Features

Is Solana printing too many tokens? Separating myths from facts about bots and subsidies.

Solana started the year as one of the most promising blockchains, but reports of inflated transaction volumes, high bot activity, and hundreds of millions of dollars paid out each month to network validators have become some of the industrys most debated topics.

Magazine decided to sort out the myths from the facts. Some of the claims are partly true, while others are misleading. 

Some industry watchers criticize the network for its high inflation rate, often quoting Messaris statistic that the circulating supply of SOL has risen 13.4% over the past year.

Read more

With no monetary investment required, Pi Network users believe they have nothing to lose — but critics say otherwise.

Cryptocurrencies can be fun and profitable, but they can also be addictive. They can sometimes consume an investors life and strain relationships with friends and family.

YSM, a South Korean college student who spoke to Magazine on the condition of pseudonymity, shares that his family has been grappling with an app called Pi Network. 

While YSM harbors doubts about the projects legitimacy, his father, who owns a fried chicken restaurant, is convinced it is the next Bitcoin.

Read more

After 900 shows about Bitcoin, Peter McCormack says it’s time to tackle other big issues because “everything feels like it’s going to shit.”

Peter McCormacks life has been an open book. Hes been candid with his audience and with Magazine about discovering Bitcoin while buying far too much cocaine on Silk Road and winding up in hospital in 2014.

A few years later, in 2019, he wrote a piece for The Guardian revealing that hed made $1.2 million investing in Bitcoin and then lost it all.

But after selling his stack during the bear market to keep his What Bitcoin Did podcast afloat, in 2024 hes emerged wealthier and healthier than ever before. This cycle hes kept his earnings and realized his childhood dream of taking over the Bedford football club.

What Bitcoin Did is on the verge of transforming into a whole new podcast called The McCormack Show, and Real Bedford has added Bitcoin to its treasury. McCormack says hes in a good place, both professionally and personally.

Read more

Many Bitcoiners believe that Donald Trump will save the industry from the Democrats. But that could only happen if he wins.

At Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville, lines wrap around the block. Delays. The crowd awaits. Rumors swirl. Then the music comes on, and much of the audience stands in awe as Trump walks on accompanied by patriotic music.

Theres no way Kamala Harris could have come here, I overhear someone comment.

It certainly seems that Bitcoin or at least its most ardent and vocal US supporters has become heavily tilted toward the Republican. Gone are the days when the core of enthusiasts described their project as a politically neutral technology.

Read more

Jack Dorsey says a marketplace of algorithms could fix toxic social media — but centralized platforms won’t give up their control easily.

Everyone seems to agree that social media has become a cesspit, with cancel-culture mobs enforcing ideological purity on one side and trolls spreading conspiracy theories on the other.

X and Facebook are accused of amplifying hatred and conflict, with riots in the United Kingdom highlighting how a handful of social media posts can ignite a cauldron of simmering anger and resentment.

In response, governments around the world are cracking down on free speech. Turkey banned Instagram, Venezuela banned X and the UK government has been sending people to jail for inciting violence and in some cases, just for having shitty opinions.

Read more

From Vitalik’s dad telling him about Bitcoin, through to the upcoming Pectra upgrade, these are the key moments in Ethereum’s life.

The history of Ethereum began more than a decade ago as a gleam in the eye of its creator, Vitalik Buterin, a gangly math genius frustrated by the limitations of Bitcoin who believed he could do something better with a blockchain. 

Instead of cryptocurrency being solely a monetary asset, Buterin envisioned extending blockchain technology to the point where it became a global computer a platform that hosts decentralized applications, powered by smart contracts, with minimal need for human intervention or trust assumptions. 

Fast forward to today, and Ethereum is the second-largest crypto asset in the world, underpinning a trillion-dollar ecosystem of dependent networks. Its the blockchain of choice for several of the worlds largest asset managers, as well as hundreds of thousands of daily users on the layer 1 and millions on connected L2s.

Read more

AI may already consume more power than Bitcoin mining, and its deep pockets mean miners face stiff competition for equipment and electricity.

The energy required to run artificial intelligence systems may already be higher than the amount of power used to mine Bitcoin, according to new research.

While that may sound like good news for the Bitcoin mining industry, which is regularly attacked over power consumption, the sting in the tail of the report from the Bitcoin Policy Institute is that AI is shaping up as a fierce competitor to Bitcoin for electricity and equipment.

The sectors deep pockets mean AI companies can afford to outbid miners for the same electricity. With AI offering up to 25 times more revenue than Bitcoin per kilowatt hour (kWh), some miners are adding AI processing to their data centers or even switching entirely from Bitcoin to AI.

Read more

Chinese crypto traders, miners and airdrop farmers aren’t letting an almost total ban on crypto in China stop them from joining the fun.

Chinese investors are finding innovative ways to tap into the digital assets markets and participate in some of the years most profitable trends despite Beijings ban on cryptocurrency trading.

The government has banned crypto amid a blaze of publicity numerous times, including a 2013 ban on banks dealing in crypto, a 2017 ban on initial coin offerings and exchanges, followed by a trading and mining ban in 2021.

Despite this, accessing cryptocurrencies in the mainland isnt that difficult, pseudonymous investor Lowell tells Magazine.

Read more

This week’s cybersecurity news from around the crypto space covers bug fixes, phishing scams, crypto exchange hacks and more.

Crypto-Sec is our bi-weekly round-up of crypto and cybersecurity stories and tips.

Memecoin collector and X user Tech on Ivan lost over 1 million TURBO, worth over $3,600 at the time, when he became the victim of a phishing attack, according to a post he made on July 11. Im completely devastated, Ivan stated.

He lost the tokens after receiving a phishing email containing a link he subsequently clicked on. Ivan did not explain what happened after clicking the link, but he was most likely sent to a malicious web app connected to a drainer protocol.

Read more