Crypto news
‘You don’t own Web 3.0,’ says Jack Dorsey, criticizing its centralized nature
In a series of tweets posted on Tuesday, Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, as well as the founder and CEO of Square (now Block), voiced his criticism over the direction of Web 3.0 development. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, joined Dorsey in the mockery. On an unrelated note, the same day, Dorsey replied, “Bitcoin will” when asked if crypto will replace the dollar. Within context, Web 3.0 is a decentralized version of the virtual world that will, in part, feature public blockchains, metaverse technology, nonfungible tokens and decentralized finance free from the grasp of centralized power sources, such as corporate servers. You don’t own “web3.” The VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives. It’s ultimately a centralized entity wit...
Crypto exchange Kraken acquires non-custodial staking platform Staked
Major cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has announced that it purchased blockchain infrastructure company and investment manager Staked for an undisclosed amount. In a Tuesday announcement, Kraken — the crypto exchange aiming for a $10 billion valuation — said it had added Staked to its portfolio of yield products following the acquisition. The company described the Staked deal as “one of the largest crypto industry acquisitions to date” but did not disclose the amount. According to Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, Staked users will have access to Kraken’s portfolio of yield products. Staked CEO Tim Ogilvie cited the exchange’s “commitment to supporting proof-of-stake networks” as well its track record on customer experience and security in its decision to move forward with the deal. As we gear up fo...
Blockchain enables enterprise business models in the Metaverse
Enterprise blockchain has come a long way since its inception in 2017. Blockchain for enterprise use initially began as a technology built on private, permissioned networks, primarily used for supply chain management. As blockchain matured overtime, enterprises began to leverage public, permissionless networks like Ethereum to conduct business. Fast forward to 2021 — enterprises are now applying decentralized concepts to create more efficient workflows in the Metaverse. William Herkelrath, head of business development at Chainlink Labs — a decentralized oracle network — told Cointelegraph that while the Metaverse is hard to define, he believes that it’s a collection of ecosystems that are growing naturally out of decentralized finance, or DeFi: “Enterprises need to be interacting wit...
Medical Q&A platform Ask The Doctor files lawsuit against Shiba Inu, engages war of words on Twitter
Tuesdays can be boring, but an ongoing Twitter drama is captivating the attention of many blockchain enthusiasts. Ask The Doctor, a Canadian medical questions and answers website, announced that it would be suing Shytoshi Kusama, volunteer project lead of meme token Shiba Inu (SHIB), for alleged libel and will attempt to uncover his personal identity in court. Kusama immediately fired back, alleging that “it is illegal [for Ask The Doctor] to take people’s money for a service it never provides.” Tell your legal team that it is illegal to buy a verified account to use it to scam other people. Tell them it is illegal to take people’s money for a service you never provide. And if you REALLY want to come and get me… COME GET ME. It’s almost time anyway…...
Ether’s growth as independent asset fuels ETH-BTC flippening narrative
The narrative surrounding Ether (ETH) of it fast transforming into an independent asset has been around for some time now. However, the last few months have seen this notion gain an increasing amount of mainstream traction, as is best highlighted by the fact that, since Oct. 1, ETH has showcased substantial northbound movement against Bitcoin (BTC). To put things into perspective, toward the beginning of November, the one-month realized correlation between the BTC/ETH pair dipped as low as 60%, its lowest ever in the currency’s decade-old history. Furthermore, since the start of the year, while Bitcoin registered gains of 105%, Ether went up by a whopping 505%, thus outperforming the flagship crypto by nearly five times. Ether gaining an upper hand is perhaps best reflected in that, ...
Behind the scenes of the first AAA shooter game built on the blockchain
Shrapnel is the world’s first AAA shooter game built on the blockchain, at the intersection of community, creation and ownership. The team is comprised of BAFTA and Emmy award-winning talent that has worked on blockbuster franchises such as HALO, Call of Duty, Madden, Bioshock, Destiny, Star Wars, Hawken Skylanders, Westworld and more. It is built on the blockchain gaming platform, Forte. In an exclusive ask-me-anything session with Cointelegraph Markets Pro, Don Norbury, head of studio at Neon Media, the game’s developer, offered an in-depth take on what the game has to offer. Shrapnel game banner. Source: Shrapnel Cointelegraph Markets Pro User: When I think of gaming, I think of Galaga, Pac-Man, Tomb Raider, Timesplitters. These games were fun and puzzling and con...
