Shining Light on WSJ’s Attack on ShapeShift and Crypto 2188

Erik Voorhees is among the top-recognized serial Bitcoin advocates and entrepreneurs. He founded ShapeShift in August 2014 as an elegant, secure, and fast solution to digital asset exchanges. Erik has been a featured guest on Bloomberg, Fox Business, CNBC, BBC Radio, The Peter Schiff Show, and numerous blockchain industry conferences. His past affiliations include: BitInstant, Coinapult, and SatoshiDICE, which was responsible for most of the world’s Bitcoin transactions in 2012 and 2013.

Post Synopsis

  • ShapeShift has been the subject of claims from the Wall Street Journal related to money laundering
  • We have worked with the journalists for 5 months under false pretenses
  • The WSJ omitted relevant information
  • The WSJ forwent a chance to prevent potential illicit activity
  • ShapeShift is designed to protect users and their privacy and we do not transact in fiat
  • We publish every single transaction conducted on the platform, making all of them traceable
  • The authors do not have a sufficient understanding of blockchains and our platform in particular
  • The claims made are factually incorrect and deceptive
  • ShapeShift has an industry-leading compliance and AML program
  • We’re here to build a better financial system

ShapeShift has been the subject of claims from the WSJ related to money laundering

This past Friday (9/28), two reporters at the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an article, “How Dirty Money Disappears Into the Black Hole of Cryptocurrency.”

The article begins as follows: “A North Korean agent, a stolen-credit-card peddler and the mastermind of an $80 million Ponzi scheme had a common problem. They needed to launder their dirty money. They found a common solution in ShapeShift.”

The article then describes the WSJ’s attempt to analyze two years of blockchain data, concluding (wrongly) that $9m was laundered through the ShapeShift platform. The article singled-out ShapeShift and implied that the company is a bastion of illicit activity because it hadn’t previously required user information–despite that same data showing that other exchanges (which did take user information) had similar figures.

Overall, the article contains factual inaccuracies, omits significant details about how ShapeShift operates, and reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how blockchain transactions work.

We have worked with the WSJ for 5 months under false pretenses

The WSJ reporters reached out to us months ago asking for friendly assistance on a piece about the crypto industry in general. Over a period of five months, we were open and accommodating of their questions while in contrast they misrepresented their intentions until very recently. Of the many things I communicated with them over the past months, they included not a single statement from those lengthy discussions, preferring instead to include out-of-context remarks I’d made elsewhere.

The WSJ omitted relevant information

Let’s instead look at the actual facts, which ShapeShift shared with the WSJ through multiple phone calls, in-person meetings, and emails, but the WSJ decided to exclude from their article; facts such as:

  • $9m (even if it was true) is 0.15% of ShapeShift’s exchange volume during the described time period;
  • We have a strong record of complying with law-enforcement requests, providing valuable assistance in over 30 investigations in 13 different countries all over the world;
  • We work with other exchanges on an almost-daily basis to identify and block thieves and criminals, through a self-policing group ShapeShift created to protect the users and industry;
  • We block entire countries on the sanctions lists;
  • We have an internal anti-money laundering program that uses blockchain forensics that are far more advanced (and we would argue, effective) than asking someone for their “name and address”;
  • We blacklist suspicious addresses upon learning of them.

There is no mention of any of this in the WSJ article.

The WSJ forewent a chance to prevent potential illicit activity

The WSJ reporters withheld information for months about suspicious accounts in order to build their story, rather than communicating it to the appropriate exchanges and ShapeShift immediately so that funds could be frozen or blocked. It is likely victims of these thefts lost their chance to recoup some of the funds due to this opportunism.

ShapeShift is designed to protect users and their privacy and we do not transact in fiat

Unlike most other exchanges, ShapeShift is a crypto-to-crypto, non-custodial platform. We don’t take custody of user funds, but instead swap our own assets for theirs, at a set price. We don’t touch fiat currency, so users cannot swap their dollars/euros/yen for our Bitcoin/Ethereum/Dogecoin. Not a single dollar, euro, or yen has ever been laundered through ShapeShift. It can’t be done.

We publish every single transaction conducted on the platform publicly, making all of them traceable

From ShapeShift’s beginning, it has had a unique model — one which respects user privacy, and yet one which is transparent about all transaction details. To date, ShapeShift remains the only financial company in the world that publishes all transactions that go through its platform. It was this very feed of public information which the WSJ relied upon. Perhaps the irony is lost on the WSJ, but the WSJ would have been unable to do this kind of investigation with any other crypto exchange, because they aren’t transparent in this way.

