The current state of the economy has no bearing on the IKONIC Metaverse at all

The current state of the economy has no bearing on the IKONIC Metaverse at all. Everything went smoothly, and we finished the job ahead of schedule. The study's findings shed new light on the metaverse in important ways. It will be a very long time before any fresh content is added to the IKONIC metaverse. In order to take part in digital get-togethers, you'll need a receiver and a pair of NFT speakers. Gender-neutral activities may be beneficial for couples where one partner is a man and the other a woman. A lack of interest in NFL-sponsored events has never been seen before (commonly known as NFTs). You can pick from a wide variety of sporting events and recreational activities. For safety's sake, you should always have multiple backups of your data.

​

#IKONIC #CRYPTO #BSC #BINANCE #BITCOIN

Bitcoin Hard-Forks

Does any Bitcoin Hard-Fork - do Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin Gold (BTG), Bitcoin Diamond (BCD), even Bitcoin Satoshi-Vision (BSV), or any other of the more obscure, random Forks - do any of them FAIL the Howey Test?

Truly, I doubt anyone knows.

Presently, the one thing we do know is Gary Gensler, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States of America, is only willing to publicly label Bitcoin a commodity:

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2022/06/27/sec-chair-gary-gensler-discusses-potential-crypto-regulation-and-stablecoins.html

But what about cryptocurrencies that came from Bitcoin, that Bitcoin spawned? Logic suggests they would also be commodities - right? If your family's Italian, aren't your kids Italian too?

If only family and finance were that simple!

We don't know for certain how the SEC or the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) plan to label and classify the coins derived from all these different Hard-Forks. But with the evidence available, we can make our best predictions.

Let's begin with arguably the most popular Hard-Fork - Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

In the summer of 2017, dissention arose among Bitcoin miners about the implementation of a new technology called "Segregated Witness" (SegWit). While initially created to modify transaction malleability, allowing for second-layer protocols like the Lightning Network and Smart Contracts, it was ultimately promoted as an effective method for doubling block size - from 1 MB to 2 MB - by reducing verifiable signature data in the input field of successive blocks; this would speed up transactions and increase scalability. However, a number of miners had reservations about the technology; they believed it didn't meaningfully address the scalability problem. So they banded together to create an entirely new cryptocurrency, literally forking off the original Bitcoin. It has its own Blockchain, with its own protocol. There's no reliance on SegWit; the maximum block size has been increased to 8 MB. And it was done with no pre-mined coins, and no Initial Coin Offering (ICO):

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2040221.0

To be clear - as of March 2022, the maximum block size has actually quadrupled - it's now up to 32 MB. So Bitcoin Cash appears to be just a faster, cheaper version of Bitcoin, right?

Well, believe it or not - Gary Gensler seems to agree.

We've got an example of him saying it. At the 36:00 mark, he definitively says Bitcoin Cash is not a Security:

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1yoJMVyeVOWxQ

We've got an example of him writing it. On page 43 of the paper - page 65 of the document - he writes Bitcoin Cash does "not appear to trigger the US Howey test" :

https://www.sipotra.it/old/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/The-Impact-of-Blockchain-Technology-on-Finance-A-Catalyst-for-Change.pdf

But please keep in mind - this conference was held, and this paper was published, in 2018 - well before he was Chairman of the SEC. He wasn't the Big Boss then; he didn't set the rules, or direct policy. Legal precedents, political pressure, even external influence, may have changed his mind between then and now. We just don't know.

But unless he was lying, we can definitively say it.

Bitcoin Cash is not a Security.

What about Bitcoin Gold (BTG), Bitcoin Diamond (BCD), Bitcoin Satoshi-Vision (BSV), or anything else? Well, there doesn't seem to be such transparent statements defining them. What we do have is a Supreme Court decision in the United States called the Howey Test:

https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/howey-test#:~:text=The%20Howey%20test%20determines%20if,from%20the%20efforts%20of%20others.

Using it, we can determine if a cryptocurrency PASSES the Test, so it's labeled a Security. The intention, of course, is to FAIL the Test; that's when it's treated like a commodity.

