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Meta Alumni Owned Layer-1 Protocol Aptos Raises $200m from a16z

Former Meta Platforms Inc staff, led by Mo Shaikh, have raised $200 million in a strategic funding round for its new startup Aptos, a layer-1 blockchain protocol looks to continue the innovative work that was being done of the Libra/Diem project.

The funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with participation from Tiger Global, Katie Haun, Multicoin Capital, 3 Arrows Capital, FTX Ventures, and Coinbase Ventures, among others. It is worthy of note to mention that Aptos is also backed by Silvergate Capital, the leading bank for innovative businesses in fintech and cryptocurrency known to acquire the Diem project from the Libra Association earlier this year.

While the Aptos team is notably building the protocol based on the Open Source provisions of the Diem blockchain, none of the Diem IP addresses now being controlled by Silvergate Bank will be used as promised.

“We are the original creators, researchers, designers, and builders of Diem, the blockchain that was first built to serve this purpose. While the world never got to see what we built, our work is far from over,” Aptos CEO Mo Shaikh wrote in a blog post last month.

The funding news was accompanied by the launch of the blockchain’s Devnet, which will allow developers to test out the capabilities of the new protocol. While its work has not yet gone mainstream, the Aptos core developers said companies like “Anchorage, Binance, Coinbase, Livepeer, Moonclave, Paxos, Paymagic, Rarible, and Streaming Fast, are already engaging with the startup, providing feedback and contributing codes on devnet,” according to the TechCrunch report.

Billed to compete with the likes of Ethereum and Solana for most of the innovative products it is heralding, the core goal that investors use to identify with Aptos is likely hinged on its plans to build a protocol that will model the scalability and widespread nature of the rebranded Facebook-backed Diem payments network.

Facebook Commences Trials for Digital Collectible Integration

Social media giant, Facebook has reportedly commenced trials for the integration of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) on its platform. The Meta Platforms Inc subsidiary has notably limited the trials to select users in the United States.

As reported by TechCrunch, the users that have been granted exclusive access will be able to add their NFTs on their profiles under a new tab. The report detailed that a ‘digital collectibles’ tag will be added on the NFTs just as it is on Instagram.

The move to launch NFT support on Facebook comes off as another deliberate attempt by the tech giant to extend its foothold in the digital currency ecosystem and the emerging Web3.0 world. Last week, Meta Platforms Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg gave a hint that Facebook will be launching support for NFTs in a short while.

Navdeep Singh, a product manager at Meta shared a tweet showcasing what the new NFT feature will look like. From an array of screenshots posted, it is obvious that when any visitor clicks on the NFTs on a user’s Facebook profile, it will show details about the digital collectible including its name, and the art’s creators.

Meta Platforms first launched NFT support on Instagram back in May, a move that has seen very wide acclaim and embrace across the board. The success of the Instagram NFTs is perhaps what is driving the new integration on Facebook as the company seeks to make all of its platforms a metaverse-centric world.

The Instagram-backed NFTs feature digital collectibles hosted on both Ethereum and Polygon, with support for Solana and Flow currently underway. While there has been no confirmation that the NFTs on Facebook will be those from these public blockchain networks, chances are that Ethereum-backed collectibles will also be supported.

Meta Platforms rebranded its entire focus from being a predominantly social media platform to that with a focus on the metaverse. These NFT supports are its first steps into achieving the goal of ushering in a future where everyone lives and socializes in the metaverse.

Meta Instagram Embraces NFT, Expanding Footprints to 100 Countries

Months after it integrated Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) into Instagram for American users, Meta Platforms announced the expansion of the allowance to as many as 100 other countries.

The test launch for the NFTs on Instagram was made announced in May to select creators in the U.S.

The functionality will now let users in other continents, including the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific. With the enhanced allowance, users will now be able to upload their NFTs as profile pictures and even in their stories. The Meta Platforms functionalities for the NFTs on Instagram will permit users to input the description for the digital collectable as well.

The authenticity of the uploaded NFT can easily be verified, and users can always tag the digital collectable’s page and creator for additional proof of claim.

In addition to the expansion announcement, Meta Platforms also revealed that it has increased the number of compatible blockchain networks to include Flow from Dapper Labs. Based on this, investors can now upload their NFTs from Ethereum, Polygon, and Flow, respectively.

