Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs to Amend Business Group Standards for Virtual Currency Industry
According to Foresight News: Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs has announced plans to amend business group standards by adding a new category and scope for the virtual currency industry. Officials from the Ministry stated that after a two-month notice period for the draft amendment, businesses that meet the qualifications for virtual currency operations can apply to form a guild, which will help implement relevant legal compliance and self-discipline regulations.
As per the draft amendment, the scope of virtual currency business includes the exchange of virtual currencies with legal tender or other virtual currencies, virtual currency transfers, custody or management of virtual currency services, or providing related management tools, as well as participating in and providing services related to the issuance or sale of virtual currencies. However, virtual currencies do not include digital forms of the New Taiwan Dollar, foreign currencies, currencies issued in Mainland China, Hong Kong, or Macau, securities, and other financial assets issued according to laws and regulations. Regarding the application process for establishing a business group, officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs said that it requires more than five businesses to submit an application to the Ministry of the Interior, and can only be established after consulting the opinions of the competent authorities and local governments.
Burnt Announces Public Testnet Launch for Layer1 Blockchain XION
According to Foresight News: Crypto startup Burnt has announced the launch of the Layer1 blockchain XION public testnet, allowing users to explore the XION ecosystem. XION is a Layer1 blockchain designed for consumer adoption.
Burnt was incubated by Injective Labs and raised $3 million in May 2021 for its decentralized auction protocol, Burnt Finance, built on Solana. The funding round was led by Multicoin and Alameda Research. In January 2022, Burnt completed an $8 million Series A funding round led by Animoca Brands, with participation from Multicoin Capital, Alameda Research, DeFiance, Valor Capital Group, Figment, Spartan Capital, Tribe Capital, Play Ventures, HashKey, Mechanism Capital, DeFi Alliance, and Terra. In March of this year, Burnt Finance was renamed to Burnt and announced its commitment to the development of XION.
Aptos Partners with Neowiz and Intella X to Develop Web3 Gaming Ecosystem
According to Foresight News: Aptos has announced a partnership with South Korean gaming company Neowiz and Web3 gaming platform Intella X, which is jointly launched by Polygon and Neowiz. The collaboration aims to develop the Intella X ecosystem and support the Web3 gaming sector. Neowiz and Intella X will also join the Aptos ecosystem.
Gitcoin Citizens Announce First Round Matching Results
According to Foresight News: Gitcoin Citizens announced the results of their first round of matching, distributing a total of $102,698 to 33 recipient projects. Gitcoin allocated $20,000 in DAI from the matching pool funds, while the community donated $82,968, resulting in a 400% increase in matching funds. Recipient projects include Karma, Biteye, BanklessDAO's Gitcoin Citizens, Bankless Academy, Dune Analytics dashboard - Proof Of Stake by Vitalik Buterin - Digital Book, DeSci Round Operators, ITU Blockchain, and Kairos Research.
In February 2023, Gitcoin contributors proposed a pilot series of secondary financing to support the Gitcoin community. Gitcoin Citizens is a group of community members eager to contribute their time and skills to serve the DAO and the broader ecosystem. The three objectives of this experiment include gaining experience in building their ecosystem using secondary financing and the Allo protocol, trying a more cost-effective supplementary budget process, and increasing community participation in Gitcoin from contributions to governance at all levels.
Fuel Announces Winners of Sway Summer Hackathon
According to Foresight News: Fuel, the modular execution layer, has announced the winners of the Sway Summer Hackathon, which includes SwayCall, SwayPay, Kooka, ReFuel Wallet, Coinnect, Saprana, DID:Fuel, Nila, Payroll, Weave Protocol, and FuelSocial. The Sway Summer Hackathon took place from July 7th to August 7th, with a total prize pool of $100,000, which will be distributed through DoraHacks.
Whale Address Liquidated 106.8 WBTC
According to Foresight News: A whale address starting with 0x47A was liquidated for 106.8 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), equivalent to approximately $2.87 million, five hours ago. The address is now in the process of extracting collateral to sell and repay debts.
Celsius Unsecured Creditors Committee to Hold Webinar on Bankruptcy Restructuring Plan
Foresight News: The Celsius Unsecured Creditors Committee is set to hold a webinar on August 21 regarding the disclosure statement for the Celsius bankruptcy restructuring plan. The webinar will cover specific topics, including the voting process for creditors under the plan and how to fill out ballots.
MasterExchange Raises $2.7 Million and Launches First Initial Music Offering
According to Foresight News: MasterExchange, a music royalty investment platform, has raised $2.7 million in funding from investors including Vectr Fintech, Claes-Henrik Julander, and Rob Small. The platform, co-founded by artificial intelligence and blockchain expert Alexander Fred-Ojala, enables music creators to raise funds by selling a portion of their future income (i.e., music royalties) to support their early-stage creations.
MasterExchange has launched its first 'Initial Music Offering (IMO)' product, titled 'Sofia,' which has already sold out. The platform plans to introduce more IMOs this fall. According to the MasterExchange website, royalty shares are tradable assets on the platform, with each share associated with a unique non-fungible token (NFT) on the Polygon network. However, the NFTs are held by an external crypto custodian, and users will not directly interact with NFTs while using MasterExchange.
Taiwanese Singer Huang Licheng Sells Large Number of DeGods NFTs
According to Foresight News: Taiwanese singer Huang Licheng, also known as Machi Big Brother, has reportedly been selling a large number of DeGods NFTs since yesterday. His wallet now contains only 28 DeGods NFTs, down from over 400 held on August 17th. Currently, the floor price for DeGods on Blur is 4.28 ETH.
Mysten Labs Extends Bullshark Quests 2 End Date and Introduces Leaderboard
According to Foresight News: Mysten Labs has extended the end date of Bullshark Quests 2 from August 29 to September 5 and introduced a leaderboard. As previously reported, Mysten Labs collaborated with the Sui Foundation to offer 5 million SUI rewards for players in Quests 2. The rewards consist of two pools of 2.5 million SUI each and will be distributed after the completion of Task 2.
Scroll Beta Testnet Launches on Sepolia
According to Foresight News: Layer2 solution Scroll has announced the launch of Scroll Beta testnet on Sepolia for developers and users. New features and improvements include zkEVM upgrade, bridge upgrade, and infrastructure upgrade.
In terms of zkEVM upgrade, EVM compatibility has been improved through precompiled upgrades, efficient on-chain verification through proof compression and aggregation, and enhanced circuit integrity. As for the bridge upgrade, Gas costs can be reduced by up to 50%, and a trustless message relay function is introduced between L1 and L2, eliminating the reliance on trusted relayers. Regarding infrastructure upgrade, the EIP-2718 transaction type L1MessageTx is introduced for trustless message passing, getting rid of trusted centralized relayers. Additionally, a simplified circuit capacity checker prevents proof overflow and enhances coordinator functionality.
Scroll states that so far, over 100 projects have integrated with Scroll, and more projects are in the process of integration. The Scroll testnet on Sepolia will run alongside the future mainnet as the primary testing platform for users and developers. Scroll Goerli will be discontinued after the mainnet launch.
