🤖 GameFI bot problem: 40% of players are actually bots, according to Jigger

🤖 GameFI bot problem: 40% of players are actually bots, according to Jigger 🦁 Crypto.com accidentally transferred $10.5M to client instead of $100 refund ☠️ FBI issues a warning to crypto investors: be wary of DeFi protocols

GM, vEmpions! Our motto today is: "Give it time." We can get through everything, one day at a time. Just keep your head up and soldier on. Time heals all wounds, they say. So just give it time. Here's what we've got:

🤖 GameFI bot problem: 40% of players are actually bots, according to Jigger 🦁 Crypto.com accidentally transferred $10.5M to client instead of $100 refund ☠️ FBI issues a warning to crypto investors: be wary of DeFi protocols

GameFI bot problem: 40% of players are actually bots, according to Jigger

Almost a half of all web3 game players are bots, according to a new report from Levan Kvirkvelia, founder of Jigger, an anti-bot protection software. The study found evidence of 20,000 bots across over 60 web3 games.

This is hardly surprising, given that bots are a problem across most games that contain a method for accounts to acquire value. Outside of web3, people have bought and sold game accounts containing rare items for years.

What is surprising, however, is the sheer scale of the problem. According to Kvirkvelia, bots make up a whopping 40% of the player base in web3 games. That means that for every 10 players you see in a web3 game, 4 of them are probably bots.

The implications of this are far-reaching. Not only does it make the games less fun for everyone else, but it also artificially inflates the value of the game's virtual currency. This, in turn, makes it harder for developers to raise real money to finance the game's development.

Not sure if developers can do anything to fix this, short of making their games less fun to play. That's not going to be an easy sell.

In the meantime, if you're looking for a more bot-free gaming experience, you might want to stick to single-player games. Or, you know, get a life (just kidding, I'm not the one to talk).

Crypto.com accidentally transfered $10.5M to client instead of $100 refund

Apparently, even multi-million dollar companies can make mistakes.

Crypto.com, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange, is suing its customer after it accidentally transfered $10.5 million to them instead of the intended $100 refund.

According to court documents, the recipient used a portion of the funds to purchase a luxury mansion upon receipt.

The company is now seeking to recover the remaining $10.4 million, as well as damages and interest, from the customer.

It happened back in May 2021, but the mistake wasn't discovered until December during an annual audit.

The whole thing is just a big mess and we can all learn a valuable lesson from it: always double check your numbers before hitting send! Another lesson here is that even if you do receive a large sum of money by mistake, it's probably not a good idea to go out and spend it all right away. Or at least, you know, consult with a lawyer first.

FBI issues a warning to crypto investors: be wary of DeFi protocols

The FBI has issued a warning to investors to be careful of DeFi protocols, which have been subject to billions of dollars in theft this year. The agency said it has noticed a rise in smart contract hacks and is urging anyone who’s fallen victim to related theft to reach out.

In a statement released today, the bureau warned that more than $1.8 billion in digital assets have been stolen from DeFi protocols in this year’s first quarter alone, an almost eightfold increase from 2021’s equivalent period.

Most of these funds were stolen via flash loans, token bridges and oracle price pairs, the FBI said, adding that it has observed a significant uptick in such attacks over the past 12 months.

Token bridges have been particularly popular targets this year, with high-profile hacks hitting projects such as Harmony’s cross-chain Horizon Bridge (losses of $100 million in June) and Ronin Network (a $625 million theft from the Ethereum-linked sidechain for blockchain game Axie Infinity in September).

The FBI also cautioned against participating in open source development projects, noting that many of them lack adequate security measures.

Investors are advised to take precautionary measures to reduce their susceptibility to theft on the blockchain, the FBI said. These include enlisting professional financial advice, undertaking proper research, and ensuring their investments have verifiable code audits.

The bureau also warned of potential risks associated with participating in DeFi protocols with “extremely limited timeframes” to join. These so-called liquidity pools often have little or no track record, making them more vulnerable to fraud and manipulation.

The FBI’s warning comes as decentralized finance protocols have become increasingly popular in the crypto space, with their total value locked surpassing $60 billion this month. The sector has also attracted the attention of regulators, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) bringing enforcement actions against several DeFi projects in recent months.

So there you have it, folks: the FBI’s four recommendations for crypto investors. Heed their advice and maybe you won’t end up like the poor souls who lost millions of dollars to many of the hacks and scams mentioned above.