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The evolution of DAOs and why they are expected to take hold in 2022
The formation of DAOs and a look ahead to 2022 and how DAOs are on a path towards mainstream adoption.
DeFi emerged from the desire among the blockchain community to create an open, permissionless, decentralized financial system. As such, DAOs offered an attractive way for projects to demonstrate their commitment to decentralization through community governance.
As a result, during 2020, when DeFi began to gain rapid ground, governance tokens became vastly popular. Flagship DeFi apps including Compound (COMP), Uniswap (UNI), and Aave (AAVE) launched tokens allowing users to participate in decentralized governance, while newcomer DeFi projects have taken to launching their governance tokens from the start.
So why are DAOs now making such a splash even among mainstream news outlets? Part of the reason is the surge in popularity of nonfungible tokens (NFTs), which are set to play a more significant role in DAO governance and who gets to participate. Read More
Ransomware Payments in Bitcoin and Other Crypto Hit at Least $600M in 2021: Chainalysis
According to Chainalysis, groups like Darkside and Conti took in a lot of Bitcoin and Monero for ransomware payments.
Chainalysis—a blockchain data firm—has found that value stolen through crypto-ransomware attacks likely rose from 2020 to 2021—it just hasn't accounted for it all yet.
According to a preview of the company's 2022 Crypto Crime Report, it's identified $602 million in ransomware payouts for 2021, compared to $692 million for 2020. However, it believes the 2021 figure to be an "underestimate" given that it has revised its initial 2020 estimate upward by nearly 50%.
"Anecdotal evidence, plus the fact that ransomware revenue in the first half of 2021 exceeded that of the first half of 2020, suggests to us that 2021 will eventually be revealed to have been an even bigger year for ransomware," the report states.
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that blocks access to computer files until the attacker’s requests are fulfilled. Hackers often ask for hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in funds—typically paid in cryptocurrency so it doesn't have to go through traditional payment routes. There are various versions or types of ransomware, called “strains." Read More
Intel to enter crypto space with blockchain accelerator shipping later this year
For now, it appears its efforts are focused on improving GPUs for crypto mining.
On Friday, Raja M. Koduri, senior vice president of accelerated computing systems and graphics group at Intel, declared their intent to contribute to the development of blockchain technologies, beginning with the introduction of energy-efficient crypto mining accelerators that will be released this year. Previously, Intel had announced it would unveil the next generation of Application-Specific Integrated Circuit mining machines at the next International Solid-State Circuits Conference later this month.
The company would also form a new International Solid-State Circuits Conference within Koduri's division. It would be responsible for building custom silicon platforms for optimizing blockchain mining performance and the design of supercomputers.
In addition, the firm believes that its circuit innovations will deliver a blockchain accelerator that has over 1000 times better performance per watt, or energy used per units time, than the mainstream GPUs used to mine blockchain networks, which utilize SHA-256 encryption. Regarding the development, Intel said:
"Argo Blockchain, BLOCK (formerly known as Square), and GRIID Infrastructure are among our first customers for this upcoming product. This architecture is implemented on a tiny piece of silicon to have minimal impact on the supply of current products." Read More
Blockchain ecosystem enables business adoption across all industries
Although business adoption of blockchain has been underway for a while now, the process has been slowed due to the lack of a clear path forward.
Blockchain can vastly alter the business landscape, improving existing processes and enabling new models for ownership and value transfer. Since the technology operates in a peer-to-peer fashion, transactions can be conducted autonomously, eliminating some of the intermediary costs typically incurred as assets move from one place to the next.
A single example of this is represented in the financial sector, where blockchain technology supports secured global money transfers with reduced complexity, fees, and instantaneous results. Looking ahead to healthcare, the blockchain has also enabled the secure sharing of data for patient medical data and voting systems.
Although this technology’s growth has been in the makings for a while now, the COVID-19 pandemic has only acted to accelerate the need for businesses to shift from the brick-and-mortar mentality to one that is more digitized.
Unfortunately, adoption is still in its early days, with many businesses yet to understand what blockchain technology is and how it can help them accomplish their goals. This challenge is mainly noted across small and medium-sized businesses, who struggle to bridge this gap with the dominance of technical-level content flooding the industry. Therefore, making the technology more accessible will come down to providing proper guidance to use cases specific to business intent. Read More
Innovations that will change the way we work and interact online.
