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Breaking down Bitcoin bridges: Insights from RootstockLabs
Sergio Lerner of RootstockLabs discusses Bitcoin bridging hurdles, BitVM innovations and implications for DeFi.
Bitcoin bridging has long been a technical and philosophical challenge, while other blockchain networks have embraced interoperability with relative ease.
This difficulty arises from Bitcoin’s intentionally strict consensus rules and limited scripting language, which makes crosschain transactions cumbersome despite the demand for decentralized bridges.
Over the years, Bitcoin Virtual Machine (BitVM) protocols have been developed to address these limitations. Still, they come with trade-offs, including increased complexity and reduced decentralization.
In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Sergio Lerner, science specialist at RootstockLabs, discussed the limitations of past approaches and the potential of Bitcoin bridging for the broader decentralized finance (DeFi) space. Read More
Uniswap Labs to integrate API with Ledger Live for DeFi swaps
Uniswap is set to integrate with Ledger Live, enabling token swaps directly via self-custody wallets and introducing clear signing for secure DeFi transactions.
Uniswap Labs, the developers of the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Uniswap, and Ledger, a crypto hardware wallet provider, have announced a new integration to improve DeFi accessibility.
The partnership will enable Uniswap’s Trading API to be integrated with the Ledger Live crypto asset management app.
The integration will allow users to swap tokens directly within Ledger Live, while maintaining control of their assets through their Ledger hardware wallet.
Mary-Catherine Lader, chief operating officer of Uniswap Labs, told Cointelegraph that the integration is part of the mission “to unlock value through universal exchange” and simplify the self-custody user experience. Read More
Texas kicks off 89th legislative session with new strategic Bitcoin reserve bill
If passed and signed into law, “it would make Texas the first state to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve,” says Senator Charles Schwertner.
Texas state Senator Charles Schwertner has introduced a bill in the new legislative session to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve in the Lone Star State.
“It’s time for Texas to lead the way in establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” the Republican politician and physician said while announcing the Senate Bill (SB 778) on X on Jan. 16.
“If passed and signed into law, [it] would make Texas the first state in the nation to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” he said before adding, “This would position our state at the forefront of the digital economy, driving growth and securing economic freedom for our great state.”
The Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act aims to establish a special fund outside the general revenue fund, allowing the state to own and hold Bitcoin as a financial asset and to accept Bitcoin donations from the public.
It recognized BTC as a “valuable digital asset with strategic potential for enhancing this state’s financial resilience” while acknowledging its decentralized nature and finite supply, which are “unique qualities that can serve as a hedge against inflation and economic volatility.”
The bill proposes implementing secure storage and management systems while mandating cold storage and regular audits for transparency and security. Legislature can appropriate funds to purchase Bitcoin, with funding limited to 1% of general revenue. Read More
How to fix a stuck Bitcoin transaction in 2025: A step-by-step guide
Learn how to resolve stuck Bitcoin transactions in 2025 with this comprehensive step-by-step guide, including using RBF, CPFP and mining pools.
Key takeaways:
In 2025, Bitcoin is expected to grow as a new global store of value and decentralized monetary system and will get more regularly transacted. As a consequence, Bitcoin’s limited block space to a maximum of 4MB may result in consistent network congestion and Bitcoin transaction confirmation issues, with users’ payments delayed by hours, even days.
Fortunately, Bitcoin owners can use a few methods to resolve blockchain transaction delays, especially during times of congestion that may delay or even cancel a time-sensitive payment.
Setting the right transaction fee before sending a payment will help users process their Bitcoin without panic.
This article is your guide to sorting stuck Bitcoin transactions. It will help you speed up BTC pending payments, providing a Bitcoin transaction fix step-by-step. Read More
Markethive Redefines "Investment" With The ILP and E1 Upgrade. Don’t Miss The Chance Of A Lifetime!
Markethive is redefining the investment realm. Markethive’s unique ecosystem combines a sophisticated inbound marketing suite replete with every innovative tool and system available to deliver successful marketing campaigns, a social networking interface, a state-of-the-art broadcasting system, and its fully functional crypto token, Hivecoin. (HVC) This unique combination sets Markethive apart, making it a complete ecosystem within the marketing and social network, digital broadcasting, and crypto industry.
As a result, the Markethive community can seamlessly accrue monetary value through micropayments for activity, content creation, rewards, incentives, and tipping. This is enhanced as the value of Hivecoin rises now that HVC is on its first crypto exchange. Given that Hivecoin is the apex of a utility token with many use cases in this prevalent industry, it stands to reason the only way the value of HVC can go is up.
The Entrepreneur One Upgrade is a gateway to a host of benefits. It allows you to acquire ILPs, become an equity holder, and participate in the platform’s future development. This unique investment approach, which bypasses the traditional finance route, positions Markethive as a compelling investment opportunity.
