Worldcoin has announced that it will ditch USDC usage in favor of its native coin, WLD.
The project has also announced changes to the terms behind WLD loans to Market makers.
Worldcoin is set to start paying Orb Operators in WLD, replacing the USDC that had been in use as early as next month. Per an October 22 announcement, Worldcoin confirmed that the Orb Operators are “independent ecosystem participants” but will now be paid in WLD tokens for scanning people’s irises.
Worldcoin announced new changes to WLD loans and USDC usage
Worldcoin, a project by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, picked pace earlier this year with the launch of the Orbs and a native coin, WLD. The project’s launch was a solution for the growing interest in AI to help identify a human from an AI on the internet.
However, it hasn’t come without resistance from certain jurisdictions, given that important and sensitive biometric data is being collected in the process. The project functions by having Orb Operators who scan users’ irises, which are then paid in USDC. Users also receive airdrops in WLD.
Now, the company has stated that it intends to reverse the payments in USDC to WLD for the Orb operators. It added that the initial use of USDC was just but a “transitional phase” for the project’s pilot phase.
Parallel to that announcement, Worldcoin stated that it would extend the expiration date of 100 million WLD loans due to expire from OCT 24 to December 15. A total of five market-making entities took these loans. The five entities will return it as a reduced amount of 75 million WLD; however, they will still need to return or purchase some or all of the remaining 25 million coins per their agreement.
Keep watching Fintech Express for more updates on this and other crypto-related stories.
Mixin Network, a decentralized peer-to-peer network, has lost nearly $200 million in a mainnet hack.
The hack compromised the database of a third-party cloud service provider
Mixin Network has taken to X.com to confirm that its services are down as a hack has compromised its cloud service provider database, resulting in a $200 million loss. It explained that it was hacked on Sept 23, Hong Kong time, but they have contacted Google and SlowMist to work together to secure the protocol.
Mixin Network suspends transactions as investigations are underway
The platform has immediately suspended all deposit and withdrawal services to prevent further draining of funds. The protocol has appointed SlowMist and Google to help with investigations as its team attempts a recovery.
During the time of the attack, the protocol held assets amounting to $141.32 million in its portfolio, according to on-chain data analytics firm PeckShield. The analytics firm outlined the assets held by Mixin Network as follows:
Ether: $94.48 million
DAI: $23.55 million
Bitcoin: $23.3 million
This event is not a standalone hack. Recently, billionaire Mark Cuban suffered a hack that drained his crypto wallet. Ethereum Co-founder Vitalik Buterin also had his X.com account hacked and used to advertise scam links.
Crypto hacks and scams have been rampant as the industry is young, and most people do not know how to avoid them. Every year, billions of dollars are lost in scams and attacks, sensitizing the public about the need for more resilience in the markets. Keep watching Fintech Express for more updates on this and other fintech-related developments.
Bitcoin’s hash difficulty has risen by 6% despite a market dip.
Bitcoin recently fell to 26K levels claiming over $1 billion in liquidations.
BTC price action is causing panic in the markets as traders are experiencing high liquidation ratios. However, Miners are still positive as bitcoin hash difficulty has risen 6% in the past 24 hours.
Market dip inconsequential as Bitcoin hash difficulty increases
Bitcoin price crashed by 10% last week, causing the whole market to move in tandem. As a result, record liquidations were seen in both shorts and longs. As a result, market sentiment has fallen back to fear from the neutral position that it was in before the pullback.
The Bitcoin hash difficulty rises that happened on August 22 now marks the 6th largest uptick of 2023 per figures from BTC.com. The rising Bitcoin hash difficulty rate shows miners are still not struggling with productivity in their activities, and the coin’s security is becoming stronger.
The upcoming readjustment is due to continue the rising Bitcoin hash difficulty taking it to over 56 trillion for the first time. Though it is impossible to calculate with 100% accuracy, the Bitcoin hash rate is already pushing the existing all-time highs of over 400 EH/S (exahashes per second.)
This rise in bitcoin hashrate is contributed by not only the incoming halving session but also a growth in the number of bitcoin miners. Bitcoin is expected to rise in price in the upcoming years as TradFi institutions flock to adopt it for their customers. As such, they are expected to be the major catalyst for mainstream crypto adoption.
