Crypto News: Grant Yun, supply chain transparency, Asia express and account abstraction


	View in browser

Magazine by Cointelegraph – March 7, 2023

This week, Cointelegraph looks at unstable stablecoins, account abstraction, supply chains on the blockchain and chats to Grant Yun.

Green consumers want supply chain transparency via blockchain

Chris Georgen, the founder of the social impact-focused blockchain company Topl, believes that many consumers are unaware of the consequences of their buying habits.

"Forced labor, deforestation, the destruction of endangered habitats… As responsible citizens of the world, we wouldn't knowingly support, condone or participate in anything like this," he tells Magazine.

"Unfortunately, too often, what we buy can lead to this (and sometimes worse). Whether we know it or not, the things we buy profoundly impact the lives of others and the health of our planet."

Blockchain may not be able to solve these problems directly, but it can play a significant role in supply chain transparency and rewarding ethical behavior.

Mesbah Sabur, founder of Circularise — a blockchain company tackling traceability solutions for a more circular economy — stresses the importance of consumers making greener choices:

"As consumers, we should be more informed about where the products we buy come from, what they are made of, and how they impact people and the planet. Consequently, making choices toward more ethical options and signaling the market a need for change."

Breakdancing medic's NFT auctioned at Sotheby's — Grant Yun

Grant Yun has always been an artist at heart, with an early aspiration to have his work featured at a major auction house. A curious and motivated individual, Yun is studying medicine while juggling his work as an artist and performing as a breakdancer who has competed all over the United States.

Since discovering nonfungible tokens (NFTs) a little over two years ago, the Wisconsin resident has propelled his art and personal brand into the stratosphere much quicker than he'd imagined. With a minimalist style that elicits nostalgic vibes among collectors and his witty personality on Twitter, Yun is slicing out a significant percentage of mindshare among digital art fans.

"Before NFTs, I told myself I would become an artist who sells at a large auction house one day because, at the time, that was my only metric through which I knew what it meant to be a successful artist. I had no experience being an artist overall, so that was the only metric I had to measure."

$3M OKX airdrop, 1-hour due diligence on 3AC, Binance AI — Asia Express

Our weekly news roundup from East Asia curates the industry's most important developments.

OKX airdrop after token trading fiasco

OKX will airdrop 3,014,381 Tether (USDT) to users who suffered losses as a result of the Celestial (CELT) token trading incident, the cryptocurrency exchange announced on March 1. On Feb. 26, Celestial revealed the development of a novel blockchain game, followed by extensive social media campaigns promoting the project's alleged backing by OKX. Shortly afterward, the price of CELT pumped nearly 100% in two days before plummeting over 60% after OKX clarified it had no affiliation with the project other than a $100,000 investment from OKX Ventures in November 2021.

On Feb. 27, many influencers on social media promoted the [CELT] project by claiming that it was the "Son of OKX," but the OKX exchange did not authorize the actions.

'Account abstraction' supercharges Ethereum wallets: Dummies guide

For years, Bitcoiners have repeated the mantra "be your own bank." But in truth, storing any type of crypto in a wallet has been a lot closer to stuffing cash under your mattress than to a complex financial institution like a bank.

Admittedly, it's an improvement in that crypto can be transferred across the globe in minutes, and it's secured with cryptography — but it's also a lot less user-friendly than a bank and doesn't offer anywhere near as many features.

Your crypto could be stolen in a $5 wrench attack. You could lose the seed phrase and your funds forever. And that's if you were technically minded enough even to figure out the complicated process of setting up a wallet in the first place.

With the surprise announcement at WalletCon in Denver this week, that's all set to change. "Smart accounts," also known as "account abstraction," on Ethereum and every other chain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine — the software responsible for executing Ethereum-based smart contracts — are set to shake up the crypto wallet space.

Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom

Stablecoins are entering a period of great uncertainty following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) labeling Binance USD (BUSD) an "unregistered security" and ordering Paxos to stop minting new tokens.

Do these moves signal a wider war by U.S. regulators on stablecoins? Could the SEC declare all stablecoins securities, or is BUSD a special case?

Independent crypto reporter Amy Castor, who has been covering cryptocurrencies since 2016, believes the BUSD crackdown is aimed squarely at the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance:

Going after Paxos-issued BUSD is part of a much broader crackdown on crypto. They are going after the jugular, and they plan to cut off the blood supply."