Autor Cointelegraph By Felix Ng

8 sneaky crypto scams on Twitter right now

8 sneaky crypto scams on Twitter right now

Uverejnil používateľ | aug 22, 2022 |

Cybersecurity analyst Serpent has revealed his picks for the most dastardly crypto and non-fungible token (NFT) scams currently active on Twitter.The analyst, who has 253,400 followers on Twitter, is the founder of artificial intelligence and community-powered crypto threat mitigation system, Sentinel. In a 19-part thread posted on Aug. 21, Serpent outlined how scammers target inexperienced crypto users through the use of copycat websites, URLs, accounts, hacked verified accounts, fake projects, fake airdrops, and plenty of malware. One of the more worrisome strategies comes amid a recent spate of crypto phishing scams and protocol hacks. Serpent explains that the “Crypto Recovery Scam” is used by bad actors to trick those who have recently lost funds to a widespread hack, stating: “Simply put, they attempt to target people who have already been scammed, and claim they can recover the funds.”According to Serpent, these scammers claim to be blockchain developers and seek out users that have fallen victim to a recent large-scale hack or exploit, asking them for a fee to deploy a smart contract that can recover their stolen funds. Instead they “take the fee and run.”This was seen in action after the multimillion-dollar exploit affecting Solana wallets earlier this month, with Heidi Chakos, the host of the YouTube channel Crypto Tips, warning the community to watch out for scammers offering a solution to the hack. Another strategy also leverages recent exploits. According to the analyst, the “Fake Revoke.Cash Scam,” tricks users into visiting a phishing website by warning them that their crypto assets may be at risk, using a “state of urgency” to get users to click the malicious link. Source: @Serpent on TwitterAnother strategy uses “Unicode Letters” to make a phishing URL look almost exactly like a genuine one, but replacing one of the letters with a Unicode lookalike, while another strategy sees scammers hack a verified Twitter account, which is then renamed and used to impersonate someone of influence to shill fake mints or airdrops. The remaining scams target users wanting to get in on a “get rich quick” scheme. This includes the “Uniswap Front Running Scam”, often seen as spam bot messages telling users to watch a video on how to “make $1400/DAY front-running Uniswap” which instead tricks them into sending their funds to a scammer’s wallet.Another strategy is known as a “Honeypot Account” — where users are supposedly leaked a “private key” to gain access to a loaded wallet, but when they attempt to send crypto in order to fund the transfer of coins, they are immediately sent away to the scammers’ wallet via a bot. Other tactics involve asking high-value NFT collectors to “beta test” a new Play-to-earn (P2E) game or project, or commissioning fake work to NFT artists — but in both cases, the ruse is merely an excuse to send them malicious files that can scrape browser cookies, passwords, and extension data.Related: Aurora Labs exec details ‘fascinating and devious’ crypto scam he almost fell forLast week, a report from Chainalysis noted that revenue from crypto scams fell 65% in 2022 so far, due to falling asset prices and the exit of inexperienced crypto users from the market. Total crypto scam revenue year-to-date is currently sitting at $1.6 billion, down from roughly $4.6 billion in the prior year.

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Australia's new government finally signals its crypto regulation stance

