Autor Cointelegraph By Brayden Lindrea

Bitcoin is the perfect settlement layer to build apps on top of: Hiro CEO

Bitcoin is the perfect settlement layer to build apps on top of: Hiro CEO

Uverejnil používateľ | sep 14, 2022 |

While the Bitcoin network isn’t programmable, it serves as an excellent settlement layer to build robust applications on top of, says Hiro CEO Alex Miller.Hiro provides Bitcoin development tools for developers to build on the Stacks blockchain. Miller said Stacks inherits the Bitcoin network’s security through a consensus mechanism called proof-of-transfer (although this is a controversial statement for some).Miller told Cointelegraph the value proposition behind building programs on top of Bitcoin is that it’s a “really well settled, well accepted, very trustworthy settlement layer.”He added that because of this, it’s a much simpler blockchain to build on top compared to most other smart contract platforms which do computation and settlement on the same layer:“When you have both your settlement and your computation on the same layer, it really complicates things in a lot of ways. […] You don’t want to be modifying your settlement layer that much.”That enables developers to “do more innovation more quickly” on a layer two which “has far, far more robust capabilities.”Miller claimed that we shouldn’t be surprised that developers are making Bitcoin programmable, as that’s what Satoshi Nakomoto envisioned:“Satoshi himself wrote back in like 2010, 2011, that he foresaw additional layers [and] additional chains will get built on top of this, to provide all of that kind of programmability.”Miller said the Stacks developer ecosystem has grown rapidly since the platform’s launch in Jan. 2021, “we’ve got hundreds of developers who are working in the ecosystem, and thousands of smart contracts and applications that have been deployed on it.”Within the first year of launch, the Stacks blockchain achieved more than 350 million monthly API requests, 40,000 Hiro wallet downloads, and deployed 2,500 Clarity smart contracts, with those figures increasing further in 2022.Miller also said that we’ll live in a “multi-chain future” without any particular smart contract platform ruling at all. “Ethereum is going to be around for at least a while, but there’s a lot of other smart contract platforms out there that haven’t stood the test of time yet,” he said. Related: Stacks’ Mitchell Cuevas talks building integrated DeFi bridges for Bitcoin usersAs for where the crypto market is headed, Miller said that crypto volatility will decline when crypto applications become more “accepted, integrated, and used in our society,” adding:“[By] bringing programmability and smart contracts to Bitcoin, it helps drive the further adoption of Bitcoin as both a technical and financial layer in our society, thereby driving down volatility while driving up the price in the long term.”

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$491B asset manager KKR’s health care fund tokenized on Avalanche

$491B asset manager KKR’s health care fund tokenized on Avalanche

Uverejnil používateľ | sep 14, 2022 |

Digital asset company Securitize Capital is set to tokenize $491 billion asset management firm KKR’s Health Care Strategic Growth Fund II (HCSG II) on the Avalanche blockchain.The news was shared by KKR on Sept. 13, with the tokenization of HCSG II being described by the head of Securitize Capital Wilfred Daye as a “significant breakthrough” for individual access to private equity markets. The tokenization enables investors to own a token representing a share of the $4 billion healthcare-focused fund that invests in 23 North American and European-based companies versed in the pharmaceuticals, medical devices and life sciences sectors.In order to buy in the HCSG II Fund on the Securitize protocol, investors need to submit their passport, fill out personal and tax information and complete a “liveness check” in order to be reviewed. Investors are also subject to a 0.50% management fee.Founder and CEO of Ava Labs Emin Gün Sirer said the tokenization of the HCSG II Fund marked a “huge milestone” for the blockchain industry in enabling “real world assets” to move on-chain:Massive news: exposure to a flagship fund of @KKR_Co, one of the largest institutions in the world, is being tokenized on Avalanche by @Securitize. This is a huge milestone for blockchain by Wall Street and real world assets coming on-chain https://t.co/03iQY8OTpl— Emin Gün Sirer (@el33th4xor) September 13, 2022KKR said on-chain tokenization of real world assets also “lowers investment minimums, improves digital investor onboarding and compliance protocols, and increases potential for liquidity through a regulated alternative trading system.”Related: Tokenization, ExplainedThe potential for tokenization to capture a large share of global assets has also been acknowledged by Boston Consultant Group (BCG) and Raiffeisen Bank International’s Blockchain Research Hub.BCG predicted that $16.1 trillion of illiquid assets will be tokenized by 2030, while Raiffeisen Bank International’s Blockchain Research Hub predicted last year that most securities will be tokenized by 2030. Securitize Capital operates the Securitize protocol, which was integrated onto the Avalanche blockchain in Dec. 2020 and is focused on “reinventing private capital markets by delivering trusted end-to-end security token solutions.”

