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ShareAlways be on the lookout for scams! Ukrainian authorities have intercepted and taken down a fake call center that was impersonating state banking institutions to steal funds from people who had signed up on untrustworthy crypto and securities trading platforms. With the promise of quick profits, users who invested ultimately lost access to their holdings. They were later contacted by the criminals posing as state authorities and offered assistance in getting their lost assets returned in exchange for a commission payment. After receiving the payment and having gained access to the unsuspecting users' bank cards and other confidential information, they ceased communications with the defrauded victims.
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The Helium network is an interesting use case of blockchain and tokens. The Helium Foundation, founded in 2013, distributes Helium Hotspots that provide decentralized 5G coverage to local users. Hotspot operators earn HNT tokens for providing verified services to the network. It runs on its own blockchain because at the time Ethereum was considered to be too slow to support the transactions needed to keep the hotspot activity running smoothly. The network now has nearly one million Helium Hotspots but has recently been hit with outages and is suffering from lower demand than anticipated.
Recently, Helium's developers floated a proposal to transition to the Solana blockchain to “allow for more reliable data transfer and more consistent and predictable Proof-of-Coverage activity.” If implemented, all HNT and other tokens and credits in the Helium ecosystem would transfer to the Solana blockchain. A vote on this will be held September 12.
A number of sites are now counting down the estimated time until the great Merge. Here are a couple you can watch:
And of course the Ethereum blog is the place for all definitive information about this upcoming event.
If you're wondering how this will impact you and your Cryptal wallets, the answer is simple: nothing will change! Your ETH and ERC20 coins are safe. However, around the time of the Beacon chain merge (currently estimated to occur on September 15), we will need to suspend ETH and ERC20 activities until the transition to proof-of-stake is finished.
According to ethereum.org: “…the entire history of Ethereum since genesis remains intact and unaltered after the transition to proof-of-stake. Any funds held in your wallet before The Merge will still be accessible after The Merge. No action is required to upgrade on your part.”
Let us know if you have any questions!
September's Coin of the Month is Cardano!
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