The Markethive Social Market Broadcasting Network becomes more prominent daily as the blockchain-driven ecosystem for entrepreneurs with a non-adversarial, bi-partisan free speech ethic and the collaborative culture we rarely see on social media platforms today. Even the newer acclaimed, free speech platforms are partisan to the left or right and deal with de-platforming and boycotts from payment providers.
Social + Video + Blogging + Marketing + Curation + Broadcasting + Affiliate + Gamification + Cottage Businesses = Markethive: A Powerful Blockchain-driven Ecosystem
There is nothing out there like Markethive. We are an Inbound Marketing (automated marketing platform) like Marketo, Paragon, and even the wannabee MLM Onpassive platform. We are like Youtube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., but will be superior to these legacy Web 2 media when we release all the aspects and layout of Markethive 2.0.
We have a dynamic social media interface and growing community with a strong collaborative ethos, with SaaS and broadcasting capabilities already operational. We are not waiting for the launch to access the services; they are already there for you to use to help you facilitate your business and increase your reach and following.
Markethive is enhancing and bringing the platform into the future internet with our new technology and interfaces, but still in keeping with the human touch. Read More
How Polkadot’s parachain auctions make a decentralized Web3 possible
Polkadot’s parachain auctions are bound to be successful and will ensure a decentralized Web3 by connecting different blockchains together.
When Gavin Wood co-founded Ethereum, he stated that it would “allow people to interact in mutually beneficial ways without anyone needing to trust each other.” In theory, such a platform would pave the way for Web3, characterized by decentralized or distributed network architectures, that would lay the groundwork for a truly open internet where we would not have to blindly entrust our data to monopolistic corporations or get permission from them in order to participate.
Since its inception in 2015, however, Ethereum has simply failed to adapt fast enough and keep up with the pace. Transactions costs for decentralized applications (DApps) have been too high while transaction speeds have been too slow. Wood left the Ethereum team in 2016 and founded the framework for a decentralized Web3: Polkadot. Read More
What is Avalanche Network (AVAX) and how does it work?
Smart contract-capable platform called Avalanche (AVAX) aims to improve blockchain technology, particularly in terms of interoperability, scalability, and usability.
Launched in 2020 by Ava Labs, Avalanche is a blockchain platform that is smart contract-capable. Avalanche aims to deliver a scalable blockchain solution while maintaining decentralization and security, focusing on lower costs, fast transaction speeds, and eco-friendliness.
Avalanche quickly became popular in the cryptocurrency space, with Avalanche TVL currently worth $8.41 billion and still rising across Avalanche decentralized applications (DApps). Avalanche is powered by its native token Avalanche (AVAX) and multiple consensus mechanisms.
With Avalanche, users can create an unlimited number of customized and interoperable blockchains. To operate a blockchain on the Avalanche coin, AVAX, one must pay a subscription fee. Read More
Block, Argo, and Griid Among First Buyers of Intel's New Blockchain Accelerators
Intel's move comes after competitor Nvidia released a graphics card for Ethereum miners in February 2021.
Intel is planning to release blockchain accelerators later this year and has lined up some big-name buyers, according to a blog post on Friday by Raja M. Koduri, a senior vice president.
Among its first customers for the accelerators, which help facilitate energy-efficient crypto mining, are Block (formerly Square), Argo Blockchain, and the crypto mining startup Griid Infrastructure.
Koduri, who is also general manager of the chip maker's Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics (AXG) group, didn't go into too much technical detail, but he did announce the formation of the Custom Compute Group within AXG, "to build custom silicon platforms optimized for customers' workloads, including blockchain and other custom accelerated supercomputing opportunities at the edge." Read More
How Do NFTs Work When It Comes To Digital Ownership?
An artist will upload their work to an NFT marketplace, ‘minting’ it into an NFT. The usage of ‘minting’ here means turning into the NFT. This process entails the creation of a smart contract, which is stored on the blockchain of whichever marketplace is used.
There is a line open for ‘Owner’ within this smart contract. Whenever an NFT is sold, the buyer’s information is then passed to this smart contract, with this line then being filled in. If anyone were to look at that contract, they would then see the name of who technically owns that piece of art.
When you buy an NFT, you’re buying that position in the smart contract, attaching your name to the piece within the blockchain ledger storage. 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.
