Home Blog Page 692

Differently Secured: Bitlease Founder Nima Beni on Why Falling Hashrates Aren’t a Threat

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Differently Secured: Bitlease Founder Nima Beni on Why Falling Hashrates Aren’t a Threat

The bitcoin mining industry is undergoing a significant transformation as it matures into more institutional structures. Nima Beni of Bitlease argues against fears regarding the sustainability of transaction fees, emphasizing that current fee levels don’t reflect long-term dynamics. Challenging the Security Budget Deficit The transition of the bitcoin mining industry into a mature, institutional era […]

1inch Launches Campaign to Push DeFi into US University Curricula

info@uweb3.io
-
0
1inch Launches Campaign to Push DeFi into US University Curricula

The campaign includes an open letter to the deans and faculty of major U.S. business and law schools, co-signed by 20+ leading DeFi orgs.

1inch, the decentralized exchange aggregator with about $3 million in total value locked (TVL), has launched 1inch Forward, a DeFi education campaign across universities in the United States. According to a press release shared with The Defiant, the initiative was unveiled today, March 18, at the DC Blockchain Summit and is aimed at preparing students for a future career in decentralized finance.

Central to the campaign is an open letter to the deans and faculty councils of major U.S. business and law schools, co-signed by more than twenty crypto and DeFi organizations including the Blockchain Association, DeFi Education Fund, Aave Labs, Messari, Delphi Digital, and ETHGlobal.

The letter argues that DeFi and the tech behind it has long moved past its experimental phase — adopted by BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, JPMorgan, and the NYSE itself — yet most curricula still treat the subject as a fringe elective.

The coalition proposes four additions: blockchain architecture and decentralized technology applications as a core module; instruction on DeFi mechanisms like automated market makers and smart contract risk; digital asset regulatory frameworks; and hands-on engagement with live DeFi systems and on-chain data.

The broader 1inch Forward campaign also includes a campus tour of several institutions starting on March 27 at the University of Pennsylvania, with stops at Yale, Cornell Tech, Indiana University, Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Michigan across 2026 — featuring panels, mentorship, and one-on-one career sessions with 1inch staff.

Blockchain Job Searches Surge

1inch’s own analysis of Google search data, also included in today’s announcement, shows rapidly growing U.S. workforce interest in the space.

Comparing data from the past two years, searches for “Blockchain Jobs” rose 84% year-on-year, while “Crypto Jobs” more than doubled at +133%. At the specialist end, “DeFi Developer Jobs” searches nearly quadrupled, up 269%, and “Learn Blockchain Skills” climbed 44%.

“The 84% surge in blockchain job searches shows the next generation is already looking toward careers in the future of finance,” said 1inch co-founder Sergej Kunz.

The campaign lands as DeFi’s institutional footprint has become impossible to ignore. As The Defiant reported previously, 2025 marked a turning point for crypto adoption among TradFi institutions, with BlackRock, JPMorgan and others all launching on-chain products — including BlackRock bringing its $3B BUIDL fund directly into DeFi.

With analysts flagging 2026 as the year DeFi goes fully mainstream, the question 1inch and the broader coalition of leading DeFi companies is placing before academia is how prepared U.S. graduates will be for the shift.

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

Crypto Exchange Kucoin Partners With Tomorrowland Winter for Alpine Festival Launch

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Crypto Exchange Kucoin Partners With Tomorrowland Winter for Alpine Festival Launch

Kucoin will launch immersive activations at Tomorrowland Winter 2026, scheduled for March 21–28 in Alpe d’Huez, France. The festival will feature renowned artists like Steve Aoki and Dimitri Vegas. Bridging Digital Finance and Global Culture Cryptocurrency exchange platform Kucoin is set to debut a series of immersive activations at the electronic music festival Tomorrowland Winter […]

ACI Worldwide Unifies Global Payments with Cloud-Native ACI Connetic for Cards

info@uweb3.io
-
0
ACI Worldwide Unifies Global Payments with Cloud-Native ACI Connetic for Cards

Despite the rapid global rise of real-time account-to-account transfers, traditional cards continue to heavily dominate the commerce landscape. Fuelled by the widespread adoption of contactless technology, persistent e-commerce growth, and the ongoing digitisation of business-to-business transactions, global card transactions totalled 776 billion in 2024. According to the Nilson Report, this figure is projected to reach an staggering 1.1 trillion annually by 2029, representing a 43 per cent increase over a five-year period.