Basically, the Howey Test has four parts:

1) There must be an investment

2) In a common enterprise

3) With the expectation of profits

4) From the efforts of others - some third-party

The simple act of buying cryptocurrency normally satisfies the first three prongs of this Test. After all, only a liar, or a moron, would admit to not expecting any profit from an investment in such a common enterprise. Incidentally, stablecoins are generally not included here, because there's no expectation of profit. They're stable; they don't change. Furthermore, there's an argument stablecoins can be excluding because of something called the Reves Test:

https://lawcast.com/2014/11/25/what-is-a-security-the-howey-test-and-reves-test/

But the issue regarding stablecoins is far from over. There's many things yet to be decided. Here's Chairman Gensler saying stablecoins "may well be" Securities:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3HRyPxXtoo

In any event, it's normally the fourth prong - the "third-party" prong - that's the determining factor; it's where the rubber meets the road.

If you continue watching this video, at the 48:15 mark, Gensler answers a question by talking about a "central core group" having an "assymetrical advantage of information":

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1yoJMVyeVOWxQ

He then goes on to say if this central core group "went away", then the coin in question would not be a Security. So if there's some sort of Foundation, or a Board of Directors, or a Development Group, or even a simple Management Structure that has some sort of assymetrical advantage - if they can inflate the price of a coin by buying it with something else, if they can deflate the price by selling it, if they can increase supply, decrease supply, if they can freeze it, burn it, wrap or unwrap it - if they can do anything a normal invester can't, then the coin in question is a Security.

To be clear - Gensler didn't say all that - I did, but that's what I think he means.

So when we look at Bitcoin Gold, and skip to :57 of this instructional video, we'll see the Bitcoin Gold "Team" performed a "post-mine" of 100,000 coins:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TcecMFdC0Y&t=94s

Assymetical Advantage, anyone?

Bitcoin Gold is a Security.

What about Bitcoin Diamond? I couldn't find such a nice smoking gun, but when browsing the Whitepaper, I noticed various terms under the Financial Strategy section like "Development Team", "Full-Time Employees", and "Payment Ecosystem":

https://btcd.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Bitcoin-Diamond-Whitepaper-1.pdf

There's even something called a BCD Ambassador Program:

https://www.bitcoindiamond.org/join-us/

Certainly sounds like a "central core group", a "third-party", even "others".

Bitcoin Diamond is a Security.

What about Bitcoin Satoshi-Vision? Well, I don't know much about Craig Wright, but I do know he's been involved in a bunch of lawsuits throughout the years. In this one, he's suing some developers of Bitcoin Satoshi-Vision for $4.5 billion worth of coins:

https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/19/craig_wright_bitcoin_sv_high_court_sueball/

He didn't win:

https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/19/craig_wright_bitcoin_sv_high_court_sueball/

But even the possibility of some third-party controlling $4.5 billion worth of coins is enough to convince me some sort of assymetric advantage exists for someone, somewhere.

Bitcoin Satoshi-Vision is a Security.

So what about everything else? This diagram might give you an idea just how complicated all these Hard-Forks truly are:

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/major-bitcoin-forks-subway-map/

Some of them are so obscure, I couldn't find any information about them. Some of them don't even exist anymore!

If there's something that suggests any of these Hard-Forks have sufficently decentralized Developement Teams with no assymetric advantage over the average investor, I haven't seen it.

But as I said before, I truly doubt anyone knows.

What I do know is Bitcoin Cash is the only Bitcoin Hard-Fork I could find with verifiable evidence it's not a Security.

That's what I think. What about you?

Jending

Have an idea involving micropayments? It's possible. Here's how

OK, hopefully the headline was scammy enough for you to click. No, this is not a scam. Yes, it includes using Bitcoin. No, it's still not a scam. This method gives you USD, you don't hold any Bitcoin. This doesn't expose you to any price volatility, nor are there exorbitant fees. It's virtually free to do.

Note: this only works for US, El Salvador & Argentina residents.

Here goes...

1.) Open an account at https://strike.me. This app is very similar to Cash App, but supports getting paid on the Lightning Network (which is a Layer 2 of Bitcoin). I believe Cash App is also working on this functionality.

2.) Set up your own self-hosted install of https://lnbits.com (or use cloud hosted version at https://voltage.cloud for ~$10 USD/mo).

3.) Connect LNBits to Strike. (Note: this is currently finishing development and will be out within weeks. If you want to test it, check out Github)

4.) Set up a way to get paid on LNBits. This software has tons of little apps that allow you to collect payment in various ways (paywall, or event tickets, or tip jar, or line-item invoices, or Spotify jukebox, or anything else).

