Ethereum price rises as Visa unveils plans for a new layer-2 interoperability solution
In spite of its recent rally, Ethereum's fortnightly losses still stand at over 15%.
- Called the Universal Payments Channel (UPC), Visa's new project will help users transact across a number of different stablecoin and central bank digital currency ecosystems.
- Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus is currently working on creating a new interoperability bridge between DOGE and ETH.
- Social media platform TikTok is all set to start offering NFTs to its users via a layer-2 NFT protocol called Immutable X.
Following closely on the heels of Bitcoin's price action over the last 48-odd hours, Ethereum, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, has been able to gain momentum, rising from a local bottom of AUD$3,800 to AUD$4,400 within a matter of hours. At press time, the altcoin is trading for AUD$4,170.
This ongoing surge can, in part, be attributed to news of payments giant Visa recently announcing that it is actively working to create an interoperable layer-2 solution linking various central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) with the many stablecoins available in the market today. Tentatively called the "universal payments channel" (UPC), the project will help users seamlessly transact between a number of blockchain ecosystems.
As per the project's official whitepaper, Visa's crypto dev team noted that the UPC framework is designed to play a major role in bridging the gap that currently exists between private stablecoins and public CBDCs, essentially by "providing permissioned access for whitelisted stablecoins to be interoperable with CBDCs".
With many major economies continuing to explore the possibilities put forth by CBDCs, it stands to reason that Visa's project can be a gamechanger, especially when it comes to the adoption of digital assets on a massive scale.
DOGE co-founder looking to build Ethereum bridge
According to a recent tweet issued by Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus, the tech savant is looking to spur the growth of the already exploding NFT sector by developing a new interoperability bridge that will help link ETH with the DOGE ecosystem.
Markus emphasised the importance of devising an Ethereum-Dogecoin bridge so that the latter can be used across a wide array of ETH-centric NFT platforms such as OpenSea, and Rarible.
TikTok makes its foray into the NFT sector
In somewhat of an expected move, social media platform TikTok recently revealed that it has decided to make inroads into the NFT sector by launching a new set of tokens inspired by its leading trendsetters. To further elaborate on the development, a spokesperson for the company unveiled TikTok Top Moments, a new interface that is designed to allow creators to be recognised and rewarded for their content.
This batch of NFTs will feature high-profile TikTokers such as Lil Nas X, Bella Poarch and Curtis Roach, amongst others. The tokens will be released via Ethereum-based layer-2 NFT protocol Immutable X.
Interested in cryptocurrency? Learn more about the basics with our beginner's guide to Bitcoin, dive deeper by learning about Ethereum and see what blockchain can do with our simple guide to DeFi.
Disclosure: The author owns a range of cryptocurrencies at the time of writing
