We all know that ETH switched to the POS algorithm long ago, and we were supposed to see a flexible scalability of the network and cheap transactions. While transactions have become cheaper, comparing to BSC, DOT, Polygon, they still remain relatively expensive. Today, looking at Gas station, I see that a regular transaction costs $1.5-2, not to mention swaps.

Question:
Will a solution be found to the problem of expensive transactions on Ethereum? What steps can be taken to reduce fees and increase network scalability?

Национальное агентство перспективных проектов Республики Узбекистан выявило ряд нарушений со стороны криптовалютной биржи Binance. Об этом журналу ForkLog сообщили представители ведомства.

Руководствуясь Положением о порядке лицензирования деятельности провайдеров услуг в сфере оборота криптоактивов, Агентство обнаружило:

 - факты оказания гражданам Республики Узбекистан услуг по совершению операций с криптоактивами;
 - сделки с анонимными монетами, а также с криптоактивами и денежными средствами, полученными преступным путем;
 - что компания не является юридическим лицом — резидентом Республики Узбекистан;
 - отсутствие электронной платформы, размещенной на серверах, находящихся на территории Республики Узбекистан;
 - несоблюдение требований законодательства в сфере оборота криптоактивов, противодействия легализации доходов, полученных от преступной деятельности, финансированию терроризма и финансированию распространения оружия массового уничтожения, а также хранения и использования персональных данных;
 - отсутствие какой-либо информации касательно недопущения к руководству и к участию в уставном фонде провайдеров услуг лиц, указанных в подпункте «з)» пункта 9 Положения, а также компаний, зарегистрированных в офшорных зонах;
 - отсутствие сформированного уставного фонда, часть которого должна резервироваться на отдельном счете в коммерческом банке Республики Узбекистан.

«Агентством, в соответствии с Законом принято решение о наложении штрафа в размере 300 базовых расчетных величин, которое направлено криптобирже Binance и регулятору юрисдикции, в которой зарегистрирована компания», — говорится в документе, оказавшимся в распоряжении ForkLog.

Источник: https://forklog.com/news/vlasti-uzbekistana-oshtrafovali-bitkoin-birzhu-binance

Under the agreement, more than $2 million would be returned to Transit Swap users.

On Oct. 10, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Transit Swap announced that it had reached an agreement with its biggest hacker for the return of funds. Approximately one week prior, a hacker exploited an internal bug on a swap contract within the protocol and caused other individuals to imitate the security breach, leading to a loss of over $23 million in user funds.

However, the main hacker has since returned approximately 70% of exploited funds thanks to the help of security companies such as Peckshield, SlowMist, Bitrace and TokenPocket. They quickly tracked down the hacker by identifying their IP address, email address and associated-on chain addresses.

As per Oct. 10’s agreement, the hacker will return the remaining 10,000 BNB
BNB

tickers down
$274

 tokens, worth roughly $2.74 million, from the exploit in exchange for relief of all legal liabilities arising from the attack from Transit Swap’s side. In addition, the hacker will keep 2,500 BNB ($685,600) for his “white hat” efforts in uncovering the security vulnerability.

Updates about TransitFinance
A consensus has been reached between the biggest hacker and TransitFinance Official, the hacker will keep 2,500 BNB as a bonus and refund the users’ remaining 10,000 BNB.https://t.co/DOwRw7doYy

— Transit Swap | Transit Buy | NFT (@TransitFinance) October 10, 2022
The Transit Swap team has also set a deadline of Oct. 12 for two hacker-imitators and one hacker-arbitrageur to return the stolen funds. Afterward, developers threatened that "judicial actions" would be taken.

Related: White hat finds huge vulnerability in Ethereum–Arbitrum bridge: Wen max bounty?

At the beginning of the year, DeFi exploits were largely a low-risk, high-reward endeavor thanks to user anonymity. Recently, the rise of blockchain analytic firms and forensic DeFi firms, coupled with a U.S. ban on crypto-mixer tools such as Tornado Cash, has made it harder for hackers to launder stolen funds. Instead, some have opted to return the funds and keep a portion of the exploited proceeds as a "bounty" for uncovering security vulnerabilities, as with the Nomad bridge hack.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/main-hacker-in-transit-swap-exploit-agrees-to-return-remaining-funds

“We are deeply sorry,” stated Transit Swap while revealing that a bug in the code allowed a hacker to make away with an estimated $21 million.

Transit Swap, a multichain decentralized exchange aggregator, lost roughly $21 million after a hacker exploited an internal bug on a swap contract. Following the revelation, Transit Swap issued an apology to users with efforts to track down and recover the stolen funds currently underway.

