After several delays and some setbacks, Cardano’s long-awaited Vasil upgrade finally went live on Sept. 22. From the outside looking in, the hard fork is designed to help improve the ecosystem’s scalability and general transaction throughput capacity as well as advance Cardano’s decentralized applications (DApps) development capacity. To commemorate the event, an announcement was made by blockchain firm Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) — which currently oversees the design, building and maintenance of the Cardano platform — just minutes after the development. To obtain a more holistic overview of what the upgrade represents and its potential impact on Cardano (as …

Until 2020, most of the crypto market action was largely driven by retail enthusiasm. It was only around August 2020 that institutions started to participate meaningfully in this asset class. As the United States Federal Reserve unleashed trillions of dollars of liquidity into the market during the COVID-19 pandemic, retail and institutional investors jumped onto the cryptocurrency bandwagon. While crypto loyalists claim large-scale institutional adoption over the last couple of years, the entire asset class is only around $1 trillion in size. That is quite small when compared to the gold market of $11 trillion and the bond market of …

Stanford University researchers have come up with a prototype for “reversible transactions” on Ethereum, arguing it could be a solution to reduce the impact of crypto theft. In a Sept. 25 tweet, Stanford University blockchain researcher Kaili Wang shared a run down of the Ethereum-based reversible token idea, noting that at this stage it is not a finished concept but more of a “proposal to provoke discussion and even better solutions from the blockchain community,” noting: “The major hacks we've seen are undeniably thefts with strong evidence. If there was a way to reverse those thefts under such circumstances, our …

Non-fungible token (NFT) app developers and others have balked at a decision by tech giant Apple to impose a 30% commission on NFTs sold through apps on its marketplace, effectively putting NFT purchases in the same boat as regular in-app purchases. According to a Friday report from The Information, the smartphone company is now allowing NFTs to be bought and sold through apps listed on its marketplace but imposes its standard commission on in-app purchases of 30% — similar to that imposed by Android’s app store Google Play. The commission rate has however been slammed by some for being “grotesquely …

Australian crypto entrepreneur and investor Fred Schebesta has described the Australian government's prioritization of token mapping as “wonderful,” but warns that rushing it could lead to detrimental effects on the economy. Schebesta's comments come after Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers released a statement on Aug. 22 stating that the “treasury will prioritize token mapping work" in 2022 to show how “crypto assets and related services should be regulated.” Speaking to Cointelegraph, Schebesta believes Australia already has a “fledgling” crypto industry but needs to “align with the other major markets and their regulations.” Schebesta added that the "intricacies” of token mapping are …

On the first day after the Merge, the decentralized finance (DeFi) community is settling into the seemingly uneventful transition of the Ethereum network from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). However, it has yet to be seen the benefits that hard forks will bring to PoW supporters. So far, the most important contending networks in favor of the mining community, EthereumPoW and Ethereum Classic, have shown different outcomes post-Merge. A stumbling start The fledgling EthereumPoW started its debut with Twitter users reporting issues with accessing the network. The issues were confirmed to be the result of a hack to the network …

Digital asset investment firm GEM Digital Limited (GEM) has committed $50 million to finance ParallelChain Lab following the launch of its mainnet and native token listing, XPLL, in Q4 2022. As a proof-of-stake (PoS) layer-1 protocol, ParallelChain aims to bridge the infrastructure divide between centralized (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). The soon-to-be-launched ParallelChain Mainnet is open source and based on a PoS consensus mechanism dedicated to maintaining a fair distribution of power. The permissioned ParallelChain Enterprise, on the other hand, will ensure the secrecy of transactions using a patented Proof-of-Immutability mechanism. The two platforms, together, intend to deliver an architecture …

Where are the challenges that face the NFT sector in the future being discussed? Mattereum is hosting a dedicated event to discuss physical asset NFTs on Sept. 21. The meetup begins at 6pm London time — that's 7pm in Berlin, 1pm in New York, and 10am in California. A previous event was held in July 2022, and set out how coveted high-value assets such as red wine, fine art and real estate could benefit from Mattereum's approach to NFTs. With an ever-growing number of blue-chip companies exploring this space, adoption among everyday consumers will continue to skyrocket. Mattereum is determined …

As crypto ownership becomes more and more common, holders will need to think about how they protect and hold their assets. The safest option is storing cryptocurrency in a personal wallet. Crypto wallets are programs that allow users to store, send and receive cryptocurrency. Each wallet has a private key that allows the wallet to be spent. Private keys are cryptographic strings of code that allow owners to spend the funds inside a wallet, as well as prove ownership. Wallet information is also stored offline, reducing the risk of a hacking attempt. Everyday non-technical crypto users can benefit from the …

Despite the current struggle in the global economy, the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and crypto seems to be closing with each passing day. For example, earlier this month, Vienna-based fintech unicorn Bitpanda announced that it was adding commodities to its list of investment options, thus allowing investors to rake in profits from short-term price fluctuations related to traditional instruments such as oil, natural gas and wheat. In a recent interview with Cointelegraph, the company’s CEO, Eric Demuth, noted that the bear market had had no major impact on investor demand. He claims that more people are now looking for …

So, is blockchain ready to take on the Metaverse journey? In essence, the ideal metaverse must be on blockchain rails, which mandates inclusive incentives centered around creators and users while still offering immersive and seamless virtual experiences. The Metaverse is not just about the experiential elements; it is also about the economic aspects. The financial incentives must be centered around the real value creators. Those who create content, and regularly interact and transact on the platform are the ones who are creating value. While the economic model possibilities are exciting, and several hopeful glimpses of these possibilities have emerged, there …

As the cryptocurrency market matures, more governments throughout the world introduce legislation to tax proceeds from crypto-related activities, with traders often triggering taxable events that can lead to future complications. Avoiding paying taxes is illegal, but there are legal ways to dodge triggering taxable events while hodling onto one’s cryptocurrency holdings: Roth IRAs. These are individual retirement accounts (IRAs) with a special type of tax-advantaged system. Using IRAs to avoid triggering taxable events with cryptocurrency investments is a strategy that has been considered for some time, with North American mining and hosting firm Compass Mining offering a solution for BTC …