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Terra co-founder Do Kwon says he’s not ‘on the run’
Do Kwon, the co-founder of the Terra ecosystem, took to Twitter on Saturday asserting he’s “not ‘on the run’ or anything similar” after the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said Kwon wasn’t in the city-state. On Sept. 14, South Korean authorities issued an arrest warrant for Kwon and five other associates for alleged violations of the country’s capital markets laws. All were known to be in Singapore at the time, with prosecutors also attempting to revoke their passports a day later on Sept. 15. “For any government agency that has shown interest to communicate, we are in full cooperation and we don’t have anything to hide,” Kwon tweeted. I am not “on the run” or anything similar – for any government agency that has shown interest to communicate, we are in full cooperation and we don’t hav...
Bandai Namco, SEGA among gaming giants eyeing blockchain gaming
Japanese gaming giants are positioning for mainstream blockchain game adoption, and will not be swayed by the section of gamers that are against crypto and nonfungible tokens (NFTs), an exec from the Oasys blockchain project told Cointelegraph. Speaking to Cointelegraph at the 2022 Tokyo Games Show last week, Oasys Representative Director Ryo Matsubara emphasized that the project’s big-name partners such as Bandai Namco, Sega and Square Enix are not just jumping on the crypto bandwagon —there’s a long-term vision for blockchain-based Play-to-Earn (P2E) gaming: “We have a shared vision about blockchain at the executive level. They don’t [want to] change that policy. They really understand the future adoption of blockchain. They’re not thinking about, you know, j...
Hurricane Fiona rips through powerless Puerto Rico
“I urge people to stay in their homes,” said William Miranda Torres, mayor of the northern town of Caguas, where at least one large landslide was reported, with water rushing down a big slab of broken asphalt and into a gully. The storm also washed away a bridge in the central mountain town of Utuado that police say was installed by the National Guard after Hurricane Maria hit in 2017. Fiona was centered 10 miles (15 kilometers) west of Mayaguez with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. It was moving to the northwest at 9 mph (15 kph). Fiona struck on the anniversary of Hurricane Hugo, which hit Puerto Rico 33 years ago as a Category 3 storm. The storm’s clouds covered the entire island and tropical storm-force winds extended as far ...
Influential celebrities that joined the crypto club over the past year
The inclusive crypto ecosystem has become home to numerous A-list celebrities over the years — primarily driven by the nonfungible tokens (NFT) hype of 2021. However, despite the prolonged bear market and an evident dip in cryptocurrency prices, celebrities continue to pour in support for the crypto market. Over the past year, celebrities have started exploring sub-ecosystems beyond NFTs, trying to diversify their presence across trading, gaming and other investment avenues. In this light, here’s an overview of some of the most influential celebrities that got into crypto over the past year and how well-prepared they are for the next bull run. Connor McGregor partners with Tiger.Trade UFC superstar Connor McGregor, one of the highest-paid athletes, recently partnered with Tiger.Trade...
Goldman Sachs’ bearish macro outlook puts Bitcoin at risk of crashing to $12K
A sequence of macro warnings coming out of the Goldman Sachs camp puts Bitcoin (BTC) at a risk of crashing to $12,000. Bitcoin in “bottom phase?” A team of Goldman Sachs economists led by Jan Hatzius raised their prediction for the speed of Federal Reserve benchmark rate hikes. They noted that the U.S. central bank would increase rates by 0.75% in September and 0.5% in November, up from their previous forecast of 0.5% and 0.25%, respectively. Fed’s rate-hike path has played a key role in determining Bitcoin’s price trends in 2022. The period of higher lending rates — from near zero to the 2.25-2.5% range now — has prompted investors to rotate out of riskier assets and seek shelter in safer alternatives like cash. Bitcoin has dropped by almost 60% year-to-date and is...
NFTs will bring crypto to billions of users, explains VC investor
Avichal Garg, the CEO and co-founder of Electric Capital, defines himself as “an NFT maximalist” – who believes that nonfungible tokens (NFTs) will play an essential role in bringing crypto to the masses. Unlike other crypto niches, NFTs are relatable to aspects of everyday life such as art, music and games. “I could imagine that NFTs are actually many billions of people because it’s ultimately culture. And that’s something that everybody can participate in and everybody can understand,” said Garg in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph. [embedded content] In particular, Garg is bullish about NFTs being used in the gaming industry, which he sees growing at an exponential pace. “In 18-24 months from now, I think we’re just going to see this onslaught of (N...