“We are deeply sorry,” stated Transit Swap while revealing that a bug in the code allowed a hacker to make away with an estimated $21 million. Blockchain security firm PeckShield narrowed down the attack to a compatibility issue or misplaced trust in the swap contract.

Peckshield, along with other investigators, including SlowMist, Bitrace and TokenPocket joined in on the pursuit to track down the hacker. Transit Swap stated:

“We now have a lot of valid information such as the hacker's IP, email address, and associated on-chain addresses. We will try our best to track the hacker and try to communicate with the hacker and help everyone recover their losses.”
The flowchart below depicts the flow of the stolen assets, as shared by PeckShield.

The ongoing investigation hinted that the hacker may have performed earlier withdrawals from known exchanges. Transit Swap has promised to share more details with the community in due time, adding, “Thank you for your understanding and trust.”

Transit Swap has not yet responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Related: Amber Group uses simple hardware to show just how fast, easy the Wintermute hack was

Reciprocating the updated security measures implemented by crypto businesses, hackers continue to evolve their methods to dupe investors.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/transit-swap-loses-over-21m-due-to-internal-bug-hack-issues-apology

Members of the Ooki DAO are discussing various ways to respond to the recent lawsuit filed by the CFTC.

Members of the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called Ooki DAO have started looking into an appropriate response to the charges filed by the United States Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

On Sept. 22, the CFTC announced a $250,000 penalty and settlement with bZeroX, the creators of the decentralized lending platform bZx protocol which suffered from code exploits in 2020 that led to hundreds of thousands in losses. In addition to this, the CFTC also filed a lawsuit against Ooki DAO over similar alleged violations of digital asset trading laws.

In response, Ooki DAO members started to discuss how they should respond to the lawsuit. The DAO identified three potential responses including allocating funds from its treasury toward hiring lawyers for the DAO members. The second option brought up by the DAO members is to try and elicit support from the decentralized finance (DeFi) community to support the legal battle.

Another option brought by members of the DAO is raising funds by selling nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The community discussed this possibility as well and highlighted that it's another viable option to raise funds for litigation.

Because of the options laid out in the discussion, it’s very likely that the DAO will initiate a governance vote to finalize a decision.

Related: Pro sports league Karate Combat to launch DAO for fan, athlete governance

On Sept. 23, the CFTC received backlash from its own commissioner for its actions against the Ooki DAO. According to CFTC commissioner Summer Mersinger, while she agrees with the charges against the founders of bZeroX, she could not agree with the Commission's approach to determining liability for the DAO's token holders.

Meanwhile, CFTC's Caroline Pham has recently proposed the creation of an office that's dedicated to protecting retail consumers. Dubbed "Office of the Retail Advocate," the office will become the people's voice according to Pham. In a speech, the commissioner said that there is a need to balance innovation with retail protection and this will be the focus of the said office.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/ooki-dao-members-explore-options-in-response-to-cftc-lawsuit

The role includes “full product life cycle legal advice and support for global NFT products," among other responsibilities.
The Walt Disney Company could be on the verge of expanding into the crypto space after posting a new job for an “experienced corporate attorney” to work on “emerging technologies” such as nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and the Metaverse.

According to the Sept. 23 listing on the Disney careers website, the company is hiring for a “Principal Counsel — Corporate Transactions, Emerging Technologies & NFTs” to work on transactions involving NFTs, the Metaverse, blockchain, and decentralized finance (DeFi).

Specifically the entertainment conglomerate is seeking someone to provide “full product life cycle legal advice and support for global NFT products" and ensure they comply with all current laws and regulations on U.S. soil and internationally.

Other duties include "due diligence for NFT, blockchain, third-party marketplace and cloud provider projects,” as well as providing regular legal advice on cryptocurrency-related matters, and digital currency and guiding Disney's efforts in relation to emerging technologies.

The new role comes as The Walt Disney Company has been slowly positioning itself around the crypto, blockchain, and Metaverse space.

During the company's fourth-quarter earnings call in November 2021, CEO Bob Chapek said the firm was preparing to blend physical and digital assets in the Metaverse.

Weeks later the company filed a patent for a “virtual-world simulator” referring to a potential theme-park metaverse.

According to the patent application, Disney's possible foray into the Metaverse could involve visitors to their theme parks using mobile phones to generate and project personalized 3D effects onto nearby physical spaces, such as walls and other objects.

At the time it was reported there were "no current plans" to use the"virtual-world simulator” patent, however, the recent job listing could be a sign that this may be changing.

