A new contest is taking place that aims to test a node written in the Rust programming language — with the ambition of breaking the world record for the bandwidth of blockchain protocols in a real network. Free TON's current node is written in C++ and already has the ability to process thousands of transactions per second. Sharding plays an instrumental role in this network, as this means that smart contracts can be processed in parallel. It’s believed that a node written in Rust would be dramatically quicker due to better process parallelization, and organizers of the Rust Cup believe …

2021 has been an impressive year for Binance Coin (BNB), which so far has rallied by more than 900%. One of the primary drivers of BNB's growth was continued congestion on the Ethereum network. As this struggle carried on, Binance Smart Chain (BSC) emerged as an alternative, meeting the rapidly growing decentralized finance (DeFi) sector's demands. As BNB reached a $64 billion market capitalization, it has surpassed traditional banks, including Santander, the Bank of Montreal, and UBS. Meanwhile, some analysts point to the estimated value and impact of Coinbase's upcoming direct listing ($100-billion valuation) as a catalyst for the BNB …

Rebecca Rose and Peter Kacherginsky, employees of leading U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase, have revealed how they used Ethereum’s blockchain to become lawfully wedded. On April 3, Rose posted to Twitter to announce the pair had tied the knot on March 14 in both the physical and virtual words. Most people get married in a place of religious worship, on a beach, or in the mountains. Peter (@_iphelix) and I are NOT most people. We got married on the #blockchain. 1/7 pic.twitter.com/2ExexrlLbZ — Rebecca Rose (@rgoldilox) April 2, 2021 In addition to a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony, Kacherginsky wrote an Ethereum …

Nonfungible tokens appear to be an idea whose time has come. Originally developed for use with collectible trading-card games, NFTs can represent almost any unique asset. Outside of the gamer context, the first NFT to gain widespread popularity was probably CryptoKitties, which were released back in 2017. Related: CryptoKitties’ Dieter Shirley on breaking Ethereum and NFTs CryptoKitties became so popular that at one time, CryptoKitty trading clogged the Ethereum network, setting records for transaction volume. NFTs have only grown in popularity since then, and have now been developed for a range of in-game assets, digital collectibles, unique artworks and more. …

On March 29, the Iowa House of Representatives passed a bill that seeks to legally recognize transactions and registrations made via blockchain smart contracts. The bill — SF541 — gained Senate approval earlier in the month. Under the auspices of the new bill, smart contracts would be given the same legal status as regular contracts, while distributed-ledger technology would be viewed as a reliable electronic store of record. Regarding smart contracts, the bill states: “The bill provides that a contract shall not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because the contract is a smart contract or contains a smart …

The internet is buzzing over recent developments in decentralized finance, or DeFi — smart contracts are hotter than ever. You might think you missed the coronation ceremony, but smart contracts are actually used in only a small corner of the crypto world, albeit a corner worth billions of dollars. It’s a promising concept that has gone widely unused in the business world. Despite the headlines and in spite of crypto-cloistering, smart contracts are not overhyped. The ability to execute secure and complex business transactions is a barrier that keeps plenty of people out of business altogether. Moreover, every major company …

A decentralized virtual city is starting its transformation into a metaverse — enabling players to trade collectible NFTs on a scarce gaming map. MegaCryptoPolis began life as a 2D city builder game in May 2018, with the DApp running on Ethereum smart contracts. The following year, it received a 3D upgrade, and expanded to Tron in 2020. Every building that features on the gaming map is a non-fungible token owned by a player, and the team say every game action is a transaction minted on a blockchain. Now, the game’s developers have their sights set on an ambitious “World” upgrade …

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Chainlink (LINK) oracles have made their way to xDai, an Ethereum sidechain that has seen growing adoption among DApp developers who cannot afford to stay on the Ethereum mainnet. As announced by Chainlink on Thursday, its price feeds are live on the xDai mainnet, offering price data for an initial set of trading pairs including LINK/USD, AAVE/USD, DOT/USD and SUSHI/USD. More pairs can be quickly added if there is demand, the company said. The integration was completed by Protofire, a development workshop and xDai validator. The team received a Chainlink Community Grant to port native Chainlink oracles on xDai, including …

The Iota protocol (MIOTA) is continuing its pivot toward implementing smart contracts with an alpha release of IOTA Smart Contracts Protocol, or ISCP. As announced on Thursday, the project has released a more stable iteration of its smart contracts platform, which was previously in the pre-alpha stage. The new version signals a higher readiness of the technology, allowing developers to compile and test smart contracts for the first time. The smart contracts are based on Rust and the WebAssembly framework, putting it in a similar development environment as some of the more recent smart contract platforms like Polkadot and Near …

A crypto app that makes crypto asset management accessible to everyone says it is delivering the best of all worlds by bringing the advantages of centralized and decentralized finance together in one place. SwissBorg’s Smart Yield wallet enables investors to generate a return on their digital assets that isn’t based on whether the value of a coin is going up. The company’s systems scan a range of programs across the DeFi and CeFi space — scoring them based on risk versus reward. An automated and optimized approach means that users gain exposure to the best programs without needing to perform …

Wolfram Blockchain Labs, the cryptocurrency-centric division of popular computing engine provider Wolfram Alpha, is adding support for Tezos on its platform, providing a two-way interface with the blockchain. Announced on Monday, the integration adds support for Tezos blockchain data within the Wolfram Language, which allows developers to obtain analytical data from the blockchain. The language specializes in advanced statistical queries that analyze smart contract activity, and the integration primarily aims to ease the deployment of smart contracts on Tezos. In addition, Wolfram Blockchain has developed an oracle for Tezos that would supply its smart contracts with data available from Wolfram …