Find out how New York startup Blockparty is changing the art and collectibles world through a unique combination of blockchain technology, NFTs, and traditional art world expertise.

Simona talks with Blockparty CEO, Vladislav Ginzburg, about the platform’s recent launch, which saw digital art from Madsteez, Ryan Keeley, and Harif Guzman sell-out, and what we can expect in the future.

Check out Blockparty at https://blockparty.co/

Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has launched a new London advertising campaign ahead of its UK launch. 

Seychelles-based crypto company Binance is set to launch a regulated UK platform this autumn, and is getting the word out with advertisements at London bus stops. 

Binance’s upcoming UK platform will be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and is set to offer up to 65 digital assets for trading. The company has also said it will be joining the CryptoUK industry association as an executive member. 

AYO.NEWS says:

While Binance is well-respected in the crypto community, we can’t help but think advertising like this in London might not be a great idea right now. At the end of July, Richard Heart’s controversial ERC-20 based HEX token launched a large advertising campaign ecompasing London and West Midlands buses, taxis, and newspapers. 

Unfortunately for Binance, because a lot of the people being introduced to it via bus stop ads won’t exactly be clued-in on the crypto scene, they will see the ads and automatically lump them all in with the HEX scam – much like how Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary recently stated that Bitcoin itself was a scam, because he’d tarred it with the same brush as the “Bitcoin Lifestyle” scam. 

pic.twitter.com/nKITQR0WHQ

— Classborn 🌐 (@classborn) August 30, 2020

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

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Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and the FBI have foiled a planned ransomware attack against the company. 

According to a criminal complaint unsealed last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested a 27-year-old Russian citizen named Pavel Kriuchkov in Los Angeles, in connection with the planned attack. 

It seems Kriuchkov had spent a month in the US trying to recruit a member of staff at Tesla’s Gigafactory Nevada facility to help carry out the attack. And, with the aid of a $1 million bribe, he thought he had found the perfect insider – a Russian speaking non-US citizen.

Kriuchkov wanted the Tesla employee to help install malware to enable a targeted attack against the company. The assault was planned to involve a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, to distract Tesla’s information security team, followed by exfiltration of sensitive corporate data. 

Tesla was then going to be hit with a demand for millions in cryptocurrency, to prevent the data being publicly dumped. 

Unfortunately for Kruichkov, but very fortunately for Elon Musk, the employee remained loyal to Tesla and alerted the company, which called in the feds. 

Through August the FBI mounted an extensive surveillance operation, collecting intelligence about the operation, along with previous crimes (including the $4.5m ransomware attack on CWT Travel), and connecting Kruichkov with a hacker – who allegedly happens to be a senior employee at a state controlled Russian bank. 

On 21 August, Kruichkov told the Tesla employee the planned attack was being delayed, and he would be leaving Nevada the next day – which is when the FBI swooped and arrested him in Los Angeles. He is now being held awaiting trial. 

Although the FBI did not specifically name Tesla in its criminal complaint, Tesla’s own news site confirmed it had indeed been the target, with Elon Musk himself also chiming in on Twitter with thanks to the employee who turned down a $1m bribe and helped thwart the attack. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Well, there’s definitely a movie to be made there! But, seriously, we hope that employee got a bonus or a promotion after that. It just goes to show that a company can have all the best security systems and protocols in place, but the most critical defence of all is still the loyalty of its employees. 

Earlier this month, cybersecurity company McAfee said that those behind NetWalker ransomware had raked in more than $25m of Bitcoin between March and June 2020. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

The Robonomics RWS token is trading for $95K on Uniswap, as several crypto assets surge following the launch of Polkadot’s mainnet last month. 

Both of Robonomics’ tokens are among those to have rocketed alongside Polkadot, with its XRT utility token seeing its price explode by 10x this month. However, its “lifetime subscription token”, Robonomics Web Services (RWS) has gone ballistic – becoming the first crypto token to hit the $100K mark, and reaching as high as $116K at one point recently. 

Lifetime subscription model

Of course, it must be remembered that there are only 50 RWS tokens currently in circulation, and there will never be more than 100 – so the high price isn’t quite as crazy as it first seems. And, though the first 50 tokens were distributed via the XRT/RWS pairing on Uniswap, Robonomics has ring-fenced the remaining 50 for “academia and non-profit organizations.”

Robonomics was founded in 2015 and is a distributed ledger technology (DLT)-powered robotics and Internet-of-Things (IoT) project, aiming to harness the potential of blockchain tech to build open-source solutions for robotics and smart cities. 

According to official documentation, Robonomics provides:

• Robonomics providers can open robotics markets (IoT data markets), manage unmanned traffic and launch the work of Smart factories. The Robonomics providers can act, but robotics will be controlled by Ethereum. Skynet resistance. 
• Roboticists can provide a direct access to the robot functions, which will be based on a subscription or payment for a specific service to users. The Ethereum computer will secure all the process properly. 
• End users can easily order robotics services. Once they send a signed message to the Robonomics network, the network will cover all the next steps. 

The “lifetime subscription” model of its RWS token is unique in that it guarantees lifetime transactional throughput to the holder, with each token ensuring one transaction per second between the Robonomics Parachain and the token-holders’ IoT device – which equates to 2.5 million per month. 

