Tag: Cardano

Digital Currency Group Sells Shares in Subsidiary’s Crypto Funds

by Blockchain News

The cryptocurrency conglomerate known as Digital Currency Group (DCG) is apparently getting ready to generate cash and maintain its liquidity by selling its assets in cryptocurrency funds that are managed by a subsidiary of the company known as Grayscale Investments.

According to a report that was published on February 7 by the Financial Times, which cited United States securities filings, DCG sold approximately one quarter of its shares in Grayscale’s Ether (ETH)-based fund for approximately $8 per share, despite the fact that each share held a claim to nearly double that amount in ETH. The filings were cited in the report.

In addition to this, it is said to have sold down small share parcels in Grayscale’s Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Ethereum Classic (ETC)-based trusts. This is in addition to its Digital Large Cap Fund, which is a single fund that invests in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether, Polygon (MATIC), Solana (SOL), and Cardano (ADA).

The response that DCG gave when queried about the share sales was that “it is just part of our regular portfolio rebalancing.”

In spite of this declaration, there are others who feel that Barry Silbert’s DCG might be heading for some kind of financial difficulty.

Another of its companies, the cryptocurrency lending business Genesis Global Capital, filed a bankruptcy petition on January 19 and is reported to owe its creditors more than $3 billion.

Companies controlled by DCG have been significantly impacted by the contagion that has resulted from FTX’s downfall. Over the last several weeks, these companies have been forced to let go of over 500 people.

However, DCG has taken a number of actions to maintain liquidity in 2023, such as informing its shareholders in a letter dated January 17 that it would be discontinuing its quarterly dividend payments as it seeks to improve its balance sheets. This was one of the many initiatives that DCG has done.

After stating that it had received offers for the cryptocurrency media outlet CoinDesk that were greater than $200 million, DCG has reportedly sought the assistance of the financial advisory firm Lazard in order to assist it in weighing up options to sell CoinDesk, which is another of its subsidiaries.

According to the company’s website, DCG’s venture capital portfolio includes about 200 crypto-related startups, some of which include Grayscale, Genesis, and CoinDesk. Additionally, DCG has interest in a number of other businesses, such as the cryptocurrency exchange Luno and the advising company Foundry.

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Cardano’s New Algorithmic Stablecoin DJED

by Blockchain News

Since the crash of the TerraUSD (UST) algorithmic stablecoin in May 2022, many users in the crypto ecosystem have acquired a weariness against that specific asset class. The market for algorithmic stablecoins has plummeted 10x from its all-time high before the Terra crash.

However, this has not prevented Cardano network engineers from going through with the introduction of the ecosystem’s overcollateralized stablecoin on Jan.31. The new algorithmic stablecoin, Djed (DJED), released on the Cardano mainnet and is tied to the United States dollar and backed by Cardano’s native cryptocurrency, ADA. It employs the Shen (SHEN) token as its reserve currency.

The release states that the new token has only just passed a security assessment and that it has been in development for more than a year. As a method for the creation of new decentralised finance (DeFi) and payment possibilities, DJED is a product that was developed by Coti, a developer of DeFi solutions that runs on the Cardano blockchain.

The concept of bringing into existence yet another algorithmic stablecoin produced tremors among members of the online cryptocurrency community prior to the debut of the brand new Cardano stablecoin.

This is one of the most recent updates in a series of recent updates that have come out of the Cardano network. These updates include an announcement made on January 12 by co-founder Charles Hoskinson that the ecosystem will expand via custom-built sidechains. This is one of the most recent updates in this series.

On January 23, an anomaly caused fifty percent of Cardano nodes to become disconnected and need a restart; this resulted in an interruption of network service. This was only one week before to the introduction of the brand new algorithmic stablecoin.

According to a report by Bloomberg from the beginning of the year 2023, the risk assessment company Moody’s Corporation is in the process of building a score system for stablecoins. This system will include an initial examination for up to 20 digital assets.

