While Ethereum has brought about a whole new realm of possibilities due to its native token Ether (ETH) and its smart contract and tokenization capabilities, it is often faced with challenges such as network congestion, relatively low transaction times and throughput, large blockchain size and excessive electricity use for mining — all issues Bitcoin also shares. While Bitcoin (BTC) was created by an anonymous developer that left the network to be developed by its capable community, Ethereum was always envisioned with a roadmap and a team behind it. While the plan has been subject to changes and delays, Ethereum has …

Cardano (ADA) has seen its value increase by around 50% since May 25. This recent value hike comes in the wake of project co-founder Charles Hoskinson revealing the roadmap for Cardano’s much-hyped “Shelley” upgrade via a YouTube podcast hosted by crypto pundit Lark Davis, also known as Cryptolark. As part of the aforementioned upgrade, the Cardano ecosystem will transition from being a centralized network to a distributed one. In regard to the matter, Hoskinson stated: “This is like Ripple changing its consensus protocol. [...] No cryptocurrency has really done this to this scale after they’ve rolled out.” Over the last …

An anonymous blockchain industry participant going by the name heyheeyheeey recently dropped an Ethereum 2.0 (ETH 2.0) staking solution on Medium in Satoshi-like fashion. The pseudonymous character did not do it for the fame, according to his recent comments to Cointelegraph. "The only thing that I'd like to clarify is that I wasn't paid, but I wasn't looking to get paid either," heyheeyheeey told Cointelegraph staff in a message. "For me it's a portfolio piece," they said, adding, "Unsolicited designs are very common in UX/UI design." The person's solution aims for scaling improvement With the public awaiting the release of …

Six high-profile crypto firms will participate in an ETH 2.0 staking pilot project using the ConsenSys Codefi platform. On June 17, ConsenSys tweeted that cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Crypto.com, digital asset custody providers Trustology, Matrixport and Huobi Wallet, and investment firm DARMA Capital would receive early access to an ETH 2.0 staking pilot thorough its decentralized finance Codefi platform. Increasing excitement for ETH 2.0 The move comes amid increasing excitement for the long-awaited ETH 2.0, which will integrate a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism into Ethereum (ETH). The rollout will see a network of validators receive fees in exchange for securing …

As the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade approaches, users have been showing an increasing interest in the staking process, which would allow them to make a passive income by validating the new network. This is evidenced by the growing number of Ether (ETH) wallets and ETH deposits on cryptocurrency exchanges. According to a recent report published by analytical company Arcane Research, the number of Ethereum wallets containing 32 ETH or more — the minimum amount of coins needed to run the staking node — have increased by 13% over the year, and the number of “Ethereum 2.0” Google search queries have grown …

As Ethereum is finally set to launch its Ethereum 2.0 upgrade later this year, putting an end to a long streak of delays, the network will start moving toward a proof-of-stake model. Consequently, the network will abandon the proof-of-work consensus algorithm, leaving Ether (ETH) miners with very few options. Since their equipment will become obsolete, they will be forced to start mining altcoins, or recertify as ETH stakers. So, what is the current state of ETH mining, and what exactly will happen to the industry as a result of the upcoming transition? GPU v. ASIC The Ethereum consensus is currently …

As the world awaits Ethereum (ETH) 2.0 staking implementation, someone operating under the pseudonym "heyheeyheeey" posted a Medium article with a solution based on the protocol. The concept is a "design for an ETH2 staking solution on top of Argent, that is fast and simple to use so that users with less time, knowledge or skills can join from the beginning," the author wrote on June 2. Argent is a crypto wallet solution with elements of decentralized finance, or DeFi compatibility. ETH 2.0 is on its way A big topic of discussion in 2020 so far, Ethereum 2.0 is essentially …

Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange TomoChain will launch a peer-to-peer, or P2P, lending feature on June 6 through its TomoDEX’s platform. According to an announcement, TomoDEX is the first decentralized exchange, or DEX, powered by the layer 1 protocol TomoX — which will have a maximum of 150 DEXs running on it. It’s currently in soft launch with spot trading enabled. The DEX boasts a reported speed of 2,000 transactions per second. Long Vuong, CEO of TomoChain said the P2P lending feature does require a trusted custodian and there will be no information asymmetry: “All functionality is handled through auditable smart contracts …

Cryptocurrency Algorand (ALGO) claims in its promotional materials to be the first proof-of-stake, or PoS, blockchain, but NXT lead developer Lior Yaffe claimed that his project was first. In a June 3 tweet, Yaffe accused Algorand’s of misleading the cryptocurrency community for marketing purposes, by falsely claiming to be the first PoS blockchain. He wrote: “The algorand marketing machine has misleadingly crowned themselves as the "First Pure Proof of Stake Blockchain.” A bold statement considering that NXT is the first project to introduce a working PoS blockchain after Peercoin pioneered a hybrid PoW one.” Yaffe: not a mistake in good …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Vega has launched a program to grant market makers early-access to the platform ahead of its public test-net launch. Vega comprises a Proof-of-Stake protocol that facilitates the creation of leveraged financial products. Vega’s "Liquidity and Market Maker Programme" has already attracted liquidity providers based in the United States, Israel, Singapore, Australia and Switzerland. Market makers given early access to Vega The startup believes that it can attract robust liquidity by offering liquidity providers significantly higher returns than traditional exchanges. Vega co-founder Tamlyn Rudolph speculated that market makers could earn between ten and 20 times that offered …

Decentralized application (DApp) platform Matic Network (MATIC) has successfully launched its mainnet following two and a half years of development. A June 1 blog post published by Matic notes that mainnet will be deployed over a series of phases to “ensure that the mainnet deployment and validator onboarding is achieved as smoothly as possible.” “More impantly, it ensures that right from day 1 that DApps are able to deploy their products successfully on Matic,” the post adds. MATIC crashes 20% in two days Despite Matic Network launching the first phase of its mainnet rollout, the price of MATIC has fallen …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is rolling out Tezos (XTZ) staking rewards for users in the United Kingdom and three European countries. In an announcement on May 28, the exchange revealed that users in the U.K., France, Spain and the Netherlands are now eligible to earn interest on their XTZ holdings for depositing and holding the token on the exchange. According to Coinbase, since this feature was launched in the United States back in November, users have earned over $2 million in XTZ staking rewards. What is staking? In blockchains that use a Proof-of-Stake system, staking enables network participants to earn …