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Binance Launches Crypto Prepaid Card in Argentina through Partnership with Mastercard
Binance, a major global cryptocurrency exchange, announced on Thursday the launch of a crypto prepaid card in Argentina through a partnership with Mastercard to bridge the gap between cryptocurrencies and daily purchases.
Argentina is the first country in Latin America to experience the use of this product. The launch of the Binance Card is part of the exchange’s continuous efforts further to develop global cryptocurrency adoption in a tangible manner. The product is in the beta phase and will be widely available in the next few weeks.
According to the announcement, all customers in Argentina with a valid ID will be allowed to access the Binance Card to make purchases and pay bills with cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and BNB, at over 90 million Mastercard merchants globally, physical and online.
Cryptocurrencies will be converted to fiat currency in real-time at the point of purchase, and customers earn up to 8% in crypto cashback.
Maximiliano Hinz, the General Director of Binance in Latin America, talked about the development: "Payments is one of the first and most obvious use cases for crypto, yet adoption has a lot of room to grow. By using the Binance Card, merchants continue to receive fiat, and the users pay in the cryptocurrency they choose. We believe the Binance Card is a significant step in encouraging wider crypto use and global adoption, and now it is available for users from Argentina."
Binance plans to expand in new markets and offer support for additional cryptocurrencies. Read More
What is Chainlink VRF, and how does it work?
Using the provably fair and verifiable random number generator provided by Chainlink VRF, smart contracts can access random values without compromising security or usability.
Blockchain technology has spawned many applications over the past few years, the most popular being cryptocurrencies. It has also facilitated the creation of many decentralized, secure and transparent marketplaces in the digital economy.
Offering far more trust since all transactions are immutably recorded on the blockchain, this technology has been well supplemented by the smart contract feature popularized by Ethereum. Decentralized applications (DApps) based on blockchains like Ethereum are disrupting traditional businesses such as retail banking and are even introducing use cases never deemed possible.
Expanding the capability of smart contracts with oracles:
However, for the Ethereum blockchain to support the development of DApps that go beyond merely facilitating transactions, they must interact with the external or off-chain world and integrate the incoming data into smart contracts, which is where blockchain oracle technology comes into play, bolstering smart contracts by linking them with real-world data, events and transactions. Now, many types of third-party services are available, such as inbound, outbound, software and hardware oracles, which are further expanding the number of real-world applications that blockchain protocols can power.
Consensus-based oracle networks such as the Chainlink protocol provide end-to-end decentralization, which is key to securing the entire blockchain ecosystem in which they operate. Additionally, these oracles enhance smart contracts’ performance, functionality and interoperability to offer a higher degree of trust and transparency than on-chain systems. Read More
The UK cannot afford to send mixed messages on crypto
Regulators have expressed conflicting messages about whether the U.K. is a good place for cryptocurrency development to occur.
The United Kingdom is paving the road for cryptocurrency services, courting startups and established players alike while leading the way in pioneering regulation on stablecoins and nonfungible tokens.
But a lot has changed. After two years of deliberations, European Union lawmakers achieved agreement on the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, marking a pivotal moment for harmonized supervision of the sector on such a scale. This followed United States President Joe Biden’s executive order recommending a whole-of-government approach toward the responsible development of digital assets within the United States.
The U.K. has also seen major political shifts during this period, including the resignation of Treasury Minister John Glen, whose April speech supporting the industry represented the most emphatic from a U.K. official to date.
While Glen was broadly supportive of a regulated and nurturing framework for the sector, other U.K. institutions have voiced concern about the safety and viability of cryptocurrency. In fact, on the same day as Glen’s speech, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey called the crypto market an “opportunity for the downright criminal.”
It’s precisely this sort of mixed messaging that could hinder the industry’s development just as the starting pistol is fired. Uncertainty breeds stagnation. Evidence suggests that a lack of regulatory clarity has already put the brakes on the wide adoption of cryptocurrency by consumers. Read More
What Makes A DeFi Platform Credible?
DeFi adds another layer of credibility and trustworthiness, which is hard-coded in the underlying structure of DeFi protocols. Most of them are based on blockchain technology, which, by itself, is already credible and trusted by people around the world. Simply put, blockchain adds a layer of security that is next to impossible to breach. Decentralized services aren’t operated by a single entity but rather by a community, which makes them even more trustworthy.
But the real question is: is that enough? Even if they’re built on the blockchain, these DeFi protocols can still have some flaws that may be exploited by individuals or organizations that are part of them. Therefore, in addition to just trusting blockchain to do its part, we also need to check for other things as well.
Under “other things,” we mostly mean certificates and licenses. As the DeFi space is getting recognized in jurisdictions around the globe, many committees have been created to ensure the maximum security and trustworthiness of DeFi projects. On top of that, auditing companies and organizations nowadays also specialize in checking DeFi projects, ensuring they’re not doing anything illicit. Read More
A democratic society values a free-flowing media ecosystem. A healthy media ecosystem is one of the characteristics of a democratic society. Mass media outlets such as newspapers and cable TV networks were prominent in the past. Today, the internet and social media platforms allow for greater communication across society.
Journalism, investigative correspondents, and even freelance writers are essential to that ecosystem. High-quality reporting revealing brutal truths and users' scope and exposure on social media to either create or access information are forces that can drive genuine societal change. And even keep the power structures in check.
