Category: Social media

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Bitfinex Crypto News Payments Social media Tether

Tether and Bitfinex Launch P2P Video Chat App ‘Keet’

Tether and Bitfinex have joined forces with software company Hypercore to launch a fully encrypted, peer-to-peer video chat application.

Keet is the first app to be built on Holepunch, a platform that allows developers to incorporate Web3 applications. It will initially only be available on desktop, though all three companies predict there will soon be a mobile app featuring “amazing” video quality:

Payment App Also in the Works

Holepunch, which is closed-source but expected to become open-source later this year, doesn’t run on a blockchain but uses the Lightning Network, a “second-layer solution” that speeds up Bitcoin transactions while reducing costs.

This would enable a payment app to be built on Holepunch, with the Tether stablecoin (USDT) supporting a default payment system. In late May, USDT was integrated into Polygon, enabling 19,000 decentralised applications (DApps) on the ecosystem to use it.

More Investment Dollars to Come

Tether, Bitfinex and Hypercore have already poured US$10 million into Holepunch, which could see tens more millions of dollars in further investments, they added.

The Keet app, like Holepunch, is free to use and is expected to be more private and secure than Web2 centralised peers such as Zoom or Google Meet. This is because Keet users can make calls directly to another individual’s computer, with nothing stored on a server.

As Holepunch CEO Mathias Buus has said, “This app is for everyone.”

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Blockchain NFTs Polygon Reddit Social media

Reddit Launches NFT Avatars, But Won’t Call Them NFTs

Popular social media platform Reddit will launch a new NFT avatar collection in the coming weeks leveraging the Polygon blockchain – however, it has avoided any reference to non-fungible tokens, instead exclusively using the term “collectible avatars”:

As well as being blockchain-based, the new collectible avatars’ primary difference from Reddit’s existing avatars is that they’ll be available for individual sale – all other Reddit avatars are either free or are made available when a user subscribes to Reddit Premium.

And despite their being blockchain-based, Reddit users will not need to have any cryptocurrencies or a crypto wallet to buy and store the new avatars.

There has been speculation as far back as October 2021 that Reddit may be planning to launch its own NFT platform when it posted a job ad for a senior backend engineer with NFT expertise. Since then, Reddit has added other NFT-based features, such as the ability for users to change their profile picture to an NFT, which launched in January of this year.

Reddit’s ‘Collectible Avatars’ Created by Artists

Reddit’s new avatars will be created by some of the platform’s most passionate independent artists. Participating artists will receive payment each time one of their avatars is purchased and will also be entitled to royalties from secondary sales of their avatars on external NFT marketplaces.

Purchasers of the new NFT-based avatars will acquire usage rights to the artwork both on Reddit and outside of the platform. 

Reddit also says users who purchase one of the new collectible avatars will receive unique benefits on the platform, however the only specific benefit mentioned in the announcement was owners’ profile pictures having a “glow-like effect” when they appear in the comments section of posts.

Potential Benefits in Blockchain Tech

Reddit says it chose to use the Polygon blockchain for its new NFT-based avatars because of the network’s relatively low transaction costs and stated commitment to sustainability measures.

Reddit users will be able to use their local fiat currency to purchase the new NFT-based avatars and they’ll be able to store them in Reddit’s built-in crypto wallet, which is known as the Vault. 

Using blockchain technology to power its new avatars provides several benefits, Reddit says, writing in its announcement:

Right now, blockchain technology provides purchasers with ownership and portability of their collectible avatar, and provides artists with a way to have their work live beyond the virtual walls of Reddit (and be compensated for future sales of their art).

Reddit team

It also sees blockchain as a technology with potential to further empower communities built on its platform:

We see blockchain as one way to bring more empowerment and independence to communities on Reddit. Reddit has always been a model for what decentralisation could look like online; our communities are self-built and run, and as part of our mission to better empower our communities, we are exploring tools to help them be even more self-sustaining and self-governed.

