Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

In mid-October, Bitcoin.com News reported on how decentralized finance (defi) or algorithmic stablecoins have seen significant demand in 2021. One particular stablecoin called OHM is quite different from the traditional reserve currency defi protocols today, as OHM is a free-floating currency backed only by what’s held in the Olympus DAO treasury. OHM may not be backed by a U.S. dollar in the usual fashion, but the stablecoin’s $3.6 billion market valuation makes it the fifth-largest crypto reserve currency by market capitalization. Meet Olympus DAO: An Algorithmic Currency Protocol When stablecoins were first introduced, a centralized model appeared where a blockchain network is used to distribute tokens that have fiat backing held by an audited third-party custodian. The centralized model still exists today, and the top two stablecoins in terms of market valuation, USDT and USDC are both perfect examples of that type of model. In recent times, decentralized finance (defi) or alg

Have you lost the password for a Dogechain.info wallet or have it locked behind 2FA and fear you will never get to hold your precious coins ever again? Good news, KeychainX wrote a handy guide on how to recover such wallets. This is a trusted service provider that specializes in recovering lost Bitcoin wallets from wallet.dat files, Dogecoin wallet passwords, Android wallet or spending PIN, Ethereum JSON files, presale wallets and can even decrypt blockchain.info 15,17,19 or 21 word mnemonic seed that is no longer officially supported. Dogechain.info Wallets Can Be Recovered According to a recent KeychainX article , the team has been able to recover a number of dogechain.info wallets that both had their password lost and their 2FA blocked over the course of the previous month. Dogechain.info is a self custodian doge wallet that uses the same parameters like blockchain.info used back in 2015. It has the wallet ID, 2FA security and the encrypted wallet and keys stored on a server in t

As defi continues to expand, it risks embracing the very ideology it initially sought to reject as the primary beneficiaries of this new financing paradigm are those who already own digital assets. Replacing Intermediaries Doesn’t Directly Improve Finance When it comes to financial products and solutions, almost everything comes with a catch, be it exceptional returns on investments or low financing rates. Decentralized finance (defi) is no exception. Defi has gained immense popularity because it sought to remove traditional finance’s (tradfi) inherent problems and downsides. While there is no denying that the emergence of defi has indeed lowered access barriers to financial solutions, we can’t overlook the uncomfortable reality that defi is becoming, at least to an extent, the same as tradfi, with a ‘decentralized’ tag. The Blurring Line Between Defi and Tradfi Lending In the traditional system, anyone who wants to borrow funds from banks or private lenders must furnish their cr

South African finance minister Enoch Godongwana has put forward proposals that bar pension funds from investing in cryptocurrencies, and has also set November 12 as the public comment deadline. Cryptocurrencies a Grey Area According to a report by Business Insider SA, Godongwana’s timeframe for the public to comment on the draft proposals suggests he wants the changes to come into effect before the end of the year. Prior to Godongwana’s proposals, South African pension funds considered cryptocurrencies a grey area where an investment of up to 2.5% of assets held was permissible. However, as the Business Insider explains, this ambiguous part of regulations used by pension funds to legally invest in cryptocurrencies will be removed once the minister’s proposed changes get approval. “A [pension] fund may not invest in crypto-assets directly or indirectly,” the report explained, quoting new rules published in a government document . Meanwhile, the finance ministry’s draft proposals

Venezuelan authorities seized over a hundred mining machines in a residential area of a central state. According to reports, the mining farm was operating illegally without permits that the national cryptocurrency watchdog, Sunacrip, requires for these operations. The seizure was led by the national police, officers from the national power company, and personnel from Sunacrip. Venezuelan Mining Farm Seized by Authorities Authorities seized over a hundred miners that were operating illegally in a clandestine farm located in a residential zone in Miranda, a central state in Venezuela. According to reports from local media, authorities located the farm due to the strain it was imposing on the power distribution system in the area. This prompted an inspection by the police and authorities from both the national power company (Corpoelec) and the national cryptocurrency watchdog (Sunacrip) to check for unreported mining activity. The farm was dismantled and the mining equipment was seiz

