Category: Blockchain

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Blockchain Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrency Law

Report Shows the SEC Has Made $1.77 Billion As Crypto Regulation Heats Up

In a report recently published by Cornerstone Research, the US financial watchdog has stated that they’ve gathered $1.7 billion in crypto-related penalties since 2013.

This sum has been gathered from a total of 75 enforcement actions, 70% of which have been settled. Unsurprisingly, a significant number of these enforcement actions took place in 2017, right in the middle of the ICO boom.

Claiming Main Regulator Status

According to Simona Mola – the publisher of the report in question – the SEC’s actions have placed the organization firmly in the lead when it comes to crypto regulation.

“In the last seven years or so, the SEC has established itself as one of the main regulators policing the cryptocurrency space.”

While a number of these actions have resulted in a win for the SEC, other cases have not been quite as cut-and-dry – most notable among them being the ongoing Ripple court battle – who seems to be gaining the upper hand.

The main offences that garnered the interest of the SEC were unregistered securities offerings and fraud.

Unregistered securities offerings made up 69% of allegations made by the SEC, and fraud accusations were present in 52% of cases. 37% of cases laid out by the SEC accused the recipient of both.

However, the crypto space has come a long way since the days of “unfortunate hacks” on crypto exchanges and high-profile rugpulls.

As crypto-related startups are finding new ways to finance themselves aside from IPOs, regulatory authorities will allegedly look for ways to allow these new companies to find their footing in order to promote innovation, according to Cornerstone Research VP Abe Chernin.

“While the SEC will continue to focus on fraud, there is an increasing expectation that the new administration develops a clearer regulatory approach and pursue greater interagency coordination to foster innovation in cryptocurrency markets.”

Although a certain amount of regulation is necessary in order to keep earnest investors safe from unscrupulous blockchain projects, it’s important that fraud allegations be investigated on a case-by-case basis – a little communication can often clear things up.

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Blockchain Crypto News DeFi Scams

DeFi Company Rari Capital To Reimburse UpTo $26 Million After Getting Hacked For 2600 ETH

Hacker binary attack code
Hacker binary attack code https://unsplash.com/photos/iar-afB0QQw

Last weekend, Rari Capital was hit with an attack that left them down by 2600 ETH – which was around 60% of all user funds in the Rari Capital Ethereum Pool.

A DeFi company that automates yield farming by rebalancing users’ funds and pools, the attack seems to have been carried out by “evil contract” exploits affecting the HomoraBank contract.

However, Alpha Finance Lab itself seems to not have been affected.

The hacker’s message

Currently in possession of an ETH wallet recently emptied into Tornado.Cash Proxy transactions, the hacker took the time to leave a tongue-in-cheek message to the recently attacked DeFi firm.

However, the message also seems to indicate that Alpha Homora’s security prevented Rari from taking yet another $6 million in losses.

In an update by the founder of Rari Jai Bhavnani, holders of the DeFi firms tRGT token will be able to claim reimbursement in RGT – up to a total sum off all reimbursed losses of $26 million.

While it was indeed initially meant to scale the team, all of the protocol contributors have elected to give that 2M $RGT back to the DAO with the ask of using the newly acquired $RGT to reimburse lost funds and reward those that helped in the war room.

Jai Bhavnani, founder of Rari Capital

The price of RGT dropped steeply after the attack, losing nearly half of its value. Reportedly it has been proposed that the reimbursement funds will be taken from the developer incentive stash held by the DeFi company, in possession of 1% of all RGT.

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Blockchain Crypto News Industries

Nokia’s New Data Marketplace Runs on Blockchain Technology

The sleeping giant, Nokia recently announced its Data driven Marketplace. This will enable businesses to monetise and safely exchange data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) models through a private blockchain.

According to a press release from Nokia their “Data Marketplace is designed to help enterprises and communications service providers (CSPs) use data in strategic decision-making, by providing real-time access to massive trusted datasets.”

Customers Will Be Able To Sell Data to One Another

There are quite the variety of use cases ranging from electric vehicle charging, to smart cities, and healthcare. Business participants of this solution will be able to exchange data with each other through the marketplace.

For example airline participants could share important datasets with each other that could significantly aid real-time decision-making, preventative maintenance, and safety all secured by blockchain.

Use Cases for Nokia Data Marketplace: Nokia

The offering hooks into Nokia’s existing Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING), which offers global IoT connectivity for a range of markets such as logistics and healthcare.

