• Paxful will temporarily halt operations.
• The exchange’s CEO however stated that they are not sure if it will resume operations.
• This is the second peer-to-peer crypto exchange to shut down.

Paxful CEO Ray Youssef has published a post on the exchange’s website stating that the peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange will be suspending its marketplace. Ray went ahead to state that they are not sure if the exchange will resume operations.

This is the second popular P2P exchange to shut down in 2023 after LocalBitcoins announced shutting down in February.

Key staff departures and regulatory challenges

The CEO cited key staff departures and regulatory challenges in the post saying:

“This will probably come as a big shock to many. While I cannot share the full story now, I can say that we unfortunately have had some key staff departures. Also, regulatory challenges for the industry continue to grow, especially in the peer-to-peer market and most heavily in the U.S. While we work through these issues, we have taken the most secure option and ask you to explore self-custody and trade elsewhere.”

The CEO said that the biggest priority at the moment is safeguarding customer funds and advised customers to withdraw where possible. He has gone ahead to recommend withdrawing to self-custody wallets like Exodus and Muun.

Ray also stated that Paxful will be offering an easy migration to other P2P alternatives for non-US customers. He highlighted three P2P exchanges namely Noones, Bitnob and Yellow Card.

The Paxful Wallet will however remain operational for customers to retrieve their funds.

According to a Cardano user, “Sooraj,” the decentralization of the networking layer, or P2P networking, is the most anticipated upgrade after the Vasil hard fork event. The P2P upgrade hopes to make Cardano a far more decentralized and resilient network than it is now.

#Decentralization of the networking layer of #Cardano is the most anticipated upgrade after the #Vasil HFC event

P2P is one such upgrade that will make #Cardano a far more decentralized & resilient network than what’s it now

So here’s a thread on peer-to-peer (P2P) networking

— Sooraj (@Soorajksaju2) August 27, 2022

At the heart of the Cardano network are 3,198 stake pools run by operators (SPOs) who manage the distributed nodes that keep the network running. It goes without saying that there needs to be reliable communication between these nodes in a decentralized and distributed network.

The decentralization of Cardano puts the responsibility for running the blockchain in the hands of stake pools. An essential element in this are reliable and effective connections between all the distributed nodes and ensuring that the network is resilient to failure.

In December 2021, Cardano kicked off an important initiative to support its ongoing drive toward full decentralization with the launch of the peer-to-peer (P2P) testnet. P2P communication hopes to improve the flow of information between nodes.

For now, the topology updater will continue to serve as a workaround until Cardano fully transitions to a P2P network. The Cardano network will be fully decentralized once the P2P nodes are fully deployed, which will end the network’s need for centralized services like the topology updater.

What remains for Cardano’s P2P networking upgrade

In a thread of tweets, “Sooraj” highlights that “According to the latest information available from InputOutputHK, the P2P development is feature complete & all the essential testing has been done. It is undergoing a review of design & implementation. The rollout of P2P nodes will occur in a gradual manner.”

150 papers, 3 million person community in 100+ countries, 1000+ projects building on Cardano, higher brand engagement than IBM and BMW, listed on 200 exchanges, always been operational since launch, adopted by countries and fortune 500 companies….

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) August 27, 2022

In other news, Cardano founder, Charles Hoskinson, speaks on the network’s credentials in response to a critic, “150 papers, 3 million-person community in 100+ countries, 1,000+ projects building on Cardano, higher brand engagement than IBM and BMW, listed on 200 exchanges, always been operational since launch, adopted by countries and Fortune 500 companies.”

The much anticipated Vasil upgrade is “closer than ever” as SPOs, developers and exchanges are currently performing final integration testing and upgrading in preparation for the hard fork combinator event.

DENVER (PRWEB)
July 01, 2022

GoKey is pleased to announce the details of the network’s recently launched ISPO, or Initial Stake Pool Offering. Although the ISPO has been live for only a few weeks, it has already welcomed delegation of over 1 million ADA from over 100 delegators.

