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‘Flatcoin’ Builders Respond to Coinbase Call to Deploy on Layer-2 Network Base
After deploying its layer-2 solution last month, Coinbase is now calling for builders to churn up activity on Base.
Coinbase issued an open call to developers to experiment with a variety of unconventional DeFi applications on its layer-2 network Base.
Selected teams will receive a grant from the Base Ecosystem Fund and strategic assistance from the Coinbase team.
Base is the crypto exchange’s Ethereum-centric scaling solution. Announced in February 2023, the layer-2 network draws from the Optimism tech stack, another rollup-based scaling product for Ethereum.
Coinbase’s notice specifically highlighted a call to develop stablecoins that are not necessarily pegged to the dollar, pointing to projects like Olympus DAO, Reflexer, and Frax Finance.
Frax’s FPI stablecoin, for example, is pegged to a basket of real-world consumer items as defined by the U.S. Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) average. Read More
‘Unexpected and Disappointing’: Binance Reacts to CFTC Lawsuit
The exchange says it still wants to work with regulators to establish clear guidelines.
In response to a federal regulatory lawsuit targeting Binance that has rocked the crypto industry, the firm said the best path forward is to continue protecting its users while still working with regulators to develop a clear regulatory framework.
“The complaint filed by the CFTC is unexpected and disappointing as we have been working collaboratively with the CFTC for more than two years,” a Binance spokesperson told Decrypt in an email. “Nevertheless, we intend to continue to collaborate with regulators in the U.S. and around the world.”
On Monday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) accused Binance—the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world—of violating trading and derivatives rules, alleging that Binance operated a facility for trading digital asset derivatives in the U.S. since at least July 2019, giving U.S. residents access to trade futures, swaps, and options on cryptocurrencies.
"We have made significant investments over the past two years to ensure we do not have U.S. users active on our platform," the company said. "We went from approximately 100 people in our compliance team to around 750 core and supporting compliance personnel today." Read More
Polygon Launches Final Mainnet for zkEVM Solution to Scale Ethereum
It’s the final mainnet from Polygon, but co-founder Mihailo Bjelic advises proceeding with caution when using the new zkEVM.
Another day, another zkEVM launch.
Polygon today announced the final mainnet for its zkEVM product after the product’s testnet launch last October.
“zkEVM can be recognized as the ‘holy grail’ of blockchain scaling,” Polygon’s co-founder Mihailo Bjelic told Decrypt. “It offers simultaneously three very important features. First is scalability. The second one is security. And the third one is EVM equivalency, or EVM compatibility. All three are equally important.”
The launch comes just days after zkSync launched its scaling solution, joining the competition to make Ethereum faster. Read More
Six Million Bitcoins Now Lost Forever? Why This Matters
Over the years, millions of Bitcoin have been lost forever due to people forgetting or losing their keys, or possibly passing away without passing on their keys. With each passing year, this number grows and more BTC is lost. Now, this number is estimated to have crossed 6 million, which is quite bullish for the digital asset.
Six Million BTC Are Out Of Circulation Forever:
In a tweet, a manager at Cane Island Alternative Advisors, an investment advisory firm, revealed that the number of lost Bitcoins has crossed 6 million. Timothy Peterson shared this over the weekend where he explained that of the 19.3 million BTC that have been mined so far, there are only 13.3 million currently available. Going by Peterson’s numbers, over 31% of the current Bitcoin circulation supply is lost forever.
The investment manager further went on to state that another one million coins are expected to be lost by the time the remaining 1.7 million BTC are mined, which would take over 100 years with a halving happening every four years. Thus, “The 13 million circulating now is probably all you will have access to in your lifetime,” Peterson concludes.
Peterson shared a link to a 2020 study from Cane Island Alternative Advisors which showed at the time that about 4 million BTC were lost forever, with the claims that there will never be more than 14 million BTC in circulation. However, the investment manager did not back his most recent claims with data. Read More
Markethive Leading The Way In Web 3 Social & Market Media
Web 3.0 is the next generation of the internet which people envision will be more decentralized and permissionless. One that's built on decentralized protocols, where users help with content creation and the governance of the web itself. They also have the ability to own a part of the network, so you can think of it as a Read-Write-Own Internet.
There are already several technologies that could serve as the backbone for a Web 3 world. Most point to blockchains like Elrond, Cardano, or Ethereum, for example, but other distributed technologies like IPFS can also be used to decentralize networks.
