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It’s that time of the year again, so we’re talking a bit about the famous Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This story follows the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge as he’s dragged through his own timeline by three ghosts (from the past, the present, and the future) who refuse to let him look away from what matters. We can apply that journey to crypto as well. 
Crypto is a very speculative asset class, and this industry has a very unique past that was filled with many lessons, a present that has a lot of conflicting views and opinions, and a future that we can still create. 
Now that we’re at the end of the year and the holidays are upon us, it’s a good time to reflect on crypto by taking a journey into the shadows of the industry and looking at where we have come from, where we are today, and where we have the potential to go.
Ghost of Crypto Past: Lessons from Bitcoin’s Beginnings

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published a paper that laid out a very simple but very ambitious vision for the future of money. The paper was titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," and it presented a way for people to transfer value directly to each other without the need for any banks or intermediaries. Something called a cryptocurrency —a currency built with cryptography.
It was the first functional decentralized coin ever, but the ideal already existed. A couple of decades before, the cypherpunks were trading thoughts on privacy, cryptography, and P2P money as if they were passing around secret blueprints for the future. Satoshi didn’t come out of nowhere: he stepped into a conversation that had been going on for years.

Photograph of the statue dedicated to Nakamoto in Budapest (Image by Fekist / Wikimedia)

That ideal was popularized after $BTC , though. The genesis block served as a foundational point for all of those who believed in the concept of creating a form of money that was independent of government control or financial institutions, and would be used by the common man. However, the first few years had quite a few obstacles along the way. 
Bitcoin Past Shadows
The huge collapse of Mt. Gox and other early exchanges showed the limitations of the industry, including how centralized exchanges utilized extremely questionable custody practices, a lack of security measures, and operated off of centralized points of failure.
Following that came the boom of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in 2017. There was a lot of excitement regarding the number of new tokens being created and what potential they might have. However, the burst in the following year (2018) caused a great deal of losses for many investors. As a community, we learned that code can help maintain asset security, but without governance, trust, and infrastructure, there will remain some level of fragility amongst them.
During the period of 2019-2024, the crypto industry went through its teenage phase, with Bitcoin reaching several highs and then experiencing multiple crashes. DeFi grew exponentially around 2020, and the NFTs exploded onto the scene in 2021, with items like pixel art being priced at properties similar to mansions. In 2022, the entire ecosystem took a massive reality check due to significant collapses, such as the demise of Terra and FTX.
Heading into the years of 2023 and 2024, the market settled down, regulators began circling the industry, the launch of Crypto ETFs took place, and the builders (the majority of this market) continued to build. It’s been quite messy, very loud, and very "out there", but also the most productive growth spurt crypto has ever had.
A Decade of Holiday Prices

We’ve seen a lot of this wild growth in Christmas. Looking at Bitcoin holiday data reveals something interesting: we’ve had only two bad years out of the last ten. We chose to look at Bitcoin, especially, because it’s the coin that still dominates the market, so it's a great indicator of what's happening in crypto, in general. The past ten years, without needing to go any further, will be enough to serve as an indicator.
Bitcoin’s December 25 prices and overall market valuations in the last decade go as follows: in 2014, BTC traded around $320, market cap was modest. By 2017, the Christmas price soared to about $14,146, and the market cap exploded. The 2018 winter brought it down to roughly $3,881. In 2020, price rose again to ~$24,165. 
By Christmas 2021, $BTC hovered near $50,654, and its crypto market cap reached over $2 trillion. The 2022 slump dragged price to ~$16,801. In 2023, a rebound brought BTC to ~$37,800; while 2024 closed the year with a dramatic ~$99,000 for BTC and a total crypto market cap around $3.4 trillion. 
Bitcoin Price 2021-2025 by CoinGecko

There’s context with each Christmas snapshot. The boom period in 2017 was based on speculation and experimental projects. The bear market of 2018 was caused by the dramatic fall in hype around crypto assets and the increasing regulatory pressure. The Bull market of 2020-2021 was built upon the macroeconomic shifts due to the Pandemic and the availability of new liquidity as a result of Government stimulus.
The crypto market decline in 2022 was the fallout from major companies going bankrupt. The peak in 2023-2024 was influenced by the increasing number of institutional investors entering the space, more mainstream adoption of crypto, more favorable regulations being implemented, and the resurgence of confidence in the future of the industry. 
We can see that crypto isn’t just a technology experiment; it continues to evolve in the market and in response to the demands of macroeconomics and human behavior.

