Blockchain's innovative ideas, ever-changing rules, extremely risky market movements, and crypto-sphere fraud make understanding cryptocurrencies really challenging. No matter what level you are in, you can and should learn more and draw valuable insights from the most influential people called crypto influencers. Influencers are network personalities who have gained prominence in certain areas and a huge amount of followers, effectively influencing their communities as part of their area. Some of these people have extensive experience and a public image in the industry, and their actions can cause fluctuations in the value of digital currencies. At the same time, they add human contact to the blockchain theme, making cryptocurrency more understandable. The Most Famous Crypto Influencers on Twitter Here's a list of the ten major cryptocurrency influencers having Twitter accounts that traders need to keep an eye on to stay up to date in this very dynamic market. Anthony Pompliano Anthony Pompliano, commonly known as "Pomp," is one of the most active influencers on many platforms. He is well versed in finance and technology and is one of the first investors in Bitcoin. In addition to Twitter, he runs a YouTube channel where he posts discussions about cryptocurrencies with different personalities from the industry. In addition, Pompliano sends daily newsletters known as "The Pomp Letter" to more than 210,000 subscribers to share his analysis of businesses, foundations, and industries. Roger Ver One of the first preachers of blockchain, Roger intended to widely spread the word "bitcoin". He was far from being just an ideologist: his desire to achieve universal recognition led him to invest in several bitcoin companies and travel the world to convert people. Since losing patience with Bitcoin's leadership in 2017, he has become a firm supporter of the Bitcoin Cash hardfork . Alex Gladstein Despite his audience of fewer than 200,000 followers, Alex Gladstein has a fairly diverse following: Anthony Pompliano, Michael Saylor, Dogecoin creator Billy Marcus, and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin are all subscribed to him. As an ardent proponent of human rights, Gladstein offers substantive material on why Bitcoin is an innovation for monetary equality and an alternative to the current financial system. Brad Garlinghouse With more than half a million subscribers, Brad Garlinghouse shares information about every little detail of the cryptocurrency sphere - from policies and rules to updates inside Ripple. It's important for many to keep abreast of the SEC's case against Ripple as it will set an authorized precedent across the cryptocurrency, especially if the SEC wins. And Brad Garlinghouse is the primary source of information on this topic. Brian Armstrong Those looking to learn more about crypto policy and regulation should sign up for Brian Armstrong. Armstrong's work as CEO of the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange did not prevent him from taking a radical position on issues related to cryptocurrencies, which brought him admiration not only from Coinbase customers but also from many community representatives. Changpeng Zhao Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, is the co-founder and CEO of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. CZ was a software developer to buy and sell futures for Bloomberg Tradebook. He also pursued numerous cryptocurrency projects and startups until Binance was founded in 2017. In addition to publishing a series of FAQs on Binance blogs, he publishes other industry information and market offerings (usually life offerings). CZ has actually come a long way since making burgers at a fast food restaurant as a teenager/ Elon Musk Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the richest man on the planet , is responsible for numerous fluctuations in value in the cryptocurrency market. His tweets had such an impact on assets that the term "Musk Influence" was coined. After Musk's statement that he supports Bitcoin, its value grew to $32,000. As a staunch supporter of Dogecoin, the CEO has also raised the value of the token several times. One tweet from Musk could lead to the growth or collapse of the investor's favorite cryptocurrency, depending on his temperament. Michael Saylor Michael Saylor, CEO of Microstrategy, is considered one of the most important Bitcoin whales in the cryptocurrency world. While most of his tweets relate exclusively to Bitcoin, Saylor's optimistic sentiments, combined with his scientific forecast and scientific view of Bitcoin, earned him the respect of others. Plan B Unlike others on this list, PlanB is an anonymous account. Nevertheless, PlanB definitely allows his 25 years of experience in institutional investment to come to the top. Since it entered the cryptocurrency world, PlanB’s Twitter has become popular because of its outlook that Bitcoin (BTC) will reach $250,000 sooner or later. Its bold market forecasts are sometimes based mainly on the Bitcoin Stock-to-Flow (S2F) model - software that, as mentioned, was created by PlanB and is one of the right tools for traders and sellers. The influencer is a supporter of using Bitcoin's supply and demand elasticity to ensure future market value. Vitalik Buterin The Canadian-Russian founder of Ethereum has been involved in blockchain and cryptocurrency since its inception. As Ethereum's most famous founder, he is passionate about the community and any blockchain-related tasks. The Most Popular Crypto Influencers on YouTube YouTube's cryptocurrency channels are another way to learn about the venture and keep abreast of blockchain trends. A variety of content can be found here, from trading strategies to interviews with blockchain industry leaders. Next, we selected the top 10 crypto YouTubers by subscribers worldwide. Coin Bureau Subscribers: 2,060,000 Mike Jenkins is the man behind the channel. Here, he provides his audience with educational and informational videos about blockchain. Its detailed explanation and comprehensive list of selected cryptocurrencies made the channel YouTube's most popular cryptocurrency channel in 2022. Coin Bureau provides information on many types of cryptocurrencies, such as Cardano , Polkadot , Solana , Ethereum, and many others. BitBoy Crypto Subscribers: 1,450,000 BitBoy Crypto AKA Ben Armstrong, whom we mentioned above, publishes the latest news and opinions on the cryptocurrency market, project reviews, and trading tricks you can use to make high profits and significantly limit losses. People can also learn about various altcoins , historic bitcoin cycles, and get the latest on Ethereum on its channel. Altcoin Daily Subscribers: 1,230,000 Altcoin Daily is run by brothers Aaron and Austin Arnolds. The Altcoin Daily channel is established as a source of news, market analysis, education, viewpoints and opinions. Aaron and Austin Arnold are clear bitcoin fundamentalists, and they use the altcoins trade as a way to build their bitcoin stack. On their YouTube channel, they publish the latest crypto universe news daily and interviews with prominent members of the crypto community from time to time. Brian Jung Subscribers: 1.171.000 In 2015, Brian Jung made significant progress in financial influence, training young investors in business, lending and personal wealth management. He is an experienced entrepreneur who has successfully started companies such as The Credit Society. JRNY Crypto Subscribers: 661,000 JRNY Crypto launched its channel in 2017 and quickly gained prominence as a reliable source of investment in new altcoins. It brought popularity to coins such as Sparkpoint and Uniswap . CruptosRUs Subscribers: 641,000 CryptosRUs, also known as George, has been operating in crypto space since 2013. He first began sharing his knowledge by answering questions at Quora, but later decided to create his own YouTube videos explaining the know-how in the crypto universe in 2017. On his account, he often discusses the latest news related to cryptocurrency and analyzes graphs. He recently released its own NFT called I am George, releasing 1,000 unique items that are now available. Ellio trades in cryptocurrency Subscribers: 587,000 The well-presented Ellio Trades Crypto videos and detailed analysis of altcoins were key factors in the rapid growth of his channel. Ellio tends to focus on small-cap cryptocurrencies with a higher risk-reward profile. On his channel, Ellio presents his well-worked videos, which bring solid profits to the market. Crypto Banter Subscribers: 572,000 Crypto Banter is a YouTube channel that often provides its audience with live streams, news, educational content about bitcoin, Defi , NFT, blockchain, and other cryptocurrency-related content. The Crypto Banter team interviewed the industry's biggest guests, billionaires, thought leaders and professional traders. The channel’s purpose is for its audience to keep their finger on the pulse to learn. The channel’s owners want their viewers to make better trade and investment decisions and become part of this rapidly growing community. Lark Davis Subscribers: 488,000 Lark Davis, host and founder of one of these acclaimed crypto channels on YouTube, successfully presents his videos in a light-hearted manner. Lark's funny style uses humor to breathe life into his articulated analysis of technological upheaval and blockchain solutions. Lark Davis is a crypto sensation from New Zealand and his YouTube channel offers a good mix of skills and guidance. He helps his audience learn how to trade, make passive income and make money in bitcoin. Lark also offers in-depth Q&A with leading cryptocurrency figures, political posts on market trends, and cryptocurrency news. Ivan on Tech Subscribers: 494,000 Ivan on Tech is another crypto YouTuber widely known for his videos. He serves as a blockchain lecturer, data scientist, and international speaker. In fact, his channel has an entire academy dedicated to educating people about blockchain trading and how to make a career out of it. He has also addressed countless workshops on tech stocks and similar topics. Ivan is a popular crypto YouTuber because he does not complicate the situation. In fact, just the opposite - he is doing everything possible to easily disseminate information about cryptography, blockchain, and the events that affect them. Don’t Trust Bloggers Unfortunately, not all media influencers should be trusted, because many of them do not understand the topic or simply want money. Yes, most of them are paid to advertise and mention products on their accounts, this is a well-known marketing scheme. Scammers use it and pay for the promotion of unstable coins. Often bloggers are not embarrassed by this. They use parasocial relationships to benefit themselves in the first place. Nothing personal. Ice Poseidon (Paul Denino) The big YouTuber was once a Twitch star, but in 2017 he received a ban on the platform, after which he switched to YouTube. And recently, he turned on a fraudulent scheme with cryptocurrency, as a result of which he stole about 500 thousand dollars from fans, leaving himself most of the funds in cryptocurrency. Ice Poseidon has tricked its fans into investing in CxCoin, a platform created by a streamer for content creators to get donations in cryptocurrency. As a result, he simply collected the invested funds, out of 500 thousand dollars he appropriated 300 thousand dollars. FaZe In June 2021, gamers from the FaZe association became the first esports players to be printed on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The team has so many fans that in 2020 it received more than $40 million in donations. At the same time, they promote altcoins - for example, one of the founders of FaZe posted a tweet with a draw of $10 thousand for subscribing to a cryptocurrency Twitter account BankSocial .io. By the end of June 2021, the cost of BankSocial.io fell by 90%. The peak came into the FaZe advertising campaign, and now the currency costs $0.0000015. Soon FaZe deleted all tweets about this altcoin and stopped answering questions from fans about the draw. Adin Ross Twitch streamer with 4 million subscribers, Adin Ross advertised the MILF Token altcoin in one of his broadcasts - the advertising block lasted about 20 minutes, and the cryptocurrency developers promoted the broadcast. "Damn it, I'm sponsored by cryptocurrency today! They need three mentions an hour and I did. And I'll also play $20 thousand in this currency among you guys”, Ross said on the air. As with BankSocial.io, the value of the MILF Token fell by 90%. And three weeks after the broadcast, Ross first commented on his ad: "I told you I was paid. Yes, I don't care. I hope none of you bought this crap". To Sum Up Anyone can make predictions and share their opinions about every little thing about crypto coins. However, no one can become an influencer unless they have a large following and a large historical past in the industry. Only some of the many interesting personalities of the crypto world are mentioned in our list. As a rule, influencers pay attention to a certain direction - from market features to specific tokens and tasks. Crypto influencers have also been excellent partners for marketers in promoting their currencies, NFTs, apps, and other cryptocurrency-related businesses. Information from bloggers makes the situation in the cryptocurrency market clearer and inspires confidence in actions, but always check the information and do not suck in easy money just because your favorite YouTuber told you about it. Always do your own research.

