo Pilots.
While we wait for the full reveal, we have started to see some of the 1/1s going around Twitter, which are designed by top artists of the space
🟢 Okay Bears introduced us to OKAY
An onramp for traditional brands into web3, OKAY ushers in a new paradigm for NFTs. With the help of IMG, OKAY will be the middle ground between web2 and web3, pushing the limits of art and code, and blurring the lines between physical and digital.
OKAY will also reward holders with digital, physical, and co-branded phygital drops to flex or flip, as well as priority access to exclusive mints from world-renowned brands through the Streaks & Badges platform.
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