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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Blockchain Crypto News NFTs

‘Seussibles’ NFT Collection Launches with the Grinch, Cat in the Hat and More

Well-loved children’s entertainment brand Seuss Enterprises has teamed up with NFT company Dapper Labs and digital collectibles startup Tibles to launch a collection of NFTs based on characters from the famous Dr. Seuss books.

These digital collectibles, or Seussibles, are built on the new Flow blockchain and are available for fans to purchase with either crypto or credit card through the Seussibles app on the Apple app store, and on the Seussibles.com website.

Iconic Dr. Seuss characters such as the Cat in the Hat, the Grinch and the Lorax are available as NFT sets, starting at US$4.99. There are more than 600 collectibles based on popular Dr. Seuss titles including Green Eggs and Ham, Fox in Socks, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Horton Hears a Who!, Hop on Pop and Mr Brown Can Moo! Can You?

Digital collectibles from the Seussibles series.

NFTs Launched on the Flow Blockchain

Flow, a new blockchain built for the next generation of apps, games, and the digital assets that power them, was designed as a foundation for internet-scale protocols and applications that also require exceptional user experience.

Conceived by the team behind CryptoKitties, the platform was developed and stress-tested with top global partners and is now open for anyone to contribute to and benefit from.

A bonus is that its buying setup is simple even for non-crypto-savvy NFT collectors to deal with. As the Flow website puts it:

Apple in-app purchases make buying Seussibles absolutely seamless. [There is] no complicated wallet setup. [There are] no transaction fees. On seussibles.com you’ll be able to buy your Seussibles with your credit card or cryptocurrency.

onflow.org

Even a child could manage it, which is probably the idea.

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Blockchain Crypto News Crypto Wallets Gaming Hackers Scams

96 Private Keys Stolen From Vulcan Forged Crypto Gaming Platform in $140 Million Theft

A hacker who exploited Polygon gaming platform and NFT marketplace Vulcan Forged was able to steal a total of over 4.5 million of the $PYR native token, valued at US$140 million at the time of the December 14 attack. A total of 96 users’ wallets were accessed by the hacker via private keys.

‘Darkest Day in our History’

CEO Jamie Thomson described the situation as “the darkest day in the Vulcan Forged history” in this video posted on the company’s Twitter account:

The hacker was able to attack the Vulcan Forged servers, gaining access to the vending credentials of the semi-custodial wallets and then extracting the private keys of the game’s users. To prevent any repeat of the exploit, Thomson says the platform will in future be using nothing other than decentralised wallets “so we never have to encounter this problem again”.

Full Refunds and a Heartfelt Apology

Refunds have been made to every wallet that had the game’s native $PYR tokens stolen, and Vulcan Forged will also be reimbursing the loss of any Matic and Eth tokens stolen from users. Ending with a sincere apology to the community, Thomson said: “obviously sorry doesn’t cut it, but we are sorry”.

It has been a disappointing outcome for the Vulcan Forged team, not to mention players and investors. $PYR dropped in value by over 30 percent in the 24 hours post the hack.

In a similar incident last month, the bZx DeFi protocol had funds drained from its Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Polygon contracts after one of the developers had his private key stolen in a phishing attack.

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Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum Hackers Solana

Solana Reportedly Suffers DDOS Attack Casting Doubt on Proof-of-History

Solana has suffered a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that jammed the network and led to huge delays, but managed to stay online through it all.

A DDoS attack is generally when an organised “botnet” (a large number of coordinated devices) take to a blockchain’s network at once in order to overload the system and choke traffic speeds to the point that it causes the network to fail and go offline.

As the new cool kid on the block, Solana is currently the fastest blockchain in the crypto space and has been hailed as the “Eth Killer”. Praised as the answer to Ethereum’s network congestion issues during times of high traffic, Solana offers much faster processing times and lower transaction fees.

Has Solana Sacrificed Network Security For Speed?

