Tag: blockchain

Google Cloud Launches Its Own Node-Hosting Service: Here’s What It Means for Web3 Developers

Google is making it easier for Web3 developers to get coding distributed blockchain apps with the launch of Blockchain Node Engine in Google Cloud, which hosts and deploys fully managed blockchain nodes in the cloud. Google claims that some of the benefits of its service are being simpler to set up a node and faster to deploy. It also provides added security in the form of DDoS protection and the ability to put nodes behind a firewall. Given it’s a fully managed offering, it also offers service-level agreements.

Blockchain Node Engine, a fully managed node-hosting for Web3 development, will initially support Ethereum (ETH) as its first network. This will allow blockchain developers to offer fully managed Ethereum nodes that have safe access to the blockchain.

Google notes that manually deploying a node requires provisioning a compute instance, like installing an Ethereum client (such as geth), and waiting for the node to sync with the network. It may take many days to sync a full node from the first block (i.e., “genesis”).

Thus, Google Cloud’s Blockchain Node Engine aims to help accelerate and simplify this process by enabling developers to deploy a new node in a single action and select the region and network (mainnet, testnet). The engine has security settings that may assist prevent unwanted access to nodes. In this line, only trusted machines and users may connect with client endpoints when nodes are placed behind a Virtual Private Cloud firewall.

Moreover, since it is a fully managed service, there is no need to be concerned about Blockchain Node Engine’s availability. The nodes are being continually monitored by Google Cloud, and if anything goes wrong, it “restarts them during outages as needed.”

Google Cloud claims Blockchain Node Engine will free teams to concentrate on users rather than infrastructure by “reducing the need for a specialised DevOps team” and “by offering Google Cloud’s service level agreement (SLA).”

While offering the node service direct to businesses may be new, Google has been hosting blockchain nodes for some time. However, it previously had a different strategy. It partnered with the network founders in the cases of the Hedera DLT, and the Flow and Theta blockchains. It also joined Hedera’s governing council, which requires a financial commitment.

Apple launched the iPad Pro (2022) and the iPad (2022) alongside the new Apple TV this week. We discuss the company’s latest products, along with our review of the iPhone 14 Pro on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Eleven Percent of Global Web3 Talent Resides in India, Number Expected to Soon Grow by 120 Percent: Report

India, where rules and regulations around the crypto sector are still under drafting, is witnessing a big boom. Around 11 percent of the world’s total Web3 talent resides in India, the nation’s primary non-government tech trade body Nasscom said in a recent report. Titled ‘The India Web3 Startup Landscape, An Emerging Technology Leadership Frontier’ the report intends to explore the current state and future potential of the Web3 industry despite temporary roadblocks.

“India is the 3rd largest Web3 talent pool in the world. The Indian tech industry directly employs nearly 75,000 blockchain professionals today. Further, this talent pool is expected to grow by over 120 percent in the next one or two years,” a Nasscom press release posted by CryptoSlate said in a statement.

India seems to have an advantage in the Web3 industry now that the global demand for blockchain developer sis rising exponentially.

Indian developers are marching ahead inside the blockchain sector with expertise in development and quick reskilling that could eradicate the demand-supply gap.

At present, India is home to over 450 active Web3 startups. The Indian Web3 ecosystem has raised $1.3 billion (roughly Rs. 10,769 crore) funding through April 2022.

In addition, over 60 percent of the Indian Web3 startups have expanded outside India.

Most of the Indian Web3 firms are working in the areas of blockchain gaming, decentralised finance (DeFi), Metaverse, as well as NFTs.

“India’s rapid adoption of new-age technologies, its growing startup ecosystem, and large-scale digitally skilled talent potential is cementing the country’s position in the global Web3 landscape. While we are only scratching the surface when it comes to emerging tech such as Web3, the technology [is expected to] make significant advances leading to innovative use-cases and magnified positive impact at a grassroots level,” said Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh.

India recently secured the fourth position on the 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index compiled by blockchain research firm Chainalysis.

In a recent interview with Gadgets 360, UAE-based crypto-centric investment firm Cypher Capital highlighted that the blockchain tech can bring most benefits to the healthcare and logistics industries of India.

Since the beginning of this year, Indians have had to pay a 30 percent tax on all crypto earnings and profits. Back in July, Indian crypto exchanges recorded a nosedive in trading volumes after the one percent TDS rule on each transaction went live on July 1.

