Web3 Weekly Pulse: 17 - 23 Apr 2023

1️⃣ Starbucks on April 19 released its "First Store" collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), featuring 5,000 virtual items for purchase. However, only 4,579 NFTs were sold, leaving 421 unsold, according to niftygateway data. This is a significant contrast to their previous NFT collection which reportedly sold out in 20 minutes. This discrepancy suggests changes in consumer behavior, market conditions, and the perceived value of the "First Store" collection. The incident raises questions about the long-term profitability of NFTs for companies and their future investments in this new digital asset class.

Starbucks fails to sell out NFT collection celebrating original Seattle store

Starbucks fell short of selling out of its latest NFT collection on Polygon, dubbed “The Starbucks First Store Collection.”

The BlockYogita Khatri

2️⃣ On 20th April - Krafton, the South Korean studio behind PUBG: Battlegrounds, announced its Web3 metaverse game platform, Migaloo, set to launch this year. The studio's decision to invest in a metaverse game platform is a strategic move, considering the growing popularity of virtual worlds and the metaverse concept among gamers and investors alike especially in Asia.  

PUBG Creator to Launch NFT Metaverse Game This Year - Decrypt

Krafton, the studio behind the smash battle royale game PUBG, said that its metaverse gaming platform will launch in 2023.

DecryptKate Irwin

3️⃣ Intel Corporation has announced the discontinuation of its Blockscale bitcoin mining chip series just a year after its launch. The series will stop taking orders by October 20, 2023, and shipping will end by April 20, 2024. The move may have implications for the cryptocurrency industry as Intel shifts its focus toward other areas of technology development. The volatile nature of the market means that trends and demand can change rapidly, so it will be interesting to see how other major players in the tech industry respond to the new challenges and opportunities presented by the cryptocurrency market.

Intel ends its bitcoin mining chip series

Chipmaker Intel Corp said on Tuesday it has discontinued production of its bitcoin mining chip series, just a year after its introduction.

ReutersReuters

4️⃣ Following the recent passing of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation by the European Parliament, Ukrainian regulators have publicly announced their intention to adopt the legislative package in their own country on 21st April. This move signals a growing trend toward the regulation of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets in various jurisdictions around the world.

Ukraine plans to adopt EU’s new cryptocurrency regulations

Ukraine’s move to adopt EU regulations is perhaps unsurprising, as it gained EU candidate status in June 2022.

CointelegraphAmaka Nwaokocha

1️⃣ On 20th April, 1inch network, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, deployed its aggregation and limit order protocols on Ethereum's layer-2 scaling solution, zkSync Era. This move aims to offer faster and cheaper transactions to enhance the user experience. Other major players such as Uniswap, SushiSwap, Maker, and Curve Finance are also planning to launch on the zkSync Era, reflecting the growing demand for efficient solutions to tackle Ethereum's network congestion and high fees. This trend towards layer-2 scaling solutions is likely to have significant implications for the broader DeFi ecosystem and the adoption of blockchain technology.

DeFi driving zkSync growth as 1inch deploys on Ethereum layer-2 scaling platform

DeFi platform 1inch Network has deployed on zkSync Era, tapping into zero-knowledge proof powered Ethereum layer-2 scaling technology.

CointelegraphGareth Jenkinson

2️⃣ OpenZeppelin Defender has integrated with Coinbase's Base network, enabling developers to automate security tasks for Web3 app development. The Defender software offers features such as multi-signature admin contracts, timelocks, Relayers for storing keys and signing transactions, and automated "sentinels" to monitor the blockchain and respond to events. This integration is expected to enhance security on the Coinbase Base network, streamlining security solutions for developers.

Coinbase’s Base network gets OpenZeppelin security integration

The Base network testnet was launched on Feb. 23 and is intended to become a layer 2 of Ethereum.

CointelegraphTom Blackstone

3️⃣ A proposal has emerged on Ethereum Research to introduce a precompile that enables calling an L1 smart contract, offering a straightforward method for L2 smart contracts to access the latest L1 or L2 data from an L3, while being easily provable for EVM equivalent L2s that use the same state tree format, such as type 1 ZK-EVMs.

Cross layer communication: Trivially provable and efficient read access to the parent chain

Thanks to Karl Floersch for his sanity check on this idea. TLDR: Communication between layers can be achieved by having access to the other layer’s state root and using a Merkle proof to verify some data. An implementation of this that is smart contract based however is not very efficient (Merkle p…

Ethereum ResearchBrecht

Ethereum

Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade current status after one week of going live according to data from Stader Ethereum - link

Polygon

Polygon is currently the leading chain in the adoption of ERC-4337 Wallets  - link

BNB Chain

BNB Chain has announced its  Most Valuable Builder cohort6 (MVB6) - link

Arbitrum

On April 18th, the Arbitrum DAO successfully passed two proposals, AIP-1.1 and AIP-1.2, with 98% and 99% support, respectively. - link

Avalanche

Merit Circle DAO, a gaming DAO with more than 60 partner games, is set to launch Beam, an Avalanche Subnet that caters specifically to the development and gameplay of Web3 gaming. Upon launch, Beam will provide existing Merit Circle products, along with new gaming-focused tools, an NFT marketplace called Sphere, and three new games. Merit Circle aims for Beam to support dozens of Avalanche games in the future. - link

Aptos

Aptos has recently launched its Delegated Staking feature on April 21. With this feature, users can delegate their staking power to a trusted network validator and earn rewards as an individual. This empowers individuals to earn staking rewards without having to become a validator themselves. Additionally, multiple wallets can stake APT on a single trusted validator node, and users can participate in staking with as little as 11APT. - link

Sui

Sui announced that the anticipated Mainnet will officially launch on May 3, 2023 - link and released its long-waited tokenomics - link

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