On September 14, 2021, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a document stating its meetings with representatives of SBI Holdings, FinHub, and CME Group. According to this document published by the SEC in the framework of the case against Ripple, representatives of SBI Holdings (Ripple's main partner) and other companies held meetings with employees of the regulator from 2017 to 2019, at which the XRP token was discussed. The document does not say what exactly the representatives of the companies talked about with civil servants. The SEC claims that the California blockchain company has been selling unregistered securities in the form of XRP tokens to retail investors for seven years. The SEC said that during this period Ripple raised $1.3 billion. What Happened In February 2022, the law firm Perkins Coie, which provided advice to Ripple on the launch of the XRP token, published documents on interaction with the issuer of the cryptocurrency from 2012. It follows from the documents that before the release of XRP, lawyers did not classify the token as a security. However, Perkins Coie warned Ripple that representatives of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may give a different assessment of the token status . The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against Ripple in late 2020. The regulator accused the company of selling unregistered securities under the guise of XRP tokens for 1.3 billion. XRP is an internal token of Ripple, which is used for cross—border payments. Amid the accusations, many crypto exchanges decided to suspend XRP trading. This brought its price down to $0.17. On September 15, the altcoin is trading at $1.1. In February, the parties were unable to settle the dispute in a pre-trial manner. The SEC insisted that Ripple's management was aware of the status of the XRP token even before its official launch. At the same time, the head of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, called the SEC's accusations "unsubstantiated" and stated that the regulator's actions are "a challenge to the entire US crypto industry." On July 13, 2022, Ripple managed to win a tactical victory over the SEC in court — the Commission was denied the opportunity to keep secret the data on the speech of the former head of the SEC's company finance department, Bill Hinman. In 2018, at the Fintech Week conference, Hinman said that the ETH cryptocurrency is not a security. And this is a direct contradiction to the regulator's accusations against Ripple. The XRP vs SEC lawsuit will be considered by the Federal Court of the Southern District of New York. The SEC accuses the defendants of violating the registration provisions of the Securities Act and demands an injunction against further sales, the return of all collected funds with compensation, and payment of civil fines. The price of XRP reacted to the news with a rapid drop. What They Say in Ripple Even before the actual filing, the company's top manager, Brad Garlinghouse, said that it was an attempt by outgoing SEC chairman Jay Clayton to "limit innovation in the bitcoin and Ethereum industry." In one of the documents, Ripple calls itself "the best alternative to bitcoin." In the same place, the company calls bitcoin and Ethereum "virtual currencies controlled by China." In his opinion, Trump administration officials are finally trying to harm the industry. He expects more understanding from the Biden government he was one of the sponsors of his campaign. Stuart Alderoti, Ripple's general counsel, again criticized the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its desire to control the entire cryptocurrency market. In response to the accusation that "even if some people buy a token for investment purposes, you are in the securities industry," Alderoti replied: "Does every jeweler now book a one-way ticket to the "land of securities" because "part" of their clients "invest" in the oldest the product is gold?!" Alderoti also said that the SEC is abusing its power: The Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to expand its jurisdiction beyond securities, "telling the judges with a straight face that we are the government, so we must be right," he said. "The SEC continues to relegate the CFTC to the kindergarten level. Their regulation with the help of a law enforcement strategy is to attack projects using various resources to expand their jurisdiction beyond the "securities", telling judges with a serious face that we are the government, so we are right." In conclusion, Ripple's general counsel urged cryptocurrency-related enthusiasts to join forces to "protect the abuse of SEC powers." What Will Happen to the XRP Token XRP is a real-time gross settlement, currency exchange, and money transfer system developed by XRP. The system is built on an open source distributed Internet protocol, a consensus registry, and its own token called XRP. The main objective of the XRP system, launched in 2012, is to provide secure, instant, and almost free global financial transactions of any size without chargebacks. XRP token has fallen heavily from the record $3.40 recorded on January 7, 2018. The cryptocurrency has fallen heavily ahead of the charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against the blockchain company for conducting an unregistered securities offering in the United States. According to Coingecko, at the time of publication, XRP is changing hands at a price of about $ 0.40. The ongoing SEC investigation has had an impact on XRP token trading activity since its inception in December 2020. Several American crypto exchanges (for example, Coinbase) suspended trading in the coin, thereby limiting the growth of its price. XRP analysis shows that the coin usually follows broader trends in the cryptocurrency markets. But if Ripple manages to achieve acceptable conditions during the settlement of the lawsuit, then the XRP token rate can overcome the $3 mark. With a favorable settlement of the dispute with the regulator, global financial organizations will again reach out to Ripple, which may now be afraid to enter into partnerships with a team in such a difficult situation. Even with the most unsuccessful completion of the trial for Ripple, the coin is unlikely to sink below 0.6 in the long run, since by and large the negative effect of the SEC lawsuit has already been taken into account in the XRP rate. But the impact of a negative outcome on the value of the XRP token will depend on how tough the sanctions that can be imposed on Ripple will be. XRP Prediction A former official of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Joseph Hall, predicted in the Thinking Crypto podcast that the trial with Ripple could drag on for more than one year. According to Hall, the completion of the trial should not be expected in 2022. He claims that the trial will not be completed soon, because the parties are firmly rooted in their positions and will not make a deal. Hall himself supports the issuer of the XRP token in the dispute between the regulator and Ripple. According to the ex-official, the situation looks strange, since the Ripple network worked for years before it was noticed by the SEC and filed a lawsuit. Summary The SEC's more aggressive approach, calling certain tokens securities, is alarming the crypto community, as it may cause problems for the industry. Such a label causes strict requirements for investor protection. Crypto enthusiasts say that many of these restrictions are incompatible with digital assets. Each such case of the SEC's collision with major players in the crypto market is indicative and allows us to understand what the regulation of this market will be in the next few years. Many experts note positive dynamics in the XRP case, but also say that the process is likely to be delayed.

