Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

Amid growing cryptocurrency euphoria in India, there have been some fast-paced developments on the way forward for digital currencies with RBI governor Shaktikanta Das kicking it off by sounding caution on cryptos.

Cryptocurrencies are a very serious concern from a macro economic and financial stability point of view, Das said a few days ago, while reiterating his stand once again recently, saying, "There are "far deeper issues" involved in virtual currencies that could pose a threat to Indias economic and financial stability."

On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high level comprehensive meeting recently, where he expressed concerns about unregulated crypto markets becoming avenues for money laundering and terror financing.

There was also consensus, during the PM's meet on how to stop advertisements that over-promise and mislead the young investors.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee for Finance has met various stakeholders and experts, a first for the panel on cryptocurrency and related issues. The panel stressed on regulation of cryptos but not completely shutting the door on them.

The members of the Parliamentary panel are said to have wished for govt officials to appear before it and address their concerns. There was a consensus that a regulatory mechanism should be put in place to regulate cryptocurrency. Industry associations and stakeholders were not clear as to who should be the regulator

The Members of Parliament (MPs) have expressed concerns over security of investors money.

Amid all these developments, there are reports that the government may bring cryptocurrency Bill in the Winter Session of Parliament. The proposed bill would focus on investor protection as crypto currencies come under a complex asset class category.

In the meanwhile, let's look at what India may allow and may not allow when it comes to cryptos.

For starters, India has had a hot-and-cold relationship with digital currencies in the past few years. In 2018, it effectively banned crypto transactions after a string of frauds following Modis sudden decision to eliminate 80% of the nations currencies, but the Supreme Court struck down the restriction in March 2020.

After Supreme Court overturned the RBIs order, which effectively lifted the ban on cryptocurrency trading in India, the craze in the country has grown at a furious rate.

Following this in February 5, 2021, the central bank had instituted an internal panel to suggest a model of central bank's digital currency.

An inter-ministerial panel on cryptocurrency under the Chairmanship of Secretary (Economic Affairs) had recommended that all currencies except those issued by the state should be banned.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has repeatedly reiterated its strong views against cryptocurrencies saying they pose serious threats to the macroeconomic and financial stability of the country and also doubted the number of investors trading on them as well their claimed market value.

Currently, there are no particular regulations or any ban on use of crypto currencies in the country. The union government has not yet enacted a law on cryptos, but is in consultation with industry experts, comments from various officials and ministers.

After several rounds of caution, the government might largely want to set some limits for cryptos in India in the larger public interest. However, from the recent PM meeting, the overall view within government is that steps taken would be proactive, "progressive and forward-looking" as cryptos represented an evolving technology.

The crypto community has made several representations to Indian authorities asking to be classified as an asset rather than as a currency, in order to gain acceptance and avoid a ban.

A possibility that is being explored in the government is that cryptocurrencies may be barred for the use of transactions or making payments, but allow them to be held as assets like gold, shares or bonds, an Economic Times report said.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) could be designated as the regulator, though that has not been finalised, according to the same report.

India's digital currency market was worth $6.6 billion in May 2021, compared with $923 million in April 2020, according to blockchain data platform Chainalysis.

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Cryptocurrency regulation: What India may allow and may not - Livemint

Prices of popular cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ether fell further on Wednesday. (Photo: Reuters)

Cryptocurrency prices fell further over the past 24 hours due to continued profit booking by investors.

Bitcoin, the worlds largest cryptocurrency, slipped below $60,000 on Tuesday for the first time in two weeks. The popular cryptocurrency was trading at $59,602 or 1.73 per cent lower than its price 24 hours ago at 12 pm.

The market capitalisation of Bitcoin reduced to $1.12 trillion and the 24-hour trading volume stood at $2.31 billion. Analysts tracking the cryptocurrency market could not identify any particular news that led to the recent decline, but said it could be due to profit booking by investors.

