Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

How Chainlink’s Newly Launched Oracle Network Upgrade Will Disrupt The World Of DeFi

As DeFi applications continue their reign in the cryptocurrency market, the need for a stage-by-stage upgrade, crucial for the advancement of these applications cannot be overemphasized. In this regard, Chainlink, which self-defines as an “oracle network for powering universally connected smart contracts, enabling any blockchain to access to real-world data” has successfully launched its Oracle network upgrade, known as the Off-Chain Reporting (OCR).　　What is Off-Chain Reporting (OCR)？　　The OCR upgrade is a major milestone as far as scalability on the Chainlink network is concerned. After over a year of backstage work from the network‘s team, the OCR’s launch on the mainnet will have a crucial impact on the efficiency of data computing on the network. Operating costs will significantly drop by 90%. This will allow all smart contracts connected to the network to enjoy an unparalleled speed of development.　　The benefits of the upgrade was highlighted via an official blogpost, excerpts of which reads ;　　“While the Chainlink Network has already been rapidly increasing the amount of data it provides on-chain through the continual rollout of Price Feeds, Proof of Reserve, verifiable randomness (VRF), and more, OCRs scalability improvements will massively accelerate that trend.”　　However, DeFi users have a more impressive reason to celebrate.

2021-02-26Deep Dive

DeFi Exchange 1Inch Expands to Binance Smart Chain Citing ETH Gas Fees

1inch, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol for routing trades, is now live on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) – hedging its bets on Ethereums ability to handle more transaction volume.　　Launched in 2019, 1inch routes trading orders for Ethereum-based tokens (and now BSC tokens) through dozens of integrated decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to get the best prices. Its one of the largest DEX aggregators by trading volumes with some $450 million traded in the past 24 hours, according to Dune Analytics.　　“The 1INCH token on Binance Smart Chain will be used for a bridge between the Binance and Ethereum networks,” a blog post shared with CoinDesk reads. “1inch users will get access to PancakeSwap, BurgerSwap, StreetSwap, Venus, StableSwap, JulSwap, BakerySwap and other Binance-based DEXes and lending protocols.”　　Bukov said Binance did not pay for the integration, but did participate in the startups seed round in August.　　1inch was forced to move onto BSC, 1inch CTO Anton Bukov told CoinDesk in a Telegram message, “because Ethereum miners killed the Ethereum network by not raising the block gas limit.”　　Stepping back, each block on Ehtereum has an upper bound on how much gas can be used. That number has moved up a few times since the blockchain‘s inception in

2021-02-26Deep Dive

Coinbase Institutional, Retail Trading Volume Grew at Equal Rates in 2020

As investors on Thursday got their first-ever public glimpse of U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase‘s financial results, a big surprise was just how far the company has come in diversifying its business mix away from the industry’s roots in a primarily retail-driven market.　　Retail customers represented just 36% of trading volumes during the fourth quarter, down from 80% in early 2018, Coinbases regulatory disclosures showed. That means the bulk of volume has shifted in recent years toward institutional customers, mirroring the broader industry shift as more big investors nose into crypto markets. But the growth rates of volume from each demographic remained roughly equal in the past year.　　In the fourth quarter of 2019, Coinbase reported $5 billion in retail trading volume matched with $9 million in institutional volume. Fast forward to the fourth quarter of 2020 and the exchange reported $32 billion in retail volume – a 540% increase – matched with $57 billion from institutional clients, a 533% increase.　　The shift toward more institutional business is reflected in recent reports of Coinbase serving as the agent or middleman for several high-profile bitcoin (BTC, -0.31%) purchases. The company has assisted corporate investors including the business intelligence company MicroStrategy and the electric-vehicle maker Tesla,

