Tag: web3

Near India Teams With Move-to-Earn Platform GrowFitter to Drive Web3 Adoption

Near India has partnered with the GrowFitter platform to drive the adoption of Web3 in the country. Near India is the local unit of the Near Protocol, which is a blockchain network that was founded in Switzerland in 2018. GrowFitter, meanwhile, is a Web3-centric lifestyle app, that rewards its users for completing their daily fitness activity goals. As part of this partnership, the reward-based digital health platform also plans to launch its own utility token (GFIT) on the NEAR Protocol as a reward for its crypto customers.

The Near Protocol is looking to expand its presence in international markets. India is its next stop after launching operations in Vietnam, the Philippines, Dubai, and Singapore.

“Our aim is to nurture ideas of local entrepreneurs and developers that will have global opportunities. With NEAR, Growfitter can reach a wider community and gain a competitive advantage by leveraging the decentralised Web3 infrastructure,” Aayush Gupta, the Director of Near India said in a statement.

As for GrowFitter, the platform was founded in 2016 by Indian crypto entrepreneurs Sanmati Pande and Harshit Seth.

The name shot to fame after having appeared on Shark Tank India.

GrowFitter claims to have over 25,000 paid subscribers who track their exercise and daily activity habits on the platform. The company has partnerships with Amazon, boAt, Myntra, Byju’s, and Puma among others, to offer its users Web2-focussed incentives for its users.

With its partnership with Near India, the Web3 fitness app is looking to bring about a loyalty programme to tie its community together.

“Our goal is to revolutionize the consumer engagement and loyalty model. Growfitter token holders will be able to redeem tokens for products from 100+ sponsored brand partners,” said Sanmati Pande, CEO of Growfitter.

Partnerships between crypto players and move-to-earn apps have become popular in recent times, despite back-to-back situations of crypto downfalls.

Recently, the Crypto.com exchange signed a collaboration deal with Australia’s popular move-to-earn app PUML to launch its genesis WearX NFT collection on November 21.

The PUML platform rewards its users with its native token on the Ethereum and Polygon networks for completing health challenges such as steps and meditation.

Along with Crypto.com, PUML is also in partnerships with companies like Western Union and Deloitte.

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Telegram-Designed TON Ecosystem Gains $10 Million Support From Market Maker DWF Labs

Crypto market maker and Web3 investment company DWF Labs has announced that it will become “a prominent supporter of the TON ecosystem.” The company is also investing $10 million (roughly Rs. 80 crore) in the Layer-1 blockchain network. TON — or The Open Network — is a third-generation proof-of-stake blockchain project originally conceived by the creators of the Telegram instant messaging application. However, the TON community now develops the blockchain and steers its direction. As part of the new partnership, DWF Labs will support TON with investment, token development, market creation, and exchange listing.

A press release detailing the agreement states that the company plans to invest in a total of 50 TON projects over the next year. The release notes TONcoin’s current $20 million (roughly Rs. 160 crore) trading volume, and confidently claims that DWF Labs will double the figure within three months. To help sustain volumes, the market-making firm plans to develop a reliable OTC market for traders making larger transactions.

A managing partner of DWF Labs, Andrew Grachev, commented on the partnership, saying, “We are excited by the TON Foundations’ vision to deliver a decentralised internet, and so are delighted to partner with them to support projects directly and foster growth in transactions.”

The Open Network is a proof-of-stake blockchain designed in 2018 by the brothers who also created the Telegram instant messaging app. The project ran into legal troubles for its initial coin offering and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered Telegram to return funds to investors.

Following a 2020 judgment against Telegram, the TON community took over development, quickly establishing the TON Community Foundation. As an open-source project that was already in the test net phase, much of the network code was already available.

Partnering with DWF Labs is the latest milestone for the TON Foundation. Earlier, they achieved cooperation with Huobi Group and KuCoin Ventures. In addition, the TON ecosystem notes accelerating growth, with TON Sites and TON proxy being the latest additions. Those two features and tools are crucial to unlocking the future of a decentralised internet.

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Line Messaging Launches ‘Game Dosi’ Web3 Platform in Japan, Here’s What Its About

The Line mobile messaging service has decided to roll out a Web3 platform in Japan. Named ‘Game Dosi’, this blockchain gaming platform will allow Web3 game firms to launch non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and provide an easy-to-use development kit tool. The aim of Game Dosi is to accelerate the Web3 gaming culture among players, as well as developers. Japan has been investing heavily in Web3 to establish itself as a pioneer in adopting this technology.

