CryptoTrunks is designed to raise individuals’ awareness of their environmental impact. By connecting a crypto wallet to the CryptoTrunks website, an individual is able to request an algorithmically generated CryptoTrunk, and then choose to have the image minted as an NFT. The size of the tree that is generated reflects the carbon footprint of the user, with more active wallets producing larger trees.
While CryptoTrunks raises a serious issue, it doesn’t do so in a preachy or holier-than-thou manner. In fact, the project retains a pronounced sense of humour about its activism. In colourful language on the CryptoTrunks website the project explains the concept thusly:
“We look at your transaction history to calculate just how much you've f****d up the environment. The size of your trunk is representative of how much damage you've done, so you can display to future generations how badly you've screwed them over.”
Launched on May 21st, CryptoTrunks now has a small, but dedicated community of followers. The popularity of the growing NFT platform is reflected in the number of trees which have already been minted, standing at 8,889 at time of press. To mint trees comes with its own cost however, and since CryptoTrunks is based on Ethereum, that cost comes in gas fees.
The obvious question is whether by raising awareness CryptoTrunks is part of the solution, or whether it is part of the problem by increasing the number of transactions on Ethereum. In the short term CryptoTrunks took the position that it was becoming part of the problem.
In a recent interview the pseudonymous developer of CryptoTrunks told Decrypt:
“Tens of dollars for the network cost of some free art is cool, hundreds of dollars is bonkers. Better to pause and wait for things to cool off.”
Fellow founder Reuben expanded:
“Tongue-in-cheek as the project is, we are still very mindful of our carbon footprint.”
Following the pause in services the price of gas has fallen and CryptoTrunks has resumed normal service. Having set the precedent however, users may wonder whether CryptoTrunks may yet have to suspend the project every time the price of gas spikes.
The cost of gas continues to be a major issue for the entire Ethereum ecosystem, but one which has a much-discussed solution in the form of ETH 2.0. The project is ambitious in the extreme, and is being built by multiple teams across the ecosystem. At the most basic level Ethereum 2.0 is the transfer of the network from Proof-of-Work consensus to Proof-of-Stake with huge benefits for efficiency and scalability.
Much like its founder Vitalik Buterin however, Ethereum is never knowingly simple when it can be complex. The complications of delivering Ethereum’s PoS mechanism and the many other features of Ethereum 2.0 has seen the upgrade take a long road from initial concept to reality. Should Ethereum 2.0 ever become a reality, the problem of gas prices will then be resolved.
The CryptoTrunks project has certainly done itself no harm with its recent suspension of activities. Having secured itself some free publicity in the form of press interest and coverage it will be interesting to note whether the project halts every time the gas price spikes.
The concerns surrounding Ethereum’s gas prices are valid. While some hope for the Ethereum network to finally deliver on the promise of ETH 2.0, other users have already migrated the bulk of their business to other chains such as the Binance Smart Chain.
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On June 16th, Blizzard.Money officially announced their huge partnership with YTHO via their Medium page. The partnership will bring big benefits to the Blizzard community, as YTHO is already in development of an online gaming platform. The YTHO gaming platform will soon be brought into the Blizzard Ecosystem and will be rebranded as Mammoth Gaming.
Mammoth Gaming will soon look like a massive collection of casino style dApps. Users and investors from across the globe will be able to wager their xBLZD, Blizzard.Money’s native token, on games of chance. The games will look similarly to games such as simple Dice, Blackjack, and custom RNG-based games such as Roobet’s “Crash” or NFT loot boxes.
The update from Blizzard.Money didn’t end there. The protocol also introduced a new governance token, TUSK, which will be able to be acquired via Blizzard Money’s farming pools. Users can stake xBLZD and earn TUSK via the new pools. The farming for TUSK is scheduled to begin June 21st.
The two new pools are the only ways users can farm TUSK, which serves to limit the supply distributions. The farming on Blizzard.Money will abide by the following guidelines:
Another key feature to note is farming is limited, as only 58,000 TUSK tokens will be farmable for 60 days. Blizzard.Money will be offering an initial amount of liquidity for users who want to purchase the token directly and/or take advantage of the higher emissions given to the TUSK-BNB pool. When in Blizzard’s virtual casino, xBLZD will be the primary token of use for those playing on Blizzard’s gaming platform. This will require users to purchase xBLZD before engaging with the platform.
Blizzard.Money is one of the top yield farms on Binance Smart Chain, as they have built a platform around security, transparency, and embodying a community-first attitude. The project has been forked from PancakeSwap, which has been the base code for many other solid projects.
YTHO Online is a decentralized casino where investors can play and also be a part of the house. The farms on YTHO are built to pay out winners and collect house winnings and then redistribute the house winning to the YTHO house. Their goal is to create a fun community-owned casino in a decentralized format.
On June 14th, Encode Club announced on their Medium that Polygon will be a Bronze Sponsor of Hack Africa. The 8-week hackathon began on June 15th, and will be separated into two 4-week legs - learning and hacking. Specific details about the challenges and prizes on the Polygon track were not fully included, but will most likely be released as the learning stage moves forward.
