8/26/24: Pavel Visits Paris ⛓️💰💻

Top News

  1. Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested in France

  2. Ethereum Foundation reveals $100M/year budget

  3. Polygon, Avalanche, and ZKsync Discord’s get hacked

Specs’ Insights

1. Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested in France

⌐◪-◪ → The CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France this weekend for refusing to cooperate with their government to censor or moderate certain chat rooms.

Tech and finance leaders like Lex Fridman, Vitalik Buterin, and Balaji have condemned the arrest, calling it a blatant attack on free speech and governmental overreach.

This case seems like another example of “it’s not the tool that commits the crime, but the person,” similar to arguments from Tornado Cash developers. But why would Pavel fly into France knowing there was an active warrant for his arrest?

To be clear, I don’t think anybody should be arrested for creating a platform where people interact freely — like the Silk Road, Telegram, or X — but again, there could be more to this story.

Zooming out, here’s where I think Pavel went wrong. Telegram parades itself as a free speech platform, one that is against censorship and surveillance, but I’m not sure it was actually architected that way.

2. Ethereum Foundation reveals $100M/year budget

⌐◪-◪ → The Ethereum Foundation moved over $100M to Kraken, which was quickly revealed to be their annual budget for grants, salaries, and other expenses.

Crypto Twitter is upset about two main issues:

  1. The large amount of money being spent.

  2. The lack of transparency.

Personally, I don’t think the amount is an issue—$100M isn’t as much as people think, but how it’s spent matters. The real concern is the lack of transparency.

DCinvestor proposed a simple 3-step framework: a budget breakdown, smaller transfers, and clear disclosures. I think it’s a solid approach.

I’m disappointed in the Foundation’s lack of transparency—it feels more like a government move than a decentralized community effort.

3. Polygon, Avalanche, and ZKsync Discord’s get hacked

⌐◪-◪ → The Discords of several major projects, including Polygon, Avalanche, and ZKsync, were hacked, sharing the same link to a scam token.

One user, ValidatorK, lost $150k in Ethereum after clicking what appeared to be an official announcement from Polygon’s Discord.

This is a good reminder about TAP—the Three-Address Protocol: a simple wallet setup that separates your accounts into a vault wallet, a general transaction wallet, and a minting wallet.

Even seasoned veterans can make mistakes. It’s easy to click a bad link when you’re in a rush, pulling an all-nighter, or just not paying attention.

Everything Else

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

  • Bitcoin reaches $65K as Powell says time has come for rate cuts

  • Bitcoin ‘bull market’ back, according to the IFP index

  • Vitalik questions DeFi yields on X

  • Fifty-one L2s built on the OP stack alone

  • MacOS ‘Cthulhu Stealer’ malware drains wallets

  • TON falls 20%, reassures investors that community is strong

  • JLP hits ATH as an alternative play on majors

  • Stablecoin market cap hits new ATH, surpassing 2022 record

  • Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong released an on-chain score checker

🏦 Wallstreet & VC

🏛️ Legal & Regulatory

🌎 Rest of the World

  • Hong Kong rejects some crypto firms seeking licenses

  • India's CBDC reaches 5M users, gradual rollout planned

  • Hong Kong Bitcoin ETFs hit HK $2B in assets under management

  • WazirX to enable rupee withdrawals starting today

  • Argentina introduces Ethereum education in high schools

  • Thailand authorities raid illegal mining operation

🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse

  • 3 XCOPY Editions sweeped

  • Bybit lists SUNDOG on TRX

  • Fantasy Top volume increases indicating come back

  • Phantom adds real-time support for interest-bearing assets

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