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Business

Sushiswap smart contract bug results in over $3M in losses

Over the weekend, the dex platform Sushiswap saw its RouteProcess02 contract exploited and then distributed across various blockchain networks. Blockchain security firm Certik published an alert after discovering the exploit. 

The company Peckshield also updated the crypto community via Twitter, noting that Sushiswap’s RouterProcessor2 contract has an approve-related bug. It has also been reported that the victim was a well-known crypto advocate called Sifu, who reportedly lost 1,800 ETH.

Sifu may not have been the only victim, as Certik’s alert mentions that a few USDC users may have been affected. 

Certik tweeted, “We have detected suspicious activity on (0x15d), which is a malicious router. Revoke permissions if you have approved this router to spend your tokens. Stay safe.”

“Multiple users who had approved the malicious contract have seen their USDC being transferred to (0x29e). The wallet has taken about $20,000 in the last two hours,” the company added.

A developer known as 0xngmi has detailed that the exploit should only be problematic for those who used Sushiswap during the last four days. 

“Only users impacted by Sushiswap hack should be those that swapped on Sushiswap in the last 4 days. If you did so, revert approvals ASAP or move your funds in the affected wallet to a new wallet,” 0xngmi tweeted. 

Sushiswap’s Head Chef Jared Grey also confirmed the exploit and later detailed that recovery efforts were underway.

“We’ve secured a large portion of affected funds in a whitehat security process. If you have performed a whitehat recovery please contact security@sushi.com for next steps,” Grey said. 

“We’ve confirmed the recovery of more than 300 ETH from Coffeebabe of Sifu’s stolen funds. We’re in contact with Lido’s team regarding 700 more ETH,” Grey added. 

Sushiswap’s CTO, Matthew Lilley, followed up later in the day and said that there are currently no issues with using the Sushiswap dex platform.

“There is no risk at this time with using Sushi Protocol, and the UI. All exposure to RouterProcessor2 has been removed from the front end, and all LPing / current swap activity is safe to do,” the Sushiswap CTO explained. 

“We do ask that all users double-check their approvals, and if an address within this list below has an allowance for any of your tokens to please unapprove as soon as you can,” Lilley added. 

Just recently, Grey told the community that the Sushiswap team received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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Business

Russia ranked as the world’s second-largest crypto miner

Russia has become the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency mining country this year according to Kommersant business daily citing Bitriver, Russia’s largest bitcoin mining provider. 

Russia climbed to second place in the world in terms of the total power capacity of the facilities devoted to the production of digital currencies. According to Bitriver’s data, the amount of power involved in coin minting has reached 1 gigawatt (GW) in the first three months of the year.

The United States remains the clear leader with 3 to 4 GW of mining capacity, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported. 

The top 10 also includes Gulf countries (700 MW), Canada (400 MW), Malaysia (300 MW), Argentina (135 MW), Iceland (120 MW), Paraguay (100–125 MW), Kazakhstan (100 MW), and Ireland (90 MW), according to Kommersant business daily.

Bitriver also noted that the positive trend for Russia is linked to last year’s reduction of mining activities in Kazakhstan, where authorities have been shutting down authorized mining data centers and going after illegal crypto farms due to electricity shortages. 

The Central Asian nation’s growing power deficit has been blamed on the influx of miners following China’s crackdown on the industry. A law limiting their access to low-cost, subsidized electricity entered into force in February.

The U.S. also leads in terms of share of the global hash rate. However, the growth of the American market is being slowed down by rising electricity rates, reduced mining profitability, and the abolition of tax incentives in some areas.

Bitriver CEO, Igor Runets commented, “In addition, the vast majority of the equipment was purchased by American miners on credit, so many over-leveraged companies are in the process of bankruptcy or have already gone bankrupt.”

According to Roman Nekrasov, co-founder of Encry Foundation, which represents IT companies providing services in the field of blockchain and tech innovations, the actions of U.S. regulators are also drawing the attention of market participants. 

He also believes they can provoke another major redistribution in the mining market.

Data provided by the Head of the Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain (Racib), Alexander Brazhnikov, also suggests that the energy capacity of Russia’s crypto mining sector may be even higher. 

According to him, the Russians use about 800,000 ASIC miners, the combined power rating of which exceeds 2.5 GW.

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Business

$300 Crypto Airdrop if Elected – Thai Prime Minister Candidate Promises Citizens

A candidate for Thailand’s prime minister has pledged to give every citizen 10,000 Thai Baht (roughly $300) in digital currency if his party forms the government after the country’s general election in May.

Srettha Thavisin, a former real estate magnate who is now running for office, promises to implement “digital currency” as a form of economic stimulus should his party, Pheu Thai, win the next election.

According to Thavisin, the policy will give some financial relief to Thais who are struggling with some of the highest household debt levels in the region.

