This Week on Crypto Twitter: 11,000 Venezuelan Soldiers Bring Down Jailhouse Bitcoin Mining Operation
The past week in the cryptocurrency market has been relatively quiet, with little significant news affecting the prices of leading cryptocurrencies. This stability has reinforced the belief that the cryptocurrency market may have somewhat stabilized this year.
Even on Crypto Twitter, where there is usually a constant stream of news and discussions, it was a slow week. However, there were a few noteworthy events that caught the attention of crypto enthusiasts.
One of the highlights of the week was an apology from Unity, a crypto-friendly game engine developer. The company had made significant revisions to its controversial Unity Runtime Fee, which had sparked outrage among developers. Unity’s apology was seen as an attempt to address the concerns and mend relationships with the developer community.
In another incident, decentralized finance (DeFi) liquidity protocol Balancer was attacked, resulting in the theft of a quarter of a million dollars. Blockchain sleuth @ZachXBT tracked the stolen funds as they were being drained, highlighting the vulnerabilities in the DeFi space.
A bizarre story emerged from Venezuela, where authorities discovered that inmates in a maximum security prison were mining Bitcoin using thousands of ASIC machines. The police operation to seize these machines sounded more like a full-scale invasion, involving 11,000 soldiers. The loot captured from the inmates included not only mining machines but also weapons such as grenades, rocket launchers, and sniper rifles.
On a lighter note, an NFT collector received the physical counterpart of his Gucci/Yuga Labs collaborative NFT pendant and was underwhelmed by its appearance. This incident served as a reminder of the growing popularity and value of NFTs in the digital and physical world.
Meanwhile, the NFT Statistics account @Punk9059 observed the accumulating royalties for creators on the new decentralized social token platform Friend.tech, highlighting the potential for artists and creators to benefit from the NFT space.
Lastly, a resurfaced video of Bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney discussing zero-knowledge proofs 25 years ago caught the attention of the crypto community. The footage, from a conference in 1998, provided valuable insights into the early development of Bitcoin and its underlying technologies.
While the week may have been slow in terms of major news, these events served as interesting reminders of the diverse and sometimes peculiar happenings in the world of cryptocurrencies. As the market continues to evolve and mature, it is these unique and unexpected occurrences that keep the crypto space vibrant and exciting.
