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Exec at Composable Finance allegedly doxed as convicted fraudster Omar Zaki

February 18, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Omar Zaki was convicted of fraud by the SEC three years prior and is allegedly behind two other crypto projects which suffered devastating hacks.

Late Friday afternoon, decentralized finance, or DeFi, investigator @zachxbt published a series of tweets accusing fraudster Omar Zaki of hiding behind the facade of 0xbrainjar, the anonymous head of product at Composable Finance.

From last November to this February, Composable Finance raised over $167 million through seed funding, as well as crowdloan auctions on the Polkadot (DOT) and Kusama (KSM) parachains. Over 9,000 participants contributed to the DOT crowdloan alone.

As told by zachxbt, who cited documents from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, Omar Zaki, then a 21-year-old New York resident and graduate of Yale University with a bachelor degree in physics and economics, was charged with fraud after misleading investors while operating an unregistered hedge fund, resulting in a civil penalty of $25,000. In addition, Two crypto projects allegedly run by Zaki, Warp Finance, and Force DAO allegedly suffered hacks resulting in $8.367 million in lost funds — some of which was partially recovered.

1/ I have found there is another fraudster in the mix behind multiple projects in the space. This time being @0xbrainjar aka Omar Zaki pic.twitter.com/okCgzoO1Rz
— zachxbt (@zachxbt) February 18, 2022

The DeFi investigator allegedly linked the two identities together by first creating a burner Telegram to message both Zaki’s personal & Anon account, where both messages were "read at the same exact time." Then, zachxbt reached out to individuals who "confirmed the anon identity link to Yale + physics/Econ background." Finally, a phone number was claimed by zachxbt to be linked to the developer's name, but it's unclear how it connects Zaki's identity with 0xbrainjar.

zachxbt is renowned in the blockchain community for his sleuthing skills in unmasking the history behind anonymous devs of DeFi projects. Last month, the DeFi sleuth correctly uncovered that the co-founder of defunct exchange QuadrigaCX, Michael Patryn, held the position of chief financial officer at Wonderland. Just a few days later, the Avalanche-based reserve currency shut down after negative publicity surrounding the unmasking caused a sharp divide in the community.

This story is developing and will be updated as more details emerge.

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November 10, 2021 The Daily Hodl

Is Polkadot eyeing $100 next? DOT price jumps 25% triggering classic bullish chart pattern

November 2, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Is Polkadot eyeing 0 next? DOT price jumps 25% triggering classic bullish chart pattern

Blockchain

The bullish outlook appears as Polkadot prepares to auction highly anticipated parachain slots on its network.

Polkadot (DOT) looks poised to rally toward $100 in the coming sessions as it triggers a classic bullish reversal setup.

Dubbed Inverse Head and Shoulders (IH&S), the technical structure appears when an instrument forms three troughs in a row, with the middle one, called the Head, being the lowest, and the other two — known as the right and left shoulders — of almost equal heights.

Meanwhile, the level at which all the troughs top out represents the "neckline."

So it appears DOT has been forming an IH&S ever since its price correction from the $43-$49 price range (neckline), as shown in the chart below. On Nov. 1, the Polkadot token broke above the area and continued rallying the next day to bring its month-to-date returns to almost 25% while bumping its record high to $53.35.

*DOT/USDT daily price chart featuring IH&S pattern. Source: TradingView*

The price jump accompanied an increase in trade volumes, showing that traders supported the move above the IH&S neckline. As a result, DOT's prospects of rising by as much as the maximum distance between its IH&S's head and neckline (~$39) improved.

As a result, Polkadot's profit target out of its IH&S setup comes out to be near $90, with possibilities of extended rallies toward $100, a psychological resistance level.

Parachain auction FOMO

Polkadot's latest price rally came as traders' focus shifted on its highly anticipated parachain auctions on or around Nov. 11.

