The CoinGeek Pulse Episode 79: Bitcoin donations pour Ukraine, China bans ICOs, Haste Arcade rewards gaming success

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Digital currency is proving to be a critical asset in wartime, with a deluge of donations coming in for the besieged Ukrainian government. With Russia ramping up its invasion of its Eastern European neighbor, digital asset donations have started pouring in to help Ukraine weather the siege.  

https://twitter.com/fabriik_market/status/1499088399554256897?s=20&t=5Ce-e27nuslx0bogIJOsjQ

Among those chipping in is Ukrainian-American sports club Tryzub, which has teamed up with NFTfamiliars and FabriikX to release two limited edition NFTs. All proceeds from the NFT sale will go to the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee (UUARC). 

As of February 28, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic says that investors have donated over $22.8 million in digital currency assets to Ukraine’s government and non-government organizations. 

This comes just days after Ukraine’s official state accounts pleaded for digital currency donations on Twitter. 

I'm asking all major crypto exchanges to block addresses of Russian users.

It's crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also to sabotage ordinary users.

— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 27, 2022

Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has also appealed to major digital currency exchanges to block addresses of Russian users saying “it’s crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also to sabotage ordinary users.” 

Sanctions have piled up against Russia since it began its offensive on February 24, including the removal of certain Russian institutions from the interbank messaging system SWIFT. Concerns have been raised over the possibility of dodging these sanctions using BTC, but experts say this will be a tough task for Russia because of the inherent nature of digital currency. 

Over in Asia, China is cracking down on digital currency crowdfunding. Beijing’s Supreme Court has come out with a new interpretation of national law that now deems fundraising of digital assets a criminal offense. The revised interpretation also imposes harsher punishments for convictions related to illegal fundraising, which now also covers online lending, digital currency transactions, financial leasing, and a few others.    

The punishment for breaking this law would depend partly on how much was raised. Raising an amount of CNY100,000 or nearly US$16,000 is considered a “large” amount while CNY50 million or nearly $8 million is considered “extremely huge” and punishable by more than ten years of prison time. 

Meanwhile, South Korea is making a massive investment in the metaverse. The country’s Ministry of ICT, Science, and Future Planning is investing KRW223.7 billion or nearly $187 million to create a broad metaverse ecosystem.  

In an official statement, the ministry said that the funds would be used to complete four main objectives:  

• Creating a virtual world platform based on decentralization 
• Fostering professionals 
• Fostering specialized companies 
• Creating a reliable extended virtual world environment 

As part of this initiative, content creators will receive support from the Korean government. The ministry is also set to host several projects in line with this, including a metaverse developer contest and a hackathon. 

In gaming news, arcade lovers can finally earn money from their success, thanks to Haste Arcade. The unique gaming platform rewards its winning players via a unique, patent-pending Instant Leaderboard Payout (ILP). 

The three key pillars of ILP are: 

• Get on the Leaderboard and get paid 
• Microtransaction purchases and real-time payments 
• In-game NFTs and other play-to-earn formats 

The transactions are carried out on the BSV blockchain—which features unbounded scaling, low cost, and transaction throughput capacity.  

Haste Arcade has also partnered with digital financial services provider Fabriik, whose Weave API allows players to seamlessly trade in real-time without leaving the application. 

This week, check out the highlights of the recently concluded LEAP 2022 in Saudi Arabia. More Than Money is also back with Richard Boase, who talks about how the Satoshi Block Dojo can help entrepreneurs through the blockchain. Watch the full videos on the CoinGeek YouTube Channel. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlPGmoDaIj0