Ordinals are the new thing taking Bitcoin by storm. On Monday, February 13, Inscriptions using Ordinals passed 100,000 as users flooded the network with images, video games, and other content.

Ordinal Inscriptions, similar to NFTs, are digital assets inscribed on a satoshi, the lowest denomination of a Bitcoin (BTC). Inscribing on satoshis, named after the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, is possible thanks to the Taproot upgrade launched on the Bitcoin network on November 14, 2021.

What is an Ordinal Inscription?

Bitcoin developers have worked to bring non-fungible tokens or NFTs to the number one blockchain for nearly a decade, beginning in 2014 with Counterparty, the creators of the Rare Pepe NFT collection, followed by Stacks in 2017. The Inscription process writes or inscribes the data of the content stored into the witness of the Bitcoin transaction. The witness was introduced in the SegWit upgrade to the Bitcoin network in 2017.

“What the team came up with Ordinals is genius,” Alex Miller, CEO of Hiro, a developer for layer-2 smart contract platform Stacks, told Decrypt in an interview. “It’s super core to the Bitcoin ethos in that they basically took several different things and pieced them together in a way the original creators did not foresee or expect.”

The first step in the creation of Ordinals is users downloading Bitcoin Core and syncing the node to the blockchain. After the sync is completed, the next step is to create an Ordinals wallet and send some satoshis to the wallet.

How did we get to this point?

Launched in 2017, Segregated Witness or SegWit fixed a host of bugs in Bitcoin Core, allowing more transactions per block, and laid the groundwork for Layer 2 payment channels like the Bitcoin Lightning Network. SegWit caused heated debate in the Bitcoin community and led to a hardfork of the network resulting in the launch of rival blockchains, Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision, also known as Bitcoin SV.

Story continues

While detractors may view Ordinals as abusing the network, Ordinals developer Casey Rodarmor says these claims are unfounded.

What Is Taproot? The Privacy-Focused Bitcoin Upgrade.

With Taproot, all parties in a transaction can cooperate to make these complex transactions look like standard, person-to-person transactions. They do so by combining their public keys to create a new public key and combining their signatures to create a new signature. It does this through a device called Schnorr signatures.

The Taproot upgrade also scrambles transactions with single and multiple signatures, making it more challenging to identify transaction inputs on Bitcoin’s blockchain. Taproot enhances privacy while reducing the amount of data needed to make them, lowering transaction costs that have become much higher as Bitcoin has become more popular.

“One thing that people don’t understand is that in order for Bitcoin to be secure, blocks must be full. That is part of the coin security model,” Rodarmor told Decrypt in an interview. “If blocks are not full, then nobody has any reason to pay more than the minimum fee rate to have their transactions included in a block. So, as a result, blocks must be full.”

Ordinals can be a complicated process due to the size of the Bitcoin blockchain and the need to use the Command Line (Windows) or Terminal (Mac/Linux).

What’s next for Ordinals?

The race is on to develop more seamless methods of inscribing on Bitcoin and wallets that make it possible to view the Bitcoin NFT once it is created.

Looking to create a seamless way for collectors to create Ordinal Inscriptions, Gamma, a Bitcoin NFT marketplace on Stacks, began offering a paid service that allows users to inscribe images and text. Other projects providing this service include Oridalsbot from the creators of the Satoshibles NFT collection.

Hiro Systems announced Tuesday it is rolling out support for Odinals on its Hiro Wallet, and on Wednesday, Xverse, a Bitcoin-based web wallet, also launched support for Bitcoin NFTs.

© Provided by MUO

The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is the engine that powers the Ethereum ecosystem. The EVM provides the infrastructure for compiling and running smart contracts on Ethereum. It is the reason the blockchain remains developers' favorite for launching DApps, tokens, DEXes, and other DeFi platforms.

The EVM may seem complex and technical for those new to blockchain tech. To simplify, here's your guide to the Ethereum Virtual Machine and how it works.

What Is the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)

The Ethereum Virtual Machine, or EVM, is an integral part of the Ethereum blockchain. It serves as the core infrastructure of the blockchain, which allows running codes for smart contracts. It is written in the Solidity programming language and works as a runtime environment for different decentralized applications (DApps) on Ethereum.

What makes the EVM popular among developers is its flexibility, as it supports smart contracts in numerous programming languages. Furthermore, it allows you to compile programs in your preferred language and execute them in Ethereum's secure environment.

Other than deploying smart contracts, the EVM can determine the blockchain state after adding each block. It is designed as a state machine that allows it to perform certain immutable operations to determine Ethereum's state.

How Does the EVM Work?

The Ethereum Virtual Machine operates as a sandbox or an isolated virtual computer where you can develop DApps. These DApps use smart contracts written in different coding languages and stored on the Ethereum blockchain.

The EVM is integrated into each node within the Ethereum network. It provides a cloud environment containing all the rules and conditions for the execution of codes. So, it ensures the automatic implementation of smart contracts.

You can write codes in scripting languages like Solidity, Python, Vyper, or any EVM-compatible language. However, the EVM cannot read all the coding languages. So, first, it converts the code into computer-readable "bytecode."

Besides, as the operations are in a sandbox-like environment, you can alter them anytime without affecting your programs or data. It makes the system more reliable and secure for launching any DeFi project.

Meanwhile, different functions occur at the back end of implementing smart contracts. It has two main features:

1. EVM Using Opcodes

The EVM is a Turing Complete system, which means it can run any complex algorithm. This capability comes from the Opcode, as it allows EVM to execute instructions of the smart contracts.

Opcodes are a set of over 140 instructional operations which help EVM in implementing codes. These operations include PUSH, CALL, ISZERO, mSTORE, and others. In addition, it also uses other operations while working with different blockchains.

2. Gas Fee Calculation

There is a fee for each transaction the EVM implements. However, it ensures the system does not encounter downtime and seamlessly executes operations. So, you must pay for gas if you want to deploy a smart contract using the powerful EVM tool.

On Ethereum, gas is used as a unit of work. It determines the computational cost of a transaction on the network. That's why the EVM also calculates gas fees against the backdrop of smart contract execution. In addition, it internally computes commissions for executed instructions. So, when you confirm a transaction, it deducts a small amount of Ether as a gas fee from your wallet.

Usually, the fee depends on the complexity of the smart contract. It means if you use more Opcodes, the gas will be higher. Moreover, it is important to note that Ethereum is one of the most expensive blockchains. That's why the cost of developing and deploying smart contracts on the chain is higher than on other networks.

Why Does the EVM Exist?

What is the purpose of the Ethereum Virtual Machine? EVM fills in a lot of roles in the Ethereum ecosystem. Firstly, it is used to define the state of the Ethereum blockchain when new blocks are added. Secondly, developers can write smart contract codes in their preferred language.

In addition, the EVM offers a secure and isolated cloud infrastructure that allows easy deployment of smart contracts. Moreover, it enhances interoperability within the Ethereum network. All the applications built on the network are compatible with one another. You can also easily bridge tokens and migrate DApps between EVM-compatible blockchains.

Most importantly, this virtual machine allows you to build a range of DApps, from NFT projects to Automated Market Makers (AMMs).

Why Use the EVM for Building Web3 Apps?

Ethereum's ecosystem is the most popular for building DApps. One of the reasons behind its popularity is its virtual machine, which offers several benefits to developers. These benefits include:

Enhanced Interoperability

The Ethereum Virtual Machine architecture provides enhanced interoperability. The infrastructure lets you connect with a wide range of Layer 2 solutions. In addition, it allows easy back-and-forth transfer of tokens between these blockchains.

Security and Reliability

The EVM offers an isolated cloud environment where you can execute smart contracts. It ensures that your data remains safe while your code runs smoothly on the network.

Easy Migration to Other Blockchains

When you build an application with the EVM, you can also migrate it to its compatible blockchains. It will save you from the hassle of rewriting code to launch it on other blockchains.

Supports a Range of Scripting Languages

The EVM also supports a wide range of programming languages. It makes it easier for developers to launch their applications as they do not have to learn an entirely new coding language.

Distributed Consensus

Though the EVM works in an isolated environment, it is connected with each node on the Ethereum network. It means that your code can run on other systems on the network. Also, if one node is down, your program will remain uninterrupted on others.

Simplify Smart Contract Deployment With EVM

Even with the availability of so many "Ethereum killers," Ethereum remains a popular choice among developers. One of the key reasons behind its popularity is the ease of smart contract deployment it offers via EVM.

The EVM works in a sandboxed environment and allows you to compile and execute your program. You can execute your smart contract if you code in Solidity, Python, Java, or any other coding language, and using the EVM, you can build Web3 apps. Despite its high price, developers benefit from its seamless migration process, interoperability, and robust security features.

