Crypto Currency

The EU proposal requiring one to link a self-custodial wallet to their identity fundamentally misunderstands the concept of self-custody. The recent European Union proposal requiring centralized crypto exchanges and custodial wallet providers to collect and verify personal information about self-custodial wallet holders shows the dangers of recycling traditional finance (TradFi) rules and applying them to crypto without appreciating the conceptual differences. We can expect to see more of this as countries look to implement the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Travel Rule , initially designed for wire transfers, to transfers of crypto assets. The (missing) link between self-custody, control and identity The aim of the proposed EU rules is “to ensure crypto-assets can be traced in the same way as traditional money transfers.” This assumes that each self-custodial wallet can be linked to someone’s verifiable identity and that this person necessarily controls the wallet. This as...

DeFi investigator BlockSec’s monitoring system detected a loss of more than $80 million — citing the root cause as a typical reentrancy vulnerability. Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Fei Protocol offered a $10 million bounty to hackers in an attempt to negotiate and retrieve a major chunk of the stolen funds from various Rari Fuse pools worth $79,348,385.61 or nearly $80 million. On April 30, Fei Protocol informed its investors about an exploit across numerous Rari Capital Fuse pools while requesting the hackers to return the stolen funds against a $10 million bounty and a ‘no questions asked’ commitment. We are aware of an exploit on various Rari Fuse pools. We have identified the root cause and paused all borrowing to mitigate further damage. To the exploiter, please accept a $10m bounty and no questions asked if you return the remaining user funds. — Fei Protocol (@feiprotocol) April 30, 2022 While the exact losses from the exploit were not officially released, DeFi ...

Web3 is coming. Are you ready for it? Use the newest version of the internet and expand your whole online experience. How to use Minecraft to understand Web3? Minecraft makes the transition from analog block building to an immersive gaming experience rather easy and playful. Users can turn the Minecraft experience into whatever they want it to be. They can play, create, socialize and invest. For everyone who wants to hop on the Web3 train and explore the opportunities of the Metaverse can start by playing the game in a 3D world. It goes without saying that if you’re familiar with Minecraft or even the concept of online gaming in general, you can imagine how to build and play in one or more virtual worlds. This Minecraft universe, especially with the newest addition of the NFTs, is like the portal to the Metaverse. Build blocks in the Minecraft worlds and continue to build blocks — on the blockchain — in NFT Worlds. The Minecraft Metaverse? Minecraft not only enables P2E and ente...

While Bitcoin miners continue to pursue the last 2 million BTC into circulation, the overall network is well-positioned to attain greater resilience against vulnerabilities. Reassuring its position as the most resilient blockchain network against attacks, the Bitcoin ( BTC ) network recorded a new all-time high network difficulty for the second time this month in April — jumping from its previous all-time high of 28.587 trillion to 29.794 trillion. Greater network difficulty demands greater computational power to successfully mine a BTC block, which prevents bad actors from taking over the network and manipulating transactions, also known as double-spending. As evidenced by data from blockchain.com, Bitcoin’s network difficulty has seen almost a year-long uptrend since August 1, 2021. Before that, between May and July 2021, was a timeline when BTC network difficulty fell nearly 45.5% from 25.046 trillion to 13.673 trillion — at the time raising momentary concerns about the networ...

By adopting environmentally friendly, utility-driven NFTs, artists can unlock a new realm of possibilities for building connections and sharing value. NFTs have taken pop culture by storm over the past year. On a nearly daily basis, a new celebrity announces their interest in the emerging technology — usually by dropping an NFT collection. From Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction NFTs to Snoop Dogg’s NFT music label , a wide range of notable names are beginning to realize the creative value that NFTs offer. While celebrity involvement has played a key role in raising mainstream awareness about the array of NFT use cases and investment potential, it has also drawn the ire of some fans. In the midst of the hype surrounding the NFT phenomenon, apprehensions have grown about the technology’s environmental impact. In one notable example, the popular South Korean boy band BTS faced significant pushback a few months ago in response to their plans to debut their own NFT collection. The bac...

Chinese equities were the rare winners as the May holidays arrived with a whimper for most traders. Bitcoin ( BTC ) fell into the May holiday weekend after late trading saw crypto losses echo "basically everything." BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Macro keeps BTC firmly in its place Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView  showed BTC/USD reversing at $38,180 on Bitstamp to circle $38,600 on April 30.  The pair had performed weakly during Friday, this nonetheless echoing the vast majority of traditional assets — with the notable exception of Chinese equities. "Almost everything went down today besides gold, platinum, and Chinese stocks," economist Lyn Alden summarized . With that, the S&P 500 finished Friday down 3.6% and the Nasdaq 100 down 4.5%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng, on the other hand, gained 4% overall. The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), despite wobbling after hitting twenty-year highs, further failed to offe...

In this week's DeFi newsletter we bring you an exclusive research report on Terra, Samson Mow's shocking comment on DeFi and Fireblock's latest DeFi institutional offering. The week was filled with several new project developments and key updates from leading decentralized applications (DApps) and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. Fireblocks has expanded its institutional access to Terra’s DeFi ecosystem and Solana partnered with the Notifi network to improve the abysmal participation rates in governance votes. We will also look into the Cointelegraph research into the Terra ecosystem’s future and see if it can sustain the current growth. Samson Mow, the former executive at Blockstream, questions the decentralized aspect of the DeFi ecosystem. Top DeFi tokens saw another week of bearish price action despite several new developments and barring a few, the majority of the tokens in the top-100 registered double-digit losses over the past week. Fireblocks expands in...

