Among the few new “data availability” blockchain initiatives, Avail was created to manage transaction data generated by the networks’ increasing expansion. On Monday, the venture capital firms Founders Fund and Dragonfly spearheaded the $27 million funding campaign for Avail.Funds from the seed round will be used by Avail, which was spun off of Polygon in March 2023 and is headed by Anurag Arjun, a Polygon co-founder, to develop its three main products: its data availability solution (DA), Nexus, and Fusion, which are together referred to as the “Trinity.” The first essential component, Avail DA, provides data space information for auxiliary “layer-2 networks” or “rollups” that are intended to process transactions more quickly and affordably than on Ethereum-based foundation blockchains.It is anticipated that the new DA project will launch early in 2024’s second quarter.The rise of these data availability solutions has been one of the most talked-about developments in the cryptocurrency space because it may contribute to the development of a more “modular” architecture for blockchain systems, where essential tasks like data processing and transaction execution might be handled independently. With initiatives like EigenDA, which is presently under development, and Celestia, which went live in October of last year, they gained attention.The latter project is being worked on by EigenLabs, the company that created the restaking protocol EigenLayer. In order to continue developing its products, EigenLabs raised $100 million from the venture capital firm a16z last week. Avail Nexus is a “zero-knowledge, proof-based coordination rollup on Avail DA,” which means, according to a press release reviewed by CoinDesk, that it would function as an infrastructure layer that links other rollups through the Avail ecosystem to communicate with one another.“Serving as the verification hub that unifies a broad range of rollups both inside and outside the Avail ecosystem, using Avail DA as the root of trust,” is how it will be described.By utilizing cryptocurrency assets like ether (ETH) and bitcoin (BTC), the project’s “Fusion Security” will enhance the security of the Avail ecosystem.The company states that Fusion Security will be available in 2025 and that Nexus’ initial version is anticipated to launch in 2024. The rollups space on Ethereum is fragmented, with major teams competing for many of the same users. Arjun, the Avail co-founder, argues that there is a need to work together with these rollups in order to make the user experience more unified. “You really need a credible third party like Avail

On February 25, the decentralized blockchain network Aleo made certain user data public, according to X (previously Twitter) sources.The platform leverages a third-party protocol for Know Your Customer (KYC) and focuses on zero-knowledge (zk) cryptography.Aleo submitted KYC documents to his email by mistake, according to a user going under the alias @0xemirsoyturk.He became concerned about the protection of his personal information after seeing selfies and images from another person’s ID card in these documents.The story was corroborated by another user, @Selim_jpeg, who said he received the KYC paperwork of another individual in his inbox. In compliance with Aleo’s internal regulations, users must successfully complete KYC/AML and pass the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) screening in order to be eligible for a reward on the platform.This procedure must be finished in order for people to register for HackerOne, a third-party protocol that gathers users’ unencrypted KYC information. The goal of zero-knowledge layer-1 blockchain systems is to give users more security and anonymity.They ensure anonymity by enabling transactions without disclosing precise details through the use of zero-knowledge proof cryptography techniques.This privacy-centric strategy gives users more control over their data by making it difficult for outside parties to track down or access critical information.By improving privacy, these platforms hope to increase participant security and confidentiality in blockchain transactions. The creator of layer-1 blockchain infrastructure Galactica, Mike Sarvodaya, told Cointelegraph that such a protocol should never, in theory, permit access to user data.He declared: “It’s ironic that a protocol for programmable privacy uses a third party to collect users’ unencrypted KYC data after that leaks to the public. Apparently, when your zk stack is so advanced, you might just forget how to practice basic opsec.” Sarvodaya claims that the Aleo case paradoxically emphasizes how important it is to develop zero knowledge or fully homomorphic encryption (FHE)-based storage and proof systems for sensitive data, such as Personally Identifiable Information (PII).Protocol guidelines in these systems need to guarantee that data is not disclosed by a single party.Aleo Foundation executive director Alex Pruden told The Block that the Aleo mainnet, which will provide privacy to cryptocurrency transactions, will launch in the coming weeks after a few last bugs are fixed.

