[Daily] Litecoin wants to keep it 100

Good morning! Welcome to The Daily Moon. Remember when Porsche tried to cash grab by launching an NFT? Yes? Another automaker is looking at the sector but with a little more tact. Toyota is sponsoring a dApps hackathon to see if developers can innovate and introduce technology that can help it make its vehicles and business better. The energy for Toyota’s announcement was met with significantly more enthusiasm than Porsche. How do we know? A Toyota branded token surged in value after this announcement. 🤔

As of Wednesday, 8PM IST

The markets were cautious. Bitcoin was just above $23,130 and Ethereum was below $1,590. Nasdaq fell in early trade. Back home, Sensex rose marginally while Nifty slid following the Union Budget.

A Dual Booster for LTC’s $100 Push

A partnership with Mastercard and renewed interest from sharks has nudged Litecoin towards $100. The token’s up ~10% already. Its usage will also go up with the Litecoin Card launch in Europe.

What’s buzzing?Litecoin has tied up with Mastercard to offer its Litecoin Card in Europe. This will allow card users to make payments in Litecoin across the Mastercard partner network. So far, the card was only available to US residents.

No outagesLitecoin is often considered a popular payment network mostly because of the number of merchants that accept it. Plus it is almost four times faster than Bitcoin. All of this at zero downtime. Yes, no outages whatsoever in its 11-year history.

Sharks to the rescueWallets holding 100-10,000 LTC, also called sharks, have been on buy mode for the past six months. That’s one of the reasons for the token to rally.

But will whales spoil the party?We just told you about the sharks earlier but some whales think differently. Whales, that is wallets that hold >1,000 LTC, have sold LTC. Not all, but some of them.

The ETH Staking Withdrawal Simulation

Ethereum is preparing to let users see how staking withdrawals work. Before it actually launches them officially after the Shanghai update drops and staking withdrawals become a part of Ethereum.

What exactly is happening?Ethereum will let users test withdrawing staked ETH. It will launch a testnet called the Zhejiang, which goes live on Wednesday. Think of it as a driving simulator, so that you can navigate the car without the messy bits like accidents and traffic tickets. Developers will be able to see potential issues and fix them.

Why does it matter?Staking is passive income. It’s basically like depositing your money in a savings account which gives you a high yield. And this particular Shanghai upgrade is of more interest than usual because several intermediaries have staked ETH for users in massive pools. Currently, withdrawal of staked crypto is not as straightforward as a savings account. So this should be interesting.

South Korea: OG Metaverse

Do not ask us to define it. Whatever the metaverse is, South Korea seems to be the only place where it’s truly taking shape.

Taking K-pop virtualA virtual-only K-pop band, and a reality-TV singing competition where all contestants are avatars. If you don’t make it, you get dropped. Into bubbling lava. That’s the present and future that South Korea is experimenting with. Way ahead of anything being done anywhere else. It has engaging content, an audience used to the idea of virtual heroes and real entertainment.

There’s history hereIn the early 1990s, a South Korean computer generated singer called Adam was the first entertainer to make a mark. More than 25 years later, the country has graduated to virtual Instagram influencers such as Rozy and Lucy. Hugely popular, and doing paid promotions for big brands. There’s a lot of synergy here. Watch this space.

Instant Message Those Blockchain Unicorns

Remember when the world rushed to Signal for a few brief seconds after a botched WhatsApp announcement that your conversations may not be private anymore? That always had the potential to grow into something meaningful. And it seems it has.

So Signal?We love Signal but not just that. According to a report, the global value for blockchain based instant messaging apps will grow to over $500 million. The market is expected to grow at 43.6% CAGR. Just for context, in 2021, the collective valuation of blockchain based messaging apps was $22 million. The growth will be fueled not just by the US but also Asia Pacific countries.

More decentralised loveA new decentralised Twitter, Damus, went live on iOS and Android yesterday. Former Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, has been championing the platform for a bit.

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