Lifinity USDC pool drained by arbitrage bot

December 9, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Telegram trading bot Maestro refunds users 610 ETH after router exploit

October 25, 2023 Coin Telegraph

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Maestrobots, a group of crypto bots on Telegram, has refunded users 610 ETH in the aftermath of a 280 ETH smart contract exploit on Oct. 24.

Maestrobots, a group of cryptocurrency bots on the Telegram messenger, is refunding users in the aftermath of a 280 Ether (ETH) attack.

The Maestro team refunded the users affected by the Maestro Router 2 contract, the platform announced on X (formerly Twitter) on Oct. 25. According to the announcement, Maestrobots paid a total of 610 ETH in its own revenue to cover all the user losses, worth more than $1 million at the time of writing.

“Every wallet that lost tokens in the router exploit has now received the full amount they lost. Some of you ended up with even bigger bags,” Maestro wrote.

The Maestro team noted that some amounts were paid back in affected tokens and ETH. For nine out of the 11 exploited tokens, Maestro chose to buy and refund tokens instead of sending ETH because “it's the most equitable and complete refund” it could offer. “We spent 276 ETH to secure our users' tokens,” Maestro added.

Affected users of the other two exploited tokens — including JOE and LMI — were refunded in ETH, Maestro said, citing lack of liquidity to buy back the lost tokens. The announcement added:

“So we compensated affected users with the ETH equivalent of their tokens, and boosted that amount by 20% because you deserve it. These refunds cost 334 ETH.”

Blockchain security firm CertiK confirmed to Cointelegraph that it has been able to detect the transactions showing the 334 ETH compensation paid out to users from Maestro.

The refunds came shortly after Maestro reported that the MaestroRouter on ETH mainnet was compromised on Oct. 24, allowing hackers to siphon around 280 ETH in exploited tokens, worth around $485,000 at the time of the hack. The Maestro team said it identified the attack within 30 minutes after the start and fully removed the exploit. The platform also quickly resumed trading, temporarily halting tokens with pools on SushiSwap, ShibaSwap and ETH PancakeSwap.

“Wallets were not compromised at all during this attack. This was purely directed at the Router,” Maestro wrote.

According to the executive summary by CertiK, Maestro's smart contract breach affected a total of 106 user addresses. The affected tokens included MOG, LMI, JOE, BANANA, OGGY, JIM, ETF, LP, APU, Real Smurf Cat and PROPHET.

“Most of these tokens pumped back up due to the anticipation that we were gonna market buy the tokens. Most of these tokens are still alive and kicking,” a spokesperson for Maestrobots told Cointelegraph.

Maestro, also known as MaestroBots on X, is a Telegram bot facilitating trades across three networks, including Ethereum, BNB Chain and Arbitrum, with a default transaction fee of 1%. The Maestro bot system features three different bots, including the Maestro Whale Bot, the Maestro Sniper Bot and the Maestro Wallet Bot. The Maestro Bots Hub Telegram channel has more than 100,000 subscribers at the time of writing, while its X account counts more than 24,000 followers.

Magazine: How to protect your crypto in a volatile market — Bitcoin OGs and experts weigh in

Elon Musk trials $1 subscription signup fee for new X users in New Zealand, Philippines

October 18, 2023 Coin Telegraph

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The Mercurial CEO is on the cusp of turning X into a fully subscription-based app.

X, formerly known as Twitter, is testing a signup model wherein new users will have to either pay to become a verified enterprise account, opt into an X premium subscription, or pay a $1 annual fee to prove they’re not a bot. The trial, which began on Oct. 17, is currently only applicable to new users in New Zealand and the Philippines.

The experiment, according to a post on X’s Help Center, is called “Not A Bot.” As its name implies, its purpose is reportedly to deter bot activity on the app by requiring all users (that are included in the test) to verify their phone number and payment method.

Per the Help Center post:

“As of October 17th, 2023 we’ve started testing “Not A Bot”, a new subscription method for new users in two countries. This new test was developed to bolster our already significant efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity.”

The post goes on to state that “new users,” who pay the $1 subscription fee, “will be able to perform certain actions on the web version of the platform: post content, Like posts, Reply, Repost and Quote other accounts’ posts, Bookmark posts.”

Those who don’t pay the fee and opt out of subscribing, “will only be able to take “read only” actions, such as: Read posts, Watch videos, and Follow accounts.”

Correct, read for free, but $1/year to write. It’s the only way to fight bots without blocking real users.