Polygon has been a constant topic of discussion in blockchain circles recently, but for the right reasons. The platform developed a solution that cuts down on Ethereum network's gas fees and latency. Polygon enables developers to deploy Ethereum-compatible chains and leverage Ethereum's utilities without its bottlenecks. Major existing DeFi protocols such as Curve and Aave are now deploying on Polygon. This has led to more than $8 billion worth of digital assets being moved over to Polygon from other competing platforms. These factors indicate Polygon's growing relevance in the blockchain industry. Polygon does not limit its relevance to the existing blockchain industry, however. It also supports upcoming developers and coders in their efforts to launch their new products.
Hack Africa is arguably the largest African-focused hackathon. It is organized by Encode Club - a community of blockchain enthusiasts comprising university students, developers etc. The vision behind Hack Africa is the building of a robust African blockchain community that will foster blockchain solutions tailored to Africa. This year's event is the sixth in the series and is being organized in partnership with another African blockchain enterprise, Web3Design.
Participation is open to anyone, whether based in Africa or elsewhere. The only caveat is that each participant's blockchain idea or solution must be African in focus, hence the overall theme.
Participants are allowed to work in teams of 1-6 members. They are expected to present original ideas and resolve technical challenges that the event's sponsors will bring up to test their skills.
Here is a breakdown of the event as contained in this bulletin from Encode:
Much focus is coming to Africa as far as blockchain development is concerned. Many initiatives to deepen blockchain/DeFi development in Africa have taken place, including one by Binance that is currently ongoing.
Polygon's blockchain framework is currently a vital solution to Ethereum network's gas and latency issues. The platform, by sponsoring Hack Africa, is making its contribution towards the development of upcoming blockchain solutions on a global scale.
To learn more about Polygon, visit the platform's social media handles:
Website | Twitter | GitHub | Reddit
To learn more about Hack Africa and its organizer, Encode Club, visit the platform's social media handles:
CryptoTrunks has had to temporarily halt its budding growth after soaring gas fees on Ethereum forced it to reconsider its carbon footprint.
CryptoTrunks is designed to raise individuals’ awareness of their environmental impact. By connecting a crypto wallet to the CryptoTrunks website, an individual is able to request an algorithmically generated CryptoTrunk, and then choose to have the image minted as an NFT. The size of the tree that is generated reflects the carbon footprint of the user, with more active wallets producing larger trees.
While CryptoTrunks raises a serious issue, it doesn’t do so in a preachy or holier-than-thou manner. In fact, the project retains a pronounced sense of humour about its activism. In colourful language on the CryptoTrunks website the project explains the concept thusly:
“We look at your transaction history to calculate just how much you've f****d up the environment. The size of your trunk is representative of how much damage you've done, so you can display to future generations how badly you've screwed them over.”
Launched on May 21st, CryptoTrunks now has a small, but dedicated community of followers. The popularity of the growing NFT platform is reflected in the number of trees which have already been minted, standing at 8,889 at time of press. To mint trees comes with its own cost however, and since CryptoTrunks is based on Ethereum, that cost comes in gas fees.
The obvious question is whether by raising awareness CryptoTrunks is part of the solution, or whether it is part of the problem by increasing the number of transactions on Ethereum. In the short term CryptoTrunks took the position that it was becoming part of the problem.
In a recent interview the pseudonymous developer of CryptoTrunks told Decrypt:
“Tens of dollars for the network cost of some free art is cool, hundreds of dollars is bonkers. Better to pause and wait for things to cool off.”
Fellow founder Reuben expanded:
“Tongue-in-cheek as the project is, we are still very mindful of our carbon footprint.”
Following the pause in services the price of gas has fallen and CryptoTrunks has resumed normal service. Having set the precedent however, users may wonder whether CryptoTrunks may yet have to suspend the project every time the price of gas spikes.
The cost of gas continues to be a major issue for the entire Ethereum ecosystem, but one which has a much-discussed solution in the form of ETH 2.0. The project is ambitious in the extreme, and is being built by multiple teams across the ecosystem. At the most basic level Ethereum 2.0 is the transfer of the network from Proof-of-Work consensus to Proof-of-Stake with huge benefits for efficiency and scalability.
Much like its founder Vitalik Buterin however, Ethereum is never knowingly simple when it can be complex. The complications of delivering Ethereum’s PoS mechanism and the many other features of Ethereum 2.0 has seen the upgrade take a long road from initial concept to reality. Should Ethereum 2.0 ever become a reality, the problem of gas prices will then be resolved.
The CryptoTrunks project has certainly done itself no harm with its recent suspension of activities. Having secured itself some free publicity in the form of press interest and coverage it will be interesting to note whether the project halts every time the gas price spikes.
The concerns surrounding Ethereum’s gas prices are valid. While some hope for the Ethereum network to finally deliver on the promise of ETH 2.0, other users have already migrated the bulk of their business to other chains such as the Binance Smart Chain.
