crypto blog
Bitcoin core contributor urges maximalists to take a different route
There was once a time when Bitcoin (BTC) was the only crypto project that was not a scam, and advocating for only BTC made perfect sense. However, according to a Bitcoin Core contributor, this has not been true for a while, as he urged the community to drop the us-versus-them culture. In a Twitter thread, Matt Corallo, who contributed to the Bitcoin Core, pointed out to the community that at the moment, instead of BTC proponents advocating why Bitcoin is unique and remarkable, they are spending time attacking other projects. According to Corallo, this situation is leading to what he described as a narrative war, where crypto projects bash each other. Corallo further explained that Bitcoiners coming after Ethereum (ETH) for the upcoming Merge, saying that proof-of-stake (PoS) will not...
Cross chains, beware! deBridge flags attempted phishing attack, suspects Lazarus Group
Cross-chain protocols and Web3 firms continue to be targeted by hacking groups as deBridge Finance unpacks a failed attack that bears the hallmarks of North Korea’s Lazarus Group hackers. deBridge Finance employees received what looked like another ordinary email from co-founder Alex Smirnov on a Friday afternoon. An attachment labeled ‘New Salary Adjustments’ was bound to pique interest, with various cryptocurrency firms instituting staff layoffs and pay cuts during the ongoing cryptocurrency winter. A handful of employees flagged the email and its attachment as suspicious, but one staff member took the bait and downloaded the PDF file. This would prove fortuitous, as the deBridge team worked on unpacking the attack vector sent from a spoof email address designed to mirror Smirnov’s. The ...
Chainlink ditches Ethereum PoW forks for PoS after The Merge
Chainlink is aligning itself with the decision of the Ethereum Foundation and its community. Therefore forked versions of the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, which includes PoW forks, will no longer be supported by the Chainlink (LINK) protocol post-Merge. In an official announcement, the Chainlink protocol revealed its services will remain on the Ethereum blockchain post the long-awaited Merge. The Ethereum blockchain anticipates the Merge in September 2022, which will merge its mainnet with the Beacon Chain. This will transition all of Ethereum operations from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). The Merge has been pushed back from mid-2021 to September 2022 before. If it goes according to the timeline of developers, Phase 1 will initiate the transition of the ecosystem’s transa...
Nigeria becomes the most crypto-obsessed nation after April crash: Report
The crypto market crash in April saw most cryptocurrencies lose more than 60% of their valuation from the top, leading to an overall downturn in trading activity, investor interest and venture capital investment. A recent study has highlighted nations’ growing curiosity and interest in crypto after the April crash. The research was based on Google Trends data of popular crypto search terms that often reflect increased interest in the crypto market. The search history of each nation was then compiled to give an overall search score. The countries at the top of the list appear to be most eager to buy the dip. The Coingecko research highlighted a significant rise in curiosity among Nigerians after the crypto market downturn in April. The Nigerian population searched the term ‘cryptocurr...
How Bitcoin whales make a splash in markets and move prices
Deriving their names from the size of the massive mammals swimming around the earth’s oceans, cryptocurrency whales refer to individuals or entities that hold large amounts of cryptocurrency. In the case of Bitcoin (BTC), someone can be considered a whale if they hold over 1,000 BTC, and there are less than 2,500 of them out there. As Bitcoin addresses are pseudonymous, it is ofte difficult to ascertain who owns any wallet. While many associates the term “whale” with some lucky early adopters of Bitcoin, not all whales are the same, indeed. There are several different categories: Exchanges: Since the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies, crypto exchanges have become some of the biggest whale wallets as they hold large amounts of crypto on their order books. Institutions and corpor...
Once-hacked for $77M, Beanstalk’s algo stablecoin protocol relaunches
Ethereum-based algorithmic stablecoin project Beanstalk Farms has relaunched its protocol just under four months after going offline after suffering a devastating $77 million governance exploit. The protocol and its governance have been paused since April following the governance exploit and flash loan attack, but were relaunched as of Aug. 6 in an event called the “Replant.” In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Beanstalk said it has come out of the ordeal stronger than ever, likely in reference to protocol’s governance and security. “Beanstalk has come out on the other end of this ordeal stronger than ever. It is a testament to the creditworthiness of the protocol and its potential to help realize a permissionless future,” said Publius, the developer group behind the BEAN s...