The WSJ did not have a sufficient understanding of blockchains and our platform in particular

Blockchains and cryptocurrency represent a new, fast-evolving technology and industry. For those who are not real experts, it can be confusing. And the WSJ reporters appear to have gotten confused about how our platform functions. Based on our own analysis of the transactions cited in the article, the WSJ erroneously attributed vast sums of allegedly illicit transactions to ShapeShift in a way that exhibits a profound failure to grasp how blockchains, in general, and our system in particular, really work.

The claims made are factually inaccurate and deceptive

For example:

1) The authors allege this address is a suspicious person. 1AE2cBJDn4cuLCR6RPESpqdaDXdZwhgUya

2) On 9/20/17 this person sends 0.0959 BTC ($600) to another address, which is an exchange (someone other than ShapeShift) 18G8Mf61kFFDt9AVLUdvh1xTUYrLDny6T4

3) Nearly a year later, on 7/13/18 this 18G8 address sends a batch transaction out of its wallet. As part of the batch, 11 BTC ($70,000) is sent to ShapeShift’s address:
1NSc6zAdG2NGbjPLQwAjAuqjHSoq5KECT7 This 11 BTC is not a user sending funds to ShapeShift, it is one of our exchange partners sending BTC to us.

In other words, $600 of suspicious funds were sent to an exchange that wasn’t ShapeShift. Because ShapeShift happens to be a customer of this same exchange–10 months later in a completely unrelated transaction–the exchange sent funds to ShapeShift. The authors didn’t understand how to properly read the blockchains transactions, so they assumed there was $70k in “dirty money” sent to ShapeShift.

Allegation: $70,000 laundered by ShapeShift
Reality: $0 laundered by ShapeShift

We’ve found numerous other examples. We asked the WSJ to send us the specific transaction ID’s that they are claiming as received by ShapeShift, but the analysis we’ve been able to do thus far indicates the WSJ has made wildly inaccurate assertions. As of this writing, the WSJ has been unwilling or unable to send the requested transaction data necessary for us to do a more fulsome analysis of their assertions.

ShapeShift has an industry-leading compliance and AML program

Contrary to the portrayal in the WSJ piece, ShapeShift has always sought to comply with those laws that apply to its unique business model. Crypto being a new technology and the Bank Secrecy Act being a relatively old law, there are rational and strong legal arguments that ShapeShift is not subject to the “Know Your Customer” rules found in the BSA. Indeed, in part because of this legal uncertainty, we have sought clarification from regulators and have implemented KYC in the interim. That is, despite the fact that ShapeShift operates in a world of unclear and changing regulations, we have built an industry-leading compliance program:

  • We have been working with inside and outside legal counsel for years in addressing regulation appropriately, particularly in the US and Switzerland
  • We have an industry-leading Anti-Money Laundering compliance firm checking all our transactions
  • We have a Chief Legal Officer with 20 years of regulatory experience at leading law firms
  • We have a Chief Compliance Officer with 6+ years of compliance experience
  • We monitor addresses on our blacklists to prevent known illicit transactions
  • We have announced mandatory KYC for all users of ShapeShift

All of the above was done upon thorough, thoughtful, and extensive legal and business-risk analysis in the interest of mitigating perceived threats.

We’re here to build a better financial system

The WSJ article’s implication that ShapeShift is somehow negligent or complicit on this issue of money laundering is false and absurd; emblematic of a media industry that cares more about clickbait sensationalism than it does about improving the financial state of mankind. But we should not expect the Wall Street Journal to change Wall Street.

An objective observer will find no complacency here; ShapeShift’s record (based on facts) compares favorably against any peer, within the crypto industry or without.

Ultimately, we are trying to pioneer a new financial system, and we don’t expect to be loved by the proponents of the old. That’s understandable. Yet ShapeShift has always been in favor of complying with the laws of the jurisdictions in which it operates, even though many of these laws are unclear, ever-changing, contradictory, and in some cases ineffective.

We will push forward, and we’d suggest the WSJ change their title to be more accurate and objective, “Less than two tenths of one percent of ShapeShift’s business might be illicit.”

-Erik Voorhees
CEO ShapeShift

Previous ArticleNext Article

Leave a Reply

Tipitek is expanding the capabilities for its clients 6694

Tipitek

Tipitek is a structural division of Cryptoves LLP with its own high-speed, reliable, and modern cryptocurrency platform. Since its launch, the entire Tipitek ecosystem has been continuously evolving, providing a reliable platform for working in the crypto industry. While there were previous announcements about expanding the range of tools, not all details were previously disclosed. As of today, Tipitek offers the opportunity to work not only with cryptocurrencies but also with tokenized stocks, indices, precious metals, commodities, and energy assets.

