📷 Instagram launches its own NFT marketplace

📷 Instagram launches its own NFT marketplace  🦊 MetaMask partners with Game7 to launch a Web3 native game launcher 🔮 OEV-enabled oracles could end the gas wars

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📷 Instagram launches its own NFT marketplace  

🦊 MetaMask partners with Game7 to launch a Web3 native game launcher 

🔮 OEV-enabled oracles could end the gas wars

Instagram launches its own NFT marketplace

Instagram has announced that it will soon be allowing its users to mint digital tokens on its platform. The popular social media app will also be launching its own marketplace, giving users more power by permitting creators to sell their own NFTs.

For the time being, only a limited number of Instagram users will be able to sell NFTs on the app. In the near future though, all of Instagram's user base will have access to the NFT marketplace. Furthermore, everyone using the platform will be able to take advantage of a new toolkit designed to help them mint and sell their NFTs within the platform.

Meta is still bullish on the future of NFTs, despite the sluggish growth throughout 2022. The company has recently published its Q2 earnings report, which disclosed a staggering loss of $3.7 billion. However, Zuckerberg seems positive that his company will soon bounce back considering its recent investments in the sectors of Instagram reels and

With this move, Instagram is hoping to get a piece of the pie from the ever-growing NFT market. This comes as no surprise, honestly, as the social media app has been planning to integrate crypto and NFTs in one form or another for some time now.

So far, it seems that Meta is undeterred by the market’s current state and is continuing to experiment with the crypto and NFT sectors. For us regular crypto-folk this can be only considered a good thing, as Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms out there and will drive even more adoption for NFTs.

We’ll have to wait and see how this all plays out, but one thing is for sure – the world of NFTs is about to get a whole lot bigger.

MetaMask partners with Game7 to launch a Web3 native game launcher

Web3 gaming is about to get a whole lot more interesting, with the news that Ethereum wallet developer MetaMask has partnered with gaming developer Game7 to introduce HyperPlay.

HyperPlay is a Web3 native game launcher, which means that users won't have to rely on centralized platforms like Steam to play their favorite games. Instead, they'll be able to use MetaMask to store and manage their in-game NFTs, tokens, and achievements.

MetaMask wants to encourage developers to build crypto-native games on HyperPlay, and with this partnership, it's taking a big step in the right direction. After all, if you see an opportunity to get involved in the growing world of Web3 gaming, why wouldn't you want to take advantage of it?

HyperPlay is open sourced, which means the copyright holder permits anyone to use, study, change and distribute the code. The pros of open source are that it allows for collaboration and transparency. The cons, however, are that it can be difficult to manage and there is a lack of control, but that's a small price to pay for the freedom that comes with it.

Crypto gaming has been on the rise in recent years. Now, with MetaMask's backing, we can expect to see even more innovative and exciting games being developed on Web3.

Hopefully, HyperPlay ends up being the go-to platform for Web3 gaming, as it has the potential to change the landscape of the industry for the better. With any luck, we'll see more big names getting involved in the near future. Exciting times ahead!

OEV-enabled oracles could end the gas wars

API3 recently published a white paper discussing how the project could help DeFi applications regain value lost to MEV bots. This concept is called OEV, which stands for Oracle Extractable Value. API3 argues that this will become a major game-changer for DeFi, as it would make oracles more financially viable for projects instead of being considered an operating expense. Using a new design, the system would allow for more value capture while minimizing and retaining MEV.

MEV can be defined as the maximum value that can be extracted from block production in excess of the standard block reward and gas fees. The MEV comprises arbitrage and liquidation fees, among others, that could amount to millions and are often extracted by block producers. The OEV-enabled oracles take these fees off-chain and auction the right to extract them on-chain back to the same DApp users who paid them in the first place.

On chains with blockspace marketplaces, like that of Ethereum, the MEV is typically auctioned off to the highest bidder in a gas price war. The winner of the auction can get their transaction included in the next block, often at a price much higher than what they would have paid if they had waited in line. This results in a "race to the bottom" where DApp users are forced to pay ever-increasing gas prices just to get their transactions included in a timely manner.

This can be a difficult and expensive proposition, especially during times of high network usage. Users who don’t want to spend a lot of money on fees try to use a lower fee and hope that their transaction is included in the next block. This was exploited by miners, who chose to include only the transactions with the highest fees, or for example, by bots that used this strategy to frontrun other users’ transactions. These bots would submit a high-fee transaction that was nearly identical to the one they were trying to frontrun, but with a higher gas price. This would ensure that their transaction was mined first, and they would get their transaction included in the next block while the other user’s transaction would be left behind. This is a type of rent-seeking behavior that doesn’t add any value to the network but simply extracts value from those who are trying to use the network.

If you have ever traded crypto, then this has happened to you: you placed a trade on Uniswap for a certain amount of altcoins of your choice and then signied the transaction, this transaction was then included in a block. However, it wasn't processed immediately because it was stuck behind other transactions with higher fees. By the time your transaction is processed, the price of your altcoin has gone up or down, and you either lose money or make less than you would have if the trade had gone through immediately. Effectively, you've been sandwiched by bots that were willing to pay higher fees to get their transactions included in the next block, ahead of yours. This happens on an industrial scale across all protocols, and it's a huge problem.

By using exact value oracles, we can take the blockspace market out of the equation and make sure that everyone gets their fair share of resources. That way, DApps can focus on what they're good at, and users can rest assured that they're not being taken advantage of. Hopefully, we'll see more countermeasures to bots and other rent-seekers in the near future.