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Into the storm: The murky world of cryptocurrency mixers
A handful of obfuscation protocols are competing for the user base of OFAC-sanctioned Tornado Cash.
Cryptocurrency mixing services are a divisive subject in the industry. Some advocate for the privacy-enabling features of these protocols while others maintain that they are mainly used for illicit means.
For platforms like Tornado Cash, the mainstream verdict is “guilty as charged.” The infamous decentralized mixing protocol was sanctioned by the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in August 2022, essentially making it illegal for anyone to make use of the service.
Tornado Cash continues to be a contentious topic and one of its developers, Alexey Pertsev, controversially remains in detention in the Netherlands while investigators look to build a case against the Russian developer and his alleged role in the mixer’s operation.
In a proverbial sense, one man’s loss is another man’s gain and that seems to be the case for cryptocurrency mixers according to a report from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. Read More
Telegram Introduces No-SIM Sign-ups With Blockchain-Powered Numbers
Popular messenger Telegram now allows users to open accounts without the need to provide their mobile phone numbers. With the app’s latest update, they can log in using blockchain-based numbers instead, and they can be purchased with cryptocurrency on the Fragment platform.
Telegram Promises ‘New Era of Privacy’ With Accounts That Don’t Require Phone Numbers
One of the most popular messaging services in the crypto community, Telegram, has issued a new update to its application. The messenger now allows users to have an account without linking a cellphone number, an option that takes privacy to a new level, according to an announcement which insisted:
Today starts a new era of privacy. You can have a Telegram account without a SIM card.
“On Telegram, your phone number was never visible to strangers — our users control who can see their number and whether others are allowed to find them by their phone number,” the Telegram team reminded.
From now on, however, they will not even need one in order to set up a new account with Telegram. Instead, they will be able to log in using blockchain-powered numbers, which will be anonymous, the statement released on Tuesday revealed. Read More
Paradigm releases 'Ethereum for Rust' to help ensure network stability
A previous version of Ethereum for Rust had been released by Erigon in June, but the team stopped supporting it due to a lack of resources.
Web3 investment firm Paradigm has released a Rust implementation of Ethereum, according to a Dec. 7 announcement from the company’s chief technology officer, Georgios Konstantopoulos. The new software, called “Reth,” allows Ethereum validators to launch their nodes using Rust instead of Go, Java, or other programming languages.
A previous Rust implementation had been released in June, but developers stopped supporting it in November when they learned that Reth was under development, according to a post by the Erigon team.
In the announcement, Konstantopoulos stated that the software has been released in order to “[contribute] to Ethereum’s stability by improving client diversity,” as well as to provide node software that will perform well.
In the Ethereum developer community, “client diversity” refers to the idea that no single version of node software should dominate the network. Developers believe that if a single version of the software dominates, this could lead to network instability from bugs or exploits. The Ethereum documentation puts it this way:
“Multiple, independently developed and maintained clients exist because client diversity makes the network more resilient to attacks and bugs. Multiple clients is a strength unique to Ethereum - other blockchains rely on the infallibility of a single client. However, it is not enough simply to have multiple, clients available, they have to be adopted by the community and the total active nodes distributed relatively evenly across them.” Read More
How do crypto hardware wallet firms make money?
All the companies that are involved in producing hardware crypto wallets have multiple revenue streams, either directly or indirectly.
The hardware wallet industry has emerged as one of the most resilient sectors to the ongoing cryptocurrency winter, with issues like the FTX crash bringing in even more cold wallet sales.
The bear market of 2022 has once again reminded crypto investors of the importance of self-custody and independence from centralized exchanges (CEX).
As a result, some major CEXs like Binance has increased their investment exposure to hard wallet firms, while CEO Changpeng Zhao even suggested that CEXs may no longer be necessary in the future. Should it be the case, the crypto industry of the future will be quite unlike the existing one because the business model of hardware wallets is very different from that of CEXs.
One massive difference is how hardware wallets make money because — unlike CEXs — cold wallets don’t charge any fees for most transactions by design. But selling devices cannot be the sole revenue stream for cold wallet manufacturers due to a number of reasons, including that hardware wallets are durable devices that don’t often need upgrades. Read More
HVC is poised to triumph in the crypto economy.
Markethive is a monolithic blockchain project currently operating as a social network, an entire inbound marketing platform with email, blogging, and digital media capabilities that broadcast to the vast internet. It’s a complete Market Network and the first of its kind.
Markethive is predominantly a free system where users can access a platform that can cost more than $2,500 offered by other marketing platforms. There are, of course, upgrades that open up more tools and monetization opportunities, the first being the Entrepreneur One Loyalty Program, and coming soon is the Premium Upgrade.
