crypto blog
Harmony launches Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT Passport
On Friday, blockchain platform Harmony — whose mainnet runs on the Ethereum network, claiming to have two-second transaction finality and fees 1,000 times lower than Ethereum — announced the launch of its Bored Ape Yacht Club Passport. The Passport enables users to import proof of their apes into DeFi Kingdoms, a play-to-earn game built on the Harmony blockchain with over 120,000 monthly active users. During its initial stages, Ape holders will be able to validate and display their assets in the game across multiple blockchains when they connect their MetaMask wallet to DeFi Kingdoms. The infancy of cross-chain technology means that funds could be at risk when bridging across chains, as the biggest decentralized finance hack thus far this year showed. However, as stated by its develop...
Clarity pushed back: Russian government fails to forge a consolidated stance on crypto regulation
On Feb. 18, the Russian Ministry of Finance kicked off public consultations on the rules of cryptocurrency issuance and transactions. While a welcome development, it is less than the country’s crypto space had expected to get. Earlier in the week, the government announced that by Feb. 18, a bill containing the finance ministry and central bank’s consolidated position on crypto regulation would be drafted. Updated estimates suggest that it will take at least another month for draft legislation to see the light. The main reason for the delay appears to be the central bank’s renewed resistance, which just several days ago seemed to have been overcome. Here is a roundup of the latest twists in this rocky ride. Round 1: Central bank’s ban proposal On Jan. 20, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is...
Georgia lawmakers consider giving crypto miners tax exemptions in new bill
Five members of the Georgia House of Representatives have introduced a bill that would exempt local crypto miners from paying sales and use tax. On Monday, Georgia Representatives Don Parsons, Todd Jones, Katie Dempsey, Heath Clark, and Kasey Carpenter introduced HB 1342, a bill which has yet to be titled. The legislation proposes to amend the state tax code “to exempt the sale or use of electricity used in the commercial mining of digital assets” and would likely only apply to commercial miners operating in a facility of at least 75,000 square feet — roughly 6,968 square meters. The proposed bill is the latest in the series of state-level measures aiming to encourage crypto miners to set up shop. In January, Illinois lawmakers introduced a bill which would extend tax incentives for data c...
NFTs and DeFi are revolutionizing real estate investing and homeownership — Here’s how
NFTs continue to make an impact on multiple sectors, and this mainstreaming is opening up new opportunities and revealing new trends for blockchain technology. Recently, the real estate sector has shown interest in blockchain technology because it opens up the potential for fractionalized ownership, cryptocurrency-backed mortgages and other unique ownership, financing and payment models. Here’s a look at a few real estate-oriented blockchain projects that are to integrate decentralized finance, cryptocurrency payments and nonfungible tokens (NFT) to the sector. Propy Propy is the largest real estate-focused protocol in the cryptocurrency market, and it’s focused on automating home buying and making the closing process faster and more secure. After becoming the first company to launch...
What is the Near Protocol, and how does it work?
What is Near protocol blockchain? Near Protocol is a decentralized application (DApp) platform that focuses on usability among developers and users. As a competitor of Ethereum, NearProtocol is also smart-contract capable and a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. Near uses sharding technology to achieve scalability, a core aspect discussed later. The native token, NEAR, is used for transaction fees and storage on the Near crypto platform. Tokens can also be used for staking by NEAR tokenholders who wish to become transaction validators and help achieve network consensus. Near was built by the NeaCollective and conceptualized as a community-run cloud computing platform designed to host decentralized applications. It was also built to be both developer and user-friendly, hence having features s...
Multichain recovers $2.6M stolen funds, to reimburse losses on condition
After a month-long fight against an ongoing exploit, cross-chain router protocol Multichain announced the recovery of nearly 50% of the total stolen funds, worth nearly $2.6 million of cryptocurrencies. The team has also released a compensation plan to reimburse the users’ losses. On Jan. 10, blockchain security expert Dedaub alerted Multichain about two vulnerabilities in its liquidity pool and router contracts — affecting eight cryptocurrencies including wrapped ETH (WETH), wrapped BNB (WBNB), Polygon (MATIC) and Avalanche (AVAX). 1/3 We recently identified the “phantom functions” code pattern, which would have led to likely the largest crypto hack ever. Your code may be vulnerable! You need to check for the pattern in your Solidity/EVM code! https://t.co/pxRqCQFbnS — Dedaub ...
