Toncoin open interest soars 67% after Pavel Durov departs France  

Opinion by: Casey Ford, PhD, researcher at Nym TechnologiesWeb3 rolled in on the wave of decentralization. Decentralized applications (DApps) grew by 74% in 2024 and individual wallets by 485%, with total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) closing at a near-record high of $214 billion. The industry is also, however, heading straight for a state of capture if it does not wake up. As Elon Musk has teased of placing the US Treasury on blockchain, however poorly thought out, the tides are turning as crypto is deregulated. But when they do, is Web3 ready to “protect [user] data,” as Musk surrogates pledge? If not, we’re all on the brink of a global data security crisis.The crisis boils down to a vulnerability at the heart of the digital world: the metadata surveillance of all existing networks, even the decentralized ones of Web3. AI technologies are now at the foundation of surveillance systems and serve as accelerants. Anonymity networks offer a way out of this state of capture. But this must begin with metadata protections across the board.Metadata is the new frontier of surveillanceMetadata is the overlooked raw material of AI surveillance. Compared to payload data, metadata is lightweight and thus easy to process en masse. Here, AI systems excel best. Aggregated metadata can reveal much more than encrypted contents: patterns of behaviors, networks of contacts, personal desires and, ultimately, predictability. And legally, it is unprotected in the way end-to-end (E2E) encrypted communications are now in some regions. While metadata is a part of all digital assets, the metadata that leaks from E2E encrypted traffic exposes us and what we do: IPs, timing signatures, packet sizes, encryption formats and even wallet specifications. All of this is fully legible to adversaries surveilling a network. Blockchain transactions are no exception.From piles of digital junk can emerge a goldmine of detailed records of everything we do. Metadata is our digital unconscious, and it is up for grabs for whatever machines can harvest it for profit.The limits of blockchainProtecting the metadata of transactions was an afterthought of blockchain technology. Crypto does not offer anonymity despite the reactionary association of the industry with illicit trade. It offers pseudonymity, the ability to hold tokens in a wallet with a chosen name. Recent: How to tokenize real-world assets on BitcoinHarry Halpin and Ania Piotrowska have diagnosed the situation:“[T]he public nature of Bitcoin’s ledger of transactions […] means anyone can observe the flow of coins. [P]seudonymous addresses do not provide any meaningful level of anonymity, since anyone can harvest the counterparty addresses of any given transaction and reconstruct the chain of transactions.”As all chain transactions are public, anyone running a full node can have a panoptic view of chain activity. Further, metadata like IP addresses attached to pseudonymous wallets can be used to identify people’s locations and identities if tracking technologies are sophisticated enough. This is the core problem of metadata surveillance in blockchain economics: Surveillance systems can effectively de-anonymize our financial traffic by any capable party.Knowledge is also an insecurityKnowledge is not just power, as the adage goes. It’s also the basis on which we are exploited and disempowered. There are at least three general metadata risks across Web3.Fraud: Financial insecurity and surveillance are intrinsically linked. The most serious hacks, thefts or scams depend on accumulated knowledge about a target: their assets, transaction histories and who they are. DappRadar estimates a $1.3-billion loss due to “hacks and exploits” like phishing attacks in 2024 alone. Leaks: The wallets that permit access to decentralized tokenomics rely on leaky centralized infrastructures. Studies of DApps and wallets have shown the prevalence of IP leaks: “The existing wallet infrastructure is not in favor of users’ privacy. Websites abuse wallets to fingerprint users online, and DApps and wallets leak the user’s wallet address to third parties.” Pseudonymity is pointless if people’s identities and patterns of transactions can be easily revealed through metadata.Chain consensus: Chain consensus is a potential point of attack. One example is a recent initiative by Celestia to add an anonymity layer to obscure the metadata of validators against particular attacks seeking to disrupt chain consensus in Celestia’s Data Availability Sampling (DAS) process.Securing Web3 through anonymityAs Web3 continues to grow, so does the amount of metadata about people’s activities being offered up to newly empowered surveillance systems. Beyond VPNsVirtual private network (VPN) technology is decades old at this point. The lack of advancement is shocking, with most VPNs remaining in the same centralized and proprietary infrastructures. Networks like Tor and Dandelion stepped in as decentralized solutions. Yet they are still vulnerable to surveillance by global adversaries capable of “timing analysis” via the control of entry and exit nodes. Even more advanced tools are needed.Noise networksAll surveillance looks for patterns in a network full of noise. By further obscuring patterns of communication and de-linking metadata like IPs from metadata generated by traffic, the possible attack vectors can be significantly reduced, and metadata patterns can be scrambled into nonsense.Anonymizing networks have emerged to anonymize sensitive traffic like communications or crypto transactions via noise: cover traffic, timing obfuscations and data mixing. In the same spirit, other VPNs like Mullvad have introduced programs like DAITA (Defense Against AI-guided Traffic Analysis), which seeks to add “distortion” to its VPN network. Scrambling the codesWhether it’s defending people against the assassinations in tomorrow’s drone wars or securing their onchain transactions, new anonymity networks are needed to scramble the codes of what makes all of us targetable: the metadata our online lives leave in their wake.The state of capture is already here. Machine learning is feeding off our data. Instead of leaving people’s data there unprotected, Web3 and anonymity systems can make sure that what ends up in the teeth of AI is effectively garbage.Opinion by: Casey Ford, PhD, researcher at Nym Technologies.This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

