SK Telecom and Polygon Labs Team Up for Web3 Ecosystem Development

Korean game company Krafton’s metaverse studio OVERDARE announced yesterday via its official blog that it forged a partnership with Circle, a U.S.-based fintech firm that issues stablecoin USDC. Founded in December 2023, OVERDARE is a joint venture between Krafton and Naver Z, a subsidiary of online platform operator NAVER Corporation.  In collaboration with Circle, OVERDARE plans to jointly develop its own USDC payment and settlement system in addition to the Web3 wallet. These services are set to be adopted by its upcoming user-generated content (UGC) platform “OVERDARE,” which bears the same name as the company. Photo by Javier Martínez on Unsplash A metaverse platform for game creationThe soon-to-be-launched OVERDARE is a metaverse platform where users can create various types of games ranging from action role-playing games (RPG) to sports and shooting games. What enables users to create games with ease on this platform is “OVERDARE Studio,” a sandbox tool equipped with generative AI and Unreal Engine 5.   OVERDARE adopts the Create-to-Earn (C2E) system, which returns a portion of the sales profit to creators. The creators’ works in the form of NFTs and their transaction details are recorded onchain, strengthening the transparency of transactions and payments. OVERDARE’s self-developed Layer-1 blockchain mainnet “Settlus” will also do its part in the service operation, which would license the intellectual property (IP) of creators’ works on Web2 platforms.  Stablecoin to empower creator economy“Circle is excited to be at the forefront of this pioneering venture with OVERDARE to empower the creator economy through the provision of secure Web3 wallets and near-instant USDC payouts on a global scale. We believe this partnership will be a catalyst in shaping the future of digital entertainment, ultimately fostering an innovative Web3 environment for all,” said Jeremy Allaire, CEO and co-founder of Circle. Henry Park, CEO of OVERDARE, stated, “We’re excited to unveil our partnership with Circle, a company distinguished by its regulatory compliance and trustworthiness. Their robust support ensures that we are able to support the creator economy, and guarantee creators reliable access to their earnings.”OVERDARE is scheduled to launch a large-scale user test in the first half of this year and officially launch the service in the second half.

Rotonda launches crypto wallet service Burrito Wallet in Latin AmericaRotonda, a subsidiary of South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb and the operator of the digital wallet Burrito Wallet, announced on Tuesday (local time) that it has launched its services in the Latin American region, marking its entry into global markets.Photo by Leon Overweel on UnsplashLaunched in February, Burrito Wallet’s primary functions include convenient chat-based cryptocurrency transfers and crypto swapping. It is the largest multi-chain wallet in Korea that supports 11 mainnets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as over 1,000 token currencies.Expanding region-specific servicesIn addition to these basic services, the Burrito Wallet’s available services in Latin America will include both on- and off-ramp functions for buying and selling crypto, which will be added by the end of this year. An on-ramp function facilitates users in acquiring crypto assets, whereas an off-ramp facilitates users in disposing of their crypto assets. Considering that many countries in the region recognize cryptocurrencies as fiat currencies, the company plans to expand its services to meet the market demand. Furthermore, the company aims to secure users by providing transfer services and various airdrop events.“The greatest advantage of Bithumb Burrito Wallet is the ability to use various functions such as cryptocurrency storage, management, transfers and swapping all in one platform,” explained Burrito Wallet’s Chief Financial Officer Chung Jae-kwon. Jeong recently visited Colombia last month to introduce the wallet service. “We believe that we can respond to the specific demands of the financial environment in Latin America through our user-friendly wallet service,” he added.Addressing economic challengesThe blockchain market in Latin America has been growing rapidly with rising demand for convenient and secure crypto services, driven by low accessibility to traditional finance and unstable economic conditions such as inflation.“As the global financial crisis worsens due to a lack of liquidity in banks, the need for financial instruments that can safely protect assets is increasing,” Chung said. “We anticipate a growing demand for our non-custodial wallet, which allows users to hold their own private wallet keys.”Earlier this month, Burrito Wallet signed a business agreement with the blockchain gaming platform Yooldo to expand their respective blockchain ecosystems and secure a global user base.

Animoca Indicates Fund Interest From Console MakersThe head of Animoca Ventures has said that Web3 gaming is attracting the interest of veterans of the gaming world as well as that of “key Japanese console makers.”Animoca Ventures is a subsidiary company of Hong Kong-headquartered Web3 gaming and NFT firm, Animoca Brands. In a conversation with The Block recently, James Ho explained that although Web3 gaming has seen a short to medium-term downtrend when using the pricing of gaming-related tokens as the metric, the Animoca Ventures lead is seeing interest coming from “some of the best, most profound veterans in gaming.”Photo by Albie Patacsil on UnsplashProof of interestHo elaborated that there are a host of examples that back up his claim. He referred to FunPlus’s investment in global cross-platform play-and-earn games developer and publisher, Xterio. FunPlus itself is a Switzerland-headquartered independent games developer and publisher with offices and operations in China, Singapore, Canada, Spain, and the United States. Xterio raised $40 million in a funding round led by FunPlus in August of last year, with funding going towards building out its platform alongside further game development.Ho also cited Square Enix, a Japanese gaming conglomerate that has shown an interest in blockchain-based gaming in recent years. In April, it announced that it was tripling down on blockchain by partnering with Web3 platform Elixir. The objective of the collaboration is to generate visibility and adoption of Web3 gaming among traditional gamers.It’s also understood that Chinese tech giant Tencent has had a games studio under its group of companies which is believed to be building a blockchain-based first-person shooter game. Meanwhile, French video game publishing behemoth Ubisoft is an investor in Animoca Brands while also participating in a crypto-focused fund run by multi-stage technology investment platform, White Star Capital.Console-maker intentMost notable from Ho’s interview, though, is his claim that “key Japanese console makers” have an interest right now in pursuing Web3 gaming. That’s incredibly significant because if Web3 can conquer the consoles, it will truly be a mass-market affair at that point.Ho elaborated: “Console makers never cared about free-to-play until it grew into multi-million users, what we’re seeing here now is some of the console makers with their deep pockets want to get involved in potentially a fund to stay on top of innovation… And that to me is a signal that they want to build something in this space in the near future, or not too distant future.”The Animoca Ventures lead talked about “key Japanese console makers,” specifically in the context of interest expressed by them in investing in a second early-stage venture fund that Animoca is considering. The expression of interest has become evident to the company as it’s a response it received having touted the prospect of establishing the fund.It’s interesting to hear that Animoca is actively pitching the notion of raising another fund, as it had been speculated that the firm has scaled down some of its existing funds. It’s understood that the firm was working on the new fund in November of last year, initially proposing a target of $2 billion. Once January came around, Animoca took the decision to scale that target back by half to $1 billion.The company denies that reporting on the subject, suggesting instead that the original target of the fund was $1 billion from the outset.