Blockchain security firm CertiK has released a demo and language reference manual for its smart contract-focused DeepSEA programming language. Both CertiK and its affiliated R&D academic projects have received funding from the likes of Binance Labs, the Ethereum Foundation and Qtum. The firm shared details of the new release with Cointelegraph on Feb. 21. The DeepSEA demo, compiler and language reference manual released this week aims to give developers an in-depth and hands-on insight into the language’s design. A language fit for purpose DeepSEA is a smart contract functional programming language that was originally created at the research lab of …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced that it is about to launch a new futures product tracking crypto asset NEO. Per the announcement published on Feb. 16, the NEO/USDT futures will be launched on Feb. 17 and traders will be able to select leverage between 1x and 50x. The fees that the exchange imposes on trades of the contract in question are a 2% base initial margin rate, 1% base maintenance margin rate and a 0.5% liquidation fee. What is NEO? The Binance information page dedicated to NEO explains that it is an open source platform driven by its community that …

This is the second article in our series on integrating payment channels on Telegram Open Network. In the first part, we introduced the network, detailed our experience of the contest, and explained how synchronous and asynchronous smart contracts work. As the next addition to the series, this article details how we built a synchronous payment channel on the network during TON’s contest back in September. Here, we will be talking only about Fift (TON’s general-purpose programming language) and FunC (TON’s programming language for writing smart contracts). The TON white paper provides more in-depth information about payment channels, but we will …

Last year was an interesting one for blockchain and cryptocurrency, contrasting with past years in ways that go far beyond mere finance. It was a banner year for the maturation of the whole space, and not just in terms of the dollar price of your favorite cryptocurrency. Instead, 2019 has proven to those paying attention that blockchain is more alive than ever, and is exemplified by the growing sector’s most impressive and active participants. 1) Crypto custody and clearing gain momentum Gemini – Owned and operated by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Gemini was already one of the most popular global …

With Ether (ETH) breaking through the $200 mark yesterday, $1 billion in value is now locked in the DeFi markets. Total value locked in DeFi markets, Feb. 7. Source: defipulse.com As of Feb. 7, ETH is trading close to $220 — up 4.5% on the day and almost 22% on the week. Broadly speaking, DeFi is shorthand for decentralized finance, referring to the use of blockchain, digital assets and smart contracts in financial services such as credit and lending. According to analytics site Defipulse.com, the $1 billion locked in the markets — i.e. across the spectrum of smart contracts, protocols …

Venture arms for Salesforce and Samsung participated in a second Series C funding event for a startup called Digital Asset. After gathering $35 million in its first Series C raise that ended in December 2019, Digital Asset decided to run another round, a Feb. 4 press release read. This second Series C funding attracted investment from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation and Salesforce Ventures, among others. “Salesforce Ventures and Samsung joining our Series C financing round demonstrates the potential that technology giants see in DAML as the standard for smart contracts,” Digital Asset Co-Founder and CEO Yuvol Rooz said in the …

Block.one announced a smart contract blockchain puzzle, touting a $200,000 prize for whoever figures it out. “In this challenge, participants must create an EOSIO Smart Contract which can store and invoke EVM (Solidity) Smart Contracts in a virtual Ethereum-like environment,” a Feb. 3 announcement on EOSIO’s DevPost detailed. EOSIO platform Built by a company known as Block.one, the EOSIO blockchain hosts the EOS crypto asset. As a delegated proof-of-stake blockchain touting smart contracts, developers can build decentralized applications on EOSIO. The competition will expire in one year if no one solves the puzzle. The competition ends as soon as someone …

The latest analysis by research firm Gartner has painted a mixed picture of the benefits that blockchain-based smart contracts can offer enterprises. While the study, published Jan. 30, concluded that smart contracts would be overall net positive for business, Gartner warned that the terms and conditions set for smart contracts could limit the availability of data for enterprises: “This variable could leave participants in a worse position than if they did not participate in the blockchain smart contract process. As such, an organization’s overall data asset availability would decrease by 30 percent by 2023.” Nonetheless, an enterprise can expect to …

Algorand officially unveiled a suite of new features to its pure-proof-of-stake network at the end of November, dubbed Algorand 2.0. The latest suite of technical innovation by the emerging “frictionless finance” network, the upgrade encompasses the official commissioning of smart contracts on the network, along with the Algorand Standard Assets, or ASA, and atomic transfers. Algorand started off with a bang through its $60 million initial coin offering, which led into its vaunted technology upgrade — Algorand 2.0. Designed for building decentralized finance products, enterprise-scale DApps, and business-ready blockchain solutions, Algorand 2.0 presents a compelling option for developers focused on …

Cardano (ADA) revealed a new paper on Jan. 27 in which the firm details how smart contracts will be implemented in the upcoming Goguen update. Though the system is unique, its release date is still uncertain in light of Cardano’s history of delays. How EUTXO works The Extended UTXO model was specifically designed as an improvement on Bitcoin’s (BTC) pure UTXO architecture. In Bitcoin, each transaction is based on the concept of outputs and inputs, representations of specific amounts of BTC. A specific transaction simply takes some Bitcoin in the form of inputs and reshapes them into different outputs. Similar …

Ditto Music will launch Bluebox, a blockchain recording technology that could be a boon to musicians and distributors alike. What it’s all about The problem, says Ditto Music CEO Lee Parsons, is that misplaced metadata can end up eating away at the bottom line. Recently Ditto made a royalty payment of 60,000 pounds sterling ($80,000) to the wrong artist. Parsons reportedly had to pay the correct artist out of his own pocket. But Bluebox will allow artists to address legal concerns, such as copyright registration, publishing, and mechanical splits. The app records music around legally-binding smart contracts, which are written …

Over the last 10 years, the Bitcoin ecosystem has attracted developers to dedicate thousands of hours to improve and revamp most of its underlying codebase. Yet, Bitcoin (BTC) is largely the same. The reason for this is that its core set of consensus rules that define its monetary properties, such as its algorithmic inflation and hard-coded supply, remain unchanged. Time and time again, factions have attempted to change these core properties, but all hostile takeovers thus far have failed. It’s often a painful process but one that highlights and solidifies two of Bitcoin’s biggest virtues: No single party can dictate …