Against this high-growth backdrop, global payments technology leader ACI Worldwide has launched ACI Connetic for Cards. This next-generation card modernisation suite is built directly within ACI Connetic, the industry’s first unified cloud-native payments hub. The newly launched suite brings together card issuing, acquiring, and ATM and self-service operations into a single, highly modular system. Crucially, the platform is enhanced by embedded, real-time AI-powered fraud intelligence to strengthen protection across every single transaction.

Modernising mission-critical infrastructure

Currently, ACI’s market-leading solutions process more than 300 billion card transactions annually. ACI Connetic for Cards advances this proven capability by unifying the firm’s global strengths onto one next-generation platform. The enterprise-grade suite supports the full transaction lifecycle of every payment. It captures and authenticates data across all channels, intelligently routes transactions to the appropriate hosts or networks, and securely authorises and clears payments to support final settlement between institutions. By unifying these mission-critical functions, the platform provides the necessary scale, resiliency, and advanced functionality required to modernise card operations and drive continuous business growth.

As global card usage continues its upward trajectory, banks are being forced to reassess how well their existing legacy platforms can support future demand. ACI notes that having a clear modernisation plan, executed at a pace that makes sense for each individual institution, is now critical.

Industry perspectives on cloud-native agility
Thomas Warsop, president and CEO of ACI Worldwide
Thomas Warsop, CEO and president of ACI Worldwide

Thomas Warsop, CEO and president of ACI Worldwide, highlighted the strategic importance of this launch. He stated that when the company initially introduced ACI Connetic, it set a new benchmark for how banks operate within the digital economy. Warsop explained that with ACI Connetic for Cards, they are bringing that same high standard to the heart of retail payments by modernising the critical issuing, acquiring, and ATM capabilities that banks depend on. Ultimately, it gives institutions a future-ready foundation that improves agility by opening a low-risk path to new services and continuous innovation.

Bill Farris, head of issuing and acquiring at ACI Worldwide, echoed these sentiments, noting that banks desperately need payments infrastructure that can evolve without elevating their risk profiles. Farris emphasized that this modern infrastructure is built to evolve at the exact pace customers require without ever risking stability.

Financial institutions are increasingly turning to these unified, cloud-native architectures to streamline operations and drive faster innovation across all payment types. Peter Hüftlein, head of product accounts at Solaris SE, praised the platform’s unified approach. He shared that the system supports Solaris in simplifying operations, accelerating change, and innovating across payment types with far greater control.

Introduced in 2025, ACI Connetic originally combined account-to-account payments, card payments, and AI-driven fraud prevention. The platform has maintained strong momentum through 2026 with new deployments, and this latest card-focused expansion builds directly upon that continuous progress.

Coalition Urges OpenAI to Scrap AI Ballot Measure Over Child Safety Concerns

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Coalition Urges OpenAI to Scrap AI Ballot Measure Over Child Safety Concerns

In brief

  • A coalition of advocacy groups asks OpenAI to withdraw a California AI safety ballot initiative.
  • Critics say the measure would limit legal accountability and weaken protections for children.
  • While OpenAI has paused the campaign, the coalition claims it retains control of the initiative ahead of key deadlines.

A coalition of advocacy groups is urging ChatGPT developer OpenAI to withdraw a California ballot initiative that critics say could weaken protections for children and limit legal accountability for AI companies.

In a letter sent to OpenAI on Wednesday, reviewed by Decrypt, the group argues that the measure would lock in narrow child-safety protections, limit families’ ability to sue, and restrict California’s ability to strengthen AI laws in the future.

The letter, signed by more than two dozen organizations including AI policy non-profit Encode AI, the Center for Humane Technology, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, asks OpenAI to dissolve its ballot committee and step back from the proposal while lawmakers work on legislation.

“The main demand here is for OpenAI to withdraw from the ballot,” Adam Billen, co-executive director of Encode AI, told Decrypt.

The dispute centers on a proposed “Parents & Kids Safe AI Act,” a California ballot initiative backed by OpenAI and Common Sense Media that would establish rules for how AI chatbots interact with minors, including safety requirements and compliance standards.

In the letter, the groups argue that those rules fall short. They say the measure defines harm too narrowly, limits enforcement, and restricts families’ ability to bring claims when children are harmed.

But OpenAI controls the actual ballot initiative, Billen said.

“OpenAI has the power to withdraw it or put the money in for signatures. All of the legal authority rests in their hands,” he said. “They have not actually withdrawn the initiative from the ballot. This is a common tactic in California, where you put an initiative up and put money in the committee.”

