Category: Ethereum

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Ethereum

Lido Prepares to Launch Eth2 Liquid Staking Mainnet After $2M Funding

Lido Prepares to Launch Eth2 Liquid Staking Mainnet After $2M Funding

Before the launching of the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain on December 1, a few Ethereum protocols, including Lido Finance, had revealed plans to work on solving the “illiquidity” issue with Ether (ETH) staked on the network. Today, Lido is pushing towards this development, as a tweet confirmed that Lido raised millions of dollars from prominent companies in preparation for its Eth2 staking mainnet.

Illiquidity Issue With Eth2 Staking 

Notably, the current Ethereum network is moving to a proof-of-stake (PoS) model with Ethereum 2.0. This transition is expected to be completed in four phases, one of which has been launched already. Although users can stake ETH on the network, these coins are considered illiquid due to the fact that it can’t be withdrawn, at least till the next Eth2 development phase launches. 

Judging by this, many industry experts raise concerns that this might slow down the rate of ETH staking on the network. This is because many people would prefer to lock their coins in crypto exchanges for trading or in decentralized finance (DeFi) yield farming protocols to make even more profit than staking. Besides, they can choose to withdraw these coins anytime, anywhere, unlike when they are staked.

For this reason, Lido planned to introduce a liquid staking service for Ethereum 2.0.

Lido Prepares for Mainnet Launch

The Eth2 staking service provider intends to achieve this liquidity by issuing an ERC-20 token, stETH, for any ETH staked on the network. This will serve as the tokenized version of the coins staked, as well as in value. Lido noted that stETH could be traded on exchanges and also used in DeFi protocols for yield farming. In this way, the Ethereum users have nothing to lose, as they will receive an equivalent token for any coin they stake.

With the US$2 million fundraise, Lido is preparing to debut the Eth2 liquid staking mainnet later this month. There are possibilities that this service will go mainstream in the coming year.

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DeFi Ethereum

CEO of DeFi Insurer, Nexus Mutual, Loses US$ 8M In A Targeted Attack

An unknown attacker drained 370,000 NMX tokens from Hugh Karp, CEO and founder of the DeFi insurance firm Nexus Mutual. The amount stolen is equivalent to US$ 8M.

The firm announced the attack on Monday 14 UTC. The subject gained remote access to Karp’s personal computer and modified the Metamask extension, which facilitates web applications to communicate with the Ethereum blockchain.

Immediately, the attacker, who apparently is also a member of the firm, drained an amount equivalent to $8 million by implementing a different extension — tricking Karp into signing a different transaction, and sending the funds to the attacker’s address.

According to the investigations, the attacker is a member of the firm, and only Mutual members can receive NMX. But the firm hasn’t “completely identified” the subject. Although, weeks ago, the attacker completed a KYC (Know Your Customer) — a process that financial institutions do to verify their client’s identity.

The personal address from Hugh Karp, taken from Etherscam.io

The attacker has already converted some of the stolen 370,000 NMX tokens into 334ETH — which is equivalent to US$ 200,000.

Besides, according to data from Coinmarketcap, the price for the NMX token fell a considerable amount since the announcement was made, now at -18,40% by the time of writing.

NMX token chart, from coinmarketcap.
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Ethereum

Ethereum Records Highest Single-Day Network Growth Since 2018

Ethereum Settled $1.9 Trillion Transactions in Q1

Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain, has been noting an increase in developments and users since this year. A lot of exciting activities have happened within the ecosystem, including decentralized finance (DeFi), and other recent developments made towards the launch of Ethereum 2.0. 

Today, information from Santiment indicated an increasing rate of adoption for Ethereum, as new addresses created in a single day spiked to the highest point last seen in the past 35 months.

New Ethereum Addresses Spiked to 35-month High

According to Santiment, about 177.5k new Ethereum addresses were created on December 12. Such a massive increase was last recorded on January 19, 2018, making a new 35-month high in a single day. Although there isn’t any clear reason that propelled the spike in new Ethereum addresses, Santiment did mention in the tweet that such development is a positive indicator for the network bulls.

“The amount of new Ethereum addresses hit a single-day, 35-month high Saturday. Our network growth metric picked up ETH reaching 177.5k addresses created. Notably, more addresses interacting on an asset’s network is a very promising indicator for bulls.”

