Bitcoin

Kraken unveils NFT Marketplace Plans: Here’s What Makes It Unique

Kraken currently works on a model that will determine the liquidation price of NFTs prior to use as backing for loans Digital asset trading platforms are the latest institutions to enter the NFT space through opening NFT marketplaces. US-based crypto exchange Kraken announced plans to launch its own mid-last week. Jesse Powell, Kraken’s CEO, stated…

Kraken currently works on a model that will determine the liquidation price of NFTs prior to use as backing for loans

Digital asset trading platforms are the latest institutions to enter the NFT space through opening NFT marketplaces. US-based crypto exchange Kraken announced plans to launch its own mid-last week. Jesse Powell, Kraken’s CEO, stated that his exchange is working to create a platform that would allow investors to access the NFT market.

A Bloomberg post published today has now provided more information on the planned launch. Bloomberg reported that Powell, the exchange’s founder, said that the proposed marketplace would interest investors seeking something more than just collecting digital art. The marketplace would offer custodial services, and users could also request loans based on digital collectibles.

NFTs have other utilities beyond aesthetic value

Powell said that Kraken is developing a system to facilitate such transactions. Before the requested amounts could be released, the exchange would first determine the art’s liquidation value.

” If you make a CryptoPunk deposit on Kraken, we will be able reflect that value in your account. He also said that you can borrow funds against the ,”.

The CEO also spoke about the evolution of NFTs. He said that although they were around for some time, it took them a while to become mainstream. While digital art was primarily a collector’s item that can be displayed or flaunted, he stated that assets are evolving to offer other utility options in the new year. This includes using NFTs to secure crypto loans or stablecoins.

“Phase 1 was speculation. Phase 2 is about buying art and supporting artists. Phase 3 is about functional uses of NFTs ,” Powell noted.

In offering NFT collateralisation, Kraken follows crypto lending platform Nexo’s announcement last week of the launch of a lending desk. Antoni Trenchev, the platform’s CEO, stated that lending services like Nexo’s will play an important role in obtaining value from NFTs. This is without the owners having to relinquish ownership.

Crypto exchanges are loving NFTs

Kraken may have taken a while to create an NFT marketplace but it was long overdue. The exchange has been stalking the NFT space for months now, having released a series of reports such as the finding of NFT projects’ dominance of Ethereum activity.

Its peer cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Binance and FTX have launched marketplaces. Coinbase, on the other hand, is building up a large waitlist for its market next year. These centralised entities are competing with OpenSea, the dominant non-custodial marketplace.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops to 4.33%, Largest Reduction in 10 months

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops 4.33%, Biggest Reduction in 10 Months

It’s now 4. 33% easier to mine bitcoin over the next two weeks as the difficulty adjustment algorithm (DAA) dropped from 31. 25 trillion to today’s 29. 85 trillion. It’s the largest DAA drop since July 17, 2021, when the difficulty dropped 4. 81% at block height 691,488.

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops 4. 33% — The Largest Drop Since July 2021

Mining bitcoin is a lot less difficult than it was before May 25, 2022, as Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment algorithm (DAA) saw a 4. 33% reduction in difficulty.
Prior to the drop, Bitcoin’s difficulty was approximately 31. 25 trillion and today, it’s approximately 29. 85 trillion after the largest drop since July 2021. The DAA change occurred at block height 737,856 on Wednesday.

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops 4.33%, Biggest Reduction in 10 Months

