A formal Ethereum Improvement Proposal has been created for the network’s forthcoming chain merge, bringing Ethereum one step closer to realizing its highly anticipated Proof-of-Stake (PoS) transition.
On July 22, ConsenSys researcher Mikhail Kalinin created a pull-request for EIP-3675 on Github, formalizing the chain merge as an improvement proposal for the first time. The EIP has also been slated for discussion during the July 23 Ethereum Core Devs Meeting by developer Tim Beiko.
Hard to overstate how valuable’s @mkalinin2’s work on The Merge has been, and it’s finally being formalized in an EIP https://t.co/pNRerXFxVf
— Tim Beiko | timbeiko.eth (@TimBeiko) July 22, 2021
The proposal would merge the Ethereum and Eth2 chains, transitioning the network’s consensus mechanism away from Proof-of-Work and empowering stakers to validate transactions.
The EIP notes that no “safety nor liveness failures were detected” since the launch of Eth2’s beacon chain in December 2020, adding:
“The long period of running without failures demonstrates the sustainability of the beacon chain system and witnesses its readiness to start driving and become a security provider for the Ethereum Mainnet.”
Despite the EIP, many leading figures in the Ethereum community, including lead developer Vitalik Buterin, believe it is very unlikely the chain merge will occur during 2021.
The EIP comes amid bidding for the EIP-1559 Supporter NFT series which was launched via Mirror on July 21. The nonfungible tokens demonstrate support for the introduction of a burn mechanism to Ethereum’s fee market as part of the network’s coming London upgrades. All proceeds will be shared among 1559’s contributors, and the tokens were designed by artist “Kitteh.”
Since the launch of the beacon chain in December, Eth2 has emerged as the second-largest PoS network by staked capitalization in USD terms, with $12.7 billion worth of Ether locked in staking despite less than 6% of its circulating supply having been deposited.
According to Staking Rewards, Cardano has the largest staked capitalization with $24.2 billion and 62% of supply locked. Solana ranks third with $10.2 billion from 74%, followed by Polkadot with $9 billion from 63%.
This announcement made on 21st May 2021 by Dreamflats Ltd. marks the growing interest and adoption rates of cryptocurrencies spreading across numerous industries. Furthermore, Dreamflats also intends on revealing the number of proceeds gained from ADA to the Malta Tourism Authority and pay taxes using EUR as stipulated by the Maltese Rental Legislations.
Advantages of Using ADA
Dreamflats Apartment disclosed its step to integrateCardano ADAas a payment option once the establishment concludes construction in 2022. The rental values, however, will depend on ADA’s price momentum in the market.
Commonly known as a third-generation cryptocurrency, Cardano operates as a hub where developers can create adecentralized application. Its native cryptocurrency (ADA)ranksas the fifth digital asset with a current price of $1.53 and a market cap exceeding $49 billion.
Clients at Dreamflats Apartments can anticipate transactions on Cardano’s user-friendly wallets known as Daedalus and Yoroi while observing the anonymity rule. Transparency is another advantage Cardano ADA brings since every transaction detail is permanently included on the blockchain network.
Into the New Age
As aProof of Stakeblockchain, ADA payments will be validated and settled by stakers in a quick manner. The fast transaction executing blockchain is due to the double layer character that Cardano implements.
One layer handles the processing and recording of transactions, while the other layer caters to other blockchain features such as smart contracts. Generally, residents of Dreamflats Apartments will use a cryptocurrency that mainly focuses on improving its security, scalability, and sustainability.
The Core Partners
At Cardano, three independent entities ensure Cardano continues to expand and deliver its goals effectively. Cardano Foundation is the first entity that seeks to instill the platform’s adoption and interact with the Cardano community. It also looks forward to working with other blockchain-oriented industries which will support the advancement of technology.
Founded in 2015 byCharles Hoskinson,IOHKhas a mission of coming up with decentralized solutions by examining new tools in cryptography. Emurgo is the last entity that strives to blend business platforms on its blockchain network and encourage adoption through commercial ventures.
Aside from that, Emurgo has a vision of supporting highly beneficial insights that will positively change various industries. The Emurgo blockchain also provides blockchain education through courses to users unfamiliar with blockchains and enterprises. Using the three entities, Cardano ADA can thrive as a worthwhile digital asset and a payment medium.