About Tipitek: Analyzing Tipitek’s operations, it can confidently be said that its creators have successfully combined the best elements: innovation, style, comfort, security, multifunctionality, stability, high speed, and more. Both beginners and experienced traders enjoy working here, as each sees benefits for themselves.

Tipitek offers several types of trading accounts, and the use of margin trading conditions allows for trading on growth.

Expansion of the Instrument List: This management decision now allows Tipitek clients to work with cryptocurrencies and other tokenized assets, stocks, indices, precious metals, commodities, and energy assets on a single platform. This significantly simplifies the life of an active trader and saves time. And we know that time plays a very important role in the lives of our clients.

So, Tipitek users can now trade:

  • Cryptocurrency pairs (crypto-USDT, crypto-crypto): Over 30 directions for trading bitcoins, stablecoins, altcoins. Flexible leverage.
  • Tokenized stocks: Over 150 positions of well-known global companies. Short-term and long-term strategies are available.
  • Tokenized indices: Availability of the most popular global trends. Compliance with underlying assets. Market turnover of over 1 trillion dollars per day.
  • Tokenized precious metals: Agreed, the inclusion of tokenized metals into operation is an excellent solution, as investments in precious metals are a classic for every investor.
  • Tokenized commodities: An impressive list of available tokenized goods (corn, wheat, beans, etc.). Compliance with all Chicago Mercantile Exchange quotations.
  • Tokenized energy assets: A rather bold decision, as tokenized energy assets are mainly dealt with by bold and experienced traders who know how to take risks. However, at the same time, it is an excellent way to earn effectively.

Thus, the development of Tipitek’s trading division is moving in the right direction. And against the backdrop of similar projects that started their activities around the same time as Tipitek, competitive advantages are clearly visible. Expanding the list of instruments is an excellent solution for further advancement, which will help attract new users and increase the opportunities for each active client, offering 6 types of trading accounts.

Tipitek represents a revolutionary milestone in the cryptocurrency industry. The company seamlessly integrates all the essential elements required for convenient and profitable cryptocurrency trading.

Discover the unparalleled advantages, features, and account options that Tipitek offers. This is the first thing that catches the attention of prospective users of any platform. They are interested in the minimum investment amount, fees, availability of leverage, savings accounts, or other perks.

Cryptoves LLP has chosen not to limit Tipitek to one or two types of trading accounts and has provided its clients with a total of six unique account types, each offering new opportunities for users.

What do they offer you?

All six types of client accounts at Tipitek differ in the deposit amount and the set of useful services. The company explains the variety of account types by noting that platform users work not only with cryptocurrencies but also with other digital assets, making it an excellent decision.

MINI Account: A trading account with a minimum deposit of $500 and a minimum investment period of 180 days. Clients get the opportunity to use leverage up to 1:5, receive daily email newsletters, request consultations with the company analyst, and access educational materials.

EASY START Account: A trading account with a minimum deposit of $5,000 and a minimum investment period of 180 days. Clients can use leverage up to 1:5, receive weekly email newsletters, weekly consultations with an analyst, one trading signal per week, and, upon request, get a personal manager and educational materials.

START+ Account: A trading account with a minimum deposit of $25,000 and an investment period starting from 180 days. It offers leverage up to 1:5, daily email newsletters with transaction history analysis, weekly consultations with an analyst, two trading signals per week, two risk-free trades, one built-in robot, and 1.5% interest on savings accounts. A personal manager and educational materials are available upon request.

PRO Account: A trading account with a minimum deposit of $100,000 and a minimum investment period of 90 days. Clients can work with leverage up to 1:10, receive weekly email newsletters, have four consultations per month with the company analyst, full support from a personal manager, up to five trading signals per week, and two built-in trading robots. Educational materials are available upon request, and savings accounts earn 2% interest.

PRO+ Account: Another trading account with a minimum deposit of $500,000 and a minimum investment period of 90 days. It offers leverage up to 1:10, six consultations per month with the company analyst, full support from a personal manager, up to ten trading signals per week, four risk-free trades, and two built-in trading bots. Educational materials can be requested. This account type includes a 2% interest rate on savings accounts.

EXTRA Account: A trading account with a minimum deposit of $1,000,000 and a minimum investment period of 90 days. Clients have unlimited possibilities, including leverage up to 1:20, weekly email newsletters, full support from the company analyst and a personal manager, an unlimited number of trading signals, access to automated trading, and six risk-free trades. Individual educational materials are available upon request, and savings accounts earn 4% interest.

What do they have in common?

All six trading accounts share the absence of commissions from Tipitek’s side and are denominated in cryptocurrency (BTC, USDT). When your deposit reaches the level corresponding to another account type, the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of that higher level opens up.

