Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Hungary’s Central Bank Calls For Ban on Bitcoin Mining and Trading

As cryptocurrency becomes more and more acceptable, the calls to regulate the sector are growing. The latest in a growing number of central monetary entities which seek to ban cryptocurrencies is the Central Bank of Hungary.　　MNBs Governor, György Matolcsy, has urged the country and the EU to ban bitcoin mining and trading. The Governor contended that cryptocurrencies could serve as a conduit for illicit activities.　　Hungary Governor urges for a crypto ban　　The Governor was speaking at a press conference on February 11. The Governor of the Hungarian Central Bank urged a complete ban on all forms of trading in cryptocurrencies. The Governor repeated the oft-repeated argument that cryptocurrencies led to illegal activities and tended to build up financial pyramids.　　The Governor cited the example of China, which has put a complete ban on anything related to cryptocurrencies. He also mentioned a recent proposal by the central bank of Russia that also wanted to prohibit the usage of digital assets. However, he ignored or was not aware that the Russian authorities had decided to regulate cryptocurrencies rather than ban them.　　The statement by the Governor read, “The EU should act together to preempt the building up of new financial pyramids and financial bubbles. EU

2022-02-14Deep Dive

South Korea Jails Seven Masterminds of Country's 'Largest Crypto Fraud Scheme'

Seven executives of the collapsed South Korean scam cryptocurrency exchange, V Global, were recently handed lengthy jail sentences as punishment for their role in running one of the countrys biggest crypto frauds.　　 Verdict Sets New Benchmark　　Seven former masterminds of the now-defunct scam crypto exchange, V Global, were recently given jail sentences for their part in misappropriating nearly $1.9 billion in investors funds. Lee Byung-gul, who was the CEO of the entity when the funds went missing, was handed a 22-year jail term while his accomplices were given jail sentences that range between four and 14 years.　　According to a report by Forkast, the jailing of Lee Byung-gul and his fellow executives comes a month after prosecutors asked for life sentences. At the time, the prosecutors argued that handing the offenders life sentences would reflect the severity of the offenses.　　However, the report reveals that the jail sentences given to the CEO and his co-conspirators are in fact closer to the most severe punishment that is usually meted out to property crimes offenders. The verdict on one of South Koreas biggest crypto scams potentially sets a benchmark for the legal punishment that is handed to persons that commit crypto related-crimes.　　 Majority of Investors

2022-02-14Deep Dive

FTC Warns of Romance Scams Luring People Into Bogus Cryptocurrency Investments

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned about romance scams using cryptocurrency. Scammers use romance as a hook to lure people into bogus investments, especially crypto, the federal agency explained. “2021 numbers are nearly five times those reported in 2020, and more than 25 times those reported in 2019,” said the FTC.　　FTC Warns About Crypto Romance Scams　　The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a warning Thursday about crypto-related romance scams. The FTC is an independent agency of the U.S. government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil U.S. antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection.　　“New data from the Federal Trade Commission show that more consumers than ever report falling prey to romance scammers. Consumers reported losing $547 million in 2021 alone,” the FTC wrote, adding:　　“A growing trend in 2021 was scammers using romance as a hook to lure people into bogus investments, especially cryptocurrency.”　　“Consumers who paid romance scammers with cryptocurrency reported losing $139 million in total in 2021, more than any other payment amount,” the federal agency detailed. “2021 numbers are nearly five times those reported in 2020, and more than 25 times those reported in 2019.”　　In addition, the FTC noted that the median loss for consumers

