16 Aug Symbol blockchain news update – 16/08/21
Good morning! It’s been a few days since the Symbol Blog last news update but we are back! Work is super busy at the moment and it’s difficult to keep up with everything so posts may be less frequent at the moment but rest assured I am busting my ass trying to keep you up to date with Symbol news! 😊 If you have anything that you would like reported, please, please let me know as trawling through hundreds of posts kills time that I could use actually writing about the stories. I would be massively grateful if you could help me by letting me know if you spot something or release something that you think people will want to know about!
QUEST on mainnet
There is lots of buzz on Twitter about the launch of QUEST on mainnet. It looks like it launched today (16/08/21) and I will be going over to check it out as soon as I have finished writing this article. Please go have a look and see what quests are currently active and maybe set yourself a Quest and earn some XYM in the process. We should be supporting this as there is potential that it could really take off and add value to the Symbol network!
NFT-Drive on testnet
More good news about development on Symbol. You will see that a beta version of NFT-Drive went live on testnet there is a guide available here, unfortunately it is only available in Japanese at the moment but Google Translate does a good job and the instructions are quite clear. It seems that you need to apply to take part in the beta test but if you are interested you can submit your application here.
I have applied and will write an English blog article about it should I be accepted to take part 😊
Community opinions
Here’s a post from @OliverMuldoon canvassing the community for their opinions on management of the XYM treasury. I think this is a bit of a contentious issue within the community but my opinion is that the community should be allowed to give their opinions on various funding issues but the final decisions should be down to the core team.
As already picked up by Hatchet the voting patterns look a bit suspicious with more than 1000 votes within the first few hours. This drives home the problem with community voting as there is potential for gaming the system, this is especially problematic when the community is relatively small, as is the case for Symbol right now.
We know that the core devs have the best interests of Symbol (and NIS1) at heart so, although not infallible, I would trust them (and their knowledge) to make a final decision on funding matters.
Investors, holders or NEMbers?
I also don’t really like the term “investors” to describe XEM and XYM holders. I am also not completely happy with NEMbers either though. This term was OK in the past but it was solely used to describe XEM holders and community members. NEM to me still has strong links to being NEM (NIS1) blockchain specific. I know that NEM is the umbrella term and should encompass NIS1 (aka the NEM blockchain!) and Symbol but to me it really doesn’t. I think XEM holder and XYM holder seem more appropriate to me unless anyone can think of another fun collective name here 😊
Symbol coins
Just spotted this tweet from @sakamotometal – you can get yourself a shiny new Symbol coin from their shop.
I love the photo (as I took it!)😆 It’s my son holding my own Sakamoto Symbol coin. He may be the youngest XYM holder in the world, and my dad at 71 may be the oldest! 😂
School of NEM
Finally we will finish up with a couple of @SchoolofNEM tweets send in by some of the XYMbassadors.
Firstly a reminder that if you have a Trezor device, you can use it to secure your XEM. Unfortunately this is not true of XYM which isn’t supported by Trezor at this point in time. This is being worked on currently though and you can catch the latest progress of the project on Discord in the #wallets-trezor channel. You can also use a Ledger hardware wallet with Symbol currently and I have an article showing you how to set up your Ledger secured Symbol account on the blog.
And another history lesson. The first NEM global hackathon was held way back (in crypto terms!) in 2017. It was well received with 143 entries and a top prize of $10,000 was awarded. I expect that there will be more events like this in the future so if you are a developer then keep your eyes peeled! 😊
Thanks!
Thanks again for reading but help us out by sending in news and views from Twitter and any other forum and I will feature your tweets here!
I’m a Symbol and NEM enthusiast and run this blog to try to grow awareness of the platform in the English-speaking world. If you have any Symbol news you would like me to report on or you have an article that you would like to publish then please let me know!
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