Binance Labs, the incubator wing of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange, has invested in a smart contract and blockchain audit startup, the company announced Monday. Called CertiK, the firm seeks to help secure smart contract and blockchain platforms through a formal verification process. The team has already begun working on ensuring existing blockchain platforms do not contain bugs that could lead to a loss of funds or other vulnerabilities. The investment “signals the recognition of the importance of formal verification in the blockchain industry. This technology includes CertiKOS, which has already been used in both enterprise and military programs, and is one of the tools used by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
2. Binance Announces All Listing Fees Will Be Donated to Charity
The CEO of world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance said he “hoped others would follow” his decision to donate all listing fees to charity after a sudden announcement Monday, October 8. According to the announcement, Binance will not only donate all such fees to charitable causes for the “greater good,” but also allow developers themselves to name the amount they pay, without demanding a minimum fee. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao claimed the material was fake, he argued that it was the quality of the asset which was clinched the listing process, avoiding details about Binance’s mysterious listing fee structure. Binance is currently the world’s largest crypto exchange by daily trade volumes, seeing about $806.5 million in trades over the past 24 hours to press time.
3. Venezuela Mandates Passport Fees Must Be Paid in Controversial Cryptocurrency Petro
Venezuelans can only use the state-backed cryptocurrency, the Petro, to pay for passport fees starting next week, the country’s vice president Delcy Rodriguez said in a press conference. The average monthly minimum wage in Venezuela is four times less than the cost of the raised passport fee. Venezuela has sought to combat the side-effects of rampant inflation and a failing economy by embracing the use of cryptocurrency to circumvent capital controls. Petro, President Nicolas Maduro’s purported solution to the country’s economic crisis, has consistently courted controversy, with accusations last week claiming its developers copied the whitepaper of altcoin Dash. Along with the passport fees shake-up, Rodriguez also announced the formation of a dedicated migration police force, ostensibly designed “to preserve citizen security and migratory control.”