Bitcoin’s USD value has been lower in recent times, so a downward difficulty adjustment helps miners recoup some of the losses by making it 4. 33% easier to find bitcoin block rewards. Currently, a Bitmain Antminer S19 Pro+ Hyd. with 198 terahash per second (TH/s) in hashpower can get an estimated $9. 24 per day in BTC profits.
Bitcoin’s global hashrate has been consistent and above the 200 exahash per second (EH/s) region for quite some time now. On May 2, 2022, Bitcoin’s hashrate tapped an all-time high at 275 EH/s at block height 734,577.
Right now, there are 1,864 bitcoin (BTC) blocks left to be found until the next DAA change on June 8, 2022, and 101,992 blocks left until the next reward halving. There will be roughly 51 consecutive DAA changes every two weeks before the block reward halving occurs.
Bitcoin’s current difficulty, the USD value, and a cost of $0. 12 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) makes it so machines that produce 30 terahash per second (TH/s) are not very profitable, unless the miner pays less than $0. 12 per kWh. For example, the Innosilicon T3+ (52 TH/s), gets around $0. 21 per day in BTC profits if electricity costs $0. 12 per kWh.
Three-day mining pool statistics indicate that there are 12 known mining pools today dedicating SHA256 hashpower to the BTC chain. Around 1. 44% of the global hashrate is operated by unknown or stealth miners with roughly 3. 04 EH/s of hashpower.

Metrics over the past 72 hours show Foundry USA has been the top bitcoin mining pool in terms of global hashrate and blocks found. At the time of writing, Foundry’s hashrate is approximately 24. 28% of Bitcoin’s global hashrate or 51. 10 EH/s. The pool found 101 BTC block rewards out of the 416 blocks found during the past three days.
Bitmain’s Antpool managed to find 61 blocks out of the 416 found in three days, making it the second largest pool in terms of computational power. Antpool’s 30. 86 EH/s of hashrate equates to 14. 66% of the global aggregate.
With BTC‘s difficulty running at 29,850,529,410,160 estimates currently show another reduction is in the cards, but 13 days can change the estimation a great deal. The DAA has a reduction of 0. 16% lower.

This story contains tags

12 known pools, 200 EH/s, Antpool, Bitcoin Miners, Bitcoin mining, Bitcoin’s hashrate, BTC hashpower, BTC Hashrate, BTC Mining, BTC network, DAA, difficulty adjustment algorithm, difficulty change, Exahash, Foundry USA, mining bitcoin, Mining BTC, S19 Pro+ Hyd. , Terahash, Unknown Miners

What do you think about the downward difficulty change on May 25 at block height 737,856 on Wednesday? Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman, the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News, is a Florida-based financial journalist. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. Redman is passionate about Bitcoin, open-source codes, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. This article is not intended to be a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any products or services. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. The author and the company are not responsible for any loss or damage resulting from or in connection to the content, goods, or services discussed in this article.

Bitcoin

LimeWire signs major deal with Universal Music Group to provide music-based NFTs

LimeWire, the new NFTs marketplace that sprung from the discontinued popular music app of the early 2000s, has scored a huge deal with Universal Music Group (UMG). LimeWire’s continued rise into the spotlight is due to the partnership with UMG. UMG is a global leader in entertainment and music. Per a press announcement released on…

LimeWire, the new NFTs marketplace that sprung from the discontinued popular music app of the early 2000s, has scored a huge deal with Universal Music Group (UMG).

LimeWire’s continued rise into the spotlight is due to the partnership with UMG. UMG is a global leader in entertainment and music.

Per a press announcement released on Tuesday, the deal with Universal Music allows the firm to offer its digital collectibles marketplace to several iconic record labels and revered artists.

UMG to license artists to LimeWire’s NFT marketplace

Labels could tap into LimeWire NFT Marketplace to increase fan engagement through digital music NFTs. These include Virgin Music, Virgin Music and Republic Records.

Paul, LimeWire coCEOs, commented on the collaboration. Julian Zehetmayr and Paul, LimeWire coCEOs, stated that the partnership was “true evidence of the speed at which the music business embraces Web3”.

“We’re thrilled to open up the LimeWire NFT ecosystem to Universal Music Group artists and fans and can’t wait to see the first creative projects being launched on the marketplace,” they added.

Important milestone reached! We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Universal Music Group @UMG, opening up opportunities for music NFTs to all artists signed to Universal and UMG labels.

Read more here https://t.co/VHolELPC1e pic.twitter.com/JfE3IfMEQ0

— LimeWire (@limewire) May 17, 2022

The partnership will enable the marketplace to access the licenses it needs to partner artists signed up by UMG. The collaboration will translate to original music-based NFT project.

The NFT market continues to grow, as major players, including governments, embrace technology that allows the creation and security of digital items on blockchain.