To make staking with GoKey as easy as possible, the website features a convenient new dashboard interface to allow ADA holders to easily connect Cardano wallets, delegate to the stake pool and estimate staking rewards — all from the GoKey website.

Cardano’s unique Proof of Stake consensus mechanism offers an incredibly unique fundraising option for projects building on the advanced blockchain protocol. The Initial Stake Pool Offering, or ISPO, was first pioneered in 2021, and has since been utilized by a growing number of up-and-coming projects.

The ISPO model is made possible by stake pool delegators electing to forgo all or part of the ADA staking rewards they would normally receive, and instead, delegators receive a predetermined quantity of project tokens per ADA staked each epoch. This allows the project to collect the ADA that would have otherwise been distributed to the delegators, providing critical funding for project development and growth. It also allows delegators to accumulate tokens associated with early-stage projects they like and want to support, without having to sell, lock-up, or even relinquish custody of their ADA. This is a low-risk opportunity for delegators, although there could be potential opportunity costs if the price performance of project token lags behind the price performance of ADA.

It has always been important to GoKey to distribute its governance and utility tokens to its users and community in the fairest, most publicly accessible ways possible. Having considered several alternatives, including angel and venture capital, public and private sales, and IDOs (Initial DEX Offerings), GoKey has determined that the ISPO model, along with sales through decentralized exchanges, best aligns with the projects goals, values, and efforts to promote decentralization.

In general, the proceeds raised in this ISPO will be used to fund typical project operating expenses, including technical development, team growth, marketing, and professional services such as legal work and accounting. As the stake pool and ISPO proceeds grow, GoKey will offer delegators a transparent view of how the funds are invested to fuel development of the project.

ISPO Staking Rewards & Bonus Details:

1. The GoKey ISPO began at Epoch 342.

2. ISPO is a 99% margin pool, meaning delegators will forgo all typical ADA rewards and receive GOKEY governance and utility token rewards instead.

3. Base token rewards are 0.15 GOKEY tokens per ADA staked per epoch. At today’s exchange rates, this works out to between approximately 7% and 10% APR, not including Pre-ISPO or ISPO loyalty bonus multipliers.

4. Pre-ISPO delegates earned a 0.1x multiplier per epoch, for a total of 2x maximum multiplier if delegated to all 10 Pre-ISPO epochs.

5. Base ISPO delegates earn a 0.01x multiplier per each epoch staked to GOKEY Stake Pool.

6. 1 Billion GOKEY tokens are allocated for this ISPO, approximately 22% of total maximum supply.

7. ISPO will end upon all allocated ISPO token rewards being rewarded.

8. ISPO rewards will be released according to a vesting schedule at the conclusion of the ISPO to reduce the possibility of large quantities of tokens coming onto the open market at the same time, as this could potentially have an affect on market prices and the value of users’ holdings.

9. GOKEY token rewards distribution will be accomplished via a 3rd party distribution platform or via faucet on our website.

10. Delegates may stake to GOKEY pool directly from the website at https://staking.gokey.network, or from most leading Cardano wallets.

About GoKey:

GoKey believes that property ownership is important for individuals, families and communities, and should be accessible to anyone who wants it. GoKey uses NFTs to tokenize real property rights, is forming a DAO for our community to collaboratively own and manage real estate, and is developing a novel approach for peer-to-peer property financing and transactions. GoKey is also designing a unique, deflationary governance, payment and utility token to track, exchange and store real estate value, that will serve the growing GoKey ecosystem.

Learn more at https://gokey.network

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Scalex—a pan-African, first-of-its-kind hybrid Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and Ramp platform, has closed an undisclosed SAFE investment with Cardano’s major investors EMURGO. Scalex disclosed this news during a conversation with TechCabal to announce its pre-seed raise series. 

The Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and Ramp platform, Scalex, was founded by Nnaemeka Nwosu (CEO & Product Lead), James Ademuyiwa (Head of Blockchain), Ngati Jalani (Strategy Lead), Joel Ajide (CTO), and Adeniyi Adedamola (Lead Design) in February 2021 to tackle the notorious fraud-ridden P2P market in Africa.