Business owners should get off PayPal and move to the blockchain
Do you believe that in five years every second transaction in e-commerce will be settled on blockchain? No? Well, that’s what people thought of plastic credit cards versus cash a few decades ago when it came to traditional stores. There is no doubt that Web3 will drastically transform the way e-commerce operates. Using cryptocurrency payments in e-commerce stores will become just as common as accepting PayPal, Klarna, Visa or Mastercard. Stores that don’t adapt their e-commerce platforms to accept cryptocurrencies will soon find themselves out of business. How Web3 has changed the e-commerce landscape Thanks to the converging forces of Web3 — blockchain, decentralized finance (DeFi), AI and machine learning — new, smart algorithms can analyze and adapt to provide user-centric experie...
South Korean ministry recommends enactment of special Metaverse laws
The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) of South Korea revealed plans to move away from imposing traditional video gaming laws on the Metaverse. Instead, the ministry decided to issue new guidelines for incentivizing the growth of the budding ecosystem. South Korea’s interest in garnering Web3 and the Metaverse ecosystems is evidenced by the $200 million investment it made for the creation of an in-house Metaverse. Running parallel to this effort, the MSIT identified that imposing older regulations serve as a deterrent to the growth of new ecosystems. In the first meeting of the National Data Policy committee, MSIT noted that “We will not make the mistake of regulating a new service with existing law.” However, discussions around designating the Metaverse as a video game are still on the ta...
Flashbots build over 82% relay blocks, adding to Ethereum centralization
Following the completion of The Merge upgrade, Ethereum (ETH) transitioned into a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, helping the blockchain become energy efficient and secure. However, mining data reveals Ethereum’s heavy reliance on Flashbots — a single server — for building blocks, raising concerns over a single point of failure for the ecosystem. Flashbots is a centralized entity dedicated to transparent and efficient Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) extraction, which acts as a relay for delivering Ethereum blocks. Data from mevboost.org show that there are six active relays currently delivering at least one block in Ethereum, namely Flashbots, BloXroute Max Profit, BloXroute Ethical, BloXroute Regulated, Blocknative and Eden. Relays sorted by number of delivered blocks. Source:&n...
Dogecoin has crashed 75% against Bitcoin since Elon Musk’s SNL appearance
Dogecoin (DOGE) may be back in the top-ten cryptocurrency by market capitalization, but its loses in both USD and Bitcoin (BTC) terms since Elon Musk’s SNL appearance are considerable. Dogecoin loses Musk-effect The DOGE/BTC trading pair has fallen 75% after peaking out at 1,287 satoshis on May 9, 2021, a day after Musk was a guest host on Saturday Night Live, including a sketch titled “The Dogefather.” DOGE/BTC daily price chart. Source: TradingView Before his appearance, the billionaire entrepreneur was relentlessly tweeting Dogecoin memes, images, which helped DOGE — a cryptocurrency that started out as a joke — to attain a market capitalization north of $90 billion in May 2021. That’s more than 36,000% gains in just two years. But things have gone downhill ever since. ...
Profanity tool vulnerability drains $3.3M despite 1Inch warning
Decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch Network issued a warning to crypto investors after identifying a vulnerability in Profanity, an Ethereum (ETH) vanity address generating tool. Despite the proactive warning, apparently, hackers were able to make away with $3.3 million worth of cryptocurrencies. On Sept. 15, 1Inch revealed the lack of safety in using Profanity as it used a random 32-bit vector to seed 256-bit private keys. Further investigations pointed out the ambiguity in the creation of vanity addresses, suggesting that Profanity wallets were secretly hacked. The warning came in the form of a tweet, as shown below. RUN, YOU FOOLS ⚠️ Spoiler: Your money is NOT SAFU if your wallet address was generated with the Profanity tool. Transfer all of your assets to a different ...
US Treasury report encourages instant payment, recommends more CBDC research
United States President Joe Biden ordered more than a dozen reports to be written when he released his Executive Order (EO) 14067 “Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.” Five had due dates within 90 days, and the last three were published simultaneously by the Treasury Department on Sept. 16. The reports were prepared in response to instructions in Sections 4, 5 and 7 of the EO. The report ordered in EO Section 4 is titled “The Future of Money and Payments.” The report looks at the several payment systems currently in use that are operated by the Federal Reserve or the Clearing House, which is owned by a group of major banks. These will be supplemented by the non-blockchain FedNow Service instant payment system that is expected to begin operating in 2023. Stablecoins are intr...
