We strongly believe that in the next few years there will be some element of ‘play-to-earn’ or ‘play-and-earn’ in most games,” said Michael Rubinelli, CEO of WAX.

With Blockchain slowly making its way into the gaming industry, industry veterans and non-fungible token (NFT) Blockchain executives WAX believe there will be more connections between gaming and Blockchain networks in the future.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, WAX Publishing Head David Kim and WAX Gaming Studios Head Michael Rubinelli shared their thoughts on NFTs, the metaverse, and Blockchain gaming.

Kim’s Thoughts

According to Kim, despite having less search interest on Google, engagement with games, the metaverse, and NFTs is not dead. “On the WAX ​​Blockchain, we saw a doubling of the number of sell transactions at the start of Q4 2021, and it has remained elevated ever since,” he said.

“I’m undecided if the ‘hype’ will return up, however, we imagine that long run, curiosity in and engagement with metaverses and NFTs will develop advert infinitum as utility will increase and safety issues are allayed.”

Rubinelli’s Sentiment

On the other hand, when asked about the future of play-to-earn (P2E) gaming models, Rubinelli compared the introduction of P2E to the adoption of free-to-play and microtransactions within games. With more than 20 years in the gaming industry, the executive believes a similar pattern is taking place.

“We imagine strongly that there will probably be some aspect of ‘play-to-earn’ or ‘play-and-earn’ in most video games inside the subsequent few years. Most of those will probably be Blockchain-connected; however, not totally working on Blockchain.”

Thoughts Based upon Hard Data

In a 2021 report published by the Blockchain gaming alliance, a survey showed that many respondents share the same sentiment as WAX executives when asked how much the Blockchain industry is likely to leverage Blockchain in the next two years.

Speaking about the challenges facing Blockchain games, Rubinelli mentioned that scalability remains a top concern. “Right now, the biggest challenge is the lack of ability of most Blockchains to scale,” he said.

The game veteran noted that Layer2 solutions could not scale unless they are “100% dedicated to a single game like Ronin for Axie Infinity.” He also recalled when the Sunflower Farmers game’s user base grew; then it had “caused Polygon to stop.”

As for esports, David Kim mentioned that most of the games played on WAX are “too simple to be adapted for esports.” However, the WAX ​​exec noted that there are games in development that could be adapted for esports.

“There are multiple Blockchain-connected games currently in development with an eye toward esports. These include Hearthstone-like card battlers like Skyweaver, battle royales like Hodlgod, and team-based first-person shooters like The Forge Arena.”

Kim pointed out that esports games need more time to develop. According to him, it has only been 9 months since Alien Worlds, Splinterlands and Axie Infinity proved that Blockchain games can attract many gamers. “You can’t develop the kind of sophisticated game mechanics needed for esports at that time,” he added.

By Audy Castaneda

The hackers managed to extract the funds from Deus Finance using a flash loans attack. They then laundered the removed funds into Tornado Cash.

The decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol for crypto derivatives, DEUS Finance DAO, faced a hacking attack this Tuesday that left harm valued at USD 3 million.

Security firm PeckShield reported in a tweet that hackers stole nearly $3 million in cryptocurrency from the platform through a flash loan attack. The stolen funds include 200,000 DAI and 1,101 Ethereum (ETH). However, they added that the losses could surpass the estimated amount.

According to reports, the attackers influenced the prices of Deus Finance offerings by applying for a flash loan, a form of unsecured lending widespread in the DeFi space that carries out its activities through smart contracts. PeckShield highlighted that the hackers targeted the DEI loan contract, the project’s stable coin.

Hacker Laundered Profits in Tornado Cash

The criminals manipulated the price oracle through quick loans, a tool that brings price information to the blockchain, which detected the price of DEI, to show that this token had crashed falsely. This action led to the loss of all user funds that brought liquidity to the DEI/USDC pool.

Although the attacker would have paid off the loans, he still managed to make a sizable profit in digital assets. On-chain data demonstrated that more than 3 million USDC, the stable coin pegged 1:1 to the US dollar, got extracted. The tokens got exchanged for 200,000 DAI and 1,101.8 ETH via decentralized exchange Multichain.

After exploiting the platform, the hacker migrated the funds to the private exchange tool, Tornado Cash. This platform masks addresses and makes it challenging to link funds to their perpetrator.

