The Austrian post intends to integrate near-field communication to its non-fungible token postage stamps.

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Austria’s postal service or Oesterreichische Post AG is determined to include NFC in its NFT postage stamps. In fact, they intend to integrate NFC chips in Crypto Stamp 3.0. The chips enable their stamp owners to confirm whether the physical stamp is authentic using the digital twin metadata which is stored on blockchain. 

It’s interesting to know that in 2019, the Austrian Post won the title as being the first government-backed institution that had launched an NFT back then. NFT Awards 2020 also saw the Austrian Post Crypto Stamp winning multiple awards like the “People’s Choice Award” and the “Adoption Potential Award”. The post office gave some details regarding Crypto Stamp 3.0 and NFC- NFT integration:


> **“For the first time, NFC technology is also being used on an Austrian postage stamp: The Crypto Stamp 3.0 is based on an NFC-supported authenticity check and is cryptographically encrypted. […] By reading out the NFC chip, both the authenticity and the digital twin can be revealed.”**


One may ask “what is this NFC-NFT technology good for?” and the answer according to the Austrian post would be not needing an extra app that confirms ownership of the NFT postage stamp. Possessing such technologies according to the head of product management and e-business branches at the Austrian post, Stefan Nemeth is a great move for adding greater intuitive features to the future NFT postage stamp iterations.

The total circulation of Crypto Stamp 3.0 will be 100,000 stamps along with a market value of $12. In June, people can register to preorder the NFT stamp.


NFT and NFC tech to combine in digital postage stamps 

To empower themselves to build Ethereum-compatible standalone chains and layer-two protocols, the Polygon team is going to launch SDK or software development kits.

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Polygon stated that it will launch the SDK stack so that developers can create their own Ethereum-connected blockchains. These SDKs are so interesting and functional. They are in fact single installation packages that possess the required tools for creating seamless apps. Polygon SDK is comprised of multiple plug-and-play modules along with solutions that are tailor-made for parameters such as consensus and synchronization. JSON RPC, gRPC, and TxPool.

The approach for Polygon SDK to be adopted is the one that wishes to reflect the “Polkadot on Ethereum” approach. A multichain network can be introduced for Ethereum through this approach. 

Apparently, the Polygon SDK will be available in two iterations and the first of which enables the developers to build independent chains which work well with the Ethereum network. And in the second one, developers can build actual layer-two protocols that are linked to the Ethereum mainnet directly.

It is also said that Polygon SDK developers are more than willing to offer other features as well. An open-source cooperation for the SDK is what they are so eager to have. They also intend to have a plugin framework so that developers can add more modules to the Polygon SDK later on. Polygon co-founder believes that they play a crucial role in Ethereum multichain future and layer-two advancements:


> **“With advanced ‘Layer 2’ solutions, Ethereum 2.0 all coming online now or soon, the need for a comprehensive interoperability framework is stronger than ever. With the Polygon SDK, we are solving pressing needs for Ethereum’s multi-chain future, including ease of deployment and inter-L2 communication.”**


Matic is the previous name of polygon and many traders are more familiar with that name rather than Polygon. Anyways, Polygon has become more and more well-known specifically as a big Ethereum scaling platform and it has attracted many traders including great figures in the crypto space like Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban who admires Polygon’s speed and the growing user base.


SDK is Polygon’s new tool to deploy Ethereum-compatible standalone chains

Last week, the market experienced a collapse and the whole market suffered except for some big holders who bought the dip and added 122.5K BTC to their portfolios.

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Some BTC whales bought the dip when BTC saw a correction in its price last time which may be indicative of the termination of a coordinated sell-off.

These whales (= the ones holding between 10K to 100K BTC) have bought 122.588 BTC when the market was on its knees on Wednesday says Anthony Pompliano from Morgan Creek Digital using Glassnode data. The US-based exchange Coinbase was one of the hottest spots in terms of foot traffic where such huge trades were conducted.
 
