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a16z crypto is straightening out the confusing world of non-fungible token (NFT) copyright licenses.  

The web3-focused investment arm of the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz has created free “Can’t Be Evil” licenses specific to NFTs to help creators either protect or release their intellectual property (IP), create an irrevocable baseline of IP rights for NFT holders and outline exactly what IP rights they have, the company’s Miles Jennings, general counsel, and Chris Dixon, founder, wrote in a blog post today.

The project is intended to not only make the NFT project’s copyright license more explicit but remove potential copyright vulnerabilities that can potentially lead to legal consequences.  

“Whereas currently many NFT holders have to trust creators and previous owners to make ‘not-evil’ decisions regarding their NFTs, projects using ‘Can’t Be Evil’ licenses can make NFT ecosystems more trustless, providing holders with a minimum baseline of standard real-world rights, thereby harmonizing real-world ownership with on-chain ownership,” Jennings and Dixon stated in the release.  

Copyright has historically been ill-defined in the NFT space, sometimes leading to litigious outcomes. NFT project founders like Yuga Labs and Larva Labs have issued cease-and-desist letters for derivative projects that bore a resemblance to their IP, including in June when Yuga filed suit against conceptual artist Ryder Ripps for founding a project too similar to its Bored Ape Yacht Club.  

What IP rights an NFT holder maintains over their asset is often a confusing issue, which even spurred one former CryptoPunk owner to sell off his NFT and start a copyright-free project called Nouns.  

Without explicit copyright licensing at the outset of a collection, NFT project founders can change or remove their copyright overnight, as was the case with Proof Collective’s blue-chip NFT collections Moonbirds and Oddities, much to the frustration of their NFT holders. Those collections are now in the public domain and can be used for free.

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The US ticket sales firm Ticketmaster has allowed organizers to sell live event tickets as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).  

These tickets can be sold before, during or after events on the Dapper Labs-developed Flow blockchain, the Sports Business Journal first reported.  

Ticketmaster first dabbled with digital collectibles in November of 2021 when it released commemorative tickets, or tickets kept as memorabilia as opposed to access to an event, at select NFL games.  

Now, Ticketmaster is launching blockchain-mediated event ticketing via NFTs, a long-discussed utility for NFTs. The firm already released over 5 million NFTs on Flow for Apollo Theater, The Black Crows, Gavin DeGraw and other event organizer clients, According to SBJ.  

Ticketing firms have eyed NFT-based tickets to reduce scams or ticket scalping, the act of buying and reselling a ticket at a higher price, thanks to the open traceability blockchain affords. But as The Block previously reported, NFT-based tickets are still susceptible to illicit activity.

Dapper Labs oversees the Flow blockchain, the foundation for its NFT projects of NBA Top Shot and CryptoKitties. Dapper Labs had a valuation of $7.6 billion as of September 2021. 

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Bitcoin mining difficulty has increased by 9.26%, the biggest adjustment since January and the third positive one in a row.

The change is reflected in data published Thursday by BTC.com, which tracks network mining difficulty and posts an update as adjustments take place roughly every two weeks.

The network’s hash rate has also gone up by over 12% since August 18, the date of the last update, according to data compiled by The Block Research.

Mining difficulty had fallen significantly earlier in the summer, as bitcoin miners, particularly in Texas, turned off their machines in response to peak power demand due to the extreme heat.

Mining difficulty refers to the complexity of the mathematical process behind mining, during which miners are repeatedly trying to find a hash below a set level. Miners that “discover” this hash win the reward for the next transaction block. The difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks (roughly every two weeks) in sync with the network’s hash rate.

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Curve Finance could launch its crvUSD decentralized stablecoin next month, according to a comment from founder Michael Egorov on the Curve community Telegram channel. 

Egorov hinted at the possibility for Curve to introduce crvUSD during the Redefine Tomorrow 2022 virtual cryptocurrency event last month. On Monday, in response to a question about a potential launch in September, Egorov replied, saying this was “possible.” 

Previously, Egorov implied an over-collateralized stablecoin — a type of decentralized stablecoin backed using an excess reserve collateral design, like Dai — was on the way for the decentralized exchange protocol but stopped short of revealing a release date. 

His comment sparked a positive response from members of the Curve community. Though, in a similar style to his Redefine Tomorrow 2022 fireside chat, he did not elaborate further. 

Curve specializes in stablecoin swaps and is one of the largest decentralized protocols, with over $5.8 billion in value locked on the platform. However, this has dropped from a peak of $24.3 billion in January following the MIM, UST and stETH depegging events — where these assets lost their corresponding 1:1 peg to USD or ETH. 

In light of recent sanctions surrounding Tornado Cash and the subsequent freezing of centralized stablecoin assets such as USDC in affected wallets, there are growing calls from the DeFi community that decentralized finance requires decentralized stablecoins.  

The potential Curve stablecoin follows similar proposals from other DeFi protocols, such as Aave, which could drive much-needed revenue and users to these platforms during the current market downturn.

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

“Cryptoqueen” accomplice Christopher Hamilton is facing extradition to the U.S. after a British judge rejected his bid to delay the process on Tuesday.

