Alameda Research Sues Grayscale Investments Seeking to Unlock Billions in Value for Shareholders

March 7, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Bitcoin Miners Brace for Another Projected Difficulty Increase as Hashrate Heats Up Amid Market Uncertainty

March 5, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Xapo Bank enables faster Bitcoin payments with Lightning Network

March 2, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Xapo Bank members will now be able to instantly pay for small purchases of up to $100 at any vendor accepting Lightning payments.

Xapo Bank, an international private bank headquartered in Gibraltar, integrates the Lightning Network to improve its Bitcoin (BTC) capabilities.

On March 2, Xapo officially announced a partnership with the Lightning Network infrastructure platform Lightspark, which allowed the firm to implement Lightning on its platform.

The integration enables faster and cheaper transactions on Xapo, reducing blockchain confirmation waiting times and transaction fees on the original Bitcoin network.

According to the firm, Xapo Bank members will now be able to instantly pay for small purchases of up to $100 at any vendor accepting Lightning payments. High-volume transactions are initially not supported with the integration.

The new integration was introduced on Feb. 27 as part of a new update for Xapo bank’s apps on the Apple Store and Google Store.

*Lightning Network transactions on Xapo via Lightspark*

According to Xapo Bank CEO Seamus Rocca, Bitcoin’s transaction confirmation can take up to one hour during periods of high usage, which makes BTC unsuitable for small daily payments like groceries. By integrating the Lightning Network, Xapo allows its customers to pay using Bitcoin without having to convert it to the U.S. dollar, he said.

Bitcoin average confirmation time has seen a huge spike in mid-February amid a massive activity on the Bitcoin network, with the mempool size reaching November 2022 levels. According to data from Ycharts, BTC confirmation time hit nearly 600 minutes on Feb. 19.

Rocca also noted that Bitcoin payments are especially crucial during times of hyperinflation, economic uncertainty and political turmoil.

Founded in 2013, Xapo operates a private bank as well as a Bitcoin custodian and wallet regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission. The company is known for combining traditional banking with crypto by offering USD and BTC accounts in one place.

Xapo claims that at the peak of its Bitcoin custodianship, the firm held more than 800,000 BTC ($18.7 billion) for family offices, funds and high net-worth individuals. Such an amount of Bitcoin is more than 4% of the entire number of all BTC in circulation.

Bitcoin’s Blockchain Growth Accelerates With Trend of Ordinal Inscriptions

February 28, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Btcpay Introduces New Coinjoin Plugin for Enhanced Bitcoin Privacy for Merchants

February 28, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Solana CEO hoses down claims network outages caused by on-chain voting

February 28, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Anatoly Yakovenko

Solana Labs founder and CEO Anatoly Yakovenko said claims that Solana's network outages were caused by on-chain voting were born out of "pure ignorance."

Anatoly Yakovenko, the founder and CEO of Solana Labs has downplayed claims that Solana's network outages were being caused by a high volume of validator messages and its on-chain voting system clogging its consensus layer.

While the Solana Foundation confirmed in a Feb. 27 post that the “root cause” of the recent 20-hour network outage is still not clear, the CEO responded to speculation that Solana’s decision to include on-chain votes as transactions is a “massive design flaw” that has led to its many outages.

The controversial thread in question was posted by Twitter user DBCryptoX earlier on Feb. 27 days after Solana's 20-hour network outage, suggesting that the high volume of validator messages and on-chain votes were clogging the network.

1/Yesterday #Solana had another 20 hour outage

Just one of about a dozen times the ⛓️ has gone down. But why?

All part of a massive design flaw that I will try to break down in this

So let’s get into it… pic.twitter.com/KmeUPnnlZJ
— DBCryptoX ⚡️ (@DBCrypt0) February 26, 2023

However, Yankovenko in a response Tweet some 20 minutes later called the theory as coming from “pure ignorance.”

In short, he explained that the votes — which are part of a “single giant quorum” — contribute to provide an “exceptional level of security and high throughput and low fees” simultaneously.

Why are votes transactions? Every thread that I've seen that talks about this comes form pure ignorance.

Classic BFT consensus requires quadratic messaging overhead.

The more nodes you have in the same quorum, the part of the network that agrees on the state, the more messages… https://t.co/8lOhICb8mn
— toly (@aeyakovenko) February 27, 2023

However, Yakovenko didn’t exactly refute DBCryptoX’s claim that 90-95% of transactions on Solana comprise these validator messages and on-chain votes, which, DBCryptoX suggests has helped “bog down the system.”

*DBCryptoX claims that validator messages and on-chain votes are clogging up the Solana network. Source: Twitter.*

DBCryptoX also claimed that the network outages were last 20 hours because it takes considerable time for validators to meet and reach a consensus (and thus a solution) using off-chain means, such as a messaging system like Discord.

Many commentators on DBCryptoX's initial post also appear to have disagreed with their theory.

Software engineer Alex Kroeger of Solana-powered Wallet Phantom said that there is likely no singular cause of the network outages and that validators of proof-of-stake systems need a lot of network communication to achieve validation.

While the network officially restarted on late Feb. 25, it appears as though members of the cryptocurrency community are getting tired of the frequent network outages on Solana.

