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The March collapse of Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature three of the worlds most crypto friendly lenders left a massive hole in the digital asset financial system.

But with blockchain offering a potential route into global finance for parts of the world previously excluded, among myriad other use cases, Standard Chartereds crypto research chief Geoff Kendrick believes that the worlds largest banks owe it to potential customers in developing economies to fill the void left in crypto.

Kendrick talked to Forkasts Jenny Ortiz-Bolivar about the worlds vast unbanked space and why his bank, Standard Chartered, has adopted a proactive approach to digital assets.

The Q&A has been edited for clarity and length.

Jenny Ortiz-Bolivar: Standard Chartered Banks approach to crypto is much more open to blockchain and crypto technology in comparison to competitors such as HSBC. What exactly is driving that approach?

Geoff Kendrick: Obviously, I cant speak to our competitors in terms of their desire when it comes to crypto. But on the SCB side, we have been relatively early to this space. We recognize the importance of blockchain technology. We recognize the importance of this broader ecosystem to, quite frankly, a lot of our core businesses in terms of financial markets globally. I would say that, over the next 5 to 10 years, the blockchain is going to become a much more important part of financial markets and SCB is at the forefront of that shift.

Our core footprint as a bank is in emerging Asia, emerging Africa, and the Middle East. For those regions, some of the core digital asset use cases, and those of Bitcoin and other transactional coins in particular, are incredibly important. In those regions, there are still many individuals and companies that dont have access to a broader financial asset ecosystem of the kind available in the West. In those countries, alternative financial outcomes are potentially advantageous. Theres therefore a natural overlap between some of our core countries and where Bitcoin and other digital assets can help.

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Ortiz-Bolivar: In that regard, how do you view the role of blockchain and crypto in the future of banking? What synergies are we likely to see?

Kendrick: In terms of blockchains future, there are a number of potential use cases. At one end of the use case spectrum, we have the World Bank telling us that the global unbanked sector has transactions of roughly US$20 trillion a year. As mentioned, quite a lot of that transaction space is unbanked because financial institutions are not available in quite a few of those core countries.

If you think about taking those transactions into the blockchain space via Bitcoin or an equivalent using multiples from Visa and MasterCard, for example, even that could get you to a valuation of Bitcoin at around US$50,000. Thats roughly double where weve been recently. So, through the blockchain, those in emerging markets a huge unbanked space can access a financial system that theyve otherwise been excluded from.

Elsewhere, I think well see a continuation of what traditional financial institutions have already been doing to migrate to blockchain over time. Here Im thinking about insurance type services. You could imagine they could be offered medium term on blockchain and therefore cheaper because theres less people in the chain. Similarly, ETF (exchange Traded Fund) type products could end up on blockchain. Essentially the potential use cases are endless when you consider the types of smart contracts Ethereum and others are able to offer.

Ortiz-Bolivar: Finally, this year has seen the collapse of a trio of crypto-friendly banks, starting with Silvergate in early March. Those closures have left a critical gap in the crypto ecosystem. What is Standard Chartered doing to fill that void?

Kendrick: Those banks were, like you say, very important parts of the crypto ecosystem and we need larger, longer term financial players like Standard Chartered to step into this space. Over the last six months or so, weve also seen concerns around centralized exchanges, most notably the FTX collapse in November. Again, I think that presents an opportunity for banks like Standard Chartered to offer broader trading and custody services.

Players like ourselves that have been in other financial spaces for a long time have a lot of the plumbing around these custody and other solutions that are required in the medium term for crypto to grow. Its time for us to make the step into this space. Over time that will probably lead to an inflow of institutional money, allowing crypto assets and Bitcoin in particular to become much more mainstream.

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Largest banks should fill void left in crypto following collapses, says Standard Chartereds Geoff Kendrick - Yahoo Finance

The 2020 pandemic has had a strong impact as an accelerator of digital transformation, as well as the adoption of new production and relationship habits between people thanks to connectivity. Within a few months, companies of all kinds, public and private, have had to respond to an unprecedented crisis. An acceleration that many experts put at the equivalent of a five-year leap.

