“Following the excellent stability of Altona and based on conversations with eth2 client teams, Medalla – the next multi-client testnet [will launch] August 4th, 2020, 1pm UTC!
This is a major step up from Altona in the sense that Medalla is a testnet built for and maintained by the community. The multi-client testnets prior to Medalla were considered “devnets”, run primarily by client teams.
Medalla will start with no fewer than 16,384 validators (524,288 ETH). We’ll have no fewer than four clients fully running at genesis – lighthouse, nimbus, prysm, and teku. In addition, I fully expect lodestar to be on net in some capacity at the start, and we might even have another surprise client join the mix.
Three attacknets were launched this week, each with a $5k bounty to bring it down. Following the beta-0 attacknets, we’ll scale up the size and complexity of attacknets as well as add more complex challenges with larger bounties.
Exciting progress on the eth1+eth2 merger.”
“Inflation-adjusted yields on all U.S. treasury bonds are now negative as the Fed is widely believed to be propping up markets.
According to statistics published by the U.S Treasury, real yields on even the longest-term bonds fell below zero since June 2020. Currently, annualized real yields for bonds reach as low as -1.13% for five year bonds, while 30 year bonds net -0.32%.“
“Wozniak was one of 18 plaintiffs that filed the lawsuit on Tuesday, which seeks punitive damages, a trial by jury and demands YouTube remove all bitcoin giveaway scams and promotions using Wozniak’s name and likeness.
For months now, Defendant YOUTUBE has been unapologetically hosting, promoting, and directly profiting from similar scams. YOUTUBE and GOOGLE took the further step of promoting and profiting from these scams by providing paid advertising that targeted users who were most likely to be harmed.
Defendants’ failure to warn was willful, malicious, oppressive, fraudulent, and/or in reckless disregard of the Plaintiffs’ rights.”
“Crypto was brought up as one of many possible tools to maintain U.S. economic supremacy. This could be interpreted as crypto’s increasing acceptance as a mainstream idea.
Former CFTC Chairman Christopher Giancarlo called for the U.S. to begin conducting pilot programs to test out different facets of a tokenized dollar.
We have to assume that as the nature of finance changes, the nature of currencies change, we have to stay at the leading edge of that.”
See Also: US House Passes Two Blockchain Amendments in Annual Defense Budget Bill
See Also: World Stablecoin Association Launches in Switzerland
“Augur v2 is a new universe. Augur v2 will allow for a manual migration of Augur v1 REP tokens “REP” to Augur v2 REP tokens “REPv2”. Upon Augur v2’s deployment, you will be able to migrate your REP to REPv2 within the Augur Client.
There is no immediate requirement to migrate REP to the new REPv2 upon deployment. If you wish to participate as a reporter in the Augur v2 universe, you will need REPv2.
Augur v2 will be deployed on Tuesday, July 28th, 2020.”
See Also: DeFi protocol Curve locks in more than $300 million on YFI hype
“The Alibaba-affiliate company made the claim in a release Thursday that announced Ant Blockchain was rebranding to AntChain. An Ant spokesperson [stated] these were mostly transaction records, as well as copyright and property ownership certificates.
The company now claims to be the largest operating blockchain in China. Chinese shipping giant Cosco said it was trialing Ant Blockchain earlier this month.”
“Everything related to cryptography in Russia falls under the supervision of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, which is the successor to the KGB. The FSB has a certification process for blockchain companies, which might cost over $100,000 and take more than a year.
If the blockchain solution is open source, it’s certified version won’t be. Russian-made systems might end up isolated from the global market due to distrust of Russian government cryptography standards.
Russian enterprise blockchain projects working on getting certified include Masterchain, Waves and Bitfury’s Exonum.”
“Shapeshift has launched a mobile trading app for iOS and android users to buy and sell digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) without trusting their private keys to a 3rd party.
As traditional financial systems become increasingly tenuous, Bitcoin offers refuge and empowerment. We’re here to make it easy.
Our new app gives you the power to trade with competitive rates & buy Bitcoin in 120+ countries, all while enjoying self-custody of your crypto.”
“Unstoppable said domain registrars will utilize Gemini’s custody services when purchasing .crypto addresses for their clients through its service.
The blockchain domains are based on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) built on top of the Ethereum network and provide access to the decentralized web.”
“Led by Wyoming blockchain advocate Caitlin Long, the crypto-friendly bank announced its plans to issue Avit, a programmable digital asset that can only be issued by banks and will be treated as a cash equivalent.
With Blockstream as the bank’s technology partner, Long said in an interview that ‘one could presume that the Bitcoin blockchain will be involved,’ but could not comment further.
If Avanti’s charter application is approved in October, the bank will be the only financial institution capable of issuing Avit. The currency would be 100% backed by a reserve of liquid traditional U.S. assets.”
See Also: SEC Registered Broker-Dealer Is Launching a Security Token Platform
“Bitcoin options traders have completely deserted Bakkt, with its volume and open interest flatlining at $0 since June 15.
92% of bitcoin options trading volume is controlled by Panama-based exchange Deribit, which reported $101 million in volume Tuesday.”
The Disrupt 