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Crypto && Coffee 004

Technology Recap: 

Bitcoin: 

Ethereum: 

  • We have another upcoming fork: the Muir Glacier Upgrade. This next fork is planned for January 6, 2020 at block height 9200000. This will include one EIP (Ethereum Improvement Proposal). EIP 2384 involves increasing the difficulty bomb delay for the “ice age.” The difficulty bomb involves increasing the difficulty in the mining algorithm. As the problem becomes more complex there will be a larger lag between blocks – thus delaying the next upgrade. This proposal allows more development time for the core devs. 

Other Chains:  

  • Monero mentioned CipherTrace’s open-source TRISA solution in their response to FINCEN’s Travel Rule. The TRISA website is live: trisa.io.  
  • Zcash’s developer fund debate heated up with discussion between the Zcash Foundation and Electric Coin Company regarding whether funds should be held in Zcash (ZEC) or USD.  
  • Loopring, a protocol for building high-performance, non-custodial orderbookbased Ethereum exchanges, released v3.0-beta4 and was deployed to Ethereum mainnet. This protocol will be used in production to serve WeDEX 
  • Filecoin, a token-backed data storage network, launched their testnet on December 11th for interoperable implementations of the Filecoin protocol.  
  • IACR released a new research paper pushing towards the use of superblocks in blockchain based light clients. The proposal dives into the role of superblocks in the construction of compact blockchain proofs which allows for the compression of PoW chains into Non-Interactive Proofs of Proof-of-Work (NIPoPoWs).  

 

Mainstream Recap: 

  • Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, acquired OTC desk Circle Trade. This adds to the list of Kraken’s subsidiaries, which includes Cryptowatch, Canadian Virtual Exchange, Glidera, and Crypto Facilities Ltd.  
  • Maker partnered with OKExchange to bring DAI Savings Rate to users in Asia, beginning on December 23rd.  
  • TornadoCash, a tool that allows users to send Ether anonymously using non-custodial technology based on zk-SNARKs, released v2.0 with ERC20 token support.  
  • State Street announced a new digital asset pilot in collaboration with Gemini. The pilot aims to combine Gemini Custody with State Street’s back office reporting.  
  • Fidelity announced they are launching cryptocurrency business in Europe. The new entity, incorporated on December 16, will give the fund manager a platform from which to sell digital asset services to European businesses.  
  • Wasabi Wallet released their new version v1.1.10. This update includes a fix to their “spend” issue by refactoring the processing of blocks, transactions, and coins. They included an updated version of BIP158 block filters and CoinJoin.  
  • Shapeshift has been pushing the adoption of their upgraded platform since July 2019. The upgraded platform allows users to hold their own keys via a self-custody platform.  
  • Coinfloor, a UKbased cryptocurrency exchange, plans to delist Ether and BitcoinCash next month. 
     

This Week’s Cup of Coffee: 

This week, we are getting in the festive spirit with Krampus from Onyx Coffee Lab in Arkansas. Krampus is a delicious holiday-themed origin coffee. This year, they focused on Kenya Thikiagiki, a singleorigin coffee from the Nyeri region. It has notes of burnt sugar, black currant, cinnamon, and dark chocolate. Enjoy! 

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