Markethive is heading into a future rooted in the principles of transparency and decentralization. It is a community-driven platform offering operational efficiency, freedom, and financial sovereignty not seen previously in conventional tech, aka Web 2.0, which has primarily been confined to the ethos of centralization. Read More
Self-custody is driving new crypto cycle of adoption — Ledger exec
Ledger’s focus on India highlights its efforts to drive crypto self-custody adoption with secure, user-friendly hardware wallets.
More than $3 billion in crypto-related hacks and scams in 2024 have led to heightened awareness of self-custody for digital assets. As a result, more investors are opting for hardware wallets rather than relying on centralized exchanges.
A major hack on the WazirX crypto exchange in July 2024 caused $235 million in losses and affected over 4 million users in India. Speaking to Cointelegraph during a 10-year anniversary tour, Jean-Francois Rochet, the executive vice president of consumer services revenue at Ledger, highlighted the need for educating people about self-custody:
“The Indian market needs to understand the benefits of crypto self-custody and the critical importance of digital security,” Rochet said.
The ultimate goal for a hardware wallet service provider like Ledger is to make devices as user-friendly as possible, while always maintaining our uncompromising level of security. “This has been our guiding principle since day one,” added Rochet.
Rochet pointed to India’s extensive developer base as a key contributor to the global digital asset revolution, evolving from tech services to advanced research and development. As a result, Ledger views India as a pivotal market for hardware wallets.
Currently, Ledger’s baseline offerings — the Nano series — are the company’s best-selling product line. However, the company has also been focusing on offering high-end touchscreen devices, such as Ledger Flex and Ledger Stax, to users eyeing self-sovereignty and financial freedom:
“As we’re now in a new crypto cycle of adoption, the demand for self-custody will keep rising, and more people are going to recognize the benefits of digital ownership, which are self-sovereignty and financial freedom.” Read More
Crypto scammers hard shift to Telegram, and ‘it’s working’ — Scam Sniffer
Scam Sniffer initially raised the alarm about Telegram malware scams in December last year but says bad actors have since evolved tactics to snare new victims.
Crypto scammers have made a serious pivot to Telegram malware scams, which have now surpassed traditional phishing in volume — increasing 2,000% since November.
In a Jan. 15 X post, the security firm Scam Sniffer said the scams they are encountering aren’t the “typical connect wallet” variety, which involves malicious actors deceiving a user into connecting their digital wallet to a fraudulent website or platform to drain funds.
Instead, scammers are now distributing sophisticated malware through fake verification bots used in fake trading groups, fake airdrop groups and fake alpha groups.
“Once you execute their code or install their verification software, they can access your passwords, scan for wallet files, monitor your clipboard and steal browser data,” the firm said.
Scam Sniffer has identified at least two fake verification bots used by scammers, OfficiaISafeguardRobot and SafeguardsAuthenticationBot. Read More
Here’s how ‘confidential AI’ with blockchain and TEEs protects data privacy
Decentralized ‘confidential’ computing secures data sharing and enables privacy-preserving AI and data monetization.
By combining blockchain and TEE, iExec offers a confidential AI platform that empowers developers to build AI applications with data privacy, ownership, and monetization by design.
From driving advancements in surgery to revolutionizing financial systems, artificial intelligence is reshaping the world at lightning speed. By 2026, analysts forecast that 80% of companies will benefit from AI’s transformative potential across multiple sectors.
Yet, the AI space is not all sunshine and rainbows. The thing about AI is that it’s as good as the data we feed into it, and most AI applications need massive amounts of sensitive data. Sensitive data becomes particularly vulnerable during AI model training, especially while actively processed. Moreover, centralizing large amounts of personal data to train high-quality AI models threatens individual privacy.
Thankfully, this privacy paradox isn’t without a solution. Innovations like confidential AI, built on the foundation of decentralized confidential computing (DeCC), offer a secure way for users to own and monetize their data while solving privacy and collaboration challenges. Read More
Beyond Transformers: New AI Architectures Could Revolutionize Large Language Models
Two new neural network designs promise to make AI models more adaptable and efficient, potentially changing how artificial intelligence learns and evolves.
In the past weeks, researchers from Google and Sakana unveiled two cutting-edge neural network designs that could upend the AI industry.
These technologies aim to challenge the dominance of transformers—a type of neural network that connects inputs and outputs based on context—the technology that has defined AI for the past six years.
The new approaches are Google’s “Titans,” and “Transformers Squared,” which was designed by Sakana, a Tokyo AI startup known for using nature as its model for tech solutions. Indeed, both Google and Sakana tackled the transformer problem by studying the human brain. Their transformers basically utilize different stages of memory and activate different expert modules independently, instead of engaging the whole model at once for every problem.
The net result makes AI systems smarter, faster, and more versatile than ever before without making them necessarily bigger or more expensive to run. 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.
Featured Image Source: Pixabay
