cases

Analyzing Token Sale Models

Note: I mention the names of various projects below only to compare and contrast their token sale mechanisms; this should NOT be taken as an endorsement or criticism of any specific project as a whole. It's entirely possible for any given project to be total trash as a whole and yet still have an awesome token sale model. The last few months have seen an increasing amount of innovation in token sale models. Two years ago, the space was simple: there were capped sales, which sold a fixed number of

Hard Forks, Soft Forks, Defaults and Coercion

One of the important arguments in the blockchain space is that of whether hard forks or soft forks are the preferred protocol upgrade mechanism. The basic difference between the two is that soft forks change the rules of a protocol by strictly reducing the set of transactions that is valid, so nodes following the old rules will still get on the new chain (provided that the majority of miners/validators implements the fork), whereas hard forks allow previously invalid transactions and blocks to become valid, so clients must upgrade their clients

[Mirror] A Proof of Stake Design Philosophy

Vitalik Buterin via the Vitalik Buterin Blog This is a mirror of the post at https://medium.com/@VitalikButerin/a-proof-of-stake-design-philosophy-506585978d51 Systems like Ethereum (and Bitcoin, and NXT, and Bitshares, etc) are a fundamentally new class of cryptoeconomic organisms — decentralized, jurisdictionless entities that exist entirely in cyberspace, maintained by a combination of cryptography, economics and social consensus. They are kind of like BitTorrent, but they are also not like BitTorrent, as BitTorrent has no concept of state — a distinction that turns out to be crucially important. They are sometimes described as decentralized autonomous

[Mirror] Quadratic Arithmetic Programs: from Zero to Hero

Vitalik Buterin via the Vitalik Buterin Blog This is a mirror of the post at https://medium.com/@VitalikButerin/quadratic-arithmetic-programs-from-zero-to-hero-f6d558cea649 There has been a lot of interest lately in the technology behind zk-SNARKs, and people are increasingly trying to demystify something that many have come to call "moon math" due to its perceived sheer indecipherable complexity. zk-SNARKs are indeed quite challenging to grasp, especially due to the sheer number of moving parts that need to come together for the whole thing to work, but if we break the technology down piece by piece then

JCB, IDEMIA and Soft Space launch “JCBDC” Phase 2 pilot to trial CBDC offline P2P payments

Tokyo, Paris, Kuala Lumpur, Dec 13, 2023 - (JCN Newswire) - Japan's only international payment brand JCB Co., Ltd. ("JCB") has launched the “JCBDC” (JCB Digital Currency) Phase 2 pilot project with IDEMIA, a global leader in identity technologies, and the world’s leading fintech company Soft Space Sdn Bhd. ("Soft Space"). In Phase 1 of the JCBDC project, JCB, IDEMIA, and Soft Space developed a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) payment solution, enabling merchants to accept CBDC without the need to modify their POS (point of sale) terminals and payment

InvoiceMate Partners with the DFINITY Foundation and Migrates from Hyperledger Fabric to The Internet Computer Blockchain

  Zurich, Switzerland & Dubai, UAE. The DFINITY Foundation, a not-for-profit research and development organization based in Switzerland and a major contributor to the Internet Computer blockchain (ICP), has announced that it has partnered with InvoiceMate. InvoiceMate.tech will migrate from Hyperledger Fabric to the Internet Computer. The DFINITY Foundation will support InvoiceMate in this transition as it becomes an important part of the ICP ecosystem. InvoiceMate is a blockchain & AI-powered invoicing platform that acts as a bridge between SMEs and financing institutions. InvoiceMate leads to easier financial inclusion by

Cardiol Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRDL) Advancements in Therapies for Inflammatory Heart Diseases

  In the United States, heart disease accounts for a significant number of deaths every year, with cardiovascular disease being the primary concern. Factors like lifestyle choices and unforeseen circumstances contribute to its prevalence. Myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the heart's lining) are two inflammatory heart conditions primarily linked to immunological reactions from viral infections and mRNA vaccines. Though considered rare, awareness of these conditions is growing, especially among younger populations. Recent research in Science Immunology highlighted an increase in cytokine production leading to myocarditis

Gain Therapeutics Achieves Remarkable Breakthrough in Parkinson’s Disease Research

Gain Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: GANX), a pioneering biotechnology company specializing in innovative allosteric small molecule therapies, has made significant strides in the fight against Parkinson's disease (PD). The Company's lead drug candidate, GT-02287, has demonstrated extraordinary potential in mitigating the effects of Parkinson's disease across two distinct preclinical models of the ailment. These findings suggest that GT-02287 has the capacity to alleviate Parkinson's disease pathology and enhance motor function. A notable highlight is the substantial reduction of plasma Neurofilament Light Chain (NfL) levels, an emerging biomarker for neurodegeneration. This advancement