The Russian central bank is ready to consider allowing cryptocurrency use within the country but only as part of a legal experiment, governor Elvira Nabiullina said. “It’s possible to consider transactions through an authorized organization in the country as part of an experimental legal regime, but that would require a relevant law,” Nabiullina stated during a press conference of Bank of Russia on Dec. 16. The Bank of Russia’s only objection has always been that crypto cannot be used as a payment instrument, Nabiullina emphasized. She added that the central bank is also concerned about investor protection because the crypto …

Decentralized finance continues to grow and develop despite the winterly winds blowing through the crypto space. As more and more users are turning to this sector for their investments, especially after the colossal events surrounding some of the biggest centralized exchanges lately, it is interesting to see what the future holds for DeFi. According to UNO.farm founder Roman Vinogradov, DeFi will only grow and develop. The path for mainstream adoption will be clear as soon as the current crypto winter is over. Check out his thoughts in the interview below. Q: What is still deterring users from switching to DeFi …

With the internal investigation led by Elon Musk identifying censorship-related issues on Twitter, the social platform’s former CEO Jack Dorsey has promoted the idea of a “free and open protocol” for social media. In a post, Dorsey highlighted some potential solutions to the current problems of the Twitter platform. According to the former Twitter CEO, this includes making it resilient from corporate or government control, giving the right to remove content solely to the original author and implementing moderation through algorithmic choice. He explained that: “I’m a strong believer that any content produced by someone for the internet should be …

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has again labeled Ether (ETH) as a commodity in a Dec. 13 court filing — in contrast to statements from chief Rostin Behnam on Nov. 30 suggesting that Bitcoin was the sole cryptocurrency that should be viewed as a commodity. According to the CFTC, as per their filing today, ETH is a commodity. This really should put any security designation to rest. pic.twitter.com/PkHWredNK4 — Hal Press (@NorthRockLP) December 13, 2022 In its lawsuit against Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX, and sister company Alameda Research, the regulator on multiple occasions referred to Ether, Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether …

The Metaverse as a concept exploded last year, especially after social media giant Facebook rebranded to Meta. And while there have been a number of different virtual world projects released, interoperability and integrations are still lacking. Generally, users are provided with a virtual reality that has already been shaped for them. Not only that, limitations regarding protocols, integrations and the use of NFTs are still dominating the Metaverse sector. Yet, in the true spirit of crypto and blockchain tech, innovative projects like Bluemoon are redefining what the Metaverse can be. By bringing the executive, decision-making role to the user, Bluemoon …

Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but unfortunately, the billion-dollar diamond industry is rife with scandal and fraud. There have been a number of cases where lab-grown diamonds have been graded as natural diamonds. An example of this was seen last year when the International Gemological Institute analyzed and graded a 6.18ct lab-grown diamond, which was previously claimed to be a natural diamond on its Gemological Institute of America (GIA) report. It was also reported in 2005 that the Gemological Institute of America — which is one of the most trusted sources for evaluating gemstone quality — was accepting …

A survey sample of working Americans suggests that millennial and Generation Z workers are far more in favor of joining decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and working remotely in the post-Covid-19 world. Over 1,100 Americans took part in a survey conducted by MetisDAO Foundation which explores trends in remote working preferences and the emergence of DAOs in recent years. A key consideration is the effect that Covid-19 has had on worker sentiment and the growth of DAOs in corporate governance. Citing a research report on DAOs published by the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, the results of the survey …

The Japanese financial group Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMBC) is moving to explore the benefits of Web3 by issuing soulbond tokens (SBTs). Proposed by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, SBTs refer to digital identity tokens that represent the characteristics or reputation of a person or entity, or a “soul.” Such tokens are non-transferable and are designed for the decentralized society and Web3. SMBC officially announced on Dec. 8 an initiative focused on the practical use of SBTs in partnership with the digital asset firm HashPort. The companies plan to conduct research on SBTs to find out their practical uses for communities, …

Are L2 networks the saviors? The emergence of a new tier of blockchains called layer-2 chains that have leveraged new cryptographic techniques like zero-knowledge-proofs (ZKPs) has helped address the scalability enigma. While the world was busy solving the blockchain trilemma at the L1 level, there were a bunch of smart developers who understood that optimization need not necessarily happen at the L1 level. One can create a network on top of L1 networks to solve fundamental problems. There are a few L2 networks, such as Polygon, Immutable and the Bitcoin lightning network, which use concepts such as sharding and rollups …

Digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification company Animoca Brands has secured a majority stake in the Los Angeles-based music metaverse gaming platform Pixelynx. Animoca Brands expects its acquisition will expand on the integration between gaming and Web3 technologies and communities, the company announced on Dec. 6. The financing terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Animoca implied that it would continue to invest in and acquire digital studios that would aid in its effort to integrate the music industry with Web3 — a broad umbrella term that refers to some future iteration of the internet powered by blockchain technology. Pixelynx already …

The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) is currently reviewing requests to revise the “regulatory treatment” of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) within its Virtual Financial Assets Framework. Under the current regulatory framework, NFTs are included within the scope of the Virtual Financial Assets Act, which also includes virtual tokens, virtual financial assets, electronic money, and all financial instruments built, or dependent on, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). However, the MFSA is proposing to have NFTs removed from the Virtual Financial Assets framework since they’re unique and nonfungible and therefore incapable of being used as payments for goods and services, or for investment purposes. …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) markets may have cooled down over the past year, but the technology powering these applications continues to advance. In particular, smart contract platforms that enable transactions to take place across DeFi applications are maturing to meet enterprise requirements. While it’s notable that enterprises have previously shown interest in DeFi use cases, smart contract limitations have hampered adoption. A report published by Grayscale Research in March puts this in perspective, noting that “Despite handling millions of transactions per day, smart contract platforms in their current state would be incapable of handling even 10% of the worlds’ internet traffic.” …