Crypto NFT Today: The Latest Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and NFT News: April 5 – 11
Welcome to another edition of Crypto NFT Today! If you enjoy cryptocurrency, NFTs, and riding emotional, and sometimes rickety, roller coasters, you’ve come to the right place. So put on some soothing music and let’s go!
Dogecoin soars after Musk replaces Twitter’s Blue Bird with Doge Dog
Dogecoin (DOGE) surged in value by over 35% after Elon Musk replaced Twitter’s famous blue bird logo with the cryptocurrency’s Shiba Inu dog logo. According to CoinDesk, DOGE climbed as high as $0.1046 from about $0.077 just before the logo change.
Musk has often promoted DOGE, even suggesting that the meme coin has better payment functionality than bitcoin (BTC). In January, the Financial Times reported that Twitter would create a system that would allow payments on the platform. Musk has claimed that Twitter would be “primarily” a platform for fiat currencies, he has also worked to incorporate crypto.
Shortly after posting the logo change, Musk tweeted what appeared to be an AI-generated meme featuring the DOGE dog.
Senator Elizabeth Warren Goes to War on Crypto
Last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) tweeted from her campaign account that she was building an “anti-crypto army.”
In the debate between Central Bank Digital Currency vs blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, Warren sided with the government-controlled CBDC. This pits her against Republicans, such as Governors Rod Desantis of Florida and Kristi Noem of South Dakota, who have warned of the threats to freedom and privacy of retail CBDC.
Appearing last year on NBC’s Meet the Press, she told host Chuck Todd:
“Instead of bitcoin, we can talk about digital currency, it’s something completely different, because it’s a state-backed electronic transfer … but it has something to back it up.” She added later, “If you’re thinking: We can improve it in a digital world? The answer is you can, but if so, let’s do a CBDC.”
Like most issues, a retail CBDC has become a blue vs. red case, with Democrats favoring government control and Republicans favoring deregulation, with very little middle ground.
OpenSea’s advanced NFT market met with mixed reviews
In its latest attempt to win back users from its NFT marketplace competitor, Blur, OpenSea has rebranded Gem V2 to OpenSea Pro. The new platform introduces new features and tools with an introductory offer that allows users to list for zero fees.
In a tweet, OpenSea boasted that the new NFT aggregator is best-in-class, prompting a less-than-impressed response that wondered when OpenSea would do better in supporting artists.
OpenSea acquired the Gem platform last April to attract more regular NFT traders. Gem allowed trading in NFTs across multiple markets and pools, with a single transaction. This dramatically reduced the trade, or “gas” fees.
Blur has steadily eroded OpenSea’s market share with trading incentives that reward asset churning. In February, Blur surpassed OpenSea’s trading volume. Critics have accused Blur’s incentives of encouraging fraudulent trades.
Users push back after Midjourney banned photos of Xi Jinping
After AI image generator Midjourney banned images of Chinese President Xi Jinping, undeterred users are creating a solution with deep fakes produced by sophisticated machine learning techniques. Although Midjourney allows the creation of images for other world leaders, Xi is excluded from the practice.
Xi is notoriously sensitive to depictions of his likeness, even banning cartoons depicting him as Winnie the Pooh.
Midjourney’s founder and CEO, David Holtz, claimed that the platform banned other image words in image creation, based on local complaints about “different topics in different countries.”
He further asserted that responding to complaints was not out of fear of being blocked from the Chinese market, “Our decision was not motivated by financial gain, and in this scenario it is clear that securing access to this technology for Chinese individuals is for the greater good.”
