tl;dr
• Tether was hit with a ransom demand during a big DDoS attack; Cloudflare had interruptions that affected a large portion of the Internet• In a major reversal, the UK has scrapped its plan to monitor decentralized wallets• Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey are catching flak from the very people they are trying...
• Tether was hit with a ransom demand during a big DDoS attack; Cloudflare had interruptions that affected a large portion of the Internet
• In a major reversal, the UK has scrapped its plan to monitor decentralized wallets
• Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey are catching flak from the very people they are trying to help
• WeChat threatens to shut down accounts doing crypto transactions on the platform
• FTX and others pull out of sports marketing talks due to current market constraints
• Cardano's Vasil upgrade is very close but date is pushed out by a few days
• VeChain announced that VIP-220 is now live on a private testnet
There have been some nice changes from last night to this morning, Here is what is on my mind today.
1. Tether was hit with a ransom demand during a big DDoS attack, according to CTO, Paolo, Ardoino. They went from a normal 2K requests per five minutes to 8M. Definitely a DDoS attack. They were able to thwart the attack without the loss of digital assets. As per an update from the company, they "mitigated and improved a bit the CF [CloudFlare] protection. We’re leaving the ‘I’m under attack mode’ enabled. It won’t affect anyway ability of redeeming [USDT]." The attack may be related to the a larger Cloudflare outage that affected sites like FTX, Coinbase, Amazon, NordVPN, Kucoin and many more.
2. In a major reversal, the UK has scrapped its plan to monitor decentralized wallets. The move is completely opposite to what the EU approved back in March. For now, the information, such as originator and beneficiary will only have to be collected when transactions are identified as possibly being a part of illicit finance.
3. I thought Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey would be a good thing. Well, it looks like the people of Marcy. Could it be because they feel they don't have the money to invest in crypto? Reported by The Guardian, one person said, "Every dime I get got to go to rent, phone, TV and internet. I don’t have money like that to be losing. If I did, I would try to invest in something that’s more reliable, like the basketball game last night. You know I’m going to win something from that." This is exactly the mindset the project is trying to address. As a kid that came from project life, I can tell you this is not going to be a easy lesson to teach.
4. WeChat continues clamping down on crypto trading via its platform stating they will shut down accounts doing such activities. This should not be a surprise to anyone since China has been taking steps to push crypto out of the country. The digital Yuan is coming and they want tight control over everything related to the economy.
5. As you might have guessed, there were a lot of deals on the table for crypto marketing in the sports space. Well, given the market climate, I doubt there will be any new deal for a little bit. It has been reported that FTX is pulling out of talks left and right. Frankly, I think crypto companies pulling out of such deals right now is a lot better than having to lay people off. We need more pragmatic leadership.
6. Cardano's Vasil upgrade is very close, but the team needs to postpone it a few days. Originally slated for a June 29th release, the extra days will allow the team to work through a few more items on the list. Again, the Cardano team impresses me with their sure-footed approach to technology releases.
7. Not to be outdone, VeChain announced that VIP-220 is now live on a private testnet marking a major step in their Proof-of-Authority 2.0 consensus mechanism. The move to PoA is expected to bring faster transactions, more security, reputational impacts to thwart wrongdoing and, of course, far less of an impact on the environment. The VeChain community is chomping at the bit!