DeFi & Ethereum News

2023-05-05 04:42:02 Coinbase Ventures Backs $10M ZkLink Raise Ahead of Mainnet Launch

ZkLink, an infrastructure layer that makes it easier to trade assets across blockchains, raised $10 million in a strategic funding round from a lineup of investors that included the venture capital arm of crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN). The fundraise will help drive zkLink towards its mainnet launch in the third quarter. Crypto venture capital funding rode the bull market of 2021 off a cliff as the bear market and post-scandal turbulence hit.

The race to launch zk-based technology has started to intensify. Polygon and Matter Labs announced in March the mainnet launch of dueling zk-EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) offerings within days of each other. For zkLink, the company will launch a community campaign called “Odyssey” and the “Dunkirk” asset withdrawal test ahead of its own mainnet launch. Still, infrastructure projects proved to be resilient, and noted venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz highlighted the promise of zero-knowledge (zk) technology in its recent annual report on the crypto industry.

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https://t.me/DeFi_Ethereum Open / Comment

2023-05-04 04:37:02 Biden administration reiterates desire for 30% tax on Bitcoin miners' electricity usage

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration reiterated that it wants all crypto mining operations to pay a new tax priced at 30% of their electricity costs. Proof-of-work crypto mining — which is overwhelmingly dominated by Bitcoin mining — is controversial because it uses vast amounts of electricity to compute and verify transactions on the blockchain. Bitcoin now uses more electricity than Finland, Belgium or the Philippines, according to Digiconomist.

The computational effort involved in mining can be substantial and can therefore require a correspondingly large amount of energy. The increase in energy consumption attributable to the growth of digital asset mining has negative environmental effects and can have environmental justice implications as well as increase energy prices for those that share an electricity grid with digital asset miners. Digital asset mining also creates uncertainty and risks to local utilities and communities, as mining activity is highly variable and highly mobile. An excise tax on electricity usage by digital asset miners could reduce mining activity along with its associated environmental impacts and other harms. Biden's proposals may struggle to make it into law.

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https://t.me/DeFi_Ethereum Open / Comment

2023-05-03 05:21:02 Decentralized Exchange Maverick Rolls Out Liquidity Incentives for Price Stability

Decentralized exchange (DEX) platform Maverick Protocol has unveiled a novel incentive system that can help stablecoins, ether (ETH) liquid staking derivatives keep their price pegs, the protocol said in a press release on Tuesday. The incentive system allows token issuers such as liquid staking protocols or stablecoin issuers to create so-called “boosted positions,” offering extra rewards to liquidity providers.

Maverick is built around an automated market maker (AMM) algorithm, where traders can swap digital assets without any intermediary in liquidity pools. Token holders can also deploy their assets in the pools to provide liquidity for trading while earning a share of the trading fees. The protocol’s latest upgrade comes as DEXs are fiercely competing to attract traders and traffic onto their platforms as crypto investors seek decentralized trading venues after multiple blowups of centralized marketplaces and increasing regulatory stranglehold. Maverick’s tool is more efficient than existing offerings because it allows token issuers to concentrate reward payouts.

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https://t.me/DeFi_Ethereum Open / Comment

2023-05-02 04:49:02 Nigeria's SEC Mulls Allowing Tokenized Equity, Property but Not Crypto: Bloomberg

Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission is considering allowing tokenized coin offerings backed by equity, debt or property – but “not crypto” – on licensed digital asset exchanges, Bloomberg reported Monday. “We always like to start, as a regulator, with a very simple, clear proposal before we go into the complex ones," Abdulkadir Abbas, head of securities and investment services at the Abuja-based commission, reportedly said.

The regulator is also processing applications for digital exchanges on a trial basis, intending them to undergo one year of “regulatory incubation” with limited services offered and under SEC monitoring to determine the firms' fitness to provide services. According to the report, the SEC will not start registering digital asset exchanges until it reaches an agreement with the nation's central bank, which has blocked local financial institutions from interacting with crypto services providers. Before the central bank doubled down on its restrictive rule, Nigeria was one of the fastest crypto adopters in the region.

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https://t.me/DeFi_Ethereum Open / Comment

2023-05-01 04:44:02 Meme Coins Surge: PEPE, WOJAK, And AIDOGE Increase Over 50% In 24 Hours

Spot On Chain reports significant gains for meme coins: PEPE, WOJAK, and AIDOGE. Meanwhile, the trader who spent 0.125 ETH to buy 5.9T PEPE sold 100B PEPE for 21 ETH. The latest news from Spot On Chain has reported that meme coins are hot again. In particular, PEPE, WOJAK, and AIDOGE have seen significant increases in value, with each coin increasing by over 50% in the past 24 hours.

The report also includes a review of some whales mentioned ten days ago. The PEPE whale 0x4a2C is one of these, having swapped 1.11 billion PEPE to ETH and realized a profit of 356.162K. They still hold 4.8 billion PEPE, with an unrealized profit of 2.3 million. Meanwhile, Lookonchain found the trader who spent 0.125 ETH on buying 5.9T PEPE, making an impressive profit of around 1.14 million in just four days, translating to over 4,500 times their initial investment, sells PEPE every time the price increases, and they recently sold 100 billion PEPE for 21 ETH at 0.0000004007. So far, they have sold 800 billion PEPE, which is 14% of all PEPE, and got 117 ETH, with an average selling price of 0.0000002744.

