Social networking giant Meta launched NFT support on its Facebook platform this week following a successful integration on Instagram in May.
Sandbox deploys its native assets on Polygon
Blockchain gaming entity Sandbox on Wednesday shared news of the deployment of its virtual ERC-721 token LAND to Polygon via a bridge with the latter. The metaverse gaming platform also revealed that it would be launching LAND sales and LAND staking on Polygon soon. The LAND multiplier on the staking will give token Sand users an opportunity to get returns by staking their SAND. This will be by either transferring the assets to Polygon or buying a LAND in LAND sales.
“Each LAND bridged grants a 10 mSAND cashback! LAND multipliers on both mSAND staking programs are back! LAND sales and LAND staking features (on Polygon) are coming soon,” Sandbox wrote.
The bridge, which has been cooking since December, will enable the transfer of LAND and the ERC-20 utility token SAND (as well as other tokens in the future) to their smart contracts on Polygon. In addition to the low gas fee and faster speeds, this development provides an avenue for greener interaction between Layer 2 Polygon and Ethereum. The integration changes nothing else beyond that, with the metaverse gaming platform leveraging the latter chain on which both tokens are built.
To learn more visit our Investing in Polygon and Investing in The Sandbox guides.
Meta launches test for Ethereum and Polygon NFTs in the US
Social networking company, Meta, this week rolled out NFT support features on Facebook for a select number of US-based creators. In this initial rollout, only NTFs on Ethereum and Polygon blockchains will be supported, but the company intends to include NFTs from Solana and Flow soon.
The tech giant will have a ‘digital collectibles’ tab on users’ accounts where they can interact with their non-fungible library. Users can link their crypto wallets to their accounts and turn their NFTs into posts that can be reacted to, liked and even shared. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed plans to launch the same features on other flagship products under it, like WhatsApp.
Zuckerberg also added that Meta is exploring the possibility of augmenting reality NFTs and 3D NFTs using their spark AR software platform. Meta has been rapidly expanding in the Web3 direction as it seeks to capitalize on the potential in the space ahead of other companies.
To learn more about Ethereum visit our Investing in Ethereum guide.
Coinbase introduces the staking of Solana’s native asset
Crypto exchange platform, Coinbase, has added Solana (SOL) to the list of altcoin project whose staking it supports. Users of the crypto trading platform can start earning automatically when they buy Solana. Coinbase detailed in the announcement post that the platform offers an annual return of 3.85% for staking, with the rewards being received in 3-4 days.
The exchange allows staking with as low as $1 while allowing customers to opt out any time as there is no imposed lock-up period. Users can request their staked assets to be traded or transferred at any time, but the exchange will take a cut of the staking rewards. In addition to Solana (SOL), Coinbase offers a platform for staking Ethereum 2.0, Polkadot, and Cosmos. The exchange also allows users to send and receive USDC on Solana, with plans afoot to enable them to connect to Solana’s dApps.
Solana CEO hails Saga phone as a leap to inspire big tech
Last month, Solana announced that it would debut a crypto smartphone integrated with the Solana blockchain to help improve the Web3 experience for its users. The flagship phone is set to come with unique features to make managing digital assets and tokens convenient, per the announcement. Co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko said at the time that Solana is focusing on the mobile experience because of its prospects.
In a Friday interview with The Block, Yakovenko went more into detail on what Solana hopes to achieve with the Saga phone. He reiterated that the flagship offering would prioritize the mobile user experience as far as blockchain goes. The Solana executive stated that tech giants like Google and Apple have qualms about venturing in this direction because they believe the consumer demand doesn’t justify the decision.
“Crypto users might be crazy enough to switch from iOS to Android because of crypto. It might be so important to have that experience, they’re willing to change their habits,” he theorized. “You need Google and Apple to do it, but they’re not going to do it until there is proven demand that people need it — and so somebody has to kind of make that leap.”
Solana hopes to disprove this misgiving to encourage big tech to follow this path and adopt the same infrastructure for their future smartphone offerings.
To learn more visit our Investing in Solana guide.