The Synthetix (SNX) project, one of the biggest ecosystems in decentralized finance (DeFi), recently launched the Hadar upgrade, which enabled tokenized real-world assets like Brent oil and the Nikkei stock index. The launch, which occurred on March 31, went seemingly unnoticed by the community at large, but Framework Ventures’ co-founder Michael Anderson, a major Synthetix backer whom Cointelegraph interviewed, believes this news will have important consequences for the crypto world. What is Synthetix? Synthetix specializes in minting and creating synthetic tokens, or assets, a type of derivative that Cointelegraph previously explained in detail. Synthetic tokens track the price of some …

As part of its Black Thursday mitigation efforts, MakerDAO introduced USDC as a form of collateral. While this was an emergency measure, it touched the very sensitive topic of centralized collateral assets in Maker (MKR). The concept of decentralization underpins the entire existence of crypto, serving as a core ideology. Historically, decentralization has clashed with the need to be pragmatic in creating useful products. An example of that is the 2016 DAO hack that led to the split between Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. The controversy swung between the idealistic concept of “code is law” and the pragmatic realization that code …

As the dust begins to settle over MakerDAO’s Black Thursday incident, the team is now returning to a normal working pace. We took the opportunity to catch up with Rune Christensen, one of the original founders of the protocol, for a full recap of the situation and what it means for Maker (MKR). Christensen had been oddly quiet as the events were unfolding, never joining any forum discussion or issuing comments to the media — until now. MakerDAO provides users with stable DAI cryptocurrency in exchange for their volatile crypto holdings, and the platform faced a reckoning as Ethereum crashed …

From margin trading to futures, many services have made the leap from traditional financial instruments to cryptocurrency. But there’s one that has yet to enter the consciousness of most crypto traders: prime brokerage. Here, Bequant CEO George Zarya explains why 2020 could be the year that this technology starts to gain momentum, how it’s used across commodities and equities, and what it could deliver to those who currently own digital assets. 1. Can you explain prime brokerage simply? And why isn’t it common in the crypto world? The main pain point a prime broker is solving for its clients is …

Welcome back to Cointelegraph China’s Focus talk show. This time around, Peter Vessenes is under the spotlight. He is the founder of CoinLab, the first venture-backed Bitcoin company. He also co-founded the Bitcoin Foundation, serving as its first executive director and chairman. Vessenes has provided digital-currency consulting services for entities including the United States Treasury Department, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. He serves as the chief cryptographer for the Deluge Network and Metronome, a project that aims to create a “politics-free digital currency.” Cointelegraph: You were the first one to have talked …

First, there were property rents. Then came interests. As modern civilization evolves, people always find new ways to earn money without actually producing, or even doing all that much. This concept is today known as “passive income.” Technological progress also expanded the meaning of passive income. Today, people can claim YouTube advertisement revenues, dropshipping and even creating online courses as their favorite way to earn passive income. Lennix Lai, the director of financial markets at OKEx, believes there is another method to add to this ever-expansive list: crypto staking. He was a keynote speaker during the Blockchain Economy 2020 conference …

Welcome to Cointelegraph China Focus. Focus is a new talk show series launched by Cointelegraph China that covers the hottest topics from around the world. Cointelegraph China Focus invites blockchain industry leaders from all around the globe to participate in discussions. The show is hosted by Vadim Krekotin, the co-founder and CEO of Cointelegraph China. Jeffrey Wernick is a postgraduate student at the University of Chicago studying economics and finance. He has studied under several Nobel laureates, is a successful entrepreneur and is a seasoned private investor in various asset classes. He is also a strong believer of and early …

It seems Meltem Demirors does a little bit of everything. The crypto journeywoman has served as vice president of Digital Currency Group, a member of the World Economic Forum’s Blockchain Council, an advisor to MIT Media Lab, and a lecturer at the University of Oxford’s business school. She even co-hosts a well-subscribed podcast with her friend and fellow crypto hound Jill Carlson, though that project is on hiatus. These days Demirors mostly wears the hat of Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares, a digital asset management firm that provides financial products and services for professional investors. But she’s also an investor …

Recent events surrounding the rapid spread of COVID-19 to nearly every country on Earth and major markets reaction to the phenomena have crypto investors scratching their heads in bewilderment as the sector has never endured a global financial markets meltdown. The fact that Bitcoin (BTC) was born from a financial crisis but has yet to experience one raises the fear that the asset may perform poorly as traditional markets across the globe crumble. These fears are clearly weighing on investor sentiment and with the May 2020 halving event fast approaching many are wondering if the long-expected bull market, supposedly a …

The International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA), a distributed ledger technology initiative established by the European Commission (EC) last year, has appointed former Bitfury Group global ambassador Marc Taverner as the first INATBA executive director on March 5. INATBA was launched through collaboration between the 26 members of the EC’s European Blockchain Partnership during April 2019. The association seeks to bring together industry leaders, policymakers, standard-setting bodies to support the mainstream adoption of distributed ledger technology across multiple economic sectors. Cointelegraph spoke to Taverner to discuss his role as the INATBA executive director, the association’s objectives for the blockchain …

The crypto ecosystem tends to see regulations as “the big bad wolf.” In this narrative, government and regulators set rules that slow down innovation and damage growth for the crypto industry. That might have been the case a few years ago, but not anymore, according to BitPanda CEO Eric Demuth: “Depending on the regulation, it can be quite a good thing now that the industry and many companies have reached a size that matters.” Demuth was a keynote speaker during the Blockchain Economy 2020 conference in Istanbul, Turkey. He made time for a quick chat with Cointelegraph Turkey on Feb. …

The Ethereum (ETH) community has recently been engaged in a bitter debate sparked by a proposed mining algorithm change. Dubbed ProgPoW, the proposal would invalidate all currently existing ASICs to only allow mining Ethereum with a GPU. While ProgPoW was born in 2018, it has seen alternate periods of stasis and active discussion during the two years of development. The latest round of debates was sparked by what, to some, seemed like a sudden reintroduction of ProgPoW into the Ethereum roadmap. During the Feb. 21 Dev call, Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1057 — a formal ProgPoW specification — was marked …