September 27, 2022

The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day

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Hello and welcome to The Node. I'm Daniel Kuhn, here to take you through the latest in crypto news and why it matters. In today's newsletter: FTX wins bid to buy crypto lender Voyager Digital's assets out of bankruptcy, bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network's CEO, Alex Mashinsky, resigned, and South Korean authorities look to freeze $67 million bitcoin tied to Terra co-founder Do Kwon.

Read on for a story about Urbit, an airdrop and the potential pitfalls of permissionless systems.

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– D.K.

Today's must-reads

Top Shelf

FTX Wins Bid to Buy Crypto Lender Voyager Digital's Assets Out of Bankruptcy: Exchange giant FTX won the bidding war against Wave Financial, a digital-asset investment firm, to buy the assets of bankrupt Voyager Digital at an approximate price of $1.4 billion. Crypto lender Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy in July, deepening this year's industry crisis.

Bankrupt Crypto Lender Celsius Network's CEO Resigned: Alex Mashinsky, the founder-CEO of Celsius Network resigned following months of failed attempts to save the once popular "neo-bank." Users of the platform are still waiting to see if they'll receive compensation or keys for crypto they deposited on the platform that once advertised higher yields than traditional savings accounts.

Mashinsky, who was found to have directed corporate funds for personal use, said he will remain active in the Celsius "community" and advocate for bankruptcy strategies to "provide the best outcome for all creditors."

California, New York Join Several States Ordering Crypto Lender Nexo to Halt Yield Product: California, New York and six other states are suing cryptocurrency lending platform Nexo for offering unregistered securities in the form of accounts that pay interest for cryptocurrency deposits. New York's action specifically accused Nexo of misrepresenting its registration status.

Meanwhile, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said regulation targeting decentralized finance (DeFi) ought to be "carefully and thoughtfully" enacted, given its limited impact on the real economy, at an event hosted by the French central bank on Tuesday.

Walmart Dives Into Metaverse With Launches in Roblox: Retail giant Walmart is allowing consumers to experience the metaverse through a partnership with gaming platform Roblox. The move comes after Walmart filed seven trademarks at the end of December that signaled its plans to make and sell virtual goods.

Separately, the Walt Disney Company posted a job listing for a principal counsel specializing in non-fungible tokens (NFT) and DeFi, hinting at its broader Web3 expansion.

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Going deep

The Big Story

The Hunt for Do Kwon Continues...

Authorities in South Korea have requested crypto exchanges OKX and KuCoin freeze some 3,313 bitcoin (BTC), worth around $67 million, tied to Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon. This comes days after Interpol put out a Red Notice, a high alert sent to police agencies around the world, to locate and arrest Kwon, by South Korean request.

Authorities accused the crypto entrepreneur of violating Korea's securities laws following the collapse of the $40 billion Terra ecosystem, and allege he has been evading arrest and extradition. Kwon, for his part, has denied being "on the run." Though no one knows where he is, and he does have a habit of lying.

– D.K.

This study examines why no existing decentralized storage is suitable for storing personal data, from a legal and ethical point of view, and what negative consequences the development of blockchain technologies may have for society without taking this crucial factor into account.

We take a closer look at various aspects of this problem:

social
legislative
technical and technological.

Followed by an in-depth comparison of existing decentralized storage projects.

We list technical requirements for new solutions that will replace the current ones.

Putting the news into perspective

The Takeaway

Urbit's New Crypto, Airdropped to 4.5M Ethereum Users, Raises Questions About Permissionless Building

MIAMI – Urbit, the alternative version of the internet that's been under active development for the better part of a decade, now has a native blockchain and token. The news came unexpectedly last week, after a long-time Urbit user known as ~doplur announced the project and an associated token airdrop on Twitter and internal Urbit message rooms – causing a fair amount of consternation and debate.

The launch of the project, dubbed Urbit Virtual Machine (UVM), represents the latest step the controversial Urbit project has taken into the world of crypto, as Urbit insiders attempt to build what they call "sound computer" infrastructure. It also highlights how a recent surge in public interest and developer count could lead Urbit to places never envisioned or desired by its committed user base.

The blockchain is what's known as an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), a type of cryptocurrency network built to run decentralized applications that could plug into and replicate the things built on Ethereum, the world's second-largest blockchain.

"For better or worse, EVM is the language of DeFi," doplur said in an interview at the Assembly conference in Miami last weekend, referring to decentralized finance. "There is a huge amount of capital on Ethereum, and if we want Urbit to be relevant there needs to be a way to communicate between the networks."

(Daniel Kuhn/CoinDesk)

Crypto courtship

The launch of UVM comes at a time when Urbit coders are actively attempting to court decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and DeFi to the platform. Its line of applications, many of which launched in recent months, could rival centralized crypto mainstays like Discord and Slack. The recently launched Uqbar Ethereum layer 2 network gives Urbit native crypto utility.

"While they are trying to grow adoption, I don't think the Urbit community necessarily want 'crypto types' to invade overnight and dilute the mission, at least not until there is immunity against the meaningless charades we see in crypto," Michelle Lai, an early Anchorage Digital hire and Urbit enthusiast, said.

For some in Urbit, UVM's airdrop and white paper was reminiscent of the initial coin offering boom of in 2017 – a period now remembered for its litany of unfinished projects and outright scams, when "crypto devs" could raise millions of dollars from retail investors looking to buy into projects like "decentralized Uber" or "Dentacoin."

"They shipped before they had a usable product," Lane Rettig, a core developer of crypto community Spacemesh and former Ethereum Foundation coder, said. Urbit's message boards were lit up with people questioning whether the functionality would ever be needed, he added, though Rettig chose to withhold his own opinion on the matter.

Urbit, which was founded by controversial blogger Curtis Yarvin (aka Mencius Moldbug) and which was built primarily by the company he founded and stepped back from, Tlon, hasn't followed the traditional model of network development favored by the Silicon Valley software industry (often summed up as "move fast and break things").

Read the rest of the essay here.

– D.K.

Overheard on CoinDesk TV...

Sound Bites...

"There are no safe havens."

– Glen Goodman, eToro crypto consultant, discussing bitcoin's rise as the dollar soaks up global liquidity, on CoinDesk TV's "First Mover"

Hacks Aren't Stopping in the Crypto Industry; Here's How One New Project Plans to Solve This

It feels like a daily occurrence that we read the news or scroll through Twitter to find another malicious attack within Web3. In the first half of 2022 alone, bad actors netted a staggering $1.9 billion in crypto hacks; up 60% from the year before.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols are particularly susceptible to these devastating attacks. Eight of the ten largest attacks on crypto targeted DeFi protocols, resulting in a total loss of $2.47 billion. Despite current market conditions and the continued exploitation of protocols, the DeFi industry has remained resilient and continues to grow.

Continue reading here

*This is sponsored content from Amulet.

What others are writing

Off-Chain Signals

Nexo buys 'minority' stake in OCC-regulated U.S. bank Summit National: Exclusive (The Block)
More Than 80% of Ethereum Miners Pull the Plug After Merge (The Defiant)
The rise of the crypto influencer and the fall of truth (Protos)
Apple Allows NFT Sales On Its App Store — But There's a Catch (Blockworks)

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The Chaser...