Category: Ethereum

Categories
Charity Crypto News Cryptocurrencies DAO Ethereum

OnlyFans Donates 500 ETH to Wartorn Ukraine DAO

Racy online video subscription platform OnlyFans has donated 500 ETH (about US$1.27 million) to UkraineDAO, a decentralised autonomous organisation raising funds to support Ukraine in its resistance to the Russian invasion.

Risque vs Reward: Personal Element to OnlyFans’ Altruism

The website says it has now contributed over US$5 million to various humanitarian efforts supporting the besieged country, its charitable effort led by OnlyFans’ Ukrainian-American owner Leonid Radvinsky.

Radvinsky bought a 75 per cent stake in OnlyFans’ parent company Fenix in 2018, before the platform witnessed explosive growth during the pandemic. In its embrace of Web 3.0, the platform has added an NFT feature that allows users to put up digital collectibles verified on the Ethereum blockchain as their display photos.

Since Russia’s invasion began last month, UkraineDAO has been a leading crypto contributor to Ukraine’s government, which has now received more than US$100 million in crypto donations from a range of sources.

UkraineDAO was formed by radical Russian art collective Pussy Riot and NFT studio Trippy Labs. OnlyFans’ 500 ETH contribution was counted as part of the largest single donation to date, from a US$6.5 million crowd-funded NFT sale on March 2.

CEO Extends Sympathy to Creator Community

“These tragic events have had a terrible impact on individuals, including members of our creator community,” OnlyFans CEO Ami Gan said in a statement.

Given our strong personal ties to Ukraine, we wanted to support in a way which felt true to who we are at OnlyFans, and which focused on getting aid and support to the Ukrainian people.

Ami Gan, CEO, OnlyFans
Categories
Blockchain Ethereum Polygon

Polygon Employs Temporary ‘Hotfix’ as Upgrade Causes 11-Hour Outage

Layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution Polygon was down for over 11 hours last week after an earlier network upgrade inadvertently introduced a bug, which disrupted the network’s consensus layer:

On March 10, Polygon notified users via its online forum that the network would be down from 5:50PM UTC to allow developers to correct the bug. The network was brought back online approximately 11 hours later after the Polygon team deployed a hotfix to address the bug.

Bug Prevented Network Consensus

As explained by the Polygon development team, the bug resulted in different Heimdall validators – part of Polygon’s consensus layer – being on different versions of the blockchain, which prevented the network from achieving 2/3 consensus, and in turn caused the entire blockchain to stop producing blocks.

Although still under investigation by the team, we suspect there may have been a bug in the upgrade which affected consensus, and caused different Heimdall validators to be on different versions of the chain, thereby not reaching 2/3 consensus. When using Tendermint consensus, this situation will cause the Heimdall chain to halt.

Team Polygon

Hotfix Partially Restores Network Functionality

In a forum post to announce the hotfix, the Polygon team explained that the Polygon Bridge – the functionality which allows users to make Ethereum transactions using Polygon to sidestep high Ethereum gas fees – would not be functional until a full update was applied at a later date:

“Kindly note, with this temporary hotfix, Polygon Bridge will not be active/available until we deploy the final solution.”

Outage Raises Concerns

Although users were notified of the outage in advance, many began expressing their concerns as it dragged on far longer than expected:

Only last December, Polygon experienced another critical bug which put over US$24 billion worth of tokens at risk. Polygon is by no means the only major blockchain experiencing uptime issues recently – for example, Solana has seen several significant outages since December.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Ethereum Investing Real Estate

How Crypto Helped a 23-Year-Old Aussie Climb the Property Ladder

A 2021 survey conducted by international cryptocurrency exchange Kraken found that 40 percent of Australian millennials preferred investing in digital assets over real estate.

Now a 23-year-old university graduate from Brisbane, Queensland has brought both elements together by using cryptocurrency to break into the city’s soaring property market.

Economics graduate and new homeowner Loi Nguyen. Source: news.com.au

Loi Nguyen first started investing in crypto in 2017 during his second year of an economics degree. After graduating from high school he had worked full-time as a bank teller for a gap year on a miserly salary of just A$28,000. But the best economic lesson he learned in that time came from observing his customers in the bank.

“I saw people being diligent with their savings and also saw people being very reckless,” Nguyen said. “You had people consistently putting savings away every week and others putting stuff on the stock market.”

Starts With ‘a Couple of Hundred Bucks’ Worth’ of Crypto

Nguyen augmented his own meagre savings by investing in stocks and cryptocurrencies, buying “a couple of hundred bucks’ worth” of bitcoin and ethereum in 2017. When the crypto market crashed a year later, he thought he’d done his money.

