Market
Payments
Russia PM sets December deadline for international crypto payments rule
Prime minister Mikhail Mishustin noted that the country's financial system would have to adjust because of the economic sanctions imposed by western authorities.
Technology
Algorand throws hat in ring as Helium community begins vote on Solana migration
Available information shows that Helium developers considered other blockchains like Polkadot, Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, and Algorand before settling for Solana.
Price Watch
Ravencoin price, hashrate spike as Merge draws closer
Ravencoin is one of the few PoW tokens looking to attract ETH miners who would be affected by the Merge.
NFTs
Ripple’s XRPL NFT plan on hold as developer finds fault in proposal
According to XRPL Labs lead developer Wietse Wind, a setting that could allow malicious players to abuse minted NFTs was discovered.
Metaverse
South Korea sentences metaverse sexual abuser to 4 years imprisonment
The unnamed man was banned from working in any entity involving minors and the disabled. He also must attend a mandatory program for sexual offenders.
NFTs
Starbucks launches NFT loyalty program on Polygon
Starbucks revealed that users could buy the NFTs with their debit and credit cards in order to increase accessibility.
NFTs
Pumping Parrots NFTs see 753% increase in sales volume with pyramid scheme model
Pumping Parrots markets itself as a pump-and-dump opportunity for collectors to make money before the Merge.
People
Bitcoin maxis bullish on new leader of Canada’s Conservative Party
Pierre Poilievre has vowed to make Canada the blockchain capital of the world and also use crypto to combat inflation.
Web3
Ethereum Name Service developer identifies challenges in Vitalik’s fee proposal
ENS developers argued that Vitalik Buterin’s proposal does not take the “accessibility” of these domain names to users into account.
Merge
Ethereum Merge is 34k blocks away, expected to happen Sept. 14
Gnosis co-founder Martin Köppelmann revealed that erstwhile offline validators are back online as the "clear visible dip at Bellatrix (is) pretty much back to normal."
Mining
White House releases report on crypto mining effect on environment
The report focuses primarily on establishing standards for crypto miners, and recommends several measures to limit the energy consumption of proof of work mining.
Hacks
Chainalysis helps US government seize $30M linked to Axie Infinity hack
Chainalysis revealed that the hackers now use DeFi services to chain hop, or switch between several different kinds of cryptocurrency in a single transaction.