Tipitek goes beyond simple cryptocurrency exchange; it is the perfect comprehensive solution for traders, investors, and partners. Cryptoves LLP openly declares the advantages of Tipitek, attracting an increasing number of active clients. The new division is already quite popular among traders due to its multifunctionality and modernity.

Briefly about Tipitek: It is a structural division of Cryptoves LLP, whose activities began in 2017, initially specializing in cloud cryptocurrency mining. The company is legally registered in Singapore. The company’s leadership and team work closely together, resulting in rapid development and the creation of the Tipitek trading division with its own platform. Is Tipitek currently at the peak of its development? It’s challenging to say, as Cryptoves LLP has not stopped evolving since its inception.

What makes Tipitek notable? Tipitek offers advanced charts and several types of orders to active platform users. Cryptoves LLP’s management and team emphasize that Tipitek is characterized by:

High Speed and Stability: Users frequently note that transactions can be executed in microseconds, saving them time.

Security: Cryptoves LLP applies only verified and modern tools to ensure customer security, emphasizing that security and customer trust are always their top priorities.

Ability to Implement Trading Strategies: Developers have created a user-friendly interface, allowing both beginners and experienced traders and investors to implement trading strategies. Tipitek also provides a detailed order book overview and a choice of trading pairs.

Mobility: Cryptoves LLP acknowledges the need for traders to work from anywhere in the world at any time. Tipitek Trade is available for all mobile devices.

As we can see, Cryptoves LLP boldly emphasizes the advantages of its new product, as the company has taken into account the most critical aspects: price and time priority, simultaneous use of multiple order types, a dynamic maker-taker fee schedule based on trading volume.

Cryptocurrency platform Tipitek introduces an affiliate program as another way to earn

People interested in digital assets are likely familiar with the functionality, security, reliability, and modernity of Tipitek. It’s worth noting that Cryptoves LLP is rapidly progressing toward its goal, attracting more and more clients, including company founders and professional traders. The news of the affiliate program being introduced is already widely spreading on the Internet, so Tipitek can expect a new wave of interest in the platform.

What sparks interest in Tipitek? Primarily, clients can work not only with cryptocurrencies but also with other digital assets: tokenized stocks, indices, precious metals, commodities, and energy assets. This simplifies the work of traders, saving them time as there is no need to use multiple platforms simultaneously.

Despite the relatively recent emergence of the new division, it is safe to say that Tipitek is already a reliable, stable, and secure means of achieving the goals of traders and investors. Working with Tipitek is genuinely simple and comfortable.

Investors and traders can not only buy and trade digital assets but also store them. The Tipitek security system is at the highest level. Since the launch of Tipitek, Cryptoves LLP’s leadership has repeatedly stated in interviews that the company does not plan to stop here and will continue to develop and improve Tipitek. Based on the events happening in the company, it’s hard to argue with that. Tipitek is ahead in development compared to its peers and even many “veterans.”

How to earn with Tipitek? For Tipitek clients, there are classic ways to earn:

Profit from Trading: The trading platform’s uniqueness is characterized by highly favorable trading conditions, a wide variety of the most liquid financial instruments, the use of trading signals, and trading bots. Analytical and educational materials are also available to Tipitek clients.

Passive Income: This is a savings investment account service with an interest rate significantly exceeding that of banks. Interest payments can be made weekly. Depending on the chosen account type, Tipitek clients can earn up to 48% annually.

What does launching the Tipitek affiliate program give clients? It expands earning opportunities for Tipitek clients. The Tipitek affiliate program is a three-tier referral program that allows you to earn 3-7% of each deposit made by your referrals. To do this, you only need to register and obtain a referral link, which can be posted on social networks, thematic forums, etc.

The affiliate program can also be combined with passive income and trading, significantly increasing your earnings. Thus, joining the affiliate program on the platform is another additional opportunity to earn with Tipitek.

Jurat Launches Layer-1 Mined by Attorneys 6707

A group of attorneys and blockchain engineers are building a new Bitcoin fork blockchain using an emerging legal enforcement protocol that bridges the blockchain to state and federal courts. Called Jurat, the protocol enables capabilities like freezing disputed coins or recovering stolen coins after a hack, all under the auspices of the justice system. The native coin of the new fork is called $JTC.

The primary objectives for the new blockchain are to ensure robust consumer protection for cryptocurrency users and provide on-chain enforcement for legal rights afforded in commercial transactions, property transfers, and the banking system.

The $JTC token is due to be listed on exchanges in the near future. At this time, $JTC mining is open for licensed attorneys in all jurisdictions and may be made available to legacy Bitcoin miners in the future.

