Gelato is a distributed network that allows automating interactions between dApps. Users will be able to do automated trading and refinance yield farming strategies with the network.

A new tool will now allow Ethereum users to automate buy/sell transactions and refinance their interest rates on DeFi platforms. The Gelato application has had its release on the Ethereum core network this month, allowing automated contract interactions.

Gelato’s smart contract performs arbitrary actions on behalf of users in one or two transactions. Users do not have to program or write any code for the processing of these transactions, but the application adapts automatically to different tasks.

This is a decentralized version for Ethereum of the conditional command IFTTT (“if this, then that”), which will automate tasks without the need to code any action. Last February, the service had its release as a web interface, but in June it managed to incorporate its open-source smart contract, available to any interested developer.

The tool mainly focuses on developers who want to automate the tasks of their decentralized applications (dApps). The application classifies these users as “Gelato Suppliers” since they deposit Ether (ETH) in a wallet and determine the actions that it will execute on their behalf.

Automation of Ethereum Contracts

The smart contract eliminates the need to use a server infrastructure to execute transactions. For this reason, developers only need a balance in Ether to program how many actions they want between different functions or applications, thus automating the service that they offer to their customers and simplifying the steps of use.

Gelato also works with a distributed relay network that receives power supply from a group of executing nodes. Users pay these entities in Ether as a reward for the processing of their transactions. This decentralized system seems to base on the consensus mechanisms of blockchains.

The executing nodes do not have direct access to the money deposited in the users’ Gelato account. The service will only have the power to claim the money corresponding to the tasks performed. It is a non-custodial tool, so users’ funds remain secured in their wallets in a decentralized manner.

Users can do automated trading with the Gelato contract, according to ecosystem sources. It is also possible to average costs in US dollars, schedule limit orders, and refinance interest rates for yield farming.

The project team also had Chainlink among its members to access its price reference oracle (Fast Gas/Guei). This will allow developers to automate their contracts at the price of Ethereum (Gas) transaction fees to stop running when exceeding a certain threshold. Likewise, this partnership will allow Gelato’s internal rewards market to remain at “fair prices,” according to its creators.

This tool will also allow developers to design their custom tasks or choose from several pre-existing actions. They only need to know of the Solidity and JavaScript coding languages. By the end of July, users will receive detailed documentation on its technical specifications.

By Alexander Salazar

Last April, Pierce made a joint donation with Binance to fight COVID-19 in Puerto Rico. The businessman has been part of projects reported for legal and financial irregularities.

In recent days, Brock Pierce, a controversial character linked to various cryptocurrency-based projects like Tether, EOS, and the Bitcoin Foundation, made an announcement. He said that he was running for the US Presidential elections, which will occur in November of this year.

His campaign

Under the slogan “It gets better from here”, the entrepreneur and venture investor invited his followers to support his campaign.

Brock posted a video on YouTube in which he states that people should embrace technology, not fear it. He also said that if the US government had used 21st-century technology, citizens would have received all the aid to fight unemployment much faster.

Likewise, he announces that his campaign marks a path for the reconstruction of the nation and that he will be running independently.

The US Presidential Campaign is a process that takes place throughout the year and culminates in an election on November 3^rd, 2020.

His History as an Investor

On his website, Pierce promotes himself as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist with a long history of founding, consulting, and investing in disruptive businesses.

Pierce is currently an executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation, which aims to promote the use of cryptocurrency since its creation. Various controversies related to its members, who include Gavin Andresen, Charlie Shrem, Mark Karpeles, Bobby Lee, Roger Ver, and Brock Pierce himself, among others, have marked the organization. In 2015, a member of the executive board announced that the foundation was insolvent and no one knows if this situation has changed.

In 2017, Pierce was part of the Block.one team, the company with which he organized the ICO of the EOS token, which has raised the most money in history. A year later, his post as a spokesman was the subject of suspicion and ridicule on comedian John Oliver’s show. Besides, he organized a unicorn-themed wedding in “Burning Man”, which should have prevented investors from entrusting USD 1.5 billion to him. After this program, the company Block.one announced that Pierce was no longer related to the project.