Blockchain technology, while it didn’t gain global adoption when it first started, is now making huge headways. It revolutionized the financial industry by introducing cryptocurrencies in a decentralized manner. 

Its impressive feedback extended its span to numerous industries and applications, including video delivery networks via the Theta blockchain. For this reason, learning how to buy Theta in the US can be significantly beneficial.

Video consumption is becoming all the rage. Sandvine’s 2023 Global Internet Phenomena Report shows that videos account for 65 percent of internet volume. 

With the growing consumption of videos and other applications, there’s an expectation for significant bandwidth demands. Another factor to consider is increasing broadband speed. Cisco projected broadband speed to grow more than twice to satisfy consumer needs. This growth leads to more requirements for bandwidth. This is where Theta blockchain comes in. 

Theta blockchain provides a platform that addresses the streaming industry’s technical and economic challenges. The purpose-built decentralized platform allows users to share their excess bandwidth and resources. In exchange, they get a token reward. 

Benefits of Investing in the Theta Network

As a decentralized platform, Theta has several advantages over traditional video streaming platforms. Here are some of them.

Interoperability

Theta is notable for supporting the development of vertical decentralized apps (Dapp). It’s an open-source scheme, giving users access to a myriad of media sources. This setup allows them to access movies, music, and other video content via peer-to-peer streaming. 

Sharing of bandwidth

One of the major buy-ins for Theta is bandwidth sharing. It provides an equitable solution to address the growing need for higher bandwidth. Users with excess can share and gain rewards by doing so. Without a third-party platform, users can have faster and easier transactions.

The popularity of decentralized technology led to thousands of blockchain or crypto projects. However, not all of these have a purpose or address a demand. With increasing reliance on higher bandwidth and a rise in video consumption, investors can expect a return on investment (ROI).

Supports smart contracts

The Theta platform supports smart contracts. With it, users have a safe and transparent environment to make transactions without the risk of fraud or manipulation. 

These smart contracts are similar to traditional ones in a digital and automated format within a blockchain. When users execute a smart contract, the transaction goes to a public ledger. 

Address Streaming Demands

When investing in any type of decentralized technology, it’s essential to consider several factors, including price, location, protocol, and availability. Theta network is among the most difficult to obtain. You may work with a broker for this. Brokerage firms often get the first information on the network’s availability. 

Investing in Theta blockchain can be an excellent way to diversify your portfolio and enjoy good returns. As a US investor, you can start investing in Theta by buying tokens on exchanges. You can also set up a cryptocurrency wallet and run a Guardian Node. 

Video streaming is here to stay. As these predictions show, investing in a platform that supports efficient bandwidth sharing will make positive returns.

It’s a buzzy, exciting technology, but blockchain is only in the early stages of development. Cryptocurrencies have been making dramatic headlines for their outsized gains and tremendous losses, but more pragmatic blockchain applications have had a much lower profile.

Large, established public companies have dabbled in blockchain businesses while smaller, more focused firms have put blockchain and crypto at the core of their operations. In either case, there has yet to be a killer app that has made the case for blockchain as a core part of the future of business and technology.

This means investing in the stocks of just one or a few blockchain or crypto-focused companies is very risky. That makes choosing a diversified blockchain ETF a less risky way to get exposure to the industry. The blockchain ETFs on our list invest in dozens or even hundreds of stocks, providing plenty of diversification in a single fund.

Given how rapidly the blockchain space is evolving, choosing a blockchain ETF for your portfolio could be the best possible choice for investing in the industry.

The author(s) held no positions in the securities discussed in the post at the original time of publication.

Murtuza Merchant is a senior journalist and an avid follower of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Are you also interested in understanding how the world of crypto functions? But you are scared to lose money? Well, we understand that and to help you with it, we got in touch with Sapna Singh, a crypto influencer. Her project ‘Earn with Sapna’ aids a wide range of audiences and keeps them updated with the latest trends in blockchain technology. In an interview, Sapna Singh talks about her venture, ways to earn money, crypto, and more:

How many ventures are you currently involved in?

I am working only on one venture earnwithsapna, which is eponymous with my name and the aspirations of my viewers. It’s my baby which has been growing rapidly with the love and support of my followers. I like to talk about crypto as well as new-age technologies such as artificial intelligence or AI and Blockchain, I would like to say that it has been one roller coaster ride so far.