Attorneys Line Up To Participate

To start the process for becoming a $JTC miner, attorneys should complete the mining information request form, available on Jurat’s website.

$JTC miners receive $JTC tokens as compensation for supporting the network and helping court rulings to execute on-chain. Mining with Jurat also offers attorneys the chance to become better acquainted with the technology underlying blockchain transactions and participate in a more legally compliant Web3.

Mining by Non-Attorneys

Mining applications for Jurat are currently open to licensed attorneys only. Jurat may expand to include legacy Bitcoin miners in the future.

How to obtain $JTC

$JTC forked at Bitcoin block height 717808, which occurred on January 8, 2022. All addresses that contained $BTC as of that block received $JTC at a 1:1 ratio to their $BTC and can claim the coins using the Jurat Wallet, which is available for Android (Play Store), IOS (App Store), Windows (Jurat.io), and Mac (Mac App Store).

Currently, $JTC cannot be bought on exchanges but will be listed soon. l

Why Does Blockchain Need Jurat?

Jurat was founded by Mike Kanovitz, a partner at Loevy & Loevy in Chicago, USA, who works in Web3 and traditional civil litigation. He conceived of Jurat as a means to provide consumer protection in the crypto space after seeing many clients victimized by fraud and theft.

“Witnessing people lose their hard-earned savings to hackers and phishing scams only to be left with no legal recourse inspired me to create Jurat. “said Mike Kanovitz, Jurat CEO and co-founder.

After creating the protocol and proving that legal rights could be enforced on-chain without sacrificing the benefits of decentralization, Kanovitz recognized that the technology could help make blockchains safer and more usable for mainstream commercial transactions.

“Blockchain technology has the potential to benefit consumers and businesses in countless ways, but the absence of an effective layer for enforcing legal rights prevents it from achieving mainstream adoption,” he said.

The $JTC Bitcoin fork uses Jurat to offer the unique ability to recover digital assets and freeze accounts associated with illicit activities. The protocol can provide legal recourse for users without involving intermediaries or asset custodians while maintaining the full decentralization of the network. There are four steps to the process:

  1. A $JTC user who needs legal recourse because of on-chain crime, a mistaken transaction, or lost private keys can create a Jurat request ID through the Jurat UI. The Jurat ID is a string of characters that specifies the transaction that the claimant wants the court to order. For example, a transaction to send coins from a scammer’s wallet back to the true owner. Armed with the ID, the user can bring the matter to court.
  2. After filing a case, the user provides the ID to the court. If the judge agrees with the lawsuit, they signify this to Jurat blockchain nodes by including the ID in their written opinion and placing it on the court’s public docket.
  3. Once on the public docket, specialized nodes can access the court’s opinion and recognize the Jurat ID. The code informs the nodes that the judge has ruled and what transaction the judge has ordered.
  4. Each miner then verifies the court order, like verifying a private key signature. The process is automatic and does not require any intermediaries.

$JTC has already been used live in court. Recently, a US federal judge considered the cryptocurrency accounts of several sanctioned individuals, including a wallet belonging to North Korean state-sponsored hackers called the Lazarus Group. The court ordered the hackers’ accounts frozen, and the Jurat nodes executed the court orders automatically and seamlessly, preventing the hackers from spending the $JTC in the sanctioned accounts.

Building Legal3 With Jurat

The success of Jurat technology in the case brought against the Lazarus group, and others is an early step in Jurat’s broader goal of introducing a legal base layer for every transaction in Web3.

Jurat will continue to add new attorneys to its mining operation as the $JTC launch date draws closer and encourages all attorneys who have a passion for justice on the blockchain to apply.

Nayms Announces Powerful Updates: Unlocking a New Asset Class and Opportunities to Experience Higher Yields on USDC 8104

Nayms, the leading blockchain-based insurance marketplace, is proud to unveil a host of game-changing updates to our application: the new Capital Provider experience with the launch of Investor 2.0, and two new yield bearing Insurance Pools.

These transformative enhancements mark a significant leap forward in empowering capital providers with self-service onboarding, simplified investment opportunities exploration, and a sleek, intuitive user interface. Within these updates, a new design system has also been introduced to provide a more streamlined and accessible experience. This achievement demonstrates Nayms’ commitment to democratise access to insurance investments.

“These groundbreaking updates represent our dedication to enhancing the capital provider experience and fostering a more user-friendly, secure, and efficient marketplace.” said Alex Melkonian, Head of Product at Nayms.

