Square's New Name 'Block' Highlights Company Focus on Blockchain

When pondering what Jack Dorsey would do after his departure from Twitter, my first thought was focusing on Square and cryptocurrency. Now, a few days later, the company has changed its name to Block.

We built the Square brand for our Seller business, which is where it belongs. Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same. No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help increase access to the economy.

Vitalik Buterin Introduces EIP-4488 to Help Reduce Ethereum Gas Fees

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, is proposing EIP-4488 as a way to help reduce gas fees.

After highlighting concerns regarding the transaction fees on the Ethereum network, Buterin suggested the new EIP-4488, saying that it would “decrease transaction calldata gas cost, and add a limit of how much total transaction calldata can be in a block.”

In other words, EIP-4488 would limit the total transaction calldata, where data from external calls to functions are stored, before reducing the calldata gas cost to remove the possibility of breaking the network.

Loopring's New Smart Wallet Can Help Recover Stolen or Lost Crypto

Loopring Wallet is a first-ever Ethereum smart contract wallet with zkRollup-based transfers. Gas-free, secure, and simple. It allows you to avoid gas fees and network congestion. It integrates Loopring’s zkRollup, a layer-2 scaling protocol to increase speeds and lower fees by 1000x relative to Ethereum mainnet. Completely self-custodial; only you control your assets. Say goodbye to seed phrases and paper backups, say hello to social recovery. Choose a combination of friends, your other wallets (hardware or software), or institutions as guardians of your wallet. If you ever lose access to your mobile, they help you recover your assets. As long as more than half of your guardians are trustworthy, your assets are secure.

Teen in Canada Arrested Over $36.5 Million Crypto Theft

Bloomberg reports on a theft involving a Canadian teen stealing US$36.5 million in cryptocurrency from a victim in the U.S.

Police said the victim was targeted through a cell phone scam known as SIM swapping, in which a scammer hijacks a wireless customer’s phone number to intercept two-factor authentication requests and gain access to the victim’s accounts.

The arrest was the result of a joint investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force, the Hamilton Police Service said in a statement. The investigation was launched last year in March.

If you haven’t already done so it’s a good idea to lock your SIM card with a PIN.

Williston, North Dakota Adds Cryptocurrency ATM to Airport

The City of Williston announced the addition of a cryptocurrency ATM at Williston Basin International Airport. It supports over 40 coins such as Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ether, Cardano, and more.

The City of Williston does not act as the fund custodian or manage any crypto transactions. Purchases and withdrawals are handled by the DCM operator, Coin Cloud. This marks the first government-hosted cryptocurrency kiosk and the first Coin Cloud installation in an airport. The DCM is located before security on the first level near the rental car offices and the baggage carousel.

Brave Browser Introduces Native Crypto Wallet Called 'Brave Wallet'

On Tuesday Brave introduced a native wallet within its browser that doesn’t require an extension called Brave Wallet.

Unlike most crypto wallets, the Brave Wallet does not require extensions; it’s browser-native, reducing security risks and reliance on extra CPU and memory. Users can transact with almost any crypto asset with superior safety and performance, as well as connect with other wallets and Web3 DApps. The Brave Wallet will soon be available on our mobile apps as well.

Apple's Not Wrong to Avoid Crypto (for Now), Apple Small Business Support, with Jeff Gamet - ACM 560

Bryan Chaffin and Jeff Gamet discuss Bryan’s thought that Apple isn’t wrong to avoid cryptocurrency, at least not for now. But, there are lots of things coming in the crypto world that will change that. They also talk about Apple’s new Small Business Essentials service that helps companies manage their employees’ devices.

What is the World Economic Forum Doing About Blockchain?

The World Economic Article advises companies to integrate blockchain technology, writing about “middleware” such as Chainlink (LINK).

While there remains a general assumption that blockchain technology is still in its early stages, in reality, it is already entering the early phase of majority adoption, especially by the finance industry. Recalling the massive digital transformation propelled by the internet, many forward-thinking enterprises in the finance sector and beyond are already taking important steps to become blockchain-ready.

I think it’s interesting that WEF is talking about blockchain stuff. It’s also good news for companies such as Chainlink, because they make it easy for stuff on a blockchain to interact with stuff off the chain. Disclaimer – LINK is one of the cryptocurrencies I invest in.

Blockchains Aren't as Private as You Think, But They Could Be

Cybersecurity expert Mashael Al Sabah was recently featured on MIT’s Business Lab podcast. She talks about privacy issues with blockchain technology and how they can be fixed. You can listen to the podcast with the link below (direct link on Apple Podcasts), and.or read the podcast transcript.