The Open Network (TON) Society released a statement on March 15 celebrating the return of Pavel Durov’s passport as a win for freedom of speech, online privacy, and innovation.According to the AFP news agency, Durov left France and headed to Dubai on the morning of March 15 after gaining permission from French officials to depart the European country.“We have stood behind Pavel since his arrest on August 24, 2024,” the TON Society wrote. The group added:”Pavel’s unwavering commitment to freedom of speech and transparency, despite facing the most challenging of circumstances, is a powerful reminder of the importance of standing by your principles, even when it is politically and personally detrimental to do so.”The TON Society previously penned a letter condemning the French government for detaining Durov and urging the country to release the Telegram founder.The TON Society celebrates the return of Durov’s passport by French law enforcement officials. Source: TON Society“The arrest of the Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, is a direct assault on a basic human right — the freedom of expression of everyone,” the TON Society’s Aug. 27 letter read.At the time, the organization also called on the United Nations, the Council of Europe (CoE), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the European Union (EU) to intervene and push for Durov’s release.Free speech advocates in the crypto industry sounded the alarm over Pavel Durov’s arrest, citing the troubling implications for privacy and decentralized technologies in the face of state pressure to censor the internet and the potential for regulatory capture.Emmanuel Macron denies political motivation for Durov’s arrestShortly after French law enforcement officials detained the Telegram founder, President Emmanuel Macron denied the arrest was politically motivated and claimed that France was committed to free speech.French President Emmanuel Macron denies the arrest of Pavel Durov was politically motivated. Source: Emmanuel MacronIn a subsequent press conference, Macron also denied inviting Durov to France amid a torrent of backlash from the crypto community and free speech advocates.Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of the free-speech video platform Rumble, announced that he safely departed Europe shortly following the detention of Pavel Durov.In an Aug. 25 X post, the CEO said that the French government threatened Rumble and condemned state authorities for the crackdown on free speech.Magazine: Did Telegram’s Pavel Durov commit a crime? Crypto lawyers weigh in

For years, inflation was primarily a concern for emerging markets, where volatile currencies and economic instability made rising prices a persistent challenge. However, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation became a global issue. Once-stable economies with historically low inflation were suddenly grappling with soaring costs, prompting investors to rethink how to preserve their wealth.While gold and real estate have long been hailed as safe-haven assets, Bitcoin’s supporters argue that its fixed supply and decentralized nature make it the ultimate shield against inflation. But does the theory hold up?The answer may depend largely on where one lives.Bitcoin advocates emphasize its strict supply limit of 21 million coins as a key advantage in combating inflationary monetary policies. Unlike fiat currencies, which central banks can print in unlimited quantities, Bitcoin’s supply is predetermined by an algorithm, preventing any form of artificial expansion. This scarcity, they argue, makes Bitcoin akin to “digital gold” and a more reliable store of value than traditional government-issued money.Several companies and even sovereign nations have embraced the idea, adding Bitcoin to their treasuries to hedge against fiat currency risk and inflation. The most notable example is El Salvador, which made global headlines in 2021 by becoming the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. The government has since been steadily accumulating Bitcoin, making it a key component of its economic strategy. Companies like Strategy in the US and Metaplanet in Japan have followed suit, and now the United States is in the process of establishing its own Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.A Bitcoin investment strategy has paid off so farSo far, the corporate and government Bitcoin investment strategy has paid off as BTC outperformed the S&P 500 and gold futures since the early 2020s before inflation surged in the United States. More recently, however, that strong performance has shown signs of moderation. Bitcoin remains a strong performer over the past 12 months, and while BTC’s gains outpace consumer inflation, economists caution that past performance is no guarantee of future results. Indeed, some studies suggest a correlation between cryptocurrency returns and changes in inflation expectations is far from consistent over time.  Returns over the past 12 months. Source: Truflation.Bitcoin’s role as an inflation hedge remains uncertainUnlike traditional inflation hedges such as gold, Bitcoin is still a relatively new asset. Its role as a hedge remains uncertain, especially considering that widespread adoption has only gained traction in recent years.Despite high inflation in recent years, Bitcoin’s price has fluctuated wildly, often correlating more with risk assets like tech stocks than with traditional inflation hedges like gold. A recent study published in the Journal of Economics and Business found that Bitcoin’s ability to hedge inflation has weakened over time, particularly as institutional adoption grew. In 2022, when US inflation hit a 40-year high, Bitcoin lost more than 60% of its value, while gold, a traditional inflation hedge, remained relatively stable.For this reason, some analysts say that Bitcoin’s price may be driven more by investor sentiment and liquidity conditions than by macroeconomic fundamentals like