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US President Joe Biden urges tech firms to address risks of AI

President Biden urges technology companies to prioritize secure AI products before public release, stressing the need to address potential risks to society, national security and the economy.

United States President Joe Biden stated on Tuesday that the safety of artificial intelligence (AI) is still uncertain, and emphasized that technology firms should ensure their products are secure before releasing them to the public.

During a meeting with science and technology advisers, Biden acknowledged that AI could be beneficial in tackling issues such as disease and climate change. However, he stressed the significance of addressing possible risks to society, national security and the economy.

At the beginning of a meeting with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, he stated that technology companies must ensure their products are secure before releasing them to the public. When questioned about the potential hazards of AI, he replied, “It is yet to be determined. There is a possibility.“

According to the president, social media has already demonstrated the negative impact that powerful technologies can have in the absence of appropriate measures to protect against them. “Absent safeguards, we see the impact on the mental health and self-images and feelings and hopelessness, especially among young people,” Biden said.

Related: Multiple US state regulators allege AI trading DApp is a Ponzi scheme

He repeated his call for the U.S. Congress to approve non-partisan privacy laws that limit the personal data gathered by technology firms, prohibit child-targeted advertising, and gives priority to health and safety in product development.

The Center for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Policy, a technology ethics organization, recently urged the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to prevent OpenAI from releasing new commercial versions of GPT-4, a language model that has both impressed and alarmed users due to its human-like capacity to create written responses to prompts.

Magazine: All rise for the robot judge: AI and blockchain could transform the courtroom

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Crunchbase taps AllianceBlock to boost novel applications in DeFi

Crunchbase partners with AllianceBlock to make business data more accessible to blockchain businesses and developers.

AllianceBlock, a decentralized finance solutions provider, has partnered with Crunchbase, a prospecting platform, to make its data available to Data Tunnel users.

This partnership will make Crunchbase’s business data more accessible to blockchain businesses and developers, allowing them to create applications such as default probability models, customer acquisition profiles, maps of untapped markets and more.

Crunchbase’s content includes investment and funding information, founding members and individuals in leadership positions, mergers and acquisitions, news and industry trends.

The Data Tunnel serves as a platform for both conventional institutions and individuals, who typically rely on multiple sources of information to make well-informed decisions pertaining to their assets. With Data Tunnel, they can share, study and combine information without a middleman. The AllianceBlock data tunnel was launched in October 2022 to create a public marketplace for standardized data.

In 2021, AllianceBlock announced its integration with Avalanche, an up-and-coming “Internet of Finance” protocol. The integration allows users to access AllianceBlock’s DeFi Investment Terminal, peer-to-peer financial services, nonfungible token capabilities and Know Your Customer solutions directly on Avalanche. The partnership also includes development work with Ava Labs, the developers behind Avalanche.

Related: Crypto Biz: Mastercard opens network to USDC, OKX departs Canada, Bitcoin climbs

The same year, AllianceBlock combined technologies with Flare, a fellow blockchain tech entity that seeks to enable blockchains to access real-world data in smart contract execution. The two companies sought to improve their blockchains with each other’s tech, from cross-chain bridges to decentralized exchanges to oracle networks.

Magazine: Hodler's Digest SBF bail guarantor to go public, UK crypto framework and Celsius news: Hodler’s Digest, Jan. 29 – Feb. 4

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Audit firm Mazars to verify KuCoin’s proof of reserves

Mazars, the former accounting firm for Donald Trump’s companies, was hired recently to audit Binance’s PoR.

Crypto exchange KuCoin hired the international accounting firm Mazars for a third-party audit of its proof of reserves (PoR). 

According to an announcement on Dec. 5, the verification will provide the exchange customers additional transparency and reporting on whether their in-scope assets are collateralized, along with details on main, trade, margin, robot and contract accounts for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), as well as for the stablecoins Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC).

The report should be available on KuCoin’s official website within a few weeks. CEO of KuCoin Johnny Lyu said the move is the next step in the exchange efforts to provide transparency on users’ funds. Wiehann Olivier, partner at Kucoin, also noted:

“After recent events, there is a dire need in the industry for additional transparency, and we are confident that Mazars’ PoR service offering to KuCoin and other international cryptocurrency exchanges will aid in building trust through transparency.”

As reported by Cointelegraph, Mazars was also appointed as an official auditor to conduct “third party financial verification” in Binance’s PoR on Nov. 30. Binance’s publicly shared Bitcoin information is already being reviewed. 