Assisting AI Initiatives

The marketplace accelerates AI initiatives through federated learning for machine learning algorithms to gain experience from a broad range of data sets located at different locations. The approach enables multiple organizations to collaborate on the development of models, but without needing to directly share secure data with each other.

This approach, combined with orchestration capabilities, allows collaborative development of very accurate machine learning models for analytics use cases. It also meets growing demand for a platform that can efficiently apply AI and machine learning algorithms to data collected from any measuring instrument or sensor connected to the network.

Data Marketplace Infographic: Nokia

Our customers need secure and trusted access to data for effective business decision making. With Nokia Data Marketplace, enterprises and CSPs can now benefit from richer insights and predictive models to drive digital ways of working and tap into new revenue streams.

Friedrich Trawoeger, Vice President, Cloud and Cognitive Services at Nokia

The increase of in the use of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) by big companies such as Nokia is a good way to showcase to institutions and the public what can be done with blockchain technology.

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Blockchain Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Institutions

University Allocates $4 Million To Cryptocurrency Staking To Produce Cashflow

In a world first, The University of Wyoming in the USA, has allocated USD 4 million to stake at least three cryptocurrencies to generate revenue to address the cost of public education, as per the official announcement.

Caitlin Long, an appointee of Wyoming Blockchain and Fintech Select Committee and founder of Avanti Bank & Trust, took to Twitter with the big news.

Millions into Crypto Staking

The University of Wyoming is the world’s first to spend millions to operate nodes and earn cryptocurrencies. Profits will cover operating expenses and the university’s Strategic Investments and Projects Account (SIPA).

According to the document, the university will run the staking program with an established “Cryptocurrency Advisory Council,” hosted by leaders of the state’s select committee on Blockchain.

Funding Blockchain Programs Across Wyoming

If profits surge above 4 million USD, the university will use the extra revenue to fund blockchain programs and other activities at the university and community colleges across Wyoming.

Users on Twitter speculate that Cardano (ADA) is one of these three tokens, considering IOHK, the company behind Cardano, donated USD 500,000 to support the University of Wyoming’s Blockchain Research and Development Lab.

Will we see other institutions follow Wyoming university and start to stake cryptocurrencies to produce cashflow?

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Australia Blockchain Crypto News DeFi

Australian Blockchain Platform Fantom Surpasses 3 Million Transactions

Fantom 3 million transactions
Fantom 3 million transactions https://twitter.com/FantomFDN/status/1388144155520548865

Fantom (FTM) – an Aussie blockchain platform founded in 2018 – has just passed the important milestone of 3 million transactions.

Sitting at a market cap of $2 billion, with each token currently worth $0.71, the Sydney-based DeFi platform has witnessed a staggering growth within the past year, after slowly ramping up operations and getting the word out to eager investors.

Low Fees And Cross-Chain Consensus Compatibility

Technically speaking, the Fantom Blockchain brings a lot to the table. Built around an asynchronous and byzantine fault-tolerant (aBFT) consensus mechanism named Lachesis, it’s possible for developers building their projects for the Cosmos blockchain to ensure compatibility with the Fantom Blockchain as well. New projects can also be easily created on the Fantom blockchain itself.

Fantom is seamlessly integrated with MetaMask and boasts many well-known Ethereum dApps.

Although the low fees set in place by the platform are one of the main selling points, Fantom pride themselves on the speed of their transactions as well. The increase in Fantom’s network activities comes amid the “Go-Opera” network upgrade just a few days ago, which was also aimed at improving the network reliability, efficiency, and transaction speed.

According to Michael Kong (CEO of Fantom), the butterfly effect that helped Fantom reach widespread popularity couldn’t have started without the help of developers who saw Fantom as the best way to bring their projects to fruition.

We’re extremely excited to see developers building on Fantom and people using what they create. Initially, we saw household names from the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem deploying a second instance on Fantom; more recently, we witnessed a surge in people building natively on Fantom, which is a huge sign of confidence. Developers find it easy to build on Fantom, and people love the near-zero fees and instant transactions. The growing popularity created a network effect that pushed Fantom market cap past the $2 billion mark. It’s a major milestone for us.

Michael Kong, CEO of Fantom

The growth of Fantom doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon as it looks like the team behind it will take steps to ensure that their DeFi platform remains a force that can compete with older kids on the block.

