Blockchain Events
Celsius Solicited Ukraine Donations
After Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, many digital asset platforms rushed to get the address of the Ukrainian government’s crypto donation wallets out to the public. Celsius took a different approach and set up its own wallets to accept donations. But how much money was given? How much did they give?
Critics say that Celsius executives stole money and made sure that the C-suite got paid before creditors when the company was going bankrupt. But did the money that Celsius raised for Ukraine, which was supposed to help war victims, get to where it was supposed to go?
Critics on Twitter are looking back at Celsius’s efforts to raise money for Ukraine months after it went bankrupt. They say that there’s no proof from on-chain data that the cryptocurrency raised was ever sent to Ukraine.
In the days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, there were a lot of crypto donations going into the war-torn country.
In less than two weeks, wallets set up by Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation had received nearly $100 million. Major cryptocurrency exchanges like FTX and Binance told their users how to donate to official wallets, and social media sites worked hard to get rid of scammers’ posts.
Celsius did things in a different way. Instead of telling people to use wallets run by the Ukraine government, it tweeted out the addresses of wallets it controlled and asked for donations through those.
The company tweeted, “To help #Ukraine, @CelsiusNetwork is putting out addresses where you can donate BTC and ETH in a safe and controlled way.”
What Happened to the Crypto
Nansen’s wallet profiler tool shows that all of the ether (ETH) that was sent to that wallet was sent to other wallets that Nansen says are controlled by Celsius.
A spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation said she didn’t know that Celsius had given them any ether.
No one knows if Celsius sent cash through a different method, like a wire transfer, or if the cryptocurrency was sent through a different, hard-to-track crypto route or some other way. But some Twitter users who are interested in cryptocurrency are very upset about it.
It’s a bit harder to keep track of Celsius’ bitcoin (BTC) wallets. A Chainalysis representative says that the wallet given is a services wallet that can’t be tracked very well.
It’s hard to track funds through a service wallet because “the way services store and manage funds deposited by users makes further tracing inaccurate,” Chainalysis said in a blog post about the subject. “Only the exchange knows which deposits and withdrawals belong to which customers. This information is kept in the exchange’s order books, which aren’t visible on blockchains or in analysis tools.”
With less than 100 total transactions, the wallet has a low volume. This means that some manual analysis of on-chain data is possible, but its accuracy is limited in some ways.
One of the wallets on the list seems to have given small amounts of bitcoin to the main bitcoin wallet for Ukraine. A donation of $34.59 was made on February 26. Two other donations of $11.40 and $39.31 were also made on that day.
But these transactions took place before Celsius’s tweet asking for donations went live. They could be from people who already use Celsius and have given money to the cause.
After the tweet went out, on-chain data shows that about $53 worth of bitcoin went from Celsius’ second BTC wallet to the Ukraine wallet.
What amount of ether did Celsius get?
Given that Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky is from Ukraine, it seems likely that he was sincere when the company asked for donations on Twitter.
But many cynical crypto Twitter commenters seemed to disagree, and judging by the number of donations, the campaign wasn’t very successful anyway.
On-chain data shows that less than $100 worth of ether was sent to the wallet after the tweet went out on March 2. Since the wallet was used in Celsius’ operations, most of the transactions were between Celsius’ wallets.
Overall, this was less than 1% of the tokens that came into Celsius’ ERC-20 wallet, which was one of the wallets the company used to handle general business transactions.
Critics of Celsius and Mashinsky have pointed to the fact that Mashinsky and other executives withdrew eight figures from known Celsius wallets as proof that the executives were trying to get rich or at least save their fortunes while the company’s finances were getting worse.
The truth is that this is more like a case of making a big deal out of nothing. From its donation drive, Celsius didn’t get much money, and what little bitcoin it did get, it was sent to Ukraine. The ether stayed in the wallet, but the amount in question is the same as a rounding error. But the company has a bad reputation, and the fact that it chose to use its own wallets instead of well-known Ukrainian wallets gives rise to some conspiracy theories.
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DAVOS 2023: At #WEF23, policymakers and business leaders were eager to distinguish between distributed ledgers and cryptocurrencies. Not crypto, but blockchain.