Is the World’s First Ethereum ETF a Factor?

Interestingly, the single-day spike in new ETH address was recorded just a day after the world’s first-ever Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) went live on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) in Canada. Although there was a two-hour delay in the listing due to bureaucratic issues, the ETF saw a notable demand on the stock exchange, according to reports. 

When the new addresses spiked on December 12, the cryptocurrency also performed better than the previous day. It saw as high as US$573 only to end that day at US$568. Today, however, the second-largest crypto is trading at US$584, with a 24hrs change of 0.07 percent on Coinmarketcap.

The founder of Aussie Nuggets News, Alex Saunders, is hopeful on ETH breakout, as he explained with a chart on Monday that “ETH will pull a BTC soon.”

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Crypto News Cryptocurrencies DeFi Ethereum

Visa Partners With Circle to Connect Its 60M Merchants With Ethereum-based US Dollar Coins

Visa is taking a step further from traditional payments and jumping in on two major cryptocurrency projects. The first one is the recent announcement of the integration of the US Dollar Coin, an Ethereum-based stablecoin created by Circle Internet Financial, into Visa’s fintech FastTrack Program.

Visa will work with Circle to integrate the Ethereum protocol to its customers — by issuing cards for USDC payments. Now more than 60M merchants can send and receive USDC whenever they want. Visa won’t take custody of the digital currency.

Visa integrates the Ethereum-based USDC as ETH upgrades to Eth2, making it a more efficient and faster blockchain protocol. The company believes that its 60M base customers can benefit greatly from this new upgrade. Now traders are hoping for a major bullish uptrend for the next week.

No More Cash Or Miles: It’s Bitcoin now

The second project is with BlockFi, a New York-based startup that specializes in cryptocurrency-backed loans and savings accounts. Visa is launching in early 2021 a credit card that rewards its users with Bitcoin — instead of traditional money or miles.

The new card is issued by Evolve Bank & Trust and has an annual fee of $200.

“We’re excited to add credit cards to our suite of products and expand Bitcoin’s accessibility to a broader set of consumers. This card makes it simple and risk-free for people to gain or increase exposure to a new asset class without changing their spending or investing habits.”

Zac Prince, CEO of BlockFi said in a statement.

Visa currently has 25 cryptocurrency wallets integrated into its system. And as Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are becoming wildly popular every day, Visa expects to serve the cryptomarket customers with these two projects — by enhancing new payment methods and providing crypto-rewards.

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Crypto News Ethereum

Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0 has More Than Enough Staked ETH for Tomorrow’s Launch

Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0 has More Than Enough Staked ETH for Tomorrow's Launch

Last week, the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract gained the required number of Ethereum coins, or ETH needed to kick-off the blockchain’s transition to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS). Although the threshold has already been met, the Ethereum community didn’t back out from locking more ETH on the network. This demonstrates a strong level of confidence the community has for the long-anticipated Ethereum 2.0 or Serenity upgrade.

Eth2 Deposit Contract has Over US$500 Million ETH

According to the information on Eth2 Launchpad, there are presently 857,728 ETH staked on the deposit contract. This is more than 60 percent the stated threshold of 524,288 ETH and currently worth over US$518 million, following the growing price of the crypto at $605 on Coinmarketcap. An Ethereum 2.0 researcher at Ethereum Foundation, Justin Drake, commented on the development, saying:

“It is a fantastic display of confidence by the Ethereum community. […] I’m proud thousands of Ethereans felt compelled to lock their funds for many months to secure Eth2.”

It’s worth noting that these cryptocurrencies can’t be withdrawn from the network for at least two years later when Phase 1.5 is deployed. Tomorrow’s Eth2 Phase 0 launch marks the first step towards the transition of the current Ethereum blockchain to the PoS era. Phase 0 is expected to launch by 12 UTC on December 1. It will enable the Beacon Chain on the network, which acts as a backbone for Ethereum 2.0.

The highly anticipated Serenity upgrade is expected to undergo about four development phases before its completion. It’s estimated that these phases might take about two years (i.e., 2022). However, there are speculations that the network might take more time to be completed, as many hurdles may possibly be encountered while being deployed.