The billionaire was a co-founder of Tether, the largest fiat money-pegged coin on the market.

Pierce, a former Disney star in the ’90s, has done business in the technology area at least since 1998 when he was only 18 years old and was a minority partner in a company dedicated to transmitting video on the Internet, called DEN. Two years later, that company filed bankruptcy after Brock and another of its co-founders received accusations of sexual abuse of minors. Brock reportedly paid more than USD 21,000 in an out-of-court settlement with one of the plaintiffs so that he would drop the charges.

Charity

In 2017, Pierce created the Integro Foundation in Puerto Rico, which was recently in the news for having made a joint donation of USD 1 million with Binance, to support Puerto Rico in its fight against COVID-19.

On its website, the Foundation states that its objective is to provide philanthropic resources to Puerto Rico, the Caribbean islands, and the Amazon jungle. It says that it seeks to do with programs designed to revive areas in critical need, as well as empower people, plants, animals, and resources to survive.

By Alexander Salazar

Compound includes both loans and deposits as part of the supply reflected. Compound COMP tokens no longer have a distribution according to interest rates on loans.

A new chapter in yield farming has emerged through the decentralized finance (DeFI) platform Compound, where there is a paradox that involves the stablecoin DAI.

According to figures from Compound, there is a larger amount of DAI on this platform than the total circulation of this USD-pegged currency. At least, the figures that Compound exhibits easily exceed the total supply that DAI Stats reflects.

There is a very clear difference between the total supply and circulation of the stablecoin. On the platform Compound, DAI reflects a total supply of 541 million coins, whilst the total circulation of the USD-pegged currency is just under 165,600,000 units.

How Compound calculates its supply is what makes this difference possible. An amount of more than 500 million DAI is not on the platform, but Compound includes all loans and deposits as part of the new supply, regardless of whether the coins deposited come from a loan created on the platform itself. In other words, if someone borrows 100,000 DAI and deposits that amount back into Compound, the platform assumes that there are now 200,000 DAI.

In recent days, the Compound community approved an update to the protocol that changed the way of issuing the COMP token. With the new approach, users receive the token according to the total US dollars in the loans. Previously, the token launched in mid-June had a distribution according to the interest percentages for each asset.

Since the implementation of the change, the total supply of DAI on the platform just exceeded 56 million units. This contrasts with the more than 500 million that the platform currently reflects.

When looking at the real liquidity of the DAI market on Compound, it is possible to observe that it barely exceeds 45,000,000 DAI. The most striking about this situation is the movement between loans and deposits that the stablecoin is having on the Compound market.

BAT, Reverse Movement after Change on Compound

Before the upgrade, the COMP governance token had a distribution based on the interest percentages for each asset. This had favored the use of loans in BAT, mainly because it had the most attractive percentage.

However, by reviewing the behavior of BAT after the change in the distribution of COMP, it is possible to see that its behavior has been contrary to that of DAI. Following the boom of yield farming, the supply of BAT on Compound dropped from over USD 300,000,000 to just under the equivalent of USD 30 million.

All this reflects that the users of the protocol have migrated to DAI. Despite its lower interest rate, that aspect no longer marks the distribution of COMP. Users would then be betting on a less volatile asset, as it is pegged to the value of the US dollar. Likewise, it allows access to the benefit of receiving COMP, whose market value exceeds USD 180, at the time of writing this article.

By Alexander Salazar

The success of ICOs led many novice investors to bet on fraudulent projects. DeFi must avoid the speculation of users if they want to develop their full potential.

There are similarities between ICO craze and the current growth of DeFi on Ethereum. This situation has not gone unnoticed by those who have been in the cryptocurrency community since before 2017.

This could indicate the appearance of a new economic bubble on Ethereum, which could take everything in its path due to the speculation and stupidity of users. Something similar happened in the ecosystem almost three years ago, when thousands of investors decided to bet everything on the Initial Coin Offers (ICOs).