Hey guys, it’s SwapSpace’s birthday! This year, we decided to celebrate by giving you a chance to win $1000 in prizes — up to $300 individually! To enter the lottery, during the period from August 5 to August 15 just rate the exchange service you’ve used to swap your coins on SwapSpace. We ask you to leave your rating at the end of the exchange process — or you can do it here . On August 15, we will randomly choose a winner who will get $100 from us! But that’s not all — some of our partners have chipped in to help us celebrate, so there are even more prizes for the participants who will rate those exchanges in particular. One of the winners of those bonus prizes may turn out to be the same person that wins the SwapSpace's prize — in that case, the amounts will add up! One random person who rates Swapuz will get $200 ; One random person who rates ChangeHero will also get $200 ; One random person who rates QuickEx will get $200 too; One random person who rates LetsExchange will get $100 ; Two random people who rate Exolix will get $100 each. We will send the prizes to the winners in the target currency of the swap that they rated to enter our raffle.  Let's look at an example: If you leave your rating after swapping BTC to ETH and win SwapSpace's main prize — we’ll send you $100 in ETH to the same address you used to receive ETH in your exchange; If this rating was for, say, Swapuz, you may be randomly chosen by them in addition to us — in which case you will get $300 in ETH ($100 from SwapSpace and bonus $200 from the exchange parther); And in this same example, even if you haven't won the main prize, you still have a chance to get that bonus from Swapuz ($200) if they randomly choose you as a winner. The same principle applies to other exchanges listed above (and other currencies as well). Good luck — and have some nice swaps!

The popularization and development of DeFi projects will make the use of financial services more modern, democratic, and convenient. The structure of the industry contains a lot of important components: information management, insurance, lending, tokenization of assets, and the emergence of stable digital coins that are not subject to high volatility.  What are DeFi Projects and What are They Like? DeFi is an abbreviation of " Decentralized Finance ". The concept of decentralized finance is based on a progressive idea aimed at consolidating two vectors at once. The first one is the creation of a new financial industry that will replace the traditional areas: banking, insurance, credit, and many others. Secondly, everyone will have the right to independently control their money without regulators and intermediaries. Technically, DeFi is needed for maximum democratization of the asset management structure, as well as the creation of new financial trading, investing, lending, depositing, and many other services. Thanks to the blockchain, they will become completely seamless. The vast majority of DeFi applications are based on Ethereum . Although, as technology develops, competitive alternatives appear, for example, Binance Smart Chain. If we talk about the Ethereum platform, the main advantage of this blockchain is that it was originally created for the launch of an ecosystem based on which developers will launch their decentralized applications. It was dApps that became the key DeFi mechanism. As a result, the founders of startups were able to implement their ideas without attracting sponsors or institutional investors. Capitalization of DeFi Many companies from the field of DeFi occupy high places in the ranking by market capitalization of Coinmarketcap. Ethereum ranks second, following Bitcoin , which tops the list. The market capitalization of the decentralized finance industry is estimated at $56.99 billion as of the end of May 2022. Cryptocurrencies are very volatile, so at any moment there may be an impulse jump in this indicator. It is also worth considering that DeFi is a fairly young niche in the crypto market. The first DeFi projects began to appear in 2019. Over the next few years, there was a real boom. It is for this reason that hype around DeFi is often compared with the popularity of ICO times of 2017. TOP 10 projects by market capitalization according to Coinmarketcap: Wrapped Bitcoin; Avalanche ; DAI ; Uniswap ; Chainlink ; Tezos ; Frax ; Maker ; DeFiChain ; PancakeSwap . The capitalization of the leaders of this rating is around the $8.5 billion mark, however, it should be borne in mind that Coinmarketcap does not include such platforms as Ethereum, Binance, Solana , and Polkadot among the DeFi. This is since their scope of application is much wider than just decentralized finance. Web 3.0, DeFi and Blockchain Since Web 3.0 networks will work through decentralized protocols, the fundamental blocks of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, we can expect strong convergence and symbiotic relationships between these three technologies and other areas. They will be functionally compatible, easily integrated, automated using smart contracts and will be used to provide anything from microtransactions in Africa, censorship-resistant P2P data storage, as Filecoin suggests, to a complete change in the usual procedures for managing companies and doing business. The current set of DeFi protocols is just the tip of the iceberg. TOP 10 DeFi Projects Ethereum continues to be the undisputed flagship of DeFi. Vitalik Buterin's platform is actively used by startup founders to develop new decentralized applications and protocols. The ether continues to evolve. Progress is successful, the ETH cryptocurrency is strengthening in second place both in terms of value and market capitalization. Only Bitcoin is ahead. Solana The authors of many independent ratings believe that Solana plays an even more significant role in the DeFi industry than Binance. In many ways, this point of view is based on a unique consensus-building algorithm. The network uses history confirmation to verify transactions — this is an optimized version of Proof-of-Stake. The new algorithm made it possible to create a viable analog of mining and betting. In the Solana ecosystem, transaction confirmation is carried out by using timestamps in previous payments. Such an unusual algorithm for achieving consensus will significantly increase the speed of transaction processing. As for the SOL coin, it is a first-layer platform. No other platforms are required to carry out transactions. Solana has a great future in the field of DeFi, as the platform can solve current scalability problems. The innovative network architecture allows you to use the principle of horizontal scaling, which has a positive effect on network bandwidth. As of May 23, 2022, one SOL coin is valued at $53. Solana ranks 9th in the Coinmarketcap rating. Avalanche  Avalanche is a platform for launching smart contracts and creating DeFi applications. It can be used to deploy corporate blockchain networks. The AVAX service token is used as part of network management. Its owners can take part in voting on decision-making regarding the subsequent development of the ecosystem. The company's market capitalization is estimated at approximately $8.5 billion. Polkadot Another interesting startup that has enormous weight in the DeFi industry. The Polkadot platform allows independent blockchains to exchange information, including transactions. This goal is achieved through a relay chain. This feature significantly increases throughput when compared with the flagship of the market in the face of Ethereum. DOT is an internal network token required for workflow management. The Polkadot platform allows you to develop decentralized platforms and applications. Heterogeneous blockchain multicore is a promising direction, so buying DOT coins can be a successful investment. The platform has open-source code. Despite the crisis in the crypto industry, Polkadot retains its position and ranks 11th in the Coinmarketcap rating. Wrapped Bitcoin WBTC is an ERC-20 token that is supported by bitcoin. The main idea of the founders of the DeFi startup is to use the global liquidity of the BTC network and transform it into a more flexible Ethereum space. Issues related to the storage of coins are solved at the expense of BitGo. As for providing initial liquidity, Kyber and Ren are responsible for this. The WBTC coin is available on many popular centralized and decentralized crypto exchanges. Therefore, everyone will be able to purchase it. Each user can verify the real security of the WBTC. Information about reserves is public. The management structure is presented in the DAO format. All platforms involved in the implementation of this idea have the right to vote. In total, we are talking about 16 platforms, including Compound , Dharma, and Maker. The process is completely public. The control is carried out using smart contracts with multi-signature, all the participants of the DAO support it. Uniswap This is a DeFi protocol that was developed for the exchange of digital assets based on the Ethereum blockchain. The founders of Uniswap decided to replace the classic order books with liquidity pools. Therefore, absolutely every participant will be able to exchange ERC-20 tokens and ether. Users can earn money by supplying liquidity to the protocol. The profit is formed at the expense of exchange commissions — 0.3% for a trading operation. If desired, users will be able to create their own liquidity pools. To do this, it is necessary to add an equivalent amount in Ethereum coins to the liquidity protocol. You can also use any ERC-20 standard token. The exchange rate is determined by the automated market maker. Quotes are adjusted during trading. Balance is always maintained. The rate depends on which side has more assets. Aave This is a non-custodial protocol with open source code. It is designed for lending and processing loans in cryptocurrency. At the time of entering liquidity into the protocol, the user converts his digital coins into tokens that are compatible with ERC-20. Dividends in the interest format are automatically accrued on this amount. Users can not only lend cryptocurrency but also take loans. To do this, you need to provide a deposit in coins. Depending on the selected asset, additional parameters of the transaction will depend on the liquidation threshold , the amount of the fine, and the security coefficient. Interest rates vary depending on the supply and demand for a particular cryptocurrency. Fixed-rate offers are also available to Aave users. Maker This is a credit platform that was also created based on Ethereum. It supports the DAI dollar stablecoin . Each user has the opportunity to open a wallet. Cryptocurrency blocking is available in the vault as collateral. Based on it, you can generate an equivalent amount in DAI. Payment for stability is carried out in the format of infinite interest. Dividends are paid when the debt is repaid. With the help of the Maker platform, you can make loans to DAI in the amount of up to 68% of your collateral. The security ratio is approximately 150%. If the price falls below this level, you will have to pay a fine, besides there will be a liquidation of the collateral. The owners of the MKR internal token participate in the management of the platform, they vote for innovations. Compound The project is aimed at creating an algorithmic financial market on the Ethereum blockchain. This direction of DeFi will allow you to issue secured loans or receive passive income from an open deposit. Dividends are accrued instantly after freezing coins in a decentralized protocol. The rates are updated every 15 seconds under current market trends. The liquidity is delivered in the format of the token. Participants of the DeFi network can get up to 75% of the amount of their collateral on credit. You can top up your account or withdraw your assets at any time. The only condition is to maintain the necessary level of collateral to prevent the liquidation of the transaction. 10% of the number of dividends is allocated for the formation of reserves, and the rest is received by liquidity providers in COMP tokens. Chainlink It is a decentralized network of oracles. The Chainlink blockchain platform allows you to work with smart contracts, and connect to external information sources, including APIs, internal systems, and all kinds of data channels . Payment for the services of the service is carried out using the internal LINK token. It is created following the ERC-20 standard. It will become more expensive as the DeFi industry and the platform itself develop. One of the key advantages of Chainlink is the network functionality that allows you to initiate verification of information coming from several sources at once. The internal degree of reputation allows Chainlink to identify reliable sources with high accuracy. This feature allows you to achieve accurate results, protecting smart contracts from potential threats. Tezos The platform was created to host smart contracts and to work with decentralized applications. Internal XTZ coins cannot be mined, but they can be bought. You can also earn cryptocurrency by participating in transaction confirmation. The network uses an energy-efficient Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm. Users of the network contribute to maintaining its operability and receive remuneration for their work. There are several key differences between Tezos and other DeFi. On the platform in question, there are so-called bakers who perform the same functions as miners — they provide transaction verification. Instead of expensive equipment, they use the freezing of their assets. This is the advantageous difference between PoS and PoW. Let's Summarize: Judging by the capitalization, the DeFi market continues to develop. There is a real public demand for the creation of a decentralized financial world for a new generation. Blockchain technologies are quite capable of coping with this task. Institutional investors also believed in this niche. They are ready to invest money in it, which will contribute to development. DeFi is a new, global, flexible, and transparent financial structure based on the principles of decentralization. You can earn money on classic investing, staking, lending, and profitable farming. The leaders of the decentralized finance industry are Binance and Ethereum. It is on these blockchains that most of the projects are launched.