The Fourth Procuratorate of the SPP’s Zhang Xiaojin allegedly alerted the public and users of digital assets to investment frauds in the region’s cryptocurrency market. The Chinese Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP), the nation’s top prosecuting body, is pursuing offenders who use blockchain and metaverse initiatives for illicit purposes in an effort to combat the rise

The temporary restraining order was obtained in order to “preserve the status quo,” according to the court document, and it will expire before March 25. A US District Judge has ruled in favour of the Texas Blockchain Council (TBC) and Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms in their legal battle against multiple US energy agencies. According

The massive French football team Paris Saint-Germain said that it will use the money it makes to regularly purchase back its PSG fan tokens by acting as a network validator for the Chiliz Chain blockchain, which houses them. While sports teams have dabbled in cryptocurrency over the years with fan tokens that can be exchanged

The American food and beverage business Mondelēz International (Nasdaq: MDLZ) and the Hedera Council, the group that created Hedera Hashgraph, have teamed together to cooperate on distributed ledger technology (DLT).As a recent addition to the Hedera Council, Mondelēz is concentrating on supply chain management and digital transformation projects as it works to create distributed ledger technology (DLT) based solutions on Hedera, according to a news statement. HederaHashgraph is a hashgraph consensus public distributed ledger.Because hashgraph consensus is used by Hedera, it claims to have a different structure from other chains.The company claims that Hashgraph is the only public DLT that makes use of this, noting that it can process over 10,000 transactions per second and reach low-latency finality in a matter of seconds. The brands Cadbury Dairy Milk, Oreo, Ritz, and Toblerone are owned by Mondelēz International, which has operations in more than 80 countries.In order to assist the company’s customer service program grow, Mondelēz previously partnered with SKUx, an early-stage fintech payments company.The consumer packaged products supply chain and digital payment-based offers will be monitored by Hedera. “We are excited to continue our commitment to digital transformation exploring distributed ledger technologies alongside Hedera,” said Xiang Xu, global COE leader of digital strategy and blockChain at Mondelēz International.

According to central bank governor Eli Remolona Jr., the Philippines is expected to release a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) in two years, but the country has no intention of utilising the blockchain or digital ledger technology that powers many virtual assets. According to Remolona, “Other central banks have tried blockchain, but it didn’t

The authors assert that OpenAI is requesting better terms in New York after their planned litigation timetable was denied by a Californian judge. In their case against the artificial intelligence (AI) startup OpenAI for copyright infringement, authors Michael Chabon, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Sarah Silverman have asked a Californian court to reject concurrent New York claims

Project for Tokenized Trading A blockchain-backed carbon credit market has been established by Neutral and DLT Finance, a German brokerage company. Carbon credits are financial instruments that corporations may use to offset their carbon impact; they represent forests and renewable energy sources.It is not the first effort to wager that blockchain technology can boost the multibillion-dollar carbon credit market—that is, the tokenized real-world asset (RWA) project.It is the first, nevertheless, to have obtained regulatory authority to run the exchange, notably from Germany’s financial regulator BaFin. “We didn’t see anyone building the market infrastructure that would allow for traditional traders to interact with these assets,” Neutral CEO Farouq Ghandour said in an interview. He said his company is the “tech provider,” and DLT Finance provides “the regulatory backbone.” The product takes the blockchain out of the hands-on experience for the user.It may be inferred that the ten commodity trading houses and brokers that Ghandour mentioned will not be required to consider tokenizing or decentralizing anything, nor will they require a MetaMask wallet. Rather than being like any other closed platform for commodities swaps, the exchange would focus on providing considerably better liquidity for large-scale deals than what is often found on decentralized exchanges (DEX), according to Ghandour. “There’s a lot of reluctance to work with DEXs,”

Future metaverse application from a blockchain-related business. Victoria VR is a crypto-meets-virtual-reality (VR) developer that hopes to enhance the cutting-edge technology of the Apple headset by providing an immersive metaverse experience with ultra-realistic graphics.The second quarter of this year is when the app is supposed to launch. According to a statement issued by the firm,

France and Germany withdrew their objections to the AI Act concurrently with the adoption on February 2. Member states have voted to accept the final language of the EU’s AI Act, advancing the legislative framework for artificial intelligence (AI) within the EU. Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for Internal Markets, verified that all 27 member states

In a recent interview on Wednesday, Japanese legislators Masaaki Taira and Hideto Kawasaki stated that they would like to establish Web3 laws for the country. The nation has been considering many approaches to Web3 regulation. A blog post stated that the Web3 project team (web3PT) of the Liberal Democrat Party produced a whitepaper in April

Bloomberg reported that U.S. authorities are looking into investment firm B. Riley’s dealings with Brian Kahn, who is accused of being a co-conspirator in a criminal case against the Department of Justice. The article cited persons who are acquainted with the subject. In a statement, B. Riley stated that it was not aware of any

As the startup blockchain Manta Network released its MANTA currency, it was subjected to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, which caused the network to lag and cause withdrawal times to be longer than anticipated. The Manta developers stated in an X post that “the network has accumulated a large queue of recent transactions.”