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Cardano Nodes Go Offline for Half an Hour

by Blockchain News

At least half of the nodes on the Cardano network fell down for a short period of time over the weekend, according to reports from stake pool operators (SPO) and users of the cryptocurrency. An abnormality caused fifty percent of Cardano nodes to disconnect and restart, according to a message that was published on January 22 and posted on the SPO for Telegram by Input Output Global, the engineering and research company that is responsible for the Cardano blockchain. The unexpected interruption was explained in a post by the statement that “This seems to have been caused by a transitory anomaly triggering two reactions in the node,” which said that some nodes had detached from a peer, while others had thrown an exception and resumed.

In spite of a brief drop in performance, the Cardano network was able to recover without any assistance from outside sources.

In the article, it is stated that “such temporary difficulties” were taken into consideration during the node design and consensus process, and that “the systems operated precisely as predicted.”

During the anomaly, which took place between blocks 8300569 and 8300570, it was claimed that block production continued, although it was delayed for a few minutes. The “effect was minor, comparable to the delays that occur during regular operations,” according to the report. ” Depending on the SPO that was selected, the majority of nodes automatically recovered.

At the time this article was written, the underlying problem that led to the anomaly and the subsequent node disconnections and restarts was still being investigated. According to the official notice, “We are presently researching the underlying reason for this aberrant activity and adopting more logging measures alongside our normal monitoring methods.”

Tom Stokes, who is also a Cardano SPO and the co-founder of Node Shark, said in a post on January 22 that much over half of the nodes that were listed were impacted by the issue.

In addition to that, he presented a graphic that illustrated the point at which the network sync dropped from 100% to just slightly over 40% for more than 300 reporting nodes.

According to Stokes’ chart, following the decline in performance, the network sync was able to recover to a level of around 87%, but it did not instantly return to its original level of 100%. An other SPO reported similar concerns to Stoke in a post on January 22, but said that “several SPOs experienced no effect.” “Others experienced a restart of their relays and BPs.

The SPOs, Developers, and IOG are now debugging on Discord.

There is not a fundamental reason as of now “They said that.

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Cardano stablecoin shutters following launch delays

by Blockchain News

On November 24, Ardana, a renowned decentralized finance (DeFi) and stablecoin ecosystem that was built on Cardano (ADA), abruptly halted development. They justified their choice by saying that there was “funding and project timeline uncertainty.”

However, Ardana Labs will maintain any remaining funds and treasury balances in its control “until another competent dev team in the community comes forward to continue our work.” The source code for the project will continue to be accessible to anybody who wants to build with it.

The news was made in an abrupt manner, which led many individuals to be taken aback. As a result, the decision came as a surprise to many people.

On the other hand, it would seem that issues have been there for a substantial length of time prior to this point.

Since the fourth of July, Ardana has been conducting what is often referred to as an initial stake pool offering (ISPO) in order to raise capital for its business activities.

Instead of the ADA being donated to the developers by the users, the incentives for staking are given to the developers themselves. This is in contrast to the traditional methods of fund-raising, which allocate the ADA to the developers.

The fact that users are awarded DANA tokens, which are fundamental to the operation of the platform, as a reward for delegating creates an incentive for them to continue doing this action.

Unfortunately, issues have arisen for ISPO issuers as a result of the simultaneous decline in price of DANA and ADA, as well as the falling returns obtained from staking Cardano as a result of the current crypto winter. Both of these phenomena are a direct result of the current state of the cryptocurrency market.

The value of Ardana’s native DANA coins has dropped by more than 99.85 percent during the course of the last year.

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Cardano Chief Says He’s Not Retiring Anytime Soon

by Blockchain News

In a recent video he titled “Birthday Musings”, Charles Hoskinson, founder of the blockchain platform, Cardano has said he is not retiring anytime soon. He feels there is a lot at stake, hence leaving the company now is not the right option.