District Judge Nicholas Rimmer rejected the bid hold off on extradition, Law360 reported. Hamilton is accused of laundering $105 million in connection with the OneCoin ponzi scheme. 

OneCoin, led by the now infamous international fugitive Ruja Ignatova known as the “Cryptoqueen,” sold educational cryptocurrency trading packages to its members, who were then given with commissions to sell packages to more new members. At its peak, the company claimed to have as many as 3 million members from around the globe.

OneCoin “induced investors all over the world to invest in this actually worthless currency,” according to Europol. The Ponzi scheme is estimated to have netted about $4 billion. Ignatova is on Europe and the FBI’s most wanted list. It is widely considered the biggest scam yet in the history of crypto. 

Hamilton’s co-accused Robert McDonald avoided extradition on human rights grounds. McDonald cares for his wife who suffers from progressive multiple sclerosis, according to Law360, and per the judge’s written statement separation from his wife would “be extremely harsh in light of her poor health.” This is based on Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which includes the right to respect for private and family life.

The case will now be seen by Secretary of State Priti Patel, at which point Hamilton is entitled to appeal the decision.

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Koop, a web3 protocol focused on the creator economy, announced Wednesday its public launch and $5 million in seed funding. 

Variant Fund and Nick Tomaino’s venture capital firm 1confirmation co-led the round, with Palm Tree Crew, Day One Ventures, Ethereal Ventures, DeFi Alliance, Volt Capital and others participating. Angel investors including crypto influencer Cooper Turley, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan and ex-Sequoia partner Liu Jiang also backed the round.

Koop was founded earlier this year by 21-year-old Natalia Murillo. It lets users create “niche, private, cooperative spaces,” Murillo told The Block in an interview. She said the next brands and products will be created by cooperative spaces or squads and Koop enables anyone to contribute to decisions in communities. 

“Koop is built for collaborators, for builders, for self-starters, specifically those that are creating counter cultures,” she said. “And crypto has always been about niche counter-culture.”

Koop says it currently has 50 active communities, with 8,500 on waitlists and $850 million in membership volume after two months in beta. To raise revenue, Koop charges membership fees of 2%, said Murillo.

Koop is currently built on the Ethereum blockchain and it plans expansion of Solana and Polygon in the near future, said Murillo. It leverages non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or collector passes to organize and manage a community and monetize in a web3 world. 

“We launched Aera Force with the premise of a community-driven participatory investment process. Anyone in the community that wants to contribute has the opportunity to and can earn rewards too,” said Tyler Stambaugh of Aera Force DAO, a venture DAO focused on web3 climate projects. “Koop is a core part of our stack, allowing us to scout, distribute rewards, and build a truly community owned network.”

There are currently five people working for Koop and Murillo is looking to hire three more in engineering roles.

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Arbitrum, one of the leaders in Layer 2 scaling, has upgraded Arbitrum One to Arbitrum Nitro.

The Nitro upgrade is expected to vastly increase network speeds and reduce transaction costs. The migration upgrade will reduce transaction costs through call data compression, increased Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) compatibility, and further advancing interoperability with Ethereum Layer 1, Arbitrum said in its Medium post earlier this month.

Arbitrum Nova, a separate chain focused on gaming and social, went live August 9 and is built on the Nitro stack. It is host to Reddit’s community points blockchain initiative.

Arbitrum, as of this writing, has the highest total value locked (TVL) across all Layer 2 protocols, at about $2.5 billion, according to l2beat. Over the past week, Arbitrum has also surpassed the second leading optimistic roll-up chain Optimism in daily transaction count.

Arbitrum Nitro launched its permissionless developer testnet in April, giving a first glimpse of the Nitro upgrade.

The announcement today officially replaces and migrates Arbitrum One, the current chain, to the new and improved Nitro chain after several months of testnet operations.

“We have released a robust stack in our overall mission to scale Ethereum, allowing users to experience reduced fees, increased capacity, and an overall faster and more efficient experience across the ecosystem.” said Arbitrum CEO Steven Goldfeder.

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Stacked, a livestreaming platform owned and operated by its community, has closed a $12.9 million Series A fundraising round led by Pantera Capital.

Other investors include Z Venture Capital and GFR Fund, according to a release on Wednesday. 

Founded by Alex Lin, Stacked started as a watch party app and found success in Latin America. The startup then pivoted towards web3 streaming more broadly after seeing a gap in the market. Stacked aims to free streamers and content creators from big technology platforms, which have the power to change both their compensation and platform features on a whim. 

“We saw the value that individual content creators brought to the platform, and we thought, ‘Wow, these streaming platforms are all worth billions and billions of dollars, but very, very rarely do you see an individual creator compensated fairly for the amount of value that they bring to the platform,’” said Ryan Wen, Stacked’s chief of staff, in an interview with The Block. 

Creators can stream gaming content, host watch parties and chat with fans on the Stacked platform. In return, they receive Stacked governance tokens that correspond to their contributions as creator and at the same time allow them to accrue ownership of the platform. 

A web2 tech stack

Stacked isn’t going all in on web3 all at once, however. 

