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 The latest in a series of Ethereum 2.0 testnets, called Spadina, launched on Tuesday with mixed success. Spadina was proposed as a short-lived “dress rehearsal” for the mainnet launch process, signaling that Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0 is getting ever closer.  The network launched on Sept. 29 at 12 P.M. UTC, and was intended to last for only 72 hours. Developers said that this is likely to be the last chance for prospective Ether (ETH) stakers to test the deposit and launch tools before the Phase 0 genesis. From that perspective, the test appears to have been largely successful. No major issues were found in the deposit process and the clients handled blocks successfully. Like with the initial Medalla testnet launch, however, participation rates were vastly below expectations. The first few rounds of validation saw below 34% of the stake joining in the consensus process, while the target percentage was 80%.   Such low participation rates suggest that many community members who ...

 Bitcoin and blockchain will shape Twitter's future through a decentralized internet standard, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said at the Oslo Freedom Forum 2020 last week. BlueSky, a designated team tasked with developing the standard, will hire about five people to build a protocol enabling Twitter's transition to a decentralized platform. Dorsey's renewed motivation towards a "trusted system in a distrusted environment" comes after July's massive security breach in which hackers took over dozens of high-profile Twitter accounts. "I fundamentally believe that security is something that can never be perfected," he said. "It's a constant race. It's a constant push to be ten steps ahead of hackers." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The future of social media platform Twitter will be shaped by Bitcoin and its underlying technology, according to chief executive Jack Dorsey, who was once again endorsing a decentralized ...

Once the XRP Ledger Foundation is established, Ripple will continue to invest in the future of the XRP Ledger, according to Bharath Chari. The newly formed foundation will not take over the non-circulating XRP supply from Ripple. Bharath Chari, the spokesman of the newly founded XRP Ledger Foundation (XRPLF), which was established on September 24, denied the rumor in an interview with Forbes that Ripple will not invest in the development of the XRP Ledger in the future.  The rumor came up within the XRP community right after the foundation, as the newly formed foundation is supposed to drive the growth, innovation as well as the development of the XRP Ledger and the community. These main tasks have created confusion within the community because they overlap with those of Ripple to some extent. However, Chari rejected speculation that the XRP Ledger Foundation would lead the future development of XRPL while Ripple would not invest as heavily in the future of XRPL.  According t...

After the $150 million KuCoin hack, traders appear unworried that open market sales by the hacker will drop Ethereum price. Analysts say that the unknown hacker behind the KuCoin breach is selling the stolen ERC-20 tokens on Uniswap.  Although selling tokens on the Ethereum-based decentralized exchange allows the hacker to obtain Ether (ETH), it doesn’t mean it’s laundered.   All transactions made on the Ethereum blockchain network are traceable using blockchain explorers, meaning even if the tokens are converted to Ether, the stolen amounts would still leave traces.  This means exchanges can (and probably will) suspend any exchange address that is associated with the tainted funds. Attempting to sell tens of millions of dollars worth of traced funds immediately after a breach is risky.  All major exchanges are on alert, and in this specific case, Tether (USDT) froze the funds linked to the KuCoin hack. As Cointelegraph previously reported, Bitfinex and Tether chief ...

  KuCoin reported a major security breach on Sep. 26, affecting Bitcoin, Ether, and ERC20 hot wallets while BTC and ETH prices remain unfazed. In an official statement, KuCoin Global CEO Johnny Lyu confirmed a major hacking attack on Sep. 26.  The breach affected the firm’s Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and ERC20 hot wallets, after private keys were leaked. Reports estimate the breach to have affected $150 million in user funds. Following the security breach, the price of Bitcoin barely moved, however.  Other major cryptocurrencies, including Ether and decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens also remain relatively unfazed by the hack. A cryptocurrency exchange security breach historically led to market-wide sell-offs due to the fear of hackers potentially selling the proceeds. But Tether (USDT) has moved quickly to suspend the transfer of assets that are linked to the security breach.  Major exchanges, including Bitfinex, also froze USDT associated with the hack. The swif...

The RippleNet and XRP are predestined to create a “network-of-networks” that will enhance the benefits of individual CBDCs. According to Ripple, open protocols and the creation of standards are a basic prerequisite for CBDCs to be interoperable worldwide. In a new blog post entitled “Interoperability Will Determine CBDC Winners and Losers”, Ripple discussed the need for a networked system of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). As the San Francisco-based company explained, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged the use of contactless payments instead of cash. The pandemic has changed the perspective of central banks around the world on issuing digital central bank currencies.  According to Ripple, for CBDCs it is now a question of when, not whether. On the other hand, central banks’ positions on digital assets in general have also shifted, according to James Wallis, Vice President Global Sales Strategy & Operations at Ripple:  Governments that once view...