Ghost of Crypto Present: The Current State of the Industry
Today, the space feels more mature than it ever has before, and several smart-contract platforms and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects are thriving. Consumers are now able to trade, lend, stake (and restake) and borrow from each other directly in crypto and are able to do so without needing banks.
Several different projects are leveraging crypto and AI tools to allow developers to monetize their work through the use of AI algorithms or allow users to create their own AI agents. Crypto is now seen as being not as much about speculative investing as it is about creating, innovating, and testing new financial and technological products.

Institutions that once viewed crypto as a passing fad are now allocating meaningful capital, driven by diversification, inflation hedging, and evolving regulation. At least 83% of them are planning to get into crypto. Some of them are embracing tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs), stablecoins, and on-chain settlement systems. 
At the same time, the landscape has grown more complex. Many popular infrastructures remain centralized: exchanges, custody providers, gateways to “real money.” Crypto regulation is present worldwide, likely in most countries already. As the industry becomes mainstream, we’re finding more compliance requirements, identity verification, and oversight. 
Countries with Crypto Regulations by Atlantic Council

Crypto now juggles between its radical roots and the practical demands of large-scale adoption. The present ghost is one of maturity: progress paired with tradeoffs. Centralization is currently not only working with our decentralized ideals, but maybe trying to eat them. 
Ghost of Crypto Future: What Comes Next?
The upcoming chapter of crypto may change global finances. Tokenization of real-world assets (bonds, real estate, private credit) continues to rise at exponential rates. Conservative estimates indicate that the market for tokenized RWAs reached $23 billion early in 2025, a growth of 260% from the prior year. If that trend continues, it’s expected that digital asset platforms will become increasingly utilized as avenues for traditional financial instruments. Funds that once lived offline may become programmable tokens, traded globally 24/7. 
Many analysts believe that what follows for the crypto industry may include an increased emphasis on regulatory quickness, increased speed of technological innovations, and increased integration of tokens into the daily lives of retail consumers. During a WEF meeting in Davos, several speakers assured that many governments are still trying to understand crypto.
They also pointed out that the development of stronger regulations in the U.S. would lead to similar rules in many of the other larger industrialized economies. Other uses, such as humanitarian aid transfers that arrive within minutes, were also mentioned.

For their part, different sources have shared how major crypto networks may turn into unglamorous “financial plumbing,” with tokenization and settlement happening quietly in the background. You wouldn’t even notice them. They also stated that Bitcoin could be moving closer to legacy stores of value (as gold) in the long run, and altcoins and memecoins might stick around as institutions package them into new products.
Yet, the future is a fickle thing. Global regulation could still turn sour. The allure of transparency may clash with demands for surveillance and control. Centralized stablecoins, CBDCs, and heavy-compliance infrastructures risk turning crypto into another corner of regulated finance. The decision between decentralization and centralization (between permissionless access and institutional sophistication) might define the next decade. 
Which Ghosts Should We Listen To?
The ghost of the past has shown us that while cryptography can prevent the collapse of a system, it cannot be used alone. We need to ensure that adequate measures, such as strong custodial options and trusted governance, are in place so that the promise of a new crypto economy doesn't disappear into thin air. The present has shown us tremendous scale, integration, and adoption into the mainstream of finance, but also reminds us that crypto is no longer limited to a group of dreamers. 
We’re now at a very important juncture where we can go down two different paths. One path allows for greater access to digital assets for all; the other path could lead us down the same road as the old economies, where centralized control, surveillance, and compliance are just as prevalent as before. 
Many crypto networks are leaning toward centralized control and censorship, while there are still many that remain true to their cypherpunk heritage. One of the latter is Obyte, which operates on a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) that has neither miners nor “validators”. This provides higher decentralization and greater freedom. However, anyone can create their own customized tokens, regulated or not.

