Announce the latest development in our partnership with Coinflow: the integration of Google Pay and Apple Pay as new payment options for the Gala Games ecosystem. This update marks a significant milestone in our mission to provide our community with the most accessible and versatile payment solutions.
Expanding Payment Horizons
Continuing to build on our recent integration with Coinflow, we’re now enabling Google Pay and Apple Pay as payment methods, making it easier than ever for users to interact with our platform. This enhancement empowers our users to engage with the Gala ecosystem using the payment tools they trust and prefer, streamlining the experience of owning and interacting with digital assets on GalaChain.
For the first phase of this rollout, Google Pay and Apple Pay options through Coinflow are limited only to the Gala Games store, but with future updates we hope to expand this payment variety to Gala Music, Gala Film and beyond.
Streamlined Mobile Experience
As part of our ongoing efforts to innovate and enhance the user experience, the addition of Google Pay and Apple Pay underscores our commitment to bringing decentralized entertainment to a broader audience. With the recent wave of new users coming from our free Telegram mini app “tapper” games, Treasure Tapper and Music Coin, creating a smooth mobile onboarding experience has become especially important.
These payment methods are recognized and used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide, making them a natural fit for our ecosystem. With this integration, we are not only simplifying transactions but also paving the way for more mainstream adoption of web3 digital assets.
The Future of Decentralized Entertainment
We are excited about the possibilities this integration opens up for our users and the broader Gala community. As we continue to innovate and expand our ecosystem, we remain committed to making decentralized entertainment more accessible, engaging and rewarding for everyone.
Stay tuned for more updates, and thank you for being a part of our journey! Together, we are reshaping the future of entertainment on GalaChain.
Welcome back to another DevSpeak, where we decode the often confusing language of developers in a way that you can understand. Speaking of decoding, today we’re diving into a concept that is entirely ubiquitous in the web3 world… but not often understood. Today we’re diving into encryption!
If you’ve heard the term but are unsure what it really means, you’re not alone. Let’s break down what people mean when they say “encryption” and explore why it’s crucial for your digital safety.
Encryption, Defined
Encryption is a method of converting plain, readable information into a coded format that only authorized parties can decipher. If bad actors intercept your data, it’s gibberish to them without the proper cipher. Security measures use complex algorithms to ensure reliable encryption of information.
This isn’t just a process computers can do – you’ve probably encountered the idea of ciphers and code before in entertainment or history even if you don’t have super secret coded messages to send around.
You use a set of rules to replace each letter with another symbol or letter. To anyone who doesn’t know the code, the message looks like a jumble of symbols. But if you have the cipher, you can easily decode the message and read it as it was originally written. That’s the essence of encryption.
Remember these puzzles from newspapers? Classic encryption problems!
This is an old, old practice. In fact, one of the most classic examples of this is Cesarian Code, a method reportedly used by Julius Cesar to send coded messages to his legions.
In this method, you move each letter back three positions in the alphabet, revealing the true letters. While this method is obviously not secure after kicking around for 2100 years, there are many variations that are still used in manual ciphers today.
When the Fuzzles were lost in the wormhole in 2022, they used a slightly modified version of the Cesarian cipher to communicate with Earth! For extra security and interplanar transmission strength, they altered the amount of position offset and converted the entire message to binary.
Why Encryption
So, why is encryption so important? The primary reason is privacy and security. Every time you send an email, make an online purchase, or log into your bank account, your personal information is transmitted over the internet. Without encryption, this data could be intercepted and read by cybercriminals, leading to identity theft, financial loss, or other serious breaches of privacy.
Consider that when you shop online, for instance, you’re entering sensitive details like your credit card number and home address – that info is being sent from your computer to a server somewhere else, then probably to a datacenter in an entirely different location! If the website you’re using doesn’t employ encryption, those details could be easily stolen by someone who’s able to intercept the data transmission. Encryption ensures that even if someone tries to steal your information, it’s unreadable without the decryption key.
Encryption also plays a crucial role in securing communications between individuals and organizations. When you use messaging apps or email services that offer end-to-end encryption, only you and the intended recipients can read your messages – they aren’t accessible by any other party during transmission. This makes sure there’s confidentiality in conversations.
Not All Encryption is Equal
It’s important to know that not all encryption is created equal. In the most basic sense, there are two main types of encryption. Their effectiveness can vary based on how they’re implemented.
Symmetric Encryption: This method uses the same key for both encrypting and decrypting information. It’s like having a single key to lock and unlock a diary. It’s fast and efficient, but the main challenge is securely sharing the key between parties. If the key is intercepted, the encryption is useless.
Asymmetric Encryption: This method uses a pair of keys—a public key and a private key. The public key encrypts the information, while the private key decrypts it. This approach is like having a public lock that anyone can use to securely send you a message, but only you have the private key to unlock it. This method enhances security, especially in scenarios where secure key exchange is challenging.