The DDoS attack has raised the question over whether Solana has sacrificed network security for speed. The issue of Solana’s proof-of-history consensus model not being sufficiently secure against attacks such as this one has opened up discussion online. Justin Bons, founder and CIO of crypto funds investment management company CyberCapital, breaks down the concerns over the security of the Solana blockchain in the Twitter post below. He says that due to the Solana network’s deterministic block creation mode, it is possible to predict and attack the next block producers in line.

In this week’s Grayscale Investments report, the world’s largest crypto fund management firm also voiced its concerns over the Solana blockchain’s consensus mechanism as a potential risk: “The Solana consensus mechanism uses a new blockchain technology that is not widely used, and may not function as intended. There may be flaws in the cryptography underlying the network, including flaws that affect the functionality of the Solana network or make the network vulnerable to attack.”

This is not the first time Solana has suffered a DDoS attack. In September the network suffered two attacks that stopped processing transactions and took Solana offline for a short time. The project’s developer has tweeted that these outages from attacks are all just “growing pains” and that he is still insanely bullish for Solana.

Many DApps have been integrating Solana into their projects, including the recent partnership with Brave browser announced on stage at Breakpoint 2021 (a crypto conference organised by Solana) in Portugal last month.

Solana Proof of History Explained

If you’re keen to get a sense of how Solana’s consensus mechanism works, be sure to check out this explanatory video below.

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Blockchain Crypto News Facebook Payments Stablecoins

Meta’s Crypto Project Novi Begins WhatsApp Stablecoin Payments Trial

Novi, a new crypto wallet for sending digital payments through WhatsApp, is available now and being trialled for a limited number of people in the US. Transferring money to friends is now as easy as sending a text message and you can do it all within the WhatsApp chat app, instantly and with no fees.

Novi is a new way to send and receive money – instantly, securely, and with no fees. With Novi on WhatsApp, you can transfer money without ever leaving your WhatsApp chat.

novi.com/WhatsApp

Stephane Kasriel, Meta’s head of cryptocurrency and fintech at Novi, officially announced the rollout of Novi via Twitter on December 9:

Meta Fine-Tunes its Fintech Ambitions

It’s no secret that Meta head Mark Zuckerberg has huge ambitions for his company, formerly known as Facebook, to claim its space in the world of crypto and fintech. Facebook first launched its cryptocurrency project, Libra, in 2019. Then it was rebranded to Diem, a stablecoin to be pegged to the US dollar.

Despite facing opposition from regulatory parties who have concerns over giant tech companies entering the world of blockchain-based finance having too much power, Novi has partnered with stablecoin provider Paxos and is now live through WhatsApp.

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Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

Snoop Dogg’s ‘Decentral Eyes Dogg’ NFT Drop Catches Fire, Current Bid $800k

Calvin Cordozar Broadus Junior, aka Snoop Dogg, is the latest celebrity in 2021 to get in on the crypto act. After declaring his interest in Bitcoin and a US$17 million NFT collection, he’s now dropped his own NFT, and it’s on fire.

Coldie Meets ‘The Doggfather’

The single one-of-one NFT, known as “Decentral Eyes Dogg”, is a collaboration between renowned artist Coldie and “The Doggfather”. The artwork comprises a composite portrait of the US rapper, created by collaging 10 different images of his face throughout his life.

Coldie x Snoop Dogg collaboration. Source: Superrare

According to SuperRare:

The purple area is a nod to his hiphop royalty. The halftone and grunge effect on his left eye speaks to his being an OG in the game, and the Doggystyle references are a nod to his epic first release. Snoop recorded new audio exclusively for this artwork to add that swagger and put the signature Snoop touch on top.

SuperRare

Shortly after announcing the drop, Snoop Dogg offered some insight to prospective purchasers of what went into the piece:

This work is a journey. The tech we used allows the viewer 2 travel thru the piece and experience highlights of my career with some audio narration from me.

