As part of Meta’s mission to fully integrate Web3 functions into all its platforms, it has announced that social media giant Instagram will soon make it possible for its users to mint and sell their own NFTs on the platform.
Recall that it’s been over a year since Facebook rebranded as Meta on October 28, 2021. Despite the hurdles – Meta’s Q3 report showed a colossal loss last week – Mark Zuckerberg is not looking to back down from his lofty Metaverse dreams.
Related post: Meta suffers loss
Pick n’ Pay, South Africa’s largest supermarket chain, announced this week that it is adding cryptocurrencies as a payment option to more stores after it completing the first phase of a pilot in 10 Western Cape stores with pre-selected testers over the past five months
On our weekly Terra drama follow-up, reports have emerged that Do Kwon, the defunct Terra Labs CEO, has fled Singapore and is now living in Europe.
Here are a few major stories from the crypto space this week.
CZ states reasons why Binance invested in Twitter
Changpeng Zhao, founder/CEO of Binance, in an interview with CNBC on Monday, stated that free speech and Web3 adoption are the primary reasons for Binance’s Investment in Twitter. He discussed the motive of Binance behind investing in Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.
“There are many reasons for supporting the deal. Twitter is a free speech platform, which is global, right? Which is extremely important. Twitter is a tool that I use personally very heavily, so… We would want to make sure that the crypto has a seat at the table when it comes to free speech. There are more tactical things like we want to help bring Twitter to Web3 when they are ready. And yeah, we want to help solve some of those immediate problems.”
CZ mentioned that they want to help bring Twitter to Web3. Crypto should have a seat at the table regarding free speech. With this, the community now has different conjectures on how crypto can be integrated with Twitter.
Instagram will become an NFT marketplace
According to an announcement on Wednesday, social media giant Instagram will soon make it possible for its users to mint and sell their own non-fungible tokens.
The latest update will allow creators on Instagram to make their own digital collectibles and sell them both on and off Instagram, giving them an “end-to-end toolkit” for creating, displaying and selling NFTs.
It will initially launch on the Polygon blockchain. It will be tested among a small group of Instagram creators in the United States, including Amber Vittoria, Refik Anadol, Jason Seife, Dave Krugman, and others.
While Instagram has been ramping up commerce features for creatures for some time, this update is the first time Instagram has tried to compete directly with existing NFT marketplaces.
Instagram will also allow video-based digital collectibles to be shown on its platform and add support for the Solana blockchain and Phantom wallet. Meta noted that it would not charge fees for displaying and sharing a digital collectible on Instagram or Facebook. It will not charge additional fees for selling digital collectibles until at least 2024.
It added, however, that “digital collectible purchases made within the Instagram app on the Android and iOS operating systems are subject to applicable app store fees.”
South African Supermarket Pick n Pay now accepting Bitcoin
Pick n Pay, South Africa’s largest supermarket chain, has joined the crypto revolution by accepting Bitcoin as a payment method, according to The Times. The report noted that this payment method was tested in 10 of the chain’s largest grocery stores over five months. Customers can now pay with cryptocurrencies in 39 Pick ‘n Pay stores in South Africa.
The retailer announced that shoppers can pay using any bitcoin Lightning-enabled app- such as BlueWallet or Munn.
A spokesperson said:
“The transaction is as easy and secure as swiping a debit or credit card. Customers scan a QR code from the app and accept the rand conversion rate on their smartphone at the time of the transaction. Adding, the service fee for each transaction is minimal, costing the customer on average 70c, and takes less than 30 seconds.”
A total of 39 stores have implemented the payment method, with plans in place to roll it out to all stores within the coming months. Notably, this announcement from Pick ‘n Pay comes only weeks after the country’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority formally declared crypto assets as a financial product, thereby enabling them to be regulated.
El Salvador president slams United States Federal Reserve
After a long time, pro-Bitcoin El Salvador President Nayib Bukele gave a public interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News this week. President Bukele slammed the US Federal Reserve calling it immoral. He accused the US central bank of robbing the common man of their wealth. The El Salvador President said:
“The Federal Reserve is nothing federal and has no reserves. They rob you from your wealth and from your savings and that’s immoral. It’s not only immoral but it also destroys some basic economic principles like saving.”
El Salvador has been criticized by governments and leading institutions like the IMF for making Bitcoin a legal tender. They also received some stick for their plans of floating Bitcoin bonds and their work on a Bitcoin city.
Do Kwon now reportedly resides in Europe
According to Korean state media, Do Kwon’s location has been partially discovered. Yesterday, the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) said that it is “understood that [Kwon] is currently in Europe.”
It added that Kwon previously moved to a third country which was also located in Europe via Dubai. Kwon, at one point, resided in South Korea but later moved to Singapore at an unknown date after TerraUSD’s collapse.
KBS said South Korean officials have now invalidated Kwon’s passport per earlier efforts. It noted that, with an invalid passport, Kwon “cannot travel legally between countries” and can be considered an illegal immigrant in any location he resides.
Although Kwon’s country of residence has apparently been located, it is still unclear whether law enforcement knows Kwon’s precise location or can perform an arrest. Interpol issued a red notice to locate and arrest Kwon in late September, meaning that he is now wanted in most countries. We will keep you updated as the unending Terra drama unfolds.
That is all from us this week, see you next week.
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