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Infinity Weekly: Bitcoin > ICP Integration is Finally Here!

Issue 31 of Infinity Weekly, a newsletter for the INFINISWAPPER community

InfinitySwap

• 9 min read
Infinity Weekly: Bitcoin > ICP Integration is Finally Here!

Happy Sunday & welcome to Infinity Weekly. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, sign up here.

What's in Today's Email?

  • IC Ecosystem News
  • This Week in our Blog
  • NFT Market Update
  • Around the World
  • Weekly Chart
  • Meme Time
  • Weekly Opinion

IC Ecosystem News

♾ Another Historic Moment: The Internet Computer Protocol made blockchain history in October by making direct HTTPS outcalls possible. Now the DFINITY Foundation has done it again by releasing its most anticipated feature: native Bitcoin integration. This truly groundbreaking innovation allows ICP canisters to sign transactions directly on the Bitcoin blockchain. Not only is this a technological landmark moment but one for DeFi as well, as this function combines the liquidity of Bitcoin with the programming capabilities of smart contracts powered by the Internet Computer. Cheers, ICP family!

♾ That New New: Distrikt, one of the best-known projects on the Internet Computer, released a bevy of new updates, turbocharging the web3 social media dapp. These improvements are all aimed at making engagement easier as well as boosting discoverability for Distrikt users, allowing them to grow their followers and establish true relationships between people. One key bundle of updates makes NFT airdrops easier than ever, allowing creators and users alike to leverage Distrikt to create strong, organic communities. Read more in the link below!

Distrikt Product Release v 1.15
Significant Changes to UX and More features!
DistriktAndra Georgescu

♾ Trials and Tribulations: The SNS-1 token launch did not go as expected. While the community overall was pleased by the enthusiastic reception of the first SNS (Service Nervous System) token, there were some legitimate points of concern raised about how the SNS-1 sale and community airdrop was handled by DFINITY. While there was much left to be desired, DFINITY employee @Chepreghy was quick to address community members, and his frank and practical attitude toward how to tackle the botting problem on the IC was appreciated by many.

♾ Seeing Green: DFINITY Founder and Chief Scientist Dominic Williams will be speaking at the NOAH Conference, Europe's Biggest Growth Capital Raising Platform, supporting digital ecosystems since 2009. The two-day conference will host over 250 high-profile start-ups, highlighting sustainable tech solutions. Notable speakers will include representatives from well-known companies like Klarna and blockchain project Polygon.

This Week In Our Blog

One of crypto's most recognizable figures, Ben Armstrong (also known as BitBoy), has recently been going to bat for the voiceless in the web3 world, including the ICP community. He was one of the first mainstream figures to call out Sam Bankman-Fried, warning investors about the questionable practices being done behind closed doors at FTX. Read more about Armstrong in our article below.

BitBoy: The ICPeople’s Champ
Just when everything seemed destined to fade to black for ICP, Ben Armstrong, also known as BitBoy, brought back the light. But who is BitBoy, and what is his mission?
InfinitySwapGeoffrey Miller

"Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins", a current iteration of the old crypto culture saying, "Not Your Keys, Not Crypto" has been repeated often by the mainstream media lately. But what does this mean? Read our primer on the importance of self-custody, especially if this is the first time you've heard this phrase.

Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins
As the recent FTX fallout sent the entire crypto world into a state of shock, one saying that has been echoing around the space constantly is, “not your keys, not your coins”.So what does it mean?
InfinitySwapSuyash Nayan

The Internet Computer's most anticipated feature, Direct Bitcoin Integration, is now live! The biggest moment in the Web3 Revolution has arrived, now let's dive into what this means for Infinity Swap and how we are poised to become a central DeFi hub of the future.

ICP’s Bitcoin Integration and the Web3 Revolution Have Arrived
The wait is over - Bitcoin integration is here! Learn about how Infinity Swap aims to become the DeFi hub for the Web3 revolution.
InfinitySwapGeoffrey Miller

We're getting more and more new eyes on the IC ecosystem lately and for good reason. As uncertainty about the short-term landscape of the crypto market continues, more DeFi natives are searching for deep-value investments like $ICP. Of course, increased attention from figures like BitBoy has helped too. Regardless of how you got here, read our step-by-step guide on getting started with ICP.

All about ICP Crypto: Step-by-Step Guide to Get You Started
While this is not an extensive guide, it covers many aspects that new users will need to know about when starting their journey on true web3, the Internet Computer.
InfinitySwapSunny

NFT Market Update

· Egidgo Val announced custom WAGMI NFTs this week! Do you want your face on a custom WAMGI Dystopian Club NFT like the one Egido made for Bitboy? His DM’s on Twitter are open to discuss commissions. You can get one for yourself or make it a gift for a friend and request the traits from the collection that you find most appealing. There is an increasing pay scale, so those who order sooner pay less (you can also trade in some WAGMI or IC Bucks NFTs to offset part of the cost). The NFTs are delivered via Anvil. Plus, you get access to a private channel in the WAGMI discord.