In the end, the choice is only ours. If we draw from past mistakes and current opportunities to demand decentralization, privacy, and user sovereignty, crypto could fulfill its early promise as a tool of empowerment. If we lean into centralization and forget what once set crypto apart, we might end up recreating the same old systems under a new name. The ghosts are silent unless we listen.

Featured Vector Image by Freepik
Originally Published on Hackernoon

#bitcoin #CryptoHistoryMade #Christmas #cryptofuture #Obyte

În această nouă serie, discutăm despre cypherpunks remarcabili care au ajutat la crearea banilor descentralizați și a mai multor instrumente de intimitate și libertate online pentru toată lumea. Să ne amintim că grupul numit „cypherpunks” a fost format din experți în știința calculatoarelor, criptografie și activiști pe Internet care urmăreau să creeze noi software-uri pentru a promova intimitatea și schimbarea socială. Așa cum vă imaginați, mulți oameni din lumea crypto aparțin acolo.
Wei Dai este, desigur, unul dintre ei. Poate că numele său îți sună cunoscut dacă ai citit vreodată lucrarea albă Bitcoin. Este unul dintre referințele de la sfârșit. Nu știm multe despre viața sa personală, deoarece este o persoană foarte privată — ca majoritatea cypherpunks, de fapt. Totuși, știm despre cariera sa.

Ai văzut vreodată un lebădă neagră? Probabil nu. Ele nu sunt comune (cu excepția cazului în care te afli în Australia), și suntem mai obișnuiți cu lebedele albe la nivel mondial. De aceea, din 2001, scriitorul și matematicianul Nassim Nicholas Taleb a folosit acest animal rar pentru a descrie evenimentele excepționale, adesea negative, foarte impactante și aproape imposibil de prezis. Aceasta este 'Teoria Lebedei Negre'.
Termenul nu diferă prea mult în domeniul criptomonedelor. Un Eveniment Lebăda Neagră în cripto este un eveniment neașteptat și rar care are un impact uriaș asupra pieței, provocând adesea prăbușiri extreme de preț sau întreruperi majore. Așa cum am spus anterior, aceste evenimente sunt de obicei imprevizibile, dar ar putea părea evidente doar în retrospectivă. Exemplele includ prăbușiri majore de burse, acțiuni de reglementare bruscă sau, da, o pandemie globală.

Companiile, mici și mari deopotrivă, sunt acum mai implicate ca niciodată în lumea criptomonedelor. Dacă vrem să definim ce este investiția instituțională în acest domeniu, putem spune că se referă la afaceri și entități financiare mari care investesc capital semnificativ în spațiul criptomonedelor. Aceasta include deținerea directă a activelor cripto, da, dar ar putea extinde de asemenea la investiții indirecte, cum ar fi capitalul de risc pentru startup-uri, fonduri axate pe cripto și fonduri tranzacționate la bursă (ETF-uri) legate de cripto.

“Escrow” started being, essentially, a word to indicate middlemen (centralization) in a transaction between parties that don’t trust each other. It’s a financial arrangement where a trusted third party temporarily holds funds or assets on behalf of two parties engaged in a transaction. The funds are released to the seller once the buyer confirms receipt or fulfillment of the agreed-upon goods or services, ensuring a secure and fair exchange. So, what's a “decentralized” escrow?
We can define it as a cryptocurrency-based system that eliminates the need for a central authority or intermediary to hold and release funds in online transactions. Smart contracts automatically execute the release of funds when predefined conditions are met, ensuring trust and security in peer-to-peer (P2P) negotiations. So, essentially, the trusted third party to handle the escrow is a smart contract —a piece of code.
It may sound wonderful in a way, but that depends on the platform used for it. Also, you may wonder what’s wrong with centralized escrow services. Why do we need them to be decentralized?
Centralized Escrow
The first thing to say about this is that your funds will be held in custody by an intermediary. This intermediary is often a company with a whole fee structure and their own terms and privacy practices. Here's how they typically operate, along with approximate resolution times and fee structures: When two parties (a buyer and a seller) engage in an online transaction, they agree to use a centralized escrow service, such as Escrow.com or Safe Escrow, to safeguard their interests.

