Category: Ethereum

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Coinbase Ethereum Markets NFTs OpenSea

Coinbase Launches NFT Marketplace to Battle OpenSea Dominance

Leading US crypto exchange Coinbase has announced the imminent launch of its new NFT marketplace, with a social spin to it – like Instagram – to help connect users and creators.

The NFT marketplace is now in beta after Coinbase unveiled its plans in October last year for a “Web3 social marketplace”. It is being built on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain and reportedly “any NFT that’s for sale on the Ethereum blockchain will be searchable” on its platform.

Users who are interested in the beta and want to have a look at their collections can do it here. At launch, the exchange will allow its 43 million users to easily access NFTs through the platform. The marketplace will also be adding support for other blockchains in the near future.

Coinbase NFT marketplace beta. Source: Coinbase

For a limited time, the platform will incur zero transaction costs, except for Ethereum gas fees to process a transaction on the blockchain. The platform will also require users to use a self-custody wallet such as Metamask or the Coinbase wallet.

Social Platform to Build Engagement

The platform’s beta testers who join through the waitlist are encouraged to make use of all functions, including new social features. Having received over 8 million applications, the platform may well be in a position to compete with market leader OpenSea. This could be done by not only being an NFT marketplace, but also a platform where creators can build and engage with their communities.

According to the Coinbase announcement:

We learned that people don’t just want better tools to buy and sell NFTs – they want better ways to discover them, better ways to find the right communities, and better spaces in which they can feel connected with each other.

Sanchan Saxena, VP of product, ecosystem products, Coinbase

To create more of a community feel, the platform will add social feeds to facilitate browsing of other creators’ portfolios. In an Instagram-like approach, users will have profiles tied to their wallets so users can interact with each other. The marketplace will also incorporate a recommender based on buying history, who the user follows, and other metrics.

We’d like to make Coinbase NFT a little bit more like Instagram, as opposed to, say, an auction like eBay or something like that […] I think having people that you can follow, your favourite artists or creators, and having a feed of content that gets populated from those people you follow, could be really powerful.

Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO

NFT Marketplace to Become Decentralised in the Future

At this stage, the platform will operate on Coinbase’s centralised servers, but in time it will be moved to decentralised solutions. In that event, the platform will include functions such as airdrops, minting, and token-gated communities. The platform will also be used to host drops by some of its many launch partners.

Royalties play a very important part in keeping the creator economy alive and are therefore one of the major focus points of the new marketplace:

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Crypto News Decred Ethereum Zcash

Decred (DCR) Token Soars 45% in a Day Following Imminent Shift to Proof-of-Stake

Under-the-radar altcoin Decred (DCR) has defied the odds by soaring 45 percent in less than a day as the overall crypto market saw only red.

As most digital assets have undergone downward price action, DCR has confounded market conditions. The upsurge in price is mostly due to the protocol moving from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

When blocks are mined on the DCR, a portion of the fees goes to PoW miners while the stake voters also get a cut. A third, smaller portion goes to a Project Treasury fund, which is used to develop the protocol. But recently the community voted to change its current model.

PoS to Weed Out Malicious Actors

The community voted on a proposal to reduce the PoW mining rewards from 60 percent down to 10 percent in order to defend against “malicious miners” with a history of price manipulation. The community also agreed to raise the rewards for Decred’s PoS validators from 30 percent to 80 percent, suggesting that consensus wants to move away from PoW to PoS.

This simply means that Decred users would be incentivised for locking up their DCR for a certain amount of time, thereby reducing their active supply from the market, which could bolster the price:

Jake Yocom-Piatt, project lead for Decred, tweeted the motivation behind the update:

A hidden risk we found with Decred’s PoW is that a malicious mining cartel can, instead of selling at market prices, accumulate a vast inventory of coins, which can then be wielded as a weapon against positive price action. While this risk has been exposed specifically with Decred, a similar strategy has likely been applied for every notable majority-PoW coin. People who care about PoW and its fairness should be aware of this hidden risk.

