Decentraland users can purchase plots within the casino to develop their games. In April, when Decentral Game opened the doors of its first casino, it announced that 40 NFTs representing parcels within this property were available.

The Tominoya Casino is among the most popular sites within the Decentraland virtual reality game. This is because, in addition to offering several alternatives to obtain free tokens, it also allows players to generate passive income by becoming owners of a fun room, spaces represented by non-fungible tokens (NFT), or LAND, within the metaverse.

Tominoya, located in the Las Vegas district, under the coordinates -120, 135, represents the most recent development of the Decentral Games Company, which in turn promises to launch other similar spaces. The biggest draw so far is its variety of games, similar to real-world casinos, like slot machines, roulette, poker, and blackjack.

But at the same time, on casino nights, players have the chance to compete for prizes in MANÁ (the official metaverse token) or wearables (clothing, electronic devices, or accessories that avatars use).

Besides, Decentraland users can purchase plots within the casino to develop their games. In April, when Decentral Game opened the doors of its first casino, it announced that 40 NFTs representing parcels within this property were available.

Those who own spaces within Tominoya, have the possibility of obtaining income according to the volume of players who participate in the activities they promote. In other words, the company is encouraging players to develop activities and games within the casino so that they can increase their profits.

An Ethereum Sidechain Metaverse

The blockchain gaming company Decentral Games reported that the range of casinos it develops uses the Matic Network sidechains to ensure a smooth gaming experience with fast and cheap transactions, an alternative to the high costs of operating on the main Ethereum chain.

The particularity offered by the Matic Network platform is that it allows you to play with NFT without transaction fees, which a feature that is ideally suited for games that use non-fungible or collectible tokens.

Descentraland’s virtual casinos also have other allies, such as the Digital Currency Group. Although no official announcement has been made, Barry Silbert, CEO of the venture capital company, noted in a tweet in September that an investment had been made to boost development in Decentraland, precisely to give the casinos a boost. It was not clear what the investment amount is.

What is Decentraland?

Decentraland is a virtual reality platform on which users can explore, design spaces, or live with hundreds of people who today participate in the many events that take place daily. The virtual 3D world is divided into parcels called LAND and identified by Cartesian coordinates (x, y).

Like property in our physical world, these parcels are up to be purchased to build projects on. LAND, a non-fungible token, can be acquired by paying with MANA tokens. At the time of writing, a MANNA is on the order of $ 0.07, according to Coinmarketcap. While the price of LAND tokens might varies due to the offers available on the Opensea digital goods market.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

The company has indicated that all organizations and firms that use this service will be able to establish their criteria for the verification of infections with coronavirus. However, nobody knows yet which companies are interested in using this service.

On the one hand, Amid a long quarantine imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, the return to shared spaces, such as schools, airplanes, stadiums, and offices, has become a complex activity. On the other hand, firms such as IBM have been developing applications that could offer a safer transition from our homes to life on the street, by minimizing exposure to COVID-19.

IBM Watson Health, a data, analytics, and technology company that works within the healthcare industry has designed a verification system based on blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) that will help monitor whether a student, worker, or citizen is healthy to use public space.

The new mobile application will record information related to potential spots where can  happen coronavirus infections and will serve as a pass for healthy people who wish to go to clubs, use transport, or travel internationally. The platform can be downloaded to smartphones as a wallet and can record Covid-19 tests and temperature scans, which can be shared with third parties to access a particular location.

IBM also ensures that users will have full control over their data and will be able to choose who to share that information with or not. IBM Watson Health ensures that the app “uses sophisticated cryptographic techniques” to make sure that this data does not reach public status if its owners do not want it.

Although blockchain networks can record and secure private information within the chain, it is also important to remember that this does not certify that the aggregated data is real. There is still no tool that can confirm that the information that a person provides to a network is reliable, so there may be malicious parties that share evidence of Covid-19 or other false data intending to access somewhere.

 A notable number of monitoring services are seeing light due to coronavirus

Users will have their tray of functions in the application, allowing them to update their medical data according to IBM. Those interested in this IBM application can start using it in three easy steps, downloading the app on their smartphone, logging in, and verifying their identity.

Likewise, all the individual’s medical data can be registered in the service if the tests have a QR code, which can be scanned by the wallet. The tool generates a credential for all those users who are healthy, a document that can be used to travel on public transport or reopen businesses.

In addition to IBM, other companies internationally have been exploring the possibility of using blockchain-based applications. For example, the international entity LACChain recently launched a platform for the same purpose for all of Latin America. Likewise, General Electric has also been using this same method to revive international travel.