“Our country has been economically bruised over the last eight years, with less income and more expenses for the people,” Thavisin is quoted as saying. “The current government has been feeding IV drips with small money handouts. That’s not the right way and doesn’t stimulate the appropriate and right economic growth.”

It has not been mentioned what tokens will be used for the airdrop. Thai baht stablecoins were ruled illegal by the Bank of Thailand, which serves as the country’s central bank, in 2021.

The airdrop proposal would have “major implications” for the entire country’s financial system, according to Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana, a minister in the prime minister’s office, as reported in the Bangkok Post.

Others cited by the Bangkok Post wonder if this is the best use of money rather than using it to fight poverty.

Recent polls indicate that the election will be closed; according to Reuters, Pheu Thai has received about 46% of the vote recently.

This is not the first election in Asia in which cryptocurrency has been heavily involved. The Conservative Party candidate Yoon Suk-Yeol, now President of South Korea, placed crypto deregulation on his list of legislative proposals in the country’s March 2022 election, one of the closest in the nation’s history, in order to defeat his rival and win office by less than 1%.

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Business

Chinese State Firm Launches Two Crypto Funds

Two investment funds have been established in the special administrative region by a company with headquarters in Hong Kong that is a member of the China Pacific Insurance Company (CPIC) group and will focus on the sector centered on blockchain technologies and digital assets.

CPIC is the third-largest state-owned insurance company in China, according to a post by Chinese crypto journalist and blogger Colin Wu, also known by the Twitter handle “Wu Blockchain,” which was based on a report from the website 36kr.com.

A global investment company called Waterdrip supports, among other things, blockchain-related initiatives and cryptocurrency startups like Polkadot. According to its website, it was established in 2017 by “the most visionary Chinese blockchain pioneers.”

The businesses have established two venture capital funds called Pacific Waterdrip Digital Asset Fund I and Pacific Waterdrip Digital Asset Fund II, also known as the “POS Token Income Enhancement Fund,” to make investments in the industry.

While the second will primarily hold digital assets based on the proof-of-stake (POS) consensus mechanism, the first will invest in the early stages of new projects focused on the development of blockchain infrastructure, decentralized finance applications, Web3, metaverse, and non-fungible token (NFT) apps.

The initiative’s primary goal is to provide investors with more innovative and diversified investment options. High-net-worth individuals as well as institutional investors like companies and family offices will be among the funds’ target market.

Although cryptocurrency-related activities have been severely restricted by the People’s Republic of China’s central government, there have been hints that Beijing is in favor of Hong Kong’s goal of becoming a major hub for digital assets. China’s state-owned banks have been welcoming crypto companies to the country, according to a recent Bloomberg report.

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Business

Binance asked to provide information as Dubai tightens regulations against crypto entities

The collapse of the crypto exchange FTX prompted Dubai regulators to ask for more information from crypto license applicants such as Binance. 

According to a report, officials from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) have in recent weeks told Binance, which already holds the minimal viable product license, to share more information concerning its ownership structure, governance, and auditing procedures.

No crypto firm including Binance has been granted a full market product (FMP) license. According to VARA, only holders of this license can offer a full spectrum of their services to Dubai residents. 

On the other hand, Binance and a few other crypto exchanges have been granted the minimal viable product (MVP) license. This license enables the holders to offer their services of an approved range of virtual asset-related services to suitably qualified retail and institutional investors in Dubai.

However, following the sudden collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, global regulators including VARA are said to have adopted a stricter stance when dealing with crypto firms. According to unidentified persons quoted in the report, the objective of this new approach is to strike a balance between fostering innovation and protecting users’ funds.

Sam Blatteis, CEO of The MENA Catalysts, suggested that Dubai authorities have taken this approach because they want to maintain good relations with their Western counterparts.

“VARA wants to turn Dubai into a capital for the digital-assets economy while safeguarding its business ties with Western jurisdictions like Europe that are adopting more muscular crypto regulations,” Blatteis said.

Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg, VARA’s stricter approach could spell trouble for Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) who already faces legal problems in the U.S. Zhao is being sued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) which accuses him and his firm of violating United States derivatives regulations.

Although CZ and Binance have denied the allegations, the lawsuit’s announcement is reported to have caused many users of the exchange to exit the platform. 

Besides the alleged derivative rules violations, Binance is said to have a complex ownership structure. This structure as well as Binance’s lack of global headquarters have sparked questions about the crypto exchange’s corporate governance credentials.

Such allegations and accusations against the crypto exchange have prompted regulators like VARA to ask for more information about Binance’s ownership structure and board procedures.

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Business

Bitcoin whitepaper reportedly hidden on every Apple MacBook with recent versions of macOS

Satoshi Nakamoto’s original white paper laying out the Bitcoin (BTC) network is seemingly hiding within every modern version of the operating system for Apple’s Mac computers.