The “Culture Catalyst” program of the Avalanche Foundation is expanding to include funding for memecoin purchases.Prioritizing nonfungible tokens (NFTs) at first, the $100 million investment fund said on December 29 that at least a portion of its allocation would go toward financing memecoin acquisitions.Although the move has been well received by the Avalanche community and some market analysts, memecoiners are still stigmatized in the cryptocurrency space. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin called memecoiners “degen gamblers” in a recent blog post. However, that hasn’t really lessened the fervor of individuals who are already heavily involved in the memecoin area.One analyst who is enthusiastic about the move is Emperor Osmo, a crypto expert and supporter of Avalanche.Osmo gave Cointelegraph an explanation of why investing in memecoins is a wise move that will eventually support Avalanche’s expansion. “I equate memecoins to the power of social movements, and you cannot have a blockchain reach massive scale without a powerful social movement behind it,” said Osmo. The most successful blockchain ecosystems, according to Osmo, who goes by the moniker “Lead Llama” at Osmosis Labs—after all, this is crypto—have engaging stories and “communities with a common purpose.”Osmo cites the blockchains of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP as instances of “tight-knit communities” that have also discovered the “simplest product market fit.”According to Osmo, Avalanche’s cultural catalyst can provide the same effects by strengthening the culture. Data scientist Carlos Mercado of the analysis company Flipside Crypto makes a similar argument to Osmo, but he emphasizes that memecoins are intrinsically dangerous investments. “Memes provide people a chance to be in an ‘in-group,’” Mercado told Cointelegraph. “Whether it be early to a memecoin or an active

Attorneys for former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky submitted an application to the federal court asking the judge to discharge the allegations against him for market manipulation and commodities fraud.Mashinsky’s defense team filed a move to dismiss two felony offenses in which the former Celsius CEO is expected to stand trial in September 2024 on January 12 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.The lawsuit said that because of how the government has handled cryptocurrencies, the second offense of commodities fraud was “repugnant” and “inconsistent” with the first count of securities fraud. “It is inconsistent and illogical to view the Earn Program as a security for purposes of Count One, and a commodity for purposes of Count Two,” said the filing. “It is not clear if the government intends to argue that Celsius’s Earn Program constituted the purchase of a security and the sale of a

OpenAI responded to a lawsuit that The New York Times (NYT) had filed against it in a blog post on January 8, stating that it is “without merit” and outlining its joint ventures with other news outlets. According to the blog post, OpenAI was in discussions with the NYT that appeared to be “progressing constructively.” “Their lawsuit on December 27—which we learned about by reading The New York Times—came as a surprise and disappointment to us.” The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming that its information has been improperly used to train chatbots using artificial intelligence (AI).The NYT’s assertions are refuted by OpenAI, which says it sees this as an opportunity to “clarify our business, intent, and how we build out the technology.”It outlined four assertions, the first of which is that it actively cooperates with news organizations and generates new opportunities for news, as the foundation for its arguments. It also stated that, although offering a “opt-out,” its instruction is “fair use” and is “the right thing to do.”Furthermore, the AI developer asserts that the NYT is not providing the “full story” and that the “regurgitation” of text is a “rare bug” that is being corrected.OpenAI listed a number of collaborations it has established in the media sector, including a recent agreement to address AI “hallucinations” with German media behemoth Axel Springer.Another group it communicates with to “explore opportunities, discuss their concerns, and provide solutions” is News/Media Alliance. This, however, comes after a 77-page study, released on October 30 by the News/Media Alliance, was submitted to the US Copyright Office claiming that AI models have been trained on datasets that contain a disproportionate amount of information from news publishers compared to other sources.Additionally, OpenAI emphasized the “opt-out process” that it has put in place for publishers, which stops its tools from accessing the websites of those publications who have used it.It was reported that August 2023 saw its adoption by The New York Times.One of the main points of contention in the NYT lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft is that, behind Wikipedia and a database of US patent records, “www.nytimes.com” is the most highly represented private source. The New York Times further states that it attempted, but was unable, to contact Microsoft and OpenAI in April 2023 to express concerns around intellectual property and “explore the possibility of an amicable resolution.”Lawyers have dubbed the NYT’s complaint—which claims that generative AI is violating copyright—the “best case yet,” notwithstanding OpenAI’s reply.OpenAI stated that its content is not a “substitute for The New York Times” and that any abuse reported by the NYT would be “not typical or allowed user activity.” “Regardless, we are continually making our systems more resistant to adversarial