Despite the much-criticised tax regime, over seven per cent of Indians owned digital currency in the form of cryptocurrency in 2021, according to the United Nations trade and development body UNCTAD.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article. 

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Samsung Knox Matrix Announced, a Security System Based on Private Blockchain

Samsung has announced the launch of a private blockchain system in a bid to increase the security for its smart devices. The name of this system is Knox Matrix and it is being presented as Samsung’s revamp of its current security settings. The Knox Matrix solution will organise login tasks for all Samsung home devices while connecting them to the network. Meanwhile, the security system will also provide protection to the sensitive information that are circulating through other smart devices.

The Samsung Knox Matrix will share login credentials among all the devices connected to the same network and safeguard the devices against unauthorised access.

“Samsung Knox Matrix will function as a user’s own private blockchain system, wherein your connected devices enhance security through multi-layered mutual monitoring. Whether your Samsung devices are based on Android, Tizen, or other OS, Samsung Knox Matrix will be able to provide a unified security SDK,” the South Korean giant said in an official statement.

With the launch of this blockchain security system, Samsung will make the security systems across all its devices uniform.

“With Samsung Knox Matrix, we envision that users need not compromise on their connectivity in order to stay protected. Samsung Knox Matrix is set to provide the devices within a user’s ecosystem with fewer vulnerabilities through strong, diverse security practices,” the company’s statement added.

For now, the company has not revealed detailed information on the working and blockchain dependency of this security system.

Samsung, in recent times, has been testing the Web3 waters with multiple initiatives linked to the sector.

Since Samsung launched the Galaxy S10, it added support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, ERC tokens, Tron (TRX), and TRC tokens to be held in its Blockchain Wallet.

The tech giant also allows Galaxy users to explore Decentralised Apps (dApps) that use blockchain technology to authenticate the exchange of digital assets.

Samsung is also moving briskly towards completing the development of its 3nm foundry processing chip, that would be able to facilitate the mining of Bitcoin.

As per August reports, Samsung is also exploring the idea of launching a full-fledged crypto exchange in South Korea next year.

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Jack Dorsey’s Conceptualisation of ‘Blockchain Twitter’ Tickled Elon Musk, Leaked Texts Tip

Elon Musk is currently in a legal process involving his refusal to buy micro-blogging site Twitter. In the backdrop of this case, a bunch of leaked messages between Musk and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey indicate that the duo had been dabbling in the idea of moving Twitter to blockchain, eliminating its dependency on government controlled, centralised systems. The messages were exchanged before Dorsey stepped down as the CEO of Twitter in November 2021.

Discussing how ideal Twitter should be, Dorsey suggested an ‘open source model’ that is handled by a foundation, that contributes to the protocol without having any owning rights on the platform.

At the time, Musk had validated Dorsey’s proposal calling it a “super interesting idea”, the leaked messages have tipped.

“I think it’s worth both trying to move Twitter in a better direction and doing something new that’s decentralised,” the Tesla CEO had noted.

Dorsey has also expressed reservations against Twitter having transformed into an advertisement hub these recent years.

One of his main goals with shifting Twitter to the blockchain will be to rid it of its position as an advertising model.

Dorsey had highlighted that advertisements give companies and governments a ‘surface area’ to control social networking platforms.

Twitter becoming a ‘company’ is Dorsey’s biggest regret, he had claimed in a tweet earlier in August.

In April this year, Musk purchased a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter and two weeks later he offered to buy the company for $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,59,855 crore).

Musk however, began reneging on the Twitter buyout, claiming that the company hadn’t levelled with him about the number of spam and bot accounts among its more than 230 million users.

Twitter says Musk has buyer’s remorse and his concerns are a pretext to get out of a deal.

A trial on October 17 in the case will most likely finalise if Musk, the richest man in the world, can or cannot walk away from buying Twitter out.

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Coinbase Sued by Veritaseum for $350 Million Over Alleged Crypto Payment Transfer Patent Violation

Coinbase has found itself in legal trouble after blockchain-based software firm Veritaseum Capital filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in Delaware. Alleging that Coinbase has infringed on one of its patents, Veritaseum has asked for $350 million (roughly Rs. 2,850 crore) in damages. The patent in question is around “novel devices, systems, and methods that enable involved parties to enforce value transfer agreements with little or no trust in each other”. In its lawsuit, Veritaseum has claimed that Coinbase has used this technology for many of its blockchain infrastructure services.

Veritaseum Capital has hired US law firm Brundidge & Stanger for the lawsuit against the crypto exchange. The filing states that Coinbase infringed on its cryptocurrency payment transfer technology under US Patent No. 11,196,566, also known as the ‘566 Patent’.

“Defendant’s infringing activities include but are not limited to its website, Coinbase Android mobile wallet, iOS mobile wallet, its Coinbase Cloud, Coinbase Commerce APIs, Query and Transact, Participate, Delegate and Validator software, Coinbase Pay, Coinbase Wallet and Coinbase Operated Public Validators,” the lawsuit states.

Veritaseum has claimed that it had been trying to reach out to Coinbase bringing this alleged patent violation to its notice, before filing the lawsuit.

“Defendant had prior knowledge, should have known, or at least been willfully blind of the ‘566 Patent. Defendant has been on notice of the ‘566 Patent at least as early as July 3, 2022, if not earlier from other sources or parties,” CoinTelegraph quoted the attorneys handling the case as saying.

The said patent had been awarded to Vertiaseum founder Reginald ‘Reggie’ Middleton by the US Patent and Trademark Office on December 7, 2021.

While Coinbase is yet to issue a statement on the development, Vertiaseum has requested a trial by jury in the case.

Coinbase, in recent month, has found itself facing increased legal scrutiny in more than one case.

The company is facing a probe by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over its yield and staking products, according to its quarterly filing. The SEC is investigating yield and staking products of the crypto exchange.

The price of Coinbase shares had plummeted by 21 percent after the SEC opened its investigation on the exchange.

In August, the company was sued for ‘improperly and unreasonably’ locking users out of their accounts, especially amid days of market volatility.

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Healthcare, Logistics to See Most Benefits via Blockchain: Crypto-Centric Venture Firm Cypher

India recently secured the fourth position on the 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index compiled by blockchain research firm Chainalysis. These ranks numbered all the countries based on their varied uses of different crypto-services and India outranked US and Russia on the scale that testified to the growing adoption of crypto in the second-most populous nation in the world. UAE-based crypto-centric investment firm Cypher Capital has highlighted that the blockchain tech can bring most benefits to the healthcare and logistics industries of India.

Inside the healthcare sector in India, that is projected to touch $372 billion (roughly Rs. 29,61,473 crore) this year, medical records are centralised to providers.

“This leads to duplicative data and disjointed records across stakeholders. Healthcare providers need to take utmost care in protecting their records from cyber hacks and outages and blockchain can solve this pain point by establishing a trust-based ecosystem that unifies patient data, and maps out the entire patient journey in the country. Moreover, this data would be much more secure as a single authority cannot control it,” Vineet Budki, Managing Partner and CEO, Cypher Capital told Gadgets 360 in an interview.

Since blockchain facilitates record-keeping via a decentralised ledger, India’s logistics sector that balances a market cap of over $250 billion (roughly Rs. 19,90,150 crore), can reduce major clerical errors and blind spots for the logistics sector as well.

“Today, with blockchain, logistics companies can enter into binding agreements using smart contracts, which are traceable and self-governed — removing dependencies on physical paperwork — saving time and administrative costs,” Budki added.

At this point, the Indian crypto community is treading lightly in-terms of pouring investments and building projects in the Web3 space under regulatory uncertainties.

This has, however, not pulled back Indian blockchain and Web3 developers from flocking to other nations in search for opportunities.

“We are seeing a lot of traction coming from Indian start-ups, so talent-wise, it’s growing at a rapid pace. Once the regulation clears out, it will act as a growth catalyst, and this is what entrepreneurs currently need: clarity rather than ambiguity,” Budki noted.

In March 2022, Cypher Capital launched a $100 million (roughly Rs. 800 crore) blockchain fund, out of which, it set aside $40 million (roughly Rs. 320 crore) for Indian crypto and blockchain start-ups.

Cypher Capital is amongst many venture firms that are ready to bet on India’s potential to develop the Web3 sector. These companies have observed previous patterns of how technological adoption unfolded in the country to be sure enough about giving Indians the space to expand work in the Web3 arena.

“We saw when India moved from offline commerce to online commerce. Despite being a laggard in e-commerce, India has now taken a centre-stage. We are still bullish on India and its potential to disrupt this market,” Budki added.

