The founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson, stated that the Hydra protocol is not only active on Cardano's mainstream network, but it's also rapidly evolving. He highlighted the innovative transaction processing methods, including tiered pricing and the Babel commission system. Hoskinson's comment was in response to a user, going by the pseudonym 0xONLY.arf, who expressed the opinion that Cardano is merely following in Ethereum's footsteps, albeit a few years behind.

The Exactly Protocol has suffered a hacking attack. Running on the Optimism blockchain, this lending DeFi platform was targeted by malefactors who stole over 4300 ETH, totaling approximately $7.3 million. Both BlockSec and Beosin security agencies have corroborated the theft. The hackers reportedly found and exploited a weak point in the platform's smart contracts, although the finer details are still under wraps. UPD: The team at Exactly Protocol would declare a $700,000 reward for any leads on the hacker, should they not receive a response from the malefactor by the end of August 22nd. "You can return the funds, minus a 10% fee to you, without worries about us coming after you," the Exactly team conveyed in their message.

Currently, Mantle DAO is evaluating a proposal that would prohibit the conversion of BIT tokens held by FTX Group into the new MNT token. Previously, Alameda Research, a branch of the FTX Group, swapped 3.4 million FTT tokens for a staggering 100 million BIT tokens, which equated to around $43 million. Yet FTX's descent into bankruptcy prompted DAO members to introduce this proposal. MNT is a token that was launched as Mantle's L2 mainnet went live. The blockchain was established by the Bybit exchange, which initiated the merge of BIT (BitDAO) and MNT tokens. Controversies aside, there's robust support for this proposal within the Mantle enclave, spotlighting the overarching investor community's interests.

Base, engineered on OP Stack as a second layer network, has managed to surpass Arbitrum and Optimism in the number of daily transactions this week. Data from The Block highlighted that on August 15, Base's moving average reached 610,000 transactions, while the counts for Arbitrum and Optimism stood at 576,000 and 597,000, respectively. Although Optimism currently holds a slight lead, overall, the networks are closely competing.

JPMorgan reports that Bitcoin miners are diversifying their operations in anticipation of the upcoming halving event, which will slash their rewards. Miners are now venturing into the booming artificial intelligence (AI) market, offering high-performance computing services. This shift is partly funded by selling newly minted or existing bitcoins. Companies like Applied Digital and Iris Energy are already making strides in AI cloud services. Additionally, post Ethereum's shift from proof-of-work, former Ethereum miners are leveraging GPUs for AI, finding it potentially more profitable than traditional mining.

After his brief time in custody, Sam Bankman-Fried is already petitioning to spend five days each week outside the confines of the detention facility. His legal team is vocal about the obstacles he's facing, especially the considerable challenge of reviewing numerous papers connected to his case whithin the detention center.

The community of Terra Luna Classic has dismissed the USTC Repeg team's request for funding. Voting outcomes showed 45% in support, 43% objecting with veto power, and 11% rejected it outright. Even though 11 of the 17 validators were in support, the proposal failed to gain traction with the general public. The request was for 285 million LUNC ($20,000) to refine an instrument for the USTC Incremental Repeg Buybacks & Staking Swaps algorithm.

Coingecko has just unveiled a report that details the countries where mining 1 BTC could be either a lucrative venture or a costly mistake. For example, mining a Bitcoin in Lebanon would cost only $266 in electricity, while the same task in Italy would run a shocking $206,000, or 783 times more. Out of the top 10 nations with the highest electricity costs, 9 are European.

The Dogecoin Foundation has expressed its heartfelt condolences over the passing of Balltze, the dog widely recognized online as Cheems. He passed away on August 18, 2023, during a surgical procedure. Balltze rose to internet fame in 2017 due to a photo capturing his distinctively troubled expression. Among the plethora of memes generated from this image, one in particular stands out: a comparison with Kabosu, the Dogecoin cryptocurrency mascot. Condolences have also poured in from various cryptocurrency and meme communities worldwide.

DappRadar's recent report reveals a staggering 98% drop in Bitcoin Ordinals NFT trading volume since May, plummeting from $452 million to just $3 million. Transaction numbers also fell by approximately 97% to 20,571 during this period. While DappRadar acknowledges the decline, they emphasize the need for more time to discern if this is a short-term hiccup or a deeper issue with Bitcoin-based NFTs.

Rishi Sunak is directing public funds toward acquiring high-performance artificial intelligence chips to ensure the country remains competitive in the global race for computing capabilities. The government has initiated talks with major IT firms such as Nvidia, AMD, and Intel to secure resources for a national “AI Research Resource.” This effort aligns with prime minister’s vision to establish Britain as a leading force in the field of artificial intelligence. Though the project has been allocated £100 million, there are concerns that this funding might fall short of the government’s AI aspirations. Government officials are advocating for additional funding in the coming months to match the scale of this initiative. Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are vital components in constructing AI systems like ChatGPT, with the latest version trained on as many as 25,000 Nvidia chips.

Despite being over 100 days into the writers strike, the worries about studios using generative artificial intelligence to entirely write scripts have not come to fruition. The decision came in response to a challenge by Stephen Thaler, CEO of Imagination Engines, who sought to register AI-generated works. The judge upheld the U.S. Copyright Office’s stance that copyright protection only extends to works created by humans, not AI. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell has emphasized that copyright law has “never stretched so far” to “protect works generated by new forms of technology operating absent any guiding human hand.”

Social app friend.tech has recorded protocol fees amounting to more than $1.42 million within the past 24 hours, positioning it among the top three crypto projects in terms of user-paid fees. It now stands as the third-highest project for user-paid fees, following Ethereum and Lido Finance, according to data from DeFiLlama. Built on Coinbase’s Base Layer 2 chain, friend.tech is a social app that integrates with X (Twitter). It allows users to trade tokenized shares linked to each other’s profiles. Shareholders enjoy exclusive content access and private chat rooms in X.

The number 8, when tilted, represents infinity, and 21 signifies the maximum number of Bitcoins (21 million). Thus, August 21st is often referred to as Bitcoin Infinity Day. This concept was conceived by Knut Svanholm, a philosopher, educator, and author of the books “Bitcoin: Sovereignty through Mathematics” and “Bitcoin: Everything Divided by 21 Million.”