Tag: nft

  • Pakistan’s iconic ‘wow grape’ meme to be sold as NFT

    Pakistan’s iconic ‘wow grape’ meme to be sold as NFT

    The “wow grape” meme that won the hearts of many people across the world is due to be auctioned as a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) on September 30, 2022, on the digital art marketplace Foundation.

    When a YouTube channel posted a video of a celebration at a Pakistani school in Saudi Arabia, a school teacher, Sehar Kamran’s “wow grape” moment became meme material for netizens.

    Snippets from the video quickly went popular on the internet, becoming a frequent model for the creation of memes that inundated social media.

    The tagline “wow, great” was actually misunderstood as “wow grape” by internet users. Since then, the phrase “wow grape” has appeared regularly in texts, images, gifs, and videos on the internet.

    The auction will be held in partnership with the Sweden/Pakistan-based software business, Maqssoft, with Sehar Kamran’s permission.

    Reportedly, a percentage of the earnings from NFT sales will go toward the rehabilitation of flood victims in Pakistan.

  • Crypto heist: Hackers steal $100 million from Harmony blockchain bridge

    Crypto heist: Hackers steal $100 million from Harmony blockchain bridge

    A blockchain bridge titled Harmony, which helps in transferring cryptocurrency tokens between each other, recently disclosed that $100 million in digital currency was stolen on Thursday morning from its Horizon bridge.

    Harmony revealed that its Horizon Ethereum Bridge was a victim of a “malicious attack” in a blog post outlining the incident.

    Harmony said that its separate bridge used for bitcoin wasn’t affected by the hack and that its funds and assets are safe. They have notified other exchanges and stopped its bridge “Horizon” to prevent further transactions as the company investigates the heist. 

    In order to track down the hacker and recover the stolen money, the platform has started working with local law enforcement and forensic experts.

    The hack and ransacking of Horizon weren’t the first this year. In March, cybercriminals stole about $620 million worth of cryptocurrency from a network used to process in-game transactions for Axie Infinity, one of the world’s most popular NFT video games.

  • Zulfi Bukhari mocks Miftah Ismail for not knowing about Web 3.0

    Zulfi Bukhari mocks Miftah Ismail for not knowing about Web 3.0

    Following Finance Minister Miftah Ismail’s admittance of being unaware of the third generation internet, or Web 3.0, Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) leader Zulfikar Bukhari offered him “free consultation and training” on Web 3.0.

    “We’ll give you free consultancy services & coaching on Web 3.0 Miftah, but please don’t embarrass Pakistan like that next time,” Zulfi Bukhari said in a tweet quoting a video of the Atlantic Council.

    In the viral video, Miftah is asked about the rise of Web 3.0, which the questioner believes will be a $100 billion dollar export opportunity for Pakistani talent in the next 20 years.

    He also inquired what he felt about providing new economic prospects for Pakistanis, citing the potential of digital currency.

    “Let me simply declare that I genuinely don’t know what Web 3.0 is,” Miftah said bluntly and “shamelessly..I don’t know much about this, but I do know that Pakistani fintech and new technology businesses garnered a lot of money last year and from a very low starting point”.

    He added that we want them to thrive as much as possible, I’m not sure how much we can do to assist them.

    What is Web 3.0?

    Web 3.0 is a new kind of internet that not only accurately translates what you type, but also understands what you say, whether through text, voice, or other media, and where all of the content you consume is more personalised than ever before.

    There are a few early-stage Web 3.0 applications that exist today, but their true potential cannot be seen until the new internet is fully integrated into the web infrastructure.

    Web 3.0 refers to the next generation of the internet, in which websites and apps will be able to handle data in a clever human-like manner using technologies such as machine learning (ML), Big Data, and decentralised ledger technology (DLT), among others.

    Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, dubbed Web 3.0 the Semantic Web, with the goal of creating a more autonomous, intelligent, and open internet.

    Read more: ‘Sasta Ramzan Bazaar’ fails to provide relief in third Ashra

    Data will be interconnected in a decentralised form, which would be a big leap ahead from our present generation of the internet (Web 2.0), where data is largely housed in centralised repositories.

    Users and machines will be able to engage with data as well. However, programmes must be able to comprehend information both conceptually and culturally in order for this to happen. With this in mind, the semantic web and artificial intelligence are the two cornerstones of Web 3.0. (AI).

  • Amitabh pays 2.61 crore PKR as GST after selling his NFT collection for 17 crore PKR

    Amitabh pays 2.61 crore PKR as GST after selling his NFT collection for 17 crore PKR

    The Bollywood superstar, Amitabh Bachchan has finally paid 2.61 crore PKR in GST for the sale of his non-fungible token (NFT) collection, which was auctioned for 17.16 crore PKR in the first week of November 2021.

    Some of the netizens may remember that Bachchan had received a warning from the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) to pay the imposed GST.

    Despite Bachchan’s deposit, the DGGI is expected to continue its probe into tax avoidance.

    An NFT venture stated in August 2021 that Bachchan’s NFT collection would be available on its platform. Bachchan had signed an agreement with ‘Rhiti Entertainment’ to convert some of his pictures or illustrations into digital assets.

