Moon Mag #17

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Editorial Welcome to the New Year, and as far as crypto markets go, I am certainly happy 2022 is behind us, and we can change our focus to rebuilding. While there may still be a few dominos to fall, I believe the major ones have already fallen, and very soon, as knowledgeable investors, we will be able to see the strong silent builders. At The Moon Mag, we are definitely building in the bear market and have expanded our roster of talented journalists and article writers. We look forward to bringing more deep dives, opinions, and what we feel are the best crypto projects in the market!

Here’s to another chance to build on the knowledge we have and learn a grow with the 2023 market <3 Lisa

A note from Lisa…

A note from Josh…

Happy New Year! As we move into 2023, many of us focus on new ambitions, goals, ideas and outlooks in life. Hopefully crypto plays a part in your future - whether big or small - and that the Moon Mag can contribute to that part and offer some really interesting points and projects for you to ingest. We are bringing on new writers to compliment our existing ones and spreading our metaphorical wings to increase the scope of information we can offer you. You’ll see some incredible articles going forward but don’t forget, at any time, you can reread all the past issues as well. We’ve started to revisit projects that we reported on before to see how they are doing and we’re so excited to see how much building is continuing in the crypto space. So join us, as we build for the future with our sights set on the Moon!

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TRADERS PERSPECTIVE HOW TO BUILD YOUR BEAR MARKET BAGS!

Decentralized Gambling: Options For Generating Extra Income

Top 10 Blockchain Games

06

10

22

BinaryX 40

ZKP-based Layer 2 Rollup Solutions for Ethereum 52

Free Crypto and Where to Find it!

64

Where Are They Now? Immutable X 72

DISCLAIMER All the content provided for you as part of the Moon Mag has been researched thoroughly and to the best of our ability however it is your choice, and your choice only, whether you wish to invest or participate in any of the projects. We cannot be held responsible for your decisions and the consequences of your actions. We do not provide financial advice. Please DYOR and above all, enjoy the content!

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CONTRIBUTORS Aldrich Shillian Aldrich (or Rhys to those in the Signals group!) has been HODL’ing since 2017 and is proud of surviving bear markets, rug pulls and still trading successfully enough to have paid off all debts. Recently, he’s jumped head-on into NFT projects - particularly ones that combine his love of gaming.

Kel Udeala I’m a quantitative analyst and a mechanical engineer. I took an interest in crypto because my line of work led me down the financial trading and investment rabbit hole, and it’s only a matter of time before you reach crypto. I enjoy researching different crypto projects, and attempting to forecast their roles in the future financial and technology systems. I also find the volatility of the charts and the resulting crypto-Twitter posts very thrilling.

Daniel Jimenez Daniel has been a blockchain technology evangelist since 2012 and is a faithful believer in the Crypto ecosystem. Daniel also writes for Coin Telegraph!

Samantha Jimenez Freelance journalist dedicated to digital media, enthusiast of the crypto ecosystem and disruptive technologies. MDC writer since 2018, currently writer for CryptoTrendencia.

Mrinal B Proud rugpull survivor since 2016; gem hunter; technophile; found asking ‘wen-moon, wen-lambo’ on Twitter; fundamentals driven asymmetric investor; making ends meet in an IT company.

As we start a new year in a strong crypto bear market, in this part of the 4-year cycle, it’s time to start taking bites of potential strong projects heading into the next bull run.

BEAR MARKETS ARE FOR BUILDING! The doom and gloom that is a bear market often shows the valuable projects and separates the wheat from the chaff. It is a time to watch out for silent builders, the teams that continue to work to build and develop. The teams still launching mainnets, and adding features to their platforms, are the ones to watch and add to your Bear Market Bags!

written by Lisa N. Edwards

TRADERS PERSPECTIVE

HOW TO BUILD YOUR BEAR MARKET BAGS!

I will break down a few signs I look for when deciding to buy into a heavily depressed market.

Crypto projects with solid use cases that translate into the real world. Either the project must solve an existing problem or do something better than its competition. If the project can answer YES to this, it’s better than about 95% of crypto projects.

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Do they have a tech-heavy white paper that only Albert Einstein himself could explain? If the average user cannot understand how the project works, chances are half the team can’t explain it either. There’s an old saying, “Explain it to me like I’m 5” this simply means that a white paper with technical elements must be easy to read and understand.

Is this the market leader of similar crypto projects?

Being the market leader in a particular group of coins or tokens means they will have strong development and new and innovative ideas ahead of the rest. The rest will follow in their footsteps, always two steps behind. You can create a watchlist and bunch them into similar projects. Head to https://coinmarketcap. com/watchlist/, sign up, and start building your watchlists.

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The coins selected in the CMC image were chosen randomly.

What is the X-Factor that will make people buy?

Markets are driven by supply and demand; why will an investor or trader rush to buy this crypto over another? What stands out in a sea of many?

We have all seen the TV Series where people audition, and even as a viewer, you can see real talent and what makes a person stand out from the crowd; this is true for crypto projects. With over 22,000 projects at the time of writing, what makes specific projects stand out? It is often a strong and knowledgeable team with experience in the areas they are developing. A charismatic leader often entices investors who need to gain knowledge to part with their hard-earned money. Marketing is key to getting these cryptos in front of investors as well. A well-driven marketing campaign often creates that initial demand; a great product will sustain market downturns when marketing eases.

Knowing the team - a DOXXED and EXPERIENCED Team will help with the trust of a project.

Questions you should be asking are: What experience do they have?

Are they on LinkedIn? Google them; Google is an excellent tool for seeing someone’s history.

What knowledge/contacts are needed to succeed?

A reverse image search of pictures on LinkedIn and Twitter to see where they pop up - and verify if these are real people. Many scam projects and rug pulls are purely designed to take your money. Doing research will not ensure they continue to develop, but it will help with the trust of the team behind the project. https://www.semrush.com/blog/reverse-image-search/ This magazine is sole property of themoonmag.com and is not to be redistributed in any form anywhere else.

Bringing us to tokenomics.

What are tokenomics? Are there billions of tokens? Does it have “Equitable Tokenomics?” Projects need transparency; after all, they want investors and investors should do their research and understand the investments they are making. A few key points to look at are the distribution & who gets Tokens. If a relatively new crypto - when is the token unlocked? Unlocks generally create a sell-off in the market, and if you are an investor, you want to know when these unlocks are complete, as the price will be depressed.

Does it have a tranched unlock so VCs & private investors can’t dump the project (using YOU as exit liquidity)?

The most significant key takeaway is also DYOR - DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH! You are investing and trading with your own money, know why you are entering a trade at a certain level, and ask questions.

Suppose your social media influencer can’t give you a valid reason why they have said something, why the levels they are entering will be profitable, or they are purely shilling/partnering with a project for financial gain. In that case, asking them why they are promoting the project is also important. What makes that project better, different and all of the points mentioned above… And if you don’t get a reply or if they have not replied to similar tweets, why are you buying that crypto from someone who likely has little more knowledge than you do?

Following strict investment guidelines and spreading your risk (as we have previously written about in past issues), you should have a much more profitable 2023 and beyond!

Watch your portfolio grow!

Decentralized Gambling:

Options For Generating Extra Income written by Daniel Jimenez

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Since the early days of blockchain technology, gambling has been one of the best use cases for demonstrating its benefits.

Decentralized gambling means games with fair odds, low fees, and no barriers to entry because of strict KYC regulations in some jurisdictions, allowing anyone to access these platforms regardless of gender, race, creed, or geographic location.

Undoubtedly, this opened doors for many developers to generate hundreds of decentralized applications (dApps) on first-generation blockchain platforms such as Ethereum, EOS, or Tron.

Due to recent innovations, the online gambling industry has also seen a significant uptick in use, as most bookmakers have shifted from traditional sports betting to crypto betting.

An old practice Since ancient Rome, gambling has captivated those who, by human nature, try to stay one foot ahead of future events.

Its need to predict the effects of human survival is a practice that has evolved to take part in the entertainment art, understanding entertainment as any leisure activity that generates an adrenaline flow and pleasure for the individual.

With the Internet era, online games began to appear, particularly those related to gambling, although they have inherited the old problems: centralization, weak security, and over-regulation.

From Microgaming in Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean Sea in 1994 to Moneymaker in 2003 and the web2.0 era, the online gambling world has changed significantly in the last decades.

However, the love of gambling before the blockchain era has been around since ancient Rome, and spans sectors beyond sports: politics, weather, science and even commercial markets.

Why is gambling important?

According to the Gambling Global Market Report 2022, the global gambling market grew from $287.43 billion in 2021 to $456.61 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 58.9%The gambling market expects to grow to $840.29 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 16.5%.

The increasing Mobile Devices adoption is the leading driver in the traditional gambling market.

