Day: September 4, 2022

Coinbase Cloud Adds Solana Archive Node

by Blockchain News

Blockchain infrastructure protocol Coinbase Cloud launches Solana Archive Node to help developers build better products and services on Solana.

Coinbase Cloud provides Web3 APIs, services, and blockchain infrastructure to power the next generation of software builders including data access, staking, payments, trade and exchange, identity, and more

This is the first expansion of Coinbase Cloud’s network infrastructure to create validating clients for Solana, which involves improving the efficiency, throughput, and reliability of the protocol.

Solana is currently able to process over 50,000 transactions per second. Launched secure, dedicated Solana infrastructure nodes through Query & Transact, allowing builders to access and trace data and transaction information on the Solana blockchain.

Validator clients for QuickNode and Jump Crypto launched a similar move last month with the Solana blockchain.

While Solana’s high-throughput design (~2-3 blocks/sec) makes it ideal for use cases like transactions, it makes managing archive nodes technically challenging.

Because about 100 TB of historical data is required to store, this means that maintenance of archive nodes is time-consuming and expensive.

With the Solana protocol falling out of favor with users following a recent spate of attacks and outages, the Coinbase Cloud’s partnership with the Solana Foundation will help reposition Solana as one of the fastest and most powerful smart contract networks in the world.

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BlackRock Bitcoin Private Trust to Be Benchmarked by Kraken’s CF Benchmarks Bitcoin Index

by Blockchain News

The world’s largest investment management firm BlackRock’s Bitcoin Private Trust will use the Kraken subsidiary CF Benchmarks Bitcoin Index as a benchmark for issuance, The Block reported.

Last month, BlackRock partnered with Coinbase to provide its institutional clients with cryptocurrency trading services. A few days later, the company announced the launch of the Bitcoin Private Trust, a Bitcoin Spot.

The product will seek to track Bitcoin’s performance and will bring fewer fees and debt to the trust company.

CF Benchmarks is a member of the Crypto Facilities group of companies and a member of the Payward Group of owners and operators of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken Exchange.

“Despite the sharp decline in the digital asset market, we continue to see strong interest from some institutional clients on how to leverage our technology and product capabilities to efficiently and cost-effectively access these assets,” BlackRock said in a statement.

The investment firm holds more than $10 trillion in assets under management (AUM).

Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmark, noted that institutional interest has increased over the past few months compared to six months ago and added that:

“The understanding of digital assets themselves is much greater than it was, people we talk to now understand the difference between bitcoin and ether.”

CF Benchmarks is trying to become the MSCI index of the crypto world.

The S&P Dow Jones Indices, a global leader in providing investable and benchmark indices to the financial launched index funds for cryptocurrencies in 2021.

BlackRock has long been focused on the crypto space, and the financial giant said its core focus in the industry remains on permissioned blockchains, stablecoins, cryptoassets, and tokenization.

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Blockstream Partners with Sevenlabs and Poseidon Group to Launch Decentralized Bitcoin Exchange

by Blockchain News

Cryptocurrency infrastructure service providers Blockstream, Sevenlabs, and Poseidon Group have partnered to launch XDEX, a decentralized exchange for bitcoin and securities assets, in Switzerland, according to Nasdaq.

The exchange will support peer-to-peer trading within the cryptocurrency ecosystem, including bitcoin, stablecoins, and other bitcoin-related assets such as Liquid, a second-tier application that extends bitcoin.

Users can access assets on the Liquid Network to trade bitcoin, euro, and Swiss franc stablecoins, as well as other liquidity-based assets.

XDEX is built on the open-source protocol TDEX and provides 24/7 services.

Blockstream is a blockchain technology company led by co-founder Adam Back, headquartered in Victoria, Canada, with offices and staff worldwide.[1] The company develops a range of products and services for the storage and transfer of Bitcoin and other digital assets.

Blockstream CEO Adam Back said that

“By leveraging the Blockstream Asset Management Platform AMP, TDEX’s decentralized protocol, and Liquid’s Confidential Transactions and speed, XDEX form a full stack of Bitcoin technology that is a blueprint for future securities exchanges and leads to the further reformation of the traditional capital markets and disintermediation .”

Seven Labs is a specialist electronics distributor and systems integrator for the South African and Sub-Saharan markets.

The app is expected to launch on iOS and Android in the fourth quarter of 2022.

It is reported that the team will also develop a Web3.0 platform in the future to support more digital assets.

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FIFA Launches Digital Collectibles Platform in Collaboration With Algorand

by Blockchain News

The global sports governing body of football, FIFA has launched a virtual assets platform dubbed FIFA+ Collect in partnership with Algorand Blockchain.

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According to the announcement, FIFA is taking the new development to democratize the accessibility of its fans to the captured moments of the “FIFA World Cup™ and FIFA Women’s World Cup™” in virtual form.

 

FIFA+ Collect digital assets platform will enable fans to revel in spectacular moments during the FIFA games. According to the announcement, assets on the platform will be “affordable, inclusive and accessible” to all lovers of FIFA football.

