Crypto
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UNCTAD takes aim at crypto in developing world in a series of critical policy briefs
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released a policy brief Wednesday on cryptocurrency. It is the third brief in a row the agency has dedicated to crypto, and together they represent a detailed assessment of the risks crypto presents for developing economies and options for resolving those risks. UNCTAD Policy Brief No. 102, dated July but newly released, argues that although cryptocurrency can facilitate remittances and encourage financial inclusion, it can also undermine domestic resource mobilization in developing economies by enabling tax evasion by hiding the ownership of financial flows and directing them out of the country. The authors of the brief state, “Cryptocurrencies share all the characteristics of traditional tax havens – the pseudonymity of acco...
DeFi platform Oasis to block wallet addresses deemed at-risk
According to a new community Discord post on Thursday, decentralized finance platform Oasis.app says that sanctioned addresses will no longer be able to access the application. As a result of the change to the terms of service, wallets flagged as high risk are prohibited from using Oasis.app to manage positions or withdraw funds. Instead, such category of users must interact directly with the relevant underlying protocol where funds are stored or find another service. In explaining the decision, Oasis.app team member Gabriel said: “We’ve recently needed to update the Terms of Service of the Oasis.app front-end to comply with the relevant laws and regulations. In line with the latest regulations, Oasis.app has an updated Terms of Service. Any sanctioned addresses will no longer ...
MakerDAO should ‘seriously consider’ depegging DAI from USD: Founder
MakerDAO founder Rune Chirstensen has urged members of the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to “seriously consider” preparing for the depeg of its DAI stablecoin from the United States dollar (USD). The founder’s comments came in light of the recently announced sanctions on crypto mixer Tornado Cash, noting to MakerDAO’s Discord channel on Aug. 11 that the sanctions are “unfortunately more serious than I first thought,” adding that they should prepare to depeg its native stablecoin DAI from the USD to avoid any risk’s relating to Circle’s recent freezing of sanctioned USD Coin (USDC) addresses. “I think we should seriously consider preparing to depeg from USD. It is almost inevitable it will happen and it is only realistic to do with huge amounts of preparation.” On Aug. 8, the ...
Coming sooner: ETH devs move up the date for Merge
The Ethereum Merge may be coming sooner than planned, after core developers announced a tentative Merge date of Sept. 15, which will see the blockchain transition to Proof-of-Stake. The Ethereum mainnet Merge date came into view after core developers such as Tim Beiko and Prysmatic Labs co-founder Terence Tsao agreed in an Aug. 11 developer call it would be when Total Terminal Difficulty (TTD) hits 58750000000000000000000. This was confirmed in a Github post titled “Tentative mainnet TTD” which was committed to by Beiko on Aug. 11. While the exact date and TTD could be still be changed, the successes of the various testnet merges could be a promising sign that the Ethereum mainnet will transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus next month without issue. The n...
Gala is announcing a partnership with Stick Figure Productions to distribute Four Down on the Blockchain
Jackson, WY, USA, 11th August, 2022, Chainwire Gala, one of the leading innovators in blockchain gaming and music, has announced the launch of Gala Film. This new vertical from the world-leading Web3 company continues the brand’s commitment to providing fans with unique opportunities to enrich their experiences coupled with amazing programming and exciting projects. With this announcement Gala Film also shared they will partner with Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award Winning Stick Figure Productions to present FOUR DOWN, a feature-length documentary directed by award-winning filmmaker Steven Cantor based on the New York Times best-seller NOT WITHOUT HOPE, written by Nick Schuyler and Jere Longman. Other notable upcoming projects/partnerships include: A partnership with Ai&Aiko, one o...
Indian law enforcement accuses WazirX exchange of aiding in laundering of $130M
India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), the agency responsible for financial crimes, is looking at cryptocurrency exchanges suspected of processing transactions that sent more than 10 billion rupees, or about $130 million, from firms under investigation to international wallets. At least ten crypto exchanges are allegedly involved, according to an official who spoke to The Economic Times, and bank accounts of exchange WazirX have been frozen, the newspaper reported. Transactions of up to 1 billion rupees, or $1.3 million, were allegedly made in the names of people with no connections to the money by companies under investigation in a case involving instant loans. Thes companies often had ties to China. Even though Know Your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering (KYC/AML) procedures showed the trans...