The company also aims to make global access to its NFT functionality on Instagram a seamless one and has also added support for Coinbase and Dapper Wallets in a bid to complement Rainbow, MetaMask, and Trust Wallet, which it integrated earlier.

Meta Platforms is taking its Web3.0 and Metaverse drive seriously as the company is nurturing a future that is bound to dominate social media interactions. While the entire concept of the metaverse is still relatively vague, companies like Meta Platforms are notably developing innovations within the confines of trademark applications they have applied for.

Besides Instagram, NFT testing for Facebook is also gaining momentum, with trials launched in early July this year. Besides Meta, other social media platforms, including Twitter and Reddit, are also taking their NFT drives to new heights.

Meta Platform's CEO Gets Probed by Senators on Crime Combating Measures on its Apps

The data received from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has shown a high increment of crypto scams on social media.

To this effect, a group of U.S Senators wrote a letter to Meta Platform’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday to inquire about strategies he is putting in place to mitigate the rise in fraud as a result of cryptocurrency use through the firm’s platforms such as Whatsapp, Facebook, and Instagram.

According to reports gotten by FTC, between January and March, most crypto scams originated from social media platforms and have cost consumers a total of $417 million. This fraud comes in various forms ranging from users being asked to invest in investment schemes where they are promised high returns to ‘’ lovers fraud’’ where users are promised love with the sole intent of defrauding them.

Detailed information has been requested from Zuckerberg on how future fraud occurrence through the use of cryptocurrency will be prevented. The pertinent questions raised include strategies put in place to find and kick out scammers, methods to verify that crypto ads are not scams, policies to help the victims of fraud, and how Meta collaborates with law enforcement agents to make sure that scammers are brought to book.

Meta’s Efforts to Combat Crime

Meta had previously mentioned that there is a high propensity for crypto scammers to use its platforms to perpetrate crime. In reality, Facebook outlawed cryptocurrency advertisements in January 2018 because “many organizations are advertising binary options, ICOs, and cryptocurrencies that are not operating in good faith.”

Facebook announced in 2020 that it will take legal action against a Bangkok-based Indian man, Basant Gajjar over an alleged crypto crime because he created and sold software that enables malicious actors to get around Facebook’s automatic advertising review systems and show consumers unapproved adverts.

In 2020, Facebook users also claimed that there was a ban on Bitcoin-related content. Facebook posts that had pictures, text, and videos with Bitcoin tags were restricted from the public’s view.

Global Automotive Metaverse Market to Have a CAGR of 31.4% by 2030 – Research

Global metaverse for automotive products has been forecasted to increase from $1.9 billion in 2022 to $16.5 billion in 2030, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 31.4%.

The projection was unveiled via an article hinting that the increase is caused by the use of metaverse technologies such as Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) and crypto in the automotive industry.

Key players in the metaverse automotive industry include; WayRay in Switzerland and Meta Platforms Inc in the United States amongst others. Their primary responsibility is to create goods and give services tailored to the automotive metaverse space.

The metaverse technologies have made it quite easy for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to display their products in the virtual space.

The idea of virtual showrooms, where businesses may display their products virtually without utilizing actual vehicles, has expanded quickly throughout the automotive industry. By launching its cars only online, the companies operating in these space hopes to cut costs.

Many companies are using or planning to use Virtual Reality (VR) technologies to integrate the metaverse toward achieving advancement in the automotive industry.

North America has been projected to have the biggest automotive metaverse market with big software providers such as Upland, Sandbox, Roblox, and Unity Technologies that are dominating this region.

The Metaverse Experience for an Enhanced Economy

The Metaverse is a platform that supports virtual activities using avatars. Users can engage in social, recreational, artistic, educational, artistic, and commercial activities via the metaverse.

In a news statement, PwC Hong Kong stated that it had collaborated with the Metaverse technology firm TerraZero Technologies Inc. to offer Metaverse goods and services.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced earlier in October that the Japanese government is striving to promote Web3 services such as blockchain, NFT, and the Metaverse. He claimed that the administration is committed to fostering a society in which new services can be easily developed.

A recent study report released by JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has also forecasted that the market for the Metaverse may boost China’s online gaming market from $44 billion to $131 billion.