Blockchain
Blockstream’s Liquid pushes for DeFi with new decentralized exchange
Bitcoin DeFi is coming, but it’s not really on Bitcoin.


A decentralized exchange built on the Liquid network is opening for early access on Monday.
Called TDEX, the project has announced its entry into an Open Alpha stage. It’s being built by Sevenlabs — a firm that provides consulting and white-labeling services in addition to its current work.
The exchange provides a fairly unique twist to the Automated Market Makers currently dominating on-chain exchange volume. The TSWAP protocol used by the exchange focuses on ad-hoc atomic swaps, a way of conducting a trade between two counterparties without intermediaries.
Unlike AMMs, there are no mathematical formulas involved that would force a particular exchange price. As Claudio Levrini, CEO of Sevenlabs, told Cointelegraph, “TDEX leaves to the liquidity provider full control on using a fixed price strategy or add external price feeds and custom trading logic.” The flipside of this is that providing liquidity on the platform is likely to be more involved than on platforms like Uniswap.
Atomic swaps are often proposed as a decentralized method for exchanging assets on Bitcoin and other UTXO blockchains. While adoption has been limited so far, the Taproot and Schnorr proposals could allow simpler mechanisms through Adaptor signatures.
Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, said that “TDEX is an exciting example of the increasing number of DeFi solutions emerging on Liquid — or as we like to call it, LiFi.”
But the relative level of centralization on Liquid has been the subject of criticism in the past, especially in the context of introducing concepts traditionally associated with Ethereum like non-fungible tokens.
Liquid is a Bitcoin sidechain that relies on a federation of “functionaries” to both ensure a peg to Bitcoin and validate the network. These functionaries are business entities tied to Bitcoin, primarily exchanges. The federation and design of the peg system present a significant point of trust in the network, as an incident in June briefly made Blockstream the sole controller of 870 BTC in network reserves.
Some in the Bitcoin community often push for creating “Bitcoin DeFi” that could open the network to the world of decentralized trading and lending which, until now, has primarily been seen on Ethereum.
Atomic Loans is currently among the only projects that uses native Bitcoin as collateral for borrowing, though it uses Ethereum for the rest of its logic. Other “Bitcoin DeFi” projects include MoneyOnChain, a MakerDAO analog on RSK, and now, TDEX.
None of these projects are built natively on Bitcoin, primarily due to smart contract limitations. These same limitations make it difficult to create trustless bridges to the blockchain, forcing sidechains to adopt federated peg mechanisms.
But demand for Bitcoin in DeFi is clearly strong, as evidenced by the success of WBTC. There is more Bitcoin locked on Ethereum than in Liquid and the Lightning Network combined. It remains to be seen if demand for DeFi on Liquid will be as strong.
Blockchain
Smart contract exploits are more ethical than hacking… or not?


There has been a lot of talk about the recent “hacks” in the decentralized finance realm, particularly in the cases of Harvest FInance and Pickle Finance. That talk is more than necessary, considering hackers stole more than $100 million from DeFi projects in 2020, accounting for 50% of all hacks this year, according to a CipherTrace report.
Related: Roundup of crypto hacks, exploits and heists in 2020
Some point out that the occurrences were merely exploits that shined a light on the vulnerabilities of the respective smart contracts. The thieves didn’t really break into anything, they just happened to casually walk through the unlocked back door. By this logic, since the hackers exploited flaws without actually hacking in the traditional sense, the act of exploiting is ethically more justifiable.
But is it?
The differences between an exploit and a hack
Security vulnerabilities are the root of exploits. A security vulnerability is a weakness that an adversary could take advantage of to compromise the confidentiality, availability or integrity of a resource.
An exploit is the specially crafted code that adversaries use to take advantage of a certain vulnerability, and to compromise a resource.
Even mentioning the word “hack” in reference to blockchain might baffle an industry outsider less familiar with the technology, as security is one of the centerpieces of distributed ledger technology’s mainstream appeal. It’s true, blockchain is an inherently secure medium of exchanging information, but nothing is totally unhackable. There are certain situations in which hackers can gain unauthorized access to blockchains. These scenarios include:
- 51% attacks: Such hacks occur when one or more hackers gain control of over half of the computing power. It’s a very difficult feat for a hacker to achieve, but it does happen. Most recently in August 2020, Ethereum Classic (ETC) faced three successful 51% attacks in the span of a month.
- Creation errors: These occur when security glitches or errors go overlooked during the creation of the smart contract. These scenarios present loopholes in the most potent sense of the term.
- Insufficient security: When hacks are done through gaining undue access to a blockchain with weak security practices, is it really as bad if the door was left wide open?