2022-02-14Deep Dive

Content Subscription Service Onlyfans Adds Ethereum-Based NFT Profile Feature

Onlyfans Steps Into the Realm of NFTs　　The London-based content subscription service Onlyfans is well known for its direct funding for content creators, its one-time tips, the firms pay-per-view (PPV) features, and of course, NSFW content.　　This week, Onlyfans has revealed it is experimenting with blockchain technology as the firm is allowing users to show off their NFTs. According to a report from Reuters, Onlyfans CEO Ami Gan explained that the move is meant to empower the platforms userbase.　　“Our mission is to empower creators to own their full potential,” Gan explained to the Reuters author Elizabeth Culliford. “This feature is the first step in exploring the role that NFTs can play on our platform.”　　Onlyfans is behind the eight ball when it comes to joining the NFT industry, as a large swathe of well-known businesses and popular brands have already jumped in. Moreover, Twitters verified NFT profile feature is similar to the Onlyfans NFT profile concept. Twitter launched the feature last month.　　On Febraury 6, Bitcoin.com News reported on Alphabet‘s (Google) plans to explore blockchain and Web3 technology. Furthermore, Alphabet’s subsidiary Youtube published a blog post explaining that it has plans to leverage non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The CEO of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, said Instagram

2022-02-13Deep Dive

Disbarred Attorney Philip Reichenthal Pleads Guilty to $5m Crypto Fraud

New York federal prosecutors announced on Friday that Philip Reichenthal, a disbarred attorney, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, in connection with a scheme to defraud investors who believed they were buying Bitcoin.　　Reichenthal falsely represented that he would act as an escrow agent for the transactions. He engaged with Randy Craig Levine, an international fugitive and former Coral Springs resident, in executing the deals. In their schemes, Levine fraudulently induced victims to send millions of dollars to Reichenthal, who was a licensed attorney at the time of the fraudulent activities.　　According to a Justice Department press release, between June and July of 2018, Levine persuaded the first victim, the head of a cryptocurrency escrow firm, Volantis Entities, to wire $3 million to Reichenthal to fund an over-the-counter desks Bitcoin buy. But instead of purchasing the Bitcoins for the client, Reichenthal wired over $2 million to a bank in Guatemala where Levine had an account. And no Bitcoins were purchased.　　In a second charge between February and May of 2019, Levine and Reichenthal brokered another Bitcoin transaction deal that never materialized and therefore conned the second victim. The Florida Bitcoin investor sent Reichenthal $2 million to fund the purchase of his

2022-02-13Deep Dive

Silicon Valley employees go away from large companies to Web3. What is the future of the Internet?

Julien Gaillard, the former Chief Data Scientist at Twitter Spaces, announced on Twitter that he is leaving Silicone Valley social media giant to become Head of Data Science at DeFi lending platform Aave.　　He said in that twitter‘s comment that Web3’s core values are decentralization, innovation, fairness and experimentation, which encapsulates much of the feeling of the early internet. 　　Meanwhile, David Marcus, head of the cryptocurrency project at Facebook (now known as Meta), also started his own Web3 venture on Jan. 1.　　Another Meta employee, Evan Cheng, also left in September to start MystyLab. He is currently focusing on building blockchain infrastructure and has revealed in an interview that 80% of his teams employees come from the Web2 internet industry.　　All of these prove that an era of web3 is coming to us. In this article, we will introduce web3 and the problem it solves.The World of Web3　　Web3 is a new iteration of the internet based on blockchain technology, developed with decentralization and empowerment at its core.　　Whereas Web1 was a content delivery network and Web2 built out the social media ecosystem, Web3 aims to be a distributed, decentralized network.　　Although the concept of Web3 is still vague, most people envision more widely distributed management

2022-02-13Deep Dive

Axie Infinity Smooth Love Potion (SLP) Explodes With 300% Gain This February

Smooth Love Potion (SLP) is skyrocketing in value just prior to the launch of Season 20 of Axie Infinity, the worlds most popular play-to-earn blockchain game.　　In a matter of days, the SLP token triples in value. As of February 12, 2022, SLP is now selling for $0.027 with a 24-hour range of.024 -.032.　　The in-game currency has a market capitalization of $927,503,521 and a trading volume of $1,365,400,410 during the 24-hour period.　　SLP is now the 102nd largest cryptocurrency by market value.　　The rally occurs following a significant update to the games economy, which removed player benefits for completing key in-game tasks, such as Adventure Mode SLP and Daily Quest SLP.Axie Infinity: How Does It Work？　　In the world of play-to-earn games, Axie is a well-known title. Its gameplay is inspired by classic games like Pokémon and Tamagotchi.　　Players can gather, breed, combat, and trade “Axies” in the game. SLP tokens are earned as rewards and can be redeemed for in-game features such as breeding new species.SLP/USD price at $0.028230 in the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com　　SLP is an ERC-20 token that acts as an in-game currency in Axie Infinity, a popular blockchain-based game.　　Axie Infinity allows users to collect one-of-a-kind digital creatures called Axies.　　Axies are

