Crypto

DeGeThal – Missed Binance? Missed Revolut?  This is your next stepping stone. With the crypto world growing fast and steadily,and taking over the markets worldwide, it is only wise to hop in and join the crypto bandwagon. That being said, we would like to introduce to you the all brand new DeGeThal.  DeGeThal,is a crypto currency that has been built using the latest blockchain technology and is meant to serve each and every person in carrying out their day-to-day  transactions. As such, it is meant to be used as a payment token in the financial ecosystem. With its entry into the market, it seeks to fulfill its goal of ensuring that anyone in the world has the ability to use an affordable global currency. The whole reason behind all these is, the creators of DeGeThal believe that the crypto market growth has not yet reached its ceiling and therefore its development will be used as a viable and reliable substitute to the conventional financial system regardless of the economical, epidemiological or political factors. It is said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with just a step. DeGeThal’s first step was made in the last quarter of 2021 when it was created. It is in this period that the creators are working hard to build the network infrastructure of this new crypto currency as well as creating solutions for their partners. It is in the year 2022 that this currency’s prototype is set to be released for use after which it is anticipated to boom in the markets.  At the moment, a second live presale is ongoing, for those who had missed the first. It does not go on forever however. This being the last, DeGeThal tokens that are on presale have a multilevel bonus that comprises of six stages of increasing bonuses relative to where the presale ends in the following order;  +5% bonus for presale of  0 – 2000 BNB (ICO learner) +7.5% bonus for 2000 – 4000 BNB (FUD destroyer) +10% bonus for 4000 – 6000 BNB (Bullish power) 12.5% bonus for 6000 – 8000 BNB (Hodl champion) 15% bonus for 8000 – 9999 BNB (Legendary whale) +20% bonus for 10000 BNB (Divine mooning) The tokens can be bought from their website: www.degethal.com/presale. Still in the spirit of offers, one can earn 5% of the contribution made by another who has joined from your referral. FEATURES OF DEGETHAL Being a currency that is tailored to everyone’s need, DeGeThal is making financial services simple and accessible. This is done by bringing together a vast assortment of financial products all in one platform. It links fiat and crypto and all will be available with only a click. More so, the banking license allows it to be deposited with fiat and crypto, which are seamless and quick, allows exchange of assets and even withdrawal at ATMs. This is its multi-currency feature. Security being something that is of great concern, it has been prioritized. The assets are protected and securely stored to prevent theft of assets in any way by checking procedures to the ones used by superior banks. This does not mean that it is now harder use, no. In fact it is very easy and simple to use.  As an addition, the funds are accessible through a regulated wallet that provides transparency while still enhancing protection. The access to the wallet is guaranteed and thus one can engage in crypto transactions in real time. Some of the transactions that can be engaged in include but are not limited to paying bills and shopping.  From the application, one is able to open a bank account in less than one minute whereby the kyc will be required in the next 24 to 48 hours after the account is opened. This is relatively convenient compared to other crypto currencies. On issues pertaining the Demo App, it can be downloaded from GooglePlay and testing is only limited to the members who are subscribed to the whitelist. We cannot go without appreciating the efforts that have been put into the making of this phenomenal currency. In that regard, special thanks to the executive team that comprises; Alin George Luca – Founder and Chief Executive Officer Tiberiu Nedelea – Chief Marketing Officer Eugen Tofan – Chief Operating Officer Peter Barta – Chief Investment Officer Marian Oancea – Chief Technical Officer Peter Kazan – Business Advisor Jan Korevaar – Business Advisor For more details, the following sites have proved to be useful: Website: www.degethal.com  Twitter: https://twitter.com/degetal  Telegram: https://t.me/DeGeThalOfficial  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/decentralizedthaler 

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and we throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes! This week, our 6 Questions go to Yat Siu, the co-founder, group executive chairman and managing director of Animoca Brands, who leads various NFT projects.A veteran technology entrepreneur and investor, Yat is the co-founder, group executive chairman and managing director of Animoca Brands — a global leader in blockchain and gaming with the mission to deliver digital property rights to the world’s gamers and internet users. Animoca seeks to create a new asset class, play-to-earn economies and a more equitable digital framework contributing to the building of the open Metaverse.Yat began his career at Atari Germany in 1990. In 1995, he moved to Hong Kong to establish Hong Kong Cybercity/Freenation, the first free webpage and email provider in Asia. In 1998, he set up Outblaze, an award-winning pioneer of multilingual white label web services. In 2009, he sold Outblaze’s messaging unit to IBM and pivoted Outblaze to become an incubator of projects and companies to develop digital entertainment services and products. One of those incubator projects is Animoca Brands. 1 — From smart contracts to DApps, NFTs and DeFi, we have seen so many of crypto’s next “killer apps,” but none have really taken off yet. What will stick?The killer apps for crypto are already here, they’re just in need of further growth and penetration. Gaming is the killer app — more specifically, GameFi. Games like Axie Infinity and The Sandbox have captured the imagination of thousands and have grown accordingly by enabling their users to own their own game content and benefit materially from that content. The top DApps tend to be games (DappRadar currently lists six games in the top 10 DApps), and I do not expect that to change. 2 — If you were investing in startup companies right now, what kind of blockchain-based business opportunities would catch your eye? As it happens, we are, in fact, actively investing in blockchain companies (startups and non-startups) all over the world. We are particularly interested in projects that can drive mass adoption, and in this we consider Metaverse-related companies to be critical to future growth. By that, I don’t just mean Metaverse world builders but also the companies that provide open assets that will be used in the Metaverse — for example, virtual car builders as opposed to an entire racing game.Another important quality that we look for is openness. We invest in projects that grow the open Metaverse and facilitate the delivery of true digital property rights based on assets that derive their utility from being open, interoperable and composable. This includes platforms and protocols (Flow, Polygon, etc.) and marketplaces (OpenSea, Bitski, BNV, etc.), as well as consumer products like games and worlds. In essence, the companies that we invest in must be open to openness.My concern is that the large Web 1.0 and 2.0 companies, which already enjoy a massive user advantage, will try to shape the Metaverse into a series of closed systems operated on their terms and under their total control. These proprietary metaverses are not likely to be very democratic and will lack the openness and digital property rights that should rightfully characterize the next iteration of our online experience.I think that tech giants like Facebook are unlikely to offer their metaverse users any meaningful degree of ownership — or they might do so at face value, but then implement strict content and usage licenses as we see in social media services today. Without digital property rights, it will not be possible to create a democratic, responsible, equitable Metaverse.  