Crypto highlights | Check yesterday's price

Ether also fell sharply today as it was trading at $4,174 or 3.28 per cent below its value 24 hours ago. Its market capitalisation fell below $500 billion and the trading volume over the past 24 hours was $1.75 billion, indicating a rise in profit booking.

Other smaller cryptocurrencies also fell sharply over the past 24 hours due to increased volatility, triggered by investors who looked to make the most of the recent rally in the crypto market.

Commenting on the cryptocurrency market momentum, Edul Patel, CEO and Co-founder of Mudrex, a global algorithm based crypto investment platform, said, The past 24 hours have remained massively volatile for the cryptocurrency spectrum.

Most of the top cryptocurrencies saw heavy profit booking. Bitcoin dropped towards $58,000, and then rebounded higher, he added.

Over the coming 24 hours markets are expected to remain volatile with $57,000 being a strong support for Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency

Price (US Dollar)

24-hour change

Market cap

Volume (24 Hours)

Bitcoin

59,588.95

-1.86%

$1.12 trillion

$2.31 billion

Ether

4,173.34

-3.76%

$490.11 billion

$1.75 billion

Dogecoin

0.235275

-5.03%

$31.06 billion

$1.94 billion

Litecoin

224.31

-8.92%

$15.47 billion

$235.25 million

XRP

1.08

-3.93%

$108.07 billion

$4.39 billion

Cardano

1.83

-5.68%

$60.08 billion

$388.29 million

DISCLAIMER: The cryptocurrency prices have been updated as of 012:20 pm and will change as the day progresses. The list is intended to give a rough idea regarding popular cryptocurrency trends and will be updated daily.

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Cryptocurrency prices today: Bitcoin falls below $60,000 for 1st time in 2 weeks, analysts blame profit booking - India Today

Shiba Inu (CRYPTO:SHIB) is the latest cryptocurrency to go viral, skyrocketing over 77,000,000% in the past year. At that pace, you would be a millionaire today if you had invested just $1.30 in Shiba Inu last November. Unfortunately, a repeat performance is highly unlikely, so if you want to invest in cryptocurrency, the best course of action is to pick one with real potential.

For instance, Solana (CRYPTO:SOL) was built with a purpose, and it offers far greater functionality than Shiba Inu. Here's what you should know.

Image source: Getty Images.

Solana was created by Anatoly Yakovenko, a former lead developer of operating systems for the chipmaker Qualcomm. Drawing on that engineering expertise, Yakovenko designed Solana as a developer platform for fast, scalable applications.

Specifically, Solana is a programmable blockchain, meaning it supports smart contracts. That's a fancy term for self-executing computer programs that allow transactions to take place without third-party oversight. To that end, smart contracts form the core of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, tools that allow consumers to lend, borrow, or trade cryptocurrency without going through a bank. And by eliminating the intermediary, DeFi applications promise to cut costs and improve access to financial services.

Currently, the value of Solana that is locked in DeFi applications sits at $14.2 billion, making it the third largest DeFi ecosystem behind Ethereum and Binance. However, Solana has an edge that could eventually propel it to the top of the list. Specifically, it's currently the best performing blockchain in the world, offering throughput of 50,000 transactions per second (TPS) and near-instant finalization times.To put that in perspective, Ethereum currently handles just 30 TPS, and it takes five minutesfor those transactions to be finalized (i.e. permanently incorporated into the blockchain).

More importantly, even if Solana never surpasses Ethereum, its position as the third largest DeFi ecosystem is still an advantage. DeFi services aren't free. Users must pay transaction fees in the form of cryptocurrency to access those services. So if Solana's DeFi ecosystem continues to grow, Solana's price should continue to climb. That's why this cryptocurrency looks like a smart long-term investment.

In August 2020, Shiba Inu made its debut, featuring the canine mascot popularized by Dogecoin. That was no accident. The project's mysterious creator, known as Ryoshi, has promoted the cryptocurrency as the "Dogecoin killer," highlighting its greater publicity and (more importantly) its greater utility. And that's true, in theory.

