Author: Caitlin Carey

Caitlin is a crypto evangelist with a deep curiosity and passion for learning and writing about everything to do with cryptocurrency. She has a background as a performing artist and songwriter and is a digital media enthusiast, with a bachelor degree in Multimedia.

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Crypto News Play to Earn Solana

Phishing Scam Alert Issued for SOL-Based Move-to-Earn Game STEPN  

Blockchain security watchdog PeckShield has posted a warning on its Twitter account cautioning all users of fitness app STEPN that it has “detected a bath of @Stepnofficial phishing sites”. These sites contain a fake MetaMask browser extension and are stealing people’s crypto:

Hacks Growing in Step with STEPN

The fitness-based app is the latest prime target for scammers across the web. The STEPN community is growing rapidly, as more and more users sign up everyday and download the app. This has created the perfect sea for hackers to cast their nets wide and lure their prey through fugazi phishing sites. Fake STEPN websites are popping up everywhere and setting off alarm bells at PeckShield Alert.

Scammers have been stealing crypto after tricking users into entering their seed phrases into dodgy MetaMask wallets. Another scenario is where users are fooled into connecting their real wallet to a bad actor’s site under the guise of claiming a “giveaway”.

PeckShield provides a popular resource for the crypto community to keep up-to-date with the most recent hacks and phishing scams. Due to its recent surge in popularity, the STEPN platform has become a focus for scammers.

STEPN Overtakes Axie in Google Searches

STEPN, whose move-to-earn token has soared 217x in 2022, is a decentralised application (dApp) powered by the Solana blockchain. Following the success of the hugely popular play-to-earn game Axie Infinity, “STEPN” has been searched for more times around the world than the term “Axie”, according to Google statistics.

STEPN’s appeal is easy to understand – who wouldn’t want to get paid in Solana for going for walks and runs? As the game’s community continues to grow, and more users download the STEPN app, unfortunately so does activity from seasoned hackers.

Warning: Do Not Connect Wallets to Fake STEPN Websites

STEPN has only one official website. Do not visit or connect your wallet to any other fake site, even if it resembles the official STEPN branding. These fake phishing websites can look very similar and, in many cases, almost identical to the real thing. Always double-check you are on the official website and minimise making any costly mistakes by accessing the STEPN platform only through links via the official STEPN website, or associated social accounts.

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Australia Binance Blockchain BNB Crypto News Play to Earn Solana Tokens

Move-To-Earn Token STEPN Has Soared 217x in 2022  

Active types can now get paid to exercise and breathe in the fresh outdoor air with new Australian fitness app STEPN – an NFT-based play-to-move Web3 crypto “game” powered by the Solana blockchain.

Following in the footsteps of Genopets – the first move-to-earn NFT crypto game developed on Solana – STEPN is basically a mash-up of Apple’s step-counting Health app with Axie Infinity-style play-to-earn (P2E) tokenomics.

With over half a million downloads so far on Android alone, STEPN has taken off and so has its governance token, $GMT.

STEPN’s Green Metaverse Token (GMT) has sprinted upwards, increasing five-fold in value over the past month, from US$0.65 to an all-time high of US$3.79. $GMT is the token required for making upgrades to the App’s in-game NFT virtual sneakers. GMT’s market cap is now over US$2 billion and the token is currently ranked #60.


STEPN price chart (GMT). Source: CoinGecko.com

The most recent 26 percent spike came after STEPN announced a partnership with Japanese sports apparel giant Asics on April 18 via Twitter, launching a sneaker sale on the Binance NFT marketplace. Selected subscribers will be able to purchase the first STEPN sneakers on the BNB Chain version of the game:

Earn Crypto Exercising Outside

Users can earn crypto by walking or running with the STEPN App. The app tracks movement via your phone’s GPS and rewards are paid in STEPN’s game token: Green Satoshi Token (GST), which can be traded for USD Coin (USDC) or Solana (SOL).

Players begin by choosing a fitness level that suits their goals, which also determines how many tokens can be earned using the app. The four tiers are divided by different types of virtual sneakers: walker, jogger, runner or trainer. STEPN sneaker NFTs can be found and purchased from the in-app marketplace. Check the stepn.com website for full instructions on how to play.