Crypto service providers must fulfill seven conditions that include being constituted in the form of a company with a minimum capital of roughly $52,725 (EUR 50,000). A new rule imposed by Belgium’s financial regulatory agency, the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), will now require crypto exchanges and custodial wallet services in the region to register within a sharp deadline. Starting tomorrow, May 1, legal individuals and entities that wish to provide crypto exchange services or custodial wallets in Belgium will have to register in advance, according to the information released by the FSMA. As from 1 May 2022, providers of exchange services between #virtual #currencies and legal currencies, or custody #wallet services will have to register with the #FSMA . Please consult the FAQs. https://t.co/P44mkovn5L pic.twitter.com/aAdtQ9Dqwx — FSMA (@FSMA_info) April 29, 2022 Crypto businesses in Belgium that have been already operating before this official announce...

What financial services mean in the Metaverse: A closer look into the process of monetization in the Metaverse — the categories of business “of” and business “in” models. In a previous article, I discussed the evolution of Web3 economies and current volatility, focusing on the participatory nature of Web3, which is the foundational technology enabling the creator economy.  The term “metaverse” — meta and universe — often describes the anticipated future iteration or evolution of the internet powered by Web3 technologies like blockchain and decentralized resource distribution and consumption principles. Although the focus has often been on metaverse modalities such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), gaming, Second Life, avatars and so forth, in my view, these modalities represent an interesting evolution or shift from the digital transformation of recent decades to the “transformation of digital.” That is exactly what the Metaverse aims to achieve. It might seem a...

Law enforcement needs to be better educated — alongside regulators and policymakers — to truly make a difference and unlock further crypto mass adoption. When times are tough — as in the pandemic — enterprising human nature goes into overdrive. People seek out alternative ways to make money. That could be one of the reasons why cryptocurrencies skyrocketed in popularity in the last few years, driven in part by large numbers of people sitting at home wondering how to beat low-interest rates and rising inflation. Where there’s cash, however, there are also criminals. Bad actors are experts in human behavior and see building momentum and increased crypto traffic as a huge opportunity, knowing that many newer investors may not do their homework. Investors might not apply the same level of scrutiny to crypto as they would their pensions or other investments, and there’s not a lot of regulatory oversight globally. So, a simple splash page or message on a forum can quickly lead a lot of n...

“Bitcoin Jesus” Roger Ver has made a comeback to Twitter and says Dogecoin is a top contender for the world’s dominant cryptocurrency. Roger Ver, an early investor and ardent promoter of Bitcoin ( BTC ) which earned him the moniker “Bitcoin Jesus” has resurfaced on Twitter after a year and backed Dogecoin ( DOGE ) in an interview, preferring it for payments over the world’s first crypto. In an interview with Bloomberg, the Bitcoin.com founder said how he was a fan of the memecoin due to its fast transaction times and low fees: “Dogecoin is significantly better, it’s cheaper and more reliable [than Bitcoin]. If I had to pick three contenders for the world’s dominant cryptocurrency, they would be Doge, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.” Ver also took time in the interview to voice his support for honorary Dogecoin CEO Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover . “It’ll certainly make Twitter more attractive,” said Ver. “I am really, really grateful that Musk is out there calling out censorship.” Alth...

China has expanded its central bank digital currency pilot program to include the payment of tax, stamp duty and social security. Residents in three major Chinese cities have begun paying tax, stamp duty and social security premiums using the country’s central bank digital currency — the digital yuan (e-CNY).  According to a domestic news report , a number of government agencies in the Zhejiang province — located just south of Shanghai — are currently running real world trials programs that involve citizens using the digital yuan to pay taxes. The Zhejiang Taxation Bureau is working with the country’s central bank — the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) — to explore a variety of taxation payment methods using the digital yuan. The PBoC and affiliated local government agencies are reportedly looking to the next major test for the digital yuan, the Asian Games which will take place in Hangzhou in September. Local authorities claim that the digital yuan could be used to streamline c...

VeChain has made a series of announcements that look to substantially grow usability and adoption of its native VET token. Supply chain blockchain project VeChain has announced a new partnership with crypto payment services, Alchemy Pay that will allow people to use its VET token as payment in over 2 million stores throughout 70 different countries. The news came alongside its inclusion as a supported token on the recently launched Binance Bridge 2.0. Thanks to partner @AlchemyPay , $VET can now be used to buy goods at 2 million+ stores globally! Using our advanced low- #carbon #blockchain , transactions cost fractions of a cent & are processed in seconds from any #VeChain wallet! $ACH #DeFi $VTHO #Web3 https://t.co/ceeHRpcbKT — VeChain Foundation (@vechainofficial) April 27, 2022 VeChain was included in the first group of tokens to be supported on the new Binance Bridge 2.0. The Binance Bridge 2.0 provides a new way to bridge tokens from Ethereum to be used on the ...