Matic Network, a smart-contract platform acting as both a layer one and layer two for Ethereum, announced on Thursday the full launch of five Chainlink price feeds that are set to power its ecosystem. Though there are many promised or existing Chainlink integrations outside of Ethereum, the majority of them are still in development or are indirectly using Ethereum feeds. Matic now features five price feeds: MATIC/USD, USDC/USD, ETH/USD, USDT/USD and DAI/USD, promising that more will come later. Chainlink’s Verifiable Randomness Function is set to be integrated soon as well, which would allow Matic app developers to build provably fair …

Oasis Labs has announced the successful launch of its Oasis Network mainnet, with more than 70 independent validators already live. Oasis is a privacy-focused layer-one network designed to support decentralized applications that claims a throughput of 1000 transactions per second. In June 2018, Oasis raised $45 million from crypto-venture heavyweights including A16z, Binance Labs, Pantera and Polychain. Oasis allows data to be encrypted, and for privacy policies surrounding its use to be enforced through smart contracts Oasis Labs says its “confidential compute” functionality enables encrypted data to be processed by the network’s nodes to ensure the privacy of a wide …

Top 20 crypto asset by market cap Tezos (XTZ) has successfully completed its latest upgrade, “Delphi,” which aims to reduce smart contract gas fees by 75% to attract decentralized finance developers to build on top of its blockchain. Delphi was proposed on Sept. 3. It’s a joint undertaking from Nomadic Labs, Metastatic, and Gabriel Algour intended to “help individuals developing smart contracts on Tezos.” According to a joint post from Delphi’s developers, the upgrade is “crucial to enable novel applications on Tezos that target areas like DeFi, collectibles, and gaming.” “The size and complexity of smart contracts is limited by …

Security company CertiK announced on Thursday the launch of QuickScan, an automated tool for scanning smart contracts for vulnerabilities. While it will not be a stand-alone tool, the suite is set to improve the analysis performed by the security oracles of CertiK Chain (CTK). QuickScan checks deployed smart contracts against a database of known vulnerabilities, using static and dynamic analysis techniques that check the bytecode, source code and access parameters for each smart contract. Daryl Hok, chief operating officer of CertiK, said that a smart contract analysis can be finished in less than an hour. The system assigns security scores …

CoinDCX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in India, is preparing its platform to support ETH 2.0 staking in anticipation of the Ethereum 2.0 launch. As the first phase of Ethereum 2.0 is expected to come online on Dec. 1, CoinDCX is now “all set” to introduce ETH 2.0 staking for the global crypto community, the exchange’s executives announced on Nov. 10. According to the announcement, CoinDCX’s smart contract-based solution will enable users to stake with 32 Ether (ETH) — the minimum amount required to participate in ETH 2.0 staking. Neeraj Khandelwal, co-founder CoinDCX told Cointelegraph that the contract will …

Blockchain developers can’t be accused of failing to keep up with the times. The unprecedented shake-up in the world’s labor markets during the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the underemployment trends of recent decades. Signs of a jobless recovery ahead is spurring citizens to turn to all kinds of digital piecework in the absence of social security and conventional employment benefits. To weather the sharp economic contraction and unpredictable pandemic lockdowns, 41% of businesses in a recent survey said they plan to expand their use of contractors for task-specialized work. Even ahead of the current crisis, the global gig economy was …

OpenZeppelin, a blockchain software company known for developing one of the most used implementations of the Ethereum ERC-20 contract, announced on Tuesday the release of a developer suite called Defender. The tool helps automate many of the development operations associated with running Ethereum-based decentralized apps. It provides a simple dashboard to manage upgrades and admin operations for existing smart contracts, which can help developers keep track of changes. Other features include a transaction relayer that simplifies integrations with web-based back ends, automated tasks like logging or oracle updates, and a general knowledge base of best practices in development. The company …

An astonishing 80% of central banks are engaging in work around central bank digital currencies, from research to experimentation and pilot programs. A recent Bank for International Settlements, or BIS, chart demonstrates the growing interest in CBDCs by central banks, as reflected in speeches and reports as well as people’s Google search interests over time. One country, in particular, to watch in this respect is China, which is emerging as one of the leaders in the shift to CBDCs. The People’s Bank of China introduced its CBDC in pilot form in the major city of Shenzhen and plans to use …

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is funding a major decentralized audio streaming service through its investment and incubation arm. According to an Oct. 23 announcement, Binance Labs led a $1.25 million extension round for Audius, a blockchain-enabled streaming service that connects music fans with artists. The latest investment round follows a $3.1 million round co-led by Multicoin Capital and Blockchange Ventures in July 2020. Major industry players like Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures also participated in the round, as previously announced. According to Audius Co-founder and CEO Roneil Rumburg, the latest rounds brings the platform's total investment up to …

Blockchain software firm Blockstack PBC announced that it will be changing its name to “Hiro Systems PBC.” Muneeb Ali, co-founder and CEO of Blockstack, told Cointelegraph that the team plans to focus on a narrower set of priorities once the stacks 2.0 mainnet launches — something they believe has the potential to unlock an “immense amount of value and possibility”: "We’ll narrow our focus to building tools for developers that are building apps and smart contracts on Bitcoin. This is enabled by the fact that the ecosystem around Stacks has matured (...) With key functions being taken care of by …

Alexander Lebedev, the owner of U.K. newspapers Evening Standard and The Independent, along with Russian publication Novaya Gazeta, has spoken glowingly of the potential for cryptocurrency and smart contracts to revolutionize finance. In an extensive 1800 word opinion piece published in The Independent on October 13, the billionaire predicted blockchain tech will disrupt what he described as a parasitic global banking oligopoly, asserting that “blockchain technologies and smart contracts will make it unnecessary to employ the vast majority of people in the financial sector.” Although he thinks the current “explosive growth of DeFi platforms is driven by a rapid influx …

Aztec, a privacy protocol developing on Ethereum (ETH), announced on Monday the launch of its second iteration, promising private transactions and smart contracts while being cheaper than standard transfers. The layer-two solution adopted by Aztec relies on zk-Rollups, similar to Loopring or ZkSync. All these protocols rely on zero-knowledge proofs to help Ethereum scale, but come with different benefits and focused use cases. Loopring focuses on the decentralized exchange experience, while ZkSync aims to be a generalized layer-two protocol that could boost Ethereum’s transactiona throughput. Aztec, in comparison, places a heavy focus on privacy while still allowing a certain degree …