Since the game has taken off, the price to get started playing has elevated accordingly. Currently the floor price for a pair of sneakers is 13.67 SOL (US$1,400+). Participants in the upcoming STEPN Shoebox sale on Binance will be offered mystery boxes containing a pair of NFT Sneakers of random quality and type, for 0.5 BNB (US$210).

STEPN plans to implement a sneaker-rental feature, coming soon to combat the high cost to entry.

How to Start STEPN

  1. Download the app from the App store (available for Android and Apple) and log in with your email address and verification code.
  2. Get verified. Join the official Discord and Telegram channels and get your activation code to enter the app on your phone. Note: due to popular demand, the development team is only releasing 1000 activation codes per day via Discord and 1000 per day via Telegram. You have to be quick, as codes refresh at midnight AEDT. You can also follow @Stepnofficial on Twitter for more activation code releases.
  3. Link your Solana wallet in the STEPN app and purchase your first pair of virtual sneakers from the STEPN marketplace. Sneakers can be customised and enhanced to increase token rewards.

STEPN buzz continues to gain traction amid rumours of further upcoming partnership announcements with other big shoe brands, including Nike and Adidas. Since the STEPN token sale in March, the app is off to a flying start, but it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Whether the move-to-earn model can prove sustainable over time will be the real test, but for now STEPN is showing no signs of slowing down.

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Blockchain Crypto News DeFi Hackers

Ola Finance Suffers $3.6 Million ‘Re-Entrancy’ Attack  

DeFi protocol Ola Finance has called on users to resist pointing fingers of blame and asked the community instead to focus on the growth of the project, as it addressed a US$3.6 million hack via Twitter on April 1.

The attack took place on Fuse Lending, Ola’s implementation on the Fuse blockchain:

Re-Entrancy Bug Responsible for Theft

The incident involved a “re-entrancy bug”, which is a commonly known culprit at the heart of DeFi attacks. The smart contract vulnerability enables hackers to make repeated calls to a protocol in order to steal assets, without having to pay back borrowed funds. 

The attack began by mixing funds through Tornado Cash, making the crypto hard to trace. The funds were then withdrawn over the Fuse Bridge and transferred to the Fuse network (Ola’s decentralised lending platform). The hacker used the assets as collateral to take out loans, and by exploiting the re-entrancy bug was able to then remove the starting funds without having to repay the loans.

This process was repeated several times across different Ola pools. The hacker then transferred the drained assets to wallets on Ethereum and BNB Chain. In total, the hacker holds US$3 million on Ethereum and another US$637,000 on BNB Chain.

Official Report Forthcoming

Ola tweeted that it would soon publish an “official report detailing the exploit”. For now it has responsibly paused the use of the Fuse network lending protocol while looking into rectifying the bad code.

This is not the first, nor will it be the last, re-entrancy attack in DeFi. Only two weeks ago, Agave and Hundred Finance, two lending DeFi protocols, were exploited for approximately US$11 million. Three months ago, Grim Finance DeFi protocol was hacked for US$30 million in Fantom tokens as attackers exploited a flaw in the vault contract.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Terra TerraUSD

Terra Founder Outlines Plans to Buy $10 Billion in BTC

Three weeks ago, the Luna Foundation Guard announced it would be buying US$1 billion in bitcoin to help restore “peg parity” between its decentralised stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and the US dollar.

Terra’s founder has now decided to go one step further and declared his intention to acquire up to US$10 billion in bitcoin:

Refresher on UST and BTC

For those unclear as to how bitcoin fits within the context of a decentralised stablecoin such as UST, it’s worth going back to an earlier statement by the LFG Foundation:

As an algorithmic stablecoin, UST’s peg is maintained by a series of open market operations, arbitrage incentives, and countercyclical levers within the Terra protocol to offset market forces pushing the UST peg above or below one USD. LUNA, Terra’s reserve, staking and governance asset, retains an elastic supply to help neutralise directional market pressures impacting the peg.