 As decentralized finance (DeFi) balloons to a roughly $10 billion market, infrastructure builders are coming up with ways to reduce the associated risks. Announced Wednesday, wallet and custodial technology provider Trustology has added a “DeFi Firewall” to its suite of institutional-investment tools.  The “Firewall” is basically a set of rules or filters selected by a fund, specifying which DeFi protocols or decentralized exchanges they consider kosher. With DeFi’s liquidity mining opportunities driving adoption and demand, investors from a more traditional or institutional background want some of this action.  At the same time, they have to be able to show that funds are being managed in as prudent a fashion as possible.   Trustology, which is backed by ConsenSys and Two Sigma Ventures, has already built wallet-native tools to prevent clients from sending their crypto to the wrong address or the wrong exchange, and now this is being extended to DeFi smart contract...

 The upcoming U.S. presidential election has become one of the most contentious in history, fraught with searing divisions over everything from the economy to race to the continued health of democracy itself. So it’s not surprising that Wall Street options traders are now pricing in expectations of elevated market volatility around the November election. Analysts for the investment banking giant Goldman Sachs noted earlier this month that price swings of nearly 3% are implied around election day in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of U.S. stocks. What’s surprising is that options trading on notoriously volatile bitcoin prices, which often trade in sync with stocks, implies a stretch of uncanny calm come November, CoinDesk’s Omkar Godbole reported Tuesday. Godbole writes that ample technical factors might explain the discrepancy, from the influence of certain hedging strategies to the reality that the nascent bitcoin-options market is still quite small in relative terms, with mo...

 European Commission will introduce a new legal framework until 2024 to regulate and facilitate innovation with cryptocurrencies and digital assets. Two new documents by the institution show that the EU wants to make cross-border payments quicker and cheaper through the use of blockchain and crypto assets like stablecoins. A report by the news agency Reuters has revealed a shift in the European Commission’s vision towards the crypto space.  According to the report, the institution will seek to remain at the forefront of financial innovation.  Therefore, a new legal framework for payments with digital assets and crypto assets is expected to be presented by 2024. The new legal framework will clarify key issues for the crypto industry. For example, how current laws should interact with crypto assets.    In addition, the European Commission proposes that new laws be drafted where necessary. The economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the c...

The quest to protect Ethereum Classic continues. As it grapples with multiple security breaches, Ethereum Classic Labs has partnered with ChainSafe and OpenRelay in hopes of increasing its defenses against 51% attacks. In a post, Ethereum Classic and its Core Dev Team will work with both ChainSafe and OpenRelay to develop and test security responses. James Wo, founder and chairman of Ethereum Classic Labs, said the partnership makes sense: “OpenRelay and ChainSafe are both well acquainted with Ethereum Classic, through working together, will have some of the most brilliant minds in blockchain tackling the 51% problem in tandem.    The team-up will bring additional expertise in Proof-of-Work security systems and testing environments.” OpenRelay will help Ethereum Classic to “develop practical simulations and models for the proposed features, establishing testnet infrastructure, and designing and implementing testnet tests” while ChainSafe is working on a review of the many secu...

 Kava Labs has launched its first application: a yield-generating decentralized finance (DeFi) platform for bitcoin (BTC) and other non-Ethereum assets. The product, called Harvest and built on the Kava blockchain, allows users to stake their crypto so it can be lent out to other users.  Harvest will initially support deposits of BTC, BNB, BUSD and XRP. Soon, Kava Labs plans to debut automated market makers (AMMs) like Uniswap and robo-advisors like Yearn. Finance on the blockchain as well, said Kava Labs CEO Brian Kerr.   Similar to DeFi platform MakerDAO, Kava will allow users to create collateralized debt positions (CDPs) on the Kava protocol in exchange for a stablecoin, USDX, pegged one-to-one with the U.S. dollar.  Unlike Maker, though, Kava works with assets outside the Ethereum ecosystem that have largely watched the DeFi craze from afar. Kava Labs is backed by several large exchanges, including Binance, Huobi and OKEx, which stake kava tokens and participate...

Bloomberg News reporter Mathew Leising’s new book, “Out of the Ether: The Amazing Story of Ethereum and the $55 Million Heist That Almost Destroyed It All”, tells the story of the infamous DAO hack that almost brought down the world’s second-largest blockchain. In June 2016, a here-to-now unknown assailant (or assailants) began syphoning off funds from Ethereum’s first decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, a bit of software that functions like a corporation.  Weeks earlier the DAO went live, following a $150 million crowd sale. he DAO had a huge part to play in the early history of Ethereum,” Leising writes. “It’s not overstating it to say that the DAO made Ethereum.” That’s because it was one of the earliest examples that Ethereum’s network of computers was resilient enough to support complex applications. While the attack never broke Ethereum’s code  it merely exploited a loophole in The DAO’s smart contract it cast doubt over the viability of a blockchain-based “wo...