Sound familiar? We dove into the details of symmetric vs asymmetric encryption in our second article in The Guardian Papers!
While encryption is a powerful tool, it’s not foolproof. The security of encrypted data depends on the strength of the encryption method, the management of encryption keys and the overall security practices you use to protect your data.
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In a world where our personal and professional lives are increasingly dependent on digital security, a basic understanding of encryption is more important than ever. Encryption is constantly protecting your activity every day!
Uh oh, did we leave the heading encrypted? Your first test begins!
The details of how encryption works can be complicated in practice, but the basic why and how of this practice are easy to understand. It’s about safeguarding your privacy and ensuring that only you and those you choose to share your information with can access your data.
Hopefully this DevSpeak gave you enough insight to not be totally lost the next time you go out on the town with your techy friends. We know that not everyone is or will be a tech expert, but understanding the basics of these concepts is important to not only use technology to its full potential, but also prepare you for the next wave of advancements!
Let’s all be ready for the world of tomorrow together!
NOTE: The following information about the future release of $TREZ is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice.
Driven by our new “tapper” genre of Telegram mini app web3 games, Gala is ready to unveil the economy plans for $TREZ, a token dedicated to ecosystem interaction and sharing.
Gala is creating one of the largest developer-friendly web3 ecosystems in the world, powered by the speed, scalability and security of GalaChain, Gala’s L1 blockchain built for entertainment and ready for anything.
Gala was launched in 2019 with a focus on ownership-enabled gaming. Gala Games quickly rose as a web3 leader in entertainment, launching Gala Music and Gala Film. In 2024, GalaChain’s doors were opened to external developers with the release of a powerful GalaChain Creator self-service portal and a public-facing SDK.
Witnessing the recent success of Telegram’s mini app ecosystem and its ability to integrate The Open Network (TON Blockchain) for seamless web3 functions, Gala began creating Telegram mini app games in Q3 2024 as a solution for enhanced web2 user acquisition across its ecosystem. By leveraging a mobile messaging platform used by nearly a billion users worldwide, it became simpler than ever to share the empowerment of web3 with the world. Today, Telegram mini apps represent the most high-powered onboarding tools web3 has ever seen.
What is $TREZ
$TREZ is the official token created by Gala Games to enrich and incentivize its growing ecosystem of Telegram mini app “tapper” style games. With the initial publication of this litepaper, these games include Treasure Tapper and Music Coin, but this list is expected to expand in the future.
With its upcoming token generation event (TGE), $TREZ will be a fungible token initially minted on GalaChain, TON Blockchain or a combination of the two.
$TREZ will have a max supply of 100 billion tokens.
The majority of $TREZ will be allocated for distribution to users.
Getting $TREZ
$TREZ will be accumulated by accomplishing goals and tasks in Gala’s Telegram mini app “tapper” games – currently limited to Treasure Tapper and Music Coin.
While the exact details of $TREZ accumulation within the games are still in flux, we are now prepared to share more information about not only the token’s distribution, but the initial list of criteria that will determine how much $TREZ will be received by each user with each distribution.
Part 1: Seasonal Rewards
$TREZ will be released into circulation on a seasonal basis, and season length will likely vary. For each Distribution Season, a variable (TBA) portion of the total $TREZ supply will be emitted to users.
Everything from the initial launch of Treasure Tapper to the $TREZ TGE will be considered part of Season 1. The end of each Distribution Season will be marked by a $TREZ distribution, with exact quantities per user determined using a point system based on the following criteria.
Seasonal Distribution Rewards
Here are some criteria by which seasonal $TREZ distribution per user is determined:
In-game Coins Collected
Rewards per Hour
Number of Direct Referrals
Number of Secondary Referrals
Creation of Gala Account
Number of Challenges played
Gala Store Spend
Missions Plus
Future seasons could bring the opportunity to purchase mission upgrades that will reward the upgraded player with more distribution points toward the upcoming Seasonal Distribution.
In-App Purchases
In later seasons, users may get opportunities to spend $TREZ for in-app or Gala ecosystem purchases. This type of purchase would be factored into the Seasonal Distribution.
Part 2: Daily Rewards
In addition to the Seasonal Distribution, players will have opportunities to collect daily distributions of $TREZ based on in-game tasks and challenges. Allocations of daily distributed $TREZ will typically be determined by leaderboard placement, encouraging daily competition and interaction with Gala’s $TREZ associated apps.
The majority of $TREZ distribution will be included in the Seasonal rewards.
Daily distribution leaderboards may include (but are not limited to):
In-game Coins accumulated
Daily tasks completed
Daily matches and rematches
Daily referrals
Daily play time (app open)
Powering the Future of Web3 Entertainment
As we prepare to introduce $TREZ into the Gala ecosystem, we’re setting the stage for a new wave of innovation and engagement. The tokenomics of $TREZ are designed to enhance the user experience within our ecosystem, particularly in our Telegram mini-app games.
