crypto blog
What happens to your Bitcoin when you die? A new service saves it for family and friends
When Bitcoin (BTC) traders pass away, their BTC may forever be lost within the blockchain if they haven’t given anyone else access to their wallets. However, an exchange project wants to give crypto traders another option. Back in 2020, a study showed that many crypto investors worry about what happens to their digital assets when they pass away. 89% of respondents expressed concerns on whether their assets would be given to family or friends after their demise. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Jeetu Kataria, the CEO of Digital Financial Exchange (DIFX), highlighted the importance of a way to pass crypto to loved ones in case of death. According to Kataria, their project created a blockchain-based nomination program that allows users to choose “trusted individuals, fam...
ConsenSys raises $450M in Series D funding, doubles valuation in four months
On Tuesday, ConsenSys, the leading Ethereum and decentralized protocols software company with product suites such as MetaMask, Infura and Truffle, announced the close of a $450-million Series D funding round led by ParaFi Capital. Notable new investors included Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Microsoft, Anthos Capital, Sound Ventures and C Ventures. The deal more than doubles its valuation since the firm’s $200-million Series C raise in November 2021. Proceeds from the round will, in part, be converted to Ether (ETH) to rebalance the ratio of ETH to United States dollar equivalents in ConsenSys’ treasury. The firm actively seeks to use its own financial infrastructure to earn yields on such assets in decentralized finance (DeFi), protocols and via staking. The proceeds wil...
Ethereum Merge testing on Kiln mostly successful, save for one minor bug
On Tuesday, Ethereum (ETH) developer Tim Beiko tweeted that Kiln successfully passed the Ethereum Merge, with validators producing post-merge blocks containing transactions. Kiln will be the last Merge testnet (formerly Ethereum 2.0) before existing public testnets are upgraded. “Merge” involves taking Ethereum’s Execution Layer from the existing Proof of Work layer and merging it with the Consensus Layer from the Beacon chain, turning the blockchain into a proof-of-stake network. The Foundation writes: “This merge signals the culmination of six years of research and development in Ethereum and will result in a more secure network, predictable block times, and a 99.98%+ reduction in power use when it is released on mainnet later in 2022.” However, it app...
Instagram is adding NFTs soon says Mark Zuckerberg
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that its video and photo sharing app, Instagram, is preparing to add non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the platform. “We’re working on bringing NFTs to Instagram in the near term,” Zuckerberg reportedly stated in an appearance at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. The Facebook founder did not provide specifics on when the implementation would happen. Casey Newton, writer for the Platformer newsletter, tweeted from the conference that Zuckerberg also said that he hopes in the coming months, Instagram users would be able to mint their own NFTs on the platform. At #SXSW, Mark Zuckerberg just said that “hopefully” in the coming months you’ll be able to mint NFTs within Instagram — Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) March 15, 2022 Meta did not immedia...
Diem team members raise $200M to launch blockchain derived from it
Former Meta employees and key players behind the firm’s defunc stablecoin project Diem have raised $200 million to expand a new project dubbed “Aptos.” Aptos was cofounded by former Novi — Meta’s crypto unit — strategic partnerships lead Mo Shaikh and tech lead Avery Ching. The duo arenow serving as the CEO and CTO for the new firm. Both left the company in December, prior to Diem being sold to Silvergate Capital in February this year. The team is building a decentralized Layer 1 blockchain that is partly based on Move, the coding language initially developed for Diem. The company is now in the process of growing its developer ecosystem and attracting projects to the blockchain, which it touts will be a cheap, secure and scalable network. According to a March 16 announcement, Aptos’ $200 m...
PayPal CEO Dan Schulman asserts crypto will reshape the financial landscape
The PayPal executive doesn’t care much for the price of Bitcoin but rather its role in the financial system going forward PayPal has been delving deeper into crypto initiatives, recently revealing plans for a stablecoin Dan Schulman, the Chief Executive Officer of financial services company PayPal, has doubled down on his belief in the role of cryptocurrencies in an evolving financial world. Schulman spoke of his conviction in crypto as he responded to questions from CTech ahead of his scheduled speech at Axis Tel Aviv, an international investment and innovation conference to be held later this month. The FinTech CEO explained that he expects that, in addition to the ballooning utility of crypto payments, the convergence of virtual assets, including stablecoins, central bank digital ...