Technology has become a key element of economic recovery, supporting disruptive innovation and all the new connected devices and services, such as process automation or remote working, that are having a major impact on different sectors and areas of society.

A technology is considered to be disruptive if it succeeds in bringing about a major change in the processes and mechanisms that preceded its emergence, as well as a change in user behaviour.

A disruptive technology offers a new tool that has the enormous capacity to completely change peoples lives, and when such a technology emerges, it can create a new market with its own values and risks.

These innovations are implemented in areas with established patterns and succeed in changing the management of organisations and the way they respond to user demands, eventually replacing the previous technologies altogether.

Harvard professor Clayton Christensen introduced the term disruptive technology in his article Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave published in 1995. However, it was not until 1997, in his best-selling book The Innovators Dilemma, that he really explored the disruptive innovation theory.

For Christensen, disruption starts with innovation that addresses the concerns of an unsophisticated group of consumers, or takes into account certain characteristics that only a few appreciate.

Something disruptive is something that breaks or bursts abruptly. In the case of disruptive technologies, they are also characterised by their simplicity, accessibility and affordability, and they coexist with previous technologies for a time before eventually replacing them completely.

In many cases, the design and development of these new tools and services starts in an innovation department or a start-up, they are brought to market, and their use becomes widespread, ultimately creating a new business model. But until it is fully implemented, companies and users have to go through a period of adaptation. Meanwhile, the process of creating disruptive technologies often leads to new businesses, such as the iPhone, launched by technology company Apple in 2007, which revolutionised the use of the internet on mobile phones.

And while not all innovations are ultimately successful, they do force the market to try to improve its products and services, and force companies to focus on developing innovative strategies, which has a positive impact on users. In this context, there are companies that adapt smoothly to disruptive technologies and others that are forced by technology to change.

The benefits of these innovations include the development of new business models and the ability to reach previously inaccessible markets, turning disruption into opportunity.

Embracing disruptive technologies saves companies money by allowing them to enter the market with cheaper products and services, such as robotics and process automation, because they help increase productivity by moving away from strategies and structures that are outdated and inflexible to the needs of an ever-changing global marketplace.

They also allow companies to find niches in the market where they can respond to needs that other companies are not able to meet, to create new business models for doing so, and to quickly identify areas where it is possible or necessary to improve.

Currently, one of the most disruptive technologies, and one of the most advanced and prominent, is AI. It solves problems through computation, just as a human would, and its applications span all sectors, as it can automate and help optimise processes such as traffic management or data collection through chatbots. Robots, autonomous cars, smart cities and personal assistants are already using its many applications.

Another technology that has become popular following cryptocurrencies is called Blockchain . Experts believe that Blockchain will transform many sectors such as finance, collecting and crypto art, smart contracts and cybersecurity, as well as online commerce, as it is a highly reliable and secure system for recording transactions and tracking assets.

One of the disruptive technologies of the moment is Big Data, which is capable of collecting and analysing large amounts of data. Data is one of the great treasures of Industry (and Society 4.0), the result of connectivity and the development of other tools such as the Internet of Things (IoT). In the industrial sector, mass data analysis helps to reduce costs and save time, improving processes and eliminating errors, thanks to real-time information that enables quick decisions at critical moments. It is particularly used for trending and predictive maintenance of machinery.

Cloud Computing is another example of disruption and connectivity. Above all, cloud services bring flexibility and security to businesses, supporting new aspects such as hybrid and remote working models. It has helped organisations to rapidly modernise their IT applications, enabling them, among other things, to scale their infrastructures at a lower cost and increase the agility of their management: data storage, backup and total information accessibility.

All of this has been possible thanks to the deployment of the 5G network, which is capable of supporting todays connectivity needs: download speeds up to 100 times faster than the 4G network, latency of no more than 4 milliseconds, and the global capacity to connect thousands of devices simultaneously in a very small space.

