Autor Cointelegraph By Brian Newar

Honduras attracts crypto investor tourists with Bitcoin Valley

Honduras attracts crypto investor tourists with Bitcoin Valley

Uverejnil používateľ | aug 1, 2022 |

A small tourist town in Honduras has begun accepting Bitcoin payments as part of the “Bitcoin Valley” initiative designed to increase tourism revenue across 60 local businesses.Some locals of Santa Lucia, like shopping mall owner Cesar Andino, expect the initiative to open up more opportunities for shops in the area and “attract more people who want to use this currency,” according to a report from Honduran news outlet La Prensa. Andino added:“Accepting Bitcoin will allow us to open another market and win more customers. We have to globalize. We cannot close ourselves off from technology, and we cannot be left behind when other countries are already doing it.”The program started on July 28, allowing patrons of local area shops to pay with United States dollars, Honduran Lempira, or Bitcoin (BTC).Santa Lucia’s municipal government developed the Bitcoin Valley program in conjunction with the Coincaex crypto exchange, Blockchain Honduras, and the Technological University of Honduras. Coincaex is providing the equipment and services needed to perform crypto payments, while Blockchain Honduras is providing education on the use of crypto wallets.Honduras launches ‘Bitcoin Valley’ Over 60 businesses have adopted #bitcoin in the small town of Santa Lucia. They will get training in the new technology and how to market their products and services.https://t.co/O8nh543ehG— Documenting Bitcoin (@DocumentingBTC) July 29, 2022La Prensa explained that although customers can pay for goods and services in BTC, they will be sending the coins to Coincaex exchange. The exchange then instantly sends the value of the BTC in Lempira to the merchant to help them avoid loss from price volatility. Therefore, business owners do not directly receive BTC as payment under this scheme.Local business owners hope the Bitcoin Valley will re-spark tourism spending in the tropical coastal country after taking a major hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Honduras enjoyed about $556 million in annual tourism spending in 2019 before plummeting more than 66% in 2020 to $189 million according to data from Macrotrends, a global economic tracker. Honduras joins a small handful of countries in the region that have launched similar programs for people to legally pay for goods and services with cryptocurrency. Related: Morgan Stanley encourages investors to buy battered El Salvador eurobondsEl Salvador famously adopted BTC as legal tender in 2021 and rolled out a nation-wide effort to educate residents on its utility. It has launched a similar ‘Bitcoin Beach’ tourist attraction at the town of El Zonte.Guatemala has its ‘Bitcoin Lake’ initiative at tourism sites around Lake Atitlan in the Sierra Madre Mountains. Mayor Cesar Piedrasanta of Panajachel in the region has also been mining BTC with energy that he says would otherwise be unused and wasted.

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Tether calls thesis behind USDT short-selling 'flat out wrong'

Tether calls thesis behind USDT short-selling 'flat out wrong'

Uverejnil používateľ | aug 1, 2022 |

Tether, the issuer of Tether (USDT), says that hedge funds that attempted to short its stablecoin after Terra’s collapse in May are using a thesis that is “incredibly misinformed” and “flat out wrong.” In a blog post from July 28, Tether pointed to a June 28 Wall Street Journal podcast in which host Luke Vargas and guest Caitlin McCabe discussed the bearish crypto market and concerns over Tether’s backing assets as the reasons for short sellers’ appetite for Tether.Tether said that the hedge funds, which saw Terra’s collapse as a reason to short USDT, have “a fundamental misunderstanding of both the cryptocurrency market and Tether.”“The simple fact that hedge funds view Terra’s collapse as a constructive thesis to short USDT represents the asymmetric knowledge gap between cryptocurrency market participants and entities in the traditional finance space.”In early May, UST lost its peg in dramatic fashion and pulled down the price of Terra ecosystem’s native token LUNA – now known as LUNC – to fractions of a cent from over $60. In that time, Tether experienced a 21% drop in market cap since May 11 from $85.3 billion, though it is still the largest stablecoin in the crypto market today with a $65.8 billion market cap according to CoinGecko.In late June, Tether chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino confirmed that USDT had become the subject of a “coordinated attack” by hedge funds looking to short-sell the crypto asset. He alleged that hedge funds have been trying to create pressure “in the billions” to “harm Tether liquidity” with the aim of eventually buying back tokens at a much lower price.Tether in its most recent blog post noted that several misconceptions about its holdings have been the basis of this short-selling movement — including Tether holding significant Chinese commercial paper or Evergrande debt, that USDT is created “from thin air,” or that Tether has issued unsecured loans.“In short, the underlying thesis of this trade is incredibly misinformed and flat-out wrong. It is further supported by a blind belief in what borders on outright conspiracy theories about Tether.”In a separate post the previous day, Tether attempted to reaffirm the strength of its financial backing and ability to honor redemptions, reiterating that it holds no Chinese commercial paper and had cut its total holdings of commercial paper by 88% from $30 billion to $3.7 billion over the past year.It added that commercial paper holdings would be as low as $300 million by the end of August, and it will hold zero commercial paper by early November.Related: Tether fortifies its reserves: Will it silence critics, mollify investors?The week that the UST fiasco started, USDT depegged briefly on the open market to a low of about $0.96 as investors dumped tokens either for fiat through direct redemptions or for other tokens, such as competitor USD Coin (USDC). However, Tether continued to honor fiat redemptions of $1 per token through that period.Its last financial disclosure on March 31 revealed that 85.64% of Tether’s financial backing is in cash and cash equivalents, including commercial paper.