The letter points to the initiative’s definition of “severe harm,” which focuses on physical injury tied to suicide or violence, excluding a range of mental health impacts that researchers and families have raised as concerns.

It also highlights provisions that would bar parents and children from bringing claims under the initiative and limit enforcement tools available to state and local officials.

Another concern centers on how the proposal treats user data. The groups argue that its definition of encrypted user content could make it harder to access chatbot conversations that have served as key evidence in recent lawsuits.

“We read that as an attempt to block families from being able to disclose their dead children’s chat logs in court,” Billen said.

The letter also warns that the measure could be difficult to revise if passed. It would require a two-thirds vote in the legislature to amend and tie future changes to standards such as supporting “economic progress,” which advocates say could limit lawmakers’ ability to respond to new risks.

Billen said the initiative remains a factor in ongoing negotiations in Sacramento, even as OpenAI has paused its efforts to qualify it for the ballot.

“They have $10 million in the committee, and then you say to the legislature, if you don’t do what we want, we’ll put the money in and get the signatures and put this on the ballot, and if it passes, it will override whatever the legislature does,” he said. “So essentially, what’s happening now is they’re trying to steer and control what state legislators do through the use of the initiative as a threat they’re leaving on the table.”

OpenAI is not the only company facing scrutiny over chatbot-related harms. Earlier this month, the family of Jonathan Gavalas sued Google, claiming that Gemini pushed a delusion that escalated to violence and his ultimate suicide. Billen, however, said OpenAI’s approach reflects a broader pattern in the tech industry.

“The lobbying playbook that’s getting used on AI from these big guys in particular—the Googles, the Metas, Amazons—is the same strategy that was used previously on other tech issues,” he said.

For now, the coalition is focused on getting OpenAI to withdraw the measure and allow lawmakers to move forward through the legislative process.

“It’s really important, particularly for the companies that are putting that technology out there, to not be the ones who are writing the rules that regulate them, because that’s not meaningful protections,” Billen said.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.

Daily Debrief Newsletter

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Aster Deepens WLFI Partnership With USD1 Perpetual Markets

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Aster Deepens WLFI Partnership With USD1 Perpetual Markets

The perpetuals exchange is promoting WLFI’s stablecoin as a trading asset ahead of the Aster Chain Layer 1 launch.

Aster, the decentralized perpetuals exchange backed by YZi Labs, is expanding its collaboration with World Liberty Financial, the DeFi project affiliated with the Trump family, adding USD1-denominated perpetual contracts and an incentive program aimed at bootstrapping stablecoin liquidity ahead of the platform’s Layer 1 launch.

The exchange is starting with BTC, ETH, and SOL pairs, with more than 10 additional pairs planned in the coming weeks. USD1 is also supported as a core margin asset and collateral equivalent to USDT, and Aster is offering zero maker fees and a 0.5-bps taker fee on USD1 pairs, an approximately 87.5% reduction compared to its standard 4-bps USDT taker fee.

Up to 2.5 million WLFI tokens will be distributed monthly through the USD1 perpetual trading incentive program based on trading activity, with rewards distributed weekly.

Donald Trump Jr., co-founder of World Liberty Financial, promoted the launch on X, saying, “This is how you scale stablecoin utility beyond just payments.”

“Aster Chain’s success depends on the depth of its underlying liquidity,” said Leonard, CEO of Aster. “By bringing USD1 into our core trading engine during this phase, we’re building the trading foundation for the Aster Chain launch.”

ASTER is trading at around $0.70, down 10% in the past 24 hours to a market cap of approximately $1.7 billion, per CoinGecko. WLFI is down 3.5% over the same period.

ASTER Chart

Aster originally launched as ApolloX in 2021 and rebranded following a merger with Astherus in December 2024. The platform is incubated by YZi Labs, previously Binance’s venture arm, and received a high-profile boost when Binance co-founder CZ began promoting it on X, sending its token on a roughly 40x run.

Aster is currently the second-largest perp DEX by open interest after Hyperliquid, according to DeFiLlama, and recently launched the genesis phase of Aster Chain, a privacy-focused Layer 1 that uses ZK proofs to keep trades private by default.

