Decentralized finance (DeFi) has massive potential to transform traditional financial services. Data from Emergen Research recently found that the global DeFi platform market size is expected to reach $507 billion by 2028. Moreover, the total value locked within DeFi currently exceeds $75 billion, demonstrating fast-paced growth compared to previous months this year. Yet, DeFi’s potential may still not be realized by business leaders unfamiliar with the blockchain ecosystem. This notion is highlighted in Alex Tapscott’s recent book, Digital Asset Revolution. Tapscott, co-founder of the Blockchain Research Institute and managing director at Ninepoint Digital Asset Group, told Cointelegraph that he believes …

The energy use and sustainability of blockchain technology is a burning topic. But some projects are seeking to ensure their activities are eco-friendly — all while giving environmentally conscious consumers an option to go green. One of them is GRNGrid. Here, founder and CMO John Errol de Vroede tells us more about the platform's sustainability credentials, how this is achieved, and why its approach to Proof-of-Stake avoids common pitfalls surrounding centralization. 1. Hello! Can you simply explain what your project does? GRNGrid is an environmentally friendly, scalable and stable Layer 1 blockchain, with novel DeFi features. These features give everyone …

According to data obtained from local news outlet Sohu.com, the Shenzhen Chamber of Commerce has recorded over 2.6 million signups for its latest digital yuan, or e-CNY, airdrop. Two months prior, the City of Shenzhen announced that it would be airdropping 30 million of the e-CNY central bank digital currency, or CBDC, to local residents to stimulate consumer spending as a recovery measure to the country's strict coronavirus lockdown. Users who received the airdrops through a randomized lottery selection could then spend the e-CNY vouchers at various participating merchants' terminals on Meituan, one of China's leading e-commerce platforms. The event, …

In the fourth episode of Market Talks, we welcome YouTube media creator and crypto educator Crypto Wendy O. Wendy became interested in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology in November 2017. She has been into crypto full-time since the summer of 2018 and focuses on providing transparent marketing and media solutions for blockchain companies globally. Wendy also offers free education via YouTube and Twitter to her growing audience of over 170,000, giving her the largest following of any female crypto influencer in the world. Some of the topics up for discussion with Wendy are the new consumer price index numbers and how …

For most crypto investors, there is nothing more important than making a return on their investment. Thanks to the volatility, this can be done quickly or it can be a hugely difficult task. That's why crypto airdrops are an inexpensive way to make additional returns on your portfolio. After all, airdrop tokens are free and never hurt, right? Almost daily there are new crypto airdrops, with some easier to obtain than others. Not every airdrop is equally reliable. Crypto airdrops always seem very lucrative at first, but they can also cause problems. To make sure you can profit from crypto …

Natural disasters in the United States are becoming more prevalent, resulting in increasing costs, a lack of transparency between state and government organizations, and a slew of other issues impacting relief systems. The Pew Research Center found that the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) public assistance program spent 23% more on natural disasters between 2010 and 2019 than it did from 2000 to 2009. Data from Climate.gov further shows that 2021 was the third-costliest year in history for natural disasters in the U.S., totaling over $145 billion in damages from 20 weather-related incidents. But as disasters become more common and …

According to China's state institution Xinhua News Agency, Lan Zou, head of monetary policy at the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), announced that the country would be expanding the number of digital yuan (e-CNY) test sites in the country from 11 to 23. They are spread out across 15 out of 31 of China’s provinces and autonomous regions. The PBoC is China's central bank and is responsible for the development of the e-CNY central bank digital currency, or CBDC. During Wednesday’s press conference, Zou praised the success of the recent e-CNY rollout, stating: “e-CNY trials during the first half of …

Cloud mining is the process of mining cryptocurrency without the direct use of mining equipment or hardware. The process allows users to mine Bitcoin or altcoins without having to manage their own resources. Related: What is an altcoin? A beginner’s guide to cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin In traditional crypto mining, cryptocurrency is produced through a computational process. Miners need to solve complex mathematical problems using mining hardware to be rewarded with coins. The process of cloud mining is similar, but instead of using their own resources, miners rent or buy resources from a service provider. As more players entered the cryptocurrency …

On June 7, United States Senators Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand launched the much anticipated Responsible Financial Innovation Act, proposing a comprehensive set of regulations that address some of the biggest questions facing the digital assets sector. By providing holistic guidance to the rapidly growing industry, the bill offers a bipartisan response to President Biden’s call for a whole-of-government approach to regulating crypto. Among its many proposals, the bill establishes basic definitions, provides an exemption for digital currency transactions and harmonizes the roles of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), delineating regulatory swim …

The metaverse space is moving rapidly in terms of hype and the volume of new projects being launched — so much so that the industry market size is projected to grow from $100.27 billion in 2022 to $1,527.55 billion by 2029. But how many of these new projects are even remotely capable of realizing the actual vision set out? We’re a long way from seeing a true metaverse Many of the metaverse projects that have been launched are in the world of gaming. However, more often than not, these projects simply consist of standard gaming features combined with virtual reality …

Digital identity has been a fraught subject since the earliest days of the internet. Web2 bridged the gap between people’s offline lives, online identities, and creative and consumer habits, which has given way to a thoroughly integrated internet experience designed to be as personalized and targeted as possible. As a new phase of virtual interaction and digital identity appears on the horizon — one even more interconnected than Web2 — we need to rethink personalization and ownership with an eye to what did and didn’t work in the world of Web2. While there is no blueprint for the Web3 identity …

Just recently, Yuga Labs, the team behind the world-famous bored nonfungible token (NFT) primates, nabbed some $300 million with its sale of Otherdeed NFTs, a collection of land plots in a soon-to-be metaverse. Indeed, NFTs, the blockchain industry’s primary method of creating digital asset scarcity, have emerged as the preferred way to handle virtual land ownership for most metaverse projects, including Decentraland and The Sandbox. All of this has prompted an interesting question in the community: In the metaverse, a vast, near-endless digital space, how can digital land ever be scarce? Well, let’s dig in. First and foremost, let’s address …