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The 35-year-old founder condemned the activities of trolls and the constant attacks he keeps getting lately on social media. While he admits that it’s frustrating when people lie about Cardano’s progress, Charles is reluctant to throw in the towel just yet and will keep at it as long as there is something to win.

 

Recently Charles repurposed the verified Twitter page of Ethereum Classic to that of the Ergo proof-of-work network. His confiscation of the account that has served the Ethereum Classic community since 2016 was greeted by condemnation by many in the crypto Twitter community. Many believed the 600k Twitter handle belonged to the community and Charles was just a custodian.

 

Furthermore, the Cardano chief publicly severed ties with the XRP community after news of the brawl with Ethereum Classic made the rounds. The outspoken critic has been the target of many supporters of the XRP coin. According to his tweets, these XRP trolls continued to harass him unprovoked, forcing him to block most of them as he says he’s done with it.

 

The move sparked reactions in the crypto Twitter community with some users urging the Cardano chief not to stereotype the XRP community based on the actions of a selected few.

 

Meanwhile, the Cardano founder has said Blockchain technology could revolutionize government structures from the whelms of archaic processes to modern ones. With the recent video, it’s evident that Charles is in no hurry to join other top executives in crypto firms that have either retired or stepped down from their positions to pursue other possibilities.


In September, Jesse Powell, co-founder of crypto exchange Kraken, stepped down as Chief Executive Officer and was replaced by the firm’s Chief Operating Officer Dave Ripley. Also, Alexander Höptner, took over as CEO of BitMEX Exchange after Authur Hayes submitted his resignation last month.

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Cardano’s Vasil Upgrade is Finally Complete

by Blockchain News

Cardano’s Vasil upgrade has been completed. The much-awaited set-off will enable increased network capacity, higher throughput, and lower transaction costs on the peer-reviewed, proof-of-stake blockchain platform.

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“The Vasil hard fork moves us towards this goal by improving Cardano’s foundational features, upgrading the technology’s capacity to transform our traditional financial and social systems, and ultimately advancing decentralised economic empowerment,” Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, told The Block.  

The Vasil hard fork focuses on optimisation, scalability and interoperability. It is part of Cardano’s Basho era — one of the critical development phases on the Cardano roadmap.

During the upgrade, Vasil required no action for regular ADA holders using Cardano for transactions and dApps as the transition happened behind the scenes.

The upgrade was initially planned for June, but the postponed upgrade also activated Plutus v2 enhancements to Cardano’s smart contracts.

The Vasil upgrade has taken the blockchain platform closer in line with the capabilities of Ethereum – the largest smart contract platform. It further opens up the potential for current and new Cardano DeFi projects to create more powerful, efficient, and cost-effective applications.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said, “(We) knew that, over time, we could get to what Ethereum has done, but we understood a road map to get there,” ahead of the upgrade about the blockchain platform’s gradual approach to adding new capabilities.

The upgrade date was finalised earlier in September by the Cardano-focused research and development company, Input Output Global (IOG). The decision was made after the critical mass indicators required were completed and successfully gained assurances from staking pool operators, exchanges, and dApp communities stating that they were ready for Vasil.

According to The Block, the Vasil upgrade was conducted in collaboration with people from across the Cardano ecosystem from the core development team, the Cardano Foundation, IOG, Emurgo, and the wider Cardano community via technical Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIPs).

Cardano stated that the upgrade promises increased functionality, performance and scalability. The new Vasil capabilities will be available on the mainnet after one epoch, on Sept 27.

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Cardano Blockchain to Stimulate Authenticity and Quality of Georgian Wine

by Blockchain News

To boost Georgia’s global reputation as a leading wine producer, the Cardano Foundation has partnered with the nation’s wine agency to create a public and flexible trace solution powered by the Cardano blockchain.

In a statement, the Cardano Foundation disclosed that the partnership with the Bolnisi Winemakers Association and Scantrust and Georgia’s National Wine Agency would enhance the quality and authenticity of the nation’s wine.