82% of insurers say AI will define their future, but only 14% have integrated it

info@uweb3.io
-
0
82% of insurers say AI will define their future, but only 14% have integrated it

AutoRek’s 2026 Insurance Report reveals a widening gap between AI ambition and execution, compounded by lengthening settlement cycles and deep-rooted data fragmentation

Most insurers agree that AI will reshape the industry, but very few have operationalized it. New research from AutoRek finds that 82% of insurers believe AI will dominate the industry’s future, yet only 14% have fully integrated it into their financial operations. At the same time, 44% of firms face settlement periods exceeding 60 days, and 14% of operational budgets are going toward correcting errors caused by manual processes.

AutoRek’s 2026 Insurance Report, based on 250 interviews with insurance and healthcare insurance managers across the UK and U.S., points to a growing performance gap between firms modernizing their back offices and those still running on fragmented systems and manual workflows.

“Insurers know where the industry is heading. The challenge is that most haven’t translated that awareness into operational change. Settlement cycles are lengthening, data environments are getting more complex, and the firms that have already embedded automation into their financial operations are pulling ahead. The longer firms wait to modernize, the harder it becomes to close that gap,” said Tony Shek, Insurance Sector Lead at AutoRek.

Settlement strain meets stalled AI adoption

Settlement cycles continue to lengthen under volume pressure. Firms processing more than 10 million transactions annually average 59-day settlement periods, compared to 52 days for smaller peers. Spreadsheet reliance (46%), high transaction volumes (41%) and fragmented data (41%) were identified as the primary drivers of delay. With transaction volumes expected to grow by 28.7% over the next two years, these pressures will only intensify.

AI adoption, meanwhile, remains deeply uneven across the sector. 6% of firms report no AI usage at all, and the barriers to progress are well documented. Legacy system integration challenges (42%), fragmented data environments (39%) and a shortage of in-house AI expertise (40%) are holding firms back. Over half describe their data governance frameworks as early-stage or developing, raising questions about how effectively AI can be deployed at scale.

Data fragmentation adds to the urgency

Insurers manage an average of 17 data sources feeding their premium processes, and 54% cite different systems and data architectures as the biggest post-merger integration roadblock. This level of fragmentation makes it difficult to layer on automation, without a trusted partner, or absorb new business through M&A without introducing additional operational risk.

The findings suggest that the industry recognizes the need to act. Half of firms are now prioritizing AI and machine learning, 42% are focusing on automation of back- and middle-office functions, and 51% say regulatory requirements are driving their modernization decisions.

Fold Revenue Rises 8% in Q4 Amid Continued BTC Rewards Push

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Fold Revenue Rises 8% in Q4 Amid Continued BTC Rewards Push

Bitcoin financial services firm Fold reported a 8% surge in revenue in Q4 to $9 million as it gained another 2,000 customers and rolled out more products aimed at integrating Bitcoin reward schemes into consumer spending.

The results come just weeks after it released a Fold Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, a Visa and Stripe-powered product, offering users cashback and rewards.

During Fold’s Q4 and 2025 full-year earnings call on Tuesday, CEO Will Reeves said they believe that “Bitcoin rewards will overtake the airline miles as the preferred consumer reward in the US.”

“That means that these card programs and our card program needs to scale to millions of cardholders,” Reeves said, adding that better risk and fraud controls must be implemented before it can “really open the floodgates” for mass adoption.

Coinbase, Gemini, Swan Bitcoin and River Financial are among the other crypto platforms offering Bitcoin (BTC) credit card rewards in the US.

Despite the optimism, Fold recorded a 3% year-on-year fall in transaction volume to $215 million and an operating loss of $6 million, contributing to a full-year net loss of $69.6 million for 2025, the company reported in its latest financial statement.

However, Reeves said Fold still hit its goals in its first full year as a public company, stating:

“We continued to add customers and expand our platform while building the foundation to scale a Bitcoin-native financial services ecosystem across multiple interconnected product lines.”

Fold’s more recent products include Fold for Business, enabling companies to include Bitcoin in payroll, bonuses, and corporate financial programs. 

One of its most notable partners is Steak ‘n Shake, which accepts Bitcoin and pays employees bonuses in Bitcoin.

Source: Fold

Reeves noted that Fold has strengthened its balance sheet by “extinguishing our two outstanding convertible debt instruments.” 

This “removes structural overhang and directs financing solely to the growth of our operating businesses,” he said.

“With the credit card now live, the launch of an enterprise product, and a cleaner capital structure in place, 2026 is about scaling what we’ve built across customer acquisition, engagement, cross-sell, and retention.”

Fold has been selling Bitcoin

Despite Reeves’ confidence for the remainder of 2026, Fold has nearly sliced its Bitcoin treasury in half.