The global casino and online gambling industry offer gambling possibilities, such as table betting games and gaming machines.

This gaming market consists of sales of gaming services and related goods by entities (organizations, sole traders and partnerships) that operate gaming facilities, such as casinos, bingo halls, video gaming terminals, lotteries, and off-track sports betting.

The gaming market also includes sales of gaming services and related goods by entities operating casino hotels. The main types of gambling are casino lotteries, sports betting, and other games of chance.

In general terms, the centralized gambling industry has significantly grown in the last decades, encompassing the different sectors that comprise it.

Given its growth and steady pace of projection, it is one of the most lucrative sectors within the gaming industry, including those using blockchain technology.

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Advantages of decentralized gambling with blockchain Decentralized bets are those executed through smart contracts on a blockchain network, so no central authority or entity can control or manipulate them Unlike the disadvantages observed in traditional online gambling platforms, the use of blockchain allows a player to place a bet, follow its trajectory, and, through a time window, know in realtime who won, how much of the prize gets distributed, and how much the house gets for facilitating the game. No cheating, no back doors.

As mentioned above, the online gaming industry has found in the blockchain a great ally as the technological core for its deployment and operation.

Decentralization remains one of the main advantages of these blockchain games dedicated to gambling. The absence of a centralized server and the regulation by unreliable players has led to the following improvements in the different platforms that make life in the sector:

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Transparency in results. With no central leadership that can be subject to bribery or manipulation; on the contrary, using smart contracts connected to decentralized oracles, such as Chainlink, for example, transparency and zero manipulation of the results in your betting windows are allowed.

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Decentralized platforms with high trust and security levels when handling private data. You only need your non-custodial wallet to connect, and thus avoid giving private and sensitive data to third parties who can then compromise its integrity.

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There is no possibility of high fees or exorbitant administrative charges. When you place a bet using a noncustodial wallet, you only pay small transaction fees thanks to scalable technologies. Likewise, when withdrawing your winnings, you do not face high administrative or withdrawal fees.

Blockchain-stamped options for fun and winning There are many options in the gambling ecosystem. As one of the first sectors to test the blockchain technology benefits, its growth has not stopped since then.

According to DappReview, casino-focused Dapps continue to dominate the scene on Tron, contributing $312 million in transaction volume, accounting for 83.3% of the total transaction volume of this blockchain network.

However, it is worth noting that despite Tron’s dominance in gambling, Ethereum, EOS, ICON, WAX, Hive, NEO, IOST, and TomoChain present use cases in this sector, offering variety to the blockchain gaming industry-loving user.

In addition, it is important to note that the traditional online gambling industry has now evolved to the point of using blockchain technology through the deposit/withdrawal of cryptocurrencies, thus generating a new decentralized gaming options trend focused on this sector.

Without falling into preferences or value judgments and in recommendations of use, we display some examples with which you can experience the decentralized side of gambling, some perhaps more decentralized than others.

Lucky Block Lucky Block is an NFT competition platform that allows players to play and also receive perpetual rewards for NFT holdings from its collections in the user’s wallet. The project has launched as the best-decentralized casino, which offers excellent prizes that can reach up to $1 million in Bitcoin..

The platform offers an easy-to-use interface, allows small deposits to start taking part in the different events it holds daily, and does not require KYC verification to operate.

Among the games offered are popular slots, poker, and table games such as roulette, blackjack, and baccarat. Like all the best-decentralized casino sites, there is also a decent selection of live dealer games.

Lucky Block has an integrated sportsbook and an extensive list of betting markets, both pregame and in-play, including basketball, soccer, tennis, rugby, baseball, and plenty more.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, Litecoin, and Dogecoin, are among the cryptocurrencies supported, expanding to nine cryptocurrencies.

The platform uses its native LBLOCK token as a reward mechanism for the different games offered by the Curacao-licensed casino.

If you would like more information about this excellent project, you can read our dedicated post on Issue#6 here: https://themoonmag.com/issue-6/

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Binary Cat Some of the disadvantages of traditional betting platforms are high transaction fees, slow speeds, and, above all, opaque user interfaces from the point of view of the information displayed, which often disappoints many newcomers to gambling technology, with the consequence that they abandon these platforms.

Binary Cat addresses these problems to make the gambling world simple, straightforward, and easy to use.

Simply clicking a couple of buttons to deposit some coins and start betting on the price of cryptoassets and their relationship, thus creating a new era of decentralized prediction games.

In addition, the platform offers its native KITTY token the possibility for users to get rewarded with part of the revenue generated from transaction fees.

The platform is available on Avalanche Blockchain, so the transaction costs and its contracts execution speeds offers an excellent cost-performance option.

Betfury BetFury is an online bitcoin and token casino launched by the Universe B company, Games BV, with several games that allow traditional slots, table games, and live games, along with sports betting on the world’s biggest sports.

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What makes this casino so popular is its anonymity and privacy, one of the benefits that blockchain technology allows, in addition to the wide variety of cryptocurrencies accepted to play on its platform: Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, DAI, Shiba Inu and Dogecoin are just some of the options among the little more than 50 digital assets it supports.

It is a multi-chain platform that supports chains such as Tron, Ethereum, and BNB Chain, which facilitates user access for the best costperformance ratio.

With a very intuitive interface, a focus on SocialFi and the incorporation of GameFi practices such as staking and farming, BetFury is much more than just a casino for betting.

In addition, the Curaçao Gambling Commission licensed the platform, giving the user peace of mind from having a licensed platform to operate internationally in the admitted countries.

Decentral Games Decentral Games is a metaverse casino governed by a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) and powered by the DG token. Players can earn DG rewards for playing, LPs and DG for providing liquidity, and holders earn DG for their participation in the governance of the treasury of the casino house funds.

This metaverse casino is one of the most popular and the first to be implemented in Decentraland, the first blockchain metaverse. This casino is community-operated through a DAO, in open treasury (dgTreasury), around which the ecosystem of this futuristic casino revolves.

The MANA and DAI cryptocurrencies store the house treasury, where all players’ fees and winnings will be collected and paid out.

The DG native token allows holders to propose and vote on governance proposals that may determine The Decentral Games ecosystem characteristics or parameters and the decisions that will condition its development trajectory, thus promoting network community governance. The votes will get calculated in proportion to token holdings.

It is imperative to mention that this voting right does not influence the operation or management of Decentral Games, its subsidiaries, or its assets.

Players with DG tokens obtain game rewards for playing games with MANA or DAI, created to boost the ecosystem. Players who play at the same table receive higher DG rewards. This system allows for incentivizing a lively virtual casino with a social environment.

The system has a roulette play feature that determines the DGs drawn and wagered, a blackjack play feature, a membership rate that offers bonuses for bets placed, and multiplayer bonuses, among others.

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BC.Game BC.Game is a cryptocurrency casino active since 2017 and allows trading for U.S. residents, managed by BlockDance B.V., an entity legally incorporated in Curaçao.

This crypto casino allows funding both fiat and cryptocurrencies, supporting several blockchains such as Tron, BNB Chain, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Fantom, Optimism, and Polygon, among 11 other networks.

The Crypto Gambling Foundation verified the casino,which gives users peace of mind that they are playing on a secure site.

With a strong focus on sports betting, it is one of the best betting sites dedicated to soccer, which is the official sponsor of the Argentina national team that played in the Qatar 2022 World Cup. The platform owns its BCD currency, used as payment for the rewards of the thousands of crypto gambling games it offers, such as slots, table games and live casino games.

One of the differences of this online casino is that

it has access from any user interface available for both PC and mobile devices.

As mentioned above, BC.Game is a cryptocurrency casino. As such, you can expect them to offer a wide range of secure options for depositing into your account, among which are: - Bitcoin (BTC) - Ethereum (ETH) - Ripple (XPR) - Satoshi (SATS) - Dogecoin (DOGE) - Litecoin (LTC) - Stellar (XLM) - BitcoinCash (BCH) - Tron (TRX), among others.

It is worth noting that, unlike the previous examples, there is a 0.1% withdrawal transaction fee at BC.Game Casino.

Cloudbet CloudBet is a legitimate and secure crypto esports betting and gambling site and one of the most recognized names in the world of crypto betting.

The platform has been operating since 2013 and supports several cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, ETH, DASH, DAI, or DOGE.

With various options to reward users according to the day of the week, Cloudbet is one of the online casinos and sportsbooks with the highest odds, which also offers the world’s major leagues, such as NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB, among others.

The casino offers popular slots with progressive jackpots and popular table games such as roulette, poker, baccarat, and blackjack, among others.

The Halcyon Super Holdings BV company, established in Curaçao, owns the casino, so the platform is authorized and regulated by the government of the Caribbean island.

This platform is recognized as a solid online bookmaker and casino due to its time in the ecosystem, attracting an average of 600,000 visits each month according to SimilarWeb data.

