Category: Social media

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Crypto News Ethereum Social media

Twitter Adds Feature Enabling Ethereum Tipping

Social media giant Twitter officially enabled Ethereum tipping this week, extending payment options for its “virtual tip jar” feature that enables users to support their favourite accounts and creators.

Twitter first launched its tipping feature in September 2021. At launch it allowed users to send tips to other Twitter users via a variety of payment methods including Venmo, CashApp and Bitcoin.

No Hacking Skills Required

In November, a Hong Kong-based ethical hacker discovered that Twitter had plans to support Ethereum tipping and described a way to access the then officially unsupported feature. But with this latest announcement, the feature is now available to all users and requires no hacking skills:

Ether Tips Available Only on Mobile App

The addition of Ethereum tipping allows mobile app users to send tips using Ether and ERC-20 tokens, including Ethereum-based stablecoins. The feature is only available via mobile apps and is not currently supported through the Twitter website.

This development indicates that since former CEO and famous Bitcoin maximalist Jack Dorsey left Twitter last year, the company has taken a more open-minded stance towards altcoins. The addition of Ethereum-based tips to Twitter marks a further milestone in the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies and suggests that Twitter may add support for further altcoins in the future.

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Crypto News Ethereum NFTs Social media

‘OnlyFans’ Set to Adopt ETH-Based NFT Profile Pics

Following the lead of Twitter, Reddit and YouTube, racy online subscription service OnlyFans has announced that its users can now use verified Ethereum non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in their profile images.

Creators who choose to do so will receive an Ethereum symbol to show they own the asset. When users click on an NFT profile picture, they will see more information about the digital asset from OpenSea:

The idea of digital ownership is important to OnlyFans, a Web2 company whose business model has at times put it at odds with the traditional financial system.

Our mission is to empower creators to own their full potential. This feature is the first step in exploring the role that NFTs can play on our platform.

OnlyFans CEO Amrapali Gan

Launching in 2016, OnlyFans’ initial appeal was to amateur porn stars looking to take their “act” direct to audiences and cut out (at least some of) the middlemen. Similar to Patreon, OnlyFans takes a cut of the action in exchange for use of the platform.

New CEO Soft-Pedals OnlyFans Content

But the site has worked to temper its X-rated image, gradually replacing porn content with live music sessions, cosplay tutorials and fashion tips. Former chief marketing and communications officer (now CEO) Amrapali Gan took over the platform in December and says he has since shifted its emphasis to “non-nude” content.

Not that OnlyFans has dispensed with suggestive photos and videos entirely – that would serve to alienate much of its (hard) core audience.

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Crypto News Metaverse NFTs Social media

YouTube Confirms Move into Web3, Says It Has ‘Incredible Potential’

YouTube has confirmed it’s stepping into Web3, flagging its “incredible potential” for content creators through the use of blockchain technology and NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

In a February 10 blog post, YouTube’s chief product officer, Neal Mohan, shared some of the company’s upcoming plans for products and services in 2022, including Web3 technology.

Mohan said that YouTube was working on strategies to integrate some of these technologies. Some of Mohan’s suggestions regarding blockchain and NFTs include giving users the ability to own unique videos, photos, art and more from their favourite content creators. This also allows creators to better engage with their audience and access new ways of making money.

A Careful Approach to Web3

The approach, according to Mohan, is being taken in a “responsible manner”, as many companies have faced harsh backlash due to the environmental impact of using blockchain-based technologies such as Ethereum and its Proof of Work (PoW) consensus, which consumes an enormous amount of processing power.

There’s a lot to consider in making sure we approach these new technologies responsibly, but we think there’s incredible potential as well.

Neal Mohan, chief product officer, YouTube

The other aspect is that the NFT sphere is full of scammers and other malicious actors, and YouTube has been vulnerable to hacking attacks before. Two weeks ago, Crypto News Australia reported how more than 30 crypto YouTube Channels had been hacked in a coordinated attack.

Will There Be NFTs on YouTube Anytime Soon?

While Mohan didn’t disclose if YouTube would integrate NFTs, the integration of Web3 features opens up many possibilities. For example, we might see an NFT minting feature on the platform, or one that allows NFT holders exclusive access to a creator’s content.

NFTs can help creators find new ways to make more money, and YouTube can take a cut out of that in transaction fees.

This isn’t the first time YouTube has flagged its intentions of integrating Web3 technologies. Just last month, CEO Susan Wojcicki hinted at a possible NFT integration.

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Aave Crypto News Decentralized Social DeFi Social media

Aave Devs Launches ‘Lens Protocol’ to Power Decentralised Social Media Platform  

Aave, one of the top decentralised finance (DeFi) platforms, has officially launched its new decentralised social network built on the eco-friendly Polygon blockchain.