This won’t stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 18, 2023

It’s unclear at this time exactly how X intends to determine the effectiveness of the “Not A Bot” trial. Our request for commentary to the company solicited an immediate response of “busy now, please check back later.”

Previous research on the nature of social media “bots” has revealed the term to be nebulous. According to one study (Gorwa, et. al., 2018), it isn’t always obvious whether accounts generating bot-like behavior are in fact bots.

There’s also the consideration that bots, and their behavior, are likely to become far more sophisticated in light of the ongoing large language model-driven revolution in consumer-facing artificial intelligence chatbot technology.

According to X, the subscription is meant to chop the bots off at the knees by making it not only difficult to automate the signup process but, per the language used by X, also supposedly financially deterring the organizations and individuals responsible from deploying them.

Reaction in the crypto and finance communities — where spam bots remain an ongoing problem — has ranged from outright acceptance of the pay-to-interact model to a rejection of the premise.

$0.08 per month is pretty affordable for no bot manipulation.

Anyone who complains about this simply wants the bot manipulation to run rampant.
— Colin Talks Crypto (@ColinTCrypto) October 18, 2023

One user replying to a post from a popular account sharing the news called the move a value prospect at less than 10 cents U.S. per month, stating “anyone who complains about this simply wants the bot manipulation to run rampant.” Another simply opined that it represented “the end of X. It had a short run.”

How AI is changing crypto: Hype vs. reality

September 27, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Analysis

In the latest Cointelegraph Report, we assessed the value AI is bringing to the crypto industry, by separating the hype from real use cases.

In the latest Cointelegraph Report, we sought to find out the real value AI brings to the crypto industry beyond the hype surrounding the technology. To do so, we looked into three main areas where AI is impacting crypto: trading, data analytics, and user experience.

For many years, trading bots have allowed users to execute trades in an automated way based on certain pre-set parameters.

With the recent development of Large Language Models such as ChatGPT, AI-powered bots are capable of processing large amounts of historical data, which can be helpful in predicting future price movements.

However, despite the latest advancements, AI-powered bots are still not sophisticated enough to elaborate complex trading strategies.

“It's basically like having a bunch of dumb partners who can, who can adhere to very basic commands, but they can't do any like very complicated thinking themselves,” said Eric Crown, a professional crypto trader and YouTuber, sharing his personal experience with AI-powered bots.

Regarding data analytics, AI tools can process large amounts of public data scattered on the blockchain, providing valuable insights into the dynamics of the crypto ecosystem and assessing potential market risks.

However, a large amount of market data is kept off-chain by centralized exchanges and therefore is not publicly available. That limits the capability of AI to make accurate assessments.

To find out more about the real value at the intersection of AI in crypto beyond the hype, watch out full Cointelegraph Report on our YouTube channel and make sure to subscribe!

China issues first arrest over fake news created with ChatGPT: Report

May 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Alleged fake news poster becomes first person in China arrested for using artificial intelligence platform ChatGPT.

A suspect identified only as “Hong” was detained by local authorities and arrested in the Gansu district of China after allegedly using ChatGPT to generate fake news stories.

According to a report from the South China Morning Post, Hong was detained after an investigation into an unsubstantiated article relating to a train crash was discovered on April 18 by law enforcement agents.

Hong’s arrest for “using artificial intelligence technology to concoct false and untrue information” came after cybersecurity specialists discovered at least 20 accounts had simultaneously posted the fake news article to a popular blogging site hosted by Chinese tech conglomerate Baidu.

China’s laws regarding the use of social media are considered among the strictest in the world. Police say Hong was arrested for running afoul of an ordinance against “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a catch-all law that specifically covers spreading fake news and rumors on the internet.

If charged, Hong faces up to five years in prison under the normal statute. However, if courts view the offense as egregious, they could be sentenced to as many as 10 years under the law’s extended provisions covering crimes considered especially severe.

While the ChatGPT service is currently banned in China, its use can be obfuscated by virtual private networks (VPNs).

Similar homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) services, such as Alibaba’s ‘Tongyi Qianwen,’ a recently announced generative AI model trained to answer questions in both English and Mandarin, have received the Chinese government’s blessing. However, as Cointelegraph reported in mid-April, it remains unclear whether Tongyi Qianwen will have the same creative abilities as ChatGPT.

The lack of robust generative AI models in China could potentially have a chilling effect on the nation’s tech scene, especially in sectors such as fintech and cryptocurrency trading, where the use of ChatGPT and products built on OpenAI’s GPT API have exploded into popularity.