Ethereum Nodes Surpass Bitcoin’s

Besides the upcoming Eth2 Phase 0, reports on Monday also confirmed a growing number of Ethereum nodes during these times. Currently, Ethereum has about 11,137 nodes, while the largest blockchain network, Bitcoin, has only 10,981.

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Ethereum

Ethereum Transaction Fee Surges as ETH Price Plummets

Ether new ATH Shoots up DeFi and Ethereum 2.0 Valuation

Many cryptocurrencies in the market, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), have been retracing from the recent rally over the past 24 hours. Precisely, the second-largest digital currency dropped by more than 10 percent since the past day. The declining price of the cryptocurrency suggests a strong selling pressure amongst traders and investors. Meanwhile, ETH transaction fees have also spiked, just when the price is collapsing.

ETH Price Decline by Over 15%

During the time of writing, Ether was trading at the price of US$504, losing about 15.13 percent of its value in a 24hr chart, according to Coinmarketcap. The dropping price of the cryptocurrency shouldn’t be considered as an unusual development, as there is generally a massive sell-off in the crypto market, especially for the cryptos that surged exponentially during the bull market.

The price of ETH soared to a yearly high above US$620 on November 24, before dropping to the current price. However, it’s worth noting that Ether is still up by 5.84 percent on a week-to-week basis. This is unlike Bitcoin, which is already seeing a 12.03 percent drop on a 24hrs chart and a 6.63 percent decrease on a weekly chart.

Ethereum Fee is Surging Rapidly

Ethereum's average transaction fees 

As the crypto market entered into the correction phase, many traders were seen rushing to take out their profits from the crypto. In addition to decreasing the price, the rush also caused congestion on the network, which resulted in a spike in the fee required to make transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. The growing number of unconfirmed ETH transactions had also caused the leading exchange, Binance, to temporarily halt ETH withdrawals. 

Is the bull market over?

Some crypto experts and industry analysts don’t think that the bull run is over, despite the current dips in the market. Michaël van de Poppe, a popular digital currency trader, showed in a chart on Twitter that the correction in the market will be short-lived and that Ether will return to making new growth when the bears are finally benched.

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Australia Bitcoin Bitcoin Cash Coinbase Ethereum Litecoin

Australian Online Pet Shop Now Accepts Cryptocurrency As Payment

Pet Parlour is the first Australia pet shop to accept cryptocurrency through their partnership with digital currency exchange Coinbase. Customers can pay using Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dai, Ethereum or Litecoin.

Launching in November, Pet Parlour aims to deliver high quality pet products fast to Australian consumers. Founder Tom Sadler says,

“Our approach is unique in the Australian market. We wanted to offer our customers every possible payment solution. By offering multiple payment options we are aiming for a frictionless customers experience.”

At the moment, it looks like the pet shop mainly offers Dog products including dog food, toys and shampoo. They are supporting many brands, including the Australian Naturals range, where every product bought also supports an Australian business.

Along with accepting cryptos as payment, customers also have the option of paying via Visa, Mastercard, PayPal or Afterpay.

Developing Trend – Australian Businesses Accepting Crypto as Payment

Cryptocurrency is not yet adopted mainstream as an everyday payment option, but this trend is slowly changing as we see more Australian businesses consider accepting it.

While Pet Parlour is the first Australian pet shop to go down this route, it’s a trend we have seen emerge from other industries. South Korean electronics giant Samsung Group renewed its partnership with crypto shopping application Lolli earlier this month, providing opportunities for shoppers to earn reward points in Bitcoin when shopping for Samsung products.

Cryptocurrency is growing in popularity, and we are starting to see many online shops support them as a payment method across Australia. Previously we have also seen many Australian restaurants support cryptocurrencies as payment. With worldwide e-commerce sales also rising it has been also suggested we may see giants such as Paypal and Amazon enter the e-commerce space soon. And we also saw Mastercard announce Crypto Card Partner Program, Making it Easier for Consumers to Hold and Activate Cryptocurrencies.

This highlights the potentials of cryptocurrency becoming a legitimate form of value transfer.

Get Involved

If you’re looking to accept cryptocurrencies for your business we have a guide to help you set that up. And if you’re a customer looking to buy online with cryptocurrencies then checkout our Crypto Visa Cards review.

