crypto blog
VC Roundup: NFTs, crypto mortgages, 5G network and Web3 devs raise millions
The cryptocurrency market has failed to make significant headway in recent months, but that hasn’t stopped the industry’s builders from building. Nonfungible tokens (NFTs), crypto mortgages, blockchain-powered cellular networks and Web3 gaming have all piqued the interest of venture capitalists. These new and familiar investment themes headline the latest edition of VC Roundup, as venture funds continue to target blockchain’s most promising value plays. a16z execs back new NFT fund Andreessen Horowitz’s foray into the blockchain industry continued this month after a large segment of its investing team backed a new nonfungible token fund called Curated. The fund, which is worth $30 million, has the singular purpose of buying and holding NFT artwork. Among the a16z brass, Marc Andreess...
Inside the blockchain developers’ mind: How to avoid development hell
Cointelegraph is following the development of an entirely new blockchain from inception to mainnet and beyond through its series, Inside the Blockchain Developer’s Mind, written by Andrew Levine of Koinos Group. We recently released the third and final version of the Koinos testnet, which is why I want to talk about something few projects like to talk about: Building blockchains is development hell. In this article, I’ll explain why and how other developers can avoid getting stuck in it. At first blush, building a blockchain doesn’t sound so hard. A blockchain is just a combination of well-established cryptographic primitives, which, when properly implemented, allow for the construction of a ledger containing a verifiable history of transactions by a network. The more decentralized the net...
$1 million rock NFT sells for a penny in all ore nothing error
It’s a hard rock life for one crypto user. A clumsy keystroke and the actions of a sniper bot caused a million-dollar mistake on March 10. A rock valued at 444 Ether (ETH), or $1.2 million, sold for 444 Wei ($0.0012) to a bot as the seller, DinoDealer, confused WEI and ETH. In a tweet, the seller said “in one click my entire net worth of ~$1 million dollars, gone.” How’s your week? Mine? I just erroneously listed @etherrock #44 for 444 wei instead of 444 eth♂️ Bot sniped it in the same block and trying to flip for 234 eth In one click my entire net worth of ~$1 million dollars, gone Is there any hope? Am I GMI? Can snipers show mercy? pic.twitter.com/yq9Itb2Ukb — Rock dust (@dino_dealer) March 10, 2022 The “bot sniped” refers to bot sniper...
Bitcoin could see $37.5K weekend dip before ‘bigger move’ next week — new report
Bitcoin (BTC) is set for a “bigger move” as soon as next week, fresh analysis says as volatility faces a breakout situation. In its latest market update, trading suite Decentrader told readers that the time would soon come to “pull the trigger” with liquidity as BTC price action goes up or down. Analyst on BTC: “The bigger move is coming” Bitcoin has been making lower highs and higher lows throughout this week as a descending wedge on lower timeframes sees volatility ebb. Such a situation cannot last forever, and for Decentrader’s Filbfilb, it has a matter of days left to run. “We continue to trade intra day, low timeframes, with an eye on legacy markets and general developments in Ukraine to ensure we have a foot in the market and are ready to pull the trigger in either direct...
Qatar exploring digital banks and central bank digital currencies
The Qatar Central Bank (QCB) is reportedly investigating the possibility of launching a digital currency and issuing digital bank licenses. According to the head of the fintech section at QCB, Alanood Abdullah Al Muftah, the central bank is expected to set a direction for its future focus soon on a range of fintech verticals. Al Muftah noted that QCB will also determine whether Qatar can establish a central bank digital currency (CBDC). She explained: “Each central bank should study digital banks, considering their growing significance in the global market. We also see the direction of the market moving toward having a digital currency. However, it’s still being studied whether we’re having a digital currency or not.” While commenting on Qatar’s re...
The metaverse will change the paradigm of content creation
Content constitutes the essence of the internet and comes in many different forms that the current Web2 internet iteration supports — text, audio, video or a mix of all three. However, content is scarcely a free resource. It is content creators who are now becoming opinion leaders, influencers and the cornerstones of so many of the critical services businesses rely on, such as advertising, marketing and public relations management. The need for content and its strive for independence — embodied by thousands of bloggers and indie performers — has spawned an immense online economy that trades talent and often rakes in sales volumes many a top-level artist would salivate to earn. This economy has been dubbed the creator economy: a financial framework that allows independent individuals to ear...
