Algorand, Python, Hedera, Stablecoins, Unity fee chaos and other news
Crypto news for the week of Sept. 18, 2023
It’s another fun week for crypto news! Plenty of interesting Algorand, Hedera and other news to cover this week.
The Algo/Python connection
John Woods at Token 2049 announced that Algorand’s Algokit will be integrating pure Python programming, making it much, much easier to develop on Algorand. Python is the No. 1 language taught in universities and has one of the more easier to understand syntaxes. I can say this from personal experiencing, having tried Java, Ruby and Javascript. Wood goes into detail a little more here. Also announced by Mr. Woods, Algorand just removed relay nodes.
Algorand and HBAR rock speed test
Solana is often said to be faster than Algorand. Well, this test proves otherwise. Also too, in a test of several blockchains, Algorand and Hedera proved the fastest. And that’s not all. Want to run a node? Algorand might be your best option.
Other Algo quick hits
Deutsch Bank is partnering with Taurus, which integrated Algorand into its platform one year ago.
Stablecoin GARD is sunsetting (ie, shutting down).
Sexytime chats?
Vybe releases weird chat feature: Vybe, a platform designed to let you earn crypto from posting on social media, released Vybe Chat, which apparently allows you to have sexytime chats with an AI.
Hedera stablecoin
Hedera announced that it is entering the stablecoin market. This could be one of the biggest announcements Hedera will make all year. This will be developed through it’s newly launched stablecoin studio.
Who will benefit? Hedera is targeting web3 platforms, institutional issuers, enterprises, and payment providers as potential adopters of the stablecoin.
It makes sense. If you’re taking payment in a coin, that coin can usually fluctuate. That’s a real issue when you need to carefully calculate margins, expenses, and all the other aspects of doing business.
Allowing an organization to create its own stablecoin could be a gamechanger.
Check out the Hedera stablecoin studio here.
Unity causes chaos in web3 games with new fee structure
Unity, a game engine many web2 and web3 games are developed on, instituted a new fee structure that could bankrupt many games. That engine powers Cosmic Champs and Fracctal Monsters, for instance.
Penguinz0 has a great video on the topic in general. The basics: on top of a regular fee to use, the engine will now charge developers a fee per install over 200,000 installs.
That fee structure could completely upend game development on that engine, especially with low-margin free to play games. In the Algorand ecosystem, Fracctal Monsters and Cosmic Champs run on Unity, for instance. And there is concern about fraudulent downloads. As Penguinz0 points out, someone could attack a game developer by continually reinstalling a game.
As one might expect, the changes caused quite a bit of a stir amongst the develooment community. There is now an entire Twitter account devoted to game studio backlash to the Unity decision.
I reached out to DevFraccas of Fracctal Monsters, who told FrugalBC they are sticking with Unity, but are very concerned. They are currently at 20,000+ downloads of their game Fracctal Monsters, so well under the threshold, but it’s concerning.
With that said, I've been using Unity for 10+ years, and my professional background is in C# which Unity utilizes so I'm pretty loyal. I'm not entertaining the idea of completely rewriting this version of Fracctal in another engine. There is so much backlash I'm hoping they will change course and come up with a new plan. I've heard that binding games that released prior to this change may cause some legal issues so we'll see how it turns out.
Unity is definitely feeling the pressure. They recently somewhat walked back their position, though many in the comments to their statement we’re buying it.
A big shout out to Jim from Aegir Tactics for assist in background information. Aegir Tactics is being built on the Unreal Engine, so will be unaffected by the change.
Be sure to check out
Want to maximize your safety in crypto? Check out Ledger:
Also a big thank you to channel sponsors Non-Fungible Domains and Taco Coin.