Monetization possibilities make the industry a great fit for artists and other people looking to improve their revenue streams. LimeWire will offer that opportunity to UMG artists.

Bitcoin

Smart Token Labs supports Carla Chan & La Prairie in First NFT drop

Manly, Australia, 17th May, 2022, Chainwire Bringing Art and Beauty Lovers Into Web3 The first NFT art collection by La Prairie, the leading luxury skincare brand in the world, was created with the help of Carla Chan, a world-renowned digital artist. It is more than just the inspiring and innovative art it contains. “Space Beyond”…

Manly, Australia, 17th May, 2022, Chainwire

Bringing Art and Beauty Lovers Into Web3

The first NFT art collection by La Prairie, the leading luxury skincare brand in the world, was created with the help of Carla Chan, a world-renowned digital artist. It is more than just the inspiring and innovative art it contains.

“Space Beyond” by Carla Chan involves 365 + 1 editions of unique, forever-changing artworks generated in real-time with weather and demographic data. Each artwork represents a day in the year of the 31 most populated cities across the globe.

The artwork will be dropped on May 18 at FRIEZE New York and proceeds will benefit the preservation of glaciers around the world.

The drop can be accessed at www.nft.carlachan.com from 11am EDT on May 18.

Smart Token Labs supports Carla Chan, La Prairie and brings the NFT drop to life in order to attract an art buyer audience that isn’t necessarily crypto-native.

“Our TokenScript framework was used to make it simple for people to buy the NFT without having a digital wallet, and then to unlock unique experiences using the La Prairie brand via NFT,” stated Victor Zhang, CEO of Smart Token Labs.

‘ The payment flow allows you to buy the NFT using a credit card. A magic link attestation will be sent to the buyer to prove ownership. The magic link can be used to mint the NFT at a later date via a digital wallet.

NFT holders will have access to exclusive experiences and custom software via TokenScript Brand Connector, which connects the NFT with a La Prairie brand website.

Carla Chan stated : “We are thrilled that holders of Space Beyond NFTs can seamlessly interact with La Prairie brands at locations around the globe via experiences such as events and product reveals. Smart Token Labs has provided world-class technology and support to us in bringing art buyers from all over the globe into our first NFT collection. We are grateful for their help. We couldn’t have been happier with the scope and excitement of this project. Now I’m super excited to launch my collection at Frieze New York and Art Basel Hong Kong. It will certainly bring/attract old collectors into web3 with no hassle “

About Smart Token Labs

Smart Token Labs has set a new standard in tokenized future. Since 2017, it has been building two core bridges to this future: AlphaWallet, a superuser agent for smart tokens and TokenScript, the smart token interface for token composability. TokenScript is a token-centric framework that allows you to build composable smart tokens across all NFTs, PlayFi and DeFi.

About Carla Chan

Carla Chan, a media artist based in Berlin from Hong Kong, is . Her approach to media art is similar to the ever-evolving technology. It challenges conventional perceptions of media interfaces and opens up new possibilities for artistic expressions. Chan’s work has been exhibited at many international venues, including the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HK), ZKM (DE), Art Basel (HK), Frieze New York (US), Today Art Museum (CN), among others. At the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards, she was awarded the Toy Berlin Masters Award in DE and Young Artist Award in Media Arts. Her works are in the Burger Collection (CH/HK), and M+ Museum, (HK )

About La Prairie

La Prairie is the leader in luxury skincare, present in 90 countries around the world. Rooted in Switzerland, La Prairie evokes innovation, performance, high-touch service and Swissness — the purity, precision and excellence inherent to the extraordinary land that saw the brand’s inception in 1978.

About La Prairie and Art

La Prairie is intrinsically connected to the world art from its inceptions. It finds inspiration in contemporary aesthetic codes which fuel the House’s creative approach. Paul Niehans, La Prairie’s founder, has been a tireless pursuer of timeless beauty. La Prairie creates new connections with other art worlds in an effort to preserve beauty for all time.

Contacts

Chief Marketing Officer, Brent Annells, Smart Token Labs, [email protected]