The controversial layer-2 network had taken $2.3 billion in deposits since November as it prepared for launch, but within 24 hours of going live, that figure had dwindled to $650 million. Source
CORRECTION (19:08 UTC): An original version of this story misinterpreted data from DefiLlama to suggest that most of the funds in the original Blast deposit contract were withdrawn immediately after the network’s launch this week. The funds were indeed withdrawn from the Blast contract, but further analysis shows that most of the funds were just moved to a new address associated with Blast’s mainnet, not withdrawn from Blast entirely. Source
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published new guidance to give employers more certainty about sharing their workers’ personal details in a mental health emergency. The guidance provides advice on when and how it is appropriate to share workers’ information when the employer believes that someone is at risk of causing serious harm to themselves, or others, because of their mental health. Chris Hogan, ICO Head of Regulatory Strategy, said: “We want to reassure employers that during a mental health emergency they should share necessary and proportionate information without delay…
WLD is considered a proxy bet on OpenAI, the Sam Altman-owned artificial intelligence company. Source
State law enforcement officials from Montana, Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas filed a joint amicus brief – or friend of the court filing – in the SEC’s suit against Kraken on Thursday, alongside a number of industry lobbyists and other participants. Source
Since joining the SEC in 2018, Peirce, a lawyer, has openly advocated for crypto in the face of skepticism from many of her colleagues, including current Chair Gary Gensler. While prefacing her remarks with a “these views are my own” disclaimer, Peirce spoke openly about her frustration with the regulator’s willingness to seemingly pass judgment on crypto as an asset class. Source
Home Office pilot scheme failed to assess privacy intrusion of GPS monitoring Government did not provide migrants on the pilot scheme clear information on what data it was collecting and why Information Commissioner says it’s crucial the UK has ‘appropriate checks and balances in place to ensure people’s information rights are respected’ The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued an enforcement notice and a warning to the Home Office for failing to sufficiently assess the privacy risks posed by the electronic monitoring of people arriving in the UK via unauthorised…
A prover is a key component for layer-2s, since they generate proofs that are then posted to the base layer blockchain – a crucial process in linking the networks and sharing the security. With a faster prover, processing transactions costs should be lower, which in effect then will also lower fees for users and speed up transactions, according to the StarkWare team. Source
Whether it even needs to bother is another question. Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart noted Thursday that one of Vanguard’s ETFs, VOO, which tracks the S&P 500 Index, has attracted $15.7 billion in net new money so far this year, double what BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF, IBIT, has collected. Source
Bitcoin is trading at a premium in many of the world’s currencies because of their relative weakness to the USD Source