Related: Will Grayscale be the next FTX?

Headquartered in Paris, the international accounting firm previously worked for former United States President Donald Trump’s company. According to reports, the firm cut ties with Trump and his family in 2022.

KuCoin and Binance are among the six crypto firms requested to provide information on consumer protection by the United States Senator Ron Wyden by Dec. 12.

Wyden requested Binance, Coinbase, Bitfinex, Gemini, Kraken and KuCoin information on subsidiary companies, safeguards of consumer assets, use of customer data, and guards against market manipulation. The senator argued that crypto users with funds in FTX had “no such protections” as those offered by banks or registered brokers under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or Securities Investor Protection Corporation.

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Binance Oracle network to bridge Web3 and blockchains via smart contracts

For starters, Binance Oracle will allow existing decentralized applications and Web3 ecosystem partners on BNB Chain to access data sources and advanced computations.

Crypto exchange Binance announced the launch of a new data feed network, Binance Oracle, that allows blockchain smart contracts to connect with real-world data, starting with its in-house blockchain offering, BNB Chain.

For starters, Binance Oracle will allow existing decentralized applications (DApps) and Web3 ecosystem partners on BNB Chain to access existing data sources and advanced computations. “Over ten BNB Chain projects have already integrated with the Binance Oracle network,” confirmed Binance.

The ability to connect smart contracts with off-chain data will be made available for other blockchains in due time. Explaining the network’s importance, BNB Chain investment director Gwendolyn Regina stated:

“Using oracles to dramatically increase the smart contract’s knowledge of what’s going on outside of the blockchain, allowing it to respond to external events with specified actions will be crucial.”

Furthermore, Binance revealed the use of regional domains to ensure the system’s uptime amid unpredictable global calamities. The network uses components such as an internal Threshold Signature Scheme for each data feed and price aggregation using an algorithm, which, according to Binance, ensures high reliability.

Related: How CZ built Binance and became the richest person in crypto

Binance continues to delve into numerous crypto businesses, taking advantage of its unique position as the largest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume.

On Oct. 17, Binance Pool, a mining subsidiary of Binance, launched a $500 million fund to support the crypto mining industry through loans. Speaking to Cointelegraph, a Binance spokesperson further clarified the criteria for a potential borrower:

“One of the requirements is that the applicant must be classified as a Binance VIP user and connect at least 500 PH/s to the Binance Pool for a minimum of 24 months after the loan is issued.”

The announcement revealed certain conditions required to take out the loans, including 18-to-24-month terms, 5% to 10% interest rates, and some physical or digital assets as a security.

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Data transfer network Plaid integrates 4 major crypto exchanges

The San Francisco-based fintech company now supports Binance.US, Gemini, Robinhood and SoFi accounts.

United States data transfer network Plaid has added four major cryptocurrency exchanges to its platform, giving users the ability to more easily connect their digital asset portfolios to other applications. 

Crypto platforms Binance.US, Gemini, Robinhood and SoFi are now supported by the Plaid network, the company announced Thursday. Support for additional platforms, such as Blockchain.com and BitGo, is scheduled to commence later this year.

The integrations are intended to help crypto users “bridge data portability gaps” by allowing them to securely share their account information with other applications and services. Information such as asset assets held, balances and transactions can now be shared with other services to get a more comprehensive picture of one’s personal finances.

Binance.US and Gemini are two of the most recognizable cryptocurrency platforms on the market and rank near the top of U.S. exchange volumes. Discount brokerage Robinhood began integrating crypto trading in early 2021 during the height of the bull market. SoFi, a California-based fintech firm, first launched zero-fee trading for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) in 2019.

Plaid currently has over 12,000 financial institutions in its network. An estimated 98 million people in the United States used Plaid’s services between 2013 and 2021. The company currently has a valuation of $13.4 billion.

Related: Digital sovereignty: Reclaiming your private data in Web3

In 2020, Plaid became a major acquisition target for Visa and was offered $5.3 billion in a buyout. Although the firms agreed on a merger, Visa later abandoned the acquisition amid pressures from the Department of Justice (DOJ). At the time, the DOJ’s antitrust division alleged that Visa’s acquisition plans represented an “anticompetitive merger.”

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LINK marines rejoice after Chainlink 2.0 brings a new roadmap and staking

LINK price broke its downtrend and rallied to $9 after the developers released a roadmap and announced that Chainlink 2.0 includes token staking.