Related: Metaverse graphics aim for community and accessibility — Not realism

Earlier this year, the company focused on augmented reality (AR), nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and artificial intelligence (AI) in its 2022 Disney Accelerator Program, which selected six “growth-stage” companies to benefit from its business development platform.

Companies selected for the program this year included layer-2 scaling platform Polygon, along with two other Web3 projects — Flickplay, a Web3 application that allows users to discover NFTs via augmented reality (AR), and Lockerverse, a Web3 storytelling platform that connects creators and brands.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/disney-seeks-corporate-lawyer-for-emerging-technologies-and-nfts

Users can get a username through Coinbase Wallet’s browser extension and use it to send and receive crypto tokens instead of the traditional address.

As simplified wallet addresses become more popular within the blockchain space, crypto exchange Coinbase integrated with Ethereum Name Service (ENS) to give their customers usernames to replace their traditional Coinbase crypto wallet addresses.

In a post, the exchange announced that it will be handing out free “name.cb.id” usernames. Through Coinbase Wallet’s browser extension, people can claim their new address and use it for their transactions. With this, users can send and receive crypto tokens using the simplified name instead of the usual 42-word alphanumerical address.

The exchange also said in the announcement that this is a necessary step in creating a more open financial system for the world. According to Coinbase, the use of “human-readable” usernames is a step toward making Web3 more user-friendly. The firm highlighted that simplified usernames help erase the anxiety associated with sending tokens and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) using traditional wallet addresses.

Apart from being user-friendly, Coinbase argued that users can benefit from the usernames in terms of having a foundation to build their online identity. However, the firm also recognized that this is only the first step and that there are more to be done in terms of “identity-related gaps” that need to be addressed before Web3 can onboard billions of users.

Related: Ethereum co-founder’s poll shows people want $100 lifetime .eth domains

Simplified wallet addresses became more popular during the bear market. Back in In July, ENS registrations surged by 200%, with 126,141 total registrations recorded in a week. This occurred as the Ethereum Network’s average gas fees fell to $1.57 and as the second most expensive .eth domain was sold.

Meanwhile, Nick Johnson, the founder of ENS, recently told Cointelegraph that their team did not realize how valuable ENS would become when they first created it. The founder believes that users register ENS names because it helps them have a decentralized identity that works across many platforms.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/coinbase-to-hand-out-ens-usernames-to-simplify-wallet-transactions

Chile’s planned start to its digital peso rollout in early 2022 has been held back while its central bank conducts more analysis to inform a new report by the end of the year.

The Central Bank of Chile has delayed its plans for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) saying the issuance of a digital Chilean peso requires a deeper analysis of the benefits and risks, promising a new report towards the end of the year.

A report from the bank published on May 11 included a preliminary evaluation of a Chilean CBDC and explored the country’s current payment system along with the benefits, risks, and principles of issuing a digital peso.

The bank stated whilst the current payment system “works adequately” and has been able to “adapt well to recent challenges”, a CBDC would enhance and mitigate any risks of digital transformation, adding:

“A CBDC would contribute to achieving a competitive, innovative and integrated payment system that is inclusive, resilient and protects people's information.”
Regarding issuing a digital peso the bank considers that there isn’t enough information to make a final decision and will “carry out a series of seminars, presentations and meetings with different counterparts” to inform the new report.

In September 2021 Chile’s central bank said it would create a strategy with proposals and options for a rollout of a CBDC in early 2022 and formed a working group to study the potential digital peso.

The bank outlined its concern regarding crypto adoption in the country citing the potential for crypto’s use in money laundering, illicit activities and the ability to disrupt banks access to finances if used as an alternative to bank deposits.

“The issuance of a CBDC is also a good alternative to face the challenges associated with the potential massification of so-called virtual currencies, which, although for now they have a very small role in the payment system, could alter the functioning of the financial market and the transmission of monetary policy if its use becomes widespread.”
Chile sits 18th in the world for cryptocurrency adoption in 2021 according to figures from Statista with 14% of Chilean respondents saying they owned or used crypto that year, it also marks Chile as the fourth largest user of crypto in South America.

Related: 90% of surveyed central banks are exploring CBDCs — BIS

Chile doesn’t prohibit the use and trade of cryptocurrencies but it joins other South American countries in its concern over crypto. In early May the central bank of its neighbor
Argentina stepped in to stop two banks from offering crypto services saying it needed to “mitigate the risks crypto poses”.

Brazil is also eyeing regulation with a bill circulating since 2015 with the aim to create a regulatory agency to oversee the crypto market moving closer to approval as of mid-April.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/chile-puts-cbdc-plans-on-hold-until-end-of-2022-to-undertake-more-analysis