Decentralized technology is liberating yet intimidating to crypto-beginners. How can DeFi projects ease this transition for users?

Many speculate that mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency is dependent solely on improving ease of access and user experience. In reality, there’s an even bigger obstacle: a mentality shift.

Self-sovereignty and personal autonomy are the endgame of this technology, and with that goal comes a significant increase in personal responsibility for one’s funds. This is totally at odds with people’s traditional financial experience so far; the legacy system takes away your autonomy and replaces it with convenience, offering useful tools related to fraud protection and password management. By comparison, cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance and other forms of distributed technology fall on the other end of that spectrum, providing the ability to have true ownership of one’s worth.

For many crypto-beginners, the liberating elements of crypto and financial freedom are promising but intimidating since security is passed from the hands of a third party directly into the hands of the consumer. To bridge the gap between convenience and security, our industry must place greater emphasis on user experiences and familiar tools to ease a consumer’s mentality shift.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/mobile-defi-and-the-shift-toward-self-sovereignty

The PFSA warns scammers are asking people to send cryptos to verify a transaction’s legality before depositing them in a fake investment fund.

The Polish Financial Supervision Authority, or PFSA, issued a warning on the surge of scammers offering fake crypto investment opportunities, which they claim to be the only authorized investment fund in Poland.

The scammers call potential victims by asking them to sell or buy cryptocurrencies through the fake fund, but first, they should send the cryptos to the PFSA compliance team’s wallet to verify the legality of the transactions and then, the regulator clears the payment to be deposited in the unexistent fund.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/polish-financial-watchdog-impersonated-by-crypto-scammers

Bitcoin a secure , whereas Ethereum has been a “frontrunner” when it comes to smart contracts.

As interest in smart contracts surges, some Bitcoiners are asking: why can't Bitcoin (BTC) become the foundation for smart contracts too, instead of Ethereum (ETH)?

Muneeb Ali, co-founder and CEO of Blockstack open-source platform, believes that the best way to bring about a user-owned internet "is to anchor applications and smart contracts to the Bitcoin network in a way that uses Bitcoin as a reserve currency and its powerful blockchain as a security mechanism."

In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Ali stated that Bitcoin has been the king of blockchains for more than a decade, as most people have come to recognize that the Bitcoin network is “unparalleled” when it comes to security:

“We believe that the new Stacks 2.0 blockchain, currently in testnet, holds one solution for making Bitcoin the foundation for smart contracts in Web 3.0. With the Clarity smart contract programming language and the Proof of Transfer mechanism, developers can build smart contracts in a much more secure language that is predictable, decidable.”

Ethereum as a frontrunner for smart contracts
Traditionally, Bitcoin has been recognized as a secure network, whereas Ethereum has been a “frontrunner” when it comes to smart contracts, according to Ali. Blockstack’s founder elaborated further on the discussion:

“Bitcoin’s limited scripting language has been seen as a dealbreaker to developers looking to build dapps or deploy smart contracts. As a result, many developers end up building their own blockchains, hoping to bootstrap native proof-of-work protocols or proof-of-stake, but these tend to be much less secure. One of the results is developers assume Ethereum is better suited for launching smart contracts, but I believe this is premature.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/blockstack-ceo-says-bitcoin-is-a-better-defi-solution-than-most-think

Despite the significant growth of decentralized crypto exchanges, their centralized counterparts still control the majority of industry trade volume.

Recently, crypto traders have shown a lot of enthusiasm for decentralized exchanges, or DEXs. The enthusiasm is warranted. We’re starting to see the fruits of many years of hard work pay off with DEX trading volume and use increasing every day.

In spite of this growth, the vast majority of crypto trading still takes place on centralized exchanges. DEXs offer a clear set of benefits in terms of fund security, flexible custody and transparency, so why is it that the majority of the market still shuns them in favor of centralized alternatives? We think we know the answer, and we’ve spent the last year and a half working to build a next-generation DEX that can go head-to-head with centralized exchanges. We continue to make progress, and we want to share some reflections, insights and observations that have shaped our innovations.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/decentralized-exchanges-are-building-a-life-raft-but-need-a-bridge

How far has the Ethereum blockchain come in the five years since its inception? We explore key developments, changes and challenges.

It would seem that five years is a relatively short time for an information technology company, but Ethereum has made colossal progress during this time, growing from its own initial coin offering project to the largest blockchain platform, running about 2,000 decentralized applications. Today, the market capitalization of its native cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), is worth $38 billion — larger than Ford Motor Company and the popular app Snapchat. Not only that, but the value of Ether has seen a 121-fold increase over the period of the network’s existence.