Thousands of dApps (decentralized applications) are already being built in the Web 3 environment. These often include native tokens to add value to the application to those who hold the tokens. These native crypto assets allow those who participate in the network to share in the value generated from it.
Web 3 promises a decentralized alternative where we are all users, owners, and developers. This quote from Fabric Ventures sums it up beautifully,
“Web 3.0 enables a future where distributed users and machines are able to interact with data, value, and other counterparties via a substrate of peer-to-peer networks without the need for third parties—the result: a composable human-centric & privacy-preserving computing fabric for the next wave of the web.” Read More
Coinbase wants inflation-pegged flatcoins on layer-2 ‘Base’ network
US crypto exchange Coinbase wants inflation-pegged “flatcoins” to be one of four “critical” innovations it hopes to see on its newly launched layer-2 network, Base.
The company also wants developers to explore an on-chain reputation system, an on-chain limit order book (LOB) exchange, and tools to improve safety in decentralised finance (DeFi).
Coinbase announced the four areas in a ‘Request for Builders’ post, published a month after launching Base – a network secured by Ethereum and running on another layer-2, Optimism.
The trading platform believes that an inflation-pegged flatcoin is “now more important than ever” given recent crises in the banking sector and that such a stablecoin would be resistant to poor monetary policy from central banks.
Coinbase described flatcoins as “stablecoins that track the rate of inflation, enabling users to have stability in purchasing power while also having resiliency from the economic uncertainty caused by the legacy financial system”.
Unlike most stablecoins which are pegged to national currencies such as the US dollar, flatcoins would be pegged to the cost of living, tracked through a consumer price index and inflation data. Read More
What the Binance CFTC Lawsuit Means for Crypto
The charges against Binance are stiff, and the penalties could be business-ending. Here’s what you need to know.
The Commodities Futures Trading Commission’s enforcement action against Binance could shutter the crypto behemoth if the regulator's requests for injunctive relief and penalties stick—but there’s a lot more to the Commission's lawsuit to unpack.
The CFTC filed its lawsuit against Binance on Monday morning, which the company has said was “unexpected and disappointing,” citing its ongoing cooperation with regulators. The company also said in its statement that it has invested heavily in its compliance team “to ensure we do not have U.S. users active on our platform.”
The lawsuit alleges that Binance committed multiple trading derivatives violations, including not being properly registered to offer derivatives to U.S. clients, not adequately supervising activity on its exchange, insufficient anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) controls, knowingly evading or helping U.S. clients evade regulators, and perhaps most damning: trading against its own customers.
Zhao himself is specifically named as a defendant in the CFTC lawsuit along with Binance Holdings Limited (registered in the Cayman Islands), Binance Holdings (IE) Limited and Binance (Services) Holdings Limited (both registered in Ireland), and ex-chief compliance officer Samuel Lim.
Zhao dismissed the 74-page complaint as “FUD” (a popular crypto acronym for fear, uncertainty, and doubt) by writing “4” on Twitter Monday. Read More
Spotify Is Testing Token-Enabled Music Playlists
The pilot is currently only available for Android users in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia and New Zealand.
Music streaming Spotify is testing a new service called "token-enabled playlists," which allows holders of non-fungible tokens (NFT) to connect their wallets and listen to curated music.
Currently, the service is available to token holders within the Fluf, Moonbirds, Kingship and Overlord communities. The curated playlists will be actively updated during the three-month testing period and can only be accessed by community members via a unique link.
Web3 gaming and media universe Overlord tweeted on Wednesday that holders of its lizard-themed Creepz NFT project can connect their Web3 wallet on Spotify to access the project's community-curated "Invasion" playlist.
Overlord tweeted that the pilot is currently only available for Android users in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia and New Zealand.
Spotify appeared to confirm the details in a tweet reply. Read More
Despite Recent Setbacks, Crypto Idealism Is Still Alive And Well
The cryptocurrency industry has undoubtedly had a rocky few years. From high-profile scams to market crashes and regulatory hurdles, the industry has faced numerous setbacks that have shaken the confidence of even the most ardent crypto idealists.
The "idealist" crypto projects and platforms can help unlock practical value. Adhering to core principles, such as decentralization, user control, and being verifiable, is essential to make a lasting industry impact.
Those approaches introduce many new hurdles and challenges, but the following platforms continue innovating and pushing the industry forward - keeping crypto idealism alive. Read More
Disclaimer: These articles are provided for informational purposes only. They are not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other advice.
