Can Apple Take the Metaverse Mainstream? A Look at the iPhone Maker’s Foray Into the Immersive Future
The tech world is abuzz with the potential of the metaverse, a more immersive version of the internet with potential real-world ties. Companies like Facebook and Microsoft have already made big bets on the concept, but what about Apple? Reports suggest that the tech giant is preparing to enter the metaverse with a pricey headset that bridges the gap...
Binance Acknowledges Flaws in Stablecoin System, Ensures Improved Transparency and Collateralization
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has admitted to flaws in its system that caused its supply of Binance Smart Chain BUSD—one of the company’s stablecoins, which is purportedly backed one-to-one by the U.S. dollar—to be undercollateralized by at least $1 billion. BUSD on the Ethereum blockchain is fully collateralized by U.S. dollars in a process overseen by New...
Tom Brady, Kevin O’Leary, and Coinbase Not Spared from Being Named as Major Creditors in Bankruptcy Filing of FTX
The collapse of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, has been linked to a number of high-profile investors, including football star Tom Brady, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Documents filed in Delaware bankruptcy court show that Brady and Bündchen held 1,144,861 and 686,761 in common stock, respectively, while the Kraft Group held 634,144 in common and...
Ankr claims an ex-employee was responsible for a $5 million security breach and promises to tighten security.
The Ankr protocol experienced a security breach on December 1, 2020, when a former team member conducted a supply chain attack. This attack involved the malicious insertion of code into a package of future updates to the team's internal software, which created a security vulnerability allowing the attacker to steal the team's deployer key from the company's server. The...
Caroline Ellison, the Chief of Alameda, and Gary Wang of FTX, Plead Guilty to “Fraud” Charges
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Wednesday that FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former Alameda Research co-CEO Caroline Ellison had pled guilty to federal charges in the Southern District of New York. Simultaneously, a civil lawsuit was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission against Samuel Bankman-Fried and Wang, accusing them of engaging in "a multiyear plan to defraud equity investors...
Paxful, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, has decided to no longer accept ether (ETH) for trading.
Ether ETH, Ethereum's native token, has been pulled from the peer-to-peer cryptocurrency marketplace Paxful due to a variety of security issues related to the world's second-largest cryptocurrency by market value. The decision was made public by Paxful's CEO Ray Youssef in a statement to the site's 11.6 million members. Youssef cited Paxful's desire to preserve its integrity and attempts to prevent...
One lawmaker in the United States has even suggested that crypto should be banned outright, saying that there are more pressing problems than FTX
US Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) discussed bitcoin in an interview with NBC on Sunday. Brown chairs the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. According to him, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) should meet with the Treasury Department to discuss potential actions regarding the cryptocurrency market. The senator made the following...
The Share of Bitcoin Held by Individuals and Small Investors Hits an All-Time High, According to Glassnode
Latest public blockchain data gathered by analytics firm Glassnode indicates that retail investors hold about 17% of the entire circulating quantity of Bitcoin. Will Clemente, an analyst at Reflexivity Research, tweeted in reaction to the numbers, "Not perfect yet, but solid for a 12-year-old asset and clearly going in the right way." Bitcoin's supply tends to spread out over time,...
This Week in Coins: Bitcoin and Ethereum Fall With Stocks, Dogecoin Dives 20%
Coin prices returned to normalcy this week after the meltdown of FTX was finally put behind us and Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested and prosecuted. In other words, it was as tumultuous as the stock market. Following the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' better-than-expected report showing inflation declined in November to 7.1%, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) rose in tandem with...
Exploring Mimblewimble: The Possibilities, Advantages & Limitations of the Exciting Blockchain Design
The blockchain technology is constantly evolving, with new and innovative designs arising to improve its scalability, privacy and reliability. One of the most promising developments is the Mimblewimble design, which presents a novel way of structuring and storing transactions that create greater privacy and better scalability for blockchains. In mid-2016, the concept of Mimblewimble was first introduced by Tom Elvis...