Are exploits more ethically justifiable than hacks?
Many would argue that doing anything without consent cannot possibly be considered ethical, even if worse acts could have been committed. That logic also raises the question of whether an exploit is 100% illegal. For example, having a U.S. company registered in the Virgin Islands can also be seen as performing a legal tax “exploit,” though it isn’t considered outwardly illegal. As such, there are certain gray areas and loopholes in the system that people can use for their own benefit, and an exploit can also be seen as a loophole in the system.
Then there are cases such as cryptojacking, which is a form of cyberattack where a hacker hijacks a target’s processing power to mine cryptocurrency on the hacker’s behalf. Cryptojacking can be malicious or nonmalicious.
It may be safest to say that exploits are far from ethical. They are also entirely avoidable. In the early stages of the smart contract creation process, it’s important to follow the strictest standards and best practices of blockchain development. These standards are set to prevent vulnerabilities, and ignoring them can lead to unexpected effects.
It is also vital for teams to have intensive testing on a testnet. Smart contract audits can also be an effective way to detect vulnerabilities, though there are many audit companies that issue audits for little money. The best approach would be for companies to get several audits from different companies.
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Pawel Stopczynski is the researcher and R&D director at Vaiot. He was previously the R&D director and a co-founder at Veriori and at UseCrypt. Since 2004, Pawel has been involved in the development of 18 IT projects in Poland and the United Kingdom, focusing on the private sector. He was a speaker at several IT conferences, and the organizer of two TEDx conferences. For his work, Pawel was awarded a gold medal at the Concours Lépine International Innovation Fair 2019 in Paris, and a gold medal of the French minister of defense.
Coinsmart. Beste Bitcoin-Börse in Europa
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/smart-contract-exploits-are-more-ethical-than-hacking-or-not
Blockchain
Close to $10 Billion Worth of Crypto Longs Wiped off the Market Amid Sudden Crash


It’s been a rough Sunday for the cryptocurrency market.
$7.8 Billion Liquidated in an Hour
The “up only” sentiment in the digital asset market took a major hit today as more than $7 billion in crypto long positions were liquidated within an hour in a sudden market wide crash.
According to data from bybt, more than $9 billion worth of crypto long positions were liquidated in the past 12 hours while more than $8 billion were wiped off the market in the last 4 hours.
Specifically, bitcoin’s price started trending downwards early Saturday but the sharp free fall commenced around 3:00 UTC on Sunday.
After recording new ATH day after day, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies’ price witnessed a steep downfall today almost touching the $50,000 mark. At the time of writing, bitcoin has regained some support and trades at $55,300.
According to crypto analyst Lark Davis, bitcoin breached the 50-day moving average during the unanticipated crash which is a rare event during a bull run. For context, BTC breached the 50 day MA only a few times during the 2017 bull market. In retrospect, all such dips proved to be immensely profitable buy opportunities.
Overleveraged Longs get REKT
While it typically pays to long in a bull market, investors must be cautious of too much optimism and avoid being long in an already overbought market to not get rekt in sudden market crashes like that of today.
Being long in a market with less liquidity is particularly dangerous as the order books are thin and a sudden dump can cause the price of the underlying asset to go down much more than in other liquid markets.
The Block’s Larry Cermak noticed this on Perp Protocol where the price of ether (ETH) reached as low as $900 due to low liquidity.
Crypto derivatives exchange FTX’s CEO Sam Bankman-Fried share some interesting facts about the exchange during today’s crash.
According to SBF, the exchange witnessed trading volume close to $26 billion which was another all-time record volume day for FTX. At the same time, FTX had close to $250 million of liquidations today.
Related posts:
Coinsmart. Beste Bitcoin-Börse in Europa
Source: https://btcmanager.com/10-billion-crypto-longs-market-sudden-crash/
Blockchain
Kraken Daily Market Report for April 17 2021

Overview
- Total spot trading volume at $2.51 billion, 57% above the 30-day average of $1.6 billion.
- Total futures notional at $667.9 million.
- The top five traded coins were, respectively, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Tether, and Siacoin.
- Strong returns from Nano (+51%) and Siacoin (+20%).