Cointelegraph reached out to Solana Labs for comment but didn't receive a response by the time of publication.

Eclipse to Launch Rollup Blockchain for Polygon Network with Solana Compatibility

February 24, 2023 Bitcoin.com

How the Ordinals movement will benefit the Bitcoin blockchain

February 18, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Block Size

The increasing popularity of Bitcoin NFTs, or Ordinals, will impact posively the security of the Bitcoin network and attract developers to the ecosystem, according to Ordinals proponent Udi Wertheimer.

Bitcoin (BTC) NFTs will have a positive impact on Bitcoin ecosystem by improving its security and incentivizing developers to build on the network, according to independent developer Udi Wertheimer.

The number of newly created Ordinals, also referred to as "inscriptions", have been spiking in recent weeks, causing a surge in transaction fees and average block size on the Bitcoin blockchain.

According to Wertheimer, Bitcoin NFTs are going to be beneficial for Bitcoin's security budget: by driving up transaction fees, the creation of Ordinals will incentivize miners to secure the network while the revenue from mining reward will be decreasing with each Bitcoin halving.

“Because the block space is scarce and because there's demand for stuff like inscriptions, there's a lot of hope that we will get enough people who want to pay fees in order to keep the Bitcoin network secure,” Wertherimer explained in a recent interview with Cointelegraph.

Also, Wertheimer noted, Ordinals provide a new use case that will make building on Bitcoin commercially profitable.

“With all of that interest around Ordinals and inscriptions, I expect that there is going to be a very big ecosystem that is built around that,” he said.

Wertheimer dismisses the notion, held by some Bitcoin core developers, that creating NFTs is not an appropriate use case for Bitcoin. According to him, in recent years Bitcoin core developers "have ignored what actual Bitcoin users want."

To find out more about Ordinals and how they are impacting the Bitcoin network, watch the full interview on our YouTube channel and don’t forget to subscribe!

Opensea Drops Fees to Zero and Announces New Creator Earnings Model in Response to Shifting NFT Landscape

February 18, 2023 Bitcoin.com

OpenSea implements 0% fees to win over NFT userbase lost to Blur

February 18, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

NFT marketplace Blur surpassed OpenSea in daily ETH trading volume as users — anticipating greater returns on their NFT investments — are looking for a trading arena that works in their favor.

Major nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea announced a massive structuring around lower platform fees and greater creator earnings as competing marketplaces continue to drain away its once dominant user base.

On Feb. 18, NFT marketplace Blur surpassed OpenSea in daily Ethereum (ETH) trading volume as users — anticipating greater returns on their NFT investments — are looking for a trading arena that works in their favor, shows Nansen data.

*Daily trading volume of major NFT marketplaces. Source: Nansen*

As a reactionary measure, OpenSea announced three major changes to win back its migrating customers. The measures include a 0% fee for a limited time, introducing optional creator earnings and leniency on other operators.

We’re making some big changes today:
1) OpenSea fee → 0% for a limited time
2) Moving to optional creator earnings (0.5% min) for all collections without on-chain enforcement (old & new)
3) Marketplaces with the same policies will not be blocked by the operator filter
— OpenSea (@opensea) February 17, 2023

OpenSea admitted losing users to other “NFT marketplaces that don’t fully enforce creator earnings,” and the new measures are an attempt to revitalize its dominance in the space, adding:

“Recent events – including Blur’s decision to roll back creator earnings (even on filtered collections) and the false choice they’re forcing creators to make between liquidity on Blur or OpenSea – prove that our attempts are not working.”

OpenSea believes that it defended creator earnings on all collections while reiterating its support for Operator Filter — a function that was aimed at helping creators secure their revenue for the resale of their work. However, this filter proactively blocked recommendations of marketplaces that sported the same policies.

*OpenSea's plan of action to counter falling market dominance. Source: OpenSea (via Twitter)*

Blur’s daily trading volume supremacy can be attributed to its new royalty policy showcasing differences in royalty payment options between its platform and OpenSea. It read:

“OpenSea’s current royalty policy prevents collections from being able to earn royalties everywhere. They have cited various reasons for this (see FAQ), but the end result is that creators are limited to earning royalties on only one platform at a time.”

Amid the royalty war between the two marketplaces, community members highlighted the importance of competition in the industry. If it wasn’t for zero royalty marketplaces, bigger players like OpenSea would eventually increase fee structure, which would have a negative impact on creators and collectors.

Moreover, OpenSea plans to continue testing the model and identify what works best for the community and the organization. Community members speculate that OpenSea would probably increase its platform fees in the future if it successfully manages to amass its lost customers — a predatory move often noticed in industries with less competition.

YouTube’s appointment of new CEO Neal Mohan was perceived as a win for the crypto community considering Mohan’s inclination to use NFTs and Web3 as revenue streams for creators.

Thank you, @SusanWojcicki. It's been amazing to work with you over the years. You've built YouTube into an extraordinary home for creators and viewers. I'm excited to continue this awesome and important mission. Looking forward to what lies ahead... https://t.co/Rg5jXv1NGb
— Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) February 16, 2023

As Cointelegraph reported, Mohan — while serving as YouTube’s chief product officer — outlined tentative plans in February 2022 to integrate features such as Metaverse-based content experiences and content tokenization via NFTs.

Fees

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