Hold Bitcoin till the very end or sell a little bit to start a family? For one Bitcoiner in Northwest London, it was a no-brainer. Noodle, (a nickname) a Brit who first heard about Bitcoin around 2012, took profits on his Bitcoin buys to pay for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment for his wife. He told Cointelegraph he has “no regrets,” about his decision to start a family using fiat-denominated profits from buying, holding then selling Bitcoin. Welcoming Noodle Jr II to this crazy world. After a tough 6 days in hospital due to unforeseen complications, Mrs Noodle and I, …

The function of crypto wallets has changed significantly over the last few years. They initially secured token holdings or served as art galleries with nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Today, they’ve become like bank accounts for many, and soon, they will offer even more functionality by enabling digital curriculum vitae (CVs). In a May 2022 paper, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and others introduced the concept of “Soulbound tokens” (SBTs). Buterin and his co-authors argued that credentials on a blockchain offer many advantages to establishing provenance and reputation. Nonfungible tokens will serve as essential building blocks Related: Facebook and Twitter will soon be …

On Thursday, Ethan Buchman, co-founder of interblockchain communication (IBC) ecosystem Cosmos, said that a 'critical security vulnerability' had been discovered that 'impacts all IBC-enabled Cosmos chains, for all versions of IBC.' Buchman assured that steps have already been taken to ensure that all major public IBC-enabled chains have been patched, stating: "A chain is safe from the critical vulnerability as soon as ⅓ of its voting power has applied the patch. Chains should still seek to patch to ⅔ as quickly as possible once the official patch is released." A public version of the patch will be released in the …

The hype around nonfungible tokens (NFTs) may be fading, yet a number of organizations continue to implement Web3 initiatives. Nonprofit organizations and activists, in particular, have begun implementing nonfungible token projects to help fundraise and generate awareness for certain causes. While these methods are still new, NFT projects for philanthropy have been met with relative success. A recent report from crypto donation platform The Giving Block found that nonprofits using The Giving Block received more than $12.3 million dollars in cryptocurrency donations from NFT-related charitable giving initiatives in 2021. The report further noted that charitable organizations using NFTs are presented …

Facebook went under a major brand overhaul to project its focus on the Metaverse and rebranded to Meta in late 2021. The major shift for the social media giant surprised many, but looking at Facebook’s record with emerging tech trends, it was only a matter of time before it jumped into Web3. Meta’s crypto aspirations first came to light in 2019 after a failed experience in the digital payment sector with a Messenger-integrated payment option. The tech giant subsequently revealed its plans to launch a universal stablecoin backed by a basket of fiat currencies from different nations. The plan was …

One of the core development teams behind the Ethereum (ETH) Merge, Prysmatic Labs, has been acquired by Offchain Labs, the developer of Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum. Announced in an Oct. 13 blog post by Offchain Labs, the deal's financial terms were not disclosed, but it was noted Prysmatic Labs chose to join Offchain Labs "for many reasons," but mainly because of the two companies' alignment in their core beliefs. Prysmatic Labs co-founder Raul Jordan said the move will "build a unified team stronger than the sum of its parts." "Merging with Offchain Labs made perfect sense to us as an …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) led cryptocurrency’s rapid growth in early 2021, but the crypto market has since plummeted in value. Global markets have played a role, but so has recklessness among developers when it comes to both cybersecurity and (often self-serving) inflationary token models. Too much DeFi has been based on tokens minted from nothing or tokens that finance other tokens at high interest rates, with no part of the entire activity having any real underlying economic activity to back the yields offered. Secondly, security issues, hacks and exploits of DeFi contracts and bridges have been widespread, and most notable DeFi …

For years, mass adoption has been pitched as the endgame of crypto. We’re supposed to envision a world where we can pay for our morning coffee with stablecoins and put mortgages on-chain to be used as collateral in decentralized finance (DeFi). In a world in which crypto has become mainstream, prices would likely reach all-time highs, but at what cost? Concessions inevitably would be made to meet consumer expectations to realize this future. Though the proliferation of online banking may seem like it set the stage for a seamless transition to DeFi, traditional finance (TradFi) customers are accustomed to a …

The Ethereum network brought smart contracts into the blockchain space, making concepts like decentralized finance (DeFi) possible. Smart contracts can automatically execute processes once certain conditions have been met. Along with this new technology, a new coding language was developed called Solidity. As the blockchain industry continues to grow and new blockchain networks emerge, additional programming languages are being brought into the space, notably Vyper and Scrypto. Programming languages are a set of rules that convert strings of text and numbers into machine-readable code. In simple terms, programming languages enable computers to understand instructions that are input by human beings. …

For the last two weeks, unknown hackers have been airdropping nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to Solana cryptocurrency users masquerading as a new Phantom wallet security update, however, instead of an update, it's malware designed to steal their crypto. According to BleepingComputer, the hackers are claiming to be from the Phantom team and using NFTS titled "PHANTOMUPDATE.COM" or "UPDATEPHANTOM.COM." After opening the NFT, users are told a new security update has been issued for the Phantom wallet and can be downloaded by using the enclosed link or the listed website. To add urgency, the message claims that failing to download the fake …

According to a recent Twitter post by 0xngmi, the anonymous creator of decentralized finance (DeFi) project aggregator Defi Llama, the smart contract code for a novel nonfungible tokens (NFT) borrowing and lending protocol dubbed 'LlamaLend" is near completion. The protocol aims to solve the problem of NFT holders needing to obtain liquidity when holding their digital collectibles and primarily targets small NFT collections. The project's LlamaLend GitHub page explains: "If a holder needs liquid money because a good opportunity has appeared, all they can do [now] is just sell their NFTs." As per its GitHub page, LlamaLend will allow users …

As the all-time highs from the last two-year bull market dissipate and it seems like a new bear market is settling in, only those talented individuals with strong convictions can find the motivation to devote themselves full-time to Web3, blockchain and crypto. During the good years of a crypto market on the rise, many curious professionals with an interest in disruptive tech have flirted with the idea of working for startups in the space. Demand for talent usually outpaces the supply, as there is a limited amount of people with the experience required to navigate this fast-paced industry and willing …