Additionally, Nayms is excited to share a range of new investment opportunities which allow investors to diversify their portfolios, access untapped markets, and benefit from the growth potential of the evolving insurance landscape with potential returns as follows:

  1. InsurAce: 11-14% Target ROI
  2. Node: 9-12% Target ROI

“This release represents the coming together of our internal team and our ecosystem partners. We have introduced insurance as an asset class to the digital asset space – it’s an investment that is uncorrelated, diversified, regulated, and actuarially priced. We’re excited for more to be announced in the months to come.” said Dan Roberts, CEO and Co-Founder of Nayms.

Key Features:

  1. New Investment Opportunities: USDC holders can now access exclusive investment opportunities that offer attractive returns and diversification through innovative insurance-linked investments.
  2. Self-Service Onboarding: Capital Providers now have the autonomy to seamlessly onboard themselves, expediting their journey to discover investment opportunities.
  3. Simplified KYC: Know Your Customer (KYC) processes have been revamped, offering a self-guided experience, enhancing security, and making compliance easier than ever.
  4. Enhanced User Interface: Our platform has undergone a significant interface upgrade, resulting in an investment flow that is more intuitive and quicker to navigate.
  5. Smart Contract Bug Bounty: Our commitment to security is unwavering. We’ve launched a smart contract bug bounty program to ensure our platform’s utmost safety and reliability.

“Having been a proud supporter of Nayms’ first wave of insurance pool products, I am genuinely excited about their launch. Nayms has consistently showcased innovation and a deep understanding of the insurance market’s needs. Their commitment and forward-thinking approach is evident, and I have no doubt that they’ll solidify their position as the trailblazer in the on-chain insurance industry.” said Brian Avello, Chief Legal Counsel at UDHC.

As Nayms continues to expand its marketplace, it remains committed to fostering collaboration, trust, and innovation within the reinsurance industry. Nayms isn’t new technology for old companies — it’s new technology for the insurance participants of the future, who deserve the back-end infrastructure capable of conducting truly digital insurance with the market.

About Nayms

Nayms is the world’s leading, fully regulated marketplace for on-chain insurance. They are paving the way in providing a new digital asset risk market that allows regulated brokers and underwriters to find digital asset capital providers to share in the premium and liability covering digital asset risk. Nayms’ traceable smart contract is built on a trustless system, meaning insurance brokers can place a contract between market participants in a limitless number of areas and share in the future value of such open trade.

Saga Announces the Launch of Pegasus 8195

Highly Anticipated Incentivized Testnet Leads Latest Milestones that Include SAGA Token Airdrop and 282 Saga Innovator Projects from Layer-1 Protocol

The wait is over. Saga, a leading Layer-1 protocol and developer ecosystem in web3 gaming, today launched their Incentivized Testnet, named Pegasus, giving game creators even more freedom to unleash their creative expression on Saga. The kickoff is the first step leading to a six-part launch sequence for the full-featured Saga Protocol V1 Mainnet scheduled for early 2024 that will unblock developers and consumers from realizing blockchain’s true potential.

First revealed at the Saga Multiverse Summit in August, Pegasus has undergone accelerated development from its original roadmap to support both Saga’s Innovators and partners. The Saga Protocol offers an integrated stack of automated, high-performance, gasless, interoperable and customizable chains, called Chainlets. The Saga Chainlet Realm will be the main Realm on the protocol. Earlier this year, Saga unveiled Realms, the technical manifestation of the Saga Multiverse – Saga’s platform that allows disparate tech stacks and IPs to deploy on the protocol and interact with each other through parallelized and interoperable dedicated chains.

Saga Realms enables developers to launch customizable chains on Saga with different features and services such as technology stack, security source and various obligations for those sources. Under the framework of Realms, the standard Saga Chainlet became one Realm of many that will be supported in the near future, including those for our partners at Ethereum (Ethlets), Polygon, Avalanche, Celestia, XPLA and many others. Today’s launch will support configurable Realms out of the gate.

The Pegasus Incentivized Testnet features the Saga Chainlet Realm and the following architectural components necessary for all other Realms to be onboarded. Together, the security chain and the platform chain will constitute the Saga Mainnet.

  • Security chain – serves as the first of many security sources for the Saga protocol
  • Platform chain – the destination where developers launch and maintain their Chainlets
  • Chainlet – the area where all apps live and end-user activities happen. The first Chainlet stack will be an EVM-based Chainlet to support the large Solidity and Ethereum ecosystem, but the goal is to be VM-agnostic to allow developers to deploy in whatever environment they prefer

Saga recognizes its strength lies in its community. As part of the Incentivized Testnet launch, Saga is rolling out a campaign whereby developers, end users, validators, and members of their community who participate in launch quests and exhibit helpful behaviors for the Saga ecosystem will be part of an airdrop* of SAGA tokens. The first group to receive tokens are Saga’s Innovators – developers currently building on Saga – the heart and soul of the protocol who will require the most lead-time to complete their quest. Details of the Innovators quest requirements are available on Saga’s Medium, along with their tokenomics, claims process for airdrops and any additional incentives connected to the launch. Saga will be adding quest details for the community in the coming weeks.