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Conclusion Gambling is a rapidly growing sector within the billion-dollar gaming industry (both centralized and decentralized).

The use of cryptocurrencies to fund accounts and pay rewards, the use of non-custodial wallets to access these online gambling sites with anonymity and privacy, and the use of smart contracts in some decentralized applications to create fairer bets, are just some of the advances that the sector has made since the incorporation of blockchain technology.

Although many companies with gambling traditions have partially incorporated some of the properties, the truth is that we see an emerging market that bets on decentralized options to captivate the user, bringing billions of dollars year after year to the gambling sector.

With the metaverse on the doorstep, and the development of futuristic technology such as VR and AI, the path seems to be built for innovation to continue to come to the industry from technologies such as blockchain that provide security, trust and ownership to the user over their in-game assets.

TOP 10

Best Blockchain Games written by

Samantha Jimenez

Since 2021’s epic explosion in play-to-win games, everyone has been looking for the next best blockchain game. Hundreds of new projects are emerging, and players often struggle to find gems.

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But what are the best blockchain games to play and win crypto tokens? Our top 10 list is a great way to start your research.

These are the 10 best blockchain games to play and win right now. Some provide an excellent web3 gaming experience, but all allow you to do something extra. Read on to find out more!

1

Axie Infinity

Axie Infinity, the father of all blockchain games, since selling a single land for $2.3 million in November 2021, but the hype surrounding Axie Infinity has slightly receded.

But players can still make money by harvesting a mild love potion (SLP), raising and selling Axies, and betting Axie Infinity Shards (AXS), as you can confirm on the official website.

In the longer term, investing in land that can be rented or sold for profit is another option. New developments will surely revitalize Axie’s ecosystem.

The price of AXS had fallen into a long-term parallel downward channel since reaching an all-time high of $166.09 in November 2021. AXS, one of the tokens in the Axie Infinity game ecosystem, is the asset whose price reflected the highest growth in the cryptocurrency market on December 5th, 2022. The 37.6% rise took AXS from USD 6.85 to USD 9.43...

The reason that may have driven the price of Axie Infinity’s AXS beyond what other cryptocurrencies have increased is this year’s December 4th announcement about their governance system and its decentralization The contributor’s program is a group of almost 700 people that aims to decentralize governance in the Axie Infinity ecosystem. It is part of a long-term plan of progressive decentralization that was discussed by Sky Mavis, the developer of the game in question, in September this year at AxieCon.

2

Alien Worlds

Alien Worlds, connected to the WAX and Ethereum blockchains, is an innovative metaverse project where everything is tokenized, including all in-game assets. The player base of Alien Worlds is slightly smaller than that of Axie Infinity but also tracks over half a million UAW monthly.

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The Alien Worlds blockchain game has impressive backing from crypto venture capital investors, including Animoca Brands (which developed the Otherside metaverse game with Yuga Labs), Binance, and others.

Alien Worlds’ gaming takes many forms, such as gambling, participating in DAO, trading NFT cards, and mining to win Trilium (TLM).

It is also a member of the Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA), and its ecosystem frequently ranks in the top 2 of the best blockchain games on DappRadar.

In Q3, Alien Worlds became the most played blockchain game with 190 770 average daily UAW, a 14% increase over the previous quarter. Alien Worlds has consolidated its blockchain player base with around 190k wallets daily. The scarcity of resources provides the game with a minimal DeFi feature.

3

RobotEra

RobotEra: One of the best Blockchain games in general to buy pre-sale now One of the best new blockchain-based games to launch is RobotEra, which leverages the TARO token to create a virtual world where players can build terrains, trade in marketplaces, and participate in building the framework of this ecosystem.

Another of the great games that are part of Blockchain technology is undoubtedly RobotEra. It is a game that uses the game’s native token, TARO, to create a virtual world where players can trade in markets, build plots of land, and more.

The user in question has the power to deconstruct their custom project on the plot. Ranging from a house, a villa, a casino, and a stadium to a swimming pool. The possibilities are endless when it comes to virtual real estate within the metaverse of RobotEra. It is a game that builds a sandbox-like planet-building metaverse, in which users will become robots as they acquire planet resources and manage their land.

Currently, in pre-sale, TARO is allocating 270 million tokens across three pre-sale stages. According to RobotEra’s whitepaper, the project expects to complete its alpha phase in the first quarter of 2023.

Even though major altcoins have declined and pulled back this 2022, buying a pre-sale gaming token can be a lucrative way to diversify a cryptocurrency portfolio. In the timely case of RobotEra, the game is selling the TARO token through three pre-sale stages. TARO has a total supply of 1.8 billion, 15% of which is earmarked for pre-sale.

4

Calvaria

Calvaria: New Blockchain game offering several game modes It is a game that has been growing rapidly over the last year as it has been gaining ground in play-toearn games, which could see its RIA token revalued as the king of NFT games. It is a card game that pits players against each other in competitions while using cards representing various characters, each with their abilities. This game, during the last quarter of last year, surpassed the million-dollar pre-sale milestone and has several features that make it stand out from the rest.

In this comparative chart, you can find them.

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Starting with its accessibility, as it is available on both computers and mobile phones. Another important aspect is that users do not need to have a wallet to start playing.

It also has two modes: free-to-play and play-to-earn. Projects such as Calvaria can be considered a great investment opportunity, understanding that according to its behavior and development so far, it could suggest an unstoppable trend that will not stop growing in the blockchain and metaverse gaming sector.

5

Thetán Arena

With over 23 million players available to play on Android, iOs, and PC, Thetan Arena is already an established title in the world of cash games. Based on the Binance Smart Chain, the game has a consistent roadmap and plans that should reward those who stay the course.

The goal of Thetan Arena as a metaverse is to create a gaming ecosystem that can combine with blockchain technology, which aims to offer a stable and reliable game to win, aimed at both beginners and experts.

The game is based on the NFT model. That is, it has unique non-fungible tokens, is developed by a team with experience in traditional games such as Heroes Strike, and promises to reward players with real tokens.

Thetan Arena is WolfFun’s second successful game. The studio initially launched Heroes Strike, and many of the players who signed up also came to see what Thetan Arena has to offer. Many big-name firms that have invested in blockchain have voiced strong support for Thetan Arena. These firms include Aminoca Brands, DFG, Digital Capital, Kardia Ventures, Everest Ventures Group, and Decom Holdings.

Interestingly, this is the only game of its kind where purchased NFT characters have a limited usability lifecycle. In other words, there are a limited number of games in which each NFT item can earn in-game currency. Once this number is reached, players stop receiving rewards for playing with them and acquire a new NFT character.

Thetan Arena officially launched on 27 November 2021 and accumulated more than 3 million registered users in its first week alone. For the future, the developer team has announced plans to introduce hero stakes, cosmetics, guild missions, co-op modes, pets, a rental system, and many other features. It seems that the Thetan Arena economy has only just begun.

As the play-to-win movement continues its upward momentum, more players will flock to blockchainbased games, especially for the opportunity to earn passive income while playing.

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6

Silks

Silks are fast becoming the No. 1 sports NFT on the Ethereum blockchain on OpenSea, ranked in the top 50 on the leading NFT market analysis site Nansen and backed by leading investment firms.

This is a game that is based on a fantasy sports distania set in the high-stakes real world of thoroughbred horse racing. Players own digital versions of real-life racehorses and are rewarded based on actual results on and off the track.

It is a rich ecosystem where, through strategic gameplay, you can build your dynasty in the high-stakes world of thoroughbred horse racing.

In this sense, the play-to-win mechanics of this game have an exciting crossover with real life: when a player’s digital horse wins a real-life race, it earns in-game crypto rewards.

In terms of an investment vehicle, horse racing performs well in all market conditions, even during recessions, and can be a hedge in bad times, such as adverse macroeconomic conditions in 2022.

At the time of writing, horse racing has had a record year in terms of horse sale prices and the size of prize purses at the races. Silks are also having a good year, recently showcased when it raised USD 2 million in crypto VC seed round funding to bring the metaverse experience of horse racing to the masses.

7

Battle Infinity

If we take a look at upcoming fantasy sports games, Battle Infinity is one of them that projects good returns. It is also a blockchain-based game. The game, as such, puts a lot of importance on its community and has elements that make it very attractive and project it to be one of the most promising Play to Earn projects at the moment.

The game recently sold out of its pre-sale but will be available for purchase on crypto exchanges, including PancakeSwap as its first DEX listing. IBAT’s presale experienced high demand after being featured on Yahoo Finance, BeinCrypto, CryptoPotato, CryptoNews.com as well as other cryptocurrency media outlets.

Now, to participate in the various Battle Infinity NFT games players must create teams with their NFTs. These must be strategically balanced to win the games and earn rewards within the platform.