According to a blog post from technologist Andy Baio, a PDF of the Bitcoin white paper has apparently been shipped with every copy of macOS since Mojave in 2018.

Baio noted that he was just trying to fix his printer and scan a document with a wireless scanner when a device called “Virtual Scanner II” appeared that he’d never seen on his device before. By default, Virtual Scanner II showed a photo, but when Baio changed the media type from “Photo” to “Document,” Nakamoto’s white paper appeared.

In his post, Baio said there is virtually nothing about this online. He shared a November 2020 Twitter thread from designer Joshua Dickens, who also found the whitepaper, which Baio used to find the file location.

Baio explains that the way to access the document is to open Terminal and type a specific command:

In his blog post, Baio claimed the file is found on every version of macOS from Mojave (10.14.0) to the current version (Ventura), but isn’t in High Sierra (10.13) or earlier.

It’s unknown why Nakamoto’s white paper is shipped with modern versions of macOS. Baio speculated in his post that it was just a convenient, lightweight multipage PDF for testing purposes, never meant to be seen by end users.

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Business

OpenSea launches an NFT aggregator

Leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, OpenSea recently revealed that it’s rolling out OpenSea Pro, a marketplace with advanced features targeting the growing market of professional NFT traders that has helped rival NFT marketplace Blur surge since its launch.

“To support this growing community, we acquired Gem, the leading NFT aggregator, in April. As power users continued to push the frontiers of what’s possible with NFTs, we recognized the opportunity for both Gem and OpenSea to offer more. Today, we’re officially joining forces to unveil OpenSea Pro (previously Gem v2) – the fastest and most powerful NFT marketplace aggregator available,” OpenSea stated on its site.

According to OpenSea, the new product is a rebrand of Gem v2, which is the newest version of Gem’s NFT aggregation platform. The Nft marketplace acquired Gem in April 2022, with plans to bring its professional trading tools to OpenSea users.

OpenSea Pro will operate with 0% fees and pull listings across 170 marketplaces to provide the best deals for traders. It will support advanced floor-sweeping for traders, instant sales, inventory management, the ability to optimize gas fees for efficient trades, a watchlist feature, and more. It will also be available on mobile devices.

Devin Finzer, CEO of OpenSea, stated that Gem has helped OpenSea build OpenSea Pro to become the most efficient NFT trading tool on the market.

“Gem v2 is amazing, you know, it’s an incredible aggregator tool, but this is really a dramatic step up from it. It’s incredibly fast, and incredibly real-time. It’s really the fastest user experience for purchasing NFTs,” he said.

Since the marketplace’s debut in October, competition for a market share of NFT trading volume between OpenSea and zero-fee platform Blur has risen quickly. As a result, OpenSea lowered its required marketplace fees to 0% in an effort to attract Blur traders.

OpenSea said in its launch of OpenSea Pro it’s bringing its marketplace fees back to the main platform at 2.5%.

Finzer said, “We’ll certainly, with regards to fees, continue investing the revenue back into making the space stronger.” 

While OpenSea’s move to release OpenSea Pro comes at a time when the marketplace is in fierce competition for the top spot with Blur, Finzer specified that OpenSea will still focus on providing tools and improvements for retail traders and creators, including focusing on new partnerships, primary drops, and smart contract standards.

“We’re investing in really exciting features that make it easier for people to explore and purchase their first NFT and then really push the use cases forward for NFTs. Folks can come to OpenSea and graduate to a professional experience,” Finzer said.

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Network

What is KYC and why it is important in crypto?

If you’ve ever used a cryptocurrency exchange or bought an NFT, it’s likely that you will have had to perform a know-your-customer (KYC) check to verify your identity. KYC is essential in financial products and services, including cryptocurrency. With regulators monitoring anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations more closely, KYC has become increasingly popular.

Cryptocurrency transactions are anonymous or near anon, making it difficult to trace illegal activities. This anonymity has led to exchanges adopting facial recognition software and AI-powered algorithms to verify users’ identities and parse large amounts of data quickly.

Although privacy advocates view KYC requirements negatively, there are positive aspects to them. They protect against fraud and other criminal activity. Despite the controversy surrounding these requirements, experts believe that KYC will be an essential component of the future landscape for cryptocurrencies worldwide, ensuring governments’ safety measures worldwide.

KYC is a vital procedure that involves collecting personal information from customers, such as an address, date of birth, and government-issued identification.

The primary goal of KYC is to prevent fraudulent transactions and illegal activities in the cryptocurrency space. By conducting thorough checks on customer identities from beginning to end, starting with the account opening and lasting until funds are withdrawn or transferred out, it helps to safeguard against any unlawful activity.

Once a user’s identity is verified through this process, they can participate in various cryptocurrency-related actions such as buying or selling cryptocurrencies or taking part in ICOs, which require strict compliance for participation.