5.) Collect a payment in LNBits. You price things in USD. But, you're receiving BTC...

6.) That BTC is immediately forwarded to Strike, converted to USD and available for withdrawal to your bank account.

Following these steps you can collect micropayments in USD for next-to-nothing fees (like <$0.01 per transaction, yes serious) and you have no exposure to the volatility of BTC.

Your potential customers can hold their balance in USD as well, if they don't want to hold any crypto. They just deposit some USD into their Strike account to pay these micropayments. Nobody ever sees any crypto, just USD.

Don't be a hater. I don't stand to make any money off this or anything. I discovered this whole thing recently and am amazed on what's possible. I had no idea that I can accept a payment of $0.25 USD and receive $0.24+ within seconds.

You all are smart here. I think you can figure out how to build a business around this idea.

Hey! Got this email 9 days ago. Is this a scam, or a real threat? I didn't clicked to any shady links. I noticed that in my spam folder today.. I'm worried. I got this email from my own email adress. Both the sender, and the addressee was literally my email adress. Please help me, what should i do?

(Me writing) Both the sender, and the addressee was literally my email adress. However, in Gmail, in the security tab it says it was sent by "codetel net do", and did not encrypt the message.

​

Don't miss your unsettled payment. Complete your debt payment now.

Hi there!

I regret to inform you about some sad news for you.
Approximately a month or two ago I have succeeded to gain a total access to all your devices utilized for browsing internet.
Moving forward, I have started observing your internet activities on continuous basis.

Go ahead and take a look at the sequence of events provided below for your reference:
Initially I bought an exclusive access from hackers to a long list of email accounts (in today's world, that is really a common thing, which can arranged via internet).
Evidently, it wasn't hard for me to proceed with logging in your email account (they put here my email).

Within the same week, I moved on with installing a Trojan virus in Operating Systems for all devices that you use to login to email.
Frankly speaking, it wasn't a challenging task for me at all (since you were kind enough to click some of the links in your inbox emails before).
Yeah, geniuses are among us.

Because of this Trojan I am able to gain access to entire set of controllers in devices (e.g., your video camera, keyboard, microphone and others).
As result, I effortlessly downloaded all data, as well as photos, web browsing history and other types of data to my servers.
Moreover, I have access to all social networks accounts that you regularly use, including emails, including chat history, messengers, contacts list etc.
My unique virus is incessantly refreshing its signatures (due to control by a driver), and hence remains undetected by any type of antiviruses.

Hence, I guess by now you can already see the reason why I always remained undetected until this very letter...

During the process of compilation of all the materials associated with you,
I also noticed that you are a huge supporter and regular user of websites hosting nasty adult content.
Turns out to be, you really love visiting porn websites, as well as watching exciting videos and enduring unforgettable pleasures.
As a matter of fact, I was not able to withstand the temptation, but to record certain nasty solo action with you in main role,
and later produced a few videos exposing your masturbation and cumming scenes.

If until now you don't believe me, all I need is one-two mouse clicks to make all those videos with everyone you know,
including your friends, colleagues, relatives and others.
Moreover, I am able to upload all that video content online for everyone to see.
I sincerely think, you certainly would not wish such incidents to take place, in view of the lustful things demonstrated in your commonly watched videos,
(you absolutely know what I mean by that) it will cause a huge adversity for you.

There is still a solution to this matter, and here is what you need to do:
You make a transaction of $1370 USD to my account (an equivalent in bitcoins, which recorded depending on the exchange rate at the date of funds transfer),
hence upon receiving the transfer, I will immediately get rid of all those lustful videos without delay.
After that we can make it look like there was nothing happening beforehand.
Additionally, I can confirm that all the Trojan software is going to be disabled and erased from all devices that you use. You have nothing to worry about,
because I keep my word at all times.

That is indeed a beneficial bargain that comes with a relatively reduced price,
taking into consideration that your profile and traffic were under close monitoring during a long time frame.
If you are still unclear regarding how to buy and perform transactions with bitcoins - everything is available online.

Below is my bitcoin wallet for your further reference: (BTC wallet code, I deleted it)

All you have is 48 hours and the countdown begins once this email is opened (in other words 2 days).