For any sector to show magnitude of expansion, hiring plays a key role.

At present, blockchain developers account for less than 1 percent of the global developer base making it quite difficult for recruiters to hire top talent in this space.

In the coming years, Budki reckons, a lot of talent will migrate from the tech industry to the blockchain space.

“Recruiters need to keep an eye on candidates that are open and enthusiastic about the industry and should even consider candidates that have no prior experience in crypto/blockchain. We are quite early to have blockchain veterans in the space and it is better to hire talent that is willing to learn and grow,” the Cypher Capital chief pointed.

In a new report, KuCoin crypto exchange has claimed that India currently has over 115 million crypto investors, making for 15 percent of its massive population.

The Indian crypto market is expected to reach the valuation of $241 million (roughly Rs. 1,924 crore) by 2030, the same report had claimed.

Unfortunately, India did not make it to the list of countries, that have taken crypto-friendly measures to contribute to the growth of this nascent industry.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article. 

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Huobi Global Launches Investment Arm Named Ivy Blocks to Focus on DeFi, Web 3 Projects

Huobi Global, one of the largest trading platforms in the world by volume, has launched a new venture capital arm aimed at investing in upcoming blockchain, Web 3 and decentralised finance (DeFi) projects. The spinoff is called Ivy Blocks, and has over $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,770 crore) in assets under management as part of its “war chest.” According to a statement issued by the company, this pool of funds will be directed towards “identifying and investing in promising blockchain projects.”

Ivy Blocks’ offerings through the fund won’t be limited to investments alone. The VC arm is also planning on setting up an asset management platform, a blockchain incubator, and a specialised research arm for blockchain initiatives. According to Huobi Global’s chief financial officer, Lily Zhang, the company’s asset management division would make “liquidity investments” to aid with the launch of the DeFi and Web 3 initiatives.

As per a press release announcing the new investment arm, Ivy Blocks will be providing three core services. To begin with, there will be a liquidity investment department providing an asset management platform for smart DeFi mining and income aggregation. The other two areas the VC firm wants to focus on from the get-go include a department called Ivy Labs, an innovative crypto and blockchain incubator; and Ivy Research, which focuses on blockchain and cryptocurrency research.

“Many promising projects tend to encounter liquidity constraints and a lack of go-to-market support, which present significant barriers to growth,” said Huobi Chief Financial Officer Lily Zhang in a statement. The new investment arm “will no doubt contribute towards creating a better, more inclusive DeFi and Web 3 blockchain ecosystem.”

Ivy Blocks also announced that Capricorn Finance, an automated market maker decentralised exchange (DEX) built on the Cube blockchain, was the first project to receive funding.

The firm’s focus on DeFi comes at a time when the sector’s overall value has declined by roughly two-thirds from its peak. When measured in total value locked, or TVL, the DeFi sector is currently worth just under $84 billion (roughly Rs. 6,52,535 crore), according to DeFi TVL aggregator DefiLlama. DeFi TVL peaked north of $252.4 billion (roughly Rs. 19,60,634 crore) in December 2021.



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Brazil Launches Blockchain Network for Its Public Institutions: Here’s Why

The Brazilian government has unveiled a new blockchain network in a bid to combat corruption in public expenses by tracking them efficiently. The network was launched at an event, which was streamed on YouTube took place after a cooperation agreement was signed by the Court of Accounts of Uniam (TCU) and the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES). The move is part of Brazil’s interest in being at the forefront of integrating blockchain technology into its public administrative system and helping improve both efficiency and traceability in the process.

As per a press release issued by TCU ahead of Monday’s launch event, the Brazilian Blockchain Network is still in development but will be used by a number of governmental institutions in an attempt to improve services provided to citizens and offer better transparency on public expenditures.

“The network, public and not-for-profit, will be national in scope and will connect participating institutions in a governance structure and technological infrastructure with the aim of facilitating the adoption of blockchain technology in solutions aimed at the public interest,” reads the release when translated from Portuguese, verbatim.

The launch of the Brazilian Blockchain Network also comes at a time when Brazil’s taxation body, the Federal Revenue of Brazil (RFB), has passed a law that will require investors to pay personal income tax when they exchange one digital currency for another.

As per a separate report by CoinGeek, the law specifies that even when digital currency transactions do not involve the Brazilian Real or any other fiat currency, any profit made from the transaction is taxable.