The decentralized finance space has shown exponential growth over the past year, increasing from a total of $540 million recorded in March last year to more than $47.6 billion at the time of this article's release. The growth of the DeFi sphere has opened up new opportunities for users, developers, and the industry as a whole, but also brought new risks that investors may not know about, but which, nevertheless, they have to deal with. Most DeFi protocols are built on the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, second only to Bitcoin itself. Thanks to Ethereum, in particular the use of Turing-complete smart contracts, blockchain projects have become more programmable. Smart contracts are, in fact, self-executing contracts. The code prescribed in these contracts allows you to automatically carry out predefined transactions and agreements between pseudonymous parties within certain parameters and without any risk to the counterparty. These self-executing contracts were first proposed in 1994 by Nick Szabo, the creator of Bitcoin's predecessor Bit Gold, and allowed the creation of many decentralized applications that opened up new opportunities for cryptocurrency users, whether it was the issuance of stablecoins built according to a given algorithm, the issuance of cryptocurrency loans , or loans with crypto collateral. And this is only a small part. Decentralized exchanges with decentralized management models became possible only thanks to such smart contracts, as a result of which a new digital world emerged, which resulted in products such as Binance Smart Chain , Polkadot , and Avalanche . Protocols such as Aave , Compound , Uniswap , and 1 Inch.exchange allows users to earn interest on their investments and trade crypto assets and even complex instruments such as decentralized derivatives. All these exciting new products have created the DeFi sector mentioned above, which is taking the financial world by storm and enabling traditional financial institutions to make money. This new territory of possibilities, as already mentioned, is controlled by code written by developers of smart contracts. Most DeFi projects have open source code and even undergo peer review and audit, while others, on the contrary, do not. Often, even in the tested code, vulnerabilities can be found that allow the use of unknown attack vectors, which leads to huge losses for companies and ordinary users. How Do Smart Contract Vulnerabilities Affect Users? To guarantee the security of smart contracts, you can only analyze all the options for its execution. When executing smart contracts in Turing-complete languages, you need to be sure that the computer program does not contain bugs, which is almost impossible. Therefore, when working or creating smart contracts, you will have to audit them. Vulnerabilities in Ethereum smart contracts can have catastrophic consequences. Even though protocols like Aave are managed by professionals and regularly checked, security vulnerabilities still pose the risk of a hacker attack with the loss of crypto assets for huge amounts, thereby negatively affecting investor confidence in the protocol and subsequently causing financial losses for users/companies and price volatility. These vulnerabilities stem from the complexity of Ethereum's native smart contract language and its accounting system, which, unlike Bitcoin's UTXO system, is much more flexible and thus more susceptible to additional vulnerabilities and attack vectors. Since Solidity and other smart contract languages are new and extremely complex, it would be incorrect to blame these vulnerabilities on developers. There are more than 80 DeFi platforms built on Ethereum, with new projects being launched every week. The smart contracts they use are bound to have vulnerabilities, especially if they are not properly written and tested. An investigation conducted by CyberNews revealed that almost 3,800 Ethereum smart contracts had vulnerabilities that would allow attackers to steal at least $1 million worth of crypto assets. The study also showed that there are a total of 13 different types of vulnerabilities, and four of them are highly likely to be exploited by hackers. The popular Avalanche platform discovered a vulnerability earlier this year. So, during the launch of the new decentralized Pangolin exchange and network overload, an error occurred that led to a failure of the issue, which caused widespread panic. Other well-known platforms, including Solana , Flow , Zilliqa , and Fantom , as it turned out, also had errors in their contracts. DAO and Re-Entry Attack Re-entry is a common vulnerability of smart contracts. Although it can exist in smart contracts on various blockchain platforms, it is most often associated with the Ethereum blockchain. Re-entry attacks are best known for the famous hacking of the DAO in 2016 on the Ethereum blockchain. The first and most catastrophic mistake in a smart contract occurred in 2016. The decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) worked on smart contracts and collected more than $150 million at that time. An unknown attacker managed to withdraw the ether (ETH) collected through crowdfunding. The amount of damage has amounted to more than $ 150 million. This case is the most famous example of a Re-entry attack. A repeat attack means that the attacker sends a transaction, as a result of which the contract is executed repeatedly until the resources of the contract account are exhausted. If the project that requested funding received sufficient support from the DAO community, the Ethereum address of this project could withdraw ether from the DAO. Unfortunately for the DAO, the transfer mechanism transferred the ether to an external address before updating its internal state and noting that the balance has already been transferred. This allowed the attackers to output more ether. In total, 3.6 million ETH were withdrawn from DAO wallets. Now, these tokens are worth more than $ 6.4 billion. The hack led to a hard fork that divided the network into two parts: Ethereum and Ethereum Classic . While some agreed that it was best to mitigate the damage and move funds to addresses that their original owners could access, others argued that the immutability of the blockchain should not be violated, otherwise it leads to a technological and ideological split within the community. The original Ethereum blockchain, now known as Ethereum Classic, left the tokens stolen from the DAO in the hands of a hacker, choosing immutability, while Ethereum allowed the community to vote and returned the funds to their original owners, putting the blockchain consensus first. Other Examples of Re-entry Attacks Except DAO However, these vulnerabilities have also been found in numerous hacks of smart contracts, including several DeFi protocols. Some examples of recent DeFi hacks involving re-entry vulnerabilities include: Fei Protocol: In April 2022, the Fei protocol fell victim to a ~$80 million hack made possible by using third-party code containing re-entry vulnerabilities. Paraluni: The hacking of the Paraluni smart contract in March 2022 used a re-entry vulnerability and poor verification of unreliable user data to steal tokens worth ~$1.7 million. Grim Finance: In December 2021, the vulnerability of re-entering the Grim Finance safeTransferFrom function was used to obtain tokens worth ~ $ 30 million. The SIREN Protocol: The vulnerability of re-entry into the smart contracts of the AMM pool of the SIREN protocol was used in September 2021 for tokens worth ~ $ 3.5 million. CREAM Finance : In August 2021, an attacker used a re-logging exploit to get into the AMP CREAM Finance token integration system to steal tokens worth about $18.8 million. These are far from the only examples of DeFi hacks that exploited vulnerabilities during re-entry. Although this is an old and widely advertised risk, re-entry vulnerabilities still appear in new smart contracts today. Let's Summarize The trust of both ordinary users and large investors in the very concept of DeFi will depend on how the crypto industry will cope with challenges of this kind. What is happening now is natural and will lead to an increase in the security level of blockchain projects soon, but periodically we will still see news about successful hacker attacks.