· NotDogFinity dropped 200 NFTs to the top 200 DogFinity holders this week. That brings the total number of NFTs in the My Monsters collection to 350. The prolific artist isn’t done creating these monsters yet, but if you don’t want to wait and see if you can qualify for a future airdrop, you can try and pick one up on the secondary market via Entrepot.

· The Genesis II collection from Saorosa Labs continues to draw closer, and big news seems to come every few days. This week, they announced a huge new partnership with… us! The Bitfinity Wallet will be integrated into the 221B app, and InfinitySwap is one of 8 projects that will be featured as a trait in the NFT artwork. Additionally, the team posted some awesome screenshots showing the dynamic NFTs catching a unique glimpse into the SNS-1 token launch.

Around the Web

🍎 Not A Bite: After updating their App Store Review Guidelines last month to explicitly allow NFT purchases via apps, Apple has blocked the Coinbase Wallet's latest release, reportedly claiming that the transaction fees required to transfer NFTs must go through Apple's In-App purchase system. Apple takes a 30% cut of all payments made through their allowed apps and is categorizing gas fees in the same way. Coinbase replied by saying this is a policy that must be changed in regard to crypto purchases given the nature of how gas works.

🦄 A Real Unicorn: Uniswap, arguably the best-known DEX (Decentralized Exchange) is moving into the NFT market, by creating an ecosystem of marketplaces including LooksRare, OpenSea, Sudoswap, and more. Additionally, Uniswap is replicating their move from years ago, when they airdropped $UNI tokens to any users who had used Uniswap during a specific timeframe. This time, they will be rewarded via an airdrop to qualifying NFT traders with a $USDC airdrop, worth up to $1000 USD.  

🏦 Crypto Go Sberrrrr: Russia's largest bank, Sber, made an announcement on Nov. 30th that heralded good things for the future of crypto in Russia. Along with the continued development of their proprietary blockchain platform, they announced planned compatibility with smart contracts and dapps on the Ethereum chain, allowing more interoperability between the two Layer 1's. In addition, Sber intends to bring integration with MetaMask.

♊ Double Trouble: Genesis, a crypto broker that connects institutional investors, has been facing rumors of insolvency since they curtailed certain withdrawals a few weeks ago. Now it's come to light that they owe Gemini Exchange roughly $900m, which the exchange has been trying to recover without success. Genesis's parent company, DCG (Digitial Currency Group) has been in trouble since FTX's fall, as the two entities were deeply tied financially.

🎙️ Throwing Softballs: Disgraced FTX Founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has been on what some have dubbed a PR campaign. The opinion of the crypto community is that the mainstream media has been overly kind to Bankman-Fried, especially highlighted in his most recent interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC. Bankman-Fried denied knowledge of improper activity happening at Alameda Research, a key player in the recent crypto meltdown, and a company he also founded. Crypto Twitter figure and UpOnly podcast (formerly sponsored by FTX) host @cobie publicly called out the soft treatment and requested an episode with Bankman-Fried as a guest but received no reply.

Weekly Chart

To the Moon 🚀 - SNS-1 Price Chat in Just under 4 days

Source - https://avjzx-pyaaa-aaaaj-aadmq-cai.raw.ic0.app/ICDex/SNS1/ICP

Meme of the Week

A Matter of Opinion: Editor in Chief

It has been a week of huge news events. First, Bitcoin integration has gone live. We will continue to bring you news about this and as soon as we are able to move BTC natively on our wallet, we will be looking to further the PR campaign outside of our ecosystem. SNS-1 has blasted off into the stratosphere and has been trending all week, along with ICPeople. ICP looks stronger than ever in network effect as an increasing amount of users join our movement.

I woke up this morning to some interesting news:

I cannot confirm the veracity of these reports, but it appears to be supported by screenshots from Discord and from community conversations across social media that Psychedelic are distancing themselves from the Internet Computer. We wish them all the best.

That said, we want to encourage builders to integrate our wallet as the defacto IC wallet. You can check out our documentation here: https://infinityswap-docs-wallet.web.app/docs/Infinity-swap-wallet/integration. We will consider any projects utilizing our infrastructure as partners, and that will involve tech and marketing support.

If you are reading this we have no doubt you are already an INFINISWAPPER as you've signed up for this newsletter, but we would also ask that you encourage others to download our wallet here: https://wallet.infinityswap.one/ as we will continue to offer full support, development, and services for our wallet.

Remember that despite building our own IS20 standard, we have always been working in the interests of the foundation and community. We contributed enormously to the security of the ICRC-1 and made it interoperable with the IS20. That is strong evidence that we are team players and are willing to compromise.

While our wallet did not get first mover advantage, we believe it has the slickest UI/UX on the IC now, and we are constantly iterating. Our aim is for it to become the most interoperable wallet in crypto over time, while extremely safe and secure due to integrated chain key cryptography allowing you to move other assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum without the need for hackable bridges.

The Bitfinity Wallet is now the clear choice for builders and community members on the Internet Computer.

If you are a project looking to integrate the wallet and gain partnership benefits, reach out to daniel@infinityswap.one today.

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*Disclaimer: While every effort is made on this website to provide accurate information, any opinions expressed or information disseminated do not necessarily reflect the views of InfinitySwap itself.