The Protocol: Sony Launches Blockchain to Controversy

1 month ago

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's play wrap-up of the astir important stories successful cryptocurrency tech development. I'm Ben Schiller, CoinDesk’s Opinion and Features editor.

In this issue:

Sony’s blockchain faces memecoin controversy

Bubblemaps readies BMT and caller intel desk

Babylon enhances Bitcoin’s interoperability

Prosecutors question 95k BTC Bitfinex return

This nonfiction is featured successful the latest contented of The Protocol, our play newsletter exploring the tech down crypto, 1 artifact astatine a time. Sign up here to get it successful your inbox each Wednesday. Also delight cheque retired our weekly The Protocol podcast.

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SONY EMBRACES BLOCKCHAIN, BATTLES MEMES: Sony, the 78-year-old Japanese electronics giant, is the latest bequest megacorp to research blockchain technology. On Tuesday, the institution announced that it is officially launching "Soneium," its general-purpose blockchain level built connected Optimism's OP Stack. The concatenation is aimed towards "bridging the spread betwixt Web2 and Web3 audiences, particularly for the creators, fans and community,” the squad down the web told CoinDesk's Margaux Nijkerk successful a statement. Like akin general-purpose blockchains, the web is built to enactment a wide assortment of usage cases, from decentralized concern apps to amusement and gaming services. While Sony's blockchain tech has attracted eyeballs implicit the past week, not each the attraction has been positive. Within the archetypal mates of hours of Soneium's launch, immoderate X users complained that the web was blocking memecoin trading, starring to allegations that the (ostensibly decentralized) web was "censoring" definite kinds of transactions, a large no-no for immoderate crypto adherents. The contention underscored the unavoidable hostility betwixt hardline blockchain ideals and accepted firm interests. But the incidental besides showcased crypto's resilience: Some savvy blockchain users recovered a workaround allowing them to "force through" transactions to the basal Ethereum network, rendering Sony's alleged transaction-blocking moot. Read more.

BUBBLEMAPS WANTS MORE CRYPTO SLEUTHS: Bubblemaps, the blockchain analytics service, announced connected X this week that it volition beryllium launching a token, BMT, and a caller "Intel Desk" that volition springiness holders a dependable successful driving investigations. Bubblemaps recently introduced the V2 of its platform, which helps crypto sleuths suss retired who truly owns the proviso of a fixed token. The level sorts intimately related blockchain addresses into clusters, and its easy-to-read visuals person go a communal show connected crypto Twitter, wherever they've been utilized to show suspicious proviso patterns among fashionable memecoins and DeFi tokens. Bubblemaps V2, which started rolling retired to users successful November, added caller AI-clustering features and made it easier to analyse token distributions implicit time. Bubblemaps just-announced token, BMT, volition beryllium airdropped to users of the V2 platform. Holders volition beryllium fixed a relation successful the platform's "Intel Desk," wherever assemblage members tin suggest investigations and ballot connected however Bubblemaps allocates in-house investigators and resources.

BABYLON BRINGS ZK MOMENTUM: Babylon Labs, developer of the largest BTC staking protocol, is gathering a trust-minimized Bitcoin span with the Cosmos web to heighten the world's oldest blockchain's interoperability. In concern with developers Fiamma, Babylon is utilizing the BitVM2 computing paradigm, which is designed to let Ethereum-style astute contracts connected Bitcoin, which past paves the mode for zero-knowledge (ZK) technology. ZK computations let antithetic parties to verify that accusation is close without really revealing to each different what the accusation is. In this sense, it is foundational to bridging integer assets betwixt antithetic blockchains. Developers similar Babylon Labs and Fiamma are aiming to unlock the heavy wells of worth stored successful BTC to concern different ecosystems and let it to beryllium transacted connected blockchains that are escaped of immoderate of Bitcoin's limitations of velocity and scale. Read more.

BITFINEX: U.S. prosecutors person asked a national justice to green-light the instrumentality of astir 80% of the 119,754 bitcoins stolen successful the 2016 hack of crypto speech Bitfinex. In a Tuesday tribunal filing, prosecutors said the 94,643 bitcoins recovered by the authorities from the archetypal wallet utilized by the hacker, Ilya Lichtenstein, tin beryllium paid to Bitfinex arsenic restitution in-kind erstwhile the tribunal gives the go-ahead. The Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Satoshi Vision and Bitcoin Gold generated via respective hard forks pursuing the hack volition besides beryllium sent to Bitfinex. Last November, Lichtenstein was sentenced to 5 years successful situation aft pleading blameworthy to conspiracy to perpetrate wealth laundering successful 2023. His wife, Heather Morgan – amended known by her rap moniker Razzlekhan – received an 18-month condemnation for helping Lichtenstein to launder a information of the hack proceeds. Both agreed to forfeit the stolen cryptocurrency arsenic portion of their plea agreements. Read more.