Elizabeth Bisbee, head of investigations at Chainalysis Government Solutions, testified she was “unaware” of scientific evidence for the accuracy of Chainalysis’ Reactor software used by law enforcement, an unreleased transcript of a June 23 hearing shared with CoinDesk shows. Source
The Connext cross-chain bridging protocol has announced a new token standard to reduce losses from bridge hacks. According to a July 24 announcement, the new “xERC-20” standard allows token issuers to maintain a list of official bridges and control how many tokens can be minted by each. In addition to Connext, decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Alchemix Finance will implement xERC-20 tokens, the announcement stated. Connext Alchemix Today, Connext is announcing support of the xERC20 standard and onboarding projects into safely bringing their tokens to every chain. As our flagship user,…
A platform aimed at ‘deanonymizing the blockchain’ has accepted its first submission for information concerning information on wallet addresses connected to Terraform Labs and its co-founder Do Kwon. In a July 24 announcement, Arkham Intel Exchange said it had accepted a submission from two “on-chain sleuths” resulting in a bounty payment of 9519.2625 ARKM — roughly $5,000 at the time of publication. An anonymous user and Ergo, a self-described “glorified accountant” working with OXT Research, sent the platform “evidence of wallets” owned by Kwon and Terra. Ergo said this information…
Third, miners with access to cheaper energy enjoy a tremendous advantage. If energy is 70% of your cost and you can find a 50% savings on energy, you’ve just cut expenses by 35% making for a dramatic increase in margins. Other business advantages matter too – firmware, cooling, taxes, personnel, access to capital, uptime, etc. – but the 800-pound gorilla is your electricity bill. If you have a significant disadvantage on a cost that accounts for 70% of your expenses, then no matter your other advantages, your business is on…
Worldcoin (WLD), the native token of the “privacy-preserving digital identity (World ID)” project founded by OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman, soared after listing on major crypto exchanges on July 24. At the time of writing, WLD trades at $2.22, reflecting a 33% gain on the day. Despite criticism from nearly every corner of the crypto sector, WLD’s 1-day performance eclipses that of Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP) and the remainder of the crypto market which has sold-off throughout the day. For many traders, one area of concern is WLD’s circulating…
Last week was marked by two new legislative initiatives for the crypto industry in the United States. Senator Jack Reed sponsored a bipartisan bill that would tighten Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations and sanctions requirements for decentralized finance (DeFi). The bill would subject DeFi operations to the same requirements as “other financial companies, including centralized crypto trading platforms, casinos, and even pawn shops.” Two major crypto lobbying groups slammed the legislation: Coin Center and the Blockchain Association. The former released separate statements describing the legislation as…
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the digital ruble bill into law on July 24. President Vladimir Putin had given his official approval, signing the digital ruble bill into law, and thus, putting Russia on track with its central bank digital currency (CBDC) implementation plan. Based on an official governmental statement, the digital ruble law is set to come into operation from August 1, 2023, with all rules except for one due for enforcement. The one rule that was not immediately enforced pertained to amendments to multiple federal laws in Russia,…
Maker has gained 53.5% over the past month, and the cryptocurrency witnessed a remarkable 28.1% surge between July 15 and July 22, achieving its highest daily close in nearly a year. While the gains are impressive, the real question is: Can the cryptocurrency sustain its current trajectory, or were short-term factors behind the price pump? Average Maker (MKR) price at Coinbase, Binance and Bybit. Source: TradingView MakerDAO, the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) responsible for the Dai (DAI) stablecoin and the governance token Maker (MKR), unveiled a five-phase roadmap in mid-May. Dubbed…
When Threads launched on July 5, it reported gaining more than 100 million organic users in the first five days, and it became clear the public was interested. The ease of transition, familiarity and the fact they didn’t need to learn new tech was enough to stop them from thinking: “Why even choose between the bad and the worse?” As we happily hopped platforms, taking data from one multibillionaire and handing it to another, we missed the real issue. Twitter CEO Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg are the…
The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), a Congressional watchdog agency, has released a report it completed in June on the regulatory framework for the use of blockchain in finance. The 77-page report was requested by Reps. Maxine Waters and Stephen Lynch before the midterm elections, when they were the chair and ranking member, respectively, of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. The report unsurprisingly found that more regulation is needed. The agency has a framework for evaluating regulatory reform proposals developed in 2009. The report pointed to crypto…