LFG Foundation announcement

In short, bitcoin is used to restore the UST’s peg parity to the US dollar at times when there are protracted market sell-offs.

Terra Founder Reveals Plan Details

In a Twitter Spaces conversation with renowned crypto troll, Udi Wertheimer, Terra co-founder Do Kwon revealed plans to back UST with bitcoin:

Haven’t been following up with the exact numbers ’cause transactions we generally do this over OTC, but the current clip that we have to buy big coin is about $3 billion [referring to bitcoin] and we will add to that.

Do Kwon, Terra co-founder

He added that “out of that 3 billion, most of it we haven’t bought yet”. Do Kwon went on to describe the move as a “new monetary era of the Bitcoin standard”:

Naturally, there was a lot of excitement across crypto Twitter:

However, some of the more experienced market participants, including Bitcoiner Adam Back, had more questions. He asked, “Where is the $10 bil coming from?”, to which Do Kwon responded:

It’s not 10B today – as UST money supply grows, a portion of the seigniorage will go to build BTC reserves bridged to the Terra chain. We have 3B funds ready to seed this reserve, but technical infrastructure (bridges etc) is still not ready yet.

Do Kwon, co-founder of Terra

Details remain somewhat muddied and it’s not clear whether even Do Kwon has all his proverbial ducks in a row, having conceded at the end of the Twitter Spaces conversation: “I said more than I shoulda”.

Initial Acquisition More Like $3 Billion

While plans are to acquire US$10 billion in total, as noted by Do Kwon the initial acquisition will be US$3 billion. Eagle-eyed on-chain analysts have already seen evidence of buying with US$125 million already bought, and another tranche of US$125 million imminent:

If Terra’s plans go through as intended, it would become one of the largest bitcoin holders, more so than every corporate outside of MicroStrategy with its 125,051 BTC stash.

Whatever one’s thoughts are on algorithmic stablecoins such as UST, or Terra itself, it’s undeniable that using bitcoin as a tool to maintain peg parity is a unique approach that remains untested. At the very least, it introduces some excitement at a time when the market appears to be in a sideways consolidation phase.

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Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum Privacy

Stanford University Raises $32 Million for Privacy Focused Blockchain

Espresso is the new scalability optimised and privacy-focused layer-1 blockchain being developed in the US by Stanford University’s cryptography research group.

Espresso Systems is led by a dream team, combining some of the world’s leading experts in zero-knowledge proofs and cryptography from Dan Boneh’s Applied Cryptography PhD course at the California-based Stanford, one of the world’s leading teaching and research institutions.

Co-founders Ben Fisch, Benedikt Bunz and Charles Lu (who have worked together on other high-profile Web3 projects, including privacy-focused blockchain project Monero) join Jill Gunter (Slow Ventures) to bring Espresso to market.

The project not only has the best brains in the business but also has plenty of venture capital funding. Espresso Systems announced on March 8 that it had raised US$32 million in a Series A round.

Leveraging zero-knowledge (ZK-rollups) combined with “proof-of-stake” consensus, Espresso aims to optimise for both privacy and scalability, without compromising decentralisation, and build the infrastructure to support the future of Web3.

Core Feature is CAPE Transactions

One of Espresso’s core features is Configurable Asset Privacy for Ethereum (CAPE), a smart-contract application that enables customised privacy levels over the visibility of information on the blockchain. CAPE “wraps” wallet addresses, asset types, transaction amounts, and credentials so they can be hidden from public view. Issuers on CAPE get to determine what data gets shared and with whom.

Stanford is not the only prestigious university with a blockchain-focused research team. Cambridge in the UK recently announced it would launch its own crypto institutional research group, The Cambridge Digital Assets Programme (CDAP).

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Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum Gas

ETH Layer 2 Service StarkNet Goes Live, Promises 100x Cheaper Gas Fees

Cheaper gas at last, and it’s all thanks to ZK-rollups. StarkNet’s most advanced Layer-2 validity rollup promises higher throughput and lower gas fees, up to 100 times lower than Layer-1s.

StarkNet’s employment of Zero-Knowledge rollups (ZK-rollups) and validity proofs could be the answer to solving the highly problematic scaling issues faced by the Ethereum network, without compromising on security.

