The percentage of Ethereum blocks complying with orders set by the United States Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has now fallen to 47% — the lowest since Oct. 11. The latest milestone in reversing censorship comes nearly three months after the percentage of OFAC-compliant blocks reached its peak at 79% on Nov. 21. OFAC-compliant blocks are those that exclude transactions involving parties sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. A fall in compliant blocks could be seen as a win for those that oppose censorship within the Ethereum ecosystem. In a statement, blockchain consulting firm …

Only days after the launch of the Bitcoin (BTC)-based Ordinals protocol, its creators have had to deal with its first shock pornographic image which has been inscribed into the blockchain. On Feb. 2 at around 12:15 AM UTC, an unsavory image known as “goatse” was inscribed onto the Bitcoin blockchain via the Ordinals protocol. It featured on inscription 668 and was live on the Ordinals' front page for roughly half an hour before the image was removed. It still exists on the blockchain but is not able to be viewed using the Ordinals website. Ordinals creator, Casey Rodarmor, told Cointelegraph …

Damus, a so-called “Twitter killer” built on a decentralized network has been approved on the Apple App Store. The Damus team confirmed the approval to its 11,500 Twitter followers on Jan. 31, following what it claims was at least three rejections from the Big Tech player. Shortly after, Twitter co-founder and Nostr contributor Jack Dorsey shared the news with his 6.5 million followers, with the entrepreneur labeling it as a “milestone” moment for open source protocols: a milestone for open protocols...#nostr is now officially on the Apple App Store with @damusapp:https://t.co/GQmvPE5nfX — jack (@jack) January 31, 2023 The app dubs …

PayPal's former leadership, also known as the "PayPal Mafia," have slammed the payments giant for its debanking policies of late, with one co-founder calling the freezing of funds “totalitarian,” while another compared it to an episode of Black Mirror. Despite becoming crypto-friendly in recent years, the payments tech giant has caught a lot of headlines and pushback over its de-platforming practices, which reportedly involve a rather abrupt process of freezing funds, fines, and frosty negotiations to unlock the accounts of its users for varying reasons. Peter Thiel, who co-founded PayPal in 1998 and served as its CEO until 2002 suggested …

What are the challenges with Web3 For mainstream adoption of Web3, prevalent challenges need to be dealt with. These include centralized infrastructure, lack of regulatory clarity and rug pulls. While Web3 is perceived to be decentralized, developers integrate Web3 applications with Web2 protocols to make them work. This creates a scenario where functioning of decentralized applications is hinged to a centralized infrastructure. Another major challenge before Web3 is a lack of regulatory clarity. Blockchain technologies are advancing fast, and regulators will take time to catch up. Absence of regulatory oversight has led to unethical behavior in some projects as happened …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has added a new stage to the Ethereum technical roadmap, one that aims to improve censorship resistance and decentralization of the Ethereum network. The Ethereum network’s new plans were revealed by Buterin in a Nov. 5 Twitter post — which introduced “The Scourge” in a now expanded six-part technical roadmap. Following Ethereum’s shift to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network on Sept. 15, Ethereum has been in the second stage — “The Surge — with the goal of getting to 100,000 transactions per second through rollups. The updated technical roadmap now inserts “The Scourge” as the new third …

The relevance of social media platforms in swaying global politics was first highlighted with the rise of Facebook (rebranded later to Meta), which was accused of manipulating information based on user demographics. Twitter, which was recently acquired by Elon Musk, got the short end of the stick as US President Joe Biden accused the website of spewing lies. Biden attended a fundraising event in Chicago for upcoming elections, wherein he called out Elon Musk for purchasing Twitter. He stated: “Now what are we all worried about? Elon Musk goes out and buys an outfit that sends and spews lies all …

Considering that protocol-level censorship is deterrent to the crypto ecosystem's goal of highly open and accessible finance, the community has been keeping track of Ethereum’s growing compliance with standards laid down by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Over the last 24 hours, the Ethereum network was found to enforce OFAC compliance on over 73% of its blocks. In Oct. 2022, Cointelegraph reported on the rising censorship concerns after 51% of Ethereum blocks were found compliant with OFAC standards. However, data from mevWatch confirmed that the minting of OFAC-compliant blocks on a daily basis has grown to 73% as …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes that solo validators that choose not to include certain transactions should "be tolerated" to stop the Ethereum community from becoming the "morality police." Vitalik Buterin made the comment in reply to a Twitter poll from latetot.eth, discussing a hypothetical scenario whereby a validator censors a transaction that doesn't align with their beliefs. The thread, published on Oct. 17, asked what should happen if a solo validator, in a country at war with another, decides not to process a block because it includes donations to the opposing military force. I’m a solo home validator in Country …

Ethereum bulls have hit back against claims the network has become prone to censorship post-Merge, with one arguing that “not even a single” transaction has been censored on the network. In a 19-part thread to his 29,100 followers on Oct. 17, Cyber Capital founder and CIO Justin Bons argued that contrary to “what some Bitcoiners are falsely claiming,” not a single transaction on Ethereum has been stopped as a result of Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions. Bons was referring to recent reports suggesting Ethereum has become too reliant on OFAC-compliant Miner Extractable Value (MEV)-Boost relays since the Merge. …

One month after the Merge, 51% of ethereum blocks were compliant with OFAC standards, according to blockchain development Labrys' data, as MEV-boost relays takes over market share. On Twitter, users highlighted how the figures represent a milestone towards censorship, as more blocks are under surveillance: We reached another sad milestone in censorship: 51% This means if the censoring validators would now stop attesting to non-censoring blocks they would eventually form the canonical, 100% censoring chain. pic.twitter.com/JrYUjowLpt — Martin Köppelmann (@koeppelmann) October 14, 2022 OFAC stands for Office of Foreign Assets Control, the entity in charge of enforcing the United States …

Online payment network PayPal has reneged on a controversial policy that could’ve seen users fined $2,500 for spreading “misinformation,” with the payment platform claiming the policy update was published “in error.” The now retracted misinformation clause in PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy was set to take effect on Nov. 3, which would have expanded on its list of prohibited activities to include “the sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials” that "promotes misinformation." But the screenshot of the policy says otherwise. PayPal caves after social media backlash. Read the full story below!https://t.co/5KX1d6O3RP pic.twitter.com/aWEdw86Xvd — thetechstartups (@thetechstartups) October 9, …