Apart from this, you also have a YouTube presence if I’m right. So, amongst all ventures that you’re spearheading, where does YouTube exactly fit?

You are right that I have a YouTube presence. YouTube is a connection for me that allows me to connect with my viewers and build a community around the content that I share. For me, it is an important as well as crucial platform for establishing a personal brand. It is like a parallel path that allows me to grow my brand as a sustainable business.

In the world of crypto and AI, YouTube often gets side-lined. What are your views about it? 

I do not fully agree with the statement as most crypto investors in their early days of investing come to YouTube.  This helps in understanding the markets and the ecosystem work as a whole since it is a system and not an isolated identity. Once they graduate from their early days of investing, they move to platforms like Twitter or Telegram to get more valuable insights into the world of crypto. So, YouTube is not sidelined rather it is the building block I believe.

Where do you see yourself five years down the lane with respect to YouTube?

I am expecting to grow my channel with more engagements. I also aim for producing content that people are passionate about. But more than that I will focus on diversifying my content, collaborating with other creators, and potentially branching out into other forms of media. However, I plan to stick to my areas of expertise which are crypto, blockchain, and AI. Luck has favored me so far and the credit goes to the blessings of my viewers. I hope that they continue to shower the same love.

How do you feel your YouTube content is going so far?

To be frank, I think my subscribers can provide you with a more honest take on this. However, since you have asked, I would like to provide you with a balanced opinion. So far, with my content, I have aimed and probably succeeded in providing valuable information to my viewers.

Also, my channel is a little different as my content focuses on explaining things in simple terms which are free of any jargon. My aim is to reach every nook and cranny of India and help people understand the magic of decentralized technologies such as crypto.

Lastly, any advice you want to give to people on what they can learn from YouTube?

YouTube is a popular platform for learning about cryptocurrency because it offers so much, from tutorials to expert interviews to even in-depth analysis of the industry. The platform also allows users to easily search for and access information on specific topics, making it a convenient resource for learners of all levels.

However, beginners need to keep in mind that the information on YouTube may not always be accurate or up-to-date, and it is always a good idea to verify information with additional sources before making any investment decisions.

Crypto is supposed to be exciting, right? Hacking, fraud, overnight billionaires, international fugitives.

Sure. But, far from the high drama of crypto finance, governments around the world have been quietly putting blockchains to a more, well, boring use: recordkeeping.

Though these experiments lack the drama of crypto finance, they do convert on a promise of blockchain technology: that it creates a durable and transparent distributed record of activity. And they raise the prospect that blockchains may soon be coming not just for your wallet, but most other aspects of your life that the state takes an interest in, like birth, death, marriage, and your very identity.

Already, New York City, Chicago’s Cook County, and South Burlington, Vermont, have all explored or deployed programs to put property records on blockchains. California is moving to put car title records on-chain. And if you can’t quite remember whether you really got hitched in Reno last weekend, Washoe County, Nevada, will verify your marriage certificate online using a blockchain.

Much of the experimentation is overseas: National governments in Honduras, Ghana, and Georgia, have pursued blockchain based systems for property records, in addition to local projects in places like El Salvador.

The biggest plans for putting government on-chain in the U.S., though, may be the ones taking shape in its smallest state.

Rhode Island’s Department of Commerce is currently looking for vendors to help it integrate records from agencies across state government into a single blockchain-based system. The hope is that it will make it drastically easier to register a business — a task that currently requires dealing with many different agencies running their own siloed systems.

Unlike its more exotic crypto-finance cousins, this blockchain system was designed to be “boring and not risky,” says Commerce Secretary Elizabeth Tanner, who tells DFD that opening a restaurant in Rhode Island currently requires accessing 11 state websites.

Tanner determined that the use of a distributed blockchain database was the best way to create a single records system used by multiple agencies.

To keep things as boring as humanly possible, she enlisted both Rhode Island’s Division of Motor Vehicles and the state’s certified public accountants for a proof-of-concept pilot program that concluded in June.

The accountants were able to get a digital ID card from the DMV, then use the digital credential to prove their identity to the Department of Business Regulation, which in turn issued them a digital copy of their CPA license.

One issue with blockchains is that they’re designed to be accessed by several parties — sometimes millions, in the case of public chains — meaning that they’re not a good place to store sensitive information in an unencrypted form.

In Rhode Island’s model, most information is stored privately by the government and in users’ digital wallet apps, while the shared blockchain stores public keys — published by the issuing agency — that can be used to verify the authenticity of a user’s digital credentials.