As part of its service offerings, Game Dosi will provide legal support and risk management solutions via Line’s support team. Consultations to optimise game-centric token economics will also be provided via the platform, Line said in a blog post.

“With the slogan ‘Gamer First, Web3 Next,’ Game Dosi is a Web3, blockchain-based gaming platform that aims to provide fun and engaging games that users can enjoy without worrying about understanding the details of decentralised or crypto technology,” the post noted. “In addition, Game Dosi provides solutions to enable game developers to conveniently create their own blockchain-based Web3 games and build communities.”

A teaser site for Game Dosi has been launched that invites users to “Experience the Revolution” in the backdrop of colourful, moving graphics.

A recent Chainalysis report highlighted that in the second quarter of 2022, 58 percent of web traffic from Asian nations to crypto services was NFT-related. Another 21 percent traffic was related to play-to-earn blockchain games.

As per Statista, Japan’s revenue contribution to the global video gaming segment is projected to reach $52.43 billion (roughly Rs. 4,25,700 crore) by 2027.

Hence Japan’s interest in the Web3 gaming industry does not come across as a surprise, given that its prime minister, Fumio Kashida, has been on a hunt to find ‘new capitalism’ solutions to boost the country’s economy and Web3 tools have emerged as national favourites.

Last week, NTT Docomo that is touted as Japan’s largest telecom company teamed-up with IT major Accenture to fund the country’s Web3 exploration with $4 billion (roughly Rs. 39,100 crore).

“Web3 has the potential to form a new digital economy with a greater social impact than conventional economies, providing clearly defined benefits and secure environments for success,” a press statement from both the companies had claimed at the time.

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Japan’s Telecom Major NTT Docomo, Accenture Partner to Provide $4 Billion Fund for Web3 Exploration

Japan is accelerating efforts to utilise the next gen Web3 technology for a broader array of use cases. NTT Docomo, that is touted as Japan’s largest telecom company, has teamed-up with IT major Accenture to fund the country’s Web3 exploration with $4 billion (roughly Rs. 39,113 crore). As part of the collaborative effort, both NTT Docomo and Accenture will be providing training courses for engineers as well as business developers looking to enter the sector.

Japan’s new prime minister, Fumio Kashida has been on a hunt to find ‘new capitalism’ solutions to boost the country’s economy and Web3 tools have emerged as national favourites.

“Web3 has the potential to form a new digital economy with a greater social impact than conventional economies, providing clearly defined benefits and secure environments for success,” said a press statement from both the companies.

The top two points of focus for this partnership will be to create a tech platform, capable of supporting all Web3 infrastructures and assist developers that wish to contribute to the Web3 ecosystem.

For Accenture, this is an opportunity to create an industry platform leveraging the potential of the blockchain technology.

“We will help accelerate adoption of Web3 by leveraging the expertise we have gained in regional development through our collaborations with stakeholders from industry, government and academia,” said Atsushi Egawa, a senior managing director at Accenture.

The collaboration will also explore ways to use Web3 to solve issues around environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concerns.

“Web3 is the most impactful technological development since the Internet. We are glad to be promoting the Japan-developed Web3, and we welcome individuals and companies to join us in the global development of Web3 services,” Motoyuki Ii, the President and CEO, NTT Docomo said in a statement. The mobile operator claims to have over 84 million subscriptions.

This partnership keeps in line with the vision of the Japanese PM, who back in May had said that Japan would develop and foster a promotional environment for Web3, blockchain, NFTs, and the metaverse.

This is not the first time however, that a telecom major has stepped up to dabble in the Web3 space.

In June this year, South Korean telecom giant SK Telecom decided to create and operate a crypto wallet, powered by advanced Web3 capabilities.

With its wallet service, SK Telecom could be looking to stitch different elements of Web3, like cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and the metaverse, together in one thread.

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GameStop’s NFT Marketplace Goes Live With More Features on Immutable X After Beta Phase Run

US-based video game company GameStop has officially launched its non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace on Immutable X and will now support NFTs minted via the Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution. According to the company’s announcement on Monday, the GameStop NFT marketplace will “unlock access to Web3 games and millions of world-class, NFT gaming assets to tens of millions of GameStop players and GameStop Powerup Pro loyalty customers across the United States.” Its launch follows a joint fund of $100 million (roughly Rs. 826 crore) between GameStop and Immutable X in February 2022.