Passive income opportunities are one of the biggest draws in the cryptocurrency ecosystem because it gives investors an easy opportunity to grow their portfolio size regardless of the day-to-day price action.

The latest token to get a bump in its price after announcing the upcoming implementation of staking is Chainlink (LINK), the decentralized oracle network that provides important off-chain information needed for the proper functioning of smart contracts.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since bouncing off a low of $6.67 on June 4, the price of LINK has increased 35% to hit a daily high of $9.00 on June 7.

LINK/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Here’s a look at what the new developments in the Chainlink ecosystem that could be backing today's price rally.

Staking LINK has been years in the making

The ability to stake LINK has been a sought-after capability for several years now because Chainlink has consistently been the largest oracle project in the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem.

According to the announcement released by Chainlink, the overarching goal of staking on the network “is to give ecosystem participants, including node operators and community members, the ability to increase the security guarantees and user assurances of oracle services by backing them with staked LINK tokens.”

By staking LINK, the ability for nodes to receive jobs and earn fees on the Chainlink network will be enhanced while the ecosystem as a whole will benefit from an “increase in cryptoeconomic security and user assurances.”

Staking not only introduces an incentive to provide reliable data, but it allows for a penalty mechanism for underperforming nodes who fail to achieve the goal of consistently generating accurate oracle reports and delivering them to specific destinations in a timely manner.

Greater community participation

Another benefit of introducing staking is that it will help encourage a larger amount of the Chainlink community to get directly involved with the network by staking LINK to support the performance of oracle networks.

Getting more individuals involved with community monitoring directly helps to increase the decentralization of the Chainlink network and enables “a robust reputation system and slashing mechanism.”

The addition of staking is also expected to increase network adoption over time as new sources of rewards and an increase in the amount of protocol fees that are generated from non-emission-based sources further attracts more participants.

Related: Chainlink launches price feeds on Solana to provide data to DeFi developers

Proof of reserves

The new roadmap also introduces Chainlink Proof of Reserves (PoR).

With PoR, the cryptocurrency holdings of a company can be easily audited through an automated process that leverages the transparency of blockchains, smart contracts and oracles.

This real-time auditing of collateral helps to ensure that user funds are protected from “unforeseen fractional reserve practices and other fraudulent activity from off-chain custodians.” In doing so, PoR helps to bring a higher degree of transparency to the crypto ecosystem as a whole and it addresses some of the biggest complaints about how the current financial system operates.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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API3 price gains 55% after new partnerships and exchange listings attract investors

Partnerships, cross-chain integrations and a major exchange listing provided a 50% boost for API3 price.

In the emerging Web3 world, data is the most valuable commodity, and oracle solutions provide a valuable role in facilitating the accurate and secure transmission of data between blockchains and data sources. 

One project that is taking a different approach to developing oracles is API3 (API3), a project which harnesses application programming interfaces (APIs) to create first-party oracles through the use of decentralized APIs capable of broadcasting data directly to blockchain networks.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since hitting a low of $3.22 on Feb. 3 the price of API3 climbed 72% to reach a daily high of $5.55 on Feb. 17 as the wider cryptocurrency corrected after news of Russia escalating it's incursion into Ukraine made waves in the news. 

API3/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Three reasons for the resiliency in API3 price include a partnership with Amberdata to release beacon data feeds, the launch of Airnode on the Avalanche network and a new exchange listing at Binance.

Amberdata and the launch of beacon data feeds

The recent bullish momentum for API3 kicked off when the project revealed a new partnership with the digital data asset provider Amberdata to release beacon data feeds for the crypto community.

According to Amberdata, beacon data feeds “create a transparent, scalable and cost-effective solution for data providers to publish data feeds on-chain directly.”

As opposed to traditional data feeds that conceal where information is sourced, beacons utilize API3’s first-party oracles to feed data directly on-chain instead of first passing through third-party intermediaries.

Oracle providers have generally handled data transfers in a third-party fashion, but API3's approach of using decentralized APIs and on-chain data recording offers an alternative design that is attracting the attention of developers and blockchain protocols.

Airnode integration and API3 Alliance partnerships

A second development making the bullish case for API3 has been the launch of Airnode on the Avalanche network.

Airnode is Web3 middleware designed to connect any web API directly with blockchain applications to make real-world data accessible via smart contracts, a process that cuts out middlemen service providers and helps transform data providers into their own blockchain oracles.

Over the past few months, more than 150 data providers have joined the API3 Alliance to go along with a new partnership with NEAR protocol and Aurora that will provide access to more than 180 API providers.

