Features TheBitTimes.com

The Institute of Crypto-Assets held a formal opening at the Léonard de Vinci center in the business district just outside of Paris. On Nov. 8, the first-of-its-kind Institute of Crypto-Assets held a formal opening at the Léonard de Vinci center in the business district just outside of Paris.  The Institute will support and conduct research related to blockchain technology and crypto currencies. Its scientific board includes 11 experts from major French educational institutions, such as the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and École polytechnique. A committee of 6 practitioners, including co-founder of Ledger, Nicolas Bacca, and founder of the crypto exchange Paymium, Pierre Noizat, will also oversee the work of the Institute. According to Cyril Grunspan, the director of the Cryptoassets Institute, it will focus primarily on educational goals: “Our goal is not to lobby but to create a forum for discussion on cryptoassets.” Two lectures accompanied the opening: histori...

When it comes to privacy and regulation, could Vitalik Buterin’s Privacy Pools be the answer? Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently authored a research paper, the primary focus of which was integrating privacy features into blockchain transactions while ensuring compliance with a range of regulatory requirements. Experts from various backgrounds collaborated on this research project, including early Tornado Cash contributor Ameen Soleimani, Chainalysis chief scientist Jacob Illum, and researchers from the University of Basel. The diverse team reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the research, drawing insights from crypto currency, blockchain security and academic scholarship. The paper suggests a protocol known as “Privacy Pools,” which can act as a regulation-compliant tool aimed at improving the confidentiality of user transactions. How do Privacy Pools work? Privacy Pools, as Buterin and the team explain in the research paper, aim to protect the privacy of transactions ...

The deal aims to enable faster, cheaper payments between 27 African countries, working with three Onafriq partners. Ripple will power new payment corridors between 27 African countries and Australia, the United Kingdom and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) under a deal with African mobile payment s provider Onafriq. Onafriq will use Ripple Payments' blockchain technology along with with three partner ing companies. Zazi Transfer will provide transfer services to Australia, PayAngel will serve the U.K. and Pyypl will serve GCC member states Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Remittances make up a large part of cross-border payment s to Africa. Ripple senior vice president of global customer success Aaron Sears told Cointelegraph: “Sub-Saharan Africa has proven to be a bright spot of crypto adoption, with consumers in countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa employing digital assets for real-world, day-to-day purposes.” Pyypl is alrea...

A security breach has resulted in the loss of 2,675.73 XMR from Monero's community crowdfunding wallet. The cause and source of the breach remain unidentified. A recent attack compromised Monero’s community crowdfunding wallet , wiping out its entire balance of 2,675.73 Monero (XMR), worth nearly $460,000. The incident took place on Sept. 1 but was only disclosed on GitHub on Nov. 2 by Monero’s developer Luigi. According to him, the source of the breach has not been identified yet. "The CCS Wallet was drained of 2,675.73 XMR (the entire balance) on September 1, 2023, just before midnight. The hot wallet, used for payments to contributors, is untouched; its balance is ~244 XMR. We have thus far not been able to ascertain the source of the breach." Monero’s Community Crowdfunding System (CCS) funds development proposals from its members. “This attack is unconscionable, as they’ve taken funds that a contributor might be relying on to pay their rent or buy food,” noted in...

During the test, HSBC was connected to the blockchain platform developed by Ant Group and supported by Ant Group’s banking partners. Banking giant Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) have tested the use of tokenized deposit s – from issuance to transfer to redemption – with major Chinese banker Ant Group, founded by Jack Ma, in a sandbox arranged by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. The initiative led by the banking institutions aimed to explore the potential of deposit tokenization in enabling always-on, real-time treasury fund movement between accounts held by a corporation within the HSBC network. During the test, HSBC was connected to the blockchain platform developed by Ant Group and supported by Ant Group’s banking partners. In an official communication shared with Cointelegraph, HSBC revealed that the test encompassed the issuance, transfer, and redemption of deposit tokens, adding: “It will pave the way for future research on how blockchain and tokenization ca...