3 — Which countries are doing the most to support blockchain — and which ones will be left behind? The winners in this arena will be countries with a history of serving alternative and/or fast-growing financial products and that are highly supportive of blockchain — such as Liechtenstein, Singapore and Switzerland. Other winners will include highly developed economies that have contributed to and promoted the blockchain industry — Germany, for example, where spezialfonds allow pension funds and insurers to hold up to 20% of investments as cryptocurrencies, and where the stock exchange (Deutsche Boerse) and a major bank (Commerzbank) have already invested to support the trading of NFTs.Countries that experiment and invest in the blockchain space will attract growth and the best and brightest talent, and those that don’t will miss out not only on the benefits of the technology but also on the talent. One example of this is how Australian crypto companies are moving to places like Singapore and drastically lowering Australia’s competitive capacity in this important, growing segment of technology and finance.This alert about Australia’s missed opportunity is being sounded not only by crypto pundits and similarly interested parties but also by respected industry sources such as the CEO of National Australia Bank, one of the major financial institutions in the country.Countries with a well-established culture of disruptive innovation, such as the United States, continue to forge ahead in blockchain despite the risks involved and the lack of clarity from regulators. I think that the U.S., despite having more regulation, will remain a key environment for blockchain-related companies and associated venture capital (global crypto growth is fuelled in significant part by U.S. venture and other capital). Regulation is important, and I hope it can be achieved without stifling growth and innovation.The biggest losers will be countries that reject applications of blockchain (including crypto) and, particularly, countries that reject the entire digital asset space. The use of fungible and nonfungible tokens provides an open, transparent value system where growth is being driven by the network effect. The more people join this new open system, the stronger it becomes, while the old closed networks become more isolated and less attractive.For a nation, rejecting blockchain and crypto is like refusing to join the World Trade Organization and saying no to global free trade. 4 — What talent do you lack and…

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s 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 WeekBinance to launch $1B fund to develop BSC ecosystemBinance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, announced an accelerator fund worth a whopping $1 billion this week. The funds will go toward supporting the development of the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem. Binance outlined that the 10-figure sum will be part of a tiered development model across four specialist areas: Talent Development, the Liquidity Incentive Program, the Builder Program and the Investment & Incubation Program.The largest benefactor of the fund is said to be the Investment & Incubation Program, which will receive around $500 million, according to Binance. The branch will focus on multichain expansion in areas such as metaverses, gaming, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Coinbase follows FTX and Binance in launching NFT marketplaceCoinbase announced on Tuesday that it is launching an NFT marketplace later this year. The platform will initially support tokens from the Ethereum blockchain and will be launched in the U.S. before being expanded globally.Given that Coinbase tallied around 68 million verified users and 8.8 million monthly active users in Q2, the firm’s new NFT platform could soon mount some serious competition to giants such as OpenSea.Evidence of this was seen after the announcement, as sign-ups for the waitlist reached almost 1.1 million people within 48 hours. In contrast, data from DappRadar shows that OpenSea has a rolling 30-day average of 261,000 active users. G7 leaders issue central bank digital currency guidelinesThe Group of Seven (G7) forum, composed of the world’s seven largest advanced economic nations, discussed a totally centralized form of digital assets called central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) this week. The meeting resulted in the endorsement of 13 public policy principles regarding their implementation.The G7 determined that any newly launched CBDCs should “do no harm” to the central bank’s ability to maintain financial stability, suggesting that harm to individual sovereignty by tracking one’s spending habits and programming their money is on the table.Some of the CBDC-focused policies included mandates that the digital currencies must be energy efficient and fully interoperable on a cross-border basis, along with complementing the current cash-based system. Crypto lending firm Celsius Network raises $400MCrypto lending platform Celsius Network raised $400 million in an equity funding round led by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and WestCap. The firm said it will use the fresh capital to double its headcount to around 1,000 employees and expand its offerings and products. “It’s not $400 million. It’s the credibility that comes with the people who wrote those checks,” Celsius Network co-founder Alex Mashinsky said in an interview with the Financial Times on Tuesday.Another firm to close a capital raise was crypto risk management company Elliptic, which raised $60 million in Series C funding. The round was led by Evolution Equity Partners and included support from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, AlbionVC, Digital Currency Group, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital and SBI Group, to name a few. Top engineers working on Facebook’s wallet jump ship to A16z’s crypto fundReports surfaced on Monday that two of the top engineers working on Facebook’s spooky digital currency project packed their bags and took a hike to venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).The engineers who escaped the clutches of Mark Zuckerberg are named Nassim Eddequiouaq and Riyaz Faizullabhoy. The duo spent two years working on Facebook’s digital wallet dubbed Novi. Faizullabhoy will serve as the chief technology officer of a16z’s crypto division, while Eddequiouaq will take on the role of the chief information security officer.“Andreessen Horowitz has shown an impressive dedication to advancing the entire crypto ecosystem over the past decade, and we jumped at the chance to join their premier team and provide technical support to their rapidly expanding portfolio,” Faizullabhoy said.  Winners and Losers  At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $60,687, Ether (ETH) at $3,817 and XRP at $1.13. The total market cap is at $2.44 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Stacks (STX) at 38.94%, Perpetual Protocol (PERP) at 30.55% and Telcoin (TEL) at 24.63%.The top three altcoin losers of the week are Arweave (AR) at -21.68%, Terra (LUNA) at -17.50% and Fantom (FTM) at -15.41%.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.   