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Crypto Intelligence, a leading crypto and Web 3.0 news portal, has announced the launch of its Blockchain Council today, with 12 initial members.

The Crypto Intelligence Blockchain Council is made up of pioneers, visionaries and experts of the Web 3.0 space.

Members have the privilege of being able to share their insights via op-eds and thought leadership articles published in Crypto Intelligence and their affiliated partners, which include CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko, and CryptoPanic.

Members are also invited to industry panels and events organised throughout the year by Crypto Intelligence.

The founding members of the Crypto Intelligence Blockchain Council include current and former executives and employees of several leading blockchain companies, including Tezos, Kraken, Coinbase, and IoTeX.

Namely, the 12 initial Blockchain Council members are:

Deepak Garg – Chief Compliance Officer & MLRO (MENA) at Kraken

Jakob Linus Stammler – Product Owner & Operations Manager at Tezos Foundation

Miles Anthony – Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Decentral Games

Mark Zalan – CEO of GoMining, formerly a Silicon Valley network security engineer

Dr Raullen Chai – CEO of IoTeX, previously Lead of Crypto R&D and Engineering Security at Uber

Gagan Gehani – Former Product Manager at Coinbase

Martin Petkov – Head of Marketing at LandVault, Formerly of HSBC

Radovan Vukotic – Head of Finance at CoinFantasy

Suliman Mulhem – Founder of Imperium Comms and member of the Forbes Business Council

Alex Thurston – Chief Executive Officer of Bitcoin PR Buzz

Haris Khan – Group Vice President of Growth at Rain

Ehab Khattab – Content Manager at the Dubai Future Foundation

Commenting on the much-anticipated launch of the Blockchain Council, David Prior, Head of Partnerships and Sales at Crypto Intelligence, hailed it as an effective way to encourage more innovation and debate in the crypto and broader Web 3.0 space.

“Our Blockchain Council provides a platform for industry leaders and visionaries to share their expertise with the cryptoshere and encourage the sharing of ideas,” he said.

“We are looking forward to adding more members to our Blockchain Council in the coming weeks and months.”

Join the Crypto Intelligence Blockchain Council

While the majority of Blockchain Council members are invited to join directly by Crypto Intelligence, crypto pioneers and experts are able to apply to join the waiting list and to be considered for admission.

To apply, you can send an email to Council@cryptointelligence.co.uk.

Eighteen prominent venture capital (VC) investment firms, including Temasek, Sequoia Capital, Sino Global, and Softbank, are now defendants in a class-action lawsuit that has been lodged in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

This lawsuit is connected to their involvement with the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which has gone bankrupt.

Filed on August 7th, the lawsuit alleges that these investment firms played a role in “aiding and abetting” the fraudulent activities linked to FTX.

The suit asserts that these entities utilized their significant influence, power, and substantial resources to facilitate the rapid expansion of FTX’s fraudulent practices, which led to its eventual multibillion-dollar collapse.

The lawsuit contends that FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange, violated multiple securities laws and engaged in misappropriation of customer funds.

Simultaneously, the venture capital firms in question portrayed an inaccurate image of the exchange, asserting that they had diligently conducted their assessments.

As a result, the lawsuit claims that these VC firms were directly involved in the “perpetration, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting” of FTX Group’s substantial fraudulent activities, all for their personal financial gain.

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In the lawsuit’s discussion of the VC firms’ role in facilitating FTX’s fraudulent practices, the plaintiffs highlight Temasek’s involvement and its statements regarding the financial status of FTX.

Temasek maintained that it underwent an extensive eight-month review of FTX’s financial records, audits, and regulatory compliance, finding no concerning indications. The lawsuit reads:

“The multinational VC defendants also propagated numerous false and deceptive statements about FTX’s operations, finances, business, and future prospects to entice customers into investing, trading, and depositing assets with FTX.”

The lawsuit further alleges that these VC firms endorsed FTX’s stability and safety, showcasing the exchange’s purported efforts to attain proper regulation.

One of FTX’s initial investors was Temasek, which invested $275 million.

However, following the cryptocurrency exchange’s collapse in November 2022, Temasek completely wrote off its investment and even reduced compensation for the executives responsible for the FTX investment.

Singapore-based Temasek’s involvement also casts a spotlight on the Singaporean government’s lack of oversight.