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Players will also be able to meet other people in the metaverse in common rooms and enjoy an important social component in this video game.

The game in question has different functions and features such as the IBAT Premier League, which is the main game mode and where most of the players face each other.

An innovative feature that makes them stand out and differentiate themselves from the rest is that they have a shop where players can publish games that they have created themselves for the platform. This allows players to be part of the project and add valuable content.

8

Splinterlands

Splinterlands has high popularity in the cryptocurrency industry. Created in 2021, it surpassed established games such as “Alien Worlds” in terms of users in its first week of release.

It is a collectible card game that you will find very similar to the well-known Magic The Gathering or Yu-GiOh! games, where your goal is to build the best possible pack of cards to face your enemies and emerge victorious. The game system allows you to fight against other players in matches and tournaments, and the blockchain game helped introduce mainstream players to cryptocurrency games. It was the second most played blockchain game this quarter. According to DappRadar data, it had a daily average of 159,522 UAW, down 47% from Q2.

As for Splinterlands’ native token, it is Splintershards (SPS), which is listed on Crypto.com and LBank, where Lucky Block is also listed, and Tamadoge will appear after launch.

Despite undergoing several changes to the game’s economy, Splinterlands consolidated its player base.

On 16 September, it announced its new NFT project, Runi, which will allow users to have the first opportunity to buy and play a unique NFT in the game’s history.

In addition, Splinterlands’ interface is well crafted, clear, and easy to navigate, so you won’t have any problems getting around, and its learning curve is all about understanding and managing your cards to have the best strategy at all times. In short, it’s a game designed to be enjoyed to the fullest (or suffered if you can’t understand it).

9

Aavegotchi

As for Aavegotchi, it’s a game that took an unexpected turn in early 2022. Until then, it had been a GameFi platform with the promise of keeping people hooked.

However, after the launch of its alpha version, users began to have many more opportunities to earn rewards and, potentially, money.

Aavegotchis are NFTs in themselves that you can buy. Each Aavegotchi is unique and has individual properties. The rarer the characteristics of an Aavegotchi, the rarer and more valuable it is.

The game in question was released to the public in beta in September 2020 and has since become a phenomenon within the community.

Aavegotchi is similar to other blockchain games in the industry such as CryptoKitties or Axie Infinity, only Aavegotchi has more features and its accelerated development aims to build a community and options much richer than its current counterparts.

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10

Guild of Guardians

Guild of Guardians: E-sports meets Web3 On 15 September 2022, Guild of Guardians (GOG), a squad-based action role-playing mobile game published

by Immutable Games Studio and developed by Stepico Games, announced a multi-year agreement with eight of the world’s largest and most prestigious professional gamers. E-sports organisations.

Together, they will shape the future of Web3 gaming and digital entertainment and offer pre-registration for Guild of Guardians to the world’s largest eSports community.

Yes, Guild of Guardians is being presented as a mobile role-playing game that will allow players to turn their gaming possessions into assets. It will be a multiplayer, fantasy, action role-playing game in which players will build their dream team of “Guardians” and compete to win rewards that promise to be epic.

This partnership allows eSports fans to support their favorite teams and players in new ways by representing their team in the game through digital assets. With true digital ownership, fans can produce, own and trade their digital assets, and compete with others for rewards.

Guild of Guardians, which partners with Naavik and Ubisoft, raised more than $3 million, and the NFT “Mythic guild” was acquired for $100,000 by Yield Guild Games, a collectibles investment group.

According to Forbes, five of GOG’s partner companies are among the 10 most valuable e-sports teams of 2022, and the aggregate value of the eight participants is approximately $2 billion.

What to expect in 2023?

The recent year 2022 was filled with many ambitious projects and games filling the ecosystem, web3 games, and play-to-win in the industry, with even huge AAA productions entering the market to compete. However, in addition to all those we have already listed, there are a few Web3 games that could be ready to launch major plans in 2023.

Here is a summary of them: Mist Mist is a blockchain-based MMORPG featuring an open fantasy world and a fantastic narrative. From character development to environment design, from control to gameplay, players looking for the ultimate sense of control can also play this game with a console controller.

At the end of November 2022, Mist launched its pre-alpha test, opening up its mixed reality gaming experience to early MMO players around the world.

Players with an NFT level of 3 or higher are among the first to experience Mist’s dynamic combat style and immersive open-world adventures.

The MIST token is the in-game currency, which facilitates trading activities within the game world. Mist’s NFTs are more than just collectibles. They serve multiple purposes in the Mist universe.

Some NFTs are powerful weapons, while others are defensive or portable items that protect your character in various ways; you can also find pet-like figures in the game that follow users around, or mounts that characters can ride to increase their movement speed.

Helix

Helix is building a virtual replica of New York City where players can play roles, compete for rewards, socialize and own virtual property. So, if you like GTA, this game is for you. But it will only bring more unexpected experiences with NFT rewards, Battle Royale mode, shootouts, and more.

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On November 28th, 2022, Helix made its first experience available to Founder Pass holders. With its diverse gameplay and stunning visuals, this game could be a strong contender for the best metaverse game of next year.

What can you get in Helix?

Helix creates a dynamic economy revolving around digital items powered by NFT technology. Users can buy, own, sell or trade them, just as they do in the real world. These items include clothing, vehicles, collectibles, terrain, and more.

Illuvium

Illuvium is a decentralized role-playing and collectible game on The Immutable X L2 network. Illuvium’s story follows the crash of a spaceship on an alien world. To survive, players must explore this unknown territory, capture creatures, and discover obelisks to help them fight on the map.

The game has begun a 25-day event streak. Every day brings a new quest, revealing a new featured partner and the chance to earn tokens, NFT, merchandise, and more.

What can you have in Illuvium?

Illuvium gives users full ownership over their in-game assets. Every successful Illuvium capture, farmed material, or crafted item is a non-fungible token (NFT) minted and stored in your crypto wallet.

Regarding ecosystem currency, Illuvium has a native token called ILV to back up its governance.

It is worth noting that users can earn ILV rewards through its performance farming system.

Life Beyond is a socio-technological universe. In this fascinating alien world, players can live the life they have always wanted. You can be whoever you wish to be and immerse yourself in a modern massively multiplayer role-playing game with endless social and creative possibilities.

Life Beyond Life Beyond has just launched a new NFT, Agent Zero Jacket, which provides opportunities for participation, perks (IRL), allowed lists for future releases and beta versions, and more.

What can you have in Life Beyond?

Life Beyond will empower players through various game mechanics backed by digital assets. For example, LB Token is a fungible utility token serving as the native in-game token.

It is the currency and the basis for transactions in the game.

The game also allows users to collect a wide variety of NFTs, from weapons to lands to special tools. They have different functions, but all make the player’s gaming experience more enjoyable.

There is a new proposal that has been revolutionizing the concept of the internet, and that is Web3, integrated with Blockchain technology. It is a decentralized internet that becomes part of the users, without intermediaries.

In other words, Web3 seeks to distribute all the Internet’s resources among its users, a characteristic that is absent in Web2 because its resources are concentrated in the “technological giants”.

What Web3 also tries to do is to give back to users the ownership of their information and privacy, especially if they participate in a social network.

In this sense, and motivated by this constant change, companies have not stood still, but have gradually moved closer to this new market. The clearest examples of the integration of companies in the web3 can be found in the cryptocurrency sector, NFT trading, the metaverse, and, of course, play-to-win games.

The latter has been one of the most relevant procurers of Web3 responsible for generating capital in this sector. This is evidence of the reason for the popularity of blockchain gaming. And, of course, why large companies within the industry are now working to focus their evolutionary goals on Web3 to remain competitive.

A tangible example of this is evidenced in DappRadar’s latest industry report. Analysts at the firm found that blockchain gaming platforms and their related utility tokens “weathered the storm” of the 2022 bear market better than crypto assets such as DeFi coins.

As a result, Crypto VC investment has remained high in cryptocurrency plays, thus surpassing 2021 levels by 33% in 2022, and expected to reach $12bn by the end of 2022 and early 2023.

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Why are blockchain games different?

It’s simple: If blockchain technology, along with Web3, can offer a better solution to those that already exist, then gaming companies using these technologies will be well-positioned to compete for the $159.3 billion that gamers spend each year.

Throughout this article, we have pointed out how the gaming industry is reinventing itself to join the evolution of the Internet from Web2 to Web3.

We have also seen how blockchain gaming is revolutionizing the way we work and how these decentralized protocols bring greater transparency by allowing users of these platforms to own their data and in-game assets.

It is also important to mention that dual-free Blockchain games have enabled the creation of new business models that are giving access to new markets.

Are blockchain-based games worth playing?