Most Memorable Quotations “Bitcoin is a lot less risky at $43,000 than it was at $300. It’s now established, huge amounts of venture-capital money have gone into it, and all the big banks are getting involved.”Bill Miller, founder of Miller Value Partners “I think the big difference between Ethereum and Bitcoin is that Bitcoin is a platform where the value of the ecosystem comes from the value of the currency but, in Ethereum, the value of the currency comes from the value of the ecosystem.”Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum “I can say ‘I have a gold ETF or a Bitcoin ETF,’ but I’m storing that gold in my basement. Is the SEC going to allow that? Probably not. Unless companies can show they can custody it and actually address a lot of the issues Gensler specifically mentioned, it’s not going to work.”Tad Park, founder and CEO of Volt Equity  “I’m not a student of Bitcoin and where it’s going to go, so I can’t tell you whether it’s going to $80,000 or zero. But I do believe that there is a huge role for a digitized currency, and I believe that’s going to help consumers worldwide — whether it’s a Bitcoin or something else, or more of a governmental official digital currency, a digital dollar, that will play out.”Larry Fink, chairman of BlackRock “We haven’t even gotten to the parabolic growth part of Web 3, which is going to create untold wealth.”Mark Yusko, CEO of Morgan Creek Capital “The reason I own Bitcoin is because the U.S. government and every government in the western hemisphere is printing…

This weekly roundup of news from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong attempts to curate the industry’s most important news, including influential projects, changes in the regulatory landscape, and enterprise blockchain integrations.  This week China is back to work after its week-long national day celebrations, an event that is always filled with flag-waving, military parades and enthusiastic nationalism. This year’s version was intensified by the recent homecoming of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou after three years of detention in Canada, as well as heightened tensions in the Taiwan Strait. Government regulators have spent the better part of the last half-year wiping out the cryptocurrency industry in the mainland, a topic that has given the Shanghai Man plenty of topics to discuss in this weekly column. Limited access to marketsOn Wednesday, Binance took a step towards compliance by announcing it would be closing P2P for RMB markets. According to the announcement on Binance’s website, the change will happen on December 31, 2021. Meanwhile, it will check for users from the mainland of China and switch their accounts to a withdraw-only mode. At the same time, users will only be able to withdraw, close positions, and other essential functions. Binance will notify corresponding users by email 7 days before the account switch.  The closure of RMB P2P markets makes holding crypto a bit more risky in China  The news was not well-received by the remaining retail holders, who feel that fewer and fewer reliable off-ramps are available without resorting to more drastic measures such as offshore accounts. Binance had been one of the most popular P2P markets, due largely to the reputation of the exchange, its liquidity, and Binance’s geographic distance from Beijing. Binance has always maintained that its website was blocked in China and it doesn’t have an exchange business presence here, therefore it was exempt from mainland regulatory policy.  There’s no denying that a lack of P2P fiat options will make investing in crypto a lot less comfortable for Chinese citizens living in mainland China. With the eCNY central bank digital currency right around the corner, tighter fiat regulations might make it hard to move large amounts of fiat in and out of the crypto markets. On the other hand, many people are less concerned, knowing that OTC markets will spring up whenever there is an opportunity to provide an in-demand service. Technology always has a way of developing where it is needed the most. Reading between the linesThe move seems quite severe on paper, but there are still a few grey areas that need to be examined. It’s no secret that going into this year, millions of Chinese users were registered on top exchanges and many of them were active traders and large holders. Some of them will likely be deterred by recent government policies and exchange rules, and reduce their exposure to the asset class. Others are actively being funneled into DeFi, as evident by the rising on-chain trading volumes coming from China. Other users will simply elect to wait, especially considering the rapidly-changing nature of national policies. One common belief is that exchanges that elect to self-regulate may not actually enforce this policy very strictly at first. This is supported by the lack of clarity on how overseas Chinese users should be handled. Users may be able to circumvent rules altogether by supplying proof of international residency or alternative forms of ID. The silver lining here is that any sell pressure caused by uncertainty or fear from Chinese investors will be dampened by a long transition period of compliance. For a company that operates completely outside of China, it’s very difficult for regulators to enforce policies, especially if the exchange is claiming to self-regulate, by banning IPs, and not accepting new Chinese registrations. This is the strategy that exchanges such as OKEx and Gate.io seem to be following, as both of these large platforms with Chinese roots announced that they were already fully compliant, didn’t accept Chinese users, and as a result wouldn’t be making any drastic changes. Gate announced its policy without emphasizing the removal of existing mainland Chinese users. https://t.co/q3yYLMX0Wp— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) October 13, 2021 A prominent social media Influencer on Weibo wrote: “The content of this announcement is a bit strange. I think the exchange will conduct a self-check and try to discover the remaining Chinese users on the platform, but in the case after the self-check the exchange announces there are no Chinese users, the exchange will just leave them there.” This post was later deleted on Weibo. Currently, all topics related to Binance and other exchanges are censored by social media apps like WeChat. Waning impactPerhaps the most surprising takeaway from all this was the market indifference to the news. Previous announcements of this magnitude have had very pronounced effects on the market price. On Wednesday, following the announcement by Binance, the BTC price dipped briefly before bouncing back to over $58,000 the following day. What this shows it that the market is putting less weight on the impact of news coming out of China, instead focusing on narratives like the hoped-for upcoming ETF approvals in the US and Vladimir Putin’s surprise admission about cryptocurrencies. Investors can take solace in the fact that with more growth and decentralization, the market risk is more diversified. The right to enforceOn October 11, the financial magazine Caijing put out a story discussing the enforcement of the recent crackdown on cryptocurrencies. The main points were that the recent announcements from the Central Bank were merely guidance and that actual judicial interpretation and enforcement needed to come from the public prosecution authorities in the court system. The article implied that judicial bodies were now conducting research into the legality of mining and cryptocurrency businesses, and that this could spell trouble for rule breakers. Those who had currently succeeded in skirting the rules might not be out of hot water, yet. 

