crypto blog
Fortnite developer supports Animoca subsidiary’s blockchain racing game
Australian indie game developer Grease Monkey Games, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, has received received financial support from video-game giant Epic Games to develop a new blockchain-based motorsport game Torque Drift 2 Receiving an Epic MegaGrant from the Fortnite developers, the funding will be used to develop the motorsport title, which is based on drifting. The Unreal Engine is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, which has been used in many industries after it was first showcased in the 1998 game Unreal. According to an Aug. 18 announcement from Animoca Brands, the Epic MegaGrant, which ranges from $5,000 to as much as $500,000, will be used to develop a realistic gaming experience that is on par with other triple-A games that also utilize the Unr...
‘Programmable money should terrify you’ — Layah Heilpern
Government controlled “programmable money should terrify you”, says social media influencer and TV Host Layah Heilpern, who sees central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as a way for banks and governments to reign control over their people. In an interview on Aug. 19 with British news outlet GB News, Heilpern, who also released Undressing Bitcoin: A Revealing Guide To The World’s Most Revolutionary Asset in September 2021, said the widespread rollout of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) from nation states is on its way, and that it could lead to the financial censorship of citizens in the future. Heilpern stated that as CBDCs are essentially programmable cryptocurrencies that run on blockchains, they could potentially be “programmed against you” at the whims of the centralized au...
Korea’s ‘poop-coin’ project got flushed in February, inventor reveals
The South Korean government has put the lid on a science program that created toilets designed to turn human waste into electricity, heat, and digital currency. The Science Walden project was revealed in July 2021 to the amusement of the crypto community and the wider public alike — introducing the “BeeVi” toilet which turned human excrement into methane gas and rewarded its “depositors” with a digital currency called Ggool. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Science Walden lead, and Professor Cho Jae-weon however revealed that in February this year, further development of the BeeVi toilet and its associated Feces Standard Money (FSM) digital currency has “unfortunately” halted after the scheduled end of the project’s five years of funding. “My project, Science Walden, unfortunately, came to an en...
Nifty News: NFL All Day opens to the public, Boss Beauties go to Hollywood and more…
NFL fans at large will now be able to get their hands on digital keepsakes of their favorite football stars after Dapper Labs’ NFL All Day NFT finally opened to the public after a seven-month-long closed beta. On Aug. 18, The National Football League (NFL), the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), and Dapper officially launched the project and announced the first public NFT drop, a pack of four NFTs dubbed “Headliner” consisting of four different new player moments. Users will have the chance to get their hands on NFTs depicting popular players such as Tom Brady, Trevor Lawrence, Javonte Williams, and Jalen Ramsey. There will be a total of 22,500 packs on sale for $59 a pop. The NFTs come in different rarity tiers of common, rare and legendary, with just 187 packs containing a highly sought af...
Options data shows Bitcoin’s short-term uptrend is at risk if BTC falls below $23K
Bitcoin (BTC) briefly broke above $25,000 on Aug. 15, but the excitement lasted less than an hour and was followed by a 5% retrace in the next five hours. The resistance level proved to be tougher than expected but may have given bulls false hope for the upcoming $335 million weekly options expiry. Investors’ fleeting optimism reverted to a sellers’ market on Aug. 17 after BTC dumped and tested the $23,300 support. The negative move took place hours before the release of the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) minutes from its July meeting. Investors expect some insights on whether the Federal Reserve will continue raising interest rates. The negative newsflow accelerated on Aug. 16 after a federal court in the United States authorized the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to for...
Nigeria aims for millions of new eNaira users as it increases features, targets unbanked
The eNaira, Nigeria’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), will enter the second phase of its expansion with new technology to beef up its user base, Nigerian Central Bank governor Godwin Emefiele said Thursday, speaking at the 2022 eNaira Hackathon in Abuja. The eNaira, Africa’s first CBDC, was launched in October 2021. “The eNaira is a journey, not a one-time event,” Emefiele said, adding: “We don’t have a choice but to live with the fact that we are now in a digital economy, in a digital space, where the user[s] of cash will dissipate almost to zero.” “The second phase of the project has begun and is intended to drive financial inclusion by onboarding the unbanked and underserved users […] with a target of about 8 million active users,” Emefiele continued. The CBDC has had about 840,00...