Reddit team
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Crypto News Social media

Elon Musk Wants Out of $44 Billion Twitter Deal, Twitter Likely to Sue

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has retracted his US$44 billion offer to buy Twitter. A notice of termination was filed through the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging that Twitter had breached multiple provisions of its initial agreement with Musk:

‘Misrepresentations’ Made by Twitter

Just three months after Musk’s April announcement that he would purchase Twitter, the billionaire has declined to finalise the deal citing various breaches of the initial agreement, according to an SEC filing from his attorneys:

Twitter … appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr Musk relied when entering into the merger agreement, and is likely to suffer a company material adverse effect.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

The SEC filing also suggests Musk had sought the necessary data to independently assess the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform. Twitter had reportedly failed or refused to provide this information:

Despite Musk’s change of heart, Twitter has no intentions to go down quietly. Bret Taylor, one of its chairmen, has shared that the company’s board seeks to close the transaction as per the original agreements. The social media giant says it will be pursuing legal action.

Initial Promise All About ‘Free Speech’

Musk initially purchased Twitter with the intention of privatising the social media giant. The billionaire touted the notion that freedom of speech would reign supreme, tweeting that he hoped that “even [his] worst critics remain on Twitter because that is what free speech means”. However, the decision was met with a sizeable backlash suggesting the move would be “dangerous for democracy”.

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Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs Social media

Bored Ape Yacht Club Rocked by Video Claiming ‘Racist’ Ties

Philip Rusnack, aka Philion, has released an hour-long investigation on his Philion YouTube channel alleging racist and alt-right connotations among the memes, language and symbols used in Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collections.

Many of Philion’s points are supported by prior evidence uncovered by anti-BAYC NFT commentator Ryder Ripps.

Anti-BAYC Hashtag Trends on Twitter

The ‘BURNBAYC’ hashtag is trending on Twitter as the Bored Ape Yacht Club – a giant of the NFT world – faces its accusers. BAYC has been condemned by Philion as “one massive alt-right inside joke”, with comparisons drawn between Bored Ape caricatures and Asian and black people, alongside the identification of Nazi symbolism.

This isn’t the first accusation made against BAYC over claimed racist undertones. Ryder Ripps lit the coals earlier this year after publishing a Twitter thread and creating the domain gordongoner.com specifically to highlight this problematic imagery:

Yuga Labs, the creator of BAYC, has responded by stating that the project logo (a monkey’s skull) merely suggests that the project’s Apes are “bored to death”, and that the term “Apes” refers to its team, not humans in general. However, the sheer quantity of alt-right and racist imagery and symbolism found across its collections adds up to a potentially compelling case against BAYC.

What Goes Up Must Come Down

Bored Ape Yacht Club has been a gold mine for many an investor in the past, with one Aussie chancer reportedly turning US$300 into US$5 million in May this year. However, BAYC has not escaped the crypto collapse, with its floor price plunging below US$100k this month. As at June 16, the Bored Apes floor price stood at US$88,000.

In light of the concurrent crypto market downturn, it is possible that BAYC may find it difficult to recover from such lows in the wake of these latest negative allegations.

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Ethereum NFTs Polygon Social media

Twitter Rival ‘Lens Frens’ Launches on Polygon, Decentralised NFT Social Platform

Aave has launched a decentralised, NFT-based Twitter competitor on the Polygon network. Lens Protocol is designed to power social media apps such as Lens Frens to rival centralised giants like Twitter.

Lens Protocol is essentially a decentralised social graph that utilises NFTs stored within a crypto wallet to power social media platforms. Users retain ownership of their content, and anyone can build on the protocol.

Faster, Cheaper, Greener

Lens utilises the Polygon network, a sidechain scaling solution for Ethereum. Polygon enables faster, cheaper, and less energy-intensive transactions than Ethereum’s own mainnet, making it more viable for a social network built on a potentially large number of NFT assets:

‘Content Creators Should Own Their Audiences’

Lens Protocol was first teased in June 2021 when Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov tweeted: “Since [Square CEO and then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey] is going to build Aave on Bitcoin, Aave should build Twitter on Ethereum.”

Kulekhov added:

We believe that content creators should own their audiences in a permissionless fashion, where anyone can build new user experiences by using the same on-chain social graph and data.

Kulechov went on to outline his mission statement: “We wanted to create a social media protocol, or essentially a social graph, and create these profiles on the network by tracking relationships on the network and creating an unauthorised way for content to be distributed between creator and audience.”