However, the implementation levels of KYC may differ based on jurisdictions around the world, and unique regulations related to these procedures require stringent controls while ensuring transparency concerning data privacy laws governing this sensitive client data collection practice.

Prioritizing KYC policies is key for companies seeking success in the crypto industry. By verifying users’ identities, businesses demonstrate a commitment to transparency and security, meeting essential legal requirements.

KYC policies not only ensure compliance but also mitigate the risks of fraudulent activities like money laundering or terrorist financing. These policies also help prevent bad actors from exploiting platforms illicitly. With robust processes in place, companies can identify potentially suspicious patterns and protect investors’ interests.

Embracing KYC isn’t simply a good idea but it is also a must for companies striving for sustained long-term success. Failure to prioritize KYC policies could result in significant reputation damage and the loss of future growth opportunities.

While KYC procedures are legally required for cryptocurrency companies, they offer several benefits beyond just compliance. These procedures enable platforms to verify a user’s identity and protect against fraudulent activity by requesting personal information such as identification documents or proof of address.

The added transparency brought on by the verification process also increases the credibility of these platforms. With digital currencies, users are often concerned about security risks, but undergoing KYC procedures assures them that they are dealing with legitimate companies. This reassurance can lead users to feel more comfortable with these businesses, encouraging greater engagement and loyalty.

Conclusively, KYC plays a vital role in fostering economic growth and providing reassurance to investors. In this way, it promotes a healthier industry.

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Business

P2P Bitcoin exchange Paxful suspends its marketplace

Paxful, a peer-to-peer (P2P) platform for trading bitcoin (BTC) is reportedly suspending its marketplace, and is unsure whether operations will resume. 

The exchange CEO Ray Youssef said in a statement, “Today, Paxful will be suspending its marketplace. We are not sure if it will come back. This will probably come as a big shock to many. While I cannot share the full story now, I can say that we unfortunately have had some key staff departures.”

“Also, regulatory challenges for the industry continue to grow, especially in the peer-to-peer market and most heavily in the U.S,” he added.

Youssef also noted, “While we work through these issues, we have taken the most secure option and ask you to explore self-custody and trade elsewhere.”

Customers are now being encouraged to transition to self-custody or use other service providers like Bitcoin payments company Bitnob and the newly created peer-to-peer marketplace, Noones.

In December last year, Paxful also suspended the trading of Ethereum on the marketplace, citing the network’s switch to proof-of-stake from proof-of-work as a reason for the move. Since then, the platform has only been trading bitcoin.

Paxful was co-founded by Ray Youssef and Artur Schaback in July 2015, and in 2018, it became the largest P2P exchange by volume. Over the past few years, Paxful has expanded considerably into Venezuela and Africa. 

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Business

FIFA Launches AI-Powered World Cup Soccer Mobile Game And Plans To Include NFTs

FIFA today launched the open beta version of World Cup AI League, a 4v4 soccer strategy game that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) for its characters, cosmetics, and gameplay elements.

The mobile game was created by Web3 AI company, Altered State Machine and is presently accessible on Android, with an iOS launch scheduled soon. The open test for the game is a more developed version of the World Cup prediction game that was released back in November.

FIFA World Cup AI League doesn’t have famous soccer stars like Christiano Ronaldo or 2022 World Cup winner Lionel Messi, both of whom have inked marketing and sponsorship deals with crypto industry companies.

Instead, the characters in AI League are brightly colored, cartoonish beings that evoke the feel of a Pixar film or the hit video game Fall Guys. The AI that controls the characters in FIFA’s game also decides their individual powers and weaknesses. 

Similar to fantasy football or other sports management games, players act as team coaches and owners. The game currently offers maps inspired by the international locales of Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Yaoundé, and Seoul.

Altered State Machine co-founder, Aaron McDonald said in a statement, “Our mission is to lead casual gamers into the world of AI gaming in the metaverse, and with FIFA’s AI League, we are unlocking a unique new opportunity for football fans around the globe to interact with their favorite sport.”

While AI League is a free-to-play game, an Altered State representative confirmed that it’s planning to launch an NFT marketplace for the game in the near future. When that debuts, the game’s characters will be minted into NFTs and all characters will be represented via NFTs going forward.

AI League currently offers an in-game currency for users to buy cosmetic enhancements for their players, but that currency is notably not a cryptocurrency, in part due to Apple and Google restrictions surrounding crypto trading.

The representative also said that the NFT deployment will come later because the company wants the user experience to feel frictionless, and doesn’t want players to be overly focused on or distracted by the NFT elements. 

It’s a strategy that’s becoming more common in the Web3 space amid criticism from gamers, leading some developers to launch games in a traditional Web2 form first without NFT or crypto elements and then add them later.