Decentralization
DEX dev Uniswap Labs looks for new funding at unicorn valuation: Report
Major decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap is in the early stages of raising significant funds to further expand its decentralized finance (DeFi) offerings, according to a new report. Uniswap Labs, a DeFi startup contributing to the Uniswap Protocol, is engaging with a number of investors to raise an equity round of $100 million to $200 million, TechCrunch reported on Sept. 30. The startup is working with investors like Polychain and one of Singapore’s sovereign funds as part of the upcoming funding round, the report notes, citing two anonymous people familiar with the matter. According to the report, Uniswap would be valued at $1 billion, but the terms of the deal are subject to changes as the discussions around the round have not been finalized. The new funding reportedly aims to bring m...
Are decentralized digital identities the future or just a niche use case?
As users take advantage of online services and explore the internet, they eventually create a digital identity. This type of identity is then tied to central entities like Google and Facebook, which make it easier to share data with new services through simple sign-in buttons. While these digital identity management systems are convenient, they are relying on centralized intermediaries that hold and control user data. Personal identifiers and attestations are in their hands, and they can decide — or be forced — to share this information with other parties. Blockchains offer a solution: decentralized digital identities. These allow individuals to manage information related to their identities, create identifiers, control who they’re shared with and hold attestations without relying on a cen...
Blurring the line between crypto and TradFi could redefine global finance
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 solutions that can bring the world of TradFi and decentralized finance (DeFi) together. Not only that, there are lessons to be learned about what works out...
Litecoin Foundation’s managing director shares his thoughts on decentralized money
Litecoin (LTC), known as “the silver to Bitcoin’s gold,” has been around for almost 11 years — which is quite a feat considering a fair amount of cryptocurrencies go bust within 12 months of launching. Cointelegraph spoke with the Litecoin Foundation’s managing director, Alan Austin, about why he thinks Litecoin’s core utility is serving as a reliable means of payment. As told by Austin, much of his vision for Litecoin is drawn from personal experience: “When I finished grad school, I worked with startup technology companies and real estate. And one of the things I did was managing accounts for firms like Bank of America and Fannie Mae, and it was surprising to see how old their technology was and how difficult it was to get stuff done.” After the 2008 financial crisis, Austin began losing...
Flashbots build over 82% relay blocks, adding to Ethereum centralization
Following the completion of The Merge upgrade, Ethereum (ETH) transitioned into a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, helping the blockchain become energy efficient and secure. However, mining data reveals Ethereum’s heavy reliance on Flashbots — a single server — for building blocks, raising concerns over a single point of failure for the ecosystem. Flashbots is a centralized entity dedicated to transparent and efficient Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) extraction, which acts as a relay for delivering Ethereum blocks. Data from mevboost.org show that there are six active relays currently delivering at least one block in Ethereum, namely Flashbots, BloXroute Max Profit, BloXroute Ethical, BloXroute Regulated, Blocknative and Eden. Relays sorted by number of delivered blocks. Source:&n...
The challenges with building a reputation in Web3 — and how to solve them
Amazing things are being built in Web3 — often by pseudonymous individuals who prefer to keep their real-world identity private. In some ways, this is liberating. It means that anyone can have a chance to get involved in a project and deliver value to the community — irrespective of their background. But as decentralized identities proliferate, there’s one issue that cannot be ignored: Ensuring that there’s an easy way for us to verify the reputation of others. This matters… for many reasons. If you’re about to start using a DeFi project created by someone pseudonymous, you’d like a way to know that they’re trustworthy and dependable. If you’re reading an article that someone has written online, there should be a way of checking that their past works hav...
How adoption of a decentralized internet can improve digital ownership
Known as Web2, the current iteration of the internet emphasizes creating and distributing user-generated content. Websites like YouTube, social media apps like Instagram and Twitter, news sites, personal blogs and more make up a large part of the internet. Web2 is a step up from Web1, which was mainly a read-only web version filled with simple static websites. Web3 aims to bring decentralization and token-based economies to the internet. Web2 versus Web3 The development of several different web protocols at the beginning of the twenty-first century made it possible for programs and content to be linked via read-and-write interactions. Web2, in its present form, enables users to consume material created by other users and create their own content. Readers are probably best acquainted Web2. ...
Delphi Labs shifts research focus to a new crypto ecosystem… and it’s not Ethereum
Crypto research firm Delphi Digital has shifted the focus of its research and development (R&D) protocol arm Delphi Labs to the Cosmos ecosystem. Delphi Labs is Delphi Digital’s protocol R&D arm, with a team of around 50 aimed at incubating “Web3 primitives.” The R&D arm had previously been focused on researching and developing protocols on Terra but was forced to look into other ecosystems following its collapse in May. Delphi Digital is an independent research and investment firm founded in 2018 that provides institutional-grade analysis of the digital asset market, which launched its Labs wing in 2021. In a lengthy report published on Sept. 8, Delphi Digital said its team analyzed a range of different blockchain ecosystems to determine which was...
What is decentralized identity in blockchain?
Self-sovereign identity is a concept that refers to the use of distributed databases to manage PII. The notion of self-sovereign identity (SSI) is core to the idea of decentralized identity. Instead of having a set of identities across multiple platforms or a single identity managed by a third party, SII users have digital wallets in which various credentials are stored and accessible through reliable applications. Experts distinguish three main components known as the three pillars of SSI: blockchain, verifiable credentials (VCs) and decentralized identifiers (DIDs). Blockchain is a decentralized digital database, a ledger of transactions duplicated and distributed among network computers that record information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack or cheat. Seco...
US Federal Reserve discussion paper takes cold, hard look at DeFi, gives it mixed review
There are more than 1,400 DApps in operation and their number is growing rapidly, according to a United States Federal Reserve Board discussion paper dated in June but released on Aug. 30. Ethereum is their biggest host with 470, or 31%, of them. Those decentralized finance (DeFi) products represent a very small share of the global financial system, but may still pose risks to financial stability, the authors said. The cumulative gross value of DeFi products ranged from $78 billion to $224 billion at the beginning of the second quarter of 2022, depending on how DeFi was defined, the paper said. Those figures have fallen dramatically since then, as the crypto winter descended. At the same time, technological developments are improving DeFi’s processing capacity. The authors speculate that w...
Web3 games incorporate features to drive female participation
Although there is still an apparent lack of women in the Web3 sector, blockchain-based games geared toward women may help drive inclusivity. A recent report from the Entertainment Software Association found that 48% of gamers in the United States identify as female. It has also been noted that nearly half of all gamers in the world are women. The interest that women have taken in the billion-dollar gaming sector is notable. This, combined with the massive growth being projected by the GameFi industry, is a key reason why a number of Web3 games are being built specifically for female users. Beryl Chavez Li, co-founder of Yield Guild Games — a global play-to-earn gaming community — told Cointelegraph that she believes blockchain-based games like Axie Infinity have started to see an upt...
NFTs democratize music industry and redistribute song rights
The music industry continues to find inventive ways to integrate decentralized technology into new releases to benefit both artists and their fans. Electronic dance music (EDM) artist R3HAB and blockchain-based music community anotherblock released a single on Aug. 19 with the idea of “democratizing music rights.” The nonfungible token (NFT) included in the drop allows holders to earn royalties based on streaming popularity. The single, “Weekend on a Tuesday,” debuted bundled with an exclusive NFT. Each of the 250 NFTs available entitles the holder to a 0.02% share in the streaming revenue. Anotherblock’s platform provides a value tracking tool so holders can estimate payouts and overall value. Many artists have been using digital assets as a way to connect with their fan base t...