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Fidelity will ‘shift’ retail customers into crypto soon, says Galaxy CEO

Fidelity will ‘shift’ retail customers into crypto soon, says Galaxy CEO

Uverejnil používateľ | sep 13, 2022 |

$4.2 trillion asset management firm Fidelity Investments is reportedly working towards offering Bitcoin trading services to its 34.4 million retail investor base, according to Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz and people familiar with the matter. While Fidelity hasn’t officially confirmed plans to incorporate crypto onto its retail platform, Novogratz told a conference audience in New York on Sept. 12, that the move may be just around the corner:“A bird told me that Fidelity, a little bird in my ear, is going to shift their retail customers into crypto soon enough.”“I hope that bird is right. So we are still this institutional march and that gives crypto its floor,” he added.Novogratz isn’t the only person to have signaled the potential move from Fidelity. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Sept. 12 noted that that Fidelity is currently “weighing a plan” to allow individual investors to trade Bitcoin on its brokerage platform. A similar note was shared by Eight Global Founder and CEO Michaël van de Poppe last week, suggesting that the platform will launch Bitcoin trading for retail customers in November. Fidelity in a Sept. 12 statement addressed the rumors, noting:”While we have nothing new to announce, expanding our offerings to enable broader access to digital assets remains an area of focus.”Fidelity Investment has been an active investor and playmaker in the crypto space, fueled by a growing demand from clients to access crypto investment opportunities. Fidelity started mining Bitcoin in 2015 and launched a Bitcoin-trading business for hedge funds and institutional investors in 2018.In April, Fidelity also began allowing its 401(k) retirement savings account holders to invest directly into Bitcoin (BTC), though this was later met with pushback from three U.S. senators including Senator Elizabeth Warren, who called the launch of the Bitcoin product to be “immensely troubling.”Related: Sen. Warren asks Fidelity to address the risks to put Bitcoin in 401(k)sFidelity is a multinational finance corporation that provides brokerage services, mutual funds management, investment advice, and retirement services and is the fourth largest asset management firm in the world, according to ADV ratings.

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Merge 'jitters' sees outflow from Ether-based investment products

Merge 'jitters' sees outflow from Ether-based investment products

Uverejnil používateľ | sep 13, 2022 |

Institutional investors may be wavering ahead of the Ethereum Merge, with digital asset investment products seeing an outflow of $61.6 million of Ether (ETH), signaling concerns about the success of the upgrade. In its digital asset fund flows weekly report, fund manager CoinShares reported that Ether-based investment products made up for the majority of total outflows over the Sept. 5-11 week — leading to the market’s fifth consecutive week of outflows.Report author James Butterfill said the outflows have come “despite the improved certainty of the Merge,” which could highlight a concern amongst investors that the “event might not go as planned,” referring to the upcoming Ethereum Merge set for Sept. 15. This is despite the likelihood of a successful Merge improving over the last week, with the Bellatrix upgrade passing through relatively unscathed on Sept. 6.84.6% of Ethereum nodes are now also “Merge ready”, according to Ethereum node data aggregator Ethernodes, which is up 15.1% from last week’s 73.5% “Merge ready” rate.Butterfill also noted that CoinShares has previously argued that there are unlikely to be any issues arising from the Ethereum upgrade as the technical specifications of the hard fork have been rigorously tested.Related: Institutional ETH sentiment turns positive after 11 weeks of outflowsMeanwhile, there is currently still no consensus on whether the Ethereum Merge has been factored into the ETH price, which currently sits at $1,688, and whether the Merge will be a “buy the rumor, sell the news” event.Polygon Chief Security Officer Mudit Gupta is of the view that the Ethereum Merge has been priced into ETH because the Merge itself is “public knowledge.”If it’s public knowledge, it’s already priced in.If it’s not public knowledge, it’s insider trading.Don’t get rekt trying to gamble — Mudit Gupta (@Mudit__Gupta) September 7, 2022On the other hand, a crypto researcher who goes by the name “punk4936” on Twitter believes that a 99% cut in ETH issuance and a 99.9% increase in energy efficiency following the Merge isn’t reflected in the current ETH price.Ethereum is about to get a 99% cut in issuance and a 99.9% cut in energy usage, the merge is not priced in— 4936 (@punk4936) September 7, 2022

