<strong>Walmart Launches Metaverse, Polkadot Increases Transaction Speed, FTX Buys Voyager Digital Assets&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong>

Walmart Launches Metaverse 

Walmart, the American retail giant, announced its two immersive metaverses in partnership with Roblox. The two metaverses are Walmart Land and Universe of Play. The online metaverses are targeting young Walmart customers.

”We’re showing up in a big way – creating community, content, entertainment, and games through the launch of Walmart Land and Walmart’s Universe of Play,” said William White, chief marketing officer, Walmart U.S. 

Roblox is an online gaming platform popular with young kids. It is one of the fastest growing and largest platforms in the metaverse. And Walmart's young customers are already spending loads of time there. The 'Walmart Land' experience will include Netflix trivia with "Stranger Things" actor Noah Schnapp, a virtual dressing room, and a music festival featuring prominent performers. It will also sell "verch" for avatars that correspond to real-world stuff at Walmart shops. The second experience, Walmart's Universe of Play, will feature immersive games starring characters from the retailer's most popular Christmas toy offerings, ranging from L.O.L Surprise! to Paw Patrol.

Polkadot Increases Transaction Speed

Polkadot, one of the leading proof of stake blockchains, has updated its roadmap to make its transactions faster. The Polkadot blockchain network will deploy a technique called “asynchronous backing” on its development-testing network Kusama. It will happen before the end of 2022, before upgrading the mainnet to boost the transaction speed.

According to a May analysis from crypto market research agency Messari, asynchronous backing is a technology that allows parachains and the relay chain to produce blocks simultaneously.

Polkadot is a blockchain-connecting protocol that allows incompatible blockchain networks (parallel chains) to join and communicate value and data to each other via a relay chain.

Polkadot claims the technology will enhance network speed to 100,000 and 1,000,000 transactions per second (TPS), up from the current network speed of 1,000 TPS, according to Coinbase. The approach will also cut the parachain block time in half (to six seconds) and boost the amount of block space accessible to each block by a factor of five to ten.

FTX Buys Voyager Digital Assets  

Voyager Digital Ltd, an insolvent crypto brokerage, had its assets auctioned off to FTX US. FTX US, a cryptocurrency exchange, is the brainchild of billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried.

According to a statement issued by Voyager Digital, the arrangement is worth around $1.4 billion. It includes an "additional compensation" of approximately $111 million. In addition, it includes the $1.3 billion market value of every bitcoin on the insolvent site.

Customers will migrate to the FTX US platform after the bankruptcy process. According to Voyager, the acquisition agreement will be filed in court for approval on October 19, 2022.