Transaction Costs Down, Confirmation Rates Up

ZK-rollups are a favourable scaling solution for Ethereum because they drastically reduce transaction costs while speeding up the time it takes for transactions to be confirmed. The way they do this is by bundling, or “rolling up” transactions together for processing off-chain. Once verified, they are moved back on-chain and recorded as a single transaction. This reduces the number of transactions needed to be written to the blockchain in order to verify a single block, therefore significantly reducing the cost.

Unlike optimistic rollups, ZK-rollups use “validity proofs”. Validity rollups are much faster because they instantly prove transactions. This greatly speeds up the transactions per second (TPS) rate and makes the network run much faster. StarkNet transactions are estimated to reduce energy consumption anywhere between 200 to 200,000 times that of alternative chains.

Alchemy’s Integration of StarkNet

StarkNet and Alchemy are both pioneering the Web3 future, addressing two of the biggest challenges facing permissionless blockchains: StarkNet is tackling scalability, as Alchemy provides a complete platform for developers that reduces the complexity and costs of building on blockchain.

Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder and president of StarkNet

StarkWare announced on Twitter that its layer-2 StarkNet has now been integrated by leading blockchain development platform Alchemy. The partnership will allow Web3 developers to build decentralised apps (dApps) using the Alchemy suite and utilise StarkNet’s cutting-edge ZK-rollup technology.

StarkNet has its own open-source browser wallet and Chrome extension, Argent X. Other platforms are also integrating StarkNet; last month, for example, Opera browser launched its own Ethereum Layer-2 web wallet powered by StarkNet.

Categories
Anchor Anchor Protocol Crypto News DeFi Tokens

DeFi Token Anchor Protocol (ANC) Soars 50% in a Week Amid New Tokenomics Model 

Lending and borrowing protocol Anchor Protocol (ANC) has announced its vision to become the foundational money market on the Terra ecosystem and for DeFi in general.

ANC, the project’s governance token, has rallied from a seven-day low of US$2.68 to a high of US$4.00, gaining almost 50 percent in a week.

Anchor Protocol (ANC) price. Source: CoinGecko

Anchor Protocol offers very high yields for staking, currently 19.32 percent APY on UST stablecoin deposits. This attractive APY beats most others offered in the market.

Anchor is currently the top protocol on Terra in terms of total value locked (TVL). The price rise has seen TVL reach a record US$11.21 billion, doubling in a month and breaking ANC into the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

New Tokenomics Explained

In a recent Twitter thread, Anchor said it was looking to upgrade its tokenomics. The proposal plans to introduce further economic and governance incentives for ANC investors. People who lock up their ANC tokens for between one and four years will receive increased voting power and more ANC emissions. The longer the lock-up period, the higher the voting power and ANC distribution will be.

Retrograde to Build on Terra

Anchor also announced that a new protocol, Retrograde, will be building on Terra and rolling out a new governance structure for the Terra ecosystem:

It is generally bullish news for the price of tokens to rise after the announcement of new protocols building on the network. For example, DeFi token UMA soared 63 percent following the launch of Across Protocol last November.

It is always wise to be cautious of new DeFi protocols, however, as rug-pulls are a dreaded and constant possibility. Avalanche-based Atom Protocol is an example of this, closing down only hours after it was launched last month.

Categories
Crypto News Cryptocurrencies

Crypto Salaries on the Rise According to New Poll by Payroll Company 

A new report from global hiring and payroll company Deel shows that the number of everyday people who receive their salaries in crypto has increased globally. The State of Hiring Report 2021 also reveals a 10 percent month-over-month increase in people wanting to be paid in crypto.

Data was pulled from over 100,000 employment contracts in over 150 countries. The top regions of employees taking a portion of their pay in crypto were Latin America (LATAM), and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). LATAM was by far the highest, showing 52 percent of all employees took at least a part of their salaries in crypto.

Bitcoin (BTC) is the preferred choice of payment for crypto salaries, while the study showed 63 percent are paid in BTC, with ETH and USDC each accounting for 7 percent of payments.

