Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly roundup of the most important stories in cryptocurrency technology development. I’m Ben Schiller, CoinDesk Opinions and Features Editor.
In this issue:
- Sony blockchain faces memecoin controversy
- Bubblemaps prepares the BMT and the new Intel desktop
- Babylon Improves Bitcoin Interoperability
- Prosecutors seek return of 95,000 BTC Bitfinex
This article is featured in the latest issue of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the technology behind cryptography, one block at a time. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday. Please also check out our weekly podcast The Protocol.
Network News
SONY ADOPTS BLOCKCHAIN AND FIGHTS THE MEMES: Sony, the 78-year-old Japanese electronics giant, is the latest megacompany to explore blockchain technology. On Tuesday, the company announced the official launch of “Soneium,” its general-purpose blockchain platform built on Optimism’s OP stack. The channel aims to “bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3 audiences, especially for creators, fans and the community,” the team behind the network told CoinDesk’s Margaux Nijkerk in a statement. Like similar general-purpose blockchains, the network is built to support a wide variety of use cases, from decentralized financial applications to entertainment and gaming services. Although Sony’s blockchain technology has attracted attention over the past week, not all of the attention has been positive in the first few hours. When Soneium launched, some X users complained that the network was blocking memecoin trading, leading to allegations that the (apparently decentralized) network was “censoring” certain types of transactions, a big no -no for some cryptography enthusiasts. The controversy highlighted the inevitable tension. between hard-line blockchain ideals and traditional corporate interests. But the incident also highlighted the resilience of crypto: some savvy blockchain users found a workaround that allowed them to “force” transactions to the Ethereum core network, making the purported blocking of transactions from Sony not applicable. Learn more.
BUBBLEMAPS WANTS MORE CRYPTO DETECTORS: Bubblemaps, the blockchain analytics service, announced on X this week that it would launch a token, BMT, and a new “Intel Desk” that will give holders a voice in conducting investigations. Bubblemaps recently introduced V2 of its platform, which helps crypto detectives determine who Really owns the supply of a given token. The platform sorts closely related blockchain addresses into clusters, and its easy-to-read visuals have become commonplace on crypto Twitter, where they have been used to demonstrate suspicious supply patterns among popular memecoins and DeFi tokens. Bubblemaps V2, which began rolling out to users in November, added new AI clustering capabilities and made it easier to examine token distributions over time. The BMT token just announced by Bubblemaps will be distributed to users of the V2 platform. Holders will be assigned a role in the platform’s “Intel Desk”, where community members can propose surveys and vote on how Bubblemaps allocates surveyors and internal resources.
BABYLON BRINGS MOMENTUM TO ZK: Babylon Labs, developer of the largest BTC staking protocol, is building a trust-minimized Bitcoin bridge with the Cosmos network to improve interoperability of the world’s oldest blockchain. In partnership with developers Fiamma, Babylon uses the BitVM2 computing paradigm, designed to enable Ethereum-like smart contracts on Bitcoin, paving the way for zero-knowledge (ZK) technology. ZK calculations allow different parties to verify that information is accurate without actually revealing to each other what that information is. In this sense, it is fundamental to link digital assets between different blockchains. Developers like Babylon Labs and Fiamma aim to unlock the deep wells of value stored in BTC to fund other ecosystems and enable their transactions on blockchains free of some of the speed and scale limitations of Bitcoin. Learn more.
BITFINEX: U.S. prosecutors have asked a federal judge to allow the return of nearly 80% of the 119,754 bitcoins stolen in the 2016 hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex. In a court filing filed Tuesday, prosecutors said the 94 643 bitcoins recovered by the government from the original wallet used by the hacker, Ilya Lichtenstein, could be paid to Bitfinex as restitution in kind once the court will have given the green light. Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Satoshi Vision and Bitcoin Gold generated via several hard forks following the hack will also be sent to Bitfinex. Last November, Lichtenstein was sentenced to 5 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in 2023. His wife, Heather Morgan – better known by her rap moniker Razzlekhan – was sentenced to 18 month in prison for helping Lichtenstein launder part of his money. of the proceeds of piracy. Both agreed to forfeit the stolen cryptocurrency as part of their plea deal. Learn more.
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Regulation and policy
Calendar
- January 20-24: World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland
- January 21-25: WAGMI conference, Miami.
- January 24-25: Bitcoin adoption, Cape Town, South Africa.
- January 30-31: PLAN B Forum, San Salvador, El Salvador.
- February 1-6: Satoshi round table, Dubai
- February 19-20, 2025: ConsensusHK, Hong Kong.
- February 23-24: NFT Paris
- February 23-March 2: ETHDenver
- March 18-19: Digital Asset Summit, London
- May 14-16: Consensus, Toronto.
- May 27-29: Bitcoin 2025, Las Vegas.
