Crypto In Play News 2022 August Second Week

The latest cryptocurrency news curated on a weekly basis.

Covered topics include regulation, user adoption, macroeconomy, and technology announcements.

BlackRock Announces Launch of New Bitcoin Trust

BlackRock now offering its U.S institutional investors ability to purchase and sell Bitcoin (BTC) at market price
Blackrock had announced a partnership with Coinbase days before on enabling clients access to digital assets
The trust launch is hailed as a sign showing how far crypto has matured as an asset class
Link
- https://www.ft.com/content/0948f1a9-ad0b-4126-9ae8-5ce4e212c07e

United States Treasury Department has sanctioned 40 cryptocurrency addresses connected to the controversial crypto mixer Tornado Cash, freezing a total of $75,000 USD. U.S residents and firms are now banned from using the protocol
Tornado Cash is a blockchain protocol that enables senders of crypto to remain anonymous, famously used by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin who used it to send donations to Ukraine
The protocol is alleged to have been used to launder over $7 billion over the last 3 years and aiding North Korean hackers to evade US sanction penalties
The sanctioning of an open-source smart contract not individuals have sparked reactions of disapproval outlining the importance of privacy and digital rights
Small amounts of Ethereum (ETH) were being sent to wallets belonging to several well-known celebrities, such as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Talk show host Jimmy Fallon, and Youtuber Logan Paul
links
- https://www.ft.com/content/7b6b7513-8b57-4582-9c98-82c48f756f94
  https://www.theblock.co/post/162465/crypto-notables-are-being-sent-eth-from-sanctioned-tornado-cash-wallets?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
- https://wublock.substack.com/p/timeline-and-reactions-of-tornado

On Aug 11, Ethereum successfully passed its final tests on its transition from proof-of-work(PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS)
Proof-of-work and proof-of-stake are different types of consensus mechanisms necessary for decentralized blockchains like Bitcoin or Ethereum to validate and process transactions
Ethereum is a smart contract blockchain that has enabled close to 3,000 decentralized applications (smaller cryptocurrency exchanges, games, video streaming etc.) and more than 1M transactions/day.
The transition is the first big step to a huge drop (99.9%) in Ethereum’s transaction fees and transaction times and also opens it to become an ESG friendly asset with energy consumption of PoS being much lower than PoW
The final transition to PoS (otherwise known as the “merge”) will take place around the 15th of September.
After the transition, PoS will no longer require Ethereum miners which have caused some current miners to propose the creation of a separate Ethereum PoW only blockchain (known as a “hard fork”)
link

Reddit community points, launched back in 2020, measure user’s reputation in their communities and are displayed next to their usernames.
Each subreddit can have its own unique community point token that is powered on the Ethereum blockchain where FTX pay will enable Reddit users to buy Ethereum to pay for transaction fees when community points are given out or used to purchase digital goods like badges, emojis, or reddit coins
Link

Brazilian cryptocurrency lending platform BlueBenx Fires Employees and Halts Funds Withdrawal alleging $32M hack
Blockchain Firm Skynet Labs behind decentralised storage and app hosting platform shutting down after failure to raise additional funding
Cryptocurrency exchange Hotbit suspends service amid criminal investigation into former employee
Singaporean Crypto lending platform halts withdrawals due to liquidity crisis and has withdrawn its license application from the Monetary authority of Singapore
Link

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