Crypto News, Jan. 14: Second Life Enters Metaverse War

Dogecoin surged by 12% on Friday after Elon Musk confirmed that the memecoin can now be used to buy merchandise. Speculation had been growing for some time. Tree of Alpha, a software engineer, had delved into the source code of the company's website — and discovered a button that would allow DOGE to be used for transactions alongside credit cards. In an SEC filing that emerged in late October 2021, Tesla said it may restart accepting cryptocurrencies for its products in the future.

An almighty row has broken out between SHIBA INU and CoinMarketCap. The altcoin's team are unhappy that contract addresses for the Binance Smart Chain, Solana and Terra blockchains have been added to the coin's price page. SHIB says Ethereum is the only valid contract because it is exclusively an ERC-20 token and the other addresses are "fake." CoinMarketCap has rejected these claims, and says the non-ETH addresses are "not malicious" and simply offer SHIBA INU in wrapped form.

Jack Dorsey's Block has announced that it plans to shake up the world of Bitcoin mining. The company — formerly known as Square — is going to build an "open BTC mining system." One of Block's executives explained: "For most people, mining rigs are hard to find. Once you’ve managed to track them down, they’re expensive and delivery can be unpredictable." He added Block wants to make it so "anyone, anywhere, can easily purchase a mining rig" — all while ensuring equipment is reliable.

As the weekend hurtles towards us following another frustrating week for the crypto markets, Vitalik Buterin has stepped in to offer us all a bit of light relief. Completely out of the blue, the Ethereum co-founder asked for examples of "the craziest and most unhinged criticisms" his Twitter followers had seen. He shared examples to kick off proceedings — one describing him as a "Bond villain," and another claiming he looks like an "alien crackhead." Buterin's followers were more than happy to oblige.

Second Life's founder is returning as an advisor — with the virtual world platform getting a cash investment as the metaverse gains traction. Philip Rosedale declared "no one has come close to building a virtual world like Second Life." He added: "Big Tech giving away VR headsets and building a metaverse on their ad-driven, behavior modification platforms isn't going to create a magical, single digital utopia for everyone." Second Life claims it has just concluded "one of its strongest years ever."

Gap has become the latest brand to jump on the NFT bandwagon — announcing plans to tokenize hoodies. The troubled fashion brand's non-fungible tokens will range in price from $8.30 to $415, and some of them will be accompanied by a physical sweatshirt too. Things get even more surreal considering that Gap is collaborating with Brandon Sines for the drop. He's the artist behind Frank Ape, a sasquatch-like creature who "lives in New York City amongst the humans but without human restrictions."