After rallying 1.510% in 2021, QTUM price hit a $35.70 all-time high on May 7. This relatively obscure altcoin launched in September 2017 is a fork of the Bitcoin Core 0.13 version, but it also integrates the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) and smart contract execution capability.
Following Bitcoin’s (BTC) April 23 crash down to $47,500, QTUM faced a 52% correction in 4 days before bottoming at $10. However, the situation for the altcoin improved on May 5 as QTUM initiated a 160% rally in two days, reaching the $35.70 peak.
QTUM price at Binance, USDT. Source: TradingView
Qtum combines Bitcoin’s transaction model with Ethereum smart contracts
The open-source platform’s primary goal is to provide simple tools that anyone can use to create decentralized applications (dApps) while maintaining a high level of network security. The project opted for a slightly different Proof of Stake (POS) version to prevent malicious nodes, and a certain number of blocks are needed for the staking tokens to become valid.
Qtum blockchain supports smart contract programming languages beyond Solidity, besides having an on-chain decentralized governance protocol. Token holders vote on network parameters such as block size and base gas fee.
While Qtum blockchain features an on-chain governance system, it also has an off-chain process for approving and handling more significant protocol changes. The protocol has recently identified decentralized finance (DeFi) as a focus area and steps to attract new projects.
This strategy seems to be finally paying off, as the number of daily network transactions peaked on May 6.
Qtum blockchain transactions per day. Source: qtum.info
Staking improvements and DeFi pivot send Qtum price higher
Offline staking was implemented in August 2020, and it has grown to more than half the staking activity on the Qtum blockchain. Investors who don’t want to handle their own nodes can make a non-custodial delegation for their coins.
On March 17, Value Network announced plans to migrate away from Ethereum due to network congestion and high costs. It is now moving to the Qtum smart contract and DApp platform and has received a development grant to accelerate the transition.
On March 31, Qtum founder Patrick Dai said that the protocol was working to enable smart contracts for Filecoin (FIL) through the Qtum network.
The network transitioned from a 128-second block average to a 32-second block average via a hard fork on April 30. The average four weeks that it took for an average-size staker to become valid now has been reduced to a single week.
Ethereum compatibility means increased interoperability
Interoperability is another reason for QTUM’s recent rally. The team is developing Neutron, an agnostic interface that allows virtual machines to run on multiple blockchains. Moreover, its own DEX called QiSwap enables users to build DeFi applications and provide liquidity on top of the Qtum blockchain.
VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for QTUM on May 5, before the recent price rise.
The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points, including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements, and Twitter activity.
VORTECS™ Score vs. QTUM price (white). Source:Cointelegraph Markets Pro
As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score began to climb on May 5 and reached a high of 71. It’s worth noting that the VORTECS™ Score peaked roughly 24 hours before the price spiked 100% to a new all-time high at $35.70.
Qtum is aiming to compete with some serious smart contract contenders like Cardano (ADA), Polkadot (DOT), VeChain (VET), and Solana (SOL) and the project has an impressive $2.74 billion market capitalization.
However, for QTUM to increase its valuation, investors will likely want to see more decentralized applications and total value locked (TVL) on the network.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of theauthorand do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.
A proposal published on Monday by Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder, noted that the Beacon Chain might be undergoing its first hard fork judgment.
Presenting The HF1 Hard Fork
The hard fork will be known as HF1 for now and would allow developers to roll out critical upgrades to Beacon Chain.
HF1 has three primary aims. It intends to introduce support for light clients by enabling them to connect to full nodes to interact with the blockchain and run on mobile devices due to their small resource requirements, thus, enabling trust-minimized wallets.
The hard fork will enable light client support through special-purpose “sync committees.”
The hard fork is also expected to fix potential vulnerabilities in the Beacon Chain and serve as a testing ground for the hard forking mechanism.
It is unclear when the hard fork will be performed as some aspects of the proposal still need to be reviewed. Meanwhile, Ethereum developers are working on the naming convention for HF1 and future hard fork. So far, there have been suggestions around planetary systems, names of start, months of the year, and World of Warcraft zones.
Considering therising gasfees of the Ethereum transactions, the network is seriously in need of a significant upgrade.