Cryptocurrencies are a popular investment among Iranians and estimates suggest that the number of those who already own one coin or another may be as high as 12 million. The majority of Iranian traders prefer the services of local crypto exchanges, the chief executive of one of them claims. Iranians Said to Transfer $180 Million in Crypto Daily Despite the lack of proper rules for most of the crypto space and the government stance on the matter, a growing number of Iranians have been investing in decentralized digital money over the past months and years. “An estimated seven to 12 million Iranians own cryptocurrencies,” according to Hamed Mirzaei, CEO of Bitestan, one of the country’s crypto exchanges. “Iranians’ daily crypto transactions is estimated between 30 and 50 trillion rials ($181 million), while there is no regulation over trade in cryptocurrencies,” Mirzaei was recently quoted as saying by Peyvast magazine. According to a report by the English-language business portal Fi

Some of the premier figures in crypto gathered at the Waldorf Astoria, Shanghai on October 27th, 2021, to celebrate a new alliance with a mission to advance the blockchain industry. The Blockchain Infrastructure Alliance (BIA) was inaugurated with a dinner hosted by the crypto-fiat payment network, Alchemy Pay , alongside co-hosts Polygon Network, NEAR Protocol, Draper Dragon, and Bit.Store. The event was graced by the presence of over a hundred celebrities and leaders of the industry, including Tencent, Alipay, Mastercard, Binance, Huobi, OKEx, Polygon, NEAR, NEO and many others. At the dinner, John Tan, the CEO of Alchemy Pay, gave an opening speech on behalf of Alchemy Pay a nd took the opportunity to present the company’s ecosystem as well as remark on the outlook for BIA. Tan showed just how much Alchemy Pay’s network had developed. After two years of rapid expansion, the Alchemy Pay ecosystem now boasts more than 150 core nodes, including banks, merchant networks, DeFi proto

A warning by Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk about the mounting national debt in the U.S., government spending, and the proposal to tax unrealized capital gains has highlighted the benefits of cryptocurrencies, particularly bitcoin. Elon Musk Says ‘Spending Is the Real Problem’ Tesla CEO Elon Musk made several tweets about the U.S. national debt and government spending last week. He also warned against the proposal to tax unrealized capital gains, aimed at billionaires, which was scuttled Friday amid questions about whether it would even be constitutional. Musk believes that if the proposal were to go ahead, the government would not stop at billionaires. “Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you,” he tweeted early last week. Commenting on a Washington Post article stating that he would “pay as much as $50 billion under the tax over its first five years, while Bezos could pay as much as $44 billion,” the Tesla CEO tweeted to his 61.7 million follo

Robert Kiyosaki, the best-selling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, has warned that the U.S. is “sliding into depression.” He said that a giant crash is coming, after which “a new depression” will follow. Bitcoin is among his recommendations for smart investing. Robert Kiyosaki Sees Giant Crash Coming, Followed by a New Depression Famous author and investor Robert Kiyosaki has warned of a new depression in the U.S. following a “giant crash.” Rich Dad Poor Dad is a 1997 book co-authored by Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. It has been on the New York Times Best Seller List for over six years. More than 32 million copies of the book have been sold in over 51 languages across more than 109 countries. The famous author tweeted Friday that the U.S. is “sliding into depression.” He said President Joe Biden and the Fed are “ripping off people,” noting that they “need inflation to prevent new depression.” Kiyosaki stressed: “Inflation rips off the poor. Inflation makes [the] rich richer. Biden and F

Shark Tank star and the owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, and the CEO of crypto trading platform Voyager have given some advice to people thinking of starting to invest in cryptocurrencies. “You don’t have to spend a lot of money in order to learn. It’s not like the stock market where it’s almost impossible,” Cuban said. How to Get Into Crypto, What Investors Should Know The owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, and the CEO of crypto platform Voyager, Steve Ehrlich, gave some advice on how to get into cryptocurrency last week during the partnership announcement between the Dallas Mavericks and Voyager. They were asked whether it was too late to get into cryptocurrency and what new crypto investors should know. Responding to the question: “Is it too late to get into crypto?” Voyager CEO Steve Ehrlich replied: It’s never too late and, actually, now is the right time. I still think it’s the first half of the first quarter on crypto adoption. “About

