Worldwide Web3 Wonderland | Edition #26 – April 2023
Worldwide Web3 Wonderland | Edition #26 – April 2023
Summary of news from 18th March to 6th April 2023
Happy Thursday, fellow explorers of the digital realm!
With Easter approaching, let us sprinkle some extra sweetness into your celebration by presenting the latest web3 wonders that are sure to satisfy your appetite for innovation. Feast your eyes on the exciting initiatives being undertaken by industry players as they weave a new narrative that blurs the lines between the physical and digital realms.
Here are the Top 10 highlights of the week that showcase how industry players are awakening to the growing significance of web3 as an integral component of the financial system:
Customer relationships came out on top as a priority the past week, with Salesforce announcing Salesforce Web3, a platform for its clients to develop NFT loyalty programs, and TYB launching on the Shopify App Store as it brought its end-to-end web3 community-powered loyalty solution to merchants through an Avalanche-based platform.
Joining in on the reward spree were also Bitcoin Rewards App Fold and Visa, who expanded their ongoing partnership to enter new regions while empowering existing local financial service companies to launch their own Bitcoin rewards through the Fold infrastructure.
Supporting ClearToken’s ambition to build a central counterparty, Laser Digital invested in the digital asset clearing house, incubating the venture that aims to remove bilateral counterparty risk for settlement, financing and derivative transactions.
Wallets were all the charm last week – while Mastercard collaborated with Australian stablecoin platform Stables to launch a stablecoin wallet for customers in the APAC zone to be able to flexibly swap their fiat money or digital currency into USDC for regular spending, Animoca Brands and Hex Trust joined forces to launch an NFT-centric custodial wallet joint venture called Gryfyn that offers a secure, reliable and stress-free environment to store, interact with, and acquire digital assets.
Speaking of wallets, self-custody wallet MoonPay and MetaMask collaborated to enable users in Nigeria to start self-custody cryptocurrency purchases with MetaMask Mobile and Portfolio Dapps without the need for centralised exchange tools. Another alliance that stole the limelight was that of Techstars London and Polygon Labs, who came together to launch a web3 cohort, a web3-focused accelerator programme in the UK comprising 12 ambitious startups leveraging web3 technologies.
Gucci and Yuga Labs also made the bulletin for their partnership on a new metaverse project. The two companies have signed a multi-year partnership that will involve Gucci creating clothing for Yuga Labs’s metaverse project, the Otherside, and in NFT collection 10KTF.
On the regulatory front, The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) officially classified Litecoin as a digital commodity, where the cryptocurrency will now be regulated by the CFTC in the same way as other commodities such as oil and gold.
Web3 Word Of The Week: Hash (Not the one served in breakfast)
A hash function in cryptography is a mathematical algorithm that converts plaintext to a unique text string or a ciphertext. It is a unique identifier for any given piece of content. Hashing is a way to ensure that any data you send reaches your recipient in the same condition that it left you, completely intact and unaltered.
That's all for now!🤘
We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Worldwide Web3 Wonderland!
If you're hungry for more fintech insights, check out some of our other work at WhiteSight.
Our latest publications include –
Fintech Ecosystem Ripples: Analysing the Echoes of SVB's Collapse
J.P. Morgan's Fintech Frontier: Collaboration, Diversification, and Innovation
Virtual Assets, Real Opportunities: Financial Institutions’ Metaverse Exploration
If you're someone who likes to read think pieces, you will likely love our monthly blog, Fintersections, where our team members analyse the convergence of FinTech with the world.
FinTech research is in the WhiteSight DNA, so if you'd like to get in touch for features, sponsorships, and content marketing services, reach out to us at hello@whitesight.net.
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