inflation. When the risk appetite is strong, Bitcoin rallies. But when markets are fearful, Bitcoin often crashes alongside stocks.In a Journal of Economics and Business study, authors Harold Rodriguez and Jefferson Colombo said, “Based on monthly data between August 2010 and January 2023, the results indicate that Bitcoin returns increase significantly after a positive inflationary shock, corroborating empirical evidence that Bitcoin can act as an inflation hedge.” However, they noted that Bitcoin’s inflationary hedging property was stronger in the early days when institutional adoption of BTC was not as prevalent. Both researchers agreed that “Bitcoin’s inflation-hedging property is context-specific and likely diminishes as it achieves broader adoption and becomes more integrated into mainstream financial markets.”US inflation index since 2020. Source. Truflation“So far, it has acted as an inflation hedge—but it’s not a black-and-white case. It’s more of a cyclical (phenomenon),” Robert Walden, head of trading at Abra, told Cointelegraph. Walden said, “For Bitcoin to be a true inflation hedge, it would need to consistently outpace inflation year after year with its returns. However, due to its parabolic nature, its performance tends to be highly asymmetric over time.”Bitcoin’s movement right now, Walden said, is more about market positioning than inflation hedging—it’s about capital flows and interest rates.”Argentina and Turkey seek financial refuge in cryptoIn economies suffering from runaway inflation and strict capital controls, Bitcoin has proven to be a valuable tool for preserving wealth. Argentina and Turkey, two countries with persistent inflation throughout recent decades, illustrate this dynamic well.Argentina has long grappled with recurring financial crises and soaring inflation. While inflation has shown signs of improvement very recently, locals have historically turned to cryptocurrency as a way to bypass financial restrictions and protect their wealth from currency depreciation.A recent Coinbase survey found that 87% of Argentinians believe crypto and blockchain technology can enhance their financial independence, while nearly three in four respondents see crypto as a solution to challenges like inflation and high transaction costs.Related: Argentina overtakes Brazil in crypto inflows — ChainalysisWith a population of 45 million, Argentina has become a hotbed for crypto adoption, with Coinbase reporting that as many as five million Argentinians use digital assets daily.“Economic freedom is a cornerstone of prosperity, and we are proud to bring secure, transparent, and reliable crypto services to Argentina,” said Fabio Plein, Director for the Americas at Coinbase. “For many Argentinians, crypto isn’t just an investment, it’s a necessity for regaining control over their financial futures.”“People in Argentina don’t trust the peso. They are always looking for ways to store value outside of the local currency,” Julián Colombo, a senior director at Bitso, a major Latin American cryptocurrency exchange, told Cointelegraph. “Bitcoin and stablecoins allow them to bypass capital controls and protect their savings from devaluation.”Argentina inflation index. Source. Truflation.Beyond individual investors, businesses in Argentina are also using Bitcoin and stablecoins to protect revenue and conduct international transactions. Some workers even opt to receive part of their salaries in cryptocurrency to safeguard their earnings from inflation.According to economist and crypto analyst Natalia Motyl, “Currency restrictions and capital controls imposed in recent years have made access to US dollars increasingly difficult amid high inflation and a crisis of confidence in the Argentine peso. In this environment, cryptocurrencies have emerged as a viable alternative for preserving the value of money, allowing individuals and businesses to bypass the limitations of the traditional financial system.” While Bitcoin’s effectiveness as an inflation hedge is still up for debate, stablecoins have become a more practical solution in high-inflation economies, particularly those pegged to the US dollar.Relative to its economic size, Turkey has emerged as a hotspot for stablecoin transactions. In the year leading up to March 2024, purchases alone accounted for 4.3% of GDP. This digital currency boom, fueled by years of double-digit inflation—peaking at 85% in 2022—and a more than 80% plunge in the lira against the dollar over the past five years, gained momentum during the pandemic.Turkey’s Bitcoin adoption proves citizens drive adoption, not governmentsAlthough Turkey allows its citizens to buy, hold, and trade crypto, the use of digital currencies for payments has been banned since 2021 when the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey prohibited “any direct or indirect usage of crypto assets in payment services and electronic money issuance.” Nevertheless, crypto adoption in Turkey is still evident, with an increasing number of Turkish banks offering crypto services and shops and ATMs providing crypto exchange options.High inflation rates backed the erosion of the Turkish lira’s value, which lost nearly 60% of its purchasing power as inflation soared to 85.5% between 2021 and 2023. This led many Turkish citizens to turn to Bitcoin as a store of value and a medium of exchange. While some argue that Bitcoin’s scarcity bodes well for long-term appreciation, potentially outpacing consumer inflation, its high volatility and recurring correlation with tech-heavy, risk-associated indexes like the Nasdaq in recent times suggest that its performance as a pure inflation hedge remains mixed. However, in inflation-ridden nations like Argentina and Turkey, where local currencies have collapsed in value, the “digital gold” has undeniably served as a crucial avenue of escape from local currencies, preserving purchasing power in ways traditional fiat cannot.Although Bitcoin is still a nascent asset, and its effectiveness as a hedge requires further study, one thing remains clear—so far, it has significantly outperformed consumer inflation. For Bitcoin enthusiasts, that alone is reason enough to celebrate.This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.