Countries such as Spain and Brazil have also been discussing the possibility of incorporating a similar system for their entire population; this is a trend that confirms that as long as the coronavirus pandemic continues, blockchain networks can become an ally to prevent the spread of the virus.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

The software engineer Christoph Burgdorf presented a new programming language for the Ethereum ecosystem, called Fe this October 14. It surges as a very good alternative to Solidity, the main programming language on which smart contracts are encoded and the most decentralized applications on the network.

In a post on the Ethereum Developer Blog, Burgdorf explains that even though he believes the Solidity team is doing a great job, he sees a need for developers to have more options for smart contract encoding. “A lot of people want to have a simpler alternative to Solidity,”

Fe, pronounced ‘fee’ (for ‘commission’ in English), was born as a rewrite of the Vyper compiler, the programming language that was the only alternative to Solidity. Vyper is directed to the encoding of smart contracts compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and was originally conceived by Vitalik Buterin.

Burgdorf adds that the initial idea with the Vyper rewrite was to have an alternative compiler. However, along the way, substantial differences emerged from Vyper that led to a different language, which he decided to call Faith.

The name Fe contains the letters of the chemical element iron from the periodic table. The purpose of this name is to convey a feeling of durability linked to the Rust programming language, on which the Fe compiler is written the developer clarifies.

The developer indicates that, although there is still no date for the official release of Fe, there has been significant progress in the development of the new language last month.

“We are optimistic about adding support for all the features used in an ERC-20 contract and being able to compile one before the end of 2020,” he says. This is only intended to demonstrate the capabilities of Faith.

Current work on Fe development also includes creating language specifications, which will be written as functions are implemented. “By the time we are ready for an audit, we can produce a complete specification,” says Burgdorf.

Faith as an emerging programming language for Ethereum

According to its GitHub page, Fe is defined as an emerging smart contract language for the Ethereum blockchain. With its development, the goal is to achieve the objectives set for the existing Vyper project, including a more accurate estimate of gas transactions and rates.

Additionally, “Fe emphasizes language security and is largely inspired by the Python language, as is Vyper. This provides readable and expressive code that is familiar to developers who have used Python”, says Burgdorf.

He adds that the new language is expected to use Yul, a project launched by the Solidity team as an intermediate mechanism for compatibility with versions EVM 1.0 and EVM 1.5, and with eWASM (format for smart contracts). This will avoid having to write separate backends for each of these low-level platforms, clarifies the engineer.

Burgdorf shared the Faith posts on his Twitter account. Most of the comments read after the tweet agrees with the advantages that the development of new languages ​​for Ethereum will bring.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

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The researcher believes that cybercriminals will eventually attack Bitcoin. Antonopoulos considers that if Bitcoin does not offer greater privacy, other tools will.

Andreas Antonopoulos is a Bitcoin evangelist and one of the most recognized figures in the world of cryptocurrencies. He considers that Bitcoin is in danger if it does not guarantee its users greater privacy.

The author of “Mastering Bitcoin” believes that the first cryptocurrency “will not survive a concerted attack at the state level” aimed at punishing people who use it. He said that the solution would be to turn it into a tool with greater privacy guarantees.

Last September, Antonopoulos considered that, although there are currently few attempts to attack Bitcoin users in the world, this situation will eventually become something common.

Furthermore, the programmer stated that governments cannot prevent people from using Bitcoin or confiscate their funds. “However, they can confiscate your family and throw them into a prison cell; they can take possession of their bodies and throw them into a dungeon. If using the system has real-life consequences for your physical security, then we have a problem,” he said.

The author of “The Internet of Money” thinks that the Bitcoin community is currently in a “honeymoon” period. However, he considers that it is necessary to turn it into a tool ready to protect itself from attacks. “The only reason for it not to be like that is that it is not systemically dangerous yet. However, it will [eventually] suffer attacks,” Antonopoulos reflected.

The researcher also assessed that even if Bitcoin fails, it will not mean “the end.” Necessity would eventually lead to guaranteeing the privacy of users in some way. He added that “another system may do it” if Bitcoin does not.

Governments and Private Companies Have Their Eye on Bitcoin’s Privacy

Antonopoulos’ vision seems to a few years to be ahead in the future. However, governments are already targeting the privacy of Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, and the Internet in general.

The European Police Office (Europol) recently referred to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a threat against its actions to fight illicit activities. They made this claim even though they recognized that only 1% of transactions with Bitcoin are connected to illegal activities.

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has also targeted privacy in cryptocurrencies, even on Bitcoin’s Lightning network. For this reason, firms Chainalysis, Elliptic, and Ciphertrace are tracking movements with cryptocurrencies for them. They are already trying to do the same with those focusing on privacy.

Beyond governments and companies that are against privacy, the apathy of users themselves could be the biggest threat, according to a Coin Metrics report last September.

According to that report, the total transactions with privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, such as Monero, Zcash, and Grin, represent only 6% of daily transactions with Bitcoin. Besides, the numbers of transactions with privacy tools on Bitcoin, such as the Wasabi or Samourai Wallet mixers, might not be representative either.

