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The North Carolina Blockchain Initiative (NCBI) was launched in 2019 as a nonpartisan, all-volunteer task force under the supervision of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina to serve as a primary resource on the emerging digital asset and blockchain ecosystem.

Recognizing the increasing importance of financial technology and blockchain-based technologies, bitcoin, virtual assets, smart contracts, and stablecoins, the NCBI is announcing an expansion plan and new appointments for 2023- 24. The ongoing initiative will explore the broader implications for this evolving technology, gather information from private and public sources, pursue policy recommendations, and strengthen our states position as a leader in technological innovation and consumer protection.

North Carolina is already home to many notable blockchain and FinTech startups, and we need to do all we can to keep our state competitive, said Lieutenant Governor Robinson. We appreciate the incredible work this task force has done in researching this transformational technology, and we thank them for their continued service.

North Carolina is fortunate to have several national leaders on Capitol Hill focused on the crypto ecosystem, including Representative Patrick McHenry, Chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, and U.S. Senator Ted Budd, a leading voice on decentralized finance, said Dan Spuller, who serves as a Co-Chair to NCBI, and Senior Director of Industry Affairs for the Washington-based Blockchain Association. We are a state where hard work, innovation, and our ability to adapt has enabled North Carolina to compete globally on many levels.

North Carolina state policymakers have historically been favorable to blockchain technology, and were among the earliest pioneers of regulatory innovation for the blockchain industry with the passage of the North Carolina Money Transmitters Act of 2016, and bipartisan North Carolina Regulatory Sandbox Act of 2021, the latter of which passed both chambers unanimously and created a multi-agency innovation council.

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North Carolina Blockchain Initiative Announces New Appointments ... - NC.GOV (.gov)

Matter Labs, the team behind Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution zkSync, has confirmed that 921 Ether (ETH) worth $1.7 million is currently stuck in one of its new smart contracts, GemstoneIDO.

However, the firm claims the funds to be safe and to have found an elegant solution for rescuing the funds, which accumulated during the Gemholic token sale.

Initially stating that the funds wouldnt be stuck forever, Matter Labs said in its most recent tweet that it had found an elegant solution to unfreeze the GemstoneIDO contract and transfer the funds out.

Matter Labs identified the issue to have stemmed from the .transfer() function in the GemstoneIDO smart contract, which is part of a project run by the GemholicECO ecosystem.

Matter Labs said that the issue could have been prevented had they deployed the contract on a testnet first.

The faulty function came from zkSync Era, a new type of Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) zero knowledge proof rollup that executes smart contract much faster than on the base layer.

The team however stressed that zkSync Era is not EVM-equivalent, meaning that it is compatible with the EVM at a bytecode level. This means some functions work differently in the new environment.

This is a deliberate design choice with specific upsides and trade-offs, they said.

In justifying its design choice, Matter Labs said zkSync Era could process some transaction types between 10 to 1,000 times cheaper than other EVM rollups.

Nontheless, Matter Labs held themselves accountable for the mistake and assured members of the zkSync ecosystem that they'll continue resolve similar issues relentlessly.

Several members of the CryptoCurrency subreddit, however,expressed their frustration on the matter:

Im all in for seeing Zero Knowledge tech becoming more and more relevant in the crypto space. However, these chains also have to take into consideration the fact that peoples funds are at stake, said another.

Related: zkSync Era launches with Uniswap and Sushi First zkEVM on mainnet

Transaction failures of the GemstoneIDO contract can be seen on the zkSync explorer page, which also shows the 921 Ether is stored in its smart contract.

Matter Labs launched zkSync Era on mainnet last week, promising that decentralized exchanges Uniswap and SushiSwap would be live in a matter of days. That hasnt happened yet, however, projects including Argent, Celer Network and MetaMask are live on the network now.

Updated 1:37am UTC time on April 7: This article has been updated to add comments from Matter Labs most recent post on the incident.

Magazine: Ethereum is eating the world You only need one internet

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zkSync Eras elegant fix for 921 ETH stuck forever in smart contract - Cointelegraph

A bug introduced into SushiSwap four days ago was exploited late Saturday to drain about $3.3 million worth of Ethereum from a single user's account.

According to a Twitter post by blockchain security and data analytics company PeckShield, a wallet controlled by the victima prominent member of the Crypto Twitter community known as Sifuwas targeted by an "approve-related bug" in SushiSwap's RouterProcessor2 contract to steal about 1,800 ETH.

Separate analysis by Binance-backed cybersecurity firm Ancilia determined that the flaw was the failure to validate access permissions halfway through a swap transaction. The firm also found the vulnerable contract on the Polygon network.