The disgraced crypto executive claimed that he merely acted on various lapses in the company's data retention policy. Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) tried to explain his rationale for deleting corporate messages during a closed-door testimony without the presence of the trial's jury on Oct. 26. When prompted as to why he started using corporate communications on the encrypted messaging app Signal by prosecutor Danielle Sassoon of the Southern District of New York, SBF claimed that he only did so with the approval of FTX counsel Daniel Friedberg. However, SBF later said that while counsel approved the use of Signal, he never sought prior approval before utilizing the app's auto-delete feature. "At some point I remember changing my toggle to one week auto delete ," the former crypto executive said, adding that the practice has been in place since 2021. "Did you seek approval?" Asked Sassoon. "No," replied SBF. When asked to exp...

Crowdfunding has been a popular option for game developers looking to launch projects — but as the market gets saturated, tokenization is becoming a compelling alternative. Tokenization platform Brickken is holding a competition for indie developers — allowing them to raise capital, attract a new audience of engaged player s and accelerate their projects. For years, crowdfunding has been the go-to for game builders looking to make a splash and secure investment for their big idea, and it continues to enjoy significant demand within the game industry. Statistics from Kickstarter reveal that gaming is still the most popular category for crowdfunding campaigns. A total of 80,163 projects have launched after securing $2.27 billion in investment. But gaining traction and achieving milestones has gotten more complicated as the market reaches saturation — with even the most promising titles struggling to stand head and shoulders above the competition. This is where tokenization comes into p...

The decentralized social media platform has continued to thrive since it launched in the second week of August and has hit multiple new highs despite critics predicting its downfall. Decentralized social media platform Friend.tech based on Coinbase’s layer-2 protocol Base has touched new heights in terms of revenue growth and total value locked on its platform.  According to data from Dune Analytics, Friend.tech revenue has surged to 10,663 ETH and its TVL grew to over 30,000 ETH on Oct. 2. The recent boom in its revenue and trading activity comes amid a decline in hype from its early days of launch. As a decentralized social network platform launched in August 2023, Friend.tech enables users to swap "keys" associated to X accounts (formerly Twitter) belonging to their friends or influencers. These keys give users access to private in-app chatrooms and content only available from the corresponding X user. Users can buy shares in their friends and influencers on the platform...

A new social token network called Alpha has emerged, rivaling the popular Friend.tech platform but built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. The Bitcoin network got its own community-based social token ecosystem after a new project called Alpha emerged overnight.  As a decentralized social network protocol, Alpha is similar to the widely-known Ethereum-based platform Friend.tech. It allows users to monetize their online persona and content creation via its social tokens. ️Alpha α is officially here More than the @friendtech of Bitcoin, Alpha is set out to be one of the leading SocialFi dApps Built on Bitcoin Fully decentralized & permissionless Optimized UX for Key trading & alpha calls sharing Get Alpha Now: https://t.co/V7GX7UReQ4 pic.twitter.com/q6j4IrGic7 — New Bitcoin City (@NewBitcoinCity) September 16, 2023 However, unlike Friend.tech, Alpha has a different makeup. The finality is anchored on the Bitcoin blockchain, while the Polygon blockchain is used for data s...

Grab, a leading super-app in Southeast Asia with functions ranging from ride-hailing to food delivery, has recently integrated web3 services into its platform, including the offering of NFT vouchers in partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). As of Q3 2023, the app reportedly had over 34.9 million monthly active users and operates in more than 500 cities. One feature of this update lets users easily create web3 wallets within the app. Moreover, users can earn rewards, making it an attractive choice for those keen on the expanding world of decentralized finance (defi). BREAKING: Grab (taxi, food delivery, payments app) adds a web3 tab with an integrated crypto wallet pic.twitter.com/NRuDsQT9dE — jay (@0xjaypeg) September 7, 2023 Furthermore, Grab is pioneering the integration of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) into everyday consumer experience. The app now allows users to make payments using NFTs, a significant move toward the mainstream adoption of these dig...