Among the dip buyers are the London-based ByteTree Asset Management and MVPQ Capital as well as Three Arrows Capital in Singapore. According to Kyle Davies, the co-founder of the Three Arrows Capital:

>**“People that were borrowing money to invest, they were wiped from the system [...] Every time we see massive liquidation is a chance to buy. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bitcoin and Ethereum retrace the entire drop in a week.”**

Reports say that one leading whale, at least who had previously sold BTC at $58K, has done something even better than accumulating. This person or entity sold 3,000 BTC on May 9 but on three different days on May 15, 18, and 19, purchased 3,521 BTC. Therefore, this whale in fact not only didn’t sell but even added more to their previous holdings.

Bitcoin fans and traders spent a really stressful week from Sunday to Wednesday. BTC dropped below 32K on Sunday and even worse, BTC price fell below 30K shortly on Wednesday. Falling below 30K was such an unlikely event although the price recovered back quickly to $37K, it couldn’t break the overhead resistance of $42K. And that’s worrisome for hodlers and the traders whose BTC or altcoins are at loss.


Whales accumulate 122.5K BTC while crypto market is a bloodbath

Bitcoin has turned into a way of bypassing the oil sanction by the Iranian government and a payment method for their imports.

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Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm, believes that regulated mining activities in Iran may surpass $1 billion in revenues despite the fact that the Iranian government didn’t have a clear plan and decision regarding Bitcoin regulation previously, changing their mind form from being a totally illegal activity to accepting and regulating Bitcoin mining which has now turned into a tool to circumvent the country’s economic embargo that was imposed by the US.

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[Source: Elliptic ](https://www.elliptic.co/blog/how-iran-uses-bitcoin-mining-to-evade-sanctions)

As you can see in the figure above, according to Elliptic, Iran’s share of the total global Bitcoin mining operation is 4.5% which aids the local government to make billions of dollars through which they can evade the US oil sanctions and sell the oil easily:

> **“The US imposes an almost total economic embargo on Iran, including a ban on all Iranian imports and sanctions on Iranian financial institutions,” says the report.  “Oil exports have plummeted 70% over the past decade, leaving the country in a deep recession with soaring unemployment and periods of civil unrest.”**

It also says:

> **“In the face of these sanctions, Iran has turned to an unlikely solution - Bitcoin mining.”**

According to the report, these mining operations unlike other countries are not very expensive as the country possesses tons of cheap oil it can use. Being cheap to mine, Iran has attracted foreign investors like China that have started mining in Iran and developed this crypto-economy even more. The report also says:

> **“Several Chinese businesses have been granted mining licenses and have established operations in the country. These companies have described establishing good relationships with ‘the army in Iran’, and one particularly large facility in the Rafsanjan Special Economic Zone was reportedly built in collaboration with a ‘military organization’,”**

After running cold and hot regarding their position with Bitcoin, The local government finally allowed banking entities to use cryptocurrencies to buy imports in late April. Following the same policy, the government tried to have tighter control over the crypto sector by passing a law to ban the use of foreign-mined BTC for imports.

The country has not always been so welcoming or friendly with mining and Bitcoin. Previously, Iran had faced several power outages and the Iranian officials attributed those outages to the illegal mining activities in the country. Also, the Iranian intelligence agency has been ordered to catch illegal miners. 


Bitcoin mining yields in Iran may exceed $1B annually

Despite being infamous and making people suffer, COVID-19 seems to have boosted the adoption of digital currencies globally.

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According to the European Central Bank (ECB) President, Christine Lagarde, the infamous COVID-19 has surprisingly yielded good results for digital currency adoption. It has in fact accelerated digital currency adoption which was observed in the European citizens’ pattern of spending.

## A disaster for the world and a savior for the digital platforms

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the need for digital contactless payments has surged according to ECB president as European have been using online platforms for shopping for food and other retail during the pandemic. She also adds that global payments have also rose dramatically since pandemic has pushed people to stay home and therefore, they would consequently do their tasks using online platforms.

The digitalization trend is surging now, it is improbable that it when the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the trend reverses.

According to a survey conducted in 17 of the European countries, the majority of the people consider carrying on with digital service as much as they are doing these days (the time of writing this article) or maybe more than this after the pandemic is over.


Coronavirus has improved Digital Currency Adoption

Despite being infamous and making people suffer, COVID-19 seems to have boosted the adoption of digital currencies globally.

A disaster for the world and a savior for the digital platforms