Category: Investment

  • Announcing our second developer grant winners

    Announcing our second developer grant winners

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    By Trent Fuenmayor, Program Manager, Coinbase Giving

    In August, we made a call for applications through our Crypto Community Fund focused on blockchain developers who contribute directly to a blockchain codebase, or researchers producing white papers. Today, we’re excited to announce the Fund’s second batch of developer grants to 6 recipients: AMIS Technologies, Josie, Escanor Liones, WeFuzz Research, and two developers funded through a partnership with Brink.

    All candidates demonstrated a consistent history of contributing to blockchains, as well as innovative ideas, and provided the Fund’s advisory board with a clear, actionable outline of the projects they intend to work on. They will both be funded to work on their projects for all of 2022, with their grants funded in BTC or USD based on the recipient’s preference.

    AMIS Technologies (github, blog) will be providing various digital signature protocols based on multi-party computation (abbrev. MPC) in the blockchain including ECDSA, Schnorr Signature, Bls Signature, and Bip32( i.e. Hierarchical deterministic wallet). The audited Library will continue to open to developers. They believe that MPC will be an alternative option for private key management.

    Josie (github, twitter) will be working on the unit, functional, and fuzz testing in Bitcoin Core by focusing on improving test coverage and refactoring for performance and clarity. He will also be supporting three researchers on a project centered around analyzing bitcoin transactions, specifically on fees and privacy when used as a means of payment. Last but not least, he will be performing code review and testing PRs in Bitcoin Core.

    Escanor Liones (github, twiter) will be designing and implementing a sequence of blockchains to promote the study, advancement and improvement of mathematics, cryptography and digital security. The present grant will fund one of those blockchains. His previous published work focused on Information-Theoretical Private Information Retrieval (IT-PIR) in the form of a practical Postgres C/C++ Extension using Quantum Resistant Lattice-based Cryptography; see the open sourced implementation here. A paper will be published with the details about the design in early summer; and, a blog or a paper towards the end of the year speaking to the implementation and the experience of designing, building and deploying a blockchain.

    WeFuzz (github, twitter, website, discord) plans to build a, fully decentralized, crowdsourced security audit and bug bounty platform: a set of smart contracts that allow developers and companies to get their smart contracts, blockchains, web3 applications etc., audited by the decentralized auditors’ and hackers’ community and makes it easy for everyone to secure their assets. WEFUZZ (Chaitanya and Ranjeet) aims to become the *Hacker DAO*.

    Brink (website) is a 501c3 that exists to strengthen the Bitcoin protocol and network through fundamental research and development, and to support the Bitcoin developer community through funding, education, and mentoring. They support and mentor new contributors to open source Bitcoin development through their fellowship program, and support the work of established Bitcoin protocol engineers through their grants program. Coinbase has funded two Bitcoin core developers through their partnership with Brink.

    The Crypto Community Fund grantees will provide periodic updates about their work through public blog posts. The Fund will also be placing an additional call for developer grants later this year, and encourages future applicants to subscribe to updates here.


    Announcing our second developer grant winners was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.



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  • House of Lords Raised Serious Concerns over UK CBDC Launch

    House of Lords Raised Serious Concerns over UK CBDC Launch

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    An all-party committee of the United Kingdom’s House of Lords warned about the concerns of financial instability from the proposed launch of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). It warned that the launch of such a digital currency might cause a run on the banks in economic downturns.

    The Economic Affairs Committee admitted some of the advantages of a CBDC. But, it found no convincing case for launching a digital version of the pound sterling, highlighting that it could pose ‘significant risks’ to the country.

    “We took evidence from a variety of witnesses and none of them were able to give us a compelling reason for why the UK needed a central bank digital currency,” Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, the Chair of the Committee, said.

    “The concept seems to present a lot of risk for very little reward. We concluded that the idea was a solution in search of a problem.”

    Possibility of a CBDC Launch

    The British central bank already joined a consortium of other top global counterparts to study and research the feasibility of launching a digital alternative of fiat currency.