Australia's new government finally signals its crypto regulation stance

Uverejnil používateľ | aug 22, 2022 |

Three months after being elected into power, the Australian Labor party has finally broken its silence on how it’s planning to approach crypto regulation. Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced a “token mapping” exercise, which was one of the 12 recommendations in a senate inquiry report last year on “Australia as a Technology and Financial Center.” The report was warmly welcomed by the industry which has been anxiously waiting to see if the ALP government would embrace it.Aimed at being conducted before the end of the year, the token mapping exercise is expected to help “identify how crypto assets and related services should be regulated” and inform future regulatory decisions. Cointelegraph understands that Treasury will also undertake work on some of the other recommendations in the near future, including a licensing framework for crypto asset service providers dealing in non-financial product crypto assets, appropriate requirements to safeguard the consumer crypto asset custody, and a review of the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) company-style structure.In a statement from Treasurer Jim Chalmers, along with Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones, and Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Dr. Andrew Leigh, the Albanese-led government says it wants to reign in on a “largely unregulated” crypto sector.“As it stands, the crypto sector is largely unregulated, and we need to do some work to get the balance right so we can embrace new and innovative technologiesThe statement noted that more than one million taxpayers have interacted with the crypto ecosystem since 2018, and yet, “regulation is struggling to keep pace and adapt with the crypto asset sector.”The politicians claimed that the previous Liberal-led government had previously “dabbled” in crypto asset regulation through crypto secondary service providers “without first understanding what was being regulated.”“The Albanese Government is taking a more serious approach to working out what is in the ecosystem and what risks need to be looked at first.”Speaking to Cointelegraph, Michael Bacina, partner at Piper Alderman, said the token mapping exercise will be an “important step” to bridge the significant education gap within regulators and policymakers. “Australia punches above its weight in blockchain right now but we have seen regulatory uncertainty lead to businesses leaving Australia,” he said.Related: Australia’s world-leading crypto laws are at the crossroads: The inside story“A sensible token mapping exercise which helps regulators and policy makers understand in depth the activities they are looking to regulate and how the technology interfaces with those activities should help regulation be fit for purpose and both support innovation and jobs in Australia while protecting consumers,” he added. Caroline Bowler, CEO of BTC Markets said the move mirrors calls from many in the industry for “proportional, appropriate regulation” of the sector. “The additional benefits of token mapping are many. It will provide greater clarity to crypto investors; aid companies in developing their own blockchain-based innovations; provide guidance to digital currency exchanges; as well as assist regulators in shaping an appropriate regulatory regime,” she said. However Dr. Aaron Lane, a senior lecturer at the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub, believes the token mapping exercise is something of a delaying tactic by the Labor government: “Progress is progress — but it is disappointing that we are not further along the path to greater regulatory certainty for industry and greater protections for consumers.”“Unfortunately, they’ve needed to buy themselves time with a token mapping exercise to allow them to get up to speed,” he added. Progress is progress. But let’s be clear though – it is not the first time token mapping has been done. See this, for example, from the UK in 2019. #cryptolaw https://t.co/rghWmklDJv— Aaron Lane (@AMLane_au) August 21, 2022

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MMORPG went into ‘hiatus’ after crypto investors bailed, denies it misused funds

MMORPG went into ‘hiatus’ after crypto investors bailed, denies it misused funds

Uverejnil používateľ | aug 19, 2022 |

Phat Loop Studios, the company under fire last week for abandoning its Kickstarter and crypto-funded MMORPG game Untamed Isles, is now denying accusations that they lost their backers’ funds investing in crypto.The company came under fire last week after announcing a “hiatus” of their Pokemon-like open-world video game, with some the community accusing the developers of spending game development funds to bet on the crypto markets. In a statement on Wednesday, the developers behind the project, which raised over $841,000 NZD ($525,000 USD) on Kickstarter, insisted that all funds raised “were spent by the studio developing the game.”The company stated that the reason for the hiatus is due to “the company exhausting its available funds” after “several investors” pulled out recently “due to concerns about both the economic market along with the crypto market.”According to the initial announcement about the hiatus, the project had been gearing towards an October release, however, Grant stated that the development of the project had been put on pause as the company was unable to “financially keep up with the demands.” Grant stated that the main reason for this was due to the “economic landscape” changing for cryptocurrency, making it hard to continue pursuing the project, which employed “more than 70 staff” to work “relentlessly for more than two years” to build the project.”The crypto market crash meant that investors that were lined up earlier this year pulled out” who was necessary to “make it through to our runway to launch,” said Grant. The game was initially designed to launch with NFT implementation, but the plans for this were later dropped outside of an optional external marketplace. About a year ago, I was approached by @UntamedIsles (a Pokemon inspired MMO-RPG) to help oversee and design their combat system. I think what we came up with is REALLY interesting and a fresh take on the genre, and I’m so excited for everyone to be able to play it.— Wolfey (@WolfeyGlick) August 5, 2022This angered many who questioned the legitimacy of using the crypto market crashing as an excuse for the project failing if it was based on “game first, crypto second.”  It is unclear how much the project actually planned to integrate cryptocurrency into the project at all, however, Mr Grant stated that “until the crypto situation is resolved – and we’re confident it will be at some stage – then we have to hibernate development on this project.”the reason i believed in this game was because you said GAME FIRST, CRYPTO SECOND which meant it was independent of crypto. So why is crypto being used as an excuse for not having any more funding?— zach yonzon (@blackmoonfable) August 19, 2022

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Investors shifting toward lower-risk crypto yields: Block Earner GM