By Alexander Salazar

 A coalition of countries for the formulation of political and economic strategies made up of Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and a representation of the European Union, warned about the increase in hijacking and the use of cryptocurrencies by responsible hackers.

According to a statement issued by the organization, published on various government portals of the participating countries, the countries expressed their concern about the escalation seen in this type of attack, qualifying them as a threat against the infrastructure of the main economies of the world.

About the situation, the representatives of the nations that make up the group said that this type of attack, although it has been increasing in the last two years, now under these circumstances and these times of the COVID-19 pandemic represents a particularly worrying aspect since the most common targeted by attackers are educational institutions, hospitals, companies, and government entities.

G7 expresses concern over Ransomware attacks

Ransomware-type attacks, or information hijacking, generally work on the filtering of malware on the computers of companies and organizations that handle data with very delicate, vital, and great information of these companies.

This computer program owns and control at ease the files hosted on the affected computers and / or servers, encrypting the information hosted there and leaving a message for the operators in which they request the payment of a ransom so they can restore access to the compromised data, the ramson is usually requested in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) or Monero (XRM).

Due to the nature of the Ransomware attacks and the targets selected by the attackers, the G7 even warns about terrorist groups and even governments that seek to evade sanctions, ensuring that these crypto funds could be used to finance the latter due to the characteristics of these assets, since they facilitate immediate international transactions without any type of control.

Follow FATF Recommendations

Faced with the dangers associated with the proliferation of these attacks, the G7 issued a call to member countries and other nations to adopt the measures dictated by the Financial Action Task Force (FAFT or GAFI) for the adjustment of regulatory policies applicable to the use of cryptocurrencies.

Originally, the FATF at the end of last year, invited governments, regulatory entities, and interested organizations to present their recommendations. The purpose is to adjust the guidelines applicable to regulations against money laundering and the financing of terrorist acts focused on the management of cryptocurrencies as a vehicle to conduct such practices.

A report presented by the FATF at the beginning of April highlighted that the United States is one of the countries that best conforms to the recommendations established by the organization. Although, it expressed its disagreement with the fact that banking entities are avoiding handling detailed records of all those financial operations and movements for less than USD 3,000 conducted by its residents.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

The main axes of the blockchain industry would be China and the United States. Product tracking and tracing would be the main uses within 10 years.

Within the next decade, 12 countries would concentrate on the global expansion of the so-called distributed ledger technology (DLT). The most recent distributed ledger report from consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) gives rise to this claim.

PwC considers that China and the United States would lead the way in adopting this technology within the next 10 years. The Asian country would generate a net profit of USD 440 billion and about 11.4 million jobs. On its part, the North American nation would add USD 407 billion and another 2.2 million jobs.

The countries following them would be Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, India, and France, all of which would make a profit between USD 50 thousand and USD 100 thousand million. The twelve “big” countries would be complete with: the United Arab Emirates, Sweden, Luxembourg, Spain, and Italy, with revenues of between USD 2 billion and USD 25 billion.

The “world blockchain economy” could generate a total of USD 1.7 trillion, a figure that no one could imagine until just a few years ago. At the time, companies started taking a closer look at distributed cryptographic records, which would be 1.4% of the world´s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

No country in America has raised high expectations for the firm, which is striking. The rest of the world, about 190 countries, would produce USD 473 billion altogether. The figures would be similar to those of China, which indicates the concentration of services that Asia would enable.

The report highlighted that their “economists expect blockchain technology to provide benefits across a wide range of industry sectors. They will make much of the value behind the scenes. We expect 10-15% of the world’s infrastructure to use blockchain within a decade.”

PwC notes that all blockchains will generate this value, given the potential to reduce costs, accelerate transactions, promote greater financial inclusion, protect identity documents, and improve the flow of commercial agreements, among other benefits. Besides, many companies could develop digital transformations aimed at “Industry 4.0”, which would include blockchains.

“All-Purpose” Blockchains

The main uses that blockchains would have are: tracking and tracing products, payments and financial services, identity, contracts and resolution of disputes, and commitments with customers.

In this respect, “the biggest beneficiaries seem to be the public administration, education and health sectors.” The economists who participated in the report stated that these three areas alone would generate USD 574 billion by 2030.

Blockchains will also benefit those companies that provide corporate services, communications, the media themselves, and construction services. The reason is that they would be able to attract more consumers and “satisfy the demand for provenance and traceability.”

It would be more accurate to refer to DLT as Bitcoin technology since the first cryptocurrency gave rise to the beginning of the analysis of the implications of separately-distributed cryptographic records.

In this system, two or more people can conduct transactions without the need for trusted third parties or intermediaries. The record of the data is immutable and is visible to both the participants and any interested person.

By Alexander Salazar