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What are disruptive technologies and what are the benefits? - Telefnica

More than $320 million was lost to bad actors within the crypto space in the first quarter of the year as per data compiled by smart contract security platform CertiK. The figure represented a significant decline from that in the preceding quarter (Q4 2022) and from a similar period in the previous year. The blockchain security firm attributed this decrease to distressing incidents that rocked the industry across the three months.

Notable among them, an upheaval in the stablecoin markets and a banking crisis extending into the digital assets space. These and other unfortunate incidents prompted investors to move their funds to the sidelines while also putting off potential entrants and inflows as a result. Barely halfway into Q2, more exploit incidents have been reported with attributable losses headed to equal the figure reported in Q1.

In March, about $211 million was stolen in crypto, dominated by a $197 million hack on Euler Finance. The amount siphoned last month was slightly less than half of this, with blockchain security firm Certified Kernel Tech (CertiK) estimating a figure of $103.7 million in losses to exploits, hacks, and scams.

April and March numbers brought the total amount stolen by malicious actors in the first four months to $429.7 million year-to-date. Another major incident in April was the Ethereum Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) bot sandwich attack which resulted in a $25.4 million loss. Bitrue exchange also reportedly had $23 million in Ether and other currencies drained from one of its hot wallets.

Decentralized finance aggregator, Yearn Finance led in flash loan attacks last month, with only users running on an older version of the protocol affected. PeckShield reported on April 13 that a hacker targeted a bug to mint an extremely huge amount of yUSDT 1.3 quadrillion tokens, worth about $11.6 million from just 10,000 USDT. In a series of swaps that ensued afterward, the attacker was able to obtain 61,000 USDP, 1.5 million TUSD, 1.79 million BUSD, 1.2 million USDT, 2.58 million USDC, and 3 million DAI.

Multi-chain lending pool Hundred Finance lost $7.4 million on April 15 after suffering a security breach involving flash loaning WBTC on Ethereum layer two Optimism. The protocol has since placed a $500,00 bounty on the hacker after efforts to negotiate seemingly bore no fruits. Hundred Finance was previously hit to the tune of $6.5 million in a reentrancy attack in March 2022. The blockchain security firm further showed that total funds lost to exit scams increased to $9.4 million in April, heralded by the decentralized exchange Merlin.

zkSync decentralized exchange Merlin's loss of $1.82 million came on April 25, during the three-day public sale of its MAGE tokens, despite brandishing an audit by CertiK. The DEX, whose popularity stems from the attractive yield offered on deposits, confirmed the attack advising all users to disengage their wallet permissions. CertiK meanwhile termed it a private key management issue.

In a thread addressing the incident, the blockchain security firm later highlighted that it had pointed out centralization risk under Decentralization Efforts in its audit report of Merlin. Some, however, question the quality of work done by the firm. Meanwhile, the malicious code that allegedly caused the loss of funds was identified by eZKalibur, a decentralized exchange, and launchpad also built on zkSync. eZKalibur pointed out that the initialize function created a backdoor of sorts, allowing an unlimited amount of tokens to be transferred from the contract's address to the feeTo address.

CertiK said on April 26 that it was exploring a compensation plan for the affected while still urging the responsible individuals to return 80% of the funds and keep the rest as a white hat bounty. It further said that rather than an attack, Merlin was a victim of rogue developers which explains why the entity was able to siphon the liquidity pool with such ease. The blockchain security team said the perpetrators are believed to be in Europe and that it is working with law enforcement agencies to bring them to justice should direct negotiations hit a brick wall.

In an update on the situation on Friday, CertiK insisted that all this was a rug pull by Merlin developers who took advantage of their wallet privileges to defraud users. It added that attempts to collaborate with the remaining Merlin team were plagued by challenges as certain core members were unwilling to verify their identities, making validation and eventual assistance of the victims difficult. CertiK has frozen $160,000 of the stolen funds so far and is closely monitoring the remaining amount in hopes of recovery. It is working with law enforcement agencies in the US and UK towards these efforts and also pledged $2 million to help the victims and fight exit scams.

