Treasury to the rescue? Officials to clarify crypto tax reporting rules in infrastructure bill: report
The United States Treasury Department is reportedly seeking to clarify the definition of brokers in the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by the Senate last week, offering cautious reassurance that the new legislation won’t impact innovation and growth in the blockchain industry. As reported by Bloomberg, the Treasury Department is preparing guidance on what types of crypto companies will be required to comply with new IRS reporting requirements. The report indicated that the definition of “broker” could be narrowed from what many fear would include protocol developers and wallet providers that currently operate in the cryptocurrency industry. A Treasury official reportedly told Bloomberg that developers, miners and wallet providers won’t be subjected to the new reporting requirements, provided they don’t also act as brokers. “The Treasury’s guidance won’t grant blanket exemptions based on how firms identify themselves and instead focus on whether a firm’s activities qualify it as a broker under the tax code,” wrote Christopher Condon and Laura Davidson.
2021-09-03 23:58:28
GoSats launches Bitcoin cashback rewards card in India
Bitcoin (BTC) rewards company GoSats has launched a new cashback rewards card for customers in India, potentially setting the stage for wider mainstream adoption of digital assets in the world’s second-most populous country. The new product is being introduced in partnership with the National Payments Corporation of India, also known as NPCI, which is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to promoting digital payments and settlement systems across the country. The organization was founded in December 2008 and is under the direct ownership of the Reserve Bank of India. The GoSats rewards card, which is accessible through mobile app and browser extension, allows users to earn cashback paid in BTC while shopping at major brands such as Amazon, Starbucks and Flipkart. GoStats was built on Stacks, which provides smart contracts and apps for Bitcoin. Namely, the rewards card utilizes Stacks' Clarity smart contracts and "stacking," which provides users with a way to earn BTC through the STX token.
2021-09-03 23:58:26
Ethereum network's hashrate is 572,536.32 GH/s，mining difficulty is 7,651.53T
According to data from eth.btc.com，ethereum network's hashrate is572,536.32 GH/s，mining difficulty is7,651.53T. ETH's price ：$ 3,178.87 Avg Gas Price：21.20Gwei Pending Txs ：155833
2021-09-03 23:58:25
CyberKongz' mass monkey minting burns $4M in Ether in 5 hours
The latest craze in animal themed nonfungible tokens has been such a big hit that it has become the top burner of Ethereum transaction fees over the past 24 hours. CyberKongz, which started as a collection of 1,000 unique NFTs in early March 2021, has surged in popularity recently. So much so that it has today usurped NFT marketplace OpenSea and the world’s most popular decentralized exchange, Uniswap, in terms of Ethereum fee burning. The achievement was noted by the Chinese blockchain outlet Wu Blockchain which reported that it had burned 1,240 in ETH, or around $4 million in just 5 hours.
2021-09-03 23:58:25
Ether is more popular than Bitcoin in Singapore, new study finds
Being a crypto-friendly country has paid off in terms of adoption, as a new study about Singapore revealed. “The State of Crypto in Singapore Report 2021,” conducted by crypto exchange Gemini in partnership with CoinMarketCap and Seedly, found that more than two-thirds of Singaporeans who have financial investments currently hold crypto. The report, which sampled 4,348 Singapore-based adults who self-identify as having or being interested in personal finance and investment products, shows that 67% of the respondents currently own crypto assets.
2021-09-03 23:58:23
Alex Saunders again under fire after virtual HQ in Decentraland fails to launch
Australian crypto influencer and Nuggets News founder Alex Saunders is facing backlash over his non-fungible token (NFT) sale from late last year. Nuggets News is a paid group providing technical analysis and crypto tips to subscribers that was founded by Saunders in 2017. As of Aug.17, Nuggets News had roughly 146,000 subscribers on YouTube. In November 2020, Saunders minted 100 NFTs comprising tokenized tickets he said would grant holders access to an exclusive Nuggets News community headquarters being developed in the crypto-powered virtual metaverse, Decentraland.
2021-09-03 23:58:21
Galaxy Digital backs $50M funding round for crypto staking outfit Figment
Mike Novogratz’s investment management firm Galaxy Digital has reportedly participated in a $50 million funding round for Figment, a crypto staking startup. According to Bloomberg on Monday, Galaxy Digital joined investors like Anchorage and Bonfire Ventures in a Series B funding round led by Senator Investment Group and Liberty City Ventures. The company is now reportedly worth about $500 million following the fresh injection of investment capital.
