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Polygon Launches zkEVM Testnet — Defi Projects Uniswap, Lens, Aave Join Testing
The blockchain project Polygon has announced the launch of the zkEVM public testnet, a layer two (L2) scaling solution announced in July that aims to reduce fees and inherit the security of the Ethereum blockchain. Polygon considers the testnet “the first open-source zkEVM network,” and developers are encouraging people to join the testnet, report bugs, and explore the code hosted on Github.
On Monday, Polygon announced the project’s zkEVM testnet is live and the project’s team is inviting users to help them “battle-test” and speed up the process toward mainnet. Polygon’s zkEVM is a zk-rollup solution with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility and the project is built to bolster scalability. The project summary hosted on Github notes that zkEVM “consists on a decentralized Ethereum Layer 2 scalability solution utilising cryptographic zero-knowledge technology to provide validation and fast finality of off-chain transaction computations.”
In addition to inviting users to test the project, the decentralized finance (defi) platforms Uniswap and Aave will be joining in on the zkEVM testing network, alongside the gaming studio Midnight Society and the social media platform Lens. “Using zero-knowledge (ZK) tech to scale the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is a big challenge,” Polygon said on Monday. “We want to keep what we love about Ethereum while harnessing the power of ZK proofs. Today, we take another big step towards scaling that doesn’t sacrifice EVM equivalence.” Read More
Stablecoins: Everything You Need to Know
From DAI to USDT and everything in between, learn about all the major stablecoins and what makes each unique.
Stablecoins are blockchain tokens that are designed to hold a specific value. They typically track the price of fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar.
The most common types of stablecoins are fiat-backed, overcollateralized, and algorithmic, and there are significant differences between each of them.
Stablecoins play a key role in the decentralized finance and broader cryptocurrency ecosystem.
A stablecoin is a blockchain-based token that is designed to stay at an equal value, typically that of a specific fiat currency. The most widely used stablecoins track the price of the U.S. dollar, but stablecoins representing other currencies, such as the euro, the pound sterling, and the Mexican peso, are also in circulation.
Stablecoins have become a crucial part of the crypto ecosystem because they let investors take advantage of the price stability offered by fiat currencies. This is especially relevant to smart contract-enabled blockchains like Ethereum, the network that hosts the most stablecoins in circulation today. Instead of needing to send funds off-chain to trade them back into fiat, investors can seamlessly swap their volatile cryptocurrencies for dollar-pegged assets using decentralized exchanges like Uniswap. Read More
How Binance Is Training Law Enforcement Around the World to Combat Crypto Crime
Crypto exchange Binance has built a specialist team to teach law enforcement officers about the ins and outs of cryptocurrency.
Fighting crypto crime starts with fighting the many misconceptions that have built up around it.
Like the idea that cryptocurrency transactions are untraceable and anonymous, for example, and that the blockchain industry doesn’t care enough to investigate bad behaviour or take action to prevent it.
Neither is true, said Matthew Price, head of intelligence and investigations for the Americas at Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.
“There is the perception out there that exchanges just don’t care, that crypto is the Wild West and no-one wants to cooperate with law enforcement—and that’s just patently false,” Price told Decrypt.
Price, a former IRS agent who also spent time as a targeting officer with the CIA, is one of numerous recent recruits from the government to join Binance’s growing investigations team, including longtime IRS special agent Tigran Gambaryan, now global head of intelligence and investigations at Binance. Read More
FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Predicts One Blockchain Use Case Will Take Over Traditional Finance
FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried thinks one primary crypto use case will push the digital asset sector into the world of traditional finance.
Bankman-Fried notes in a new interview on the Unchained Podcast that it takes two days for money to get delivered through the traditional equities market, which can potentially lead to trades getting cancelled and that that is worse on the cash side where it takes a month for cash to “definitely, definitely settle.”
“Starting from that position, well, then what happens when markets get volatile? The answer is that risk just overwhelms the system. How do you fix that? You fix that with clean, clear, unambiguous settlements that are fast and cheap. And that’s what blockchain does. That’s its core, most-obvious use case.
And so one of the first things that I think blockchain may really help quite a bit is a financial settlement. Excited to see that happen in traditional finance. And I think that we’re going to start to see bleed over from that if nothing else in the not-too-distant future.
And outside of that, I think there’s a lot else that can happen here, and I think that we’re just going to see this intersection increase and increase and increase over time.” 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.