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Australia Investing Social media

Australian Crypto Influencer Breaks Silence, Blaming Drugs for Losing Investors’ Money

Former crypto YouTuber Alex Saunders has broken his silence after almost a year since he was alleged to have lost millions of dollars of investor funds.

In a recent tweet, the one-time crypto investment club operator explained that drugs he was taking to treat a back injury were the root cause of a mental health spiral that led to a number of bad decisions:

Saunders’s statement has prompted mixed reactions on social media, with some sympathisers saying he should get a second chance:


Others say he should never again be allowed to advise the public on investment schemes:

Back on the Airwaves

Saunders recently followed up his statement with a YouTube video confirming his heavy use of opiate drugs as the root cause of his errant behaviour, and that he plans to advise the Australian public once again on crypto projects, investment opportunities and “all of that good stuff”.

Crypto News Australia has tried to make contact with Saunders to obtain further comments and will update this story once we have more information.

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Binance Social media

Binance Commits $500 Million to Elon Musk’s Acquisition of Twitter

Major crypto exchange Binance has committed US$500 million to help Elon Musk’s US$44 billion bid to acquire social media company Twitter, as revealed by a May 4 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A ‘Small Contribution to the Cause’

Musk wasn’t alone in his multibillion-dollar acquisition of Twitter, as major investment firms and digital assets companies such as Sequoia Capital, Fidelity, Andreessen Horowitz, and now Binance backed the temporary CEO’s takeover of the social media network.

Binance was the fourth-biggest contributor with US$500 million. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said it was a “small contribution to the cause”:

Ellison Kicks in $1 Billion

According to the SEC filing, 18 co-investors – including Oracle co-founder and Tesla investor Larry Ellison – participated in the acquisition. Ellison delivered the largest contribution with a US$1 billion investment, while Sequoia Capital and VyCapital invested US$800 million and $700 million respectively.

On April 27, Musk officially acquired Twitter for US$44 billion, a move hailed by some and decried by others. Despite his critics, Musk has signalled that freedom of speech would be the backbone of Twitter under his stewardship.

Investors believe that Musk has all the necessary skills to turn Twitter into something better than just spam bots and constant censorship, which have badly tarnished the social media network. Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz offered this glowing endorsement:

Elon is the one person we know and perhaps the only person in the world who has the courage, brilliance, and skills to fix all of these [problems] and build the public square that we all hoped for and deserve.

Ben Horowitz, co-founder, Andreessen Horowitz (Twitter)
Categories
Crypto News Hackers Reddit Scams Security Social media

Redditor Issues Warning After Phone’s Predictive Text Guessed His Seed Phrase

An IT professional from Germany has warned fellow Reddit users after discovering that his mobile phone’s predictive text feature enabled it to correctly predict his entire recovery seed phrase after typing in the first word.

Complete list of 2048 BIP-39 Seed Recovery Phrase Words
Example of BIP-39 recovery seed phrase list. Source: Bitcoin Safety

Guessing Seed Phrases: Impossible?

Seed phrases, a random selection of 2048 words originating from Bitcoin Enhancement Protocol (BIP) 39, enable users to back up or recover access to their crypto holdings. The prospect of correctly guessing the correct 12- or 24-word seed phrase is virtually impossible, even with quantum computing. To give a sense of how low the probability is, one Reddit user ran the numbers.

Imagine then the surprise of Andre, also known as u/Divinux on Reddit, when he noticed that his phone accurately guessed the 12–24 word seed phrase, in the right order. “First, I was stunned. The first couple of words could be a coincidence, right?” he said, adding:

This makes it simple to assault, get your fingers on a telephone, begin any chat app, and begin typing any phrases off the BIP39 record, and see what the telephone suggests.

u/Divinux on Reddit

However, being IT literate and recognising the risk, he decided it would be best to put word out to the community.

Different Keyboards, Different Results

To properly assess the risk, Andre decided to evaluate how a range of different keyboards performed. His findings revealed that Google’s GBoard was the least vulnerable, since it did not predict every word in the correct order. However, both Microsoft and Samsung’s keyboards were able to predict the seed phrase word-for-word by default.