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Bitcoin Blockchain Crypto News

Administrator of $366 Million USD Dark-net Bitcoin Laundering Service Caught Using Blockchain

Swedish-Russian citizen, Roman Sterlinghove, has been arrested by U.S. authorities after 10 years of operating a darknet bitcoin website. The administrator of the Bitcoin Fog anonymising service was arrested in Los Angeles on 27 April.

Bitcoin Fog was one of the original “mixing” services, launched in 2011, specifically designed to hide the identity of the participants in a transaction. Services like these are usually used to make transactions on the dark-net so that people could trade in goods and services anonymously with cryptocurrency.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) analysed over 10 years worth of blockchain data:

Analysis of bitcoin transactions, financial records, Internet service provider records, email records and additional investigative information, identifies Roman Sterlingov as the principal operator of Bitcoin Fog,

Devon Beckett, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) special agent

According to Beckett’s statement, more than 1.2 million Bitcoin (BTC) worth $336 million (at the time of the transactions) were sent through Bitcoin Fog. Sterlingov received between 2% and 2.5% for each transaction adding up to about $8 million USD back then.

Blockchain Helped Catch The Bad Guys

Authorities estimate at least 23% of the Bitcoin that flowed through the mixing service was transferred to darknet-based narcotics marketplaces such as Silk Road and AlphaBay. In 2019, undercover IRS agents engaged Sterlingov through the platform, claiming they wished to launder the profits from ecstasy sales.

With blockchain analytics, the thing we say over and over is that all this activity is on this ledger forever, and if you did something bad 10 years ago you can be caught and arrested for it today.

Sarah Meiklejohn, Computer scientist

Law enforcement agents were able to find where Sterlinghov was paying for his hosting fees, which was through using Bitcoin to buy Liberty Reserve. From there the IRS was able to find personal information like home address, phone number, and a Google Drive account that held instructions on how the Liberty Reserve coins.

Liberty Reserve Website

Previously in 2016, the founder of Liberty Reserve pleaded guilty to laundering $250 million USD through his digital currency business.

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Bitcoin Blockchain Crypto News Cryptocurrencies

UK Court Allows Craig Wright To File Lawsuit Against Bitcoin.org

Bitcoin on dark background
Bitcoin on dark background

Bitcoin.org — one of many websites that host the original Bitcoin whitepaper — is allegedly managed by someone who goes by the codename Cøbra. London legislators have allowed Craig Wright, who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, to file a copyright lawsuit against them.

A new round of Cøbra vs Wright?

Craig Wright is the chief scientist of blockchain firm nChain and he has claimed to be Satoshi multiple times. He attempted to have the Bitcoin whitepaper taken down by websites hosting it, even though this goes against the original ethos of the Bitcoin project.

When the takedown request came, the staff at Bitcoin.org (among others) publicly stated their refusal to comply. Besides, Satoshi’s PGP key is well-known: this could be used to prove the authenticity of the claim, which Craig Wright has never done.

We will continue hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper and won’t be silenced or intimidated. Others hosting the whitepaper should follow our lead in resisting these false allegations. We believe these claims are without merit, and refuse to [take it down].

Cøbra, domain owner of Bitcoin.org

It’s worth stressing that the court has not ruled in favour of Mr Wright in any way. The decision only allows the lawsuit to be filed — against an Internet pseudonym.

Furthermore, Cøbra has already expressed their disdain for the ruling, stating that they will not allow themselves to be bullied into compliance with Mr Wright’s demands. However, they have also stated that if they must give up their anonymity in order to fight to keep the whitepaper online, they are ready to do so. 

The Bitcoin whitepaper itself was published under a free and permissive MIT licence in 2008 and it has been hosted by numerous Internet activists, as well as governments.

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Australia Blockchain Crypto News

EFTPOS Australia Plans To Use Blockchain For Micropayments, Autonomous Vehicles, and Digital Identity

During the Australian Blockchain Week conference, Australia’s leading point-of-sale technology provider EFTPOS announced that they plan to use blockchain-powered technologies to run autonomous vehicles and power smart cities with Hedera Hashgraph.

Ben Tabell, EFTPOS chief investment officer, stated that the partnership formed with Hedera will allow them to put in a shared effort to bring a combination of digital identity and payment solutions to Australia.