“Saga has the best community any protocol could ask for. Seeing our Innovators showcasing their creativity in this Incentivized Testnet, we are more positioned for success than ever,” said Rebecca Liao, Co-Founder and CEO of Saga. “We have seen incredible gaming apps get to demo-able state and cannot wait to take them live on the Saga platform. We are fully committed to do everything we can to support their growth.”

Saga also revealed the members of Cohort 5, the latest class of Innovators welcomed into the Saga ecosystem, with a diverse representation of global game developers. The induction of this latest group brings the number of Innovator projects to 282, with over 300 expected to be in the program by the Mainnet launch in 2024. The full list and individual information about Cohort 5 is available here.

*Note: The airdrop is not and will not be available to U.S. persons (or persons acting on behalf of U.S. persons). In order to participate in the airdrop, a person or entity must not be a U.S. Person as defined in Rule 902 under the United States Securities Act of 1933 or a U.S. person within the meaning Section 7701(a)(30) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. A full terms and conditions for participation in the airdrop will be made available as part of the claims process.

About the Saga Protocol

Saga is a Layer-1 protocol that allows developers to automatically spin up parallelized and interoperable dedicated chains that elastically scale with their Web3 application needs. Using shared security, cutting-edge validator orchestration and an automated deployment pipeline standardized across any kind of blockchain VM, Saga makes launching a dedicated chain, or Chainlet, as easy as deploying a smart contract. It is the only E2E developer platform in Web3 that meets the three core developer needs: easy to deploy, affordable and fast/scalable.

About Saga

Saga is recognized as one of the best developer ecosystems in crypto, and probably the best in web3 gaming. Its mission is to help creators unblock themselves and build where blockspace is at its most plentiful and simple. Saga dismantled then rebuilt mainframes in a new way to create the developer environment of the future.

The company was founded in 2022 by Web3 visionaries Rebecca Liao, Jin Kwon, Jacob McDorman and Bogdan Alexandrescu. Early seed investors include Maven11, Longhash, Samsung, Com2uS and Polygon. Originally built on Cosmos, Saga has furthered its presence by bringing typically disparate but the best ecosystems into its Saga Multiverse through ongoing strategic partnerships. To date, 282 projects are being built by nearly 1,500 developers on Saga through the project’s Innovator Program.

Substance Exchange Initiates the Final Round of Closed Testing Before Mainnet Launch 9170

According to official reports, Substance Exchange (SubstanceX) has launched its final round of closed testing before its mainnet goes live. The official launch appears to be just around the corner.

Substance Exchange is an emerging decentralized derivatives trading platform, with a mission to fully transition user trading behavior to a decentralized model. Previously, SubstanceX announced its integration with Arbitrum, accounting for over 30% of interactions during Arbitrum’s testnet phase, with 36,000 addresses participating.

The crypto market has been warming up recently, with continual surges of interest in new sectors and projects. Compared to these transient trends, the on-chain derivatives sector is poised for substantial growth.

Data from CoinGecko reveals that in Q2 2023, the ratio of spot trading to derivatives trading on centralized exchanges (CEX) was 1:5. Meanwhile, the same ratio on decentralized exchanges (DEX) was 3:1. With the dual forces of off-chain to on-chain trading volume shift and the rational development of on-chain trading structures, the on-chain derivatives sector is poised to explode in the next bullish market phase.

87187185851575

*Data Source: CoinGecko*

As a pioneer in the derivatives DEX space, SubstanceX didn’t opt for a simple fork approach. Instead, after eight months of development, they have significantly optimized their products and mechanisms, laying out a comprehensive three-year expansion plan.

Firstly, for derivatives, the precision and timeliness of price acquisition are paramount. SubstanceX has integrated six price feeds from both on-chain and off-chain sources, filtering out anomalies and calculating a fair price, with final quotes provided in milliseconds.

Furthermore, SubstanceX streamlined the liquidation process. This not only reduces risk exposure, decreasing the overall risk ratio, but also simplifies the user experience.

Additionally, SubstanceX has introduced more rational and flexible fee and parameter designs. This includes waiving the Borrowing Fee for mainstream tokens, reducing trading and holding losses for users; implementing a Funding Fee, which naturally balances the long-short ratio, stabilizing the volatility of LPs; and offering flexible leverage multiples and fee adjustments for rapid deployment of new market hotspots.