PRESS RELEASE. Singapore-based Enjinstarter (EJS) has completed its Token Generation Exercise (TGE), raising a total of $500,000 via a collaborative fund raising effort over 4 launchpads namely Genesis Shards , Chainboost , Starter.xyz and Enjinstarter’s own launchpad. This followed a highly-successful, oversubscribed private sale that raised $5 Million from prominent Crypto VCs and highly influential angel investors from the Blockchain and Digital Assets industry. According to Enjinstarter CEO, Prakash Somosundram, “Enjinstarter’s native token (EJS) presents an exciting opportunity for token holders who want to ride the massive trend of Blockchain Gaming and Metaverses. We are also honoured to have had the strong support of our investors who not just contributed financially, but also supported us through the introduction of key opinion leaders and also to quality projects to feature on our launchpad”. “With an impeccable track record of investing within the crypto gaming sect

87 days ago, the Ethereum network successfully implemented the London hard fork upgrade, and ever since then over 700,000 ether has been burned, or more than $2.4 billion using today’s exchange rates. 702,886 Ethereum Burned Since the London Hard Fork Data from Dune Analytics indicates that on October 31, 2021, otherwise known as Halloween, 702,886 ethereum ( ETH ) has been burned. The burning of ethereum started on August 5, 2021, when the Ethereum network successfully implemented the London hard fork upgrade and EIP-1559. At the time, the London hard fork upgrade included roughly five different changes but the most transformative were EIP-1559 and EIP-3554 . While EIP-3554 changed the Ethereum network’s difficulty bomb, EIP-1559 changed Ethereum’s fee rate to a new scheme that makes the crypto asset ether deflationary. Just recently, Ethereum implemented the Altair upgrade which helps smooth the consensus process from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). After Altair w

All around the world cryptocurrency supporters and proponents of blockchain technology are celebrating the 13th anniversary of the Bitcoin white paper. The summary of the inventor’s creation was published on metzdowd.com’s Cryptography Mailing List on Halloween 2008, as it gave birth to an asset with a market valuation of over $1 trillion and sparked the creation of over 10,000+ cryptocurrencies that followed Satoshi Nakamoto’s innovative design. Introducing the Proof-of-Work Chain: A Solution to the Byzantine Generals Problem 13 years ago at approximately 2:10 p.m. (EDT), Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper , a summary of the innovative network and native cryptocurrency that changed the world. The 12-part white paper starts off with an indented paragraph called an abstract which explains that Bitcoin is a “purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash [that] would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial i

2021 has been the year of decentralized finance (defi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and meme tokens as well. During the first week of August, roughly 30 dogecoin-like crypto assets existed and today, there are now 45 tokens with the terms “dog,” “shiba,” and “inu” in their names. Many of these coins have seen astronomical gains this year, outperforming some of the most sophisticated blockchain assets. Who Let the Dogs Out? Doge-Like Meme Tokens Are No Joke When it Comes to Market Gains Digital meme-based currencies have done extremely well this year in terms of fiat gains. At the beginning of the year, all eyes were on dogecoin (DOGE) , when the original meme crypto skyrocketed in value. Dogecoin has gained a whopping 10,360% year-to-date which is much larger than BTC ’s 350% gain this past year and ETH ’s 1,014% 12-month gains. After spending years below a U.S. penny per token, DOGE surged to $0.731 per unit six months ago on May 8. Close to eight years ago the Dogecoin network

OVR AR Metaverse goes to a whole other level. Italian company OVR is announcing today the creation of the so-called OVR Land Map. OVR Land Mapping: the metaverse to another level Thanks to the powers of AI, in fact, OVR is able to generate a 3D map of the physical world starting from simple pictures, no lidar or other expensive HW needed, just the smartphone in your pocket. All of the OVR users will be able to contribute to creating the biggest detailed 3D map of the real world. This revolutionary technology of open mapping system will bring the OVR AR Metaverse to a whole other level: currently, when geolocalization an AR asset in an OVRLand there’s the limitation of the GPS accuracy that has meters of error outdoor while is totally unreliable indoor, a scanned OVRLand will have a localization precision up to ì0 cm. A new AR experience That opens up a whole new realm of opportunities in creating AR experiences that before were not technically feasible: localizing exper

