Niklas Nikolajsen, the founder of Swiss crypto broker Bitcoin Suisse, predicts that Bitcoin (BTC) will move to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) once the Ethereum (ETH) network has proved the algorithm’s success. Bitcoin’s current Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm — the pioneering concept which in fact pre-existed Bitcoin, but has since come to be indissociable from the cryptocurrency — “will probably change in the future,” Nikolajsen argued. In outtakes from an interview conducted for a German TV documentary — recorded back in October 2019, but uploaded on April 6 — Nikolajsen said: “[Bitcoin’s move to Proof-of-Stake] is not planned, but the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether, …

This is the first of two articles providing a deeper dive into the eternal debate between the proof-of-stake and proof-of-work consensus algorithms. This part will focus on the basics, while also discussing the issue of wealth concentration and inequality, which is often at the center of any community argument. Bitcoin (BTC) and many of the original cryptocurrencies were born as pure proof-of-work systems. Proof-of-stake was first pioneered in 2013 by Peercoin, a project that exists to this day. Peercoin’s contribution to the popularity of PoS is likely dwarfed by Ethereum (ETH) and its goal to transition from PoW — which …

Huobi, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume to date, saw significant progress in its crypto mining business in 2019. Huobi Pool, a cryptocurrency mining arm of Huobi, says its operating revenues surged 547% in 2019, reaching $320 million year-over-year from $53 million in 2018. PoS staking continues to be the Huobi Pool’s most profitable business Originally launched in March 2018, Huobi Pool released its first annual financial report on March 19, announcing the news for Huobi Group’s digital assets mining business and trading pool for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2019. Alongside major growth in operating revenue, …

The Steem blockchain reportedly experienced a troubling episode recently, whereby the blockchain’s entire governance system was disturbed. Tron founder Justin Sun, new owner of the Steemit social network based on the Steem token, appears to have successfully executed a takeover of Steem by leveraging not only tokens directly controlled, but also tokens held on several major exchanges, in order to vote out the previous delegates (Steem uses a delegated proof-of-stake system) and install new ones. This means that customers of these exchanges likely had their funds used without their consent in this blockchain power struggle. While it was an unfortunate …

Blockstack unveiled a novel consensus mechanism for piggyback blockchains called Proof of Transfer (PoX) on Feb. 6. Instead of relying on its own proof of work, miners under PoX commit Bitcoin (BTC), which circulates in the ecosystem. The system will be used in Blockstack’s proposed Stacks 2.0 blockchain, which is set for release later in 2020. The Proof of Transfer mechanism was devised to piggyback on the security of Bitcoin, while allowing complex interactions between stakeholders within the Stacks ecosystem. Cointelegraph spoke with Muneeb Ali, Blockstack’s CEO, to learn more about the proposed mechanism. Not a sidechain There are several …

Chinese mining application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) manufacturer Canaan will launch new, improved mining machines with 5-nanometer chips in Q1 2020. Chinese industry news outlet 8BTC reported on Dec. 24 that the new ASICs will have significant advantages compared to the previous generation. The new firm’s 5nm manufacturing process is expected to improve performance, power and area scaling. A significant development The company expects to scale the production of this new product series faster than it did with its 7nm chips. The scale of a nanometer or 1nm is approximately equivalent to the width of two silicon atoms. The number of …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has recently published an alternative proposal for an early transition to Ethereum 2.0. In a Dec. 23 post on the ETH Research forum, Buterin has set out an “accelerated schedule” for the transition from Ethereum 1.0 to Ethereum 2.0 through a new type of ETH validator referred to as “eth1-friendly validators.” According to Vitalik, this new alternative proposal will require less “rearchitecting” in the network. He wrote: “Specifically, it requires stateless clients, but NOT stateless miners and NOT webassembly, and so requires much less rearchitecting to accomplish.” At the same time, the proposed alternative transition would …

In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Blockstream CEO Adam Back stated that for him, nothing is above Bitcoin, not even stablecoins or other coins issued by central banks. Adam Back invented the hashcash proof of work system, and was one of the first people to work with Bitcoin (BTC). In addition, he was present this year at the G20 meetings in Japan, where he spoke about the positive uses of blockchain. At G20, sitting next to the president of the Dutch central bank, Back said he believed the blockchain would be another initiative for an open network, and said financial …

Earlier this month, the Ethereum Foundation team lead Péter Szilágyi confirmed the date of the network’s upcoming upgrade, Istanbul. Ethereum’s eighth hard fork overall and the second one this year was due to take place on Dec. 4. However, on Nov. 20, per the official announcement, the date estimate was moved to around Dec. 7. Istanbul will introduce a number of improvements such as interoperability with Zcash, cheaper zero-knowledge layer two scalability solutions, and adjusted gas price for certain operations, marking another milestone along the road to Ethereum 2.0, a highly anticipated “ultimate” version of the network. How exactly does …

While the proof-of-authority consensus algorithm is turning into perhaps one of the most mature versions of blockchain technology. It is faster than other algorithms, more scalable, and does not depend on mining. Market leaders Walmart and GE Aviation are using PoA to track supply chains, and Microsoft has created a whole line of PoA-based enterprise products. Nevertheless, there is something in this innovative mechanism that contradicts the basic principles of cryptocurrencies — decentralization and anonymity. Cointelegraph talked to technology companies to find out how PoA products work, and what benefits the use of this algorithm brings them. How it differs …

Team lead at the Ethereum (ETH) Foundation Péter Szilágyi has confirmed Dec. 4 as the expected date for the network’s forthcoming Istanbul hard fork. In two tweets posted on Nov. 7, Szilágyi indicated that Istanbul will commence at block 9069000. He provided Geth mainnet node operators with a link to a new maintenance release designed to begin the hard fork’s initialization. Geth is the name given to one of the two most popular clients used to operate nodes on the Ethereum network — the other being Parity, which will update upon the activation of Istanbul but is now in the …

The Aragon community has officially proclaimed itself against ProgPOW. ProgPOW is a proposed protocol change to the Ehereum network that would close the efficiency gap available to application-specific integrated circuits. In a tweet on Nov. 2, the official account of the Aragon project posted voting results, showing that a proposal to block changes to Ethereum’s mining algorithm had passed. ProgPOW would change the Ethereum network’s proof-of-work mining algorithm before the eventual switch to a proof-of-stake model as part of the Ethereum 2.0 roll-out. Aragon, which is an open-source software project for creating and managing decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), uses Ethereum …