April 17, 2021 $2.51B traded across all markets today Crypto, EUR, USD, JPY, CAD, GBP, CHF, AUD |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
XBT $61000. ↓0.8% $629.7M |
XDG $0.2633 ↓27% $605.2M |
ETH $2402.7 ↓1.3% $258.5M |
USDT $1.0005 ↓0.07% $240.2M |
SC $0.0521 ↑20% $159.8M |
XRP $1.5902 ↑2.7% $117.6M |
DOT $45.626 ↑10.0% $102.4M |
LTC $308.22 ↓0.8% $97.2M |
BCH $1090.7 ↓2.2% $79.1M |
ADA $1.3814 ↓2.3% $52.2M |
NANO $8.5722 ↑51% $46.2M |
TRX $0.1617 ↓0.03% $41.1M |
LINK $41.377 ↓1.8% $32.2M |
ETC $41.413 ↑6.9% $29.7M |
MANA $1.3461 ↑2.4% $29.2M |
USDC $1.0000 ↑0.0% $27.3M |
ALGO $1.5304 ↑1.3% $25.8M |
XMR $350.49 ↑2.7% $19.4M |
EOS $8.0465 ↓6.2% $16.1M |
XLM $0.6043 ↓0.9% $15.5M |
ZEC $275.80 ↑1.8% $12.6M |
FIL $180.09 ↓1.6% $12.4M |
DASH $371.48 ↓2.4% $11.5M |
XTZ $7.2400 ↑0.17% $11.2M |
KSM $464.33 ↑3.7% $11.2M |
ATOM $26.097 ↑2.0% $9.9M |
STORJ $2.3968 ↑2.0% $7.46M |
ICX $2.8503 ↑9.1% $7.09M |
UNI $36.055 ↓0.5% $5.28M |
DAI $1.0004 ↑0.06% $4.46M |
OMG $9.7769 ↓3.9% $4.33M |
CRV $3.9120 ↓0.5% $4.3M |
GRT $2.0052 ↑0.4% $3.71M |
QTUM $17.893 ↓2.7% $3.68M |
AAVE $434.98 ↓1.6% $3.67M |
FLOW $35.971 ↓1.6% $3.14M |
SNX $20.920 ↓0.4% $3.04M |
BAT $1.5007 ↓1.8% $2.96M |
EWT $20.354 ↓1.1% $2.92M |
YFI $51356. ↓3.8% $2.91M |
OXT $0.8106 ↓4.1% $2.82M |
KEEP $0.7062 ↓2.2% $2.7M |
KAVA $6.5367 ↓0.8% $2.6M |
OCEAN $1.6954 ↓0.12% $2.22M |
COMP $563.50 ↓0.6% $2.07M |
ANT $10.460 ↑1.4% $1.96M |
LSK $6.6796 ↓4.2% $1.63M |
WAVES $15.901 ↓4.2% $1.43M |
REPV2 $51.524 ↓2.8% $1.38M |
REP $51.440 ↓2.7% $1.07M |
KNC $3.4441 ↓4.0% $887K |
MLN $94.057 ↑4.3% $827K |
GNO $190.20 ↓0.5% $787K |
BAL $63.429 ↓0.8% $694K |
PAXG $1795.7 ↑0.17% $593K |
TBTC $62632. ↑0.0% $50.8K |
#####################. Trading Volume by Asset. ##########################################
Trading Volume by Asset
The figures below break down the trading volume of the largest, mid-size, and smallest assets. Cryptos are in purple, fiats are in blue. For each asset, the chart contains the daily trading volume in USD, and the percentage of the total trading volume. The percentages for fiats and cryptos are treated separately, so that they both add up to 100%.
Figure 1: Largest trading assets: trading volume (measured in USD) and its percentage of the total trading volume (April 17 2021)
Figure 2: Mid-size trading assets: (measured in USD) (April 17 2021)
Figure 3: Smallest trading assets: (measured in USD) (April 17 2021)
#####################. Spread %. ##########################################
Spread %
Spread percentage is the width of the bid/ask spread divided by the bid/ask midpoint. The values are generated by taking the median spread percentage over each minute, then the average of the medians over the day.
Figure 4: Average spread % by pair (April 17 2021)
.
#########. Returns and Volume ############################################
Returns and Volume
Figure 5: Returns of the four highest volume pairs (April 17 2021)
Figure 6: Volume of the major currencies and an average line that fits the data to a sinusoidal curve to show the daily volume highs and lows (April 17 2021)
###########. Daily Returns. #################################################
Daily Returns %
Figure 7: Returns over USD and XBT. Relative volume and return size is indicated by the size of the font. (April 17 2021)
###########. Disclaimer #################################################
The values generated in this report are from public market data distributed from Kraken WebSockets api. The total volumes and returns are calculated over the reporting day using UTC time.
Coinsmart. Beste Bitcoin-Börse in Europa
Source: https://blog.kraken.com/post/8684/kraken-daily-market-report-for-april-17-2021/
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