We’re going to be looking at smart cities. […] We’re going to be looking at autonomous vehicles and things that we haven’t even thought about yet. All of this needs new infrastructure, and EFTPOS needs to be informed by that.

Robert Allen, deputy chair of Blockchain Australia
Hedera Token Service launches with a fully supportive ecosystem of over 60 initial partners including leading exchanges, custody and wallet providers, members of the Hedera Governing Council, and applications that will issue tokens using HTS

This is a big part of our work and effort at the moment to bring in digital identity and transactions so that we can securely support payments and other transaction clubs in the Australian digital ecosystem.

Ben Tabell, chief investment officer at EFTPOS

Hedera Implementing Blockchain Use Cases in Australia

Hedera Hashgraph had previously also made local headlines in Australia in July 2020, when EFTPOS announced that they would be using Hedera technology to build a proof-of concept for an Australian stablecoin. The pilot focused on micropayments, such as real-time payments for streaming and pay-per-click content.

In January 2021, EFTPOS became Hedera’s 17th governing council member and Australia’s first Hedera node operator. Hedera has also been expanding its governing council recently, with Shinhan Bank joining earlier this month, French utility giant Électricité de France onboarding in March, and Standard Bank Group becoming the network’s first African node operator in February.

Hedera is the only next-generation network that will support those kinds of use cases. So, we wanted to test it, and it has operated beautifully. […] Now, because we’ve got all this digital strategy, we are in a position where we can start looking at ways that problems can be solved in a way which is maybe non-traditional and more distributed.

Ben Tabell, chief investment officer at EFTPOS
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Bitcoin Blockchain Crypto Exchange Crypto News

Lightning Network Goes Live on OKEx Exchange for Faster BTC Deposits and Withdrawals

Crypto exchange OKEx has announced the integration of the Lightning Network into its platform, allowing faster and cheaper BTC withdrawals and deposits.

The Lightning Network is a layer 2 protocol with a bi-directional payment channel, designed to provide scalability and higher throughput.

By integrating layer 2 solutions like the Lightning Network, OKEx is able to offer an improved trading experience to its users — with lower costs and faster transactions — alongside supporting the Bitcoin ecosystem by increasing the number of participating nodes.

OKEx

Number of Nodes Doubling as BTC Grows

The number of nodes in the Lightning Network has doubled as corporations have started adopting BTC and Blockchain. According to data from Bitcoin Visuals, the number of active nodes reached 10,000 this month, with $69 million in locked value.

Before OKEx, Bitfinex was one of the first exchanges to adopt the Lightning Network, followed by Kraken, CoinCorner and OKCoin. The number of companies embracing BTC has doubled in the last five months and it looks like it keeps growing.

Bitcoin is trading at $73,225 AUD, slowly recovering from the market crash that happened this weekend. Its price tumbled below $67,300 AUD following the massive liquidation of high leveraged traders on Binance and other exchanges, causing a market crash that dragged most altcoins with it.

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Blockchain Crypto News DeFi Gaming

Ubisoft Partners With Tezos to Become a Validator Node

Videogame giant Ubisoft has partnered with Tezos protocol to become an official corporate validator node, as announced by Nomadic Labs, a technology research team within the Tezos ecosystem.

By becoming an official “baker”, Ubisoft will experiment with the proof-of-stake consensus algorithm, validating blocks and implementing them on the Tezos blockchain.

The company will be added to the set of 277 bakers. These validators can stake their XTZ — Tezos’ native asset — to distributing rewards and participate in the network’s governance.

Spreading Blockchain Technology With Videogames

Nomadic Labs said that blockchain can bring benefits to gamers and developers alike, and this collaboration is part of Ubisoft’s long-term research to spread and facilitate innovative technology.

Ubisoft is one of the first large companies to show interest in blockchain technology by testing several protocols through the years and we are happy to welcome them in our ecosystem. Their experience and vision will be an asset in the Tezos community.

Michel Mauny, President of Nomadic Labs

This is not the first time that Tezos works with high-profile businesses. In September 2020, one of the largest banks in France, the Société Générale, started experimenting with the Tezos network. After several months of testing, the bank issued its official security token using its public blockchain.

By now, Ubisoft is the first major corporation in the gaming industry to join the protocol, and Nomadic Labs will support other companies that want to build on Tezos, contributing to the development and spread of the protocol’s corporate baker ecosystem.