Crypto && Coffee 039
- 5 minsTechnology Recap:
Bitcoin:
- 100x Group announces the award of a $40K one-year grant to Utreexo research and developer Calvin Kim. This marks the end of a series of $615K grants to various Bitcoin developers for 2020.
BitcoinCash:
- Bitcoin ABC shares an update on the support of the BCH infrastructure as well as the upcoming November 15th, 2020 network upgrade.
Ethereum:
- Ethereum released Geth v1.9.20, Paragade, which includes various bug fixes and no new features.
- Ethereum Foundation shares their thoughts on the risks exposed and mitigated in the ETH2.0 Medalla testnet clients.
- As fees have been getting quite interesting on Ethereum lately, The Daily Gwei has shared a full post on the current status of EIP-1559 and when we might actually see it make its way to mainnet.
- Full Ethereum update on EIP-1057, EVM384, ETH2.0 development and stateless Ethereum from the Ethereum Cat Herders most recent update.
Other Chains:
- University of California, Berkeley graduate Howard Wu announces Aleo, which aims to build a user experience on the web that is both truly personal and private. Aleo is a blockchain that employs zero-knowledge cryptography to protect user data.
- NEAR Protocol built a bridge between NEAR and Ethereum called the “Rainbow Bridge”, which will connect both blockchains where users only need to trust the blockchain itself. There is no authority outside Ethereum miners and NEAR validators.
- Coda Protocol announces Pickles, a new proof system and associated toolkit that is the first deployed SNARK capable of recursive composition with no trusted setup. Pickles will serve as the basis for developers to build private, scalable smart contracts on Coda.
- Algorand releases updates on both the technical and business perspectives as of late, in addition to the fresh set of new smart contract capabilities.
- GridPlus announces the Phonon DAO which will aid in governance over the Phonon Network which is a scalable off-chain protocol for fast, free, and privacy preserving digital asset transactions.
- Yam Finance migration from YAMv1 to YAMv2 is now live. Migration for all v1 tokens was available for 72 hours between 4:20pm UTC on 8/19/20 until 4:20pm UTC on 8/22/20.
- Lightning Labs announces Wumbo. Wumbo channels which are integrated into LND release v0.11-beta will allow for channels over the 0.1677 BTC limit.
- DeFi Weely shares a great post on Layer-2 work featuring StarkWare, dYdX, and Polkadot.
- As of 08/21/20 Chainlink (LINK) is now trading against USDt on DeversiFi.
- Plasm Network successfully connected the Plasm testnet to the Polkadot local network as a Parachain. This supports layer-1 smart contracts and will soon support layer-2.
- Monero announces a network upgrade on October 17th, 2020. The new software that will enable this upgrade will be released one month prior on September 17th, 2020. This upgrade will introduce the new ring signature construction CLSAG which will reduce the typical transaction size by ~25%. In addition, it will also improve verification performance by ~10%.
- Lendroid announces plans to integrate with Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network. Their plan is to use Chainlink to obtain various real-world data which will impact functions for Lendroid’s NFTs.
- Filecoin releases their roadmap update as of August 2020.
- Ethermint v0.1.0 has been released. This scalable, high-throughput Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain is fully compatible and interoperable with Ethereum. Ethermint is built with Cosmos SDK and Tendermint Core.
- New Monero desktop wallet, Feather, will be available for MacOS and Linux platforms.
- DeFiPie is now live on testnet consuming Chainlink’s BTC/USD, ETH/USD, and LINK/USD Price Reference Data feeds.
- Zcash will be celebrating the community in various ways for the next 13 weeks before the next network upgrade, Canopy.
- The Maker DAO executive vote approves the August 2020 governance cycle bundle which consists of proposals that have met prior requirements to be included in this month’s MIPs.
Mainstream Recap:
- ConsenSys acquires J.P. Morgan’s Quorum blockchain project to advance enterprise blockchain adoption.
- BitMEX will be restricting access to users who are Ontario, Canada residents as of September 1st, 2020.
- Coinbase launches Numeraire (NMR) on Coinbase.com as well as the iOS and Android apps.
- Binance launches DeFi staking which will start with DAI as the first DeFi staking product on 8/19/20 at 12:30pm UTC.
- Gemini announces support for OAuth 2.0. This opens the door for developers to easily integrate Gemini into their applications and connect third-party services.
- BlockFi raised $50M in Series C funding led by Morgan Creek Digital and also including: Valar Ventures, CMT Digital, Castle Island Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, SCB 10X, Avon Ventures, Purple Arch Ventures, Kenetic Capital, HashKey, Michael Antonov, and Matthew Dellavedova.
- Bitcoin + Lightning app, Strike releases Cashback which is their first Strike Rewards program.
- Gemini joins in the Digital Currency Innovation Lab (DCIL), which is a two-year pilot program designed to bring crypto to Hawaii.
- CoinDesk shares that the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, is one of 12 regional Federal Reserve banks operating under the U.S. central bank and is evaluating more than 30 different blockchain networks currently.
- Huawei has set up a blockchain-based platform for the Beijing government to better track and manage citizens’ data including medical records, property registration, and vehicle parking status. Full report here.
- Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) established an intergovernmental central bank digital currency (CBDC) study group on August 20th, 2020. The 12 member team is tasked to investigate CBDC security risks, economic implications, and possible benefits. Full statement from the BCB here.
- BinanceUS announces services for users in Florida.
- BitGo applies for NY Trust Charter for the New York State Department of Financial Services.
- Cryptocurrency derivative exchange FTX has acquired Blockfolio for $150M. In conjunction with the announcement, Blockfolio also stated that they will be launching a retail trading experience by the end of this year.
This Week’s Cup of Coffee:
This week, we are going on vacation to Amsterdam, NL for a cup of coffee from Back to Black. Back to Black Roaster’s Colombia is a great roast with notes of raisins, berries, and hints of chocolate. Share the love of coffee and travel - try out some roasts from other parts of the world!! Cheers!
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