From climate solutions to humanitarian aid to moving on from FTX’s stunning collapse, the second day of the World Economic Forum’s 2023 annual conference saw discussions focused on the promise of the technology underlying cryptocurrencies, rather than the often speculative financial assets themselves.
The day opened with a panel of traditional banking professionals seeking to draw a line under the FTX issue, noting that, while the cryptocurrency industry is in crisis, other products founded on distributed ledger technology are not.
“It’s critical not to mix cryptocurrencies with CBDCs, stablecoins, and DLT… they’re all quite distinct,” PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman stated. Despite the bitcoin crisis, “the underlying tech has operated well,” according to Schulman.
“The promise of a distributed ledger is that it may be faster and cheaper to settle transactions concurrently with no middlemen. That is really significant.”
Importantly, unlike past waves of “blockchain, not bitcoin,” which generally referred to permissioned blockchains, the talks on Tuesday were OK with public ledgers such as Ethereum and the Stellar network. Lynn Martin, President of the New York Stock Exchange, seems to adopt a similar stance, citing the potential benefits of blockchain in making share issuance more efficient or allowing financial exchanges to be settled quickly rather than days later.
“Some of the technologies have now been embraced and used to truly make processes considerably more efficient,” Martin added.
Former Indian central bank governor Raghuram Rajan later repeated that promise of broader blockchain uses.
However, TradFi’s commitment to the industry may eventually be tested: When questioned, Schulman, Martin, and State Street’s Ronald O’Hanley all claimed artificial intelligence, not blockchain, was the most exciting technology.
Carmen Hutt, treasurer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, detailed such an application – a recently launched blockchain payment solution for distributing humanitarian aid in Ukraine – just across the street from the forum’s main congress center, in a historic church transformed into a neon hub for hosting discussions about the future.
Hutt revealed during a panel discussion hosted by CoinDesk chief content officer Michael Casey that the pilot project, which was launched in December using the blockchain platform Stellar network, is significantly more sophisticated than one might assume.
Donations via the blockchain promise “transparency and visibility,” and the Commission has a platform ready to send relief immediately, according to Hutt. “What an incredible offer… We can deploy $500 million today if we acquire $500 million. So this isn’t going to take weeks or months,” Hutt explained. (Later that day, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister praised the contribution of virtual money to the military effort.)
Further along the legendary “promenade,” industry heavyweights ranging from Solana and Ripple to the Global Blockchain Business Council teamed together to develop a climate project that would use blockchain’s transparent record-keeping to assist in improving carbon emissions and credit tracking.
Although authorities have mostly focused on the potential of crypto contagion to financial stability, a string of bankruptcies last year that wiped out billions of dollars in retail investments, most notably Sam Bankman-FTX, Fried’s may have underlined the need for a shift in their focus.
For the lone banker on the conventional finance panel, the events of 2022 must shift regulators’ focus away from the risk of lenders bringing down the whole financial system and toward the risk of individual customers being duped by crypto frauds. “It’s not that regulators have disregarded [financial innovations], but if it’s not going to generate systemic danger, I’m not sure why we should focus on it.” For More Blockchain News, Click Here.
Blockchain has become increasingly prevalent in recent years, with applications spanning from new cryptocurrencies to their potential uses in various sectors, making it important for business leaders, industries, and regulators to have a deeper understanding of the technology and its potential applications.
While blockchain has yet to achieve widespread acceptance, it has the potential to drive significant digital transformative changes and generate new possibilities throughout the corporate landscape, from banking and finance to infrastructure and healthcare.
Blockchain is defined as “a distributed ledger that records transactions chronologically and publicly,” according to one source. Its database is shared across a network rather than being held in a single location, which enables a high level of information control and transaction transparency.
However, there has been so much hype surrounding blockchain on all sides of the debate, that it has become increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction.
A study by Vorhaus Advisors, a Los Angeles-based digital media consulting firm, found that only 25% of people in the United States understand what blockchain is.
According to the same poll, 62% of people believe blockchain is the same as cryptocurrency, and 48% believe it is the same as bitcoin.
This lack of understanding of blockchain has caused confusion, skepticism, and fear about its use, which spreads across all sectors of industry and government, influencing not only business but also policy.
