Roland Guirdonan
Roland is a Public Relations & Communications guru with an immense passion for the blockchain and crypto industry. A fusion of his expertise and passion led to the dawn of Optimisus in 2020.
Articles by Roland Guirdonan
1 year ago
1 min read
Decentralized lending protocol Aave is exploring the possibility of deploying an MVP version of Aave version 3 on Polygon’s upcoming zkEVM Layer 2 network. The main aim of the proposal is to establish a strategic Aave presence on the new network early on, after the mainnet beta goes live on March 27. To minimize risks, the proposal recommends onboarding only a limited number of assets and setting conservative risk parameters. It suggests onboarding only three collateral types, including wrapped ETH (WETH) and wrapped MATIC (WMATIC) tokens, as well as USDC stablecoin. Additionally, it proposes including only one borrowable asset, the
1 year ago
1 min read
Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum said the worst-case scenario is more important than the average case when it comes to UX. In a recent blog post, he argued that a UI that looks sleek but fails to explain a rare but significant problem is worse than a UI that exposes more gritty details to the user. Even if the latter option may not look as polished, it makes it easier for users to understand what’s going on and fix any problems that arise. This is particularly relevant in the world of cryptocurrency, where the consequences of a poor UX
1 year ago
1 min read
Binance USD (BUSD), the third-largest stablecoin, has seen its supply shrink by 60% since mid-February as it has been beleaguered. This exodus has been caused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which classified the Binance stablecoin issuer Paxos as a security on February 13. The move prompted Paxos to announce that it would no longer be minting BUSD, leading to a significant outflow of funds. As a result, BUSD’s market capitalization has slumped from just over $16 billion to around $10 billion, with its market share declining to 7.3% from around 20% last year. This could have a
1 year ago
1 min read
Ras Al Khaimah, one of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) seven Emirates, is set to launch a new free zone dedicated to digital and virtual asset service providers. The RAK Digital Assets Oasis (RAK DAO) aims to be a “purpose-built, innovation-enabling free zone for non-regulated activities in the virtual assets sector.” Applications for the free zone will open in Q2 of 2023. The free zone will be solely dedicated to non-regulated activities in the virtual assets sector, such as the metaverse, blockchain, utility tokens, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), decentralized applications (DApps), and other Web3-related businesses. The RAK
1 year ago
1 min read
Yuga Labs is once again shaking up the world of NFTs, this time by introducing a new Bitcoin Ordinals collection called TwelveFold on February 28. With a limited edition of only 300 generative pieces, each piece will be inscribed on satoshis, the smallest unit of Bitcoin. The new collection is set to be released via auction, with the bidding token being Bitcoin. Interested buyers will be notified 24 hours in advance and will need to provide an empty BTC address to participate in the auction. This move by Yuga Labs represents the growing trend of NFTs moving onto the Bitcoin
1 year ago
1 min read
Ameen Soleimani, the co-founder of SpankChain and Reflex Labs, has hinted at the potential revival of the controversial Ethereum transaction mixer, Tornado Cash. Soleimani’s tweet indicated the involvement of Moloch DAO, which provides grants for Ethereum project development. “I sincerely hope no one thought we were finished,” said Soleimani. Transaction mixing protocols like Tornado Cash use various techniques to obfuscate the origin of cryptocurrency, which has attracted widespread scrutiny from regulators. Last year, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control accused Tornado Cash of enabling money laundering by North Korea-linked hacking group Lazarus. Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev was arrested
1 year ago
1 min read
India’s efforts to regulate cryptocurrencies have received crucial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United States. As the current president of the G20 bloc, India has long been advocating for global regulation of cryptocurrencies and plans to leverage its position to achieve this. During a recent meeting between finance chiefs of the G20 countries, India’s finance minister shared the country’s plans to develop a single regulatory framework and gained support from the IMF and the US. However, India’s stance on crypto has been controversial, with the Reserve Bank of India calling for a ban on cryptocurrencies due
1 year ago
1 min read
SingularityNET ($AGIX) developers have announced that the project’s Cardano staking portal is set to launch a beta version next month, with a successful test meaning it will be released on the mainnet in Q1 of 2023. The staking portal will allow AGIX token holders to stake their tokens on the Cardano network, instead of just on the Ethereum network. This is possible due to the project launching an ERC-20 token converter last year that allows users to move their AGIX from Ethereum to Cardano. SingularityNET is a blockchain-powered platform that allows anyone to “build, share, and monetize” AI services through
1 year ago
2 mins read
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is teaming up with Ant Group, Alibaba’s fintech affiliate, to bring NBA-themed non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and content to the virtual space in China. NBA China, the league’s Chinese business arm, made the announcement on Tuesday, revealing the partnership’s goal to enhance fan engagement in China. The partnership will see the NBA launch a mini-app on Alipay, Ant Group’s flagship mobile app and China’s largest third-party payment platform, where fans can watch NBA video content and access services such as a joint membership of the NBA and Alipay. This move is expected to bridge the gap
1 year ago
1 min read
Dapper Labs, the company behind the popular non-fungible token (NFT) collection, NBA Top Shot, has been denied its request to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that the collection is an unregistered security. District Judge Victor Marrero ruled that the NBA Top Shot collection appears to meet the requirements of a security under the Howie Test. The collection allows users to collect video highlights from the National Basketball Association in the form of NFTs called “Moments”. The lawsuit was filed in May 2021 by a plaintiff who claimed that the Top Shots collection violated securities law by not registering them with the
1 year ago
1 min read
Bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Voyager Digital is being investigated by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over alleged deceptive marketing practices of cryptocurrency to the public. In a legal filing on Wednesday, the FTC stated that it does not want the proposed plan to wind up the affairs of Voyager to interfere with its investigation into the case. The FTC has launched an investigation into certain acts and practices of Voyager Digital, including its employees, directors, and officers, for their alleged deceptive and unfair marketing of cryptocurrency to the public, the filing said. The probe is part of the agency’s mission
1 year ago
1 min read
Hong Kong has earmarked $6.4 million (HK$50 million) in its 2023–2024 budget for developing its Web3 ecosystem. The budget, published on Wednesday, will focus on organising major international seminars, cross-sectoral business cooperation, and workshops for young people. Paul Chan, Hong Kong’s financial secretary, also announced the launch of a task force dedicated to virtual asset development. Composed of members from policy bureaux, regulatory bodies, and industry, the task force will focus on driving growth in the virtual asset industry. Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission published its proposed rules for virtual asset platforms on Monday, in line with its ambition