While it is true that within the Web3 space, many

users have been affected in one way or another by the events of the FTX, it should be noted that there are players in the gaming and entertainment industry that continue with alliances that promise to help the growth of these platforms.

Such is the case of The Sandbox, which, in its particular situation, or Star Atlas CEO Michael Wagner, who has his sights set on the future.

Although his game is based in Solana, he still believes that the web is the best place for his platform to grow.

Meanwhile, Star Atlas co-founder Pablo Quiroga doubled on Wagner’s sentiments with his post supporting Solana. This message from one of Web3’s most promising gaming platforms shows that they are not too shocked by what happened at FTX, which adds weight to their confidence in the industry despite the recent ups and downs.

Moreover, as with traditional video games, there are all kinds of Web3 games. Some may have weak gameplay, while others provide meaningful gaming experiences with the “technology of the future”.

CONCLUSION In recent weeks, many new games have appeared in time for the New Year, looking to get as many users as possible over the festive period and into 2023, so it is prudent to take a look at some of these offerings.

However, it should be remembered that, at the end of the day, whether or not a blockchain game is worth playing will depend on the team behind the project. Are they passionate developers and players? Are the tokenomics of the game well thought out and transparent enough? What is the community like? Are we dealing with a community that is respected and active across the various information channels? These are questions that, although they may seem basic and simple, should be considered important before considering to venture into and, above all, investing in a game.

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Binary X & BNX Token

written

by Kel

Binary X is a large on-chain online game platform on the Binance Smart Chain (BNB Chain).

The project started as a decentralised derivatives contract, where users can trade binary options conveniently. In August 2021, on seeing the immense potential for GameFi, the project transformed into a GameFi project.

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According to a blog interview, a significant portion of the team stated they were veteran gamers and had grown tired of traditional online games’ conventional and unbalanced economic systems. They set out to use their skills to attempt a fair and player-driven economic system within the booming metaverse ecosystem.

With this in mind, the team developed and launched Cyber Dragon, a play-to-earn MMO RPG Metaverse game on the BNB Chain. BNX is Cyber Dragon’s governance token, allowing holders to participate in community governance and vote on game design and implementation decisions. Some aspects of the game require BNX tokens, like creating game characters, recruiting game characters or heroes, creating rare in-game equipment and accessing specific in-game locations (dungeons) and challenges.

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In Cyber Dragon, all characters and items are NFTs. As part of the game mechanics, players must first recruit heroes and develop the heroes, though this first consumes BNX, developing one’s heroes and expanding their power can generate BNX and BUSD.

The game environment includes villages, battlefields, and forests, where players can explore, engaging in battles and trials.

Each hero has a different and unique skill and talent and can level up, earning rewards in BNX tokens, crystals and gold.

Cyber Dragon hosts regular hero competitions where players can face off in competitions and trials, acquiring in-game wealth and status.

Following the continued success of Cyber Dragons, the Binary X team launched Cyber Chess, a fast-paced player-versus-player (PvP) and player-versuseveryone (PvE) strategy-based battle game. Cyber Chess players can assemble an eight-hero party from a random pool and battle other players, developing winning strategies, managing resources, and collecting and building the strongest heroes.

The game has a free-to-play and a play-to-earn model to lower the barrier to entry for players. It adds to the utility of the BNX token by offering an avenue for holders to purchase in-game assets like heroes and skills in the game’s marketplace.

The Binary X team is attempting to combine DeFi, NFTs, and crypto economy elements in a gaming environment. Hence Binary X seeks to be a one-stop shop for gaming, NFTs, DeFi, marketplace and auctions platform on the BNB chain.

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Data All Data Is Current at Time of Writing Circulating Supply: 2,637,764 Max Supply: 21,000,000 Total Supply: 5,994,586 Binance Network Contract Address: 0x8c851d1a123ff703bd1f9dabe631b69902df5f97 Allocation of the US$12 million Binary X Cyber Incubation Fund (December 2022) Marketing Fund: 25% Research & Development: 20% Product Operation Cost: 20% Staking Rewards: 15% Leaderboards Rewards: 10% Cyber Incubation Fund: 8% Bug Bounty: 2% Website https://www.binaryx.pro/#/ Twitter https://twitter.com/binary_x Telegram https://t.me/binaryxGlobal Medium https://binary-x.medium.com/ Discord https://discord.com/invite/binaryx White Paper https://www.binaryx.pro/#/whitepaper

Where to Purchase BNX Token Prospective users can purchase BNX tokens on decentralised exchanges such as Pancakeswap, and centralised exchanges such as Gate.io, MEXC, and Binance.

Core Team Binary X states that it comprises semi-anonymous and -pseudonymous team members across many countries. The team is reported to consist of veterans from the blockchain, finance and gaming industries.

Though the team maintains a low public profile, they participate in regular AMAs on Medium, Discord, Telegram and Reddit. In the recent past, Binary X’s Community Manager, Olivia, and Business Operations Head, CP, have participated in AMA sessions on the project’s Discord channel. The Co-founder of Binary X, James, has also commented on their 2021 investment from Binance Labs.

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What Does BNX Do For Investors?

The BNX token is the utility token at the core of Binary X’s metaverse universe. It allows holders to participate in ingame competitions and trials, access in-game locations, and purchase in-game assets like skills, characters and equipment. A significant portion of the BNX accrued through in-game transactions is set as event rewards and returned to the users via in-game rewards and earnings.

Finally, the BNX token gives a share of governance power to its holders, allowing them to make decisions about the development direction of the games and the whole Binary X metaverse ecosystem.

Market Opportunity According to consumer market data firm Statista, the global gaming and esports market capitalisation sits at US$1.98 trillion, the global video game market revenue is US$208.6bn, the number of mobile gamers worldwide stands at 1.7bn, and the share of internet users who play video games via any device sits at 83.6%. Similarly, the global market capitalisation of the Web 2.0-based metaverse sits at US$14.8 trillion, while that of the Web 3.0-based metaverse sits at a paltry US$0.03 trillion. There is a significant opportunity for Web 3.0 metaverse ecosystems to reach parity with entrenched Web 2.0 metaverse ecosystems.

Whichever ecosystem or group of ecosystems fills this void will experience an explosion in revenue, investment and utility.

Industry experts regard blockchain and metaverse ecosystems as the next iteration of the internet; they could successfully influence the gaming industry in the manner mobile phones and the internet have done. Hence, Statista places the total metaverse opportunity (including GameFi, productivity, travel and other sectors) at US$6.46 trillion in the next five years if there is a conservative total addressable market (TAM) expansion of only 10%. An upper limit for this estimation sits at US$12.46 trillion with a 30% TAM. In a recent survey by big-four-advisory-firm Earnst & Young, 95% of business executives believe that non-gaming companies will benefit by following the approaches of gaming companies with respect to the metaverse.

It is reasonable to posit that the metaverse, GameFi, blockchain and gaming will converge. Binary X seeks to leverage this convergence by creating an entertaining ecosystem of games and blockchain primitives to capture the value of this convergence. Blockchain- and metaverse-based ecosystem projects like the SandBox, Decentraland, and Axie Infinity successfully leveraged the GameFi and Metaverse narratives, as seen in their market performance in the previous cycle.

Even in the bear market, where participation in such narratives dwindles, projects that offer entertaining value propositions may see increased participation, not only when speculation returns but when mass adoption of the metaverse and GameFi narratives finally occurs.

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The Roadmap Although the metaverse and GameFi sectors are rapidly developing, the Binary X team states that the industry infrastructure is still in its infancy.

Hence, the team seeks to provide developers with essential services. These services include; • A more powerful NFT asset trading platform; • A high-speed sidechain specially optimised for GameFi businesses; • An IGO (Initial Game Offering) platform that helps excellent games raise and attract traffic and; • ●A development platform for other GameFi teams to develop and optimise their projects

The team seeks to continue the self-development of several metaverse games in addition to the above goals. In December 2022, the team introduced a US$12 million Cyber Incubation Fund to drive the growth and adoption of Web 3.0 games.

Since launching the project’s incubation arm in mid-2022, the project team has already invested in and incubated two GameFi projects, including the Rh!noX NFT collection, aiming to create practical use cases for NFTs and encourage both NFT and non-NFT enthusiasts to be a part of the web3 space by offering a credible yet anonymous digital identity.

Additionally, the Binary X team is also building CyberLand, set in the Cyber Dragon world, where every player drives and shapes the history and myth of the game’s metaverse. The BNX token will be the main native currency of CyberLand and can be used for buying land.

The team is also proposing a DOA structure, aiming to improve the current team structure, with many departments, contributors and robust incentive structures.

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Conclusion In conclusion, the Binary X team is seeking to build a rich and entertaining metaverse to attract gaming, blockchain and NFT enthusiasts. Their approach is platform agnostic, aiming to cater to individuals knowledgeable in the crypto, blockchain and NFT spaces and individuals who have never ventured into the crypto, blockchain and NFT spaces.

