Author: Sahil Poudel

Ethereum Engineer Criticizes Solana’s Potential as a “Global Backbone” Blockchain

In brief, According to Ryan Berckmans, an engineer and member of the Ethereum community, Solana does not have the infrastructure necessary to function as the cornerstone of an international financial system. Solana’s lack of decentralization, high bandwidth requirements, and technical limitations, he says, provide a more sustainable model than Ethereum’s Layer 1 and Layer 2 environment.

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Solana’s Shift from “Monolithic” to Layered Solutions

Solana initially promoted itself as a high-throughput, single-chain platform capable of handling global transactions. Since then, though, it has begun implementing Layer 2 (L2) solutions, renaming them “Network Extensions.” This change is more in line with Ethereum’s proven L2 approach, which has allowed a number of applications to create unique L2 appchains on the platform.

Technical Difficulties Preventing Solana from Developing a Global Backbone

Berckmans claims that there is an issue with Solana’s single-client strategy, which just uses the agave rust client. At least three independent customers with a balanced stake distribution are necessary for a robust global backbone. Firedancer, Solana’s second client, has had delays that have been made worse by a lack of research resources and protocol specification. Furthermore, the platform’s reach in areas with lower network capacity is restricted by Solana’s 10Gbps upload suggestion, which raises centralization issues. The outage history of Solana was also brought to light by Berckmans, who pointed out that the protocol-level fallback mechanisms required for continuing block production during finalization issues are absent from the system.

Decentralization and Market Share Concerns

Berckmans raised concerns about Solana’s decentralization, citing that around 98% of Solana’s initial token allocation went to insiders, in contrast to Ethereum’s 80% public sale. He also points to the emergence of zero-knowledge (zk) proof aggregation, which enhances L2 settlement capabilities, as a challenge to Solana’s reliance on Layer 1 execution scaling.

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The Benefits of Ethereum for Corporate Adoption

Solana’s market share will probably decrease if big companies like Coinbase, Sony, and Visa choose Ethereum L2 solutions, according to Berckmans. He claims that although Solana has performed exceptionally well in several domains, its structural flaws prohibit it from acting as the foundation of an international financial system.

Google Cloud Joins MANTRA Chain as Validator

An overview

In collaboration with MANTRA Chain, Google Cloud will now be the layer-1 blockchain network’s main infrastructure supplier and validator. The partnership will use MANTRA’s accelerator program, which is scheduled to begin in early 2025, to promote innovation in tokenized real-world assets (RWA).The program will offer resources like cloud credits and technical support from Google’s web3 and AI teams to developers building within the ecosystem. The OM token saw a 2% increase following the announcement, as staking went live on the MANTRA mainnet.

Boosting MANTRA’s RWA Initiatives

On Oct. 23, MANTRA Chain, an L1 blockchain designed for tokenized real-world assets, announced Google Cloud as its primary validator and infrastructure partner. Known for its crypto partnerships with networks like Flare and Aptos, Google Cloud will now help MANTRA Chain extend its ecosystem’s developer support through initiatives like a testnet faucet on Google’s web3 Portal, providing developers with free MANTRA testnet tokens for application testing.

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RWA Accelerator Program

The MANTRA-Google Cloud collaboration will also roll out an RWA accelerator in Q1 2025, giving select projects cloud credits and access to web3 and AI support from Google. To execute this, MANTRA has partnered with the AI solutions provider BCW Group.

OM Token Sees Boost

Following the Google Cloud announcement, the OM token saw a 2% gain in 24 hours. MANTRA mainnet users can now bridge and stake OM tokens to MANTRA validators, including the new Google Cloud validator, marking an expansion of the platform’s staking capabilities.

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AurumXchange Owner Indicted for Money Laundering

In brief

Maximiliano Pilipis, the proprietor of AurumXchange, was charged by U.S. officials with laundering money connected to the Silk Road and could face jail time and heavy fines.

AurumXchange Owner Indicted for Money Laundering Silk Road Funds

American authorities have indicted Maximiliano Pilipis, owner of cryptocurrency exchange AurumXchange, on allegations of laundering funds tied to the Silk Road darknet marketplace, as stated by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Oct. 28.

Pilipis, a 53-year-old from Indiana, allegedly facilitated over $30 million between 2009 and 2013, partly from accounts linked to Silk Road. Silk Road, the pioneering darknet marketplace launched in 2011, was shut down in 2013 with founder Ross Ulbricht sentenced to life for charges including money laundering and drug trafficking.

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AurumXchange allegedly carried out over 100,000 transactions without a license, according to the DOJ. While the platform was in use, Pilipis allegedly earned about 10,000 BTC in fees, or $1.2 million. Investigators claim AurumXchange, a Dominican company registered under the name Aurum Capital Holding, laundered money through a number of wallet addresses, some of which were used to invest in real estate in Indiana, allegedly without disclosing the associated earnings on tax forms.

In January 2024, IRS agents seized close to $10 million from Pilipis’s Morgan Stanley accounts, stating he knowingly used illicit funds. A federal grand jury initially charged him with one money laundering count, later adding five counts and two counts of tax filing failures.

