Tag: authentication

Unstoppable Domains and Chainlink Introduce Twitter Verification for Crypto Payments

Unstoppable Domains a company building blockchain domain names, and Chainlink the secure oracle network, have launched a Twitter authentication service for .crypto addresses.

According to a release shared with Blockchain.News, with this new feature, .crypto users can quickly authenticate by connecting to a public social media profile, and verify the address’ ownership through MyEtherWallet (MEW), which is the first platform that integrated the new feature.

Brad Kam, Unstoppable Domains co-founder wrote:

“This verification solution is making crypto payments more user-friendly […] It attaches real-world information to a cryptocurrency address, while still enabling a level of privacy through the use of pseudonyms or avatars.”

Phishing scams have been a real threat for many years and crypto addresses have often been vulnerable to such attacks. The recent Twitter hack that affected famous Twitter accounts earlier this year, including Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Elon Musk, led to 400 payments being sent to malicious bitcoin addresses.

According to Kosala Hemachandra, founder of MyEtherWallet:

“Adding your Twitter handle to your blockchain address provides a missing layer of transparency to make crypto safer. For the first time, anyone can use MEW to verify someone’s identity before they send them crypto.”

Unstoppable Domains is also integrating authentication powered by Chainlink oracles, that can connect each .crypto address to a public Twitter username. The verification is instantly confirmed and logged on the blockchain. This means that when sending funds from their wallets, users will be visually notified if the address they’re transacting with has been verified.

Daniel Kochis, Head of Chainlink Business Development said:

“P2P payments such as Paypal, Venmo and Cash App have totaled $310 billion in 2019 and are experiencing tremendous growth. Ownership verification for crypto addresses represents a major milestone towards attracting new users to the ecosystem.”

AI-Based Startup Optic Raises $11m, Developing AI NFT Content Recognition

Optic, a San Francisco-based NFT authentication company, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $11 million in a funding round led by US venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins and crypto-native investment giant Pantera Capital.

For the latest funding, Optic said it plans to use to invest in building core AI infrastructure and designing a decentralized protocol. The company also stated that it intends to use the capital to recruit more engineering talents and release new tools designed for NFT creators, collectors, and a public API for web3 developers.

Other investors, including Greylock Partners, Lattice Capital, OpenSea, Circle, Polygon, CoinDCX, Neon DAO, and Flamingo DAO, also participated in the funding round.

Optic was founded in March this year by a former director of products at Google, Andrey Doronichev, and world-class AI researchers Roman Doronin and Vlad Vinogradov.

Optic said it is creating an AI detection engine for NFT content recognition. The firm processes millions of newly minted NFTs daily and matches the content against authentic collections to evaluate their originality. Its automated monitoring tool informs media companies, marketplaces, or brands about potential intellectual property violations.

Optic co-founder and CEO Andrey Doronichev commented: “Optic isn’t an enforcement business. Our goal is to make the information available and transparent to the ecosystem. Artists and marketplaces can decide what to do with it.”

Optic displays a percentage for how much digital content matches existing NFT collections, with a higher number representing a close match and a likelihood of a complete counterfeit. Doronichev said a score below 95% implies that the NFT probably includes inspired or derivative art.

NFT giant OpenSea currently uses Optic’s Marketplace Moderation tool as part of the company’s efforts to crack down on frauds.

Doronichev elaborated: “People think of authenticity and all sorts of fraud and trust issues in the NFT space as a problem of a single marketplace or a single chain or a single creator or community. That’s not true. That’s a systemic ecosystem issue, and it has to be addressed.”

Copyright Infringement on NFT Marketplaces

Optic’s move comes at a time when counterfeit NFTs are causing major problems for digital platforms.

With the parabolic rise of NFTs since last year, cases of fakes and forgeries have become increasingly common in marketplaces.

Brands are struggling to balance how to use their digital assets for marketing and sales purposes while protecting their intellectual property and saving their clients from buying counterfeit NFTs.

But new proprietary tools are being developed to change that.

The global market for non-fungible tokens hit $22 billion last year as the craze for collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club, and Matrix avatars turned digital images into major investment assets. But fraudsters appear keen to take advantage of lax rules and enforcement mechanisms on major NFT marketplaces.

Wakweli and Polygon Partner for NFT Authentication

In a bid to enhance the security of the digital ecosystem, Web3 infrastructure protocol Wakweli has partnered with layer-2 scaling platform Polygon to offer certification of authenticity for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The partnership means that every NFT project holder on the Polygon chain can request authenticity certificates for each asset.

Negotiations for the partnership agreement began in August 2022, with the final details of the agreement concluded this March. Wakweli’s testnet will be available in April, which can be used with Polygon’s Mumbai testnet. Alpha testing with Polygon’s mainnet will begin in Q2 2023, with general mainnet compatibility expected to be ready by Q3 2023.

By providing a medium for detecting counterfeit NFTs, the partnership between the two companies has unlocked a definitive way to fight these scam attempts, thereby creating more trust in the thriving ecosystem. The Wakweli platform and application programming interface will offer developers access to advanced use case scenarios, including automatically generating certification requests when minting or accessing more detailed certification information.

Wakweli’s certification system provides an innovative solution to the ongoing problem of counterfeit NFTs, which has plagued the NFT market since its inception. The certification system will help to ensure that NFTs are authentic, thereby promoting transparency and trust in the digital asset market.

Polygon has gained significant traction through partnerships with major brands such as Starbucks and Adidas, leading to increased adoption of the network among cryptocurrency users. The collaboration with Wakweli is expected to further strengthen Polygon’s position in the market by offering an additional layer of security and authenticity to the digital assets on its platform.

In the past month, the Polygon Foundation has also collaborated with the South Korean multinational conglomerate Lotte Group to showcase the company’s NFT projects. This collaboration highlights the growing interest in NFTs and their potential applications across different industries.

Overall, the partnership between Wakweli and Polygon represents a significant step forward in enhancing the security and trustworthiness of the digital asset market. As the adoption of NFTs continues to grow, the need for robust certification and authentication systems will become increasingly important. The collaboration between Wakweli and Polygon is a promising development in this direction, and it is expected to have a positive impact on the overall growth and sustainability of the digital asset market.

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