Despite the positive aspects mentioned above, harmful practices and negative external forces related to the media ecosystem often eclipse them. These issues are usually easy to recognize once they’re identified. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge them and spread awareness about their potential risks.
Doing so will help you make informed decisions about how you use media and how it can impact your life and the lives of others. The following are a few issues pervasive in many digital news sites, forums, and social media platforms. Read More
Markethive Media has embraced blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, building an ecosystem that belongs to “we the people,” eliminating many of the issues plagued by media outlets today. With its meritocratic culture, dynamic social media interface, and growing community, Markethive is enhancing and bringing the platform into the future internet with new technology and interfaces, but still in keeping with the human touch.
Cross chains, beware: deBridge flags attempted phishing attack, suspects Lazarus Group
deBridge Finance survives an attempted phishing attack, points a finger at the North Korean Lazarus Group, and warns the wider community to be on guard.
Cross-chain protocols and Web3 firms continue to be targeted by hacking groups, as deBridge Finance unpacks a failed attack that bears the hallmarks of North Korea’s Lazarus Group hackers.
deBridge Finance employees received what looked like another ordinary email from co-founder Alex Smirnov on a Friday afternoon. An attachment labelled “New Salary Adjustments” was bound to pique interest, with various cryptocurrency firms instituting staff layoffs and pay cuts during the ongoing cryptocurrency winter.
A handful of employees flagged the email and its attachment as suspicious, but one staff member took the bait and downloaded the PDF file. This would prove fortuitous, as the deBridge team worked on unpacking the attack vector sent from a spoof email address designed to mirror Smirnov’s.
The co-founder delved into the intricacies of the attempted phishing attack in a lengthy Twitter thread posted on Friday, acting as a public service announcement for the wider cryptocurrency and Web3 community: Read More
Bitcoin (BTC) Alternative Explodes More Than 150% As Crypto Project Details New Developments
One under-the-radar crypto asset suddenly outperformed the rest of the markets with a huge price rally after the project announced some updates.
Decred (DCR) is a community-directed, security-focused digital currency that aims to compete against Bitcoin (BTC) as a long-term store of value.
Launched in 2016, Decred’s whitepaper says it is engineered to prevent powerful individuals or central planning committees from gaining a disproportionate influence over the future of the project.
Its blockchain combines both proof-of-work and proof-of-stake consensus models and appropriates portions of block rewards to miners, proof-of-stake voters and fund development.
The Bitcoin alternative has its own constitution that outlines Decred’s principles, blockchain governance and project governance.
Jake Yocom-Piatt, project lead at Decred, announced via Twitter that he had presented a new community proposal to change the project’s website and messaging. Read More
Six reasons why blockchain makes sense for commercial real estate: Deloitte
The study reveals that blockchain technology is well-positioned to take over more than 50% of the entire leasing and sale process across commercial real estate.
Solutions built around blockchain technology offer several upfront benefits, including a censorship-resistant, irreversible distributed ledger. Deloitte’s study revealed blockchain’s position as a perfect fit for real estate use cases around leasing and selling.
Blockchain innovations often outdo traditional systems by not only digitizing information but also introducing a near real-time trustless environment, among other features. Big Four accounting firm Deloitte uncovered six opportunities for blockchain to disrupt the commercial real estate (CRE) industry.
The above infographic highlights six key pain points for CRE owners when leasing and selling their properties and maintaining complex transaction data. With this in the backdrop, Deloitte noted six opportunities for blockchain to serve the industry, which include improving processes around searching for properties and allowing people to make better decisions around leasing and purchasing.
Due to paperless processes, Deloitte envisions blockchain expediting property and payment evaluations and better-streamlining cash flow management. In addition, the technology’s inherent qualities also offer cheaper means of managing property ownership history while enabling efficient processing of financing and payments. Read More
BORA to Establish Cross Chain with Polygon in expanding Web 3.0 Market: KBW 2022
South Korean-based and blockchain-based content platform operator BORANETWORK (BORA) announced Wednesday to establish a cross-chain with Polygon to expand the global ecosystem and user liquidity contact points.
As Korea Blockchain Week (KBW 2022), one of the largest blockchain events in Asia just kicked off on Sunday in Seoul. Over 100 stakeholders from the crypto industry join the event.
During the conference on Wednesday, BORA presented its business operation updates by sharing its business directions with the public.
The company announced to speed up its expansion plans and direction of the ecosystem by building a partnership with Polygon, an Ethereum scaling platform, under a theme-based initiative.
In detail, the partnership will facilitate the cooperation between BORA and Polygon by expanding the "BORA portal marketplace ecosystem with Polygon NFT compatibility." At the same time, Polygon will technically support BORA and help its partners and NFT Ips with the Polygon system.
"We're delighted to be working with BORA to help them expand liquidity and introduce greater composability to their gaming ecosystem," said Urvit Goel, Head of Global Games Business Development at Polygon, adding that "By leveraging Polygon, BORA NEXT users will benefit from low fees and fast transactions while tapping into the Ethereum network's inherent security. Polygon is committed to supporting developers in Korea and looks forward to partnering with the best to grow blockchain gaming adoption globally." 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.
