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Sri Lanka joins the global crypto adoption drive after setting up a committee for exploring and implementing blockchain and crypto mining technologies. A letter shared on Oct. 8 by Sri Lanka’s director general of government information, Mohan Samaranayake, shows that the authorities have approved a recent proposal that aims to attract investments in the country’s blockchain and cryptocurrency initiatives. According to Samaranayake, the Sri Lankan authorities have identified the need to develop “an integrated system of digital banking, blockchain and cryptocurrency mining technology” as a means to stay on par with global partners and international markets. He added: “This committee will be mandated to study the regulations and initiatives of other countries such as Dubai, Malaysia, Philippi...

With success comes a survivor bias ― the logical error of concentrating on people or things that made it past a selection process while overlooking those that did not ― as well as, potentially, a superiority complex ingrained in those who survived. This has led to a preponderance of financial products in crypto because of their successes thus far, but a paucity of products and marketplaces for real trade. Entrepreneurs in the blockchain space do not cater to what was supposed to be the most common class of user, and those who do often end up shipping products that fail at commercialisation. Blockchain and financial economy The 2016-2017 era of crypto startups saw the launches of many companies promising blockchain-powered products ― blockchain social networks, phones, logistics, legal tech...

With cryptocurrencies, every time a transaction takes place, it is broadcast to every computer on the network, and this interconnected system verifies the transactions. Mining inefficiency, causing the environmental costs, threatens the notion of blockchain as a long-term enterprise solution.  Thankfully, efforts are well underway towards environmentally friendly digital assets, and we are seeing rapid innovations in this space. Proof of stake is now forming the foundation of newer protocols such as Cardano (ADA) and XinFin (XDC).  The XDC Network is supported by masternodes that are responsible for block creation. The platform XinFin is a resilient blockchain protocol that integrates seamlessly with older systems and can bypass some of the major problems that ce...

Welcome to the latest edition of Cointelegraph’s decentralized finance, or DeFi, newsletter. Blogging platform Mirror expanded to the public market this week. Read on to discover the impact of this move for Ethereum wallet holders.  What you’re about to read is a more succinct version of the newsletter. For a comprehensive summary of DeFi’s developments over the last week, subscribe below. Mirror expands blockchain blogging to the public This week, Mirror, a decentralized publishing protocol focused on fostering data ownership and free expression, expanded its platform to the public market for the first time. In the previous version, a weekly voting competition using the platform’s native token, WRITE, determined an exclusive list of 10 content creators who could contribute to the pla...

Over the past few months, there have been some major developments coming out of China that have rocked the cryptocurrency market and the global financial markets. China’s Evergrande debt repayment crisis sent shockwaves throughout global equities markets, as well as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) consistent signaling of upcoming regulation for stablecoins and decentralized finance (DeFi) continued to weigh on sentiment within the market.  While the Evergrande situation somewhat resolved itself, for the time being, the government crackdown on unregulated DeFi platforms and stablecoin transactions continues. This has resulted in cross-chain equipped layer-one protocols and layer-two solutions seeing increased volumes as traders search for non-centralized ...

Ethereum’s native token Ether (ETH) is at risk of falling below $3,200 in the coming sessions as its rally comes face-to-face with a strong resistance zone. In detail, the price of Ether swelled by almost 22% on a month-to-date timeframe in the wake of a market-wide price rally. That pushed the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization from under $3,000 to above $3,650 in the first eight days of October, triggering more bullish forecasts. “Six thousand dollars will happen fast; $10,000 is programmed,” noted Twitter-based technical chartist Crypto Cactus. David Gokhshtein, CEO of distributed data network PAC Protocol, predicted a $10,000 upside target for Ether, as well. Waiting for $ETH to cross $10,000 so the party can really get underway. Side note: Th...

A subsidiary of the blockchain software provider Powerbridge Technologies, Powercrypto Holdings, has announced the launch of a sustainable cryptocurrency mining initiative for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) in Hong Kong. The company plans to deploy a total of 2,600 first-grade mining rigs, comprising of 600 BTC mining machines operating at a hash rate of 60 PH/s, as well as a further 2,000 ETH mining machines, which harness a hash rate power of 1,000 GH/s. According to the announcement, Powercrypto’s ultimate ambition with the inauguration of this venture is to increase the BTC and ETH hash rate level across the North American and Asian markets. Analytical data revealed that Bitcoin’s current hash rate,  measured by terahashes per second, reads 150.29m across a seven-day aver...

Bitcoin’s (BTC) rally above $50,000 seems to have received a boost from institutional buyers who are looking to hedge their portfolio against increasing inflation, said JPMorgan in a note to its clients on Oct. 7. The bank’s analysts speculated that institutional investors may be preferring Bitcoin over gold as a better hedge against inflation. A recent study titled “Cryptocurrencies and the Sharpe Ratio of Traditional Investment Models” by crypto asset management firms Iconic Funds and Cryptology Asset Group showed that the addition of cryptocurrencies to any portfolio improved returns and risk-reward performance of the portfolio. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 Bloomberg senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone said in the October 2021 edition of the Bloomberg Ga...

Dfinity founder Dominic Williams believes content creation platforms like OnlyFans are ripe for disruption now that decentralized technologies have become mainstream. He’s inviting developers to build a blockchain-driven content platform on Internet Computer (ICP) — a powerful general-purpose blockchain launched by Dfiniity Foundation earlier this year. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Williams discussed recent attempts by financial institutions to censor adult content creation on OnlyFans, as well as the general outlook on smart contract platforms. Creator-driven platforms are ideal for decentralization In August of this year, major financial institutions such as Bank of New York Mellon, Metro Bank and JPMorgan Chase effectively forced OnlyFans to ban sexually explicit content on its p...

This month, Cointelegraph Research will release a comprehensive report on nonfungible tokens, discussing NFTs in detail and providing a detailed guide to getting into this market.  In collaboration with multiple partners — including Enjin, NFTBank, The Sandbox and others — the report will evaluate the technology behind NFTs, their regulatory challenges, and their prospective growth and current market positions. The report will also outline the hurdles that the market may encounter in the future, and potential ways to overcome them. At the beginning of 2021, there was increased interest in NFTs, with the largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, experiencing a hundredfold sales increase in half a year. The total volume of NFT sales reached $2.5 billion in the first half of 2021, almost ei...