Microsoft axes Bing wait list, giving users free access to GPT-4

May 4, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bing is set to receive several much-requested AI-powered features that could put it in competition with OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus subscription service.

Microsoft recently announced a slew of new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered features for its Bing chatbot and Edge web browser. Chief among the changes, Bing users now have full access to the GPT-4 model — the same underlying engine that powers ChatGPT’s “Plus” subscription service.

Previously, Microsoft held access to the GPT-4 version of the Bing chatbot to a “limited preview.” It’s now announcing open availability through the Bing app, web access and the Edge browser.

Aside from giving Bing, Edge and Windows users free, unfettered access to the GPT-4 model, Microsoft also announced upcoming support for multimodal outputs, chat history and plug-ins.

Multimodal support will allow the Bing chatbot to generate responses, which include a combination of text, images and videos. It will also have the ability to generate charts and graphs, something that could give it a leg up over ChatGPT.

Users will also have access to their full chat history and, for those using the Edge browser, the ability to move chats to the sidebar to continue surfing in the same tab. Microsoft says this feature will be implemented “starting shortly.”

In the future, according to the blog post, Bing may even be able to reference previous sessions when interacting with users:

“Over time, we’re exploring making your chats more personalized by bringing context from a previous chat into new conversations.”

Perhaps the most ambitious addition announced is “Edge Actions,” also referred to as “Bing Actions," Microsoft’s term for upcoming integrations featuring third-party plug-ins for Bing chat.

The only plug-ins specifically mentioned in the announcement are OpenTable, which would allow users to reserve seats at restaurants directly within the chat interface, and Wolfram/Alpha, a modality that would allow users to create complex visualizations for math and science queries. Microsoft says more integrations will be revealed as they’re implemented.

The new features won’t require any purchases or subscriptions, though users will need a free Microsoft account to take advantage of the Bing chatbot’s full suite of functions.

By contrast, OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus service costs $20 per month for access to the same GPT-4 model (the freely available ChatGPT service relies on GPT-3.5). Furthermore, ChatGPT Plus doesn’t currently offer image generation, web search or third-party plug-in support.

It’s unclear how Microsoft and OpenAI intend to balance their respective offerings. Experts weighing in on social media have expressed confusion over what appears to be competition for users, as the companies essentially partnered up after Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI.

ChatGPT and Bing Chat keep colliding, and it's unclear how this will end.

- Why pay for ChatGPT Plus when Bing Chat also uses GPT-4?
- If you are paying for Plus, why use Bing Chat when ChatGPT will have browsing soon?
- And now, both have plugins!
— Pete (@nonmayorpete) May 4, 2023

As it currently stands, those paying for ChatGPT Plus do receive certain benefits not available to the general public or Bing chatbot users. These include early access to new features, priority access to the system even during periods of high traffic and faster response times from the model.

The cryptocurrency world has seen an explosion of interest in chatbot technologies throughout 2023. Developers have built advanced autonomous trading bots on the GPT-4 platform, and many individual crypto users have begun employing chatbots for a variety of reasons.

It’s unknown at this time if OpenAI intends to adjust its subscription offering in the face of Bing’s ubiquity — Microsoft says the search engine now boasts 100 million users, while the addition of Bing AI to the Windows taskbar gives it a potential global reach of more than half a billion users per month.

Wallet Bot on Telegram Adds Bitcoin Support to Web Interface Following Tether Integration

April 21, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Subway-themed trading bot makes millions using ‘sandwich’ attacks

April 20, 2023 Coin Telegraph

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The anonymous MEV bot operator’s best day was April 18, where he profited about $950,000.

An anonymous Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) bot operator has cashed in well over $1 million this week by executing “sandwich attacks” against buyers and sellers of two new meme coins.

The wallet address, linked to the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain “jaredfromsubway.eth,” made $950,000 from the sandwich attacks on April 18 and profited about $300,000 and $400,000 on April 17 and 19, respectively, according to an April 19 tweet from nonfungible token data platform Sealaunch.

After closing the day of yesterday with a profit close to $1M, jaredfromsubway.eth MEV bot is already profiting close to $400K today pic.twitter.com/VxouxAc59s
— sealaunch.xyz (@SeaLaunch_) April 19, 2023

The bot’s ENS domain is a likely tongue-in-cheek nod to the popular sandwich chain and its disgraced former spokesperson Jared Fogle.

Over a 24-hour period between April 18 to 19, 7% of all Ethereum gas fees were spent by the MEV bot, Sealaunch explained in a separate post.

