Tag: Blocks

Australia’s Top Bank Blocks Payments to Crypto Exchanges

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In a proactive move to enhance customer safety, the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) today (Thursday) announced it has implemented new measures aimed at protecting customers from fraudulent activities tied to cryptocurrency exchanges. In practice, this means that the bank will be able to block some outgoing transfers to selected cryptocurrency exchanges. However, the institution has not specified which platforms may be specifically concerned. In an attempt to minimize scam risks, from today onwards, the bank will decline or hold for 24 hours certain payments Payments One of the bases of mediums…

Australian ‘Big 4’ bank begins trial for cryptocurrency payment blocks

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Westpac, one of Australia’s ’Big Four’ banks, is launching its first trial of scam protection measures designed to combat fraudulent activities related to cryptocurrencies. The protection measures aim to mitigate losses from scams and reduce potential risks. According to the announcement, investment scams account for approximately 50% of all customer losses linked to scams, while around one-third of all scams involve direct transfers to cryptocurrency exchanges, making them extremely difficult to trace. The Westpac ban comes on the same day Binance customers were told they could no longer use PayID to…

Block’s Cash App Q1 report reveals $2b in BTC revenue

Jack Dorsey’s Block recorded a stunning $2.16 billion in bitcoin (BTC) sales in Q1. The fintech company’s main product, Cash App, generated 25% more bitcoin income yearly. The shareholder letter states that the multi-billion dollar bitcoin revenues were attributed to an increase in the quantity of bitcoin sold to customers” and were “partially offset” by a bitcoin market price reduction compared to the same period in 2022. Block’s 2023 Q1 findings The financial technology company had a 26% year-over-year increase in sales during the first quarter, and it also posted earnings per…

Art Blocks Co-Founder Erick Calderon Uses Free Market Ideals to Defend NFT Creator Royalties

Calderon delivered a defense of creative royalties – and the incentives that they encourage on the part of artists – that wouldn’t be out of place in an Ayn Rand novel. According to Calderon, NFTs incentivize artists to think more deeply about their artwork and engage continuously in the NFT community. With the prospect of a bigger, prolonged payday, Calderon thinks artists will create better, more valuable artwork – with the benefits (and profits) trickling down to speculators. Source

Italy blocks ChatGPT, investigates suspected violations

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Italy’s watchdog in charge of protecting data has announced that it’s temporarily blocking the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT and is opening an investigation over suspected breaches of data privacy rules.  The data protection agency has ordered the immediate limitation of data processing for Italian users by OpenAI, the United States company behind ChatGPT. The agency highlighted that this was a response to the recent data breach that the AI platform suffered on March 20. We believe the number of users whose data was actually revealed to someone else is extremely…

Euler Finance blocks vulnerable module, working on recovering funds

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Decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol Euler Finance became a victim of a flash loan attack on March 13, resulting in the biggest hack of crypto in 2023 so far. The lending protocol lost nearly $197 million in the attack and impacted more than 11 other DeFi protocols as well. On March 14, Euler came out with an update on the situation and notified its users that they had disabled the vulnerable etoken module to block deposits and the vulnerable donation function. The firm said that they work with various security groups…

CoinDesk and Art Blocks Release Microcosms to Supercharge Consensus With NFTs

Unlike with a traditional event ticket that simply gains you entrance to an event, we focused a set of on-the-ground rewards to enhance an attendee’s experience. Beyond access, all users get our DESK token airdropped to them. The token can be used at the event for food, drink, merchandise or experiences. Based on an algorithm, additional people will receive special rewards like a speaking slot at Consensus, a booth on the show floor, a comped hotel stay or meetings with key venture capitalists who are investing in Web3. If recipients…

Illuvium DAO blocks NFT pack-opening event involving 3AC founder Su Zhu

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The community supporting Illuvium, an interoperable blockchain game, has demonstrated the power of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) after blocking a scheduled nonfungible token (NFT) pack-opening event between Illuvium CEO Kieran Warwick and Three Arrows Capital (3AC) founder Su Zhu. Warwick was scheduled to go against Zhu in what’s called an “Influencer Illuvitars D1sk Battle” where prominent crypto personalities go against each other to open NFT packs. However, due to the controversies surrounding Zhu and 3AC, the Illuvium community expressed concerns over the potential risks of being associated with Zhu, who…