In a recent blog post, popular cryptocurrency hardware wallet Ledger announced a new partnership with Ethereum 2.0 (Eth2) staking solution Lido Finance in a move that claims greater accessibility and liquidity for independent stakers in the market. Staking is a niche method of investing within the cryptocurrency ecosystem that allows users to independently or collectively stake their crypto assets while collecting passive income in return, as well as actively contributing to the sustainability of the blockchain network. Users attempting to stake their Ether (ETH) in the past have been met with daunting economic hurdles. The current cost to become an Eth2 network validator stands at around $100,000 — a figure which many investors in this market simply cannot afford.

Automated market maker (AMM) and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Balancer announced Monday that it had partnered with DAO-based staking platform Lido to introduce a MetaStable Pool incentive program. MetaStable Pools are liquidity pools specifically designed to work with highly correlated (but not hard-pegged) tokens, like wrapped assets. Users will be able to create swaps between MetaStable pools and assets integrated with other liquidity pools while benefiting from cheaper swap prices and eliminating the need for individual swap-specific stable pools. They will also prevent the dilution of liquidity from existing pools and increase maximum trade amounts, according to the release. The first pool listing, of staked Ether (stETH) and wrapped staked Ether (wstETH), aims to offer liquidity for stakers on the Ethereum network. The pool will be sponsored by both LDO and BAL rewards at an allocation of 2500 BAL per week and an additional 25,000 LIDO per week for the first month. The first distribution is set to take place on August 24 via the Balancer claim portal.

Windows operating system and Office productivity suite have always been top performers on any software piracy platforms. So, it’s no wonder that Microsoft, the developer of both products, works hard to establish anti-piracy measures.  In a new paper released by Microsoft’s research department, with the participation of researchers from Alibaba and Carnegie Mellon University, the Redmond-based software giant studied a blockchain-based incentive system to bolster anti-piracy campaigns. As the title of the research, “Argus: A Fully Transparent Incentive System for Anti-Piracy Campaigns,” suggests, Microsoft’s new system relies on the transparency aspect of blockchain technology. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Argus aims to provide a trustless incentive mechanism while protecting data collected from the open anonymous population of piracy reporters.

Digital collectibles platform Terra Virtua has moved from the Ethereum blockchain to Polygon in an attempt to be greener. In a Monday announcement, Terra Virtua said it had switched to Polygon as part of a plan to create a more sustainable nonfungible token, or NFT, ecosystem. The platform claimed the move would reduce the energy necessary to create a single NFT by more than 99%. However, Terra Virtua will also remint all digital collectibles previously unsold on Ethereum in the move to Polygon. “Our mission is to revolutionise how audiences engage with NFTs and make them accessible to everyone, but we believe that the environment shouldn’t have to pay the price for this new game-changing technology,” said Terra Virtua co-founder and chief technical officer Jawad Ashraf. “By harnessing the power of this new blockchain, we can ensure that our NFTs are limiting their impact.”

Singapore is reportedly the next port of call for Kakao’s globalization agenda for its legacy blockchain platform Klaytn. According to a report by The Korea Herald on Monday, Kakao has established two new blockchain-based entities — the Klaytn Foundation and Krust — in the city-state. The Klaytn Foundation is a nonprofit organization, while Krust serves as a global accelerator for blockchain technology adoption. Kakao plans to use both entities to foster broad-based penetration of its Klaytn blockchain project in Singapore. Stating its mission during the launch earlier in August, the Kakao Foundation said that it would work “proactively and systematically” to expand the Klaytn network.

North American retail giant Walmart is looking for an experienced crypto expert who can develop and drive an ambitious digital currency strategy and product roadmap.  In the listing for the role, Walmart indicates it is looking for someone who has a track record in leading and scaling businesses, with at least 10 years of experience in product/program management and technology-based product commercialization. The ideal candidate should have expertise in cryptocurrencies and blockchain-related technologies and in-depth knowledge of the crypto ecosystem and its core actors. Walmart has hinted at the focus of its future digital currency strategy by noting that it already enables a “broad set of payment options for its customers” — although not yet in cryptocurrency. Back in 2019, Walmart had already filed a patent for a blockchain-based United States dollar-backed digital currency that was, at the time, similar to Facebook’s early proposals for what was then known as Libra. 