The following list includes things you should remember and avoid doing:
> There's no point to try replying my email (since this email and return address were created inside your inbox).
> There's no point in calling police or any other types of security services either. Furthermore, don't you dare sharing this info with any of your friends.
 If I discover that (taking into consideration my skills, it will be really simple, because I control all your systems and continuously monitor them) -
 your nasty clip will be shared with public straight away.
> There's no point in looking for me too - it won't result in any success. Transactions with cryptocurrency are completely anonymous and untraceable.
> There's no point in reinstalling your OS on devices or trying to throw them away. That won't solve the issue,
 since all clips with you as main character are already uploaded on remote servers.

Things that may be concerning you:
> That funds transfer won't be delivered to me.
 Breathe out, I can track down everything right away, so once funds transfer is finished,
 I will know for sure, since I interminably track down all activities done by you (my Trojan virus controls all processes remotely, just as TeamViewer).
> That your videos will be distributed, even though you have completed money transfer to my wallet.
Trust me, it is worthless for me to still bother you after money transfer is successful. Moreover, if that was ever part of my plan, I would do make it happen way earlier!

We are going to approach and deal with it in a clear manner!

In conclusion, I'd like to recommend one more thing... after this you need to make certain you don't get involved in similar kind of unpleasant events anymore!
My recommendation - ensure all your passwords are replaced with new ones on a regular basis.

Cardano Rumor Rundown August 18, 2022

Hey Everyone!

Let’s go….

Newly Covered Today:

1. The Pavia avatar merch drop for plot holders has finally arrived. https://merch.pavia.io/ https://twitter.com/Pavia_io/status/1559852416820027395
2. Worried about quantum computing and crypto? There’s already movement in the space that can be incorporated into Cardano. https://twitter.com/JohnAlanWoods/status/1559847847264141313
3. There is so much political strife in ETH over the censorship issue that the different sides are literally adopting flags at this point. This is how civil wars start. Poloniex is now even hinting at supporting both the proof-of-stake ETH and the proof-of-work ETH Forks. https://twitter.com/ercwl/status/1559284150749765641 https://twitter.com/Poloniex/status/1555085757450272768
4. We now have more information on the first Virtua metaverse game and a naming contest. https://twitter.com/VirtuaMetaverse/status/1559940305310420992
5. Cardano metaverses seem to be doing just fine compared to what Meta put out just two days ago (Aug 15). https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/08/17/does-mark-zuckerberg-not-understand-how-bad-his-metaverse-looks/ https://twitter.com/day25/status/1559842465477435399

Previously covered, but still interesting:

1. Alessandro Konrad and Thomas Vellekoop are proposing a new metadata standard. https://twitter.com/berry_ales/status/1547592977186312195
2. DripDropz reports they have registered as a money services business with FinCen, will now do AML, and will institute staking. https://twitter.com/DripDropz_io/status/1547694112542822400 https://news.dripdropz.io/drip-staking-rewards-more-3a6b475225ae https://twitter.com/DripDropz_io/status/1547693683721457664
3. I’ll be in a Twitter Space with Yazan of Virtua at 4pm UTC on July 15! https://twitter.com/VirtuaMetaverse/status/1547664729845514240
4. Day 1 of the MuesliSwap Hungry Cows mint went down on July 18 with a very smooth whitelist and random selection process. I hope more projects choose to employ a mint process that looks like this whether whitelisted or not. Not having to worry about your keyboarding speed and connection latency during the request phase was very refreshing. https://nft.muesliswap.com/ https://twitter.com/MuesliSwapTeam/status/1549101020239859713 https://twitter.com/JacobNdelaRosa/status/1549046830914478080
5. Ardana is hinting at long awaited announcements this week. https://twitter.com/ArdanaProject/status/1549031244104704000
6. The founder of Compound thinks all NFTs are Veblen goods. It’ll be interesting watching this play out in Cardano and elsewhere. https://twitter.com/rleshner/status/1548776604402421761 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good
7. Time magazine is running a cover about how the metaverse will change everything. https://time.com/6197849/metaverse-future-matthew-ball/
8. The Virtua NFT claim for certain early minters will begin on Wednesday, 20 July at 4pm UTC and run for 24 hours. https://twitter.com/VirtuaMetaverse/status/1549470446046908417
9. The MuesliSwap public mint will be going down on Wednesday, 20th of July, minting requests can be sent between 12 and 8 PM UTC. Minting starts after 8 PM UTC. Similar to the previous whitelist drop, this will be a fair request mint. https://medium.com/@muesliswap/phase-2-hungry-cows-by-muesliswap-public-mint-882c3c6451fa
10. Apparently, IOHK has joined the American Chamber of Commerce in Mongolia. https://twitter.com/AmChamMongolia/status/1549216741045293056
11. Looks like Dubai is planning to add 40,000 metaverse jobs over the next five years. https://twitter.com/Blockworks_/status/1549335302384353280
12. Virtua gave us a preview of the fancaves for large land plots. https://twitter.com/VirtuaMetaverse/status/1549823956504530948
13. Today, Cardano users were discussing the functionality and implications of sending multiple transactions in one Cardano transaction. https://twitter.com/javifs96/status/1549732735828344833
14. Reports are coming in claiming this video shows tanks protecting a bank in China after the bank declared deposits not subject to withdrawal. Others argue this is just a night rehearsal for a parade. In either case, just another reminder about what the crypto space has always said about keys. https://twitter.com/BitcoinMagazine/status/1549808472618926082 https://twitter.com/CarlBMenger/status/1549790500516990979 https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/07/10/china/china-henan-bank-depositors-protest-mic-intl-hnk/index.html
15. Things are heating up between Congress and the SEC and it looks like certain members of Congress are actually on our side. https://twitter.com/RepTomEmmer/status/1549414157925195779
16. There is a new twitter account called Cardano Heroes tracking the movement of whales from multi-pool stake pool operators to single pool operators. https://twitter.com/ADAHeroes
17. Looks like CFTC Commissioner Caroline D. Pham is publicly opposing the SEC’s take on asset categorization in the Coinbase insider case. https://twitter.com/CarolineDPham/status/1550159347984044033
18. Coti has released a medium article on the Djed fee structure. https://twitter.com/COTInetwork/status/1550088008254251011
19. It looks like the MuesliSwap Hungry Cows mint was phenomenally successful. https://twitter.com/MuesliSwapTeam/status/1550085557732139008
20. Stake with Pride and Emin Gun Sirer remind everyone that staking in a blockchain with slashing is definitionally unsafe. https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1550152521275953152
21. Polina Vinogradova on babel fees. https://twitter.com/timbharrison/status/1550557249868816384
22. The 3AC Founders were interviewed by Bloomberg. https://twitter.com/PastryEth/status/1550521333691387905
23. Lyn Alden makes an interesting thread about crypto being a separation of “money and state”. https://twitter.com/LynAldenContact/status/1550960304472956930
24. Here’s an article from SundaeSwap covering the perspective of a dApp team preparing for the upcoming fork. https://sundaeswap-finance.medium.com/the-vasil-hard-fork-from-a-dapp-builders-perspective-9ee454758c16
25. Elizabeth Warren and five other members of the US Congress have asked the EPA to “require reporting of energy use and emissions from cryptominers.” https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2022.07.15%20Letter%20to%20EPA%20and%20DOE%20Re%20Cryptomining%20Environmental%20Impacts.pdf
26. FutureFest is already working on a plan to have actual humans working in Cardano Metaverses. https://twitter.com/futurefestxr/status/1551607701385318400