Related: Oracle tokens turn bullish as blockchain projects focus on interoperability

API3 lists on Binance

A third factor that provided API3 with an added boost over the past month was a new listing on Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume.

Evidence of the significance of this listing can be found when looking at the 24-hour trading volume for API3 which increased 752% from an average of $17 million prior to the listing, to $145 million on Jan. 21.

API3 is now available on four out of the top six cryptocurrency exchanges by volume including Binance, Coinbase, KuCoin and Huobi Global.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for API3 on Feb. 11, prior to the recent price rise. 

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. API3 price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for API3 spiked into the green zone on Feb. 11 and hit a high of 75 around nine hours before the price began to increase 43.47% over the next five days.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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The Graph (GRT) gains momentum as Web3 becomes the buzzword among techies

GRT gets a double-digit boost in price after its catalog of subgraphs expands and Web3 becomes a trending discussion topic among crypto and tech sector experts.

The ongoing digital revolution and rise of the internet have upended the old global value structure over the past 30 years, and big data has become the new "gold" or "oil" — a fact demonstrated by the money-making capabilities of platforms like Google and Facebook.

One blockchain project focused on the future of retrieving and managing data is The Graph (GRT), an indexing protocol designed for querying networks like Ethereum and IPFS through the creation of open APIs called subgraphs.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since hitting a low of $0.34 on Jan. 24, GRT has made several attempts at a sustained breakout above the major support and resistance level at $0.48.

GRT/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Three reasons for the building momentum of GRT include the addition of new subgraphs supported by GRT, increased attention on the capabilities of The Graph network due to community engagement and outreach efforts and the ongoing rise of Web3 which is heavily dependent on oracle and data providers.

The library of subgraphs grows

One of the main reasons for the recent increase in attention for The Graph is the growing list of subgraphs offered by the network for popular decentralized applications and blockchain protocols.

Subgraphs are open application programming interfaces (APIs) that can be built by anyone and are designed to make data easily accessible. The Graph protocol is working on becoming a global graph of all the world’s public information, which can then be transformed, organized and shared across multiple applications for anyone to query.

The protocol is currently hosted on the Ethereum (ETH) network and is adding support for Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) compatible networks including Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, Fantom, Arbitrum, Polygon and Moonriver, to name a few.

Subgraphs can also be made for individual projects as well, such as the recent migration of the gaming subgraph for NiftyLeague, a community-led game studio

Another notable addition that highlights the usefulness of subgraphs was the integration with Juicebox Protocol, the fundraising protocol behind ConstitutionDAO and AssangeDAO, a project that utilizes a subgraph to power the analytics displayed on each project page.

New developer and community initiatives

A second reason for the increase in attention on The Graph has been efforts to increase community outreach and engagement through events like the ongoing ETHDenver conference where the project has a booth.

Aside from the ETHDenver conference, where The Graph has sponsored a chess tournament hosted by Nifty Chess, the project has also been supporting the growth of the developer community through the release of grants, including a $1 million grant to the Nomic Foundation to support the development of critical Ethereum devex tooling.

The Graph Grants initiative is also working with the SimpleFi data analytics platform to provide funding for the creation of subgraphs for multiple decentralized finance protocols, including Alpha Finance Lab, Frax Finance, Convex Finance and Ribbon Finance.

The Graph has also sponsored a new initiative through The Graph Academy that aims to help community members learn more about the protocol through a course listed at freeCodeCamp.org. The course will teach participants how to build dApps using The Graph protocol.

Related: Crypto patent-sharing marks a step in democratizing knowledge ownership

The rising popularity of Web3

A third factor helping boost the prospects for GRT is the rising popularity of Web3, a topic and sector that has increasingly begun to make its way into mainstream conversations.

Web3 as defined by Wikipedia is an “idea of a new iteration of the World Wide Web that is based on blockchain technology and incorporates concepts such as decentralization and token-based economics.”

The overall goal of Web3 is to move beyond the current form of the internet where the vast majority of data and content is controlled by big tech companies, to a more decentralized environment where public data is more freely accessible and personal data is controlled by individuals.

The Graph protocol's ability to create a global grid of public information helps eliminate the need for projects to develop and operate proprietary indexing servers, which saves time and money typically spent on engineering and hardware resources that only work to centralize information.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for GRT on Feb. 14, prior to the recent price rise.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. GRT price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for GRT reached a high of 72 on Feb. 14, around two hours before the price increased 26% over the next day.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Vectorspace AI (VXV) flies under the radar to new highs as big data becomes the ‘new’ oil

High level partnerships and a focus on using artificial intelligence and big data to find solutions to complex problems are backing VXV’s quiet climb to new all-time highs.

