Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

TOP 4 BLOCKCHAIN RISKS A CIO SHOULD KNOW

Enterprises in every sector are trying to adopt blockchain technology and build various blockchain-based platforms and applications to benefit from its features, such as its decentralized nature, distributed ledger technology, transparency, privacy, etc. Although blockchains technical implementation is increasing every day, so are the blockchain risks associated with this advancement. It is essential to identify blockchain risks and plan security measures to eliminate the threats or mitigate their impact on the entire organization.　　Blockchain technology could be a boon for your organizations technical evolution. However, you might be worried about the blockchain risks that come with it. This blog will cover everything you need to know about the various risks you have to pay attention to achieve efficient and effective results from blockchain products.　　Types of Blockchain Risks　　The four significant blockchain risks are as follows:　　1. Vendor Risks　　With enterprises widely adopting digital ledger technology and decentralization to create blockchain-based platforms and applications, the need to take new measures to provide more security arose. This led companies to use third-party applications and platforms for blockchain payment platforms, wallets, smart contracts, and more. The demand for third-party solutions has gained momentum, but it also suggests that enterprises wishing to use such solutions must verify the

2021-03-09Deep Dive

Landmark Day Marking Cardano’s Full Decentralization Is Almost Here

Cardano is fast approaching one of the important days in its history: March 31. On this day, the Ethereum challenger will become fully decentralized, delegating all the block generation to its community pools.　　Cardano has been working towards becoming fully decentralized for eight months now. In July last year, the project launched the Shelley update, becoming a proof-of-stake blockchain platform. However, at the time, all the block generation was handled by federated nodes owned by IOHK, the company behind the project. This led to concerns over its centralization.　　However, as IOHK notes in a new blog post, the landmark day marking Cardano‘s decentralization is almost here. On March 31, the company will delegate 100% of the projects’ transaction processing to the community.　　In the post, Colin Edwards, a Quantitative Strategist with IOHK stated, “At the end of March, we‘ll reach another significant milestone for Cardano when we’ll see d, the parameter that governs what percentage of transactions are processed by the genesis nodes, get to zero. At this point, responsibility for block generation will be fully decentralized. In other words, Cardanos network of 1800+ community pools will be solely responsible for producing blocks.”　　Since deploying the Shelley update in July, IOHK has been reducing

2021-03-09Deep Dive

HOW DAFI IS RESHAPING CRYPTO INCENTIVE MODELS

Defi token sales are seeing huge demand right now, with everyone looking to capitalize on the release of the latest IDOs from emerging crypto projects. The token launch of an innovative project is just the first step in creating a sustainable ecosystem, with a community of early stakeholders necessary to evangelize the platform.　　The success of cryptocurrency IDOs has been a blessing and a curse for project development teams. They provide access to large amounts of capital, but they also lose many established community members in the process who cannot help but capitalize on the massive gains from the private sale to public listing. With many projects seeing significant price gains after issuing their token on the secondary market, DAFI has created a solution to incentivize early adopters to hold their tokens long term.　　A democratic and open market is essential for users to realize the full value of their assets, but as we‘ve seen, these price gains have a significant impact on a project’s sustainability in the long run. To combat this, DAFI has introduced a program that allows project teams to create synthetic tokens to reward their token holders over an extended period. Using this method, projects can protect against

2021-03-09Deep Dive

EIP 1559: What It Means For The Ethereum Blockchain

In 2013, developer Vitalik Buterin proposed an open-source public service utilizing blockchain technology. The technology would, in Buterins proposal, facilitate secure smart contracts and cryptocurrency trading without third party intervention. This was how the Ethereum Blockchain began its life, launching to its mainnet in 2015, and receiving development upgrades over the years.　　According to publicly available documentation, the most recent proposal for EIP 1559 (Ethereum Improvement Proposal) on the Ethereum blockchain has been approved.　　EIP 1559 resolves a pending problematique in the Ethereum blockchain: the inaccuracy of gas fee estimates. With the update slated for implementation before Q3 2021, Ethereum users will now have a more fairly accurate estimate of the average gas price of a transaction based on the networks internal averages. Before the proposals implementation, the circulating supply of Ether has been regarded as theoretically infinite, opening the blockchain to criticisms of being unstable and inflationary in character.　　The proposal will effectively reduce the circulating supply of Ether by a process of burning or elimination each time it is used to complete transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. The rapid increase in the usage of the Ethereum and decentralized applications built on top of its core blockchain has led to bottlenecks in

2021-03-09Deep Dive

A Debt-Fuelled Economic Crisis & Bitcoin: What to Expect?

It‘s hard to shake the fact that bitcoin (BTC)’s ascent from one fresh all-time high to another in recent months has taken place amid a backdrop of a struggling global economy. The United States GDP infamously tanked by a record 32.9% in Q2 2020 and fell by 3.5% across 2020 as a whole, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected in June that the global economy would shrink by nearly 5% across the same period.　　These are somber figures, yet some economists are suggesting that things could get even worse. Economists at the IMF recently warned that public and private debt — which were already rising in 2019 — could reach tipping point as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, crippling the global economy to the point where it cant properly recover.　　Meanwhile, the US might approve their new USD 1.9trn coronavirus relief package in the coming days.　　Economists and analysts speaking to Cryptonews.com largely agree with this assessment, even if they disagree on the timeline involved in any debt- and coronavirus-fuelled economic crisis. And while some suggest that commodities such as gold and silver may benefit from any acute crisis, others claim that the bitcoin and cryptoasset markets will suffer, as people