The fact is that blockchain technology has the potential to fundamentally alter how organizations and individuals trade products and information, and part of that revolution is already underway.
Blockchain has the potential to improve any business in which transactions require a permanent record and the confidence of many parties. Furthermore, it has the potential to dramatically simplify paper-intensive enterprises that require an accounting ledger.
Here are three real-world blockchain use cases to illustrate how adaptive, widespread, and disruptive it can be:
- Banking and Finance: Finance and banking have received the most attention regarding blockchain and for good reason. It’s an entirely transactional industry. For example, blockchain can convert paper-based functions such as letters of guarantee (documents provided by a bank that assure suppliers be paid for the goods or services they supply in the event that the payor is unable to pay) into a totally paperless, digital, and transparent process, helping to eradicate fraud and forgeries.
- Rethinking Healthcare: The pandemic’s unexpected demand for remote healthcare and other medical-related activities has moved the emphasis on delivering clinical treatment in a virtual or data-driven manner. As a result, the various medical data silos across healthcare providers can be integrated into a single shared blockchain network for secure and efficient data sharing.
- Supply Chain: Blockchain can also be used to improve supply chain management. A blockchain network can provide a single source of truth for the entire supply chain, from the origin of raw materials to the final delivery of goods to the customer. This can help to improve transparency, traceability, and efficiency in the supply chain.
In conclusion, blockchain is a powerful technology that has the potential to transform many industries, but it is important to separate the hype from reality. It is essential for business leaders, industries, and regulators to have a deeper understanding of the technology and its potential applications to fully harness its potential.
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According to the findings of a recent survey that was carried out by CasperLabs, it is anticipated that business adoption of blockchain technology will increase over the course of the following year in the United States, the United Kingdom, and China.
This is the case even though there are knowledge gaps.
Despite the fact that the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries have undergone significant change over the course of the past year, people and companies continue to display an interest in the area.
The results of a recent poll that was conducted by CasperLabs and Zogby Analytics revealed that businesses had a particularly upbeat outlook on the potential applications of blockchain technology.
The questionnaire was sent to a total of 603 “decision makers” employed by a variety of commercial firms in China, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, in that order.
Almost all of the businesses that were asked about their usage of blockchain technology responded that they did so in some form, and almost all of those businesses (87%) also stated that they intend to make financial investments in blockchain technology during the next 12 months.
This phenomenon is especially widespread in China, where more than half of the respondents want to put money into blockchain technology by the year 2023.
According to Ralf Kubli, a member of the board of directors for the Casper Association, businesses are continuing to look to blockchain technology for solutions despite the recent turbulence:
“It is incredibly heartening to see businesses recognize that blockchain technology is not a threat but rather a solution,”
Companies who are now implementing the technology are reaping the benefits of two of its primary characteristics, namely security (42%) and copy protection (42%), both of which are proving to be highly useful for these organizations.
Those who work in IT-based operations are using blockchain technology for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to improving the efficiency of internal processes (for which 40% of users employ it), improving the efficiency of supply chain operations (34% of users employ it), and improving the efficiency of software development (30% of users employ it).
According to Kubli’s projections, the year 2023 will mark a pivotal turning point for the widespread use of blockchain technology, particularly in terms of offering practical answers to real-world challenges and producing long-term value.
In spite of this, a significant study shed light on the flaws that are commonly seen in CEOs of corporations. The vast majority of respondents (73%) feel confident in their comprehension of blockchain technology.
Despite this, 54% of those who replied continue to regard the words “blockchain” and “crypto” as being identical. In spite of the fact that the vast majority of respondents feel positive about their comprehension of blockchain technology, this is the result.
In a similar vein, it has been argued that the most significant obstacles to adoption are a lack of developer talent, a lack of tools, a lack of interoperability, and pessimism regarding the industry as a whole.
All of these factors contribute to a general sense of pessimism.
In spite of this, practically all of the people who took part in the survey stated that they would be more receptive to embracing blockchain technology if they had a better grasp of how their coworkers are utilizing it.
Education, in addition to accessibility, has been a challenge and a barrier for a significant amount of time for those people outside the space who seek to interact with the technology and engage with customers. This has been the case for many different causes throughout history.
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