Leverj, a non-custodial derivatives platform based on an Ethereum sidechain, announced on Tuesday their cooperation with leading industry participants to support the launch and marketing of its exchange. The exchange offers perpetual swaps for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), accepting both Tether (USDT) and Dai (DAI) as margin and settlement currencies. To achieve meaningful performance for trading, Leverj uses its in-house Plasma-based scaling solution, Gluon. The system was optimized specifically for high-performance non-custodial trading. Like other Plasma-based systems, it relies on the security of the Ethereum chain to guarantee the safety of the funds. To ensure a successful launch, Leverj …

A blockchain platform says big data has a big problem — and has launched cutting-edge nodes that aim to solve the issues associated with existing storage solutions. SINOVATE, a decentralized cloud data storage provider that is underpinned by blockchain technology, has created Deterministic Infinity Nodes (known as DIN) to deliver levels of security and scalability superior to what’s offered by rivals. According to the platform, major cloud computing networks are currently confronted by millions of unauthorized login attempts, some of which are successful. Data breaches have also resulted in sensitive data being compromised — undermining consumer confidence and damaging businesses, …

Ethereum 2.0 recently fired up its Beacon Chain, concluding Phase 0 of a scaling effort years in the making. Although he expressed faith in Eth2, Celsius CEO and founder Alex Mashinsky believes that the network could lose its spotlight if it doesn’t scale quickly and significantly. “Ethereum needs to prove it can scale its transactions 100x without compromising on security or decentralization,” Mashinsky told Cointelegraph when asked about Eth2’s next hurdle after its Beacon Chain launch. “If it fails to scale, Cardano and Polkadot will take over.” As of Thursday, Ethereum’s network hosts about 13 transactions per second, according to …

How does this ecosystem work? There are three key roles within the Stkr ecosystem. Providers deliver the computing resources that drive the Eth2 nodes — and they pay insurance that acts as a guarantee against poor hardware performance. These funds will be used to compensate stakers if there is an outage, but providers also stand to gain rewards if their infrastructure runs without a hitch. By building a good reputation, they are prioritized whenever new staking funds need to be allocated. Requesters, otherwise known as stakers, are those who want to lock up their ETH without hosting a node themselves. …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently answered a number of community questions as part of an "ask me anything," or AMA, session on Reddit. During the AMA, hosted by the Ethereum Foundation’s ETH 2.0 research team, Buterin said that he expects noticeable network improvements sooner rather than later. “TLDR: merge happens faster, PoS happens faster, you get your juicy 100k TPS faster,” Buterin said on Wednesday as part of the foundation’s fifth AMA on ETH 2.0. Ethereum’s network has suffered periods of high congestion at various points over the years, depending on various applications and related traffic. CryptoKitties slowed the Ethereum …

FTX exchange co-founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried believes Ethereum is incapable of handling decentralized finance’s growth. Talking to Camila Russo from the Defiant Podcast, Bankman-Fried said that the Ethereum blockchain is limiting DeFi’s development and the only way around it is to build on other networks. “At some point, it’s just clear that we weren’t getting around that. Either we're going to build it on Ethereum or we are going to build something that we thought was going to be really exciting, but not both.” He stated that anytime his team tried to build something new that they were excited …

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Charles Hoskinson suggested that a Cardano-based solution might make blockchain voting possible for future national elections. He stated: “Not only do I believe — we've been building the infrastructure for that." Hoskinson acknowledged that the road to Cardano-based elections would be gradual and require a number of experiments. He suggested that it could start with third parties using the network for their primaries, before escalating to municipal and state elections. From there, he supposed the network could be utilized in national elections for countries that struggle with legacy systems: “I think it's entirely possible in …

Toyota Systems, the IT arm of Toyota Motor Corporation, is collaborating with Japanese cryptocurrency exchange DeCurret to develop a branded Toyota digital currency, according to an official announcement on Oct. 26. The large-scale pilot will involve 2,500 employees at Toyota Systems. The platform will feature digital currency payments for benefits. According to the announcement, participating employees will be able to exchange the digital currency for benefits points or gifts from a catalog. Toyota Systems noted that the digital currency cannot be exchanged for Japanese yen. The new pilot uses DeCurret’s proprietary blockchain-based platform for issuing and managing digital currencies. The …

Mina aspires to be the world’s tiniest blockchain, with claims that its protocol maintains a constant size of around 22 kilobytes. This is ostensibly achieved by using recursive zk-SNARKs — the same technology that is used by the privacy-centric cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC). However, whereas the latter utilizes this technology to provide greater privacy to its users, the former employs it for scalability. A zk-SNARK, which stands for zero-knowledge succinct noninteractive argument of knowledge, allows a party to prove that they have possession of certain information without revealing what that information is. It is similar to how a smartphone can recognize …

Most of decentralized finance's potential scaling options come at the cost of decentralization, according to Kosala Hemachandra, founder and CEO of crypto wallet solution MyEtherWallet. "From a perspective of fully decentralized blockchains, there's no blockchain that has a good enough scaling solution to support this many transactions," Hemachandra told Cointelegraph in an interview. "When you think from that perspective, Ethereum is the best solution out there." DeFi has boomed in 2020, with Ethereum arguably being the top choice for most of the action, according to Hemachandra. As a result, scaling issues have surfaced in the form high fees. "The reason …

The crypto space's decentralized finance niche has reached frenzied status within the crypto industry, signaled by exuberant price highs and rampant speculation. "DeFi is the new overhyped concept in Ethereum," MyEtherWallet, or MEW, CEO and founder Kosala Hemachandra told Cointelegraph in an interview. "The noise is too much, so everyone is just like running around trying to figure out what the next big thing is and then putting a ton of money inside without doing enough research," he said. Back in 2019, DeFi likely brought to mind different concepts than what we see today. DeFi, at its core, existed as …

Decentralized exchanges are undoubtedly an exciting development in crypto. DEXs facilitate the trading of cryptocurrencies directly between users, without the need for a trusted intermediary. This, in turn, allows users to keep custody of their funds. However, while DEXs have their advantages, they still lack in terms of regulations and scalability, which are key considerations that could determine the future trajectory of the crypto industry. Centralized exchanges will continue to play a pivotal role in this ecosystem, providing the depth of liquidity needed to grow the wider crypto community. The benefits of centralized exchanges’ KYC for their users DEXs tend …