Crypto
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Vitalik Buterin talks crypto’s perils in Time Magazine interview
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin graced the front page of Time Magazine this month after he was interviewed by the publication about the potential perils of the industry he helped tocreate. During the 80-minute interview, Buterin explained the “dystopian potential” of digital assets if implemented incorrectly. Among his biggest worries are overzealous investors, high transaction fees and public displays of wealth by those claiming to have made a fortune trading crypto and nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Although Buterin has high hopes for Ethereum — the network powering the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and countless other projects — he fears that his vision of creating a more egalitarian digital economy risks being overtaken by nefarious actors who are only af...
Real health benefits will come when medicine and the Metaverse collide
The world is becoming more connected as cryptocurrency, blockchain, nonfungible token projects, the Metaverse and other online communities gain popularity. However, we’re also seeing rates of depression and feelings of isolation and loneliness skyrocket. This development is certainly not causal, but it is something to consider as younger generations become more involved in virtual spaces. The global COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated a national mental health crisis. Mental Health America reported that 47.1 million people in the U.S. are living with a mental health condition. That’s one in five Americans, folks. Unsettling as those figures may be, progress is being made with modern therapies and treatments in and out of virtual worlds. Would you consider logging onto your computer to m...
European ‘MiCA’ regulation on digital assets: Where do we stand?
The proposed European Union Regulation on Markets in Crypto Assets, or MiCA, (hereinafter the “regulation”) was put to a vote in the European Union Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on March 14, 2022, and in the end, the proposed amendment to ban or restrict proof-of-work-based crypto assets, which would have effectively resulted in a ban on Bitcoin (BTC), was rejected. The question of how crypto assets will be assessed from an environmental regulation perspective remains, however, with the Member of the European Parliament in charge of the text indicating that crypto assets will be included, like all other financial products, in the area of the union’s taxonomy (the process of classifying economic activities that have a favorable impact on the environment), without s...
Binance tells regulators it will cease operations in Ontario… for real this time
Binance confirmed in an undertaking to the Ontario Securities Commission, or OSC, in Canada dated Wednesday that the crypto exchange will cease activities involving Ontario residents. Binance will also stop opening new Ontario accounts, and provide fee waivers and reimbursements to certain Ontario users under the administration of a third party, the company said. The undertaking appears to mark the end of a disagreement that started in June when Binance announced that it would no longer service Ontario accounts and customers were advised to close out active positions by the end of the year. The month prior to Binance’s announcement, the OSC introduced a new prospectus and registration requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges. In December, Binance told investors that it was allowed t...
Altcoin Roundup: Three layer-1 protocols see inflows amid choppy, volatile market conditions
Layer-1 (L1) protocols are the foundation of the decentralized application ecosystem, with the Ethereum network dominating the landscape in terms of the number of protocols launched on-chain and total value locked (TVL), followed by BNB Chain and Fantom. As the sideways market of 2022 drags on and serious projects use the time away from the frenzy of bull markets to work on development, several L1 protocols have been outperforming the field and making gains despite weakness in the wider crypto market. Here’s a look at three L1 protocols that are seeing growth in their decentralized finance (DeFi) communities and an influx of TVL on their networks. Waves Waves is a multi-purpose blockchain protocol that was originally launched in 2016 and has since undergone several transformations al...
14% of Salvadoran businesses have transacted in BTC: Chamber of Commerce
Businesses in El Salvador have been slow to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) ever since the country famously recognized the digital asset as legal tender in September 2021, according to a recent survey by the Salvadoran Chamber of Commerce. Of the 337 companies polled between Jan. 15 and Feb. 9, only 14% said they had transacted in BTC since the Bitcoin Law came into effect. Over 90% of the companies indicated that Bitcoin adoption in the country had little impact on their sales. Seventy-one percent of the companies polled were micro or small businesses, 13% classified as medium-sized enterprises and 16% were large companies. While the low adoption rate may appear underwhelming at the surface, El Salvador has been on the U.S. dollar standard since 2001. Unlike the currencies of other emerging eco...