GameStop first announced the NFT marketplace in February, but it dropped several hints about the same in 2021 as well. The marketplace has been operating in a public beta phase since July, and after three months of testing, it is now live.

Since February, GameStop and Immutable X have embarked upon various journeys, including debuting a $100 million (roughly Rs. 826 crore) grant fund meant “to drive new game pitches, signings and integrations from builders and creators powering the future of NFTs and Web3 gaming,” as per a statement.

Recently, the integration of Immutable X into the GameStop wallet was also announced which granted the users the ability to manage their funds and digital assets under one roof easily.

“Our partnership with GameStop is an important step forward as Immutable brings the next billion players to Web3 gaming. Today’s launch of the GameStop NFT Marketplace means that we can now provide access to millions of additional NFTs, more of the top Web3 games being developed today, while maintaining a best-in-class experience for players,” said Robbie Ferguson, President and co-founder of Immutable X.

As reported earlier, GameStop added NFT trading cards in the virtual trading card game “Gods Unchained” under its PowerUp Rewards Pro program. The members of the loyalty program were given unique codes which were then used to redeem expansion packs in the game.

In a statement provided to CoinDesk, Jonathan Reedy, vice president of strategic partnerships at ImmutableX, revealed that down the line, the firm aims to onboard new Web3 gamers with the introduction of in-person and virtual gameplay along with educational material.

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Google Cloud Launches Its Own Node-Hosting Service: Here’s What It Means for Web3 Developers

Google is making it easier for Web3 developers to get coding distributed blockchain apps with the launch of Blockchain Node Engine in Google Cloud, which hosts and deploys fully managed blockchain nodes in the cloud. Google claims that some of the benefits of its service are being simpler to set up a node and faster to deploy. It also provides added security in the form of DDoS protection and the ability to put nodes behind a firewall. Given it’s a fully managed offering, it also offers service-level agreements.

Blockchain Node Engine, a fully managed node-hosting for Web3 development, will initially support Ethereum (ETH) as its first network. This will allow blockchain developers to offer fully managed Ethereum nodes that have safe access to the blockchain.

Google notes that manually deploying a node requires provisioning a compute instance, like installing an Ethereum client (such as geth), and waiting for the node to sync with the network. It may take many days to sync a full node from the first block (i.e., “genesis”).

Thus, Google Cloud’s Blockchain Node Engine aims to help accelerate and simplify this process by enabling developers to deploy a new node in a single action and select the region and network (mainnet, testnet). The engine has security settings that may assist prevent unwanted access to nodes. In this line, only trusted machines and users may connect with client endpoints when nodes are placed behind a Virtual Private Cloud firewall.

Moreover, since it is a fully managed service, there is no need to be concerned about Blockchain Node Engine’s availability. The nodes are being continually monitored by Google Cloud, and if anything goes wrong, it “restarts them during outages as needed.”

Google Cloud claims Blockchain Node Engine will free teams to concentrate on users rather than infrastructure by “reducing the need for a specialised DevOps team” and “by offering Google Cloud’s service level agreement (SLA).”

While offering the node service direct to businesses may be new, Google has been hosting blockchain nodes for some time. However, it previously had a different strategy. It partnered with the network founders in the cases of the Hedera DLT, and the Flow and Theta blockchains. It also joined Hedera’s governing council, which requires a financial commitment.

Apple launched the iPad Pro (2022) and the iPad (2022) alongside the new Apple TV this week. We discuss the company’s latest products, along with our review of the iPhone 14 Pro on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Eleven Percent of Global Web3 Talent Resides in India, Number Expected to Soon Grow by 120 Percent: Report

India, where rules and regulations around the crypto sector are still under drafting, is witnessing a big boom. Around 11 percent of the world’s total Web3 talent resides in India, the nation’s primary non-government tech trade body Nasscom said in a recent report. Titled ‘The India Web3 Startup Landscape, An Emerging Technology Leadership Frontier’ the report intends to explore the current state and future potential of the Web3 industry despite temporary roadblocks.

“India is the 3rd largest Web3 talent pool in the world. The Indian tech industry directly employs nearly 75,000 blockchain professionals today. Further, this talent pool is expected to grow by over 120 percent in the next one or two years,” a Nasscom press release posted by CryptoSlate said in a statement.

