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What Is The Merge? A Brief Explanation of Ethereum’s Transition From Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake
In 23 days the Ethereum network will transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm after operating as a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain since July 30, 2015. While the change may not mean much to ethereum users and traders, what’s changing under the hood is a very big deal.
You’ve Heard About The Merge, Why Is It a Big Deal?
Next month will be a monumental time for the Ethereum network and its participants. The Merge will likely be one of the most anticipated and recognizable upgrades the blockchain has seen since The DAO hard fork. On or around September 15, 2022, Ethereum will implement The Merge and that means the chain will completely change the consensus mechanism it once used. Since the blockchain was created, Ethereum’s consensus mechanism has been a proof-of-work (PoW) scheme, similar to Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism.
However, instead of the PoW consensus mechanism SHA256, Ethereum relies on a scheme called Ethash, a PoW consensus agreement preceded by a mechanism known as Dagger-Hashimoto. The main goal of Ethash was to offer ASIC resistance but after a few years, Ethash ASIC miners appeared on the market alongside the use of graphics processing units (GPUs). Similar to Bitcoin’s PoW consensus algorithm, Ethash miners must put forth the computational cost of purchasing and operating ASIC or GPU miners, and using electricity.
When The Merge takes place, Ethereum will not depend on miners to validate transactions. Instead, the network’s transactions will be validated by entities called validators. Read More
Newly-Launched Blockchain Forum Aims to Make India Global Hub of Web 3
The blockchain advocacy group will adopt a collaboration model and work with regulators, government, industry, and research institutes.
A group of leading Indian blockchain influencers with expertise in trading, NFT, Metaverse, cybercrime, etc., recently announced the formation of the India Blockchain Forum (IBF).
The event at Hyderabad in India’s Telangana state was attended by the state government’s principal secretary for industry, commerce, and information technology, Jayesh Ranjan, said media reports. Hyderabad is India’s second largest tech hub after Bengaluru.
IBF to Adopt Collaborative Model
The newly-minted Indian blockchain advocacy platform said its vision is to make India the global hub for blockchain and web 3. It will adopt a collaboration model and work with the government, regulators, industry, and research institutes to promote web 3.
IBF has adopted a 10-point agenda that includes building an India Blockchain Stack, accelerating the startup ecosystem, supporting blockchain technology companies, and creating a talent pool for sustainable growth of the Blockchain ecosystem, the coverage said.
The pool of influencers with domain expertise in different blockchain areas will be used to form special interest groups (SIGs) such as on CBDC, Metaverse, and policy framework. Read More
Web3 Security Infrastructure GoPlus Security Reaches Strategic Deal with Dtools
Web3 security startup GoPlus Security has partnered with Web3 ALL-IN-ONE tool Dtools to provide comprehensive security data support for its newly launched token security detection function.
GoPlus Security is an open, permissionless, user-driven security service platform for all types of blockchain users.
The partnership plans to strengthen the platform's Web3 "security infrastructure."
Users can easily perform Token security detection through multiple portals on Dtools, which will enhance the security of the products and services provided while avoiding potential risks in the investment process, and establishing a trust level in the cryptocurrency market to make users' assets more secure.
In addition to the Token security detection API, GoPlus Security has also launched a malicious address library API, NFT security detection API, risk authorization detection API, dApp security information API, etc., to protect Web3 security from multiple scenarios and perspectives. Read More
Chris Dixon, a16z, says crypto can shift power away from Big Tech
After raising a record-breaking $4.5 billion (£3.8bn) for its latest crypto fund earlier this year, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has said it sees the ongoing market downturn as an investment opportunity.
Chris Dixon, the founder of a16z’s crypto arm, believes cryptocurrency has the ability to disrupt the power imbalance between consumers and big tech companies like Meta and Twitter.
In an interview on FT’s Tech Tonic podcast, Dixon said that power on the internet currently resides in the hands of a small collective of companies.
“I don’t think this is a good outcome,” Dixon said. “The idea of having the internet controlled by five companies is very bad for entrepreneurs and bad for VCs.”
Since its establishment in 2018, a16z’s crypto arm has raised more than $7.6 billion (£6.4bn) to invest in crypto and blockchain companies. Its fourth fund, set at $4.5 billion in May just weeks after TerraUSD and LUNA’s collapse sent the market into panic, highlights how confident Dixon and a16z are in Web3’s potential.
During the podcast, Dixon said he views the selloff of Bitcoin and other leading coins as a chance to make more investments: “In venture capital, you’re hopefully buying low and selling high … so my experience has been downturns have been opportunities.”
Several leading names in traditional finance are beginning to use blockchain technology on a daily basis. On Monday, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp (DTCC), which processes all trades in the US stock market, said it is handling hundreds of thousands of settlement transactions a day on its private Project Ion blockchain, while French bank BNP Paribas is using JPMorgan’s blockchain network, Onyx. Read More
Because of Solana’s POH method, it can horizontally scale the rest of the blockchain, the same way that operating systems and databases scale their software. Each Solana team member has over a decade of experience working in operating systems GPU acceleration. Compilers, networks, etc., giving them extensive and deep experience optimizing software.
Solana is based on scaling software with hardware, with the vision of building the world's largest decentralized, single-chart blockchain. The only way to do that is by scaling all the core technologies with hardware.