The said virtual assets platform will be launching later in September, and every plan to ensure its safe launching has been put in place.

This new feat confirms the ideology of FIFA to always embrace new technologies in ensuring that its fans are duly entertained.

Speaking on the new development, the Chief Business Officer of FIFA, Romy Gai said that the football governing body is excited to launch its first technological initiative with Algorand, noting that football fans will be able to own affordable “digital collectibles” on its platform. 

He added that “this is an accessible opportunity for fans around the world to engage with their favorite players, moments, and more on new platforms.” 

The CEO of Algorand, W. Sean Ford noted that the determination of FIFA to embrace Web3 technology is proof of “their innovative spirit”.

FIFA announced its partnership with Algorand in March of this year. The blockchain platform serves clients and users across commercial industries, government parastatals, and technology-driven organizations. 

Algorand delivers services on the blockchain network that is known to be cheap and very fast, making it deserve all the recommendations and patronage that it enjoys.

This is not the only affiliation that FIFA has with a virtual assets service provider. The worldwide football governing body had in March announced its official sponsor for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™  to be Crypto.com, a cryptocurrency exchange company.

Crypto.com’s sponsorship of the usually nostalgic football season will facilitate the adoption of new technologies, most especially cryptocurrencies on a global scale.

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Snapchat CEO Announces Exit From Web3 Sighting Financial Difficulties

by Blockchain News

The Chief Executive Officer of Snap Inc. Evan Spiegel has announced that the firm is pulling out of all its investments in Web3 technology, citing financial difficulties at the moment.

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According to the issued note, the company will also be dissolving its Web3 team to focus on other areas that are crucial to the business at this time.

 

Evan noted that the company has remarkably fallen short of its general financial projections for the year, most especially in the Web3 spinoff of the firm. Hence the inevitable yet painful decision of the executive team to cut down on the teams and sectors of the company that are less productive.

The firm will now deploy due diligence in restructuring and recovering all the losses it has incurred across the year, although this process may span till next year. However, the required team and strategies will be brought on board to achieve this feat.

The three strategic areas of attention that the firm will now focus on will include “community growth, revenue growth, and augmented reality”. Evan added that the firm will reduce its staffing to about 20% so as to minimize costs remarkably.

In the closing of his statement, Evan expressed his pain and concern for its Web3 team which will now exit the company, citing that the firm will be of assistance in helping them secure better opportunities. 

Snap Inc. joins a host of other companies, asides from crypto firms, who have now taken to the option of cutting down the sizes of their staff as a result of the stiffened economy and prolonged crypto winter. 

Coinbase, OpeanSea, Google, Apple, and Meta amongst many others have taken to this option in scaling through the uncertainties of the crypto market and the economy generally.

Despite this, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume in the world Binance recently announced that it is expanding its workforce. The announcement was made by the CEO of the firm, Chang Zhao, noting that it is adding to its workforce a total of 2000 new openings.

The firm appears to be unbothered by the global economic situation and several investigations currently ongoing about the crypto exchange. 

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Ethereum Miners Realized $756M in August Pending The Merge

by Blockchain News

Miners on the Ethereum blockchain have made the sum of $756 million while gearing up for The Merge which will take place later in this month.

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According to a report from The Block Research, the miners witnessed a remarkable increase in August for the ETH coin as against June and July.

 

The Merge of the Ethereum blockchain slated for September 15 will see that the digital asset is upgraded from the Proof-of-Work (PoW) network to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network. 

From the inception of the ETH coin, the virtual asset has been functioning on the PoW system, which exhausts energy to a great degree and is costly to manage. The PoS, however, is moderately less costly to maintain and minimizes the exhaustion of energy to the barest minimum.

In preparation for The Merge, some exchanges like Binance and Coinbase said they will halt the deposit and withdrawal of Ethereum on their platform, citing that it will aid a safe transition into the Proof-of-Work (PoW) network.

According to the analysis, Ethereum miners generated a 37% increase in August from what was derived in the month of July. In July they made the sum of $545 million, accounting for a difference of $211 million. 

Per data collated by The Block Research, about $30 million of the revenue was from processed transaction fees, the rest was used “as block subsidies to miners”.

The report noted that the revenue generated in the month of August is believed to have been remarkably influenced by the price of Ethereum for the month. In July, the ETH price plummeted to as low as $1,040, but later picked up in August, selling at as high as $1980, explaining the revenue generated in the month.

The daily Ethereum mining revenue in June and July was averaging $15 million to a climax of $23 million. However, in August, the daily ETH mining revenue peaked at $27.5 million. 

At the completion of The Merge, there are chances that a new digital asset will emerge. The asset may or may not gain the patronage of crypto users.

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Bitcoin (BTC) $ 26,911.21 1.32%
Ethereum (ETH) $ 1,669.48 2.46%
Litecoin (LTC) $ 65.57 2.57%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 231.80 1.09%