The cost of using the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains is on the rapid decline, as evidenced by a 93%–95% reduction in average transaction fees over the past couple of months. Fees are paid to the miners who process transactions on a typical proof-of-work blockchain. The size of the fee depends on the size of the transaction in bytes and how many transactions a coin has gone through in the past (as these need to be checked every time a coin is moved). Supply and demand for space also dictate the size of a transaction fee since blockchains have limited capacity. …
Blockchain holding group Borderless Services Inc. made headlines in late April amid reports that it had placed a $700 million bid to acquire business news publisher Forbes Media LLC. In an interview with Cointelegraph, CEO Patrick McConlogue shed light on the acquisition target and why it aligns with the organization’s overall vision. “Acquiring any company is a long process, and there are a lot of moving parts,” McConlogue wrote in an email, adding: “We are excited to participate either as owners, partners, or combined force with the other bidders. Collectively we all want Forbes back under US ownership and are …
For a tech that was supposed to be democratic and distributed in order to free financial systems from the grip of government-influenced banks and return control of the money supply to the people, cryptocurrencies have turned out to be pretty concentrated. Some 66% of all Bitcoin (BTC) mining now takes place in China, with 54% located in the southwest province of Sichuan, as a recent study revealed. Three Chinese mining pools alone are responsible for nearly half of Bitcoin’s hashrate. The days when a single Bitcoin enthusiast could crunch numbers on their home computer and land a Bitcoin reward for …
Blockchain technology company Bitfury is considering a potential Initial Public Offering (IPO), which could reportedly become the first major public listing in the crypto industry in Europe, Bloomberg reported Oct. 25. People familiar with the matter reportedly told Bloomberg that Bitfury is examining a range of options including raising debt financing or selling a minority stake. Should Bitfury go public in the following two years, its value could reach from $3 billion to $5 billion. However, the numbers could change depending on the markets and the health of the industry, purported sources told Bloomberg. Bitfury has reportedly contacted global investment …
Over the last couple of years, the world has been grappling with the lack of semiconductors, which are the substances that conduct electricity between metals and isolates. The most famous semiconductor is silicon. If correlating this concept to electronic devices, then the key semiconductors are processors and other microcircuits that are present in almost all devices that people use every day, from smartphones to cars. In 2021, semiconductors hit a world record in terms of sales. Electronics production also boomed, with hundreds of millions of complex semiconductors being devoured by gaming consoles. The number of GPUs produced grew to unseen …