Beyond these enhancements, SubstanceX has also pioneered product innovations, including Simple Options and the Strategy Market. Simple Options allow users to speculate on asset price movements, providing a means to limit potential losses, with returns reaching up to 20x.

The Strategy Market is an on-chain strategic sector introduced by SubstanceX, encompassing on-chain copy trading, open funds, and smart strategy plans. This offers users a variety of trading strategy options, facilitates efficient strategy configurations, and optimizes asset utilization. Top traders can also manage their open funds here, earning additional income.

While many teams are betting on the on-chain derivatives track, few, like SubstanceX, have eschewed the fork approach to meticulously develop and refine their offerings. Roger, the founder of SubstanceX, believes that while simple forks might save time and development costs, considering the decade-long refinement of centralized systems, on-chain derivatives are still nascent.

He opines that a platform built to stand the test of time must think long-term, prepared for iterations over the next three, five, or even ten years. Thus, SubstanceX retained mature and long-validated components like stake and transaction-related security parts. However, they have conducted independent R&D to enhance user experience and add features, ensuring a solid foundation for future growth.

Roger confidently states, “Three months post-launch, SubstanceX will stand out, distinctly different from its competitors. We operate in a league of our own.”

SubstanceX’s core team has an average industry experience of over six years, with most hailing from major centralized exchanges. Roger himself was once the CEO of an exchange. With profound insights into trading, SubstanceX embodies their commitment to decentralization.

Decentralization is the very ethos of the crypto world. However, most trading activities still predominantly occur in centralized environments. Encouragingly, numerous teams, including SubstanceX, are tirelessly working to shift trading behaviors toward a more decentralized model.

It’s reported that earlier this year, SubstanceX successfully secured seed round funding from institutions and individuals like LD and the Avalanche Co-Founder. With the forthcoming mainnet launch, they’ll be rolling out a series of promotional events, including airdrops, trading competitions, and generous commissions. This initiative is certainly one to keep an eye on.

Website: https://test.substancex.io

ANCHAIN.AI ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY ON AWS MARKETPLACE 8970

AnChain.AI, a global leader in Web3 digital asset security, investigations, and AML compliance, today proudly announced the immediate availability of its cutting-edge blockchain security and compliance tools on AWS Marketplace.

AWS Marketplace is a curated digital catalog that makes it easy for customers to find, test, buy, and deploy third-party software that runs on AWS. With this listing, customers can now seamlessly access AnChain.AI’s suite of tools, ensuring robust security and compliance for their blockchain initiatives.

AnChain.AI’s cutting-edge AI-powered security solutions are trusted by industry leaders including Layer 1 Blockchains like Provenance Blockchain Foundation and Stellar, in addition to supporting the regulatory and frontline investigation efforts of global regulators like the U. S. Securities an Exchange Commission. The company’s tools, including the groundbreaking Blockchain Ecosystem Intelligence (BEI) and Compliance, Investigation, Security Operations (CISO) investigations suite, are designed to empower organizations to proactively address Web3 digital asset security and compliance challenges.

“Blockchain technology is revolutionizing industries, but with great innovation comes the need for robust security and compliance,” said Victor Fang, CEO & Co-founder of AnChain.AI. “By making our tools available on AWS Marketplace, we’re streamlining the process for organizations to adopt and integrate our solutions to protect their Web3 Digital Assets.”

Key features of AnChain.AI’s tools available on AWS Marketplace include:

  • AI-Powered Analysis: Advanced machine learning techniques to detect and prevent fraud suspicious activities in real-time.
  • Comprehensive Compliance: Tools to ensure adherence to evolving global regulations in the blockchain space.
  • End-to-End Security: From smart contract auditing to transaction monitoring, a holistic approach to blockchain security.
  • Scalable Solutions: Designed to cater to both budding startups and established enterprises, ensuring optimal performance regardless of scale.
  • Pay-as-you-go: Transparent pricing with the flexibility to scale up or down based on usage.

AnChain.AI’s solutions are available immediately via AWS Marketplace.
AnChain.AI is now also officially part of the AWS Partner Network (APN).

About AnChain.AI:

AnChain.AI (HQ in San Francisco) is an award-winning AI-powered cybersecurity company enhancing Web3 security, risk, and compliance strategies. AnChain.AI was founded in 2018 by cybersecurity and enterprise cloud veterans. Backed by both Silicon Valley and Wall Street VCs, and selected in the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator, we are trusted by 100+ customers from over 10+ countries in sectors: VASPs, financial institutions, and government, including the U.S. SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). AnChain.AI Web3 Security Suite protects over $50 billion Web3 crypto assets. RSA Innovation Sandbox Finalist 2023. CNBC Top Startups Award 2022.