Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Ethereum co-founder Taylor Gerring bought an M3 Serum for $3.6 million, wants to livestream the Mega

Ethereum co-founder Taylor Gerring recently purchased a Bored Ape Mega Mutant Serum NFT for 888 ETH ($3,6 million) from a seller who received it for free by being a part of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) community. 　　The new NFT owners announcement that he will be livestreaming the serum drinking event made a serious splash within the most famous yacht club in the world, as the BAYC community got excited to witness the new Mega Mutant reveal.Mega Mutant Ape reveal 　　Gerring purchased the M3 Serum NFT from a seller who received it for free–by being part of the BAYC community. 　　In August, Yuga Labs airdropped BAYC owners a Mutant Serum–an NFT that enables the original Bored Apes to mutate into a Mutant Ape. 　　Mutant Serums belong to an NFT collection dubbed Bored Ape Chemistry Club and come in three different tiers–M1, M2, and M3–with M3 being the rarest of them all.　　Following the concept, each of 10,000 Bored Apes can receive only one serum hit, opening a spot for 10,000 Mutant Apes.　　Gerring announced he will livestream the Mega Mutant Ape reveal on Twitter, and caused quite a stir among the BAYC community.　　The serum drinking event is scheduled to take place

2021-12-29Deep Dive

Binance Coin Dubbed “Winner Of 2021” By Crypto Research Firm

It‘s official, this was Binance Coin’s year. There are no two ways about it, BNB crushed it throughout 2021 and cemented itself as the third more popular coin in the world by market capitalization. Not a small feat, considering the phenomenal year that altcoins had. Several projects had their moment in the sun, capturing capital, headlines, and attention. No one got near Binance Coin, though.　　According to Arcane Researchs The Weekly Update:　　“Bitcoin may have beaten the stock market in 2021, but it has been left in the dust by other cryptocurrencies. Binance Coin (BNB) is the best performer of the three biggest cryptocurrencies by market cap, with a 1344% gain. The Binance Smart Chain ecosystem has seen massive growth in 2021, taking some market share from Ethereum.”　　That‘s why they dubbed Binance Coin as “the winner of 2021,” and their point is well taken. However, there’s more to the story. Binance as a company was in hot water for a while there. And their own validators blasted the Binance Smart Chain, saying things like, “There doesnt appear to be any reasonable testing process in place. Every update appears to make things worse.”　　Let‘s explore the Binance Coin ecosystem’s tumultuous year.Big Projects Decided To

2021-12-29Deep Dive

Elon Musk Says He’s Not Satoshi

During his latest appearance on a podcast with Lex Fridman, Musk has once again refuted the rumors about him being Satoshi Nakamoto.　　He argues that computer scientist and cryptographer Nick Szabo, who also denied creating Bitcoin, is mainly responsible for pushing the ideas that led to the creation of the worlds first cryptocurrency:　　“He claims not to be Nakamoto, but I‘m not sure. That’s neither here nor there, but he seems to be more responsible for the ideas behind Bitcoin than anyone else.”　　Bitcoin is “comically” slow　　Since Bitcoin‘s latency is too long, Musk argues that Bitcoin cryptocurrency is useful as a store of wealth, but it’s useless as a currency for payments.　　Musk notes that the Dogecoin has a much higher transaction volume capability compared to the crypto king as well as much lower fees:　　“Right now, if you want to do a Bitcoin transaction, the price of doing that transaction is very high so you could not use it effectively for most things, and nor could it even scale to high volume.”　　Having a small block size made sense and a long synchronization time was appropriate in 2008 due to relatively poor internet infrastructure, but Bitcoins speed is “comically low” now, according to Musk.　　The Tesla

