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Crypto && Coffee 033 | Hashrate Highs

Technology Recap: 

Bitcoin: 

  • Bitcoin hashrate reached an all-time high on July 13th, 2020. The higher the hashrate climbs, the more secure the network is!  

Ethereum: 

  • Ethereum Foundation AMA got heated on ETH2.0 updates and whether or not 2.0 will actually launch in 2020.  
  • Sigma Prime released their latest Lighthouse update on Altona, the multi-client testnet created with Lighthouse, PrysmTeku, and Nimbus validators.  
  • A fuzzing solution for ETH2.0 clients, beacon-fuzz, has been announced! 
  • Ethereum’s smart contract programming language, Solidity, turned five years old based on the timing of v0.1.0. Read the full recap on the past five years here. 
  • Full report from July 10th, 2020, on all things new in ETH2.0 development. 

Other Chains:  

  • Zcash’s Heartwood will activate within 24 hours, giving Zcash miners and mining pools the option to directly mine to a shielded coinbase.   
  • On Friday, July 11th, 2020, Bitcoin Gold’s developer team prevented an “extremely long chain attack” when an attacker rented hash power from mining provider NiceHash to secretly mine an alternative chain and then released the chain in an attempt to collect more than 8K BitcoinGold (BTG). Full article from The Block here. 
  • Gnosis Safe Multisig App has added 1inch, allowing users to perform one-click swaps.  
  • Gelato released a tutorial on how to build an automated trading DApp using Gelato and Kyber Network.  
  • SmartContract announced the Smart Contract Virtual Summit #0. Speakers include founders and engineers from ChainlinkOffChain Labs, Synthetix, Microsoft, ConsenSys, Ethereum, Oracle, AaveIExec, and more. 
  • Zerion shared a post from Lucas Campbell explaining liquidity rewards on Synthetix, Balancer and Curve.  
  • ProtoSchool, an online destination for interactive tutorials on decentralized web protocols, has released their first tutorial on “Verifying Storage on Filecoin. 
  • Nic Carter announced Castle Island Ventures first whitepaper on the topic of “cryptodollars” – tokens representing fiat currencies that circulate on public blockchains.  
  • Aave published their Risk Framework, which breaks down the key risks of the protocol and the mitigation techniques set in place.  
  • Orchid launched in Apple App Store with new in-app purchases.  
  • Synthetic announced that the Muscovite product release is now live. The biggest feature in this release is the addition of COMP, REN, KNC, and LEND on the Synthetix Exchange. 
  • DigiTix integrated Chainlink VRF and Price Reference Data for stable pricing and secure ticketing.  
  • Electrum Wallet v4.0 was released earlier this month. The wallet now supports PSBT, Lightning, Watchtowers, Submarine swaps and more. Full release notes here. 
  • Gnosis Protocol, a fully permissioned DEX that enables a new mechanism called ring trades that aim to maximize liquidity, has announced their launch.  
  • Minor improvements were released for Monero in the latest v0.16.0.2 “Nitrogen Nebula” release on July 10th, 2020.  
  • DeversiFi held an AMA on Reddit with responses from CFO Ross Middleton and CEO Will Harborne.  
  • On August 2nd, 2020 at 2pm EST the fifth phase of virtual gaming arcade Mint Gox will begin.  
  • A vote has started that will alter that course of Polkadot and define the final denomination of its native DOT token. Full post from Gavin Wood here. 
  • Revolution Populi has announced integration with Chainlink aiming to attach itself to the decentralized, public database and give control back to the people. 
  • Status App notifications are now live on Android!  
  • Wasabi Wallet released test vectors for the upcoming v1.1.12 release. 
  • Bison Trails released full summary on Polkadot token economics.  
  • MobileCoin welcomed DreamHost to the MobileCoin Foundation.  

Mainstream Recap: 

  • CoinDesk reported that a subsidiary of India’s industrial giant Tata has launched an avenue for banks and financial institutions to offer crypto trading services. 
  • Chinese ride-hailing app Didi is apparently forming a task force to design and implement a use of China’s trial central bank digital currency (CBDC) on its platform. Full details here. 
  • Kraken Security Labs identified supply chain attacks against the Ledger Nano X. 
  • Full report from Harry at MyCrypto on how he was able to recover $4,000 of a user’s stolen crypto funds.  
  • Coinbase announced the addition of Paul Grewal, former U.S. Magistrate Judge, who will be joining the company as Chief Legal Officer. 
  • Centre, who issues the dollar-pegged USDC stablecoin, confirmed it blacklisted an address in response to law enforcement. Full thread from The Block here. In the Circle USDC User Agreement, it states that it “reserves the right to block certain USDC addresses…”. Check out the Centre Consortium blacklisting policy as well. 
  • HOPR, which is a Chaumian mixnet with onion encryption, is being labelled as the crypto alternative to Tor. Binance Labled the strategic $1M investment round for HOPR last week. 
  • Binance listed Synthetix (SNX) and opened trading for SNX/BTC, SNX/BNB, SNX/BUSD and SNX/USDT trading pairs on July 9th, 2020.  
  • Coinbase Custody now supports deposits and withdrawals for Ocean Protocol (OCEAN).  
  • The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Temasek jointly released a report to mark the successful conclusion of Project Ubin. This project provides technical insights into blockchain-based payment networks.  
  • Fund manager Fidelity International filed with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), disclosing it had acquired 4.1M “units” in Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 on June 23rd, 2020.  
  • Binance announced the rollout of their Binance Card in Europe and the UK, enabling users to convert and spend their BTC, BNB, SXP, and BUSD to fiat at over 60M merchants across 200 regions and territories.  
  • Bloomberg reported that the Bank of England is debating the creation of a digital currency.  
  • The Globe and Mail published an article on how the Canadian federal government awarded Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s half-brother a $12,430 contract last year to speak and take part in a cryptocurrency conference in Switzerland.  
  • Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini has become the first exchange to support hardware security keys across both Android and iOS mobile devices.  
  • Andreessen Horowitz alum Jesse Walden announced his new project – the Variant Fund with focus on ownership of crypto.  
  • Binance will support Kyber Network (KNC) staking with an initial three-month bonus. 
  • Kraken announced the support of COMP, KAVA, KNC, and STORJ starting July 15th, 2020.  
  • Wealthsimple is set to expand into the cryptocurrency trading space with the launch of Wealthsimple Crypto.  

This Week’s Cup of Coffee: 

This week, we are staying local in San Francisco for an award-winning cup of Guatemala El Injerto from Linea Caffe. Father and son team Arturo Aguirre Sr. and Jr. own and operate the legendary Finca El Injerto in the Huehuetenango mountains. The previous season’s batch of coffee won the 2020 Good Food Award. With notes of caramel, sugar, and slight hints of orange and key lime pie this decadent roast tastes great when brewed via filter or drip! Keep those grind sizes on the lower end than usual to be sure to bring out all those flavors.  

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