Crypto && Coffee 004
- 3 minsTechnology Recap:
Bitcoin:
- Pieter Wuille released his analysis of Bech32, now 2 years after it was first used in Segregated Witness (segwit). His analysis dives into the insertion/erasure and characteristics of Bech32 - pushing towards a possible modification in the near future for segwit. His proposed next steps can be found here.
Ethereum:
- We have another upcoming fork - Muir Glacier Upgrade. This next fork is planned for January 6, 2020 at block height 9200000. This will include only one EIP (Ethereum Improvement Proposal). EIP 2384 involves increasing the difficulty bomb delay for the “ice age”. The difficulty bomb involves increasing the difficulty in the mining algorithm. As the problem becomes more complex there will be a larger lag between blocks - thus delaying the next upgrade. This allows more development time for the core devs. The full description of the upcoming fork.
Other Chains:
- Zcash’s developer fund debate heats up with discussion between the Zcash Foundation and Electric Coin Company regarding whether funds should be held in Zcash (ZEC) or USD.
- Loopring, a protocol for building high-performance, non-custodial order book based Ethereum exchanges, released v3.0-beta4 and was deployed to Ethereum mainnet. This will be used in production to serve WeDEX.
- Filecoin, a token-backed data storage network, launched their testnet on December 11th for interoperable implementations of the Filecoin protocol.
- A new research paper was released pushing towards the use of superblocks in blockchain based light clients. The proposal dives into the role of superblocks in the construction of compact blockchain proofs which allows for the compression of PoW chains into Non-Interactive Proofs of Proof-of-Work (NIPoPoWs).
Mainstream Recap:
- Cryptocurrency exchange, Kraken, acquires OTC desk Circle Trade. This adds to the list of Kraken’s subsidiaries such as: Cryptowatch, Canadian Virtual Exchange, Glidera, and Crypto Facilities Ltd.
- Maker partners with OKExchange to bring DAI savings rate to users in Asia. The integration of DSR (DAI Savings Rate) on December 23rd.
- TornadoCash, a tool that allows users to send Ether anonymously using non-custodial technology based on zk-SNARKs, released v2.0 with ERC20 token support.
- State Street announced a new digital asset pilot in collaboration with Gemini. The pilot aims to combine Gemini Custody with State Street’s back office reporting. More info.
- Fidelity announced they are launching their cryptocurrency business in Europe. The new entity, incorporated on December 16, will give the fund manager a platform from which to sell digital asset services to European businesses. Full info here.
- Wasabi Wallet released their new version v1.1.10. This update includes a fix to their “spend” issue by refactoring the processing of blocks, transactions, and coins. They included an updated version of BIP158 block filters and CoinJoin.
- Shapeshift has been pushing the adoption of their upgraded platform since July 2019. The upgraded platform allows users to hold their own keys via a self-custody platform. Full description of their wallet support is here.
- Coinfloor, a UK based cryptocurrency exchange, plans to delist Ether and BitcoinCash next month. Their full post on the push towards Q1 2020 is here.
This Week’s Cup of Coffee:
This week, we are getting in the festive spirit with Krampus from Onyx Coffee Lab in Arkansas. Krampus is a delicious holiday origin coffee. This year, they focused on Kenya Thikiagiki, a single origin coffee from the Nyeri region. It has notes of burnt sugar, black currant, cinnamon, and dark chocolate. Enjoy!
Related Posts