The Ethereum Merge will see the network’s consensus mechanism transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS), which is scheduled to take effect on Sept. 15 at about 3:20am UTC time, according to Blocknative.

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Crypto insurance a ‘sleeping giant’ with only 1% of investments covered

Crypto insurance a ‘sleeping giant’ with only 1% of investments covered

Uverejnil používateľ | sep 12, 2022 |

While on-chain insurance has been around since 2017, only a measly 1% of all crypto investments are actually covered by insurance, meaning the industry remains a “sleeping giant,” according to a crypto insurance executive.Speaking to Cointelegraph, Dan Thomson, the CMO of decentralized cover protocol InsurAce said there is a massive disparity between the total value locked (TVL) in crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and the percentage of that TVL with insurance coverage: “DeFi insurance is a sleeping giant. With less than 1% of all crypto covered and less than 3% of DeFi, there’s a huge market opportunity still to be realized.”Though plenty of investment has poured into smart contract security audits, on-chain insurance serves as a viable solution for digital asset protection — such as when a smart contract is exploited or the frontend of a Web3 protocol is compromised. The collapse of Terra (LUNA) and the resulting depeg of Terra USD provides a textbook example of how on-chain insurance can protect investors, notes Thompson, adding that InsurAce “paid out $11.7 million to 155 affected UST victims.” “Hacks in 2021 in DeFi alone accounted for $2.6 billion in losses” amounting to $10 billion in the wider crypto space, and “we’re way past that in 2022 already,” Thomson added, emphasizing the need for on-chain insurance for digital assets. Discussing whether traditional insurance firms may eventually offer crypto-focused products, Thomson said while it has piqued the interest of traditional firms, they have not yet moved into the space “due to their own regulations and compliance,” adding: “I do not believe the larger traditional insurance companies will develop their own native apps for the space, but will prefer to offer a type of reinsurance as a way of getting exposure.”Thomson said that on-chain insurance protocols have also suffered some setbacks of their own however, noting that capacity has stalled the growth of on-chain insurance protocols:“Capacities are limited by underwriting [which is] something traditionally done with reinsurance but in DeFi it’s done by stakers and therefore limited by TVL [which makes it] hard for most protocols to build sufficient liquidity.”This problem is exacerbated by the fact that on-chain insurance providers struggle to offer capital providers with attractive investment returns, which in turn discourages liquidity provision, he said. Thomson said his firm is now looking to resolve this capital efficiency issue by utilizing reinsurance from traditional insurance firms as a means to “turbo-charge growth through the bear market,” adding: “To fix this we will be one of the first protocols able to bridge back to gain access to the traditional reinsurance to supplement our existing underwriting from staked assets.”Some cryptocurrency exchanges currently provide insurance services, but very few crypto-native protocols specialize in on-chain insurance.Related: The increasingly acute need for crypto-native insuranceOn-chain insurance services vary from protocol to protocol, but most protocols require users to specify the smart contract address they want coverage for, along with the amount, currency, and time period in order to generate a quote. Many protocols then use a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and a token to allow token holders to vote on the validity of claims. Among the other top on-chain insurance protocols include Nexus Mutual and inSure DeFi.

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