As such, bitcoin mining is still seen as a worthwhile business since the network is also gaining new use cases via inscriptions and other Bitcoin standards. Data from Glassnode shows an increase of 0.08% in the number of BTC held by miners. They have a total of known 1.83M coins.
Adyen, a money transmitter company, experienced a stock flash crash on Thursday by 39% after the company announced its slowest revenue growth on record.
Adyen has been seen for a long as a growth stock after posting consistent revenue growth of 26% each half year since its 2018 stock market debut.
European economic slowdown caused the flash crash of Adyen stock, a payments company following news that it had slowed growth for the first time since 2018. The event claimed $20 billion from the company’s total valuation.
Slow European economic growth affects multiple companies
The Eurozone has been battling high inflation rates with the possibility of a recession being on the horizon. As a result, multiple companies have decreased productivity, anticipating a contracting market.
On Thursday, Payments Company Adyen released monetary reports indicating that it was for the first time in the first half of the year since 2018 expecting slowed revenue growth. This stock had been viewed as a growth stock as it had posted consistent 26% growth in each year’s H1 since its debut.
As a result, a massive sell-off happened, making it lose 39% of its share value, equivalent to 18 billion euros or $20 billion. Though the company comfortably weathered the pandemic turbulence, the major shift in the Eurozone macroeconomic environment has challenged its growth strategy greatly, which is to blame for the dismal performance.
Additionally, it is still expected that pain will persist in the Eurozone markets as inflation rates remain unsurprisingly high, necessitating more action from the concerned governments and central banks. However, the region is not promised how long the ‘harsh’ economic environment will last.
Keep watching Fintech Express for more updates on finance and other fintech-related developments.
Ethereum and Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson has taken a shot against at Ethereum, calling it a “dumpster fire” due to its development approach.
He added that he pities Ethereum maxis, and Cardano’s comparison with Ethereum is now going too far.
Charles Hoskinson has expressed his uncertainty with the Ethereum roadmap amid comparisons to his Cardano ecosystem. He has taken a shot against Ethereum, saying its consensus layer is a “dumpster fire.”
Charles Hoskinson says he pities Ethereum maxis
Charles Hoskinson was one of the co-founders of Ethereum. However, he defected from the development team and went on to build Cardano and its native coin ADA.
Cardano has similar perks to the Ethereum network, attracting investors’ interest, making it one of the largest coins by market capitalization. It is also seen as an alternative to Ethereum by some.
Charles Hoskinson is fond of campaigning for the Cardano ecosystem as it keeps growing and has one of the highest daily developer activities in the industry. Recently, an interesting fan take on his Cardano project being similar to Ethereum and doubts about its roadmap has caught his attention.
He responded to the fan saying the comparison between the two is getting delusional now and that Cardano users now are “living rent-free in the maxi minds.” he also added that he pities the maxis as Ethereum has a “dumpster fire of a consensus layer.”
“Ethereum has a dumpster fire of a consensus layer, has a terrible programming model that they can’t change, and are getting eaten alive by their layer two ecosystems.”
Additionally, he said that Cardano’s sidechain plans would mutually benefit both the Cardano blockchain and the sidechain, unlike Ethereum.
It's getting delusion town now. Hydra is live on mainnet and evolving fast. Mithril is live as well and the first step towards a rich DA and light client strategy. We already designed a significantly better way of handling transactions via tiered pricing and Babel fees.
The Cardano Foundation first published a research paper on the Hydra network in March 2020. The network is meant to be a layer two solution that uses sidechains to offload transactions from the main Cardano network making it more scalable ad faster.
The research explained that Hydra could process about 1000 transactions per second and have 1000 stacking pools, each of which could process 1000 TPS giving Cardano a throughput of 1 million transactions per second.
The first mainnet compatible Hydra node was released on May 11 2023, teasing an upcoming Hydra Pay, a layer two integration with Cardano wallets that bears instant settlement and a “gazillion TPS.”
However, there still needs to be a certain product launch date, with Cardano remaining with a low average of daily transactions. It serves an average of 65K compared to Ethereum’s 1 million transactions. Keep watching Fintech Express for more updates on crypto and other fintech-related developments.