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Marriages and court cases can be held in the Metaverse

Marriages and court cases can be held in the Metaverse

Uverejnil používateľ | júl 29, 2022 |

Legal marriage proceedings, court case disputes and government services may one day be offered on the Metaverse, according to a Singaporean government minister. Speaking at the TechLaw Fest 2022 on July 20, Singapore’s Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong argued even highly personalized, intimate events such as the solemnization of marriages have taken place online in the Metaverse:“It would not be unthinkable that, besides registration of marriages, other government services can soon be accessed online via the Metaverse.”On the subject of legal services in the Metaverse, the Minister added that there is “no reason why the same cannot be done for legal services.”“The pandemic has already shown us that even dispute resolution — once seen to be a physical, high-touch process […] can also be held almost entirely online.”Tong gave the example that a legal dispute involving an accident on a construction site for example could be viewed in three dimensions via a “single virtual platform” using augmented reality (AR) technology:“You can put yourself into the actual tunnel or the oil containment facility to look at the construction dispute from the perspective of an augmented reality, representing the actual space.”Tong stated that the addition of such technology would not preclude traditional offline hearings from taking place. He noted that “there can always be a hybrid element:”“I believe such an integrated platform will make the whole dispute resolution process more convenient, efficient, and it keeps pace with how the rest of the world is developing.”Earlier this year, metaverse platform Decentraland hosted its first wedding on its Metaverse with a virtual crowd of 2,000 guests and law firm Rose Law Group to legally formalize the marriage. The group’s founder and president, Jordan Rose, claims it was the first-ever wedding hosted on any blockchain-based Metaverse.Related: Condense to live stream IRL events into the MetaverseMeanwhile, South Korea’s government has already been taking steps toward the Metaverse after setting aside $177 million to develop a platform for citizens to access various government services.

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Solana Spaces store to bring 100K people to Solana per month, says CEO

Solana Spaces store to bring 100K people to Solana per month, says CEO

Uverejnil používateľ | júl 29, 2022 |

Solana Spaces CEO Vibhu Norby said the new physical Solana stores will introduce up to 100,000 people per month to the Solana ecosystem while also signaling plans to open a virtual storefront in the near future.Utilizing a grant from the Solana Foundation, the first Solana Spaces shop opened in the swanky Hudson Yards New York shopping center on Thursday. Addressing the community in an impromptu Twitter AMA on launch day, Norby explained the store is meant to teach new users about how to use decentralized applications (DApps) and noted that it would be introducing thousands of people into the Solana blockchain:“I don’t think people realize this but we’re going to bring 50 to 100,000 people into Solana every month through these stores — and that’s just this year.”Speaking to Cointelegraph in a phone interview following the AMA, Norby said the shop had 400 visitors, hinting also that new United States-based physical stores were in the works, and that “the store was designed for people who are brand new to blockchain.”Solana is home to over a thousand DApps, ranging from trading platforms, gaming and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to social media.Solana Spaces NYC is now open: https://t.co/jZcZ99l5CjWe’re the world’s first retail & educational space dedicated to Web3.Brought to you in collaboration with @solanafndn, and partners @phantom, @stepnofficial, @orca_so, @magiceden, @metaplex, @degenapeacademy and more. pic.twitter.com/VoKnrIMmWP— Solana Spaces (@solanaspaces) July 28, 2022While it is technically a store that sells a limited series of Solana-based merchandise, it mainly serves as a retail-as-a-service tutorial hub where new users receive free instructional sessions on how to set up a crypto wallet and connect to various DApps:“It’s not a store designed to be a place where you buy things. It’s a store designed to be an educational experience. We do sell merch, Solana socks and hoodies and other fun things, but that isn’t the main point of it.”Retail-as-a-service refers to stores that serve as showrooms for the products that customers can buy online. This encourages the demonstration of the products and reduces the inventory requirements.Norby added that the people who will get the most out of the shop are those who have little to no exposure to blockchain. He said that half of the patrons who visited on launch day either had some exposure to Ether (ETH) or Bitcoin (BTC) or had no idea what any of it was. He said:“You don’t need to be here unless you want the sick merch. If you are trading NFTs full time, there’s only so much value we can offer.”So far, shoppers have reacted positively to the new shop. Reciprocal venture capital partner Craig Burel called it “pretty epic” in a Twitter post on Thursday, echoing the impressions of other shoppers.IRL @solanaspaces is next level pic.twitter.com/0KljKm11sr— Austin Federa | sms (@Austin_Federa) July 28, 2022