NFTs will be ‘as disruptive’ as Bitcoin was 10 years ago — Kraken exec
Jonathon Miller, managing director of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken in Australia, says despite NFT volumes plunging, the company remains “bullish on the NFT space.”
Nonfungible token (NFT) trading volumes may have dropped nearly 98% since January, but several industry executives tell Cointelegraph that it’s nothing to fear as the technology continues to develop and mature.
Jonathon Miller, managing director of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken in Australia, said “despite NFT market activity and sales volume having slowed down in September, we are still seeing positive adoption signals at an institutional level and continued growth in use cases.”
He told Cointelegraph that the company remains “bullish on the NFT space” and believes it will be “just as disruptive and innovative as Bitcoin was 10 years ago.” Moreover, he said he was particularly intrigued by JPMorgan signing “a lease using the technology” as well as hearing the news that “the Vatican has opened an NFT gallery.”
He, however, acknowledged that the NFT industry is still “in its infancy” and that the biggest barrier to mass adoption is “nightmare user experiences,” saying that it is “very hard to say to someone who wants digital art, that you have to install a wallet and you have to onboard with that exchange.”
The Kraken executive said it has been a priority for them to make that process smoother. Read More
This is what your email could look like in Web3
The first generation of blockchain-based messaging platforms are attempting to address the missing pieces of Web3 adoption.
Forget about tracking decentralized autonomous organization votes, decentralized finance transactions, or data breaches across many channels and platforms. Your Web3 mailbox will handle it for you without requiring your phone number or legacy email address. Instead, your wallet address will receive and organize all this information.
At least, these are some of the promises made by Web3 communications companies attempting to build the first generation of blockchain-based messaging platforms: the Web2 experience with Web3 privacy and security, and, most importantly, focusing on Web3 problems.
A wallet’s monthly statements, transaction notifications and hack updates, for example, are some of the contents users could receive in their inbox, explained Swapnika Nag, co-founder of Hashmail — an India-based startup that launched in beta on Oct. 1.
The startup is now offering users the possibility to exchange emails through their existing wallet addresses. “That’s essentially an inbox which feels very much like email, but on the backend, you just connect with your wallet address and your messages,” noted Nag. Read More
Metamask to let U.S. Users Buy Cryptocurrencies Directly From Their Bank Accounts
Now Metamask users in the US will have an easier way to purchase their crypto thanks to its integration with ACH.
Metamask continues to push for leadership in the cryptocurrency wallet industry, offering new tools that make it easier for its users to purchase crypto.
On October 13, Sardine, a financial platform offering instant ACH settlements, confirmed a partnership with ConsenSys to allow Metamask users in the U.S. to purchase cryptocurrencies with their bank accounts from the wallet’s UI.
We don’t fox around
We make payments faster & safer for MetaMask users 🦊 https://t.co/kvhAKQy6oe
— Sardine (@sardine) October 13, 2022
This would be the latest partnership announced by Metamask. Before this one, the web wallet revealed an association with Asset Reality to help users recover their stolen cryptocurrencies for free.
For Sardine, this partnership would be one more achievement in its roadmap. Recently, the team raised $51.5M in a Series B funding led by the crypto-friendly venture capital firm a16z and backed by other big names in the industry like Visa and Google Ventures.
ConsenSys, the blockchain technology company behind Metamask, also participated in Sardine’s funding round. Read More
Smart contract-enabled insurance holds promise, but can it be scaled?
Blockchains can help to insure the world’s uninsured, but daunting challenges remain: How does one explain crop insurance to indigent farmers?
A new insurance world is coming where smart contracts replace insurance documents, blockchain “oracles” supplant claim adjusters, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) take over traditional insurance carriers. Millions of poor farmers in Africa and Asia will be eligible for coverages like crop insurance too, whereas before, they were too poor and too dispersed to justify the cost of underwriting.
That is the vision, anyway, on display in the recent Smartcon 2022, a two-day conference that sought to provide “exclusive insights into the next generation of Web3 innovation.”
The Lemonade Foundation, a nonprofit founded by United States insurer Lemonade, is behind the recent formation of the Lemonade Crypto Climate Coalition, a group that believes “blockchain has the potential to pool that risk together” and “basically solve the core problem that has inhibited the scale of insurance in the developing world for profit services and that is cost,” said Confino at Smartcon 2022. Founding members also include Hanover Re, Avalanche, Chainlink, DAOstack, Etherisc, Pula and Tomorrow.io. 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.
