The Grammy Awards will now consider music with elements of artificial intelligence (AI). Meanwhile, in Asia, it is hoped that Ethereum account abstraction or “smart accounts” could bring one billion users to Web3. Additionally, the race for the Bitcoin ETF is heating up in the United States.
Nasdaq Joins BlackRock and Fidelity in Spot Bitcoin ETF Application Filing
Nasdaq has filed a new rule change application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that would pave the way for a spot Bitcoin ETF for the Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund. The July 3 filing includes information about a “monitoring sharing agreement” with Coinbase, as well as details of a June 30 agreement with Coinbase that would give Nasdaq “additional access to data regarding spot Bitcoin transactions.”
The move came just days after asset manager BlackRock refiled its Bitcoin ETF application after the SEC reportedly said recent ETF filings with Nasdaq and Cboe were “not sufficiently clear and complete”.
The race to list a spot Bitcoin ETF is heating up in the United States, with at least eight issuers vying for approval as of July 5. Issuers expect to hear from the SEC in August and September, with final approval deadlines expected between December 2023 and March 2024.
UPDATE: These are the current competitors in the #Bitcoins ETF race. There are still a lot of unknowns right now pic.twitter.com/XDexRHJFlN
—James Seyffart (@JSeyff) July 5, 2023
Music With AI-Created Elements Grammy-Eligible, CEO Confirms
Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason clarified that AI-generated music will be eligible for the Grammy Awards in 2024. He said:
“AI, or music that contains elements created by AI, is absolutely eligible for entry and consideration for Grammy nomination. Period.”
However, the Academy would not give a Grammy or nomination to the IA portion of the track, which includes the IA voice model. “We don’t want to see technology replacing human creativity. We want to make sure technology enhances, embellishes or adds to human creativity,” he warned.
Account Abstraction to Lead Asia’s Web3 Explosion: ConsenSys
One billion users from Asia could join Web3 through “smart accounts,” also known as account abstraction, Laura Shi, director of strategic initiatives at ConsenSys told Cointelegraph.
The account abstraction – as proposed by Vitalik Buterin and other developers in September 2021 – offers more “bank-like” features than a regular crypto wallet which Shi says would increase adoption in the Asia- Pacific:
“The development of account abstraction will make it easier to integrate APAC’s billions of users into Web3.”
Shi said the Ethereum and Web3 ecosystem has seen strong expansion in Asia so far this year, and many dApps are “improving the user experience for the Asian market, including introducing Asian language support.” .
The main drivers for the expansion are the Zero Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) rollups and the mass adoption of optimistic rollups.
Adoption in Asia is also driven by social games and Web3 according to Shi, who cited South Korea and China as examples. She added that both use cases will be heavily dependent on zkEVM deployments and account abstraction development.
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