With market analysts from Statista, McKinsey and Ernst & Young projecting trillion-dollar market values for GameFi, NFTs and Metaverses, the Binary X team offer a value proposition with potential by drawing gaming enthusiasts into its rich world-building games.

written by Daniel Jimenez

ZKP-based Layer 2 rollup solutions for Ethereum:

The new billion-dollar market for 2023?

Ethereum has provided a good ground for many innovative trends to grow, such as DeFi, NFT, and the Metaverse blockchain.

Its ecosystem has been expanding dizzyingly in the last year with new applications and innovation.

However, this growth has highlighted the need to complete the ETH 2.0 roadmap sooner rather than later to address user demand generating network collapse, with transaction fees becoming more expensive at times, even after The Merge.

Source: Binance Research Report 2022

In that context, L2 solutions to improve Ethereum performance continue to be the focus for many companies, investors, and even average users looking for better alternatives in terms of performance and costs to interact with the Ethereum ecosystem.

According to L2Beat, the Total Value Locked by combining all Layer2 technologies currently reaches 13.5% of the LTV of the entire Ethereum ecosystem, or about $4.48B.

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If we look at the previous graph, we understand that these technologies grew and developed exponentially in the last year, since September 2021, when an inflection point occurred in this sector of Ethereum.

As more dApps and DeFi protocols are deployed on L2 chains to take advantage of their scalability, the use of Ethereum’s L2 ecosystem steadily increases.

Ethereum L1 will become a settlement layer, with much of the transactions looking to run on L2 solutions but with the security that only Ethereum L1 can offer.

This growth involves the scaling solution for Ethereum ZK-Rollups, which has generated a lot of noise in the industry in recent months.

Rollups, in general, are a type of Layer 2 scaling solution that bundles or “accumulates” sidechain transactions into a single rollup block and publishes them to the Ethereum blockchain.

ZK-Rollups: Understanding the Potential Unlike other technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography receives little attention in the press as it is considered one of the most underrated technologies of recent times.

At the blockchain level, Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) is a non-interactive zero-knowledge argument method, which assumes that there are two parties: the tester and the verifier.

The tester wants to prove to the verifier that he knows something without revealing what it is. Meanwhile, the verifier verifies the proof and accepts or rejects it.

Source: https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/01/05/rollup.html

Proving that a statement is true without revealing the information itself is a powerful primitive in blockchain, as all data is publicly visible on the chains.

Technology can solve many problems for individuals, businesses and governments, such as protecting user data, designing sensitive systems or contracts, demonstrating equality in the distribution of public goods, and enabling government agencies to achieve a more efficient economy.

At the scaling level for Ethereum, rollups like ZK can enable the following improvements for the blockchain network: 1.- A running speed of approximately 25 to 3000 TPS without sacrificing security for Ethereum.

2.- User funds cannot get stolen or censored, contrasting sidechain solutions.

3.- Users can always access data in L1 to safely exit the summary without prevention at any time.

Beyond the substantial differences that may exist in security, decentralization, and cost terms, ZK’s solutions have had a crucial development in the last months that allowed capturing the industry’s attention with a promising forecast for the months to come.

If you are curious and want to learn more about the Zk-Rollups technology, you can go to the official Ethereum website to delve into more technical details about it:

Zero-Knowledge rollups | ethereum.org

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For now, in this post, we will focus on the market opportunities that we believe can be developed with this technology so that the picture below will be very different in the ecosystem for the next 2436 months:

Source: The Year in Ethereum 2021

Current status of off-chain L2 Scaling ZK-Rollups technology The blockchain technology trilemma first coined by Vitalik Buterin is still making waves in Ethereum, despite The Merge coming to fruition as planned.

The reason remains the ability to incorporate sharding as a scaling solution to improve the performance of the blockchain network with many decentralized applications (Dapps), which expects to take a couple more years to complete.

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Source: https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1588669782471368704?s=20

In that sense, there have been several attempts for scaling solutions outside the fundamental L1 Ethereum blockchains, such as Plasma, state channels, and recently, Optimistic rollups and Zk-rollups.

While these solutions help solve scalability problems by offering near-instantaneous transactions and considerably low fees while preserving the integrity of the main chain, some have drawbacks concerning the methods used for transaction execution and verification.

For example, Optimistic- rollups need a time window of up to seven days to make an effective withdrawal to the main chain, as it acts with a fraud test to reverse any malicious transactions due to the nature of ‘trust’ in honest nodes.

However, despite this, Optimistic remains one of the easiest solutions to implement at the source code level because of its compatibility with EVM, the virtual machine currently implemented in Ethereum.

However, given the distrust levels in the industry due to the different events that occurred in recent months, users, in general, continue to bet on pure cryptography as the best tool for verifying transactions and state changes in Ethereum.

Source: https:// vitalik.ca/general/2022/06/15/using_ snarks.html

And this is where ZK-Rollups come in. ZK-rollups are one of the most praised solutions to Ethereum’s scalability problems, as they provide efficient solutions. Although the ZK-rollup solution is still in its early stages, it significantly improves Ethereum’s scalability by reducing gas rates and the amount of data contained in each transaction.

Nonetheless, its lack of compatibility with EVM held back its adoption and development as a scaling solution primarily for Ethereum. But now the landscape is changing with optimistic progress in the industry on zkEVM solutions, a virtual machine developed to match EVM and ZK-Rollups technologies.

According to forward-looking estimates, by 2023, we should see the industry deploy this virtual machine by the zkSync2.0 team, which estimates to make it available for developers to deploy decentralized applications and users to run unlimited interactions by the next quarter, according to Huobi Research.

Source: ZK_Daily

Polygon (Hermez 2.0), one of the most relevant Ethereum sidechains, also announced that it is working to deploy its zk-rollups solution under the zkEVM concept

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https://twitter.com/0xPolygon/status/1579513173639823360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1579513173 639823360%7Ctwgr%5E67890449344acd0d0800415262d0 8bb07441f328%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.criptotendencias.com%2Factualidad%2Fpolygon-zkevm-testnet%2F Polygon and its Matic token has the 10th largest market cap in the ecosystem, with nearly $8B and a daily volume of just over $200M. The ZK-Rollups incorporation at the direct encoding level with the Ethereum smart contract without any substantial change (zkEVM) will further boost this emerging sector of the Ethereum market.

Polygon alone has deployed over 37,000 dApps in its ecosystem, moving around 1.8B transactions. So any effort on a zkEVM (which the Polygon team defines as EVM specification-level compatibility. ), will impact the industry, especially on DeFi.

Source: The Block

It is expected that with the changes announced by Polygon and ZkSync, zero-knowledge cumulative packages with EVM support may change the narrative of layer 2 scaling solutions In addition, StarkNet (Layer 2 protocol powered by Starkware) announced that it will exploit this technology to improve performance, reduce costs and secure its ecosystem, something that could probably be complete by 2024, a time of Bitcoin Halving that has a powerful effect on the entire crypto market.

Source: ZK_Daily

StarkNet is a general-purpose ZK-Rollup built using the STARK cryptographic proof system. StarkNet uses the Cairo programming language both for its infrastructure and for writing StarkNet contracts. L2 <--> L1 messaging infrastructure is its contracts are fully composable and currently launched with a single Sequencer.

Starknet has over 130 dApps currently deployed in its ecosystem with a VM that is not yet EVM compatible. However, their technology is faster and more secure in a cryptographic yet centralized sense; they invented and built their ZK-STAKR system.

Scroll, a project building an EVM-equivalent zk-Rollup to scale Ethereum, is another key player in this new trend of projects focused on ZK-Rollups technology.

Currently, they are in the conceptual and research phase for their Testnet, so by next quarter, we may witness some developed applications in their ecosystem.

With parabolic growth this 2022, it is not surprising that as zkEVM becomes available, projects using ZK-Rollups as a technology base may experience even more growth over the next 24 months.

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Who is investing in this technology?

The blockchain industry and, in general, the cryptocurrency ecosystem characterize it as an industry driven by the portfolio of partners and investors that each project may have.

In retrospect, we have seen many projects emerge from nowhere thanks to the impetus of major VC firms backing unknown projects but with an underlying utility that the investor’s eye can only seem to see.

Beyond the debacle and the morality surrounding the practices that some venture capital firms may employ in the industry, their network presence in the portfolio of a particular project may be synonymous with immediate success, or at least much faster than projected.