The Polkadot team announced Monday that their council had passed the motion that enables parachain registrations and crowdloan beginning Nov. 4, adding that the proposal now awaits a go-ahead via a public referendum.

The motion to enable parachain registration and crowdloans has passed Polkadot's council and gone to a public referendum. If passed, parachain teams will be able to register their parachain and open their crowdloan on Nov. 4, 2021 at approx. 19:15 CET. https://t.co/5ouDWBmnvc
— Polkadot (@Polkadot) November 1, 2021

In detail, crowdloans enable rivaling projects to raise capital via DOT to bootstrap their parachain auctions.

Therefore, those who support the projects lock their DOT into a sponsored account for a predefined period. In return, they receive rewards in the form of air-dropped tokens from the project competing for the parachain slot.

Kusama fractal

In June, Polkadot's test-net chain, dubbed Kusama (KSM), conducted a similar parachain slot auction in June. The protocol ended up proving the effectiveness of the crowdloan mechanism as users contributed more than 1.11 million KSM across the five parachain auctions.

*KSM supply dedicated to its first five crowdloans as of Aug. 6. Source: Subscan, Messari*

That represented over 10% of the total KSM supply locked.

The KSM price rallied in the days leading up to the auction in June. It peaked out on May 16 at around $645 and then dropped over 78% to $138.50 two months later. The selloff also surfaced amid an overall crypto market decline, led by China's full-fledged ban on crypto activities.

*KSM/USDT daily price chart. Source: TradingView*

Hence, it appears DOT has also been undergoing the so-called "buy-the-rumor" price rally as traders bet higher on the parachain auction event. But in the absence of a China-like event, the cryptocurrency looks to be pursuing the IH&S setup mentioned above.

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.

Polkadot Breaks New Highs, Kusama Surges on Parachain Developments

November 2, 2021 The Crypto Briefing

Polkadot unveils $770M development fund ahead of parachain auctions

October 19, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Polkadot unveils 0M development fund ahead of parachain auctions

Acala

Polkadot’s Gavin Wood has announced a more than $770 million development fund just weeks before the network’s parachain auctions are set to go live.

Polkadot (DOT) founder Gavin Wood has unveiled a $777 million development fund ahead of the network’s parachain lease auctions.

Wood tweeted on Oct. 17 that Polkadot’s treasury has allocated more than 18.9 million DOT (worth roughly $777 million at the time of writing) to a development fund that will be disbursed through community governance.

Wood gave broad suggestions as to how the funds might be spent, stating the capital will be mobilized to realize the community’s vision for “building, improving, educating” Polkadot’s ecosystem, in addition to “anything else that the Polkadot governance believes valuable.

According to Polkadot’s Wiki, the treasury funds can be spent if approved by the council, which votes on proposals put forward to them. The Polkadot council currently consists of 13 members, however the council plans to expand to 24 seats at some stage in the future.

With many Polkadot governance votes seeing poor community participation in the past, the development fund may be intended to bolster DOT holders’ engagement with the governance process According to Polkassembly, three governance proposals put forward this past week have seen total voter turnouts of zero, six and seven votes respectively.

Stakeholders wishing to put forward a proposal must reserve a deposit of at least 5% of the proposed spend, with the deposit being either slashed (a burn mechanism to deter validator misbehavior) if rejected, or returned if accepted. With funds being placed at risk in the event of an unsuccessful vote, Polkadot’s slashing mechanism may be a factor impeding governance engagement on the network.

The new development fund was also revealed just weeks before Polkadot’s highly anticipated parachain auctions are scheduled to begin in early November, suggesting the funds could be intended to kickstart development targetingPolkadot’s forthcoming parachain ecosystem.

Polkadot’s parachain auctions will be used to realize Polkadot’s vision for a sharded ecosystem. The auctions will see projects building on Polkadot compete to secure one of the 100 parachain slots by bidding to lock up DOT.

Parachains are Polkadot’s sharded side-chains that can host decentralized applications and protocols, offer specialized computation, and communicate with Polkadot’s proof-of-stake “Relay Chain” to finalize transactions.