Jake Yocom-Piatt, project lead, Decred

Many Protocols Move to PoS

Protocols that have announced a move to a PoS consensus have subsequently surged in value. Last year, Zcash soared 30 percent when it announced its move to PoS. Ethereum also recently flagged a move to PoS but its so-called ‘Merge’ has been delayed until Q3 of 2022.

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Crypto News Ethereum

Ethereum Foundation Treasury Discloses $1.6 Billion in Assets, 80% in ETH

In its first annual financial report, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) has declared that its treasury holds US$1.3 billion in ETH, US$11 million in other cryptocurrencies and US$300 million in non-crypto investments.

As of March 31, 2022, Ethereum constituted 80 percent of the foundation’s holdings, amounting to nearly 0.3 percent of the entire ETH supply.

EF Treasury holdings as at March 31, 2022. Source: ethereumworldnews.com

More Resource Allocations to Third Parties

According to EF director Aya Mayaguchi, the foundation has been supporting third-party allocators as the network matures. “[We believe] that more decentralised funding is important for the future of the Ethereum ecosystem,” she wrote in the report. “We continuously try to allocate resources to third parties that we believe can make better decisions than us within certain domains.”

In announcing the EF report, Miyaguchi tweeted that she would provide more details on the foundation’s vision and principles at an upcoming Devconnect event in Amsterdam:

Layer One R&D Accounts for Almost Half of EF Spending

Last year the foundation spent a total of US$48 million, with layer-one research and development accounting for nearly half that figure (US$21.8 million), including the Ethereum mainnet upgrade and external grants for network stress testing.

The remaining expenditure broke down as follows:

  • Community development accounted for US$9.7 million;
  • developer platform, US$5.9 million;
  • internal operations and support, US$5.1 million; and
  • applied zero-knowledge (ZK) research and development, US$3.6 million.

The proposed Ethereum ‘Merge’, set to transition the network to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus model, has been officially delayed until Q3 of 2022.

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Crypto News Ethereum NFTs

Moonbirds NFT Collection Soars on Debut, Racking $200m+ in Sales

Since the highly anticipated Moonbirds NFT mint launched last weekend, the Ethereum-based collection has seen north of US$200 million in sales. However, the debut project from the PROOF collective seems to be stirring the pot:

Moonbirds has joined the ranks of the Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks in near-record time, becoming the top-selling collection with 10,000 pixelated birds raking in sales of approximately US$281 million just days after minting.

But what is it makes these birds so popular?

How’s This for PROOF?

The Moonbirds project is the product of tech entrepreneurs Kevin Rose and Ryan Carson, and is the first project from the PROOF collective, a private NFT community led by the pair. The community consists of 1,000 members including big industry names such as Beeple and Gary Vaynerchuk. Membership of the community grants access to a private Discord chat, collaborations and special events.

However, both the mint and success of this collection are not without controversy. Concerns of rarity snipping – the act of project leaders using insider knowledge to buy rarer NFTs – are circulating. Beyond this, there are complaints of potential raffle manipulation and frustration over the 2.5 ETH minting price:

Only 7,875 NFTs were released by PROOF via an allow list formed through the raffle process. Another 2,000 were free mints for PROOF collective NFT holders. Membership of PROOF can be purchased for just over 97 ETH (about US$300,700).

Mixed Reactions to Other NFT and DeFi Launches

Earlier this month, Star Trek fans were making news for their contempt towards the launch of a Star Trek NFT collection. The launch was considered “tone-deaf” by fans and contrary to the franchise’s spirit – if not directly opposing Star Trek’s values, illustrating that the content of an NFT collection should always suit the intended audience.

One project that has been far better received this month is Opulous. The new blockchain-based music platform has seen the value of its token – OPUL – rocket up 175 percent following the announcement of DeFi staking, S-NFT sales, and CEX listings.

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Crypto News Crypto Wallets Ethereum Hackers

US Claims North Korean Hackers Behind $625 Million Ronin Breach

North Korean hacking group Lazarus has been blamed for last month’s US$625 million exploit of Ronin Network, an Ethereum sidechain used by play-to-earn crypto game Axie Infinity.