2021-09-03 23:58:21
CyberKongz’ mass monkey minting burns $4M in Ether in 5 hours
The latest craze in animal-themed nonfungible tokens (NFT) has been such a big hit that it has become the top burner of Ethereum transaction fees over the past 24 hours. CyberKongz, which started as a collection of 1,000 unique NFTs in early March 2021, has surged in popularity recently. So much so that it has today usurped NFT marketplace OpenSea and the world’s most popular decentralized exchange, Uniswap, in terms of Ethereum fee burning. The achievement was noted by the Chinese blockchain outlet Wu Blockchain, which reported that it had burned 1,240 in Ether (ETH), or around $4 million in just five hours.
2021-09-03 23:58:20
Ledger Live integrates ‘accessible’ Ether staking option
In a recent blog post, popular cryptocurrency hardware wallet Ledger announced a new partnership with Ethereum 2.0 (Eth2) staking solution Lido Finance in a move that claims greater accessibility and liquidity for independent stakers in the market. Staking is a niche method of investing within the cryptocurrency ecosystem that allows users to independently or collectively stake their crypto assets while collecting passive income in return, as well as actively contributing to the sustainability of the blockchain network. Users attempting to stake their Ether (ETH) in the past have been met with daunting economic hurdles. The current cost to become an Eth2 network validator stands at around $100,000 — a figure which many investors in this market simply cannot afford.
2021-09-03 23:58:19
Balancer’s new MetaStable Pools seek to facilitate wrapped asset swaps
Automated market maker (AMM) and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Balancer announced Monday that it had partnered with DAO-based staking platform Lido to introduce a MetaStable Pool incentive program. MetaStable Pools are liquidity pools specifically designed to work with highly correlated (but not hard-pegged) tokens, like wrapped assets. Users will be able to create swaps between MetaStable pools and assets integrated with other liquidity pools while benefiting from cheaper swap prices and eliminating the need for individual swap-specific stable pools. They will also prevent the dilution of liquidity from existing pools and increase maximum trade amounts, according to the release. The first pool listing, of staked Ether (stETH) and wrapped staked Ether (wstETH), aims to offer liquidity for stakers on the Ethereum network. The pool will be sponsored by both LDO and BAL rewards at an allocation of 2500 BAL per week and an additional 25,000 LIDO per week for the first month. The first distribution is set to take place on August 24 via the Balancer claim portal.
2021-09-03 23:58:19
Microsoft wants to use Ethereum blockchain to fight piracy
Windows operating system and Office productivity suite have always been top performers on any software piracy platforms. So, it’s no wonder that Microsoft, the developer of both products, works hard to establish anti-piracy measures. In a new paper released by Microsoft’s research department, with the participation of researchers from Alibaba and Carnegie Mellon University, the Redmond-based software giant studied a blockchain-based incentive system to bolster anti-piracy campaigns. As the title of the research, “Argus: A Fully Transparent Incentive System for Anti-Piracy Campaigns,” suggests, Microsoft’s new system relies on the transparency aspect of blockchain technology. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Argus aims to provide a trustless incentive mechanism while protecting data collected from the open anonymous population of piracy reporters.
2021-09-03 23:58:18
Terra Virtua moves to Polygon blockchain, citing environmental concerns
Digital collectibles platform Terra Virtua has moved from the Ethereum blockchain to Polygon in an attempt to be greener. In a Monday announcement, Terra Virtua said it had switched to Polygon as part of a plan to create a more sustainable nonfungible token, or NFT, ecosystem. The platform claimed the move would reduce the energy necessary to create a single NFT by more than 99%. However, Terra Virtua will also remint all digital collectibles previously unsold on Ethereum in the move to Polygon. “Our mission is to revolutionise how audiences engage with NFTs and make them accessible to everyone, but we believe that the environment shouldn’t have to pay the price for this new game-changing technology,” said Terra Virtua co-founder and chief technical officer Jawad Ashraf. “By harnessing the power of this new blockchain, we can ensure that our NFTs are limiting their impact.”
2021-09-03 23:58:17
Korean internet giant Kakao expands blockchain presence to Singapore
Singapore is reportedly the next port of call for Kakao’s globalization agenda for its legacy blockchain platform Klaytn. According to a report by The Korea Herald on Monday, Kakao has established two new blockchain-based entities — the Klaytn Foundation and Krust — in the city-state. The Klaytn Foundation is a nonprofit organization, while Krust serves as a global accelerator for blockchain technology adoption. Kakao plans to use both entities to foster broad-based penetration of its Klaytn blockchain project in Singapore. Stating its mission during the launch earlier in August, the Kakao Foundation said that it would work “proactively and systematically” to expand the Klaytn network.
