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Hashing It Out: MobileCoin CEO says crypto must make space for more women

Sara Drakeley says crypto has a reputation for being a ”bro space” and urges the industry to make provisions that would attract more women to the field.

On Episode 30 of Hashing It Out, Elisha Owusu Akyaw speaks with Sara Drakeley, CEO of MobileCoin, a company enabling cryptocurrency payments through instant messaging applications such as Signal. Drakeley talks about going from working on animated films like Frozen and Moana at Disney to entering the cryptocurrency space. She also shares her experience as a mother in crypto and explains what is happening at MobileCoin.

Drakeley shares her journey in the Web3 space and highlights her encounters as a woman in leadership. She acknowledges that crypto has a reputation as being a “bro space,” especially when looking at the marketing of some projects. However, she also points out that there are some pockets of inclusiveness that create safe spaces for women in the arena. Drakeley adds that despite the existence of these safe spaces, the cryptocurrency world needs to find ways to accommodate the particular needs of women who are mothers, for instance. Although this may not be an accommodation necessary for many, the ability to manage these special cases will go a long way to creating a welcoming environment.

Drakeley also explains what is being built at MobileCoin. The project intends to combine the ease and affordability of cryptocurrency payments with the security of encrypted messaging platforms and the popularity of such applications to drive adoption.

On the future of cryptocurrency regulations, Drakeley believes regulations will catch up. She argues that part of the reason regulators haven’t yet done much is because there hasn’t yet been widespread adoption of cryptocurrency for payments. Once that changes, she says, regulators will step in to protect citizens. The same happened with data privacy on the web, and the same will happen with cryptocurrencies, according to the MobileCoin CEO.

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

Listen to the latest episode of Hashing It Out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or TuneIn. You can also explore Cointelegraph’s complete catalog of informative podcasts on the Cointelegraph Podcasts page.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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Unstoppable Domains launches instant messaging with XMTP

Unstoppable Domains now allows owners of .crypto, .polygon and other Web3 usernames to send messages to each other through multiple messaging apps.

Unstoppable Domains (UD) has launched an instant messaging system for owners of Web3 usernames, according to an Aug. 23 announcement from principal engineer Aaron Quirk. Owners of .crypto, .wallet, .polygon or other UD-registered usernames can now message each other across most apps that use XMTP, including the UD iOS app and website, Coinbase Wallet, and Lens protocol apps such as Lenster and Buttrfly. The announcement clarified that the Android version of UD will not provide messaging at launch but will provide this feature soon.

The new messaging integration relies on the extensible message transport protocol (XMTP), an independent protocol, to fully encrypt and send messages to recipients. This means that messages should still be available even if UD were to cease operations in the future. “Your messages will be preserved and accessible to you no matter what happens to Unstoppable,” the announcement stated.

Web3 usernames have been around since 2017. They allow crypto users to associate their crypto addresses — long strings of characters representing accounts — with more easy-to-remember names. For example, the extremely difficult-to-remember 0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045 can become simply “Vitalik.eth.”

These crypto usernames have mostly been used to receive payments in the past. But a few projects are trying to expand their utility to include other applications, including messaging. For example, Coinbase Wallet launched an instant messaging system on July 12, allowing users to message each other via their .eth or .cb.id usernames. The Coinbase Wallet feature was also integrated with social media protocol Lens, thanks to the two projects' shared use of XMTP.

Related: Web3 usernames may see greater adoption due to recent advancements

However, this shared system did not extend to usernames registered through Unstoppable Domains, such as ones ending in .crypto or .polygon. According to Quirk’s announcement, this issue has now been solved. Users of Lens apps or Coinbase Wallet can now send messages to each other using their Unstoppable Domains usernames in addition to other methods.

Quirk also stated that the company will soon release an integration with Push Protocol, allowing username owners to sign up to receive notifications from Web3 projects. The projects will be able to message users via the Unstoppable Domains website or app.

On April 26, Unstoppable Domains also partnered with Binance.US, allowing its users to register names ending in .BinanceUS. And it called a truce with rival Ethereum Name Service (ENS) on July 17, allowing ENS .eth names to be sold in the UD store for the first time.

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Digital marketing will become Web3’s next major use case, says report

More than 70 startups have raised over $600 million in the embryonic Web3 digital marketing sector.

The Web3 ecosystem could become the next golden opportunity for digital marketers, with almost 200 companies already thinking deeply about how to utilize the Web3 tech stack.

On July 25, Web3 marketing analytics firm Safary released a comprehensive report titled “The Web3 Growth Landscape 2023."

It noted that the 2010s were the “golden age of digital marketing” with Web2 growth seeing 150 marketing companies in 2011 increase to 11,000 in 2023.

However, over the last three years, the digital marketing landscape has moved to a more privacy-centric environment. Therefore, marketers may also need to change tack and embrace the Web3 tech stack, it said.