2022-02-13Deep Dive

Metaverse is booming, bringing revolution to real estate

Mark Zuckerberg might claim the Metaverse is the future — but in the eyes of others, the future has already begun. Science fiction author Neal Stephenson coined the term “Metaverse” back in his 1994 novel, Snow Crash. Within the pages, the main character, Hiro Protagonist, navigates through the virtual world. 　　Since 2003, millions have also worked, played and socialized in the Metaverse within the online Second Life world. While the game, with a heyday in the first decade of the 2000s and featuring some blocky graphics is a far cry from the modern Metaverse vision laid out by companies like Meta and Microsoft, the idea of a virtual metaverse where people interact is not a new idea.　　Currently, Decentraland is arguably the most well-known modern-day metaverse, incentivizing a global network of users to buy and sell digital real estate, explore, interact and play games. The Decentraland Foundation came into existence in 2015 and the projects initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017 netted about $26 million at the time. While Decentraland is expansive and features plenty to do, the platform has drawn many eyes to the lucrative, and ever-growing digital real estate industry.On Nov. 25, media reports revealed the nonfungible token (NFT)-based

2022-02-13Deep Dive

Critical bug in Ethereum L2 Optimism, $2M bounty paid

Ethereum Layer-2 solution Optimism has fixed a critical software bug in one of its smart contracts on Ethereum. On February 2nd, the Optimism team was alerted by Jay Freeman of a critical bug in Optimisms fork of the Ethereum Geth client software. As per the Optimism announcement “Funds Are Safu.”　　The bug made it possible for a malicious hacker to create ETH on Optimism by “repeatedly triggering the ”SELF-DESTRUCT“ opcode on a contract that held an ETH balance.” Opcodes are different types of instructions that can run on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) execution environment. Bug triggered by Etherscan employee　　Analysis of Optimisms blockchain history carried out by the Optimism team showed that the bug was not exploited. The bug seems to have been accidentally triggered on one occasion by an employee at the popular block explorer Etherscan. As per the report, “no usable excess ETH was generated.”　　According to the announcement, within hours of confirmation, the Optimism team developed and deployed a fix on the Kovan and Mainnet networks, mending the bug, and sent alerts to teams developing vulnerable Optimism forks and to L1-L2 bridge providers. Apart from the announcement, the Optimism team has also published a detailed breakdown of the incident.　　As

2022-02-13Deep Dive

Wells Fargo: Cryptocurrency Has Entered 'Hyper-Adoption Phase'

Crypto in Hyper-Adoption Phase, Says Wells Fargo　　Wells Fargos investment institute published a special report titled “Understanding Cryptocurrency” this week. The report attempts to answer whether it is “too early or too late” to invest in cryptocurrencies.　　The Wells Fargo team explained:　　We believe that cryptocurrencies are viable investments today, even though they remain in the early stages of their investment evolution.　　They added: “We recommend professionally managed private placements for now, as the investment landscape is still maturing.”　　The research team continued: “We see cryptocurrencies in the ‘early, but not too early’ investment stage, which is why we have emphasized investor education. The thrust of our view comes from global cryptocurrency adoption rates, which have quickly accelerated from a low base.” They noted:　　Cryptocurrencies have been following an adoption pattern similar to other new advanced technologies, such as the internet.　　The Wells Fargo analysts reiterated, “For todays investor trying to figure out if we are early or late to cryptocurrency investing, looking at technology investing in the mid-to-late 1990s seems reasonable.” They added:　　At that time, the internet hit a hyper-adoption phase and never looked back. Cryptocurrencies appear to be at a similar stage today … We are hopeful that greater regulatory clarity in 2022 brings higher

2022-02-13Deep Dive

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