Snoop Dogg, Twitter

NFTs on Fire, For Now

The drop got some crypto-flush bidders excited, quickly resulting in the price skyrocketing north of half a million dollars.

After a slow start to the bidding of 4.2 ETH, things quickly escalated with ETH-based offers increasing to 85 and then 94. It settled on 169 at the time of publication, equating to approximately US$773,000. With just over two days left in the auction, it remains to be seen whether Snoop Dogg’s debut NFT is able to eclipse the elusive seven-figure mark.

Right now, the NFT markets are on fire, leaving many commentators wondering when the proverbial party will end. The consensus appears to be that the parabolic rise in NFTs over the past year is unlikely to be sustainable in the long run.

Even Gary Vee, who has his own NFT collection, believes that an NFT winter is coming and that 98 percent will go to zero. While no one can predict the future and which projects are guaranteed to succeed, brave traders who regard NFTs as worthless JPEGs now have the ability to short them.

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Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum Privacy

ETH Mixer Website ‘Tornado Cash’ Deploys on Layer-2 Solution Arbitrum

Tornado Cash is a fully decentralised protocol for private transactions on Ethereum and is now ready to integrate with Arbitrum, the layer 2 solution that leverages optimistic rollups for Ethereum dApps. Faster speeds, lower fees, and transaction privacy. What’s not to love?

The Ethereum-based crypto mixer lets users swap ERC20 tokens over the Ethereum network while providing on-chain privacy by breaking the transaction link between the sender and recipient address. Tornado Cash allows withdrawals to be deposited to a different address, which cannot be linked back to the original deposit address.

Lower Transaction Fees Seal the Deal

Arbitrum’s L2 scaling solutions will not only allow Tornado Cash to process Ethereum transactions at a much faster rate, it will also make transactions cheaper for users. On-chain layer one transaction costs are notoriously expensive on the Ethereum network and can become even more so when the network is heavily congested during busy times. According to l2fees.info metrics, L1 fees on Ethereum are around US$35.41 per transaction, whereas on Arbitrum, users pay only around US$4.85 per transaction.

Arbitrum has already collaborated with other blockchains such as Polygon, Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain, and xDai.

Tornado Cash is growing in popularity and volume. Last week xDai tweeted that total deposits for Tornado Cash had crossed the US$1 million threshold.

Crypto Mixing Services of Concern to Authorities

Crypto mixing services have attracted the concern of authorities because they allow people to trade in goods and services anonymously with cryptocurrency. This anonymity makes it possible for criminals to “wash” their crypto from transactions on darknet and illegal online marketplaces such as Silk Road.

In April this year Crypto News Australia reported that the operator of Bitcoin Fog had been arrested in Los Angeles after the IRS investigated transactions that went through the Bitcoin mixing platform over a period of 10 years.

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Crypto News Crypto Wallets Cryptocurrencies DeFi Scams

New Malware ‘Babadeda’ is Targeting Crypto Users on Discord

A highly sophisticated and very dangerous crypter is loose in the crypto community. It has been named the Babadeda crypter and is targeting NFT and DeFi users.

Babadeda translates to “Grandma-Grandpa” – a Russian language placeholder used by the crypter itself, giving away hints to its origin. The malware is targeting cryptocurrency enthusiasts on the popular crypto community chat app Discord. Since May this year, bad actors have been fooling users into downloading Babadeda, disguised as a legitimate app.

The scammers are able to lure victims by taking over popular crypto channels in the NFT and DeFi communities on Discord, posing very convincingly as the official Admin. Users are being fooled into clicking on and downloading a malicious file that will install the crypter on their machine. The code is so sneaky that it is able to evade detection by most anti-malware software, successfully hiding within the computer’s files by masquerading as a known application.

Once on a victim’s machine, masquerading as a known application with a complex obfuscation also means that anyone relying on signature-based malware effectively has no way of knowing Babadeda is on their machine – or of stopping it from executing.