A price oracle manipulation hack struck lending protocol 0VIX at the end of April, causing it to lose more than $2 million following an exploit on the vGHST token, a staked token of blockchain gaming initiative inspired by the popular Tamagotchi game. Blockchain security company PeckShield revealed that the hackers behind the 0VIX Protocol attack utilized a flash loan worth $6.12 million in stablecoins to open vGSHT lending positions.

The attacker(s) afterward manipulated the protocol's price oracle and the vGSHT lending pool in extension they manufactured a spike in the price of GHST, which made the vGHST lending pool insolvent, enabling them to liquidate the pools and walk away with the collateral from the pools. The protocol's core team suspended Polygon POS and zkEVM operations (its token lending markets), adding that it had initiated efforts to manage the situation.

In a subsequent update, the 0VIX Protocol Association said it resumed operations on the zkEVM, allowing users of the 0VIX Polygon zkEVM market unrestricted access to their funds. It asked all users to verify their positions and health factor and repay any outstanding debts. The update further clarified that the pause on 0VIX zkEVM had only been a preventive measure, as the exploit did not affect it. The Association, however, didnt divulge any further details to protect the integrity of ongoing investigations, adding that it, along with its security partners, remained dedicated to recovering the compromised funds.

This week, Level Finance was hacked for $1 million worth of its native LVL token. The BNB Chain-native non-custodial spot and perpetual contracts exchange confirmed on May 1 that the attacker targeted its LevelReferralControllerV2 referral contract that enables repeated claims, making away with more than 214 LVLs which they exchanged for 3,345 BNB.

Blockchain security company PeckShield said that the hack resulted from a bug that allowed repeated referral claims (in the same epoch), which Level Finance confirmed was from a recent update to its incentive mechanism. The platform temporarily halted its referral program to end the attack, though the event did not affect its liquidity pools or linked DAOs.

In a more recent incident, DeFi protocol Deus Finance confirmed over the weekend that it was the victim of a hack on its BNB Smart Chain and Arbitrum deployments. Though not confirmed yet, the manipulation saw it lose more than $6 million in crypto assets. The attack was front run by a bot according to PeckShield, allowing the hacker to make away with 1,337,375 BUSD from DEI/BUSD pools, and a further $5 million on the ARB/ETH pools. Deus paused all contracts and DEI tokens on-chain burned in response to mitigate against more losses. The protocol team added that it actively evaluating the underlying collateral of the DEI, and will devise a comprehensive recovery and redemption plan depending on pre-burn DEI balances.

Recognizing that some individuals may have taken part in arbitrage endeavors following the breach and gotten stuck while at it, Deus said it was actively assessing to see whether these transactions can be reversed expeditiously to resolve the matter. The DeFi platform pointed out that the Deus v3 system, currently in use, is isolated from DEI and therefore was unaffected by the events. It has also urged the attacker to relinquish 80% of the proceeds and consider the rest a white hat bounty. In a tweet earlier today, the DEI stablecoin issuer Deus Finance said the exploiter(s) had complied and sent back 2,023 ETH to a recovery multi-sig wallet address managed by trusted members of Yearn Finance.

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On-chain Data Suggests Crypto Hacks and DeFi Exploits are on ... - Securities.io

TMS Network (TMSN) has recently received a $4 million investment, positioning it as a strong competitor against blockchain giants such as Polygon (MATIC) and Chainlink (LINK). With this significant investment, TMS Network (TMSN) has entered a new chapter, expanding its reach and capabilities in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.

In this article, we will explore TMS Network (TMSN)s recent developments and how it plans to utilize this investment to stay ahead of its competitors.

