Crypto Pirates

The crypto community was taken aback a few weeks ago by a daring $600 million robbery.

Unlike a classic bank siege, which requires constant monitoring of the news, a crypto robbery happens straight from your smartphone. In other words, it's visible.

Poly Network – a project aimed at connecting blockchains — alerted the public to the crime on Tuesday afternoon. They asserted that an unidentified hacker took thousands of digital tokens. Additionally, the hacker's virtual "wallet" addresses were eventually released.

However, their selfless effort did not prevent the hacker from snatching the cash. As a result, the Poly project pleaded with miners and centralised exchanges to intervene and put an end to the crime in a desperate move. It worked inexplicably well.

Tether froze $33 million. Binance and OKEx — two of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges — both pledged to take action.

The Poly Project Is "Saved" by a Hacker

Meanwhile, the hacker contacted Poly via blockchain, claiming the crime was intended to "rescue" the project from future attacks by exposing its vulnerabilities. And they were "not very concerned with money," the suspected hacker stated.

Since then, the hacker has returned $342 million and has promised to refund the remainder of the wealth.

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, commended the hacker's actions, particularly his public response. “I hope he does what is right,” Zhao stated.

What the Heist Tells Us About Crypto's Future

This robbery demonstrates an important characteristic of digital markets: they are far more transparent than traditional financial institutions. On the blockchain, you can view each transaction.

The public nature of the heist demonstrates such claims of transparency.

Additionally, this theft demonstrates that the digital market system is capable of self-policing without the intervention of authorities. Until yet, there has been no involvement of police enforcement in this case.

This form of self-enforcement and self-regulation is a courageous step that demonstrates the industry's growth. Cryptocurrencies are distributed ledger technology. As such, they should be beyond the government's and other prominent authorities' grasp.

When the bad guy is apprehended in a classic bank heist, he or she faces punishment. Therefore, how should cryptocurrency react if the claimed hacker is apprehended in the future?

Do you sue them, attempt to seize the stolen digital currency, or turn them over to the police in a world where everyone makes their own rules?

According to armchair detectives on Twitter who jumped into the fray (as the "drama" unfolded publicly), the hacker merely exploited a security flaw left by Poly Network's project developers. Additionally, they say that the hacker should retain ownership of the loot. Suggestions?

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Two new cryptocurrencies, solana and fantom, have seen massive price increases. Discover the new bitcoin rivals.

Two new cryptocurrencies are causing a stir, with solana reaching an all-time high of $US30 billion and fantom soaring to $US600 million.

Both of these relatively recent entrants are viewed as formidable opponents to ethereum, one of the most prominent cryptos, as well as bitcoin.

Solana prices increased by 13% on Monday to $US103.72, while fantom prices increased by 70% in a single day to $US0.87.

When did solana and fantom make their public debuts?

Solana began 18 months ago and has grown to become the eighth largest cryptocurrency in the world, with a market cap of over $US30 billion. Its price has increased by 37% in the last week alone, and by a whopping 70% this year.

In the previous 30 days, Fantom has risen by more than 340 percent. It may be on the verge of returning to its all-time high of $US0.94, which it reached in May before to the crypto market crisis.

Although it launched in December 2019, the most of its primary features were not introduced until late last year.

Who is responsible for the cryptos?

Solana's most renowned creator is Anatoly Yakovenko, a former Dropbox software engineer.

One of his primary goals was to distinguish the coin through a proof of history feature, which allows it to track transactions and the period that elapsed between them, thereby increasing trust in the blockchain tale.

He assisted solana in 2017 in raising $US25 million in public and private fundraising rounds to support the digital coin.

Fantom was launched in early 2018 by Ahn Byung Ik, a South Korean with a PhD in computer science and prior experience leading multiple successful start-ups. According to rumours, he has severed ties with the cryptocurrency due to South Korea's tight rules.

The purpose of fantom was to develop a cryptocurrency that would be ideal for smart cities, with the lofty goal of processing 300,000 transactions per second.

What is the total number of coins in circulation?

For solana, a total of 489 million coins are scheduled for release, with approximately 260 million already in circulation.

However, 60% of these coins are held by the project's founders and foundation, with the remaining 38% allocated for the community.

There are 2.5 billion fantom coins in circulation at the moment, out of a total quantity of 3.1 billion.

What pricing changes have occurred this year?

Solana began the year selling at less than $US1.85, but has now surpassed the $US100 level. This means that solana has gained more than 3600% this year alone.

Fantom fell to a low of $US0.15 on July 20, then soared 500% to $US0.90 on Monday, as its 24-hour trading volume surged 1250% to a record $US1.26 billion.

Why are there such dramatic increases in value?

Prices have increased as a result of the adoption of technology known as smart contract blockchains and the projects they can host, in addition to providing bank-grade security.

Essentially, individuals can utilise the technology for decentralised finance and trade, lending, and digital collectibles such as NFTs.

Jonas Luethy, a trader at London-based cryptocurrency broker GlobalBlock, said the burgeoning popularity of NFTs, which are beginning to attract the attention of celebrities, fueled solana's spike.

He stated that NFT sales reached a record high of over $US900 million in August.

According to statistics, fantom processes 200,000 transactions every day and has over 77,000 digital wallets on the network.

What is the value of Solana?

Additionally, the value of Solana's decentralised financing initiatives increased in August alone, topping $US3 billion for the first time ever.