27. There is now a “blockchain-in-a-box” project for Java devs to create blockchain solutions that Ergo, IOG, and Hyperledger have been involved in. https://twitter.com/IOHKMedia/status/1551593026568523778 https://www.bitcoininsider.org/article/176881/blockchain-tool-will-allow-java-developers-build-blockchain-solutions
28. Apparently Solana is embracing its “open for business only sometimes” history with actual physical stores. https://twitter.com/Scott_eth/status/1551539635137953793
29. While Cardano’s eras are named after historically significant figures like Voltaire, Basho, Byron, & Shelley; the Ethereum roadmap labels are more like a parody of a reproductive health class. https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1551603545752870912
30. Is security the biggest challenge facing the mass adoption of Web 3? FYEO thinks so. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1551672421769519115
31. Plutus Core programs generated from Typescript are now a thing. https://twitter.com/MicheleHarmonic/status/1551261395295080449 https://www.typescriptlang.org/
32. SpaceBudz has laid out the path to migrate to new art. https://twitter.com/spacebudzNFT/status/1552042478085308418
33. Cardano 360 will be this Thursday (July 28). https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1551968626470690816
34. Kraken apparently forgot that doing business with Iran is a hot button issue for the US government. https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-crypto-exchange-kraken-suspected-violating-sanctions-nyt-2022-07-26/
35. Senators Toomey and Sinema think you shouldn’t have to pay taxes on crypto purchases or trades under $50. https://seekingalpha.com/news/3860821-us-senators-introduce-bill-that-would-end-taxes-on-small-crypto-transactions
36. For the first time in modern history, the Federal Reserve has executed back-to-back 75 basis point hikes. https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/27/economy/fed-meeting-interest-rates-75-basis-points/index.html
37. Indigo reports that they are now feature complete! https://twitter.com/Indigo_protocol/status/1552268277438619648
38. We now have blockchain tracked clothes on Cardano. But, these shirts are expensive. https://twitter.com/OriginThread/status/1552280610923749384
39. You no longer have to dislike just Meta (Facebook) OR crypto VCs. You can now hate them both simultaneously in the form of their bastard children: Aptos & Sui. https://twitter.com/milesdeutscher/status/1552281885438488577
40. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis showed a -0.9% GDP growth print this morning (July 28). That’s two quarters in a row of negative growth which corresponds to a common definition of a recession although the National Bureau of Economic Research is considered the official arbiter of recessions and marks such events based on a wide range of economic factors analyzed over many months. https://www.bea.gov/ https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/28/economy/us-economy-second-quarter-gdp/index.html
41. The July Cardano 360 was released today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHHVaxkHFrE
42. The ADA Realm & Actum Games AMA recording is now available in discord. https://discord.com/channels/903957555083087892/913541370436808754
43. CardaStation just onboarded a game developer to their team who spent the last six years at Ubisoft working on games like Riders Republic and Ghost Recon. https://discord.com/channels/908827661504237599/909005782790586379
44. Here’s a mysterious post from Ready Player Me about some news coming from Pavia. https://twitter.com/readyplayerme/status/1552993598022508550
45. The Ledger Nano now supports 100 Cardano native tokens via Ledger Live. https://www.ledger.com/blog/ledger-expands-cardano-support-manage-100-native-tokens-with-ledger-live
46. SundaeSwap now has a monthly video development update. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc8ZCVCMcXM
47. There was a hack of the Nomad bridge for 150 million that affected several different Cardano projects and wrapped assets in Cardano. https://twitter.com/Oraclecharli3/status/1554266219787784192 https://twitter.com/samczsun/status/1554252024723546112 https://twitter.com/IagonOfficial/status/1554258785690157056 https://twitter.com/GeroWallet/status/1554264725923381248 https://twitter.com/Milkomeda_com/status/1554302195763269632
48. Charles gave us a very concise summary of what’s going on with Vasil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na09S56FwuY
49. Never forget how many people told us not to worry about the “transitory inflation”. https://twitter.com/patrickbetdavid/status/1554086521468239872
50. As I write over 18k people have signed a petition asking for the removal of Gary Gensler. https://www.change.org/p/retail-investors-fire-gary-gensler-as-sec-chairman-for-obstruction-of-justice
51. Apparently there is a Swiss bank now offering Cardano staking to its customers. https://watcher.guru/news/cardano-staking-available-at-swiss-sygnum-bank-as-ada-moves-to-crush-ethereum https://twitter.com/sygnumofficial/status/1554349276985278464