SushiSwap "head chef" Jared Gray confirmed the bug and exploit about an hour later, and repeated Peckshield's recommendation that users who have interacted with the SushiSwap blockchain revoke all permissions granted to its contracts. Grey had broken the news of SushiSwap's SEC subpoena two weeks ago.

Early Sunday morning, SushiSwap CTO Matthew Lilley followed up with more details.

Were currently all hands on deck working through identifying all addresses that have been affected by the RouterProcessor2 exploit. Lilley wrote. "Several rescues have been initiated, and we are continuing to monitor / rescue funds as they become available."

"There is no risk at this time with using Sushi Protocol, and the UI," he continued. "All exposure to RouterProcessor2 has been removed from the front end, and all [liquidity providing and] current swap activity is safe to do."

To help users determine whether he or she had granted RouteProcessor2 access to its funds, Lilley posted a link to a tool to check for exposure across a variety of networks, including Ethereum, Polygon, Avalange, Arbitrum, Gnosis, Optimism, and others.

According to Grey, more than 300 ETH of Sifu's stolen funds have since been recovered, with another 700 ETH in process. The recovery effort has been tracked by crypto visualization service MetaSleuth.

Despite the hack, the price of SushiSwap's SUSHI token has dipped only slightly in the past 24 hours, down about 3%.

In 2021, SushiSwap narrowly avoided a massive hack when a "white hat" crypto researcher discovered a bidding bug that could have been exploited to the tune of $350 million.

Read more:

SushiSwap Smart Contract Bug Exploited in $3.3 Million Theft - Decrypt

In cryptocurrency circles, notable players always explore limitless possibilities, and the integration of AI is on the radar of Chainlink and Algorand. In realizing AI capabilities, they have identified the potential benefits of integrating AI solutions into their blockchains.

Avorak AI is quickly becoming the ultimate AI crypto solutions provider with its offering of simple-to-use but valuable trading tools. Avorak Trade, for example, requires minimal instructions to scan the market 24/7 and identify profitable trade opportunities. It offers an equal chance to novices and experienced traders.

In the wake of a record-breaking ICO, Avorak is already brewing a storm as it effortlessly achieves $750,000 in one month. Avorak is available at $0.180 in phase four. ICO investors have 7% on-top bonuses as they await more benefits, including the expected 350% price increase during its launch. Early investors can look forward to Avoraks listing on the Azbit exchange and access to priority staking pools.

Avorak Write simplifies bulk content generation and rectifies existing tools challenges. Users can direct the text generator to produce the content in their desired form or style.

Algorand (ALGO), the next-generation blockchain network, strives to solve challenges that plagued earlier blockchains. Scalability is one big challenge facing early blockchains. Algorands innovative PoS solution aims to rectify this problem through its high TPS while maintaining security and decentralization. Algorand deploys other features, such as smart contracts and 8creating and exchanging tokens on its blockchain. As a result of these features, many experts and analysts believe that Algorand has the potential for growth as ALGO price prediction projects a value of $54.90 by 2030. Algorands AI solution integration with Avorak AI creates an innovative blockchain project with impact and growth potential in the crypto space.

The Chainlink decentralized Oracle network connects smart contracts to real-world data and events. The Chainlink network consists of nodes run by independent operators (oracles) responsible for aggregating and verifying data. The native cryptocurrency of the Chainlink network is the LINK token that helps pay node operators for their services. It is also a ticket to additional features and services within the network.

Chainlinks current price is $7.22. If LINK reached $10,000, it would translate to 72,220 tokens at the current value. Chainlinks price to shoot up this high demands significant adoption and usage of the network. Chainlink will need state-of-the-art innovations that provide value to its users. Chainlink must also leverage market sentiment and deliver continuous blockchain technology advancements and breakthroughs. All these parameters may sound impossible, but as with any investment, its crucial to research and carry out due diligence.

Chainlink and Algorand have turned toward AI solutions8 to enhance their platforms. While Chainlink focuses on decentralized oracle networks that connect smart contracts to real-world data and events, Algorand aims to provide a secure, scalable, decentralized infrastructure for building dApps. The two projects recognize the potential of Avorak AI to improve their platforms capabilities and are investing in research and development to integrate AI solutions into their ecosystems.

By leveraging the power of AI, these projects can create more efficient, accurate, and secure decentralized systems that can benefit the crypto world.

Find more on Avorak AI here:

Website: https://avorak.aiBuy AVRK: https://invest.avorak.ai/register

Disclaimer:This is a paid release. The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily represent those of Bitcoinist. Bitcoinist does not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of information available in such content. Do your research and invest at your own risk.