Fantom (FTM) and Cardano (ADA) trading in the range of yearly lows
Fantom (FTM) has revisited December lows in the $1.05 zone Cardano (ADA) has slipped below $0.80 for the second time in less than three weeks The crypto market has been relatively quiet in the last 48 hours, with many crypto assets consolidating around their support zones. Bitcoin headed towards bearish targets below $39,000 Bitcoin’s ascent towards $40,000 earlier today was cut short by tough resistance at $39,800, CoinMarketCap data suggests. The flagship cryptocurrency set a weekly high of $39,742.50 before losing more than $1000 in less than three hours and finding support at around $38,700, where it is currently trading. The picture is not very different for the rest of the altcoins in the top ten ranking by market capital. The majority of them have slid back by 2% to 5% in the last 2...
ConsenSys notches a $7 BN valuation after completing a $450 M Series D raise
The funds raised will be converted to ETH, used to support the adoption of Infura, a revamp of MetaMask and ConsenSys’ expansion efforts ConsenSys also revealed that MetaMask now has 30 million active monthly users Blockchain and Ethereum–focused firm ConsenSys today announced the conclusion of a $450 million raise. The recently–concluded funding round, led by ParaFi Capita, has seen the valuation of ConsenSys grow more than twofold to $7 billion, a significant swell from the last financing in November 2021. The raise saw the involvement of previous investors such as Third Point, TRUE Capital Management, and Marshall Wace, with newer investors including Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Anthos Capital, Microsoft and Sound Ventures also in play. Notably, celebrities including rappers 2...
CoinSmart CEO Interview: Fraud in Crypto
There are a lot of odd holidays in the calendar. My personal favourite is National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, celebrated annually on April 2nd. It falls the day after April Fool’s Day, which, without sounding too miserable, I was never really entertained by. One holiday that is far from a joke, however, is May 9th – National Lost Sock Memorial Day, a time for us to “honour all the socks that are no longer with us”. The reason I discuss such wacky holidays is that I was surprised to note that March represents Fraud Prevention Month in Canada. Upon originally seeing this, I thought was a little over the top. Then, I thought about the harm fraud can cause and looked into the numbers. Based on the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), $379 million were lost to scams and fraud in 2021 (up 130% f...
GRT rallies 39% as subgraphs migrate to The Graph’s decentralized mainnet
As the growing digital economy undergoes a transition from Web2 to Web3, oracle and data providers are becoming an increasingly important sector for ensuring the reliable sharing and transfer of information. The Graph (GRT) is one protocol that is spearheading the integration of blockchain technology with data management and retrieval through the creation of open APIs known as subgraphs. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since hitting a low of $0.3155 on March 13, GRT has climbed 38.6% to a daily high of $0.44 on March 15 where it is now attempting to flip this major resistance level into support. GRT/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView There are three underlying reasons behind GRT’s price rally: the ongoing migration of subgraphs to the Graph ma...
Co-founders of UkraineDAO and Friends With Benefits DAO talk autonomous organizations at SXSW
Kimbal Musk, Nadya Tolokonnikova and Alex Zhang took to the SXSW stage on Monday to participate in the “Move Over NFTs. Here Come the DAOs” panel at Austin’s Convention Center. Tolokonnikova is a former member of the Russian protest punk rock group Pussy Riot, and the co-founder of UnicornDAO and UkraineDAO. Zhang co-founded the social club, DAO Friends With Benefits, and serves as its mayor, while Musk cofounded the philanthropic Big Green DAO. Journalist Michael Casey moderated. Throughout the discussion, the panelists described their distinct and contrasting use cases behind their own decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, and came to the conclusion that ownership, transparency and localization are the main principles of a successful DAO. A self-pro...
Biden’s pick for Fed vice chair for supervision withdraws amid Republican objections
Former Federal Reserve Board governor Sarah Bloom Raskin has withdrawn her name for consideration as the central bank’s vice chair for supervision in an attempt to allow other nominations to move forward. According to a Tuesday tweet from Washington Post journalist Seung Min Kim, Raskin sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden withdrawing as his nominee for the next vice chair for supervision of the Federal Reserve, citing “relentless attacks by special interests.” The letter referred to Republican lawmakers who, she said, have “held hostage” her nomination since February. “Their point of contention was my frank public discussion of climate change and the economic costs associated with it,” said Raskin. “It was — and is — my considered view that the perils of climate change must be added ...