Ubisoft pursues NFT initiative with aleph.im following fan backlash
Earlier this year, gaming giant Ubisoft joined the aleph.im network as a core channel node operator after the blockchain-based storage and computing startup became a part of Ubisoft’s Entrepreneurs Lab. On Tuesday, aleph.im announced that it will offer a decentralized storage solution for Ubisoft Quartz in order to further incorporate nonfungible tokens (NFTs) into Ubisoft’s AAA games. https://t.co/oTzJGUOcyw partners with Ubisoft to bring playable NFTs to AAA games for the first time!!! Read all about how we did it here https://t.co/JiFlATvFcX#aaa #games #decentralized #storage #computing pic.twitter.com/eytP8etvyI — Aleph.im Network (@aleph_im) December 21, 2021 Players will be able to acquire dynamic NFTs called Digits on Quartz that will be used in Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy Ghost Recon...
Dormant Bitcoin wallet holding 321 BTC activated after eight years
A Bitcoin wallet containing millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin (BTC) has come out of dormancy. For one reason or another, the wallet has not transacted for years despite having what is considered life-changing money. The wallet had not been used since 2013, barely a few years after the mysterious Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared. The wallet currently contains $15 million worth of BTC, and it’s unclear who owns this account or why it was reactivated on Tuesday. The wallet has 321 BTC. After eight years, the value of this amount has increased from $6,594 to a staggering $15,103,046. By now, the funds in the wallet had appreciated almost 2,300 times. The Bitcoin community is abuzz with speculation about who owns the wallet and why it has just come out of dormancy. Some bel...
The political Santas and Grinches of the crypto industry in 2021
2021 was a huge year for the crypto industry. A few years ago, our elected officials probably hadn’t even heard of crypto before, let alone had an opinion on it. However, this year it seemed like crypto was the hot topic on the block all around the globe. Here is a list of the most outspoken crypto advocates and critics from the parliaments and white houses around the world. Santa: Francis Suarez First up for crypto Santa is Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. In August, the city launched MiamiCoin (MIA). Revenue generated from the token is used to fund community projects in the city, with Mayor Suarez saying in a November interview that each Miami resident with a digital wallet could soon be eligible to receive a Bitcoin (BTC) dividend from the yield of MiamiCoin. The city of Miami mayor, @Franci...
Bank of Russia to allow crypto investment via foreign firms: Report
Russia continues sending mixed signals to the cryptocurrency markets as more reports provide details on the country’s upcoming crypto regulation. Shortly after Bank of Russia governor Elvira Nabiullina announced the Bank’s intention to prevent the local financial system from using crypto, another executive at the central bank has clarified that crypto investment will remain legal in Russia. There will be one important condition, however: Russians will only be able to invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) through foreign companies, deputy governor Vladimir Chistyukhin said, according to a Dec. 20 report by the state-owned publication TASS. “Russian citizens and businesses have the right to acquire and hold cryptocurrency, but not through the domestic infrastructure or intermediaries...
Interlay raises $6.5M to accelerate Bitcoin DeFi interoperability
DFG Capital has led a $6.5 million investment in the interoperability start-up Interlay, which is building infrastructure for decentralized finance applications across major blockchains such as Ethereum, Cosmos and Polkadot. As per the announcement, the new funds will be used by Interlay to scale its operations and bring more developers on board with its open-source platform. In a statement, James Wo, DFG Founder and CEO, said Interlay’s solution will “expand the cross-chain possibilities for Bitcoin.” Interlay aims to integrate cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) with DeFi platforms such as Polkadot and Ethereum. InterBTC, the company’s main product, is a fully crypto-based Bitcoin-backed asset. It’s backed by multiple collaterals and functions li...
From eNaira to eHryvnia, a Caribbean fintech develops CBDCs around the world
Barbados, a paradise island in the West Indies, is known for its azure beaches, tidal waves, shipwrecks, homegrown grown Barbadian hospitality and, more recently, an influx of remote workers. Now, one can add cryptocurrency innovations to that list as well. Bitt, a Barbadian fintech firm developing blockchain technology, has successfully created the eNaira central bank digital currency (CBDC) for Nigeria and is on the path to creating an electronic hryvnia for Ukraine. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Brian Popelka, CEO of Bitt, discussed the technology behind the eNaira and the roadmap for the firm going forward. Cointelegraph: Would you please describe the technology behind the eNaira digital currency that you created? Brian Popelka: It’s really a stablecoin...