Scaling the Blockchain in this way delivers a cheap cryptographic base for financial transfers and, more importantly, outside of finance. It is a way for Solana to build a better web experience for social media communities regarding micropayments.
Also, advertising-based revenues can be relinquished for social networks, leading communities to generate value by self-expression, creating their own content, and growing the network and the connections within the community, creating a better world for all. Read More
Alex Reinhardt, PLC Ultima: On building a crypto ecosystem for ‘daily life’
PLC Ultima aims to spread opportunity with an ecosystem that anyone can use in their daily lives.
The Block caught up with Alex Reinhardt, Founder of PLC Ultima, to learn more about the project and get the crypto expert’s views on the uncertain regulatory environment.
The Block: How is PLC Ultima bridging the gap between traditional business and crypto?
Alex Reinhardt: I originally conceived PLC Ultima as a universal financial instrument that can be used by everyone, regardless of where they live, their economic knowledge, or even their budget. To this end, I actively invested in developing the coin’s infrastructure to be easy to use in everyday life. The closer a cryptocurrency is to daily life, the closer it is to business.
PLCU is very easy to circulate, it is a flexible and versatile means of payment and even more accessible than fiat money. Businesses can make high-speed, commission-free transactions over any distance, find customers among the Ultima PLC community, and even raise funding for their projects through our crowdfunding platform.
As part of the pilot program, we also have vending machines and our own ATMs. It is also affordable and understandable. All of this gradually makes our cryptocurrency a fully-fledged part of the global economy. Read More
Nature’s Vault Launches Gold-Linked Utility Token NVLT In The Polygon Ecosystem
Nature’s Vault, a Singapore-based Greentech company, announced today a strategic collaboration with Polygon Network, a leading Web 3 protocol provider.
Launched earlier this year, Nature’s Vault’s mission is to develop innovative and impactful ESG investments that combat climate change, namely greenhouse gas emissions and ecosystem degradation. It’s the first blockchain solution to tokenize geologically quantified un-mined gold deposits. The company’s first project, the Legacy Token, ultimately aims to acquire the mining rights over, and protect at least one million ounces of gold, located in environmentally pristine locations across Canada. The company has already acquired the first 125,000 ounces at a location called Pistol Lake in Ontario, and is in active negotiations on their second acquisition. This preservation of gold is then tokenised as the Legacy Token or NVLT.
Polygon is a Layer 2 blockchain development platform that believes in making Web3 more accessible. Polygon enables developers to build scalable user-friendly dApps with low transaction fees without ever sacrificing on security. The Polygon ecosystem allows developers to sidestep a number of limitations on the Ethereum blockchain, namely high gas fees, and sluggish throughput all while leveraging the security features of the Ethereum mainnet.
"Polygon acts as a base layer for innovation and development of new solutions to our planet's most critical problems. That is why we are delighted to have Nature's Vault on Polygon," said Stefan Renton, Sustainability Lead at Polygon. "Nature’s Vault is tackling environmental impact in a creative way, showcasing itself as an example of projects we are strongly committed to supporting." Read More
Bitcoin Lightning Network vs Visa and Mastercard: How do they stack up?
Bitcoin’s Lightning Network has been growing at a slow pace. What’s keeping it behind, given its high transaction throughput?
Bitcoin (BTC) changed the world as a decentralized, nongovernmental form of currency that can facilitate peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions that transcend national borders.
But despite this functionality, Bitcoin’s role as a payment mechanism has been called into question due to its low transaction throughput.
The Bitcoin blockchain can handle up to seven transactions per second, which means that network demand has seen the average transaction fee on the network reach an all-time high above $62 during specific periods.
In order to address low throughput and high transaction fees, developers made the Lightning Network — a layer-2 scaling solution that allows for off-chain transactions.
The Lightning Network creates a P2P payment channel between two parties in a transaction. The channel “allows them to send an unlimited amount of transactions that are nearly instant as well as inexpensive. It acts as its own little ledger for users to pay for even smaller goods and services such as coffee without affecting the Bitcoin network.”
Users of the network lock in a certain amount of Bitcoin in order to create a channel. Once the BTC is locked, recipients can invoice amounts as they need. Read More
Crypto licensing roundup: Learn about the most recent approvals in the industry
Here's where cryptocurrency firms have received the most regulatory approvals and licenses over the past few weeks.
Cryptocurrency companies have been moving to improve compliance worldwide amid the bear market of 2022, with many platforms increasingly securing licenses and approvals.
As one may find it difficult to track all global regulatory milestones in crypto, Cointelegraph has picked up some of the latest compliance developments over the past couple of weeks.
Global crypto firms have recently been active in growing presence and compliance in North America, with exchanges like China-founded Huobi Tech entering Canada.
Huobi Technology Holdings announced on Tuesday that its subsidiary Hbit Technologies has successfully obtained a Money Services Business (MSB) license from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada.
With the new license, Huobi Tech is officially authorized to engage in regulated activities for foreign exchange, money transferring and virtual currencies dealing in Canada. The new compliance milestone came shortly after Hbit received the MSB license in the United States in July.
Binance.US, the American partner of Binance, another crypto exchange founded in China, has also been actively improving regulatory efforts in North America recently. On Aug. 18, the exchange received a Money Transmitter License from the Nevada Department of Business and Industry, Financial Institutions Division. 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.