Ethereum 2.0
Ethereum 2.0 was set in motion in December 2020 with the launch of Beacon Chain. The network’sdeposit contract crossed 1 million ETH a few days after its launch. The network upgrade of ETH has crossed 3 million ETH under its deposit contract as the Ethereum community extended their support for ETH 2.0. The total value of ETH locked under the network upgrade moved to over $5.4 billion after the recent hike in the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency price.
ETH price is up nearly 150% since the start of 2021. It is the world’s second-largest digital asset registered at anall-time highof $1,870 on 13 February as the total market cap of Ethereum rose above $210 billion.
ETH is transitioning from aproof of work-based consensus model that requires computing resources to mine and validate transactions to proof of stake-based consensus model, which will also verify transactions but not require any mining.
Privileged DLT Network
Since Ethereum is a decentralized community, no authority has absolute control over how it is upgraded. The Ethereum developers and community members regularly draft proposals to suggest codebase modifications to these approved DLT networks.
TheCardano (ADA) networkis also getting closer to the Mary upgrade, which could see the blockchain provide tough competition to Ethereum.
China’s Blockchain-Based Service Network (BSN) announced that it has integrated with the Casper Network, a layer-1 proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain that forked from Ethereum.
The integration means the Casper Network will be available to developers on BSN after its mainnet launch in the first quarter of 2021, according to the firm’s press statement, which was shared with CoinDesk.
The partnership is part of BSN’s efforts to become a global blockchain infrastructure services provider. The state-backed project aims to offer cloud services and a standardized development environment, where decentralized applications (dapp) developers across various blockchain networks can build or run their dapps on the same platform.
BSN was co-founded by Chinese state-owned telecom giant China Mobile, UnionPay and IT startup Red Date in April 2020. It has integrated some of the most popular blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos and Palkdot. BSN claimed its inclusive platform can help dapp developers reduce operational costs and improve flexibility with regulatory oversight.
“Casper is the first fully decentralized, scalable and highly secure proof-of-stake blockchain,” Mrinal Manohar, CEO and co-founder of CasperLabs, said in the statement. “Via our close partnership with BSN, we look forward to helping promote the continued adoption of this important public technology across global markets.”
As one of many possible Ethereum competitors, the Casper Network hopes to improve security without sacrificing the scalability as a PoS network. Advised by Ethereum Foundation’s researcher Vlad Zamfir, the Casper Network has raised $14.5 million via a Series A funding round in 2019 from investors such as Arrington XRP Capital and Hashkey Capital.
CasperLabs partnered with Singapore-based exchange BitMax to launch a token sale for retail investors in March 2020. The exchange predominantly offers trading services to traders in China, Vietnam, South Korea, Russia and India.
“We are confident in both the Red Date and CasperLabs teams to spearhead the adoption of the Casper network and blockchain technology in China,” Omer Ozden, Chairman of RockTree Capital, which invested in CasperLabs’ Series A round, said in the statement.
As the XRP price continues to crash and burn, tanking by 40% on leading exchanges following the US SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple, Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin appears to be enjoying the show. But with the recent ETH 2.0 upgrade to Proof-of-Stake (POS) of the Ethereum network, it may not be long before the US regulators reclassify ETH as a security.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed suit against Ripple for the sale of its XRP token which it has deemed are unregistered securities. As a result, the XRP token is being culled from exchange lists and opponents of the questionably decentralized XRPL are out in force.
The majority of the XRP cryptocurrency is controlled by Ripple Labs and the 100 billion tokens were created in one go, they are not mined gradually like Bitcoin. Ripple owns the vast majority of XRP tokens and both Garlinghouse and founder Larsen own a large holding of the crypto themselves—leading many to see XRP as more of a share in the company than a cryptocurrency.
XRP has long come under criticism from the SEC and a large number of the crypto community for its lack of decentralization. The SEC has in the past ruled that both Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities as these cryptocurrencies are not centrally controlled by any person or company. The regulator instead views Ethereum and Bitcoin as commodities.
In a rebuttal to the charges laid by the SEC, Ripple claims that in fact, XRP is far more decentralized than Bitcoin and Ethereum. Ripple is also accusing the SEC of bias towards BTC and ETH, which it also argues are “Chinese-controlled” due to the majority of the mining taking place in China.