Their findings reveal that there are currently almost 200 companies already “thinking deeply” about the new digital media landscape, and 71 of them have collectively raised $600 million in funding.

Market map showing 180+ teams building Web3 growth tools and experiences: Source: Safary

Messaging, Questing and Loyalty platforms are the most well-funded categories, it reported, with each attracting more than $100 million in funding.

Quest platforms like Yield Guide Games create engagement marketplaces, directing users to complete incentive offers. This facilitates a more direct brand-user relationship than ads.

Additionally, loyalty companies help brands increase customer value and retention through rewards programs powered by NFTs and tokens.

There are also analytics tools for marketers like Nansen and Dune that aggregate on-chain, platform and social data to uncover growth insights on Web3 communities.

Discovery platforms such as DappRadar “have the potential to be some of the biggest ad real estate proprietaries in Web3,” it added, provided they invest in long-term strategies like SEO. It also cited CoinMarketCap as an example of one of “the highest trafficked websites on the internet.”

There are also 18 Web3 growth agencies that advise and deploy growth strategies on behalf of blockchain projects.

Related: Web3 has permanently changed how marketing works

Marketing industry analytics outlet Chiefmartec has logged 11,038 marketing solutions and services this year overall, an 11% increase from the 9,932 it charted in 2022.

As Web3 evolves and grows, marketers will need to keep up and it appears that hundreds of startups have already got a head start.

Web3 Gamer: Earn Bitcoin in Minecraft, BGA’s 50/50 gender split, Oath of Peak hot take

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TON blockchain launches on-chain encrypted messaging feature

The network previously allowed users to post on-chain messages but only in an unencrypted, completely public way.

The Open Network (TON) has released an on-chain encrypted messaging feature, according to a July 3 announcement from the network’s developer, TON Foundation. The new feature allows for private messages to be sent between TON users. 

TON is a blockchain network forked from code created by the Telegram instant messaging app team. Telegram abandoned the project in July 2020, before a mainnet was ever launched. However, it open-sourced TON’s code before leaving, allowing others to continue building upon the work it had done.

The current network, called “TON,” was built by the TON Foundation. The foundation claims that the network provides greater scalability and transaction throughput than other options in the Web3 ecosystem while also remaining decentralized.

TON has always allowed users to send messages in transactions. But in the past, these messages were completely public. The new feature allows users to encrypt these messages end to end, making them readable only by the intended recipient.

TON core developer Anatoly Makosov claimed the feature was created to allow for the “personalization” of transactions:

“When sending Toncoin, Jettons, or NFTs on TON you have always been able to include a text for the recipient such as ‘for coffee’ or ‘happy birthday’, thereby personalising the interaction. Now this popular feature [...] is available with full encryption.”

Makosov added that it also would be useful if an “apocalypse” occurs that causes traditional messenger servers to fail. In this case, TON can serve as a “reliable” and “safeguarded” method to communicate privately.

Encrypted messages are currently available using several retail wallet apps, including MyTonWallet, OpenMask and TON Wallet. The feature will also be added to mobile wallet Tonkeeper “in upcoming updates,” the announcement stated.

In May, the TON Foundation launched a $25 million accelerator program to encourage app developers to build on the network. In November, an independent development team created a Telegram trading bot to onboard users to TON.

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Blockchain messaging is going to replace Telegram and Discord

Your crypto wallet will become your mailbox and offer functionalities that Web2 messaging platforms like Discord and Telegram can only dream about.

A new era of messaging applications will soon cross the chasm of Web3 mass adoption. Web3 messaging applications will become an integral part of the blockchain ecosystem, allowing users to communicate with each other and interact with decentralized applications (DApps) and the protocols themselves in a secure, direct, decentralized manner. This editorial will discuss the benefits and challenges of Web3 messaging applications and their impact on the future of communication.

Web3 messaging protocols, such as the Extensible Message Transport Protocol (XMTP), are implemented on a decentralized communication network, using a peer-to-peer architecture to facilitate communication between verifiable identifiers like an Ethereum public address or an Ethereum Name Service domain. Unlike traditional messaging platforms such as Telegram or Discord, which are centralized and rely on central servers to route messages, Web3 messaging protocols use decentralized networks to create a trustless environment where users can communicate without intermediaries through their wallets.

One of the advantages of Web3 messaging protocols is their decentralized nature, ensuring the security of messages. With traditional messaging platforms, messages are often stored on centralized servers, leaving them vulnerable to cyberattacks and data breaches. In contrast, Web3 messaging protocols use encryption algorithms to protect messages from unauthorized access, making them virtually impossible to intercept or decrypt.

Related: Time to switch from LinkedIn to MetaMask? Not yet, but soon

Further, it is easy for the recipient of a message to prove the authenticity of the message sender. If you look at Twitter or Discord, they are full of scammers and phishing attacks through “official” fake accounts. Proving the authenticity of a sender is extremely easy when using Web3 messaging applications and massively lowers the chance of becoming the victim of a scammer, as it can be quickly verified on-chain.