    The UK government’s ambition to bring such a CBDC became more prominent when Chancellor Rishi Sunak formed a joined task force of the HM Treasury and the Bank of England to better explore the possibilities of a CBDC. He even unofficially termed the digital currency, Britcoin.

    The latest feedback from the parliamentary committee questions the privacy and state surveillance with such a digital fiat. In addition, it is concerned with security risks, considering both attacks on individual accounts and the underlying CBDC blockchain.

    Meanwhile, the upper chamber of the House of Commons started to look into the prospect of the launch of a CBDC.

    “The introduction of a UK central bank digital currency would have far-reaching consequences for households, businesses and the monetary system. We found the potential benefits of a digital pound, as set out by the Bank of England, to be overstated or achievable through less risky alternatives,” Lord Forsyth added.

    An all-party committee of the United Kingdom’s House of Lords warned about the concerns of financial instability from the proposed launch of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). It warned that the launch of such a digital currency might cause a run on the banks in economic downturns.

    The Economic Affairs Committee admitted some of the advantages of a CBDC. But, it found no convincing case for launching a digital version of the pound sterling, highlighting that it could pose ‘significant risks’ to the country.

    “We took evidence from a variety of witnesses and none of them were able to give us a compelling reason for why the UK needed a central bank digital currency,” Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, the Chair of the Committee, said.

    “The concept seems to present a lot of risk for very little reward. We concluded that the idea was a solution in search of a problem.”

    Possibility of a CBDC Launch

    The British central bank already joined a consortium of other top global counterparts to study and research the feasibility of launching a digital alternative of fiat currency.

    The UK government’s ambition to bring such a CBDC became more prominent when Chancellor Rishi Sunak formed a joined task force of the HM Treasury and the Bank of England to better explore the possibilities of a CBDC. He even unofficially termed the digital currency, Britcoin.

    The latest feedback from the parliamentary committee questions the privacy and state surveillance with such a digital fiat. In addition, it is concerned with security risks, considering both attacks on individual accounts and the underlying CBDC blockchain.

    Meanwhile, the upper chamber of the House of Commons started to look into the prospect of the launch of a CBDC.

    “The introduction of a UK central bank digital currency would have far-reaching consequences for households, businesses and the monetary system. We found the potential benefits of a digital pound, as set out by the Bank of England, to be overstated or achievable through less risky alternatives,” Lord Forsyth added.

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  • Archethic: World’s Fastest, Most Secure Carbon-Neutral Blockchain Kicks Off Archethic Lab for Developers | by Bit Media Buzz | Jan, 2022

    Archethic: World’s Fastest, Most Secure Carbon-Neutral Blockchain Kicks Off Archethic Lab for Developers | by Bit Media Buzz | Jan, 2022

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    Bit Media Buzz

    The website contains links to Archethic’s testnet and mainnet beta, regular video tech updates, as well as all the tools and documentation a newcomer will need to get started.

    “We’re embracing the spirit of community-led scalable initiatives with an open invitation to developers looking for an exciting blockchain project to get involved with from an early stage,” said Sebastien Dupont, Chairman, Archethic Foundation. “This initiative is led by Web3 builders for Web3 builders. With Archethic’s highly scalable blockchain being perfectly primed for real-world use in high-traffic use-cases such as content publication (or website hosting), mailing solutions, we’re very excited to watch this project evolve as crypto and blockchain are finally being adopted into the mainstream.”

    Test how to safely store $UCO in the Archethic Mobile Wallet

    One of the tools that will be of use for anybody interested in supporting the project (not just developers) is the Archethic Mobile Wallet. The wallet supports transactions of Archethic’s $UCO tokens and is also compatible with NFT transfers on the Archethic testnet.

    A GitHub page is available with APKs for downloading a mobile wallet on Android devices. The page also includes a repo for developers to build their own wallets and a beta version of a web app wallet.