Following the successful expansion of its cryptocurrency service within its homeland of Switzerland, fintech firm Leonteq has now launched a collaborative effort with ICF Bank — one of Germany’s leading securities trading banks — to bring crypto to institutional investors throughout Germany and Austria. Well regarded for their accolades in the Swiss markets, including being the “world’s first short tracker certificate on Bitcoin in 2017, as well as the world’s first reverse convertible on Bitcoin in 2019,” the firm is now set to make further strides in the emerging space. Following the evolution of a multi-year relationship, Leonteq and ICF Bank have teamed up in an effort to branch the former's financial offerings beyond traditional structured assets with the introduction of 18 crypto-based assets including the impassable Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), as well as Cardano (ADA), Aave (AAVE) and XRP, among others.

A survey provided to USA Today by Harris Poll has found that Black, Hispanic, and LGBTQ Americans are significantly more likely to own crypto assets. According to surveys of 2,010 and 2,003 U.S adults conducted during June and July, 23% of Black Americans and 17% of Hispanic Americans indicated they are currently invested in digital assets, compared to only 11% of white Americans, and 13% of the general public. 25% of LGBTQ respondents also said they hold crypto. Cryptocurrency awareness is also higher among minority groups, with half of Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans expressing familiarity with cryptocurrency, while only 37% of White Americans answered the same.

Jay Graber, a former software engineer for Zcash and blockchain firm Skuchain, will be leading the anticipated decentralized social media initiative first announced by Twitter in 2019. In a Twitter announcement on Monday, Graber said that they would be in charge of the Bluesky project after working closely with “a group of thinkers and builders” from the decentralized social ecosystem. They plan on hiring for the Bluesky team and “partnering closely with Twitter and other companies” as part of the next steps towards fulfilling the decentralized social media plan. I’m excited to announce that I’ll be leading @bluesky, an initiative started by @Twitter to decentralize social media. Follow updates on Twitter and at https://t.co/Sg4MxK1zwl

Music-sharing protocol Audius became one of the first streaming platforms to partner with TikTok, allowing users to directly share tracks to the popular app. In a Monday announcement, Audius said it had partnered with TikTok in the creation of a new feature called TikTok Sounds. According to a Rolling Stone interview with Audius co-founder and chief product officer Forrest Browning, the integration will allow users to export songs created with the protocol to TikTok with one click, in an effort to streamline the process. Though Audius claims it seeks to leverage blockchain technology to reward content creators as well as increase transparency on payouts to artists, the integration with TikTok seems to be more about the music rather than pushing messages about cryptocurrency or decentralized finance. According to Browning, roughly 95% of Audius users “have no idea that blockchain is even involved.”

The United States government is offering rewards in cryptocurrency for information relating to the operations of enemy state-backed hackers or suspected terrorists. The U.S. State Department's new “Rewards for Justice” platform allows informants to submit anonymous tips and information in return for rewards in digital assets. The platform was promoted at the Black Hat USA event — which ran from July 31 to August 5 in Las Vegas — with users able to submit tips via an unsecured Wi-Fi network called #Rewardsnotransoms. The open network was purposely set up to encourage attendees to log in and access the RFJ website, according to CNN.

According to data from eth.btc.com，ethereum network's hashrate is584,680.30 GH/s，mining difficulty is7,758.62T. ETH's price ：$ 3,037.10 Avg Gas Price：21.20Gwei Pending Txs ：171888

Blockchain security firm CertiK has concluded a $24-million-dollar funding round as part of its ongoing efforts to expand its product and security offerings for the decentralized finance, or DeFi, sector.  The funding round, which was co-led by Tiger Global and GL Ventures, comes on the heels of the successful launch of Skynet Premium, an active monitoring platform for DeFi applications. Since its inception, Skynet has monitored over 2 million smart contract addresses and over 2 billion on-chain transactions. Related: Blockchain security firm CertiK raises $37M to combat DeFi and crypto risks

Decentralized finance protocol Poly Network has offered the person behind a $610 million hack an advisery position and $500,000 — whether they like it or not.  In a Tuesday update, the Poly Network team said, in a seeming attempt to gain access to the hacker’s expertise, that it would be inviting them to the position of chief security adviser. In addition, the project will be sending a $500,000 bounty for the attacker, whom Poly dubbed "Mr. White Hat," despite the fact they have previously refused any payment. “Poly Network has no intention of holding Mr. White Hat legally responsible, as we are confident that Mr. White Hat will promptly return full control of the assets to Poly Network and its users,” said the team. “As we have stated in previous announcements and encrypted messages that have been made public, we are grateful for Mr. White Hat’s outstanding contribution to Poly Network’s security enhancements.”