Africans can access the Crypto and Web3 ecosystem through Scalex’s automated P2P and Ramp platform, ensuring zero fraud.

The CBN Circular banning crypto banking in Nigeria has proven only one thing: that cryptocurrency is limitless and unstoppable in today’s world. In the wake of this ban, Scalex emerged from the rubbles to create solutions to enhance seamless, fraudless, and hassle-free peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency transactions. 

Speaking with Joel Ajide, Scalex CTO, he mentioned that “like every other development, bad players were not slack in riding on the ignorance of newbies and those migrating from centralised platforms to the P2P market to satisfy their crypto trade needs.” 

“Even two-thirds of Scalex founders,” he continued, “had been victims of fraudulent P2P platforms; therefore, this led to the proprietary technology powering Scalex and its solutions. The solution Scalex provides as an automated P2P, and ramp platform answers the questions that my other teammates and I have about the possibility of eliminating bad players.”

“We didn’t just step out to build a solution to our sad individual experiences; we also, along the way, found out that we were building layer 0 of the crypto economy in Africa. Scalex’s Head of Blockchain, James, said in a statement. “We figured we have been saddled with the responsibilities of eliminating the fraud-plaited barrier positioned to gatekeep the crypto-economy by Africans,”

Emurgo’s investment in Scalex was necessitated by the alignment of Scalex’s mission with Cardano’s lead investor’s visionary plans for the African continent. “EMURGO Africa is excited to support Scalex’s vision to provide more secure and seamless next-generation financial access across Africa, which aligns with our goal to build socially impactful solutions in Africa.” Shogo Ishida, co-CEO for the Middle East & Africa at EMURGO.

“Scalex is exerting its efforts to empower and provide more inclusive opportunities for everyone. EMURGO Africa is very excited to work with Scalex to tackle regional challenges and leverage scalable, sustainable, and interoperable solutions in Africa,” Shogo added.

Speaking on the arrays of solutions offered by Scalex, “we have a bucket of solutions aimed at facilitating the seamless integration of users into the crypto ecosystem to promote financial inclusion and Web3 adoption in the continent. Scalex P2P, our primary feature, is a hybrid automated peer-to-peer platform enabling users to easily buy and sell cryptocurrencies, eliminating the scam barricade popular in the industry,” James added.

Scalex’s most-sort-after solution is the “Bridge,” an On/Off Ramp infrastructure that enables users to get fiat to crypto; and crypto back to fiat from any crypto platform globally. Scalex is also working on expanding this Ramp to Web3, as the “W3Ramp” enables users to bridge from fiat into DeFi/Web3 protocols on Polygon, Solana, Ethereum, and recently, Cardano, owing to the recent investment by Emurgo.

Scalex has also catered for developers, having built an array of Tools, API, and SDK solutions that enable exchanges, merchants, and crypto platforms to easily process On/Off Ramp transactions across Africa.

“At Scalex, we are furthering the narrative, redefining how Africans journey through the crypto space. From designs that simplify the prevalent complexities in the space to an infrastructure built on the foundation of security and data protection, we have ensured new users have the best, guarded experience. These factors, combined with the most affordable fees, have contributed to our consistent month-on-month growth since going public in October 2021 with just over 500 users to well over 10k users and growing all the while being bootstrapped,” said Emeka Nwosu, CEO and Product Lead.

“The focus is way beyond the retail scope. By building upon our robust tech stack, we intend to open up the continent to more global crypto platforms and chains through various integrations and APIs while keeping an eye on possible NFT launchpads and untapped DeFi spaces,” Emeka added.

James told TechCabal that users should expect the release of the Scalex’s Mobile App in a few months. Scalex started in Nigeria with a Web App accessible at www.scalex.africa, with Africa-wide expansion in view. 

