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Staking, Consensus and the Pursuit of Decentralization

Oh, the wonders of decentralized consensus — that dream of permissionless blockchains to be censorship-resistant, trustless, collaborative and egalitarian for a potentially global community of users. While lofty in ideals, consensus is foundational for each crypto network, which must agree upon that most basic question of who decides what on the network.Decentralized consensus in the form of a proof-of-work mechanism was at the core of Satoshi Nakamoto’s innovation when creating Bitcoin — all additional protocol elements stem from PoW’s ability to reach consensus regarding the digital ledger through the computational work

Talking Digital Future: Smart Cities

My journey into smart cities and their future development was a really big surprise, as the way I arrived there was not something that I had planned. I was working as the chief information officer for a company in Northern California called O'Reilly Media when I got a call from a headhunter who asked if I would consider being the chief information office for the City of Palo Alto. I can vividly remember — it was only about eight years ago — my feeling when she asked the question. The

Bitcoin Price Struggling to Break $7K — Here’s the Worst-Case Scenario

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has seen a relatively stable week, as BTC/USD has been hovering between $6,000 and $7,300.However, due to the low volatility, the volume also diminished, which is a sign of a big move in the works. What can be expected of the markets while the coronavirus pandemic is taking a toll on the global economy?Crypto market daily performance. Source: Coin360Bitcoin hovering against crucial resistance for bullish momentumThe price of Bitcoin is hovering against the crucial resistance for bullish momentum. A clean break above the resistance of

Exchange CEO Forecasts Crypto Market Uptick in Coming Weeks

As the world sits in flux between coronavirus and financial market concerns, AAX crypto exchange CEO, Thor Chan, thinks cryptocurrencies will ultimately make out ok.“During a period of intense panic, many investors fled the markets in search of cash, or to defend their positions elsewhere,” Chan told The Merkle in a March 30 interview, referencing recent plunging crypto and mainstream markets. “Cryptocurrency markets suffered together with all other markets,” he continued, adding:“But over the coming weeks and months, as governments cut interest rates, I think we will see the crypto

As Malta Delays Regulatory Clarity, Fewer Firms Remain on ‘Blockchain Island’

It seems that Malta is becoming both less popular among and less populated with crypto firms. The European Union country attracted dozens of industry players in 2018 on the back of the “blockchain island” agenda championed by the local government, but the relevant framework has not yet proven to be effective. Meanwhile, the official rhetoric apparently started to shift away from the blockchain sector, as the government now aims to consolidate it with “other niche sectors.”Meanwhile, the Malta Financial Services Authority, continues to pluck out non-registered crypto agents — be

Is Decentralized ASIC Production Possible?

The news about ASICs for Nervos CKB came out recently, as the time of writing, there are four ASICs announced, the Toddminer C1, Toddminer C1 Pro, Bitmain K5 and PA miner — the first batch of C1 was delivered on March 9, K5 and PA Miner are expected to be delivered in April and C1 Pro in May.Since mainnet launch, the total hashrate on CKB mainnet has been around 200TH/S on average, it is now gradually picking up (at the time of writing at ~500TH/S) with ASICs. Toddminer says C1+C1

New Tron Partnership Lets Gamers Earn Crypto for Streaming

Refereum, a blockchain-based platform that rewards users for video game engagement and streaming, has partnered with Tron. The collaboration allows Refereum to pay out its video game streaming users in Tron’s TRX coin, and BitTorrent’s BTT token, said an April 2 statement provided to Cointelegraph.  Partnerships, more partnerships, and purchasesTron bought software company, BitTorrent Inc, in 2018. BitTorrent also utilizes an associated crypto asset called BTT, which is built on Tron’s blockchain. Refereum teamed up with DLive, a blockchain streaming service, near the end of 2019, giving video game live streamers reward-collecting

Bitcoin Price Prediction: BTC/USD Bears Run out as Bulls Set Target at $7,200

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Prediction – April 2The Bitcoin bulls keep on pushing towards the north as the coin has not lost sight of $7,500 despite the rejection of $7,258.BTC/USD Long-term Trend: Bullish (Daily Chart)Key levels:Resistance Levels: $8,000, $8,200, $8,400Support Levels: $5,700, $5,500, $5,300BTCUSD – Daily ChartOver the past hour, BTC/USD has continued to rip higher, adding to the 6.76% in gains registered today. The coin is successfully trading above the 9-day and 21-day moving averages. As of the time of writing this article, the cryptocurrency trades for $7,116, the highest

Brave Browser Gains 1M New Users in a Single Month

Open-source internet browser, Brave, tallied more than one million new users in March alone, a tweet from Brave’s head of marketing, Des Martin, detailed on April 1. Isolation has increased web trafficWith much of the world limiting their exposure to the coronavirus through self-imposed quarantine, web usership has undoubtedly increased.As a result, various internet-based services have hosted significantly greater demand for activities such as web browsing, gaming, and shopping, a March 20 Bloomberg article stated.  Brave sees increased attentionSome of this attention has been funneled toward Brave, as evidenced by its spike

A Crypto Venture Fund Bought the Most Tokens at MakerDAO’s Debt Auction

An auction to recapitalize MakerDAO (MKR) after the mid-March market turmoil successfully concluded on March 28, bringing in over $5 million worth of DAI. Crypto venture fund Paradigm Capital revealed in a March 31 tweet that it won approximately 68% of the auctioned tokens.The company had previously pledged to join a “backstop syndicate” and cover the entire system shortfall if necessary. Acting as a so-called “backstop,” the group would act as the buyer of last resort by purchasing the MKR tokens if their price fell to $100. (The auction’s starting

Evolution of‘Payments’ Will Bolster Next-Generation Businesses

Humans have always been on a developmental journey. When we are born into thousands of years of inventions and improvements, it’s easy to take for granted what’s around us— as if they always existed. We seldom think about the changes it took to get to where we are.Take for example, the creation of language and how that opened up a new course in human history. How it led to communication, collaboration, communities and organizations. From there, people organized a set of doctrines and came up with story-telling, a precursor to