The many domains Markethive has and its autonomous cloud systems that ensure its sovereignty and longevity make it untouchable and immune from the tech giants’ rule and biased agenda. But can still remotely infiltrate the social media platforms and reach the multitudes either locked in or looking for an alternative meritocratic medium.
In other words, wherever you go, Markethive is there, anywhere and everywhere, delivering its message via its community of entrepreneurs to a far-reaching audience. This next-generation social market media is poised in the wings, and when the time is right, it will emerge as a shining light to lift people up and bring financial sovereignty and hope in this gloomy and uncertain world.
The video platform, conference rooms, the unique four specific news feeds currently in development, and many other projects and incentives add to the credibility and need for an ecosystem in the social media and digital marketing space. Read More
Tensions Erupt Between Magic Eden and Metaplex Over Future of Solana NFTs
Metaplex accused Magic Eden of attempting to take over the NFT protocol as power players battle over royalties and decentralization.
Solana has been ground zero for the ongoing industry debate over enforcing NFT creator royalties, and now long-simmering disputes between major players in the space have spilled out onto social media as builders try to shift the course of the Solana NFT space.
In a tweet thread on Thursday, Metaplex—the creator of Solana’s NFT standard—alleged that top Solana marketplace Magic Eden was leading a “coordinated pressure campaign” to try and take control of the standard. A standard sets the parameters and functionality of a token, in this case, a non-fungible token (NFT) with features unique from other similar tokens. As the creator of the token standard for NFTs on Solana, Metaplex essentially wrote the code and holds the keys for virtually every NFT minted on the network.
Metaplex in its tweet thread today also mentioned Jordan Prince, who helped develop the original Metaplex protocol when he worked at Solana Labs, as a co-conspirator alongside Magic Eden. Prince went on to found B+J Studios, which raised $10 million in September to develop NFT infrastructure.
“Metaplex was built to elevate creators and artists above traditional gatekeepers, but those same commercial dynamics have re-emerged within Solana NFTs and are trying to pressure us into a half-baked governance scheme to take the standard out of the community’s hands,” the startup wrote. Read More
Charles Hoskinson Outlines New Privacy Protocol Coming to Cardano (ADA) Ecosystem
Cardano (ADA) co-founder Charles Hoskinson is outlining the features of a new privacy-focused protocol coming to the smart contract platform’s ecosystem.
In a new interview on Corey Costa’s Crypto Coins YouTube channel, Hoskinson says that Cardano’s upcoming privacy protocol Midnight, which was announced last month, aims to create a confidentiality network of smart contracts, much like what Ethereum (ETH) did for Bitcoin (BTC).
Hoskinson says that Midnight aims to solve the paradoxical problem of having privacy and disclosure laws simultaneously.
“From a regulatory perspective, you’re not actually allowed to use blockchain systems [for privacy]. Why? There’s [the] Bank Secrecy Act, GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation], you have all these privacy departments.
Anytime you could engage in a regulated business, there’s a privacy requirement because regulated business requires you to give away some personally-definable information and there’s a privacy law on the other side of it that says you have to keep it a secret.
The problem is that if you try to do it in a blockchain setting, your private information becomes public to everybody… so it made sense to me to find a way to… create a confidentiality network, so like what Ethereum did to Bitcoin, where Ethereum said ‘we have programmability,’ Midnight does to [Cardano], where instead of having a privacy coin, what you do is you have a confidentiality network, you have smart contracts that are private.” Read More
Paradigm’s open-source Ethereum execution layer client Reth
Paradigm is extremely pleased and excited to announce that they have successfully created their free and open-source Ethereum execution layer client, which goes by the name of Reth. This creation Reth, which in actuality is a short form for Rust Ethereum, happens to be a freshly built Ethereum full-node application whose entire concentration and the target is to be not only user-friendly but also speedy modular functionality and, above all, extremely effective and beneficial.
The entity also happens to be an execution client, which is completely adjustable with all of the Ethereum consensus client applications, which in turn, duly stand by the Engine API. Reth, in its turn, and being a full-fledged Ethereum node, will place all of the connected users in the position of being in tune with the total Ethereum blockchain. Read More
Investors chase Web3 as blockchain industry builds despite bear market
Cointelegraph Research asked top venture capitalists and industry professionals, “What is Web3, and what does it mean for the industry?”
The third quarter of 2022 saw a reduction in venture capital activity across the entire blockchain industry. Investors appear to be moving away from decentralized finance (DeFi) and into Web3.
The crypto industry tends to have a problem with overusing buzzwords, like the way “DeFi” was everywhere just a couple of years ago. In 2022, it seems like every new startup and established blockchain company alike is taking up the “Web3” mantle. But what exactly is Web3?
Cointelegraph Research delved into the matter in its recently released Q3 2022 Venture Capital Report. To further understand the subject, it held a panel discussion with venture capitalist investors to find out how they see Web3. 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.
