We’ve always been interested in doing Reviews here at Decrypt. The problem is so few consumer-facing crypto products were ready for the masses. That seems to be changing at last. We expect to see loads of neat-o stuff aimed at regular people in 2019.
To prove the point, today, the delightful and savvy Adriana Hamacher has cobbled together a clever guide of the top five digital wallets, aimed at crypto rookies. These are so easy to use that even our slavering, dribbling editor could set one up. And not a single Louis Vuitton in sight! [Ex. editor: Clear out your desk, Munster. You’re through.]
Ethereum’s Virtual Board Game
SpankChain CEO Ameen Soleimani has unveiled a new project designed to help struggling Ethereum devs earn their crust.
Writes award-winning (and handsome) Debrief writer Ben Munster:
Moloch (distinct from Moloch Coin) is Ethereum’s new, experimental crowdfunding service named after the Canaanite God of child sacrifice. A sequel to the hacked, dead and defunct DAO, Moloch was built by SpankChain CEO Ameen Soleimani to raise funds for down-on-their-luck Ethereum devs. But in practice it’s a collection of complicated, codified instructions—a rulebook for real-world fundraising as written by the Monopoly Man.
Ethereum’s endgame isto reconstitute life AS WE KNOW IT as a rules-based game in which every facet of EXISTENCE is reified, repackaged, and redistributed by way of an all-encompassing algorithm, called MOLOCH. Kinda. Just read it, and prepare to have your mind BLOWN, lassy.
Breaching the ramparts
Everyone knows that bitcoin was the first use of blockchain, rather than a middleman or bank, to create digital money. And most people who come to this site also know that Ethereum was next to come along and extend the use of blockchain to virtually anything that relies on a contract… which is literally the foundation of all business, politics and… most relationships between people. But the growing Ethereum platform, as noble and ambitious as it is, has been thwarted by scalability and speed. Well, this week, it’s facing a massive, much-anticipated upgrade, known as “Constantinople.” The grotesque Tim Copeland elucidates.
Other stuff
Bitmain continues its Earthbound descent
Coindeskreports that Bitmain is shuttering yet another overseas office, this time in Amsterdam, amid growing concerns over the Chinese mining giant’s profitability. The closure joins that of Bitmain’s Israel outlet, which shuttered in December. Among other recent bad news for the company was the reduction of on-site staff in Rockdale, Texas, and the reported removal of Jihan Wu from his role as CEO. As per, it’s all for Bitmain’s “long-term, sustainable and scalable business.” Of course it is.
De-burglary
The attacker who siphoned off $270,000-worth of funds from the Ethereum Classic network has returned $100,000 to crypto exchange Gate.io, which revealed the news in an announcement (Gate.io itself suffered a loss of $100,000). Though Gate.io has failed to contact the attacker, it speculates that the intruder was a white-hat hacker (hilariously/racistly misspelled as “white hacker by Gate.io)—interested only in exposing the network’s vulnerability. Yet that doesn’t explain why he/she/they kept $170,000, does it?
The Schlock
Crypto site The Block saw fit to publish a 10,000+ word transcript of an interview with its CEO, Mike Dudas, on Peter McCormack’s podcast What Bitcoin Did. The two exchanged fawning compliments and waxed rhapsodic about the power of journalism (seriously!) Dudas also cited his “great respect” for Decrypt. Other memorable quotes include...jk, I’m not going to parse through all that!
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Crypto sleuthing firm Chainalysis has added support for Crypto.com’s Cronos blockchain, its native coin CRO, and all CRC-20 tokens that trade on the Cronos chain to its Know Your Transaction service.
This marks the latest upgrade to the Chainalysis KYT service, which flags suspicious and high risk transactions for compliance teams at traditional and crypto financial institutions. The service counts Robinhood (HOOD), BNY Mellon (BK), PayPal (PYPL) and Genesis among its clients.
Cronos is an inte...
It's pretty well known that lots of crypto people have moved into Clubhouse, the hot, audio-based social media platform. The biggest group? Black Bitcoin Billionaires, which claims 17,000 members.
Now Square Inc., via its CashApp, is partnering with the group's organizer, Lamar Wilson, to create more Black millionaires through Bitcoin via “Operation: Satoshi Millionaire.” The month-long campaign began February 4 and focuses on getting Bitcoin into the hands of more Black families, and educating...
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Poyo no! There’s a scammer running amok on Augur. “Poyo,” a mysterious figure associated with a wad of defunct markets, has been exploiting the prediction market’s “invalidity rules,” in which funds staked on badly worded/constructed markets are redistributed evenly to bettors once the market is shuttered. By deliberately designing these markets to guarantee their failure, Poyo has been profiting off this redistribution of funds...