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Delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS), explained
Blockchain technology, still maturing like the early internet, evolved from PoW to PoS to address inefficiencies. However, PoS had its own issues. In 2014, delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) emerged, improving on both by balancing efficiency, decentralization and security.
Even though it’s been around for well over a decade, blockchain technology is still a relatively novel concept.
Think about the internet for a moment — one could argue that the first iteration was ARPANET, launched in 1969. After all, this was the first operational packet-switching network.
The technology went through myriad changes. In the 1970s, new protocols were introduced. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) meant that the network could be sufficiently decentralized and scalable.
It took over two decades for the technology to sufficiently mature into the World Wide Web. Indeed, blockchain technology can be thought of as one that’s still maturing. One element of the technology that developers can’t seem to agree on is the way in which transactions are verified on the blockchain — also known as “consensus.”
Bitcoin brought with it the first-ever consensus mechanism, known as proof-of-work (PoW), through which miners race to encode transaction data into a format that meets a hash length requirement.
Being incredibly energy inefficient, expensive and prohibitive for new miners, it didn’t take long for the consensus mechanism to be reviewed in newer blockchains.
Peercoin introduced proof-of-stake (PoS) in 2012, where the competitive element was removed and validators were selected by the network to mine new blocks, provided their “stake,” or vested interest in the network, was high enough to disincentivize malicious activity.
However, PoS still had issues surrounding centralization, scalability and security.
This brought about the release of delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) in 2014, a consensus mechanism designed to address the shortcomings of both PoS and PoW. Read More
Tokenization can transform US markets if Trump clears the way
Trump’s presidency offers a unique opportunity to transform US financial markets through tokenization, but success hinges on reimagining regulatory frameworks.
Tokenization can revolutionize the United States financial markets, but flawed rules have stymied adoption. Crypto-friendly President-elect Donald Trump has a historic chance to lead the way and change things.
Ending America’s cryptocurrency crackdown is an excellent first step, but it doesn’t go far enough. For tokenization to thrive, Trump’s team — including his potential crypto czar and Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair — must reinvent old rules, combining the best aspects of traditional markets and decentralized finance (DeFi).
The challenge will be preserving core investor protections such as Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, exchange oversight and custody rules without compromising tokenization’s benefits. That’s a big ask, but it doesn’t require new laws. Trump’s team should start on day one. Read More
Perpetual DEX Hyperliquid to Launch Native Token Following Bullish October
The exchange says it's bypassing venture capital entirely in what could be one of crypto's largest grassroots-based community airdrops.
Hyperliquid, a decentralized perpetuals exchange, is challenging the conventional wisdom that venture capital is essential for success in crypto. Instead, it claims it's relying on its touted tech and community-first approach.
The DEX’s Hyper Foundation, which oversees development, announced Thursday its token generation event, slated for early Friday at 2:30 AM ET, alongside an airdrop.
Over the past year, Hyperliquid has expanded from an exchange into a “full financial system," claiming its liquidity now “rivals” that of “top exchanges,” its foundation said Thursday on X, formerly Twitter.
In October, Hyperliquid surpassed Jupiter and SynFutures, clocking a record $1.39 billion in daily trading volume, DeFiLlama derivatives data shows.
“The HYPE genesis event marks a key milestone in the journey, unlocking core functionality at every level of the stack,” it said. Read More
Canton of Bern Passes Motion to Explore Bitcoin Mining for Grid Stability
The motion demands a report on using Bern's unused energy for Bitcoin mining, partnering with Swiss firms, and stabilizing electricity grids.
Switzerland’s Canton of Bern parliament has approved a motion to explore Bitcoin mining as a way to utilize surplus energy and stabilize its electricity grid.
The initiative, introduced by the cross-party Parliamentary Group Bitcoin on March 14, 2024, passed with a decisive 85 to 46 vote in the Grand Council despite government opposition.
The initiative directs the government council to assess how Bitcoin mining can repurpose unused energy and create economic opportunities.
Introduced by the bipartisan Parliamentary Group Bitcoin, the “Cantonal Bitcoin Strategy III” proposal seeks to make Canton of Bern “an attractive location” for firms with an innovative Bitcoin strategy.” Read More
Exploring The IndoEx Cryptocurrency Exchange The First Trading Platform To List The Markethive Token - Hivecoin
The IndoEx exchange aims to cater to a broad spectrum of investors, including newcomers, seasoned traders, and institutional investors, rather than focusing on a specific target audience like most crypto trading platforms. The platform's primary objective is to offer a robust and efficient infrastructure that enables seamless and rapid transactions of crypto assets.
As the IndoEx trading platform is the first crypto exchange to list Hivecoin, this article delves deeper into the platform, exploring it further to bring awareness to the Markethive community. Since its establishment in 2019, IndoEx has gained prominence in the alternative cryptocurrency trading sector due to its reasonable commissions, secure wallets, high trading volume, and fast transactions.
The trading platform, with offices in the United Kingdom and Estonia, provides close to 300 trading pairs, can be used in 150 different countries, and supports a range of cryptocurrencies, including popular ones such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Tether (USDT), and Ripple (XRP), as well as notable alternative coins like DASH, Chainlink (LINK), and Solana (SOL). Furthermore, it accommodates less mainstream coins and tokens like NEO, Cardano (ADA), and EOS, amounting to 180 cryptocurrencies. Users can exchange these coins for traditional currency or trade them with one another.