What is Chainlink VRF and how does it work?
Blockchain technology has spawned many applications over the past few years, the most popular being cryptocurrencies. It has also facilitated the creation of many decentralized, secure and transparent marketplaces in the digital economy. Offering far more trust since all transactions are immutably recorded on the blockchain, this technology has been well supplemented by the smart contract feature popularized by Ethereum. Decentralized applications (DApps) based on blockchains like Ethereum are disrupting traditional businesses such as retail banking and are even introducing use cases never deemed possible. Expanding the capability of smart contracts with oracles However, for the Ethereum blockchain to support the development of DApps that go beyond merely facilitating transactions, t...
6 Questions for Tongtong Bee of Panony
We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes! This week, our 6 Questions go to Tongtong Bee, co-founder of Panony — an incubator, investor and adviser for blockchain and Web3 business. I’m Tongtong Bee, the co-founder of Panony and founder and editor-in-chief of PANews. I started my professional journey as a journalist at China’s traditional news outlets, including China News Service, Jiemian and Cailian Media Group. Since 2015, I’ve been covering blockchain and fintech news as one of the few journalists in China to focus on these sectors at the time. My focus on economic issues and emerging technologies led to me being selected to report on the “Two Sessions” (NPC and ...
Top 5 cryptocurrencies to watch this week: BTC, FLOW, THETA, QNT, MKR
The United States jobs data on Aug. 5 was above market expectations, indicating that inflation has not cooled down. The strong numbers reduce the possibility that the U.S. Federal Reserve will slow down its aggressive pace of rate hikes. After the release, the likelihood of a 75 basis points hike in September has risen to 68%, according to CME Group data. However, analysts at Fundstrat Global Advisors have a different view. They highlighted that three out of six times, the S&P 500 bottomed out six months before the Fed’s last rate hike. Therefore, the firm anticipates the S&P 500 to witness a strong rally to 4,800 in the second half of the year. Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360 If the tight correlation between the equities markets and the cryptocurrency markets mainta...
DeFiChain Community Brings Attractive Rewards For DFI ERC-20 Pairs on Uniswap
Singapore, Singapore, 7th August, 2022, Chainwire DeFiChain, the world’s leading blockchain on the Bitcoin network dedicated to bringing decentralized financial applications and services to everyone, is thrilled to announce that its community has voted to offer lucrative liquidity mining rewards for the ERC-20 format of its native DFI token pairs on Uniswap. The proposal put forth by DeFiChain’s Lead Researcher received more than 96% votes in favor. DeFiChain has allocated one million DFI tokens from the Community Fund to incentivize liquidity mining for the DFI-ETH, DFI-USDT, and the new DFI-USDC pairs on Uniswap. The Community Fund receives a small percentage of the block rewards and has accumulated over 27,092,291 DFI tokens, which are available to anyone interested in developing on the...
Nomad announces $19-million bounty for lost funds from recent hack
Nomad announced a bounty of up to 10% for the return of the stolen funds from the Nomad bridge. In a website announcement and tweet, the company publicly provided a wallet address for sending the funds. The bounty is applicable to anyone who comes forward from now on or already returned funds. At the time of writing, Nomad has recovered more than $20 million. The Nomad token bridge suffered a massive hack on Tuesday. This incident was among the largest in the history of crypto hacks, with nearly $200 million in crypto assets stolen. However, the platform wasted no time addressing its community and the hackers. Update: Nomad Bridge Hack Bounty (see below for details) Please send the funds to the official Nomad recovery wallet address on Ethereum: 0x94A84433101A10aEda762968f6995c...
The Bank of Thailand to pilot Retail CBDC by the end of 2022
On top of its wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) projects and proof-of-concept Retail CBDC testing with corporates, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) will extend the scope of CBDC development aimed at retail to a pilot phase. A possible real-life application of the “Retail CBDC” will be conducted inside the private sector on a limited scale. he Friday announcement on the official page of the BOT goes: “The BOT will assess the benefits and associated risks from the Pilot to formulate related policies and improve the CBDC design in the future.” The pilot is separated into two tracks. During the first one — a “Foundation track” — CBDC will be tested in cash-like activities, i.e., paying for goods and services, within limited areas and a scale of 10,000 retail users...
