Crypto && Coffee 002
- 4 minsTechnology Recap:
Ethereum:
- The upcoming Ethereum Hard Fork (Istanbul) will be taking place this week at block height 9069000. The new fork is the first step towards Ethereum 2.0!
- EIP 1884, which is included in the Istanbul hard fork, increases the cost of opcode SLOAD from 200 to 800 gas. As of now there have been 15 major smart contracts listed as non-compliant to EIP 1884. One of them is KyberNetwork, which has now migrated to new smart contracts that abide by EIP 1884 before the fork. If others do not migrate to new EIP 1884 compliant smart contracts, their existing ones will break at the time of the fork.
Litecoin:
- Two LTC Improvement proposals (LIPs) have been created for the implementation of MimbleWimble (MW) extensions blocks so that LTC users can have confidential transactions and more fungible money.
- LTC Foundation is funding Grin++ developer David Burkett to implement the MW extension block and Grin++. Some of his work includes pre-broadcast MimbleWimble CoinJoins. The work being done to provide MW to Litecoin will use confidential transactions to obfuscate the amount being transacted over the network but not where coins are being spent. By adding in pre-broadcast CoinJoins another layer of privacy could be enabled. More will come in the following months of development.
Other Chains:
- 0x Protocol’s v3.0 has been approved and is now live on Ethereum mainnet. Version 3.0 is a major protocol upgrade that will deepen liquidity for the DeFi ecosystem. 0x seems to be following the steps of Maker and other DeFi protocols to aid in easy-to-use APIs and DEX aggregators.
- Monero’s new upgrade went live on November 30th, which now uses the RandomX consensus algorithm. RandomX is designed to be ASIC resistant. ASICs are the main type of hardware miners that are used throughout the cryptocurrency ecosystem. RandomX is optimized for general-purpose CPUs, thus the network will become more decentralized and maintain equal distribution of block rewards.
- Zcash’s upcoming network upgrade Blossom will be taking place on December 11, 2019 at block height 653600. Blossom is the third network upgrade for Zcash. This feature increases the frequency of blocks allowing Zcash’s usability to increase in regard to how many transactions per hour can propagate through the network. The block time will decrease from 150seconds to 75seconds.
- Maker, the foundation behind the stable, decentralized currency Dai transitioned to Multi-Collateral Dai (MCD) recently. The launch on mainnet transitioned from the single collateral Dai which is now called Sai. The new MCD brings new features such as support for new CDP (Collateralized Debt Position) collateral types as well as a Dai Savings Rate. More info here.
Mainstream Recap:
- Manhattan U.S. Attorney announces arrest of US citizen Virgil Griffith for assisting North Korea in evading sanctions. Virgil is an Ethereum Foundation developer who went to speak at the DPRK crypto conference in North Korea. Vitalik’s tweet response.
- Vertcoin (VTC) was 51% attacked on December 1, 2019. VTC is a Bitcoin clone that aims to be ASIC-resistant by using a new mining algorithms whenever ASICs are deployed on the network. On Sunday, December 1st 603 blocks were removed from the VTC main chain and replaced by 553 attacker blocks. There were 5 double-spend outputs in which 125 VTC was redirected. Full details.
- Binance completed the Monero (XMR) scheduled protocol upgrade for their platform and re-opened deposits/withdrawals within hours. Deposit addresses now use the new format and all XMR addresses that existed before the network upgrade will not be valid.
- InstaDApp launched the Compound Finance MCD Migration bridge for Marker’s DAI holders. Compound cSAI holders and SAI borrowers can use their tool to move to a new DAI position in one click.
- Hodl Hodl announced a new payment method “Bitcoin Lightning Network” which can be viewed in the exchange. When a user exchanges on-chain bitcoins with the bitcoins on the Lightning Network through Hodl Hodl, the party who is sending Lightning Bitcoins is balancing his channels and increases his inbound liquidity. More info on the full payment method.
This Week’s Cup of Coffee:
This week, I’m going dark with Black Cat Espresso from Intelligentsia Coffee in Chicago, IL. Black Cat is a sweet and syrupy espresso blend that tastes awesome with a nice addition of steamed milk to make a cappuccino. Cheers!
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