The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation has issued a draft order allowing its agents to request information from cryptocurrency platforms among other organizations. The move follows changes made to the anti -corruption legislation in Russia, the agency noted. FSB Wants Access to Crypto Data for Anti-Corruption Checks in Russia Russia’s main law enforcement agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), has decided to grant its employees additional powers to acquire information from various organizations and institutions as part of efforts to combat corruption. A draft order has been published for public discussions and the FSB welcomes “independent anti-corruption expertise” on the matter. According to the document, FSB agents will receive permission to file information requests with credit organizations, tax authorities, and government bodies responsible for the registration of rights to real estate during anti-corruption inspections. “Operators of information system

Alchemy, one of the leading infrastructure providers for blockchain and web3, has raised $250 million in its series C funding round, giving it a valuation of $3.5 billion. The round was led by a16z, which considers we are at a turning point in the web3 space. The company has multiplied its revenue by 15x in the last six months, a testament to the impact it has caused on the ecosystem. Alchemy Reaches $3.5 Billion Valuation Alchemy, a web3 and blockchain infrastructure provider, has reached a milestone by raising $250 million in its series C funding round. The round was led by known VC companies a16z, Lightspeed, and Redpoint, with the participation of Coatue, Addition, DFJ, and Pantera as well. With this new funding round, Alchemy reached a valuation of $3.5 billion, an outstanding value for a company that was publicly launched just a little more than a year ago. The company, that compares its role in the blockchain ecosystem with the role of AWS in the current internet structure,

Patreon, the membership platform, is pondering the idea of letting creators in its platform issue their own creator coins. The statement, that constituted a revelation, was offered by Patreon CEO and co-founder Jack Conte and Chief Product Officer Julian Gutman during The Information’s 2021 Creator Economy Summit. This is consistent with a report presented last September that evaluated using crypto as part of the platform. Patreon Flirts With Crypto Patreon, the well known membership organization, is now pondering the idea of introducing crypto elements to add new revenue paths, according to statements from CEO Jack Conte and Chief Product Officer Julian Gutman. During The Information’s 2021 Creator Economy Summit, both directives admitted the idea of introducing a membership token for content creators is on the table. While Patreon has explicitly forbidden the introduction of coins as an investment form in its platform, this rise in the crypto along with other circumstances that

According to the latest Finder Cryptocurrency Adoption Index, in October 2021, Nigeria had the highest rate of cryptocurrency ownership globally, at 24.2%. Bitcoin Is the Most Popular Coin in Nigeria In addition to finding the West African nation as the country with the highest proportion of citizens that hold cryptocurrencies globally, the survey also discovered that “of the 1 in 4 online adults in Nigeria who own some form of cryptocurrency, bitcoin is the most popular coin in Nigeria at 66.5% of crypto owners.” Alternatively, this means more than half of the 24.2% of Nigerian respondents that own cryptocurrencies are in fact bitcoin holders. On the other hand, the survey findings suggest ethereum ( ETH ) is the second most popular coin with Nigerian cryptocurrency holders, at 23.8%. Despite this seemingly high rate of interest in ETH , the ratio of Nigerians holding this cryptocurrency relative to other countries is still lower, the survey data suggests. In fact, according t

Following the Altair upgrade on the Ethereum network, the protocol’s native cryptocurrency reached a new all-time price high. Altair is the next step for the Ethereum’s network’s proof-of-stake (PoS) transition. However, a recently submitted white paper explains that a group of computer scientists from Stanford University and the Ethereum Foundation believe there are three attack vectors “on [a] proof-of-stake Ethereum” blockchain. The 3 Attacks Against Ethereum Thesis Aims to Describe a Proof-of-Stake Problem Based on Evidence The Ethereum network currently has a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism and in time, the protocol plans to fully transition into a proof-of-stake (PoS) network. Recent upgrades like Berlin, London, and Altair have been applied to help smooth the transition toward the PoS goal. Just recently, after Altair was implemented, the price per ether skyrocketed toward a new all-time high (ATH) at $4,467 per unit. At the same time, network transfer fees have also