Bitfinity Weekly: Issue #90
Welcome to Issue #90 of Bitfinity Weekly for our #BITFINIANS community. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, sign up here.
What's in Today's Email?
- Global Crypto News
- This Week in our Blog
- NFT Market Bytes
- Tweet of the Week
- Meme Time
- A Matter of Opinion
Global Crypto News
🚚 Keep On Truckin': The Federal Court of Canada has ruled that it was unconstitutional for the Trudeau government to use the Emergencies Act to freeze cryptocurrency donations during the 2022 'Freedom Convoy' protests in 2022. The freeze, which was enacted to curb financial support for truckers protesting Covid-19 vaccine mandates, had been contested by Canadian civil liberty groups as presidential overreach and misuse of emergency law.
🙏 Mandate of Heaven: A Colorado pastor has been charged with civil fraud charges after running a $3m cryptocurrency scam. Eligio Regalado, a preacher for the online-only Victorious Grace Church, and his wife spent tens of thousands of dollars on luxury items, cosmetic dentistry, and "a few hundred thousand dollars" worth of home remodeling, which Regalado claims God told him to do.
📄 Chasing Paper: Do Kwon's Terraform Labs filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy last Sunday, but his Serbian company 'Codokoj22 d.o.o. Beograd' remains operational. On Wednesday DL News uncovered the mystery business which Kwon set up in 2022 while he was still on the run from Interpol. It is unclear what Kwon's intentions are for what currently seems to be just a corporate filing.
🔥 Hot Stake: You can now run Ethereum validator nodes on MetaMask. Users with the required amount of 32 $ETH, can now stake directly on the popular browser-based hot wallet for an annual yield of roughly 4%, minus fees. Consensys Staking service already services validators totally about 4% of all staked $ETH.
🎥 Not Another Heist Movie: Heather "Razzlekhan" Morgan and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein are getting the Hollywood treatment. The untitled Amazon MGM Studio movie follows the couple, arrested in 2022 on charges of conspiracy relating to a $4 billion crypto heist, and are currently awaiting conviction.
This Week in our Blog
Are Bitmaps a piece of the foundational layer for the Bitcoin-based metaverse? In this article we do a deep dive into one of the most talked about asset in the Bitcoin ecosystem, as well as walk you through what the BRC-420 standard is:
Hans
Bitcoin remains the most secure blockchain in existance. How is that possible? We explain how Bitcoin mining works to ensure security, and how you can leverage Bitfinity EVM to make the most out of Bitcoin's strengths:
Hans
NFT Market Bytes
🇰🇷 No Seoul: South Korean telecommunications giant KT Corporation is sunsetting MINCL, their NFT market and launchpad. Citing "shifting business conditions", KT Corp. is merely the latest in high profile Korean businesses to exit the web3 game midst market turbulance and regulatory uncertainty.
🪄 The Magic Touch: Magic Eden, a cross-chain NFT marketplace best known for their prominence in the Solana and Bitcoin ecosystem, announced earlier this week that it will "open-source its minting and trading protocols in collaboration with a new Non-Fungible DAO". Additionally, Magic Eden plans to amplify their existing 'Diamonds' rewards program across all serviced blockchains, as traders will be able to earn a new NFT token alongside their Diamonds.
🧑🌾 Touching Digital Grass: Airdrop farming season is still going strong for GameFi projects. Pixel, which successfully wrapped up their points farming period last week, reinvigorated players by hosting giveaways and daily tasks. Meanwhile, a confirmed future airdrop in Nifty Island has motivated one pseudonymous dev to recreate Diablo III within the web3 game.
Tweet of the Week
Exciting News!! Our Bitcoin domain campaign hit 50K+ participants!🌐40K+ new members on Discord & socials! 🎉
— Bitfinity Network (@bitfinitynet) January 25, 2024
Due to overwhelming support, we're extending the campaign. Stay tuned for the end date! #BITFINIANS #Bitfinity
Did you miss out on our Bitcoin domain campaign? Great news, it's not too late!
Meme Time
A Matter of Opinion
Edward Snowden was in the news again this week for his involvement in the legal defense fundraise for Tornado Cash developers. No one understands the necessity of privacy better than Edward Snowden, an ex-CIA and NSA whistleblower who became an international fugitive after exposing a global surveillance program that indiscriminantly surveilled electronic communications of ordinary citizens. Since his exile, Snowden has worked tirelessly to advocate for anonymity and individual rights to privacy.
Although he is subject to some controversy, it's not a stretch to say that Snowden has paid a heavy price to raise the alarms on nonconsensual data mining and surveillance. In other words, he is one of the best qualified person to speak up about what is currently happening with Tornado Cash devs.
Tornado Cash was one of the most popular cryptocurrency 'mixers', which allowed users to anonymously send crypto by obscuring transactions. Americans were banned from using the service in 2022, after a government sanction that declared Tornado Cash a money laundering tool for criminals. Shortly after, three Tornado Cash developers (Roman Storm, Roman Semenov, and Alexey Pertsev) were arrested on various criminal charges which many in crypto have decried as unethical and unfairly targeted.
Tornado Cash was an open source project, which had led many to argue that this case is a matter of the first American constitutional amendment. Indeed, there are some highly startling implications to the outcome of the Tornado Cash devs' trials--if devs are responsible for what others do with open source code they've written, contributors to privacy projects like Monero could be in legal danger.
Connect with Bitfinity Network
Bitfinity Wallet | Bitfinity Network | Twitter | Telegram | Discord | Github
*Important Disclaimer: While every effort is made on this website to provide accurate information, any opinions expressed or information disseminated do not necessarily reflect the views of Bitfinity itself. The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice.
Comments ()