2021-12-29Deep Dive

German telecom giant supports Polkadot, acquires DOT tokens

Polkadot, the “blockchain of blockchains” infrastructure developed by the Parity project, has entered a partnership with T-Systems MMS (MultiMedia Solutions), a subsidiary of the German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom.　　As per the announcement, T-Systems MMS will “promote secure communication between blockchains.” T-Systems MMS will use its infrastructure to participate in the Polkadot public blockchain network as a validator. In addition, T-Systems MMS has acquired DOT tokens and will support the interoperability between decentralized blockchain networks running on the Polkadot mainchain.Solves the lack of interoperability between blockchains　　DOT, the native token of the Polkadot network, is ranked number ten by market cap at a current valuation of over $32 billion. The announcement does not include information on the amount of DOT tokens acquired by T-Systems MMS.　　Polkadot aims to solve the lack of interoperability between blockchains, which today are typically data silos. Polkadots relay chain, the central chain of Polkadot, coordinates the interactions between different parallel networks, called parachains. By participating in the Polkadot network as a validator, T-Systems MMS“ supports the secure and trustworthy exchange of messages between independent blockchains.”　　For the provision and operation of the infrastructure, the Deutsche Telekom subsidiary will use the Open Telekom Cloud. According to T-Systems MMS, the OTC

2021-12-29Deep Dive

Decentralized Finance Won’t Substitute Traditional Financial System, According to S&P Global Report

Decentralized finance (DeFi) will continue to complement the traditional finance system rather than supplant it in 2022, says a report by financial information and analytics provider S&P Global.　　According to the firms Global Credit Outlook for 2022, the traditional finance sector will need to innovate and invest to remain relevant in the coming twelve months.　　“We believe it will continue evolving in 2022 toward complementing the current financial system rather than substituting financial services companies. To remain relevant, we think incumbent players will have to further step up investments in new technologies – otherwise, the balance could shift away from them in the longer run.”　　While most decentralized finance applications are not competing with traditional finance at the moment, the report says that the situation could change in the future.　　“Most DeFi applications (DApps) currently dont compete with incumbents. They are mostly still restricted to transactions within the emerging digital ecosystem – for instance for the purchase, exchange, lending, or insurance of digitally native assets. But this could change as technology and acceptance evolve.”　　Per the report, the most profitable activities in the traditional finance sector stand to be disrupted the most.　　“DeFis potential is greater in higher-cost activities, which often provide higher margins to incumbents.

2021-12-29Deep Dive

These 300 CryptoPunks may be lost forever

CryptoPunks are among the most cherished and valuable NFTs on the market. Released by the Larva Labs studio in June 2017 for free, the 10,000 profile picture NFTs quickly became popular among the crypto crowd and virtually exploded in value over the years. Today, the lowest price for a Punk currently for sale is 66 ETH, approximately $258 000 at the moment of writing.　　But are there really 10 000 Punks available to the market today？5 Punks are lost for sure　　According to a tweet thread by @punk9863, as many as 300 CryptoPunks may be lost forever; five of these are definitely known to be lost due to the owners mistakes. Indeed, there are only five known “burnt” Punks in existence. One “alien” Punk was burnt inadvertently by @ArtOnBlockchain, two Punks were sent to the token contract (a grave mistake, in effect burning the token) and two Punks were sent to a malformed address and thus burnt (an equally bad mistake).　　The reason why we can assume the rest of the 300 CryptoPunks are lost, as pointed out by @punk9863, is because there hasn‘t been any activity on their owner’s wallet for the past three years. “Over 50 wallets that hold Punks havent

2021-12-29Deep Dive

Bank of Russia to Collect Data on Crypto-Related Transactions Between Individuals

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) plans to obtain information from commercial banks pertaining to some money transfers between private individuals, including clients trading cryptocurrency. The measure is likely to affect online crypto exchangers which the regulator accuses of conducting illegal operations.　　Central Bank to Check Transactions Between Russians Exchanging Crypto　　As part of efforts to clamp down on certain transactions it considers illegal, the Bank of Russia is going to seek additional data from financial institutions processing transfers between individuals. The move concerns a number of platforms using accounts registered in the name of dummy persons such as online bookmakers and websites providing crypto trading services, local media revealed.　　The Russian business news portal RBC reported Monday that the regulator had sent banks a new reporting form for transactions. According to the initial report, the CBR intends to request information on money transfers between Russians, including the personal data of the senders and the recipients of the funds.　　In a press release quoted by Prime, the monetary authority later clarified that the measure does not imply imposing total control over transactions of individuals but is “aimed at identifying risk areas associated with the use of payment cards and wallets issued to fictitious individuals

