Category: Cryptocurrency News

Welcome to the Daily Discussion. Please read the disclaimer and rules before participating.   Disclaimer: Consider all information posted here with several liberal heaps of salt, and always cross check any information you may read on this thread with known sources. Any trade information posted in this open thread may be highly misleading, and could…
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The software platform Cardano has entered the third stage of its roadmap, the Basho era. It promises to improve the network’s performance and scalability. Cardano’s roadmap is “a summary of Cardano development” divided into five eras to deliver improvements in diverse functionalities of the network that are “delivered across multiple code releases”. Now that the platform’s core smart contract capability Plutus has been deployed, the launch of the Basho era focuses on scaling Cardano, promising “Parameter adjustments, improvements, enhancements and other innovations” supposed to increase the network’s capacity. They also call it “an era of optimization”, promising to enhance the performance and interoperability “to better support growth and adoption for applications with high transaction volume.” It is supposed to bring high performance, resiliency, and flexibility to the network. Related Reading | Cardano Foundation Completes Funding To Plant 1 Million Trees Scalability And Interoperability Scalability and interoperability are some of the main solutions that Cardano wants to offer as the “ethereum killer”. While the Ethereum network is working to handle up to 100,000 transactions per second (tps), Cardano plans to reach millions of tps through the second-layer solution Hydra. On the interoperability’s side, the Basho stage will introduce the sidechains, “new blockchains, interoperable with the main Cardano chain”, which eventually intends to allow the blockchains, with different architectures and codes, to be able to communicate: interoperate. The Cardano Roadmap explains that “Sidechains can be used as a sharding mechanism by off-loading work from the main chain onto a sidechain to increase the capacity of the network. They can also be used to introduce experimental features without affecting the security of the main blockchain.” Similarly, this stage will also introduce parallel accounting styles: “the ability to support and switch between UTXO and account-based models will be added using sidechains.” This is also meant to enhance interoperability and “support new kinds of use cases on the network.” “Building on these foundations, and steadily increasing capacity and throughput to deal with the growth in the DApp ecosystem and onboard first hundreds of thousands, then millions of new users. From DeFi degens to citizens of developing nations.” Cardano has been widely criticized for its slow start. Many people thought the platform was lagging behind, noting it took a long time to deploy its first smart contract. However, the CEO of the Cardano Foundation Frederik Gregaard argues that they take a careful approach to launch functions, with rigorous testing and peer review. This time around, the Basho stage’s launch report noted that they expect “periods of high demand, network congestion at times”, but they see it as part of the ‘journey’ and added that they will be maintaining a “considered, safe approach”. “We’re on an exciting journey and usage will be high. While we may at times feel impatient, this is the way. Here’s how we will optimize and scale as we grow.” What The Basho Era Promises To Solve The optimization and scalability improvements have been divided in the report between “on-chain solutions” and “off-chain solutions”. Here is what they intend to solve: For on-chain solutions: Block size increase: the network recently increased the block size by 12.5% to 72KB and “further increases will be applied over time”. Pipelining: intends to propagate blocks “to at least 95% of peers within five seconds” to provide “the headroom to make more aggressive scaling changes”. Input Endorsers: “This improves the consistency of block propagation times and allows higher transaction rates.” Memory /CPU parameters for Plutus: improves the efficiency of memory usage across the chain. Plutus script enhancements: a “more effective usage of the powerful EUTXO model through smart contract optimization,” Node enhancements: intends to “help even distribution of stake and reward computations across the epochs”. The new node version “reduces peak load at critical points,” On-disk storage: “RAM-constrained systems will be able to run nodes (…) and memory will no longer be a bottleneck on scalability.” For off-chain solutions: Sidechains: “Assets can be moved between chains as needed.” Hydra: “provides a more efficient means to process transactions off-chain,” Off-chain computing: “Transactions occur outside of the blockchain itself, yet can offer fast, cheap transactions via a trust model.” Mithril: results in “Multi-signature aggregation that is fast and efficient without compromising security features.” Related Reading | Cardano’s Ecosystem Explodes, Why ADA Could Be Quick To Resume Bullish Trend ADA’s Price ADA trades at $1,28 at the time of writing, up 3.74% in the last 24 hours, but 59.1% down from its last peak in September 2021. ADA trading at $1,28 in the daily chart | Source: ADAUSD on TradingView.com