A lot of people think that they are completely anonymous when they use Bitcoin, and this gives them a false sense of security. In our research, what we did is that we crawled social media, like there’s popular forum for Bitcoin users called Bitcointalk.org, and we crawled Twitter as well for Bitcoin addresses that users attributed to themselves. In some forums, people share their Bitcoin addressees along with their profile information. So, now you have the public profile information, which includes usernames, emails, age, gender, city.

Adobe's Behance Platform Adds Support for NFT Art

Behance, a portfolio platform for graphic designers, will let creators connect their crypto wallet to showcase NFT art.

The company is working to include blockchains like Polygon, Solana, Flow and Tezos. It is also partnering with NFT marketplaces like OpenSea, SuperRare, KnownOrigin, and Rarible to display provenance data from the Content Authenticity Initiative — which is now built into a number of Creative Cloud tools — visible on their sites, in addition to Behance.

Mastercard and Bakkt Partner to Offer Crypto Loyalty Programs

Mastercard and Bakkt announced a partnership to make it easier for merchants, banks and fintechs in the U.S. to offer cryptocurrency loyalty programs.

Mastercard will also integrate crypto into its loyalty solutions, enabling its partners to offer cryptocurrency as rewards and create fungibility between loyalty points and other digital assets. This means that consumers can earn and spend rewards in cryptocurrency instead of traditional loyalty points and seamlessly convert their crypto holdings to pay for purchases.

Coinstar Adds Bitcoin ATMs to Walmart Retail Stores

Following a collaboration with Coinstar, Walmart customers can now make use of 200 Bitcoin ATMs in the retail giant’s pilot program.

The process of buying Bitcoin through these machines is straightforward but relatively costly. Shoppers will insert banknotes into the ATM, which will then issue a voucher carrying a redemption code. The voucher can only be redeemed after the completion of the Know-Your-Customer process. According to the Coinstar FAQ page, “Each purchase carries a transaction fee of 4% and a cash exchange fee of 7%.”

Translation: If you really want to buy Bitcoin with cash, this method may be a good option for you. Otherwise you can buy cryptocurrencies through exchanges. Privacy downside: Many of these exchanges are required to use a Know Your Customer (KYC) process. Upload your photo, driver’s license, and fill out other personal information.

North Vancouver Plans to Use Electricity From Bitcoin Mining for Heat

The city of North Vancouver in Canada is planning to use electricity created by Bitcoin mining to heat houses.

The technique will involve using MintGreen’s Digital Boilers, which recover more than 96 per cent of the electricity used for bitcoin mining to heat commercial and residential buildings.

Operating at full capacity 365 days a year, the bitcoin miner will be able to heat 100 residential and commercial buildings in the city, situated in the hills north of Vancouver.

Polygon Partners With DraftKings on NFTs and Web3 Technology

Polygon and DraftKings have “formed a strategic agreement” to adopt NFTs and Web3 technologies with DraftKings Marketplace.

To participate in the marketplace, users can browse listings on the marketplace’s website. Preseason Access Collection NFT drops by Autograph of iconic athletes featuring Tom Brady, Wayne Gretzky, Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, and Derek Jeter, were sold out almost immediately since the launch of the platform in August.

Coinbase Calls on Government to Create Separate Crypto Regulator

Coinbase wants the U.S. government to create a cryptocurrency regulation agency separate from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Laws drafted in the 1930s to facilitate effective oversight of our financial system could not contemplate this technological revolution. Elements of those laws do not have room for the transformational potential that digital assets and crypto innovation make possible. They do not accommodate the efficiency, seamlessness, and transparency of digital asset markets, and thus risk serving as an unintended barrier to current innovations in the digital asset economy.

NFT Marketplace 'OpenSea' Has Serious Security Flaws

OpenSea, one of the biggest marketplaces for NFTs, has security flaws that leave user wallets open to attack.

The researchers stated that the vulnerability allowed hackers to steal users’ entire crypto wallets. As said, OpenSea has been the biggest marketplace for buying, selling, and trading NFTs and other digital collectibles.

CheckPoint came across the vulnerability for the first time following reports of stolen crypto wallets triggered by airdropped NFTs. The Check Point researchers later discovered critical security issues “that, if exploited, could have led hackers to hijack user accounts and steal entire crypto wallets of users, by sending malicious NFTs”.