UFC partnered with blockchain project Chiliz to improve fan engagement
The sports organization Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has partnered with blockchain project Chiliz to increase the engagement of its fanbase.
As the UFC reported this Thursday, the new collaboration will allow over 318 million fans worldwide to gain access to unique offers and rewards, including earning or pre-selling tickets for fights.
Chiliz's own application, Socios.com, will be used to access the awards. A number of football clubs have previously joined him, including Barcelona, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Galatasaray and Roma. They were interested in the possibility of issuing branded tokens.
In the future, the UFC intends to consider new methods of monetizing the fan base using the blockchain, as well as tokenize some of the fighters participating in the organization. Additional information is promised to be disclosed in the coming weeks.
“The UFC is constantly striving to improve the fan experience. We intend to work with Chiliz on innovative and unique ways to achieve this goal, ”said Nicholas Smith, Vice President of Global Cooperation, UFC.
Chiliz was founded in 2018 and has raised over $ 60 million in a private campaign from a number of investors, including Binance.
California lawmakers have proposed to exclude digital assets from the definition of securities
A member of the California Legislature Assembly has proposed excluding certain types of digital assets from the definition of corporate securities.
The legislative amendment proposal presented by House Majority Leader Ian Calderon would remove “digital assets” that “presumably do not constitute an investment contract” from the definition of a security and all regulations for that type asset.
The question of whether digital assets represent securities has long been debated by regulators. Legislative uncertainty has already led to several lawsuits in which regulators accuse companies of unregistered placement of digital assets that they believe are securities. The most high-profile court cases in this area were the SEC allegations against Telegram and Kik.
Calderon's aide Michael Magee notes that a bill submitted to the California lower house should put an end to such proceedings.
“The draft law addresses one of the most common ambiguous interpretations of cryptocurrencies in legislation: whether a digital asset represents an investment contract and, therefore, is subject to securities laws,” Maggie said.
If passed, Calderon's bill will establish clear rules for determining whether digital assets are considered investment contracts, at least at the state level. According to the bill, the asset should not be purchased in exchange for payment, fiat currencies or otherwise. It should be used on a "fully functional network" for "consumer purposes" and its value "does not depend on management or other efforts."
The final paragraph of the bill emphasizes the need for decentralized consensus as proof that a digital asset is independent of an “identifiable person, project team or management organization” that might otherwise contribute to “management efforts”. The network must initiate software changes, as well as implement voting through a proof-of-stake mechanism.
Hackers hacked the state bank of Costa Rica and demand a ransom in cryptocurrency
The Maze hacker group has hacked into the infrastructure of the Costa Rican state bank Banco BCR and is threatening to publish 11 million credit card numbers if the ransom is not paid in cryptocurrency.
The hackers said they penetrated the bank's information system back in August 2019. According to them, according to the protocols of the financial institutions, Banco BCR should have notified other organizations of security problems, but did not. The Maze Group states:
“Servers and workstations were not blocked. Confidential data was not protected. In any case, the bank decided to hide information about the hacking. Although the security personnel could analyze the records and make sure that someone had access to the payment processing system. We stopped the attack because the possible damage was too great. "
Maze claims that in February 2020, the group again infiltrated the bank's systems and found that nothing had been done to fix the vulnerabilities. The hackers claim that this was the motive for stealing data, including transaction information and credit card details:
“We have over 11 million credit card numbers at our disposal. More than 4 million of them are unique, and 140,000 cards are owned by US citizens. "
The hackers are going to publish all data, including card numbers. The size of the ransom requested in cryptocurrencies is unknown. In February, the same group of hackers demanded 1,000 BTC for stolen data from five law firms.
Cybercriminals prefer bitcoin over Zcash
The research firm Rand Corporation, commissioned by Electric Coin Company, which is behind the development of the anonymity-oriented cryptocurrency Zcash, has conducted a study on the use of digital currencies in cybercrime.
As analysts found out, bitcoin remains the preferred cryptocurrency among cybercriminals, while Zcash "has only a small presence on the darkweb."
"This suggests that Zcash is seen as a less attractive option by darkweb users and is less commonly used than other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Monero," analysts write.
The Rand Corporation analyzed three areas of illegal activity: money laundering, terrorist financing and illegal goods trade.
“There may be some evidence that Zcash was used or promoted in connection with prohibited goods, but there is no evidence of massive illegal use of Zcash,” analysts write. “Of course, the lack of evidence is not the same as proof of absence, which means that it is still necessary to be vigilant about illegal use of this cryptocurrency.”
These findings are consistent with a study by The Block. Of the 31 darknet marketplaces analyzed, 29 used Bitcoin and only two used Zcash.
In April, the number of Zcash transactions with maximum anonymity rose by 70% and reached a new record above 8,700. Their share in the total volume was 6%, which is also a record.
As you can see from Rand's research, the growth has come from ordinary users looking to increase their anonymity, not criminals. Recently, Zcash wallets have begun to expand their native support for transactions with increased anonymity, which may explain the observed dynamics.
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