Crypto News Today: Sui Mysten Labs launches a new blockchain-based gaming console, and Coinbase announces the first AI-to-AI crypto transaction. To find out what events have shaken up the industry today, read our new crypto news digest.
Cardano Chang Hard Fork Went Live
On 2 August, the Cardano network hosted the Chang hard fork, which includes CIP-1694. Among the key changes is the transformation of Cardano’s governance, allowing any Cardano Token Authority (ADA) to submit applications or participate in the voting process for management actions as part of the Voltaire project’s update phase.
The Cardano Foundation in its X account states: “Today’s Chang hard fork marks a major milestone for the Cardano blockchain, ecosystem, and community––fulfilling the promise of a truly self-governing, decentralized network.”
It is worth noting that after the hard fork, Cardano (ADA) became the project’s token. According to reports, the first phase of the update saw the creation of an Interim Constitutional Committee to oversee the governance of Cardano. During the second phase, which will take place in 90 days, the new governing bodies will be given full powers and will be actively involved in the project’s management. An official statement highlighted that the update is a major one for Cardano “marking the beginning of the Voltaire era—a phase focused on achieving full decentralization that has been in the works since Cardano’s inception”.
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Speaking on the development, Cardano’s CTO Giorgio Zinetti said, “I would say it is the biggest event in Cardano history, and it makes us different from many other chains. I think we are the largest layer 1 with on-chain governance. There are some smaller players, like Tezos and Polkadot, who already have on-chain governance. But if there was a leaderboard, real decentralized layer-1s, we would be number one.”
Elon Musk’s xAI Has Launched Colossus
The team of AI startup xAI has launched the Colossus AI training cluster using 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs. This was announced on 2 September by the company’s CEO Elon Musk on his X-account.
According to him, it took the team 122 days to complete the process of bringing Colossus online. He also noted that over the next few months, its size will double and reach 200,000. Currently, Colossus is considered the most powerful AI training system in existence. This is evidenced by the number of graphics processing units (GPUs) the model runs on.
One user in X pointed out the actual scale of this development, which surpasses all the major models released to date. For example, the most powerful OpenAI model uses 80,000 GPUs.
Colossus was developed in collaboration with Nvidia, the world’s leading semiconductor chip manufacturer. Nvidia responded to the model’s presentation by posting a congratulatory message to Musk and the xAI team. It also emphasized that it will be the most powerful and will have ‘exceptional gains’ in energy efficiency.
New Game Console by Sui’s Mysten Labs
According to Venture Beat, Mysten Labs, the company behind the SUI blockchain, has launched pre-orders for its new gaming console called SuiPlay0X1. The console is powered by the Playtron gaming operating system with device diagnostics and features an AMD Ryzen 7 7840U processor, AMD Ryzen 780M GPU, 16GB of DRAM, and a 512GB SSD with expandable memory. The device also features a 7-inch bezel-less IPS screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 and supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. Weighing 677 grams, the SuiPlay0X1 is expected to be comparable to the popular Steam Deck, another game console developed by Valve.
According to the release, pre-orders are open until all available units are sold out, and the first thousand customers will receive a personalized token that provides special access, rewards, and privileges. Deliveries are expected to start in 2025. It is not yet known what blockchain features will be implemented on the console, but it is known that the device will support standard PC games from platforms such as Epic Games and Steam, as well as games with Sui-power support. In addition, it is stated that the console will cost $600, but it can also be purchased for cryptocurrencies, namely SUI, Solana, and Ethereum.
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In particular, the possibility of buying with cryptocurrency is becoming increasingly common today. Every year, the list of things that can be purchased with cryptocurrency grows appliances, food, clothing, and even cars. It is worth remembering how Tesla offered to buy a car for Dogecoin. Although this option is no longer available, the company’s founder, Elon Musk, recently hinted at the return of DOGE as a payment method.
Another company is L.Riker, a Ukrainian electric car retailer. In particular, this year, they made the first cryptocurrency transaction through a POS terminal provided by Whitepay.
Ferrari also accepts crypto payments in the United States using the BitPay platform. Moreover, they recently announced that they will expand the possibility of accepting crypto payments, and by the end of 2024, this service will be available in European countries.
Coinbase Reports Its First AI-to-AI Crypto Transaction
On August 30, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed the first cryptocurrency transaction fully managed by artificial intelligence bots, following several attempts by the industry to develop platforms for AI agents to carry out transactions.
“This week at @CoinbaseDev we witnessed our first AI to AI crypto transaction,” he wrote in his account at X.
As Armstrong explained, one AI agent – a ‘bot’ designed to perform a specific task – used crypto tokens to interact with another AI agent and receive AI tokens. In addition, he noted that the main reason for the inefficiency of AI agents is that they lack transactional capabilities. Without a payment method, it is difficult for them to perform basic tasks, such as booking plane tickets or hotels, and even manage social media tasks, not to mention simple content creation, such as promoting posts with paid advertising.
“AI agents cannot get bank accounts, but they can get crypto wallets. They can now use USDC on Base to transact with humans, merchants, or other AIs. Those transactions are instant, global, and free,” he added.
Ripple to Add Smart Contracts to XRP Ledger
On August 2, Ripple announced that it is working on introducing smart contracts to the main XRP Ledger network to expand Tier 1 functionality and attract more developers to the ecosystem. Before this, the network was mainly used by banks and financial institutions to facilitate cross-border payments. XRPL smart contracts are expected to increase the flexibility of the platform, allowing developers to creatively use its core components to build new decentralized applications.
The announcement also notes that developers can deploy smart contracts without a formal change process or the need to obtain any permissions. However, the XLS standard will be implemented to ensure the security, efficiency, and ease of deployment of smart contracts. According to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, the ability to program the XRP Ledger is ‘something that the XRP community has been rightfully demanding’. Ripple also plans to deploy the XRPL EVM Sidechain early next year in collaboration with blockchain infrastructure provider Peersyst. It will allow XRPL developers to use the tools and programming languages of the Ethereum Virtual Machine.
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