2021-02-26Deep Dive

Elon Musk under investigation for Dogecoin tweet

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is said to be in trouble for his recent Dogecoin tweet. According to anonymous sources, the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating the Tesla CEO over a recent Dogecoin tweet.　　Elon Musk has been known to tweet frequently about the meme coin, with his series of tweet about the coin having an impact on the price action of the coin. Musk went as far as imploring Dogecoin whales to sell off their stake in Doge to help the cryptocurrency gain wider adoption and also improve the price of the coin.　　If these anonymous sources reports are real, it would be in keeping with the trend of Elon Musk getting in trouble with SEC over Doge. Previously, the SEC charged Musk for security fraud over his controversial “funding secured” tweet about taking Tesla private before settling with him in April 2019.　　Elon Musk and DogeCoin　　Musk has continuously expressed his affection for Dogecoin in several tweets. He once called himself the CEO of Dogecoin as he expressed his affection for the coin and, in another occasion, said he bought Doge for his son.　　His infatuation with the coin has made him tweet about the coin on several occasions, which has led

2021-02-26Deep Dive

Arca Is Latest Crypto Fund to Launch a Bitcoin Trust

Crypto hedge fund Arca is launching a bitcoin trust product, according to documents filed Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).　　The product, which launches with $100,000 sold so far, appears to be the California-based digital asset manager‘s first foray into BTC (-6.49%) offerings. Arca’s previous products banked on small to mid-cap cryptos and a U.S. Treasurys token called ArCoins that served as a proof of concept for Ethereum-based securities.　　Arca joins a crowded field of asset managers aiming to woo investors who want exposure to bitcoin without directly owning the crypto themselves. BlockFi, Osprey Fund, CrossTower, Bitwise and others have all rushed this year to make bitcoin investment vehicles a reality. Their funds and trusts compete with Grayscale, the issuer of by far the largest bitcoin trust product. (Grayscale is owned by CoinDesk parent company Digital Currency Group.)　　For its part, Arca is taking $25,000 minimum investments (Grayscale‘s minimum is $50,000). Other details, like the annual fee, were not available at press time. Arca did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

2021-02-26Deep Dive

Bitcoiniacs and CryptX Wallet Announce Partnership

Bitcoiniacs, the worlds first bitcoin ATM company, has switched to CryptX Wallet as its operational Wallet.　　Canadian-based Bitcoiniacs was naturally attracted to CryptX for the reduced blockchain fees its algorithm achieves.　　This results in substantial savings for the crypto company, which first introduced bitcoin ATMs to the world in 2013. A coffee shop in Vancouver hosted their first ATM, making cryptos accessible to many more people. Christopher Concepcion, Bitcoiniacs CEO, noted that “digital assets are revolutionizing finance.”　　“It is great for CryptX to be partnering with Bitcoiniancs, the world‘s first Crypto ATM network. This cooperation will streamline Bitcoiniancs’ operations and business processes even further. CryptX Group is motivated to deliver high quality, cutting-edge and efficient products and services for our clients. CryptX can address general, as well as custom needs of various types of businesses like Crypto ATM networks, Crypto Casinos, Crypto E-commerce, Crypto Exchanges, etc.” said George Gvazava, CEO of CryptX Wallet.　　“We are happy to onboard such a crypto leader as Bitcoiniacs to our platform” CryptX founder Joseph Bolkvadze remarked.　　CryptX also provides custom blockchain software development through CryptX.com, operates over 40 crypto ATMs in Georgia and Ukraine, and offers an international crypto exchange service, Cryptal. Its latest product is the CryptX Terminal

2021-02-26Deep Dive

PIVX | EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE NEXT-GEN PRIVACY COIN

Bitcoin and Ethereum might be capturing the most mainstream media attention as the two largest cryptocurrency networks by market cap. But unfortunately, their market size can get in the way of investors discovering a world of innovation around in the rest of the blockchain space.　　Heres why PIVX is a coin you might have heard about before but will soon be hearing a lot more as its value proposition is brought to the forefront of finance in the future ahead.　　THE BACKWARDS BATTLE OF BLOCKCHAIN INTELLIGENCE　　Blockchain is being heralded as the most disruptive technology of the modern age, following the internet itself. In addition to the network of data, the value lies in the transparency and immutability of the underlying distributed ledger technology.　　Cryptography, more so related to the assets that transact across these ledgers, adds a layer of pseudo-anonymity to cryptocurrencies but falls short of providing complete privacy for the end-user.　　Through blockchain intelligence and on-chain analysis, governments have begun to utilize the data to trace Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency wallets back to individuals through bank accounts, KYC, and more. If governments possess this ability, then cybercriminals can also do so, ten times more efficiently.　　As blockchain adoption goes mainstream, the need for financial