Morphisec blog

Links to Babadeda Posted as Official Announcements

The threat actor sends users a private message or posts a link through the Admin chat inviting them to download an application related to the channel. Below is an example of the Discord Channel for blockchain-based action-adventure game Mines of Dalarnia, where a link to Babadeda has been posted as an official announcement, appearing to come from the channel’s own Admin account.

If a user clicks on the provided URL, they will be rerouted to a fake decoy site whose branding is almost exactly the same as that of the project it is imitating. The attackers use very advanced measures to ensure the delivery chain looks legitimate, even to the most technically aware users. Through cybersquatting, they can make the URLs of the decoy websites resemble those of genuine ones. They even use SSL certificates generated by Let’s Encrypt to further appear completely legitimate and add to the deception.

When the user clicks on “download app” from the decoy site, the malicious installer embeds the Babadeda crypter onto the victim’s machine. Then it’s game over.

Discord is a Dangerous Place for the Average Degen

The takeaway: be careful and go slowly. Discord is rife with scams like this. You can have all the fancy malware protection money can buy, but if you accidentally click on a dodgy link and install a malicious application on your computer, you could leave yourself open to an attacker who can empty the contents of your crypto wallet quicker than you can figure out what happened.

In related news, two weeks ago Crypto News Australia reported on the Fake MetaMask Google Ad scam, a phishing/ad scam directing victims to the fake site maskmeta, instead of the official metamask.io url. It’s another cautionary tale.

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Blockchain Crypto News DeFi Gaming NFTs Solana

MonkeyBall Play-to-Earn NFT Game Set to Launch on Solana Blockchain

MonkeyBall, the next-gen esports metaverse that enables players to create, play, compete and earn, is ready for kickoff. Based on the Solana blockchain, the play-to-earn soccer game combines high-production values, multiplayer gaming, NFTs, and decentralised finance.

Monkeys are the teams’ players, introduced by NFT assets owned by game players. The Monkeys serve as an income generator, allowing a player to earn MonkeyBucks ($MBS) by winning matches.

MonkeyBall.com

The Three Modes of MonkeyBall

  • Player vs Environment: This is a training mode to increase your Monkey’s overall abilities and allow you to practise and develop your in-game Monkey’s soccer skills.
  • Player vs Player: This mode is the classic game where each player controls the entire team of soccer monkeys.
  • Team vs Team: In this mode, each team is being played and controlled by multiple players at a time.

MonkeyBall will do an NFT drop (of the game’s Monkeys) in December, with the in-game launch set for release in the first quarter of 2022. The IDO is currently open. Check the MonkeyBall website for more information.

MonkeyBucks ($MBS) is the in-game currency powering the game economy. Players can earn MBS by interacting in the game: completing missions, winning matches, watching games as spectators, or hosting games in their stadiums. You can also spend MBS to breed new Monkeys and buy consumable game items (NFTs) in the game’s store.

There is major hype surrounding the pre-release of this game, as you can see by the sharp increase in the price of the StarLaunch token, $STARS. Starlaunch is the launchpad for MonkeyBall.

STARS Price Chart. Source: Coingecko

Watch the video below to learn how to get into the MonkeyBall IDO, launching on StarLaunch next week.

As the NFT space continues to grow, and excessively high fees continue to plague the Ethereum network, we are increasingly seeing Solana challenge Ethereum for NFT project launches.

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Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum Gaming Metaverse

Metaverse Tokens Are Soaring – Let’s Take a Closer Look at Them

With Facebook rebranding to Meta amid news of celebrity partnerships including Snoop Dogg entering The Sandbox, tokens of metaverse virtual realities and blockchain-based games are on fire and have been outperforming the market as a whole.

Move over meme coins, the metaverse is now dominating the buzz across the crypto market. Here are three of the top performers:

Axie Infinity (AXS)

The most impressive performer of all has been Axie Infinity, a P2E (Play-to-Earn) NFT-based online video game developed by Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis. Axie Infinity is “a digital nation” where players can “battle, collect, and earn”.