“The capital gain calculated on the sale of cryptocurrencies, when one is directly used in the acquisition of another, even if the acquisition cryptocurrency is not previously converted into reais or other fiat currency, is taxed by the Individual Income Tax, subject to progressive rates, in accordance with the provisions of art. 21 of Law No. 8,981, of January 20, 1995,” it reads.

However, the law will not apply to all traders. The RFB caps the reporting requirement at transactions that exceed 35,000 real (roughly Rs. 5.6 lakh). The RFB states that the declaration was made following consultations that began last year.

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Terra’s Internal Legal Team Resigns After LUNA, UST Debacle

The in-house legal counsel at Terraform Labs, the blockchain startup behind the UST stablecoin and LUNA governance token has silently resigned from the company. Terraform Lab’s general lawyer Marc Goldich, chief litigation, and regulatory counsel Noah Axler, and chief corporate counsel Lawrence Florio all left the blockchain business in May 2022, according to their LinkedIn profiles. The move arrives in the wake of the collapse of two digital assets connected to the startup as the UST stablecoin de-pegged from its projected $1 (roughly Rs. 78) mark.

Axler and Florio joined Terraform Labs in January 2022, while Goldich started in August 2021. “Terraform Labs has had a challenging week, and a small number of staff members have resigned recently,” a company spokesperson said talking to CoinDesk.

“The vast majority of team members are still dedicated to fulfilling the project’s objectives. Terra is more than UST, with a strong community and a well-defined rebuilding strategy. The Terra spokesman stated, “Our current focus is on implementing our plan to restore the Terra ecosystem.”

The mishap that befell the Terra ecosystem is unprecedented, and one of the rarest seen in the history of the blockchain ecosystem. This is so because Terraform Labs tried to pioneer a new payment technology in the form of algorithmic stablecoin, one that differs markedly from its peers like Tether (USDT), which has its reserves domiciled in US dollars.

The frailty of the algorithmic stablecoin protocol was reflected in how easily it got attacked a little more than a week ago, and recovery was hard to make despite the several attempts to re-peg it back to $1 (roughly Rs. 78). In fact, the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), a not-for-profit organisation tasked with developing the reserve for the UST stablecoin, unveiled earlier this week how it has depleted its Bitcoin and stablecoin reserve in a bid to restore the UST’s downfall.

In fact, the resignation of the Terraform Labs legal team could push the company to turn to outside counsel for legal affairs.

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Dapper Labs Raises $725 Million Fund to Help Expand Flow Blockchain Ecosystem

Dapper Labs, the Web 3 platform powering popular blockchain-based trading card platform NBA Top Shot, has unveiled a $725 million (roughly Rs. 5,600 crore) ecosystem fund to invest in applications and growth for its layer-1 blockchain ecosystem named Flow. The fund is the largest joint commitment made toward any blockchain ecosystem, the company said in a statement. Participants include venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz aka a16z, Coatue, CoinFund, Greenfield One, Liberty City Ventures, Digital Currency Group, and Union Square Ventures.

According to a press release, the money will be used for token grants, incubator programs, and other resources to support the “gaming, infrastructure, decentralised finance, content and creators” in the Flow ecosystem.

Announcing the raise, Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou said, “We are thrilled to see such a strong vote of confidence in the Flow ecosystem from some of the world’s leading investors in Web 3 through their commitment to this fund. With their active participation and support, the Ecosystem Fund has the opportunity to become a real game-changer for the 7,500+ strong and fast-growing developer community in the Flow ecosystem.”

Dapper Labs is the original creator of Flow, the blockchain ecosystem that powers its NBA Top Shot, NFL All Day, and UFC Strike non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles platforms. However, Flow also plays host to a variety of other projects — ranging from avatar platform Genies to kid-centric NFTs from Zigazoo — and has evolved into an open, decentralised platform for Web 3 apps.

In late 2017, the company made headlines after its first game, CryptoKitties, exploded in popularity and triggered a major congestion crisis on the Ethereum network. According to some estimates, CryptoKitties had around 1.5 million active users at its height before falling from grace and becoming inaccessible for most users due to Ethereum’s soaring transaction fees.

According to data on Flow’s official website, the network currently hosts over 1,000 active projects and 175,000 daily active users, which is still orders of magnitude lower than Ethereum and other leading Layer 1 blockchains like Solana and BNB Chain.



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