Day: August 24, 2020

Block size and scalability, explained

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Scaling solutions come in two forms: on-chain and off-chain. Both come with pros and cons, but as of now, there is no agreement as to which is more promising for future growth. On-chain scaling On-chain scaling refers to the philosophy of changing something about the blockchain itself to make it faster. For example, one approach to scaling includes shrinking the amount of data used in each transaction so that more transactions fit into a block. This is akin to what Bitcoin achieved with its Segregated Witness update, otherwise known as…

Backing the development of Bitcoin Core infrastructure for ‘sound’ money

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Supporting the open-source community continues to be a priority for OKCoin, which has enabled us to sponsor the development of the very infrastructure that we depend on as a crypto exchange. Our commitment to free and open-source software, or FOSS, has led us to provide three additional grants so far in 2020. Announced on Aug. 6, our most recent grant was awarded to Marco Falke, a Bitcoin Core maintainer and the most active contributor to the Bitcoin code since 2017. This has been preceded by three more: BTCPay, Amiti Uttarwar…

Huawei and Beijing jointly develop municipal blockchain directory

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Huawei and Beijing’s municipal government have jointly developed a blockchain directory for use across urban governance. According to an official report published on Aug. 24, the system, still being trialed, is aimed at improving government services and supporting the city’s business environment. Interest in blockchain technology forms part of Beijing’s research into smart city approaches to enhance urban innovation and governance.  Other technologies being explored for smart infrastructure include 5G, artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Throughout 2019, Beijing and Huawei have jointly built a blockchain system directory to link up…

First Mover: Anything-Goes Token Market Repudiates Rich-Only Venture Capital Club

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Price point Bitcoin was up slightly at about $11,776 early Monday, rising along with European equities, stock futures, gold, copper and oil amid optimism over a coronavirus vaccine and treatments. The dollar weakened.  The largest cryptocurrency is coming off a 2.2% decline in the seven days through Aug. 23, breaking a four-week string of gains. You’re reading First Mover, CryptoX’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CryptoX Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild…

Weaker US Dollar Pushes Bitcoin Towards $12K; A Weekly Outlook

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In a week that will see the world central bankers convening a virtual conference on the future of the economy, Bitcoin is rising. The benchmark cryptocurrency kicked off Monday with modest gains against the US dollar. It was up by $150, or 1.3 percent, to trade near $11,800 ahead of the New York opening bell. The gains appeared as the US dollar index fell 0.29 percent. Bitcoin chart on TradingView.com shows BTCUSD in a corrective uptrend Traders looked forward to the annual Federal Reserve Symposium that will be held online on…

The US is losing the ‘tech cold war,’ warns Ripple co-founder

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The United States is losing the “technological cold war” to China due to its tough regulatory approach to blockchain and cryptocurrency-related companies, a senior executive at Ripple believes. In an opinion article for The Hill on Aug. 21, Chris Larsen, co-founder and chairman at major crypto payments firm Ripple, said that China’s digital currency leadership is a “once-in-a-century opportunity” to replace the U.S. dollar with the digital yuan as the world’s reserve currency.  Larsen set out the main reasons for China winning the U.S. in the ongoing technological struggle. Namely,…

UK antitrust regulators give Visa’s fintech acquisition a green light

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The United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority, has given the go-ahead to Visa’s acquisition of fintech startup Plaid following a Phase 1 review. According to an Aug. 24 announcement, the CMA investigated several ways in which the deal could potentially harm competition, but ultimately found no evidence that this outcome was likely. Plaid offers a platform enabling apps to connect to a user’s bank accounts. In the U.K. it offers payment initiation services (PIS), which allow direct real-time payments to be made via merchant websites, without use of credit or…

Users React to Cardano’s First Staking Pay Out

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Staking on the Cardano network got underway on July 29th with the Shelley mainnet launch. Almost a month on from that date, IOHK CEO Charles Hoskinson took to Periscope seeking community feedback on the first-ever staking reward payout, which happened yesterday. “I just wanted to make sure everyone got what they expected, the staking calculator was accurate, if there were any problems. Or if everything was looking good.” First Epoch Rewards! https://t.co/LTVDLQBxrw — Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) August 24, 2020 Some stake pool operators suggested ways in which smaller pools could…

Report suggests $1 million of ransomed Bitcoin was cashed out on Binance

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Researchers have uncovered evidence that over $1 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) from addresses linked to Ryuk ransomware attacks was moved through a wallet on Binance. According to a report by Forbes on Aug. 23 the researchers took a sample of 63 transactions, representing $5.7 million of the over $61 million estimated by the FBI to have been stolen using the Ryuk ransomware. Of the $5.7 million, $1,064,865 worth of Bitcoin from multiple wallet addresses was bounced through numerous non-connected wallets before eventually finding its way to Binance, where it…

First Layer 1 Solution Specifically Designed for DeFi

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Radix is the first layer 1 blockchain network specifically designed for DeFi applications. It is capable of executing parallel transactions across shard chains without breaking the atomic composability requirement.  Undoubtedly, DeFi is the hottest topic in the crypto economy at the moment. With assets worth 6.75 billion USD locked in DeFi protocols, the sector has massively increased in size over the course of the last three months. At the same time, several promising new DeFi platforms have emerged and this trend will most likely continue. All of this has taken…