Next, the buyer submits payment to the escrow service (the company), which holds the funds securely. The seller is then notified that the funds are in escrow. The seller should proceed to ship the goods or provide the agreed-upon services to the buyer.
Afterward, the buyer has a specific period to inspect the received goods or services and ensure they meet the agreed-upon terms. If there are disputes, the escrow service may mediate and investigate the issue, requesting evidence from both parties. This process can vary but generally takes anywhere from a few days to several weeks, depending on the complexity of the dispute.
More fees and steps
Once a resolution is reached or the inspection period expires without dispute, the escrow service releases the funds to the seller, minus their fees. Centralized escrow services typically charge a percentage of the transaction amount. 
For example, Safe Escrow charges about 2% (in Kenia), while Escrow.com (in North America, part of Europe, and Australia) charges a variable fee based on the transaction amount and complexity (from 3.5% and a standard fee starting at $10). These fees can vary depending on the service provider and the specifics of the transaction. Not to mention all the documents and requirements involved.

So, to answer the previous question about decentralized escrow services: they eliminate the need for expensive (and local) middlemen, your funds would be safe in a smart contract, they can be used from anywhere in the world, and there are almost no requirements or red tape in the middle for the parties. 
Let’s start, then, with some decentralized escrow services and their features.
Uniscrow
Founded in 2021 as a startup in Italy by a group of entrepreneurs, Uniscrow provides escrow services with smart contracts based on Ethereum or Polygon. They also have a financial license to exchange cryptocurrencies for EUR, but fiat isn’t accepted in escrow. The process goes as usual: sellers initiate escrows with offer details and invite customers to participate. Buyers, in turn, accept the terms and deposit funds, which are securely stored within smart contracts. 

These funds are protected by private keys controlled by users. Sellers can notify the completion of delivery or milestones within the Uniscrow platform. Buyers then have a 14-day window to approve the deliverable, request revisions, or open disputes. Once approved, the funds are automatically unlocked and transferred to the seller, finalizing the transaction.
In case of disputes, Uniscrow starts a cost-free mediation between parties, but it doesn’t have a lot of power over the results. Instead, if necessary, the parties must go to legal arbitration under the Rules of the International Chamber of Arbitration of Milan, and the process must be placed in that city. Users would need to cover additional fees.
The platform, itself, takes fees ranging from 1% to 1.8%, depending on transaction volume. Additional gas or transaction fees would be added depending on the used cryptocurrency. 
Descrow (by Catecoin)
Catecoin was released in 2021 by an anonymous team, and it’s considered a memecoin. Currently, besides the parody element, they offer liquidity mining, NFTs, staking, and Play-to-Earn (P2E) tools. And, in late March 2023, they also acquired Descrow —a decentralized escrow platform.  

The process here involves the buyer placing funds into a contract to create an escrow arrangement. This is done by providing the seller's email address and their Ethereum (ERC-20) or BNB Chain (BEP-20) payment address. Using the same wallet, the seller then logs in and begins the delivery process. When the buyer gives their approval for the transaction, the funds are released to the seller from the escrow contract.
In case of disputes, it’s expected that a community of escrow agents intervene and vote to solve the issue before the contract expires. If the contract does expire, the funds would be released to the seller automatically. However, the terms and conditions aren’t fully detailed on the website, and it seems like anyone can become an escrow agent, experienced in the field or not. Specific fees aren’t clear either, just mentioned as “low.” The platform is currently in beta (testing phase). 
Cryptegrity Escrow
This one was released in January 2023 by an entrepreneur simply known as “Jonas.” He’s also the founder of the crowdfunding platform GoCryptoMe and BlockStubs, a decentralized event ticketing hub. All three projects have native tokens specifically created for sale, as in an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). That’s their way of funding —and they’re not available for US residents.

