Autor Cointelegraph By Brayden Lindrea

Kevin O’Leary says sacrificing Tornado Cash worth it for institutional adoption

Kevin O’Leary says sacrificing Tornado Cash worth it for institutional adoption

Uverejnil používateľ | aug 15, 2022 |

Clamping down on crypto applications that “mess with the primal forces of regulation” is necessary, says Shark Tank host and millionaire venture capitalist Kevin O’Leary, who argued that Tornado Cash and similar services are preventing real institutional capital from coming into the space.In a discussion on Crypto Banter on Saturday, O’Leary, also known as Mr. Wonderful, suggested that applications like Ethereum-based crypto mixer Tornado Cash are a part of a “crypto cowboy” culture that shouldn’t have a place in the industry. Instead, O’Leary is of the view that crypto needs a “rules-based environment” in order to attract real institutional capital into the digital-asset industry, and much of that regulation needs to stamp out protocols like Tornado Cash, which enables users to conduct anonymous transactions and therefore potentially engage in criminal activity.In the discussion, O’Leary didn’t back down on his opinion regarding the arrest of the Tornado Cash creator Alexey Pertsev, stating: “At the end of the day, it’s okay to arrest that guy. Why? He’s messing with the primal forces of regulation […] If we have to sacrifice him, that’s okay, because we want to have some stability in that institutional capital.”The venture capitalist said that while institutional interest in the digital-assets sector continues to increase, “they’re not going to touch it while crypto cowboys are riding the fence.” O’Leary emphasized that “until we get rid of this crap,” there will be no “stability in […] institutional capital,” but he believes that the industry is slowly but surely weeding out the “cowboys”:“I think we’re getting to that stage now. Maybe we’re in the third or fourth inning towards that, but I’m tired of this crypto cowboy crap. I want to get involved in a regulated place where we can bring billions of dollars to work. I don’t need to be a crypto cowboy, and I don’t want to be one because I work in the regulated world.”But O’Leary’s opinion flies in the face of the sentiment from many in the space. The U.S. Government’s sanctioning of the Ethereum-based privacy tool last week enraged many influential crypto figures who defended the need for basic privacy rights on decentralized networks. Gnosis co-founder Stefan George was one of those who defended Tornado Cash, stating that the protocol brings “much-needed privacy” to Ethereum and that writing open-source software should be recognized as “an expression of free speech.”3/ The Tornado Cash team is amazingly talented and brought much-needed privacy to Ethereum. Hopefully, everyone will recognize again, that writing software is an expression of free speech and tech is neutral.— Stefan George (@StefanDGeorge) August 12, 2022Chainlink Lead Developer Advocate Patrick Collins also said that the decision to remove Tornado Cash’s GitHub account is “much worse than sanctioning a website” as code is speech and by doing so the U.S. Treasury is violating the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution.It’s gotten MUCH worse.@TornadoCash Github accounts and codebase has been entirely removed. This is much worse than just sanctioning a website. Code is speech, so we are potentially violating the first amendment. Paging lawyers @adamdavidlong— Patrick Collins (@PatrickAlphaC) August 8, 2022

Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano shared in a Tweet to his 218,000 followers that he was temporarily banned from decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol AAVE, after his address was blacklisted for recieving 0.1 Ether (ETH) from an anonymous person via Tornado Cash. Sassano went on to note that the “main conclusion I have come to from recent events is that Ethereum is more of a concern to governments/nation states than Bitcoin.” I think the main conclusion I have come to from recent events is that Ethereum is more of a concern to governments/nation states than Bitcoin.The implications of this will define the next few years of this industry.— sassal.eth (@sassal0x) August 14, 2022

Related: Tornado Cash co-founder reports being kicked off GitHub as industry reacts to sanctionsLast week, Dutch financial crime authority the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD), arrested a 29-year-old Tornado Cash developer who was suspected to be involved in money laundering via the protocol.According to a Dutch regulatory body, over $7 billion have flowed through Tornado Cash’s smart contracts since its inception in 2019. The sanctions from the U.S. Treasury came after more claims that the protocol had increasingly been used for money laundering activities.