The Solana Foundation helped fund the launch of the shop with a grant, but each tutorial is sponsored by a project running on the blockchain. Notably, Stepn, Orca, Solana Pay, Metaplex and Magic Eden are currently hosting tutorials at the shop. Customers receive an NFT for completing a tutorial.While Solana Spaces launched its first branch on Thursday, Norby hinted that a virtual store was also in development along with other physical stores. He also added that he eventually wanted stores in every country around the world.Related: Solana said to be ‘more decentralized than people think,’ but there’s moreSolana is in the process of expanding access to its network through the new store and a new Android mobile device called the Saga. Cointelegraph reported on June 24 that reactions to the new phone were generally positive, with one person even calling Web3’s “iPhone moment.”

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Experts yet to explain massive spike in ETH active addresses

Experts yet to explain massive spike in ETH active addresses

Uverejnil používateľ | júl 28, 2022 |

On-chain metrics firm Santiment says it is still investigating the cause of a sudden surge of ETH active addresses, which have eclipsed the previous ATH by a whopping 48%On July 27, the analytics firm tweeted that the number of daily active addresses on Ethereum had suddenly spiked to 1.06 million, shattering the previous high of 718,000 set back in 2018.An active address is one that has made a transaction in the past 24 hours. The number of active addresses can indicate the level of on-chain activity from developers and projects inputting updates to their work or platforms, and traders performing simple token transfers.However, Santiment says its team is still investigating the cause of the spike. Cointelegraph also reached out to Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko to explain the unusual activity but did not get an immediate response. #Ethereum shattered records Tuesday after an incredible surge in address activity broke its #AllTimeHigh by a wide margin. 1.06M $ETH addresses made transactions, & the team is still investigating the cause of the +48% increase over the previous record. https://t.co/fRLNXkx0PR pic.twitter.com/oXhGvCTJef— Santiment (@santimentfeed) July 27, 2022Head of strategy at Coinbase Conor Grogan posted in a Twitter thread that the increase in activity comes from a high number of token transfers per unit of gas rather than from greater adoption.He explained that the spike in active addresses is due to an increase “mundane” send/receive activity, such as “Binance doing a maintenance sweep,” as opposed to more “productive” activity from decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible token (NFT).Ethereum reached an all time high in “daily active addresses” today.Counter-intuitively, I don’t think this means that Ethereum has greater adoption than any previous time period. It means that send and receive addresses per unit of gas was at highs. pic.twitter.com/fjQbfdo0tb— Conor (@jconorgrogan) July 28, 2022

Active addresses had been increasing since their two-year low point of 364,400 on June 26 with a notable smaller spike on July 16 up to 583,000 according to Santiment data. Related: Will Ethereum Merge hopium continue, or is it a bull trap?The daily active addresses metric for Tether (USDT) has also seen a significant spike in active addresses over the past two days from July 26 to 27, possibly corroborating Grogan’s observations about greater activity coming from simple token transfers. Goerli/Prater Merge Announcement Prater will run through the Bellatrix upgrade on August 4th, and merge with Goerli between August 6-12th: if you run a node or validator, this is your last chance to go through the process before mainnet https://t.co/JAz5AJe12B— Tim Beiko | timbeiko.eth (@TimBeiko) July 27, 2022

The Goerli and Prater testnets for Ethereum are expected to merge together into a single Goerli testnet between August 6 and 12 according to a July 27 blog post from the Ethereum team. The Ethereum mainnet is expected to transition into its own merge on September 19.The spike in activity was followed by a 15.5% pump on Ether (ETH) over the past 24 hours from $1,425 to $1,648 according to CoinGecko.

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