After collecting 10,000 signatures in an open letter, Aave decided to pick up the mantle to develop a Web3 native social media platform. CEO and founder Stani Kulechov hinted at designing a Web3 social graph project at LisCon 2021, and it seems the project has now come to fruition.

Lens protocol logo. Source: lensprotocol.eth

Named Lens Protocol, the social graph is described as a “permissionless, composable and decentralised social graph that makes building a Web3 social platform easy”. A social graph is a model or representation of a social network, and has been referred to as “the global mapping of everybody and how they’re related”.

With Web 3.0 being the ownership upgrade of the internet, the platform seeks to solve many of the issues users face with current social network services. Meta, for example, has come under investigation for allowing crypto scam ads.

Unlike social media platforms of the past, Lens Protocol and its content are powered by dynamic NFTs, giving the power and control over content directly to the users, allowing for native content monetisation.

Lens Protocol

Using NFTs to Control and Own Your Content

One of the major selling points of Lens Protocol is that unlike traditional social media, users will have complete control over their content through the use of NFTs. NFTs are the catalyst driving this project:

Profile NFTs are the main primitive of the Lens Protocol. These dynamic NFTs are composable, non-custodial and permissionless. Individual addresses can own profile NFTs, an address can have multiple profile NFTs, and a profile NFT can be owned and run by a DAO via a multisig wallet.

Lens Protocol

The mirror function is an added feature of the social network where resharing a post could actually land users a cut, or “mirror-fee”, from any user who collects original content through the share, almost like built-in affiliate marketing.

As Kulechov told Decrypt, “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”, adding that “Twitter makes all the revenue from your tweets and the content you share, and Twitter decides which of your tweets get traction through the algorithm”.

According to the project’s official Twitter account, Lens is live on the Polygon Mumbai testnet, with plans for an alpha mainnet launch in the pipeline.

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Bitcoin Crime Crypto News Hackers Social media

The Story of a Wannabe Rapper and How US Officials Seized $3.6 Billion in BTC

The US Justice Department has impounded US$3.6 billion in bitcoin and arrested a would-be rapper and her husband for conspiring to launder some of the funds – believed to be among the proceeds of the infamous Bitfinex hack of 2016.

According to the FBI, Heather Morgan and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein spent part of the proceeds on gold, NFTs, and other items. Each faces up to 25 years in a federal prison if convicted.

Rather than keep a low profile as you’d expect of alleged crypto criminals, Morgan in particular has a social media presence befitting her status as an aspiring rapper, published writer and influencer. She even has a website dedicated to her rapper alter-ego, named “Razzlekhan”:

Morgan’s LinkedIn profile notes her economics degree, while as a journalist the 31-year-old has been published in Inc and Forbes magazines, with the latter running an article of hers ironically titled “How to Protect Your Business From Cyber Criminals”.

How the FBI ‘Followed the Money’

The Bitfinex hack involved the theft of 119,756 bitcoin (worth just US$72 million at the time) following a security breach at the exchange. The amount stolen is now valued at more than US$5.1 billion.

In the five years since the hack, small amounts of BTC have periodically been moved in separate transactions, leaving the bulk of the funds untouched. The Justice Department traced 25,000 BTC of these transferred funds to financial accounts controlled by Lichtenstein and Morgan. Special agents were then able to gain access to and seize more than 94,000 BTC – worth US$3.6 billion at the time – from Morgan and Lichtenstein after a search warrant allowed them to view files containing private keys to several wallets, which just days ago were consolidated into a single wallet.

Morgan and Lichtenstein allegedly used a variety of methods to launder the illicit crypto, including chain hopping, depositing the coins at exchanges and darknet markets and withdrawing them, and automating transactions using computer programs. In addition, the pair set up business accounts in the US to “legitimise their banking activity”.

“[These] arrests, and the department’s largest financial seizure ever, show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals,” said US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

“The [Justice] department once again showed how it can and will follow the money, no matter what form it takes.”

US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco

The Justice Department must, of course, still prove its allegations in court that Morgan and Lichtenstein laundered the US$4.5 billion in bitcoin stolen from Bitfinex in 2016. The hack is a separate matter.

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Australia Crime Crypto News Cryptocurrency Law Facebook Social media

Australian Billionaire Launches Criminal Case Against Meta for Fake Crypto Ads

Australian mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest has launched criminal proceedings against Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta conglomerate, alleging its Facebook social media arm breached Australia’s money laundering laws by failing to police false crypto advertisements.

Forrest, billionaire chairman of iron ore giant Fortescue Metals, has filed his criminal lawsuit against Meta in the Magistrates Court of Western Australia, having already launched related civil proceedings in the US state of California last September.

