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Cosmos Blockchain Developer Ignite Layoffs Employees, CEO Peng Zhong Resigns

by Blockchain NewsJuly 2, 2022

Peng Zhong, the CEO of Ignite, the company behind the Cosmos blockchain ecosystem, announced his resignation on Friday. Zhong’s departure comes just a few months after the firm recently changed its name from Tendermint to Ignite as part of its reorganization plan.

In February, Tendermint rebranded itself to “Ignite” to bring fresh change and action within the company.

In late May, Ignite further split into two entities: Ignite and NewTendermint. The return of Jae Kwon, the original co-founder of Ignite, led to the company’s split into two business subsidiaries during that month.

With the split, Ignite’s original co-founder, Mr. Kwon, rejoined his old team as the CEO of NewTendermint while Mr. Zhong, the current CEO of Ignite, remained as CEO of the newly restructured Ignite.

Zhong’s resignation is considered to have been fueled by Kwon’s return to the company.

Kwon co-founded Ignite and its parent company, All In Bits Inc. in 2014. The executive stepped down as Tendermint’s CEO in 2020 after fierce disputes with some of its staff, but he retained a seat on the parent company.

With the split, NewTendermint was designed to focus on contributing to the core technology of the Cosmos blockchain ecosystem, while Ignite continued to focus on blockchain-based product development.

With a background in interaction design and front-end engineering, Peng focused on guiding blockchain development across the wider company. His sudden departure, therefore, raises questions about Ignite and New Tendermint’s futures.

Meanwhile, other reports also show that Ignite has announced massive job cuts of more than half its workers this week. The announcement came after Ignite’s CEO Peng Zhong disclosed on Friday that he would exit the company.

The departure of several other top executives at Ignite further puts the future of the company in question.

While Ignite laid off some workers, others volunteered to leave the firm in return for severance packages.

Some might have voluntarily left the company after details about the new organizational structure between the two entities remained vague for many weeks after they were announced.

The looming job cuts were first announced by Mr. Kwon when he returned to the firm in May. During his return, he stated that severance packages would be offered to some workers.

Job Cuts Follow the Bear Market

The current crypto crash forced Mr. Kwon to trim the headcounts of the company further than originally expected, sources familiar with the matter disclosed.

The ongoing crypto crash has caused a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) in the community, not only among investors but also within companies. Crypto firms such as Crypto.com, BlockFi, Coinbase, and Gemini, among others, laid off hundreds of employees amid a meltdown in cryptocurrencies and a collapse in their token prices.

The crypto winter, triggered by the plunge of the Terra/Luna ecosystem, has put everyone into uncertainty whose fate is unknown when it will end.

Most firms appear to blame the current market conditions. The price of multiple coins has fallen following a new wave of selloffs. The difficult market conditions prompted some crypto firms like Celsius, BlockFi, Three Arrows Capital, among others, to face severe financial woes.

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EU Agreement on MiCA May Not Favor Stablecoins

by Blockchain NewsJuly 2, 2022

After much deliberation and compromises from the European Commission, Assembly, and Council, a final agreement that builds the comprehensive framework for the digital currency ecosystem has finally been made.

Known as the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework, the newly agreed regulation has been lauded by several industry figures and has been termed a landmark achievement that will favor the growth of the digital currency ecosystem in the European Union.

Beyond the region, expectations also abound that the new regulation will serve as a viable standard for other regions to also develop theirs.

With the final agreement signed, many permutations are now being made to highlight how the new comprehensive regulation will affect key participants in the industry.

The Stance of MiCA on Stablecoin

Ernest Urtasum, a member of the European Parliament shared the news about the finalized agreements on MiCA, adding amongst many things the stance of the bill on stablecoins.

“Agreement between the EU institutions on MiCA: we will have a common harmonized EU-wide regime for crypto-asset issuers and service providers, that will provide security for investors and support sustainability, while to reducing fragmentation and increasing legal clarity,” he said via a long Twitter thread, “MiCA provide safeguards against cases like the crypto-crash, the collapse of the stablecoin LunaUSD. Large stablecoins will be subject to strict operational and prudential rules, with restrictions if they are used widely as a means of payment, and a cap of 200€millions in transactions/day.”

The obvious cap placed on stablecoin transactions on a daily basis, however, may not work out as projected as stablecoin transactions run into billions of dollars.

According to data from CoinMarketCap, Tether’s (USDT) trading volume over the past 24 hours at the time of writing is pegged at $32.7 billion, a figure that is way above the defined threshold. While USDT is just one of the many stablecoins around, this particular clause of MiCA is being faulted by many industry stakeholders as a whole.

