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As of 01 May 23, 09 AM

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In the news today; Vitalik And Sadhguru Discuss Tech And More, Hacker Burns Hundreds Of Bitcoins Held In Russian Intelligence Wallets, Mastercard Launches Cross-Border Money Transfer Through Crypto

🧘🏽‍♂️ Vitalik And Sadhguru Discuss Tech And More: On April 25, the reState Foundation organized a virtual discussion between Ethereum's co-founder and inventor, Vitalik Buterin, and Isha Foundation's founder, Sadhguru, to explore the connection between technology and human consciousness. Buterin emphasized that blockchain technology primarily facilitates human coordination and interaction, allowing different groups to trust and collaborate on various projects over long distances. The conversation highlighted a growing disparity between the pace of technological advancement and human ethical and consciousness development. Sadhguru attributed this disparity to humans' need for group identification, which often prioritizes protecting and defending group identity over intelligence. Buterin countered that emerging technologies can actually help people acknowledge complex identities and find common ground. Both speakers agreed that using technologies like blockchain responsibly is crucial for enhancing understanding and elevating human consciousness.

🔥 Hacker Burns Hundreds Of Bitcoins Held In Russian Intelligence Wallets: In 2022, a hacker vigilante reportedly destroyed around $300,000 worth of Bitcoin associated with nearly a thousand addresses believed to be linked to Russian intelligence agencies, as per Chainalysis research. The anonymous individual identified 986 unique Bitcoin addresses between March and April 2022, allegedly used by Russian security agencies. Using the OP_RETURN function, which marks BTC transactions as invalid, the vigilante leaked the addresses and burned most of the Bitcoin. They also donated some of the BTC to a Ukraine support address, accompanied by a message: "Help Ukraine with money from the GRU Khakir." The GRU, SVR, and FSB are all Russian intelligence agencies. It recently came to light.

💳 Mastercard Launches Cross-Border Money Transfer Through Crypto: Mastercard announced the launch of Mastercard Crypto Credential, a service designed to ensure verifiable and compliant transactions between users' wallets, initially focusing on cross-border digital asset transfers. Revealed by Raj Dhamodharan at Consensus 23, the service enables wallet identification in transactions that comply with regulations, such as the Financial Action Task Force's "travel rule." Mastercard Crypto Credential, which uses technology from blockchain analytics platform CipherTrace acquired in late 2021, establishes a set of common standards for interaction attestation. Mastercard collaborated with wallet providers Bit2Me, Lirium, Mercado Bitcoin, and Uphold to launch the service, initially facilitating transfers between the U.S. and Latin America and the Caribbean corridors.