As the Fair Data Society puts it, we are laborers in the data economy. Our personal data — basically, the digital blueprint of our lives — gets collected by platforms we interact with, most often in a non-transparent way. At best, it is used to improve our user experience. At worst, our privacy gets breached, monetized and even weaponized against us. It all started with the emergence and growth of the user-generated web, as seemingly free social media networks, search engines and companies saw a new opportunity of profiting and went into the business of gathering, storing, analyzing and selling …

Twitter’s decentralized social media project Bluesky has released its first batch of code and also committed to content moderation on the network. Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey first announced Bluesky back in late 2019, but the project went independent in February after receiving $13 million worth of funding from Twitter. However, Dorsey is still a member of the board. Bluesky released its “Authenticated Data eXperiment” (ADX) protocol code via a Thursday blog post titled “Working in Public.” The team noted that it will be publicly sharing the process of developing the platform by “releasing work before it’s complete, but also …

Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of the hedge fund SkyBridge Capital, thinks that the next United States presidential candidate will likely be pro-cryptocurrency, given that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced the approval of a fourth Bitcoin (BTC) futures exchange-traded fund (ETF). During an interview at SALT’s Crypto Bahamas conference, Scaramucci told Cointelegraph that he has been bullish on a pro-crypto presidential candidate since the SEC approved Bitcoin futures under the Securities Act of 1933 (‘33 Act) and the Securities Act of 1934 ('34 Act). He added: “The Congress is indicating that they are more crypto-friendly. You now …

In his monthly crypto tech column, Israeli serial entrepreneur Ariel Shapira covers emerging technologies within the crypto, decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain space, as well as their roles in shaping the economy of the 21st century. With the news that Meta plans to take a nearly 50% cut of virtual asset sales in Horizon Worlds, it will not be surprising if independent artists and content creators turn away from the Metaverse entirely. Or at least from its Meta rendition, no matter how excited the company might be about the creator economy. It’s one thing to pay this much when the …

Identity, the qualities, beliefs and appearance that characterize a person are considered an individual's most valuable assets. While one's identity was once represented by their participation in the real world, it has quickly shifted to take on the meaning of "internet identity" on social media. However, as value transfers to the digital realm, each individual's identity is now undergoing another evolution in which the physical world will become augmented with the digital one. The intent is that in this augmented reality, users can share interests, passions, communities, investments, projects and pastimes through their social identity, which conveys who they are …

The Market Report with Cointelegraph is live right now. On this week’s show, Cointelegraph’s resident experts discuss what they believe are the top three most bullish coins one should take a closer look at. But first, market expert Marcel Pechman carefully examines the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) markets. Are the current market conditions bullish or bearish? What is the outlook for the next few months? Pechman is here to break it down. Next up: the main event. Join Cointelegraph analysts Benton Yaun, Jordan Finneseth and Sam Bourgi as each makes his case for the most bullish cryptocurrency right now. …

When CryptoKitties came out, it was hilarious to me. “Wait a second,” I thought. “So, you mean this JPEG can have sex with this JPEG and make a new baby JPEG? Say what?” When CryptoPunks started out in 2017, they seemed silly to many. They were just 128 X 128 pixels. Who cares about that? They weren’t really cool until Gary Vee had a mastermind call with influencers and said, “Crypto Punks are going to be huge, go get a bunch of them.” They went in and cornered the market and raised the prices. Bored Apes was right around the …

In mid-February 2020, the total value locked within decentralized finance (DeFi) applications first exceeded $1 billion. Fueled by the DeFi summer of 2020, it wouldn’t even take a year before it multiplied 20-fold to reach $20 billion and only another ten months to reach $200 billion. Given the pace of growth so far, it doesn’t seem outlandish to imagine the DeFi markets hitting a trillion dollars within another year or two. We can attribute this monumental growth to one thing — liquidity. Looking back, DeFi’s expansion can be defined in three eras, each representing another significant development in removing barriers …

Ethereum Name Service, or ENS, .eth domains ranging from 0000 to 9999 have recently been causing a stir among nonfungible token (NFT) investors, speculators and enthusiasts alike. Even though three- and four-digit names have been around for years, the number of people registering for ENS domains and purchasing these digit number names on secondary markets over the past week has significantly affected the market’s trading volume. According to a Dune Analytics dashboard for ENS, the spike in sales began on April 21, and the number of eth. name registrations have since jumped from 2,721 to 21,188 by Thursday. Over the …

ORIGYN, a Swiss foundation that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify and authenticate objects of value, has partnered with luxury watch marketplace WatchBox. The pair will co-produce certificates of authenticity in the form of NFTs to enable customers to trade the digital ownership of a watch. ORIGYN is the largest project on the Internet Computer Protocol, or ICP, developed by The DFINITY Foundation blockchain. Individuals who purchase a collector quality timepiece via WatchBox can expect ORIGYN to certify the authenticated object thanks to its biometric technology. Each watch is given a unique biometric fingerprint and an NFT that contains all …

The Market Report with Cointelegraph is live right now. On this week’s show, Cointelegraph’s resident experts discuss the top three trending altcoins you might want to consider looking at in 2022. But first, market expert Marcel Pechman carefully examines the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) markets. Are the current market conditions bullish or bearish? What is the outlook for the next few months? Pechman is here to break it down. Next up: the main event. Join Cointelegraph analysts Benton Yaun, Jordan Finneseth and Sam Bourgi as each of them makes his case for what he thinks is the top trending …

If crypto capital markets have a chance of becoming an institutional reality, decentralization will be one of the key aspects according to one industry insider. Capital markets bring suppliers and those in need of capital together to initiate supposedly efficient transactions. Investments or savings are often funneled between suppliers of funds like banks and those who need capital like businesses, governments and individuals. Co-founder of crypto financial service provider VegaX Holdings Sang Lee told Cointelegraph on Monday that incumbent financial institutions have simply been left behind by the rapid pace of developments in the crypto industry. VegaX Holdings is building …