Dolce & Gabbana has launched its latest NFT collection on the NFT marketplace UNDX, built on the Polygon scalability network. These and more news in this handy daily digest so you're always up to date with the latest events happening within the crypto world.
Bitcoin and Blockchain Adoption
📍Block reports multi-million dollar profits from Bitcoin transactions via Cash App. The company of Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter and one of the most prominent figures in the crypto industry, reported $4.080 billion in total profits during the fourth quarter of 2021. Of these, $2.120 billion are net profits excluding Bitcoin, leaving $1.960 billion in revenue with the cryptocurrency. In his reportBlock noted that the integration of Bitcoin into Cash App has made the payment network go viral. In December alone, 44 million transactions were made through the payment app.
NFT and DeFi Markets
📍Dolce & Gabbana launched its latest NFT collection on the NFT marketplace UNDX, built on Polygon. On its Twitter account, the famous Italian fashion brand announced the launch of its DGFamily community, accessible through exclusive NFTs launched on the Polygon network. The fashion brand has created a crypto collection of 3 NFTs, which show exclusive boxes with the brand's logo, which will serve as a membership pass for holders. As Dolce & Gabbana explained, each box is of a special rarity or level, which will give holders the chance to enjoy digital and physical benefits, such as branded clothing, as well as experiential ones that will take them on a journey between real life and the metaverse.
Polygon is the leading second-layer solution currently built to scale the Ethereum network. This month, the number of active addresses on Polygon surpassed 2,4 million, as did the number of applications developed or deployed in its ecosystem, which surpassed 7.000 DApps by the end of January.
📍The multinational Monster Beverages Corporation joins the NFT trend. Monster Beverages Corporation, the maker of the popular Monster Energy drink, has Presentado four patent applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to register the use of its trademark for the virtual world. The company’s patents reveal its possible plans to develop downloadable virtual goods in NFT format, build virtual retail and service stores, create new entertainment products, and develop software for virtual asset management.
Monster is the latest major company to patent its brand for NFTs and the Metaverse. McDonald's, Victoria's Secrets, Panera Bread, Carrefour and Walmart are other major multinationals that are making their way into the virtual world.
Metaverses and Play to Earn Games
📍Andino, the Peruvian Web3 project incubator, holds the first hackathon in the Metaverse. Peru Meta-Hackathon This is the first developer meeting to be organised in the virtual world. The developer, the Web3 Andino project incubator, wants to promote the creation and development of new digital collections and initiatives that provide greater value and utility to the virtual ecosystem.
Peru Meta-Hackathon has been taking place since last Friday, March 25th and will last until March 5th. During the event, developers will be able to attend technology-oriented workshops blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and NFT.
Cybersecurity
📍Hackers attacked the network of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry before the Russian invasion. Un report Bloomberg cites that Ukraine’s Interior Ministry was the victim of a cyberattack in which it lost a large amount of data and information, just before the Russian attack. According to the report, hackers planted powerful malware that stole and siphoned off large amounts of data from the country’s telecommunications network, which is operated by the Interior Ministry. The information was released by three people involved in the investigations, who asked to remain anonymous.
Rules and Regulations
📍A proposed reform to the European Union’s data law requires a “safe break” mechanism in smart contracts. The European Commission has presented a new proposal to the EU Data Protection Act to ensure data security. According to Article 30 of the proposal, smart contract developers will have to include a shutdown mechanism in their contracts, which allows the continuous execution of transactions to be terminated. “The smart contract must include internal functions that can reset or instruct the contract to stop or interrupt the operation to prevent future (accidental) executions.”.
This proposal would undermine the decentralized and autonomous nature with which smart contracts were born. Moreover, as Thibault Schrepel, professor of technology and law at Vrije University Amsterdam, pointed out, the proposal is “absolutely controversial” and would affect millions of existing smart contracts, especially so-called oracles.
📍Satish Kumbhani is charged by the US Department of Justice with defrauding $2.400 billion from BitConnect. The government agency issued a release accusing Satish Kumbhani, founder of BitConnect, of perpetrating a $2.400 billion global Ponzi scheme through the cryptocurrency investment platform. The documents filed by the Department of Justice point to Kumbhani as responsible for deceiving the platform's investors with a fraudulent lending system, which ended up being a Ponzi scheme that abruptly shut down after a year of operations. In addition to this, the Department of Justice also accuses the BitConnect founder of manipulating investors with the price of the BCC token, creating the “false appearance of legitimate demand for BCC in the market”.
BitConnect operated without FinCEN registration, as required by the Bank Secrecy Act. In addition, Kumbhani and his associates concealed financial transactions and profits from trading on the platform. Satish Kumbhani will face charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, commodity manipulation, money laundering, and operating a financial business without a proper license. If convicted, the BitConnect founder could be sentenced to up to 70 years in prison, the Department said.
Continue reading: 75% of Family Offices are familiar with cryptocurrencies, says BNY Mellon