In charges brought under the Australian Commonwealth Criminal Code, Forrest alleges Facebook has repeatedly failed to remove posts by scammers that used his image, among those of other celebrities, to promote crypto investments on the site since March 2019.

Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, chairman of Fortescue Metals. Source: cnn.com

According to Forrest’s complaint, the company’s failure to prevent or remove the ads constitutes “criminally reckless” behaviour. Forrest further alleges that Facebook “failed to create controls or a corporate culture to prevent its systems being used to commit crime”.

‘World-First’ Criminal Action Against the Social Media Giant

In a statement, Forrest said he was launching the “world-first” action on behalf of “everyday Australians” to protect their savings from being “swindled away by scammers”.

“I’m concerned about innocent Australians being scammed through clickbait advertising on social media,” Forrest said. “I’m committed to ensuring social media operators don’t allow their sites to be used by criminal syndicates.

Social media is part of our lives, but it’s in the public interest for more to be done to ensure fraud on social media platforms is eliminated or significantly reduced.

Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, Australian mining magnate

An initial hearing of Forrest’s complaint will take place on March 28, with the separate civil case pending in the Superior Court of California. A Meta spokesperson said the company was unable to comment on either court action, but provided a broader statement about scams on Facebook:

We don’t want ads seeking to scam people out of money or mislead people on Facebook – they violate our policies and are not good for our community. We take a multifaceted approach to stop these ads, working not just to detect and reject the ads themselves but also block advertisers from our services and, in some cases, take court action to enforce our policies. We’re committed to keeping these people off our platform.

Statement from Meta spokesperson

Meta Share Price Tanks, $200B Wiped Off Market Cap

It’s been a pretty ordinary start to the year for Meta, whose share price plunged 26 percent this week in what was the biggest single-day slide in market value for a US company. The drop erased over US$200 billion from Meta’s market capitalisation and around US$29 billion from CEO Zuckerberg’s net worth.

Yet Meta is not the only entity under fire for its advertising practices, with Spain, Singapore and the UK the latest jurisdictions to have made changes to their crypto advertising regulations. Last year, Google reviewed its crypto advertising policy after lifting its ban and adding specific requirements to which advertisers have to adhere.

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Crypto News NFTs Reddit Social media

Reddit Allows Users to Change Profile Pic to an NFT

Following Twitter’s lead earlier this month, Reddit is testing a new feature that would allow its 450 million users to set any NFT they own as their profile picture. And it’s not just limited to Reddit’s own Ethereum-based NFTs called “CryptoSnoos“, which the company released in limited number last year.

However, details regarding how Reddit’s support for NFTs would work have not yet been decided, much less revealed.

Reddit Expands its NFT Reach

Reddit has explained that the particular NFT test is still in the very early stages and has not yet been made available to public users on the site. According to company spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt, “We’re always exploring ways to provide value for users and communities on Reddit. At the moment we’re testing the ability to use NFTs as profile pictures (avatars) and [to] verify ownership.”

Rathschmidt added that it was still a small internal test and that no decision had been made regarding rolling out the feature’s capability.

This is not the first time Reddit has explored the NFT space, having set up a dedicated page for NFT-related activities at nft.reddit.com. At the moment, the page mainly focuses on CryptoSnoos, of which only four have have been released so far.

Reddit also recently launched a new Ethereum-based community points reward program to even more of its subreddits. Currently, the program is only available on two subreddits.

The news comes only a couple of months after a job posting for a senior backend engineer was posted to the site, fuelling speculation that the social media giant was building its own NFT platform.

CryptoSnoos already in existence. Source: Reddit

Users Not Entirely Convinced of Reddit’s Efforts

While many users are thrilled at the notion of Reddit testing out NFT profile pictures, many remain unconvinced or are downright angry about the venture, describing the expansion into NFTs as “idiotic”, “a gimmick”, among other far less complimentary terms in Reddit’s comments section. Others also displayed their concerns over the high prices associated with collectibles that currently exclude many people from the ecosystem:

Some are even calling it a Ponzi scheme:

And even a scam:

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News Crypto Wallets Ethereum NFTs Social media

Ethereum Users Can Now Chat with Each Other by Connecting Their Wallets

Blockscan, the team behind the Etherscan blockchain explorer, has released Blockscan Chat in beta, an Ethereum-based wallet-to-wallet instant messaging service.

As well as enabling users to engage in instantaneous wallet-to-wallet chat, Blockscan will allow them to:

  • access chats from multiple devices;
  • block spam or unwanted addresses; and
  • be notified on the block explorer when a message has been received.

Negotiating Power with White-Hat Hackers

Above all else, the new feature may prove itself invaluable for dealing with white-hat hackers, who tend to leave messages embedded in Ethereum transactions in order to communicate with individuals and exploited crypto platforms.