2022 is in full swing, and it is already clear to everyone that the cryptocurrency world is alive, will live, and, in general, is still developing. Time has shown that the crypt market is growing, pushing the idea as well as attracting large funds. But how to put your own skin into the game, and where to start to earn money — is still difficult to figure out for many. Actually, there are no clear answers on where you can earn and how to advance (and of course, we don’t give financial or investment advice!), but we tried to convey some information in a concentrated and understandable way. Direct Investing in Cryptocurrency One of the most common and understandable strategies for interacting with cryptocurrency includes the purchase and storage of spot cryptocurrency assets. To do this, users can use centralized or decentralized exchanges , but in any case, you will have to go through the exchange of crypto for fiat money and back. Therefore, it is important to monitor the current regulation. However, if you do not like buying coins, but the crypto world still attracts you, then there are other ways to join the conversation. Investing in Cryptocurrency Infrastructure Mark Twain said it best: "During the gold rush, it's a good time to be in the pick and shovel business". In this case, indirect and direct investment is similarly possible. Direct investments in infrastructure are mining , investing in the creation of trading platforms (crypto exchanges), as well as services and technologies around them. Such investments should be considered long-term, strategic investments. Investing in publicly traded stocks of the basic technology needed to create a crypto service is also a way to enter the market, especially if you don't want to worry about specific tokens. The Web 3 concept is attracting more and more large investors, so the value of companies whose activities are aimed at developing infrastructure is growing. There are many options for investing here, and you can start with your own vision of the development of the crypto world. For example, if you are a proponent of the idea of crypto flow regulation and believe that the future lies with centralized exchanges, then the assets of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States by trading volume, are traded publicly on the NASDAQ exchange. The platform held an IPO in April 2021 and its COIN shares are openly traded. If you are interested in the blockchain technologies themselves, then the next option is the shares of ConsenSys, Ethereum blockchain software technology company. Let's recall that ConsenSys, which was valued at $3.2 billion in the last round of funding in November, joins a growing list of crypto companies whose estimates have jumped in recent months due to an explosion of interest in Web3. Investing in Companies with Cryptocurrency Assets Alternatively, you can use indirect investment strategies. Since some publicly traded companies have cryptocurrency assets, it is possible to buy publicly traded stocks of these companies, thereby taking advantage of cryptocurrency without necessarily owning it. For example, MicroStrategy is a company engaged in the development of software and mobile applications. In August 2020, MicroStrategy invested $250 million in Bitcoin as a reserve asset. Later, the company made several more additional large purchases of Bitcoin, totaling more than $2 billion. After Bitcoin's price fell to about $20,800 in June 2022, the company said it had not received a margin call and that it had enough capital to withstand further volatility. Also, you can turn your attention to Block (Square Inc until 2021), an American technology company that develops solutions for accepting and processing electronic payments. In October 2020, the company placed about 1% of its total assets ($50 million) in Bitcoin (4,709 bitcoins), citing Bitcoin's "potential to become a more ubiquitous currency in the future" as the main reason. In February 2021, the company acquired another $170 million in Bitcoin (roughly 3,318 bitcoins), bringing Square's total assets to nearly $500 million in BTC (roughly 8,027 BTC in total). On December 1, 2021, Square announced its rebranding: the company was named Block. The new name is associated with the desire to reflect the growth of the company in the field of blockchain technology. Investing in a Cryptocurrency ETF Cryptocurrency ETFs are gradually being implemented, providing ETF shareholders with the possibility of indirect investments in cryptocurrency. For example, ProShares has launched a BITO — a bitcoin ETF that does not directly invest in bitcoin. Instead, it is based on futures contracts tied to the asset. The BITO ETF allows users to invest directly from their brokerage accounts instead of opening a wallet. Copy Trading: Passive Investing Next, we want to mention another way to increase capital - copying. The essence of the method is to copy the transactions of another trader. This means that many small or not very experienced traders willingly invest in new projects supported by the industry's largest and most successful investors. This way you can start trading in stock markets, even without knowledge of how it all works. You can choose a "role model" on a special platform using filters, or seek help from Quantum AI artificial intelligence, which analyzes the market and offers the best deal options. P.S. Goes Without Saying — But Don't Get Scammed Attention! No matter which way of earning money you choose, always double-check the platforms on which you plan to earn extra money. Sites must be reliable and, all about, genuine!

Those people who have been closely following the crypto market for some time regularly see news about the collapse of a coin or token.  After the Terra Luna crash it became clear that many very large projects had big holes in them. While the whole crypto industry was doing well, they could promise their clients super profits and easily attract new capital, but now everything seems to have changed. During the crypto winter, the lending market is going through bad times. Several major players announced bankruptcies and restructurings one after another. Three Arrows Capital Three Arrows Capital is one of the most famous cryptocurrency hedge funds that has been investing in digital assets. Nevertheless, a large—scale drop in cryptocurrency prices dealt the company an irreparable blow - on June 29, 3AC was liquidated. 3AC has invested in various projects in the early stages of financing. Funds were usually collected in USDC/USDT. For their part, 3AC held a commitment of 8% per annum. It seemed to the projects to be a fairly safe action, simply because it is a large fund. But on June 27, Voyager Digital LLC notified 3AC of default after the fund failed to repay loan payments on time. Voyager provided 3AC with loans in the amount of 15.2 thousand BTC and 350 million USD. When it comes to such large funds, many people believe that since they are large and have been in the market for a long time, they are too big to fail. Many people thought that Terra was too good a project to get buried, and they also thought that funds like 3AC kept the situation under control, but they did not always make the right decisions. Following 3AC, the largest American crypto broker Voyager went bankrupt. They provided 3AC with loans in the amount of 15.2 thousand BTC and 350 million USD. A week after the collapse of 3AC, Voyager announced the suspension of trading, deposits, and withdrawals. Celsius Following Voyager and 3AC, on July 15, the Celsius crypto-lending platform declared bankruptcy. The New York company went bankrupt by the US insolvency law. The company's assets and liabilities are ranging from 1 to 10 billion US dollars. If in October 2021, according to CEO Alex Mashinsky, the company had $25 billion in assets under management, then in May, despite the collapse in cryptocurrency prices, there were about $11.8 billion in assets, according to the website, and another $8 billion were customer loans, which made the company is one of the world's largest crypto lenders. As of today, Celsius has $167 million of cash on hand, which, according to its CEO, will provide "sufficient liquidity" to support operations in the restructuring process. However, there is a "hole" in its balance sheet of about $1.2 billion. Some analysts compare the collapse of Celsius with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, only in the field of cryptocurrencies, implying a domino effect that began with the bankruptcy of a large bank on Wall Street, which eventually led to the mortgage debt crisis and the global financial crisis of 2008. Promises of great profitability of Celsius, which the company distributed to attract new customers, largely caused its final collapse. Regardless of whether the collapse of Celsius portends a larger-scale collapse of the entire cryptosystem, or not, the days when clients of such firms received double-digit annual revenues are numbered. But even 3 weeks after Celsius suspended any possibility of withdrawals by customers due to "extreme market conditions" and a few days before it eventually filed for bankruptcy protection, it was still advertising on its website an annual return of almost 19% that was being paid weekly. The company's bankruptcy filing shows that Celsius also has more than 100 thousand creditors. The firm said that most of the account transactions will be suspended until further notice and that there are currently no requests for permission for withdrawals by customers. At the same time, the accrual of remuneration is also suspended during the bankruptcy process, and currently, clients will not receive their remuneration. This means that customers trying to access their cryptocurrencies will not be able to do so yet. It is also unclear whether the bankruptcy procedure will eventually allow customers to recover losses. If there are any payments based on the results of, apparently, a multi-year process, then there is also the question of who will be first in line. Everything is complicated by the fact that in the absence of regulation in the crypto sphere and unlike the traditional banking system, where customer deposits are usually insured, there are simply no formal consumer protection measures to secure users' funds if something goes wrong. But even more important is what is written in the fine print in the terms and conditions of Celsius: the firm warns that in the event of bankruptcy, any permissible digital assets used for earnings or as collateral for loans cannot be returned and that customers will not have any legal remedies or rights in connection with the obligations of Celsius. It looks like an attempt to get absolute immunity from legal offenses if things go badly for the platform. We can say that by promising its customers high profitability, Celsius was able to get only a very small profit margin. As a result, Celsius did not have a buffer for a bad market situation. Possible bankruptcies of large crypto creditors may have a significant impact on crypto industry. If creditors will start going bankrupt, then this clearly does not bode well for investors. Plus, each such scandal is a "red rag" for regulators and leads to a tightening of the laws of different countries in the field of cryptocurrencies.

