HODL 🤗

  Hello there! 👋

       Glad to have you as a part of the Safient family. Welcome to our newsletter. At Safient we prioritize community growth through product growth, making us a reliable and trustless protocol. Our ecosystem offers every individual the opportunity to be a contributor by simply joining our community, tap on the discord server link https://discord.safient.io to join us today! 

We are going to make the next 6-8 minutes worth your while by covering topics centered around trending topics in the crypto space, as well as educating you through the “self-custody gyaan” section.

If you loved the newsletter, message us! If you hated the newsletter, message us! We're always looking for a fresh perspective on things to cover and feedback to make your experience better!

- Team Safient. 

What we're covering this week:

1. Aptos Airdrop Launch⚡

2. A new prime minister in the UK brings brighter light to Crypto as a British StableCoin becomes a possibility 🚀

3. Digital signatures. 🗝️

4. Updates from Safient.💥

A WEEK IN CRYPTO

 Aptos Foundation rewards early testers with APT tokens 

The foundation mentioned that it had allocated an estimated 20 million APT tokens, representing 2% of the initial total supply of 1 billion APT, to about 110,235 eligible participants. The airdropped tokens had an estimated market value of about $200-260 million USD based on the token's market price at the time the drop took place. 

Eligibility for the airdropped token was based on two categories: “Users who completed an application for an Aptos Incentivized Testnet” and users who minted  “an Aptos NFT. Only the original owners of the NFTs were eligible, not the current or secondary owners of the NFTs. 

The foundation also shares that tokens could only be claimed only via the official Aptos community page cautioning users to trust only information from official sources and channels to avoid being defrauded. 

However, while the Aptos mainnet launch was successful, Aptos Labs, the company behind the blockchain, received some harsh criticism regarding its execution. Many onlookers blasted the firm for not detailing Aptos’ tokenomics before greenlighting exchanges to launch trading. In their words, listing Aptos on trading platforms without any tokenomics indicates no transparency at all. Since then, Aptos has put out a blog post explaining how the APT token has been distributed. It revealed that almost 50% of tokens had been reserved for insiders, including venture capital investors, core team members, and the Aptos foundation. Today’s 20 million APT token airdrop represents 2% of the total supply. 

Despite the criticism, enthusiasm for Aptos remains strong.

Would you say it was a good move by Aptos not to reveal this very important detail or to launch an airdrop during not so bullish market ? 

British stable coin becomes a possibility. 🚀

 Rishi Sunak the new Prime Minister of the British Empire wants to 'tentatively seize' crypto opportunities as it prepares to widen the regulatory net. This is becoming feasible as U.K. lawmakers agreed on new rules for stablecoins on Thursday. The government as well as promised to consult further crypto regulations and the possibility of a digital pound in the coming weeks.

In April, Rishi Sunak – at the time finance minister, but since promoted to the prime minister had said that he wanted to make the U.K. a hub for crypto.

Lawmakers are now pouring over government proposals to regulate stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies that seek to maintain their value against the pound or the U.S. dollar, and which can be used as a means of payment.

Though still under debate this move initiated by the Prime Minister would instill great value not just in the British economy but also in the world of digital finance in general.

In the coming weeks, we would have a clearer light as to what direction this is headed. 

SELF-CUSTODY GYAAN

DIGITAL SIGNATURES

A digital signature is a cryptographic technique used to validate the authenticity and integrity of a digital information. It is the digital equivalent of a handwritten signature or stamped seal, but it offers far more intrinsic security. A digital signature is intended to solve the problem of tampering and impersonation in digital communications.

In many instances, they provide a layer of validation and security to messages sent through a non-secure channel. When properly implemented, a digital signature gives the receiver reason to believe the message was sent by the claimed sender. 

How do Digital Signatures work In blockchain? 

Just as a  written signature would tie down a person to a particular document, digital signatures cryptographically link an identity to a message. 

Digital signatures are almost impossible to forge because their security is based on the strong cryptography key. In what is called “public key cryptography”, users own a public key and a private key, which form a pair. You can read more about this in our earlier newsletter here. 

The public key represents the owner’s identity and the private key is secret, allowing them to prove they own the public key. This mechanism could be used for encryption as well as for creating digital signatures. Let’s say, for example, Brian wants to send an encrypted message to Spencer. Anyone can see Spencer’s public key, so Brian can use it in the encryption algorithm that encrypts his message. Any observer can see or intercept the encrypted message but they can't decrypt it without Spencer’s private key, which only he knows. So Brian can ensure nobody but Spencer can see the message unless they have his private key.

For digital signatures, the operation is reversed. Instead of doing the initial computation with a public key, Spencer uses his private key in the signing algorithm to link a signature to his message and public key. No one can derive Spencer’s private key, or forge a valid signature for him, using only his signature and public key. However, anyone who knows Spencer’s public key can easily verify that the message was signed by his private key.

Self-custody promoted with Digital Signatures

Blockchain has become a trusted technology that is traceable through its blocks of data, which is vital when examining the historical chain of custody.

Digital signatures on their own are essential building blocks in blockchains, used mainly to validate transactions. When users submit transactions, they must prove to every node in the system that they are authorized to spend those funds, while preventing other users from spending them. Every node in the network will verify the submitted transaction and check all other nodes’ work to agree on a correct state. 

In essence, digital signatures are an essential part of the crypto ecosystem to verify that every transaction created by someone is a valid transaction and has been signed and authenticated by the person who holds access to the private keys. This is why the self-custody of keys is such an important part of the crypto infrastructure.

Self-custody is one of the core priorities of the Safient protocol and is being promoted to the proper degree as every individual is responsible and accountable for every transaction before validation, taking personal responsibility for their digital assets. 

SAFIENT WEEKLY INSIDE

Let us update you on what are we up to at Safient this week.

Safient Voucher demos and early access:

We are continuing to demo the Safient Voucher and getting a lot of great feedback that will ensure to incorporate it before the public launch. The good news is that the launch is near. We will be launching the Safient to the public where anyone will be able to gift Crypto even on the mainnet. LFG 🚀

Safient at BUIDL Together: Community Showcase!

Safient Protocol was showcased to the community of BUIDL Together, a cohort of promising Web3 projects. We got a lot of good responses from the web3 investors, builders & community members, and partnership requests through this showcase.

In case you missed the showcase or had to leave early, you can find the recording of the showcase here: 

There were plenty of takeaways from the cohort and here is a tweet from Koshik summarising this: 

Safient MPC Key management Infrastructure for wallets!

We have been cooking something internally to provide the best MPC key management experience for the wallets using the Safient protocol. Stay tuned for the updates and reach out to us on Discord to know more. 

Have a lovely week y'all. Cheers!