Tanner said she became interested in blockchains about five years ago, when she was serving as the director of the Department of Business Regulation. After dealing with the hassles of opening businesses as an attorney in private practice, she wanted to create a more user-friendly experience for Ocean State entrepreneurs.

Tanner said she quickly discovered that the systems used by other U.S. states were just as clunky as Rhode Island’s. She looked further afield and became enamored of the high-tech approach of the tiny Baltic nation of Estonia, which first began putting government records on a blockchain in 2012.

Tanner credited then-Gov. Gina Raimondo, now the U.S. commerce secretary, with greenlighting the project early on.

Of course, there's a reputational issue. Government recordkeeping requires bedrock public trust, and the meltdown in crypto financial markets has created a serious political liability for projects like Tanner's by tainting the underlying technology in the public imagination.

“It’s becoming a big problem for me,” Tanner said. “I rarely use the word blockchain anymore.” Tanner said she takes special care in describing the project to legislators, who oversee the project’s funding. 

In the course of our conversation, Tanner dropped the less polarizing term “DLT,” an abbreviation of “digital ledger technology.” This broader concept refers to a set of methods for distributed record-keeping that includes blockchains as well as other techniques — including some employed by central bank digital currency experiments — that do not require sequential blocks of data.

The project puts Rhode Island in league with a constellation of other technophile governments. Tanner said she is keeping tabs on initiatives as far afield as Dubai, Singapore and Lichtenstein. In October, she traveled to Estonia to learn more about systems there, and she keeps in touch with the governments of Aruba, Ontario and British Columbia about their own blockchain forays.

For now, the state is fielding an avalanche of questions from potential service providers trying to wrap their heads around the project: Tanner said she hopes to settle on a vendor by the beginning of May. In the meantime, any crypto firms in need of emergency audits know where they can find a group of accountants who have used a blockchain.

Digital artist Mason Rothschild— creator of the “MetaBirkin” NFT handbag — yesterday emerged the loser in a trademark lawsuit initiated by luxury fashion brand Hermès — the real-world manufacturers of Birkin handbags. The case was being watched carefully as a litmus test on an issue very important to the metaverse as it develops: how protections under existing U.S. laws on intellectual property, trademark and copyright would extend into the virtual world.

Brand owners can breathe a sigh of relief for now: a Manhattan jury decided that Rothschild’s “MetaBirkins” were violating Hermès’ trademark rights and ordered him to pay the company $133,000 in damages for trademark infringement, dilution and “cybersquatting.” (Rothschild has indicated he will appeal.)

The verdict shows that “you can extend physical brick-and-mortar IP protection” that apply to physical goods “to the same types of items, albeit pixelated, in the virtual world,” said Preetha Chakrabarti, an IP lawyer at the corporate firm Crowell & Moring.

Still, updating IP protections to keep up with technology remains an active task, Chakrabarti said, pointing to the U.S. Copyright and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Offices’ joint study on NFT tokens as one such effort on the federal level.

And questions around metaverse commerce aren’t quite settled yet. There’s a pending Supreme Court case between the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and American photographer Lynn Goldsmith which will decide what qualifies as “transformative fair use” under U.S. copyright law. That case deals with whether Andy Warhol’s silk-screen renderings of the musician Prince, which were based on a photograph that Goldsmith took, violated Goldsmith’s copyright claims over the original photo. The transferable concept here is that if Warhol’s work counts as transformative fair use, so might some NFTs.

Rothschild’s legal team had, in fact, attempted to draw a comparison between the MetaBirkins and Andy Warhol’s widely recognizable “Business Art” project, though Hermès pushed back and District Court Judge Rakoff ultimately ruled against allowing testimony from a Warhol biographer who could make that analogy. —Mohar Chatterjee

Russian disinformation isn’t gone. It’s just moving. With the Kremlin largely deprived of the megaphones that are Twitter, Youtube and Facebook — which have become more alert to Russian propaganda — Telegram has become the new information battleground for the Kremlin, researcher Nika Aleksejeva told Politico’s Mark Scott in today’s Digital Bridge newsletter.

Only last week, threat intelligence firm Logically published a report on two new influence operations “aiming to spread pro-Russian sentiment,” spearheaded by Kremlin-tied propagandists, Luc Michel and Ramzu Yunus. Both influence operations have a strong presence on Telegram, according to the report.