By offering both seasonal and daily rewards, $TREZ not only incentivizes interaction but also fosters a more vibrant and active community. This litepaper is just the beginning, with more exciting developments on the horizon as we continue to expand the utility of $TREZ and integrate it further into the broader Gala ecosystem. Stay tuned for more updates, and get ready to tap into the future of web3 gaming with $TREZ!
Legal Notice: This litepaper is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Additional information will be added to this document as it becomes available. All details are subject to change for any reason and without notice.
Some of the largest Bitcoin mining operations in the world are amplifying their efforts, even in the face of some of the steepest mining cost increases they have ever seen. This is a clear sign of their expectations for the future of the world’s first and largest cryptocurrency.
Following the recently released Q2 financial report from Singapore-based cloud mining company BitFuFu, analysts are observing some fascinating patterns that paint a bullish picture of large scale BTC mining operations’ outlooks for the future of the industry.
Even with a substantial increase in per-BTC mining cost to $51,887 per Bitcoin (compared to $19,344 for Q2 2023), BiFuFu has reported a scale up of 60% from its previous year’s operation.
While the massive increases in mining costs have required BitFuFu to spend more money per BTC, the company has experienced revenue growth of almost 70% ($76.3 million in Q2 2023 to $129.4 million in Q2 2024)
Seasonal Optimism
With the sell waves of Mt. GoX payouts now fading toward the distant horizon and the dust of the 2024 Bitcoin halving settling, some crypto analysts are concluding that BTC is headed for another season of growth.
Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck shed some light on the BTC situation, highlighting the growing connections and opportunities between AI and BTC mining, and discussing the aftermath of “forced selling” and seasonal patterns.
“This is a typical seasonal pattern where Bitcoin tends to struggle in one to three months after the halving, which was in April. And pre-election, as the market comes to grips with whatever candidate wins, we’re in for four more years of reckless fiscal policy. The history is that Bitcoin really hits its stride at that point. So we’re buyers here. We think it recovers.”
As the Web3 ecosystem continues to grow, so does the threat of crypto scams.
Recently in the news, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) reported having uncovered and shut down over 600 cryptocurrency investment scams in just one year, highlighting the increasing sophistication and prevalence of these threats. Even more concerning is the fact that the 600+ operations that were shut down comprises a mere 9% of the 7000+ total phishing and scam investment websites identified.
These somewhat alarming statistics are part of a broader trend where scammers exploit new technologies like artificial intelligence to deceive unsuspecting investors.
The Anatomy of a Modern Crypto Scam
Cryptocurrency scams today are not just about tricking individuals into sending funds to a fraudulent address. They have evolved into complex schemes, keeping up with the growth of the typical Web3 user. Today’s scams often involve fake investment websites, phishing attacks to steal personal data, false promises of AI-powered trading systems that guarantee unrealistically high returns or falsely claimed international regulation. ASIC’s crackdown on these operations is a clear indication that the landscape of financial crime is adapting quickly to the innovations within the Web3 space.
The Role of AI in Amplifying the Scam Threat
One of the most concerning developments is the use of AI by scammers. While these emerging technologies are beneficial in many aspects, they can also provide tools for criminals to automate and enhance their scams, sometimes multiplying the potential damage. This can include creating convincing fake identities, automating phishing attacks and even generating fraudulent financial reports that appear entirely legitimate to the untrained eye.
As the Gala ecosystem continues to advocate for decentralized technology and the empowerment it offers, it’s crucial that our community remains vigilant against these emerging threats. Awareness is the gateway to knowledge, and knowledge is power and safety in this new Web3 world.
ASIC’s Efforts: A Wake-Up Call for the Global Crypto Community
ASIC’s successful takedown of 615 crypto investment scams serves as both a warning and a call to action for the global Web3 community. With Australians losing an estimated A$1.3 billion to these scams in the last year alone, the scale of the issue is undeniable. This is not just a problem for regulators but for every participant in the Web3 space, including those within the Gala community.
GalaChain’s Commitment to Security and Education
At Gala, we are committed to creating a safe and secure environment for all our users. GalaChain, our purpose-built Layer 1 blockchain, is designed with security at its core. Our ecosystem includes robust measures to protect against malicious activities and ensure that users can engage with Web3 technology safely. However, technology alone is not enough. Ongoing self education and awareness are key to avoiding and preventing scams.
We encourage our community to stay informed about the latest threats and to always verify the legitimacy of any opportunities in the Web3 space. Remember, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Building a Safer Web3 Future Together
The fight against crypto scams is a collective effort. As we continue to build and expand the Gala ecosystem, we must all remain vigilant and proactive in protecting ourselves and each other. By fostering a well-informed and cautious community, we can mitigate the risks and continue to enjoy the benefits of decentralized technology without falling victim to fraudulent schemes.
