BT Daily News: India’s Crypto Industry Finally Sees Lawmakers Engaging, and more
1. India’s Crypto Industry Finally Sees Lawmakers Engaging
On Saturday, India’s crypto industry pulled off a near coup by bringing lawmakers and members of India’s ruling party to a conference discussing Web3.Indian exchange CoinDCX, backed by the industry’s policy body, Bharat Web3, and media outlet Forbes brought lawmakers to an event titled “Namaste Web3” at one of New Delhi’s five-star luxury hotels, to discuss India’s G-20 presidency and potential opportunities for India in the Web3 sector.
The conference managed to bring senior leaders from India’s ruling party – National Vice President Baijayant Panda and former Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to an event. From the opposition benches it brought a chairperson of the parliamentary standing committee on commerce and a deputy leader of the parliament’s lower house.
While lawmakers and government officials have privately had wide ranging consultations with the industry, this was a rare occasion where they’ve publicly shown up lending the space a fresh legitimacy.
“Web3 is important with a caution…come out of the shadow of crypto,” said Prasad, who has also been a former Information Technology Minister. “
"I am a great supporter of blockchain. But crypto is a different ball game altogether. Let me be very clear about it. Because in crypto there are issues of financial sovereignty of India,” Prasad said, while stating Web 3 needs to find its own ways of decoupling from crypto.
The opposition’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who chairs the country’s parliamentary committee on commerce and said he didn’t stand at the stage as chairperson of the parliamentary standing committee on commerce but as a Web3 enthusiast.
“Web 3 can be one of the biggest factors in bringing to fruition India’s dream of becoming a $5 trillion economy. Negative focus on cryptocurrency, a bit obsessive in the earlier years, has affected the perception about Web3 and its usage. The blockchain narrative needs a paradigm shift from the crypto to the transformative changes that can be brought about with the application of Web3,” he said.
A ‘little caution’
India’s crypto industry remains heavily stifled by a 30% tax on profit and a 1% tax deducted at source which led to volumes plummeting, and a recent move to bring the industry under India’s prevention of money laundering rules.
“A little bit of caution isn’t unreasonable,” said BJP Vice President Baijayant Panda, who is seen as the ruling party’s man of technology.
Panda said Indian policymakers would update rules and regulations based on feedback during a fireside chat on leveraging India’s G-20 presidency to advance the development of Virtual Digital Assets regulatory principles through international cooperation.
“As far as blockchain and bitcoin is concerned, this is the cutting edge of the regulatory questions that need to be answered throughout the world. You are beginning to see a level of consultation that is more than what used to be before,” Panda said.
Gaurav Gogoi, a parliamentarian from the opposition said the crypto ecosystem has a lot to do in removing its perception of being used mainly for money laundering and terrorism financing, but that he was worried about the government’s true position on crypto.
“I hope our government is not telling others (in the G-20) to put a 1% TDS. That could be the global consensus as well, or it could be a ban,” he said.
2. Binance CEO announces recovery funds conversion from BUSD to ‘native crypto.’
The failure of three major crypto-friendly banks — Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank — caused the USD Coin stablecoin to fall to as low as $0.87 from its $1 peg.Amid the concern mounting around stablecoins, Binance co-founder and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao tweeted on March 13 that with the “changes in stablecoins and banks,” the exchange will be converting the remaining $1 billion funds in its Industry Recovery Initiative to “native crypto. “
The native cryptocurrencies listed by CZ included Bitcoin. He then posted links to the hash ID for the BTC and ETH transactions, saying $980 million took 15 seconds to move with a $1.98 transaction fee.
However, others questioned the move to sell the Binance USD stablecoin and convert the fund to more “volatile” assets.
On March 10, Circle, the company behind USDC, disclosed it had around $3.3 billion tied up at the failing SVB, which caused the initial depegging event. However, by March 13, USDC had bounced back toward its $1 peg — currently hovering around $0.99.
Circle also has an undisclosed amount of reserve funds stuck in Silvergate, another United States-based crypto-friendly bank that went bankrupt.
The instability surrounding USDC caused a domino effect on other stablecoins such as Dai, USDD and FRAX, which also slipped from their $1 peg.
Since the events began unfolding on March 10, the crypto space has been on edge as to what will happen next. Twitter users have claimed that there is “nobody left to bank crypto companies.”