India seems to have an advantage in the Web3 industry now that the global demand for blockchain developer sis rising exponentially.

Indian developers are marching ahead inside the blockchain sector with expertise in development and quick reskilling that could eradicate the demand-supply gap.

At present, India is home to over 450 active Web3 startups. The Indian Web3 ecosystem has raised $1.3 billion (roughly Rs. 10,769 crore) funding through April 2022.

In addition, over 60 percent of the Indian Web3 startups have expanded outside India.

Most of the Indian Web3 firms are working in the areas of blockchain gaming, decentralised finance (DeFi), Metaverse, as well as NFTs.

“India’s rapid adoption of new-age technologies, its growing startup ecosystem, and large-scale digitally skilled talent potential is cementing the country’s position in the global Web3 landscape. While we are only scratching the surface when it comes to emerging tech such as Web3, the technology [is expected to] make significant advances leading to innovative use-cases and magnified positive impact at a grassroots level,” said Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh.

India recently secured the fourth position on the 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index compiled by blockchain research firm Chainalysis.

In a recent interview with Gadgets 360, UAE-based crypto-centric investment firm Cypher Capital highlighted that the blockchain tech can bring most benefits to the healthcare and logistics industries of India.

Since the beginning of this year, Indians have had to pay a 30 percent tax on all crypto earnings and profits. Back in July, Indian crypto exchanges recorded a nosedive in trading volumes after the one percent TDS rule on each transaction went live on July 1.

Despite the much-criticised tax regime, over seven per cent of Indians owned digital currency in the form of cryptocurrency in 2021, according to the United Nations trade and development body UNCTAD.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article. 

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CNN Announces Abrupt Shutdown of ‘Vault’ NFT Marketplace, Users Call It a ‘Rug Pull’

CNN, the popular TV news channel and digital media outlet, will no longer continue its non-fungible token (NFT) and Web3 project announced in the summer of 2021. The company confirmed this in a statement on Monday, saying, “we have decided that it’s time to say goodbye to Vault by CNN,” the Web3 project in question. CNN initially launched the project as a six-week experiment of issuing digital collectables or NFTs of exclusive historical moments and new stories. However, the scope of Vault was later expanded amid engagement and support from the community.

“The Vault team is honoured to have partnered with amazing journalists, producers, artists, photojournalists, and collectors from all over the world during our time together, but we have decided that it’s time to say goodbye to Vault by CNN,” the company said in a statement.

CNN added that the Discord channel would be closed by the end of October. However, the Vault’s website and NFTs already collected by users will continue to be live (on Flow blockchain), and collectors will be compensated.

“While we will no longer be developing or maintaining this community, the Vault NFT collection will live on,” CNN added. “To thank the thousands of collectors who joined us in this experiment, we are committed to compensating wallets that own Vault NFTs.”

Meanwhile, the community appears to be rattled by the announcement, to the extent some of the collectors are accusing CNN of a “rug pull.” As per a CoinTelegraph report, a CNN staff member in the ‘Vault’ Discord mentioned that users involved in the NFT program will be compensated in one way or another. He noted that users who bought NFTs would be compensated with stablecoins or another token.

The staff mentioned that details are being worked on but stressed that the company would only pay 20 percent of the mint price for each NFT back to those that bought them. He mentioned that the Vault marketplace would continue functioning, and the collections would remain valuable.

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Healthcare, Logistics to See Most Benefits via Blockchain: Crypto-Centric Venture Firm Cypher

India recently secured the fourth position on the 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index compiled by blockchain research firm Chainalysis. These ranks numbered all the countries based on their varied uses of different crypto-services and India outranked US and Russia on the scale that testified to the growing adoption of crypto in the second-most populous nation in the world. UAE-based crypto-centric investment firm Cypher Capital has highlighted that the blockchain tech can bring most benefits to the healthcare and logistics industries of India.

Inside the healthcare sector in India, that is projected to touch $372 billion (roughly Rs. 29,61,473 crore) this year, medical records are centralised to providers.

“This leads to duplicative data and disjointed records across stakeholders. Healthcare providers need to take utmost care in protecting their records from cyber hacks and outages and blockchain can solve this pain point by establishing a trust-based ecosystem that unifies patient data, and maps out the entire patient journey in the country. Moreover, this data would be much more secure as a single authority cannot control it,” Vineet Budki, Managing Partner and CEO, Cypher Capital told Gadgets 360 in an interview.