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Institutional staking won’t take off unless asset lock-up solved: Coinbase CFO

Institutional staking won’t take off unless asset lock-up solved: Coinbase CFO

Uverejnil používateľ | aug 12, 2022 |

Institutional staking of crypto assets, including the post-Merge Ethereum, could become a “phenomenon” in the future, but not while their assets still need to be “locked up.”Speaking during a Q2 earnings call on Aug. 9, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Alesia Haas noted that she didn’t expect their new exclusive institutional staking service, rolled out in Q2, to be a “near-term phenomenon” until a “truly liquid staking option” is available. “This is the first time we had the products available. Previously, the way that institutions could have access to staking is via Coinbase Cloud […] But offering it as the delegated staking service similar to what we have for retail customers.”However, Haas said it was still “early days” for their new staking service, adding they’ll likely only see a “real material impact” when they have created a liquid staking option for post-Merge Ethereum, also known as ETH2. Liquid staking is the process of locking up funds to earn staking rewards, while still having access to the funds. Haas explained that many financial institutions “don’t want their assets held indefinitely.” “So when you stake ETH2 you are locking in your assets into Ethereum until the Merge and then some period after. For some institutions, that liquidity lock-up is not palatable to them. And so, while they may be interested in staking, they want to have staking on a liquid asset.”Haas reaffirmed this issue is “something we are looking to solve”, and added that once this liquid staking is available for financial institutions that can pool in funds at higher proportions, “we’ll see the real material impact of institutional revenue.”Related: Coinbase partners with BlackRock to create new access points for institutional crypto investingInvestors and institutions have been able to access Coinbase’s delegated staking service through ‘Coinbase Prime,’ which was first launched in Sep. 2021. The platform also offers other integrated services, such as access to a custody wallet with enhanced security, real-time crypto market data and analytics, and other crypto-native features like decentralized governance.

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BTC mining stocks double in a month as production ramps

BTC mining stocks double in a month as production ramps

Uverejnil používateľ | aug 12, 2022 |

Crypto mining companies have seen their stock prices increase as much as 120% over the last month, amid rebounding crypto asset prices, higher mining profitability, and sharp increases in BTC production.Crypto mining companies Marathon Digital Holdings (124.12%), Core Scientific (110.39%), Hut 8 (98.95%), and Riot Blockchain (96.69%) have seen their stock prices rocketing upwards over the last 30-days, according to data from Yahoo Finance — significantly outperforming Bitcoin (BTC) (18.0%) and Ether (ETH) (67.8%) asset prices.In a Q2 results filing on Aug. 11, Core Scientific reported a staggering 1601% increase in self-mined Bitcoin year-to-date, reaching 6,567 Bitcoin. Q2 revenue rose 118% year-on-year to $164 million, driven by increases in digital mining revenue and hosting revenue. Hut 8 Mining Corp. also saw its mined Bitcoin increase in the quarter, up 71% compared to the prior-year period to a total of 946 mined Bitcoin due to “an increase in hash rate from additional highly efficient miners” and ramping of activities at its Ontario mining site. Its revenue also increased in Q2, rising 30.7% year-on-year to $43.8 million.Marathon Digital, which shared its Q2 results earlier this week, also said it had increased its Bitcoin production year-on-year, producing 707 Bitcoin in the quarter despite a “challenging macro environment,” with an 8% increase in Bitcoin production activity.All three companies, however, posted widened losses, driven by impairment losses on their crypto holdings. The stock price surge has also coincided with climbing crypto prices since the June and July slump, with key crypto assets including that Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) gaining 18.0% and 67.8% respectively.Bitcoin mining profitability has also rebounded from year-lows on June 19, according to Bitinfocharts. BTC Mining Profitability Over Last 3 months. Source: Bitinfocharts.comBitcoin mining companies have had to deal with a number of factors in recent months that have impacted BTC production and profitability, including lower asset prices and higher energy costs, which have been partially attributed to the heat wave in Texas and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

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88% of Nomad Bridge exploiters were 'copycats' — Report