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Cryptocurrencies Ethereum Industries

Losses From Accidental Ethereum Transactions May Be On The Way Out

Accidental trades happen – sometimes with big consequences. Just last week, an Ethereum trader accidentally paid 23.51 ETH for a transaction in gas fees.

However, moments like these may be on the way out, thanks to a company named Kirobo.

A fintech start-up based in Tel Aviv, Kirobo gained notoriety for creating a product that reverses accidental Bitcoin transactions during June of 2020, citing a survey where 18% of responders stated that they lost funds due to human error. After a few more months of work, they have also made the technology available for Ethereum.

No More Human Error

The technology named Retrievable Transfer is available to MetaMask users – as well as any Ethereum trader who uses the WalletConnect protocol.

When making a transaction, the Retrievable Transfer user will receive a generated password. After the transfer is made, the trader will have the opportunity to look over all the details again, before sending the password to the receiver.

In order for a transaction to be successful, the receiver must also enter the password – otherwise, the funds can be reclaimed by the sender.

Asaf Naim – the CEO of Kirobo – says that the aim of him and his team when creating this tool was to eliminate the anxiety felt by customers when making a transaction by ensuring the impact of human error was negated.

The use of our logic layer finally eliminates the need to send a test transaction, sharply reducing the level of anxiety users feel when transferring funds to a third party.”

The Retrievable Transfer function also includes safeguards against man-in-the-middle attacks – as well as safeguards against Smart Contracts that don’t allow deposits.

With yet another barrier to crypto adoption on it’s way out, more widespread adoption should follow.

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Ethereum Market Analysis

Ethereum Leads the Way in 2020 so far it’s up 228%

2020 has been a good year so far for cryptocurrencies with Ethereum leading the way in terms of gains of the big marketcap coins.

  • Bitcoin (BTC) YTD: +111.66%
  • Ethereum (ETH) YTD: +228.28%
  • Ripple (XRP) YTD: +28.90%
  • Bitcoin Cash (BCH) YTD: +31.91%
  • S&P 500 YTD: +8.35%

Why has Ether gone up?

There are some factors which we could attribute to Ethereum’s recent rally. These include the ETH futures market trading volumes.

ETH Futures Aggregate Daily Volume – Source: Skew

Another factor is the increase number of outflow transactions on the ETH platform in 2020.

ETH Outflow Transactions – Source: Cryptoquant

The deployment of the ETH launchpad and introduction of ETH 2.0 has certainly sparked the interest in Ethereum.

The emergence of DeFi and other Ethereum Tokens may have had an impact on the price of Ethereum. Some of these tokens have seen ridiculous gains this year including YFI, CRD and many others.

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Cryptocurrencies DeFi Ethereum

Ethereum 2.0 Will Go Operational Sooner Than Expected

Although the release of the Ethereum 2.0 system was originally slated to go live on the 3rd of January, the work on the big update to the blockchain behind the second biggest cryptocurrency — and the basis for many other blockchain-related projects — has gone smoothly and will be launching a little over a month earlier.

The test launch — named Medalla —  concluded in August with satisfying results. The team at Ethereum believes that the deposit contracts will attract investors once they are convinced that the tools are safe and that Ethereum 2.0 is the way forward.

From Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake

The biggest update to the Ethereum Blockchain will be the switch to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) version — which, unlike Proof-of-Work (PoW), will allow participants to link their cryptocurrency to the Ethereum network. 

Basically, a component of computational power in a PoW system is tied to a unit of mining power.

However, in a PoS system, the unit of mining power will be tied to a component of value  — in this case, a crypto token.

In order to ensure the Ethereum 2.0 launch goes as planned, almost 16,384 validators must stake 32 ETH or more. 

“Pre-genesis, the only active players on the Eth2 side are the beacon nodes; the validators spring into action immediately after the genesis event. The beacon nodes maintain the state of the system and talk to each other in a peer-to-peer network.”

Once this amount has been deposited, the Ethereum 2.0 launch will be complete. 

Vitalik Buterin — the man behind Ethereum — has made 100 transactions of 32 ETH himself to kick things off.


Whether the massive overhaul to Ethereum’s system will eventually cause Bitcoin to be outclassed remains to be seen. However, Ethereum has already served as the basis for countless other projects, and the way their blockchain is built encourages developers to take the project further —  and gives them all the tools necessary to do so.