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Showing posts from February 5, 2022

MLB Team Washington Nationals Partners With Terra Blockchain Community, Ballpark Plans to Accept UST

On February 9, the American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C., the Washington Nationals, announced the team has partnered with Terra, the open-source blockchain platform and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The Washington Nationals detail that the team is a “leading innovator” and is “consistently introducing new technologies to enhance the fan experience.” Washington Nationals Ink Long-Term Deal With Terra Major League Baseball (MLB) team the Washington Nationals has partnered with the blockchain platform and DAO Terra, according to an announcement published by the team on Wednesday. The deal with Terra follows a slew of sports-related deals with crypto firms, but the MLB team will be the first to partner with an open-source blockchain project. In addition to the partnership, the algorithmic stablecoin UST that’s issued on the Terra blockchain will be “accepted as a payment method at Nationals Park as early as next season.” “The Nationals continue t...

US Lawmakers Introduce ‘Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act’ to Boost Cryptocurrency Use for Payments

Several U.S. lawmakers have introduced the Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act to strengthen “the legitimacy of cryptocurrency in our digital economy.” The bill also aims to expand the use of cryptocurrencies for payments. Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act Introduced in the US Representatives Suzan DelBene and David Schweikert introduced the “Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act of 2022” on Thursday. The bipartisan bill is cosponsored by Congressmen Darren Soto and Tom Emmer. The bill “would create a workable structure for taxing purchases made with virtual currency, also known as cryptocurrency,” the lawmakers explained. It will also expand the use of cryptocurrency for payments and further strengthen “the legitimacy of virtual currency in our digital economy.” The current legislation states that any crypto gains must be reported as taxable income regardless of the size or purpose of the transaction, the lawmakers stressed, emphasizing that “This includes purchases as small as buying...

Metaverse tokens surge after Meta tanks, Dorsey roasts Diem after it shuts down, a new malware can target 40 browser wallets: Hodler’s Digest, Jan. 28-Feb.5

Coming every Saturday, Hodlers Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Hodlers beware! New malware targets MetaMask and 40 other crypto wallets According to a report from security researcher 3xp0rt, a powerful new malware variant known as the Mars Stealer, an upgrade of the information-stealing Oski trojan of 2019, can target more than 40 browser-based crypto wallets, including MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet, along with popular two-factor authentication (2FA) extensions. The nefarious software utilizes a grabber function that steals private keys after it has been downloaded, unbeknownst to the user who may have visited or utilized various channels, such as file-hosting websites, torrent clients and any other shady downloaders. Notably, the malware checks the set language o...

3 things the crypto sector must offer to truly mainstream with TradFi

“Reforming the face of finance” is crypto’s primary sales pitch, but the sector needs to offer a few basic components before being welcomed into the arms of the traditional finance sector. In the past year, we’ve seen the crypto economy undergo exponential expansion as heaps of money poured into various cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFT), crypto indices, insurance products and decentralized options markets.  The total value locked (TVL) in the DeFi sector across all chains has grown from $18 billion at the beginning of 2021 to $240 billion in January 2022. With so much liquidity in the ecosystem, the crypto lending space has also grown a significant amount, from $60 million at the beginning of 2021 to over $400 million by January 2022. Despite the exponential growth and the innovation in DeFi products, the crypto lending market is still only limited to token-collateralized loans, i.e. pledge one cryptocurrency as collateral to borrow anothe...

Venezuelan Government Approves New Tax for Cryptocurrency and Foreign Currency Transactions

The Venezuelan Government has approved a new tax that would affect transactions made in foreign currency and cryptocurrency transactions. Approved by the National Assembly of the country, the tax, called the “large financial transactions” tax would collect up to 20% over transactions made in currencies different from the national fiat currency or the Petro. Venezuelan Government To Tax Crypto Transactions The Venezuelan government has approved a new tax that will affect transactions and payments made with cryptocurrencies and foreign currency. The tax, which is called the “large financial transaction” tax, seeks to incentivize the use of the national currency that has lost its relevance in a multi-currency environment like the one present in Venezuela in the last years. The tax establishes that any transactions or payments made in foreign currencies or cryptocurrencies, without a limit quantity, will have to pay up to 20% over each movement, depending on the nature of it and the ...

A Mining Rig That Boasts 440 TH/s? Miners Question the Legitimacy of New Bitcoin Mining Device

The cryptocurrency community has been discussing a newly announced bitcoin miner called the Numiner NM440 that claims to produce speeds of up to 440 terahash per second (TH/s). Furthermore, a publicly-listed company called Sphere 3D has detailed that it purchased 60,000 Numiner NM440 mining rigs and aims to deploy 32 exahash per second (EH/s) of SHA256 hashpower. Furthermore, there’s been some disbelief among members of the crypto community on whether or not the hashrate speed claims are legitimate. Numiner NM440 Revealed, Manufacturer Claims Device Boasts Speeds Up to 440 TH/s A number of crypto supporters have been talking about a new bitcoin (BTC) miner that claims to process speeds that are higher than any mining rig on the market today. Furthermore, the machine called the Numiner NM440 series, allegedly processes at higher hashrate speeds than Bitmain’s upcoming models. That’s because the Numiner NM440s reportedly produces 440 TH/s, in comparison to the Bitmain Antminer S19 X...

The Metaverse calls: NFTs construct virtual economies to stay relevant in 2022

“Utility” is the 2022 NFT buzzword and a few forward-looking projects are venturing into the Metaverse by integrating gamification and token emission strategies to their roadmap. As NFT projects prepare to embark into the Metaverse, it seems they are pivoting from their static imagery to integrating mechanics that provide utility. Notably, Bored Ape Yacht Club has amassed over $1 billion in total volume and announced a mobile play-and-earn game, while fellow primate projects, CyberKongz and SmolBrains continue to announce and integrate new gamification features to their collections. Investors seem to not only be searching for projects with strong communities and utility, but it appears technical capabilities rank high on the list too. This notion was made evident after Cool Cats’ Cool Pets collection experienced back-to-back hiccups with its launch, and has since been in a downtrend as holders await their reveal. Cool Pets 7-day avg. price / volume. Source: OpenSea Cool Pets Pe...

Easy-to-use DeFi protocols will become the new gatekeepers to crypto

Future and current decentralized projects need to consider utility and ease of accessibility in order for DeFi to survive the unpredictable volatility of the market. It has arguably never been easier to participate in the crypto ecosystem. After centralized exchange powerhouse Coinbase recently began allowing its users to deposit part of their fiat paychecks into the exchange in the form of crypto, more people are beginning to realize the potential of the industry and participate in this ever-growing ecosystem.  But, crypto is commonly perceived as fundamentally intricate or lacking the proper interfaces, and whether this is right or wrong, this has been the perception for some time. To some people, the premise of digital currencies will always seem far too complicated. More recently, however, there has been an emergence of easier avenues into the crypto space for those keen to learn more. It’s important to establish just why people should consider getting into crypto. As with...