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App-specific rollups offer a new space for limitless exploration and for pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in Web3. Cartesi [6] provides your dApp with a dedicated rollup with its own CPU and Linux environment — meaning you can scale computation while preserving decentralization [6], security, and censorship resistance. Basically:
US Senator Elizabeth Warren has proposed a bill to tackle alleged misuse of cryptocurrencies in various illegal activities like money laundering, drug trafficking, and sanctions evasion. The bill calls for increased regulation within the sector, specifically by extending Bank Secrecy Act responsibilities, and is supported by a coalition from the Banking Committee. This news gave the crypto market a scare but is not being viewed as too threatening given Warren’s poor record of getting bills over the finish line.
Internet giant Google is reportedly tweaking its crypto ad policy to allow promotional activity for "cryptocurrency coin trusts," potentially paving the way for more crypto-based financial products. This move comes amid speculation about the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs from several large institutional asset managers. These changes are set to take effect on January 29.
Digital asset brokerage Nonco has raised a $10 million seed round to serve a rising number of institutional clients in the US. The round included participation from ex-US Comptroller of Currency Brian Brooks and others. Launched in April, Nonco has already done over $6 billion in volume. The firm is aiming to become the top digital asset brokerage by prioritizing technology and services led by some veterans in the space.
Uniswap recently expanded to Bitcoin sidechain Rootstock, aiming to provide more infrastructure for Bitcoin's DeFi ecosystem. This enables the combination of Uniswap's smart contract capabilities with Bitcoin's security, potentially resulting in deeper liquidity and more use cases for the largest asset base in the crypto industry. This integration coincides with a myriad of recent efforts aimed at enhancing Bitcoin's capabilities through features commonly associated with Ethereum.
Between the JTO and PYTH airdrops, the Solana ecosystem has had some eye-popping opportunities lately. While these initial airdrops were mostly overlooked in the farming stage, many more Solana airdrops are anticipated to be on the horizon. To prepare you for these opportunities, this thread provides the ultimate guide for increasing your odds of an airdrop in the ecosystem. It walks through each protocol and provides a step-by-step guide of what to do to qualify for each opportunity.
Earlier this year, Ordinals, essentially NFTs on Bitcoin, took the space by storm and has since maintained strong momentum. Ordinals, contrary to traditional NFTs which usually point to an IPFS link, are actually directly inscribed on satoshis, the smallest Bitcoin units. Each Satoshi is made unique through ordinals and given content through inscriptions. With this sudden popularity, the change has also sparked debates about what Bitcoin's function should be, with concerns around chain congestion emerging. However, miners haven’t been concerned with this, generating around $38.7M revenue in ordinal-related transactions in November.
This post outlines a few of the green shoots the NFT space is seeing after a 90%+ decline in volume throughout the bear market. Growth in the creation and collection of NFTs is increasing across Ethereum and L2 solutions such as Zora, Base, and Optimism. There has been an increase in the number of unique addresses minting paid NFTs as of late. Infrastructure improvements have helped lower minting costs, making it easier and more affordable to create NFTs and opening up new use cases.
Ethereum's L2 solutions, although seen as crucial to scaling the network, may only offer temporary relief rather than addressing core issues. While L2 solutions can increase speed, decrease costs, and widen demographic accessibility, their drawbacks could affect Ethereum's long-term growth. Among the potential issues are liquidity fragmentation, limited dapp composability, and security risks from centralization. Ethereum should strengthen its core infrastructure rather than relying heavily on intermediary scaling solutions.
FTX debtors argue that the IRS's $24 billion tax claim, reduced from $43 billion, is impeding the customer fund recovery process and is unfounded, risking further bankruptcy delays.
This thread outlines some of the early AI and crypto integration we are seeing in the space, highlighting several different projects that are attacking different problems.
Crypto 1's C1 Fund is reportedly aiming to acquire secondary shares in large crypto firms like Animoca Brands and Chainalysis, targeting investments at significant markdowns.
In this podcast, Hasu and Jon Charbonneau discuss advancements in Ethereum Virtual Machine and Solana Virtual Machine, new projects Charbonneau is looking at, and improvements that can be made to established EVM projects.