Drastic weight loss, ferocious sparring and lax regulation have created a dangerous environment in Japanese boxing, as the sport battles for its future in the country after two fighters died. Super featherweight Shigetoshi Kotari and lightweight Hiromasa Urakawa, both 28, fought separate bouts on the same card at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall on August 2 and died days later following brain surgery. Another Japanese boxer died after a bout in Tokyo in December 2023 and one more has been in a coma since May this year. The twin tragedies this month sent shockwaves through Japanese boxing, with authorities scrambling to investigate and under pressure to tighten safety. Although no clear causes for the deaths have been identified, several factors have emerged that paint a high-risk picture of Japan’s boxing scene. “I believe it is safe but the results are everything,” Hideyuki Ohashi, manager and promoter of Japan’s undisputed super bantamweight world champion Naoya Inoue, told AFP. “Three people have died (since December...
Philippine Senator Bam Aquino plans to file a bill to put the country’s national budget on a blockchain for greater transparency and accountability. Philippine Senator Bam Aquino announced his intention to propose a bill that would lead to the country’s national budget being saved on a blockchain. According to a Facebook post by local news publication BusinessWorld, Aquino plans to file the bill “in the next couple of weeks.” The measures would “integrate the government’s budget and transactions into a blockchain platform for better transparency.” In a dedicated Facebook post, Aquino recounted that he talked about how technology can “strengthen accountability in governance” during the Manila Tech Summit 2025. He also said that he spoke about blockchain technology specifically: Read more
Bitcoin’s price deviates 12% from its all-time high, but an oversold STH MVRV metric could trigger a breakout toward $260,000. Key takeaway: Bitcoin’s bullish megaphone pattern suggests $144,000-$260,000 is in play this cycle. Signs of panic from BTC short-term holders hint at a potential local bottom. Read more
Rollup-based layer 2s destroy crypto’s trustless nature through centralized sequencers that control inclusion, ordering and execution of transactions. Opinion by: Steven Pu, co-founder of Taraxa The rollup-based layer 2s that are all the rage today are destroying crypto or, more precisely, the very trustless nature of crypto, by rapidly eroding its decentralized trustlessness. Crypto’s uniqueness comes from its trustlessness, powered by the underlying infrastructure primarily in layer 1s. The only way to be truly trustless is to be fully decentralized, where decisions are made dispassionately by a large and randomized set of nodes from all across the world, operated and owned by people who, in aggregate, have little to no connections. Read more