Exec at Composable Finance allegedly doxed as convicted fraudster Omar Zaki
Late Friday afternoon, decentralized finance, or DeFi, investigator @zachxbt published a series of tweets accusing fraudster Omar Zaki of hiding behind the facade of 0xbrainjar, the anonymous head of product at Composable Finance. From last November to this February, Composable Finance raised over $167 million through seed funding, as well as crowdloan auctions on the Polkadot (DOT) and Kusama (KSM) parachains. Over 9,000 participants contributed to the DOT crowdloan alone. As told by zachxbt, who cited documents from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, Omar Zaki, then a 21-year-old New York resident and graduate of Yale University with a bachelor degree in physics and economics, was charged with fraud after misleading investors while operating an unregistered hedge ...
Analyst say Ethereum price could fall to $1,700 if the current climate prevails
Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) price are still being hard hit by the current wave of volatility and this is leading traders to go back to the drawing board and readjust their short-term expectations. On Feb.17, Bitcoin price briefly dipped below $40,000 and Ether failed to hold support at $2,900, raises the chance of a drop to $2,500. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hovering near the $2,900 support level through the morning trading hours, Ether was hit with a wave of selling that dropped it to an intraday low of $2,752. ETH/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView Here’s a look at what analysts are saying about the price drop for Ether and whether or not more downside is expected as global tensions continue to rise. Ethereum’s nex...
Decentralization revolutionizes the creator’s economy, but what will it bring?
From video game enthusiasts monetizing their passions as shout casters to fashion influencers supercharging their careers into livestreamers on e-commerce platforms, the creator economy flourished, evolved and matured in the past year. Largely catalyzed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, contemporary creators benefited from the gradual shift in consumer behaviors as more people came online across the globe. Now valued at over $100 billion, the creator economy is witnessing staggering growth as the worlds of e-commerce, social media and online communities converge. With opportunities mounting in social tokens and corresponding virtual playgrounds such as the Metaverse, the year ahead seems to be filled with a great deal of promise. What lies ahead for creators in an increasingly digital and ...
OpenSea smart contract upgrade to delist inactive NFTs on Ethereum
OpenSea, one of the most popular nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, has rolled out an upgrade to its smart contract, a proactive measure to weed out inactive listings on the platform. As a part of the planned upgrade, all OpenSea users will need to migrate their NFT listings — currently hosted over the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain — to the new smart contract. The new contract is live! Start migrating your listings now: https://t.co/W1w9ciCK2D — OpenSea (@opensea) February 18, 2022 According to the OpenSea announcement, the NFT listings created before Feb. 18 will automatically expire within a week by Feb. 25 by 2 PM ET: “This new upgrade will ensure old, inactive listings on Ethereum securely expire and allow us to offer new safety features in the future.” Upon successful migration, the NFT...
Crypto Biz: JPMorgan enters the Metaverse, Marshall Islands legalizes DAOs, Feb. 10–16
Last week’s Crypto Biz newsletter explained how Wall Street is essentially marketing Bitcoin (BTC) for us after Wells Fargo said digital assets could “soon hit a hyper-inflection point” in terms of adoption. This week, JPMorgan Chase issued its own bullish outlook when it labeled the Metaverse a $1 trillion a year opportunity. In addition to JPMorgan, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) this week sent out a strong signal that nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and the Metaverse are part of its long-term plans. On the regulatory front, the Republic of the Marshall Islands took a bold step in becoming a leader in the blockchain arena. The latest Crypto Biz newsletter explores these stories in greater depth. For a full breakdown of the top business stories in crypto, register for the full newslet...
Here’s why AI-equipped NFTs could be the real gateway to the Metaverse
Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have been largely acquired as proof-of-profile pictures (PFPs) that represent a brand, embody culture or ultimately, reflect as a static status symbol. Blue-chip NFTs like the Bored Ape Yacht Club or Cool Cats were not originally backed by any tangible utility other than speculative value and hype, along with the promise of an illustrative roadmap, but in 2022, investors are looking for a little bit “more.” However, nonfungible tokens are finding their use beyond branding and status symbols by attempting to build out an existence in the Metaverse and some are ambitious enough to start within it. The Altered State Machine (ASM) Artificial Intelligence Football Association (AIFA) has introduced a novel concept to NFTs called nonfungible intelligence or NFI. By...