On the last day of June 2022, the European Union agreed on the main provisions of the law that will regulate the crypto industry. The bill was called Markets in Crypto-Assets, or MiCA. In short, the EU authorities want to oblige all crypto exchanges to provide personal data of customers, including information about transactions. Of course, many users have already begun to express their dissatisfaction. But how terrible is this law in reality? And what will it change radically in general? Europe Crypto Regulation To begin with, MiCA is not a new development. The law first appeared back in 2020, and it took European politicians about two years to finalize it. At the same time, the fact that the EU has agreed on a number of issues does not mean the immediate introduction of Markets in Crypto-Assets into operation. The law will come into force only in 2024 (unless something else happens before then). But what was the catalyst for the process, why did European leaders decide to pay special attention to the crypt right now? Firstly, this is the worst quarter in a decade for bitcoin (minus 56% of the value in the equivalent of the US dollar); secondly, we observed the failure of stablecoins and LUNA from Terra. Against the background of these events, the European regulator intends to introduce additional directives regarding stablecoins. According to the law, now all stablecoins will have to have specific large enough reserves for payments to their citizens. By and large, the EU simply decided to legalize what was stated by the developers themselves. For ordinary buyers, this innovation has positive sides. It will become more difficult for some scam projects to exist on the market. At least in the legal field, not the shadow segment. However, the global correction in the cryptocurrency market may well be considered a good reason to tighten the screws. In the end, no one is going to introduce additional control on the stock market against the background of a correction either (yet). But cryptocurrency regulation is literally called a significant event, which, according to the French Economy Minister, "will put an end to the Wild West" in the crypto industry in Europe. On the other hand, the lack of significant competition in the industry will lead to the fact that the main suppliers of liquidity to the crypto will be literally just several major players who will pass all the requirements. Transactions Tracing The EU Council and the European Parliament have reached an agreement and are on the way to implementing the "travel rules" for the crypto exchange in Europe. AML's "travel rule" is based on the principle that crypto asset service providers must collect and provide access to key data about the sender and beneficiary of transfers, similar to what global banks are currently doing for electronic transfers. Regulators are also going to press exchanges and other crypto platforms. Now the European Securities Market Supervision Authority (ESMA) will be able to interfere and restrict the work of the sites if they do not provide "protection to investors", integration into the market, and financial stability. One of the most essential requirements is the disclosure of personal information to the authorities, including information about transactions. For example, now you will be required to report transfers from an exchange or a crypto wallet if their value in monetary terms exceeds 1,000 euros. By and large, the same thing is happening that happened to the stock market at the beginning of the XX century. The era of relatively free and profitable trade has sunk into oblivion after the state developed more and more laws to restrict this activity. As a result, it is more and more difficult to earn money - for exchanges, increased control carries additional costs. And for citizens, supervision is twofold. On the one hand, in theory, you can turn somewhere if you get caught by scammers. On the other hand, it completely contradicts the concept of the first cryptocurrency, which assumed anonymity and many other useful things. In addition, there are additional risks that your personal data will end up in the hands of intruders since they will be managed by third parties — representatives of state structures (ordinary people also work there, who are not always saints and sometimes use their position for selfish and illegal purposes). Some of the key problems, according to critics, are that EU exchanges can deal with foreign exchanges that do not need to collect such information. The law also requires mining companies to disclose information about the amount of energy consumed. Initially, by the way, they wanted to ban crypto mining in Europe altogether. There is an opinion that all this has nothing to do with ecology, perhaps such a restriction and attempts to ban (taking into account the imminent transition of Ethereum to PoS) are primarily aimed at bitcoin, which is still not the most convenient asset on the blockchain to control the movement of large capitals. NFT NFT was also on the agenda of politicians. Now acts of fraud with digital art objects have become more frequent. In this regard, the EU has been thinking about the limitations of OpenSea-type sites. For now, however, they decided to postpone further decisions on this issue. In the next year and a half, it will be decided whether a separate document regulating non-interchangeable tokens is needed or not. But since they have already thought about it, then obviously the NFT will be regulated — give it time. Let's Summarize The crypto industry is developing, and, of course, the state will try to regulate it. The new legislation will undoubtedly be a shock for a number of EU crypto companies, although major players like Binance or Coinbase are unlikely to be knocked out of the rut. But if you read the White Paper from Satoshi Nakamoto in 2022 with his goals, for which the decentralized electronic cash was created, it becomes clear that the interests of the financial regulator are diametrically opposed. Many consider the proposal to create a new pan-European anti-money laundering body, which is currently headed by the European Banking Authority (EBA), to be the central element of the package. However, the updates still need to be confirmed by the Council and Parliament before they can be officially adopted by the EU member states. The Parliament, the Council, and the European Commission are currently working on the technical aspects of the text. After that, the agreement must be approved by the Committees on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Civil Liberties and Justice, as well as the Parliament as a whole, before it enters into force.

Let’s remind ourselves that the cryptocurrency financial system is still under development and is far from ideal. Many of the DeFi pros turn into cons that scammers are always happy to use. So recently, there is more and more news like 'platform hacked in a flash-loan attack' without explanation or with technical explanations. In the article, we will try to clarify this type of attack and other ways how blockchain can be hacked. Flash-Loan Attack Although the topic of flash loans is still developing, a number of large-scale attacks have already been carried out. Because flash loans have no limits on amounts and require no collateral, millions of dollars in ETH can be borrowed to make a significant profit. To better understand the process, let's consider the very phenomenon of a flash loan, the principles of its operation, and its usage. Flash Loan is a tool by which DeFi users can borrow a large amount of funds in digital assets without collateral for a period of time. A loan without collateral means that members do not have to provide proof of income and other liabilities. Such a risk-free loan works somewhat like this: the lender lends you as much money as you like, but only for one particular transaction. By the end of this transaction, you must return to the lender as much as you have borrowed. If you are unable to do so, the transaction will be automatically canceled! In other words, a loan is atomic: if you cannot repay it, everything goes back, as if there was no loan. The most common method of using flash loans for profit is arbitration. This is a process that uses the difference in asset prices in two different markets. Another method of making a profit is a "wash trade". This type of trading involves making purchases and selling an asset to increase trading volume. In traditional markets, such a procedure is prohibited. Flash Loan attacks can be successful if an attacker can manipulate the market to a certain extent. These attacks are carried out by arbitrating pumps and dumps and/or manipulating oracles. They are cheap to execute since attackers do not take on monetary obligations. Typically, these attacks are complex, multi-step processes executed by highly experienced DeFi users. In many cases, they involve depleting liquidity pools that ordinary users have invested in, causing many people to incur significant losses. Next, let's look at several more common attacks on the blockchain. 51% Attack   The most commonly known threat to the blockchain network. The name of the attack is an analogy with a controlling stake in the business sphere. The problem lies in the Proof-of-Work protocol, which is used by projects such as Bitcoin , Litecoin , Monero , and others. Its essence is that several miners with significant hashrate can get a "controlling stake" in the network, that is, they will have more than a half of all the network’s hashrate. Such conditions allow a hacker to carry out a double-spending attack, in which he can spend a larger amount than he has in his wallet. As a result, the blockchain is seized, and all the participants' funds are transferred to the ownership of hackers. In large networks, the chance of such an attack is several times lower due to the large number of participants and expensive equipment. Finney Hack The first recipient of the bitcoin transaction was Hal Finney and he was the first to talk about launching bitcoin. He was also the first to suggest the possibility of a double attack on the network. For this reason, the attack was named Finney Hack or Finney Attack in his honor. Finney Hack is a type of double-spending attack, which can happen when a person accepts an unconfirmed transaction online. Finney explained that the miner could generate a block in which he would include a transaction from address A to another address B, where both addresses belong to him. You will then make another payment in the same currency by sending from address A to address C (which belongs to another user). If the specified user accepts a transaction without confirmations from the network, a scammer can free the block in which his original transaction is included. This invalidates the transaction committed by the trader, allowing the attacker to double the cost. Race Attack  Another type of double consumption. Inexperienced and hasty traders can give the goods, even if the transfer failed, since there was a transaction attempt. Some sellers use "express payments" without the necessary confirmation for small amounts. In the wallet of the receiving party, such a transaction will be "in processing," and the addressee will have "not confirmed." A fraudster can convert such a transfer: send the transaction both to the seller's node and to his address on the network, broadcasting to the blockchain only the second one. The last transaction will be considered valid during the check, and the first transfer will be invalid. To prevent such an attack, it is not recommended to accept incoming connections to the node and wait for several transfer confirmations (3 confirmations for the amount from $1000 to $10,000, 6 - from $10,000 to $ million, and for even larger transactions - up to 60 confirmations). Eclipse Attack A special type of cyber attack, when a hacker forms an artificial area near one node to control his actions. The attacker redirects outgoing and incoming data from the target node to its own, separating the deceived user from the real network. The isolation of the target node allows confirming illegal transactions on its behalf and cut it off from messages with neighboring nodes - the hacker does not need to hack the entire network, it is limited to a small set of nodes. To block the node, a botnet or a phantom network is used to fill the node with IP addresses for synchronization on the next connection. The consequences of an eclipse attack are usually double-spending attacks, which have already been mentioned above, as well as a miner power failure when a hacked user spends electricity and time solving problems of artificial blocks that do not exist in the real blockchain network. Cryptographic Vulnerability Attacks Cybersecurity experts say as one that the most vulnerable place in any system is a person and scammers use this fact. Another consequence of the human factor is called errors in the code, having discovered which, an attacker can break the entire network. As an example, on Ethereum , a fraudster discovered a security loophole in the source code and assumed about $50 million in the coins, which amounted to about 30% of the total coin volume at the time. Because of the incident, the community split into two groups. The first, led by the creator of Ether, was outraged by the theft, offering to make a hard fork and return the coins to the legal holders. Their opponents were convinced that the real owner of the coins was now a hacker ("The code is the law"). As a result, the community came to an agreement to create a soft fork.  Social Engineering Crypto: Phishing These techniques rely on human vulnerabilities, not the technical prowess of a potential hacker. It is used to gain (unauthorized) access to sensitive data, cryptocurrency wallets or accounts, or to induce victims to download malware onto computers and networks to enact further damage. Such techniques include phishing, baiting, quid pro quo attacks, pretexting, and tailgating. Phishing is one of the most popular of them. It is used to steal private keys , card numbers, bank accounts and other confidential data. The simplest version of cryptocurrency phishing is the good old spam mailings of emails allegedly sent by this or that web service. In this case, letters are sent on behalf of cryptocurrency wallet sites or exchanges.  Such fake messages look noticeably more detailed and neatly written than phishing messages on average. For example, this may be a security alert that says that recently someone tried to log into your account from such and such and such a browser - follow the link to check if everything is in order. The user himself could configure and accept the reception of such messages on the wallet website - and he will not notice anything unexpected or even more wrong. Conclusion As you can see, the crypto market is full of danger. In the article, we described only a few types of potential fraud. Creators are constantly working to improve security protocols. But while the system is not ideal, it is worth remembering the possible risks and not taking the bait. 

