Prospective users of an Arbitrum-based decentralized finance (DeFi) project have been left out of pocket following a $2 million exploit. Web3 security firm CertiK flagged the incident on Feb. 21, following an announcement from the Hope Finance Twitter account notifying users that they had been scammed. #CommunityAlert @hope_fin have announced the community has been scammed for ~$2m making this the largest #exitscam on Arbitrum in 2023. $1.86m was transferred to @TornadoCash. Hope_fin have posted steps for user's to withdraw their staked LPhttps://t.co/hJbFXiKujt — CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) February 21, 2023 Details of the project are difficult to come by. The platform’s …

India’s national payment network, called the unified payments interface (UPI), is expanding its services beyond Indian borders to Singapore. The cross-border connectivity between Singapore and India via their respective rapid payment systems, namely PayNow and the UPI. Shri Shaktikanta Das, governor of the Reserve Bank, and Mr Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, launched the facility through token transactions using the UPI-PayNow linkage. The UPI-PayNow integration will allow users of the two nations to send money across borders quickly. It is possible to send or receive money from India using only a UPI-id, cellphone number, or …

Blockchain security firm Peckshield has raised the alarm after finding dozens of tokens purporting to be related to artificial intelligence (AI) powered chatbot ChatGPT. In a Feb. 20 post, the firm revealed at least three "BingChatGPT" tokens appear to be part of honeypot schemes — a smart contract that tricks a user into sending Ethereum (ETH), which the attacker then traps and retrieves. According to Peckshield, at least two of the tokens identified have already lost nearly 100% of their value, while a third is at a 65% loss — in what is often referred to as a “pump and …

A small monetary bounty and an aptitude for coding were all it took to fork the Ordinals protocol to the world’s second-ever cryptocurrency network, Litecoin (LTC) earlier this week, its creator told Cointelegraph. On Feb. 18, an Australian software engineer by the name of Anthony Guerrera posted a repository to GitHub that forked the Bitcoin (BTC) Ordinals protocol to Litecoin. This allowed for nonfungible token (NFT)-like assets on the Litecoin network in much the same way it had made it to Bitcoin earlier in the year. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Guerrera said he was spurred to make a Litecoin …

Bitcoin fixes broken democracies and fights government corruption by limiting its power to control its people, argues Bitcoin advocate and chief strategy officer of the Human Rights Foundation, Alex Gladstein. In a Feb. 20 interview, Gladstein argued that the decentralized nature of Bitcoin (BTC) can act as a barrier against corruption and tyranny. "Where the democracies have broken down, I do think it's very clearly related to fiat currency, and I do think that Bitcoin fixes this in a way," he said. “#Bitcoin fixes democracy…#Bitcoin is…free speech, property rights & open capital markets…tyrants need…the opposite: they need censorship…confiscation & closed …

The public blockchain sector grew from less than a few million dollars in the last decade to a $1 trillion industry. However, one thing that the space has yet to solve is a decentralized and secure interoperable solution. Let's take Ethereum (ETH) to Bitcoin (BTC), the largest blockchain network, for example. Till today, centralized exchanges are the only viable solution for shifting from one chain to another. A centralized solution provider, BitGo, provides the largest pool of liquidity for Ethereum users to gain BTC exposure via Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). The BitGo IOU accounts for over 93.6% of the Bitcoin bridged …

According to a press release on Feb. 20, FTX Japan, the Japanese subsidiary of troubled cryptocurrency exchange FTX, announced that the withdrawal of users' fiat currency and crypto assets would commence via the Liquid Japan web platform at 12:00 p.m. on Feb. 21. In Nov. 2022, FTX Japan halted operations after its parent firm, FTX, filed for bankruptcy along with its 134 subsidiaries, freezing the assets of an estimated nine million customers and billions of dollars locked in legal proceedings. Per FTX Japan, customers who have assets in their accounts would need to confirm their balance and transfer them to …

The use of blockchain technology in the healthcare industry has the potential to revolutionize the way medical records are managed, medical research is conducted and patient care is delivered. Here are nine promising use cases for blockchain in healthcare. Medical record management Medical records can be safely stored and managed using blockchain, improving accessibility for patients and healthcare professionals. Patients’ ability to control access to their medical records enhances security and privacy. One example is MedRec, a blockchain-based system for managing medical information created by MIT researchers. MIT Professor Andrew Lippman says the goal of the MedRec project is to …

A new study by DECTA highlighted the importance of embedded finance features in today's fintech world. With online shopping and digital payments becoming a norm, the study pointed towards some of the key drivers for a seamless experience for customers. Embedded finance is a new type of software distribution that works with financial infrastructure providers to include financial services in the ecosystems of already-existing products. The most common embedded finance offerings include banking, lending, insurance, payments and branded credit cards. According to the study, quick payments and the availability of a selected payment option are the most crucial elements for …

Supernets enable communication among distinct blockchain networks, considerably improving the usefulness of the overall system by enabling the transfer of assets and data among different blockchains. Furthermore, shared infrastructure and resources can be made possible by interconnected networks, which can lower costs and boost overall effectiveness. By making assets accessible across numerous networks, they can significantly improve their liquidity, which will raise the assets’ value. This article will discuss the concept of a supernet, how to implement supernetting, the advantages and disadvantages of supernetting, and how it’s different from a subnet. What is a supernet? A supernet, also known as …

A recently introduced Illinois Senate Bill has been ridiculed by the crypto community over its "unworkable" plans to force blockchain miners and validators to do "impossible things" — such as reversing transactions if ordered to do so by a state court. The Senate Bill was quietly introduced into the Illinois legislature on Feb. 9 by Illinois Senator Robert Peters but appears to have been only recently noticed by Florida-based lawyer Drew Hinkes who discussed the bill in a Twitter post on Feb. 19. The bill titled the “Digital Property Protection and Law Enforcement Act,” would authorize the courts — upon …

Crypto's next bull run will start in Asia, according to Cameron Winklevoss, an American investor, and co-founder of crypto exchange Gemini. His comments have come amid an increase in enforcement action and looming crackdowns from United States regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). “My working thesis atm is that the next bull run is going to start in the East,” said Winklevoss in a Twitter post on Feb. 19. "It will be a humbling reminder that crypto is a global asset class and that the West, really the US, always only ever had two options: embrace it or …