Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has launched a crypto-native think tank dubbed the Coinbase Institute. The think tank will publish research on the cryptocurrency space and Web3.

Ethereum’s Ropsten public testnet is set to undergo an upgrade from its current Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus on June 8. The move will see the Ropsten testnet underdo the Merge, which will end mining on the Ethereum network.

Decentralized finance lending protocol Aave has launched the Lens Protocol on the Polygon blockchain. The Lens Protocol is a network for building decentralized social media with more than 50 applications.

Sponsored: Ultimate Battle Arena, the first NFT game of Ulti Arena, is a trading card game and MOBA-inspired universe in the Polygon Network where anyone can earn its in-game currency, Benders of Valor Tokens (or $BOV), through skilled gameplay.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Coinbase Launches Crypto Think Tank
• Ethereum Ropsten Testnet Merge Set for June
• Aave Launches Decentralized Social Media Protocol on Polygon
• Sponsored: Newly released token by Ulti Arena: Benders of Valor

Coinbase Launches Crypto Think Tank

Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has launched a crypto-native think tank dubbed the Coinbase Institute. The think tank will publish research on the cryptocurrency space and Web3.

Coinbase Institute is set to hold talks with policymakers and thought leaders across the cryptocurrency industry, and will contain a site for updates, primers, and crypto issues. The think tank will publish a monthly insight report on digital asset markets.

The cryptocurrency exchange has also formed the Coinbase Institute Advisory Board, as well as an academic partnership with the University of Michigan.

The advisory board includes law professors, crypto researchers, and other academics, while the Coinbase Institute will be headed by Hermione Wong, the firm’s director of policy.

Ethereum Ropsten Testnet Merge Set for June

Ethereum’s Ropsten public testnet is set to undergo an upgrade from its current Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus on June 8. The move will see the Ropsten testnet underdo the Merge, which will end mining on the Ethereum network.

The configuration code for the testnet’s upgrade appeared in a pull request from Ethereum DevOps engineer, Parathi Jayanathi, in the eth-clients GitHub repository earlier this week. Last month, developers started working on testing how the merge would work on a shadow fork.

Mining cryptocurrencies through a Proof-of-Work algorithm is energy-intensive. When Ethereum’s upgrade is complete, miners on the network will be replaced by validators who will stake their ETH to secure the network and help it reach consensus.

The merge is expected to drastically reduce the amount of energy the Ethereum network consumes and significantly reduce the issuance of new tokens.

After EIP-1559, Ethereum introduced a base fee model for transactions, where the fee is changed dynamically based on network activity. That base fee is burned instead of being given to miners, meaning that after the merge ETH could become a deflationary currency.

Aave Launches Decentralized Social Media Protocol on Polygon

Decentralized finance lending protocol Aave has launched the Lens Protocol on the Polygon blockchain. The Lens Protocol is a network for building decentralized social media with more than 50 applications.

The developers of Aave first introduced Lens in February of this year. The protocol is a software stack that enables developers to create decentralized competitors to social media giants like Twitter and Facebook.

While traditional social media platform rely on email ids and unique usernames, Lens Protocol uses cryptocurrency addresses and NFTs for authentication and monetization purposes.

Lens is reportedly looking to achieve censorship resistance for hundreds of social media applications while helping them unlock new forms of content monetization through the use of cryptoassets, including NFTs.

Newly released token by Ulti Arena: Benders of Valor

Ultimate Battle Arena, the first NFT game of Ulti Arena, is a trading card game and MOBA-inspired universe in the Polygon Network where anyone can earn its in-game currency, Benders of Valor Tokens (or $BOV), through skilled gameplay. It’s a digital collection where players can battle, collect, modify and fuse their Ultimates. Each Ultimate possesses a different set of characteristics that determine their role in the battle. 

Ultimates are non-fungible tokens (NFT). They are unique and owned by the user, validated through the blockchain, and their value can be appreciated or depreciated based on the marketplace. Since Ultimates are tokens on a blockchain, they can be bought, sold, or transferred digitally, with a guarantee of ownership. Ultimates have an infinite number of copies on the Marketplace. Each copy has distinct stats stored in a smart contract.

$BOV tokens will be used to fuse, reroll, and level up cards in the game, and are consequently burned. The supply is limited to 1,300,000,000 $BOV, without minting function. 

Ultimate Battle Arena is a product of Ulti Arena, a community that aims to become the center for all things gaming by providing white-label solutions for GameFi, in partnership with Frag Games. The Ulti Arena community is currently doing a closed beta test of the game with the full game launch scheduled in July 2022. 

Benders of Valor has recently launched for trading in Uniswap Polygon on USDT-BOV trading pair! The token will be listed for trading in CEXs soon. 

Follow Ulti Arena for project updates: https://linktr.ee/UltiArena

Disclaimer:

Cryptocurrencies are unregulated. Cryptocurrency profits may be subject to Capital Gains Tax. The value of investments is variable and can go down as well as up.

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