While the whole team is preparing for the transition to the proof-of-stake consensus algorithm ahead of the upcoming Berlin upgrade, Cointelegraph recalls the striking changes that have occurred to the platform over the five years since its launch, and the failures that have only toughened its resolve.

2013/2014: An idea to an $18 million crowdsale
Ethereum was invented by Vitalik Buterin, a Canadian programmer of Russian descent. It was 2013, and Buterin was just an 18-year-old teenager, but his idea found a lively response in the global blockchain community. Later, Gavin Wood, a British computer programmer, proved the possibility of creating the system invented by Buterin and described the basic principles of its operation in the Ethereum “Yellow Paper.” Together with the first members of the Ethereum team, they launched a crowdsale and raised $18 million for the project’s development.

2015: Network launch and exchange listing
The first version of the Ethereum cryptocurrency protocol, called Frontier, was launched on July 30, 2015. But the security level the system boasted back then was far from what Ethereum is today. The launch of Frontier marked an important milestone in the history of the network, after which the developers immediately started working with smart contracts and creating DApps on the real blockchain.

The first existing historical record of Ether’s price is from Aug. 7, 2015, when ETH was added to the Kraken crypto exchange at $2.77 per coin. Over its first three days of trading, its price dropped to a demeaning $0.68, most likely under the influence of rapid sales by early investors.

In the second half of the year, droves of crypto enthusiasts rushed to learn what they could about Ethereum. A particularly significant contribution to its popularization was made by the DEVCON-1 developer conference, which was held from Nov. 9 to 13. The event sparked intense discussions on the development of Ethereum, with the participation of representatives from IBM, Microsoft and UBS.

More: https://cointelegraph.com/news/five-years-of-ethereum-from-a-teenage-dream-to-a-38b-blockchain

Low-yielding dollar savings accounts aren’t cutting it for Americans anymore.

A Bloomberg article claims that Americans are foregoing the safety of the dollar for more speculative assets like stocks, gold, and Bitcoin (BTC).

High saving rates, low yields

Because of the COVID-19 lockdown, the personal savings rate in the U.S. is at a historic high. The yield offered by the financial institutions on savings accounts, however, is close to zero. At the same time, assets as Bitcoin, equities, and gold, all have made double-digit gains since March. This is making them an attractive option for investors.

The article mentions a 28 year-old Californian, who told the reporter that he is going to convert his $15,000 savings held in a high-yield savings account at Ally Bank into Bitcoin. He says that he is doing so because he expects long-term economic stagnation.

July was USD’s worst month in a decade

The reality is even worse than what the Bloomberg article posits. It is no secret that the dollar is rapidly depreciating against other leading fiat currencies. In fact, according to the Financial Times, July is the dollar’s worst month in a decade.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bloomberg-americans-trade-depreciating-dollars-for-bitcoin

Russia’s central bank argues that crypto purchases are not considered an investment.

Despite Russia recently passing its first major legislation devoted to cryptocurrencies, the country’s central bank continues to treat the industry as a criminal area.

Sergei Shvetsov, the first deputy governor at the Bank of Russia, has voiced the bank’s negative stance towards crypto investment. He compared cryptocurrency with financial pyramid schemes and roulette games. The official provided his remarks on the crypto industry during a July 28 live YouTube stream regarding Russia’s new bill on categories of retail investors.

During the live session, Shvetsov emphasized that the Bank of Russia does not recognize crypto purchases as an investment. He said:

“The Bank of Russia, as a regulator, adheres to the position that crypto purchases are not an investment. It is more like a financial pyramid or roulette games, and does not apply to the financial market. Either government or financial intermediaries should not encourage citizens to acquire cryptocurrencies.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/russias-central-bank-keeps-insisting-that-crypto-is-criminal

Ciara Sun, head of global markets at Huobi Group says more institutional crypto investors are entering the market.

Ciara Sun, head of global markets at Huobi Group, took part in a Cointelegraph China Great Bay Area International Blockchain Week pre-event interview on July 27. She stressed that although security and lack of infrastructure services might be the biggest hurdle for the crypto industry, more clarity in regulation across the globe has led to a great surge in institutional crypto investors.

Systemic risks in crypto market infrastructure

The biggest risk in the digital asset space, according to Ciara Sun, is hacking. She stressed that while hacking doesn't typically lead to massive losses in traditional financial markets, the decentralized nature of digital currencies means there is almost no way to recover lost assets once they are stolen. She added that:

“Unlike banks, crypto exchanges simply act as ledgers for transactions. The actual assets are stored in cold wallets, so losses can be permanent if the keys are stolen. Traditional institutions also have very stringent requirements for insurance and escrow to protect users against losses, but the same can't be said about many of the smaller crypto exchanges that operate in this space.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/regulatory-clarity-leads-to-surge-in-institutional-crypto-investors