The global decentralized finance (DeFi) market size was valued at $11.78 billion in 2021. This number is expected to increase as DeFi advances, yet it is still in its infancy. Therefore, a number of banks and traditional financial institutions still tend to be unaware of DeFi’s potential. While this may be, industry experts within the crypto sector are predicting that decentralized finance will overtake traditional financial institutions in the coming years. For instance, Mike Belshe, CEO and co-founder of BitGo — a digital asset custody provider — told Cointelegraph that he believes DeFi will replace institutions in the next three …

On Oct. 28, NFT Steez, a bi-weekly Twitter Spaces hosted by Alyssa Expósito and Ray Salmond, met with Web3 content writer, Julie Plavnik to discuss the importance of self-sovereignty while building a digital identity in Web3. Plavnik references author Gavin Wood when describing Web3 and says that “communication” is a core tenant in the subsequent iteration of the internet. “Web3 is the communication of encrypted channels between decentralized identities,” Plavnik affirms. According to Plavnik, the emerging concept of Web3 placed a magnifying glass on user data and ownership, especially concerning the creator economy. Plavnik describes the creator economy as a …

The Web3 and cryptocurrency space is seeing a significant amount of smart contract scams proliferating, with blockchain risk monitoring firm Solidus Labs saying it has detected on average 15 newly deployed scams every hour. Solidus Labs said on Oct. 27 that it had been monitoring 12 blockchains including Ethereum (ETH), Polygon (MATIC), and BNB Chain (BNB) since Oct. 10 and in that time had detected 188,525 smart contract scams. Former United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director, Kathy Kraninger, who is now Solidus’ VP of regulatory affairs, said in the statement that “while some of the big rug pulls …

Crypto exchange Binance announced the launch of a new data feed network — Binance Oracle — that allows blockchain smart contracts to connect with real-world data, starting with its in-house blockchain offering, BNB Chain. For starters, Binance Oracle will allow existing decentralized applications (DApps) and Web3 ecosystem partners on BNB Chain to access existing data sources and advanced computations. “Over ten BNB Chain projects have already integrated with the Binance Oracle network,” confirmed Binance. The ability to connect smart contracts with off-chain data will be made available for other blockchains in due time. Explaining the network’s importance, investment director at …

Governance tokens are a type of cryptocurrency that allow tokenholders to vote on the direction of a blockchain project. The primary purpose of governance tokens is to decentralize decision-making and to give holders a say in how the project is run. Governance tokenholders are usually more invested in the project’s success as they stand to gain or lose more, depending on the outcome. Community members can use tokens to influence the direction and features of a blockchain protocol directly. As such, it is possible to implement changes related to the user interface, vote on fees and reward distribution, or even …

On this week’s episode of Market Talks, we welcome Muneeb Ali, co-founder of Stacks — a Bitcoin layer for smart contracts — and the CEO of Trust Machines, which is building the largest ecosystem of applications for Bitcoin and their underlying technologies. Ali has been working on internet protocols and distributed systems for over 15 years and received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Princeton University, where he occasionally gives guest lectures as well. We first get some basics out of the way and ask Ali to explain what it means to build on the Bitcoin network and how it …

A cross-chain bridge between BitBTC and the Ethereum layer-2 network Optimism has been able to avoid a potentially costly exploit thanks to the work of an eagle-eyed Twitter user. The custom cross-chain bridge offers a ramp for users to send assets between Optimism’s network and BitAnt's decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, which includes yield services, NFTs, swaps and the BitBTC token, in which 1 million BitBTC represents 1 Bitcoin (BTC). The BitBTC bridge bug was highlighted by L2 network Abirtrum tech lead Lee Bousfield in an Oct. 18 Twitter post, warning that “BitBTC's Optimism bridge is trivially vulnerable.” Bousfield said he …

A bug in the smart contract code for the Ethereum Alarm Clock service has reportedly been exploited, with nearly $260,000 said to have been swiped from the protocol so far. The Ethereum Alarm Clock enables users to schedule future transactions by pre-determining the receiver address, sent amount, and desired time of transaction. Users must have the required Ether (ETH) on hand to complete the transaction and need to pay the gas fees upfront. According to an Oct. 19 Twitter post from blockchain security and data analytics firm PeckShield, hackers managed to exploit a loophole in the scheduled transaction process which …

The past eighty days have been moderately bearish for cryptocurrencies as the altcoin market capitalization declined by 16%. The downside movement can be partially explained by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s quantitative tightening, rising interest rates and halting of asset purchases. Although they are aimed at curbing inflationary pressure, the policy also increases the borrowing costs for consumers and businesses. Solana's (SOL) downfall has been even more brutal, with the altcoin facing a 29% correction since August. The smart contract network focuses on low fees and speed, but the frequent outages highlight a centralization issue. The latest setback occurred on Sept. …

Over the past few years, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have introduced a clear paradigm shift in blockchain governance. With their community decision-making and adherence to hardcoded rules, they have challenged the role of hierarchy and central authority that are present in modern organizations, especially as it pertains to business. Ideologically, DAOs have a lot in common with democracies: individuals holding an amount of a DAO’s specific token can allocate those tokens as votes on governance proposals. Once voting has concluded, the final outcome is executed autonomously by smart contracts. In functional democracies, however, citizens elect representatives to legislate laws and …

Ripple users may be able to interact with Ethereum-compatible decentralized applications (DApps) in the future following the launch of a test phase of Ripple’s new XRP Ledger sidechain. The launch of the sidechain was shared in a Tweet by blockchain development firm Peersyst Technologies on Oct. 17, noting that the new sidechain is compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This means that Ripple users could eventually have access to decentralized applications like Uniswap (should it port over) and Web3 wallets such as Metamask and XUMM Wallet. The new sidechain also comes with a cross-chain bridge built to transfer XRP and …

A new insurance world is coming where smart contracts replace insurance documents, blockchain “oracles” supplant claim adjusters, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) take over traditional insurance carriers. Millions of poor farmers in Africa and Asia will be eligible for coverages like crop insurance too, whereas before, they were too poor and too dispersed to justify the cost of underwriting. That is the vision, anyway, on display in the recent Smartcon 2022, a two-day conference that sought to provide “exclusive insights into the next generation of Web3 innovation.” Subsistence farms, where families basically live off what they grow and almost nothing …