Shiba Inu is an ERC-20 token, a smart contract built on the Ethereum blockchain. That means it's compatible with the entire Ethereum ecosystem, including a robust array of DeFi applications. However, that compatibility remains theoretical. At this point, Shiba Inu has not been widely integrated into DeFi products, and its utility is still quite limited.

More importantly, Shiba Inu is hardly unique. Hundreds of other ERC-20 tokens exist, and many have far greater functionality. For instance, Tether is designed to track the U.S. dollar, allowing investors to keep money in the cryptocurrency markets while avoiding volatility. And Chainlink is designed to feed real-world data to smart contracts on the blockchain, making it possible to tokenize physical assets (e.g. artwork, real estate).

In short, Shiba Inu's soaring price has been driven by popularity and nothing else. And popularity alone is not a good investment thesis, as it can evaporate overnight. That doesn't mean Shiba Inu's price won't go up from here. It could double tomorrow. But over the long term, Solana looks like the better investment.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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1 Top Cryptocurrency to Buy Instead of Shiba Inu - Motley Fool

Massive price swings in cryptocurrencies is on the rise with Ethereum Meta being the latest token to see a jaw-dropping surge within a matter of hours.

The digital asset has surged by over 2,13,000% to a high of $0.0001194 from $0.00000005604, data from Coinmarketmap showed. However, currently, the crypto is trading at $0.00006226 at 16:40 pm (IST).

Little-known cryptocurrencies surging and falling thousands of percentage points within a matter of hours is becoming a latest trend these days. This also indicates the risks and volatility in crpto-based trading.

With huge price swings in little-known cryptocurrencies becoming the norm, experts raised concerns and advised investors should be watchful which picking such tokens.

Recently, Kokoswap has surged from $0.01005 to $7.22 in just 24 hours, surging by a massive 71,000%. HUSKYX, again a crypto which is little-known to regular investors has seen a rally of over 45,000% in 24 hours, jumping from a low of $0.000000004089 to $0.000001878.

Squid Games-based SQUID token has also seen a similar rally a few days back.

Ethereum Meta, which boasts of a market capitalisation of mere $3.1 million, addresses a major weakness in Ethereum: the lack of privacy. The token also enables smart contracts where no friend, family, nor foe can see what you bought or for how much.

With the new Ethereum Meta's Smart Contracts, this token allows direct anonymous payments between parties.

Ethereum Meta transactions exist alongside normal (nonanonymous) transactions. Each user can convert nonanonymous coins (Ethers) into anonymous coins, which is basically Ethereum Meta.

Users can then send Ethereum Meta to other users, and split or merge Ethereum Meta they own in any way that preserves the total value. Users can also convert Ethereum Meta back into normal Ether, obfuscating any possible traceability.

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A concerning trend? This cryptocurrency soars over 2,13,000% in last 24 hours - Livemint

Dogecoin (CRYPTO:DOGE) started out as a joke, but plenty of investors laughed all the way to the bank as the cryptocurrency skyrocketed. Sure, it's close to 65% below the high set in May. However, anyone who bought the digital coin 12 months ago and held on is sitting on a gain of nearly 9,300%.

Shiba Inu (CRYPTO:SHIB) has been a much bigger winner so far this year. It's up a mind-blowing 95,279,000% or so over the last year. There are millionaires and even billionaires who owe their fortunes to the popular token.

But it will be very difficult for Dogecoin and Shiba Inu to repeat these performances over the next 12 months. However, there are other digital tokens that hold the potential for ginormous gains. Look out Dogecoin and Shiba Inu -- there's one rival that just might be the next breakout cryptocurrency.

Image source: Getty Images.

The obvious common denominator between Dogecoin and Shiba Inu is that they both use the Shiba Inu hunting dog as a symbol. However, there's also another tie between the cryptocurrencies: Both are linked with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.