    The wallet is highly secure, with no funds being lost should the wallet be deleted from a device. A 24-word mnemonic recovery password is all that’s needed to re-access the wallet on any compatible device. Users must make sure to keep their recovery password safely recorded in an offline or analog format for the highest security.

    Build a one-page website (any website), explore the network and more

    The other three tools are aimed at developers looking to get started building on the Archethic blockchain. In all cases, complete documentation has been provided — usually in both written and video form — to make it easy to learn the ropes.

    AEWeb is a tool that helps web developers deploy websites on the blockchain. Boasting a decentralized security layer that is on par with aviation security standards, Archethic is a top choice for deploying a website that is as secure as can be from hacking and all other possible security failures.

    A lot of websites get created globally every day where 99% of them are very small, and medium-sized websites, its maintenance, security risks & costs are very high.

    AEWeb provides a single solution to all these problems within a fraction of the total cost.

    Plus it’s simple to use and saves a lot of time and is secure.

    Beacon Chains

    The Beacon Explorer is a blockchain explorer that makes it possible to examine the “beacon chains” used to coordinate and synchronize the Archethic network. Archethic uses a unique consensus protocol called ARCH that runs multiple grouped beacon chains in parallel, with each chain being composed of blocks containing a single validated transaction each. The ARCH consensus protocol is what allows Archethic to operate so blazingly fast, capable of processing up to 1 million transactions per second.

    Testnet Faucet

    Lastly, developers looking to build DApps that interface with UCO will need a way to test their projects. The Archethic testnet comes equipped with a UCO faucet that supplies 100 UCO at a time, strictly for testing purposes. This allows developers to build projects without burning their own funds to validate code. Being a naturally eco-friendly blockchain, Archethic is also cost-efficient, and the UCO faucet is yet another step toward saving resources of all kinds.

    The Archethic mainnet beta launched in June of 2021 after four years of research and development aimed at solving limitations and challenges faced by other blockchains. The project aims to disrupt mainstream industries such as retail and finance, giving interested developers ample opportunity to build innovative new technologies with the potential to make a real impact.

    About Archethic Public Blockchain

    Archethic is a highly scalable, tamper-proof Blockchain with scalability greater than 1 Million TPS, and a validation time of fewer than 5 seconds. The blockchain has the capacity to handle up to 90% maliciousness, 3.6 billion times less energy consumption than Bitcoin, and 0.1% of the transaction fees.

    The platform aims to replace and improve all current applications with a comprehensive and open ecosystem, allowing people to move from the trust imposed by centralized to decentralized systems while keeping identity and privacy under the control of the user.

    With Archethic, you can access your identity but no one owns it. The security and threat issues that centralized systems pose helped us realize that self-sovereign identity is needed now more than ever. An Open Source autonomous & Decentralized network in the hands of the world population created by the people, for the people. ‌‌

    Archethic Official Links

    Website: https://archethic.net/

    Whitepaper: https://archethic.net/ARCHEthic_WhitePaper.pdf

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/archethic

    Telegram: https://t.me/ArchEthic_ENG

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_official_archethic/

    Discord: https://discord.com/invite/CJZJvVReBx

    GitHub: https://github.com/archethic-foundation

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmP7Sg_TdBfbO1_u4EyIKzg



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  • Ethereum Dips Turn Attractive, Bulls Could Aim $3,500

    Ethereum Dips Turn Attractive, Bulls Could Aim $3,500

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    Ethereum gained pace above the $3,250 zone against the US Dollar. ETH price is correcting gains from $3,400, but dips might be limited in the near term.

    • Ethereum started a strong increase above the $3,250 resistance zone.
    • The price is trading above $3,250 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.
    • There is a major bullish trend line forming with support near $3,300 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
    • The pair could continue to rise if there is a clear break above the $3,380 resistance zone.

    Ethereum Price Gains Momentum

    Ethereum started a strong increase above the $3,250 resistance zone. ETH even broke the $3,300 resistance zone and the 100 hourly simple moving average to move further into a positive zone.

