Osmosis, the biggest decentralised exchange (DEX) on Cosmos, will introduce Bitcoin to the protocol’s dubbed inter-blockchain communications (IBC), in association with Nomic and Kujira.
Users can transfer Bitcoin to the Cosmos network via Osmosis’ Nomic bridge for 1.5 per cent of the transaction value, according to a statement on October 3, 2023 during the Cosmoverse 2023 Conference.
The Nomic Chain will issue Nomic Bitcoin (nBTC), an IBC-compatible cryptocurrency, to users on a one-to-one basis, which can be bought, sold and utilised as liquidity on Osmosis. They will also be usable across more than 50 Cosmos-linked app chains.
Sunny Aggarwal, co-founder of Osmosis, said: “Bitcoin is in deep need of an application DeFi ecosystem, and Cosmos needs a base money asset that can serve as its primary store of value. Nomic will help make this long-awaited union for a Bitcoin-centric Cosmos a reality.”
Matt Bell, CEO of Turbofish, the founder and core contributor of Nomic, said: “The Cosmos ecosystem is too important for it to lack a seamless and secure way to receive BTC. We see today’s announcement as the beginning of the most seamless and secure way to on-ramp users into the Cosmos ecosystem with BTC.”
Open Metaverse Discovery Month In October
The Blockchain initiative started by Neal Stephenson, the American author who coined the term metaverse in his 1992 book Snow Crash, is moving forward with its goals despite dwindling interest and claims that it’s “dead”.
The Open Metaverse Discovery Month will take place in October 2023, according to a statement from Stephenson’s metaverse blockchain project Lamina1. To give builders and creators the expertise they need to investigate metaverse experiences, the company will host seminars and offer shared quests and bounties.
Lamina1 CEO Rebecca Barkin told Cointelegraph that if people continue to invest time and money in digital experiences, the metaverse will continue to come to life.
Incidentally, according to data from Google Trends, search interest for the metaverse has decreased in 2023 as compared to its peak in 2021 and 2022. Some have even claimed that the metaverse boom is over due to the waning interest in it.
Friend.tech Users Blame SIM Swaps After Hack
After a recent wave of alleged hacks that resulted in over 109 Ether worth around $178,000 being taken from four users in less than a week, users of Friend.tech are warning of potential SIM-swap attacks.
On September 30, a user by the name of “froggie.eth” posted on X (previously Twitter) that their Friend.tech account had been SIM-swapped, wherein exploiters take over a user’s cell number to intercept two-factor authentication codes, which are then used to access accounts. He said that more than 20 ETH were stolen as a result of this hack.
After a few days, on October 3, 2023 several Friend.tech users reported related instances that their accounts were compromised and drained after hackers seized control of their mobile numbers.
Singer Daren Broxmeyer also claimed to have had his SIM switched and 22 ETH stolen. His phone had previously been “spammed with calls,” which he thought was an attempt to prevent him from receiving a text from his service provider alerting him that someone was attempting to access his account.