52. WingRiders posts a thread on the impact of the Nomad bridge hack and how the team responded. The thread will be sure to cause some controversy. https://twitter.com/wingriderscom/status/1554370695919976448
53. As if the Robbery Forest wasn’t busy enough yesterday, there are late breaking reports from today (August 3rd) about some kind of exploit related to the Solana world. https://twitter.com/nftpeasant/status/1554612135992479751 https://twitter.com/SolportTom/status/1554609401369137152 https://twitter.com/magiceden/status/1554620084831674370
54. Charli3 may have some bad news for you if you bought their ERC-20 tokens on the cheap after the hack yesterday. https://oraclecharli3.medium.com/charli3-update-post-nomad-hack-a3cd576237a0
55. The giant gulf between the Cardano approach to smart contract standards and that of our competitors is highlighted amid the Nomad bridge exploit coverage. https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1554648163532689408 https://twitter.com/sherlock_hodles/status/1554650723291381761
56. Southrye makes an interesting observation about what I would call one of the bigger differences between Solana and Cardano. https://twitter.com/Southrye/status/1554679752430161922
57. Looks like Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin bet isn’t playing out how MicroStrategy expected. He is no longer CEO. He is now only the Chairman. https://twitter.com/Mayhem4Markets/status/1554560424267366409 https://finance.yahoo.com/news/michael-saylor-microstrategy-ceo-bitcoin-204325431.html
58. Here’s John Woods on the possibility of Algorand/Cardano collaboration. https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1555001121508249601
59. This article contains allegations that may cast a heavy shadow of doubt on the purported total value locked (“TVL”) of the Solana ecosystem. https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/08/04/master-of-anons-how-a-crypto-developer-faked-a-defi-ecosystem/
60. Pavia has unveiled the first look at one of the eight districts in the Pavia Plaza. This one appears to be Japan themed. https://youtu.be/4YCQPPo_O1U https://twitter.com/Pavia_io/status/1555210549423644674
61. The former President of the New York Fed says a full blown recession is either already here or will be very soon. https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/04/economy/recession-inflation-fed-dudley/index.html
62. BlackRock and Coinbase are now working together to bring crypto exposure to institutional clients. https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/04/economy/recession-inflation-fed-dudley/index.html
63. The US Treasury has added a bunch of Tornado Cash mixer related ETH addresses to their naughty guy sanctions list. Reports are also coming in that Circle has frozen USDC belonging to some of these Tornado Cash users. Hilarious reactions followed. https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/recent-actions/2022080 https://twitter.com/bantg/status/1556712790894706688 https://twitter.com/juthica/status/1556648502658318337 https://twitter.com/bantg/status/1556656916234965000 https://twitter.com/econoar/status/1556752321773576193
64. PWC just did a big metaverse survey of 5k consumers and 1k business leaders that indicated 67% of companies are actively engaged in metaverse projects (beyond just experimentation) and 82% expect metaverse activities to be a part of their normal business activities in the next three years. https://www.pwc.com/us/metaversesurvey
65. FutureFest is putting on a metaverse concert event on Wednesday at 7pm ET. https://twitter.com/futurefestxr/status/1556688896825516032
66. I think we have found the perfect insult: “that’s web2 thinking”. https://twitter.com/matiwinnetou/status/1556681984789086208
67. Celsius and Voyager users are currently worried bankruptcy proceedings might involve a clawback of certain withdrawals from these centralized financial platforms. https://twitter.com/TheRealPlanC https://twitter.com/SimonDixonTwitt/status/1556574979524804609
68. Someone actually did dust a bunch of .eth wallets with ETH from TornadoCash. https://twitter.com/josephdelong/status/1557011056572129280
69. Coinbase reported a $1.1 billion net loss in Q2 vs. $1.59 billion in net income last year in Q2. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/09/coinbase-coin-earnings-q2-2022.html
70. Reports are coming in that Curve was exploited for $573k. https://twitter.com/WatcherGuru/status/1557104364690489346 https://twitter.com/CurveFinance/status/1557104676830601216
71. Bank of England researchers are worried the use of cryptoassets in the metaverse could lead to systemic risks. https://bankunderground.co.uk/2022/08/09/cryptoassets-the-metaverse-and-systemic-risk/
72. A law firm representing Pavia has released a “case study” on their work with Pavia. https://twitter.com/StephensonLawHQ/status/1557360513654423559
73. More surprises from the Coinbase quarterly filing: the SEC has sent subpoenas to Coinbase regarding its stablecoin and yield generating products. https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0001679788/000167978822000085/coin-20220630.htm#ibd16326c8f82466fbb851d71853b44a8_262
74. Virtua gives us a first in-world peek at a game inside their metaverse. https://twitter.com/VirtuaMetaverse/status/1557411483809636352