Crypto came back into my life when I learned about inflation at uni, and how bitcoin could be disinflationary. I was earning less than half a per cent on my savings account at the bank and wanted to protect my purchasing power … I knew I had to be smart, otherwise I would never break into the property market.

Loi Nguyen, economics graduate and new homeowner

When Covid-19 hit in 2020, crypto started to pick up again as panic hit more traditional markets. Nguyen spent an estimated A$18,000 over the ensuing months until he owned an entire bitcoin, then continued to invest in BTC and ETH.

The one-bedroom apartment Nguyen bought using crypto. Source: news.com.au

Before purchasing his one-bedroom inner-city apartment this year for A$430,000, Nguyen cashed out A$43,000 in cryptocurrency, less than half his overall portfolio, for the deposit on a home loan.

I’ve always wanted to own my own property and to be able live in it. Cryptocurrency allowed me to do that earlier.

Loi Nguyen, economics graduate and new homeowner

Crypto Millennials Aim to Retire at 50

According to a survey conducted by Pearler last May, a “significant number” of Australian millennials intend to retire at the age of 50 using their investments in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and cryptocurrencies. Nguyen is one such millennial who seems well on the way.

Categories
Algorand DeFi Ethereum Hackers Illegal Polygon Scams

Fantasm Finance DeFi Project Exploited for $2.6 Million

This week’s attack on Fantom Network-based synthetic asset protocol Fantasm Finance saw the loss of US$2.6 million worth of Ethereum. The stolen funds were run through the Tornado cash mixing service and totalled 1,007 ETH.

According to the protocol’s Medium page, the team will conduct a postmortem and consider all compensation options for victims.

Another Day, Another DeFi Hack

The address of the attacker shows the extent of the theft, with 1.8 million FTM remaining in the pool for redemption:

Since the March 9 exploit, the attacker has been using Tornado cash to mask transactions. Tornado Cash is a service that breaks the link between source and destination addresses, thereby obscuring the transaction history.

Attacks on DeFi Remain Rife

The crypto space and DeFi, in particular, have been under attack by hackers seeking to exploit protocols. The reason for the frequency with which new projects launch without undergoing a security audit makes them very vulnerable to attackers. In January, Algorand-based DeFi platform ‘Tinyman’ was exploited for US$3 million. The team at Algorand quickly tweeted it it had been compromised and pulled the remaining liquidity from the project.

The most recent DeFi attack prior to Fantasm targeted Polygon DeFi protocol QiDao’s Superfluid vesting contract, draining US$13 million. User funds on QiDao however remained safe, as the exploit was “solely on Superfluid”, according to the Polygon-based DeFi protocol.

Categories
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).

Categories
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
Crypto News DeFi Ethereum Gas Waves

BRISE DeFi Token Soars 120% as Bitgert Offers Business DeFi Products

As the overall crypto market continues to trend downward, the top-ranked cryptocurrencies have tumbled. Ethereum is one that has completely destabilised amid the current bear market, but as its price plummets another DeFi token has soared 120 percent – Bitgert (BRISE).

Bitgert has been doing well amid a tumultuous market, as is evident from its skyrocketing price and fast-growing market cap, fast approaching US$800 million, which has many wondering why this project in particular is doing so well.

Why is BRISE Soaring?

The short answer is the launch of the Bitgert BRC20 blockchain. As a zero gas fee blockchain, Bitgert is addressing current concerns regarding the network’s high gas fees – a problem Ethereum in particular deals with – and investors are excited by this. The gas fee associated with the Bitgert chain is only US$0.0000000000001. BRC20 has also overtaken Solana to become the fastest chain available after hitting an impressive 100,000 transactions per second (TPS), way faster than Solana’s 65,000 TPS.

These features ensure that Bitgert BRC20 is the most powerful chain in the crypto space as of now, and its anticipated mass adoption has prompted investors, including crypto whales, to buy more BRISE, which adds to its bullish trend. The team is bringing in hundreds of products and projects on the BRC20 blockchain to increase chain adoption. The Bitgert Startup Studio will also be the first program that will bring hundreds of projects to the ecosystem.

DeFi Does Well Amid Bearish Market

As the overall crypto market remains bearish, some DeFi projects seem to be beating the bear. Earlier in the week, Tornado Cash Token (TORN) surged 94 percent following protocol updates. WAVES saw similar surges when it shot up 120 percent in just a week following an announcement of a partnership with Allbridge, which will connect Waves with other popular blockchain networks.