While bitcoin’s dips have found buyers, the cryptocurrency is struggling to clear the important psychological hurdle of $11,000 ahead of the U.S.  Federal Reserve’s rate decision due later Wednesday. The cryptocurrency found bids near $10,675 during the early Asian trading hours, but faced rejection near $10,940 around 08:00 UTC, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index.   Bitcoin has failed twice in the past 24 hours to absorb selling pressure just below $11,000. At press time, bitcoin is changing hands near $10,850, representing a 0.58% gain on the day. The slight pullback this morning has weakened the case for a move above $11,000 put forward by a bull flag breakout confirmed during early European hours.  On the downside, the higher low of $10,675 created early Wednesday is the level to beat for the bears. Price volatility may pick up following the Federal Reserve's rate decision, due at 18:00 UTC. The Fed is expected to keep interest rates unchanged and reiterate i...

Ripple’s PayID has become the most widely used payment method in the XRP wallet Payburner. Co-founder of Ripple, Jed McCaleb, has sold over 11 million XRP on September 13 and 14. Ripple has celebrated a new milestone of its technology to facilitate PayID transactions.  Via Twitter, Ripple Product Director Craig DeWitt announced that PayID has become the most widely used method of generating payments with the XRP wallet known as Payburner. According to Ripple’s Product Director, over 1,000 PayIDs have been issued since the product’s launch on Payburner.  DeWitt also reported that the integration for e-commerces will come soon. PayID is a technology developed to be a universal payment identifier with a free standard. Conceived as an open protocol, PayID allows interoperability between different payment networks.    That way, PayID users see their transactions simplified by using a standardized address with a specific format when making a payment. Moreover, PayID also r...

 Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao welcomed more Ethereum-based DeFi projects to join the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) platform. In a tweet discussion with another user, Zhao explained that this step would reduce the load on the Ethereum network, which will, in turn, lead to a reduction in Ethereum's gas fees. Zhao later stressed that Binance Smart Chain is not a replacement or competitor to the Ethereum network and that it is compatible with it. Zhao added that Binance Smart Chain provides the smart contract creators with more options: "BSC never aimed to replace ETH, BSC is just ETH-compatible. Smart projects are giving their users more options. Option for cheaper fees." Zhao concluded his comments by revealing that his Binance Smart Chain transaction volume recently reached 10% of Ethereum's network a few days ago. Binance launched the Binance Smart Chain platform on September 1, and its CEO announced the launch of a $ 100 million investment fund devoted to projects buildin...

  Bitcoin whale clusters show major resistance levels are at $10,570 and $11,288, raising the chances of a major sell-off. According to Whalemap, an on-chain analysis firm that focuses on Bitcoin (BTC) whale activity, short-term clusters are present at $10,570. Whale clusters form when whales accumulate Bitcoin and do not move the BTC. Areas that have large amounts of unspent BTC become an area of interest, typically a resistance level. Analysts at Whalemap explain: “Bubbles show locations where unspent bitcoins were accumulated. The larger the bubble, the more unspent bitcoins are located there. P.s.  Unspent means these bitcoins have not been moved since they were ‘inflowed’ to a whale wallet.” Whales, or individuals holding large amounts of BTC, like to sell either at breakeven or at profit, depending on the market trend.  If whales deem the current trend to be bearish, the $10,570 level could serve as an area where whales breakeven. The two biggest whale clusters li...

 A DBS Bank economist thinks the coronavirus pandemic will accelerate digital asset adoption, Mastercard announced a CBDC testing ground and SushiSwap has a temporary governance structure in place. Top shelf Digital adoption Singapore-based DBS Bank thinks the coronavirus pandemic may speed adoption of digital assets, according to a quarterly report filed in August. “Post-pandemic [investing] is beyond speculative. It’s more about, ‘This thing has fixed circulation, it will not be debased.’ People are worried about dollar outflow and wondering if they should hold crypto in addition to gold as a safe-haven currency,” DBS Chief Economist Taimur Baig told CoinDesk.  Baig also noted how cryptocurrencies can help to understand the dynamics of dollar-pegged currencies, while blockchain-tied CBDCs are another front in the politicized battle between the U.S. and China, CoinDesk’s Ian Allison reports. Ripple scams Ripple has contested YouTube’s claims that it knew nothing about the XR...