The link was made public on April 15 when US Treasury announced it had added a new Ethereum wallet to its list of sanctions for the Lazarus Group. It’s the same wallet address that Axie Infinity creator Sky Mavis named as the Ronin attacker in late March, as confirmed by Etherscan.

18% of Stolen Funds Already Laundered

Blockchain analytics firms Chainalysis and Elliptic have corroborated that the wallet address is the same used in the Ronin exploit. Elliptic also confirmed that 18 percent of the stolen funds had already been laundered before the Easter weekend. The wallet still holds 147,753 ETH, worth about US$430 million at the time of writing.

“Identification of the wallet will make clear to other VC actors that by transacting with it, they risk exposure to US sanctions,” said a Treasury spokesperson, who added:

There may be mandatory secondary sanctions on persons who knowingly, directly or indirectly, engage in money laundering, the counterfeiting of goods or currency, bulk cash smuggling, or narcotics trafficking that supports the Government of North Korea or any senior official or person acting for or on behalf of that government.

US Treasury spokesperson

‘Critical Chokepoints’ in the War on Hackers

The spokesperson said that anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorists were “critical chokepoints” in the war on hackers, and called on the crypto industry to implement these types of safeguards.

According to a Ronin blog post, “We are still in the process of adding additional security measures before redeploying the Ronin Bridge to mitigate future risk.” Redeployment was expected before the end of this month and a full post-mortem would follow at a later date.

Since the attack, Sky Mavis announced a US$150 million funding round led by Binance to help reimburse affected users. Sky Mavis ultimately hopes to recover the stolen funds over the next two years.

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Crypto News Ethereum

Ethereum’s Move to Proof-of-Stake Delayed as ‘Merge’ Postponed to Q3

Do not expect Ethereum to move to the PoS (Proof-of-Stake) system this June, as Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko recently tweeted that the “Merge” will have to be postponed to Q3:

‘Don’t Invest in ETH Mining Rigs’

The Merge – a stage in Ethereum’s transition from PoW (Proof-of-Work) to PoS – has been delayed again, even though the developer team announced it was moving forward with the transition after a successful test of the shadow fork.

In the Twitter thread, Beiko was asked by a user if there was any advice or info for miners who have been investing in rigs. Beiko replied: “I would strongly suggest not investing more in mining equipment at this point.”

Most people in the crypto community, of course, weren’t happy with another delay, which adds to a long string of holdups for a project that was originally intended to be completed as long ago as 2019:

The Ethereum Foundation has been working for the transition of Ethereum to a PoS consensus system in a project originally called ETH 2.0, since rebranded to “Consensus Layer”.

As is well known, network congestion and exorbitant gas fees are common pains for most people who frequently interact with the network. The upgrade will signify a higher throughput and reduce gas fees, though users will have to wait until they see the transition coming to life.

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ChainLink Crypto News Ethereum Market Analysis Trading WOO Network

Top 3 Coins to Watch Today: ETH, LINK, WOO – April 15 Trading Analysis

Let’s take a closer look at today’s altcoins showing breakout signals. We’ll explain what the coin is, then dive into the trading charts and provide some analysis to help you decide.

1. Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum ETH is a decentralised open-source blockchain system that features its own cryptocurrency, Ether. ETH works as a platform for numerous other cryptocurrencies, as well as for the execution of decentralised smart contracts. Ethereum’s own purported goal is to become a global platform for decentralised applications, allowing users from all over the world to write and run software that is resistant to censorship, downtime and fraud.

ETH Price Analysis

At the time of writing, ETH is ranked the 2nd cryptocurrency globally and the current price is US$3,034.89. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:

Source: TradingView

ETH‘s long-term range from Q1 highs could be coming to an end. The 9, 18 and 40 EMAs flipped bullish at the beginning of April after late March’s retracement, showing strength as BTC recovered. Currently, the price is hovering just under the monthly high as bulls take some profits.