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Chainlink and Algorand are two cryptos looking toward AI solutions | Bitcoinist.com - Bitcoinist

The Banque de Francepublished a detailed discussion paperthis week on decentralized finance (DeFi), exploring the risks involved in the area and potential regulatory changes that could mitigate them.

The discussion paper was co-authored by Olivier Fliche, Julien Uri and Mathieu Vileyn, members of the Fintech-Innovation Hub at the Autorit de contrle prudentiel et de rsolution (ACPR), the Banque de France-backed organization responsible for the supervision of banking and insurance institutions and their intermediaries.

The paper begins by defining DeFi, which it states is more accurately described as disintermediated finance, as a set of digital asset services similar to financial services but carried out without the intervention of an intermediary and heavily reliant on smart contracts.

This, it claims, comes with inherent risks and limitations, one being that decentralized governance is, in reality, sometimes highly centralized, meaning its often the case that governance tokens are concentrated in the hands of a few players who hold power over the protocol and can make decisions that are detrimental to minority owners.

Along with this fundamental risk, the paper identifies further causes for concern related to, amongst other things, potential flaws in thesmart contract code, the vulnerabilities of blockchain infrastructure to attack, money laundering, and the risks associated with stablecoins.

To mitigate these issues, it recommends improved regulation designed specifically for the unique challenges of DeFi: The main idea developed in this paper is that the regulation of disintermediated finance cannot simply replicate the systems that currently govern traditional finance. On the contrary, regulations must take into account the specific features of DeFi.

Such regulation, the paper explains, should not be a monolithic block but rather a combination of traditional financial regulations and regulations inspired by other economic sectors.

Proposed regulation

Regarding changes to current and incoming regulations, the paper proposes that blockchains be certified according to minimum security standards, which would entail certification of computer code, a minimum number of validators, and a cap on validation capacity concentration.

The paper proposed that a certification mechanism could also be used to strengthen the security of smart contracts computer code, on whichDeFirelies. Certification would be obtained following an auditing process of the contracts and code; it should be withdrawable; and would only be granted for a limited time, to be renewed after any significant change to the code.

Another key concern of the paper was that players exercising control over sensitive services should be required to incorporate. This would mean assigning a legal statute to the intermediaries that allow access to DeFi services, such as decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO), making them incorporate and thus allowing for increased supervision and controlin theory, improving customer protection.

According to the paper, the first step to achieving these DeFi sector improvements would be to explicitly extend the provisions of the European MiCA Regulation to decentralized financial intermediaries.

TheMarkets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, which has been in the works since September 2020 and looks set to come into force in early 2024, will bring with it a raft of new legislation aimed at addressing unbacked digital assets as well as stablecoins, exchanges, and wallets. The law isintended to bridge the remaining gaps in EU legislation created by digital assets, allowing industry players to operate without legal ambiguity and authorities to better govern the area.

Currently, DeFi intermediaries do not fall within the scope of MiCA regulation and what it considers crypto asset service providers (CASPs)companies that help users control, trade, or store their digital assetsas the regulation does not apply to services provided in a fully decentralized manner without any intermediary, so either the CASP definition would need to be expanded, or extra allowance made for DeFi intermediaries.

An area MiCA has a lot to say about is stablecoins, a concern it shares with the papers authors at the ACPR Fintech-Innovation Hub.

Stablecoins

The Banque de France discussion paper explains that stablecoins are essential to the functioning of DeFi because they are the settlement assets used for transactions and they are DeFis main point of contact with the real world.

Under MiCA, stablecoin issuers will be required to hold a 1:1 reserve of assets, while those containing the coins must be entitled to claim their true value from the issuer without charge.

However, as mentioned, the MiCA regulation does not apply to decentralized services or cover stablecoins issued or used by such protocols. This gap, the paper proposes, should be bridged by including any stablecoin used or created by a decentralized service within the remit of MiCAs incoming stablecoin regulations.

The authors of the paper state that it is not intended to provide an exhaustive view of all DeFi issues and does not reflect an official ACPR position on the matter. Instead, it aims to develop an analysis of DeFi and how it can be effectively regulated.

The paper concludes with a consultation questionnaire asking for feedback from relevant industry stakeholders on the discussion and proposed changes, to be completed by May 19, 2023.

Watch: BSV On-chain Ecosystem Development in Europe

New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeeksBitcoin for Beginnerssection, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoinas originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamotoand blockchain.

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French central bank explores DeFi risks and regulation - CoinGeek