2021-12-29Deep Dive

Cryptocurrency Hackers Stole $9.8 Billion in 2021, 73% of Them Are DeFi Incidents

While the year 2021 was one of the most successful and profitable years for the cryptocurrency market, unfortunately for some investors, scammers and hackers have found the new honeypot called the DeFi industry that brings them more than $7 billion stolen funds, according to SlowMists yearly report.　　Hack overview　　According to the companys report, there were 231 security incidents tracked on the blockchain. Losses from all of those incidents total $9.8 billion. With more hacks and scams happening in the DeFi industry almost every day, the abovementioned number might exceed the $10 billion mark.　　Among those 231 incidents, approximately 170 cases were tied to decentralized applications or the decentralized finance sector, including 15 exchange security breaches, right public blockchain hacks, three wallet security-related issues, and 35 other hacks or scams.　　Large blockchains and exchanges　　While the majority of hacker victims were relatively small chains or projects, there were some major chain-related security issues present in the year 2021. BSV blockchain became the victim of a 51% attack in which one individual owns more than 50% of voting power on the chain and is able to manipulate the whole blockchain in his or her favor.　　Even bigger networks like Ethereum Classic have become the victim of a

2021-12-29Deep Dive

FTX’s SBF Outlines Key Steps to Move the Crypto Industry Forward into 2022

The CEO of FTX – Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) – came out with a long Twitter thread to outline some of the hurdles in front of the cryptocurrency industry and how to potentially handle them in the following years.　　Before diving into some of the challenges, SBF outlined what the industry has already achieved. Namely, these include a solid userbase, smart contracts, numerous potential use cases, the beginning of scaling solutions, as well as “an enormous amount of attention.”　　Yet, there are quite a lot of hurdles to overcome as well.　　 The Elephant in the Room　　SBF believes that the most obvious thing thats still “missing” from the crypto market is regulation.　　“There has been a lot of tension between industry and regulators, and both sides have, in many cases, left feeling frustrated.”　　One of the things that make it hard for the industry to move forward while also limiting institutional involvement is the lack of a clear process for token issuance, regulation on platform registration, and stablecoins in many jurisdictions.　　FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. Source: Bloomberg　　Moreover, “many regulators have found it very difficult working with crypto companies: instead of working collaboratively, weve seen a ton of examples of tension boiling over.”　　So, how to remedy the above？

2021-12-29Deep Dive

DeFilm streaming: A new DAO is looking to buy Blockbuster and revive the iconic brand

A new decentralized autonomous organization called BlockbusterDAO is looking to revive the iconic Blockbuster brand and bring it into the Web3 era.　　The popularity the brand still enjoys in the US makes it a perfect foundation to revolutionize the decision-making and financing of the film and TV industries, BlockbusterDAO said.An ambitious plan to bring a cult brand into Web3　　While DAOs have been around for a while, it wasn‘t until this year’s launch of ConstituionDAO that the world really began to take notice of the novel organizational concept. ConstitutionDAOs whirlwind success (and subsequent failure) made a household name out of DAOs, causing an avalanche of ideas on how to implement them into real-world use cases.　　One of the most ambitious, but still very plausible ideas was to decentralize Blockbuster, an iconic brand of video-rental stores in the US.　　The idea for BlockbusterDAO was first presented on December 26th, when the creators of the concept said that they plan on turning the brand into a DeFilm streaming platform. According to the announcement, the DAO plans on raising funds to buy the Blockbuster brand from its parent company Dish, and turn it into “a mainstay of Web3 brands and products.”　　Blockbuster is the perfect canvas for the

2021-12-28Deep Dive

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