Polygon (MATIC)

Polygon (MATIC) is an innovative layer-2 scaling solution that aims to address Ethereums scaling challenges by enabling faster and cheaper transactions, improving its security and efficiency. Its proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism has increased the networks throughput, reducing transaction fees, and enhancing user experience. This has made Polygon (MATIC) a popular and rapidly growing blockchain project, attracting developers and users alike.

Additionally, Polygon (MATIC) provides developers with the tools necessary to build and deploy decentralized applications (dApps) on its network, which is compatible with Ethereums smart contracts. By doing so, Polygon (MATIC) is able to provide a more user-friendly and cost-effective alternative to Ethereum for dApp developers and users.

Polygon (MATIC) has quickly become one of the most popular and fastest-growing blockchain projects in the market, with a rapidly expanding ecosystem of partners, developers, and users.

Chainlink (LINK)

Chainlink (LINK) is a decentralised oracle network that connects smart contracts in different blockchain systems to real-world data. Smart contracts are self-executing contracts that can automatically trigger actions based on predefined conditions. However, they lack access to off-chain data sources, making them unable to interact with real-world events or data.

Chainlink (LINK) solves this problem by providing a secure and reliable decentralized network of oracles that can retrieve and deliver external data to smart contracts. Chainlink (LINK) achieves this through a network of node operators who are incentivized to provide accurate and reliable data feeds.

Chainlink (LINK) is widely regarded as one of the most significant blockchain initiatives because it allows smart contracts to access data from the real world thereby rendering them more versatile and valuable for a wide range of applications. Chainlink (LINK)s popularity has grown rapidly, with many blockchain platforms and applications integrating with its oracle network to access external data sources.

TMS Network (TMSN)

In the first phase of its presale, TMS Network (TMSN) garnered significant attention from investors, pointing to its burgeoning strength in the market. The second phase of its presale has already seen TMS Network (TMSN) secure a whopping $4 million in investments, further increasing investor satisfaction.

Over the years, TMS Network (TMSN) has experienced a massive 2240% surge in overall revenue and an impressive 1600% increase in token value. These remarkable figures attest to the platforms growing popularity and its potential to emerge as a dominant player in the cryptocurrency market.

TMS Network (TMSN) has implemented state-of-the-art security measures to ensure maximum safety for all transactions and assets. Additionally, traders can access an extensive range of educational resources on the platform, providing them with the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions. TMS Network (TMSN) remains committed to maintaining its position as a leading platform in the ever-evolving crypto industry.

Final Thoughts

TMS Network (TMSN) secures a $4 million investment in its second presale phase, positioning itself as a strong competitor to Polygon (MATIC) and Chainlink (LINK) in the DeFi space. TMS Network (TMSN) has experienced significant revenue and token value increases, and has implemented top-tier security measures and educational resources for traders. This has placed it far above existing networks like Polygon (MATIC) and Chainlink (LINK).

To know more about TMS Network (TMSN), check out these links below:Presale: https://presale.tmsnetwork.ioWhitepaper: https://tmsnetwork.io/whitepaper.pdfWebsite: https://tmsnetwork.ioTelegram: https://t.me/tmsnetworkioDiscord: https://discord.gg/njA95e7au6

Disclaimer:The statements, views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily represent those of Crypto Reporter. Crypto Reporter is not responsible for the trustworthiness, quality, accuracy of any materials in this article. This article is provided for educational purposes only. Crypto Reporter is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Do your research and invest at your own risk.

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A New Chapter for TMS Network (TMSN): Million Investment Puts It ... - Crypto Reporter

The creation of crypto and NFT on Algorand is possible thanks to the Algorand Standard Assets framework, which allows the network to compete with the numerous infrastructures on the market.

Let us take a look at the best crypto projects on Algorand, with a special focus on the presence of non-fungible tokens.

Algorand is one of the most interesting Layer 1 blockchains in the industry, with a clear focus on scalability and environmental sustainability.

Algorand is a decentralised and open source blockchain, born in 2019 and founded by Italian Silvio Micali, a researcher and teacher at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The main features of Algorand are the scalability of transactions, the energy sustainability of the blockchain and a particularly selective programming language.

