Opinion by: Christos A. Makridis, associate research professor at Arizona State University and visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation Stablecoins received a real boost when US President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act earlier this year — and now European banks are trying to get into the act by issuing stablecoins of their own. Their…
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A successful cyberattack on critical infrastructure — such as electricity grids, transportation networks or healthcare systems — could cause severe disruption and put lives at risk. Our understanding of the threat is far from complete since organizations have historically not been required to report data breaches, but attacks are on the rise according to the…
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Blockchain exploits can be extremely costly; with poorly designed smart contracts, decentralized apps and bridges are attacked time and time again. For example, the Ronin Network experienced a $625-million breach in March 2022 when a hacker was able to steal private keys to generate fake withdrawals and transferred hundreds of millions out. The Nomad Bridge…
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Having taught and studied token economics at the University of Nicosia, I’ve found that students often have some decidedly muddled beliefs about how what tokens are and how business and token economies work. Unlike microeconomics and macroeconomics — which are based on decades of research, debate and inquiry that have produced some commonly accepted principles…
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The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Oct. 3 that Kim Kardashian settled an allegation that she promoted “a crypto asset security offered and sold by EthereumMax without disclosing the payment [of $250,000] she received for the promotion.” While she cooperated and closed the case with $1.26 million in penalties, the charge highlights the liability that…
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Regulators are tasked with balancing between protecting consumers and creating environments where entrepreneurs and the private sector can thrive. When markets face distortions, perhaps due to an externality or information asymmetry, regulation can play an important role. But regulation can also stifle entrepreneurship and business formation, leaving society and its people worse off. The United…
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Automated market makers are a true public good in crypto, enabling genuinely decentralized trading 24/7 and supporting the wider DeFi ecosystems. But they’re not without a host of problems, writes digital economist and academic Christos A. Makridis. The decentralized finance (DeFi) market has surged since 2021, growing from just over $20 billion to nearly $160…
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Central bank digital currencies — digital currencies backed by a central bank — have received renewed interest with the United States President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets. Proponents of CBDCs argue that widespread adoption will promote financial inclusion, expand public access to safe money, improve the efficiency of payments…
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Recent research shows that decentralized exchanges that distribute tokens via airdrops see a big boost in user numbers and transactions. But, is building communities this way just crypto’s version of printing money? Airdrops — the disbursal of free tokens to early users as a way of rewarding and building momentum — have been around for…
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