Another benefit of Web3 messaging protocols is their ability to enable micropayments for messaging services. Micropayments can help combat spam and trolling, as spammers are less likely to waste their money on low-quality messages.

Of course, users do not need to pay anything if they don’t want to when messaging, but they have the feature to require senders to pay a fee to send them a message to lower spam and also as a way to generate revenue. One could imagine a feature where if someone who is not in your contacts wants to contact you, they are required to pay a certain amount in tokens that are locked and can be returned by the sender if the message is genuine and not spam. This could solve the spam issue of Web2.

However, there are also challenges associated with Web3 messaging applications. One major issue is scalability, as the current infrastructure of most blockchain networks cannot support the high volume of messages that traditional messaging platforms handle. In addition, Web3 messaging protocols currently require a certain level of technical proficiency to use, which may deter less tech-savvy users from adopting them.

Related: Facebook and Twitter will soon be obsolete thanks to blockchain technology

Both of those issues have been addressed or will be addressed soon. With more and more scaling solutions on the market, the scalability issue will be solved — or in some cases, it has already. Account abstraction solutions are being invented that will not require the average user to be tech-savvy to interact with them.

Furthermore, there is a risk that Web3 messaging protocols could become a communication method for criminals, as the decentralized nature of the network makes it difficult for law enforcement agencies to track and trace illegal activities. As a result, there is a need for clear regulations and guidelines to ensure that Web3 messaging protocols are not exploited for nefarious purposes.

Despite these challenges, the potential of Web3 messaging applications is enormous. As the world becomes increasingly digital, the need for secure, decentralized communication will only continue to grow. Web3 messaging applications have the potential to revolutionize the way we communicate, allowing for a new level of privacy, security and transparency. Discord and Twitter will be made obsolete as data moves on-chain.

Web3 messaging protocols are a promising development in the blockchain ecosystem, offering a secure, decentralized way to communicate between users, DApps and protocols. While there are challenges associated with their adoption, such as scalability and the risk of misuse, the benefits of Web3 messaging protocols outweigh the risks. As blockchain technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see more innovation in the realm of Web3 messaging, paving the way for a new era of communication that makes the old apps obsolete.

Darius Moukhtarzadeh is an entrepreneur and advisor focused on decentralized social media applications. He's the co-founder of memester.xyz, an NFT meme platform on Lens Protocol, and previously worked as a researcher for Sygnum, a digital asset bank. He also worked for Ernst & Young in blockchain consultancy and for several startups in the Swiss Crypto Valley.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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SBF lawyers to pay for technical expert to aid judge on bail terms

The judge overseeing Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud case wants some help navigating the world of encrypted messaging, privacy apps, and virtual private networks.

Attorneys working on behalf of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried have agreed to pay for a security expert to assist the federal judge overseeing his fraud case in navigating modern encryption technology to aid in possibly modifying Bankman-Fried's bail terms.

Bankman-Fried lawyers Christian Everdell and Mark Cohen sent a letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan on Feb. 21 agreeing with his proposal for a technical professional to aid him.

According to the letter, “the defense has already begun researching and contacting possible experts and anticipates being able to propose one or more potential candidates to the court by the end of the week.”

Judge Kaplan suggested at a bail hearing last week following a tightening of bail terms when it was discovered that Bankman-Fried had been accessing the internet using a VPN (virtual private network).

A VPN obscures and encrypts a user’s internet traffic and is often used to change internet (IP) addresses, to add a layer of security to communications or to access censored content in autocratic regimes.

The judge has been trying to achieve a balance between letting Bankman-Fried access communication channels to prepare his defense and the potential misuse of messaging apps and privacy software.

Judge Kaplan temporarily banned Bankman-Fried from using a VPN or any encrypted messaging apps until his bail terms are settled.

Related: Sam Bankman-Fried may no longer be allowed to play League of Legends

The technical expert will help the judge navigate issues regarding encrypted messages, privacy-focused messaging apps and VPNs.

Bankman-Fried and his attorneys claim he used the VPN on two occasions, to watch the NFL playoffs on Jan. 29 and to watch the Super Bowl on Feb. 12.

Prosecutors have asked for strict bail terms limiting Bankman-Fried’s access to the internet and messaging platforms. They also alleged that VPN use “raised several potential concerns” regarding thepotential access of crypto platforms that have blocked United States users.

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Russia to Ban Banks From Using Messengers Like Telegram to Contact Customers

Russia to Ban Banks From Using Messengers Like Telegram to Contact CustomersFinancial institutions in Russia will not be able to communicate with clients through instant messengers based outside the country, local media revealed. A new law passed by the State Duma also prohibits banks from using chats to send personal data and payment documents. Bill Restricts Russian Banks and Brokers From Sending Sensitive Information Through Foreign […]

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