Over 1,900 block-producing nodes in the Solana ecosystem, new report reveals
Solana released its first-ever, “Validator Health Report” which revealed information on its network operators. According to the report the network has over 1,900 block-producing nodes with nearly 1,688 (88.14%) of those run by independent entities. Solana says the health and strength of its validators is critical to the long-term health of the ecosystem. Previously, the network has faced backlash for both a lack of decentralization and expensive validator hardware. Though this new report highlights the 3,400 validators across six different continents. 9/ Distribution across geographies is important. Resilient blockchains continue operating through all types of global events. Here’s how stake is distributed across the @Solana network, with a snapshot of Ethereu...
Is it foolish to expect a massive Ethereum price surge pre- and post Merge?
Ether’s (ETH) impressive 85% gain in the past 30 days has surprised even the most bullish investors, and it makes the $800 range seen in mid-July seem like ages ago. Bulls now hope to turn $1,900 to support, but derivatives metrics tell a completely different story, and the data suggests that professional traders remain highly skeptical. Ether 1-day price index, USD. Source: TradingView It’s important to remember that the leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), gained 28% in the same period. Thus, there should be no doubt that the Ether bull run was driven by the Merge expectation, a transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus network. Goerli was the last remaining Ethereum testnet scheduled to implement the Merge, which officially became a proof-of-stake blockchain as of 1:45 UTC on Aug...
Cross-chains in the crosshairs: Hacks call for better defense mechanisms
2022 has been a lucrative year for hackers preying on the nascent Web3 and decentralized finance (DeFi) spaces, with more than $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency fleeced in several high-profile hacks to date. Cross-chain protocols have been particularly hard hit, with Axie Infinity’s $650 million Ronin Bridge hack accounting for a significant portion of stolen funds this year. The pillaging continued into the second half of 2022 as cross-chain platform Nomad saw $190 million drained from wallets. The Solana ecosystem was the next target, with hackers gaining access to the private keys of some 8000 wallets that resulted in $5 million worth of Solana (SOL) and Solana Program Library (SPL) tokens being pilfered. deBridge Finance managed to sidestep an attempted phishing attack on Monday, Aug....
Mark Cuban faces class action lawsuit for promoting Voyager crypto products
Mark Cuban, the billionaire entrepreneur who has been quite active in the crypto ecosystem for the past year, is facing a class-action lawsuit over his promotions of the bankrupt crypto brokerage firm Voyager Digital. The Moskowitz Law Firm filed a civil suit in the United States District Court in Southern Florida against Cuban for promoting Voyager’s unregulated crypto products. The lawsuit demanded a jury hearing for the case. The lawsuit alleged Cuban also misrepresented the firm on numerous occasions, making dubious claims of it being cheaper than competitors and offering “commission-free” trading services. Cuban, along with Voyager Digital CEO Stephen Ehrlich, leveraged their years of experience to lure inexperienced customers into investing their life savings in what they called...
Bitcoin battles 2-month resistance amid ‘most hated’ stocks rally
Bitcoin (BTC) pierced the top of a stubborn trading range on Aug. 11 as a decidedly awkward rally took hold of risk assets. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Bitcoin retracement warnings intensify near $25,000 Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting highs of $24,750 on Bitstamp, marking its best performance since June 13. The pair had attempted several breakouts to the top of the range in prior weeks, these all failing in the face of stiff selling pressure. New United States inflation data released this week formed a long-awaited catalyst for change, however, with Bitcoin and altcoins rising in step with equities as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) print for July suggested that inflation had peaked. On Aug. 10, the day of the relea...
How do you pick your next NFT? Community responds
Since it may be a good time to buy nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as the floor prices are lower, a Reddit user asked the community what they look for when searching for the next NFTs to add to their collection. In a subreddit, the Redditor has gotten various answers from the community including examining the utilities of the tokens, finding overhyped projects with low minting fees and monitoring data collected by oracles and basing their NFT investing strategy on what they see. According to one Redditor, utility is what they look for when checking NFTs because it goes beyond being a “digital art piece.” In addition to that, they highlighted that the project’s community must also be examined as they “keep the utility alive and interesting.” Another user shared...