Pilipis can be sentenced to 10 years in jail and fined up to $250,000 if found guilty

A Greater Attention to Crypto Money Laundering Worldwide

Authorities throughout the world have increased their scrutiny of bitcoin exchanges for potential money laundering. In Sweden, authorities recently labeled many exchanges “professional money launderers,” and in Germany, authorities closed 47 exchanges for breaking anti-money laundering regulations. Significant exchanges including Binance, KuCoin, and OKEx have faced similar inquiries or accusations in recent years.

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Austria Sentences Five in Landmark $21.6M Crypto Scam Trial

Summary

Five individuals were sentenced to prison for their roles in a Ponzi-like scheme. This incident occured in Austria, where the sentenced individuals involved themselves in the EXW-Token scam that defrauded over 40,000 investors out of €20 million ($21.6 million).

Landmark Crypto Fraud Trial Ends in Sentencing

Austria’s largest crypto fraud case to date, took a year-long trial and 60 days of hearings. The Klagenfurt Regional Court sentenced five individuals involved in the EXW-token scam. The individuals were found guilty of running a Ponzi-like scheme, persuading investors with promises of daily returns through fraudulent ventures,including the EXW Wallet and fictitious investments in real estate and rental cars.This fraudulent scheme had already collapsed in 2020 but briefly managed to resurface under the name Exchange World.

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Lavish Spending Funded by Fraud

Court recordings reveal that the defendants were using the stolen funds to facilitate their lavish lifestyles; luxury cars, private jets and mansions. Out of all the stolen goods some of the stolen goods was allegedly transfered from Dubai to Austria.Two of the defendants received five-year sentences, with others handed 30-month and 18-month suspended sentences. EXW Wallet co-founders Benjamin Herzog and Pirmin Troger had already pleaded guilty and received five-year sentences.

A Rising Global Threat

The EXW-Token case highlights a troubling increase in crypto scams globally. France recently began its own $30 million crypto fraud trial, while the U.S. sentenced a Ponzi promoter to prison. With crypto-related frauds surging, authorities worldwide are cracking down to protect investors and maintain trust in the cryptocurrency market.

CARV Token Surges 79% After Top Crypto Exchange Listings

The CARV platform’s native token skyrocketed after being listed on eight top-tier crypto exchanges. The project was launched on Oct 10, following its launch, the token experienced a significant gains, increasing from $0.26 to $0.61 within hours. This shows an impressive 79% rise, with market limit of $62 million and over $22 million in daily trading volume.

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Key Exchanges and Early Gains

Bybit, Bitget, KuCoin, HTX, and MEXC, Top exchanges are offering their trading support for CARV. Despite overall market laziness, CARV’s performance stood out. This exceeds Bitcoin and Ethereum both of which struggled to gain momentum.

Important Note: CARV’s surge reflects growing interest in decentralized platforms focusing on data privacy and modular identity markets.

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What is CARV?

CARV is a decentralized platform that aims to make data privacy and modular identity inside gaming, AI and data monetization sectors. Having gained major early momentum, CARV has received investments from major ventures and coordinated with gaming and AI startups.

CARV’s Ecosystem and Future

The CARV’s Ecosystem works across various sectors, including gaming projects, notable blockchain projects, As CARB continues to expand, its focus on data privacy and decentralized infrastructure puts it in a great position for further growth on modular identity market.

Hex Trust Teams Up with Clearpool to Launch Ozean

A decentralized finance protocol, Clearpool has joined forces with crypto custodian Hex Trust to launch Ozean. Ozean is a blockchain plaform which aims to yield Real-World Assets (RWA)

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Ozean Set for Traction in RWA Space

Ozean is designed to enhance Hex Trust’s infrastructure and institutional client base, with the help of Clearpool’s lending expertise. Clearpool has successfully amassed over $620 million in loans, serving clients like Jane Street, Flow Traders and Wintermute.

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Hex Trust’s Key Role in Ozean Expansion

With more than $5 million in custody and over 270 institutional client, Hex trust has positioned itself to play a significant role in expansion of Ozean. The platform will provide their clients, including banks, exchanges, funds and decentralized applications (dApps) with essential access to RWA.

Ceo and co-founder of Hex Trust, Alessio Quaglini, stated:

“Hex Trust will bring its vast and growing client base, along with our cutting-edge technology infrastructure, to take Ozean to the next level to unlock this trillion-dollar market opportunity.”

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Blockchain.com Executives on Trial for Failing to File Financial Reports on Time

Summary

Blockchain.com executives are facing legal charges over late Financial Filing, with hearing scheduled in November.

Executives Face Court Over Financial Delays

Blockchain.com’s co-founder Nicolas Cary and operations executive AI Turnbull are currently facing a lawsuit because of their company’s inability to submit their own financial filings on time. Both of them were called by Companies House in May, with legal proceedings starting in September. A follow-up court hearing is scheduled for November.