I have about 1000 DAI locked inside a Compound saving account (1000 $ the initial amount plus 30 profit actually) and I want to withdraw all of it without loosing anything if possible. I have only earned 30 $ so far and that amount will not even cover half of the TX fees according to…
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Trying to understand how and when smart contacts written in Solidity will be used. They can't be particularly frequently used in the future, if the gas fees remain high. I mean, it will only be few and important ones that will be used, where people are willing to pay a lot. Doesn't that kinda defeat…
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Visa and ConsenSys, a blockchain software startup, are working to develop a central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot program to explore retail applications such as cards and wallets. Both firms will first meet with an estimated 30 central banks to discuss the goals that governments hope to achieve with government-backed digital currency. The pilot program is scheduled to begin in the spring of this year. Visa To Pilot CBDC In Select Countries Visa (V) announced on Thursday that it will take its crypto services to the next level by teaming with blockchain software company Consensys to create a central bank digital currency onramp (CBDC). The payments giant plans to launch a “CBDC sandbox” in the spring, where central banks can try out the technology after minting it on Consensys’ Quorum network. Visa Trades At $214. Source: TradingView Customers will be able to use their CBDC-linked Visa card or digital wallet anyplace Visa is accepted globally, according to Catherine Gu, Visa’s head of CBDC, who spoke with ConsenSys in a blog post Q&A. Gu Said: “If successful, CBDC could expand access to financial services and make government disbursements more efficient, targeted and secure – that’s an attractive proposition for policy makers.” A CBDC is a type of central bank obligation that is issued in digital form and can be used by the general public, comparable to the US dollar. Related article | Visa Survey Shows Crypto Payments Could Boom In 2022 Countries Are Launching CBDCs The decision comes as regulators around the world struggle to figure out how to treat CBDCs in a changing financial landscape dominated by cryptocurrencies. The notion that crypto and digital money will upend financial markets or replace fiat currency is a major issue. Mastercard also announced the launch of a CBDC test platform in 2020, which allowed banks to simulate the issuance, distribution, and exchange of CBDCs amongst banks, financial service providers, and consumers. “Central banks are moving from research to actually wanting to have a tangible product they can experiment with,” Chuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto. If Visa is successful, it might help bridge the gap between central banks and financial institutions. Visa is accepted by over 80 million merchant locations worldwide. In the last year and a half, the number of countries investigating CBDCs has more than doubled. According to the Atlantic Council’s CBDC tracker, at least 87 different countries — accounting for 90% of global GDP — are considering financial technology in some way. China has already started a number of digital yuan pilot initiatives and plans to accept the currency for the Beijing Winter Olympics. Nigeria and the Bahamas have their own CBDCs in circulation. In early December, Visa announced the formation of a worldwide crypto advisory practice to assist financial institutions in developing their cryptocurrency operations as demand for crypto goods grows. Related article | Visa Is Building A Payment Channel Network On Ethereum Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView.com

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The trend of blockchain adoption is set to continue in 2022. Here are three sectors that are likely to pivot toward DLT solutions.

MicroStrategy has been topping its bitcoin holdings in the last year and is now the public company with the largest bitcoin holdings in the world. Presently, the firm holds over 124K BTC on its balance sheet, worth over $5 billion, remaining in profit despite the recent downtrend. However, with such a large holding, one tends to wonder what the company plans to do with the digital asset in the future. Bitcoin Is Unstoppable MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor was on CNBC to talk about the future of the firm which had made a name for itself due to its various bitcoin buys. Saylor who is a big proponent of the digital asset and a BTC maximalist talked about what the firm had planned for the future, as well as what it planned to do with its bitcoin holdings going forward. Related Reading | Bitcoin Is Massively Overvalued, Billionaire ’Bond King’ Jeff Gundlach The CEO starts out by explaining that he remains a strong supporter of bitcoin, which he refers to as “compelling and unstoppable.” This has previously been highlighted at various times by Saylor with his public support for the digital asset. At every possible moment, the CEO has said that bitcoin is the answer to major problems like inflation and is the leading digital property. On the topic of regulation, Saylor explains that he believes that regulation would, in the end, be beneficial for the digital asset. “The regulatory clarity is going to accelerate institutional adoption of bitcoin and you’re going to see large flows of capital enter the asset class as this continues,” the CEO said. BTC trending at $43K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com What MicroStrategy Has Planned For The Future As for MicroStrategy’s plan for the future, the CEO explained that the company will continue to operate as it always has. The company which sells enterprise software has been very profitable so far. With its bitcoin plan, it has seen an uptick in profitability and its stock is up by a factor of four, according to Saylor. Related Reading | Why Sovereign Nation States May Begin Acquiring Bitcoin In 2022 “Look, our long term strategy is kind of like Harvard University. We’re running a university but we have an endowment. MicroStrategy is selling enterprise software. We generate $100 million in cash flow a year – in a good year – and we are reinvesting that cash in our endowment. Our endowment is 100% bitcoin.” Saylor adds that MicroStrategy plans to acquire and hold bitcoin as a balance sheet. As for the operations, the company will continue to sell its enterprise software everywhere in the world. Featured image from CoinDesk, chart from TradingView.com