After a long lull in the cryptocurrency market, there is a revival. The era of Web 2 is gradually coming to an end, and it is being replaced by the era of Web 3. NFT , DeFi applications, GameFi , new crypto coins, and DAO are all harbingers of the beginning of this irreversible process. Thanks to the arrival of new players — from global corporations to ordinary gamers — big changes are expected in the cryptocurrency market in the coming months. They will also affect new developments. Let's look at 6 trends that experts today call the future of cryptocurrency. 1. Metaverse The metaverse is a hypothetical network of three-dimensional virtual worlds, where you can immerse yourself with the help of AR and VR technologies. Many companies consider it the next stage in the development of the Internet and the mobile ecosystem and offer exciting projects of virtual universes. It's no secret that at the end of 2021, against the background of Zuckerberg's statements and the renaming of Facebook to META , interest in the metaverse has grown noticeably. Human interaction is reaching a new level as social networks, payment systems, and augmented reality applications become part of the same ecosystem. Read more about META in our article. Experts are confident that buying digital real estate in virtual worlds will no longer be confusing. New crypto projects in the field of metaverse include De central, Sandbox, and Axis Infinity. Another striking example is the Cosmos project. New blockchains in the metaverse can become part of a separate infrastructure. Decentralized exchanges , stablecoins , and DeFi are already connected to the Cosmos ecosystem. Large companies, such as Google, may announce the creation of their virtual worlds after Facebook. 2. NFT and DeFi Many experts are confident that NFTs, which experienced a big boom in popularity in 2021, will remain more than in demand due to the development of metaverses. Non-interchangeable tokens will provide proof of ownership when purchasing virtual objects. Tokenization will continue to increase in volume — not only individual users but also entire companies are already resorting to it. A new industry for business relations was born out of a fleeting hobby. DeFi will be responsible for the convenience of economic relations in the metaverse. There is a "competition" going on in the wallet market right now: who will be the first to create a multi-chain wallet that will allow for cheap transactions between blockchains without using bridges and without overloading funds through additional layers of the network The market of NFT and decentralized finance will develop, as it has not reached its peak indicators, but a large percentage of the NFT segment will not be of particular value, the founder of Amir Capital Group Marat Mynbayev is sure. Nevertheless, developments in these areas allow the market to develop. 3. Legal Regulation In 2022, members of the crypto community may face increased activity related to the regulation of the digital asset market. The authorities can no longer ignore the growing interest of market participants in cryptocurrencies. The legal status of cryptocurrencies varies significantly in different countries. In some countries, transactions with cryptocurrencies are officially allowed: in Germany, bitcoin is recognized as a settlement currency, in Japan, Bitcoin is a legal property with a purchase tax. Currently, almost nowhere in the world is there a regulatory framework that establishes reference rules for conducting cryptocurrency ICOs. It follows from this that there are no legal protection mechanisms for both investors and persons issuing cryptocurrency tokens. Now in some countries, there are attempts to include crypto investment in the legal field and give cryptocurrencies an official status. The market is moving towards centralization, which will be marked by the emergence of services and control mechanisms. On the other hand, in 2022, market participants may expect new mechanisms for the legalization of a financial instrument and taxation. The first forecast of Messari CEO Ryan Selkis for 2022: the situation in the "real" world will worsen before it gets better. With a 70% probability, the US inflation rate will remain above 5% throughout the year. At the same time, an increase in interest rates will slow down the dynamics of the stock market and hurt rising stocks. For cryptocurrencies, this is good in the short term. But in the medium term, risks arise, as crypto companies will begin to be increasingly censored by Western technology and banking platforms in the face of the suppression of cryptocurrencies by the Joe Biden administration. However, not all experts believe that market participants should expect serious legal changes and stricter regulation in the new year. The authorities can only limit themselves to spreading rumors in the media to intimidate inexperienced investors. 4. Web3 and Blockchain Platforms Web3 is the concept of a new, third-generation Internet, decentralized and powered by blockchain and token economy. It is contrasted with the Web2 World Wide Web, which operates based on centralized platforms for social interaction between users. Large Internet companies, for example, Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook), Amazon, and Apple, consolidated most of the information. They occupy leading positions in online advertising, e-commerce, streaming, etc. In 2014, Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood proposed a new concept, which includes decentralization. According to it, companies embed financial assets in the form of tokens into the inner workings of almost everything you do on the network. As part of the strategy, users interact without being tied to specific servers, data centers, and databases. Web3 will allow you to create platforms that no one controls, but that everyone can trust because of their underlying algorithms and protocols. It is proposed to achieve this with the help of advanced technologies such as blockchain, machine learning, big data, and artificial intelligence. Tokens and cryptocurrencies, independent of traditional financial systems, should become fuel for the third-generation Internet economy. Among the promising tokens of this sector, analysts call IOTA (MIOTA) and HNT ( Helium ); FIL ( Filecoin ) and BTT ( BitTorrent ); (OCEAN) Ocean Protocol — the fundamental token of Web 3.0; BAT ( Basic Attention Token) — a project that allows you to receive remuneration for viewing ads. In general, all projects are united by the fact that they solve the main tasks of the Internet of the future — the decentralization of the network, in which data and information fully belong to their owner, and in which the user and his rights have the main value. 5. P2E Games Play-to-Earn (P2E) is a new term for video games where gamers can earn cryptocurrencies and NFT tokens through their gaming activities. In the last few months, the Play-to-earn trend has gained great momentum. Gaming itself is a huge global market. There are more than 2.7 billion gamers in the world. At the same time, analysts expect that in the next few years the value of the industry will exceed $ 300 billion. Today there are two important problems in the industry: Players do not own their purchases in the full sense of the term. In-game items increase the player's productivity and enjoyment of the game but do not serve any other purpose. As a result, they fall into the category of entertainment expenses, not investments; However, as new business models for game developers become available (for example, commissions from secondary sales of NFT), new forms of gameplay will also appear. The number of games has already exceeded 200, while they occupy up to 45% of the traffic of all decentralized applications. As a result, the trend is even singled out in a separate direction of GameFi (Game Finance). The main idea of such games is still not the possibility of quick earnings, but the right to own digital property. With the development of the metaverse, such games will appear more and more often. Perhaps this will become one of the main ways to attract users to the new environment. Modern large companies in the field of gaming, such as Steam or Microsoft, will be able to apply new crypto technologies on their marketplaces or, conversely, suffer from the outflow of users to other sites where the commission is lower, the purchase is safer, there is the possibility of converting virtual items into real money and their subsequent withdrawal. 6. DAO DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization that is controlled by software code and does not depend on the human factor. There is no hierarchy in such systems, all decisions on changes in the protocol are made by all participants on an equal basis with each other. Each digital community is centered around a common cause: it can be the management of a library, a united workforce, a social club, an NFT collection, and so on. The most famous example of such a community is a crowdfunding organization, which is called The DAO. In 2016, the company attracted more than $150 million in investments, becoming the largest crowdfunding project in history. However, it was closed in the same year due to the theft of funds by hackers. But developers continue to learn from their mistakes and improve the technology. Now DAOs are popular in narrow circles of crypto specialists, but their potential is huge - automation of management will greatly reduce bureaucracy and the human factor in almost any company. Experts identify the key features of the DAO: The band members are independent parties; Availability of SmartContract — open source code on the blockchain; Open Membership; A token is used to manage the community, which distributes funds according to priorities, encourages participation, and punishes violations of the rules; The group has internal capital to automate the market, prevent collusion and stimulate the creation of upward communities. Of course, these are not all the trends of cryptocurrencies that we expect in 2022. The growth of investments in this segment is rightfully considered the main trend not only in 2022 but also in subsequent years. The emergence of new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on digital assets and the development of WebFree can also be attributed to developing areas.