The Beautiful Game. Soccer, or football, as those living in the “old world” tend to call it. It’s a sport that has many names, a sport that commands a support base of some 4 billion people. The power of football is undeniable. Its best players, the Ronaldos and the Messis, are some of the most recognizable people on the planet. Its biggest teams have millions of fans scattered across the world and broadcasters reach more than half of the people on the planet. The European football industry alone turned over 25 billion euros in revenue in 2020, according to Deloitte, an indicator of the value in the biggest theater for the sport.The popularity of football is due in large part to its simplicity as a game, and this has inevitably led to the biggest leagues and competitions attracting massive audiences and generating plenty of revenue for all involved. Whether it’s through team sponsorships or marketing on broadcasts and advertising space, the sheer size of its viewership makes football a prime way for brands and businesses of all kinds to reach a lot of consumers.While the cryptocurrency and blockchain space is still in its infancy, it’s a burgeoning industry that is quickly redefining finance and remittance, individual sovereignty of wealth, and a host of other use cases. A number of different firms and organizations have taken the world of crypto into the football arena in different ways, but they’ve quickly made moves to be associated with some of the biggest players, teams and competitions as a result.Here’s exactly how cryptocurrencies have been introduced to global football audiences and blockchain technology applied to some of the industry’s most popular applications.Tapping into a huge audienceFootball is the most-watched sport in the world, captivating the minds of billions throughout its history. This audience is made up of fans of all types, from fanatics to casual viewers and impartials. The love of the game has fostered an environment that goes far beyond what is happening on the television screens, from the physical world of merchandise and memorabilia to the digital world of predictions games, fantasy sports and betting. Both areas are prime candidates that can be improved by the different use cases blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies offer.One such company that hopes to disrupt the game is Skrill, a global payments firm that has had a long relationship with European football. As Rupinder Singh, senior vice president of consumer and digital wallets divisions at Skrill, tells Magazine, the company’s history of football sponsorship goes as far back as 2013 in the United Kingdom’s Football Conference league, while its parent company Paysafe’s other digital wallet, Neteller, became a sponsor of Premier League outfit Crystal Palace at the same time.Part of Skrill’s payments bouquet is a cryptocurrency wallet that allows users to store and manage a selection of tokens. The company’s footprint in European football has grown significantly since its humble beginnings sponsoring third-tier football eight years ago.   Who would have bet few years ago that there would tokens, digital assets on the front of jerseys? This is an investment we made to make a strong statement about digital assets globally. pic.twitter.com/WJ05PY2mIb— Alexandre Dreyfus (@alex_dreyfus) September 26, 2021  In March 2021, Skrill signed as an official partner of U.K. Premier League team Leeds United, its latest big-name sponsorship deal in recent years. It had already partnered with Italian Serie A giants A.C. Milan last year. It also has a foothold in the United States as a front-of-jersey sponsor of Los Angeles-based club LA 10 FC, which plays in the growing United Premier Soccer League. From the outside looking in, one might wonder how cryptocurrency and blockchain firms can synergize with the football industry. History provides an answer, as marketing through advertising channels in the football industry has been tried and tested by various brands for decades. Singh believes that “the football audience is one of the most digitally adept audiences in the way they consume content, interact with their clubs or each other within online communities and entertain themselves through sports gambling or fantasy sports.” According to him, the jump to cryptocurrencies is a natural extension for such a group of potential customers. Singh also thinks many more firms from the crypto space could benefit from becoming involved in the football ecosystem:“Football will likely always be of interest to crypto companies as long as they continue to see the behaviors of their customers mirror those of football fans, plus the obvious reach and impact that the sport has in every market across the world.”Crypto.com is another cryptocurrency firm that is popping up on advertising boards in arenas and stadiums across the world. A partnership with the Italian Serie A has seen Crypto.com’s branding feature on pitchside advertising. As Crypto.com chief marketing officer Steven Kalifowitz tells Cointelegraph, a decision to begin advertising in the football space was made at the end of 2020, and there’s been no delay in making this happen. French football giant Paris Saint-Germain F.C. also welcomed the company as its “Official Cryptocurrency Platform Partner” in 2021. Part of the deal would see PSG release exclusive nonfungible tokens and pay a “significant” portion of the sponsorship fee in its native Crypto.com Coin.    Borussia Dortmund, one of Germany’s premier football clubs, has also partnered with a cryptocurrency firm. Growing crypto derivatives exchange Bybit secured a sponsorship deal that was unveiled late in 2020, which was touted to help grow Dortmund’s brand in Asia. Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX has its logo emblazoned on the left sleeve of A.C. Milan’s men’s, women’s and esports team jerseys after it signed a deal to become the Italian club’s official cryptocurrency trading partner.Bringing digital scarcity to big brandsNo other space has taken to the NFT craze like sports have. You need not look further than the NBA Top Shot ecosystem to see the perfect synergy among blockchain-based NFTs, tokens and sports fans.Memorabilia, collectibles, prized signatures, and player and team cards have been popular for decades, with fanatics taking great joy out of showcasing their prized, rare possessions. The advent of blockchain…