Investors shifting toward lower-risk crypto yields: Block Earner GM

Uverejnil používateľ | júl 26, 2022 |

Block Earner, an Australian fintech company, says the fall of Terra Luna in May has led to “positive surprises” for his company, with investors beginning to find their way toward the lower-risk crypto yield products they offer. Speaking to Cointelegraph, the company’s general manager Apurva Chiranewala revealed that the company has seen a surge of investors previously seeking double-digit returns but now wants a “less risky version” of those returns. “Given that the risks have gone up significantly for those returns, those guys have actually started coming in engaging with us because we look like the less riskier version of those double-digit return products.”Before their collapse, crypto lending platforms such as Celsius and Anchor Protocol offered annual percentage yields (APYs) of up to 20% for users who locked their digital assets up with them.Block Earner is a blockchain-powered fintech company that allows access to crypto-related yield-generating products. Still, Chiranewala explained the platform is aimed at those that want exposure to the crypto markets but have a lower risk appetite. Its Gold Earner and USD Earner products currently generate single-digit yields. Data shared by Block Earner to Cointelegraph shows that the Terra Luna fiasco coincided with an increase in withdrawal events at the beginning of May and again in mid-June due to the fall of Celsius. However, there’s been a steady return to normal levels since. Australian dollar (AUD) cash deposits have also remained steady over the April to July period, while the company’s user base has increased an average of 15% month on month. Chiranewala also stated that over the last few weeks, he had seen a “high degree of interest” from institutional investors, including hedge funds, venture capital (VC), and superannuation funds (retirement funds). “We are almost forced to now simultaneously build institutional products because the interest in that space is massive.”“There are VCs with treasuries, there are hedge funds, there are private funds […], and then there are super funds that have a mandate for a very small portion of the portfolio to be deployed into high-yielding assets,” he added. Related: Finance Redefined: DeFi’s downturn deepens, but protocols with revenue could thriveChiranewala admits that the company has not been entirely immune to the slump in the crypto markets. Block Earner has had to pull back its user-acquisition marketing spend. “In the environment that we are in right now, it makes very little sense for us to market and acquires users. So we stopped, we actually pulled back a lot on our marketing strategy.”“You naturally see a little bit of a softer trajectory of growth, as opposed to a steeper, you know, curve that grows week on week,” he said. Earlier this month, a Coingecko report stated that decentralized finance (DeFi) market cap fell 74.6% from $142 million to $36 million over the second quarter, due mainly to the collapse of Terra and its stablecoin TerraUSD Classic (USTC) in May.

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All 'Ethereum killers' will fail: Blockdaemon’s Freddy Zwanzger

All 'Ethereum killers' will fail: Blockdaemon’s Freddy Zwanzger

Uverejnil používateľ | júl 22, 2022 |

Blockdaemon’s ETH ecosystem lead Freddy Zwanzger believes Ethereum will retain its leadership position in the crypto ecosystem over the coming years due to its utility as a smart contract platform and upgrades to the network following the Merge. Speaking to Cointelegraph during the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) this week, Zwanzger said:“It’ll continue to be a leader. I mean, obviously, the first and most important smart contract platform, and that’s not going to change.”Blockdaemon is an institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure platform that offers node operations and infrastructure tooling for blockchain projects.The Blockdaemon employee also took aim at so-called “Ethereum killers” — competing Layer 1 blockchains — which have tried to topple Ethereum from its leadership position but failed. “All the Ethereum killers from back in the day didn’t succeed, and I don’t expect them to succeed at all.”Crypto projects that have been touted as “Ethereum killers,” include Solana, Cardano, Tezos, and Polkadot, among others. Many of these blockchains tout lower fees and faster transactions but have fewer active developers and certain blockchains place h less emphasis on decentralization.To date, none have managed to displace Ethereum from its number two spot in terms of market cap. Cardano and Solana currently sit in the eighth and ninth positions, Polkadot is ranked 11 while Tezos is ranked 37, according to Coinmarketcap. Zwanzger believes that the upcoming Merge will further propel Ethereum onwards and upwards in terms of technology and price. “There are so many good things in there, like environmentally-friendliness, [and] all sorts of things that are beneficial to a lot of people. Staking will become more attractive,” he said.“It’s a show of strength and commitment that the roadmap is materializing.”The Ethereum Merge involves transitioning it from the energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) mining consensus to a proof-of-stake (PoS) model, and has been tentatively scheduled to be rolled out around September 19.However, Zwanzger admitted the big future challenge for Ethereum will continue to be scalability. “The original Ethereum roadmap was focused on sharding, but that’s not so much the case anymore. Now we have a roll-up-centric roadmap, so scaling via layer 2 solutions.”Currently, the “proof-of-work” consensus model allows the blockchain to process 15 to 20 transactions per second (TPS) according to data from Blockchair. A quantum leap in the number of transactions per second is expected sometime in 2023 when the Ethereum network introduces sharding.Sharding is a multi-phase upgrade to improve Ethereum’s scalability and capacity by splitting the entire network into multiple portions in order to increase the network capacity. Sharding will work hand in hand with layer 2 solutions to further “supercharge” the scalability of the network. Post-sharding, cofounder Vitalik Buterin has claimed the network will be capable of transaction speeds up to 100,000 TPS.

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