The Deus Finance team discovered the exploit of its loan protocol and reported the situation in a tweet, adding that it has closed its loan agreement for DEI. The protocol also assured that the DEUS and DEI tokens did not receive harm from the attack and said their developers were joining efforts to make a post-mortem report.

The Deus Finance attack, a multi-chain protocol, occurred on the Fantom blockchain. Deus allows developers to create and issue financial instruments on its platform within the DeFi space, such as derivatives or options.

Another Flash Loans Attack

The hack arrived a few days after Fantasm Finance’s case, another Fantom-based DeFinetwork, mined for more than $2.6 million; the protocol got released in early March.

Deus also participates in the long list of DeFi platforms harmed by flash loan attacks. Last year, Binance Smart Chain (BSC)-based platform Cream Finance suffered an extraction valued at more than $150 million in three attacks aimed at its lending contracts; BurgerSwap also lost at least $7 million in another hack last year.

In November, a report released by The Block revealed that flash loans are a favorite mechanism these hackers use to commit crimes. In 2021, the DeFi space experienced an increase in flash loan attacks, with at least 34 out of 70 exploits utilizing this procedure.

The Deus Finance team has advanced plans to restore the victims’ funds; the DEUS token crumbled down close to 40% after the attack got revealed. At press time, DEUS is trading at USD 327 and showing losses of 21% in the last 24 hours.

By: Jenson Nuñez

For the first time, cryptocurrencies must be included in the income statement in Spain.

Virtual currencies in Spain have been authorized as a legal means of payment since 2015. However, there is no obligation to present the Income Statement if the income obtained does not exceed 1,000 euros.

However, if the total income is higher than this amount, it is mandatory to file the tax return, including earnings. In the case of losses, the Tax Agency raises it optionally; although he recommends doing it to balance the losses and gains in the future.

“There is no specific section for cryptocurrencies. We have a generic section called ‘Other goods’. What we have to make clear there is that we are transmitting cryptocurrencies,” explained José Antonio Bravo Mateo, head of taxation of crypto assets at Àgora SA.

“People must declare any amount destined for cryptocurrencies and do the same if it is in a ‘wallet’ or an ‘exchange’, such as Binance or Coinbase. Although, until the assets are sold, it is not necessary to include them in the Income. If the user sells, to fiat money, exchanges his cryptocurrency for another, donates it or exchanges it for goods or services, then he must include these changes in the declaration. That is to say, it declares when there is an effective transmission”, points out Bravo.

In this sense, the person in charge of taxation in crypto assets, mentions that at the time of filling out the declaration it can “happen that there are multiple operations” of buying and selling these digital currencies, so, in this case, he recommends “adding movements”.

Another aspect to take into account is that those people with digital assets, such as Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies abroad, will have the obligation to report on the virtual currencies of which they are holders.

Failure to do so, with the current regulations, generates a penalty of up to 5,000 euros for each data referred to each virtual currency individually considered, according to its class, which must be included in the income statement.

TaxDown Tax Specialists Share their Thoughts

TaxDown tax specialists point out that there is currently no direct regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and that the conventional system of capital gains and losses governed them.

Currently, the regulation around cryptocurrencies and NFTs is extremely green. We must point out that the genesis block of the Bitcoin network began on January 3, 2009. Cryptocurrencies in just over a decade have seen great adoption and expansion.

TaxDown highlights that the income campaign in Spain will start on April 6. This means that a large part of the 4 million people holding cryptocurrencies must report it. These cryptocurrencies must be included in the income tax return.

Only those who have sold any of the acquired cryptocurrencies should report it, regardless of whether they made profits or losses. If this process does not take place, the penalty for the tax debt could reach up to 150%.

Declaration of Cryptocurrencies in Spain

For the declaration of cryptocurrencies, the method recommended is FIFO, a system of accounting for gains on the sale of shares of assets purchased at different times.

Such system establishes that the first purchases are the first to take into account when we make a sale of cryptocurrencies. The capital gain results from subtracting the value of the transmission, the value of the acquisition, and the expenses of the operation. The user must face a complex process, including certain variables. To overcome this challenge, TaxDown has created a systematic guide, available on its site, on how to declare cryptocurrencies.

Additionally, the mining of cryptocurrencies and the buying and selling of NFTs have generated controversy. Mining, according to tax specialists at TaxDown, is, by all counts, an economic activity. This means that the cryptocurrencies obtained in the process are income.

Regarding NFTs, there is still no regulation in this regard. The companies that manage these digital assets must report on them.

By Audy Castaneda