NFT collections brought to life at SXSW: Doodles and FLUF World
Cointelegraph journalists at South by Southwest, or SXSW, in Austin, Texas reported that NFTs were everywhere this year, marking a new phenomenon for what began as a music festival in 1987. Since evolving into a film, tech and general culture gathering, and after a two-year hiatus, SXSW added blockchain programming to the mix with crypto-related panels, blockchain company sponsors and NFT community interactive experiences. Two NFT communities with the largest physical presences at SXSW were Doodles and FLUF World who ran immersive, multi-day and multi-sensory experiences. They built physical installations at which attendees would wait in long lines to enter and interact with these virtual communities in real life. Cointelegraph got to the bottom of how these digital co...
Prepare yourself for the global adoption of the metaverse with these top tokens: AXS, SAND, ENJ and RNDR
AXS, SAND, ENJ, and RNDR are all metaverse-based tokens. Each token will see an exponential level of growth as the metaverse reaches global adoption rates. By jumping on these tokens early, you will be able to see a high level of growth long-term. The metaverse is growing at an exponential rate, and today, we will be going over exactly why AXS, SAND, ENJ, and RDR are the best metaverse tokens you can get. Should you buy Axie Infinity (AXS)? On March 18, 2022, Axie Infinity (AXS) had a value of $49.64. The all-time high value of Axie Infinity (AXS) was on November 6, 2021, when the token decreased to $164.90. At its ATH, the token was $115.26 higher in value or by 232%. When we go over February, Axie Infinity (AXS) had its highest point on February 7 at $71.22. Its lowest point was on Febru...
Weekly Report: Russia’s largest bank can now issue digital assets, Optimism raises $150 million
Optimism aims to invest in hiring following the conclusion of a Series B funding round A FinCEN rep has said it is impossible to move large scale amounts of funds via crypto to avoid sanctions Meta could be legally charged for allowing misleading crypto ads on Facebook that falsely portrayed support by celebrity figures in Australia Sberbank has been licensed to issue and exchange virtual assets in Russia GameStop fans will by the end of July exchange NFTs for free on the retailer’s marketplace Ethereum L2 scaling solution Optimism raises $150M in a Series B funding round Optimism, an Ethereum layer two scaling solution, has completed a $150 million Series B funding round co-led by giant venture capital firms Paradigm Capital and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) at a $1.65 billion valuatio...
The blockchain projects making renewable energy a reality
Much has been said about Bitcoin‘s carbon emissions. Far less has been said about the potential of blockchain to increase the efficiency of renewables by transparently managing supply and demand. Blockchain doesn‘t pose a threat to the planet — it’s going to play an essential role in helping to bring about a net-zero carbon emission economy. It is a few years in the future: You are sitting on your sofa, having a nice coffee after loading the washing machine. You’ve switched it on but, of course, the Internet of Things-enabled machine checks prices and will run when it hits a cheap electricity window. The Tesla outside in the drive is fully charged, you don‘t have any plans to go any further than the supermarket today, so the battery is available to sell its energy back to the grid and depo...
Central Bank of Russia tightens P2P transactions monitoring, including those in crypto
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) recommended that the nation’s commercial banks ramp up monitoring users’ transactions that could be aimed at circumventing CBR’s “special economic measures to counter the outflow of foreign currency abroad,” local media reported on Thursday. The recommendation includes closer oversight over crypto trading, which is named among the vehicles for withdrawing capital from Russia. The letter, sent to the banking organizations by CBR’s vice chairman Yuri Isaev on Wednesday, directs them to pay closer attention to the instances of their clients’ “unusual behavior.” This includes “abnormal” transactional activity and uncommon patterns of expenditures. Any withdrawals of money via digital currencies should also attract increased attention, the letter spec...
Stranded no more? Bitcoin miners could help solve Big Oil’s gas problem
The energy usage and environmental impact of Bitcoin (BTC) mining have been frowned upon and been under the scanner by various international financial institutions. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mentions how Bitcoin mining consumes “vast amounts of computing power and electricity.” Bitcoin mining is an energy-consuming process, as it is a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain network that involves providing cryptographic proof to the network that a quantified amount of a specific computational effort has been used. The information used to verify this is stored in a block to be accepted into the network by other participants. Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world and the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, in February 2021 announced that the car manufacturing company will accept Bi...
