The World Economic Forum (WEF) released a “toolkit” for digital autonomous organizations (DAOs) on Jan. 17. More than 100 experts contributed to the document attempts to provide “a starting point for DAOs to develop effective operational, governance and legal strategies.” The 37-page so-called toolkit is explanatory in nature, with concise but encyclopedic entries on DAOs and related topics. It described them as “a set of adaptable resources for key stakeholders to help realize the full potential of this emerging form.” DAOs have “the potential to address many of the shortcomings of the traditional firm while also realizing more equitable governance …

In a wide-ranging discussion, a panel of blockchain industry personalities at the World Economic Forum (WEF) concluded that the economy will become increasingly tokenized in the future. Carbon credits, housing, electricity, government bonds, forex, and other real-world assets will be traded on the blockchain, according to the panel. The event, titled Tokenized Economies, Coming Alive, featured Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, Bitkub Capital CEO Jirayut Srupsrisopa (also known as “Topp”), Finland Minister of Transport and Communications Timo Harraka, and Yield Guild Games Co-Founder Beryl Li. According to Topp, the Thai central bank will be implementing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) …

Despite the ongoing crypto winter, which has affected many businesses in the greater Web3 space, investments continue pouring into the space. On Jan. 17, the Hong Kong-based global asset manager HashKey Capital announced the closing of a $500 million investment round for its FinTech Investment Fund III. According to the company, Fund III will be used to invest in infrastructures, toolings and applications that will help push mass adoption of blockchain and crypto technologies. Speaking with Cointelegraph, Xiao Xiao, an investment director at HashKey Capital, said the synergies in the Web3 space are a key factor to what keeps investors …

Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Polygon, joined hands with Xternity, a Web3 gaming development platform, to migrate and onboard a multiplayer Web3 game — Synergy Land — to the Polygon network from Solana. As blockchain platforms, Solana focuses primarily on scalability and cost-cutting, while Polygon allows for seamless interaction with the Ethereum ecosystem. To help transfer Synergy Land’s resources onto the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain, Xternity proposed a process — via its network migration tool — that can be used to migrate games or projects across chains. Speaking about Xternity’s goal to accelerate Web3 game development, co-founder and CEO Sagi …

Digital assets will largely decouple from traditional equity markets in 2023, says Chief Investment Officer at Arca, Jeff Dorman. Discussing his outlook for 2023 in a recent interview with Cointelegraph, Dorman argues that as the global economy enters a recession this year, equities will be negatively affected while some crypto tokens will perform well: the value of the latter, he explained, is determined not only by macroeconomic factors but also by their utility within the respective ecosystems, which would remain unaltered in a recession. “You're going to see a lot of stocks get punished under the weight of restructurings and …

By the end of 2022, scammers shifted their focus to duping crypto investors who desperately tried to recoup their year-long losses. An international law enforcement operation led by European government agencies joined crypto entrepreneurs and businesses to curb cross-border crypto scams since July 2022, uncovering a criminal network operating through call centers. Europol and Eurojust, two EU agencies for law enforcement cooperation, joined authorities from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany and Serbia to investigate online investment fraud since June 2022. The investigation identified a criminal network that incurred losses of over $2.1 million (over 2 million euros) — primarily for German investors. …

Twitter has quietly expanded its new crypto feature that enables users to search the price of individual tokens, adding at least another 30 tokens. The new additions are part of the social media giant's "$Cashtags" feature which was announced by the Twitter Business account on Dec. 21 with the news Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) were the first to be part of the new feature. Tweeting or searching for a crypto token or ticker symbol with a dollar sign ($) in front now links to pricing graphs for those symbols. Cointelegraph found 30 of the top 50 tokens by market …

Tanzania's central bank says it is still considering the introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) but will be a taking "phased, cautious and risk based approach" after identifying several challenges that could impact its implementation. According to a Jan. 14 public notice from The Bank of Tanzania, since its 2021 announcement about a possible CBDC rollout, the East African country formed a multidisciplinary technical team to explore the risks and benefits of CBDCs. The bank revealed its team has conducted research looking into different types of CBDCs, models for issuance and management and whether it could be token-based …

SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci is investing in a crypto company founded by the former president of FTX US. According to an email to Bloomberg, Scaramucci said he would be investing his own personal funds to support ex-FTX US president Brett Harrison’s new venture, which became known just three weeks after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. It is understood that the crypto software company — which doesn’t yet have a name — will enable crypto traders to create algorithmic-based strategies to access different markets — both centralized and decentralized. It is also understood that Harrison has been seeking a …

Despite the belief of many crypto enthusiasts that centralized exchanges (CEXs) are safer, history has often shown them to be rather vulnerable to attacks. Because these exchanges centralize the storage of users’ assets, they can be attractive targets for cybercriminals. If an exchange’s security measures are inadequate or successfully compromised, user assets may be stolen or lost. Another risk of centralized exchanges is the potential for fraud or mismanagement by their operators. Since CEXs may have a single point of control, they may be more susceptible to insider fraud or other forms of misconduct — which can lead to the …

The case of LBRY highlights a wave of renewed regulatory pressure that could affect both blockchain token-issuing companies and their investors. In November, an over year-long court battle between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and blockchain development company LBRY and its LBRY Credits (LBC) token culminated in the ruling of the token as an unregistered security, despite the company's argument of its use as a commodity within the platform. The court’s decision in this case sets a precedent that could influence not only the regulatory perception of blockchain-based platforms, but cryptocurrencies as well. The old Howey Old …

Classroom adoption of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency courses continue to skyrocket, with Texas A&M now being the latest U.S. College to offer a Bitcoin course to some of its 74,000+ students. The news was announced on Jan. 13 by Associate Professor Korok Ray of Mays Business School at Texas A&M, who will be teaching the “Bitcoin Protocol” course to students in the College of Engineering and Mays Business School when the Spring Semester starts on Jan. 17. I will be teaching the first ever Bitcoin class at Texas A&M this spring! — Korok Ray (@KorokRay) January 12, 2023 Ray stated in …