The country is determined to help content creators monetize their arts through the Algorand network.

Nigeria has partnered with Developing African Group on a three-year Intellectual Property Right (IPR) agreement that will lead to the commercialization of IPs created and registered within the country. 

Details of the Partnership

Under the partnership, the Nigerian government will grant Developing African Group the exclusive license to develop a platform where citizens of the country can upload and trade their intellectual properties in exchange for royalty rights or proceeds. 

All royalties and proceeds will be received in users’ wallets on the platform, created by Developing African Group. 

Some of the content that can be commercialized on the platform include copyrights and trademarks of songs, videos, lyrics, shows, podcasts, and other forms of streamable content, the press release notes. 

Developing Africa Onboards Algorand and Koibanx

With Developing Africa Group not planning to waste any time, the company has chosen Koibanx and popular blockchain network Algorand following the Nigerian government’s approval, to get things started. 

Per the announcement, while Koibanx will develop the tokens that will be used to trade various artists’ intellectual properties, Developing Africa plans to build the entire platform, including the digital currency, on the Algorand network.

Commenting on the adoption of Algorand to foster the partnership, Ben Oguntala, CEO of Developing Africa Group, said: 

“Algorand’s protocol not only provides the performance, scalability, security, and functionality required to implement such a large scale project but is also environment-friendly which is important for the Government and has a huge philosophical match with the `creators economy industry´ we’re targeting here.” 

Koibanx and Algorand Collaboration Broadens

It is worth noting that this is not the first time Koibanx and Algorand will be partnering on an initiative. The duo has worked on several initiatives, including in the private and public sectors across Latin America. 

Leo Elduayen, Koibanx´s CEO described the initiative as the largest cryptocurrency project globally, adding: 

“I believe this initiative could change the lives of over 50 million people easily. Since we launched Koibanx back in 2015 we were convinced Blockchain tech and cryptocurrencies were the foundational building blocks for economic development in emerging markets, being able to have an active part in how is happening is a privilege.” 

Widespread Algorand Adoption

Meanwhile, the Algorand blockchain has been widely adopted by government authorities as well as private entities. 

Algorand, which became the official blockchain of FIFA earlier this month, saw Australian Zoo launch its non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the platform. 

The Algorand Foundation also took to its Twitter page to announce the development, saying: 

“BREAKING: @koibanx and @developingafro to develop #Nigeria’s official platform for commercialization of all IP in the country, on #Algorand.” 

BREAKING: @koibanx and @developingafro
to develop #Nigeria's official platform for commercialization of all IP in the country, on #Algorand.

As announced by @leoelduayen and @developingafro earlier today on a #TwitterSpace. Replay ? https://t.co/pGqAc2vp0s

— Algorand (@Algorand) May 23, 2022

The company also went a step further to illustrate the significance of the initiative to the Nigerian entertainment industry. 

Let's talk Nigeria! Nigeria is a financial and innovative giant, their influence runs deep globally. With todays news from @leoelduayen let's delve into some of the entertainment numbers

Nigeria Ranks Second For Most Musical Streams On Spotify#GreenWhiteGreenCrypto

— Algorand Foundation (@AlgoFoundation) May 24, 2022

The decentralized finance market was also not spared following the Terra ecosystem tokens collapse.

The collapse of Terra ecosystem tokens TerraUSD (UST) and LUNA had a major impact on the entire cryptocurrency market, including the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.

With UST losing its peg to the dollar due to the mouth-watering rewards attached to Terra’s Anchor program, DeFi investors who mostly borrow and lend crypto assets fear that a similar fate may befall their favorite digital currency.

Large Movement of Funds from DeFi protocols

As part of efforts to save themselves from seeing their favorite crypto project collapse like in the case of Terra, there has been a large movement of funds from various DeFi protocols in recent weeks.

According to data on DeFi tracking platform DeFi Llama, the total value locked (TVL) across various protocols plummeted to $112 billion from $195 billion in the aftermath of Terra ecosystem collapse.

A quick look at MakerDAO, the largest DeFi project by total value locked, shows that the platform has seen the volume of its asset locked dip by over a third in less than a month to $9.7 billion.

A similar event was recorded for the second-largest DeFi platform dubbed Curve, a protocol that enables users to swap stablecoins at a negligible fee.

Per data on DeFi Llama, the total value locked on Curve plummeted by over 55% to $9 billion.

