Welcome to the latest edition of Cointelegraph’s decentralized finance (DeFi) newsletter. Ethereum Name Service announced a retroactive token airdrop this week to a fanfare of crypto enthusiasts. If you happen to own a .eth domain, read on to discover how you can claim your eligible tokens. What you’re about to read is the smaller version of this newsletter. For the full breakdown of DeFi’s developments over the last week, subscribe below. “The DAO space has matured,” says ENS' director of operations Domain protocol Ethereum Name Service distributed its native ENS governance token this week in an airdrop event to early …

In our latest in-depth video, Cointelegraph shares six key tips on how to increase your safety when investing in DeFi by identifying rug pulls — One of the most widespread types of crypto scams. Booming growth coupled with a lack of oversight by traditional authorities has attracted an influx of fraudsters to the DeFi ecosystem. According to a recent report by Ciphertrace, while overall fraudulent activity in crypto is decreasing, rug pull scams in DeFi have been on the rise in 2021. In the typical rug pull, bad actors create a worthless token and list it on a decentralized exchange, …

Decentralized, privacy-centric search engine Presearch has announced a partnership agreement with leading nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea to foster the growth of the Web 3.0 ecosystem for the global commons. The Presearch network is powered by a community of node operators and supporters who are rewarded in Ethereum-based PRE tokens for enhancing the network’s activity. According to analysis detailed in the company’s release, the platform has amassed a registration of 2.7 million users, in addition to facilitating 3.5 million daily search requests. Cointelegraph spoke to the founder of Presearch, Colin Pape, to attain an exclusive perspective on the inspiration behind …

The launch of ETH2 staking service Rocket Pool saw it hit its stage two cap in just 45 seconds according to the co-founder of hosting partner Allnodes Konstantin Boyko-Romanovsky. In its first two days of operations, Rocket Pool has registered 237 node operators across 42 global locations, with 1088 ETH staked. According to an announcement the platform now has Total Value Locked of 4000 ETH ($13.9 million USD) in value, including collateral from the platform’s Rocket Pool (RPL) token. Rocket Pool aims to become the “primary staking infrastructure for Ethereum, by providing a decentralized, easy to use staking network for …

Ever since the launch of the inter-blockchain communications, or IBC, protocol in March, which enabled the communication and transfer of digital assets across different blockchains, development activity seems to have picked up pace on the Cosmos (ATOM) network. Transaction volumes, the creation of decentralized applications, and the number of chains connected via IBC have all been trending upwards in recent months. Speakers at the Cosmoverse Conference, which took place last week, presented many of the latest technologies under development on the blockchain. Its biggest-ever hackathon will also take place in Lisbon tomorrow. #HackAtomVI is trending in the dev community! 1000+ …

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. What’s in a name? A whole metaverse is what one could be led to believe when looking at the buzz around Facebook’s recent transformation into Meta. In reality, of course, there is more to the new name than that — there is also the whistleblower scandal, alongside the previous controversies tarring the company’s image, as well as the encroachment of rivaling social media platforms …

In an announcement Friday morning, the University of Cambridge announced it would be building a novel decentralized carbon credit marketplace to support global reforestation efforts. Its ultimate goal would be to increase the adoption of nature-based conservation solutions, or NbS, such as reforestation, through financial instruments. The institution envisions that purchasers of carbon credits will be able to securely and directly fund NbS projects through the platform. The initiative, known as the Cambridge Centre for Carbon Credits, or 4C, is based in the Department of Computer Science and Technology and the Conservation Research Institute. Scientists and researchers will build the …

It’s only been two years since its founding, but decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol 1inch Network has already surpassed $85.8 billion in cumulative trading volume. At a May 2019 hackathon in New York City, 1inch co-founders Anton Bukov and Sergej Kunz developed a prototype DEX aggregator that became the basis of the network. DEX aggregators are platforms that source liquidity from multiple DEXs, thereby providing better token swap rates with less slippage. The network has a 57.40% market share in the DEX aggregator industry and well over 820,000 users. According to CoinMarketCap, 1inch Exchange is the eighth-largest DEX in the world, …

When Bitcoin (BTC) first launched in 2009, critics were quick to raise questions about the impact of the lack of backing on the asset. This negative view was maintained even with the abandonment of the U.S. gold standard in 1971. Although fiat currencies offer no inherent value, this thought process has been enough to deter risk-averse investors from avoiding investing in cryptos altogether and others to abstain from using it in their day-to-day transactions. While cryptocurrency is volatile, it still offers benefits from traditional fiat currencies. As a result, finding a more stable option for cryptocurrencies could prove advantageous for …

Cronos has announced the launch of its mainnet beta in a bid to facilitate greater interoperability between the Cosmos and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) ecosystems. The release will enable developers to port decentralized applications (dApps), and smart contracts from Ethereum and EMV-compatible chains to the Cronos network at a low-cost and fast speed due to its Inter-Blockchain Communications (IBC) protocol integration. This will offer accessibility to Crypto.com's 10 million-strong customer base. Built upon the Cosmos blockchain and powered by Ethermint — a proof-of-authority consensus mechanism — Cronos operates adjacent to the Crypto.org chain. Epic Day 1 at @cronos_chain ✅ Mainnet …

Neal Stephenson, a popular sci-fi writer coined the phrase “metaverse” in his first best-selling and breakthrough 1992 novel, Snow Crash. Now that concept is becoming a reality, and what’s more, you can invest in the metaverses. In Ready Player One, The OASIS is another example of an advanced virtual reality. Numerous other sci-fi authors, such as Ian M Banks, have created and used similar concepts within their novels. Back in September, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was clearly interested in advancing the metaverse. In a recent earnings call, Facebook made it clear that they want to unify communities, creators and eCommerce …

Last week, Facebook rebranded to Meta and announced its plans to kickstart the development of the Metaverse — an entirely new way of interacting and navigating the internet. Now, the Metaverse landscape has a multi-billion dollar corporate behemoth vying for the helm, which has made its future all the more uncertain. Whether we like it or not, major corporations will likely play a major role in how the Metaverse develops and evolves. But will it be plagued by the same problems faced by today’s social media giants, or will decentralized platforms and services take center stage? Related: New industry, new …