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INTERPOL Creates a Global Police Force in the Metaverse to Combat Digital Crimes

by Blockchain NewsOctober 22, 2022

The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) which has its headquarters in Lyon, France has established a police metaverse unit that is expected to function worldwide.

The news was announced in a press statement made at the 90th INTERPOL General Assembly in New Delhi, India.

The metaverse is expected to run via the INTERPOL Secure Clouds so as to guarantee its objectivity.

The INTERPOL platform will enable registered persons to interact with other officers via their avatars persona, explore a virtual replica of the INTERPOL headquarters in Lyon, France, without regard to the user’s physical location, and even enroll in advanced training programs in forensic analysis and other policing skills when it fully begins its operations.

Law enforcement agencies can benefit from the metaverse in a variety of ways, including remote work, networking, gathering and preserving evidence from crime scenes, and providing training.

As the Metaverse’s user population increases and technology improves, there will undoubtedly be more crimes that might be committed, including crimes against children, data theft, money laundering, financial fraud, phishing, and harassment. These crimes could pose a challenge to law enforcement agents because not all crimes committed physically are categorized as fraudulent when committed in the digital space.

According to Madan Oberoi, Executive Director of Technology and Innovation at INTERPOL,

“By recognizing these dangers early on, we can collaborate with stakeholders to develop the required regulatory frameworks and shut off potential criminal markets before they are completely formed.”

The Metaverse Experience

The Metaverse has become more than just a gaming platform. More individuals and corporations are already using the metaverse for everyday activities such as working, studying, shopping and socializing.

Usain Bolt, an 11-time world champion and eight-time Olympic gold winner, has partnered with Step App to elevate fitness and exercise through the metaverse and Web3. Users of the Step App can earn rewards when they participate in exercise activities such as jogging and running with friends and strangers.

The United States’ popular retail store, Walmart also showed its interest to launch its own metaverse that may enhance customers’ shopping experience.

Image source: Interpol

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Telegram Employs Blockchain-Based Mechanism to Auction Usernames

by Blockchain NewsOctober 22, 2022

The Telegram messaging application, one of the top 10 most popular apps globally is yet again breaking ground in the blockchain ecosystem by organizing a bid for unique usernames that are not in use to interested users.

Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov gave the news in a statement made through the company’s official channel.

Telegram users will be allowed to buy and sell unique preowned usernames in protected contracts by using the Telegram Open Network (TON). The company concluded using TON since it is fast and highly scalable and TON was previously used by Telegram for conducting an auction sale for domain/wallet names where they recorded a huge success. Casino.ton was sold for approximately $244,000, Toncoin was sold for approximately $260,000 while Wallet.ton was sold at approximately $215,250.

According to Durov, “the development phase is almost over, and the auction platform will be launched soon. Make sure you don’t miss your chance to acquire the most valuable usernames and secure your ownership of them in the TON blockchain’s immutable ledger”.

“This marketplace might also include other Telegram ecosystem components like channels, stickers, or emojis”, Durov added.

What has been going on with Telegram

Telegram published the TON testnet explorer and node software in 2019. Soon after, the iOS alpha version of the Gram token wallet was made available. Since the TON network is interoperable with the Ethereum network, users were able to transfer their Ethereum smart contracts over to it.

In 2020, Durov made an announcement to abandon TON and Gram token wallets as a result of a protracted legal dispute with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The CEO of Telegram further stated that he feels US courts are abusing their power over the dollar and going beyond their purview of domestic law to decide what is best for the rest of the globe.

In recent news, Telegram with its 700 million users is now able to trade Toncoin and Bitcoin using Wallet Bot. Users of Telegram can buy the two cryptocurrencies and send them to one another over chat messages.

Image source: Shutterstock

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Tagged : Technology / Telegram / TON NETWORK / USERNAME AUCTION

Matter Labs to Reveal its ZkSync Token Specification in November 2022

by Blockchain NewsOctober 22, 2022

Steve Newcomb, chief product officer at zkSync’s development company, Matter Labs, has disclosed in a Twitter Spaces discussion that the native token for the Ethereum scaling solution zkSync will be revealed in the first week of November.

Newcomb made this announcement shortly before zkSync plans to debut its core network which has been in construction back in 2021.

Furthermore, when questioned about the release date of a prospective zkSync token, Newcomb said. “In the first week of November, and I don’t wanna cause too much of a flurry here, look for us to make a statement that many people are waiting for relating to tokenomics.”

While Newcomb acknowledged that the token information would soon be available, he described the rumors of an airdrop—a free token distribution to zkSync users as false.