A large proportion of the profits came from attacks on trading activity relating to two new meme coins, Pepe (PEPE) and Wojak (WOJAK), which has helped propel jaredfromsubway.eth to the become the largest gas guzzler over the last day and week, crypto researcher Matt Willemsen explained:

Wondering why gas is so damn high? ‍

jaredfromsubway.eth (lmao) is absolutely cleaning up by sandwich-attacking $PEPE and $WOJAK trading activity. They are #1 gas spender over the past day and week.

MEV sandwich bots on Ethereum have made $100M+ since the weekend. https://t.co/qhxyxlac20
— Matt Willemsen (@matt_willemsen) April 19, 2023

A sandwich attack occurs when an attacker “sandwiches” a victim’s transaction between their own two transactions in order to manipulate the price and profit from the user.

This is possible because the victim’s transaction is first sent to the mempool where it waits to be added to the next block. In the meantime, the attacker sets one transaction with a high gas fee — to ensure it is accepted first — and another transaction with a lower gas fee to ensure it is accepted after the victim's transaction.

The attacker profits by buying the victim’s token at a price cheaper than market value, then sells it within the same block — taking in the difference between the revenue from the transaction minus the gas fees.

The large profits pocketed by jaredfromsubway.eth came from nearly $1.2 million being spent on gas fees between April 18 and 19, according to data shared by Thomas Mattimore, head of platform at the Reserve Protocol.

The MEV bot operator has spent over $7 million in gas fees across 180,000 transactions, according to Sealaunch.

While some are finding the humor in the MEV bot’s domain name and actions, not all are happy.

One analyst for on-chain analytics firm Glassnode questioned the “value” of the work jaredfromsubway.eth is providing to the world.

Other Twitter users went one step further, expressing their hatred and frustration toward the MEV bot operator.

when i see jaredfromsubway.eth on the shitcoin i just aped my entire networth into pic.twitter.com/heK4bnbikf
— DRT (@pepeDRT) April 19, 2023

According to MEV Blocker, MEV bots have extracted more than $1.38 billion from Ethereum users attempting to trade, provide liquidity and mint NFTs.

Several MEV Block projects have been launched in recent months to help protect Ethereum users from sandwich attacks.

Magazine: Magazine: ‘Account abstraction’ supercharges Ethereum wallets: Dummies guide

StabilityAI launches StableLM open-source alternatives to ChatGPT

April 19, 2023 Coin Telegraph

StabilityAI announced the launch of StableLM, a suite of open-source large language models.

The large language model sector continues to swell as StabilityAI, maker of the popular image-generation tool Stable Diffusion, has launched a suite of open-source language model tools.

Dubbed, StableLM, the publicly-available alpha versions of the suite currently contain models featuring three and seven billion parameters with 15, 30, and 65-billion parameter models noted as “in progress” and a 175-billion model planned for future development.

Announcing StableLM❗

We’re releasing the first of our large language models, starting with 3B and 7B param models, with 15-65B to follow. Our LLMs are released under CC BY-SA license.

We’re also releasing RLHF-tuned models for research use. Read more→ https://t.co/R66Wa4gbnW pic.twitter.com/gvDDJMFBYJ
— Stability AI (@StabilityAI) April 19, 2023

By comparison, GPT-4 has a parameter count estimated at one trillion, six times higher than its predecessor GPT-3.

The parameter count may not be an even measure of LLM efficacy, however, as Stability AI noted in its blog post announcing the launch of StableLM:

“StableLM is trained on a new experimental dataset built on The Pile, but three times larger with 1.5 trillion tokens of content […] The richness of this dataset gives StableLM surprisingly high performance in conversational and coding tasks, despite its small size of 3 to 7 billion parameters.”

It’s unclear at this time exactly how robust the StableLM models are. The StabilityAI team noted on the organization's Github page that more information about the LMs capabilities would be forthcoming, including model specifications and training settings.

Provided the models perform well enough in testing, the arrival of a powerful open-source alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT could prove interesting for the cryptocurrency trading world.

As Cointelegraph reported, people are building advanced trading bots on top of the GPT API and new variants that incorporate third-party tool access, such as BabyAGI and AutoGPT.

The addition of open-source models into the mix could be a boon for tech-savvy traders who don’t want to pay OpenAI’s access premiums.

Those interested can test out a live interface for the 7B-parameter StableLM model hosted on HuggingFace. However, as of the time of this article’s publishing, our attempts to do so found the website overwhelmed or at capacity.

In-Chat Tether Transfers Introduced in Telegram

March 25, 2023 Bitcoin.com

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