Missed Filings Attributed to Restructuring

The lawsuit revolves around Blockchain.com’s late submission of financial accounts for 2022, while the company only filed accounts for 2020 as of October. The firm attributed the delay to a major reconstructing and workforce reduction, which they claimed required time to stabilize. This is a serious issue as, failure to comply with filing regulations could result in significant fines for the executives.

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Valuation Drop Amid Market Challenges

Blockchain.com, founded in 2011, once boasted a valuation of $14 billion but has seen that figure drop to less than half, exacerbated by a $270 million loss tied to the collapse of Three Arrows Capital. Despite these setbacks, the company remains optimistic, stating it has addressed the necessary regulatory paperwork and expects the matter to be resolved quickly.

OpenGradient and Nuffle Labs Introduce Secure AI to Blockchain

SUMMARY

Nuffle Labs and OpenGradient have teamed up to integrate decentralized, secure AI on blockchain networks, giving developers access to AI features without jeopardizing the integrity of the blockchain.

Nuffle Labs and OpenGradient Partner for Secure Blockchain AI

Nuffle Labs and OpenGradient are collaborating to bring secure, decentralized AI processing to blockchain networks, according to a press release. This partnership will allow developers to use AI directly on-chain without relying on off-chain solutions, which may pose privacy risks.

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Blockchain networks and AI have been challenging to integrate due to blockchain’s secure yet inflexible infrastructure versus AI’s need for high-performance computing. Nuffle Labs has introduced a “Fast Finality Layer” to close this gap and improve transaction security and speed. Across several blockchains, OpenGradient will use this new architecture to facilitate safe, trust-minimized AI computation.

Impact on Blockchain Development

This partnership will enable decentralized applications to use AI functions on-chain, bypassing blockchain’s usual limitations and avoiding less secure external services. OpenGradient will use Nuffle’s infrastructure to allow AI models to run across blockchain networks while preserving security.

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For those less familiar with blockchain technology, the significance of this partnership lies in its approach to privacy and security in digital applications. Blockchain’s decentralized data storage and integrity protect against tampering, but integrating AI securely has been challenging—until now.

Focus on NEAR Protocol

The initial focus will be on the NEAR Protocol ecosystem, where OpenGradient will conduct real-time analytics and on-chain decision-making using Nuffle’s technology. This will bypass typical performance barriers that blockchain faces with AI’s high computational demands.

Vietnam Launches National Blockchain Strategy, Aiming to Lead Asia by 2030

Summary

Vietnam has finally revealed its National Blockchain Strategy, which aims to position itself as the leading decentralized country in Asia. This initiative focuses to put Vietnam as a future blockchain leader and a key-player in blockchain research, discovery, innovation and its application.

Blockchain Leadership Goals

On October 22, Vietnam launched its own Blockchain strategy. This carefully crafted plan aims to build atleast 20 globally reputable blockchain brands by 2025. The major motive behind all this by the government is to turn current Vietnam into a regional leader in decentralized technology with international influence in blockchain space.

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Building Blockchain Infrastructure

The key portion of the plan is the establishment of three blockchain testing centers in major cities. The testing centers’ main aim will be to enhance decentralization, digitalization, security, innovation and form a National Blockchain Network. If it is to workout exactly like the speculation, this will boost Vietnam’s ability to compete on global scale.

Vietnam’s 5-Point Blockchain Plan

The government outlined five main actions: improving legal frameworks, enhancing blockchain infrastructure, developing skilled human resources, promoting research, and encouraging global collaboration. Various ministries, like the Ministry of Information and Communications, will oversee these initiatives.

Collaboration and Innovation

To drive success, Vietnam will foster collaboration among local digital technology firms. The Vietnam Blockchain Association will also spearhead projects under the strategy to accelerate the country’s blockchain growth on the global stage.

Vitalik Buterin Calls Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin Comments ‘Insane’

Summary

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin directly criticized Michael Saylor, the chairman of MicroStrategy over his comment on Bitcoin’s recent activity. Buterin didn’t leave no crumbs and sharply called Saylor’s remarks “batshit insane” in a heated X (formerly Twitter) post.

Buterin Fires Back at Saylor’s Views

Vitalik Buterin took personal issue with the remarks made by Michael Saylor on his recent interview regarding bitcoin’s activity. The activity being the custody, where Saylor firmly believed that Regulated Finance Institutions. However, Buterin rejected this remark saying this goes against the decentralized ethos of crypto and calling out this action to be a push towards “regulatorty capture”.

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Crypto Leaders Side with Buterin

Several crypto famous leaders like Jameson Lopp and Eric Voorhees sided with Buterin. All of them shared the same view regarding involvement of third party on crypto space. Many believe this remark from Saylor as a direct contradiction to the whole concept of decentralization nature of blockchain.

Saylor’s Stance on Bitcoin Custody

In the interview, Saylor suggested the Bitcoin custody to be taken over by too Big to fail banks, believing it would protect assets from being seized. This seemed to contradict his previous vicious advocacy for self-custody. Just a year earlier, after the collapse of FTX, Saylor supported self-custody, stating that people should hold their own private keys. This hypocrisy surprised many, as he appears to favor institutional control over digital assets, a shift that Buterin and others find alarming.

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