Australia Saw a 23% Rise in Salaries

Asia-Pacific Countries (APAC) in the report showed Australia had the biggest gain in crypto salaries, with an increase of 23 percent. India’s were up 10 percent, while the Philippines’ increased by 6 percent.

According to new research by Finder.com.au, a quarter of all Australians would be happy to have a portion of their salary paid in Bitcoin. The “national survey” had only 1,000 respondents, yet it revealed that 24 percent of respondents wanted to be paid at least partially in Bitcoin. Getting paid a crypto salary is certainly an attractive option, as many Aussies already invest a portion of their earnings into digital assets.

With more Australians looking for inflation hedges, yield-bearing assets and alternative investment opportunities, it’s not surprising that this many people are willing to be paid part of their salary in Bitcoin.

Taylor Blackburn, personal finance specialist, Finder.com.au

Mass Adoption of Crypto is Imminent

In November 2021, Crypto News Australia reported that in the crypto-friendly state of Florida, Miami’s mayor had become the first politician to take his entire salary in Bitcoin. UFC heavyweight champ Francis ‘The Predator’ Ngannou also announced in January that he would take half his purse in Bitcoin when defending his title.

Getting paid in crypto could be the norm within a few years, experts say. More and more individuals, businesses, institutions and even nations are entering the cryptocurrency space every day. Global mass adoption is imminent.

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Blockchain Crypto News Crypto Wallets Ethereum

Opera Web Browser Launches ETH Layer 2 Web Wallet Powered by Starkware

StarkWare has launched the latest version of its Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution StarkNet and announced it is now fully ready for building decentralised apps (dApps).

The company tweeted that Opera will be integrating the DeversiFi exchange, powered by StarkWare, into its browser as a built-in wallet to offer users faster, easier and cheaper ETH P2P transactions:

Ethereum’s high gas fees and slow transaction times have made room for other blockchains to try to solve these inefficiencies. Other Layer 1 blockchains such as Solana have been somewhat successful in doing this, but there are still security issues to be worked out. StarkNet, as a Layer 2 solution, could be the answer to these problems.

Introducing ZK Rollups

StarkNet uses zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup technology to solve the scaling problems plaguing the Ethereum network. ZK rollups offer a low-cost solution for transacting on Ethereum, compacting hundreds of transactions into one, off-chain, thereby reducing the amount of transactions written to the blockchain. This significantly reduces gas fees and makes it much cheaper to use.

At present, StarkNet’s speed is similar to Ethereum’s 7 TPS, but the plan is to reach 70 to 700 TPS as StarkNet is scaled out over the next few months.

With the growing popularity of DeFi and NFTs in the crypto space, scaling solutions for the Ethereum blockchain have been in high demand, and the race is on for who can best serve the industry. Argent X is a Layer 2 solution also built on StarkNet, and there are many others. Crypto News Australia has made a list of the best 10+ Ethereum Layer 2 projects and sidechains for you to learn more about.

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Blockchain Crypto News NFTs

Komodo (KMD) Surges 54% After Adding 13 More Tokens to Cross-Chain Protocol 

Decentralised multi-chain platform Komodo has announced the addition of Polygon, Avalanche, Harmony, and 10 other chains to AtomicDEX, the announcement of which sent the KMD surging.

KMD is the native token of Komodo and was trading at US$0.45 on February 20 before pumping 54 percent to a daily high of US$0.68 on February 22.

Komodo to Launch NFTs

In addition to AtomicDEX adding support for 13 more blockchains, the increased price action for Komodo could also be due to the introduction of NFTs to its ecosystem. The upcoming launch of Cyber Komodos is a collection of 777 unique NFTs to be launched on the Tokel NFT platform on March 15.

Secure Bridge for Cross-Chain Swaps

Bringing further attention to Komodo is the swapping capability of AtomicDEX. Komodo offers secure and truly peer-to-peer cross-chain interoperability. This is a very attractive feature for crypto users as many cross-chain platforms have been exploited in hacks, such as the recent US$326 million Wormhole breach and US$3 million Multichain hack.

To learn more about AtomicDEX, see it in action in the video below: