The Founder of Cardano (ADA) has invited Tesla owner and billionaire, Elon Musk, to work with him in developing the first decentralized social media platform. Charles Hoskinson, who also doubles up as the CEO of Input-Output Global is offering to help Elon Musk achieve his goal of free speech on social media.

The news follows Elon Musk’s acquisition of a stake in Twitter last week. The Billionaire bought 9.2% of Twitter, estimated at $2.89 Billion, and was even offered a seat on the micro-blogging site’s board. However, after deliberations, Elon passed on the offer since it would bar him from owning beyond a certain threshold of Twitter’s shares.

Free speech advocate

Elon Musk is on record for being a passionate supporter of free speech and open internet policies. He has in the past openly accused Twitter of muzzling free speech and open internet use. He recently held a poll that indicated that most users would prefer an edit button on Twitter and said that if he is not allowed to acquire the platform, he would have to reconsider his position as a major shareholder of Twitter.

To actualize this cause, he has offered to acquire the platform for a reported fee of $43 Billion in cash. This intended acquisition has left his critics and supporters talking and would go a long way in helping him bring much-needed changes to Twitter. His intention has however come under fire with his critics, including Dogecoin co-founder, Jackson Palmer saying that Elon Musk is planning a hostile takeover of Twitter. 

Hoskinson’s offer to Elon Musk

Upon seeing the opposition against Elon Musk’s plan, Hoskinson wooed Elon to join him in creating a decentralized social media platform. He tweeted:

“@Elon if Twitter rejects your offer, then hit me up. Happy to build a decentralized one.”

This offer follows Elon Musk’s Twitter poll where he sought the opinion of his 80 million followers about a decentralized social media platform. He posited that were he to be barred from acquiring Twitter, he would establish his decentralized platform that would be founded on free speech and open internet.

Elon Musk’s campaign for free speech and open internet has not been welcomed by all. Some of his critics have argued that coating his move with good intentions, his true intention is to get revenge against the SEC for muzzling his Twitter activities.

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In a surprising turn of events, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has declined the offer to join Twitter’s board. After a week of anticipation and memes, the CEO of Twitter, Parag Agrawal, has shared a post letting people know that the billionaire will not be joining Twitter’s board of directors after all. This came as a surprise to so many especially because Elon Musk seemed to be somewhat excited to attend the first board meeting in the past week.

Elon Musk is Twitter’s Largest Shareholder

Barely a week ago, Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder when he bought nearly 10% stake of the social media giant. Parag Agrawal took to Twitter to welcome Musk to the company and shared that they’re officially appointing him to the board. Former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, also welcomed the Tesla CEO and expressed his joy over him joining the company and teaming up with Agrawal adding that he believes the duo is exactly what Twitter needs right now.

Since then, memes and jokes have been flying on Twitter over Elon Musk’s first board meeting, one in particular shared by the billionaire himself. Most of these memes show enthusiasm for the appointment. Musk has been actively showing interest in the things he wants to change about Twitter. Like the fact that most of the platform’s biggest accounts rarely tweet and that he wants to include an ‘edit’ button and make a few changes to the ‘Twitter Blue’ feature by integrating Dogecoin as a payment method for it.

He shared an idea that suggests Dogecoin be used as a payment method for people to purchase Twitter Blue, a feature that makes an ‘edit’ button available to a tweet for a few seconds after its sent. The tweet came as a response to a Twitter user who asked Musk to make Twitter Blue cheaper than $3 for Argentinians as the amount is really expensive in their currency. Musk replied “Yes, should be proportionate to affordability & in local currency” and then added, a couple minutes later, “Maybe even an option to pay in Doge?” 

Elon Musk Declines to Join Twitter’s Board

After all these, you can see why a lot of people are shocked that Elon Musk declined to join the platform’s board. As shared in a post by Agarawal, Musk’s appointment was to be effective starting Saturday morning, April 9th, but the billionaire has shared, on the very same morning, that he will no longer be joining the board. Agrawal added that whether or not he’s on the board, Musk’s opinions and inputs will still hold value as with all their other shareholders.

This news comes two days after Musk, Jack Dorsey and Adam Back collaborated to launch a solar-powered Bitcoin mining facility in Texas. CNBC shared that the facility is to be finished later in the year. Adam Back’s Blockstream will be in charge of supplying the mining equipment as well as the facility’s engineers, and providing reports on the project’s progress.

Elon Musk has shared several posts about the facility. Although he is yet to post anything about his rejection to join Twitter’s board. It has been 48 hours since he last tweeted anything and I am sure a lot of people are eagerly waiting to hear from him. 

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• The SEC in Thailand has banned crypto payments in the country.
• Its new decision is expected to become enforceable in April.
• The SEC reiterated that the government still maintained support for the blockchain industry, clarifying that the decision does not affect crypto investments.

The Securities Exchange Commission today has placed restrictions on crypto as a means of payment. They believe that it poses risks to the nation’s financial stability.

Crypto Payments Outlawed

Thailand’s SEC today has outlawed the use of crypto as a medium of exchange in the country. The regulators came up with this decision after discussing the benefits and inherent risks from crypto and blockchain technology with the country’s central bank, the Bank of Thailand (BOT).

They concluded that the use of cryptocurrencies for payment was potentially harmful to the country’s financial stability and economy. Price volatility, risks of theft, and potential use cases in money laundering were amongst the reasons cited by the SEC that led them to this decision.

The SEC report read, “the use of digital assets as a medium for payment of goods and services Because it may affect the stability of the financial system and the overall economy. including risks to people and businesses such as the risk of loss of value caused by price volatility Risk of Cyber ​​Theft Risk of personal data leakage or being used as a tool of money laundering.”

As per the SEC’s new decision, crypto service providers and vendors or merchants in the country are encouraged to stop providing or facilitating such services. Suppose a crypto service provider discovers that a customer has used its services to make payments. In that case, the service providers are to inform the SEC and restrict activities on the said account.

The SEC’s new ruling is to take effect from the 1st of April. However, businesses that already offer such services would be given till the end of April to cease such operations. The crypto market in Thailand has grown massively over the last couple of years. As per a Bloomberg report, government data estimates that Thai citizens hold about $3.4 billion in crypto assets.

Crypto Investments Not Affected As The Thai Government Still Supports Blockchain Technology Innovation

The SEC in their release, clarified that the restriction was only on using cryptocurrency as a means of payment and in no way affected citizens investing in crypto. It was stated that “digital asset traders/investors can carry out normal investment/trading related transactions.”

The SEC also maintained that the government still supported blockchain technology and was working to provide a regulatory environment where innovation can be encouraged in the industry. Recall that earlier this month, the country had offered tax incentives to investors and businesses in the crypto industry.

“… the BOT and the SEC, as well as other government agencies, see the benefits of various technologies behind digital assets such as  blockchain and emphasize and support the use of technology to further innovation.”

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• Russia’s imminent invasion of Ukraine has had dire consequences on the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
• At the close of the week, Bitcoin, Ethereum and other altcoins took a steep dive.
• Ethereum’s founder, Vitalik Buterin has voiced his concern against an invasion.

As the world watches with bated breaths, investors are dumping their digital assets in anticipation of chaos. In the midst of it all, the Russian-Canadian founder of Ethereum tries to be the voice of reason.

Russia and Ukraine’s Dance Is Hurting Crypto

On Friday, the cryptocurrency market experienced a blip in prices that led to the loss of billions of dollars in value. The cause of this was adjudged to be the mounting tensions between Ukraine and Russia with the Kremlin ordering the movement of troops to the borders. According to information from the White House, the US government believes that Russia could invade Ukraine in the coming days.

The result of this was a devastating loss for cryptocurrencies as investors panicked. Bitcoin slipped by 3.27% to trade at $39,965 while Ethereum lost 6.98% in less than a day. Perhaps, the grim nature of the decline in values was felt by the altcoin markets as Solana, Cardano and Avalanche lost 11.66%, 9.97%, and 11.24% respectively. Shiba Inu and Dogecoin were not left out of the route as they also recorded double-digit losses.

On the larger scale, trading volumes are down by over 17.10% while the global cryptocurrency market cap sits at under $2 trillion after a cumulative loss of 5.15%. While the sell-off is thought to be because of the incoming invasion, there is the worrying threat of inflation that has continued to be a thorn in the flesh of investors. The recent report on inflation for January puts US figures at 7.5%, the highest in almost 40 years. Given the increasing correlation between cryptocurrencies and the stock market, investors are also dumping their digital assets.

On the flip side, there is the use of cryptocurrencies to fund NGOs according to a report by Elliptic. The report noted that there has been a steep rise in BTC donations to NGOs in Ukraine that are being used to equip the Ukrainian army against the planned invasion by Russia.

Vitalik Buterin Kicks

Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin has voiced his displeasure over Russia’s proposed plan to invade Ukraine. The Russian-Canadian took to Twitter to air his views in the Russian language which was a break from his typical mode of English.

“An attack on Ukraine can only harm Russia, Ukraine, and humanity. Whether the situation will return to a peaceful path or there will be war can now be decided not by Zelensky, not by NATO, but by @KremlinRussia. I hope they choose wisely,” he wrote.

Vitalik Buterin is no stranger to interactions with the Kremlin after he had a conversation with Putin in 2017 in an attempt to foster increased usage of cryptocurrency in the country. Buterin’s father has openly called out Putin’s government as being murderous. Russia is one of the largest contributors of hash rates to the Bitcoin network after it took in a significant number of fleeing miners in the wake of the Chinese crackdown.

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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reportedly opened a probe into Binance.US, the American branch of the world’s biggest crypto exchange Binance, and its trading affiliates.

Probe Into Binance.US Ongoing

Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the SEC is investigating the relationship between Binance.US and trading firms Sigma Chain AG and Merit Peak Ltd.

Former executives, as well as corporate documents from 2019, confirm that the founder and CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, helmed both firms as of late 2021. Sigma Chain AG and Merit Peak Ltd are believed to act as market makers on Binance.US, meaning they use their assets to facilitate trades.

The securities watchdog wants to know whether the exchange disclosed these relationships to its clients. Though Binance.US argues that market makers can trade crypto assets on its exchange, it doesn’t specifically name the two trading firms in question.

A probe doesn’t necessarily mean the exchange is being accused of any wrongdoing. Representatives of Binance told the Journal that the exchange is not required to reveal its organization setup to members of the public, but it’s open to providing this information to regulators when prompted.

Binance’s Regulatory Difficulties

Binance has been inadvertently caught in the crosshairs of regulators for years.

In September last year, Binance was investigated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for allegations of insider trading and market manipulation. Prior to that, the exchange had been probed by the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service for information related to money laundering and tax evasion.

Binance launched its U.S. entity in 2019 after regulatory barriers prevented American customers from using its global platform. Binance.US was subpoenaed by the SEC in 2020 for information on whether the US-based arm operated independently from the main exchange.

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Barely six weeks into 2022 and the crypto market may have just witnessed its biggest DeFi attack of the year. A few hours ago, an unidentified hacker quickly crept under the Ethereum-Solana bridge (typically used to facilitate seamless transactions between ETH and SOL holders) stealing close to $320 million as at last valuation.

Wormhole Crypto, the official Twitter account behind the SOL-ETH interoperability protocol, has come out to confirm the attack, adding that it would replace all 120k wrapped Ethereum tied to several Ethereum users and bear the losses thereof. It has also offered the hacker a $10 million white hat bounty to return all the stolen digital assets. Here’s a scoop about what may have made the attack a successful one.

An unfixed glitch in the bridge protocol likely cause

Since the news of the hack, many top analysts have tried to reverse engineer the attacker’s process in stealing close to 120kwETH. wETH is an ERC-20 1:1 version of ETH that helps holders complete transactions with other tokens linked to or domiciled in the Ethereum blockchain. Like fiat currency backed by gold reserves, each wETH is backed by a corresponding ETH and is equal in value. To facilitate transactions on blockchain networks like Solana, a user would typically have to deposit ETH and proceed with the equivalent number of wETH. 

According to pro-Wormhole analysts on Twitter, the bug which was exploited by the hacker had been published on Solana’s GitHub open source repository since mid-January, and its remedy was given days after, but the team of developers had delayed its implementation until the attack.

Allegedly taking cognizance of this unresolved flaw, the attacker had successfully minted close to 120k fake ETHs, taking advantage of the unpatched bug to trick the Solana security verification system into acceptance. With the fake deposit now certified as real, all the hacker had left to do was to withdraw the equivalent amount of real ETH from the bridge protocol and transfer it to untracked recipients.

Speed vs. Security

All the news about Solana being better than Ethereum is hinged on its speed and not on its security. The latest attack has shown how much the network holds its ~55,000 transactions-per-second record in high esteem, neglecting the catastrophic losses that could come with poor user safety.

Back in September and more recently in December, it had suffered repeated DDOS attacks, causing close to 17 hours of network shutdown. Yesterday, the network was in the news for the launch of its Solana Pay protocol, spurring a brief gain past the $100 mark. Today, all such gains totaling close to 12% have been eroded as it sits sullenly at $96.76.

Crypto competence gets dragged

It is too early to tell if the attacker will choose to sacrifice $220 million of his bounty, but the entirety of the current circumstance casts a shadow on the cryptocurrency market. Especially for investors who find little attractiveness in such outrageous risk. Cases like these win points for the argument against open source reliability and decentralization especially considering the volume of transactions involved. The Geneva-based token will have to do more than just outrun Ethereum transaction speed to keep and attract new users.

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• Bloomberg’s billionaire index has put Changpeng Zhao’s fortune at nearly $100 billion.
• The Binance CEO has stated in the past that he will most likely give away all of his wealth.
• Despite his financial fortunes, Changpeng Zhao faces a stern test from regulators around the world.

The rich list released by Bloomberg puts CZ as he is fondly called as the 11th richest man alive. His net worth by far outstrips the conservative figures given by Forbes last year.

Almost 100 Billion Dollars

Cryptocurrencies have earned a reputation for giving investors incredible returns on their investments and one of the major players in the ecosystem is already reaping the rewards. A recent Bloomberg rich list claims that Binance’s founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao is worth $96 billion.

The rationale behind this valuation is that Zhao owns a majority stake in the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance. According to data gleaned from trading volumes and fees, Binance recorded around $20 billion in revenue which is nearly 3 times the revenue of Coinbase. An interesting fact about the rating is that it does not take into account his crypto holdings. Zhao is said to hold a large cache of BNB that has since soared by over 1000%

“Don’t worry about rankings. Focus on how many people you can help,” he tweeted a few hours after the Bloomberg report went live. “Unpopular opinion: instead of wealth rankings, there should be a ranking of charity and philanthropy efforts.”

The CEO has previously stated that he intends to donate more than 90% of his fortune to charity over the course of his life like other wealthy entrepreneurs that had come before him. He claimed in an Associated Press interview that he personally did not require a lot of money to maintain the current standard of his life. However, in a money move, reports emerged that CZ had purchased a multi-million dollar home in Dubai in November 2021.

Binance and its CEO donated $150,000 for the building of an ultramodern school in Uganda and also pledged to raise $1 million AUD for the planting of 100,000 trees in commemoration of Earth Day. Other charitable moves include the financial donation to healthcare workers in Mexico and a 1 million donation to UNICEF to support COVID-19 Vaccination equality.

Where He Seats On The Rankings

A net worth of $96 billion places Changpeng Zhao over India’s Mukesh Ambani and below Larry Elison. However, if his cryptocurrency holdings are taken into account, Zhao could easily rub shoulders with other tech billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page that have net worths of $122 billion and $123 billion respectively.

Binance has been embroiled in regulatory battles with the authorities in various jurisdictions, leading to fines and bans. The exchange has taken steps to be on the good books of regulators and is hiring ex-regulators to help in its compliance drive. It is expected that after achieving regulatory passes in its troubled jurisdiction, Changpeng Zhao’s net worth could outstrip Mark Zuckerberg’s.

The founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried was named the richest 29 year old by Forbes last year with a fortune of $26.5 billion. Other cryptocurrency billionaires include Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, and the Winklevoss Twins, founders of crypto exchange Gemini.

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The world’s leading movie theatre chain will be accepting Litecoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash in addition to Bitcoin as payments for confectionaries and movie tickets at all its U.S. outlets before December 31.

This is according to a Twitter announcement made by the Company’s C.E.O Adam Aron on Thursday morning sending out a wave of bullish sentiments on the three cryptocurrencies by crypto enthusiasts.

“Cryptocurrency enthusiasts: you likely know AMCTheatres has announced we will accept Bitcoin for online ticket and concession payments by year-end 2021. I can confirm today that when we do so, we also expect that we similarly will accept Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.” 

Last month, the C.E.O in an early morning earnings call had disclosed that AMC was actively engaged in setting up payment systems that would allow movie enthusiasts to pay for various services and purchases using Bitcoin. He had also acknowledged receiving a lot of inquiries from users and shareholders on the possibility of the company accepting payments in crypto which could have largely informed Thursday’s announcement.

Although Litecoin foundation did not respond to the statement in writing, Litecoin’s news page and Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin retweeted AMCs announcement gesturing their affirmation.

Broadening the crypto payments net

Litecoin has been making inroads in institutional halls thanks to its long-term persistence and reliability. Its completed MWEB upgrade project which allows the network to become much more scalable and make transaction amounts un-viewable to the public makes Litecoin the ideal choice for payments while protecting users’ data.

According to the Litecoin Foundations Q1 report, various companies have already announced that they’re integrating Litecoin including Paypal, Vaultoro, Flare Network, Moon among others. Its successful payment integrations have also attracted a fair share of challenges with a recent false report that Walmart was integrating Litecoin in its payment network.

Bitcoin cash which fulfills the original promise of Bitcoin as “Peer-to-peer electronic cash” could also see mass use given its fast transactions, low fees, and reliable confirmation. It also allows use on a large list of wallets including Ledger and Trezor among others, which are synonymous with most U.S. crypto owners. Its discounts on payments due to the elimination of credit cards are likely to attract most AMC movie enthusiasts looking to pay using this method.

On the other hand, Ethereum payments to the company could be fulfilled through Ethereum-Pay,  a decentralized ERC-1363 payable token built on the secure Ethereum network specifically tailored to be integrated with E-commerce transactions. 

EthereumPay creates a universal payment platform that allows merchants & users around the world to do business with each other instantly and cheaper than ever. Ethereum payments are accepted by companies including Sotheby, Overstock, Gipsybee,  Shopify CheapAir, Tripio among others.

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Binance Smart Chain has been rising in popularity as interest rates from different parts of the world, including South Korea, sent the network’s transaction records to new highs. However, this has not deterred analysts’ from pointing out the increasing level of centralization within the network. Ryan Watkins, a Messari analyst recently addressed the influence that Binance has on the entire Binance Smart Chain, explaining that most of the commendable progress made on the network is not the result of the implementation of innovative concepts. Rather, it is a product of Binance’s control over the BSC network.

“The reason why BSC is faster and more scalable is not because of some magical technological innovation. No, it’s instead the magic of centralization. BSC is an Ethereum fork with a centralized validator set. That’s it. Nothing more.” He wrote on Twitter.