Categories
Crypto News Ethereum MetaMask NFTs OpenSea

OpenSea and MetaMask Block Users from ‘Some’ Countries

MetaMask wallet and OpenSea users from Iran and Venezuela have been blocked in Ethereum transactions after the platforms cited compliance issues. It was later confirmed that Ethereum’s Infura cut off users to separatist areas in Ukraine, accidentally blocking Venezuelan users as well.

Users in Iran and Venezuela began reporting problems this week with accessing their digital wallets, with hordes of users saying none of their transactions sent through MetaMask was realised.

The first instances of bans were noticed on the NFT platform OpenSea, which reportedly locked and deactivated several Iranian users. Users from Venezuela began reporting problems with accessing their own wallets soon after, with thousands of messages popping up on social media.

The issue was briefly addressed by MetaMask on its support page, saying that MetaMask and Infura would be unavailable in certain jurisdictions due to legal compliance issues. When attempting to use MetaMask in one of those regions, users received a message stating that MetaMask was unable to connect to the blockchain host.

While users were able to see their MetaMask balances and transaction histories, any attempt to interact with the Ethereum network was blocked, meaning that the ban stemmed from Infura, the Ethereum API infrastructure developed by ConsenSys.

Iran Users Blocked from OpenSea

MetaMask and Infura are not alone. Reports are also circulating on social media of users from Iran being blocked on OpenSea:

NFT artist Parin Heidari also reported that her NFT collection on OpenSea was showing 404s in response to the previous tweet.

These episodes follow a recent call from Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister for crypto exchanges to block Russian users.

Categories
Ethereum Hackers OpenSea Polygon Solana

White Hat Hacker Reveals OpenSea Plans to Integrate Solana NFTs 

Images allegedly leaked from the leading NFT marketplace, OpenSea, indicate that the platform may soon introduce Solana-based NFTs. The images were discovered by tech blogger Jane Manchun Wong, well known for leaking information about yet-to-be-released features from specific technology platforms:

https://twitter.com/wongmjane/status/1486072506532626432

OpenSea is the market leader when it comes to NFTs and, as it stands, supports both the Ethereum and Polygon blockchain networks. Since its inception, OpenSea has recorded about US$22.73 billion in NFT sales, with 1,358,052 traders leveraging the platform.

Wong Gets It Right Again?

Wong, who in December was also first to report that Twitter would integrate Ethereum into ‘Tip Jar’, tweeted in January that “OpenSea is working on Solana integration, as well as Phantom wallet support”. She added: “OpenSea’s Chains Filter [shows] Solana as an option.”

https://twitter.com/wongmjane/status/1486077324630302721

This discovery is not the first time rumours of OpenSea adding Solana features have surfaced. The animator and Solana advocate @bhaleyart tweeted a similar image of OpenSea’s blockchain filter in mid-November:

White Hat Hackers to the Rescue

White hat hackers, also known as ethical hackers, have been widely active of late in the crypto space. Apart from leaking information, they have saved many companies from attacks. Just a couple of weeks ago, a white hat hacker chose to accept a US$2 million bounty instead of “printing unlimited Ethereum”.

Categories
DeFi Ethereum Privacy Tornado Cash

Tornado Cash Token (TORN) Surges 94% Following Bullish Protocol Updates

The native token for the Tornado Cash protocol (TORN), an Ethereum-based privacy protocol, has surged 94 percent following the launch of its latest network updates.

Tornado Cash is a fully decentralised privacy protocol which enables anonymous transactions on the Ethereum network. The protocol achieves anonymity primarily by breaking the on-chain link between source and destination addresses when transactions are made.

Price Increase Follows Launch Of Relayers

The latest price action for TORN follows the adoption and implementation of the protocol’s 10th on-chain governance proposal, which saw the addition of relayers to the network:

The community voted overwhelmingly in favour of the proposal, which was accepted on February 19. Following the launch of relayers on March 2, the price of TORN spiked from around US$37 to around the $US67 mark.

What Are Relayers?

Tornado Cash relayers are community members who process withdrawal transactions and allow users to send transactions to accounts with no ETH balance – they are considered an important part of the protocol and improve users’ privacy. 

Relayers are compensated for their network services with a small portion of users’ deposits. Anyone can become a relayer, provided they meet the minimum balance requirement of 300 TORN and accept the terms and conditions.

TORN Gaining Momentum

The addition of relayers to the Tornado Cash protocol is a further boost following its integration of ETH layer 2 solution Arbitrum in December 2021, which saw a dramatic decrease in gas fees and improvements in transaction times:

The protocol was also recently assessed by DeFi safety, which found it to be highly secure – awarding Tornado Cash an overall score of 85 percent.