Commenting on the decline in the volume of TVL, Kaiko, a cryptocurrency research firm, noted that the reason why staking in DeFi protocols has been on the decrease in recent times is because of the massive capital outflows from the cryptocurrency space.

“Fear is rampant. And you’d have to look long and hard to find a bullish investor across any risk asset,” Jeff Dorman, Arca’s Chief Investment Officer, said in a report published by Bloomberg.

Cryptocurrency Market Suffers Huge Losses 

Aside from the DeFi space, the entire cryptocurrency market has also suffered huge losses. Over $1 trillion has been wiped out of the entire market since the unfortunate incident with Terra started.

Bitcoin saw its value plummet to below $27,000 from nearly $40,000, while Ethereum (ETH) also plunged below $1,800.

With the massive losses investors have suffered over the past week following the Terra ecosystem collapse, many feared widespread capitulation would be recorded in the crypto space.

Meanwhile, the IMF Managing Director recently urged cryptocurrency investors not to flee the industry as the market has become a pivotal aspect of the global financial industry.

Terra 2.0 And Luna Airdrop Might Be In Ambiguity.

The Terra community has been in limbo for days waiting for Do Kwon and Terraform Labs to formulate a plan to help investors mitigate losses after Luna’s price crash. When Do Kwon proposed the creation of a new Terra chain, dubbed Terra 2.0, things seemed to get better.

However, a recent expose has the community worried. Back in South Korea, Do Kwon and Terra Foundation Guard (TFG) are facing a legal backlash, even as they try to assure the community that Terra 2.0 is coming.

South Korean Police To Freeze Terra Assets 

Apparently, the South Korean police, precisely the Seoul Metropolitan Police, have requested all crypto exchanges in South Korea to freeze all assets owned and TFG. This is after allegations of embezzlement were leveled against the foundation and its controller, Do Kwon.

According to Naver, the Seoul Metropolitan Police in South Korea has asked each exchange to freeze the funds of the Luna Foundation Guard, and there are clues suspected of being related to embezzlement of public funds. https://t.co/0s2a9aXCme

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) May 24, 2022

The charges revolve around the Bitcoin reserves that TFG held to protect UST’s and Luna’s prices from crashing to extreme levels. While Do Kwon and TFG claim that the reserves were used during the crash but weren’t as effective as expected, there are claims from other quarters that this didn’t happen and that the funds were embezzled.

Terra 2.0 To face Hurdles

Following Do Kwon’s proposal 1623, the community voted to build a new Terra chain and airdrop the new Luna tokens to current holders. However, creating an entirely new blockchain network takes resources, workforce, and time. This is where things get thick since the legal issues facing Do Kwon, and the TFG in South Korea have led to the freezing of much-needed funds. This could complicate matters as Terra 2.0 could run into financial hurdles that could delay its creation and launch. In turn, the Luna airdrop might turn out to be a mirage that will never materialize.

It’s not yet clear what Do Kwon and the Terra team are doing to mitigate these issues to prevent Terra 2.0 from running into roadblocks. However, the discussions surrounding the building of Terra 2.0 are still in infancy, and the community is still looking up to Do Kwon and his team for solutions.

On the other hand, Terra Founder Do Kwon Faces Three South Korean Investigations.

The South Korean Congress has demanded Terra’s Do Kwon to be brought before it for question over the Luna and UST price crash that saw 200,000 South Koreans lose their investments in the crypto.

Kwon And Terra Owe $78 To The Government

Also, Do Kwon and Terra are faced with another tax issue. According to the authorities, Kwon and Terra have tax arrears amounting to $78 million. Do Kwon has denied these allegations.

Revived Crime Unit To Investigate Terra

Luna’s and UST crash led the South Korean government to revive a disbanded crime investigation that was last active two years ago. The unit, consisting of 40 officials, will investigate to establish what led to the collapse of Terra and whether anyone is responsible for it. Millions of investors have lost money due to the collapse of Luna and UST.

Under such circumstances, it might not be possible for the Terra team to continue, especially when all of your assets are frozen by exchanges at the request of the Seoul Metropolitan Police as air drops and building a new blockchain from scratch needs funds.

A top IMF official said cryptocurrency investors should not flee the market after the Terra ecosystem tokens crash. 