Investor money flow is crucial to follow when studying new projects. ZkRollups technology has some essential players supporting both financially and at a consulting level the development of this scaling solution that could enable more use cases in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Let’s find out who is developing ZK-Rollups technology and which is their investment arm to know the flow of money and understand the investment landscape of opportunities in this technology:

•

zkSync2.0 : With Matter Labs as the parent company of this project, they recently raised $200 million Series C round co-lead by Blockchain Capital and Dragonfly. The company mentioned that to date with this new round it has raised a total of $458 million from several firms including Andreessen Horowitz, LightSpeed Venture Partners and Variant.

•

StarkWare: StarkWare Industries has raised $273 million in six funding rounds. Its latest funding was in a Series D round on May 25th, 2022, and its backers include Pantera Capital, Paradigm, 3AC, Alameda Research, Sequoia, and CB Ventures.

•

Polygon: In February, Polygon announced raising $450 million in a private token sale to focus on building web3. Sequioa India led the round with 40 other investor firms, including Tiger Global, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Galaxy Digital, Republic Capital, Transcend Fund, Alan Howard, Alexis Ohanian, Animoca Brands, Dragonfly Capital, and Kevin O’Leary.

Some of the capital is to invest in zero-knowledge (ZK) technology, such as its zkEVM.

•

Scroll: In April 2022, a native zkEVM layer 2 solution for the Ethereum blockchain raised $30 million from eleven investors. The A Series was led by Polychain Capital, along with Bain Capital Crypto, Robot Ventures, and Geometry DAO, among others. The project has reached $33 million thanks to its angel investors, including prominent names in the Ethereum community.

Conclusion Ethereum appears poised to fend off competition as its Layer 2 solutions are gaining traction.

Ethereum Layer 2 protocols currently have over 3000 DApps deployed on their networks. Examples include major DeFi platforms such as Aave, Curve Finance, dYdX, and Uniswap. The total value locked up at layer 2 exceeds $4 billion, according to L2Beats.

In addition, more and more crypto exchanges are integrating with layer 2 solutions to improve the user experience for ETH users.

As layer 2 solutions continue to experience further growth, congestion on the main chain should decrease, along with ETH gas fees.

Opportunities are out there, and it’s just a matter of seizing them. The next 24-month period will be crucial to capitalize on them.

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As we further plunge into the depths of the ongoing crypto bear market, the urge to give up mid-way on the space grows stronger in many people.

Giving up could be a big mistake. Bear markets are for building; when people start giving up and lose hope, that is precisely when this space rises from the ashes, and the next bull cycle’s winners are born. Instead of obsessing over our losses, we should keep looking for the hidden gold.

Free Crypto and Where to Find it! written by Mrinal

Airdrop hunting has been one of the most exciting spaces in crypto since it allows the opportunity to get good $$$ by doing simple steps, and many do not require deep pockets/portfolios. Recently, some of the most prominent airdrops have been Aptos, Optimism, and ENS and are valued at thousands of dollars for those who could sell at respective peaks. Even those who couldn’t sell at the peak made good money for free.

This article covers some interesting airdrops (hyped and hidden), which you can hunt following the steps mentioned. Instead of worrying about which firm will be the next to go bankrupt, why not spend some time on these risk-free activities to stay ahead of the curve?

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LayerZero Airdrop Even “unfriendly” chains like Ethereum and Cosmos may be connected thanks to the clever bridging layer known as LayerZero. The folks behind the project made a clue regarding a prospective token.

Early adopters may receive a portion of the token allotment. To increase your chances of obtaining it, follow these steps.

1. Bridge Ethereum tokens to Aptos using the Aptos bridge here, making sure that you have some Aptos in your Aptos account for gas fees. Either Martian or Petra wallet can be used for this purpose. Do keep in mind that the bridge has a 3-day transfer window on withdrawals from Aptos, meaning when you want to withdraw from Aptos environment, it takes three days for the bridge to credit your funds to the other side.

2. Another way to qualify for the LayerZero airdrop is through Stargate Finance (STG).

STG, launched in March 2022, is a crosschain bridge and is the first implementation of LayerZero. You need to make a few transactions and transfers through Stargate to become an early user of LayerZero. You can also buy a small amount of STG and stake

it on their website. After this, check for new governance proposals on Stargate and vote on those. The more extended period you choose to stake/lock your STG, the more the weightage of your vote.

MetaMask Consensys, the team behind MetaMask’s development, recently launched an employeeled MetaMask Grants DAO allowing its employees to vote on various development proposals in the MetaMask ecosystem.

Interestingly, a document mentions that the team is looking to decentralize the ecosystem over time and add some external contributors. In the past, there have been hints about a MetaMask token.

Hence, not positioning yourself for a possible airdrop from one of crypto’s largest wallet service providers would be foolish.

Trying all the features built inside MetaMask can be a good start. Let’s start with the token swap feature.

The swap feature within the wallet pulls rates from various DEXes like Uniswap and Balancer, and users can perform swaps from right inside the wallet.

Source: Metamask

There is also a Bridge aggregator that you can use to transfer tokens between compatible blockchains.

The Consensys team announced that it is also developing an EVMcompatible ZK-rollup, where users can participate in the private testnet.

If you wish to join the waitlist, you can fill out this form here.

Arbitrum The arbitrum token is the most anticipated in the industry, so the airdrop is a crowded trade. There are hundreds of Twitter threads and documentation on eligibility for the airdrop. You can go through the steps on Twitter, as there are umpteen people who have shared different methods. These include mostly participating in Arbitrum Odyssey and swapping on Uniswap and Sushiswap on the Arbitrum chain. In this post, we will focus on the airdrop using a less crowded method through Arbitrum Nova which only some people know.

Arbitrum Nova is primarily designed for social applications and gaming.

For example, MOON, Reddit’s cryptocurrency, was launched on Arbitrum Nova.

To use Arbitrum Nova, you first need to add it to your MetaMask wallet.

You can use Chainlist, connect your wallet, and add the network. Once you do that, you can use the official Arbitrum bridge to transfer some ETH to your Arbitrum Nova wallet.

After you move some funds through the bridge, you can swap between WBTC, ETH, and Reddit’s MOON token on Sushiswap on the Arbitrum Nova chain.

To further improve your chances for Arbitrum airdrop, you should complete the missions on community development platforms like Layer 3. It would be best to increase volume on the Arbitrum One chain by doing multiple swaps on Uniswap or Sushiswap.

Debank DeBank is a very famous dashboard for tracking crypto portfolios with all sorts of analytics and data for decentralized lending protocols, margin trading platforms, stablecoins, and DEXes. It doesn’t have its own token yet and may decide to create one in the future.

The company have dropped a hint in this tweet. If that happens, they can do an airdrop for early platform users.

To position yourself for the possible airdrop, visit their website and connect your wallet through Metamask or any compatible wallet. The platform supports 12 chains as of now. Try to mint a Web3 ID by going into the account settings. If you reach the < 50,000 in the DeBank leaderboard, you will be able to Mint your Web3 ID for FREE before 31st December 2022. After this, it will cost $96 to mint a Web3 ID.

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In my case, my social rank is more than 50,000. So I need to pay $96 to mint my Web3 ID.

You should still mint it, irrespective of the cost. There are only 100,000 IDs that can be minted for now, and currently (as of writing), 19,068 Web3 IDs are minted. We all remember how good ENS airdrop was for those who minted the ENS domain names, spending some measly amount for domain registration. The rewards may outsize your cost.

Social media points that may reward/turn into tokens Quai Network is a hyped upcoming modular blockchain project. A modular blockchain focuses on handling a select few duties and outsources the rest to one or more separate layers. To learn more about modular blockchain, you can go through this interesting article published by Volt Capital here.

The Quai Network team raised $8 million in funding from Polychain Capital in early 2022. And then followed by the launch of a social media campaign in November 2022, where users can earn QUAI rewards. You can visit their dashboard and join by linking your Discord account. Then follow and interact with their Reddit, Twitter, and YouTube social media accounts to increase your points and chances of getting the airdrop. You can check out the list of activities and rewards mentioned here. The bounty tasks/activities are available on various social platforms, including TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit. You can choose the social platform you’re interested in and carry on the activities.

StarkNet ecosystem StarkNet. ID is the domain name service on StarkNet and is currently functioning on its testnet. Like the Arbitrum Odyssey program, they are also running a StarkNet Odyssey program and hinting that the participating users may get “a big surprise.”

To engage with StarkNet. ID testnet, you need to first add funds to Goerli testnet network via the Argent X browser wallet. If you need help installing Argent wallet, you can find the steps here. Change the network by clicking on the Mainnet tab on the top right of your browser extension.

(Source: Argent X browser wallet)

After changing the network, you will need to bridge some funds to the StarkNet testnet through Ethereum Goerli testnet network here. You will need to connect your Argent X and MetaMask wallet to the Starkgate bridge and transfer a minimum of 0.05 ETH.

