Major cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has announced that it purchased blockchain infrastructure company and investment manager Staked for an undisclosed amount. In a Tuesday announcement, Kraken — the crypto exchange aiming for a $10 billion valuation — said it had added Staked to its portfolio of yield products following the acquisition. The company described the Staked deal as “one of the largest crypto industry acquisitions to date” but did not disclose the amount. According to Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, Staked users will have access to Kraken’s portfolio of yield products. Staked CEO Tim Ogilvie cited the exchange’s “commitment to supporting proof-of-stake …

Cointelegraph is following the development of an entirely new blockchain from inception to mainnet and beyond through its series, Inside the Blockchain Developer’s Mind. In previous parts, Andrew Levine of Koinos Group discussed some of the challenges the team has faced since identifying the key issues they intend to solve, and outlined three of the “crises” that are holding back blockchain adoption: upgradeability, scalability and governance. This series is focused on the consensus algorithm: Part one is about proof-of-work, part two is about proof-of-stake and part three is about proof-of-burn. In the first article in the series, I explored proof-of-work …

NFT marketplace Rarible officially launched its integration with proof-of-stake blockchain Tezos pm Thursday. This collaboration will allow Rarible to feature Tezos NFTs on its marketplace and support secondary sales of live Tezos projects while enabling users to mint low-fee NFTs. Rarible’s integration with Tezos marks the third layer 1 blockchain supported by the platform, alongside Ethereum and Flow, Dapper Labs’ blockchain network that powers NBA Top Shot. In Rarible’s effort to build a multi-chain platform to consolidate the NFT space, integrations with Solana and Polygon are next, according to Rarible CEO Alexei Falin, who told Cointelegraph: “Rarible firmly believes that …

Cointelegraph is following the development of an entirely new blockchain from inception to mainnet and beyond through its series Inside the Blockchain Developer’s Mind. In previous parts, Andrew Levine of Koinos Group discussed some of the challenges the team has faced since identifying the key issues they intend to solve and outlined three of the “crises” that are holding back blockchain adoption: upgradeability, scalability and governance. This series is focused on the consensus algorithm: Part 1 is about proof-of-work, Part 2 is about proof-of-stake and Part 3 is about proof-of-burn. This article is the second in my series about consensus …

Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Ripple Chris Larsen has unveiled his plan for Bitcoin miners to move away from Proof of Work (PoW), saying they should view it as “a net positive for their longevity.” He argues it could provide a major boost to the share prices of listed mining firms “as any new code proposal would almost certainly have to include lucrative incentives to gain their support.” PoW is the consensus algorithm that secures Bitcoin (BTC) transactions on the blockchain. While the Bitcoin network is the most secure and reliable, the amount of energy BTC mining requires causes endless …

In contrast, a transaction on Tezos takes 0.0016 kWh or less than the energy required to charge an Apple Tablet for 10 minutes. 100 Tezos transactions is equivalent to driving 10 km in a Tesla Model 3. The energy use of the entire Tezos network is approximately equivalent to two households in the U.S. for the whole year. One question, though, is how competing blockchains such as Tezos, Polkadot and Solana will perform on the market once Ethereum transitions to Eth2. According to Cointelegraph Research’s original investigation into the most energy-efficient blockchains for nonfungible tokens (NFT), the Ethereum network is …

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has added a mirrored version of the Ethereum blockchain's native token Ether (ETH) to its crypto price index, just ahead of a key network upgrade on Dec. 10. Dubbed "ETH2," the symbol appeared to have been tracking the original Ether market data synchronously. For instance, the cost to purchase ETH2 came out to be the same as that for ETH. Meanwhile, their market capitalization, volume, circulating supply, and price changes were also identical. Coinbase is already promoting eth2 as a new coin? pic.twitter.com/C67UxooLU0 — Nuno (@nvcoelho) December 6, 2021 Nonetheless, unlike the original, the ETH2 token had …

By 2021, proof-of-stake (PoS) anchored itself as the consensus mechanism of choice for new and innovative blockchains. Ethereum 2.0, Cardano, Solana, Polkadot, Terra Luna — five out of the top 10 base layer blockchains run on PoS. It’s easy to see why PoS blockchains are popular: The ability to put tokens to work — verifying transactions and earning a reward in the process — allows investors to earn a passive yield while improving the security of the blockchain network they’d invested in. While blockchains make incredible progress, the financial products and services available to institutional investors struggle to keep up. …

Cosmos (ATOM) has the potential to record major gains in the upcoming weeks primarily because its longer-timeframe chart is showing a bullish continuation pattern. Dubbed "bull flag," the structure appears as the asset trends lower while bouncing between two downward sloping trendlines. However, it eventually breaks out of the range, in the direction of its previous trend, with a profit target at length equal to the size of its previous uptrend which is also known as the flagpole. Therefore, in a "perfect" world, if ATOM is to break above the flag's upper trendline (with a rise in trading volume), it …

Ethereum (ETH) developers have put out a call to the community to help test the long awaited Merge between the Ethereum Mainnet and the proof-of-stake (PoS) based Beacon Chain. The Merge is a major milestone towards the transition to Eth2 as it will see the Ethereum network become a PoS blockchain, decreasing its energy consumption by 99%. On Nov. 29 Ethereum developer Marius van der Wijden announced a new program to get the community involved in Merge testing that caters to three tiers: non-technical users, developers with limited experience in blockchain and highly technical and experienced blockchain developers. Testing is …

DeFi banking protocol MELD recently made headlines for attracting more than $1 billion worth of staked Cardano (ADA) to its protocol through a novel funding mechanism called an initial stake pool offering, or ISPO, marking an important innovation in how early adopters support blockchain startups. Cointelegraph had the opportunity to connect with MELD CEO Ken Olling to discuss the significance of the ISPO as well as Cardano’s role in facilitating widescale participation in the stake pools. ISPO: An overview The ISPO is a novel way for investors and other early adopters to support a project by delegating cryptocurrency to public …

Ether (ETH) investors have no reason to complain after the 344% gains accumulated in 2021 until Nov. 24. Still, analysts fear that the $4,000 resistance test on Nov. 19 is forming a descending channel that aims at $3,600 by mid-December, an 18% correction from the current $4,400 price. Despite outperforming Bitcoin (BTC) by 16% in the past month alone and the ETH/BTC pair climbing to 10-week highs, Ether seems to be struggling with its own success. Users continue to complain about Ethereum gas fees, averaging over $45 over the past three weeks. However problematic that can be, it leaves no …