It would have proved particularly useful in last week’s ongoing Multichain exploit, in which an assumed white-hat hacker returned 322 ETH (about US$770,000) but kept a hefty finder’s fee, not to mention last year’s US$610 million Poly Network hack. In both cases, anonymous discussions via Ethereum transactions formed part of negotiations between culprit and victims.

Blockscan Also Has NFT Applications

Apart from pleading with hackers to return funds for a bounty, the service could also prove useful in negotiating NFT purchases between buyers and sellers. If the transaction were to be conducted by a decentralised exchange, both parties could reduce the fees associated with NFT platforms such as OpenSea.

In related news, Unstoppable Domains – a US-based company that provides blockchain-based domain names – announced a fortnight ago that Ethereum and Polygon NFT domains can now be used for single logins. The service allows users to sign in to their favourite apps with an NFT portable name, thus eliminating the need to provide any additional information.

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Crypto News Hackers Social media

Leading Crypto YouTube Channels Hacked with ‘One World Cryptocurrency’ Message

A coordinated attack has allowed hackers access to multiple YouTube accounts of more than 30 popular cryptocurrency influencer channels.

At the same time on the same day, January 23, the hackers uploaded a fraudulent video titled “One World Cryptocurrency”, posting it across numerous crypto influencers’ YouTube channels. In the video and description, there was a contact address provided and the scammers called for people to send USDT/USDC/BNB/ETH to receive new crypto called OWCY.

Screenshot of One World Cryptocurrency. Source: Coin Bureau

According to data from BscScan, the scam caused minimal financial damage, with only 2.3 BNB transferred to the hacker’s wallet. In total, there were only 10 transactions worth around US$850 at the time of writing.

How Did the Hackers Gain Access?

Many, if not all, of the hacked YouTube accounts were secured with very strong passwords and Google security keys, which would normally make it almost impossible for a hacker to gain access.

Attacks such as these can be carried out by a process known as SIM swapping, where hackers take control of the phone number linked to an account. Porting the victim’s number to a new SIM allows hackers to get past 2FA (two-factor authentication). This does not appear to have been the case in this instance, as many accounts were breached at one time, raising suspicions of an inside job.

All the accounts the hacker gained access to were logged in from an IP address in the Philippines. YouTube brand accounts are connected to personal accounts. Michael Gu (@boxmining) was one of the YouTubers whose account was hacked. Gu said he conducted an internal sweep after the breach but found no viruses or bugs that might have given the hackers access, adding there had been no logins on his personal Google account, nor was access to his phone compromised. “Seems like YouTube might be responsible,” he said.

Very likely, this is either a hack on YouTube’s side or a rogue employee. That’s how they got so many people at the same time.

Michael Gu (@boxmining)

Account Holders Hint at an ‘Inside Job’

Ivan on Tech was also targeted in the attack, and posted his account in a video below, suggesting that it could have been an inside job.

While Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) continues to step up efforts to make the platform more secure, this latest attack raises huge concerns over YouTube’s ability to protect users from foul play, especially in a case where the culprit has most likely come from within its own walls.

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Blockchain Crypto News NFTs Social media

NFT Hater Builds Plug-in to Auto-Block NFT People on Twitter

Mcclure, a developer, GitHub contributor and obvious hater of NFTs, has built a plug-in that allows the auto-blocking of NFT proponents on Twitter. The release of the tool comes within 24 hours of Twitter rolling out its NFT verification feature for anyone who wants to prove they do in fact own the NFT they have displayed as their profile picture.

The “NFTBlocker” is a Google Chrome and Firefox plug-in that blocks Twitter users who have NFT profile pictures. Users who have installed the tool can press the “run NFT block” button, which then scrolls the page and blocks anybody with a seemingly offensive picture. According to the developer, future versions will scan the user’s notifications and run the blocking process automatically.

Why Block NFT Users?

Explaining on the GitHub page why anybody would be interested in blocking NFT users, Mcclure summarised three reasons:

  • NFTs are designed in a “foolish way” and their impact on global warming is great.
  • The NFT market is rife with scams and art theft.
  • NFT users are just irritating to be around.

The developer also gave his take on NFTs, providing an in-depth explanation. According to Mcclure, an NFT is an “investment scam”. In the README section of the GitHub page, Mcclure indicated the driving force behind Twitter’s pivot to using NFTs. The developer claims that former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey “is invested in cryptocurrency and if Twitter makes NFTs more popular, Jack Dorsey will make money”.

Mcclure might be a little misinformed in this instance, given that Dorsey has demonstrated little interest in NFTs since stepping down as CEO of Twitter in 2021.