The cryptocurrency market is one of the most attractive economic areas. This most dynamic industry to date has experienced many ups and downs in its rather brief years of existence. In this article, we will talk about the most remarkable events in the history of crypto, people who got rich on it (and who were one step away from it), as well as projects that may seem strange. They Paid Attention in Time Eric Finman The youngest cryptocurrency millionaire in the world. Now he is 19 years old and has 403 BTC, which at the current exchange rate is $2.8 million. He bought bitcoins when he was only 12 years old. His grandmother gave him $1,000, which he was supposed to set aside for college, but he chose the path of a cryptocurrency investor. As time has shown, he made the right choice. The Winklevoss Brothers These are the very brothers who sued Mark Zuckerberg for $65 million for stealing their idea and creating Facebook on his own. They took $11 million of the total amount of compensation and bought bitcoins on them. At the time of purchase, the coin was trading at $120 apiece. That is, they purchased approximately 91,666 BTC, at the current rate it is 641 million dollars. There are quite a few people who have made an impressive fortune on cryptocurrencies. Therefore, in order not to stretch the already large material, let us move on to those poor people who were one step away from wealth, but lost it. Right Up There Bitcoin Pizza On May 22, 2010, the software developer under the nickname Laszlo bought two of the most expensive pizzas ever sold. At that time, the cost of bitcoins was nominal, and the first miners simply did not know where to put their "funny money". And Laszlo on one of the bitcoin forums said that he would pay 10 thousand coins to whoever delivered him two pizzas. At that time, the deal looked completely ordinary, at that rate Laszlo did not overpay for his fateful dinner, but already in August of that year, two pizzas cost him $600. As of today, Laszlo has bought two pizzas for $70 million. Every year on May 22, Bitcoin pizza day is "celebrated." Mark Frauenfelder  US journalist Mark Frauenfelder lost access to a wallet that stored bitcoins purchased in early 2016 for three thousand dollars, a little more than seven bitcoins in total. Observing that the dollar equivalent of bitcoins is growing immeasurably, he happily purchased the Trezor hardware wallet. The journalist wrote the 24-word password on a piece of paper and placed a desk in a secluded drawer. On duty, Mark had to fly to Japan and took his wife with him. Being a suspicious person, he decided to put the words of access to the wallet under the pillow of his daughter in case something happens to the spouses, then let the bitcoins go to the children. Upon returning home, he did not find the cherished words under his daughter's pillow and realized that the houses were cleaned, and the note was thrown into the trash. Mark, no matter how he tried, could not remember the password. It was possible to make a combination of cherished words after six months, and during this time three thousand dollars turned into thirty (!). By the way, 20% of existing bitcoins are stored in wallets whose owners do not have access to them. According to estimates by the analytical company Chainalysis, which studies blockchain technology, there are now more than 18.5 million bitcoins in the world. However, 20% of them for a total of $140 billion are on lost or blocked wallets.  Weird Crypto Projects The phenomenon of cryptocurrencies is enabling people to make money or raise funds for just about everything. Several cryptocurrencies in the market have strange and fancy names, but were created for a cause and are still in circulation in the market. However, others just show how obsessed we have become with cryptocurrencies. Dogecoin A virtual currency based around the hugely popular internet meme of a Shiba Inu . Originally made to mock the alternative currencies that hoped to compete with Bitcoin, Dogecoin is now one of the biggest around. Its market cap recently broke through $2bn as investors seek out the next crypto-trend. Part of Dogecoin’s success is due to its vast and vibrant community, members of which created the Dogecoin Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to using Dogecoin to fund goodwill projects. In 2014, the Foundation sent the Jamaican bobsled team to the Winter Olympics. It also funded the development of two clean water wells in east Kenya via a Twitter campaign. Bongger and Potcoin Those are cryptocurrencies promoting the cannabis revolution. These two are social projects that aid humanity in various aspects as a currency and act as a funding asset for the weed industry. Bongger also provides support for the medical, pharmaceutical, and basic scientific research on cannabis and its uses. Potcoin is not the only marijuana-themed currency. However, it gained notoriety due to its sponsorship deal with basketball star and unlikely North Korean diplomat Dennis Rodman. Kitties as Currency Such is the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies that anything built on blockchain technology is instantly a big deal. Take, for example, CryptoKitties, collectible digital artworks of cats and one of the first NFTs. The sort of digital version of Pokémon that can only be purchased with internet money. Users spend Ethereum in order to “breed” new kitties. Each kitty is unique and some devoted CryptoKitties players are willing to pay huge sums to own the best ones. The highest price paid currently stands at $117,700.  While a little weird, CryptoKitties is hugely popular. Over $12m has swapped wallets in kitty sales. Likewise, the game is now reportedly responsible for 11 percent of all traffic on the Ethereum Blockchain according to Motherboard. Fastfood Crypto! Is it reasonable to wait for your burger or chicken till a bitcoin transaction will be confirmed? No matter what you think, it seems cryptocurrency is a big deal in the fast-food world, and restaurants are keen to keep up with the latest trends. While McDonald’s has been tipped to start accepting cryptocurrency payments by as early as 2019, KFC has hopped on the bitcoin bandwagon. KFC offered up a limited edition Bitcoin Bucket, containing 10 pieces of chicken, fries, a medium side, gravy and two dips. All for a reasonable price of 20 CAD. KFC saw the viral bargain bucket sell out. At present, it’s unclear whether they will run the promotion again, but the fast-food chain might be convinced by its bitcoin balance (once the payments clear)… Living Crypto Life In addition to the striking stories of ups and downs, there are a lot of examples of when people are ready to fully involve cryptocurrency in their lives. For some, this is a great path to enrichment, while others are attracted by the cryptocurrency as a new stage in everyday life on the way to the formation of the Metaverse. Life on Bitcoin To date, there are an awful lot of merchants accepting BTC and cryptos as payment, so, the feat is far from impossible. But that wasn’t the case in 2013.  By then, the newlywed couple Beccy and Austin Craig decided to run a bold experiment: live and travel solely with Bitcoin as a payment method for 90 days. They called it “Life on Bitcoin”. The journey started from Utah and across the United States, and they also flew overseas to Stockholm, Berlin, and Singapore. Of course, they had difficulties in those months. But they did it nicely, and, two years later, they launched a documentary to prove this crazy crypto story. The Policeman Tony Vaughn, a police officer from the Kentucky provincial town of Vicco, was asked by the United States to pay his salary to the BTC. In 2013! When few knew about bitcoin at all. What can be said about paying with it? After conducting their own research, the city commission nevertheless agreed to such conditions. All his salary began to be converted into bitcoins and automatically transferred to a wallet. This was probably the first time that a public servant was paid in crypto. The average Police Officer salary in Kentucky is around $54,000 per year, and the Bitcoin price was over $1,000 then. So, any crypto savings that Vaughn kept has been revalued by around 5,300% so far. Not bad. Conclusion To sum up, the cryptocurrency world embodies the formula "new technologies + big money". By itself, this can drive many crazy. Until recently, cryptocurrency seemed to be something unimaginable. But humanity doesn't stand still. So keep your head cool and be hands-on, perhaps you will enter the top stories of crypto.

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