Once you have the tokens to StarkNet Goerli network, you must navigate StarkNet. ID’s quest page, connect your wallet and complete the steps as displayed on the map. The various stages include quizzes and creating a unique StarkNet. ID, and a few other things, like linking your Twitter profile before creating your .stark domain name and completing the quest.

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(Source: StarkNet.ID)

Faze Forever VAS Cartridge Faze Clan is a hugely popular name in the gaming world. For the uninitiated, Faze Clan is a Counter Strike (CS) team.

Counter Strike is a legendary game launched almost two decades back and still enjoys its status as one of the most loved and followed games. It still attracts millions of players and spectators to this day, and there are big CS tournaments being held globally with great fanfare and participation.

Faze Clan, the most well-known team in CS, benefits from this attention: it has a massive 6 million Twitter following.

A Metaverse-themed website has been created by the team, that offers visitors the to mint a free VAS cartridge. The NFT service is provided by MoonPay, which is well known for its connections to the hyped Bored Apes Yacht Club collection.

All you have to do to get a cartridge is register with your Web 2.0 credentials. You will likely get a chance to mint it on-chain later. Having the potential to earn good hype considering Faze Clan and MoonPay are involved. I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Airdrop Tickets The Aptos ecosystem was launched last quarter and is still nascent. Giving a great opportunity as many projects don’t have tokens yet— these include some leading protocols like Pontem Network, Tortuga Finance, Argo, and Enchanter Finance. Some of these already have NFTs. You can position yourselves on future airdrops on these protocols by holding their NFTs. For instance, Pontem Network and Enchanter Finance have NFT collections with ~29 APT (~$108) and ~2 APT (~$7) floors, respectively, at the time of writing. Holders of these NFTs may get airdrop allocations whenever these protocols launch their respective tokens.

Also, as part of being a member of GettingStartedinCrypto. com, they take out all the effort needed to find worthy airdrops with their daily Crypto Bytes.

Twitter often has airdrops which can be found by searching the hashtag #Airdrops.

This thread has included a healthy mix of well-known/hyped (crowded) airdrops and obscure (hidden gems) projects. While airdrops are always speculative, with very few projects openly disclosing their airdrop plans, it is always worth it to spend some time to position yourself in case the project does have an airdrop.

You may be lucky in a few months’ time and laugh your way to the bank. Happy Hunting!

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written by Rhys

Where are they now?

Immutable X https://www.immutable.com/

Back in Moon Mag 6, close to the height of the NFT boom, we covered Immutable X. Pitched as the solution for gas wars on Ethereum, Immutable X is laser-focused on NFTs – trading, interaction, smart contracts, and other aspects of the NFT ecosystem that are key to their success.

Their gas-free, low energy, and high transaction-persecond solution offered NFT projects – particularly GameFi – the power to underpin complex projects where regular, high volumes of transactions would be par for the course.

As we all know, chains live and die on what sorts of projects use them, what partnerships come to fruition, what the chain eventually gets used for.

Solana was notably a success with this, buoyed by high-profile backing, and looked set to become THE place for web3 gaming. While that still might happen, the reputational damage of the last few weeks might’ve led you to look closer at other offerings – which is where we’re picking up our coverage of Immutable X today. How far has it come in the intervening months, how much use is it getting and, importantly, what games are being developed for the platform?

Recap Immutable X is a gas-free layer-2 solution with an NFT focus. Built on top of Ethereum, it enables builders to access the popularity and ubiquity of Ethereum, while developing on a protocol that allows for a much higher throughput of transactions per second, something that’s vitally important in Web3 gaming. When we last covered it, it was a relatively new protocol to the space, arriving at a time where gas wars on big mints was commonplace, where hundreds of dollars were being spent on gas fees – sometimes on single transactions. This was clearly becoming an issue even for traditional art NFTs where transaction volumes are low, let alone for gaming projects where thousands of transactions per second could take place for any individual game. Amplified across a whole ecosystem, Ethereum could not continue to cope without solutions like Immutable.

This solution is getting recognised by some of the biggest games being developed in the space.

Illuvium is one of the most premium offerings in Web3 gaming being developed, and has chosen Immutable X as it’s home. It’s recent land sale was successfully hosted with Immutable in a hybrid fashion to work around Immutable’s as-it-stood inability to host auctions. The Dutch auction was conducted on the Ethereum L1, and resulting winning minters able to take advantage of gas-free minting on Immutable. With a relatively seamless experience from bid to NFT creation, this allowed an extremely popular sale to go ahead with gas fees minimal – around $15 for the auction only, a far cry from some of the figures seen in previous Ethereum-only mints.

be viewed with the context of market conditions – token values have cratered, which means in raw terms, transaction volumes have increased significantly in order for cash volume to tick up even slightly. Demand continuing to build is impressive, and this is further reflected by substantial increases in unique owners on Immutable. Games are building and folks are adopting.

With some highly active projects like Gods Unchained and some of the biggest games still incoming in Illuvium, the future for usage looks very bright indeed. However, this is just one prong of driving Immutable’s usage. After all, in these cases, it’s likely players have come to Immutable because of a game itself and may not know nor care about the engine that purrs beneath the bonnet driving their play. Relying on this will only bring users who are in the communities of those games. Web3 gaming is still a relatively small niche and so a lot of those communities may overlap and generally be smaller than you’d like anyway. What can a platform like Immutable do to help support this?

The tech works. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak. And despite this relatively depressed market, that’s key. As we’ve written before, in a slower market, it’s only the builders and truly working projects that will continue to deliver and attract interest. And interest has certainly continued. When we originally covered the project, the volume of on-chain activity swung around $500k-1m in value per day. Volume on Immutable in cash terms has remained relatively consistent, ticking up slightly to perhaps $600k-1.2m per day. However this should This magazine is sole property of themoonmag.com and is not to be redistributed in any form anywhere else.

How about partnering with one of the biggest traditional gaming outlets in the world? Because in their partnership with Gamestop, that’s exactly what Immutable have managed to deliver. Gamestop set out a few months back to offer Web3 and NFT services to it’s customers (who are notably mostly US-based), something that although controversial in traditional gaming spheres, does get a lot of eyes onto the Web3 gaming space. Initially, Immutable X and Gamestop have worked as partners on Web3 wallet integrations, with Gamestop building a wallet and Immutable adding some integrations into their chain through it.

The bombshell moment though has been their building of the Gamestop NFT marketplace together. As covered above, Gamestop has huge market reach in traditional gaming, and being able to offer their customers Web3 gaming running on Immutable is a huge boon for both sides of the partnership. Immutable clearly gets some of that market action and lots of additional eyes on their games, while Gamestop gets a marketplace solution that allows them to pitch NFTs as carbonneutral, assuaging some of the climate concerns that traditional gamers have with blockchain

gaming.

As more games come to Immutable, curating a collection of top-tier games for inclusion on just such a marketplace will be massive in terms of adoption. Gaming is a minefield, with quality between games varying wildly. This is true of traditional and blockchain gaming, of course, but where the bricks-and-mortar or boxed retail editions of games tend to indicate some level of curation of backing, the Gamestop NFT marketplace could provide a similar first filter for new players – ensuring that their first experiences are good, and hopefully allowing them to become long-term participants in the space.

Gamestop isn’t the only marketplace that Immutable has been working with though. Long before these partnerships came to fruition, Immutable was building integrations into Nifty Gateway marketplace, one of the top platforms for NFT trading. Nifty now lists Immutable-based NFTs alongside their core Ethereum listings, giving projects more visibility on the slightly more exclusive marketplace (when compared to Opensea which is much more… well… open!)

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Speaking of Opensea, didn’t we write that the project team were building towards integration there too? Well, yes. We did. With the pace that Immutable seems to be building their other partnerships and integrations, it’s a bit of an odd one. The only message that Immutable project members will share about Opensea is that the work is done from their side – someone, somewhere at Opensea now needs to flick a switch to include them as a chain for listing. It’s clearly a frustration for some of the community, “wen Opensea” being asked on a semi-regular basis. But it’s reassuring that the work is pretty much done and that integration is able to happen. Let’s just hope it’s seen before too long. Keep watching this space!

Conclusion Immutable X has continued to show that their platform works. Volumes have remained strong despite the down market, while every other platform notes significant drop-offs in usage.

They’ve attracted some A-list games over to the chain, created solutions to problems that might’ve scuppered some of those partnerships, and even partnered with one of the biggest non-crypto companies in gaming. While a killer project like a BAYC or Cool Bears hasn’t broken out yet, equally all the groundwork is there for one to pop up at any time, particularly in a new cycle where new attention and more NFT trading picks up once more. Immutable also has loads of room to grow, with huge platforms just a little while away from opening up to their chain.

They have continued to do what all good projects need to do in a down market – build, lay groundwork, and prepare to be in good shape for the next market cycle. They continue to be a project worth keeping an eye on for the long-term.

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