A key milestone has been reached by one of the most talked-about DeFi projects of the Summer, with the release of the Quarashi Network’s next-generation mobile platform. With an October 1st launch date for the ICO, the Quarashi Network’s privacy and anonymity-focused app recently went live on Google Play and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. In a short space of time, the Quarashi Multi Crypto Wallet VPN Privacy Chat App received more than 5000 downloads. From the near 2000 reviews on Google Play to date, Quarashi has scored a perfect rating, justifying early excitement about the Quarashi Network project. Having made waves and enjoyed noticeable attention in a successful pre-sale, the Quarashi network has managed to capture the zeitgeist of today. The frustration with data harvesting and the lack of true privacy, especially in social media, has been brought to the fore over the last couple of years. Whilst the coronavirus pandemic saw a huge shift towards working and living online,  2021 has seen a belated but welcome focus on security and privacy, or indeed, the lack of, with the messaging apps we all have traditionally used. Facebook, the social media giant, actually saw its number of daily active users in the US and Canada fall by two million for the third quarter of 2020, declining to 196 million from 198 million in the second quarter of the year. Meanwhile, Twitter has seen a steady decline in its active users since 2019. More and more people are turning to encrypted chat apps for their communication. However, most messaging apps only provide you with end-to-end encryption (E2E). There has been a lack of true anonymity in apps with many chat apps claiming to offer privacy but still, ask you for personal information such as an email or a telephone number to use the service. This is not the true anonymity and privacy that people want. Quarashi offers a fully decentralized, blockchain-fueled community-driven chat app built on the principles of true privacy and anonymity, very much in the spirit of the initial blockchain projects almost a decade ago. Quarashi does not request or require any personal information to use. No phone number, email address or even location is requested ensuring maximum untraceable anonymity at all times. The Quarashi app is ad-free and third party access free. There are trackers and information sharing. To ensure complete safety there is a self-destructing option that deletes the message after a certain period of time. Message history is also hidden and a  secure screen option is available which means people are unable to take screenshots; an often used method of data and privacy leaks. The icing on the cake? The Quarashi app can act as an offline wallet without even necessarily needing a sim card. However, it is the appeal of the all-in-one Quarashi ecosystem and the privacy it offers, that can help explain the rise of the Quarashi Network since its August launch. The Quarashi multi-crypto wallet currently supports around 9000 digital currencies and usability on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain Networks. The wallet offers a unique interface that enables users to complete anonymous transactions, even using a text address or QR codes. Just a single wallet offering maximum privacy is needed for multiple assets – all of which can be tracked with charts by the user in real-time. Private keys are stored securely in the blockchain. However, they can always be imported to any non-custodial wallets such as Metamask or Trust Wallet if needed. Privacy and anonymity are central to the core of the Quarashi Network. Within the decentralized Quarashi ecosystem, there is also an IDO launchpad and VPN. The launchpad provides multi-chain compatibility, giving early access to new cryptocurrency projects through the platform in a secure and transparent manner. The VPN adds that extra layer of security of privacy and protection. As well as acting as a barrier against malware, phishing attacks and viruses, the VPN and bowser functionality enables safe and private trading of international markets, ensuring optimal anonymity and security in whatever you do. The Quarashi Network ecosystem is powered by the native digital asset – $QUA token – a multi-functional token utilized in the Quarashi platform. It is an ethereum-based (ERC-20), deflationary, fairly issued and 100% transparent digital currency that can be used for secure and anonymous transactions with low liquidity risk. As the global crypto community continues to grow at an exponential rate – the market size for cryptocurrency will get to $1087.7 million by 2026 – the Quarashi Network offers easy access to those not yet initiated in the crypto world. By bridging the gap between crypto and everyday messaging use, with full privacy, Quarashi Network provides the all-in-one solution that not just the crypto community have been clamouring for. People’s privacy and data security matter more than ever before. As governments around the world impose draconian measures and policies designed to limit our freedoms and our privacies, and as ‘Big Tech’ gets only bigger with the profits made on the back of our data, Quarashi Network is the Next Generation of platforms that takes the power back to the user. With the latest key milestone of the App going live on Google Play reached, the team at Quarashi Network are advancing through their roadmap at an impressive pace. The Quarashi app has been a resounding success and the number of downloads increasing daily. The next big milestone is the ICO stage 1 on October 1st. The eagerly-awaited ICO comes off the back of a successful pre-sale and launch. Investor interest has been steadily increasing in the Quarashi Network project and the completion of several key milestones combined with a clear and defined white paper and roadmap means that Quarashi Network may not be a name you are familiar with just yet, but soon will be. The Next Generation of decentralized ecosystems, offering a complete all-in-one truly private solution, is here and we will be hearing a lot more of the Quarashi Network in the…

A key milestone has been reached by one of the most talked-about DeFi projects of the Summer, with the release of the Quarashi Network’s next-generation mobile platform. With an October 1st launch date for the ICO, the Quarashi Network’s privacy and anonymity-focused app recently went live on Google Play and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. In a short space of time, the Quarashi Multi Crypto Wallet VPN Privacy Chat App received more than 5000 downloads. From the near 2000 reviews on Google Play to date, Quarashi has scored a perfect rating, justifying early excitement about the Quarashi Network project. Having made waves and enjoyed noticeable attention in a successful pre-sale, the Quarashi network has managed to capture the zeitgeist of today. The frustration with data harvesting and the lack of true privacy, especially in social media, has been brought to the fore over the last couple of years. Whilst the coronavirus pandemic saw a huge shift towards working and living online,  2021 has seen a belated but welcome focus on security and privacy, or indeed, the lack of, with the messaging apps we all have traditionally used. Facebook, the social media giant, actually saw its number of daily active users in the US and Canada fall by two million for the third quarter of 2020, declining to 196 million from 198 million in the second quarter of the year. Meanwhile, Twitter has seen a steady decline in its active users since 2019. More and more people are turning to encrypted chat apps for their communication. However, most messaging apps only provide you with end-to-end encryption (E2E). There has been a lack of true anonymity in apps with many chat apps claiming to offer privacy but still, ask you for personal information such as an email or a telephone number to use the service. This is not the true anonymity and privacy that people want. Quarashi offers a fully decentralized, blockchain-fueled community-driven chat app built on the principles of true privacy and anonymity, very much in the spirit of the initial blockchain projects almost a decade ago. Quarashi does not request or require any personal information to use. No phone number, email address or even location is requested ensuring maximum