Following the collapse of Terra ecosystem tokens in the past few weeks that resulted in great losses, many feared that the resultant effect could be a widespread capitulation. 

In what may come as a shock to many, a top financial regulator with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged cryptocurrency community members not to desert the market based on the Terra incident. 

Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, as reported by Bloomberg, Kristalina Georgieva, IMF’s Managing Director, has pleaded with the crypto community not to completely shun investments in the sector. 

Georgieva acknowledged that global regulators have not lived up to expectations in protecting cryptocurrency investors, as they were supposed to offer “guardrails” in the form of regulation while educating people about the associated risks with cryptocurrencies. 

“I would beg you not to pull out of the importance of this (crypto) world, It offers us all faster service, much lower costs, and more inclusion, but only if we separate apples from oranges and bananas, it’s the responsibility of regulators across the globe to put up guardrails and offer education to protect investors.”

Georgieva Speaks About Terra’s Collapse

Commenting on the collapse of TerraUSD (UST), the algorithmic stablecoin of the Terra ecosystem, Georgieva noted that there is a difference between stablecoins backed by fiat and those that are backed by algorithms to maintain their values. 

“The less there is backing it, the more you should be prepared to take the risk of this thing blowing up in your face,” Georgieva said. 

For the IMF Managing Director, the fact that Terra tokens collapsed the way they did does not mean people should tarnish all digital currencies using the same brush. 

Other Financial Regulators Comment on Terra’s Incident

Aside from Georgieva, other financial regulators also spoke about the recent collapse of the cryptocurrency market. 

Francois Villeroy de Galhau, France’s Central Bank Governor, while commenting on the collapse of Terra’s ecosystem tokens, said: 

“My impression is that in recent weeks, citizens have lost trust in crypto, more than in central banks.”

Terra team reveals Terra 2.0 is not a fork.

For days now, there have been speculations as to whether Terra 2.0 will be launched or whether Do Kwon and his team will change their minds and agree to burn extra Luna tokens to revive the dwindling price. Now, it appears that Terra 2.0 will happen.

However, contrary to what most people thought, Terra 2.0 will not be a fork of the Terra chain that’s currently harboring Luna.

Instead, it will be a whole new blockchain network that will start from Genesis block 0. Terra shared this revelation in a recent Twitter thread. Earlier on, Do Kwon had tweeted that Terra 2.0 will be a hard fork of Luna. That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

1/ Recently, a few community members (including some from TFL) have referred to the proposed new blockchain in Prop 1623 as a “fork” as opposed to a genesis chain.

Note: The revival plan is not proposing a “fork” of the existing chain, but rather the creation of a new one ?.

— Terra ? Powered by LUNA ? (@terra_money) May 23, 2022

Terra 2.0 Will Not Share History With Current Terra Chain

Terra sought to distinguish between a hard fork and a new blockchain network in the Twitter thread. First off, a hard fork shares history with the original chain, but a new chain doesn’t. This means that Terra 2.0 will not share any history with the current Terra Luna chain (which will now be called Terra Classic).

As such, Proposal 1623 is about the complete re-birth of Terra as opposed to tweaking the chain to create a split chain of the current one. However, Terraform Labs has yet to develop a launch date or a roadmap for the new Terra 2.0.

DApps To Migrate To Terra 2.0

Since Terra 2.0 will not share any history with the original chain, dApps and other projects that are currently on Terra (Luna) will have to be migrated to Terra 2.0. The point to note here is that in the case of a hard fork, dApps pre-exist in the new chain. This will not be the case with Terra 2.0.

According to Terra, various popular dApps have already pledged to migrate to Terra 2.0 once the new chain is launched.

6/ Most of the popular dApps built on Terra Classic have already committed to migrating, including @prism_protocol, @staderlabs, @randomearth_io, @oneplanet_NFT, & many more ?.

— Terra ? Powered by LUNA ? (@terra_money) May 23, 2022

Prism Protocol, Stader Labs, Random Earth, One Planet, ChainLayer, BTCSecure, Sigma, TerraBay, and Nebula Protocol Show Commitment to Validate New Terra (LUNA) Network.

Initially, the Terra community was majorly in favor of burning Luna to reduce its supply and pump up the price, but Do Kwon’s proposal to create Terra 2.0 took center stage in the end. Do Kwon plans to airdrop the new Luna tokens to holders of Luna Classic once Terra 2.0 is live.