2021-03-09Deep Dive

Stellar Foundation CEO: How to Recruit More Women to Crypto

Denelle Dixon is CEO and Karen Chang is VP of Engineering at Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), a nonprofit organization designed to help grow the Stellar blockchain network.　　They are two female executives in an industry dominated by men, but in an organization that has managed to buck the trend. Thirty-nine of SDFs 81 employees are women.　　Dixon and Chang appeared on The Decrypt Daily podcast to discuss how diversity and inclusion can help cryptocurrency companies and organizations—and what they can do to move beyond buzzwords.　　“Its not rocket science that when you have diverse backgrounds and perspectives that actually bring everybody to the table, it allows different conversations to happen,” Dixon told host Matthew Aaron Diemer. “We see it all the time when theres someone missing from the table, that the product actually misses a component of whats needed in society.”　　One practical way of achieving this, she said, is by mandating that diverse candidates be interviewed for each open job. “When you start there and then you just hire the best candidate...the best candidates oftentimes end up being the ones that represent these different perspectives.”　　Yet, while other organizations, such as the NFL, have instituted similar policies, they havent all had similar results. While

2021-03-09Deep Dive

Three Developments For Bitcoin According to Citi

US-headquartered international banking giant Citi just released a mostly bullish 107-page report about Bitcoin (BTC), its achievements and what might happen next, while some other analysts forecast “a downward spiral” for BTC.　　In its report from the GPS series, Citi stressed three developments for Bitcoin:　　“Growing acceptance by businesses, availability at ATMs, and payment services indicate cryptocurrencies are increasingly gaining a presence in the mainstream.”　　“As crypto business models mature and institutional demand increases, existing entities are revamping their offerings and new entrants are emerging to provide enhanced data and exchange, trading, and custody services for institutional investors.”　　“As its global reach continues to expand, Bitcoins borderless design and other features may position it to become an international trade currency in the future.”　　Per the authors of the report, the resistance that BTC faced in its early days “may now be melting away.”　　“The vision of Bitcoin as a force that will transform the world may seem self-evident in just a few more years. The fact this progression has occurred in just over a decade makes Bitcoin remarkable regardless of its future,” they said.　　According to them, its still unknown whether BTC maintains its position and how far the potential transformation it has inspired extends. In either

2021-03-09Deep Dive

It’s Official: PayPal to Acquire Crypto Custodian Curv

The leading payment processor, PayPal, announced today that it has agreed to purchase the digital asset custody company, Curv. It said that it will complete the acquisition in the first quarter of the year.　　Rumors Confirmed True As PayPal Acquire Curv　　Reports surfaced last week that PayPal was planning to acquire cryptocurrency security firm, Curv. There were no concrete evidence to buttress the claims, but the leading payment giants have now made it official via a press release today.　　The companys decision to purchase Curv reaffirms its mandate to remain closely knitted to the digital asset space and become a major player in the rapidly changing financial world. According to the statement released on its website, PayPal said the rationale behind its latest acquisition is “to accelerate and expand its initiatives to support cryptocurrencies and digital assets.”　　PayPals blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies vice president and general manager, Jose Fernandez da Ponte had a few words to say about the latest addition.　　“The acquisition of Curv is part of our effort to invest in the talent and technology to realize our vision for a more inclusive financial system. During our conversations with Curv‘s team, we’ve been impressed by their technical talent, entrepreneurial spirit, and the

2021-03-09Deep Dive

South Korean Crypto Transactions Command an Average of $7 Billion per Day on Domestic Exchanges

An investigation unveiled a growing fever among crypto traders in South Korea, who actively transact cryptocurrencies every day. Local media outlets are returning to adopt the term“crypto fever”as the recent billion-dollar figures confirm such a trend.　　Figures Are Now Higher Than 2018　　According to the report made by Dong-A, a major South Korean newspaper, domestic crypto investors transacted around $7 billion per day in the period ranging from January 1 to February 25, 2021.　　Kim Byeong-wook, a parliamentary member of the Democratic Party, compiled the numbers by extracting data from Bithumb, Upbit, Korbit, and Coinone, the most prominent local crypto exchanges.　　Per the study, 42% of the average volume was traded on the KOSPI stock exchange. The newspaper pointed out that this is the first time that investors statistics of the four major South Korean crypto exchanges see the light.　　In the same period, the study showed that users of the four exchanges transacted approximately $395 billion. Such a number is well above the 2020 figure of $315.5 billion. Dong-A detailed that South Koreans aged 20-39 are the ones who have been allocating thousands of dollars recently on crypto investments.　　Tesla and Paypal Helping to Fuel the Interest Towards Cryptos　　The newspaper explained the reasons behind the

2021-03-09Deep Dive

The Blockchain: Understanding Transaction Throughput on the Distributed Ledger

Cryptocurrencies manage to garner more users to trade and secure sufficient incomes every day. Consequently, the number of digital assets on the market continues to surge as the cumulative number of cryptocurrencies surpasses the 7900 mark. However, as more investors engage with digital currencies, establishing an effective transactional system is necessary for the crypto ecosystem to thrive. Blockchain technology plays a significant role in ensuring the global remittance system remains a practical and fair advancement.　　Commonly known as a distributed ledger, blockchains act as the bridge between two transacting parties on a digital currency platform.　　The Underlying Relationship Between Blockchains and Transactions　　In classification, blockchains are typically public records of every cryptocurrency transaction. The tamper-proof ledger consists of blocks attached to a distinct chain, which later form blockchains. Unlike centralized platforms, which operate as per the central authority, blockchains are decentralized since no one owns the network.　　The public ledger functions 24/7, finishing transaction confirmation processes within the shortest time possible. Intermediaries are known to be costly most times as they render their services on behalf of users.　　For cryptocurrencies leveraging blockchain technology, transactions go through successfully without any third-party engagements. Security threats are not an issue since the transaction details scatter across various nodes(validators).　　A

2021-03-09Deep Dive

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