75. Don’t forget, the Pavia merch claim for plot holders will start today (Aug 11) and run for two weeks. https://discord.com/channels/897161313120321536/897682883471347763
76. Artifct has released some images in their discord that seem to be related to avatars for their moon metaverse. https://discord.com/channels/882364185244237884/920120911414300773
77. CardaStation also provided some in-world footage of the community center they are building. https://discord.com/channels/908827661504237599/909005782790586379
78. Pavia just unveiled their rebrand and new website. https://pavia.io/ https://twitter.com/Pavia_io/status/1557769622320996352
79. Pavia also gave us a much more extensive unveiling of the first district of the Plaza. It’s a narrated fly through with some interesting details. It sounds like the next district will be Cyberpunk. https://youtu.be/EhHuP4Z-aDk
80. Cardano Node 1.35.3, which should be the Vasil hardfork combinator event version if all goes according to plan, was released today (Aug 11). https://github.com/input-output-hk/cardano-node/releases/tag/1.35.3
81. There are some people debating whether the Ethereum Merge will result in tax liability. One of the items discussed is whether ETH holders will essentially be receiving a new coin if proof-of-work miners keep the old chain (and the old PoW ETH coins) alive. https://twitter.com/LucidCiC/status/1557710488955301889
82. Lots of people took a quote from Vitalik about centralization of Ethereum out of context today (Aug 11). He was actually talking about the importance of sharding. https://youtu.be/kGjFTzRTH3Q?t=2167 https://twitter.com/NerdNationUnbox/status/1557260572621766660
83. Wow! The Netherlands arrested the developer of Tornado Cash on Friday (Aug 12). The stakes just got a little higher in crypto. I suspect a lot of crypto platform developers will feel a little less easy about relying on their open source/decentralized credentials as a shield against government action. https://www.fiod.nl/arrest-of-suspected-developer-of-tornado-cash/
84. An interesting point has been made that validating blocks in ETH 2.0 that contain Tornado Cash or other sanctioned transactions would be a violation of the sanctions while not validating those blocks can also lead to financial penalties (“inactivity leaking”) in ETH 2.0. The fear is that this could lead to protocol-level censorship to accommodate sanctions. https://twitter.com/lex_node/status/1558521705244594181
85. Virtua has released a new episode of their podcast with some hints as to what they are building and some interesting discussion around building a virtual world that will operate across different technologies (browser, PC, mobile, etc). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BSl7no82nM
86. The last two episodes of CopiCafe (the Cornucopias podcast episodes 18 & 19) have revealed some interesting details including screen shots of the mobile game, that the fourth zone of Cornucopias will be inspired by the Canary Islands, the Custom Dome sale may happen in the next two weeks if they can beat the Vasil hardfork, development of land staking is in its final stages, & a custom dome video will be coming next week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvGAGNv86Y0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnUlXU_tRZY
87. Cornucopias has released the pricing on their custom domes in discord. https://discord.com/channels/829374949587419137/842583414439542805
88. The Robbery Forest strikes again. This time it’s reported to be 1.2 billion printed in AUSD. https://twitter.com/WatcherGuru/status/1558735108672065538 https://twitter.com/AcalaNetwork/status/1558785360670298112
89. IOG Researchers are at Crypto 2022 in Santa Barbara to present the “Ofelimos” Proof of Useful Work (PoUW) paper. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1559170170307985409
90. The Cardano Island Land Claim Event is going down next week! https://twitter.com/VirtuaMetaverse/status/1559261587298467841
91. Orbis has released the whitepaper for their L2 ZK-Rollup Protocol. https://papers.orbisprotocol.com/whitepaper.pdf https://twitter.com/orbisproject/status/1559178331433512960
92. WingRiders held a community vote on issues related to the Nomad Exploit Incident. https://twitter.com/wingriderscom/status/1559177924699471873
93. Here’s a great thread from Maladex on why total value locked (“TVL”) makes no sense at all as a metric in crypto. https://twitter.com/CardanoMaladex/status/1559552276234215424
94. Ethereum is having a crisis of conscience over the inevitable censorship & loss of permissionlessness that will come out of the Tornado Cash sanctions. https://twitter.com/sassal0x/status/1559357892645437440 https://twitter.com/econoar/status/1559271411658526720 https://twitter.com/freeslave06/status/1559350621714653192
95. The censorship is already there as a practical matter as shown in this interesting thread on more centralization trouble in the world of Ethereum staking/block validation. https://twitter.com/varun_mathur/status/1558905077523484672
96. CZ very convincingly makes the case that the large corporate institutions are already here in crypto. https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1559642866787426314

~Army of Spies