Crypto enthusiasts never stop pushing the boundaries. An Olympic swimmer sells his home for Bitcoin, while a US couple demands a crypto tax refund. Or perhaps you prefer a DNA NFT. Or a far-side space game?
We’ve got you covered in our wrap of the quirkiest recent crypto stories on the net!
Olympian’s house up for grabs
A 27-year-old Aussie Olympic swimmer has put his $1.1 million Gold Coast home up for sale, with payment in cryptocurrency welcome.
Cam McEvoy says he will take Bitcoin or Ethereum for the Surfers Paradise home he bought in 2016, after returning home from the Rio Olympics.
The crypto market took a nosedive only days after he listed the property, but no matter. Cam told the Courier Mail he has a “high risk tolerance”, and it’s just another bump in the “general movement towards decentralisation”.
While the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) say cryptocurrency transactions are approved here, finance expert Dr Tracey West says Bitcoin is not recognised as legal tender by the Reserve Bank of Australia. Time will tell.
Taxing time for US couple in crypto mining stoush
A Tennessee couple is taking a crypto stand, demanding a tax refund on their earnings from blockchain mining and staking.
Joshua and Jessica Jarrett are sitting on 8,876 units of Tezos (XTZ) tokens they bought in 2019. They claim the crypto assets are untaxable because they were created but not sold—like a baker making cakes or a novelist writing books. And you can’t tax creative activity (they say).
It remains to be seen whether the Jarretts’ claim is legally valid or—well—just a creative activity!
It’s a broad church: DNA up for sale as NFT
Human DNA is the latest thing to be turned into a non-fungible token—and buyers are being offered their own genome sequencing as a sweetener.
In an upcoming auction, buyers will be able to bid for a NFT containing a ‘high-res artistic representation’ of the genetic data belonging to acclaimed biology researcher, Professor George Church.
The first human to have their genome sequenced, Professor Church is set to make crypto history with the auction on NFT platform AkoinNFT—owned by musician and blockchain entrepreneur Akon.
Oasis Labs will store the metadata, and buyers will be given the option of ‘30x whole genome sequencing’ of their own DNA. It’s all intended to monetise and share health data on the blockchain. Hallelujah!
Far out, it’s Farsite
Have you been waiting for a mega-multiplayer, DeFi-based online game with a space theme—on the Ethereum blockchain?
Well, it’s arrived. Farsite is a real-time strategy MMO, where you can planet-hop the cryptoverse as explorer, merchant, miner, politician, pirate or governor of the galaxy.
It’s not your average game. Created by the team behind the 2018 DApp game MegaCryptoPolis, Farsite is no shoot-em-up. It relies on strategy and skill. You have to find, process, use and sell your resources, all based on smart strategy.
Developers plan to mint around 10 million FAR tokens initially—that’s 10 billion credits, with 90% locked for future development. A demo launch is scheduled for the end of the year, so keep your eyes peeled for updates.
There’s space for anything in the cryptoverse…