Web3 venture capitalists will look to invest in blockchain gaming and collectibles projects through a new $20 million fund. A group of cryptocurrency venture investors has established a $20 million fund to invest in undervalued Web3 projects and companies focused on blockchain gaming and digital collectibles. Alpha Protocol Ventures (APV) will look to invest in a variety of projects across the Web3 ecosystem, its CEO and founder Vagelis Diamantis told Cointelegraph in an email interview. He said that gaming and collectibles will be a priority focus, while decentralized finance, layer-1 and layer-2 protocols will also fall within the scope of the fund’s capital allocation. “We will also explore projects that will try to solve real-world problems such as supply chains, data protection and infrastructure.” APV has drawn funding from Diamantis, Ethernity CEO Nick Rose, Web3 investment firm Morningstar Ventures and a group of Web3 angel investors. Diamantis, formerly the chief financial...

The Arbitrum-building Offchain Labs co-founder Ed Felten said its new tool would allow more seasoned devs to build EVMs, possibly making them safer. A recently released tool for Arbitrum developers could onboard more devs to Ethereum Virtual Machines (EVM) and improve its code, says Offchain Labs co-founder Ed Felten. Speaking to Cointelegraph at Korea Blockchain Week, Felten lauded Arbitrum Stylus, which Offchain released on a testnet on Aug. 31, allowing developers to use languages including Rust, C, and C++ to build Arbitrum apps. Felten said Stylus would allow non-Web3 native devs to “use the languages and the development tools that they're used to.” Today is Arbitrum Day Last year we took one giant leap with the launch of Arbitrum Nitro. Today we’re excited to announce that we are taking another big leap with the release of the code and public testnet for Arbitrum Stylus. https://t.co/NaxOuir5WH — Offchain Labs (@OffchainLabs) August 31, 2023 He added it would onboard “a l...

Clockwork’s planned closure comes about a year after receiving $4 million in a seed round led by Multicoin Capital. The developers behind Solana-based smart contract automation project Clockwork is set to turn off key infrastructure for the protocol at the end of October, citing “ limited commercial upside ." In a series of X (Twitter) posts on Aug. 27, Clockwork founder Nick Garfield Garfield said he and the team will stop active development of the protocol and on Oct. 31 will turn off its nodes on devnet and mainnet. Garfield cited “simple opportunity cost” as the reason for the team stepping back from Clockwork, admitting there were limited commercial benefits to continuing its development and the team had a growing interest in exploring other opportunities. Clockwork is a protocol that allows users to schedule transactions on the Solana network and create smart contracts automated to run applications when triggered by an event. Garfield said Clockwork’s code will remain ...

A combination of human expertise, NFTs and blockchain technology could help humanity protect its priceless artifacts from theft and looting. Computer scientist Adel Khelifi, of the University of Abu Dhabi, and archaeologist Mark Altaweel, from University College London, recently announced the development of a Web3-based verification-as-a-service model for determining and recording the authenticity and provenance of cultural artifacts.  Called Salsal, the big idea behind the service is to bridge the world of historical artifacts with an on-chain validation system that can’t be fudged or cloned. In an email interview with Cointelegraph, Altaweel said Salsal would be offered specifically to “ cultural heritage organisations.” Related: TemDAO world heritage project helps cultural sector through democracy-fueled donations There currently exists no official globally recognized registry for items of historical significance. Despite this, most territories have laws governing the procurement...

Several collapses in the past year have highlighted centralization problems, while fragmentation remains another hurdle in this nascent sector. True decentralization is something that many crypto projects strive for, but the result is often too complicated for everyday users to rely on. So, what’s the solution? The high-profile failures of big industry players — namely the cryptocurrency exchange FTX — exposed just how centralized the crypto space has become. Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried now faces a flurry of criminal charges amid allegations that his decision-making directly affected the exchange’s collapse. Challenges of true decentralization While true decentralization has been touted as crucial for unlocking this nascent market’s potential, some protocols that meet this requirement are simply too complicated to use. Poor interfaces and convoluted mechanisms mean customers are at a higher risk of making costly mistakes or even losing their funds altogether. It’s little wonder t...