untraceable anonymity at all times. The Quarashi app is ad-free and third party access free. There are trackers and information sharing. To ensure complete safety there is a self-destructing option that deletes the message after a certain period of time. Message history is also hidden and a  secure screen option is available which means people are unable to take screenshots; an often used method of data and privacy leaks. The icing on the cake? The Quarashi app can act as an offline wallet without even necessarily needing a sim card. However, it is the appeal of the all-in-one Quarashi ecosystem and the privacy it offers, that can help explain the rise of the Quarashi Network since its August launch. The Quarashi multi-crypto wallet currently supports around 9000 digital currencies and usability on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain Networks. The wallet offers a unique interface that enables users to complete anonymous transactions, even using a text address or QR codes. Just a single wallet offering maximum privacy is needed for multiple assets – all of which can be tracked with charts by the user in real-time. Private keys are stored securely in the blockchain. However, they can always be imported to any non-custodial wallets such as Metamask or Trust Wallet if needed. Privacy and anonymity are central to the core of the Quarashi Network. Within the decentralized Quarashi ecosystem, there is also an IDO launchpad and VPN. The launchpad provides multi-chain compatibility, giving early access to new cryptocurrency projects through the platform in a secure and transparent manner. The VPN adds that extra layer of security of privacy and protection. As well as acting as a barrier against malware, phishing attacks and viruses, the VPN and bowser functionality enables safe and private trading of international markets, ensuring optimal anonymity and security in whatever you do. The Quarashi Network ecosystem is powered by the native digital asset – $QUA token – a multi-functional token utilized in the Quarashi platform. It is an ethereum-based (ERC-20), deflationary, fairly issued and 100% transparent digital currency that can be used for secure and anonymous transactions with low liquidity risk. As the global crypto community continues to grow at an exponential rate – the market size for cryptocurrency will get to $1087.7 million by 2026 – the Quarashi Network offers easy access to those not yet initiated in the crypto world. By bridging the gap between crypto and everyday messaging use, with full privacy, Quarashi Network provides the all-in-one solution that not just the crypto community have been clamouring for. People’s privacy and data security matter more than ever before. As governments around the world impose draconian measures and policies designed to limit our freedoms and our privacies, and as ‘Big Tech’ gets only bigger with the profits made on the back of our data, Quarashi Network is the Next Generation of platforms that takes the power back to the user. With the latest key milestone of the App going live on Google Play reached, the team at Quarashi Network are advancing through their roadmap at an impressive pace. The Quarashi app has been a resounding success and the number of downloads increasing daily. The next big milestone is the ICO stage 1 on October 1st. The eagerly-awaited ICO comes off the back of a successful pre-sale and launch. Investor interest has been steadily increasing in the Quarashi Network project and the completion of several key milestones combined with a clear and defined white paper and roadmap means that Quarashi Network may not be a name you are familiar with just yet, but soon will be. The Next Generation of decentralized ecosystems, offering a complete all-in-one truly private solution, is here and we will be hearing a lot more of the Quarashi Network in the…

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and we throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes! This week, our 6 Questions go to Olga Kupchevskaya, vice president of research and development for MyEtherWallet.Olga is vice president of research and development for MyEtherWallet. She has a strong passion for learning, which brought her to blockchain technology and led her to complete a master’s in computer science, with research emphasis on blockchain scalability solutions. In her role with MyEtherWallet, she oversees the research, development and production of software products ranging from the Ethereum Blockchain data tools (EthVM) to wallet management.  1 — What kind of consolidation do you expect to see in the crypto industry in 2021?As far as price is concerned, Ether (ETH) will go to the moon, of course. We already saw that staking increased interest in the chain and brought the price higher than it was in 2017. If the Ethereum Foundation executes its promise of merging to the Mainnet and Beacon chains by the end of 2021, the value of ETH will be even further secured.In addition, we will see more consolidation in decentralized finance cross-chain functionality and bridging. Following the previous DeFi boom years, more and more users are interested in participating in different DeFi projects. It’s the next step for the projects to create maximum value for their users and gain an even higher market share.  2 — What are the top five Crypto Twitter feeds you can’t do without, and why?I do have a Twitter handle. However, I do not have a friendly relationship with Crypto Twitter. I will usually dedicate several minutes a week just to see if there is anything worthwhile. Most of the time, I am just checking our company’s partners or other big DeFi projects for interesting news or some educational content. Often, I get overwhelmed by the amount of speculation and misinformation out there in other channels and how much manipulation goes on in the feeds.We all have seen recent examples of Twitter activity where a big-time investor tweets some speculations or threats regarding their investments. Then, right after, we see people start vigorously buying or selling. As a result, we get significant price changes. Besides the fact that market manipulation is illegal in other industries — and that it is absurd one tweet can significantly influence the crypto market and cause chaos in the community — it does put a perspective on ethics standards in the Crypto Twitter community.Instead, I get most of my news from some dedicated crypto media platforms like Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, etc. and random crypto podcasts, where content is higher quality — and I don’t have to absorb the information in micro blocks without context.  3 — Which is sillier: $500,000 Bitcoin or $0 Bitcoin? Why?I feel that a Bitcoin (BTC) price at $0 is much sillier than $500,000. At the end of the day, the primary Bitcoin purpose is value transfer; even though it’s decentralized, it still has some common ground with centralized digital systems. Traditionally in financial systems, you have a middle man who will help store, manage and secure your assets, like a bank. And as with any business, the middle man has expenses, so you eventually pay some fees to it when you want to use your assets.With blockchain technology, you can do all of that yourself; however, there are still physical costs. Like any blockchain, Bitcoin is operated by nodes connected via a network. Bitcoin nodes perform computational work to verify transactions and make chain history accessible to other node peers. Each peer still has to be incentivized to perform the proof-of-work to cover equipment costs, electricity costs and so on. Even if Bitcoin started to implement proof-of-stake like Ethereum, there are still costs that one needs to cover, like ongoing node maintenance.  