Sony Seeks Patent for 'Super-Fungible' Gaming Tokens

Hi NoRamp Community,

Daily News:

1) Fed Chair Jerome Powell Addresses Concerns Over CBDCs

2) Sony Seeks Patent for 'Super-Fungible' Gaming Tokens

3) Aphone Taps Into Solana to Bring Life to Old Devices

4) Green Dot Hires Melissa Douros As New CPO

5) Smartpay & Chubb Partner to Revolutionize Japanese Insurance

Fed Chair Jerome Powell Addresses Concerns Over CBDCs:

• Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell informed the Senate Banking Committee that the Fed has no immediate plans to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC), emphasizing that the implementation of a digital dollar is not on the horizon.

• Powell assured that the Fed would not entertain the idea of having government accounts that allow for the monitoring of individual transactions, and if a digital dollar were explored, it would be managed through banks without direct government oversight.

• The privacy of U.S. citizens has been a primary concern, with lawmakers attempting to prevent the issuance of a digital dollar and expressing concerns over "programmable money" that could give the federal government transaction-level data. Powell also indicated that the Fed is nearing the assurance required to begin reducing interest rates, with a focus on becoming more confident that inflation is moving sustainably at 2%.

Sony Seeks Patent for 'Super-Fungible' Gaming Tokens:

• Sony, the maker of PlayStation, has filed a patent application for "super-fungible tokens" for games, which would be stored on a distributed ledger and transferable between players, potentially allowing gamers to sell or trade in-game assets like skins and battle passes.

• The patent outlines a process of tracking gaming assets associated with a player, generating metadata based on those assets, and using the metadata to create a super-fungible token—a bundle of various NFTs—stored on a distributed ledger associated with the gaming application.

• While the patent application implies that Sony is considering allowing NFTs in its games, it does not specify whether the distributed ledger would be private or public. The adoption of NFTs by a major gaming company like Sony could significantly advance blockchain technology in the gaming industry.

Aphone Taps Into Solana to Bring Life to Old Devices:

• A new virtual smartphone application called Aphone has launched on Solana's blockchain and Aethir's decentralized cloud infrastructure, aimed at users with outdated hardware and those in emerging economies.

• Aphone functions as a web-based virtual smartphone, providing access to Web3 and conventional applications, and operates on a decentralized cloud-based GPU computing infrastructure to bypass hardware limitations of older devices.

• The virtual device costs $20 a year, and users can access it by purchasing an Aphone nonfungible token (NFT) minted and burned on the Solana blockchain. Aphone also integrates with decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) like Helium, and its native token, PHONE, will be used for governance and rewards incentivization.

Green Dot Hires Melissa Douros As New CPO:

• Former Discover Financial Services VP Melissa Douros has been named the new chief product officer (CPO) of US digital bank Green Dot, focusing on product design, team development, and building useful tools for customers.

• Douros will oversee the development of consumer products and the expansion of Green Dot's Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and embedded finance partner network.

• Prior to joining Green Dot, Douros founded the digital design product operations team at Discover Financial Services and held senior digital product roles at Great Wolf Resorts and Morgan Stanley's e*Trade platform.

Smartpay & Chubb Partner to Revolutionize Japanese Insurance:

• Japanese FinTech leader Smartpay has partnered with Chubb Insurance to accelerate the digitization of Japan's insurance industry, projected to grow to 80 trillion yen ($500 billion) by 2027.

• The partnership aims to introduce innovative digital insurance solutions, starting with embedded insurance, leveraging Smartpay's domestic achievements and Chubb's insurance expertise.

• Smartpay, unique for its partnerships with Japan's top 20 banks and over 200 credit unions, covers 90% of the Japanese population with bank accounts, while Chubb is recognized for its leadership in digitalization and technological innovation in the insurance sector.

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