Musk, the self-proclaimed "Dogefather," has been a vocal supporter of Dogecoin. And though he doesn't personally own Shiba Inu tokens, his tweets of photos of his Shiba Inu puppy have driven the cryptocurrency price higher.

Now, arguably the ultimate Elon Musk token has arrived.Elonomics (CRYPTO:ELONOM) began trading on Oct. 25. It's inspired by and named after the Tesla leader. Elonomics even uses a picture of a person who resembles Musk wearing a Viking horned helmet on its logo.

The new cryptocurrency is based on the Binance (CRYPTO:BNB) Smart Chain blockchain. Owners of Elonomics are rewarded in Binance stable coins.

At 6 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021, Elonomics traded at $3.51. At the same time on the next day, the token had soared to $77.47. That's a gain of more than 2,100% in just 24 hours. Elonomics was the best-performing cryptocurrency of the day, easily beating Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.

The cryptocurrency has delivered other massive jumps in recent days as well. On Nov. 12, Elonomics vaulted 575% higher over a 24-hour period. So is the token headed to the moon? Maybe, but not without some trips back to Earth along the way.

Despite those impressive single-day gains, Elonomics is down 90% since its launch as of the time of this writing. So far, the token has experienced more negative days than up days.

To borrow a line from the great rock bank AC/DC, it's a long way to the top if you want to be the most popular cryptocurrency. There are many other digital coins that their owners hope will be the next Dogecoin or Shiba Inu. Can Elonomics be successful? It's possible.

The new cryptocurrency uses a rebase mechanism where an algorithm increases or decreases the total supply of the token. The idea behind rebase is that it could create a fear of missing out (FOMO) effect that attracts more investors to buy Elonomics and will give the token a "forever bullish" chart, according to the developer.

However, one of the key things that drives the value of a cryptocurrency is its availability on exchanges. Currently, Elonomics can be bought using the TrustWallet and MetaMask crypto wallets. It isn't yet available on leading exchanges such as Coinbase, though.

Still, Elonomics has attracted attention with its big one-day gains. Several major media outlets have run articles about it.Positive publicity can make or break a cryptocurrency. And who knows -- maybe even a certain eccentric billionaire might decide to tweet about his namesake. If so, Elonomics really could be the next breakout cryptocurrency.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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Look Out, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu: This Might Be the Next Breakout Cryptocurrency - Motley Fool

Auckland, New Zealand--(Newsfile Corp. - November 16, 2021) - Sphynx announces a platform that offers trading, staking, farming, and a plethora of other utilities. Its native currency is $SPHYNX, which currently exists as a BEP-20 token.

Figure 1: Sphynx the all-in-one cryptocurrency platform for the ages

The user-interface was designed with user-friendliness and simplicity in mind, ensuring that both beginners and experts will be able to navigate the platform with ease. The main menu, underneath the consolidated wallet, is to the left of the platform when viewed on a computer. The positioning is the same on mobile devices, though users will have to click the three horizontal lines on the top-left to open the main menu. Within this menu are options such as "Swap", "Pools", "Farms", "Lottery", etc.

Beside the menu (when viewed on a computer) is the swap that users can utilize to trade tokens, and to the right of that is the integrated chart that investors can use to perform market analysis. On a mobile device, both of these tools are available on the center of your screen. Everything has been strategically placed to ensure investors never have to leave the confines of Sphynx.

The vast majority of new traders are not familiar with token tax, which applies to a vast majority of tokens that exist on the Binance Smart Chain and/or the Ethereum Network. Most investors run into issues purchasing such tokens because they are not familiar with how to configure slippage tolerance levels to accommodate that tax. Sphynx eliminates that issue with its "Auto Swap" feature, which automatically selects the optimal slippage for your token of choice.

Sphynx has already made tremendous strides on the Binance Smart Chain. Its platform has been the topic of discussion for dozens of crypto influencers, all of whom have been moved by Sphynx's progress thus far. Not only this, but Sphynx, through its NFT line, the Sovereign Sphynx Council, has also been making waves on the Ethereum Network both by locking in partnerships with big-name influencers and through its massive giveaways for community members.