Crypto hackers have turned their attention towards the crypto user and “security hygiene” is more important than ever, according to Binance’s Jimmy Su. Lurking in the shadiest corners of the dark web is a “well-established” ecosystem of hackers that target crypto currency users with poor “security hygiene,” according to Binance’s chief security officer. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Binance CSO Jimmy Su said in recent years, hackers have shifted their gaze toward crypto end-users. Su noted when Binance first opened in July 2017, the team saw plenty of hacking attempts on its internal network. However, as crypto exchanges continued to beef up their security, the focus has shifted. Phishing scams are particularly prevalent in emails. They are used as a way to collect your sensitive information by impersonating someone you trust. Use the blog below to learn how to stay safe from them. https://t.co/UtKBvR52lX — Binance (@binance) July 4, 2023 “Hackers always choose the lowest bar to...

The top 100 DeFi tokens didn’t see much change in price over the past week, with the majority posting minor weekly gains. Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you the most significant developments from the past week. The second quarter of 2023 saw over $208 million exploited and hacked from DeFi protocols, and with just $4.5 million of funds recovered, total losses to exploits were over $204 million. The DeFi ecosystem is an ever-growing industry with billions of dollars in daily trading volume. Still, it remains niche to a small population in the crypto industry and out of reach for some. For a thorough overview of DeFi, check out the new report from Cointelegraph Research titled: “Investing in DeFi: A Comprehensive Guide.” The DeFi lending protocol Maple Finance has decided to offer direct loans to some borrowers instead of relying solely on pool delegates to provide capital to fill the void...

The company has raised $1.525 billion in funding since its inception last year. On June 29, Palo Alto-based Inflection AI announced the completion of a $1.3 billion raise led by Microsoft, Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt and Nvidia. The new capital will be partly allocated to building a 22,000-unit Nvidia H100 Tensor GPU cluster, which the company claims is the largest in the world. The GPUs will be used to develop large-scale artificial intelligence models. Developers wrote:  “We estimate that if we entered our cluster in the recent TOP500 list of supercomputers, it would be the 2nd and close to the top entry, despite being optimized for AI — rather than scientific — applications." Inflection AI is also developing its own personal adjutant AI system dubbed “Pi." The firm explained that Pi is “a teacher, coach, confidante, creative partner, and sounding board” that can be accessed directly via social media or WhatsApp. The company’s total funding amount has reached...

Tres Finance co-founder Tal Zackon warned businesses to not use explorers when tracking their finances. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocol Tres Finance warned the community about a scam that involves fake token s designed to mimic legitimate transactions. In an interview, Tres Finance co-founder Tal Zackon and the company’s technical lead Idan David shared the details of a scam using fraudulent transactions that imitate legitimate ones. According to the duo, the scammers attempt to lure unsuspecting users to copy the wrong wallet address and send their transactions there. David further explained that scammers often identify and target wallets with large amounts of stablecoins like Tether (USDT) or USD Coin (USDC). Once the scammers locked into their targets, they create similar-looking wallet addresses and create token s that imitate the legitimate ones. David explained: “So, they're creating a new token that has the same symbol as the original token, and they can create ficti...

The Terra Allies senior full stack engineering team, known as the Six Samurai, has presented their Q3 spend proposal, emphasizing their deep passion as Luna Classic holders. After a joint governance proposal on liquid staking derivatives in Terra Classic (LUNC), a new proposal emerged for the next quarter suggesting the formation of a dedicated team consisting of six senior full-stack engineers. The Terra Allies senior full stack engineering team — known as the “Six Samurai” — has presented their Q3 spend proposal, emphasizing their deep passion as LUNC holders. With a firm commitment to achieving “a true revival of the ecosystem ,” the team pledges to dedicate their efforts and expertise toward this goal. Terra was originally an ecosystem with several moving parts. However, its TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin and LUNA asset faced catastrophe in 2022, causing vast changes to the project. Terra now has a new blockchain called Terra 2.0 with a new asset that is also called LUNA but referred ...