Alliance

Decentralized Storage Alliance seeks to bridge the Web3 gap through education and advocacy

The organization said that it intends to promote awareness and adoption of decentralized technologies, such as Filecoin, IPFS and Libp2p.

Decentralized storage network Filecoin has partnered with Protocol Labs and other participants within the Web3 ecosystem to launch the Decentralized Storage Alliance. According to the announcement, one of the main goals of the newly formed alliance is to help Web2 enterprises transition to Web3 through education, advocacy and best practices.

The Alliance said it hopes to achieve this by bringing together diverse viewpoints from leading Web2 and Web3 industry players, such as Advanced Micro Devices, Ernst & Young and data storage solutions provider Seagate. The organization aspires to become a trusted space where different companies can collaborate around Web3 technologies like decentralized storage in order to accelerate its adoption.

It also seeks to provide access to educational materials and technical resources that will improve the process of onboarding data to decentralized storage networks, and make it easier for new data centers to onboard to the network.

Stefaan Vervaet, head of network growth at Protocol Labs, claimed:

“With top-tier leaders across Web2 and Web3 coming together to explore the unrealized potential of decentralized technology, this Alliance has the power to transform the foundation of the internet.”

Related: Filecoin service provider announces move to Singapore in light of tightening restrictions in China

On Oct. 25, Cointelegraph reported that another Protocol Labs initiative launched CO2.Storage, a Web3 data storage solution that intends to enable transparency for carbon offsets and address traditional storage solutions for all types of digital environmental assets, including renewable energy credits. The initiative was designed with the intention of reducing the environmental impact of Filecoin.

Crypto Market Integrity Coalition inducts 8 new members, plans training

The self-regulatory organization backed by Solidus Labs is known for its integrity pledge; BitGo, Bittrex and Merkle Science are among the new members.

The Crypto Market Integrity Coalition (CMIC) announced the induction of eight new members, the organization announced on Sept. 29. The organization, which now has 38 members who have all taken a pledge to uphold market integrity and efficiency, describes itself as such:

“CMIC […] gives a unified voice to the crypto industry’s commitment to continually improving market integrity and collaboration with regulators.”

According to its statement, CMIC is also developing market integrity training for digital asset markets to help compliance professionals counter manipulation.

The new CMIC members are digital asset trust and security company BitGo, crypto exchange Bittrex, blockchain analytics platform Crystal Blockchain, fintech firms FinClusive and Oasis Pro Markets, Web3 risk mitigation platform Merkle Science, digital assets platform Tokenomy and forensic services provider VAF Compliance.

CMIC is the brainchild of market surveillance firm Solidus Labs. Solidus cofounder and CEO Asaf Meir said, “Now more than ever before, it is clear that crypto’s potential depends on the ability to mitigate its new risks and provide demonstrable market integrity.”

Related: BitGo sues Galaxy Digital for acquisition breach, seeks $100M in damages

The organization was founded in February with 17 members that included such names as Coinbase, Circle, Huobi Tech and CryptoUK. A second cohort of 13 members joined CMIC in April.

Solidus Labs chief operating officer Chen Arad told Cointelegraph, “CMIC does not define itself as an aspiring self-regulatory organization and rather works closely with, and has among its signatories, some of the leading industry membership associations like cryptoUK, the Chamber of Digital Commerce and the Global Blockchain Business Council.”

The CMIC pledge reads, in part:

“We support and seek to participate in digital asset markets that demonstrate Market Integrity. […] Digital assets and digital asset market structure may present novel forms of market activity and market manipulation. We agree to continually educate ourselves as to these unique challenges and how to address them.”

Tether, Bitfinex, Hypercore collab to launch encrypted P2P apps

The trio launched Holepunch with a vision to bestow control over data while breaking technology monopolies, among others.

Staying true to the “bear market is for building” motto, crypto exchange Bitfinex along with Tether (USDT) and Hypercore announced the launch of a fully encrypted platform, Holepunch, for building peer-to-peer applications. As part of the initiative, the trio launched Keet, an encrypted application capable of facilitating real-time audio and video calls, text chat and file sharing.

Partners aim to bestow control over data while breaking technology monopolies with Holepunch, according to the announcement. Tether and Bitfinex funded the development of the Holepunch platform. Paolo Ardoino, the chief technology officer of Tether and Bitfinex, will lead the new initiative as the chief strategy officer.

Speaking on behalf of Tether and Bitfinex, Ardoino highlighted the need to address the growing privacy concerns, stating:

“It [Tether and Bitfinex] believes that freedom of choice, communication and finances are the lifeblood of the future, and anything that will enhance those freedoms is worth amplifying.”

Holepunch currently operates as a closed source protocol in its alpha or pre-release phase, which will be moved to open source code by the end of 2022. In doing so, Holepunch will not use blockchain technology at its core and will instead move to an in-house payments API powered by the Lightning Network.

Developers building solutions on the Holepunch protocol will be able to use USDT as default for micropayments. However, the company is yet to disclose support for other cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.

Related: Web3 platforms launch the Open Metaverse Alliance

Blockchain-based metaverse and Web3 platforms joined hands to form Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3 (OMA3), an alliance built on four core principles — transparency, inclusiveness, decentralization and democratization.

As Cointelegraph reported, the alliance will focus its efforts on specific metaverse-related topics, which include setting standards for nonfungible tokens (NFTs), protocols, transferable identity, portals between virtual worlds, mapping and indexing.