The rise of Web3 functionality has been a boon for decentralized domain name services over the past two years, with millions of blockchain-based domains registered to date. Challenging market conditions may have hampered exponential growth, but industry leaders believe that utility-driven adoption will continue in the future. Web3 is fundamentally changing how businesses, brands and retailers serve customers, who are taking full control of their data, wallets and online identity courtesy of blockchain ecosystems like Ethereum. Decentralized domain names are proving to be valuable tools for users and businesses to integrate with Web3 functionality. From providing human-readable names that replace …

Talk of decentralized social media platforms continue to gain significant traction, with users becoming increasingly concerned with the centralized nature of traditional platforms and the potential for censorship. Even the former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey has publicly pushed for a decentralized Twitter alternative. Cointelegraph interviewed Rick Porter, the CEO of decentralized social media start-up DSVR, about the potential these platforms have to change the way users interact and share information online. Porter said that decentralized social media platforms provide, “the potential for users to own their content, their data, and make decisions about its monetization.” Porter also believes that …

The business model that cryptocurrency exchanges currently use relies on ignorance and fear. It relies on their customers not knowing much about decentralized finance (DeFi) and their fear of what could happen if they get things wrong with their crypto investments. Cryptocurrencies seem like an obscure and risky investment to most, and unsurprisingly, concerns about losing assets in market crashes, losing wallets or security keys through carelessness, or being scammed by unscrupulous operators are prevalent. These concerns are reasonable considering the volatility of the market and the prevalence of sharks, crooks, bluffers and shysters who operate in the industry. In …

Decentralization via blockchain technology has given rise to several applications such as cryptocurrency, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), decentralized finance (DeFi), and many more use cases. However, the future of decentralization may very well extend beyond blockchain technology. Nillion, an internet infrastructure platform based on cryptography, has developed a technology called Nil Message Compute (NMC), which changes how data is stored, processed and decentralized. This new technology could have important implications for how companies and users pursue decentralization as an ethos. When asked how decentralization without blockchains was possible, the CEO of Nillion, Alex Page, explained how NMC …

The collapse of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has raised many concerns over unregulated centralized platforms. Investors are now coming to question how safe it is to keep one’s funds on these exchanges and have voiced grave concerns about centralized decision-making without any checks. FTX held one billion in a customer’s fund and was found to be using the customer-deposited crypto assets to mitigate its own business losses. Furthermore, a recent report suggests that the downfall of numerous crypto exchanges over the last decade has permanently taken 1.2 million Bitcoin (BTC) — almost 6% of all Bitcoin — out of …

The rapid implosion of FTX has led general investors and crypto believers alike to question the validity of crypto and, indeed, predict its end. But, an understanding of history points not to crypto’s demise but rather a move toward new technology and growth. Financial markets move, as Willie Nelson once said, in phases and stages, circles and cycles. Companies develop ideas, grow quickly, ignite unwarranted investor euphoria and then implode — only to seed the ground for the next company, the next idea and the next growth phase. Crypto is no different. In 2010, an unknown person famously used Bitcoin …

“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information,” new FTX CEO John Ray III said in a legal filing on Thursday. “From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented.” Ray, who oversaw Enron’s bankruptcy in 2001, stepped in as CEO shortly after founder Sam Bankman-Fried resigned (and reportedly tried to flee to Argentina, although he denies it). He is absolutely …

It's barely been a decade since the launch of Web3, and some are already talking about the next generation of the web — Web5. The concept of Web5 first emerged earlier this year with Jack Dorsey’s announcement about plans to build a decentralized web on Bitcoin's blockchain through Block subsidiary TBD. According to Dorsey's TBD white paper, Web5 will be “a trustless, decentralized internet platform where users own their data” as opposed to Web3, which is mostly centered around Ethereum and a select few centralized blockchain networks. It's easy to see why there is a need for change, but is …

Decentralization is part of the cryptocurrency industry’s core, with various protocols trying over time to achieve the level of decentralization that Bitcoin (BTC) managed to get as it grew organically from a white paper published to a mailing list to a new asset class. Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols have brought the idea of decentralization to a new level with the use of governance tokens, which give holders the right to vote on or submit proposals regarding issues that govern the development and operations of a project. Governance tokens often represent investors’ ownership in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), which operate using …

This year’s bear market trajectory should be looked upon as a favorable opportunity for Web3 founders to raise capital and build cutting-edge products. Some of the most robust businesses today were built during market downturns, and founders now have a real opportunity to ensure they’re building products and services that meet genuine, real-world needs and look beyond oversized checks to find the most suitable business partnership. Determining the best methods to fund your product and company is of paramount importance and not a decision to be rushed into. It is an action that requires due diligence and an acute understanding …

For many years, Ethereum reigned supreme over the decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape, with the blockchain serving as the destination of choice for many of the most innovative projects serving up their take on decentralized finance. More recently, however, DeFi projects have started to crop up across multiple ecosystems, challenging Ethereum’s hegemony. And, as we look to a future in which the technical problem of interoperability is solved, one unlikely contender for the role of DeFi power player emerges — Bitcoin (BTC). In that future, Bitcoin plays potentially the most important role in DeFi — and not in a triumphalist, maximalist …

Decentralized autonomous organizations are paving the way toward community governance for any kind of company. We’re seeing new creative use cases for DAOs, such as GameFi comic books laying the foundation for collectible card game development and support from key players like Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin — who has claimed there is value in shared decision-making to eliminate acts of collusion. But on the other end of the spectrum, there are DAOs dissolving or running out of Ether (ETH) to pay back lenders, and there is also declining optimism. The number of critics is increasing along with their concern over …