The content of this article is not investment advice.
As we continue to explore the many avenues that can lead to the widespread adoption of blockchain tech, one financial instrument has been making waves in both traditional finance and the emerging Web3 space—Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs).
With vastly increased attention over the past few months, it’s clear that ETFs will play a significant role in driving mainstream acceptance of blockchain and Web3 technologies. But what exactly are ETFs, and why are they so crucial to the mass adoption of Web3? Let’s dive in.
What Are ETFs? Breaking It Down
An Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund and exchange-traded product that holds assets such as stocks, commodities or bonds. ETFs are traded on stock exchanges like individual stocks. This means they can be bought and sold throughout the trading day at market price, which fluctuates with the value of the underlying assets within the particular ETF.
The Appeal of ETFs
In the more traditional world of finances, ETFs have gained popularity because they offer investors exposure to a wide array of assets without requiring them to buy each asset individually. For instance, an investor can buy shares of an ETF that tracks the performance of the S&P 500, thereby gaining exposure to the top 500 companies in the U.S. stock market with a single purchase. This convenience, combined with generally lower fees compared to mutual funds, makes ETFs an attractive option for both novice and seasoned investors.
ETFs and the Web3 Ecosystem: A Perfect Match?
Bridging Traditional Finance and Blockchain
The connection between ETFs and crypto is becoming increasingly significant. As blockchain-based assets continue to steadily gain traction, the introduction of ETFs that track some of these assets allows traditional investors to gain exposure to the blockchain space without directly buying or managing cryptocurrencies.
In the same way that the traditional financial system can appear mysterious and daunting to many early adopters of web3, it can be difficult for traditional investors to dive directly into the web3 pool. ETFs present a shallow end with easier entry, allowing those investors to first get their feet wet without becoming overwhelmed by the less regulated deep end.
Essentially, ETFs are particularly appealing to those who are curious about blockchain but wary of its volatility and technical complexity.
Accessibility: ETFs provide a familiar and regulated investment vehicle for traditional investors to explore the world of blockchain. This ease of access is crucial for onboarding new users to the Web3 space, where unfamiliarity has consistently proven itself a significant barrier.
Institutional Interest: The approval and adoption of blockchain-based ETFs by regulatory bodies signal a growing institutional acceptance of blockchain. As large financial institutions enter the space through ETFs, legitimacy is lended to the entire Web3 ecosystem, encouraging a community of increasingly more conservative investors to participate.
Market Stability: By providing a diversified and regulated way to invest in blockchain technology, ETFs can help stabilize the market. This can reduce the extreme volatility often associated with cryptocurrencies, making the Web3 space more attractive to the general public. As more traditional money flows into these markets, they generally will become more difficult for whales to manipulate.
The Road Ahead: ETFs as Catalysts for Mass Adoption
Looking back several years from now, ther’s a good chance that 2024 will be remembered as the “year of the ETF” in the same way that 2018 was all about ICOs and 2021 centered around NFTs.
ETFs represent a bridge between the traditional financial system and the emerging world of Web3, and bridges are incredibly important when it comes to mass adoption. By offering a regulated, accessible and relatively low-risk entry point into blockchain, ETFs are likely to play a pivotal role in bringing blockchain technology into the mainstream.
As we continue to develop the GalaChain ecosystem, we recognize the importance of such instruments in shaping the future of Web3. By keeping an eye on these trends, we position ourselves—and our community—at the forefront of the blockchain revolution.
The first Bitcoin ETFs were approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the first weeks of 2024, with a total of 11 BTC ETFs approved, opening the floodgates.
In mid July, Ethereum-containing ETFs were finally approved for market trading. “We’ve now fully entered the ETF era of crypto. Investors can now access more than 70% of the liquid crypto asset market through low-cost ETPs,” said Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise.
There is a constant flow of news in the financial sector about crypto-related ETFs. Such extensive intersection of crypto and traditional finance is unprecedented.
At Gala, we’re not looking to make any predictions or speculations about token prices, and we’re not offering financial advice of any kind. We support the empowerment that comes with adoption of blockchain technology, regardless of how that empowerment interacts with markets. When we see the mainstream financial world (and its most trusted regulators) paying more attention to cryptocurrency, we recognize that global awareness of web3 is on the rise.
We encourage our readers to stay informed and try to keep up with the latest developments at the intersection of centralized and decentralized finance. Knowledge is empowerment, especially in the web3 world.
The intersection of ETFs and blockchain is a powerful indicator of how traditional finance and emerging technologies are beginning to converge. As we look to the future, ETFs could very well be the key that unlocks widespread adoption of Web3 technologies. At Gala, we are excited to be part of this journey and are committed to leading the charge in integrating these financial innovations into our ecosystem.