“Our view is that the technology today is not ready for a fully on-chain decentralized streaming platform,” Wen said. 

Stacked is using a traditional web2 tech stack and has no immediate plans to distribute content on-chain, Wen said. However, if the technology reaches a point that would support streaming, then Stacked would consider switching, he added. 

“We made the decision to actually not build this platform fully on-chain because we didn’t want to compromise on the user experience,” Wen said. “I think consumer technology is tricky, especially streamers are very much wed to their setup, they don’t like a lot of change.” 

The governance token is what provides the ownership and decentralization component of the platform, he added.

Building in a bear market

Stacked closed the Series A round in mid-April and it will provide the startup with five to seven years of runway, Wen said. 

“We are still in build mode, we’re in no rush to launch if the conditions aren’t right,” Wen said. 

The new funds will be used to invest in marketing, content acquisition, and hiring, according to the release. The nine-person team also plans to expand into Latin America, India and Southeast Asia — to tap into those regions’ mobile-driven demographics. 

“Mid-to-long term, we do believe there’s a lot of opportunity internationally, mostly because the streaming platforms in these other markets are not as entrenched,” said Wen, adding that many of these markets are also crypto native. 

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

GoGoPool, a decentralized staking protocol on Avalanche, raised $5 million in a seed round co-led by Framework Ventures and Coinfund. Other investors in the round include Avalaunch, Republic Capital and Flow Traders, according to a release on Wednesday.  

Staking protocols are vital in helping to secure proof-of-stake blockchains. They enable individuals to stake their tokens to help verify transactions on the network and, in return, to receive rewards.   

In recent months, liquid staking — a slightly different process to normal staking — has become increasingly popular. It enables users to lock up funds to earn rewards for securing the network, while maintaining access to those funds through a derivative of the staked token. Lido popularized liquid staking on the Ethereum network. 

GoGoPool is a new staking outfit that aims to bring liquid staking to Avalanche, a Layer 1 blockchain, while also simplifying the process of launching subnets on the Avalanche blockchain. 

What are subnets?

Subnets are blockchains that can be spun up on Avalanche for specific applications or services. John Wu, the president of Ava Labs, described this as being like “blockchain as a service” in an interview with The Block. 

Steven Gates, co-founder and CEO of GoGoPool, said that when he tried to build his new startup on Avalanche, he realized that launching a subnet can be a costly process. 

“There’s two main problems [with subnets],” Gates said. “One, there’s like no open-source tooling for developers. So, it’s still frictional. And the second is the economic cost of running a subnet is extremely high, like totally untenable.” 

GoGoPool, launched earlier this year, aims to remove some of the challenges entrepreneurs face setting up infrastructure for subnets.  

GoGoPool offers pools where hardware operators will validate a subnet in exchange for rewards. This means that subnets can get validators straight away, removing one of the big pain points of getting them off the ground. 

Liquid staking on Avalanche 

Both retail and institutional players can also use GoGoPool for liquid staking. On GoGoPool, stakers will receive ggAVAX tokens to represent their staked AVAX, according to the release.  

“We’re really focused on using liquid staking as a streamlined way to onboard people into subnets because we really think subnets are poised to become the WordPress or Shopify moment,” Gates said. “What they did for web2, I think subnets can do to web3.” 

The proceeds of the fundraise will be used to expand GoGoPool’s team, accelerate product development ahead of launching on mainnet, and for developing new open-source tooling for subnets, Gates added. 

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The core developers at Helium have proposed to migrate the project to Solana in a move that aims to achieve additional scalability.

On Tuesday, the Helium developers put forward a proposal “HIP 70” that suggests the project should deprecate its own blockchain and migrate all of its blockchain-related operations to Solana. The team cited Solana’s fast and cheap transactions for its decision to choose it for a potential migration.

The proposal argues that the migration will be a needed step in further scaling Helium’s decentralized wireless network. Currently, Helium functions as a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN), consisting of nearly 1 million Internet of Things (IoT) devices called hotspots. The team claims to have various clients that make use of the network for enterprise use cases.

The wireless network leverages blockchain primarily as an incentivization layer to help drive growth. Here, the team pays its users in native helium tokens as an incentive to install hotspot devices to help expand the network’s connectivity.

The team has explained that the Helium blockchain has been facing scaling complexities related to the large number of hotspots on its network, a reason why it wants to make use of a more scalable chain. Hence, the latest proposal hopes to outsource Helium’s blockchain layer to Solana, which it says would be better suited for the project due to its faster speed.

Post the migration, the network will continue to use the same hotspot devices but the rewards will be paid on Solana. To do so, the native tokens used by Helium such as helium (HNT) and data credits (DC), would have to be redeployed to Solana among other things.

Yet another change introduced in the proposal is to start using oracles, a piece of software that connects blockchains to external systems. The team said that oracles will allow data to securely move between off-chain devices and the Solana blockchain.

The proposal is in a discussion phase and will be put to a community vote on September 12, according to an official blog post from Helium Foundation.

Helium raised a $200 million Series D at a $1.2 billion valuation in February.

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.