‘How I met Satoshi’: The mission to teach 100M people about Bitcoin by 2030
Dušan Matuska is, among many other things, a Bitcoin educator and consultant. The Slovak’s dream is to educate 100 million people about Bitcoin (BTC) by 2030 through talks, podcasts, webinars, workshops and even a Bitcoin education center in a far-flung destination (plans are currently under wraps). Alongside his Bitcoin teaching aspirations, he helps out at a small-scale Bitcoin mining facility in Slovakia, co-founded a crypto cafe known as Paralelni Polis in the capital city of Bratislava, and has translated well-known Bitcoin books into his native tongue, Slovak. But, how did he get here? And, what does meeting Satoshi Nakamoto have to do with it? It starts with Bitcoin, which he first heard about in 2015. But like many people, “I didn’t take a lot of notice. I thought it was...
Bitcoin rally hopes diminish as pro traders flip bearish, retail interest at 12-month lows
Bitcoin (BTC) has been trapped in a symmetrical triangle for 56 days and the trend change could last until early May, according to price technicals. Currently, the support level stands at $38,000, while the triangle resistance for daily close stands at $43,600. Bitcoin mining up, retail interest down Bitcoin/USD price at FTX. Source: TradingView The week started with a positive achievement for the Bitcoin network as the Lightning Network capacity reached a record-high 3,500 BTC. This solution allows extremely cheap and instant transactions on a secondary layer, known as off-chain processing. After cryptocurrency mining activities were banned in China in 2021, publicly-listed companies in the United States and Canada attracted most of this processing power. As a result, Bitcoin’s hash...
Metaverse for education: How virtual reality can help schools and colleges
Learning how to use virtual reality in schools presents various benefits over traditional models, allowing children to “visit” places from the past or conduct dangerous experiments in a safe, virtual environment. While Roblox and similar titles present a current way to get virtual online learning experiences, these games lack what the metaverse can provide in a few key ways. For one, metaverse environments aren’t bound to a graphical style. Roblox, Minecraft and Fortnite all have cartoonish visual aspects to them, which can distract from the learning and remind students that they’re playing one of their favorite games. A metaverse environment, however, can be designed to look quite realistic. Depending on their metaverse of choice, educators will hav...
Every Bitcoin helps: Crypto-fueled relief aid for Ukraine
The people of Ukraine require the world’s help more than ever before. As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to rage on, the world must rally behind the Ukrainian government to bring back peace and stability to the Eastern European nation. The crypto community has done just that with nonfungible token (NFT) companies, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and crypto users all over the world leading the effort to help aid Ukraine with donations of Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Polkadot’s DOT and even NFTs. It is impressive how fast the crypto community got behind the Ukrainian people. Two days after the Russian military entered Ukrainian territory, the Ukrainian government asked for crypto donations on Twitter, sharing Bitcoin and Ethereum wallet addresses. Vic...
Bitcoin spikes to $41.7K highs as Ethereum nears $3K reclaim
Bitcoin (BTC) saw brisk upwards action during the Wall Street trading session on March 18, conforming to predictions that higher levels would see a retest. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Bets placed on $46,000 Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it advanced $1,650 from daily lows to nearly matching the $41,700 high from March 16. The move buoyed traders, who began to reinforce their short-term view of levels near the top of Bitcoin’s 2022 trading range being challenged. For popular trader Pentoshi, however, such a result would not mean that BTC/USD had broken its downtrend definitively. “Macro headwinds still too strong but midterm, I think we rally bc seller exhaustion before any shot at new lows or prev low...
BlockFi confirms unauthorized access to client data hosted on Hubspot
New Jersey-based crypto financial institution BlockFi confirmed a data breach incident via one of its third-party vendors, Hubspot. BlockFi’s proactive warning about the breach aims to deter the intentions of bad actors in repurposing the user data for fraudulent activities. According to the announcement, the hackers gained access to BlockFi’s client data on Friday, March 18, that were stored on Hubspot, a client relationship management platform: “Hubspot has confirmed that an unauthorized third-party gained access to certain BlockFi client data housed on their platform.” As a third-party vendor for BlockFi, Hubspot stored user data such as names, email addresses and phone numbers. Historically, bad actors have used such information for conducting phishing attacks and gaining access to acc...