Between EU sanctions on Russian state media, tech companies’ efforts to clamp down on misinformation on their platforms and everyday Ukrainians posting the real-time footage of the war, the Kremlin’s military aggression has not won hearts. But moving to Telegram allows the Kremlin to target “specific pro-Russian online voices versus previous attempts to bombard anyone who would listen to Russian disinformation,” Scott wrote. —Mohar Chatterjee

Stay in touch with the whole team: Ben Schreckinger ([email protected]); Derek Robertson ([email protected]); Mohar Chatterjee ([email protected]); Steve Heuser ([email protected]); and Benton Ives ([email protected]). Follow us @DigitalFuture on Twitter.

If you’ve had this newsletter forwarded to you, you can sign up and read our mission statement at the links provided.

In the new edition of its annual Trends Report, Globant shares four technologies that will guide organizations into new territory in 2023, helping them navigate the uncharted waters of innovation like never before.

NEW YORK, Feb. 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Globant (NYSE: GLOB), a digitally native company focused on reinventing businesses through innovative technology solutions, published today its 2023 Tech Trends Report, which presents four technology trends related to the metaverse, AI, blockchain, and foundational tech that will help organizations to create innovative solutions and opportunities for their businesses.

"It is vital that organizations understand where the market is going and build their businesses around technologies that will solve their most crucial needs, including reinventing themselves through innovation, positively impacting people's lives worldwide, and staying competitive," said Agustin Huerta, SVP Studios at Globant.

This year, it is essential for companies to build flexible paths that will help secure their longevity during both disruptive and calmer periods – a key component of which is beneficial investments in technology:

1. Artificial Intelligence: With the latest rise of LLM  and foundation models, tools such as ChatGPT or Bard, AI is becoming a more significant part of consumers' everyday lives and expectations, facilitating enjoyable interactions between businesses and consumers.

2. Metaverse: With major players in the field, this will be the year in which the metaverse takes hold and either heads towards mass adoption or folds completely. The market is eager to see impactful applications in this space.

3. Blockchain: Blockchain is becoming an integral part of consumer experiences, from art to sports to other types of entertainment. Organizations must address consumer pressure to participate in blockchain-related phygital experiences or risk losing customers.

4. Foundational Tech: The global economy is shifting, and organizations must continue their digital transformation journeys to stay competitive. A fast code approach using low-code and no-code applications will allow resource-conscious companies to meet their goals.

Story continues

Globant is a digitally native company that has worked with artificial intelligence for over a decade and uses its capabilities and expertise to help its clients create business value and enable growth at an unparalleled pace. Brand Finance recently recognized the company as one of the fastest-growing IT Services brands in the world.

To learn more about Globant's 2023 Tech Trends Report, click here.

About Globant

We are a digitally native company that helps organizations reinvent themselves and unleash their potential. We are the place where innovation, design, and engineering meet at scale.

• We have more than 26,500 employees and we are present in more than 20 countries working for companies like Google, Electronic Arts and Santander, among others.

• We were named a Worldwide Leader in CX Improvement Services by IDC MarketScape report.

• We were also featured as a business case study at Harvard, MIT, and Stanford.

• We are a member of The Green Software Foundation (GSF) and the Cybersecurity Tech Accord.

Contact: pr@globant.com

Sign up to get first dibs on press news and updates.
For more information, visit www.globant.com.

View original content to obtain multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/globant-shares-2023-trends-for-ai-metaverse-blockchain-and-foundational-tech-in-new-report-301749048.html

SOURCE Globant

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

Feb 06, 2023 (The Expresswire) -- [In 2023] The Global Blockchain Distributed Ledger Technology Market Size (101 Report Pages) is estimated to be worth USD million in 2021 and is forecast to a readjusted size of USD million by 2029, New Researcher (Due to COVID-19 pandemic) as a researcher, you will be responsible for conducting experiments, analyzing data, and interpreting results in order to advance knowledge in your field. with a CAGR during review period. Banking accounting for percentage of the Blockchain Distributed Ledger Technology global market in 2022, is projected to value USD million by 2029, growing at a CAGR in Forecast 2023 to 2029. While On-Premise segment is altered to a CAGR between 2023 and 2029.

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

Censorship resistance is the foundation of crypto, so for many cryptocurrency purists, the Nov. 23 announcement by ConsenSys, the New York-based company behind the leading Ethereum browser wallet, informing its 20 million MetaMask users that their IP and wallet addresses would be collected was simply a gross violation of the crypto spirit.