Additionally, the digital coin is thought to represent a danger to ethereum due to its technology being more adaptable, less expensive, and capable of faster transaction speeds. On its website, it promises that its technology is capable of processing 50,000 transactions per second.

Solana has also gained more than $US7 million in nett investment over the last week, according to crypto investing firm CoinShares, compared to bitcoin's loss of $US2.8 million.

According to experts, solana is the only cryptocurrency in the top ten that has increased in value during the last 24 hours.

What about China's sway over crypto?

While the price of solana has increased about 220 percent in the last month, it has fallen nearly 60 percent as a result of the crypto market crisis caused by Chinese laws.

The US authority is also looking into the cryptocurrency market and the technology that powers it, which might jeopardise the currency's growing popularity.

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The government is closely monitoring cryptocurrency legislation as it explores how to manage digital assets and foster innovation throughout the broader blockchain ecosystem.

Senator Andrew Bragg, chairman of the Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre, told us that the government recognises bitcoin as a "sector rich in possibility but also rich in risk."

“While consumers suffer risks when they participate in uncontrolled marketplaces, we do not want legislation to stifle innovation,” Bragg stated.

“However, these issues must be mainstreamed through a regulatory framework.”

The legislative committee is currently determining the structure of that umbrella and has begun hearing from business, academia, and regulators regarding the kind of activities that might fall under its protection.

Bragg, on the other hand, is cautious to avoid the type of cryptocurrency alarmism that has resulted in international crackdowns on bitcoin use and growth.

He recently headed a similar group that examined the buy now pay later (BNPL) services pioneered by Australian companies such as Afterpay, and suggested that the nascent industry adopt a self-regulatory posture.

The BNPL industry interpreted the government's lackadaisical response as tacit acceptance of its kind of retail credit, clearing the path for US payments platform Square to purchase Afterpay for $39 billion - reputedly Australia's largest corporate takeover ever.

“We are not interested in imposing regulation for the sake of regulation; rather, we want to ensure that we have the regulation that the industry desires and requests,” Bragg told Information Age.

“I believe our evaluation of BNPL was thorough. In terms of these challenges, I believe that the benefit is increased choice, increased efficiency, and decreased dead weight - all of which are beneficial to our society, which is why I'm so determined to get it right.”

Could Australia serve as a breeding ground for cryptocurrency innovation?

Fred Schebesta, co-founder and CEO of Finder, described cryptocurrencies as a "trillion-dollar sector" that has the potential to impact Australia's economy "by the tens of billions" during last Friday's public hearing.

“I believe it has the potential to generate new enterprises, additional money for the government, and hundreds of jobs for Australia,” he told the committee.

“It's also an additional way for Australians to confidently develop their wealth.”

In a June poll, Finder found that 17% of Australians held cryptocurrency, highlighting an increasing trend in cryptocurrency use - particularly among young Australians.

Schebesta expressed a desire for Australia to become a safe haven for cryptocurrency companies, implying that the government could guarantee a certain amount of cryptocurrency deposits in the same way that its guarantee of cash deposits helped build consumer confidence, which fuelled the recent surge in neobanks.

Schebesta added, "It would be a fantastic future." “They talk about global financial centres; well, Australia would be the world's crypto bank, as we would be able to hold all the bitcoin and people would deposit it with us.”

However, in order to achieve Schebesta's vision, regulators will need to work out some of the more difficult regulatory issues surrounding cryptocurrency and cryptoassets – specifically, how to treat crypto-assets such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or other utility tokens that serve purposes other than value storage and speculation.

Friday's session demonstrated that regulators are aware of these issues but have not yet determined how to address the thousands of possible use cases for blockchain tokens.

“Whether or not anything is a financial product is determined by a number of statutory standards. Some of the cryptocurrency products we've seen appear to fall into that category, while others do not,” Cathie Armour, Commissioner of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), explained.

“There are also some that may fall into this category that were probably not intended to be financial goods – they were established for a different reason, a non-financial investment objective.”

Armour stated that ASIC is now investigating this categorisation issue, but referred to a model in Europe in which a separate regulatory framework for crypto-assets is being established, which allows for the treatment of financial-specific cryptocurrency projects under existing regulations.

"I believe it is an excellent question as to whether it is the superior strategy," she stated.

"It does provide a degree of confidence for someone developing a crypto product, and they can design their product to fit into any strategy."

Organisations that operate autonomously

Crypto-assets may also be used to oversee the governance of a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO).

These organisations, which are prevalent in cryptocurrency and public blockchain initiatives, serve as a sort of corporate body whose operations are governed by an open code base.

Members typically vote for changes to the DAO's structure and direction using linked crypto-tokens. Notably, the authority of a DAO is distributed over computer networks and may include members who use pseudonyms.

As Scott Chamberlain, an Entrepreneurial Fellow at the Australian National University, noted, local company rules are unable to recognise DAOs.

"An acceptable framework for legal recognition of code-governed businesses is required," he told the Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre on Friday.

“If you attempt to do so under current law, you can almost get there – you can almost incorporate a DAO within an existing company – but the requirement to have a board and to include the names and addresses of those board members in your registration, the requirement to have a members register and to know the names and addresses of your members, that nitty-gritty detail prevents you from getting there.

These restrictions may need to be addressed if Australia is to be a leader in blockchain innovation, which Senator Bragg has already expressed an interest in.

“It's difficult, but not impossible, to establish new company structures in Australia,” he told Information Age.

“I believe we must ensure that we have the best possible opportunity to attract new investment. While many of these concepts are novel in Australia, they are not novel among our competitors.”

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