Amid a hostile environment and regulatory uproar for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin BTC/USD, Dogecoin DOGE/USD and Shiba Inu SHIB/USD in India, several cryptocurrency exchanges are using peer-to-peer deals and direct deposits to overcome payment curbs imposed by the central bank according to the Economic Times.

In a peer-to-peer transaction, after receiving an order from a buyer, the cryptocurrency exchange shares the seller’s account details with them. The buyer directly sends the funds to the seller’s account and the seller then moves the cryptocurrency from their wallet with the exchange to the buyer’s wallet.

This came after India’s central bank’s unit National Payments Corporation of India, which governs the use of UPI in India, disassociated itself from the exchanges using its services to buy digital assets.

“This is not how an exchange should be functioning. It’s certainly less efficient. But apparently, there is no violation of any regulation or law. It’s a simple money transfer from A to B over net banking or IMPS or NEFT, and it’s happening outside the exchange,” an official with one of the exchanges requesting anonymity told ET.

Besides the payment hurdle, the cryptocurrency community has been imposed with taxes, including a 30% tax on profits from digital assets that came into force on April 1 and a 1% tax-deducted-at-source that will come into effect on July 1.

The regulatory uproar has sent many big-ticket cryptocurrency traders to switch to exchanges overseas. The government has been long mulling, bringing in a law to either regulate or tighten the use of digital assets in the country.

Price Action: According to data from Benzinga Pro, Bitcoin was trading at $38,940, losing 1.88% in the last 24 hours, and Ethereum was trading at $2,908, down 2.69% over the same period.

According to the announcement from the AadaFinance project, peer-to-peer lending powered by the Cardano ecosystem is getting ready for the launch of the first version of the protocol in May 2022.

How does the protocol work?

As the loan scheme suggests, the process of borrowing, with the help of Aada’s protocol, is quite similar to solutions based on Ethereum. First of all, the borrower creates a request and deposits collateral into a smart contract.

The lender funds the loan via the smart contract, and both parties receive a non-fungible token that will be used later when the borrower returns his or her collateral.

Peer to peer lending?

Yes, you heard it right. We will launch the first version (V1) of our protocol in early May

More information will seek this week! pic.twitter.com/AlkTrOwcW2

— Aada (@AadaFinance) March 28, 2022

Whenever the requestor no longer needs the funds, he returns the take amount to the borrower and receives his or her collateral back from the smart contract with deducted fees and the non-fungible token, while the lender gets the assets back with accumulated fees and also returns the non-fungible token.

According to CoinMarketCap, the capitalization of the biggest and considerably best lending and borrowing platforms, like Aave, increased largely in 2021 and reached approximately $3 billion.

Cardano market and fundamental growth

Following the recovery of the market, the resumed growth of the DeFi industry and other positive factors, Cardano’s price on the market rallied by more than 35% in the last 10 days, correlating with the network’s TVL that reached $326 million in March.

As the chart on DeFiLIama suggests, a massive increase in TVL began in March as the network entered the third month of the year with only $74 million and then faced a 350% increase. Such a massive inflow of funds is most likely tied to the release of additional products on the network, like Minswap.

GoKey is the latest entrant into the ‘real’ real estate sector of crypto.

Covered:

• Real Estate Protocols Making a Splash
• What is GoKey?
• The $GOKEY Token and Roadmap

Real Estate Protocols Making a Splash

Last week we published an article about Lofty, a protocol running on top of Algorand that allows users to buy fractional shares of real properties using crypto. In the article, we mention the prospects of how such protocols can disrupt the real estate market. Cardano’s GoKey is throwing its hat in the ring with a similar concept.

It’s happening…#Cardano‘s first NFT representing real property ownership.https://t.co/yB6gbeClIs pic.twitter.com/3K7tWHlH63

— GoKey (@GoKeyNetwork) March 13, 2022

Much like Lofty, GoKey has not enjoyed much mainstream coverage, but it appears we will see more and more of these types of projects launch — and it could be a taste of a new trend burgeoning. Maybe “Real Estate Summer” 2022? The positive element about the prospects of this trend is that blockchain and crypto really do have the ability to transform the real estate market, and open up doors that allow for anyone to invest from their couch.