Two swing highs and the 9 EMA could mark $3010.87 to $2940.72 as an area of possible support. A deeper retracement will likely find some buyers around the 61.8% retracement near $2760.59.

The monthly high will likely see some profit-taking, but the area near the 27% extension, at $3560.12, could also provide some resistance. The 61.8% extensions of the last two swings converge near $3820.54, which could be the target for a monthly high break before a new setup emerges.

The Chainlink Network LINK is driven by a large open-source community of data providers, node operators, smart contract developers, researchers, security auditors and more. The company focuses on ensuring that decentralised participation is guaranteed for all node operators and users looking to contribute to the network. Chainlink allows blockchains to securely interact with external data feeds, events and payment methods, providing the critical off-chain information needed by complex smart contracts to become the dominant form of digital agreement.

At the time of writing, LINK is ranked the 24th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is US$13.64. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:

Source: TradingView

LINK‘s early March spike retraced near $13.00 into the consolidation that began the impulse before bouncing to $16.90. 

This consolidation could provide support again, although bears would first have to push the price through possible support near $12.85. The market’s structure may be shifting bearish, with $12.32 likely to provide some resistance if this is the case. A sustained bearish move could reach the swing low near $11.70 before finding support near $11.23.

However, the bullish higher-timeframe trend might prevail, with relatively equal highs near $17.78 potentially giving an attractive target to lure the price over the monthly open. If so, the price could reach for the midpoint of the December wick near $20.58.

3. WOO Network (WOO)

WOO Network is a deep liquidity network connecting traders, exchanges, institutions and DeFi platforms with democratised access to best-in-class liquidity and trading execution at lower or zero cost. WOO Token is used in the network’s CeFi and DeFi products for staking and fee discounts. Presently, a diverse set of products and services interfacing retail, institutions, CeFi and DeFi have been built. WOO X is a zero-fee trading platform providing professional and institutional traders with best-in-class liquidity and execution. It features fully customisable modules for workspace customisation.

WOO Price Analysis

At the time of writing, WOO is ranked the 127th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is US$0.4826. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:

Source: TradingView

WOO has retraced 80% from its January highs and is currently challenging possible support near $0.4540, between the 61.8% and 78.6% retracement levels. 

If this level fails to provide support, the 78.6% retracement, near $0.4301, offers a strong draw for shorts with multiple daily swing lows and an inefficient area. 

Continued bearish conditions may cause this level to break, running all swing lows since Q2 2021 into the upper portion of an inefficient region starting near $0.3700. Near the midpoint and bottom of this region, lower timeframes show that $0.3520 and $0.3240 could also provide some sensitivity.

The low of early December’s consolidation, near $0.5817, and the 9 EMA may provide some resistance on any retracements. A continued rally – unlikely unless the overall market’s catalysts drastically shift – could reach over the 2021 open to $0.6427 and possibly $0.7100, where the daily chart shows a head-and-shoulders formation.

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Where to Buy or Trade Altcoins?

These coins have high liquidity on Binance Exchange, so that could help with trading on AUD/USDT/BTC pairs. And if you’re looking at buying and HODLing cryptos, then Swyftx Exchange is an easy-to-use popular choice in Australia.

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Coinbase Crypto News Ethereum Scams Tokens

Suspicions Raised as ETH Trader Buys $400,000 in Tokens Before Coinbase Listing

An Ethereum trader bought US$400,000 worth of tokens before being listed on Coinbase, raising suspicions of possible insider trading.

The ETH address, flagged by renowned crypto trader Cobie, was able to buy tokens due to be listed on Coinbase 24 hours before the Coinbase listing announcement. The wallet was created on April 11 and the tokens were transferred to different exchanges:

It seems the trader focused on six tokens – NDX, KROM, RADAR, RAC, DFX, and PAPER – which were under consideration for listing on the exchange, suggesting (s)he had prior knowledge before the list was made public.

After the list was published, the tokens increased dramatically in price, as usually happens with tokens listed on Coinbase. The address now has a balance of more than US$500,000, a return of over 40 percent in less than 24 hours.