Through a two-layer structure, Algorand is able to process many more transactions than Bitcoin and Ethereum, with a negligible commission cost of less than one cent.

The Pure Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm provides an inclusive structure in which any holder of at least 1 ALGO can validate a block and receive a premium proportional to their allocation.

In terms of sustainability, one of the key pillars of the project is the carbon neutrality status that the blockchain enjoys.

At a time when the issue of Co2 emissions is a serious problem facing the globe, Algorand makes environmental friendliness one of the main vectors of its marketing campaigns, being much less polluting than bitcoin and its network of miners.

The TEAL programming language is very different from Solidity, Rust, Javascript and Cairdo, much more difficult to use and selective.

The complexity of programming smart contracts with TEAL is a limitation for the development of dapps in the ecosystem, but at the same time it allows greater security on the bug side, as it is more difficult to find flaws in the system.

As far as crypto and NFTs on Algorand are concerned, the first thing to say is that compared to Ethereum, Solana, Polygon and ImmutableX, the numbers on Silvio Micalis blockchain are significantly lower, but potentially the technology has all the cards on the table to join the big boys in the sector.

Algorands main NFT marketplace platforms include Rand Gallery, ALGOxNFT, Exa Market, Shufl, Dartroom, Algogems, Abris, Aorist, Creecon and Republic.Many of these projects present solutions that are green for the environment and strengthen the power of content creators in the Web3 world.

Although Algorand is a very technical Layer 1 infrastructure specialising in transaction scalability, one of the most sought-after features in blockchain, it is not yet on par with other competitors when it comes to exchange volumes in the Non-Fungible Token market.

NFT cryptos on Algorand have not been appreciated by big investors and top performers, who prefer to mine their collections on Ethereum, the main venue for the creation of decentralised applications and smart contracts.

Consider that in April, according to CryptoSlam data, the volume of NFT sales on Algorand was around $350,000 compared to Ethereums $488,000,000, or more than 1,000 times less!

In total, since its inception, Algorand has seen volumes of around $38 million, while Ethereum has seen over $43 billion.

These figures clearly show that this type of activity on the decentralised network is still not appreciated by the masses, who prefer the traditional infrastructure for trading NFTs.

Recently, many users have even discovered that they can create non-fungible tokens on the bitcoin blockchain through digital artefacts derived from the inscription of individual satoshi, making them different from each other.

This has done nothing but shift the spotlight away from Algorands potential, at least in the NFT niche.

Beyond non-fungible tokens, the Algorand ecosystem has many different types of applications that are used every day by users in the Web3 world.

These include DEX, lending protocols, self-custody solutions, oracles and bridges, gaming applications and much more.

The expansion of the number of protocols on the chain is much more positive than the number of NFT cryptos sold on Algorands marketplaces.

In fact, when analysing the TVL, i.e. the total value locked in Algorands protocols, we can see that the project ranks in the top 20 with a figure of around $130 million.

Very interestingly, while the rest of the DeFi world lost value during 2022, Algorand bucked the trend and grew strongly in this respect, only suffering a sharp drop in TVL at the end of 2022, but partially recovering in Q1 2023.

Most of the liquidity is located on Algofi, a DeFi hub where classic decentralised financial transactions such as swaps, earning interest on stakes, borrowing assets, etc. can be executed.

Just after Algofi, which accounts for almost 68% of TVL, we find protocols such as Folks Finance, Lofty and Pact.

Lofty in particular seems very interesting, as it is one of the first prototypes of dapps that fractionalise real estate on the blockchain, through the process of tokenization of real assets.

Other notable projects built on Algorand include LimeWire, a decentralised social media platform, PeraWallet, a crypto-asset custody solution, and Dequency, a platform dedicated to developers.On the gaming front, the most popular applications with the largest followings on Algorand are The Drone Racing League, Zone and Algoseas.

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Algorand: the best crypto and NFT projects - The Cryptonomist