LINE Blockchain Monthly Newsletter: Apr 2022
Welcome to LINE Blockchain’s Monthly Newsletter, a major step up from our previous Weekly Report. Instead of the old report, which heavily relied on LINK-related data, now we are aiming to convey all sort of news about our industry and LINE Blockchain in order to strengthen communication and trust with our community members and become the source of information about LINE Blockchain. This month we are accelerating the NFT business and keep our eyes and ears open to improve user community. We hope you’ll find our April newsletter interesting and will participate in our project.
⎮ Highlights & Main News
Eco-friendly LINE Blockchain offers blockchain with low power consumption
PoW (“Proof-of-Work,” also known as mining), one of the block consensus methods, has emerged as a major issue because it entails consuming a large amount of energy. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the two best-known PoWs, but because they are public blockchains where anyone can participate in mining, it is quite difficult to objectively measure the amount of power being actually consumed in mining, but Digiconomist, a well-known website that critiques the economics of digital trends, estimates that electricity costs represent 60% of block miner revenue (cf. Bitcoin energy consumption index). Now, LINE Blockchain operates on PoS (“Proof-of-Stake”), not PoW, but we were still concerned about how LINE Blockchain might be impacting the environment, so we conducted an environmental load test to understand how much carbon emissions LINE Blockchain makes. (Please note that this test was done as an informal estimate and shouldn’t be taken as an official study … but we still think the results are interesting).
And the results were quite good! Testing conducted at the end of March 2022 through the IPMI-DCMI (Data Center Management Interface) command confirmed that only 0.0000049% of power compared to Bitcoin was consumed, based on 13 validators of the LINE Blockchain. Although there weren’t many test subject (only 13), the analysis clearly confirmed the huge power difference between PoW and PoS. Due to the nature of LINE Blockchain’s PoS being operated on a private chain, it is clear that the PoS is more cost-effective and consumes less power.
As such, the way the power consumption is being measured should be gradually improved and replaced with automation, but the amount of power consumed by LINE Blockchain is still very low, making it a big positive for sustainability and ESG (Environment, Society, and Governance).
LINE launches LINE NFT, an NFT marketplace in Japan
A full-fledged NFT marketplace, where anyone can easily trade and pay for NFTs, has been released for the first time in Japan. The market is called LINE NFT, and it is the fruit of efforts made to publicize the NFT business, having started with a beta service last year. NFTs purchased from LINE NFT can be stored in the LINE BITMAX Wallet, a digital asset management wallet that can be registered easily via your LINE account. Then, users can conveniently send and exchange NFTs with their LINE friends through the LINE app. To commemorate the launch, NFTs from famous animation, popular characters, and athletes in Japan are on sale, where LINE NFT supports both primary and secondary markets. LINE NFT just launched on April 13, but already has been well received by the public, with some NFTs selling out right away. LINE NFT aims to make NFTs enjoyable by collaborating with a wide range of partners and LINE affiliates to enable a diverse array of NFT trading, while also ensuring transactions are secure.
NFT businesses announced at NAVER Meetup event
NAVER CEO Soo-yeon Choi has recently announced at a NAVER Meetup event that NAVER is trying to use blockchain technology globally through LINE. At the event, one journalist noted that LINE NFT had been launched in Japan and that the global NFT platform DOSI was about to launch, so asked if NAVER had plans to expand the NFT businesses to gaming or entertainment (via DOSI). In response, Choi said “NAVER has made a decision regarding investment, but still in the process of preparing a specific business strategy, so it is hard to disclose the details at the moment. LINE is basically making various attempts using blockchain technology in the global market, whereas NAVER is doing so by forming partnerships in the global market. NAVER’s reputation and influence as a platform is very huge, so we are carefully considering trends and developments, including regulations.”
DOSI introduced at LINE Taiwan’s developer recruitment event
LINE Taiwan is also actively seeking talented new hires to accelerate LINE NEXT’s global NFT platform project DOSI. Based on the networks owned by LINE and NAVER as well as a combined 230 million global users, DOSI aims to become the No. 1 NFT leader.
HAECHI LABS, a blockchain technology company, to provide digital asset wallet solutions for LINE NEXT’s DOSI project
HAECHI LABS plans to cooperate with LINE NEXT by providing wallet and payment solutions for the global NFT platform service DOSI. To lower the high barriers to entry for general users’ accessing to decentralized wallet, such as MetaMask, the two companies will work together to bring out a wallet that anyone can easily and safely use by simple email login. LINE NEXT is a global NFT platform and subsidiary of LINE, and the two companies will develop strategies for providing convenience by promoting NFT production, marketing, community activities, and crypto payment functions altogether.
⎮ TMI
“Is NFT a bubble? Let’s see what real blockchain developers say!”
Watch here: https://youtu.be/5ykJBgZ7ic8
Yeonjun Lim, a DOSI payment service developer from the blockchain framework team, and Seongbin Cho, a wallet developer from the blockchain development team talk about:
■ Can blockchains be hacked even when the reliability and stability of their function are prioritized?
■ Which industry would NFT fit best?
■ Can NFTs really replace offline services?
■ Are NFTs really non-replicable?
This is LINE Blockchain, a blockchain being created by group of developers with experience in self mining and minting….!
⎮ LINK Overview
❖ Data is based on the last day of each month.
■ LN Market Cap: 688.23mn USD
■ LN Price: 112.53 USD
■ Monthly Trading Volume: 698.64mn USD
■ Circulation: 6,116,032 LN
■ Officially Listed Exchanges: BITFRONT, BITMAX, Bithumb
⎮ Community
■ LINE Pay is offering LINK as a payment option at some online merchants for a trial period in Japan
■ Join the DOSI Platform waitlist
■ Check out LINE Careers for available LINE NEXT positions
Follow LINE Blockchain on Twitter or Facebook for the latest news and updates. A monthly newsletter is issued every 10th of the following month, and advance notice will be announced through social channels should any delay, omission or other issues occur.