Many of these people have lost their money or have never generated their dream profits since the blockchain projects that they trusted were known frauds. There is a question of whether the story of ICOs can repeat itself on Ethereum with DeFi platforms.

An increasing number of experts are talking to users about the risks of decentralized lending platforms and the famous yield farming. For example, Sasha Ivanov, founder of Waves, invited the community not to turn DeFi into a new ICO bubble.

Cryptocurrency investment specialists Olga Feldemeier and Edward Moncada also said that decentralized finance had a lot of potential. For this reason, they stated that it was necessary to be cautious when investing in them since it was a new and possibly volatile market like ICOs.

Cryptocurrency professionals are concerned about the current explosion in the popularity of DeFi platforms. However, that industry currently has USD 1.7 trillion worth of committed (frozen) ethers in its smart contracts, according to data from DeFi Pulse. Likewise, the Compound lending protocol has managed to accumulate 35.01% dominance in this ecosystem, after constant growth so far this year and the introduction of the yield farming market.

The growth of this ecosystem is not negative per se since many consider that decentralized finance will be the digital banking of the future. However, the fact that these platforms become the trending solution can be detrimental to their development. Many users could initiate activities in this ecosystem without really understanding it and let appearances or the pieces of advice of ill-intentioned third parties carry them away.

Craze for Easy Money with ICOs

Initial Coin Offers (ICOs) appeared in the ecosystem in 2013, through the MasterCoin project. These initiatives were a prominent alternative to crodwfunding since they allowed startups to raise digital money decentrally to develop their blockchain projects.

The ICO scheme worked as follows: A company or project promoted its token as future functional units of currency, which could then be of use on the network or platform through the achievement of the stipulated funding objective. In other words, the tokens would serve to interact with the initiative and could generate juicy profits.

Ethereum itself, the second-largest blockchain in the cryptocurrency market, took its first steps thanks to an Initial Coin Offer. This blockchain became the favorite place for ICOs, which were emerging as the most convenient source of capital for new projects to develop their ideas. In 2015, there was already a small market for these offers, where the most visible initiatives managed to raise a few million US dollars.

The year 2016 marked a before and after with the funding of DAO, an organization that managed to raise USD 150 million in a few days and strongly caught the attention of the ecosystem. Unfortunately, this initiative was the victim of one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency hacks, which led to the appearance of Ethereum Classic after most of the Ethereum community decided to revert the event.

Although DAO left a stain on ICOs, the path to success was already paved. In mid-2017, the craze for these funding campaigns accelerated across Ethereum, with the proliferation of hundreds of blockchain-based projects serving many different use cases.

Currently, few projects are venturing to make Initial Coin Offers, preferring to receive capital from venture investors or conduct an Investment Public Offering (IPO). In this way, Ethereum closed this dark chapter of ICOs to make its way through crypto-collectibles, gaming platforms, and decentralized finance (DeFi).

By Willmen Blanco

At least 108 customers from the UK and other parts of the world were victims of scam. To start trading on the platform, customers did not need to validate their identity.

Cryptocurrency exchange GPay, registered in Slough, England, scammed at least 108 customers from the UK and other parts of the world, which led British authorities to liquidate it. The customers state that they lost a total of GBP 1.5 million (equivalent to about USD 2 million) after using the exchange.

The platform convinced its victims to entrust their money to it, through advertisements claiming that famous businessmen endorsed and recommended their service. These executives starred in a prime time TV show and on a savings website for high-profile people. This information appeared in a press release that the UK Government issued.

Formerly called XtraderFX, GPay offered its customers a platform for cryptocurrency exchange that allowed them to trade without the need for experience. The cryptocurrency exchange said that experienced traders and innovative tools supported it.

One of the wrongdoings that the GPay platform committed was asking their customers to deposit their funds without first confirming their identity. However, at the time they made withdrawals of their money, it required them to send their identity document, service invoice, or credit card.

Some customers even paid insurance for the loss of their funds. However, the platform took away their investment, as well as the insurance money. Finally, GPay prevented its customers from withdrawing their money without them having previously conducted some trading operations.