FTX’s downfall had a domino effect within the cryptocurrency industry, triggering doubts about the entire crypto ecosystem and leading to a prolonged dearth of institutional crypto investments for several months.

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Zoom has responded to widespread criticism by updating its terms of service to address concerns about AI data scraping.

In a blog post on August 7th, the video-conferencing platform clarified that it will not use user content, including chat, audio, or video, to train artificial intelligence algorithms without explicit consent.

The controversy arose over a section in Zoom’s terms that implied the company could utilize a broad range of customer content to train AI models.

This led to a backlash, with numerous users threatening to abandon the platform.

Zoom explained that the AI-related terms had been added back in March, but they have now been updated to emphasize that they will not utilize any customer data for AI training without obtaining consent first.

This revision is aimed at reassuring users about their data privacy and control over how their information is used.

The company’s AI offerings, such as the meeting summary tool and message composer, are opt-in features, meaning account owners or administrators can decide whether to enable them.

Before Zoom clarified its terms, concerned users took to Twitter to voice their displeasure and called for a boycott until the terms were updated.

The issue stemmed from the section in which users had previously consented to Zoom using, collecting, distributing, and storing “Service Generated Data” for various purposes, including AI and machine learning model training.

It’s worth noting that other tech companies have also updated their privacy policies to allow for data scraping to train AI models.

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For example, in July, Google updated its policies to permit the use of public data for AI training.

The broader tech industry has been facing growing scrutiny over its use of AI and potential privacy implications.

In June, European Union consumer protection groups urged regulators to investigate AI models used in chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Bard.

The concerns primarily revolved around disinformation, data harvesting, and manipulation generated by these bots.

As a response to these concerns, the EU passed the AI Act on June 14th, which is set to take effect within the next two to three years.

The Act establishes a framework for the development and deployment of AI technologies, aiming to address privacy and ethical considerations surrounding AI usage.

In conclusion, Zoom’s update to its terms of service aims to allay user fears about AI data scraping and ensure that customer content will not be used for AI training without their explicit consent.

The move comes in the context of wider industry concerns about AI usage and privacy, leading to changes in privacy policies and the implementation of regulatory frameworks like the AI Act in the European Union.

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OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company, has recently unveiled its latest web crawling tool called “GPTBot,” which holds the potential to enhance future iterations of ChatGPT models.

The company believes that by crawling web pages, the data collected can be utilized to improve accuracy and broaden the capabilities of their upcoming AI models.

Web crawlers, also known as web spiders, are bots that index website content across the internet. Search engines like Google and Bing employ these crawlers to ensure websites appear in search results.

OpenAI clarified that GPTBot will only gather publicly available data from the world wide web, avoiding sources with paywalled content, personal identifiable information, or text that violates their policies.

Website owners can prevent GPTBot from crawling their sites by adding a “disallow” command to a standard file on their servers.

This feature allows them to control whether their web content is included in the data collection process.

Interestingly, OpenAI filed a trademark application for “GPT-5,” the anticipated successor to their current GPT-4 model.

However, the CEO, Sam Altman, clarified that GPT-5’s training is not imminent, as the company needs to conduct several safety audits before starting the process.

Recent concerns have been raised about OpenAI’s data collection practices, specifically regarding copyright and consent.

In June, Japan’s privacy watchdog issued a warning to OpenAI for collecting sensitive data without proper authorization.

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Similarly, Italy temporarily banned the use of ChatGPT due to alleged breaches of European Union privacy laws.

Additionally, a class-action lawsuit was filed against OpenAI by 16 plaintiffs, accusing the company of accessing private information from ChatGPT user interactions. Microsoft, named as a defendant in the lawsuit, might also be implicated.

If these allegations are proven true, OpenAI and Microsoft could be found in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a law with a history of addressing web-scraping cases.

In conclusion, OpenAI’s new web crawling tool, GPTBot, offers promising potential for improving future ChatGPT models.

However, concerns regarding data collection practices must be addressed to ensure compliance with privacy laws and prevent potential legal repercussions.

As the company gears up for the development of GPT-5, it is essential to prioritize safety audits and adhere to ethical standards in AI research and development.

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Bitstamp, a prominent cryptocurrency exchange with a long-standing history, is embarking on a global expansion endeavor by seeking new funds to bolster its operations.

According to reports on August 7, Bitstamp initiated its fundraising process in late June, enlisting the support of Michael Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital Holdings as an adviser.