Cryptegrity works on BNB Chain and Ethereum, and offers escrow contracts for goods, services, NFTs, source code, and gambling. The process begins with buyers and sellers agreeing on terms through milestones. Buyers deposit funds into the contract, and sellers provide proof of goods or services visible to the buyer. Buyers approve each milestone's proof, and upon approval, funds within the smart contract are released to the seller.
Cryptegrity also introduces the $ESCROW token and a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). When disputes arise, both parties can submit their cases to the Cryptegrity DAO for resolution. This mechanism assures judgment from ESCROW token holders who participate (they can be anyone, with or without legal expertise), and they are rewarded with $ESCROW tokens for their involvement. 
We need to mention that, since anyone who buys ESCROW tokens can be an arbiter, their investigation or performance in the role could be called into question. The service fee is 3% per contract, and it could be paid by the seller or the buyer. More terms and privacy policies aren’t provided, and that’s not ideal to offer trust.  
FlexSmart
FlexSmart is a platform that offers templates for smart contract creation without code, in BNB Chain and Ethereum. It was released in 2021 by the developer Nate Zapata. Among their services, users can access a decentralized escrow smart contract template to add their own payment addresses, terms, and data. 

The process is similar to other platforms. Buyers pay the agreed amount, and funds are held in the escrow smart contract until all conditions are fulfilled and the buyer confirms receipt. Once approved, the funds are released to the seller, who can withdraw them as needed. Registration on the platform is required, though.
It's also possible to add an arbiter to the contract to solve potential disputes. However, the parties must find that arbiter themselves, by their own means and knowledge. Of course, this arbiter would charge them an additional fee for their service. Beyond this, the fees of the platform itself aren’t clear. They’re in the beta phase for now. 
Arbstore (by Obyte)
Arbstore is a platform that facilitates decentralized escrow through the use of smart contracts powered by Obyte. It was officially launched in 2023 by a group of entrepreneurs and lawyers to provide a secure way for businesses or individuals to engage in trustless transactions —especially in international trade. Users only need to download the Obyte wallet app, acquire some cryptocurrencies, select a professional arbiter, and deploy the human-readable contract with arbitration from the same wallet. 

Unlike other services, Arbstore provides a list of (human) independent arbiters who must verify their identity and qualifications before signing up on the platform. All of them are experts in their fields (Law, Businesses, IT, Collectibles, etc.) and charge different fees for their services, often ranging between 2% and 5% —only in case of dispute. If the trade ends without a dispute between parties, the arbiter won’t even know about the contract.
Arbstore ensures privacy by allowing only the parties involved to know the content of the contract. Even Arbstore itself remains unaware of the contract's details. Dispute resolution is carried out solely by the arbiter, who, after studying the evidence, releases the funds from the contract to the winning party, in a process that only takes a few hours or days.

The only fixed charge is 0.75% for each contract facilitated. Arbstore's decentralized escrow offers global reach, operates without intermediaries (only the users have their private keys), and is built on a secure, permissionless cryptocurrency platform. The product has already been tested, and the Obyte platform has been running since 2016. Arbstore has its own public Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Arbiter Listing Criteria, and Code of Conduct. 
That’s why we can say that, so far, Arbstore seems to be the most reliable, fastest, and inexpensive solution for decentralized escrow (or online escrow, in general). If you’re looking to trust strangers for online transactions, Arbstore is your platform!

Featured Vector Image by vector4stock / Freepik
Originally Published on Hackernoon

#DecentralizedTrading #DecentralizedEscrow #EscrowSystem #Escrow #Obyte

Toată lumea iubește un meme bun, iar asta include inginerii software și iubitorii de criptomonede. Rezultatul este ceea ce numim acum „memecoins”: criptomonede sau tokenuri concepute în jurul unui meme de internet sau element umoristic, al cărui scop principal poate să nu fie complet clar. Cu alte cuvinte, sunt monede reale lansate de dezvoltatori în principal pentru distracție. Dar au toate aspectele tehnice în ordine și pot fi folosite ca mijloc de plată sau pentru orice altă caracteristică posibilă în registrele lor native — cum ar fi aplicațiile DeFi.

