Cointelegraph has reached the No. 2 spot on its 2023 Top 100 list: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who had a significant impact in 2022 and is expected to continue influencing the crypto space in 2023. Sitting among a sizable list of other co-founders of the Ethereum blockchain, Buterin was the one who wrote its white paper. DISCOVER COINTELEGRAPH’S TOP 100 IN CRYPTO AND BLOCKCHAIN 2023 Ethereum has since gone on to become a dominant force in the crypto space, with two other co-founders also sitting high atop Cointelegraph’s 2023 Top 100 — Polkadot co-founder Gavin Wood at No. 5 and …

Some 2,500 crypto-curious blockchain believers descended on Barcelona’s Hyatt Tower conference suites last week in a networking bonanza. The 8th edition of the European Blockchain Convention, and the fourth occurrence in Barcelona, also coincided with Bitcoin (BTC) sitting tight below $25,000. Despite an over 60% crypto drawdown, the conference was packed, and reportedly 2,500 attendees from banks, blockchain companies and crypto drank in the sights and sounds of the cosmopolitan capital of Spain’s Catalonia region. Nonetheless, the crypto scars of 2022 are still tender and raw; many attendees raised real concerns about regulation and rules. Among the clarion calls for …

Music streaming platform Spotify expands its Web3 efforts by testing token-enabled playlists in several key markets. Overlord, a Web3 gaming ecosystem, reported on Feb. 22 the start of its partnership with Spotify. The token-enabled community-curated playlist from Overlord may now be accessed via Web3 wallets of those who hold the Creepz nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on Spotify. For now, only Android users from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and New Zealand can unlock the playlists. Other participants in the three-month pilot are Fluf, Moonbirds and Kingship metaverse communities. While Fluf and Moonbirds didn’t share any details on their partnership …

USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle plans to increase its workforce by 15-25% in 2023 amid a sea of layoffs across the industry, reported the Wall Street Journal. At a time when a significant chunk of industry-wide firms is laying off staff to mitigate their financial woes, Circle has gone against the tide to hire more people. 41% of all layoffs in 2023 came from the cryptocurrency industry. Major cryptocurrency firms that made significant employee cuts include Polygon, Chainalysis, Bittrex, Huobi, Crypto.com, Coinbase, Gemini, Genesis, and Wyre. A major factor behind crypto companies reducing manpower was attributed to the prolonged crypto …

Blockchain Association’s chief legal officer says “it would be absurd” for a United States court to rule that digital assets on private blockchains are securities, following a federal judge's decision to allow a lawsuit against Dapper Labs's NBA Top Shots NFTs to play out. U.S. attorney Jake Chervinsky made the comment after federal judge Victor Marreo denied a motion to dismiss a 2021 lawsuit that accused Dapper Labs of selling nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as unregistered securities. Chervinsky was among a host of lawyers on Twitter to reiterate that the judge’s denial of the motion does not mean a ruling has …

The community of decentralized finance stablecoin protocol Frax Finance has voted to fully collateralize its native stablecoin Frax (FRAX), marking an end to the algorithmic backing of the protocol. The FIP-188 governance proposal initially posted on Feb. 15 reached a quorum following a 98% vote in favor, according to a snapshot on Feb. 23 — which would change the collateralization model of FRAX. “The time has come for Frax to gradually remove the algorithmic backing of the protocol,” last week’s proposal read. Near unanimous vote to move $frax to 100% CR over time. Seems like @fraxfinance serious about making it …

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network (LN) capacity recently surpassed an all-time high of 5,000 BTC. The Lightning Network is a neutral protocol built on top of Bitcoin and currently it does not have a “native” token attached to it like many decentralized finance platforms. Although the Lightning Network’s total liquidity is less than 0.5% of the ETH in DeFi contracts, the uptrend in Bitcoin’s LN capacity versus a downtrend in the amount of ETH locked in smart contracts is encouraging for LN development. While the liquidity on the LN has been rising consistently, the number of channels on the peer-to-peer network dropped …

Cointelegraph kicks off the final three spots in its annual Top 100 list, revealing each of the top 3 individually. Taking the No. 3 spot is Binance founder and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. Zhao leads one of the crypto industry’s largest organizations, Binance — a crypto exchange that has its hand in several other industry endeavors. Zhao took the No. 51 spot on Cointelegraph’s 2022 Top 100 list. The CEO has talked favorably about decentralization, despite Binance being a major player in the centralized crypto exchange space. DISCOVER COINTELEGRAPH’S TOP 100 IN CRYPTO AND BLOCKCHAIN 2023 CZ had a big …

Smartphones could become an integral part of blockchain networks, powering connectivity between smart devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) industry. Nodle is the firm behind a connectivity platform that incentivizes users to become nodes of an IoT network. Making use of the increasing proliferation of smartphones worldwide, the network uses Bluetooth connectivity to rent computing power, storage and Bluetooth capability of devices to broaden the footprint of IoT networks. Nodle CEO Micha Anthenor Benoliel outlined details of the project in an interview with Cointelegraph, which looks to tap into a global network of electronic devices connected through Bluetooth Low …

Tech jobs that do not require coding are important for several reasons. Firstly, they provide opportunities for individuals who may not have the technical background or interest in coding to work in the tech industry. This can help diversify the industry and bring in fresh perspectives and skill sets. Additionally, these roles are crucial for the successful development and launch of tech products and services. Technical support specialists, project managers, technical editors and quality assurance testers are all essential for ensuring that products are user-friendly, high-quality and meet user needs. Finally, these roles often require strong communication, problem-solving and organizational …

Artifacts recovered from the wreckage of the Titanic are set to be tokenized using blockchain technology through a partnership driven by the company that acts as the steward of the sunken vessel. A three-way partnership involving RMS Titanic Inc. (RMST), Hong Kong-based Venture Smart Financial Holdings and Web3 firm Artifact Labs will begin tokenizing precious artifacts from the Titanic to unlock a myriad of Web3 functionalities. Select artifacts from the sunken Titanic will be preserved as nonfungible tokens (NFTs), which is aimed to open up shared ownership to the wider general public. RMST holds the exclusive rights to recover artifacts …

The mainstream adoption of crypto and crypto-based services continues, as more companies are bridging traditional financial (TradFi) solutions with decentralized financial (DeFi). In an announcement on Feb. 22, a new pilot program launched between Binance and Ingenico payment solutions now allows in-store crypto payments via Binance Pay. Currently, the initial test of this offering is only available on Ingenico AXIUM payment terminals in France. According to the announcement, more than 50 cryptocurrencies will be accepted with this program. Initially, merchants will be paid in cryptocurrency. However, a crypto-to-fiat solution in which merchants are paid in fiat is set to pilot …