The platform provides users exclusive access to newly launched tokens through airdrops, giving them a head start in discovering and acquiring new tokens with the potential for long-term growth. Beyond trading, users can also benefit from receiving free tokens that may significantly impact the global market. Furthermore, the platform hosts trading contests and an initial coin offering (ICO) launchpad, offering crypto enthusiasts a comprehensive suite of features. Read More
Historic Win for Crypto: Court Strikes Down Treasury's Overreach
Coinbase’s legal chief has declared a historic win as the Fifth Circuit Court ruled Treasury’s Tornado Cash sanctions unlawful, a bullish moment for crypto privacy.
The Fifth Circuit Court has ruled that the U.S. Treasury’s sanctions against Tornado Cash smart contracts are unlawful, marking a pivotal victory for cryptocurrency privacy and open-source technology advocates. Paul Grewal, chief legal officer at crypto exchange Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN), hailed the decision as a landmark win for liberty and innovation. He shared on social media platform X this week:
Privacy wins. Today the Fifth Circuit held that U.S. Treasury’s sanctions against Tornado Cash smart contracts are unlawful. This is a historic win for crypto and all who cares about defending liberty. Coinbase is proud to have helped lead this important challenge.
“These smart contracts must now be removed from the sanctions list and US persons will once again be allowed to use this privacy-protecting protocol. Put another way, the government’s overreach will not stand,” he added.
In August 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixer, alleging its involvement in laundering over $7 billion in virtual currency since its inception in 2019. This included approximately $455 million stolen by the North Korean-linked Lazarus Group. The sanctions prohibited U.S. persons from engaging with Tornado Cash and aimed to curb its use in illicit activities. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned these sanctions, ruling that the Treasury had overstepped its authority, as Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts do not constitute “property” under federal law.
The Coinbase legal chief explained:
In particular, the court ruled that while Treasury has the power to take action against ‘property,’ the open-source, immutable smart contracts at the core of Tornado Cash can’t be owned by anyone and so are not ‘property’ subject to sanctions. Read More
Solv to launch ‘onchain MicroStrategy’
The goal is to create an onchain product that generates yield on Bitcoin, according to Solv’s co-founder.
Solv Protocol is preparing to launch an “onchain MicroStrategy” to bring yield-bearing Bitcoin reserves to decentralized finance (DeFi), Solv’s co-founder Ryan Chow said in a Nov. 29 X post.
“We’re building the first-ever On-Chain MicroStrategy — a transparent, permissionless platform that transforms Bitcoin from a passive store of value into an active financial powerhouse,” Chow said.
According to Chow, Solv aims to build a strategically managed “Bitcoin reserve that not only preserves wealth but generates yield and amplifies returns.”
He didn’t specify precisely how Solv intended to achieve this goal.
Solv is a Bitcoin staking platform offering numerous yield strategies across over half a dozen blockchain networks.
It generates yield by staking BTC to Bitcoin layer-2s, including Babylon and CoreChain, as well as DeFi protocols, such as Jupiter and Ethena.
Solv currently oversees more than $3 billion in total value locked (TVL), according to DefiLlama. Read More
Hype overshadowed adoption, but valuable projects continue
Despite the hype cycle, blockchain technology continues to make strides in real-world applications, from tokenizing assets to enhancing record-keeping and data privacy.
Hype cycles dominate the news, driven by various factors, including elections, market sentiment, regulatory changes, technological developments and the broader economy. The cycles also affect venture investment in crypto. Across tech (perhaps except for artificial intelligence), tighter venture funding has refocused businesses on profitability and live use cases.
We need proven use cases to drive sustainable growth for the industry. Proven use cases need to demonstrate growing adoption and sustainable unit economics, even if profitability is pushed down the road due to current capital investments and marketing costs.
Blockchain record-keeping:
One of the earliest promised and least-fulfilled use cases for blockchain was replacing legacy databases. More than a decade later, blockchain databases are caught between blockchain’s transparent, stable nature and the need to protect a person or business’ private information.
Governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can also use onchain record-keeping to increase transparency around the deployment of funds without revealing personal information about the individuals or communities they help. Citizens and journalists can now use onchain record-keeping to track the progress of complaints made to public authorities without revealing sensitive details of the complainant. Even records of charitable donations can now be tracked onchain, as a tree-planting NGO has shown.
It’s not just record-keeping moving onchain — tokenized assets are also growing. Read More
Decentralized AI is key for self-sovereignty — Onicai executives
Censorship, propaganda, privacy and self-harm are just some of the concerns decentralization advocates have with centralized AI models.
Artificial intelligence researchers from the Dfinity Foundation, the nonprofit behind the Internet Computer Protocol, and executives from decentralized AI developer Onicai have recently released the Manifesto for Decentralized AI. The manifesto outlines seven points to ensure that AI benefits the end-user, including self-sovereign AI that works for the user and not large institutions.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Onicai CEO Patrick Friedrich said the centralization of AI creates the potential for abuse by powerful corporations or state actors to control and manipulate populations in a near-absolute way. The Onicai CEO told Cointelegraph:
“Going forward, with more and more AI agents that act autonomously, we don’t know what all of them can do, and we want to make sure they are not biased by some bigger interest — whether those be governments, political parties or huge organizations and companies.”
According to the Onicai executive, a solution to the problem of information censorship or manipulation is running decentralized AI through smart contracts on permissionless networks, which are immutable, open-source and highly transparent.
This transparent set of rules would govern and constrain AI behavior and allow users to run their AI with custom parameters using local storage methods, decentralized clouds or even hybrid models — giving users true control over the entire software stack running their AI. Read More
Disclaimer: These articles are provided for informational purposes only. They are not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other advice.
Featured Image Source: Pixabay