Two members of the United States House of Representatives have petitioned the heads of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to work with participants in the crypto space for transparency and regulatory clarity. In a Monday tweet, Representative Glenn Thompson said he had submitted a letter with Representative Patrick McHenry to the CFTC and SEC, urging the agencies to "establish a joint working group on digital assets.” Thompson and McHenry requested SEC Chair Gary Gensler and acting CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam to “promote an active dialogue” between federal regulators and participants in the crypto market. “A working group on digital assets would enable both the SEC and CFTC to explore how to effectively use their current jurisdiction cooperatively,” said the letter. “Such a working group can foster transparent engagement with innovators in the digital asset ecosystem. As Congress contemplates additional legislation to address regulatory gaps, this work could provide us with additional information and clarity as we make these important policy decisions.”

The last-minute cryptocurrency provisions added to the U.S. infrastructure bill sought to “capture DeFi,” argues Compound’s general counsel Jake Chervinsky. Appearing on the Bankless State of the Network podcast on August 17, Chervinsky — who is also DeFi Chair of the Blockchain Association — said the industry had been “blindsided” by the infrastructure bill’s crypto tax provisions which were announced just nine days prior to when it was expected to pass through the senate. While Chervinsky seemed willing to give most elected officials the benefit of the doubt, noting that previous discussions surrounding the infrastructure bill had “nothing to do with crypto,” he attributed more sinister motives to the Treasury Department’s role in influencing the legislative process.

Fidelity’s plan to corner the cryptocurrency market appears to be more ambitious than previously imagined, as the asset manager looks to provide more institutional pathways to digital assets.  In a recent interview with the Boston Globe, Christine Sandler, head of sales and marketing for Fidelity Digital Assets, said that institutional interest in crypto is growing. For most investors, the primary entry into crypto has been Bitcoin (BTC) and, to a lesser extent, Ether (ETH). Tom Jessop, who heads Fidelity Digital Assets, said the pandemic was a major motivator for investors to finally get into crypto:

The SushiSwap decentralized exchange has narrowly avoided becoming the latest DeFi hack victim thanks to assistance from a white hat hacker. A security researcher from venture capital firm Paradigm known on Twitter as “samczsun” has managed to save SushiSwap and its MISO platform from a potential loss of as much as 109,000 ETH. In a blog post published on Aug. 17, the programmer described how he began examining the smart contract code for the BitDAO token sale at SushiSwap’s token launchpad platform, MISO.

The Untold Festival, scheduled to be held in Romania next month, has partnered with the Elrond network to allow concert goers to pay for their tickets in cryptocurrency. In a Tuesday announcement, Untold said that tickets for its 2021 festival could be purchased using Elrond eGold (EGLD). The festival reported that it would be allowed to have an unlimited number of attendees despite the ongoing pandemic (the number of daily reported COVID-19 cases in Romania has been under 1,000 since June.) Following the rollout of the ticket purchases with EGLD for Untold, Elrond CEO Beniamin Mincu said the project would be exploring “a festival economy running on semi-fungible tokens” as well as artists dropping nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, to fans from the stage. However, Untold attendees will also be able to accept NFTs from the festival “at a later time.”

Decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch has announced its deployment on the Optimistic Ethereum, or OE, mainnet, highlighting a considerable reduction in user transaction fees and confirmation delays. Sergej Kunz, co-founder of the 1inch Network stated “the 1inch launch on Optimistic will facilitate a dramatic increase in transaction speed." While deposits utilizing the OE network are set to be credited almost instantly, withdrawals will require a waiting period of 7 days. These wait times are expected to improve in future when fast withdrawal service is enabled.