Dfinity Foundation’s Internet Computer blockchain is bringing smart-contract capabilities to the Bitcoin (BTC) network, potentially opening the door to new use cases for the premier cryptocurrency. Internet Computer will utilize its so-called chain key cryptography to integrate with Bitcoin, paving the way for smart contracts with native BTC addresses that are hosted directly on Internet Computer, Dfinity Foundation announced Tuesday. “Internet Computer smart contracts will gain access to bitcoin liquidity, and Bitcoin will gain powerful new smart contract functionality, without the need for insecure and cumbersome trusted bridging services,” explained Dominic Williams, the founder and chief scientist of Dfinity Foundation.

A new study from the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) has projected that Bitcoin’s energy consumption will remain below 0.5% of the global total over the next decade. NYDIG published its 'Bitcoin Net Zero' research paper this month, finding that Bitcoin’s energy consumption and carbon emissions will not skyrocket in the coming years, even if prices do. The study, which was penned by Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter and NYDIG founder Ross Stevens, discusses how the network’s carbon emission may change in the future depending on fluctuations in Bitcoin’s price, mining difficulty, and energy consumption.

United St Securities and Commission, or SEC, chair Gary Gensler has doubled down on his “Wild West” analogy for cryptocurrencies, calling stablecoins instruments for gambling at old-timey casinos. Speaking to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius on Tuesday, Gensler said most projects in the crypto space dealt with securities that fall under the regulatory purview of the SEC, while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, was better suited for enforcement for others. The SEC chair described the authority of both agencies as “robust” but said there were gaps in the coverage, particularly for stablecoins, which “may have attributes of investment contracts.” “Stablecoins are almost acting like poker chips at the casino right now,” said Gensler. “We’ve got a lot of casinos here in the Wild West, and the poker chip is these stablecoins at the casino gaming tables.”

It should be remembered that what remains today in writing of the pre-Qin schools should not necessarily be considered representative of their relative importance at the time. During the warring states period, Mencius complained that the world was full of the words of Mozi and Yangzi; yet today little remains of Yangzi’s doctrines, and much of the book of Mozi survived only by historical accident. Similarly, Huizi was a debater whose ideas had considerable influence on debate at the time (as is recorded in the Zhuangzi and other texts), yet no works of his remain extant today. History played a large part in ensuring the preservation of the Confucian texts, as well as the various ancient classics revered by the school, and perhaps also the various Legalist texts.Additionally, attention should be paid to the way texts were prepared and handed down through the ages. Many texts of the period claim to either be the work of or record the words of a particular scholar or historical person of the time. However it is often difficult to establish the authenticity of these attributions, and in some cases they are simply not true. In many cases, works were prepared largely by the followers of a particular school of thought, and a single book may be the collective work of many authors, sometimes over a period of decades or even hundreds of years. Naturally, this means that events and conversations recorded in one book (by one school of thought) are prone to bias, and tend to present their own side in a positive light; debates between opposing thinkers often end with one side appearing “lost for words” and accepting defeat, when in reality they might well have had much more to say; in some cases, historical figures are presented as caricatures or figures of ridicule.Because texts were generally reproduced by scribes copying the original text character by character, the transmission of texts could easily introduce accidental errors; occasionally, new passages were inserted and presented as part of the original work. The compact

A new survey has revealed bleak insights into the apparent willingness of retail investors to follow digital asset advice from the social media accounts of celebrities and influencers. According to a Morning Consultant survey of 2,200 U.S. adults, 45% of crypto-holding respondents indicated they would be likely to seek exposure to a digital asset if it is endorsed by a celebrity, compared to just 20% of participants overall. There were some more promising results, with three-quarters of crypto investors indicating they were likely to invest based on a family member or friend’s recommendation while 81% would invest in response to advice from a financial advisor.

The team behind the design of NBA Houston Rockets player John Wall’s nonfungible token may have ripped off one of the backgrounds directly from the popular online game Fortnite. Wall first announced he planned to release a line of “Baby Baller” nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, on Tuesday to raise $100,000 for charity and the “Ballers community.” However, once he posted a preview of the tokenized artwork on Twitter, social media users were quick to notice that the background appeared to be lifted from Fortnite. The image, available on eason 5 of Fortnite from Epic Games, shows a basketball court adjacent to a building near coconut trees. Though Wall’s preview included one of the Baby Ballers on the court spinning a basketball on his finger, many commented that the artwork was a seemingly lazy attempt to get into the NFT game.

Last week, some former users of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange Cryptsy received a notice informing them of a new turn in the ongoing class settlement process. Authorized by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the document states that those who were defrauded in the 2016 collapse of the digital finance platform may be entitled to receive money from additional recovery. Cryptsy was a crypto exchange that went bust in January 2016 following months of user-reported issues with withdrawing funds from the platform. The court later found that Cryptsy founder Paul Vernon had stolen millions of dollars worth of customers’ digital assets before fleeing to China. Later that year, a group of the exchange’s users initiated a class action against the company and its founder, while what was left of Cryptsy went into receivership. The court-appointed receiver began to liquidate various assets associated with the defunct company, amassing some $1.5 million by June 2017 to be distributed between the victims.

As virtual reality trickles into the consumer space, developers are finding impressive new ways to make use of the nascent tech. 
One such dev is Elite Dangerous creator Frontier Developments, which will soon give players the ability to co-pilot and inhabit a four-person interstellar freighter from inside virtual reality when the Commanders 2.3 beta update hits. 
Frontier's rugged space-exploration sim is already compatible with the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and a number of eye and head-tracking products, but until now players could only cruise through the universe on their lonesome. 
The new update changes that by letting a group of friends share a bridge and take on different roles -- such as gunner, engineer, tactician, and pilot -- as part of a "multi-crew" experience.
Reddit user ChristianM, who's been gathering information about the feature for some time, has suggested the crew limit of four might be expanded in future updates, and that the Commander Creation slider tool will let players customize their pilot's face and hair (because others will now be able to see them in-game).