Per the statement:
“By alleging that Ripple’s distributions of XRP are investment contracts while maintaining that bitcoin and ether are not securities, the Commission is picking virtual currency winners and losers, destroying U.S.-based, consumer-friendly innovation in the process.”
In regard to Ethereum and Bitcoin’s Chinese control, the statement reads:
“XRP is a widely adopted digital asset based on open-source blockchain technology, with an extremely robust, fully-functioning currency market. XRP consistently ranks among the top three virtual currencies by market capitalization—alongside bitcoin and ether, the two Chinese-controlled virtual currencies that the SEC has stated are not securities.”
Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin took issue with this comment and tweeted a response:
“Looks like the Ripple/XRP team is sinking to new levels of strangeness. They’re claiming that their shitcoin should not be called a security for *public policy reasons*, namely because Bitcoin and Ethereum are “Chinese-controlled.”
Why Vitalik May Eat Shitcoin Comment
The SEC does currently regard Ethereum as a commodity and not a security, however, due to the network’s transition from Proof-of-Work consensus to POS, ETH 2.0 may once again raise the eyebrows of the SEC.
Ethereum’s previous Proof of Work (PoW) block validation method has been helpful in eliminating SEC scrutiny thus far, the basis for the evaluation of a security, called the Howey Test, has maintained that decentralized mining (e.g. Bitcoin and Ethereum 1.0) prevents them from being considered a security.
Proof of Stake changes the game significantly. POS authentication in a network in turn creates a profit-based system that effectively links owners with returns. From almost any angle, POS systems certainly meet the SEC’s normal classifications of security.
Just as stock owners receive dividends from profits, the PoS system links the returns from the platform with the line of most staked validators. In this way, it functions far more like simple security than a decentralized work-for-return model.
In fact, this point was raised specifically in an interview last year with Commodity and Futures Commission (CFTC), chairman Heath Tarbert in November 2019. The CFTC chairman cast doubt on Ethereum 2.0’s future legal status as a commodity in regard to U.S. SEC classifications and financial regulation. The warning was directly related to the block validation planned for the ETH 2.0 upgrade, which went live earlier this month.
Tarbert explained at the event that the previously held view that Ethereum is a commodity is now in serious jeopardy due to the POS upgrade. While the CFTC has no jurisdiction over Ethereum’s status, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been carefully analyzing the platform’s newest iteration.
It should be noted that the SEC has been targeting Ripple Labs for the XRP token since 2012. Just because the regulator has not taken action a few weeks after the launch of ETH 2.0, does not mean they are not planning further action.
As it stands and until the SEC clarifies their position on proof-of-stake systems such as Ethereum 2.0, the new Ethereum should be approached by those looking to invest as though it is an extraordinary liability at the mercy of the SEC (and other regulators) who are becoming ever-more aggressive in pursuing non-compliance in this space.
How Decentralized is Ethereum?
Decentralized or not, Ethereum is by and large governed by the Ethereum Foundation. While the foundation claims that anyone can contribute to the Ethereum codebase—and technically this is possible—the reality is that Ethereum is run by a small group of developers who get to propose and implement the most significant changes within the Ethereum network. Only 0.5% of the system stakes, which means a small elite group really controls the system. On top of that, virtually every non-code innovation in the Ethereum ecosystem can be traced back to the Ethereum Foundation and its developers.
While Ethereum may pass for decentralized on the surface, its founders, including Vitalik Buterin, have a more than enough stake to ensure control no matter how many users vote by staking. Ethereum has so far escaped the scrutiny of the SEC that XRP is now receiving, and the case may not be as clear cut as the one laid against Ripple Labs. Nevertheless, Ethereum has exhibited many of the characteristics of an ICO without registration or offering any investment protections.
Vitalik Buterin may be laughing at Ripple and XRP now, but ETH 2.0 may soon find themselves back in front of the regulators and fighting a similar battle.