He then proceeded to issue a warning to fellow crypto enthusiasts:

Not your keys not your coins, do your own research, don’t FOMO, never invest more than you are willing to lose, always double-check the address you are sending to, always send a small amount beforehand and disable your PMs in settings.

u/Divinux on Reddit

Perhaps more pertinently, he concluded that users should “do [themselves] a solid [favour] and prevent that [predictive text guessing the seed phrase] from happening by clearing [their] predictive type cache”. Others however, such as u/babaossa77, thought even that didn’t go far enough: “If you typed your seed phrase into your mobile phone I’d already consider that seed as unsafe and wouldn’t use it for any bigger funds, even after clearing the cache.”

Just two weeks ago, MetaMask issued a phishing attack notice to its users, suggesting that when it comes to security, it’s ultimately a matter of degree since one can never be truly immune to the risk of a breach.

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Binance Blockchain Crypto News Markets Social media Steem

Social Blockchain Token STEEM Explodes 60% Following Major Exchange Listings

Steem (STEEM), the native cryptocurrency of the social media-focused Steem blockchain, has surged over 60 percent following an announcement from Binance that the exchange would start offering a STEEM/USDT trading pair from April 22.

Immediately following the announcement, before Binance even listed STEEM, its price went virtually vertical, surging from US$0.36 to $US0.56 in just a few hours. Once trading began on Binance, STEEM’s price increased further to $US0.61 – an overall gain of over 60 percent. 

What is the Steem Blockchain?

Steem blockchain was created in 2016 by Ned Scott, co-founder of BitShares, and Daniel Larimar, lead developer of the EOS blockchain. Steem aims to reward people who actively contribute content on social media. It incentivises constructive participation on social platforms by providing a non-censorable monetisation layer that rewards creators of digital content with cryptocurrency.  

The flagship platform running on Steem is Steemit, a Reddit-like social blogging platform that offers users crypto rewards based on participation. There are currently more than 400 social media applications actively using the Steem blockchain.

STEEM Price Action Since Binance Listing

In the days since its Binance listing, STEEM retraced most of its gains, bottoming out at around US$0.40 before again surging in the past two days. At the time of writing the price of STEEM was sitting at US$0.56, around 54 percent higher than its pre-listing price – making it the 254th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation.

According to data from CoinGecko, STEEM’s price is still down 93.1 percent from its all-time high of US$8.19, which it hit on January 3, 2018, at the height of the 2017-18 bull run, indicating there may still be considerable room for price growth in the medium to long term.

STEEM’s price surge on the back of a major exchange listing is a familiar story. For example, in December Measurable Data Token (MDT) gained 90 percent in a single day after its Coinbase Pro listing; similarly, IDEX surged over 85 percent in December after it was listed on Huobi.

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Crypto News Facebook Metaverse Social media Virtual Reality

Meta Launches a Metaverse-Themed Store in San Francisco

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, will open a physical metaverse-themed store in the San Francisco Bay area. A feature of the store will be wall-to-wall curved LED screens that display what users see using virtual reality (VR) headsets.

In an April 25 announcement, Meta said it would be opening its doors in the Burlingame, California location on May 9. The store, situated on the Meta campus, is aimed at providing interactive demos for the company’s hardware products, including VR headsets, video communications displays, and smart glasses.

Virtual reality now in the hands of Meta Store customers. Source: wsj.com

According to store head Martin Gilliard, “The Meta Store is going to help people make that connection to how our products can be the gateway to the metaverse in the future.” He added:

We’re not selling the metaverse in our store, but hopefully people will come in and walk out knowing a little bit more about how our products will help connect them to it.

Martin Gilliard, store head, Meta Store

Backlash Greets Meta’s Metaverse Vision

Facebook rebranded as Meta in October 2021 saying it was time it focused its efforts on expanding beyond social media, later announcing its metaverse vision for connecting online social experiences and the physical world.

Although its plans may be well-intentioned, Meta has since received a lot of backlash in the Twittersphere:

Meta Makes More Moves in the Metaverse

Only a week ago, Meta announced the launch of a digital economy that will allow users to sell virtual goods for its VR game as it continues to expand in the metaverse. Meta is also looking into introducing non-blockchain-based virtual tokens and loans as it seeks new revenue streams against a backdrop of fierce competition in the social media landscape.