“I’m in it for the tech,” is a phrase commonly used in the cryptocurrency ecosystem by many who want to express a deeper motivation for being involved with blockchain technology beyond the significant gains that are known to happen in the volatile asset class. 

One project that has quietly climbed the charts without the need to jump on the decentralized finance (DeFi) or nonfungible token (NFT) trend is Vectorspace AI (VXV), a protocol building correlation matrix datasets capable of detecting hidden relationships in data and training artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since hitting a low of $0.71 on May 23, the price of VXV has skyrocketed 2,267% to a record high at $19.47 on Sept. 16 before experiencing a significant pullback alongside the rest of the crypto market.

VXV/USD 1-day chart. Source: CoinGecko

This week, the price action for VXV is once again on the rise as its 24-hour volume spiked 380% to $9.37 million on Nov. 11, resulting in an overnight price increase of 32.42% to an intraday high at $16.18.

The sudden boost in price and trading volume comes as VXV listed on the KuCoin exchange, the sixth-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume.

Related: Digital intelligence must overcome challenges to solving crypto crimes

Flying under the radar

Aside from the above tweet announcing the KuCoin listing, the team at Vectorspace AI keeps a pretty low-key profile in terms of project announcements and marketing. Most of the project's Twitter feed features some of the latest developments and discoveries in the field of data analysis and bio-science.

With a focus on “context-controlled NLP/NLU (Natural Language Processing/Understanding)” and using AI to “discover hidden relationship detection in data related to space biosciences,” Vectorspace lacks many of the bells and whistles that catch the eye of the average crypto holder.

But to anyone who has been paying attention to the rising value and importance of data in the digital age, the ability to correlate and analyze large amounts of data to discover solutions that would take human years to manually analyze is the “holy grail” in the world of data analysis.

For example, early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, Vectorspace technology was able to analyze years of medical research and findings to recommend a shortlist of substances that could possibly be used as treatment, helping scientists narrow down their search and save valuable time.

The ability to generate on-demand NLP/NLU correlation matrix datasets is a highly sought-after feature for researchers, especially when it comes to finding a way to “get machines to trade information with one another or exchange and transact data in a way that minimizes a selected loss function.”

According to the project’s website, the current list of partners and collaborators include PubMed.gov, the United States Department of Energy, the National Library of Medicine, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and CERN. 

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Nokia announces blockchain-powered data marketplace

Nokia’s permissioned blockchain platform will reportedly allow trusted data exchange and monetization among client participants.

Smartphone maker Nokia has announced the launch Nokia Data Marketplace — the company’s enterprise-grade blockchain-based data marketplace infrastructure service.

In a release issued on Wednesday, Nokia revealed that its new blockchain service reportedly offers data transaction and analysis within the framework of a secure private, permissioned blockchain infrastructure.

As part of the announcement, Nokia declared that clients across diverse industries can participate in the blockchain network, leveraging the benefits of decentralized technology for trusted data transfer.

An excerpt from the release reads:

“This [the Nokia Data Marketplace] enables a wide range of vertical use cases, including electric vehicle charging, environmental data monetization, supply-chain automation and preventative maintenance powering numerous vertical segments, including transportation, ports, energy, smart cities and healthcare.”

As part of the vertical integration potential of its blockchain data marketplace, Nokia also stated that the new service could enable other communication service providers to develop similar networks.

“With Nokia Data Marketplace, enterprises and CSPs can now benefit from richer insights and predictive models to drive digital ways of working and tap into new revenue streams,” added Friedrich Trawoeger, vice president of cloud and cognitive services at Nokia.

Apart from trusted data exchange and monetization, Nokia is also reportedly eyeing the deployment of the new platform toward advances in artificial technology and machine learning via blockchain-based federated learning protocols.

Nokia becomes the latest company to debut a blockchain-based enterprise service as the market sector experienced significant growth in 2020. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, enterprise blockchain has been touted as a major adoption driver for 2021.

This significant growth in the enterprise blockchain arena has also positively impacted the price action of decentralized ledger technology projects that are building solutions in this market segment.

Indeed, enterprise-focused cryptocurrencies like Stellar Lumen (XLM), XinFin Network's XDC, and XRP have experienced upward price movements in recent times.

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