Thailand-based metaverse startup Translucia Global Innovation has partnered with the Australian software development firm Two Bulls and set aside an initial budget of $100 million to build a Metaverse Research and Development Center (MRDC) in Melbourne. Translucia is a subsidiary of art and entertainment company T&B Media Global, which in October 2021, launched its Translucia Metaverse project, with a first-stage investment of $283 million for the virtual world. Now, T&B are partnering with Two Bulls to build the MRDC to bring the project to life with a slated soft launch for November this year. Two Bulls Founder and CEO James …

One of the most popular Ethereum clients, OpenEthereum, has ended support for its software in preparation for the upcoming Ethereum Merge. OpenEthereum creates “clients” or software used to interact with the Ethereum network allowing anyone to create an Ethereum node to mine Ether (ETH), which is currently using a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism. In a Twitter thread, the OpenEthereum team explained that with the Merge approaching and the legacy codebase becoming “increasingly difficult to manage” due to its age, it was the right time to end support. OpenEthereum support has officially ended. The repo is now archived, and all maintenance …

Major developer platform GitHub has reportedly blocked more than a dozen accounts of Russian developers associated with organizations sanctioned by the United States government. The sanctioned accounts include some of the largest banks in Russia — Sberbank and Alfa-Bank — alongside individual developers with links to the sanctioned firms. However, many individual accounts with no links or ties to sanctioned firms were also blocked in the process. Researcher Sergey Bobrov, who reportedly has no current links to any such firm, claimed on April 15 that his account was suspended and then restored. My github account is unlocked, thanks everyone. The …

There is no denying the fact that the crypto adoption wave sweeping the globe right now has resulted in a growing list of defunct brands making their way into the digital asset market in recent months. Just two weeks ago, once popular music platform LimeWire announced that it is going to be making a comeback, albeit as a marketplace for nonfungible tokens (NFTs) rather than a file-sharing service. LimeWire’s return seems to largely be hinging on its once-held brand power backed by the company’s belief that its early 2000’s fame will allow it to make its way into the competitive …

Cryptojacking accounted for 73% of the total value received by malware related addresses between 2017 and 2021, according to a new malware report from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. Malware is used to conduct nefarious activity on a victim’s device such as a smartphone or PC after being downloaded without the victim’s knowledge. Malware-powered crime can be anything from information-stealing to denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks or ad fraud on a grand scale. The report excluded ransomware, which involves an initial use of hacks and malware to leverage ransom payments from vicitms in order to halt the attacks. Chainalysis stated: “While most tend …

It wasn’t just a bull run for prices last year. Careers in crypto outstripped price action in 2021, as crypto job searches soared by 395% in the United States alone according to LinkedIn. Crucially, the crypto industry outpaced the wider tech industry, which also saw remarkable development, almost doubling its number of job listings. However, at 98% growth, the tech industry dwindles in comparison to crypto jobs, which gained by a whopping 395%. Furthermore, no industry was safe from “crypto-ization” in 2021. The LinkedIn News post offered valuable insight into crypto influencing other industries: While most of the job postings …

Privacy-oriented browser Brave continues to deepen its commitment to cryptocurrency adoption by replacing its extension-based cryptocurrency wallet with a browser-native one. The company announced to Cointelegraph on Tuesday that it is prepping the official launch of Brave Wallet; a self-custody cryptocurrency wallet built into the Brave desktop browser, enabling users to store and buy cryptocurrencies like Ether (ETH). Brian Bondy, chief technology officer and co-founder at Brave, told Cointelegraph that the new wallet replaces Brave's MetaMask extension fork named Crypto Wallets. According to the CTO, the new implementation that was "built from scratch, natively into the Brave Browser.” The new …

MicroStrategy added almost 9,000 Bitcoin to its holdings in Q3, bringing its total BTC stash to a valuation of around $7 billion. The company highlighted the purchase of 8,957 BTC in its Q3 report on Oct. 28, with the firm’s perma-bull CEO Michael Saylor stating that there is more BTC accumulation to come: “Today, MicroStrategy is the world’s largest publicly traded corporate owner of Bitcoin with over 114,000 Bitcoins. We will continue to evaluate opportunities to raise additional capital to execute on our Bitcoin strategy.” The software firm has increased its Bitcoin holdings by 198% since the same period last …

Already classified as a unicorn startup, United States-based cryptocurrency tax software developer TaxBit now has a valuation of more than $1.3 billion after a recent funding round. According to a Thursday announcement, IVP and Insight Partners led a $130 Series B funding round for TaxBit with participation from Bitcoin bull Anthony "Pomp" Pompliano, Tiger Global, Paradigm, 9Yards Capital, Sapphire Ventures and Madrona Venture Group. The company said it planned to use the funds — which bring its valuation to $1.33 billion — to scale its tax and accounting offerings system as well as open new offices in the United States …

Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase continues its buying spree by acquiring cryptocurrency aggregator service Zabo. According to a Wednesday announcement, Coinbase has started the process of acquiring Zabo, a Dallas-based cryptocurrency startup providing data integration services with major crypto exchanges and wallets, including Coinbase’s rival Kraken. A spokesperson for Zabo told Cointelegraph that the firm is not disclosing terms of the deal, but expects to close later this month. Founded in 2018, Zabo is building technology to connect cryptocurrency accounts from various exchanges and wallets to unify their crypto holdings in pre-formatted, standardized data via an application programming interface (API). Specifically, …

The number of reachable Bitcoin network nodes has crossed the 13,000 mark for the first time. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the previous all-time high was 11,613 achieved back in January. According to data from Bitcoin network statistics dashboard Bitnodes.io, this milestone was reached back on July 5 when the number of reachable nodes clocked in at 13,374. At the time of writing, Bitnodes’ data puts the current network node count at about 12,835, Coin.Dance, another tracking website, also has Bitcoin’s node count at a new all-time high of 12,825. Nodes running the Bitcoin Core software make up 98.77% of …

Financial regulators in China have shut down a Beijing-based software company they suspect of providing services to crypto traders. In a Tuesday joint statement, the Beijing Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau and the Business Administration Department of the People's Bank of China issued a warning to all financial institutions and payment service providers to not provide any crypto-related services to customers. This includes not permitting businesses to advertise or provide office space for any “virtual currency-related business activities.” As part of a regulatory crackdown, the two groups announced they had ordered the shutdown of Beijing Tongdao Cultural Development, a company …