Mel McCann, Cardano Foundation’s vice president of engineering, noted:

“This collaboration will develop a creative, cost-effective, and flexible certification and traceability system, which will provide transparency and authenticity for wineries and customers from the point of harvest to the point of consumption.”

The Cardano Foundation will spearhead the collaboration with individual wineries to get a scalable, shared, and cost-effective platform.

Per the report:

“A pilot program will be expanded in the Bolnisi region, serving both local and export markets. It will include up to 100,000 bottles of wine harvested during the Autumn 2022 period and subsequently bottled during Spring 2023.”

The bottles will comprise a secure and unique QR code that will enable consumers to track the history and authenticity of products. 

With trust and integrity being integral parts of consumer goods, the blockchain-powered traceable solution is deemed a stepping stone toward producing more bottles of wine.

Guram Avkopashvili, the founder of Bolnisi Winemakers Association, stated:

“Our goal is to produce and export 12 million bottles of wine in Bolnisi in 10 years. Currently, we produce a total of 200,000 bottles of wine, which we sell to the Georgian, European, US, Australian, and Chinese markets.”

The blockchain solution will also come in handy in fighting counterfeits at a lower cost.

“People around the world deserve to experience Georgian wine as it is intended, a celebratory and exceptional drink that we have cultivated for over 8,000 years, according to Levan Mekhuzia, the chairman of the Georgian National Wine Agency.

Meanwhile, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson acknowledged that blockchain technology could revolutionize government structures from the whelms of archaic processes to modern ones, Blockchain.News reported. 

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Top 3 Altcoins to Watch This Week: ETH, MATIC, and ADA

by Blockchain News

Despite the latest revival that has been recorded in the digital currency ecosystem over the past few days, investors can expect a lot of volatility in the coming week with The Merge now upon us.

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At the moment, the combined digital currency market cap is up 0.96% to $1.06 trillion. 

 

Whether this market value will drop below the $1 trillion support is unknown, but the underlisted three tokens should be watched as the broader market keeps watch as the Ethereum blockchain transitions from the Proof-of-Work (PoW) model to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) version.

 

Ethereum (ETH)

 

Ethereum is currently changing hands at $1,769.40, up 1.73% in the past 24 hours according to CoinMarketCap’s data. While currently trading below its monthly high of $2,022.79, the price of Ethereum is far above its worst peg for the year which is at $896.11.

 

Ethereum is a major determinant in the crypto ecosystem of today. With The merger of its PoS Beacon Chain with the PoW version, the protocol is bound to transition into a more energy-efficient and usable protocol. 

 

This milestone is being closely watched by investors and regulators, and its success or failure can set a precedent that will determine how protocols in the ecosystem will be regulated in the near future.

 

Polygon (MATIC)

 

Polygon is an Ethereum Layer-2 protocol whose fortune may also change in tandem with the forthcoming Merge event. With the new protocol, Polygon can build on the more efficient blockchain to expand the reach and overall outlook of its ecosystem.

 

Sandeep Nailwal, Polygon Co-Founder and CEO have also been making a series of targeted push to expand the Polygon ecosystem. As one of the most popular L2 protocols on the Ethereum blockchain, MATIC will also see a corresponding growth that may mimic that of Ethereum in the coming week.

 

In the past 24 hours, MATIC has been trading at a price of $0.8956, up 0.72% at the time of writing.

 

Cardano (ADA)

 

In the coming week, Cardano will face a lot of comparisons should Ethereum’s The Merge turn out to be successful. While not the only competing blockchain technology that will be placed under the radar, it is one of the oldest, with not as many robust ecosystems as Ethereum has had.

 

Cardano has enjoyed a fairly good growth run in the past week, and investors will be placing it on a watchlist as Ethereum’s PoS upgrade goes live. It was trading at $0.5125, up 0.35% at the time of writing.

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Cardano’s Vasil Hard Fork Upgrade Confirmed to Happen on September 22

by Blockchain News

Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano blockchain and a co-founder of the blockchain engineering company Input Output Global, Inc, the company behind the development of the Cardano blockchain platform, announced on Friday on his YouTube vlog that Cardano’s Vasil hard fork will happen on 22nd September.