  Ethereum’s economy hits new milestones in terms of transfer value and ERC-20 market capitalization. Ethereum’s economic metrics are strengthening as transfer value and ERC-20 market capitalization continue to build momentum. Research by on-chain analytics platform Santiment has revealed that the market capitalization for all ERC-20 based tokens has flipped that of Ethereum itself. It added that it is currently the all-time highest market cap differential of ERC-20 coins over Ethereum. The total market cap for all current ERC-20 assets is $46.7 billion whereas that for Ethereum is currently just over $41 billion at the time of writing. There have been a couple of similar, brief ‘flippenings’ this year with the longest sustained one occurring in July.  Ethereum’s price surge in August increased the market cap to more than $50 billion but the subsequent correction has allowed that of ERC-20 tokens to surpass it once again. Tether accounts for a large share of the ERC-20 capita...

 “A pandemic-led acceleration of adoption.” That’s how Singapore-based DBS Bank describes the current state of digital assets in its quarterly report on cryptocurrencies published in August. It’s interesting to hear such an observation from a respected multinational bank and its chief economist, Taimur Baig.  However, there have lately been murmurings about certain large financial institutions particularly in places like Singapore, Switzerland and Germany fielding a new wave of demand for crypto, filtering through from smaller private banks and wealthy clients. On the subject of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC), Baig identified two distinct phases of demand: pre-pandemic and post-pandemic. “Pre-pandemic demand was largely speculative. People saw bitcoin had a spectacular run and wanted to be part of that game, so what’s wrong with putting in 1% of assets under management [into BTC],” Baig said in an interview.  “But I think post-pandemic is beyond speculative. It’s mo...

AnchorUSD, Bitrue, Gatehub and Uphold have announced support for the Flare Network XRP Utility Fork. According to new data, the airdrop is already supported by more than 17,000 accounts and almost one billion XRP are registered. As Crypto News Flash already reported, XRP owners can receive the Spark Token through an Airdrop.  Flare Networks’ native token, the Spark Token, will be generated by a utility fork of XRP and distributed to users on December 12th of this year.  There will be nearly 45 billion Spark Token in total, as Ripple Labs and former Ripple employees are not allowed to participate in the Airdrop. Nearly one billion XRP registered – more Exchanges to follow According to the latest data the exchanges AnchorUSD, Bitrue, Gatehub and Uphold have announced their support for the upcoming airdrop.  A total of 995 million XRP have been registered for the airdrop so far, 415 million XRP in the last 7 days. The number of registered accounts has increased to 17,379, sh...

 An Ethereum smart contract feature that offers rebates for fees has developers scratching their heads, wondering if they should toss the old code in light of an exponential rise in transaction costs.  Called gas tokens, these smart contract loopholes are a way to send transactions on the cheap by “tokenzing” gas, the fees paid for running computations on-chain.  The feature allows an Ethereum user to buy up transaction fees when they are low, store them and then spend them when the fee price inevitably rises again. While the matter is still under discussion, some developers worry tokenized gas could one day act as a “price floor” for transaction fees and keep them permanently high. As fees hit record highs twice in the same week, developer Alexey Akhunov’s June Ethereum Improvement Proposal to get rid of gas tokens, (EIP) 2751, is getting renewed attention. Akhunov’s napkin math in the Ethereum Research and Developers messaging app shows that about 1.5% to 2% of Ethereu...

 The alleged crypto scam websites are still intact.  A securities regulator in the United States, the Texas State Securities Board (TSSB), has detected another batch of alleged cryptocurrency scams. On Sept. 3, Texas Securities Commissioner Travis J. Iles entered an Emergency Cease and Desist Order against two alleged crypto scam schemes known as Forex Birds and PEK Universe. The published order names Kumar Babu Bondesi and Darwin Eric Balusek as the alleged operators of the schemes. According to the TSSB, Balusek is also known under the nickname “Bitcoin Pope.” Operating abroad, the respondents are accused of fraudulent securities offerings tied to foreign exchange (forex) and cryptocurrencies, the authority said. According to the TSSB, Forex Birds was allegedly promising investors earnings up to 11%, with deposits up to $1 million. Forex Birds is also accused of misleading investors by claiming to be registered with a number of authorities in Europe and Australia. Pek Unive...

     A retweet of a tweet from the head of the EU Central Bank by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has caused a stir in the XRP community. As a result, speculation arose that it might be a hint from Garlinghouse. A recent retweet by Brad Garlinghouse of the head of the EU central bank, Christine Lagarde, has rekindled old rumours of a close relationship between Ripple and central banks around the world.  Lagarde responded in a tweet on 2 September to a tweet from Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission. In the tweet, Lagarde explained that the two had recently exchanged views on the issues for Europe’s rapid recovery from the Corona pandemic and how to make the economies of European countries more resilient in the future. Lagarde made three demands in her tweet:     I enjoyed marking “la rentrée” with Ursula @vonderleyen and Commissioners. Here @ecb we see a twin challenge: shoring up our economies for the short-run and planning for the ...