4 — Which two superpowers would you most want to have, and how would you combine them for good… or evil?My first ability would definitely be to clone myself while keeping the clone’s memory once we are joined back together. I feel that there are not enough hours during the day to do everything I want or even need to. For instance, there is so much innovation happening all around us in the industry, and I just don’t have enough time to educate myself deeply on all of the new concepts. Instead, I have to pick only certain things.The second would be flying — being able to get somewhere without any constraints is very attractive. By combining these powers, I would have the unique ability to offer free multi-route air taxi services to those in need as an alternative to regional airlines and their outrageous luggage fees. I’d have to work out the details to be able to show in-flight movies, but hey, the idea is there!  5 — What talent do you lack and wish you had? How would you use it if you had it?I definitely lack good public speaking skills. English is not my native language, and like most people, I tend to get very nervous. When I had to do frequent presentations in college, sometimes I would lose my train of thought in the middle of the sentence, and I forgot some words halfway while saying them out loud. Even though it has been a while since I experienced extreme nervousness, I still feel that I lack the qualities to give a speech to a large crowd I just met.I am lucky, as I now work with great team members who respect and motivate each other. However, I did experience my share of sexism and discrimination, and I know other people in the crypto and STEM industries are experiencing that now. If I were a great public speaker, I would want to influence and motivate people to talk about what they are going through, call out gender biases and take action. Adding to the existing dialog will help create more awareness and empower more women…

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s 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 WeekIndian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber raises $260MIndian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber closed a $260 million Series C funding round this week at a valuation of $1.91 billion, adding itself to the prestigious unicorn club.The funding round was led by Coinbase Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, the latter of which has emerged as a leading crypto venture capital firm. Following the $1.91 billion valuation, CoinSwitch Kuber is said to be India’s most valued crypto firm.Speaking of funding, Sky Mavis, the developers of the immensely popular NFT game Axie Infinity, announced a $152 million Series B funding round on Tuesday. Unsurprisingly, Andreessen Horowitz backed the funding round along with participation from FTX. Ethereum fractal from 2017 that resulted in 7,000% gains for ETH appears again in 2021The same set of bullish indicators that sent Ether (ETH) surging 7,000% in 2017 has appeared again in 2021, suggesting that the asset is on track to reach the moon before Dogecoin (DOGE).The fractal indicator from 2017 consists of at least four technical patterns that were instrumental in pushing the price up, including the relative strength index (RSI), stochastic RSI, bullish hammer, and a Fibonacci retracement level. At the time of writing, Ether is worth $3,600, indicating that the price could hit $13,000 if history repeats itself. Federal High Court of Nigeria approves eNaira CBDC rolloutThe Nigerian Federal High Court has approved the rollout of the eNaira central bank digital currency (CBDC).  The CBDC was launched for beta testing on the nation’s 61st Independence Day celebration on Oct. 1 and has now been given the green light to circulate alongside its fiat counterpart. The CBDC is being touted as a faster, cheaper and more secure option for transactions. It will also be supported by an eNaira wallet. The official eNaira website says that the digital version of the Nigerian naira will be made available universally, stating that “anybody can hold it.” Judge rejects XRP hodlers’ bid to join SEC against Ripple case as defendantsThe ongoing legal dispute between Ripple Labs and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken another turn as U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ruled on Monday that individuals holding XRP tokens cannot act in Ripple’s ongoing lawsuit as defendants. The ruling came after several ambitious XRP hodlers aimed to file “friends of the court” briefs which, if granted, would enable them to join the bloody battle as defendants, alongside Ripple, against SEC assertions of XRP being a security. The judge said the ruling was for their own good, as it would compel the trigger-happy SEC to take action against the XRP hodlers as well. However, it was determined that they could participate as “amicus curiae” — a party that is not involved in the litigation but is allowed by the court to advise or provide information. Bitcoin returns to $1T asset as BTC price blasts to $55KBitcoin (BTC) returned to its $1 trillion asset status this week as the price surged past $55,000. It appears that the damage caused by the China mining ban in May has been wiped clean, suggesting that there could be a run to new all-time highs in the coming weeks or months. At the time of writing, BTC is worth $54,900 and sits 14.9% below the all-time high. “Honestly, I think we’ll be continuing to see strength on Bitcoin,” Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe said, adding: “USDT pairs will be fine on altcoins, but perhaps we’ll be having 6-8 weeks of some corrections on the $BTC pairs, before a new party starts. December/January is often the best period to buy alts.”  Winners and Losers  At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $54,176, Ether at $3,612 and XRP at $1.07. The total market cap is at $2.30 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are SHIBA INU (SHIB) at 244.87%, Fantom (FTM) at 74.68% and Axie Infinity (AXS) at 47.02%.The top three altcoin losers of the week are eCash (XEC) at -10.20%, Huobi Token (HT) at -8.70% and Amp (AMP) at -6.85%.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.   Most Memorable Quotations “Policymakers should implement global standards for crypto assets and enhance their ability to monitor the crypto ecosystem by addressing data gaps. […] Emerging markets faced with cryptoization risks should strengthen macroeconomic policies and consider the benefits of issuing central bank digital currencies.”International Monetary Fund “For us, digital assets are not about payments per se. They’re about a new computing paradigm – a programmable computer that is accessible everywhere and to anyone and owned by millions of people globally.”Bank of America Securities “We did a survey of our membership, and it was very impressive: 110 countries are at some stage of looking into CBDCs.”Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund “What a crazy concept this is, that we as a country embrace so many bright, young, talented people to come up with a replacement for our reserve currency. […] I wish all this passion and energy that went to crypto was directed towards making the United States stronger.”Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel LLC  “The best way to look at it, if you’re an investor, either you believe in decentralized finance and centralized finance, and you believe in Bitcoin and Ethereum and the blockchain, or you don’t. If you don’t, stay in gold as a hedge, and if you do, tip into it.”Kevin O’Leary, Shark Tank Judge “I’m not going to get into any one token, but I think the securities laws are quite clear — if you’re raising money […] and the investing public […] have a reasonable anticipation of profits based on the efforts of others, that fits within the securities law.”Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission “My bill with Congresswoman Ross would set disclosure requirements when ransoms are…