    Interestingly, this also made Bachchan one of the first Indian actors to support digital art and NFTs.

    Apart from the photos and posters, a famous collection of poems written by Bachchan’s father and recorded in his own voice, ‘Madhushala’ was the most successful auction.

    The NFT auction had garnered 17.16 crore PKR and attracted 18 percent GST. Big B was bound to pay taxes worth 12.61 crore PKR from the sale, which has been now deposited by the actor.

    Read More: Crypto companies at risk of closure in the United Kingdom

    For those who do not know much about NFTs, it is a type of digital asset that represents real-world or sometimes abstract elements. This can be art, photography, meme, music, game characters or any graphic one can think of. This data unit is kept on a blockchain, a digital ledger that makes it non-transferable and unique.

  • PUBG developer collaborates with blockchain for NFT-based games

    The South Korean gaming studio ‘Krafton’, who is also the developer of PUBG, has recently announced a partnership with a blockchain company ‘Solana Labs’ for the development, design, and marketing of NFT-based games and services.

    Solana Labs is also the developer of Solana blockchain, an Ethereum-competitor designed to offer fast transaction speeds at a lower cost.

    The partnership comes a month after Krafton announced its plans to step into the world of blockchain gaming and said that it would be working with Naver Z to launch a new Web 3.0 and non-fungible token (NFT) project aimed at building a proper NFT metaverse platform.

    The important context for these deals can be Krafton’s share price, which have considerably dropped in 2022 due to tough competition from Chinese rivals, who are pouring into South Korea following a crackdown from regulators in Beijing.

    As a result, Korean developers are reportedly racing to develop ‘play-to-earn’ games, comprising blockchain technology to shore up revenue.

    The South Korean studio has not announced which of its games might see the addition of blockchain functionality or whether it will be offered in the PUBG series. Undoubtedly, the addition of NFTs in PUBG can double its popularity and earnings with attracting more players.

  • Crypto companies at risk of closure in the United Kingdom

    A number of cryptocurrency businesses in the United Kingdom (UK) may be forced to shut down if they fail to register with the financial watchdog before a major deadline next week.

    Firms providing crypto services in the UK must register with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) by 31 March, 2022. The FCA is in charge of supervising how digital asset firms tackle money laundering.

    In 2021, the authority stretched the deadline for businesses on a temporary register to continue trading while seeking full license. Once the deadline passes, the temporary register will be closed.

    Many crypto businesses have withdrew their applications, according to the FCA, since they did not match the required anti-money laundering criteria.

    With only days until the deadline, the status of companies on the temporary register including Revolut, a $33 billion fintech business, and Copper, a crypto start-up is in trouble which counts on UK Finance Minister, Philip Hammond as its advisor.  

    Read More: Pakistan decides to make cryptocurrency illegal

    Some businesses are now withdrawing their applications, including B2C2, a London-based crypto trading firm, just removed itself from the FCA’s provisional registry.

    B2C2’s spot trading activity has been relocated to the company’s U.S. Entity from this week. The firm’s business is now unaffected as it is handled by an FCA-authorized subsidiary.

  • You can now buy viral Chand Nawab video meme

    The video that went viral in 2008 featuring a local reporter, Chand Nawab has been put up for auction as a Non-Fungible Token (NFT), on a website named Foundation.

    The reserve price for the video on the website is $64,756.60 (around Rs10,787,763.14).

    “I’m Chand Nawab, a journalist and reporter by profession. In 2008, a video of me surfaced on YouTube in which I fumbled while reporting Eid Festival frenzy at a Railway station. While reporting, I was contently interrupted by people, my fumbling and constant irritation made this video viral getting millions of views on YouTube and Facebook,” wrote Nawab while explaining what the video meme was about.

    “My popularity again surged in 2016 when my viral video inspired Indian film maker Kabir Khan to create Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s character in his 2015 blockbuster Bajrangi Bhaijaan,” he added.

    Read more- Viral Pakistani meme makes it to Hong Kong museum

    Earlier this month, the ‘Friendship ended with Mudasir’ meme, which went viral in 2015, was auctioned off as a Non-Fungible Token for $51,530 (roughly Rs8,491,427.73). The sale was concluded on the online platform Foundation, which facilitates live auctions for NFTs.

  • Viral meme ‘Friendship ended with Mudasir’ sold for $51,000

    The ‘Friendship ended with Mudasir’ meme, which went viral in 2015, has now been auctioned off as a Non-Fungible Token for $51,530 (roughly Rs8,491,427.73). The sale was concluded on the online platform Foundation, which facilitates live auctions for non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

    It was bought by Andrew King, co-founder of Mechanism Capital, BBC has reported. Asif, while speaking to BBC, said that the sale was ‘unexpected’ for him.

    In 2015, a Gujranwala-based man named Asif Raza Rana created a manipulated artwork that became the Pakistani friendship breakup meme. Rana had broken up with Mudasir Ismail Ahmad. He also revealed that he had met a new closest friend in Salman Ahmad Naqash. The meme was widely shared by social media users.