The number of projects adopting layer-two solutions for Ethereum’s scaling woes is increasing, with LuaSwap rolling out a new, TomoChain-based exchange engine yesterday. The change will enable the Uniswap inspired exchange to perform token swaps with greater speed and efficiency than many rival Automated Market Maker ERC-20 exchanges. 1/ #LuaSwap version on @TomoChainANN blockchain is live, entirely open to all $TOMO and Ethereum projects Users can now experience another $LUA version with: ✔️ Super speed ✔️ Near-zero gas fees ✔️ No network congestion Details: https://t.co/Be8claDkgT — LuaSwap (@LuaSwap) January 27, 2021 While LuaSwap remains an Ethereum-based application, transactions related to …
Popular social media network Reddit, which counts over 1.7 billion monthly visits, is deepening its ties with the Ethereum Foundation in what it has formalized as its first-ever blockchain partnership. According to an announcement from Reddit admin u/jarins, the aim of the partnership will be to increase the site's “commitment to blockchain, accelerating scaling and resources for the Ethereum ecosystem, and bringing the value and independence of blockchain technology to millions of redditors.” In 2020, Reddit had already initiated two, large Ethereum-focused projects. The first, an application called Community Points, was a rewards system that awarded redditors with ERC-20 tokens …
Would Bitcoin and its blockchain be able to handle mainstream adoption as a store of value without requiring second-layer solutions? Genesis Mining’s head of mining operations, Philip Salter, holds a mixed view. "I think Bitcoin is a good store of value regardless of transaction fees,” Salter told Cointelegraph. “The issue is — the higher the fees are the larger is also the minimum value that can be efficiently transferred.” Bitcoin (BTC) has stood the test of time up to this point, with BTC maintaining its place as the crypto industry’s highest market cap asset for the past 12 years. Bitcoin …
Perpetual Protocol, a DeFi project offering decentralized perpetual contracts using the layer-two Ethereum scaling solution xDai, has emerged as the sixth-largest DEX by weekly trade volume after operating for only one month. Based on data from Dune Analytics shared by Perpetual Protocol, the DEX’s weekly trade volume of more than $299 million would rank the project above the likes of Synthetix, dYdX, and Kyber, and below Balancer. The milestone was shared in a blog post celebrating the project’s first month of operation — a period in which the DEX drove more than $500 million in total volume and generated more …
Can Bitcoin’s (BTC) blockchain handle full mainstream adoption as a store of value, without needing layer-two scaling solutions? Konstantin Richter, founder and CEO of blockchain infrastructure company Blockdaemon, seems to think so. “Bitcoin is the best cryptocurrency suited for store of value,” Richter told Cointelegraph, adding: “In terms of what the Bitcoin blockchain can currently handle from a latency and throughput point of view, Bitcoin is very strong. If we start talking about using Bitcoin for payments, that’s where the need for layer-2 scaling comes into play, but for people who plan to buy and hold, there’s no need right …
Near Protocol (NEAR) is a smart contract platform that uses parallel processing to scale the network. This technique, known as sharding, resembles what Eth2 is aiming to achieve and Near’s proof-of-stake consensus mechanism also allows token holders to stake their coins. In the past month, NEAR has rallied by 107% and this raises questions on whether the project is making significant strides in what has become an ultra-competitive smart contract industry. Compared to its competitors, NEAR is a relatively new project as the mainnet only launched in April 2020. Unlike Ethereum, NEAR’s consensus mechanism works towards fee stabilization and according …
Popular stablecoin Tether (USDT) is the first token to go live on the Hermez layer-two network, the company announced on Monday. As part of the collaboration, batched USDT transactions will be possible once the Hermez network officially launches in early 2021. David Schwartz, project lead at Hermez, told Cointelegraph: “Hermez network is run by permissionless coordinators who will decide the transactions included in each batch, based on incentives (fees).” Back in December 2020, Delphi Digital published a report showing that layer-two rollups accounted for less than 1% of the entire daily decentralized exchange trading volume. For Hermez, the small proportion …
January will mark 12 years since the Bitcoin genesis block. In that time, blockchain technology has made many significant strides forward. The launch of Ethereum in 2015 introduced smart contracts and token minting. Subsequent years saw developments in areas, such as transaction privacy with the launch of Zcash (ZEC), platforms such as EOS and Tezos attempting to compete with Ethereum on scalability, and dozens of use cases being explored. In particular, 2018 and 2019 were difficult years. Following Bitcoin’s fall from its all-time high in December 2017, it’s fair to say that the general appetite for blockchain and cryptocurrencies waned …
A public blockchain ecosystem has unveiled a Universal Passport that it believes will solve one of the industry’s biggest challenges: interoperability. Nervos says that its technology is compatible with existing standards, meaning that users who want to move assets from one network to another — or use apps based on different blockchains — will no longer need to contend with multiple interfaces and multiple identities. The company’s co-founder, Kevin Wang, told Cointelegraph: “We want to meet users where they are instead of asking them to get used to the interfaces that fit into the underlying plumbing or infrastructure.” Key elements …
Layer two decentralized exchanges Loopring and DeversiFi are joining forces by forming a committee dedicated to promoting usage of layer two solutions, named “L2 Squared” or just L². Announced on Monday, the alliance wants to ease the transition for users into these higher performance on-chain exchanges. “As things stand, Loopring and DeversiFi are the first exchanges on Ethereum to harness Layer-2 solutions, using zkRollup and StarkEx’s Validium respectively,” explained Will Harborne, founder of DeversiFi. “However the much-needed migration to Layer-2 is not a simple one, and the network effects of Layer-1 composability are very strong which stand to slow down …
DApp transaction volume has topped $270 billion so far in 2020, with 95% of this figure belonging to Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem, according to DappRadar. That’s an astonishing 1178% increase from last year’s total of $21 billion. The blockchain data provider revealed the figures in its annual DApp Industry Report today, summarizing the highlights and failures of a record-breaking year for DApp-based economics. The report noted that money has been flowing from BTC to ETH throughout the year, resulting in a rise in the price of ETH, from 0.018 BTC on Jan 1. 2020 to its current price of 0.028 BTC. …
The year 2020 has been nothing short of spectacular for Ethereum. Between Ethereum 2.0 and the quest for scalability, the decentralized finance explosion, and the successes of interoperability and money settlement — just to name a few — the richness of narratives underpinning Ethereum has arguably surpassed Bitcoin itself. Whereas Bitcoin is the reliable, stoic uncle, Ethereum can be described as the maverick cousin of the crypto world. But of course, a volatile environment hits hard both ways. Peaks of excitement and success almost need to be counterbalanced by troughs of disappointment and failure. Ethereum had plenty of both this …