Blockchain courses and certifications can play an important role in helping individuals gain a comprehensive understanding of blockchain technology and its applications. By completing these courses, individuals can develop technical skills, stay current with industry developments, enhance their career opportunities and increase their earning potential. Here are seven blockchain courses and certifications for beginners. INE’s Blockchain Security INE’s Blockchain Security course is an online course offered by Internetwork Expert (INE) that provides a comprehensive overview of the security aspects of blockchain technology. The course covers various topics such as consensus algorithms, cryptography, network security, smart contract security, and blockchain attacks …

A small-scale decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) has suffered a rather sizeable smart contract exploit leading to an estimated $120 million being stolen from its protocol. BonqDAO, which is behind the Bonq protocol, told its Twitter followers on Feb. 1 that its protocol was exposed to an oracle hack that allowed the exploiter to manipulate the price of the AllianceBlock (ALBT) token. Bonq protocol was exposed to an oracle hack, where exploiter increased the ALBT price and minted large amounts of BEUR. The BEUR was then swapped for other tokens on Uniswap. Then, the price was decreased to almost zero, which …

Blockchain technology has revolutionized the way we think about data storage and transactions, but it can also be a complex field for developers to navigate. One tool that can help simplify the process is ChatGPT, a large language model created by OpenAI. A language model is a type of artificial intelligence model that is trained on a large corpus of text to generate or predict text. It can be used to generate new text, such as in machine translation, or to predict the likelihood of a sequence of words. It uses natural language processing and machine learning techniques to learn …

China’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) — the digital yuan, or eCNY — has received upgrades giving it smart contract functionality alongside a series of newly unveiled use cases. The smart contract function was launched on the Meituan app, a Chinese app offering retail and food delivery services, according to a Jan. 17 report by local cryptocurrency media outlet 8btc. When Meituan users place an order and pay with their e-CNY wallet, a smart contract triggers and searches for keywords and purchased items in their order. If a user buys something on the list of keywords for the day, they …

Crypto security is one of the hottest topics right now, as users wish for a much less turbulent 2023. Against the backdrop of a somewhat troublesome 2022, crypto enthusiasts are now more aware than ever that their assets need to be protected. To aid in users' efforts to keep their investments safe, one browser-based extension is revolutionizing the space. Web3 Antivirus is a simple and easy-to-use plugin that allows users to analyze and monitor smart contracts before interacting with them. To get a complete overview of what Web3 Antivirus brings to the table, tune into an AMA session with the …

The notion that bear markets are good for builders appears to be true with the total number of monthly active Web3 developers increasing 5.4% to more than 23,300 over the last 12 months despite a near 70% drop in crypto prices. According to a Jan. 16 report from Electric Capital, “full-time” developers — categorized as those who contribute to 76% of Github commits — also increased 15.2% to over 7000, while “one-time” builders fell 6.2% to over 3,500 during the same time period between December 2021 and December 2022 Despite the crypto market capitalization beginning its long plunge from from …

What is the future of Bitcoin DeFi? The effectiveness of Bitcoin DeFi platforms and protocols will be determined by their long-term sturdiness and security, level of innovation, as well as the incentives provided to investors. With Bitcoin scaling solutions like Rootstock, Stack, Liquid Network and more, it is evident that DeFi is flowing into the Bitcoin network. However, DeFi on Bitcoin is less approachable than on the Ethereum blockchain and other smart contract platforms. That said, if developers want to opt for the Bitcoin blockchain to develop DApps or mint NFTs, they need to rely upon layer-1 or layer-2 solutions, …

A California-based cannabis nursery has turned to blockchain and smart contracts to verify the authenticity of its medicinal plants. The cannabis nursery, known as Mendocino Clone Company, was named in a partnership announcement from the EMTRI project and tech firm Global Compliance Applications on Jan. 13. It will be harnessing the project’s blockchain capabilities to certify all clones, or baby plants, with a batch certificate. Cannabis nurseries are establishments that specialize in plant genetics, producing clones and baby plants and seeds for the purpose of wholesale distribution. The move allows the nursery to “document the beginning stages of a cannabis …

Blockchain use cases have expanded far beyond cryptocurrency in the past years, with multiple industries embracing the technology in a wide range of fields, including healthcare, logistics, and financial services. The hype has many reasons behind it. Blockchains are decentralized, transparent, and increase the capacity of a whole network, opening a window for solutions that require significant computational power. More importantly, it gives users the capacity to control their assets, including their data, without relying on third parties. As blockchain evolves, companies across the world are working to find the best ways to implement the technology on a range of …

Flare, a new layer-1 Ethereum Virtual Machine blockchain platform, has gone live with the launch of two core protocols aimed at powering decentralized interoperability applications. The platform serves as an oracle network that allows developers to build applications that are aimed at being interoperable with different blockchains and internet platforms and services. Flare features two protocols that power its application-building suite. Its State Connector protocol enables information and data to be used securely and at scale from various blockchains and internet sources with the use of smart contracts. The functionality is touted to offer powerful data to the network and …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) investors should buckle themselves up for another big year of exploits and attacks as new projects enter the market and hackers become more sophisticated. Executives from blockchain security and auditing firms HashEx, Beosin and Apostro were interviewed for Drofa’s An Overview of DeFi Security In 2022 report shared exclusively with Cointelegraph. The executives were asked about the reason behind a significant increase in DeFi hacks last year, and were asked whether this will continue through 2023. Tommy Deng, managing director of blockchain security firm Beosin, said while DeFi protocols will continue to strengthen and improve security, he …

The cryptocurrency ecosystem underwent a turbulent year in 2022. Criticism inside and outside of the crypto industry was fueled following the collapse of FTX, Celsius, Three Arrows Capital and the Terra ecosystem. A number of losses have been recorded from these events. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis released a report in December of last year, which noted that the depegging of Terra’s stablecoin, Terra USD Classic (USTC), saw weekly-realized losses peak at $20.5 billion. Findings further show that the subsequent collapse of Three Arrows Capital and Celsius in June 2022 saw weekly-realized losses reach $33 billion. While these events may have …