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Sphynx stands out from its competition because of how little it charges for trading fees. In comparison to the 0.25% (and higher) trading fees that big-name platforms charge, Sphynx charges only 0.1% for swap fees, and half of those fees go back towards the holders via Swap Fee Rewards. Furthermore, by staking $SPHYNX, investors can earn both from staking their tokens (in $SPHYNX) and from the $BNB rewards that will accumulate from swap fees.

CertiK is an internationally recognized security company that has audited the likes of Binance. What Sphynx has done is revolutionary as it has established a partnership with CertiK outside of being audited by them and commissioning their Skynet protection service. This partnership exists with Sphynx's upcoming Launchpad. So, for a brand-new project wishing to launch on SphynxSwap, they would first have to go through CertiK and clear an audit with them in order for them to be deemed a safe project to invest in. There will be different tiers for such launches, but a good standing with CertiK will ease the concerns of traders who have been the victims of projects launched by nefarious developers with ill-intent.

Sphynx is also planning to roll out its cross-chain bridge in the near future. This will allow users to be able to bridge over to other networks outside of the Binance Smart Chain, with the first cross-chain availability being the Ethereum Network. Furthermore, investors will be able to switch between networks on the Sphynx platform itself, and will be able to trade tokens that exist outside of the Binance Smart Chain.

The streaming platform that Sphynx is also working on (SphynxTV) is just another example of a utility that doesn't exist anywhere else. All in all, Sphynx provides more functionality to users than anything else that is available on the market today, and it is why Sphynx is the all-in-one cryptocurrency platform for the ages.

Media Contact:

Zaidoun 'lonzo' AlowbydiSupport@sphynxtoken.co

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103809

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Sphynx Announces the All-in-One Cryptocurrency Platform - Yahoo Finance

In the November newsletter for the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK), the co-portfolio managers mention participating in an IPO for a company called Stronghold Mining before moving on to discuss rebalancing of existing holdings. What seems like such an understated investment, however, is a direct reflection of how BLOK continues to remain on the forward edge of the blockchain industry.

Stronghold Digital Mining is a company that is both working to remediate centuries old, environmentally harmful coal byproducts in Pennsylvania while simultaneously fueling bitcoin mining from the energy produced. Pennsylvania is littered with over 800 different piles of coal refuse from active coal mining that happened in the region in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Coal refuse is a byproduct of coal mining and causes acid mine drainage (currently the single biggest source of water pollution in the state) and air pollution with pathogenic windblown particulates, is a fire hazard that releases toxic greenhouse gases if caught ablaze, and prevents the recovery and flourishing of ecosystems, according to the Stronghold website.

Stronghold comes in and removes the coal refuse and takes it to one of its two power plants to control burn it in a way that removes almost all of the harmful emissions, such as mercury, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, and particulates. The controlled burning creates power that is then used for mining bitcoin by the company.

The ash that is created as a byproduct of the burning is classed as a fertilizer and is used to help coal refuse sites recover, as it is chemically a base that can help neutralize the lingering acidity. This allows vegetation to grow back and the local ecosystem to recover.

The land that Stronghold Digital Mining removes the coal refuse from is donated back to the local communities. Stronghold, in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has already reclaimed roughly 1,000 acres of land that were previously unable to be used.

As coal refuse is classified as a Tier II alternative energy source, the company is simultaneously solving existing climate woes created from old, unsustainable practices, generating their own power from an alternative energy source, and restoring previously uninhabitable land to allow for growth. Its a multidimensional, revolutionary answer to the concerns of bitcoin mining emissions and the deep carbon footprint typically associated with cryptocurrency mining.

The Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK), which now tops $1.7 billion in AUM and is the largest of the blockchain ETFs, is actively managed and invests in companies directly involved in developing and using blockchain technology. BLOK was also the first blockchain ETF approved by the SEC and launched in 2018.