The primary goal of this fundraising campaign is to finance the launch of derivatives trading in Europe by 2024 and to expand its services across various Asian markets.

Additionally, Bitstamp aims to scale its operations in the United Kingdom to enhance its service offerings further.

Bitstamp’s global CEO, Jean-Baptiste Graftieaux, emphasized the company’s exclusive focus on securing capital to extend services to both retail and institutional crypto clients.

He clarified that Bitstamp is not up for sale and has no active plans to sell the company.

Bitstamp had recently garnered attention in the crypto industry when Ripple, a major blockchain firm, acquired a minority stake in the exchange during the first quarter of 2023.

Galaxy Digital Holdings also played a key role as an adviser in this acquisition, which was publicly disclosed in late May.

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This push for expansion aligns with Bitstamp’s global ambitions announced in 2018, following its acquisition by NXMH, a company backed by South Korean NXC.

The co-founder of Bitstamp, Nejc Kodrič, previously asserted that the exchange was not seeking to sell or receive investment at the time.

However, he did take the opportunity to sell a significant portion of his Bitstamp stock while retaining a 10% stake and remaining the CEO.

Bitstamp has come a long way since its establishment in Slovenia in 2011, evolving into one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges based in Luxembourg.

Recent data from CoinGecko indicates that the exchange witnessed a trading volume of approximately $127 million within a 24-hour period.

Notably, Bitstamp is making headlines with its decision to impose trading restrictions on certain tokens, including Axie Infinity (AXS), Chiliz (CHZ), Decentraland (MANA), Polygon (MATIC), NEAR Protocol (NEAR), The Sandbox (SAND), and Solana (SOL) in the United States.

These restrictions are set to take effect on August 29, and the exchange cited “recent market developments” as the reason, stating that holding and withdrawing tokens will remain unaffected.

Recently, Bitstamp’s U.K. arm also earned registration with the Financial Conduct Authority, signifying its compliance with regulations in the country.

As Bitstamp continues to advance its global expansion plans, the crypto community eagerly awaits the developments and opportunities this growth may bring to the industry.

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PayPal’s recent launch of the Ethereum-based stablecoin, PYUSD, has generated mixed reactions within the crypto community.

While some see it as a positive step towards mainstream adoption for Ethereum, others are concerned about its potential impact on decentralization and personal asset control.

The stablecoin, also known as PayPal USD, was introduced on August 7 and is issued by Paxos Trust Co., the same firm behind Binance USD (BUSD).

Built on the Ethereum blockchain, it aims to facilitate digital payments and Web3 functionalities and will soon be available to customers in the United States.

Ethereum proponents, such as Anthony Sassano and Ryan Sean Adams, view the introduction of this ERC-20 stablecoin as a significant boost to Ethereum adoption, bringing it closer to becoming the money layer of the internet.

With around 300,000 to 400,000 daily active users on Ethereum, the potential for PayPal’s vast user base of 430 million accounts to be onboarded onto Ethereum through PYUSD is seen as noteworthy progress.

However, some experts have expressed reservations about PayPal’s stablecoin.

Certain smart contract auditors have pointed out that PYUSD’s smart contract includes functions like “freezefunds” and “wipefrozenfunds,” which are considered centralization attack vectors.

This has raised concerns about the potential misuse of these functions by PayPal.

The stablecoin’s characteristics have been likened to a censorship-enabled central bank digital currency by digital asset lawyer Sarah Hodder.

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Another smart contract auditor has observed that PayPal retains the ability to modify PYUSD’s smart contract at any time, which could raise questions about true decentralization.

The crypto community recalls PayPal’s controversial policy in the past, which could have resulted in user fines for spreading “misinformation.”

Although the company later retracted the policy, such incidents have left some skeptical about PayPal’s intentions with PYUSD.

Blockchain engineer Patrick Collins remains neutral, acknowledging that while PYUSD has potential, some engineering choices could have been more optimal.

For example, he suggests that using an outdated version of Solidity to program the contract and making it upgradeable might have drawbacks.

Despite these concerns, PayPal’s PYUSD is expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks.

Ethereum’s price has shown minor fluctuations since the announcement, maintaining a similar value of around $1,825.

In conclusion, PayPal’s introduction of PYUSD has sparked both enthusiasm and caution within the crypto community.

While it may promote Ethereum adoption, concerns about centralization and the control of assets warrant close scrutiny as the stablecoin is implemented.

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