Crypto giants gather in Texas

🤠 Crypto giants form Texas-based advocacy group

Major crypto and blockchain firms have come together to form a Texas-based advocacy group named "Crypto Freedom Alliance of Texas."

This alliance, founded by prominent entities like a16z crypto, Coinbase, and Ledger, aims to promote clear and predictable regulations for digital assets in Texas. The alliance will also champion educational drives targeting various organizations to accentuate the importance of Web3 in the state. Brian Quintenz of a16z crypto stated that Texas is uniquely positioned to serve Web3 developers due to its adoption of the Uniform Code of Unincorporated Associations. The group will push for legal recognition of DAOs, crypto-friendly tax laws, and more beneficial bank regulations.

💦 Sony dives into the web3 pool

Sony has invested $3.5 million in Startale Labs to reinforce its commitment to web3 infrastructure.

Startale Labs, a significant contributor to the Astar Network, plans to expand its workforce and further support the Astar Network and Polkadot with this investment. Sony's move signals a shift in focus from Silicon Valley to Asia and the Pacific due to US regulatory uncertainties. The partnership will merge Startale's tech expertise with Sony's business experience, potentially accelerating global web3 adoption. Jun Watanabe of Sony will join Startale Labs' board, reflecting the strengthening ties between the two companies.

🍏 Apples to Bitcoins: tax tales get juicy

Polygon Labs used an apple farming analogy to elucidate the concept of crypto staking in a letter to Senators Ron Wyden and Mike Crapo.

The analogy emphasized the idea that farmers (or stakers) should not be taxed until they sell their apples (or tokens). Polygon Labs believes staking rewards should only be taxed when sold, rather than when they are earned, to prevent over-taxation. This position aligns with the U.S. tradition of not taxing assets until they are sold. The Senators had previously sought feedback on digital asset taxation due to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986's ambiguous classification of such assets.

🎭 Vitalik Buterin: it was a SIM-swap attack

Vitalik Buterin, revealed that the recent unauthorized access to his Twitter account was due to a SIM-swap attack.

Buterin discussed this on the decentralized platform Farcaster, confirming that his T-Mobile account was compromised during the attack. He pointed out the vulnerability of phone numbers as security measures, emphasizing that a phone number can reset a Twitter account password, even without being used as two-factor authentication (2FA). On September 9, hackers used his account for a false NFT giveaway, leading victims to lose over $691,000. T-Mobile has previously been implicated in SIM-swap attacks, facing lawsuits for large cryptocurrency losses in 2020 and 2021.

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