A sharp drop in TVL and DApp use preceded Avalanche’s (AVAX) 16% correction
After an impressive 73% rally between July 13 and Aug. 13, Avalanche (AVAX) has faced a 16% rejection from the $30.30 resistance level. Some analysts will try to pin the correction as a “technical adjustment,” but the network’s deposits and decentralized applications reflect worsening conditions. Avalanche (AVAX) index, USD. Source: TradingView To date, Avalanche remains 83% below its November 2021 all-time high at $148. More data than technical analysis can be analyzed to explain the 16% price drop, so let’s take a look at the network’s use in terms of deposits and users. The decentralized application (DApp) platform is still a top-15 contender with a $7.2 billion market capitalization. Meanwhile, Solana (SOL), another proof-of-work (PoW) layer-1 platform, holds a $14.2 billio...
US lawmakers appeal directly to 4 mining firms, requesting info on energy consumption
Four members of the United States House of Representatives from the Energy and Commerce Committee have demanded answers from four major crypto mining firms in regards to the potential effects of their energy consumption on the environment. In letters dated Wednesday to Core Scientific, Marathon Digital Holdings, Riot Blockchain, and Stronghold Digital Mining, U.S. lawmakers Frank Pallone, Bobby Rush, Diana DeGette, and Paul Tonko requested the companies provide information from 2021 including the energy consumption of their mining facilities, the source of that energy, what percentage came from renewable energy sources, and how often the firms curtailed operations. The four members of the House committee also inquired as to the average cost per megawatt hour the companies spent mining...
Chinese mining giant Canaan doubles profits despite the blanket crypto ban
Major Chinese cryptocurrency miner manufacturer Canaan appears to have no issues with the local ban on crypto, as the company’s overall performance has continued to grow in 2022. Canaan officially announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2022 on Thursday, reporting a 117% increase in gross profit from the same period of 2021. According to the firm, the Q2 profits amounted to 930 million renminbi (RMB), or nearly $139 million. The company’s Q2 net income was 608 million RMB, or $91 million, or a 149% increase from 425 million RMB in the same period last year. Canaan noted that foreign currency translation adjustment in Q2 was an income compared to previous losses due to the U.S. dollar appreciation against RMB during Q2. Despite posting significant profits, Canaan has ...
Coinbase would rather shut down staking than enable on-chain censorship — Brian Armstrong
In light of the recent ban on crypto mixing tool Tornado Cash and the subsequent arrest of the Tornado Cash developer, there has been a growing debate over whether crypto services providers would choose decentralization or censorship as form of compliance. The question has become more prominent as Ethereum is moving from its current proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain to a proof-of-stake (PoS) mining consensus. With the transition less than a month away, a user pointed out that more than 66% of validators on the Beacon Chain (Ethereum PoS chain) will adhere to the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulations. Start with the big, current one. Currently it looks like over 66% of the beacon chain validators will adhere to OFAC regulatio...
Korean financial watchdog to block tens of unregistered exchange websites
Unregistered cryptocurrency exchanges operating in South Korea could see their services grind to a halt as the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) takes action against 16 foreign-based firms. The FIU has notified its investigative authority that 16 virtual asset service providers have been carrying out business without the necessary registrations. Major exchanges, including the likes of KuCoin, Poloniex and Phemex, were listed alongside 13 other exchanges that are set to be hamstrung by the FIU. All 16 exchanges have purportedly engaged in business activities targeting domestic consumers by offering Korean-language websites, running promotional events targeting Korean consumers and providing credit card payment options for cryptocurrency purchases. These activities all fall under the F...
South African Reserve Bank encourages friendly behavior with crypto
The Prudential Authority of the Reserve Bank of South Africa sent out guidelines to its subsidiaries in an effort to prevent illicit activities, encouraging banks not to cut all ties with cryptocurrency. It suggested that such an act could cause greater risk in the long run. The official notice was signed by Prudential Authority CEO Fundi Tshazibana. In the past, certain South African banks had cut ties with crypto asset service providers (CASPs) — as they are called in the document — due to unclear regulations or a high-risk factor. However, the notice highlights that risk assessment doesn’t mean dropping crypto entirely: “Risk assessment does not necessarily imply that institutions should seek to avoid risk entirely (also referred to as de-risking), for example, through wholesale t...