The public interest led to the liquidation of GPay Ltd on June 23^rd in a Higher Court before the Deputy Judge of the Insolvency and Companies Court. Likewise, there was an official receiver assigned to liquidate the company.

Those people who have been victims of fraud by companies can make inquiries or complaints. To this end, the UK Insolvency Service has made a telephone number and an e-mail address available to them.

David Hill, Chief Investigator for UK Insolvency Service, appreciated the court’s decision to liquidate Gpay. He said that, in this way, it will prevent other people from becoming victims.

The official added that this scam should serve as a warning to those who conduct trading operations online. These users must perform the appropriate controls before investing their money, in addition to validating whether the corresponding authorities have registered and regulated the company in question.

This year, the UK saw an increase in the number of people registered to trade cryptocurrencies. Most members of a group of respondents were familiar with crypto assets before doing this activity. However, there are always several people who are vulnerable to scams.

To conclude, all those people who wish to use cryptocurrency exchanges should receive information on the most common scams and how to avoid them. On the other hand, authorities should help the victims of those who manage fraudulent businesses and ensure that the latter do not deceive more people.

By Willmen Blanco

The companies will have a six-month period to adapt to the new law. Fines for non-compliance with the law could exceed the amount of EUR 60,000.

The preliminary draft law for the prevention of money laundering recently received the approval of the Spanish authorities. Cryptocurrency service providers from the European country will have to meet new requirements to adapt to it.

Given the new requirements, it is necessary to make a series of changes that law specialists advise in anticipation of the future approval of the preliminary draft law. These changes begin with the creation of a “Money Laundering Prevention Manual” at the internal level, with policies to prevent cryptocurrency companies from becoming involved in this crime.

In recent days, several experts met to discuss the effects and impact of the draft law published on June 12^th on the crypto-asset sector. This document transposes the provisions of the Fifth Directive of the European Parliament and modifies the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering in force (Law 10/2010).

Money Laundering specialist, Teresa Ruano; Pinsent Masons Fintech partner, Idoya Arteagabeitia; and Counsel and the firm’s global head of blockchain, Cristina Carrascosa, consider that the companies in the ecosystem must first evaluate their activities and determine to what extent the new law will affect them.

The preliminary draft law establishes that the companies that provide cryptocurrency exchange services (crypto-fiat and crypto-crypto), along with cryptocurrency custody and transfer service providers (including cryptocurrency wallets) are now subject to this new law.

Ruano notes that each company must identify the risks of its activities and determine the legal scope of the products that it offers and launches on the market. For this reason, it will be necessary to create a register of customers, as well as the transactions that they conduct, to establish the possible implications of these activities for money laundering.

Arteagabeitia reminds us that there is still a six-month period for the final approval of the preliminary project. The authorities can take advantage of this period to conduct this evaluation.

Without Community Passport

According to the head of Fintech for Pinsent Masons, the fact of complying with this law does not imply having a license to operate with cryptocurrencies in Spain. She notes that this is a different area.

She states that this adaptation to the draft law will only be valid in Spain and will not function as a community passport in the rest of the countries of the European Union.

Ruano and Arteagabeitia said that each country will transpose the Fifth Directive according to its internal legislation. Therefore, what is valid in one State will not necessarily be valid in another. Arteagabeitia states that a company that operates in several countries at the same time must register in each of them.

Ruano highlights that in Spain there is a wider range of cryptocurrency service providers than those that the Fifth Directive proposes. Besides, she explains that the current precepts already outline what Spanish cryptocurrency companies must do. However, many aspects of the draft law may change once it becomes a law.

In Arteagabeitia’s opinion, complying with this phase of adaptation to the law is essential. The intention is to design mechanisms to keep the register of customers and monitor carefully conducted transactions, to file that report with the authorities when requested. She explained that there will be a fine, which could exceed EUR 60,000, for those companies where someone linked to money laundering manages to enter.

By Alexander Salazar