88% of Nomad Bridge exploiters were 'copycats' — Report

Uverejnil používateľ | aug 11, 2022 |

Close to 90% of addresses taking part in the $186 million Nomad Bridge hack last week have been identified as “copycats,” making off with a total of $88 million worth of tokens on Aug. 1, a new report has revealed.In an Aug. 10 Coinbase blog, authored by Peter Kacherginsky, Coinbase’s principal blockchain threat intelligence researcher, and Heidi Wilder, a senior associate of the special investigations team, the pair confirmed what many had suspected during the bridge hack on Aug. 1 — that once the initial hackers figured out how to extract funds, hundreds of “copycats” joined the party.Source: CoinbaseAccording to the security researchers, the “copycat” method was a variation of the original exploit, which used a loophole in Nomad’s smart contract, allowing users to extract funds from the bridge that wasn’t theirs. The copycats then copied the same code but modified the target token, token amount, and recipient addresses. But while the first two hackers were the most successful (in terms of total funds extracted), once the method became apparent to the copycats, it became a race for all involved to extract as many funds as possible.The Coinbase analysts also noted that the original hackers first targeted the Bridge’s wrapped-Bitcoin (wBTC), followed by USD Coin (USDC) and wrapped-ETH (wETH).Source: CoinbaseAs the wBTC, USDC and wETH tokens were present in the largest concentrations in the Nomad Bridge, it made sense for the original hackers to first extract these tokens.White-hat effortsSurprisingly, Nomad Bridge’s request for stolen funds yielded a 17% return (as of Aug. 9), with the majority of those tokens being in the form of USDC (30.2%), Tether (USDT) (15.5%), and wBTC (14.0%). Source: CoinbaseBecause the original hackers mostly exploited wBTC and wETH, the fact that most of the returned funds came in the form of USDC and USDT suggests that the majority of the funds returned were from white-hat “copycats.”Meanwhile, approximately 49% of the exploited funds (as of Aug. 9) have been transferred elsewhere from each of the recipient’s addresses.Related: $2B in crypto stolen from cross-chain bridges this year: ChainalysisCoinbase also noted that the first three recipient addresses were funded by Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based protocol that allows users to transact anonymously. On Monday, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned all USDC and ETH addresses linked to the protocol. The Nomad Bridge hack has become the fourth largest DeFi hack ever and the third biggest in 2022, following the $250 million Wormhole Bridge hack in February and the $540 million Ronin Bridge hack in March. Cross-chain bridges of these kinds have been accused of being too centralized, making it an ideal site for attackers to exploit.

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Truly decentralized Web3 needs more developers: Animoca co-founder

Truly decentralized Web3 needs more developers: Animoca co-founder

Uverejnil používateľ | aug 11, 2022 |

Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu has urged for more developers to enter the Web3 space, warning that without “choice” there can be no “decentralized environment.”Speaking to Cointelegraph during Korean Blockchain Week (KBW) 2022, Sui stressed that more developers need to come into the space to give consumers more alternatives when it comes to their platform of choice — which could be based on “best value” or one they most culturally associate with. “We need as many choices of Layer-1’s and Layer-2’s […] or creative companies so that they [crypto users] have a choice in machine code from one another […] so we have a desire to create many alternatives.Siu noted that while developers have been excited to build software applications, many have continued to “struggle under the yoke of centralized platforms” such as Apple and Google, forcing developers to “exist under [their] rules.”Siu also noted that added that although many developers aren’t necessarily “blockchain versed”, “they’re keen on the idea” of moving into the space, again stressing the need for more developers to come into the space in order to offer Web3 users more options: “The fact that I don’t have an alternative to Facebook is the reason why Facebook is a monopoly. But if it was on a blockchain, I could transmit data freely, there could become [different] Facebooks. So I could choose to go with Facebook that gives me the best value.”Asked whether blockchain developers should be focused on competition or collaboration, Yiu emphasized that he “doesn’t want any [Web3 projects] to do badly”, because that would mean that “we have less choice.”The Animoca Brands executive also argued it would be much more sustainable for a variety of Web3 projects to capture their fair share of the market than just a few Web3 projects dominating the space:“They can sustain themselves with a lot less […] some of these blockchain [projects] are like 500,000 to one million [users] [and] they still have a sustainable framework and it creates an alternative, and that’s important for a free decentralized environment.”Animoca Brands is a venture capital firm that focuses on driving digital property rights via NFTs and gaming with the vision to build an open and interoperable Metaverse. The company was ranked in the Financial Times’ list of High-Growth Companies in the Asia-Pacific region in 2021. Animoca’s most popular gaming products are Revv Motorsport and Sandbox, which can be accessed with the REVV and SAND tokens respectively.

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