DappRadar: Dapps industry grew almost 10% in May

According to the latest report from DappRadar, the decentralised apps (dapps) industry is picking up pace.

This May, the industry saw an almost 10 percent increase in daily unique active wallets (dUAW), averaging an impressive 1,967,051 dUAW.

Key sectors, like gaming and decentralised finance (DeFi), continued to exhibit promising signs of growth and stability—further asserting the importance of this thriving industry.

The gaming sector continued its reign as...

5 June 2023 | Altcoins

China to train half a million blockchain experts amid national research centre launch

Here’s a good example of how you can separate the blockchain signal from the crypto noise: China is to train 500,000 blockchain professionals after launching a national blockchain research centre in Beijing.

The centre, as reported by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) citing state-run media outlet Xinhua, will work with universities, research institutes and companies, as well as establish a ‘national-level blockchain network’ to connect existing blockchains in China as...

16 May 2023 | Development

Solana adds emissions tracker to boost blockchain’s transparency

Layer-1 blockchain network Solana has launched a real-time tracking dashboard with data platform Trycarbonara to measure on-chain carbon emissions.

The Solana Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to growing and decentralising the network, said the update makes it the first “major smart-contract blockchain” to provide real-time measures of its carbon emissions.

https://twitter.com/solana/status/1649414091742511105

The organisation added that it hopes its steps will...

24 April 2023 | Blockchain Applications

Bank of England, BIS complete distributed ledger settlements pilot

The Bank of England and Bank for International Settlements (BIS) have completed a joint pilot testing a distributed ledger technology-based settlements system between institutions.

The UK central bank plans to take lessons from the project and apply them to its real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system.

BIS has also published a 44-page report on the project. Titled Project Meridian, it was carried out with the Bank of England at the BIS innovation hub in...

20 April 2023 | Legislation & Government

Three quarters of rug pulls happened on BNB Chain in Q1 2023

Hacking

Of all the rug pull scams carried out across the crypto ecosystem in the first quarter of 2023, almost three quarters occurred on Binance’s BNB Chain, according to a report from Immunefi.

The blockchain security firm’s latest report, ‘Crypto Losses in Q1 2023’, looked at the different kind of crypto hacks, scams, and exploits that took place in the first three months of the year.

It found that 73.3% of rug pull scams, where developers attract investor money for a...

6 April 2023 | Cryptocurrency

Chainalysis: Crypto scammers adapt to match market conditions

Bear Market

Crypto scammers are finding ways to adapt to the bear market despite revenue from scams halving last year, according to research from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis.

A crypto crime webinar hosted by the company explained how scammers tend to shift their tactics as market conditions change.

Such tactics have allowed some scammers to continue to thrive, even though overall revenue from crypto scams fell by 46% in 2022.

Eric Jardine, cybercrime research lead...

24 March 2023 | Blockchain Applications

Security firm Halborn warns 280 blockchains of ‘zero-day’ exploits

Code

Web3 security firm Halborn has found that more than 280 blockchain networks are vulnerable to “zero-day” exploits that could put upwards of £20 billion worth of crypto at risk.

A zero-day vulnerability is one which is discovered by attackers but remains unknown to the network and its developers. Halborn said that blockchains like Dogecoin, Litecoin, and Zcash were all found to be at risk.

https://twitter.com/HalbornSecurity/status/1635262272837746688

The most...

15 March 2023 | Cryptocurrency

SWIFT progresses CBDC project after strong pilot results

Bank

Global banking system SWIFT is moving to the next phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) testing after positive results in the pilot stages.

The interbank network said its project to connect different nations’ CBDCs with one another offers “clear potential and value” in a statement on 9 March.

Lewis Sun, global head of domestic and emerging payments at HSBC, said: “While interest in CBDCs is growing, so is the risk of fragmentation as a widening range...

10 March 2023 | Banking

Ethereum decreased its annual CO2 emissions by over 21M tons

Over 109M more trees would have been needed to offset Ethereum’s CO2 emissions prior to its switch to a more efficient consensus.

Ethereum switched to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus last year in an event called The Merge. Regardless of personal views on Ethereum and the wider blockchain and web3 space, The Merge was broadly seen as an incredible feat of open-source engineering.

The Merge is the first major step on the road to Ethereum 2.0 which aims to tackle the...

23 January 2023 | Blockchain

Ransomware revenue for hackers falls 40% as victims think twice

Security

Ransomware attacks may be coming less effective, as revenue from ransomware fell by 40% to $456 million (£368m) in 2022.

Blockchain analytics firm Chainlaysis shared the data as part of its upcoming 2023 Crypto Crime Report, emphasising that the reduced revenue doesn’t necessarily mean the number of ransomware attacks has fallen.

What has changed is that companies have been upping their cybersecurity measures and ransom victims are becoming less willing to pay up to...

21 January 2023 | Blockchain Applications