Analytics firm CoinGecko reported that ASX was the second-best performing asset of the market in Q3 2021. The game’s native token AXS has soared accordingly, printing an all-time high of US$164.90 from only $4 at the end of June. AXS is up about 113,003 percent in a single year, and with a market cap just shy of $10 billion ($9,213,638,614), it’s currently ranked #23 in the market.

$AXS price chart. Source: CoinGecko

Decentraland (MANA)

Decentraland is a 3D virtual reality world where players can use the game’s native token, MANA, to buy in-game items such as virtual land and costumes for their avatars. Users also have governance rights and can vote on future developments in Decentraland.

The price of $MANA has increased 572.4 percent in the past 30 days and has printed its all-time high of US$5.46. It is currently ranked #34 and has a market cap of almost US$7 billion.

$MANA price chart. Source: CoinGecko

The Sandbox (SAND)

The Sandbox is a P2P (play-to-earn) blockchain-based virtual world developed by Pixowl. Players in The Sandbox can explore digital universes within the metaverse. It is a world where users can interact with each other, build their own spaces and even attend Snoop Dogg concerts and visit the rapper’s own virtual mansion. Players can also monetise their in-game assets by trading NFTs created within the game and earn SAND tokens just by spending time in the metaverse.

In the past 30 days, the $SAND token has shot up 847.2 percent and is at its all-time high, printing US$8.01. It is currently ranked just after Decentraland at #35 and has a market cap of around US$6.5 billion.

$SAND price chart. Source: CoinGecko
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Blockchain Crypto News Cryptocurrencies DeFi

Elrond Up 60% in a Week Amid Liquidity Incentive Program Announcement

Elrond Gold is inarguably one of the best performers in crypto this year, especially in the past few months, the EGLD token has seen tremendous growth amid the company’s latest announcements with Maiar DEX.

The big price rally began on November 19 after the announcement of a US$1.29 billion liquidity incentive, launched by Maiar Exchange – Elrond’s native decentralised exchange. EGLD pumped from US$300 all the way to record a new all-time high of $545.64.

CoinGecko

Elrond Gold the New King of DeFi

Elrond is set to make its mark in DeFi with one of the largest incentive programs to date. The Maiar DEX will use its utility and governance token – MEX – to transfer funding to users of the exchange who provide liquidity in EGLD, MEX and USDC.

By distributing Maiar DEX ownership to the next billion users, we [are laying] the foundation for a truly global financial system that is accessible to everyone, everywhere.

Beniamin Mincu, founder and CEO, Elrond Gold  

Maiar DEX is a fully community-owned DeFi platform that has already distributed ownership to more than 60,000 accounts in the form of claimable MEX tokens.

In the first month of distribution the exchange will distribute US$282 million. The project will then have follow-up programs “aimed at the users of the largest DeFi platforms in the ecosystem”, according to Elrond CEO Beniamin Mincu. Customers could “claim MEX tokens proportionally to their activity involving products such as Uniswap, PancakeSwap or SushiSwap”.

Can Maiar DEX Drive DeFi Adoption and Bring Crypto to the Mainstream?

Maiar DEX has also released a highly intuitive, well-designed and extremely easy-to-use app that allows you to get a secure crypto wallet instantly with just a phone number. Perhaps this will be the product that will drive DeFi adoption and bring crypto to the mainstream?

Elrond Gold is incredibly fast: the PoS (proof-of-stake) network uses an adaptive state sharding technology that helps to improve speeds by slicing blocks into smaller pieces, or “shards”. The high throughput blockchain can scale beyond 100,000 transactions per second.

In February, Crypto News Australia reported on Elrond’s CEO tweeting at Elon Musk, explaining the technology of Elrond’s blockchain and how it could improve transactions for self-driving Teslas.