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BITCOIN MINING: Chip giant Intel (INTC) has launched its second-generation bitcoin mining chip. The Intel Blockscale ASIC is pitched as one of the most “efficient” chips on the market, which could bode well on the regulatory front amid an environment, social and governance (ESG) industry debate.The chips are slated to ship in the third quarter, with large miners Argo Blockchain, Hive Blockchain and Block (formerly Square) among the first buyers.UNSTABLE STABLECOIN: Algorithmic stablecoin Neutrino dollar, or USDN, lost its U.S. dollar peg as WAVES, the token backing that stablecoin, saw a double-digit price decline early Monday. The drop wiped out $200 million of the token’s market value, according to a pseudonymous market expert, as it became the latest high-priced algorithmic stablecoin to lose its peg. More controversy ensued as several Crypto Twitter personalities accused the Waves team of manipulating the price of its native token, claims that Waves CEO Sasha Ivanov dismissed. Instead, Ivanov said that trading firm Alameda Research has a massive WAVES short position and has been running a hostile media campaign to trigger panic selling. ALGORITHM UPGRADE: Proof-of-stake blockchain Tezos has upgraded its consensus algorithm in an effort to reduce block times and improve performance. The protocol’s ninth upgrade, code-named Ithaca 2 and completed last Friday, replaces the current consensus algorithm to improve scalability, lower block times and support more complicated applications. The upgrade will also reduce the requirements to become a network validator by 25% (from 8,000 to 6,000 tez). GROWTH PLAN: Coinbase, the world’s second-largest exchange by volume, is planning to quadruple the number of employees in India by the end of the year. CEO Brian Armstrong said that Coinbase will hire 1,000 more individuals at its existing 300-person team in Hyderabad, India. The exchange also plans to double down on regional investments, adding to its portfolio that includes regional players CoinSwitcher and CoinDCX in a push to “accelerate the growth of cryptocurrency globally.”–Fran Velasquez |
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Overheard on CoinDesk TV... |
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"Electricity is already pretty affordable in the state of Oklahoma, but we certainly want to be able to help them [bitcoin miners] expand their operation in our state, and continue to grow over time." –Oklahoma State Senator John Michael Montgomery, on CoinDesk TV's "First Mover." |
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What others are writing... |
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'Green oasis' for Bitcoin mining: Norway has almost 1% of global BTC hash rate (Cointelegraph) BitMEX lays off 75 employees after bank acquisition collapses (The Block) Elon Musk bought a big stake in Twitter (Protocol) UK's Sunak asks Royal Mint to create an NFT, to be issued by summer (Reuters) This Crypto CEO Says He Made $20 Billion Just to Give it All Away (Bloomberg) |
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Putting the news into perspective |
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The Bigger Problem With Axie Infinity The vulnerability has to do with the structure of the game itself, which revolves around real money – non-fungible tokens (NFT) – rather than your standard in-game currency. It’s what’s known as a “play-to-earn” model: Playing the game can actually make you money, if you play your cards right. Rather than operating directly on the tried and true Ethereum network, Axie Infinity uses a custom-built sidechain called Ronin – essentially an Ethereum spin-off meant to reduce congestion on the main chain. In order to interact with applications built on Ronin, you’ll need to port your crypto over to the network using a specialized program called a “bridge.” This was the site of last month’s exploit. Blockchain networks are notoriously difficult to mess with, in and of themselves – it’s when you’re moving money between networks that cracks start to form. An attacker managed to steal around $610 million from Poly Network last year by going after the bridge. And just two months ago, the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Wormhole had its bridge hacked to the tune of $325 million. In the case of Axie/Ronin, the company behind the network didn’t even notice the hack for about a week. Or if it did, it decided to take its time in formally announcing it: A blog post revealing the losses went up on March 29, six full days after the attacker made off with the funds. “This is when we show what we're made of,” tweeted Axie co-founder Jeff Zirlin at the time. “Chaos is a ladder.” (The apparent ”Game of Thrones” reference was not explained.) This sort of dug-in flippancy has more or less been the mentality of the Axie Infinity team. The Ronin bridge remains down, which means Axie players can’t actually withdraw their crypto from the network, but top brass has apparently decided the show must go on. Sky Mavis, the company responsible for Axie Infinity, has said it plans to reimburse players for their lost funds. It also delayed the game’s next big upgrade, titled “Axie Infinity: Origin,” by a week. But as Axie looks to retain its status as the single largest play-to-earn ecosystem on any blockchain, security issues may be the least of its worries. Back in December, Zirlin described Axie Infinity’s play-to-earn mechanics as a kind of liberation for the world of online gaming. “All we’ve done is we’ve added a system of property rights into games,” he told me, referencing the idea that players can actually “own” Axie NFTs on the blockchain. “So, in some ways, we’ve freed people. We’ve given them something that they should have had all along.” In practice, though, Axie is a lesson in the dangers of play-to-earn. Read the full article here. –Will Gottsegen |
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Cracking the Notification Conundrum in Web 3 Apps* Ping! You’ve got mail. This is one of the oldest memes of the internet age. The little icon in the corner of our screens, the talking paper clip, the familiar buzz of the phone in our pockets. We take real-time alerts and notifications for granted. They are hard-wired into our everyday lives. And when an app does not provide notifications and alerts, it feels outdated. But in the most modern iteration of the internet – Web 3 and blockchains – these notifications are conspicuous by their absence. The reason for this is largely technical. *This is sponsored content from Tatum. |
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