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Tron founder Justin Sun, new owner of the Steemit social network based on the Steem token, appears to have successfully executed a takeover of Steem by leveraging not only tokens directly controlled, but also tokens held on several major exchanges, in order to vote out the previous delegates (Steem uses a delegated proof-of-stake system) and install new ones. This means that customers of these exchanges likely had their funds used without their consent in this blockchain power struggle.

As the Ethereum community anticipates the long-awaited launch of Ethereum 2.0, users are also bracing themselves for a major systematic shift from a proof-of-work model to a proof-of-stake. PoS systems consume exponentially less power and systematically increase decentralization by lowering the barrier of entry to network participation. While the transition from PoW to PoS may be initially difficult for the community, this article proposes five principles to make the transition easier for everyone.

Anchor will offer a principal-protected stablecoin savings product that accepts TerraUSD (UST) deposits and pays a stable interest rate. To generate yield, Anchor lends out deposits to borrowers who put down liquid-staked proof-of-stake (PoS) assets from major blockchains as collateral. Anchor's yield is thus powered by block rewards of major PoS blockchains.

Anchor, a savings protocol on the Terra blockchain, is due to launch on March 16, according to a countdown clock on its website. Anchor will offer a principal-protected stablecoin savings product that accepts TerraUSD (UST) deposits and pays a stable interest rate. To generate yield, Anchor lends out deposits to borrowers who put down liquid-staked proof-of-stake (PoS) assets from major blockchains as collateral. Anchor's yield is thus powered by block rewards of major PoS blockchains.

Morgan Stanley acquired 10.9% stake in business intelligence firm MicroStrategy, a firm that has made massive investments in Bitcoin over the past several months. In August, MicroStrategy made Bitcoin its primary reserve asset, and more recently MicroStrategy announced a $400 million securities offering with the stated purpose of raising funds to buy more Bitcoin. As of December 21, the firm had stockpiled 70,470 Bitcoin.

DeFi (decentralized finance) encompasses anything that provides loans, borrowing, staking or some reward to the user for putting in capital to the system. It removes all the layers of intermediaries and middlemen that would normally be involved through the use of smart contracts. The DeFi space remains heavily reliant on the Ethereum blockchain (which has famously struggled to scale to onboard mass users). However, once Ethereum transitions to ETH 2.0 using the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism, the number of users it can onboard will be potentially without limitation. Moreover, other serious contenders are further building out the space, such as Compound, and Maker DAO, propelling DeFi to more and more users.

SushiSwap, created by animated and anonymous character Chef Nomi, is a fork of VC-backed UniSwap, a decentralized exchange. SushiSwap promised to take all of the best features of UniSwap and improve on its governance by creating a community owned fork using a voting token called SUSHI. Anyone who joined the community could become a liquidity provider by staking SUSHI and ETH on UniSwap, which would eventually be transferred to SushiSwap when it is launched. The combination of your liquidity stake, or voting power, is your *SUSHIPOWAH*. Chef Nomi swapped his Sushi LP tokens for some $13 million of Ethereum (ETH) worth about $13 million in what bears strong resemblance to an "exit scam."

The genesis block of the Ethereum 2.0 beacon chain went live on December 1. The repeatedly delayed scalability and security Ethereum upgrade suffered no hiccups and immediately reached the required stake participation rate to finalize the blockchain. The biggest change is the introduction of a proof-of-stake consensus to the network, which has previously been purely based on proof-of-work consensus. The next step is creating shard chains, ideally in 2021, which theoretically allow the blockchain to handle many more transactions per second than proof-of-work Ethereum, which often struggles with congestion.

"Prior to The Merge, Ethereum used to have dozens upon dozens of mining pools dedicating hashrate toward the blockchain network. That has all changed and most of the miners transitioned or plan on transitioning to other Ethash compatible coins like ethereum classic, ERGO, and the new fork ETHW. Now Ethereum blocks are verified by validators and at the time of writing, there are 429,278 validators. However, a great deal of the 13.7 million staked ethereum is held by four known providers."

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against Consensys, the parent company of MetaMask. It alleges that the company has been operating as an unregistered broker and engaging in the unregistered offer and sale of securities through MetaMask Swaps since 2020. The complaint claims that Consensys has collected more than $250 million in fees by brokering crypto asset transactions and offering staking services without proper registration, thereby depriving investors of crucial protections. The SEC seeks a permanent injunction, civil penalties and other equitable relief against Consensys for these alleged violations of federal securities laws. https://www.docdroid.com/YS1DSF5/sec-v-consensys-pdf

Cryptocurrency systems based on proof of stake (PoS) grant governance rights to the holders of currency tokens and therefore are vulnerable to attack by adversaries who buy tokens in order to gain control. To evaluate the robustness of PoS cryptocurrencies to such attacks, we model the market for tokens and determine how the cost of attacking the system depends on the level and shape of token supply and demand. We show that, contrary to popular belief, the appreciation of tokens in response to demand by attackers plays a small role in securing the system. In particular, stablecoins can be less vulnerable to attack than cryptocurrencies that are freely floating. Moreover, PoS cryptocurrencies that primarily function as mediums of exchange are vulnerable to attack if the velocity of money is high.

"The Merge-Ethereum's long-awaited transition to Proof-of-Stake-is fast approaching. The timeline has some uncertainty, but the best estimates suggest we are a little over two weeks out with a tentative date for The Merge of September 15th. Ethereum developers are determined to complete one of the most significant and intricate changes in crypto's history without disrupting a network that secures and settles billions of dollars worth of value on-chain daily."

Ripple has struck a deal to buy a stake in money transfer giant MoneyGram that will see MoneyGram using XRP as part of its day-to-day operations by way of Ripple's xRapid transaction product. MoneyGram started piloting the token back in January 2018.

"We expect that the evolution of payment infrastructure will accelerate. All actors are grappling with what is at stake. For governments and central banks, regulating this transformation will be a prerequisite to avoiding a possible privatization of monetary policy, and for banks and other financial services providers, keeping up with evolving customer preferences and further adjusting the pricing of payments and transfers appears unavoidable."

While Libra project supposedly has 28 founding partners, according to Visa, who is one of them, only nonbinding letters of intent to join Libra have been signed, so no one has yet officially joined. I've read elsewhere that also, no one has anted up the $10m minimum stake.

"Ten years after Bitcoin began operating, we are still trying to understand it and regulators have not figured out what to do about it," said Angela Walch. "In the end, Facebook and Libra are entering the high-stakes domain of money and finance-they should expect to carry a heavy regulatory burden just as others operating in this space do."

The Telegram Open Network, or TON, is Telegram's upcoming Proof-of-Stake network that promises to integrate blockchain payments into its messaging app that serves some 365 million users. If it delivers on promises of high speeds and decentralization, it will be the largest blockchain launch in history.

PayPal has become the first foreign company to acquire a payments licence in China, after buying a majority stake in a small Chinese online payments firm, Guofubao (NationPay).

"It is a hopeful sign of the beginning maturation of the digital asset markets that various players are staking out their positions and arguing their opinions about market structure. The topic often becomes mired in technical details so for this piece, we have taken a step back to discuss a broader set of market structure points, informed by history and experience, aiming to see the forest in addition to the trees."

Hedera Hashgraph chose Google Cloud Platform as its preferred cloud provider for deploying its public networks. Google commends Hedera for the choice, while revealing that it is taking an active stake in the project's governance.