Morning News | Russia is willing to accept Bitcoin payments in exchange for energy exports; Phi Labs completes $21 million seed round financing

Organizer: Biscuit, Chain Catcher

"What important news has emerged in the past 12 hours?"

1. Russia: Willing to accept Bitcoin payments for energy exports

Pavel Zavalny, chairman of the Russian State Duma Energy Committee, stated at a press conference on Thursday that Bitcoin is a payment method that Russia may accept for purchasing oil and other resources.

"For some time, we have been suggesting to China to switch to using national currencies such as rubles and yuan for transactions. For Turkey, it would be lira and rubles. The type of currency can vary; this is a common practice. If it is necessary to use Bitcoin for transactions, we will do so," Pavel Zavalny said. (Source link)

2. Cosmos smart contract platform developer Phi Labs completes $21 million seed funding

Cosmos smart contract platform developer Phi Labs has completed a $21 million seed funding round, led by CoinFund and Hashed, with participation from 1confirmation, IDEO CoLab, Figment, Blockchain Capital, Wintermute, Chorus One, stake.fish, Lemniscap, Cosmostation, and Hypersphere Ventures.

It is reported that Archway, developed by Phi Labs, is an incentive-based smart contract platform built on Cosmos that rewards developers. The protocol provides tools for developers to quickly build and launch scalable cross-chain dApps and rewards them for their contributions to the network. (Source link)

3. Premier League's Liverpool Football Club launches NFT

The Premier League's Liverpool Football Club has announced a partnership with the renowned auction house Sotheby's NFT platform, Sothebys Metaverse, to launch NFTs. It is reported that Liverpool's digital collectibles will showcase generated images of each of the 24 players on the team, with NFT starting prices at $75.

The club stated that the digital collectibles will provide fans with a new way to interact and celebrate with the team. Additionally, Liverpool will release 24 "legend" NFT versions, with each player corresponding to a "legend" NFT, and this series of NFTs will be auctioned separately on March 30. (Source link)

4. NEAR partners with SailGP to explore NEAR DAO participation in events

High-performance public chain NEAR has formed a global league partnership with the international sailing grand prix (SailGP), involving DAO, NFT, and community activities aimed at racing and crypto enthusiasts.

As part of the partnership, SailGP will explore selling new teams to DAOs launched on the NEAR protocol—this is the first community participation and activation platform in professional sports. Under the current structure of SailGP team participation agreements, DAO teams could join the SailGP starting lineup as early as the 4th season of 2023, provided they comply with all applicable laws and regulations.

At the same time, NEAR will leverage the global SailGP technology platform to develop real IP and web3 applications for fan engagement, data delivery and management, and league management. (Source link)

5. IOSCO releases DeFi research report and establishes dedicated working group

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) today released a research report on DeFi on its official website, noting that DeFi is a novel and rapidly evolving area of financial services and encouraging regulators to understand the impact of DeFi developments on their jurisdictions. At the same time, IOSCO has established a dedicated working group responsible for the DeFi market to investigate the DeFi market more deeply. (Source link)

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