2021-02-26Deep Dive

Oxygen Protocol to List OXY Tokens on BitMax

BitMax.io (BTMX.com), an industry-leading digital asset trading platform built by Wall Street quant trading veterans, has announced the joint primary listing of the Oxygen token (OXY) with auction facilitation for its platform users. The auction will begin on Bitmax on March 11 at 9:00 a.m. EST and the listing will go live on March 16 at 9:00 a.m. EST.　　Oxygen Protocol is an on-chain, decentralized, non-custodial prime brokerage built on the Serum DEX and ecosystem, running on fast Solana public blockchain, and seeded by the Maps.me 2.0s massive userbase. Oxygen will start with a borrow-lending protocol before moving to recreate quasi-marketplace- business units that are typically part of investment banks and making them accessible to everyone.　　Oxygen is built upon a pools-based infrastructure, wherein users can create a pool by depositing their assets and marking which ones to lend. The clearing price for Oxygens borrow-lending is market-based through on-chain order-book matching using Serum DEX, instead of a pre-set, manually adjusted market model. Users can generate yield on their portfolio while borrowing other assets at the same time (multiple use of same collateral), maximize utility of their portfolio as collateral when borrowing, and interact with the Serum ecosystem and DEXes directly from their

2021-02-26Deep Dive

Crypto derivatives exchange FTX launches futures on 2021 Olympics

Will they or wont they happen？ Amid debates over how safe the Olympic games can be in 2021, cryptocurrency traders can now bet on the likelihood of their eventual go-ahead.　　Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX has created a new specialized futures contract for traders to bet on the likelihood of the Olympic Games occurring in Tokyo in 2021. The coronavirus pandemic continues to cast a shadow over the safety of hosting the event this year, particularly after a renewed outbreak of the virus in Tokyo last month.　　For each such uncertainty, as FTX noted in its tweet promoting the new contract, there can be a lucrative market. The new futures contract on FTX Token (FTT) has, according to the exchange, a different risk profile than Bitcoin (BTC). That is, “It has significantly higher chances of making large moves (to $0 or $1).”　　In addition to the OLY2021 contract, FTX is continuing its line of products for speculation on the future likelihood of a Trump presidency in 2024. Notably, neither of these contracts is available to residents of barred jurisdictions, which include the United States, Canada, mainland China and Hong Kong, Singapore, Turkey, the United Kingdom and others.　　As previously reported, cryptocurrency-powered markets have flourished during

2021-02-26Deep Dive

Crypto leaders back MIT’s four-year initiative to harden Bitcoin’s security

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology‘s Digital Currency Initiative has revealed a new “Bitcoin Software and Security Effort” intended to foster research into bolstering the Bitcoin network’s defenses.　　The open-source initiative has received support from a diverse group of crypto industry leaders, including Gemini‘s Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, MicroStrategy’s CEO Michael Saylor, Square CEO Jack Dorsey, and major European digital asset manager, CoinShares.　　In a blog post unveiling the project, DCI said that Bitcoins ascent from an “obscure cryptographic toy” to a robust network that “secures on the order of $1 [trillion] of value” was due to the millions of hours invested into building the project by open-source developers.　　Coinshares announced a $500,000 donation to the project and chief executive Jean-Marie Mognetti hinted that perhaps other crypto companies should do likewise:　　“As a beneficiary of the work of hundreds of developers who secure, upgrade, and maintain the open-source protocols that underlie the Bitcoin network and the applications built on top of it, we believe for-profit firms in the digital asset industry have an obligation to fund independent, neutral development efforts and research that advances the mutual interest of all ecosystem participants.”　　The DCIs four-year research and development program aims to “harden the Bitcoin network and steward

2021-02-26Deep Dive