Source

https://t.me/DeFi_Ethereum Open / Comment

2023-04-30 03:55:03 Tornado Cash developer Alex Pertsev tweets for first time following prison release

Alex Pertsev, the Tornado Cash developer arrested in August 2022, is back on Twitter. Pertsev was released from prison on April 26, as previously reported by The Block, and is subject to ankle bracelet monitoring. The Dutch courts had shot down previous efforts to secure Pertsev's release. Pertsev was arrested in the days after the U.S. government sanctioned Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based transaction mixer frequently used to launder stolen coins.

Law enforcement authorities worldwide have long targeted transaction mixers and most recently seized $46 million in bitcoin as part of an operation against a service called ChipMixer. Pertsev's arrest and subsequent incarceration drew some criticism on the grounds that Pertsev shouldn't be penalized for developing open-source code. The incident also raised questions about the future of law enforcement actions against distributed protocols like Tornado Cash. Tornado Cash developer Alex Pertsev has returned to Twitter following his release from prison in the Netherlands. “Sorry I was afk for a while, what did I miss?” he wrote.

Source

https://t.me/DeFi_Ethereum Open / Comment

2023-04-29 03:45:05 Zcash Launched Version V5.5.0, Introducing A Proportional Fee Mechanism

According to a statement by Zcash’s creator, Electronic Coin Corporation, Zcash, a crypto privacy technology, has released version V5.5.0. This version has corrected many problems and implemented a proportional fee structure, which may aid in the future resolution of the problem of heavy transaction load on the blockchain. A proportional fee system is a scheme that guarantees transaction fees accurately reflect the processing expenses needed for completing certain transactions.

Zcash is a blockchain-based payments network that focuses on privacy by using zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) to shield transactions, keeping the contents of a transaction secret even on a public blockchain. Zcash, which arose from the Zerocash protocol, diverged from the Bitcoin network in 2016. ZEC is the ticker sign for its native token. The blockchain is one of the main digital currency blockchains that aims to solve this growing problem and give its users back control and privacy. ZKPs are the result of a cryptographic approach developed in the 1980s. They let two parties verify information with each other without disclosing the underlying data.

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https://t.me/DeFi_Ethereum Open / Comment

2023-04-28 03:29:02 UK Allowing Crypto Charity But Warning About Risks

According to the British Charity Commission’s instructions announced on April 26, UK organizations that take cryptocurrency donations must maintain accurate records and follow taxes and money laundering regulations. Authorities have cautioned organizations that receiving assets like BTC or NFTs is risky since they are extremely unpredictable in price, vulnerable to hacking, difficult to identify donations, and of little use.

Nonetheless, the Commission tackles the hazards connected with cryptoassets in addition to authorizing charity contributions in cryptocurrency. These include the volatility of their value, which can fluctuate rapidly, the possibility of fraud or theft by hackers, and the lack of protection compared to traditional currencies or financial products – because cryptoassets are largely unregulated, you are unlikely to have access to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) if something goes wrong. Moreover, cryptoasset regulations differ by country; some governments prohibit cryptoassets, while others have extensive regulatory requirements.

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https://t.me/DeFi_Ethereum Open / Comment

2023-04-27 03:24:02 Avalanche Activated The Important Cortina Upgrade On The Mainnet

According to the official announcement, Avalanche’s Cortina upgrade went live on the mainnet yesterday around 16:00 UTC. According to previous reports, the Cortina upgrade includes migrating X-Chain to run the Snowman++ consensus, implying that the entire network has been migrated to a single consensus engine, reducing the size of the trusted computing base and increasing the leverage of existing R&D efforts.

The Cortina upgrade also includes batch authorization rewards and a 1500 gas cap on the C-Chain. Protocol improvements in the Cortina update are incompatible with AvalancheGo v1.10.0 versions. Before activating a node on Fuji, verifiers’ software must be upgraded to AvalancheGo v1.10.0. The price of Avalanche, like the rest of the cryptocurrencies, has dropped in recent days, much to the chagrin of many investors ahead of the Cortina upgrade. Following a successful testnet launch earlier this month, the next upgrade went live on the mainnet on April 25, exceeding AVAX holders’ expectations.

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https://t.me/DeFi_Ethereum Open / Comment

2023-04-26 03:18:02 Bitget’s BGB Token Gets New Utilities And Burn Mechanism

Bitget, a cryptocurrency exchange, has revised the whitepaper for its native token BGB. The new paper details the advantages that BGB offers as a utility asset on the Bitget platform, such as the BGB lottery, a trial fund for futures trading, a zero withdrawal charge, and special earning opportunities. A BGB repurchase and burn mechanism are also being investigated as part of the token’s economic side in order to limit.

BGB is a utility token having a total supply of 2 billion and a circulating supply of 1.4 billion. It grants users special advantages and rights on the Bitget exchange. The BGB token will provide expanded access to established products like as the native Launchpad and Launchpool, and users can expect to gain more from participation and input. BGB has been steadily increasing in value since February 2023, when it peaked at $0.51 and had a 500% rise in total trading volume – an achievement that presently places it ninth on the Coingecko list of CEX tokens. The latest whitepaper for the BGB token emphasizes this point, highlighting additional capabilities that will catapult the asset into Web3 via tighter integration with the platform’s expanding portfolio of services.

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https://t.me/DeFi_Ethereum Open / Comment