In the weeks that followed, ConsenSys first reacted by saying the data collected would only be retained for seven days and then that it had updated the MetaMask features to allow users to opt out of Infura. However, the question remains: Have they done enough to establish crypto resistance?

While many may be OK with MetaMask tracking users’ wallets and IP addresses, many more of us are not because blockchain is supposed to be about decentralization and giving people the power to control their data and their finances without intermediaries — such as banks and governments.

Related: Are we still mad at MetaMask and ConsenSys for snooping on us?

For the sake of a healthy debate, let’s say we are fine with MetaMask tracking users’ wallets and IP addresses in certain acceptable instances. Those reasons could be in the case of a malicious attack. The information gathered by the Infura protocol could help track down the criminals involved.

Perhaps, more importantly for ConsenSys, the “spying” could have more to do with official regulations, such as Know Your Customer laws, Anti-Money Laundering laws and financing terrorism.

However, the reasoning behind the decision to “spy” or end MetaMask user privacy features is highly concerning — and even a bit frightening — because it clearly contravenes the crypto spirit.

Control and ownership back to users

The crypto spirit centers on putting people back in control of their assets so they can do what they with them and when they wish and have ownership over their data so they can participate in the decentralized economy, such as the machine economy, by monetizing their information.

Infura is mainly to blame for violating the crypto spirit by tracking users’ IP and Ether (ETH) wallet addresses while advising MetaMask’s users to spin up a whole new Ethereum node or to use a different node provider if they are so concerned over lnfura’s intrusions.

Suppose Infura (or any other API provider) holds users’ IP and ETH addresses. In that case, it can quickly locate the user’s home and tie it back to all the ETH assets and on-chain transactions users have made. That is quite scary.

Contradictory intrusions

That raised a fascinating debate among the crypto community. While the Ethereum blockchain provides censorship resistance, API providers such as Infura, which provide access to the Ethereum blockchain, are not obligated contradictorily to be censorship resistant.

That represents a considerable risk for users of MetaMask or, for that fact, any other wallet, such as these Ethereum API nodes, because it makes them vulnerable to censorship without any prior notification or warning.

Related: Coinbase is fighting back as the SEC closes in on Tornado Cash

And then came Alchemy and MyEtherWallet, which tried to “cash in on MetaMask users’ concerns,” only to surface as two crypto wallet solutions that also track user data.

It is true that anyone can send Bitcoin (BTC) to anyone — even if the police or government doesn’t approve. However, if BTC were not censorship-resistant, those authorities could seize or block that Bitcoin. Crypto was created with censorship resistance in mind because we need and cherish our right to privacy.

It is also ironic. Blockchain developers have racked their brains to design the chain to be censorship resistant. However, the API node provider “hijacks” the original intention and silently changes it, and all the while, the potential victims — users — are not informed of the modifications.

In light of Infura’s violations of the “crypto spirit,” here are two considerations.

Crypto enthusiasts should continue monitoring API providers and notifying communities when they behave unethically

• Monitoring from the public is required, as done by the two whistleblowers via their Twitter accounts.

• MetaMask and other wallets must inform users immediately and clarify the terms of their privacy. For example, they should tell users they are using Infura, which does not ensure their privacy 100%. That, arguably, was not done properly or in a sufficiently overt manner in November.
• Builders of decentralized applications (DApps) should be responsible for notifying people that an API node in use is not secure or censorship-resistant to raise awareness.

What type of technology can address this concern soundly?

• API node-as-a-service makes it simple for non-tech users to spin up API nodes for their wallets. That should be as easy for both users and developers alike as purchasing a VPN service.

• In math we trust. Technology always fights for freedom on behalf of people. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently posted an “Incomplete Guide to Stealth Addresses,” which does not require new technology. However, if implemented on Ethereum, they partially address the privacy violation concerns raised by Infura. People can still locate a user’s house using Infura, but not their on-chain transactions or assets.

Raullen Chai is the co-founder and CEO of IoTeX. He previously worked for companies including Google, Uber and Oracle. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo, where his research focused on designing and analyzing lightweight ciphers and authentication protocols for the Internet of Things. At Google, he led security initiatives for its technical infrastructure, including the mitigation of SSL attacks, privacy-preserving SSL offloading and enabling certificate transparency for all Google services. He was also the founding engineer of Google Cloud Load Balancer.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.