Matter Labs Raised $50 million in a Series B Funding

Back in November 2021, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) headed a $50 million Series B funding round for Matter Labs to finance the creation of zkSync.

zkSync is a ZK rollup-based Ethereum scalability solution that uses zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to rely on Ethereum for security while concurrently bundling transactions off-chain to deliver swift and less expensive crypto transactions.

The firm is preparing to launch the mainnet, which it claims will completely support Ethereum smart contracts on the ZK-Rollup, in an ecosystem branded “zk-EVM.”

Following zkSync’s mainnet debut, more than 100 projects expressed interest in using it to distribute their apps. Interestingly, Uniswap, the biggest decentralized exchange by value, passed a legislative bill recently to run its version 3 exchange on zkSync after the mainnet launch.

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Tagged : LAYER-2 PROTOCOL / Matter Labs / News / Zksync

Fidelity Set to Hire 100 Employees to Strengthen its Crypto Firm

by Blockchain NewsOctober 22, 2022

Fidelity Digital Assets, the asset management Behemoth Fidelity’s cryptocurrency division, has disclosed its plans to hire 100 new employees in the next six months to strengthen its workforce.

Chris Tyrer, the CEO of Fidelity Digital Assets Europe and Fidelity Digital Asset Management made this statement during a panel discussion at the Blockworks Digital Asset Summit earlier this week in London.

Tyrer said, “We’ve gone through a fairly aggressive hiring spree over the last 12 months and we probably, in excess, doubled the size of our organization, so we’re probably looking at adding another 100 over the next three to six months.”

Recall that since its establishment, Fidelity Digital Assets offshoot has been actively involved in the crypto sphere. Again, the firm, which is in charge of $9.9 trillion, recently introduced an Ethereum index fund and developed a platform for digital trading assets alongside Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities.

Additionally, Fidelity Digital Assets, equally stated that to complement its current bitcoin trading and custody services, it will soon begin providing Ethereum to institutional clients. Before the announcement, the enterprise exclusively offered BTC trading services.

Hiring in Crypto Winter

Fidelity’s employment strategy is implemented at a time when numerous significant crypto companies are laying off employees. Recall that one of the oldest market makers in the sector, GSR, cut almost 10% of its personnel last week.

Similarly, the exchange hiring comes after many renowned cryptocurrency startups experienced executive departures. FTX, Kraken, Genesis, and NYDIG are leading crypto companies where top administrators have retired.

The Wall Street Journal reported back in May that Fidelity Digital Assets intended to hire 110 technical personnel and 100 customer service personnel this year.

Presently approximately 400 employees work with Fidelity Digital Assets according to Tyrer. He added that the platform services business, which includes everything from holding to trade execution, and the asset management firm are two independent entities.

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Tagged : Crypto Custody / Fidelity Investments / Hiring / News

UK Government Adds New Crypto Amendment In Finance Regulation Bill

by Blockchain NewsOctober 22, 2022

The UK’s Financial Services and Markets bill published an amendment paper on Friday, portraying that the UK government wants to regulate crypto and ban unauthorized service providers.

Andrew Griffith, financial services minister, in the amendments paper, stated, “to clarify that the powers relating to financial promotion and regulated activities can be relied on to regulate cryptoassets and activities relating to cryptoassets. Cryptoasset is also defined, with a power to amend the definition.”

If the bill gets passed, the amendments will give the UK government a broader regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. Particularly, the bill will provide the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and HM Treasury with more oversight authority over crypto regulation.

Advancements on the bill will come to an end by November 3. However, with the confusion going on with Prime Minister Liz Truss’ who tendered her resignation on Thursday, it is said that there could eventually be some changes to the schedule.

As of now, the UK’s crypto regulatory powers are primarily bestowed to the FCA since the UK Government has provided the FCA with the ability to regulate crypto asset advertising and promotion under its existing oversight framework.

In July 2020, the UK Government worried that the lack of regulation around cryptocurrency and their associated financial products often leaves investors in the crypto industry without the same protections granted to retail investors, such as authoritative recourse and compensation.

And as a result of this, the UK government proposed that crypto asset promotions should fall under the scope of the Financial Conduct Authority’s existing oversight and should not require a whole new framework just for digital assets.

City Minister Glen said, “If adverts by unauthorized firms are misleading, or don’t fully outline the risks, then people can end up losing money. That’s why we want to put more protections in place around such financial promotions, including promoting crypto assets, while continuing to ensure people have access to a wide range of products on the market.”

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Tagged : Crypto / FCA / Regulation