Coinbase is yet to respond to any of the insider trading accusations.

Not the First Frontrunning Scandal on Coinbase

This is not the first time that Coinbase has been accused of frontrunning. In February, a trader created a fresh wallet and bought millions worth of $UPI and $AVT before Coinbase announced the listing:

Sometimes you have to take these events with a grain of humour, and that’s exactly what the crypto community has done:

Frontrunning is not uncommon in crypto companies. We’ve heard before of unethical employees buying digital assets shortly after being listed. Such was the case with Nate Chastain, a former employee at NFT marketplace OpenSea who got caught snapping some NFTs for himself in September last year:

In response to OpenSea’s centralised model and NFT frontrunning, renowned DeFi developer Andre Cronje created Artion, a decentralised and open-source marketplace built on Fantom Network.

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Banking Crime Crypto News Ethereum

ETH Developer Virgil Griffith Sentenced to 5 Years for North Korea Crypto Trip

A New York US Federal Court judge has sentenced former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith to 63 months in prison and fined him $US100,000 for speaking at a 2019 crypto conference in North Korea and teaching North Koreans how to use crypto to evade US sanctions.

After initially protesting his innocence, Griffith eventually pleaded guilty to the charge of violating presidential executive orders designed to exclude the North Korean regime from the international banking system as punishment for repeatedly threatening to launch nuclear weapons against the US.

Following Early Support, Seriousness Becomes Clear

Many in the crypto community initially considered the charges against Griffith an overreaction. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, for one, signed an online petition to free Griffith in 2019 and tweeted his support:

However, following a long investigation by the FBI it became clear that Griffith did more than illegally travel to North Korea and speak at a crypto conference – much of the evidence against him showed that he specifically sought to help the North Korean regime escape sanctions using crypto.

Images were uncovered showing Griffith wearing a North Korean military uniform standing next to a whiteboard where he’d drawn a happy face and written the words “No sanctions” and “yay”.  

The investigators also found Griffith had shared text messages with North Korean citizens assuring them he’d be able to help them get around US sanctions using crypto, in one message telling them that setting up an Ethereum node in North Korea will “make it possible to avoid sanctions on money transfers”.

North Korea Uses Crypto to Fund Illegal Activities

The actions of Griffith were treated so seriously by US authorities partly because the North Korean regime has been enthusiastic to use stolen crypto to skirt sanctions and fund its illegal weapons programs.

Through government-backed hacker groups such as the Lazarus Group, the North Korean regime steals huge amounts of crypto. According to Chainalysis, in 2021 alone it stole almost US$400 million worth of crypto, which is 2.4 percent of the nation’s total annual GDP.

Categories
Crypto Staking Ethereum Mining

Ethereum’s Move to PoS Advances as Mainnet ‘Shadow Fork’ Goes Live

With Ethereum’s move to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) getting closer developers have created a “shadow fork” that will allow them to test the new configuration on mainnet-like conditions.

A critical testing period for Ethereum’s move to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) from the power heavy Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm has been initiated. The so-called “shadow fork” will be implemented to test the effects of the transition under the network’s current circumstances.

According to a tweet from Marius Van Der Wijden – an Ethereum software developer – this is an historic moment for Ethereum: “Today will be the first mainnet shadow fork ever.”

Ethereum Foundation developer Parithosh Jayanthi also tweeted that this was a good opportunity for the community to “practise running their nodes, deploying contracts, testing infrastructure, etc”, so they can get used to the “post-merge world”.

What is a ‘Shadow Fork’?

The term “shadow fork” refers to copying mainnet data to a testnet where developers can test new features under realistic conditions before deploying major changes on the mainnet:

At the time of writing, the shadow fork had processed over 5 million transactions with an average block time of 14.2 seconds, according to the BlockExplorer page shared by Van Der Wijden.

To reiterate, a shadow fork does not affect the canonical chain in any meaningful way. Transactions submitted to the shadow fork could be included in the main chain as well. Proceed with extreme caution!

Parithosh Jayanthi, Ethereum Foundation developer