2021-09-03 23:58:16
Walmart seeks crypto product lead to drive digital currency strategy
North American retail giant Walmart is looking for an experienced crypto expert who can develop and drive an ambitious digital currency strategy and product roadmap. In the listing for the role, Walmart indicates it is looking for someone who has a track record in leading and scaling businesses, with at least 10 years of experience in product/program management and technology-based product commercialization. The ideal candidate should have expertise in cryptocurrencies and blockchain-related technologies and in-depth knowledge of the crypto ecosystem and its core actors. Walmart has hinted at the focus of its future digital currency strategy by noting that it already enables a “broad set of payment options for its customers” — although not yet in cryptocurrency. Back in 2019, Walmart had already filed a patent for a blockchain-based United States dollar-backed digital currency that was, at the time, similar to Facebook’s early proposals for what was then known as Libra.
2021-09-03 23:58:15
Fintech company Leonteq expands crypto offerings in Europe
Following the successful expansion of its cryptocurrency service within its homeland of Switzerland, fintech firm Leonteq has now launched a collaborative effort with ICF Bank — one of Germany’s leading securities trading banks — to bring crypto to institutional investors throughout Germany and Austria. Well regarded for their accolades in the Swiss markets, including being the “world’s first short tracker certificate on Bitcoin in 2017, as well as the world’s first reverse convertible on Bitcoin in 2019,” the firm is now set to make further strides in the emerging space. Following the evolution of a multi-year relationship, Leonteq and ICF Bank have teamed up in an effort to branch the former's financial offerings beyond traditional structured assets with the introduction of 18 crypto-based assets including the impassable Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), as well as Cardano (ADA), Aave (AAVE) and XRP, among others.
2021-09-03 23:58:15
Minority communities are investing in crypto to escape financial discrimination
A survey provided to USA Today by Harris Poll has found that Black, Hispanic, and LGBTQ Americans are significantly more likely to own crypto assets. According to surveys of 2,010 and 2,003 U.S adults conducted during June and July, 23% of Black Americans and 17% of Hispanic Americans indicated they are currently invested in digital assets, compared to only 11% of white Americans, and 13% of the general public. 25% of LGBTQ respondents also said they hold crypto. Cryptocurrency awareness is also higher among minority groups, with half of Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans expressing familiarity with cryptocurrency, while only 37% of White Americans answered the same.
2021-09-03 23:58:14
Crypto developer will lead Twitter's decentralized social media initiative
Jay Graber, a former software engineer for Zcash and blockchain firm Skuchain, will be leading the anticipated decentralized social media initiative first announced by Twitter in 2019. In a Twitter announcement on Monday, Graber said that they would be in charge of the Bluesky project after working closely with “a group of thinkers and builders” from the decentralized social ecosystem. They plan on hiring for the Bluesky team and “partnering closely with Twitter and other companies” as part of the next steps towards fulfilling the decentralized social media plan. I’m excited to announce that I’ll be leading @bluesky, an initiative started by @Twitter to decentralize social media. Follow updates on Twitter and at https://t.co/Sg4MxK1zwl
2021-09-03 23:58:13
TikTok partners with crypto-powered music streaming platform Audius
Music-sharing protocol Audius became one of the first streaming platforms to partner with TikTok, allowing users to directly share tracks to the popular app. In a Monday announcement, Audius said it had partnered with TikTok in the creation of a new feature called TikTok Sounds. According to a Rolling Stone interview with Audius co-founder and chief product officer Forrest Browning, the integration will allow users to export songs created with the protocol to TikTok with one click, in an effort to streamline the process. Though Audius claims it seeks to leverage blockchain technology to reward content creators as well as increase transparency on payouts to artists, the integration with TikTok seems to be more about the music rather than pushing messages about cryptocurrency or decentralized finance. According to Browning, roughly 95% of Audius users “have no idea that blockchain is even involved.”
2021-09-03 23:58:13
US State Department offers up to $10 million in crypto rewards to white hat hackers
The United States government is offering rewards in cryptocurrency for information relating to the operations of enemy state-backed hackers or suspected terrorists. The U.S. State Department's new “Rewards for Justice” platform allows informants to submit anonymous tips and information in return for rewards in digital assets. The platform was promoted at the Black Hat USA event — which ran from July 31 to August 5 in Las Vegas — with users able to submit tips via an unsecured Wi-Fi network called #Rewardsnotransoms. The open network was purposely set up to encourage attendees to log in and access the RFJ website, according to CNN.
2021-09-03 23:58:12
Ethereum network's hashrate is 584,680.30 GH/s，mining difficulty is 7,758.62T
According to data from eth.btc.com，ethereum network's hashrate is584,680.30 GH/s，mining difficulty is7,758.62T. ETH's price ：$ 3,037.10 Avg Gas Price：21.20Gwei Pending Txs ：171888
2021-09-03 23:58:11