The fund invests in companies partnered with or directly investing in companies utilizing and developing blockchain technologies. However, the fund does not invest directly in blockchain technology or cryptocurrencies.

BLOK spreads its holdings across the size spectrum, investing in all market caps. Within the blockchain industry, top allocations included transactional at 30.0%, crypto miners at 28.0%, and venture at 10%, as of the end of September. BLOK invests across the blockchain landscape, in miners, exchanges, and developers.

Top holdings includeSilvergate Cap Corp. (SI)at 5.64%, Galaxy Digital holdings Ltd at 5.41%, andCoinbase Global Inc. (COIN)at 4.87%.

Stronghold Digital Mining Inc (SDIG) is carried at a 0.54% weight in the fund.

BLOK has an expense ratio of 0.71% and currently has 49 holdings.

For more news, information, and strategy, visit the Crypto Channel.

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Invest in Sustainable Cryptocurrency Mining with BLOK - ETFdb.com

The Taproot upgrade consists of three separate upgrade proposals. However, at its core, the upgrade introduces a new digital signature scheme called Schnorr that will help Bitcoin transactions become more efficient and more private.

The Taproot upgrade on Bitcoin, the latest version to go live this week, is being considered an immensely important one in the life-cycle of the cryptocurrency, and certainly the most significant in four years ever since it received the SegWit or Segregated Witness update back in 2017 (that effectively increased the number of transactions that could fit into a blockchain by pulling data on signatures from bitcoin transactions). As the crypto-reality takes hold of our markets, it is important to understand why the Taproot upgrade for Bitcoin the world's first and most popular cryptocurrency is being held with such significance in the world.

What is the Taproot upgrade for Bitcoin?

The Taproot upgrade consists of three separate upgrade proposals. However, at its core, the upgrade introduces a new digital signature scheme called Schnorr that will help Bitcoin transactions become more efficient and more private. Schnorr can also be leveraged to let Bitcoin users execute more complex smart contracts.

Smart contracts are self-executing transactions whose results depend on pre-programmed inputs.

Why is the Taproot upgrade important for Bitcoin?

Bitcoin's Taproot upgrade is a major one that will enable the blockchain of the cryptocurrency to execute more complex transactions, potentially widening the virtual currency's use cases and making it a little more competitive with Ethereum for processing smart contracts.

According to cryptocurrency experts, Bitcoin will now have potentially broader applications, and that more flexible transaction types and lower costs are likely to support more development of DeFi (decentralised finance) and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) on Bitcoin.

How will Bitcoin profit from the Taproot upgrade?

With the new Taproot upgrade, the Bitcoin network will now be able to process more smart contracts, not unlike what Ethereum does. This is especially important since Bitcoin has historically not been able to process many smart contracts compared to what its competitor Ethereum does. With Taproot, the gap has narrowed and transactions, in general, have also become more data-efficient, optimising block capacity, and leading to lower transaction fees.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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Bitcoin's Taproot upgrade: Why it's a game changer for the cryptocurrency - Hindustan Times

Brave, the browser maker who pioneered the Brave Attention Token (BAT) as a way of paying you for your attention, has taken another unique step: The latest version of the browser has a cryptocurrency wallet built right into it.

Brave version 1.32 includes a dedicated wallet built right into the browser, in which users can store their private keys for various cryptocurrency holdings. (Read our review of Brave 1.0.) The company claims that the direct integration is more secure than a third-party browser plugin, but also allows users to connect with hardware wallet devices like Trezor and Ledger. Braves wallet also provides real-time market information as well as the ability to buy and pay via various cryptocurrencies.

The new Brave Wallet replaces the legacy crypto wallet found in earlier versions of the browser, Brave said. It can be accessed by clicking the small wallet icon in the upper right-hand corner of the browser itself. If you set up the new wallet, Brave will ask you to import a Metamask wallet or other soft custody wallet. When thats complete, Brave will send you a series of words, which youll then have to write down and store as an account recovery mechanism.