“If we’ve all done our job right, we will wake up on Sept. 22, and it will be just another day,” Hoskinson said.

Developers at Input Output also talked about the development on Friday and said that three necessary critical mass indicators associated with the upgrade have been reached.

“1. 75% of mainnet blocks being created by the final Vasil node candidate (1.35.3); 2. approximately 25 exchanges upgraded (representing 80% of ada liquidity); 3. top 10 DApps by TVL confirming they have upgraded to 1.35.3 on PreProduction and are ready for mainnet,” the developers tweeted on Friday.

The Cardano developers said the Vasil hard fork promises to create greater scalability (to increase network capacity), lower transaction fees, expand the Ethereum competitor, and improve developers’ experience for creating decentralized applications on Cardano.

The developers further said the hard fork will incorporate the first major upgrade, known as the Alonzo update, to the Plutus script — the programming language used for developing smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain.

Plutus was introduced in the Alonzo update, a previous upgrade that occurred in September of last year. “The upgrade will also bring enhancements to Plutus to enable devs to create more powerful and efficient blockchain-based applications,” Input-Output said.

 IOHK further stated that out of the top 12 cryptocurrency exchanges, MEXC and Bitrue are ready for the upgrade, while Binance is almost there, and Upbit, Coinbase, WhiteBit, BKEX, and HitBTC are in progress.

Hoskinson reflected on the heavy workload required for the Vasil upgrade, saying collaborators were “overloaded” on the work. “It really demonstrated that we need to build better processes, and better foundations to launch things at this scale and magnitude. We kind of pushed the limit a bit on Vasil. Probably the hardest update we’ve ever had to do as an ecosystem,” the Cardano founder elaborated.

Vasil hard fork is named in honor of Vasil Dabov, a Bulgarian member of the Cardano community, who was the Chief Blockchain Advisor at software R&D firm Quanterall, before his death in December 2021.

Cardano’s Vasil hard fork is therefore set to happen just one week after the Ethereum Merge’s anticipated date of September 15. The Merge upgrade will see the Ethereum blockchain switch from the energy-intensive proof-of-work consensus mechanism to a more efficient proof-of-stake system.

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Blockchain Technology can Radically Revamp Government Structures, Cardano Founder Says

by Blockchain News

Blockchain technology has the capability of revolutionizing government structures from the whelms of archaic processes to modern ones, according to Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson. 

Speaking on Yahoo Finance’s The Crypto Mile, Hoskinson disclosed that blockchain technology promises to generate better governance on a global scale. 

 

For instance, this cutting-edge technology can create a tax revenue system that is open source, enabling everyone to see the origin and destination of the money collected.

 

He pointed out:

“The point of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology is to take those resources that should be a public good, and if they’re digitizable, get them into a situation where they’re completely open, and basically then build businesses on top of that. But the underlying infrastructure is no longer controlled.” 

As society transitions into a global one, Hoskinson believes blockchain can enhance interconnection by enabling secure and seamless data transfer. He added:

“In a global society, you don’t want one actor to have complete control over critical things and resources.”

Blockchain enhances transparency, which plays an instrumental role in boosting public accessibility. Hoskinson stated:

“The poorest and most vulnerable person in society has equal access as the president of the US, and there has never been a time in human history that that has been the case.”

Additionally, the autonomy presented drives away the worry of having one controlling entity. Hoskinson added:

“Instead, you have a situation where no one entity is in control. It is a better way of doing things with less friction, fraud, waste, and abuse, and more transparency and ultimately less consolidation of power.”

Meanwhile, the value of the global automotive blockchain market is anticipated to hit $2.23 billion by 2027, according to a study by Research and Markets.

 

Therefore, blockchain technology is expected to streamline procedures by rendering immutable storage to curb fraudulent activities like tampering with vehicle mileages. 

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