3. What is NFT rarity, and how to calculate it?
An NFT’s rarity plays a role in its perceived cultural and artistic significance. For example, an nonfungible token (NFT) that is the only one of its kind and possesses significant cultural or historical value may be considered a rare and must-have artifact. But why is NFT rarity important?NFT rarity is important because the market worth and appeal of an NFT can be significantly influenced by the nonfungible token’s rarity, which can also influence its resale value. Moreover, NFT collectors frequently look for unusual and distinctive nonfungible tokens to add to their collections.
Nonetheless, it is crucial to remember that an NFT’s worth or relevance is not necessarily determined by its rarity alone. Other elements that may affect the value and appeal of nonfungible tokens to collectors include the caliber of the artwork, the reputation of the artist and the cultural or historical relevance of the piece.
This article will discuss the concept of NFT rarity, what determines NFT rarity and common techniques for calculating NFT rarity rankings.
NFT rarity, explained
NFT rarity refers to the uniqueness or scarcity of a particular nonfungible token in a collection. The overall number of nonfungible tokens in a collection, the number of copies of a certain nonfungible token in a collection and the unique qualities or traits of a particular NFT are all factors that affect nonfungible token rarity.
For instance, certain NFT collections could contain a small total number of NFTs, which can increase the rarity of each nonfungible token in a given collection. Some collections might have a lot of NFTs, but a specific nonfungible token might be uncommon because it has distinctive qualities, such as a particular color scheme, animation or sound effect.
The value of NFT collectibles can be significantly impacted by its rarity. Due to their increased value and demand from collectors, the price of rare NFTs may rise on NFT marketplaces. Some NFT projects have even created algorithms to figure out the rarity of specific NFTs within a collection, which can provide buyers and sellers with more knowledge when figuring out the worth of an NFT.
What is an NFT rarity checker?
An NFT rarity checker is a tool or service that allows users to assess the rarity of a nonfungible token, whose value is frequently based on its scarcity, rarity and uniqueness.
To determine an NFT’s rarity, nonfungible token rarity calculators examine a variety of features of the nonfungible token, including its properties, metadata and characteristics. An NFT rarity checker, for instance, might evaluate the color scheme, pixel density or other visual characteristics of an nonfungible token image to ascertain its rarity.
As an alternative, an NFT rarity checker might assess the demand for a certain nonfungible token or the quantity of copies of that NFT that are currently on the blockchain to determine how rare it is.
The value of NFT collectibles can be significantly impacted by its rarity. Due to their increased value and demand from collectors, the price of rare NFTs may rise on NFT marketplaces. Some NFT projects have even created algorithms to figure out the rarity of specific NFTs within a collection, which can provide buyers and sellers with more knowledge when figuring out the worth of an NFT.
What is an NFT rarity checker?
An NFT rarity checker is a tool or service that allows users to assess the rarity of a nonfungible token, whose value is frequently based on its scarcity, rarity and uniqueness.
To determine an NFT’s rarity, nonfungible token rarity calculators examine a variety of features of the nonfungible token, including its properties, metadata and characteristics. An NFT rarity checker, for instance, might evaluate the color scheme, pixel density or other visual characteristics of an nonfungible token image to ascertain its rarity.
As an alternative, an NFT rarity checker might assess the demand for a certain nonfungible token or the quantity of copies of that NFT that are currently on the blockchain to determine how rare it is.
Here are some common steps that an NFT rarity calculator may follow to determine the rarity of a nonfungible token:
- Identify the rarity: The calculator must first determine the precise NFT that is being assessed. This may involve entering the token ID for the nonfungible token or other identifying information.
- Collect data: The calculator then gathers information about the NFT, such as its characteristics, sales performance and blockchain data.
- Analyze attributes: The calculator may evaluate the NFT’s visual and other properties, including its pixel density and other distinguishing features.
- Assess rarity: Based on the information gathered and the examination of the nonfungible token’s characteristics, the calculator can then utilize algorithms to determine the NFT’s rarity. The NFT may be compared to other nonfungible tokens in the same collection; sales information and market trends may be examined.
- Provide results: The calculator also offers a numerical evaluation of the NFT’s rarity, which is frequently presented as a score or rating. Buyers and sellers can use this information to estimate the NFT’s value.