Since blockchain facilitates record-keeping via a decentralised ledger, India’s logistics sector that balances a market cap of over $250 billion (roughly Rs. 19,90,150 crore), can reduce major clerical errors and blind spots for the logistics sector as well.

“Today, with blockchain, logistics companies can enter into binding agreements using smart contracts, which are traceable and self-governed — removing dependencies on physical paperwork — saving time and administrative costs,” Budki added.

At this point, the Indian crypto community is treading lightly in-terms of pouring investments and building projects in the Web3 space under regulatory uncertainties.

This has, however, not pulled back Indian blockchain and Web3 developers from flocking to other nations in search for opportunities.

“We are seeing a lot of traction coming from Indian start-ups, so talent-wise, it’s growing at a rapid pace. Once the regulation clears out, it will act as a growth catalyst, and this is what entrepreneurs currently need: clarity rather than ambiguity,” Budki noted.

In March 2022, Cypher Capital launched a $100 million (roughly Rs. 800 crore) blockchain fund, out of which, it set aside $40 million (roughly Rs. 320 crore) for Indian crypto and blockchain start-ups.

Cypher Capital is amongst many venture firms that are ready to bet on India’s potential to develop the Web3 sector. These companies have observed previous patterns of how technological adoption unfolded in the country to be sure enough about giving Indians the space to expand work in the Web3 arena.

“We saw when India moved from offline commerce to online commerce. Despite being a laggard in e-commerce, India has now taken a centre-stage. We are still bullish on India and its potential to disrupt this market,” Budki added.

For any sector to show magnitude of expansion, hiring plays a key role.

At present, blockchain developers account for less than 1 percent of the global developer base making it quite difficult for recruiters to hire top talent in this space.

In the coming years, Budki reckons, a lot of talent will migrate from the tech industry to the blockchain space.

“Recruiters need to keep an eye on candidates that are open and enthusiastic about the industry and should even consider candidates that have no prior experience in crypto/blockchain. We are quite early to have blockchain veterans in the space and it is better to hire talent that is willing to learn and grow,” the Cypher Capital chief pointed.

In a new report, KuCoin crypto exchange has claimed that India currently has over 115 million crypto investors, making for 15 percent of its massive population.

The Indian crypto market is expected to reach the valuation of $241 million (roughly Rs. 1,924 crore) by 2030, the same report had claimed.

Unfortunately, India did not make it to the list of countries, that have taken crypto-friendly measures to contribute to the growth of this nascent industry.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article. 

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Puma Launches Its First Metaverse Experience With NFTs Redeemable as Real Sneakers

Puma, the German sports apparel giant, has announced the unveiling of its first-ever metaverse website experience called Black Station. It features exclusive non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with limited edition redeemable physical sneakers which will be launched as part of its ‘Futrograde’ show during the ongoing New York Fashion Week (NYFW). Puma Black Station is meant to be an immersive and interactive portal for consumers to experience the future of the brand. Puma now joins Adidas Originals as the latest sportswear brand to launch digital collectibles.

On the metaverse website, visitors will enter a hyper-realistic digital lobby space with three separate portals. The first two portals, accessible from September 7, will unveil exclusive never-seen-before Nitro NFRNO and Nitro Fastroid sneakers linked to Puma’s recent Nitropass NFT mint. The sneakers made their debut at NYFW.

The Black Station metaverse is created by venture company FTR. The metaverse is designed with Unreal Engine 5 with support for cutting-edge graphics.

“Twenty years ago, Black Station was Puma’s home for our most innovative designs in fashion,” said Adam Petrick, Puma’s Chief Brand Officer. “Given the boundaries we are pushing from a product design and digital standpoint, we found it fitting to bring Black Station back as a new portal for digital exploration across fashion, sport performance, our heritage classics, and innovation.”

It is worth noting that this is not Puma’s first foray into Web 3. Earlier this year, Puma integrated NFTs in a sponsorship campaign with football club Manchester City, including limited edition NFTs of Puma boots worn by footballer Sergio Aguero.

Puma’s Futrograde collection is the latest in a trend of clothing and luxury brands releasing physical items tied to digital assets, called “phygitals.” In May of this year, the luxe brand Prada released NFTs that could be redeemed for physical items like shirts.

Puma’s use of a metaverse space is not new either. Brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Estee Lauder have designed similar spaces for individuals to browse digital representations of their products up-close.

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