Recommended: Samsung Is Using The Cardano Blockchain To… Plant Trees?

What is GoKey?

As their ‘litepaper’ states: “GoKey gives owners and renters of real estate the ability to create, store and transfer equity and liquidity in ways never before possible.” They seek to disrupt the 485 billion dollar rental market by unlocking liquidity in real estate by tokenizing property equity in the form of NFTs on the Cardano blockchain.

Of course, a lot of the viability of these projects is to eradicate the middlemen and connects sellers to buyers in a peer-to-peer fashion. GoKey also seeks to “bundle” all the aspects of ownership such as “deeds, titles, mortgages, leases, easements, and licenses” in the form of an NFT.

Per the litepaper: “it is now possible to efficiently and cost-effectively represent and record these valuable rights in a secure, immutable digital format (such as a “bundle of NFTs”), and to exchange individually tokenized rights within the “bundle” for specific periods of time, and amongst multiple parties, unlocking liquidity and optionality never before possible.”

The GOKEY Token and Roadmap

The GoKey ($GOKEY) token, which is now live on SundaeSwap, is the native payment and utility token of the GoKey Network, “designed to help fill the growing gap in value between rising property prices and your local currency.” The token is designed to be a scarce asset that tracks the value of the U.S. housing market “by continuously adjusting the total token
supply at a rate proportional to a trusted US housing cost index.”

2/Intro

The GoKey token is a type of scarce digital asset that will use stablecoin principles to link its value to a price index of US residential real estate

In addition, GoKey will enable the creation of a marketplace for property rights attached to participating properties pic.twitter.com/01GTRM1RfH

— GoKey (@GoKeyNetwork) March 9, 2022

Below is an updated version of their roadmap.

John O’Connor, IOHK director of African operations, shares the news about the first set of loans disbursed to Kenya SMEs over the weekend, highlighting the incoming potential of Cardano’s RealFi.

First loans to Kenyan SME’s went out over the weekend. Looking forwards to turning this into a product soon so any Cardano holder can generate yield that’s uncorrelated to crypto whilst making impact. #Realfi

— John O’Connor (@jjtoconnor) February 28, 2022

Cardano’s RealFi, like DeFi, aims to create a product and technology ecosystem that reduces the friction between crypto liquidity and real-world economic opportunities.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson revealed that the company plans to introduce peer-to-peer (P2P) lending across Africa this year, starting with Kenya. This, he believes, is part of an effort to close the gap between industrialized and developing countries.

During a YouTube Livestream from his home in Colorado in late December 2021, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson discussed the disadvantages of decentralized finance, noting that many users are incredibly frustrated by the low production quality of applications within the DeFi ecosystem.

He also mentioned Cardano’s aspirations to “build a financial operating system” in 2022, which will deliver DeFi services to Africans, as many African countries currently lack financial inclusion. He noted that Africa has always been a priority for Cardano and that the project intends to expand its influence in the region.

He said, “My goal for the second half of 2022 is to figure out how to put all the pieces together to get an end-to-end microfinance transaction on Cardano.”

“So that a real person in Kenya or somewhere with a blockchain-based identity and credit score, stablecoin on the other side, Cardano is the settlement rail. Peer-to-peer, person-to-person, click a button, the loan goes to them. They pay it back, (and it) goes to the other side,” the IOHK CEO mentioned.

In 2021, Cardano inked major partnerships in Africa, such as one with the Ethiopian Ministry for Education to create a national attainment recording system and one with World Mobile in Tanzania to enable access to essential online services through blockchain.

In a blog post, Cardano’s parent firm, IOHK, described these partnerships as a “launchpad” for Cardano’s goal to build RealFi. The word “realFi” was defined by IOHK as real finance that is focused on people who genuinely need new ways to access finance, producing that real value frequently lacking from DeFi, and also intends to deliver attractive yields to crypto holders, as well as cheaper credit/financial goods for real people.