RWS is currently in alpha and only trading on Uniswap, but the token is set for a beta release in the final quarter of 2020. 

Polkadot bridges ecosystems

Polkadot’s mainnet launch is proving significant, as the platform’s modular nature is enabling it to attract developers from other smart contract platforms like Ethereum, along with those from non-blockchain backgrounds – with its virtual machine using WebAssembly, that accepts popular “Web2” languages like C++ and Rust. Solutions are also being developed to allow the deployment of decentralised apps in Ethereum’s programming language, Solidity. 

There are also projects working on bridging other blockchain, including Bitcoin (BTC) with Polkadot. While Celer Network is attempting to bring layer-two scalability to Polkadot, and Parity had been integrating Chainlink oracles onto Kusuma – Polkadot’s “canary network.”

Meanwhile, Kadena, which last week announced it had become the world’s fastest blockchain platform, scaling to 480,000 transactions per second on 20 chains,  also confirmed it has accelerated integration with Polkadot, via two new technologies. Pact Core allows Polkadot or any WASM-compatible platform to natively execute Pact smart contract code with the help of a minimal interpreter installed directly on-chain. 

As a short-term alternative to Pact Core, Kadena’s permissioned blockchain technology Kuro can also be adapted to operate as a Polkadot parachain in a digital design called KadenaDOT. This acts as a bridge between the Polkadot and Kadena ecosystems, allowing parachain operators to take advantage of the power of Pact smart contracts. 

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Gibraltar-based INX has become the first security token IPO cleared by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

Established in 2017, INX aims to accelerate the proliferation of regulated digital asset opportunities to both institutions and retail investors, while developing its suite of bespoke INX Trading Solutions to enable single entry-point for the trading of cryptocurrencies, security tokens, and their derivatives. 

After filing the required documents with the SEC, the $117 million is set to be the largest crypto IPO in history, with 130 million INX tokens available at $0.90 each.

Discussing the news, Gibraltar’s Minister for Digital and Financial Services, the Hon Albert Isola MP, said:

“The news that the Gibraltar-domiciled INX platform has become the first SEC-cleared security token IPO is a hugely important moment for INX, but also for our jurisdiction’s burgeoning ecosystem. 

“Here in Gibraltar, we continue to break new ground with regard to blockchain and crypto innovation, and INX has contributed significantly to this collective effort. I would like to congratulate the INX team who have worked relentlessly to reach today’s milestone.”

While Founder and President of INX, Shy Datika, added:

“Our vision for INX and the INX Token required a solid foundation of regulatory clarity for security tokens and cryptocurrencies.  Gibraltar’s regulators were ahead of other jurisdictions on forging a path in this respect, and so INX was glad to make it our home.” 

And, Partner with Gibraltar-based Hassans International Law Firm, Aaron Payas, continued:

“It is a matter of some pride for Hassans, INX and for Gibraltar that the first security token offering approved by the SEC for distribution to the US public isn’t a US entity – it is a Gibraltar company, constituted and operating under the Laws of Gibraltar. 

“This is an excellent development for the jurisdiction, the efforts of which in the DLT and wider fintech space are being validated by the successful filing of the INX security token – making a public offering of tokens in the US had long been the ambition of many projects in the industry, something that was thought by many to be impossible. We now know, as a firm, that it is not.”

AYO.NEWS says:

This is clearly a major coup for INX, but also for the wider Gibraltarian blockchain and DLT sector. The SEC has been notoriously difficult to please when it comes to all things crypto, so INX and the authorities in Gibraltar should pat themselves on the back for this one. 

Such significant progress might also tempt other crypto companies to relocate – especially those getting frustrated in jurisdictions, like Malta, which some say aren’t living up to their promises. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Celsius Network’s equity crowdfunding drive has now notched up 1,000 investors and raised over $20 million.

With just one day left of its extended crowdfunding offering, the blockchain-based lending platform has raised $20.2 million from over a thousand investors. 

Originally, Celsius hoped to raise $10m on the private equity crowdfunding platform BankToTheFuture, but the offering proved so popular it was extended several times, with targets being raised to $15m, then $17m.

Indeed, on the first day it raised an incredible $10.7m from just 39 investors. Investment slowed down after that, but since its last extension on 21 August, there’s still been a healthy flow of investors jumping in. 

Illustrating why Celsius appeals to investors, yesterday the company announced it is now offering up to 15.89% APY on 12 stablecoins, with founder and CEO, Alex Mashinsky, saying:

“Stablecoins act as the bridge from the fiat world to the crypto world for many of our customers. By turning their physical dollars into digital dollars, stablecoin holders can earn over 100x what a traditional bank offers through the Celsius platform.” 

Despite the apparent popularity of its crowdfunding campaign, rumours have surfaced that it has been suffering financial difficulties, and has come close to shutting down, hence the frequently extended funding rounds. 

However, responding to this speculation, Mashinsky has said the company currently owns more than $150 million in assets, and has over $1.1 billion in coins on the platform, which has over 150,000 users. 

London-based Celsius Network now also has offices in New York, New Jersey, and Tel Aviv. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Given the pitiful returns offered to investors by traditional banking products, it’s no surprise that blockchain-based crypto lending platforms like Celsius are proving popular. And, with the world’s traditional financial and economic systems looking extremely vulnerable, we expect the popularity of such platforms will only increase. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020