Poate suna amenințător și poate avea dezavantajele sale, dar regula de călătorie (în crypto și nu numai) nu este atât de restrictivă - cel puțin nu pentru utilizatorii obișnuiți. Ca și majoritatea regulilor din lumea financiară, se aplică afacerilor, nu direct clienților. Această reglementare include acum criptomonedele, dar a existat cu mult înainte de Bitcoin. Probabil, nici nu știai că era acolo de la bun început.
Regula de călătorie a fost introdusă de Legea privind Secretul Bancar din SUA (BSA) în 1996 și ulterior adoptată de Grupul de Acțiune Financiară (FATF), o entitate de reglementare internațională, ca standard global împotriva spălării banilor (AML). Această regulă, cunoscută și sub numele de Recomandarea 16 de către FATF, impune instituțiilor financiare, cum ar fi băncile, să colecteze și să împărtășească informații specifice atunci când procesează transferuri peste un anumit prag (de obicei, 1.000 USD în SUA).

Chiar dacă nu au fost concepute pentru a oferi profituri, criptomonedele ar putea fi un instrument grozav doar pentru asta. Nu doar că există comercianți profesioniști, dar și platforme și metode întregi care au fost într-adevăr construite pentru acest lucru sau care au fost importate din finanțele tradiționale pentru a fi aplicate aici. Arbitrajul este una dintre acele metode.
În investițiile tradiționale, aceasta este practica de a profita de diferențele de preț pentru același activ în piețe diferite. De exemplu, dacă o acțiune a unei companii este mai ieftină pe o bursă și mai scumpă pe alta, un comerciant de arbitraj ar cumpăra acțiunea la prețul mai mic și ar vinde-o imediat la prețul mai mare pentru a face un profit. Acest proces ajută la menținerea prețurilor consistente pe piețe și este considerat o strategie de tranzacționare cu risc scăzut, deoarece implică cumpărarea și vânzarea aproape simultan.

Lumea digitală crește, iar supravegherea crește odată cu ea. Guvernele, companiile și chiar și alți indivizi sunt acum destul de capabili să ne urmărească pașii virtuali —inclusiv pe cei financiari. De aceea, un grup de activiști a apărut la sfârșitul secolului XX cu o misiune de a proteja libertățile individuale prin dezvoltarea de bani descentralizați.
Acești activiști, cunoscuți sub numele de cypherpunks, au pus bazele pentru crearea și popularizarea criptomonedelor precum Bitcoin. Termenul "cypherpunk" este o combinație între "cypher," referindu-se la criptografie, și "punk," care reflectă natura lor rebelă și neconformistă. Așadar, ei sunt în principal experți în știința calculatoarelor și criptografie care își propun să creeze noi instrumente digitale pentru a promova confidențialitatea și schimbarea socială.

Dacă banii gratis îți par suspecti, atunci faci o treabă bună având grijă de fondurile tale. Dar nu te teme, pentru că, în acest caz, airdrop-urile cripto sunt un instrument de marketing total legitim. Ele există de ani de zile și continuă să apară. Multe proiecte de criptomonede oferă de fapt o parte din monedele lor pentru a câștiga adopție și recunoaștere în rândul utilizatorilor.
Exact asta este un airdrop: o metodă folosită de proiectele de criptomonede pentru a distribui tokenuri gratuite unui grup de utilizatori, adesea ca parte a unei strategii de marketing sau de construire a comunității. De obicei, funcționează prin trimiterea tokenurilor direct în portofelele utilizatorilor în funcție de anumite criterii, cum ar fi deținerea unei monede specifice sau finalizarea unor sarcini precum angajamentul pe rețelele sociale.