Brave lists the following features of the new wallet:

We asked Brave to explain why the Brave Wallet was superior to other solutions, and how the private keys were protected. Brian Bondy, the companys chief technical officer and co-founder, provided us with a statement in response.

The Brave Wallet, in the same way as hardware devices, implements its own BIP32 Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) wallet (BIP32 HD wallet). The funds are always stored on the blockchain, but the keys to unlock those funds are stored in the Brave Wallet.

Bondy also said that integrating the wallet into the browser prevents users from being tricked by spoofing attacksfor example, loading their private keys into a plugin which could have a hard-coded key that an attacker could also access, stealing the private keys and the funds that they connected to. Those plugins may also have code dependencies that could produce security audit errors, Bondy added.

Finally, extensions cannot paint on the full canvas of the browsers user interface, especially not the address bar or unspoofable toolbar, Bondy said. Brave Wallet can make full use of this user-interface area to help protect users from being tricked. In Brave, Dapp permissions tie into the same Chromium permission manager as other permissions such as geolocations; whereas extensions need to roll their own implementations.

As PCWorld's senior editor, Mark focuses on Microsoft news and chip technology, among other beats. He has formerly written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK, and ReadWrite.

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Brave embeds a cryptocurrency wallet right in the browser - PCWorld

ALBANY The Capital Region is now home to a publicly traded cryptocurrency mining firm named Soluna Holdings (Nasdaq: SLNH).

But the company has actually been around a while, just operating under a different name and business strategy.

Until recently, Soluna was known as Mechanical Technology, a longtime publicly traded company that makes sophisticated test and measurement machines used in the aviation and semiconductor sectors.

But after a private equity firm known as Brookstone Partners invested several million dollars in Mechanical Technology back in 2016, the company began undergoing a significant transformation, including getting into the cryptocurrency market, using high-end computers to "mine" for cryptocurrency, or digital currency.

It's not like mining for gold or silver. Cryptocurrency mining is the process by which a certain type of cryptocurrency is able to grow.

When a cryptocurrency is used to buy something, the underlying details of the transaction are then confirmed by miners or mining companies. This decentralized system of auditing cryptocurrency transactions is designed to prevent fraud. The miners, or mining companies, have to use computing power to solve complex mathematical problems in order to verify a transaction or a portion of a transaction.

But these miners or mining companies aren't paid in dollars. In fact, they may not get paid at all. The first miner to solve a certain transaction is then awarded newly issued cryptocurrency, the incentive that drives the industry in the first place and keeps it operating.

Earlier this month, Mechanical Technology acquired a company called Soluna Computing and then changed its own name to Soluna as part of its total transformation into a cryptocurrency mining company.

Soluna says that what sets it apart from other cryptocurrency companies is that it is addressing the biggest complaint about cryptominingcompanies, which is that they use too much electricity to power their data centers that mine for cryptocurrency.

Instead, Soluna buys "excess" electricity from renewable energy companies that operate wind or solar farms. Because these renewable energy sources can vary throughout the day and often face bottlenecks in the electrical transmission grid, they sometimes end up with excess power they cannot sell.

Soluna has vowed to power its data centers on this excess renewable energy, which is a novel idea.

The change in the company's strategy appears to be paying off. During the third quarter of 2021, Soluna's revenues increased 54 percent to $5.1 million, of which $3.1 million was from its growing cryptomining business.

Cryptominers measure their workload through what is known as hashes, which are produced when an encrypted file for a cryptocurrency transaction is verified.

The more computing power a cryptomining firm has, the more hashing it can do, and the more cryptocurrency it can earn.

Soluna wants to build up its computing power to be able to complete one quintillion hashes per second in the coming months, what is known in the industry as reaching 1 "exahash" of computing, a considerable milestone.

"Watch us scale," CEO Michael Toporek said in a statement issued Monday when the company released its quarterly financial results.

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New cryptocurrency firm used to be known as Mechanical Technology - Albany Times Union