Bran Cohen, best known as author of the peer-to-peer (P2P) BitTorrent protocol, has responded to some of Vitalik Buterin’s opinions about the state of technology around cryptocurrencies. On Nov. 25, Cohen, also the current CEO of the Chia network, explained in a Twitter thread why he considers many of Vitalik’s opinions in his Nov. 22 blog post addressing the so-called “hard problems in cryptocurrency,” to be “wrong-headed.” Sharding is not the only option Cohen started out by taking a few stabs at Vitalik’s views on sharding and blockchain scalability, where the Ethereum co-founder points out that fully sharded blockchains still …

Team lead at the Ethereum (ETH) Foundation Péter Szilágyi has confirmed Dec. 4 as the expected date for the network’s forthcoming Istanbul hard fork. In two tweets posted on Nov. 7, Szilágyi indicated that Istanbul will commence at block 9069000. He provided Geth mainnet node operators with a link to a new maintenance release designed to begin the hard fork’s initialization. Geth is the name given to one of the two most popular clients used to operate nodes on the Ethereum network — the other being Parity, which will update upon the activation of Istanbul but is now in the …

Jihan Wu, co-founder and CEO of Chinese mining giant Bitmain, believes the next Bitcoin (BTC) block reward halving may not lead to a bull market, but the coin’s price will grow in the long term. According to Chinese industry news outlet 8BTC’s report published on Oct. 11, Wu made his remarks during the World Digital Mining Summit held in Frankfurt. Bulls may be late this time Per the report, Wu explained that the crypto market moves in cycles and this time the next bullish phase may not start after the halving. He is also confident that in a long-term perspective …

Leading Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) producer Bitmain announced two new series 17 Bitcoin (BTC) mining machines in a blog post published on Oct. 9. Bitmain: higher efficiency and hashrate Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu announced the S17+ and T17+ mining machines at the World Digital Mining Summit (WDMS) in Frankfurt. Bitmain claims that the new ASICs feature improvements to power efficiency and hashrate. The post states that the new hardware is capable of performing tens of trillions of hashes per second (TH/s): “The Antminer S17+ has a hash rate of 73 TH/s and operates with a power efficiency of 40 …

The Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation stopped the illegal import of four crypto mining devices from Mongolia into Russia. Crypto mining equipment confiscated On Oct. 1 Coinspot reported that a Mongolian citizen was trying to smuggle the mining devices with fans and connected microcircuits across the Russia-Mongolia border into Russian territory. The custom services explained that the smuggler was detained by Altai customs officers during a border check in Tashanta. The detainee couldn’t provide any legal documents for the crypto mining equipment, which was then confiscated by the authorities. Criminals rarely use crypto to withdraw stolen money Cointelegraph …

Electronics giant Samsung filed for a patent in May 2019 titled, “Programmable Blockchain Solid State Drive and Switch.” Even though few details are known about the newly designed system, a surge in patent applications filed by large corporations on blockchain is clearly visible. Related: Bank of America’s Blockchain Foray: Patent Trolling or Hedging Risks? Patent wars — i.e., battles between corporations or individuals to secure patents for litigation — are certainly not new. They have been widely practiced in the tech ecosystem since the times of Alexander Graham Bell at the turn of the 20th century, who was involved in …

Leading mining Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) producer Bitmain announced two new S17 miners in a news release shared with Cointelegraph. The two new mining ASICs, the S17e and the T17e, will both be launched on Sept. 9. The company claims that both the new models feature improvements, which should translate to higher efficiency, more stable operation and more longevity. ASIC specifications released Bitmain also released the specifications of both the newly announced mining machines. The S17e has a hash rate of 64 TH/s and operates with a power efficiency of 45 J/TH, while the T17e offers a hash rate …

Chinese mining and mining Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) manufacturer Bitmain lost $625 million in the first two months of this year, local media QQ reports on Aug. 2. Hundreds of millions lost Per the report, the firm sustained losses of $625 million by March, $345 during January, and $280 million during February. Those results were reportedly driven by the sales of outdated 16 nanometer ASICs at low prices, and once the inventory is cleared of those machines, new profits are expected from the sale of new, 7 nanometer mining rigs. The gross profit margin of the company is expected …

Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Grin has completed the first hardfork so far on its mainnet. The fork occurred at block height 262,080 on July 17, as shown on the Grin block explorer Blockscan. According to an official announcement from Grin core dev Quentin Le Sceller, the latest blockchain hardfork is designed to discourage Grin mining through dedicated application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and also includes a new iteration of its bulletproof rewind scheme for Grin wallets. As previously discussed by Cuckoo Cycle author John Tromp, there is reportedly no sign of users deploying ASICs to mine Grin yet; however, Grin’s secondary Proof-of-Work …

Cryptocurrency investment products and research firm CoinShares estimates that 74.1% of bitcoin (BTC) mining is powered by renewable energy in its bi-annual mining report published on June 5. The report also claims that “at current prices, the average miner is highly profitable, with even older gear and high-cost producers currently able to make positive ROI.” The paper also notes that bitcoin mining operations are concentrated where there is ample renewable energy supply. Still, the report also notes: “The renewables estimate is down from 77.8% in our November 2018 report and reflects increased visibility of the industry on our part as …

Privacy-centric cryptocurrency Grin is finalizing its timeline for its first-ever network hard fork, according to a proposed timeline uploaded by Grin core developer Quentin Le Sceller to Github dev community forum Gitter on June 5. Grin is a privacy coin that implements scalability- and privacy-focused Mimblewimble protocol — named after a fictional tongue-tying curse from the popular Harry Potter novels. Mimblewimble is in part a variant of the cryptographic protocol known as Confidential Transactions, which allows for transactions to be obfuscated yet verifiable so as to achieve both heightened privacy and the prevention of double spending. According to Le Sceller’s …

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) on May 30, 2019 published an updated guideline for initial coin offerings (ICOs) and cryptocurrency trading. These new guidelines are aimed at helping cryptocurrency-related businesses understand their compliance requirements vis-à-vis existing laws contained in the Australian Corporations and ASIC Acts. The ASIC’s revampled ICO and cryptocurrency trading framework does not, however, cover guidelines for other regulators like the country’s tax agency and consumer protection group. The securities regulator say crypto businesses will have to refer to the published laws by those respective bodies. By updating its ICO regulatory provisions, the ASIC is setting …