    The bulls even pumped the price above the $3,350 level. Ether price spiked above the $3,400 level and a new weekly high is formed near $3,412. It is now correcting gains and trading below $3,360. There was a break below the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the recent upward move from the $3,206 swing low to $3,412 high.

    Ether price is now trading above $3,250 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. There is also a major bullish trend line forming with support near $3,300 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. On the upside, an immediate resistance is near the $3,380 level.

    Ethereum Price

    Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

    A clear move above the $3,380 level might start another increase in the near term. The next major resistance is near the $3,420 level, above which ether price could test $3,500. Any more gains could send the price towards the $3,550 level in the near term.

    Dips Limited in ETH?

    If ethereum fails to start a fresh increase above the $3,380 level, it could start a downside correction. An initial support on the downside is near the $3,320 level. The first key support is now forming near the $3,300 level.

    It is near the 50% Fib retracement level of the recent upward move from the $3,206 swing low to $3,412 high. A downside break below the $3,300 level push the price towards the trend line support. Any more losses could lead the price towards $3,200.

    Technical Indicators

    Hourly MACDThe MACD for ETH/USD is slowly losing pace in the bullish zone.

    Hourly RSIThe RSI for ETH/USD is above the 50 level.

    Major Support Level – $3,300

    Major Resistance Level – $3,380

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  • Anyswap, Keep3rV1, WEMIX follow Bitcoin’s move to $44K with double-digit rallies

    Anyswap, Keep3rV1, WEMIX follow Bitcoin’s move to $44K with double-digit rallies

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    The cryptocurrency community is back in high spirits on Jan. 12 after a majority of tokens in the top 200 flashed green following Bitcoin’s (BTC) spike to $44,000.

    The return of bullish momentum has come as a boon to several altcoin projects, with multiple tokens seeing gains in excess of 20%.

    Top 7 coins with the highest 24-hour price change. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

    Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the biggest gainers over the past 24-hours were Anyswap (ANY), Keep3rV1 (KP3R) and WEMIX (WEMIX).

    Anyswap expands its list of supported networks

    Gains in the altcoin market were led by Anyswap, a decentralized exchange that specializes in allowing users to transfer and swap tokens between 25 distinct networks.

    Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since falling to a low of $15.16 on Jan. 10, the price of ANY ripped 77.67% higher to a daily high of $26.93 on Jan. 12 as its 24-hour trading volume spiked 525% to $114.5million.

    ANY/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

    The sudden spike in activity and price for ANY come as the protocol recently added two new networks to its list of supported chains including a FomoETH bridge and Moonbeam, which just officially launched on Polkadot.

    Keep3rV1 branches out to other networks

    Keep3rV1 is a project focused on creating a decentralized job board designed to help projects connect with external developers that can provide specialized services.

    VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for KP3R on Jan. 7, prior to 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 (green) vs. KP3R price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

    As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for KP3R climbed into the green zone on Jan. 7 and hit a high of 80 roughly 79 hours before the price rallied 79.64% over the next two days.

    The bullish move higher for KP3R comes following a tease released by the project indicating that KP3R will soon have cross-chain functionality between Ethereum (ETH), Fantom (FTM) and the layer-two solution Optimism.

    Related: QuickSwap founder: L2s are the path to mass adoption

    WEMIX lists at Upbit

    WEMIX is a global blockchain gaming platform developed by Wemade Tree that is designed specifically for gaming dApps and includes a marketplace for digital assets and nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

    Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and CoinGecko shows that after sliding to a low of $3.96 on Jan. 10, the price of WEMIX rebounded 106% to a daily high at $8.16 on Jan. 12 as its 24-hour trading volume spiked to $1.2 billion.

    WEMIX/USD 1-hour chart. Source: CoinGecko

    The surge in interest and trading volume for WEMIX comes as the token listed on the popular Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit on Jan. 10 and announced the details for the next WEMIX NFT auction drop.

    The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.073 trillion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 39.8%.

    The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.