Last month, the rising transaction fees on the Ethereum network reportedly caused a drastic decline in user activity, but monthly Ethereum transaction volumes surpassed $24 billion.

Switzerland’s canton of Zug, home of the so-called “Crypto Valley,” is set to start accepting bitcoin and ether for tax payments in February 2021, with a trial of the scheme scheduled for the next few weeks.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit organization that champions digital rights, has called on San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to improve its transparency in handling authorities’ requests for private financial data.

The Post Covid Hackathon is well underway with hundreds of participants registering their interest globally. We are delighted to share the following free workshops taking place over the next couple of weeks.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Monthly Ethereum Transaction Volumes Surpass $24 Billion
• Swiss Canton of Zug to Accept Bitcoin and Ethereum for Tax Payments
• Electronic Frontier Foundation Asks Coinbase to Improve Its Transparency
• Join Post Covid Hackathon's Free Workshops

Monthly Ethereum Transaction Volumes Surpass $24 Billion

Last month, the rising transaction fees on the Ethereum network reportedly caused a drastic decline in user activity, but did not affect the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem within it.

Decentralized applications tracker DappRadar has revealed in a report that the total monthly transaction volume on Ethereum was of over $24 billion in August. The network’s transaction volume was surprisingly high given the high prices of gas to transact on the blockchain.

DappRadar’s researchers wrote:

“High Ethereum gas prices decreased the number of active wallets drastically in almost all categories. A transaction currently costs more than $50.”

In August, on average, the number of daily active Ethereum wallets decreased by 6%, with gambling and high-risk applications being hit the hardest, losing over half of their active monthly users. Various Ethereum games and marketplaces also saw decreased activity.

Decentralized exchanges and decentralized finance applications, on the other grand, “grew by 16% month-on-month.” The biggest contributor to that growth was Uniswap, where daily active wallets “grew from around 10,000 to more than 14,000.”

DappRadar’s researchers warned that 42% of that growth can be attributed to the “DeFi token price bubble,” while the rest was driven by “increased interest in lending and liquidity protocols.”

Swiss Canton of Zug to Accept Bitcoin and Ethereum for Tax Payments

Switzerland’s canton of Zug, home of the so-called “Crypto Valley,” is set to start accepting bitcoin and ether for tax payments in February 2021, with a trial of the scheme scheduled for the next few weeks.

In a statement, the canton revealed its 127,000 residents will be able to start using the top two cryptocurrencies for tax payments. The statement read:

"Tax settlement by means of crypto currency will be available to both companies and private individuals up to an amount of 100,000 Swiss francs ($109,670)."

The cryptocurrency payments will be processed via the Zug-based broker Bitcoin Suisse, which will convert the BTC and ETH into Swiss francs before transferring the funds to the state.

Electronic Frontier Foundation Asks Coinbase to Improve Its Transparency

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit organization that champions digital rights, has called on San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to improve its transparency in handling authorities’ requests for private financial data.

The EFF has revealed it’s increasingly concerned “that payment processors are being asked to turn over information on their customers,” without a mechanism for the public to know about these requests.” As such, it called on Coinbase to “start releasing regular transparency reports.”

To the non-profit choosing to comply or reject government requests for private financial information can impact “what types of speech can thrive online.” It added:

"Cryptocurrency exchanges should especially understand the importance of the privacy of this information, as their users tend to prize both the cash-like anonymity of cryptocurrency, and its inherent resistance to censorship."

The EFF pointed out that Coinbase rival Kraken has already been releasing these transparency reports, and that Coinbase could stand up for its users and use its influence to show others that these reports “are an industry standard for all cryptocurrency exchanges.”

Exchanges publishing these reports would “show whether companies are living up to their promises to protect user privacy,” while providing details in government surveillance activities.

Yam, Spaguetti, Now Sushi - the Latest Food-Themed DeFi Project Attracts Over $1B in 4 Days.

SushiSwap has been called a "vampire protocol" by some due to its intention of sucking Uniswap's liquidity and directing it to its own ecosystem, which hasn't been built yet. ~

When providing liquidity to specific Uniswap pools, users need to deposit their Uniswap Liquidity Pool (LP) tokens into the SushiSwap staking contract, called “Master Chef” (in red). They then earn SUSHI tokens in return. 

According to blockchain analytics platform Flipside Crypto, the developer who created SushiSwap (labeled "developer" in orange) is keeping ~10% of newly minted supply, or about $27 million worth of SUSHI. The on-chain analysis also reveals a major spike in activity once Binance listed the token. 

Stay tuned on https://flipsidecrypto.com/blog for more insights on SUSHI. 

Join Post Covid Hackathon's Free Workshops

The Post Covid Hackathon is well underway with hundreds of participants registering their interest globally. We are delighted to share the following free workshops taking place over the next couple of weeks: 

• Sept 8th - Blockchain basics: Writing your first smart contract - no experience of blockchain required
• Sept 10th - Why blockchain matters - the history of commerce from the dawn of history
• Sept 15th - Blockchain for hackathons: How to build a DApp as quickly as possible
• Sept 16th - How to foster social inclusion with IOV’s technologies

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