Nifty Labs wants to bring NFTs back to Bitcoin, the blockchain that saw the birth of these tokens, through BTC's sidechain, RSK. This and more news in this handy daily roundup so that you're always informed with the latest events happening within the crypto world.
NFT and DeFi Markets
📍Nifty Labs is betting on minting NFT tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain, through the RSK sidechain. The company wants to build a platform that allows the tokenization of images and videos on the Bitcoin sidechain, RSK, and also a bridge to connect and transfer NFTs to other networks such as Ethereum. According to the plans According to the company, the new platform will be ready in the next 6 months, and will give a new boost to the non-fungible token market.
📍Sotheby's auction house closes the sale of Banksy's physical artwork "Love is in the Air" for $13 million. Although Sotheby's did not state which cryptocurrency was used to purchase the physical work, it did Bitcoin (BTC) o Ethereum (ETH), stressing that “the sale marks the first time that cryptocurrency has been accepted as a payment option for a physical work of art” at the auction house.
Cybersecurity
📍Washington Police Agency was the victim of a hack and is offering a $100.000 payment to those responsible, so that information extracted from their databases is not published on the Internet. According to reports, the group responsible for the hack is a group called dust, which encrypted the files and leaked some of the agency's information. The hackers are asking for a $4 million ransom, while Washington police are offering $100.000.
It is worth remembering that in the United States, the Treasury Department has banned ransom payments for ransomware attacks, malware and hacks, in order to prevent this criminal activity from continuing to grow. The department noted that if hackers do not receive any payment from their victims, they will not have an economic incentive to continue attacking companies, businesses and organizations.
However, several news agencies such as Vice y The Guardian, they say that the seized information is highly confidential, and is related to informants and several police officers with a history of drugs, sexual abuse, among others. The publication of this data can put the lives of the informants at risk, but the hacker group said that the offer made by the Police does not suit them.
📍The largest oil pipeline company in the United States, Colonial Pipeline, has revealed that it has paid $5 million in ransom to hackers. Colonial Pipeline suffered a cyberattack that disrupted its systems, causing several of its stations to close and causing panic among citizens. Although the company previously reported that it would not pay the ransom demanded in Bitcoin by the hackers, and that it would collaborate with the authorities to recover its systems, Bloomberg notes that Colonial Pipeline does performed payment in an “untraceable cryptocurrency.”
Development and Technology
📍Privacy browser Brave adds support for Unstoppable Domains' .crypto domain. With this integration, Brave will enable its users to access over 30.000 decentralized websites in a simple way. In addition, it also unlocks access to over 700.000 blockchain domain names registered with Unstoppable Domains.
Brave is focused on becoming the private browser that guarantees access to the decentralized web, allowing all of its users the ability to visit any .crypto domain name.
📍Following ConsenSys' announcement to integrate Quorum into Microsoft Azure, the technology company announced it would be shutting down Azure on September 10. In a noteMicrosoft is recommending its customers migrate to Quorum before September as Azure blockchain services will be shutting down. Quorum Blockchain is an offering managed by ConsenSys on Azure, which supports the service as a ledger technology. Microsoft did not provide further details in its notification.
Cryptocurrencies and altcoins
📍Facebook's Diem Association announced new plans for its future digital currency, also called Diem. According to reported The partnership, a new alliance with the American bank Silvergate will allow it to launch its currency as a stablecoin pegged to the dollar in the United States. With its new plan, Facebook is seeking to win over the American public, after a rather bumpy road to launching its own digital currency.
Rules and Regulations
📍Spain's National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) plans to allow crypto investment by IIC funds in the country, although with certain restrictions. Firstly, funds will be able to invest in crypto as long as the investments have daily trading. Likewise, the CNMV points out that investments in cryptocurrencies, such as Electroneum (ETN) and Ethereum Classic (ETC), that do not include an implicit derivative, will be prohibited, as will any so-called 'Delta One' instrument, and derivatives whose underlying is cryptocurrencies.
According to report According to Bolsamanía, the Free Investment IICs will not be subject to these restrictions, so they will be able to have exposure to cryptocurrencies through derivative products, as long as it does not involve the delivery of the crypto asset. After several warnings from the CNMV about the risks of crypto investment, it seems that the high demand for these assets in times of crisis is gaining ground.
📍Spain will begin to implement the CONFÍA blockchain project, which will streamline the management of the Electric Social Bonus for citizens. As reported Bit2Me News, this project is intended to implement blockchain technology to manage and handle the provision of social services within Spanish municipalities. Now, CONFÍA is clever to manage social assistance to people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic who were unable to continue paying for their services.
📍South Korea is preparing to monitor cryptocurrency transactions involving users' bank accounts. According to reported According to a local media outlet, the South Korean central bank (BOK) plans to use its legal authority to request the submission of documents from financial institutions in order to monitor the volume of cryptocurrency transactions carried out through bank accounts. The BOK plans to begin this surveillance in September.
📍US citizens who use crypto assets and fail to comply with their tax obligations to the IRS risk having their cryptocurrencies seized. According to Robert Wearing, an official of the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the entity may seize cryptocurrencies and digital assets, as well as other property, in the event of non-compliance with tax obligations. Wearing said that crypto assets are considered property for tax purposes in the United States.
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