Earlier, agreements not to ban Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining had been enshrined into MiCA, thus eliminating future concerns about Bitcoin Mining in the region.

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Tagged : Digital Currency / European Union / MICA / Regulation / Stablecoin

Three Arrow’s Su Zhu Puts Singapore Luxury Home for Sale

by Blockchain NewsJuly 2, 2022

Su Zhu, the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of embattled Three Arrows Capital (3AC) has put his Singapore mansion for sale.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the mansion, categorized as a Good-Class Bungalow, one of the most luxurious homes for high networth individuals in Singapore was listed for $35 million, equivalent to the amount it was acquired for.

The listing of the house comes as the liquidation of Three Arrows Capital is underway as ordered by a court in the British Virgin Islands. While there is no confirmation that the proposed sale of the good-class bungalow has any connection to the distressed company, chances are that the sum could be deployed to the firm whose finances are now being strained going to the ongoing crypto market onslaught.

According to the Bloomberg report, Su Zhu and his wife, Tao Yaqiong Evelyn have two of these good-class bungalows. While the first, located at Balmoral Road was purchased under a Trust last year, the second, located at Dalvey road was purchased under Tao’s name.

The distress that led Su Zhu to put up his mansion for sale is an encompassing one as 3AC which ranks as one of the biggest crypto hedge funds with over $10 billion in Assets Under Management (AUM) as of May was unable to pay its creditors.

As reported earlier by Blockchain.News, Voyager Capital issued a notice of default to the embattled company last month for a loan worth about $650 million. Other notable platforms including FTX, and BlockFi have also liquidated the hedge fund founded alongside Kyle Davies.

It is yet unclear how 3AC’s creditors will be paid, but sources close to the liquidation process pointed out that Teneo Restructuring, based in the British Virgin Islands is responsible for the liquidation, and the firm is in the stage of valuing the company’s assets. A website will be announced in a short while for creditors to make their claims, the sources say.

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Tagged : GOOD-CLASS BUNGALOW / Liquidation / News / Su Zhu / TENEO / Three Arrows Capital

Minima Blockchain Network Reaches 120,000 Complete Nodes, Surpasses Bitcoin Node Count

by Blockchain NewsJuly 2, 2022

Minima Global, a London-based cooperative blockchain network that enables anyone to run a complete node on mobile and IoT devices, announced on Thursday that the number of Minima nodes has reached 120,000 spread across 183 countries, surpassing Bitcoin’s node count and distribution.

According to the report, 120,000 complete nodes are now connected over the Minima network. Minima achieved such a great success by ensuring running a complete node (that both validates and constructs its blockchain) is as simple as downloading an app so that a completely decentralized network can be built that is both inclusive and scalable while remaining secure and resilient.

The massive growth of Minima’s node count is set to make its network more resistant to cyber-attacks. The higher number of nodes means that the Minima blockchain is now distributed across increasingly more devices, thus making it more difficult for malicious actors to take control of the network. So future tokens and projects built on Minima’s network will be more resilient to such attacks.

Minima’s ultra-lean blockchain enables any crypto user to run a complete node by easily downloading the Minima app on their mobile devices, as both a validator and a block producer of the chain, to ensure everyone is involved in the censorship resistance of the network.

Minima is censorship-resistant in the sense that no single entity or party or individual can prevent anyone from participating in a given platform or network. Any node can broadcast a transaction, and any miner can mine any transaction. Thus, censoring a cryptocurrency transaction is virtually impossible.

With such an innovative design, Minima is becoming the most decentralized, immutable, and scalable protocol on the market where individuals are being empowered to collectively build a more resilient foundation and everyone cooperates as equals. And also, by doing so, the Minima network enables developers to build truly decentralized applications for a growing number of users across a vast variety of potential use cases.

Hugo Feiler, Minima Founder, and CEO commented: “Only when everyone can run the same version of the blockchain, with no hierarchy, can people truly enjoy the benefits of complete decentralization-empowered freedom and prosperity.”

The latest development by Minima blockchain is important for the cryptocurrency industry. Complete nodes make up the core foundation of any decentralized blockchain network. Without them, then problems arise. For example, as the value of tokens increases, running a node becomes more complex and costly, resulting in the creation of a specialized class of miners or stakers with significant power over a network.

Since the Minima network is entirely community-owned and operated, the energy consumption used to secure its network is decentralized across substantially more network participants than any other blockchain. This means that users can choose to source their energy in more sustainable ways, as the cost of doing so is small when compared to centralized mining operations.

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Tagged : Bitcoin / BLOCKCHAIN NODES / MINIMA BLOCKCHAIN NETWORK / News