Polkadot’s existing relay chain exclusively processes transfers, governance, staking services for the Polkadot network, with the forthcoming parchains being tasked with providing advanced features like smart contract functionality and cross-chain compatibility.

As such, the new development fund may be intended to encourage developers to begin building on Polkadot in preparation of parachains going live.

Many onlookers have singled out the Coinbase-backed Acala Network as a frontrunner to win the first parchain slot on Polkadot. Karura Network, Acala’s deployment on Polkadot’s siser-network Kusama, won the first parachain auction on Kusama by a significant margin in June.

Karara pulled support from more than 15,000 entities to win its slot with a bid more than 500,000 KSM (worth roughly $184 million at the time of writing).

Polkadot Price Spikes As Platform Announces Imminent Launch of Parachain Auctions

October 14, 2021 The Daily Hodl

Polkadot, Kusama Set to Dip Despite Parachain Update

October 14, 2021 The Crypto Briefing

Polkadot to debut parachain auctions after governance vote

October 13, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The first series of auctions will begin on Nov 11 and run until Dec. 9

Polkadot (DOT) has laid out a schedule to debut parachain auctions on Nov. 11 following unanimous approval from the blockchain’s on-chain governance council members. The news marks a landmark achievement as it fulfills the final core technical element of the whitepaper published five years ago.

Parachains are uniquely distinctive layer-1 blockchain platforms that operate laterally alongside the main Polkadot network, in addition to being tethered to the Polkadot Relay Chain. Their purposeful function can be witnessed across a multitude of areas from decentralized finance to smart contracts.

Speaking at the Sub0 Conference as representatives of Parity Technologies, Polkadot founders Gavin Wood and Robert Habermeier confirmed that Polkadot now holds the technical capabilities to implement parachains, auctions and crowdloans for the first time.

In an immediate response, Proposal #118 was motioned by governance member Joe Petrowski, expressing details and recommendations for the deployment.

The first Polkadot parachain auction of the initial batch is slated to begin on Nov. 11 and will continue at a rate of one per week for five consecutive weeks until the final auction on Dec. 9.

The initial bidding period will last for two days, followed by a five-day ending period. Two unique features about the proposal of this auction schedule are that unlike the immediacy of Kusama’s project onboarding after auctions, Polkadot auctions will be held in transit for a period of one month.

In addition to this, there will be a 75% capacity of projects to that witnessed on Kusuma, in a bid for quality over quantity.

Within the proposal, and indeed further quoted later in this piece, canary network Kusama were cited as having a positive impact on the evolution of this concept in both abstract and practical terms.

Kusama, a sandbox platform designed for developers to experiment with blockchain applications before their official launch on the Polkadot blockchain, has recently implemented the success of 11 parachain slot auctions.

In addition to commending the near-flawless process of the Kusama auctions, the official report also noted that 2.4 million KSM has been contributed by 49,000 uniquely active addresses during the auctions.

Cointelegraph reached out to Peter Mauric, Head of Public Affairs at Parity Technologies, for an exclusive commentary on the inspiration behind the proposal as well as the potential impact the implementation may have on the Polkadot ecosystem:

"Kusama was launched in order to give the teams building the core Polkadot protocol, parachains and their constituent communities an opportunity to battle-test their tech and teams. While there were a few bits of expected chaos along the way, the experience over the past few months deploying parachains on Kusama have given us confidence that they are ready for prime time on Polkadot."

He went on to discuss the positive impacts that the implementation will have on the Polkadot ecosystem, saying:

"This is the moment everyone has been waiting for since the Polkadot paper was introduced over five years ago. The promise of parachains has always been core to what Polkadot aims to achieve: scalable, customizable and truly decentralized infrastructure for the next generation of layer-1 protocols, in the form of these parachain networks.

Kusama

Parachain auction FOMO

Kusama fractal

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