With the pandemic separating fans from their stadiums and sports clubs from their revenues, fan tokens are now big players in the game, helping teams generate revenue and bringing fans together again.Though stadium seats in some countries have been filled with paper cut-outs of fans to present a well-intentioned yet creepy facade of normality during the pandemic, the distance between the teams and their followers has grown farther apart. One solution is found in sports fan tokens. Through fan tokens, many fans are able to feel a more direct connection to their teams — emotionally and financially.Broadly understood, fan tokens are digital assets connected to the fan experience. They come in two distinct varieties — fungible and nonfungible.So far on the fungible side, dozens of European soccer teams are associated with actively traded “fan currencies” or “fancoins,” whose sales have brought in over $200 million in Covid-year revenues. Unlike nonfungible tokens where each token is unique, each unit of fungible tokens like Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Dogecoin is the same as any other — like dollars.Malta-based blockchain sports firm Chiliz and its fan engagement platform, Socios, are the undisputed market leaders pushing the fungible fan token/fan currency business model with the help of over 160 staff. With a new office in New York, Chiliz is looking to further disrupt the sports industry through partnerships with the likes of National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and more.  Fan tokens are taking the sporting world by storm. (Pexels)  In five years, Chiliz and Socios’ CEO Alexandre Dreyfus imagines “hundreds, potentially thousands, of major sporting organizations and some of the biggest entertainment franchises from film and music fully embracing” fungible fan tokens as “a core part of their digital engagement strategy.” This means that the potential of the fan token phenomenon goes far beyond professional sports, and can be expected to impact other areas of entertainment including music, with Kpop Fan Token as an early example.From passive to activeFan tokens, Dreyfus believes, will “transition passive fans into active fans through transactional fan engagement,” giving the sports teams in the post-physical world “a powerful revenue stream.” Soon, the company will be adding NFT’s to their strategy as a likely next step, considering entertainment figures like Paris Hilton have already done so. He adds:“We believe fan tokens are the biggest new trend in the industry and that this will be widely recognized as we add hundreds more partners in the future and millions more fans embrace them.”Fungible fan tokens, however, have no clear precedent. These fan currencies are forging a new path.    In blockchain terminology, fungible fan tokens are termed as “utility tokens,” an apt description as they have undeniable utility as part of “gamifying” the fan experience. Purchasing and using tokens allows fans to materially show their support and congregate in online communities where they can play a small part in running the club by voting for proposals (regarding things like what music will be played during a match), join draws for merchandise and even interact with the team directly. Juventus fan Giuseppe Bognanni told Reuters that, “It’s nice that the song you voted for is the one you hear, and you think, ‘I participated in that.’”  Priority entrance for @socios Fan Token holders at San Siro. @chiliz #bemorethanafan pic.twitter.com/1xxIQcdtrI— Alexandre Dreyfus (@alex_dreyfus) September 16, 2021  But, are fan tokens a genuine way for clubs and fans to interact, or are they just a way of squeezing fans for extra dollars?Though securities regulators are yet to strike, many in the sports industry are suspicious of the fan token trend. One of these is Malcolm Clarke, chair of the U.K.-focused Football Supporters’ Association, who suggested that fan tokens might amount to little more than clubs “trying to squeeze extra money out of supporters by making up inconsequential ‘engagement’ online polls.”    It’d be unsurprising if they were — particularly after sales at Europe’s top 20 revenue-generating clubs dropped 12% to 8.2 billion euros ($9.9 billion) in the 2020 fiscal year.But Jorge Chemez, an Argentinian football fan of the national team, is bullish on the Chiliz project “because it’s applicable in a lot of ways and to all kinds of sports, even eSports — every human likes at least one type of sport, the potential is infinite.” He figures that while most sports fans are not likely to embrace tokens, those that do will be able “to be closer with their teams.”“Socios gives you privileges, like Inter Milan fan token owners were invited to a VIP sector to watch the football match”The phenomenon of sports clubs raising money through the sale of cryptocurrency is sure to continue to spread around the world as the incumbent platform Chiliz encounters new competitors and business models. Do fungible fan tokens represent a new type of indirect equity in the teams (or celebrities/groups) themselves?     Fungible fan tokensFungible fan tokens are generally marketed as “utility tokens,” implying that the tokens have concrete use cases. This concept of utility tokens dates back to the initial coin offering (ICO) boom of 2017 when companies began raising money by releasing cryptocurrencies to the public in a way comparable to stock offerings. On the regulated securities market, these are known as initial public offerings, or IPO’s, and cryptocurrency issuers used the “utility token” designation as a way around securities laws, as tokens with use cases were arguably not securities. Some early use cases included accessing proprietary services or online communities, and for gameplay. In contrast to “security tokens,” “utility tokens” attempted to avoid being seen as investments. Digital currencies of all types are often released via initial exchange offerings, or IEOs, directly from an exchange where trading is to commence.   Are fan tokens a legitimate way to involve fans in clubs, or simply a money making exercise? (Pexels)  Today, fungible sports fan tokens are launched as utility tokens via an IEO. The Chiliz platform is the biggest actor in this sector, selling fungible fan tokens for its native CHZ, the Chiliz platform token, in what…