Unlike some other networks, the Binance Smart Chain has a total of 21 validators (people who verify the transactions and confirm their legitimacy, before adding them to the Blockchain). These validators are handpicked by the Binance Chain, further strengthening the notion that the network may be more centralized than it shows itself to be. 

Wilson Withiam rolls out some points to consider, starting with the pattern of resetting active validators, which is determined by the voting power of each validator. He notes that BNB staking and delegation is carried out on the Binance Chain, by Binance Chain validators as well.

In essence, Withiam argues that the pattern of validator distribution across the Binance Smart Chain is questionable as the identities of those behind the nodes in the validator sets are not made transparent. As he puts it “BSC now supports several third-party validators, although at least 5-6 others have close ties to Binance. The distribution of validator accounts is far less clear for Binance Chain.”

To dispute that Binance’s user experience is not ahead of other networks is false, and Withiam agrees with this. Even Watkins acknowledges this as he noted that BSC has fueled mainstream adoption of DeFi “Binance has incredible reach and influence and has used that to funnel a boatload of new users in DeFi. Binance executes period. That’s why BSC is winning.” He asserted. 

However, he argues that speed and scalability outside Ethereum without sharding or a centralization can only be legitimately found on the Solana Blockchain. Conclusively, Withiam urges BSC users to poke into the network, enough to understand where the loopholes are. 

“For those using BSC, take the time to understand the topology of the network. Sure, the fees and speed (both UX factors) are undoubtedly preferable. But strong censorship resistance and fault tolerance are not part of the package.” He wrote in conclusion.

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Visa has made a decision to allow the use of the stablecoin USD Coin in the settlement of transactions on its network over the Ethereum blockchain.

As announced on Monday, global payments technology company Visa Inc. mentioned transactions on its network could now be settled via Cryptocurrency with the use of the stablecoin USD Coin. 

According to a Reuters report, Visa noted the program was piloted with the payment platform Crypto.com, further stating that plans are underway to extend it to other crypto partners.

The USDC, or USD Coin, is a stablecoin crypto with a 1:1 fixed ratio to the US Dollar in value.

This marks a turning point in the settlement of transactions on the Visa payment network especially for partners with cryptocurrency holdings. The traditional process required customers with cryptocurrency holdings to convert the asset to fiat currency at an additional conversation rate before payments could be made on the network.

On the other hand, with this recent development, customers could easily settle transactions directly with the use of USDC by paying to Visa over the Ethereum blockchain, eliminating the hassles and extra fees that come with conversions.

Head of Crypto at Visa, Cuy Sheffield noted that this move comes as a result of increasing demand for cryptocurrencies from “consumers across the world”.

Recall that Visa had been one of the major adversaries of Bitcoin and digital assets, attracting general criticisms for its otherwise “backward” stance on growing technology.

Now, with the recent decision to allow transactions directly with USDC, it has completely embraced the emerging concept of cryptocurrency—a move that could potentially open doors for seamless transactions on its network, attracting more cryptocurrency proponents.

It wasn’t until early this year that the Credit/debit card company made a complete turnaround in its position with the unveiling of its crypto payment service for banks last month after a period of seemingly ceaseless antagonism against digital assets.

Visa’s recent decision to accept settlements in USDC is the latest indication of increasing adoption of crypto in the FinTech industry with major big players like BlackRock Inc, BNY Mellon, and MasterCard Inc embracing and adopting virtual assets.

Meanwhile, the payment giant PayPal had been indicating interest in crypto right from the jump, stepping into the Crypto space officially sometime last year as they finally allowed users to hold cryptocurrencies on the platform.

MasterCard Inc. recently announced its plans to support digital assets, outlining strict criteria for adoption. Inasmuch as indications suggest not all cryptocurrencies would be adopted, these recent decisions by major financial firms suggest growing acceptance of digital assets—a revolutionary concept that can potentially affect the financial industry as well as conventional business transactions in a huge way.

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