The Ethereum community had announced the release of the Beacon Chain as Ethereum 2.0 went live yesterday at 12pm UTC. This launch has been backed by the ETH community with almost 900,000 staked ETH, surpassing the 524,288 ETH required for the upgrade. ETH 2.0 Is Finally Here After weeks of investors actively staking their ETH
Read MoreRead More. The post by Evan Ezquer appeared first on BTCManager, Bitcoin, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency News
Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0 has just launched today. Phase 0 of Ethereum 2.0, also known as the Beacon Chain will introduce a new consensus mechanism—proof of stake—to the network. Ethereum’s first step towards a massive upgrade has just gone live at 12:00 pm UTC today.
The launch of ETH 2.0 went smoothly, as the required stake participation rate has been reached to finalize the upgrade of the blockchain. The proof-of-stake algorithm allows for the confirmation of the blocks to be more energy-efficient, and requires validators to stake Ether instead of solving a cryptographic puzzle.
A week before the launch of Ethereum 2.0, the minimum required for the deposit contract was reached as over 524,288 were locked up. Ether’s price has rallied prior to its launch, as many investors were bullish on ETH as an enormous amount of Ethereum were deposited.
“Normal people: we should really put something profound in the first block of the ethereum PoS chain, something about giant leaps for mankind or whatever.”
Prior to the launch of the Beacon Chain, Ethereum was trading at a high of $632, however, Ether’s price plunged soon after by 9 percent, trading at lows of $571. Ethereum has slightly regained some strength, and is currently trading at $590.
Ethereum’s price crash also comes at a time where Bitcoin dropped by $1,600 within two hours, as selling pressure increases as the world’s largest cryptocurrency nearly tops $20,000. With high levels of volatility seen by Bitcoin, the digital asset attempted to hit a new resistance level at $20,000. However, selling pressure took over and Bitcoin shed 8 percent.
Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake will allow the blockchain to see upgrades including sharding, which would improve scalability. The Ether currently staked would likely be locked up until Phase 1.5 of Ethereum 2.0, which is scheduled for late 2021 to early 2022. Ethereum’s current mainnet will merge with the new beacon chain in the next phase.
Although Bitcoin has recently reached a new all-time high, Ethereum still has a long way to as the crypto currently still over 125% away from its all-time high.
With the much-anticipated launch of Ethereum 2.0 scheduled for December 1, at 12 pm UTC on the horizon, the number of Ethereum (ETH) locked up in the smart contract needed to transit to a proof-of-stake protocol from the current proof-of-work has surpassed the 700,000 mark, according to leading validator for Proof of Stake blockchains stakefish.
“Over 700,000 ETH has already been deposited to launch more than 20,000 ETH 2.0 validators”
This number has already surpassed the target of 524,888 ETH that had to be staked by November 24. Nevertheless, the crypto community had kept fingers crossed as to whether this milestone could be attained because this requirement was enshrined in doubt and speculation.
This journey has not been smooth sailing given that the initial launch of ETH 2.0 was scheduled for February this year, but delays were inevitable. Furthermore, the first week had only 50,000 ETH deposited, and this triggered uncertainty.
Data from on-chain market provider Dune Analytics shows that 2,216 unique depositors have already locked up at least 725,000 ETH for the Ethereum 2.0 launch, and the number continues to grow by the day.
The thrill behind Ethereum 2.0
The unveiling of Ethereum 2.0 is being awaited with bated breath because it will use the proof-of-stake blockchain compared to the current proof-of-work network. The latter requires miners to compete when solving complex mathematical puzzles, with the winner generating the new block.
Nevertheless, the proof-of-stake framework is a consensus algorithm that chooses the next block’s validator based on the amount staked or held. Therefore, the rewards reaped by validating blocks will be determined by how much ETH is staked in the network. If you have staked more Ether into the network, this will also increase your chances of being chosen to stake blocks.
Scalability is expected to increase on Ethereum 2.0, and more energy-efficient solutions are supposed to power cryptocurrency transactions on the new mainnet.
Ethereum has been on a price frenzy even if its value has slightly dropped because of the ETH 2.0 launch and booming decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. New data by Glassnode recently showed that crypto wallets holding more than one ETH hit a record high of 1,170,598 addresses.
The Ethereum community had announced the release of the Beacon Chain as Ethereum 2.0 went live yesterday at 12pm UTC. This launch has been backed by the ETH community with almost 900,000 staked ETH, surpassing the 524,288 ETH required for the upgrade. ETH 2.0 Is Finally Here After weeks of investors actively staking their ETH
